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Tallex

Administrator

Re: Covid19 file

Leading Health Groups Urge Trump To Declare Coronavirus A National Emergency
“America’s health care system must be there to help," wrote the heads of the AMA, the American Hospital Association and the American Nurses Association.

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/nat … 8156f47953

Three of the nation’s largest organizations representing hospitals, physicians, nurses and health care providers called on the Trump administration to declare the spread of COVID-19 a national disaster or emergency on Thursday, saying the designation could free up needed resources to help treat the growing number of Americans infected with the new coronavirus.

“Preventing the spread of COVID-19 is crucial to the health of our nation,” the chiefs of the American Hospital Association, the American Medical Association and the American Nurses Association wrote in a letter to Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday. “It is of upmost importance that any concerns about costs for testing and care be removed so that individuals can be screened and if necessary treated.”

Tallex

Administrator

Re: Covid19 file

Anger grows at Trump administration's coronavirus testing failures
Donald Trump claimed ‘We have tested heavily’ but in fact just eight tests were carried out on Tuesday, as even allies speak out

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/ … nistration

Anger is mounting in the US over the Trump administration’s failure to test for coronavirus on a scale that could contain the outbreak and mitigate its most devastating impacts.
On Thursday the lack of testing capacity for Covid-19 was recognised in blunt terms by one of the top US officials dealing with the crisis. Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, described the current state of affairs as “a failing” at a hearing of the House oversight committee.

From Congress to state capitals across the country, politicians of both main parties have shown rare bipartisan agreement that the pace of federal testing is woefully inadequate. Congress members who were given private briefings by Trump administration officials on Thursday expressed shock and outrage that so far only 11,000 tests have been conducted in a country of 327 million people.

By contrast South Korea, which has been grappling with one of the most severe outbreaks of Covid-19 globally, tests roughly the same number, about 10,000 people, every day. In total, South Korea has tested 230,000 of its 51 million people – 130 times as many per capita as the US.

Tallex

Administrator

Re: Covid19 file

Australian official who met with Ivanka, AG Barr last week tests positive for coronavirus
The positive test for Australian Minister of Home Affairs Peter Dutton comes nine days after he said he met with Ivanka Trump, Barr and other officials during a trip to the U.S.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white- … s-n1157636

WASHINGTON — An Australian government official who met last week with President Donald Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, and Attorney William General William Barr and other Trump aides has tested positive for the coronavirus.

“This morning I woke up with a temperature and sore throat," Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton said in a statement on Twitter on Friday morning. "I immediately contacted the Queensland Department of Health and was subsequently tested for COVID-19. I was advised by Queensland Health this afternoon that the test had returned positive.”

Tallex

Administrator

Re: Covid19 file

Trump aides pound on China. Health experts say: Please stop.
The coronavirus is deepening the rift between Beijing and Washington, at a time when cooperation is needed most.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/1 … rus-127919

They call it the “Wuhan virus.”

As a lethal pandemic races across the world, overwhelming health systems and upending entire societies, President Donald Trump’s top aides and allies see an opening to weaken a vulnerable adversary.
The Trump team’s escalating drumbeat against China is worrying some public health experts, who say the attempts to blame Beijing for the coronavirus outbreak could harm efforts to combat the spreading contagion, while winning praise from others.

And it’s come amid conspiracy theories and counteraccusations from Chinese officials, some of whom are alleging the virus’s true origins lie outside China, in what U.S. officials say is a malicious effort to shift blame.

National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien has accused China of covering up the health crisis. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has repeatedly labeled the illness the “Wuhan coronavirus” — a reference to the Chinese city that is the epicenter of the disease.

Hawkish pro-Trump lawmakers in Congress, meanwhile, have raised alarms about China’s outsized role in global supply chains for key medicines. And that’s on top of other anti-Beijing moves that have nothing to do with the virus at all.

Tallex

Administrator

Re: Covid19 file

Trump Twiddles His Thumbs With Economy In A Tailspin
The fact that the Trump administration and the Republicans have not come out with a clear plan is an "outright cruelty," said one economist.

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/tru … 7ef119a31d

Economists say that a recession fueled by the coronavirus pandemic is on the horizon and warn that if policymakers don’t move quickly, the damage could be painful. Yet so far, the White House and congressional Republicans haven’t released any actual policy proposals to deal with the economic blows of COVID-19.

“It could very plausibly be worse than the financial crisis,” said Jason Furman, a Harvard economist and former economic adviser to President Barack Obama who helped design the 2009 stimulus bill crafted in response to the Great Recession.

It’s not yet clear that a recession would be as painful or prolonged as it was a decade ago. Once the threat of the virus recedes, things could bounce back. However, serious signs of a downturn are here already, showing up in the bond market and stock market, which had its worst day since 1987 on Thursday, and in the plunging price of oil. Layoffs in sectors already affected by the virus have begun. And there’s been a widespread downturn in spending as events are canceled and Americans encouraged to stay home.

Tallex

Administrator

Re: Covid19 file

Leading Health Groups Urge Trump To Declare Coronavirus A National Emergency
“America’s health care system must be there to help," wrote the heads of the AMA, the American Hospital Association and the American Nurses Association.

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/nat … 8156f47953

Three of the nation’s largest organizations representing hospitals, physicians, nurses and health care providers called on the Trump administration to declare the spread of COVID-19 a national disaster or emergency on Thursday, saying the designation could free up needed resources to help treat the growing number of Americans infected with the new coronavirus.

“Preventing the spread of COVID-19 is crucial to the health of our nation,” the chiefs of the American Hospital Association, the American Medical Association and the American Nurses Association wrote in a letter to Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday. “It is of upmost [sic] importance that any concerns about costs for testing and care be removed so that individuals can be screened and if necessary treated.”

Tallex

Administrator

Re: Covid19 file

Influential Evangelical Calls Out Trump's 'Sloppy & Dangerous' Coronavirus Lies
David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network put the president on notice over his blundering response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/eva … 8156f47167

An influential evangelical Christian journalist put President Donald Trump on notice over his many lies related to the coronavirus outbreak.

David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network said Trump’s vow last week that “anyone who wants a test can get a test” has turned out to be “100% false.” And Brody ― who in 2018 told The New York Times he had “phenomenal” access to the White House ― called out Trump for confusing Americans and repeatedly providing false information:

snip

Despite the rising number of COVID-19 infections, Yahoo News reported that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had only tested 77 people between Sunday and Wednesday morning. What’s more, local health officials have said they’re either not receiving the tests or getting incomplete ones, which is causing more delays.

Tallex

Administrator

Re: Covid19 file

Harvard Health Professor Slams Trump's 'Catastrophic Failure' On Coronavirus
Dr. Ashish Jha said the U.S.’s haphazard response to the pandemic is “among the very worst in the world."

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/har … a30fc6b9bb

Harvard global health professor Dr. Ashish Jha on Thursday lamented the haphazard U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic, describing it as “among the very worst in the world.”

“Certainly among all the major countries,” Jha told MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell, noting how “every major country has more testing than we do across Europe, South Korea, Japan, even Vietnam and Iran until recently have been doing a better job testing than we have.”

Jha said the testing failure is “really mind-boggling” and makes it “really hard to get a grip on how many people actually have the infection, where the infections are, how widespread it is and what we can do to respond to it.”

“I see this as just a catastrophic failure on the part of the federal government and the federal leadership,” said Jha, who is also director of the Harvard Global Health Institute.

Tallex

Administrator

Re: Covid19 file

Trump Calls For Putting Politics Aside Over Coronavirus, Then Attacks Biden Anyway
The president's blatant hypocrisy over his call to "stop the partisanship" got the treatment on Twitter.

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/don … a30fc69590

In his somber prime-time Oval Office address on Wednesday, Donald Trump asked people to put politics aside amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“We are all in this together. We must put politics aside, stop the partisanship and unify together as one nation and one family,” the president said.

But Trump did not heed his own request — and critics on Twitter noticed.

Late Thursday, the president returned to politicizing the public health crisis that has sickened more than 134,000 people worldwide by lashing out at his potential Democratic 2020 election rival, former Vice President Joe Biden:

Tallex

Administrator

Re: Covid19 file

Top Disease Expert: Virus Testing Is A ‘Failing,’ Leaving Cases Uncounted
“The system is not really geared to what we need right now,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/anthony- … 7ef11a29c2

NEW YORK (AP) — Seven weeks have passed since the first U.S. case of coronavirus was announced, and the government is failing to account for what could be thousands of additional infections because of ongoing problems with testing.

“The system is not really geared to what we need right now,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease expert at the National Institutes of Health. “That is a failing. It is a failing, let’s admit it.”

The effort initially was hobbled by delays in getting testing kits out to public health labs, but the stumbles have continued, leading scientists to conclude that the virus has taken root in more places than government officials say.

U.S. health officials, for example, promised nearly a month ago to tap into a national network of labs that monitor for flu. That system is only just getting started.

Large-scale testing is a critical part of tracking the spread of infectious diseases and allocating resources for treatment. The lack of comprehensive figures means U.S. health providers could quickly be overwhelmed by undetected cases.

As of Thursday afternoon, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported about 1,260 U.S. illnesses — a number that trailed independent researchers, who are adding reports from individual states more quickly.

Tallex

Administrator

Re: Covid19 file

Trump speech sets off new alarms among public health experts
The Oval Office address only seemed to confirm their worst fears about U.S. readiness to fight coronavirus.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/1 … rts-127167

President Donald Trump’s Wednesday night Oval Office address failed to offer any fresh vision for fighting a disease that’s spread undetected for weeks within the U.S., sparking a full-blown panic within the public health community and jolting health care industries confronting the worsening coronavirus pandemic.
The speech only seemed to confirm fears that that have festered among health experts for weeks, as the administration struggled to roll out coronavirus testing and coordinate with frontline providers — all as Trump and some of his top aides had repeatedly downplayed the risk to the American public.

snip

“Fundamentally, he’s still missing the point, and he’s missing the point in several important ways,” said Jeremy Konyndyk, a senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development and former Obama-era foreign aid official. “Every day we’re getting the strategy wrong will extend the severity and size of the outbreak in this country by multiple days.”
Health insurers following Trump’s speech worked to clear up confusion about what they could cover, and worried lawmakers on Thursday pressed administration officials on whether hospitals were ready for an expected wave of sick patients.
The White House sought to calm fears as it prepares to declare a national emergency that would free up additional resources to help combat the coronavirus — and perhaps reassure troubled financial markets that once again began the day in free fall.

Tallex

Administrator

Re: Covid19 file

How the GOP’s War on Government Paved the Way for Trump’s Deadly Incompetence
His coronavirus response has been a disaster long in the making.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/1 … rts-127167

Donald Trump’s utterly incompetent response to the coronavirus has become readily apparent in recent days. But this disaster is not a solo enterprise. His catastrophic performance as president during the early stages of the crisis is the culmination of decades of right-wing action aimed at subverting the one entity that can protect Americans from the deadly threat at hand: government.

For many years, Republicans and conservatives have demonized government. In his first inaugural address, Ronald Reagan, the superstar of the right, proclaimed, “Government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.” The well-known conservative strategist and lobbyist Grover Norquist once said, “My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.” The tea party arose in opposition to federal assistance for those Americans slammed by the housing collapse of 2007 and became a movement encompassing anti-government fervor and intense paranoia. And Trump rode this wave into the White House.

Tallex

Administrator

Re: Covid19 file

Inside Jared Kushner’s coronavirus research: a wide net on a giant Facebook group
The president’s son-in-law and senior adviser takes a leading role in a variety of Trump challenges, this time responding to the escalating coronavirus outbreak.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/1 … ook-127941

The next morning, after hundreds of doctors responded, Kloss explained why he sought the suggestions: Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, had asked him for recommendations.

Kloss, whose daughter is married to Kushner’s brother, sent Kushner 12 recommendations Thursday morning.

The Facebook crowd-sourcing exercise showed how Trump‘s team is scrambling for solutions to confront the outbreak after weeks of criticism for the administration's sluggish response, a shortage of tests and the president’s own rhetoric downplaying the pandemic. It is now expected to consume the final year of Trump's first term and threaten his campaign for a second term.

Trump appointed Vice President Mike Pence to lead a task force to combat the spread of the coronavirus two weeks ago. But in recent days as conditions worsened and criticism mounted, Kushner took a more active role, according to two people familiar with the situation.

Tallex

Administrator

Re: Covid19 file

'I Don’t Take Responsibility At All': Trump Passes Buck On Coronavirus Testing Mess
The president declared a national emergency Friday during a press conference with a parade of corporate executives.

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/tru … 8156f65d1a

President Donald Trump on Friday declared a national emergency in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but spent much of the announcement refusing to take responsibility for testing delays and praising his own inadequate response that helped let the coronavirus spread rapidly throughout much of the country.
Joined by representatives from companies like Walgreens, CVS and Quest Diagnostics, Trump unveiled a private-sector partnership to “vastly increase and accelerate our capacity to test for the coronavirus.”
He said half a million tests would be available by “early next week.”
“We want to make sure that those who need a test can get a test very safely, quickly and conveniently, but we don’t want people to take a test if we feel that they shouldn’t be doing it,” he said.

snip

Asked about the delays Friday, Trump defiantly said: “I don’t take responsibility at all.”
When asked about his demolition of President Barack Obama’s pandemic response team, Trump called it “a nasty question.”

Tallex

Administrator

Re: Covid19 file

How Trump Blew The Coronavirus Response
Swinging between denial, false comfort, blame and bad medical analogies, the administration has put millions of lives at risk.

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/tru … 8156f4183d

In a normal world, Trump would look presidential, stick to the teleprompter, and assure Americans that his administration understood the threat facing the country and would take dramatic action to curb the spread of the deadly virus.
That didn’t happen. Trump bungled key facts about the administration’s response — three assertions had to be immediately walked back by White House staff — congratulated himself on his supposedly excellent work so far, and blamed other countries for letting the disease spread.
As Trump spoke, global stocks and U.S. futures tumbled further. At almost the same moment, police were shutting down a basketball arena in Oklahoma City after a player on the Utah Jazz tested positive for the coronavirus — which immediately sparked a suspension of the entire NBA season.

snip

By the morning after Trump’s speech, administration officials were grumbling anonymously to reporters about having to clean up the president’s mess. It was emblematic of his administration’s entire bumbling, self-serving approach to the pandemic. Trump has shown that his ultimate priority is to evade blame. The president has shown he has no qualms about peddling false information to make himself look good, even when downplaying the threat discourages Americans from taking steps to contain the virus. And when the threat could no longer be ignored, Trump fell back on a familiar strategy: exploit the country’s legitimate fears to justify a racist, nativist response. Meanwhile, his administration’s failures to effectively test for the coronavirus and contain its spread was costing lives.

Tallex

Administrator

Re: Covid19 file

New Trump Rule Would Deny Disability Benefits To People Who Can't Work Full Time
If someone can work 30 hours per week, the proposed regulation says, then they aren't disabled enough for benefits.

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/tru … 8156f68c4d

The tighter eligibility standard, which has not been previously reported, is part of a draft rule that, if finalized, would bring sweeping changes to the Social Security Disability Insurance program. It would follow multiple other efforts by the Trump administration to cut social programs that help people afford food, health care and housing.

Tallex

Administrator

Re: Covid19 file

Trump officials did sound the coronavirus alarm. They just don’t work there anymore.
The dire message coming from former administration officials often stood in contrast to the upbeat narrative emanating from the White House.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/1 … rus-127742

Indeed, the advice proved prescient. The virus has now landed on American shores and is infiltrating communities across the country. Theaters are shuttered, sporting events have ground to a halt, travel has slowed to a crawl. Offices are closed and officials are asking people to stay home. Around the world, financial markets are trembling.
And many health experts have said the situation has grown dire because the Trump administration didn’t heed these warnings.
The ominous message coming from former administration officials often stood in contrast to the upbeat White House narrative. As people like Bossert and Gottlieb pushed for the administration and public to recognize the virus’s disruptive potential, those immediately around the president publicly echoed Trump’s refrain that everything would soon return to normal. The disconnect is perhaps an example of the evolution of Trump’s administration — dissenting voices have fallen away in favor of those more willing to toe the Trump line.
A former administration official who worked with Gottlieb said the ex-FDA chief “saw pretty early on that people weren’t taking this seriously. And I can’t say if he was talking about the administration or the public at large, but he was trying to sound the alarm.”
On Twitter and TV, Gottlieb, Bossert and Cohn, among others, struck an urgent tone, while the president insisted the virus was “very much under control in the USA,” even predicting in late February that the number of cases would be close to zero “within a couple of days” and falsely claiming that a vaccine would soon arrive. As of Thursday, the number of cases had sailed past 1,000 and a vaccine remains at least a year away.

Tallex

Administrator

Re: Covid19 file

Trump, Still Hoping to Slash CDC Funds, Blames CDC for Coronavirus Fiasco
He also repeated his lie about Obama and the swine flu.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/20 … ronavirus/

Trump claimed, without evidence, on Friday that the federal agency had for decades sat idle on efforts to build an adequate testing system—a situation he blamed former President Barack Obama for supposedly exacerbating. Trump’s latest twitter fusillade comes despite the fact that his administration has directly controlled the CDC for more than three years.

snip

Trump now appears to be deliberately distorting the timeline in order to escape the current criticism, adding to an already inflammatory track record of misinformation around the virus. His newest attack against the CDC comes as his administration refuses to drop its plans to slash the agency’s funding, even with the current coronavirus pandemic.

Tallex

Administrator

Re: Covid19 file

“No, I Don’t Take Responsibility at All”: Trump on His Botched Coronavirus Response
“I just think it’s a nasty question.”

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/20 … -response/

At a White House press conference on Friday, President Trump refused to take any responsibility for the federal government’s lackluster response to the novel coronavirus, an infectious disease that’s sickened at least 142,000 people and killed more than 5,000 worldwide. After explaining, with the help of several CEOs, that widespread testing would be rolled-out, Trump took questions from the press corps. His basic response? Not my fault.

So far, nearly 1,900 people in the US have tested positive for COVID-19, the official name of the disease caused by coronavirus, and 41 have died. At least 30 states have declared states of emergency, school systems have shut down and moved to distance learning, professional sports leagues have put their games on hold, and the absence of a coherent policy from the government has created a contagion of fear and anxiety reflected in the plummeting stock market.

Tallex

Administrator

Re: Covid19 file

Citing Coronavirus, Court Blocks Trump's First Food Benefit Cut
A federal judge said this is no time to start kicking thousands of people off benefits.

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/tru … 7ef11d070b

Citing the global coronavirus pandemic, a federal judge has blocked a food benefit cut that would have taken effect next month and denied benefits to thousands.

The Trump administration wanted to limit benefits for unemployed able-bodied adults without dependents, but D.C. District Court Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell granted a preliminary injunction on Friday sought by Democratic attorneys general.

“Especially now, as a global pandemic poses widespread health risks, guaranteeing that government officials at both the federal and state levels have flexibility to address the nutritional needs of residents and ensure their well-being through programs like SNAP, is essential,” Howell wrote in her memorandum opinion, which will stop the new rule from taking effect while the case moves through the courts.

Tallex

Administrator

Re: Covid19 file

Right-Wing Media’s Coronavirus Response: Sycophancy, Racism And Misinformation
Pundits such as Sean Hannity are struggling to maintain an information bubble while they praise Trump.

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/cor … a30fc86d6c

Right-wing media outlets and pundits spent weeks dangerously minimizing the severity of the coronavirus and claiming that accurate reports on the outbreak were part of a liberal conspiracy to defame President Donald Trump. 

But now that the reality of the virus as a public health crisis and economic disaster is becoming unavoidable, some partisan media outlets have refocused on a different message: Trump is doing a great job of handling a serious outbreak. He’s always been doing a great job.
The pivot began after Trump gave his first national address about the coronavirus on Wednesday night and declared a travel ban on a number of European countries. Although Trump’s confusing statements did not address key issues like the dearth of tests for the virus in the U.S., the speech contained the most direct remarks he has made so far acknowledging the severity of the outbreak.
But the damage may have already been done. Right-wing outlets and personalities diminishing the coronavirus could lead to more illness and more deaths if the public ignores warnings from health officials or credible news reports. Given that Fox’s viewers tend to be older, they are also especially vulnerable for coming down with COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. These attempts by the partisan media to downplay the crisis could quite seriously put lives at risk.

Tallex

Administrator

Re: Covid19 file

Researchers Move Closer To Vaccine By Isolating COVID-19 Virus
A Quebec company says they produced a virus-like particle of the coronavirus.

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/can … 7ef11bceb5

Canadian researchers are making multiple breakthroughs in the fight against COVID-19, as a biotech firm take the firsts steps towards a vaccine and a hospital in Ottawa opened a drive-thru screening centre.

Quebec City-based Medicago said it has taken the first step towards a vaccine by producing a virus-like particle of the novel coronavirus. The biopharmaceutical company said the virus-like particle will now undergo testing for safety and efficacy.

Medicago said it could begin human trials of a vaccine as soon as July or August after being approved by appropriate health agencies. The company added it took them 20 days to reach this stage in the vaccine development process.

Meanwhile, researchers in Ontario announced they isolated the COVID-19 virus on Thursday.

Tallex

Administrator

Re: Covid19 file

Trump's Old Tweet About Responsibility Comes Back To Haunt Him Amid Pandemic
The president's 2013 post about leadership is in stark contrast to his latest comments about the coronavirus crisis.

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/don … 8156f7b8a6

An old tweet from Donald Trump came back to haunt the president Friday after he refused to take responsibility for delays in testing for coronavirus in the U.S.
“I don’t take responsibility at all,” Trump announced during a press conference declaring a national emergency in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Critics resurfaced this November 2013 post in which Trump claimed that leadership means “whatever happens, you’re responsible.”

Tallex

Administrator

Re: Covid19 file

“No, I Don’t Take Responsibility at All”: Trump on His Botched Coronavirus Response
“I just think it’s a nasty question.”

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/20 … -response/

At a White House press conference on Friday, President Trump refused to take any responsibility for the federal government’s lackluster response to the novel coronavirus, an infectious disease that’s sickened at least 142,000 people and killed more than 5,000 worldwide. After explaining, with the help of several CEOs, that widespread testing would be rolled-out, Trump took questions from the press corps. His basic response? Not my fault.

snip

Trump’s responsibility for the emerging crisis came up again when Yamiche Alcindor from PBS NewsHour asked about the dismantling of a pandemic-preparedness office that was once part of the National Security Council. “You said that you don’t take responsibility, but you did disband the White House pandemic office,” she said. “The officials that worked in that office said the White House lost valuable time because that office was disbanded.”

“I just think it’s a nasty question,” the president countered. 

The National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense was established in 2014 during the Ebola outbreak in Western Africa and was tasked with preventing the next disease outbreak from becoming pandemic. In 2018, the Trump administration dissolved the office.

Tallex

Administrator

Re: Covid19 file

Trump, Still Hoping to Slash CDC Funds, Blames CDC for Coronavirus Fiasco
He also repeated his lie about Obama and the swine flu.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/20 … ronavirus/

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention became the latest target of President Donald Trump’s attempts to deflect blame for what is being roundly condemned as a disastrous response by his administration to the coronavirus pandemic.

Trump claimed, without evidence, on Friday that the federal agency had for decades sat idle on efforts to build an adequate testing system—a situation he blamed former President Barack Obama for supposedly exacerbating. Trump’s latest twitter fusillade comes despite the fact that his administration has directly controlled the CDC for more than three years.

Tallex

Administrator

Re: Covid19 file

Trump Caught Google Off Guard With a Bogus Coronavirus Site Announcement
Google's not making a nationwide coronavirus testing website. And the company had no idea the president would say it was.

https://www.wired.com/story/coronavirus … e-website/

President Donald Trump announced Friday that the US government’s coronavirus testing apparatus, which has lagged badly behind other developed nations, would soon get an assist from Google. The search and advertising giant will create a website, Trump said, that would help Americans figure out if they need a test for the virus, and if so where they can find one.

The only problem: There is no nationwide site like the one Trump described. And Google had no idea the president was going to mention one.

A source at Google tells WIRED that company leadership was surprised that Trump announced anything about the initiative at the press conference. What he did say was also almost entirely wrong.

Tallex

Administrator

Re: Covid19 file

America Isn’t Testing for the Most Alarming Coronavirus Cases
In many states, testing rules are so strict that doctors may not notice a community outbreak until it’s too late.

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/arc … us/607999/

She went to the clinic with the same question as, it seemed, everyone else: Was she sick with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus? The six people behind her in line were all wearing surgical masks.

She still doesn’t know. Though tests showed she was negative for influenza and strep throat, the clinic doctor said he could not test her for COVID-19. “The doctor said he wanted to test me, but the San Diego County Department of Health criteria wouldn’t allow him to,” Thornberry told me.

Tallex

Administrator

Re: Covid19 file

Exclusive: The Strongest Evidence Yet That America Is Botching Coronavirus Testing
“I don’t know what went wrong,” a former CDC chief told The Atlantic.

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/arch … us/607597/

It’s one of the most urgent questions in the United States right now: How many people have actually been tested for the coronavirus?

This number would give a sense of how widespread the disease is, and how forceful a response to it the United States is mustering. But for days, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has refused to publish such a count, despite public anxiety and criticism from Congress. On Monday, Stephen Hahn, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, estimated that “by the end of this week, close to a million tests will be able to be performed” in the United States. On Wednesday, Vice President Mike Pence promised that “roughly 1.5 million tests” would be available this week.

But the number of tests performed across the country has fallen far short of those projections, despite extraordinarily high demand, The Atlantic has found.

Tallex

Administrator

Re: Covid19 file

The 4 Key Reasons the U.S. Is So Behind on Coronavirus Testing
Bureaucracy, equipment shortages, an unwillingness to share, and failed leadership doomed the American response to COVID-19.

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/arch … ed/607954/

The COVID-19 outbreak has been a confusing time for Americans, but one thing has been glaringly clear: The U.S. is way behind when it comes to testing people for the coronavirus.

Despite the fact that last week, Vice President Mike Pence promised that “roughly 1.5 million tests” would soon be available, an ongoing Atlantic investigation can confirm only that 13,953 tests have been conducted nationally. New York, which has shut down Broadway and has at least 328 coronavirus cases, is still failing to test patients who have worrying symptoms. As late as March 6, a busy clinic in Brownsville, Texas, a border city of nearly 200,000 whose population crosses back and forth from Mexico frequently, told me they could test only three people. By comparison, South Korea, which has one of the largest outbreaks outside China, is testing nearly 20,000 people a day.

Tallex

Administrator

Re: Covid19 file

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE CORONAVIRUS

https://www.theatlantic.com/category/wh … ronavirus/

Tallex

Administrator

Re: Covid19 file

How Trump Blew The Coronavirus Response
Swinging between denial, false comfort, blame and bad medical analogies, the administration has put millions of lives at risk.

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/tru … 8156f4183d

The global coronavirus pandemic had claimed thousands of lives and reached U.S. shores as global markets took historic plunges. In a normal world, Trump would look presidential, stick to the teleprompter, and assure Americans that his administration understood the threat facing the country and would take dramatic action to curb the spread of the deadly virus.
That didn’t happen. Trump bungled key facts about the administration’s response — three assertions had to be immediately walked back by White House staff — congratulated himself on his supposedly excellent work so far, and blamed other countries for letting the disease spread.

snip

Trump has shown that his ultimate priority is to evade blame. The president has shown he has no qualms about peddling false information to make himself look good, even when downplaying the threat discourages Americans from taking steps to contain the virus. And when the threat could no longer be ignored, Trump fell back on a familiar strategy: exploit the country’s legitimate fears to justify a racist, nativist response. Meanwhile, his administration’s failures to effectively test for the coronavirus and contain its spread was costing lives.

Tallex

Administrator

Re: Covid19 file

House Passes Bipartisan Coronavirus Relief Bill
The deal nearly collapsed several times as negotiations to mitigate the effects of COVID-19 bogged down.

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/cor … 7ef11d3467

WASHINGTON — After multiple moments of near-collapse and a week of negotiation between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, the House passed a bipartisan bill early Saturday to deal with some of the potential financial fallout for families affected by the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The bill passed the House, 363-40, just after midnight on Saturday, with 223 Democrats and 140 Republicans in support, and zero Democrats and 40 Republicans opposed. Independent Justin Amash of Michigan was the only member to vote present, over concerns that lawmakers didn’t have enough time to read the legislation.

Democrats had been intent on offering a bill that would provide for paid sick leave, which the bill partly does. But Democrats had wanted a permanent program requiring employers to provide two weeks of paid sick leave annually. Republicans balked at that idea, and instead the bill would create a national sick leave program for one year.

The bill provides two weeks of sick leave for workers affected by the coronavirus pandemic, with the government reimbursing 100% of the cost to employers ― placating Republican complaints that a paid sick leave policy could bankrupt some businesses. After the coronavirus crisis abates, the U.S. would go back to not having paid sick leave and will once again become the only advanced nation in the world with no paid sick leave policy.

Tallex

Administrator

Re: Covid19 file

What To Do If You Think You Have Coronavirus
The symptoms to look out for that require immediate medical assistance.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/what-to- … 7ef11c3aeb

Now that the coronavirus outbreak has affected people in more than 100 countries, awareness of COVID-19 is at an all-time high, making people across the globe wonder if their latest sniffle could be a symptom.

Here’s what you should know about the virus’s symptoms and what you should do if you experience them. Remember that it’s important to take precautions to protect not only your health and safety, but also the health and safety of others.

Tallex

Administrator

Re: Covid19 file

Lying, Tweeting and Wishing A Pandemic Away Doesn’t Work, It Turns Out
The “I don’t take responsibility at all” president’s efforts to downplay the disease could lead to tens or hundreds of thousands more serious cases and deaths.

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/tru … 7ef11e4072

WASHINGTON – What happens when the president of the United States tries to lie, wish and tweet a pandemic away?

As it turns out, it puts a government response four to six weeks behind schedule, possibly resulting in thousands — or even tens or hundreds of thousands — more Americans getting seriously ill and dying.

“They underprepared, and now we have to catch up,” said Jeremy Konyndyk, who worked on the widely praised 2014 Ebola outbreak response under former President Barack Obama. “We could have been in a dramatically different place at this point.”

On Jan. 22, the day before China imposed a draconian quarantine on the province where the virus originated, Donald Trump claimed the disease was “totally under control,” that it was just in a single patient who had come from China. “It’s going to be just fine.”

On Feb. 10, as the virus was starting to spread in Italy and Iran, Trump told a meeting of the nation’s governors at the White House: “A lot of people think that goes away in April with the heat.”
On Feb. 26, the day after a top official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that life in the United States was likely to change very quickly, Trump claimed that there were only 15 cases here, and that number would soon fall to zero.
Two days later, he called the virus the latest “hoax” that Democrats and the media were using to hurt the economy and, in turn, his chances for reelection. Indeed, over the course of February, he spoke and posted on Twitter repeatedly that the coronavirus and COVID-19, the disease it causes, had not killed as many as the seasonal flu and suggested that Americans should buy stocks.
It was not until Friday that Trump declared a national emergency, sending the official signal that local governments and hospitals around the country should take the problem seriously and ensuring that federal money would help reimburse their costs. In the meantime, only a tiny fraction of Americans have been tested for the disease, meaning officials do not have enough data to allocate resources most efficiently.
“He’s just failing miserably,” said Juliette Kayyam, who helped handle the 2009 H1N1 flu outbreak and the British Petroleum oil spill for Obama’s Department of Homeland Security and now lectures on emergency management at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. “It’s about a president who saw a category five hurricane coming ashore, and just let it come.”

Tallex

Administrator

Re: Covid19 file

Lying, Tweeting and Wishing A Pandemic Away Doesn’t Work, It Turns Out
The “I don’t take responsibility at all” president’s efforts to downplay the disease could lead to tens or hundreds of thousands more serious cases and deaths.

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/tru … 7ef11e4072

WASHINGTON – What happens when the president of the United States tries to lie, wish and tweet a pandemic away?
As it turns out, it puts a government response four to six weeks behind schedule, possibly resulting in thousands — or even tens or hundreds of thousands — more Americans getting seriously ill and dying.
“They underprepared, and now we have to catch up,” said Jeremy Konyndyk, who worked on the widely praised 2014 Ebola outbreak response under former President Barack Obama. “We could have been in a dramatically different place at this point.”
On Jan. 22, the day before China imposed a draconian quarantine on the province where the virus originated, Donald Trump claimed the disease was “totally under control,” that it was just in a single patient who had come from China. “It’s going to be just fine.”
On Feb. 10, as the virus was starting to spread in Italy and Iran, Trump told a meeting of the nation’s governors at the White House: “A lot of people think that goes away in April with the heat.”
On Feb. 26, the day after a top official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that life in the United States was likely to change very quickly, Trump claimed that there were only 15 cases here, and that number would soon fall to zero.
Two days later, he called the virus the latest “hoax” that Democrats and the media were using to hurt the economy and, in turn, his chances for reelection. Indeed, over the course of February, he spoke and posted on Twitter repeatedly that the coronavirus and COVID-19, the disease it causes, had not killed as many as the seasonal flu and suggested that Americans should buy stocks.
It was not until Friday that Trump declared a national emergency, sending the official signal that local governments and hospitals around the country should take the problem seriously and ensuring that federal money would help reimburse their costs. In the meantime, only a tiny fraction of Americans have been tested for the disease, meaning officials do not have enough data to allocate resources most efficiently.

Tallex

Administrator

Re: Covid19 file

Mike Pence Scrambles After Google Contradicts Trump On Coronavirus Website
Google was apparently taken by surprise to hear the president announce that it was "quickly" developing a national coronavirus screening website.

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/mik … a30fca7ae8

Vice President Mike Pence promised Saturday “specific” clarifying information after a Google statement flatly contradicted President Donald Trump’s earlier tout that the tech giant would “quickly” have a national website up to help the public with coronavirus screening.

“We’re working 24/7 on this,” Pence told reporters at a White House news conference. “We’re going to have very specific details on the rollout of this new public-private partnership and testing at 5 o’clock tomorrow.” The “objective here is to have a website up very quickly,” he added. Pence said Google would launch a “pilot project” website Monday for “risk assessment.”

Trump’s announcement Friday in the Rose Garden apparently took Google by surprise. The company shortly afterward issued a statement from Verily — a subsidiary of Google’s parent Alphabet — that it has a site in “early development” that would be rolled out for testing in the San Francisco Bay Area, with the “hope of expanding more broadly over time.”

Tallex

Administrator

Re: Covid19 file

How Scammers Are Spreading Horrifying Coronavirus Disinformation To Millions
Right-wing news outlets are helping grifters profit off of the COVID-19 pandemic.

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/how … a30fc50149

It’s one of many dangerous scams reaching millions of people amid the global pandemic, and a blind spot in Google’s sweeping crackdown on virus-related disinformation. The groups circulating these hoaxes are no small-fry hucksters: They are among the platform’s biggest political advertisers.

Right-wing news outlets including Newsmax, Townhall and Conservative Buzz have been quietly dispersing the virus-themed marketing materials through sponsored posts in their email newsletters. These third-party ads are often disguised to look like actual news articles, and the newsletters reach far beyond the outlets’ own readerships — thanks in large part to a covert email harvesting enterprise directly involving Google.

It works like this: The news outlet runs a Google ad featuring a clickbait poll such as, “Trump vs Biden 2020? Vote Here.” To vote, people must enter their email addresses, which will then be spammed with bogus coronavirus treatments, survival guides and so on. This has been going on for weeks, and the messaging is often terrifying and factually inaccurate.

Tallex

Administrator

Re: Covid19 file

Countries Around The World Announce More Coronavirus Restrictions
The virus has infected more than 150,000 people worldwide and killed over 5,600.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/countrie … a30fcae608

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Authorities around the world turned to increasingly drastic measures Sunday to try to slow the spread of the new coronavirus, with lockdowns, curfews and travel restrictions spreading.

Soldiers and police sealed the densely populated Philippine capital from most domestic travelers in one of Southeast Asia’s most drastic containment measures. The move mirrored a lockdown Spain announced just hours earlier for its 46 million citizens.

France ordered the closing of just about everything the rest of the world loves about it — the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the cafes and restaurants — as governments took increasingly desperate measures to put more space between people and contain the virus.

snip

It was clear, however, that the center of gravity in the crisis had shifted westward toward Europe and North America. The virus has infected more than 150,000 people worldwide and killed over 5,600.

Tallex

Administrator

Re: Covid19 file

Administration Officials Fail To Answer For Trump Lie About Google Coronavirus Site
Trump said Google was "very quickly" developing a site to assist in COVID-19 cases. Google contradicted him, and Trump officials have admitted they have no idea what the timeline is for such a project.

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/tru … 7ef11f0543

Multiple Trump administration officials failed to answer questions Sunday about when Americans can expect a website President Donald Trump touted last week to assist with the identification of coronavirus symptoms and locations of testing centers in the United States.

Trump said during a news conference Friday that Google was developing a website to help people check their symptoms and find functional testing locations. It turned out the site he was referring to was likely one being developed by Verily, which shares a parent company with Google. In a statement following Trump’s celebratory announcement, Verily said its site is “in the early stages of development” and that the company plans to roll it out for California’s Bay Area with the hope of expanding it beyond California “over time.”

Trump said during the news conference that the website would be done “very quickly.” Since then, Google executives have said they will work on a “national information website” in addition to Verily’s site. Trump seized on their announcement to falsely attack the media on Twitter.

Tallex

Administrator

Re: Covid19 file

GOP Rep. Devin Nunes, Bucking Advice Of Health Experts, Says 'Go To Your Local Pub'
His irresponsible suggestion followed NIAID Director Anthony Fauci's plea to Americans to reduce social interactions during the coronavirus outbreak.

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/dev … 8156f962de

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) on Sunday encouraged people to “go to your local pub” if you’re healthy, despite U.S. health experts recommending Americans limit their social interactions as the coronavirus continues to spread across the country.

Nunes was asked during an appearance on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo” what he thinks of the federal government’s response to COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus first documented in China.

“Well, most importantly I think what the American people have to understand is we need to stop panicking here,” Nunes said. “There’s no shortage of food in this country. People don’t need to go to the store and fight over bottled water or toilet paper.”

He continued:

There’s a lot of concerns with the economy here because people are scared to go out. One of the things you can do, if you’re healthy, you and your family, it’s a great time to just go out, go to a local restaurant ― likely you can get in easily.

Let’s not hurt the working people in this country that are relying on wages and tips to keep their small business going. Just don’t run to the grocery store and buy $4,000 of food. Go to your local pub.

Tallex

Administrator

Re: Covid19 file

Report: The Trump Administration Offered “Large Sums” to Secure Exclusive Rights to a Coronavirus Vaccine

https://www.motherjones.com/coronavirus … vac-yikes/

The Trump administration attempted to persuade a German science firm with “large sums of money” to leave Europe and develop a coronavirus vaccine “only for the United States,” according to reporting in a German newspaper Sunday.

It’s a bizarre tale. From Reuters:

Earlier, the Welt am Sonntag German newspaper reported that U.S. President Donald Trump had offered funds to lure CureVac to the United States, and the German government was making counter-offers to tempt it to stay.

Tallex

Administrator

Re: Covid19 file

Coronavirus Live Updates: Read The Latest About The COVID-19 Outbreak
The World Health Organization has officially declared COVID-19 a pandemic.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/coronavi … 00314-1142

Tallex

Administrator

Re: Covid19 file

Illinois Governor Says Trump Aide 'Yelled' At Him For Complaint On Airport Chaos
Governors are "on our own" because federal officials have "fallen down" in responding to COVID-19, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said.

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/jb- … a30fcb941a

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) was looking for help from the Trump administration to deal with Chicago’s dangerously crowded O’Hare Airport amid stepped-up screening for the coronavirus ― crowds that made impossible the social distancing urged by health officials.

Instead, Pritzker said an aide to President Donald Trump “yelled at me about the tweet” the governor had posted complaining about the situation.

“Here’s what I got. I got a call at about 11:00 last night after that tweet from a White House staffer who yelled at me about the tweet. That is what I got,” Pritzker said when asked on NBC’s “Meet The Press” about any “reassurance” he received from the Trump administration.

An unnamed White House source insisted to the Washington Examiner: “There was no yelling.”

Pritzker said that to avoid “exactly what you don’t want during this pandemic.” the administration should have provided more federal workers at airports this weekend because of the expected delays stemming from Americans returning to the U.S. because of Trump’s European travel ban. The administration seemed “completely unprepared” as the situation grew worse on Sunday, Pritzker said.

Tallex

Administrator

Re: Covid19 file

Norway College Urges Students To Return From 'Poorly Developed' U.S. Amid COVID-19
Students studying abroad are called home because of the pandemic, "especially" from the U.S.

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/nor … a30fcbba2a

Norway’s renowned University of Science and Technology has issued an alert urging students studying abroad to return home as a response to the coronavirus pandemic — specifically singling out the U.S.

The warning from the nation’s largest university, with some 40,00 students, applies “especially” to students staying in nations with “poorly developed health services,” as well as countries, “for example the USA,” with a “poorly developed collective infrastructure.”

The alert notes it can be difficult in the U.S. to “get transport to the airport if you don’t have a car.” It added, apparently referring to “poorly developed health services,” that, “The same applies if you don’t have health insurance.”

Tallex

Administrator

Re: Covid19 file

Top U.S. Health Official: Americans Should 'Hunker Down Significantly More'
NIAID Director Anthony Fauci called for a "dramatic diminution" in personal interactions at bars and restaurants as the coronavirus continues to spread.

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/ant … 8156f936bb

Anthony Fauci, one of the top U.S. health officials leading the country’s response to the coronavirus, urged Americans on Sunday to “hunker down significantly more” as the virus continues to spread across the country.

The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, while making the rounds on Sunday morning political shows, called on a “dramatic diminution” in personal interactions at restaurants and bars.

“Whatever it takes to do that, that’s what I’d like to see,” Fauci, a medical doctor, said during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” adding that elderly and immunocompromised individuals are not the only people at risk.

“Younger people should be concerned for two reasons: You are not immune or safe from getting seriously ill,” he said. “So protect yourself. But remember: You could also be a vector or a carrier. ... That’s why everybody’s got to take this seriously.”