Handling the coronavirus crisis

[Admin]

Despite ReOpen Virginia billing itself as a “grassroots group of people and small business owners”, founder Kristen Lynne Hall said the idea for the protest came from the organizers of the “Lobby Day” demonstration earlier this year. That demonstration was organized by the Virginia Citizens Defense League, a gun rights group that has donated tens of thousands of dollars to politicians. Hall, who said Candace Owens, a rightwing activist and favorite of Trump, had been in touch to discuss the event, said the president’s tweet about “liberating” Virginia was “great”. “It could be spreading the movement,” she said. “Any support is appreciated right now.”

A decade ago, the Tea Party movement billed itself as “grass roots”, despite receiving money from the Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity and the conservative organization FreedomWorks. Jenny Beth Martin, who founded the Tea Party Patriots group, promoted this week’s Michigan protest. The Tea Party Patriots also supported the protest, in messages to its 200,000 Twitter followers. Matthew Gertz, a senior fellow at Media Matters for America, a progressive media watchdog, said the similarities between the Tea Party and ReOpen movements went further, with rightwing media boosting both..

Thousands of Americans backed by rightwing donors gear up for protests | US news | The Guardian

[Admin]

President Donald Trump on Wednesday held a call with top Wall Street executives and bankers to discuss reopening the economy. But according to Politico reporter Ben White, things did not go well. “The whole thing was a bit of a disaster, the way they announced this on Tuesday,” White explained on MSNBC, “read a lot of corporate CEO names that had no idea they were a part of this effort to reopen the economy, didn’t give anybody really time to plan to be on these calls. Among the Wall Street executives, a lot of them had earnings yesterday and couldn’t be on the call. One JP Morgan executive tried for 20 minutes to get in and couldn’t.”

“What they’re telling the president is, yes, of course we want the economy reopened. We want businesses to start up again,” he continued. “But we cannot do that, our employees will not feel safe until the testing regime is much more widespread, until people don’t feel like they’re going out to be guinea pigs to get the virus. There’s simply no way to do it that way. Make people feel safe. Make business owners feel like demand is going to be there and then you can start to reopen.

Trump’s coronavirus call with top Wall Street execs immediately devolved into ‘a bit of a disaster’: Politico reporter – Alternet.org

• Here is what business leaders say about opening up the economy, it simply doesn't work if people don't feel safe. 
  

[Admin]

To show that his administration has been fast and effective in its response to the new coronavirus, President Donald Trump claimed that anybody who wants to get tested for the respiratory disease caused by the virus can do so. "Anybody that wants a test can get a test. That’s what the bottom line is," Trump told reporters March 6 during a visit to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Moments later, Trump added that anybody that needs a test gets one.

PolitiFact | Donald Trump’s wrong claim that ‘anybody’ can get tested for coronavirus

• This was wrong on March 6 (per politifact in the link above), but it's still wrong 6 weeks later.
  
• This is scandalous, there are still shortages in reagents and swaps and testing numbers have not increased as a consequence.
  
• Trump on his daily briefing on April 18 blamed Democratic governors for this (some Republican ones, like the governor from Ohio also complained about shortages) and even suggested that they don't want to use available test capacity to keep the numbers down.
  
• This is scandalous again, because the states are bidding against one another for scarce resources, only the Federal government could coordinate this.
  
• The Federal government could, and should have invoked the Defense Procurement Act to summon companies to supply the materials in short supply.
  
• It's mind boggling why Trump has still not done that, given the crucial role much ramped up testing plays in increasing the chances of opening up the economy, something Trump is eager to do. 
  

[Admin]

The Portuguese government has attributed the country’s low coronavirus caseload to a swift, flexible “worst-case scenario” response and to the early closure of schools and universities on 16 March. Despite the fact that around 22% of Portugal’s 10.3 million people are aged 65 or over, making them particularly vulnerable to the virus, the country has so far registered just over 20,000 cases and 714 deaths – far fewer than its neighbours. Spain has recorded more than 195,000 cases and more than 20,000 deaths, Italy 176,000 cases and more than 23,000 deaths, and France 153,000 cases and around 20,000 deaths. Portugal’s coronavirus mortality rate is around 3%, compared with 13% in the UK and Belgium and 10% in Spain.

Swift action kept Portugal's coronavirus crisis in check, says minister | World news | The Guardian

• And yet another country that has done relatively well by acting fast..
  

[Admin]

It was just a few days after the ban on visits to his mother’s nursing home in the Swedish city of Uppsala, on 3 April, that Magnus Bondesson started to get worried. “They [the home] opened up for Skype calls and that’s when I saw two employees. I didn’t see any masks and they didn’t have gloves on,” says Bondesson, a start-up founder and app developer. “When I called again a few days later I questioned the person helping out, asking why they didn’t use face masks, and he said they were just following the guidelines.”

That same week there were numerous reports in Sweden’s national news media about just how badly the country’s nursing homes were starting to be hit by the coronavirus, with hundreds of cases confirmed at homes in Stockholm, the worst affected region, and infections in homes across the country. Since then pressure has mounted on the government to explain how, despite a stated aim of protecting the elderly from the risks of Covid-19, a third of fatalities have been people living in care homes. Last week, as figures released by the Public Health Agency of Sweden indicated that 1,333 people had now died of coronavirus, the country’s normally unflappable state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell admitted that the situation in care homes was worrying. “This is our big problem area,” said Tegnell, the brains behind the government’s relatively light-touch strategy, which has seen it ask, rather than order, people to avoid non-essential travel, work from home and stay indoors if they are over 70 or are feeling ill.

Anger in Sweden as elderly pay price for coronavirus strategy | World news | The Guardian

• Swedish care homes, where staff wears no protective gear and the elderly paying the price
  

[Admin]

President Donald Trump can’t help but sow division, even at a time when Americans are largely united in supporting stay-at-home orders and social distancing to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Just after 11:21 am Eastern time on Friday, President Donald Trump posted a trio of tweets endorsing the so-called liberation of a trio of states with Democratic governors from measures they’ve taken to slow the spread of coronavirus. These posts — which are among the most dangerous of Trump’s tenure — appear to have been inspired by a segment he saw on Fox News minutes earlier. “LIBERATE MINNESOTA!” Trump began, with two further tweets saying “LIBERATE MICHIGAN” and “LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd amendment. It is under siege!”

Fox News’s coverage might give you the idea that these protesters represent the views of a significant chunk of people in their states. But polling indicates that’s not the case. For instance, a YouGov/Economist poll released Wednesday found that 61 percent of Americans think Trump should institute a nationwide stay-at-home order, compared to just 22 percent who are opposed. Along the same lines, polling from the Pew Research Central released on Thursday showed that 66 percent of people are concerned their state governments will relax social distancing restrictions too soon, compared to just 32 percent who are worried they won’t move quickly enough.

Trump’s “LIBERATE” tweets about Michigan and Virginia represent the views of a small minority - Vox

[Admin]

President Trump has ramped up his attacks on China once again over the coronavirus pandemic. Shockingly, but sadly not surprisingly, this time Trump even questioned whether it was a "mistake that got out of control" or a crisis that was started deliberately in China. At the daily White House briefing, the president warned that Beijing would face consequences if it was "knowingly responsible" for the spread of Covid-19 but he didn’t say what sort of consequences he had in mind.

Coronavirus: Trump suggests China might have spread Covid-19 deliberately | indy100

[Admin]

The US government is accelerating controversial regulatory rollbacks to speed up production at meat plants, as companies express growing alarm at the impact of Covid-19 on their operations. Last week Smithfield shut down one of the largest pork plants in the country after hundreds of employees contracted the coronavirus. The plant in South Dakota – whose output represents 4–5% of US pork production – is reported to be the largest single-source coronavirus hotspot in the US, with more than 600 cases. In response, the company said it was “critical” for the meat industry to “continue to operate unabated”. Now it has emerged that as a wave of plants  announce  closures, US meat plants are being granted permission to increase the speed of their production lines. This comes despite warnings that the waivers for higher speeds on slaughter and processing lines will compromise food safety..

'No way food safety not compromised': US regulation rollbacks during Covid-19 criticised | Environment | The Guardian

[Admin]

High levels of air pollution may be “one of the most important contributors” to deaths from Covid-19, according to research. The analysis shows that of the coronavirus deaths across 66 administrative regions in Italy, Spain, France and Germany, 78% of them occurred in just five regions, and these were the most polluted. The research examined levels of nitrogen dioxide, a pollutant produced mostly by diesel vehicles, and weather conditions that can prevent dirty air from dispersing away from a city. Many studies have linked NO2 exposure to health damage, and particularly lung disease, which could make people more likely to die if they contract Covid-19. “The results indicate that long-term exposure to this pollutant may be one of the most important contributors to fatality caused by the Covid-19 virus in these regions and maybe across the whole world,” said Yaron Ogen, at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg in Germany, who conducted the research. “Poisoning our environment means poisoning our own body, and when it experiences chronic respiratory stress its ability to defend itself from infections is limited.”

Air pollution may be ‘key contributor’ to Covid-19 deaths – study | Environment | The Guardian

• And the Trump government is on a mission to roll back environmental standards and fuel efficiency standards, even in the midst of the pandemic..
  

[Admin]

Mr Morgan described how he had been watching Mr Trump’s White House briefings “with mounting horror”. Describing the president’s “self-aggrandising, self-justifying, overly defensive, [and] politically partisan” approach, the outspoken host warned against turning the coronavirus task force conferences into rallies. “[It’s] almost like what’s more important is winning the election in November,” added Mr Morgan.“What is more important right now is saving American lives.” Using the CNN interview to address the president directly, Mr Morgan said: “You will win the election in November if you get this right. If you stop making it about yourself and make it about the American people and show that you care about them over yourself, you will win.”

Piers Morgan says Trump ‘failing the American people’ in scathing criticism of coronavirus response | The Independent

• Some incoming friendly fire from Piers Morgan, otherwise a solid Trump supporter..