COVID-19: Not An April Fool’s Joke

Ken AshfordEbola/Zika/COVID-19 Viruses, Trump ImpeachmentLeave a Comment

World:

U.S.

[UPDATE – 2:30 pm — US has 203,608 cases and 4,476 deaths

North Carolina has 1,584 cases and nine deaths [UPDATE: 2:30 pm — 1,627 cases and 14 deaths]. Forsyth County has 57 cases and 1 death.

Still dire. The top government scientists battling the coronavirus estimated Tuesday that the deadly pathogen could kill between 100,000 and 240,000 Americans, in spite of the social distancing measures that have closed schools, banned large gatherings, limited travel and forced people to stay in their homes….The conclusions generally match those from similar models by public health researchers around the globe.

As dire as those predictions are, Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx said the number of deaths could be much higher if Americans do not follow the strict guidelines to keep the virus from spreading, and they urged people to take the restrictions seriously.

At least Trump finally is finally recognizing it:

Five weeks ago, when there were 60 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the United States, President Trump expressed little alarm. “This is a flu,” he said. “This is like a flu.” He was still likening it to an ordinary flu as late as Friday.

By Tuesday, however, with more than 187,000 recorded cases in the United States and more Americans having been killed by the virus than by the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the president’s assessment had rather drastically changed. “It’s not the flu,” he said. “It’s vicious.”

The grim-faced president who appeared in the White House briefing room for more than two hours on Tuesday evening beside charts showing death projections of hellacious proportions was coming to grips with a reality he had long refused to accept. At a minimum, the charts predicted that 100,000 to 240,000 Americans would die — and only if the nation abided by stringent social restrictions that would choke the economy and impoverish millions.

That doesn’t excuse his weeks and months of delay, lies, and rosy predictions. But at least he came around. For one day.

On the other hand, he seems oblivious to his role in this as a fixer:

Several rural-state governors alerted President Trump on Monday that they are struggling to obtain urgently needed medical supplies and testing equipment, warning that despite the worsening coronavirus situation in New York and other urban areas, more sparsely populated parts of the country need help, too. 

In response to requests for more testing kits, Mr. Trump said, “I haven’t heard about testing in weeks,” according to an audio recording of the call between the president and governors obtained by CBS News. 

During the call, which lasted a little over an hour, Democratic and Republican governors detailed how they are struggling to obtain the protective equipment doctors and nurses will need to treat the sick and the test kits needed to determine whether sick residents are suffering from COVID-19.

“We understand the challenges in New York. I have family in New York,” Wyoming Republican Governor Mark Gordon told the president. But, he told Mr. Trump, “I think a little bit of supply going our way could get us better prepared going forward.” “Good point,” Mr. Trump replied. “Thank you very much, Mark. If you have a problem, call me. I’ll get you what you need.”

CBS News obtained a recording of the call from a participant shortly after it concluded. Others familiar with the call confirmed some of the details.

Mr. Trump was joined on the call by Vice President Pence, Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia, FEMA Administrator Pete Gaynor, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of allergy and infectious diseases, and Dr. Deborah Birx, who is leading the White House Coronavirus Task Force.

[…]

Louisiana Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards told the president that New Orleans plans to establish a 1,250-bed field hospital at the New Orleans convention center by Sunday, with the option to add 1,000 beds the following week.

“We’re having a really hard time getting the ventilators that we need,” Edwards said. “We’re pursuing every angle that we have, including requests from the [national] stockpile. We know that testing continues to be an issue, especially the test collection kits. Although this is getting better.”

Responding to Edwards, Trump said, “we’re going to have some additional ventilators coming.”

But other governors warned there are far broader concerns to come.

Montana Democratic Governor Steve Bullock noted that delays in testing state residents could soon overwhelm hospitals in rural population centers and griped that his buying power has been repeatedly “trumped” by the federal government, a far larger customer for supplies and equipment.

“I could give four or five examples over the last week where we have supply orders, and they’ve subsequently been cancelled, and they’re canceled in part because what our suppliers are saying is that federal resources are requesting it and trumping that,” Bullock said.

Bullock also warned “we’re going to have some real problems” across smaller rural states if they cannot soon obtain the necessary testing equipment. He cited Gallatin County, which encompasses Bozeman, as a population center that is seeing a growing infection rate.

“So we’re trying to shift the supplies to really isolate that and do contact tracing, but we don’t even have enough supplies to do the testing,” Bullock said.

Mr. Trump replied, “I haven’t heard about testing in weeks. We’ve tested more now than any nation in the world. We’ve got these great tests and we’ll come out with another one tomorrow that’s, you know, almost instantaneous testing. But I haven’t heard anything about testing being a problem.”

Admiral Brett Giroir, head of the Public Health Service and overseeing the push to distribute coronavirus test kits, interjected, explaining that the federal government is purchasing for each state at least 15 recently approved test kits that can confirm a coronavirus diagnosis within four minutes.

“We’re going to get that to your state lab as soon as possible,” Giroir said.

Marissa Perry, Bullock’s communications director, said that Montana has received just 16% of the personal protective equipment it has requested from the national stockpile. “The state has been actively pursuing every avenue available for more supplies, including on the open market, but in many instances supply orders from the private market have been cancelled,” she said in an email.

Later in the call, New Mexico Democratic Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham flagged “incredible spikes” of infection in the Navajo Nation and said that her team is emphasizing contact tracing and infection surveillance near two federal nuclear laboratories in her state.

“If we don’t get that under containment and really be clear about surveillance, I think we have some significant national security issues,” Lujan Grisham warned. 

“We’re seeing incredible spikes in the Navajo Nation, and this is going to be an issue where we’re going to have to figure that out and think about maybe testing and surveillance opportunities,” she added later. “The rate of infection, at least on the New Mexico side — although we’ve got several Arizona residents in our hospitals — we’re seeing a much higher hospital rate, a much younger hospital rate, a much quicker go-right-to-the-vent rate for this population. And we’re seeing doubling in every day-and-a-half.”

“Wow. That’s something,” the president replied.

Trump actually made at least one true statement during Tuesday’s White House briefing on the novel coronavirus. When it comes to the way he handled the administration’s response, he wasn’t affected one bit by impeachment. “I don’t think I would have done any better had I not been impeached,” Trump told reporters, when asked whether the impeachment process impeded his response.

Trump’s response basically destroyed one of Republican lawmakers’ favorite new talking points. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told a conservative radio host on Tuesday that impeachment had “diverted the attention of the government.” It was nothing if not an admission that Trump and GOP lawmakers totally fumbled the ball on this public health disaster. If anyone thought they were really doing a great job, Republicans would be cooing about how wonderfully they’ve managed the response. The real question is, why did Senate Republicans vote to keep the ever-incompetent Trump in charge when they very clearly had a sense of the calamity that lay ahead for the country?

Of course, Trump is delusional enough to think he’s been just great. “Did it divert my attention?” Trump said during the White House briefing. “I think I’m getting A-pluses for the way I handled myself during a phony impeachment, okay? It was a hoax.” Trump said he may have thought about impeachment, but added, “I don’t think I would have done any better had I not been impeached, okay?”

In other related news, Sen. Kelly Loeffler has disclosed even more stock sales that show millions of dollars in shares were sold on her behalf while Congress was dealing with the impact of the coronavirus. Last month, it was revealed Loeffler and her husband sold off seven figures’ worth of stock holdings in the days and weeks after a private, all-senators meeting on the novel coronavirus on Jan. 24. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has now obtained filings from mid-February through mid-March. They reportedly show the couple sold shares in retail stores and invested in a company that makes protective garments that are being used to fight the spread of COVID-19. The biggest transactions reportedly involve $18.7 million in sales of Intercontinental Exchange stock in three separate deals. The new figures will fuel allegations that the Georgia Republican used insider knowledge about the pandemic to dump holdings. Loeffler has said she did nothing wrong, adding that neither she or her husband have control over the day-to-day decisions to buy or sell stocks.

Boston Globe editorial is awesome:

What we have instead is a president epically outmatched by a global pandemic. A president who in late January, when the first confirmed coronavirus case was announced in the United States, downplayed the risk and insisted all was under control. A president who, rather than aggressively test all those exposed to the virus, said he’d prefer not to bring ashore passengers on a contaminated cruise ship so as to keep national case numbers (artificially) low. A president who, consistent with his mistrust and undermining of scientific fact, has misled the public about unproven cures for COVID-19, and who baited-and-switched last week about whether the country ought to end social distancing to open up by Easter, and then, on Saturday, about whether he’d impose a quarantine on New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. A president who has pledged to oversee the doling out of the $500 billion in corporate bailout money in the latest stimulus package, some of which will go to the travel industry in which his family is invested. A president who spent a good chunk of a recent press conference complaining about how hard it is for a rich man to serve in the White House even as Americans had already begun to lose their jobs, their health care, and their lives. A president who has reinforced racial stigma by calling the contagion a “Chinese virus” and failed to collaborate adequately with other countries to contain their outbreaks and study the disease. A president who evades responsibility and refuses to acknowledge, let alone own, the bitter truth of National Institutes of Health scientist Dr. Anthony Fauci’s testimony: that the country’s testing rollout was “a failing.”

Timing is everything in pandemic response: It can make the difference between a contained local outbreak that endures a few weeks and an uncontrollable contagion that afflicts millions. The Trump administration has made critical errors over the past two months, choosing early on to develop its own diagnostic test, which failed, instead of adopting the World Health Organization’s test — a move that kneecapped the US coronavirus response and, by most public health experts’ estimation, will cost thousands if not hundreds of thousands of American lives. Rather than making the expected federal effort to mobilize rapidly to distribute needed gowns, masks, and ventilators to ill-equipped hospitals and to the doctors and nurses around the country who are left unprotected treating a burgeoning number of patients, the administration has instead been caught outbidding individual states (including Massachusetts) trying to purchase medical supplies. It has dragged its heels on invoking the Defense Production Act to get scarce, sorely needed ventilators and masks into production so that they can be distributed to hospitals nationwide as they hit their peaks in the cycle of the epidemic. It has left governors and mayors in the lurch, begging for help. The months the administration wasted with prevarication about the threat and its subsequent missteps will amount to exponentially more COVID-19 cases than were necessary. In other words, the president has blood on his hands.

It’s not too much for Americans to ask of their leaders that they be competent and informed when responding to a crisis of historic proportions. Instead, they have a White House marred by corruption and incompetence, whose mixed messages roil the markets and rock their sense of security. Instead of compassion and clarity, the president, in his near-daily addresses to the nation, embodies callousness, self-concern, and a lack of compass. Dangling unverified cures and possible quarantines in front of the public like reality TV cliffhangers, he unsettles rather than reassures. The pandemic reveals that the worst features of this presidency are not merely late-night comedy fodder; they come at the cost of lives, livelihoods, and our collective psyche.

Other updates:

COVID-19 Update: Long Haul Continues

Ken AshfordEbola/Zika/COVID-19 Viruses, Election 2020, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

It’s a curious benchmark, but people are noting that the US has passed deaths for 9/11.

At least 1,512 people have tested positive for coronavirus in NC, and 8 residents have died. One of them was in Forsyth County, our first, a 90 year old woman who died yesterday.

Good news:

Harsh measures, including stay-at-home orders and restaurant closures, are contributing to rapid drops in the numbers of fevers — a signal symptom of most coronavirus infections — recorded in states across the country, according to intriguing new data produced by a medical technology firm.

At least 248 million Americans in at least 29 states have been told to stay at home. It had seemed nearly impossible for public health officials to know how effective this measure and others have been in slowing the coronavirus.

But the new data offer evidence, in real time, that tight social-distancing restrictions may be working, potentially reducing hospital overcrowding and lowering death rates, experts said.

The company, Kinsa Health, which produces internet-connected thermometers, first created a national map of fever levels on March 22 and was able to spot the trend within a day. Since then, data from the health departments of New York State and Washington State have buttressed the finding, making it clear that social distancing is saving lives.

The trend has become so obvious that on Sunday, President Trump extended until the end of April his recommendation that Americans stay in lockdown. Mr. Trump had hoped to lift restrictions by Easter and send Americans back to work.

“That would have been the worst possible Easter surprise,” said Dr. Peter J. Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, who added that he thought the Kinsa predictions were based on “very robust technology.”

Kinsa’s thermometers upload the user’s temperature readings to a centralized database; the data enable the company to track fevers across the United States.

Owners of Kinsa’s thermometers can type other symptoms into a cellphone app after taking their temperature. The app offers basic advice on whether they should seek medical attention.

Kinsa has more than one million thermometers in circulation and has been getting up to 162,000 daily temperature readings since Covid-19 began spreading in the country.

I’m not sure how reliable this is, however. The company has a vested interest in tauting its own success story.

Another take:

China and South Korea have flattened their curves. Italy, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands have begun to flatten their curves.

The United States still has not.

More than half of all confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States have been diagnosed in the past five days. Depending on what data source you use, yesterday was either the worst day for new cases or one of the worst. And more than 3,000 Americans with the virus have died, meaning the death toll has now exceeded that of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

As you can see in the chart above, the other three countries with the world’s largest number of confirmed cases — Italy, China and Spain — were all making significant progress at a similar point in their outbreaks. But the response in the United States has been slow and uneven.

President Trump spent almost two months denying that the virus was a serious problem and spreading incorrect information about it. Since then, he has oscillated between taking sensible measures and continuing to make false statements. (Yesterday, he said that hospital masks might be “going out the back door” — suggesting that doctors or somebody else were stealing the masks rather than using them.)

Many state leaders — both Democrats, like Gov. Jay Inslee in Washington State, and Republicans, like Gov. Larry Hogan, in Maryland — have done a much better job. Altogether, the federal, state and local policies on social distancing may be starting to have an effect. The number of fevers recorded nationwide is falling, as Donald G. McNeil Jr. of The Times notes, which is an encouraging sign.

But the United States is badly behind. Both South Korea and the United States had their first confirmed case around the same day, in late January, as Neera Tanden of the Center for American Progress points out. South Korea has suffered only about 150 deaths, one-twentieth as many as the United States.

This story in the Washington Post is crazy:

On Feb. 5, with fewer than a dozen confirmed novel coronavirus cases in the United States but tens of thousands around the globe, a shouting match broke out in the White House Situation Room between Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and an Office of Management and Budget official, according to three people aware of the outburst.

Azar had asked OMB that morning for $2 billion to buy respirator masks and other supplies for a depleted federal stockpile of emergency medical equipment, according to individuals familiar with the request, who spoke on the condition of anonymity about internal discussions.

The previously unreported argument turned on the request and on the budget official’s accusation that Azar had improperly lobbied Capitol Hill for money for the repository, which Azar denied, the individuals said.

The $2 billion request from HHS was cut to $500 million when the White House eventually sent Congress a supplemental budget request weeks later. White House budget officials now say the relief package enacted Friday secured $16 billion for the Strategic National Stockpile, more money than HHS had asked for

The dispute over funding highlights tensions over a repository straining under demands from state officials. States desperate for materials from the stockpile are encountering a beleaguered system beset by years of underfunding, changing lines of authority, confusion over the allocation of supplies and a lack of transparency from the administration, according to interviews with state and federal officials and public health experts.

Anecdotally, there are wide differences, and they do not appear to follow discernible political or geographic lines. Democratic-leaning Massachusetts, which has had a serious outbreak in Boston, has received 17 percent of the protective gear it requested, according to state leaders. Maine requested a half-million N95 specialized protective masks and received 25,558 — about 5 percent of what it sought. The shipment delivered to Colorado — 49,000 N95 masks, 115,000 surgical masks and other supplies — would be “enough for only one full day of statewide operations,” Rep. Scott R. Tipton (R-Colo.) told the White House in a letter several days ago.

Florida has been an exception in its dealings with the stockpile: The state submitted a request on March 11 for 430,000 surgical masks, 180,000 N95 respirators, 82,000 face shields and 238,000 gloves, among other supplies — and received a shipment with everything three days later, according to figures from the state’s Division of Emergency Management. It received an identical shipment on March 23, according to the division, and is awaiting a third.

“The governor has spoken to the president daily, and the entire congressional delegation has been working as one for the betterment of the state of Florida,” said Jared Moskowitz, the emergency management division’s director. “We are leaving no stone unturned.”

President Trump repeatedly has warned states not to complain about how much they are receiving, including Friday during a White House briefing, where he advised Vice President Pence not to call governors who are critical of the administration’s response. “I want them to be appreciative,” he said.

In late 2018, the Trump administration transferred responsibility for managing the stockpile from the CDC to a different part of HHS — a controversial move resisted by the CDC that placed the stockpile under the assistant secretary for preparedness and response (ASPR). According to current and former state and federal officials, the handover was bumpy.AD

The CDC still oversees clinical guidance to state health departments responding to public health threats, including infectious diseases. But the stockpile’s resources are now under ASPR.

“The transition has been difficult because the left hand is not talking to the right hand,” said one state health official with more than a decade of experience in emergency preparedness, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he needs to maintain relations with ASPR.

HHS officials have sparred for more than a year with White House budget officials over money to buy more stockpile supplies.

In February 2019, the White House was planning for a presidential executive order on preparing for a potential flu pandemic. HHS requested a more than $11 billion investment over 10 years for ASPR, including $2.7 billion for “treatment and control,” according to a document read by a Washington Post reporter that said some of those funds would go toward “better protective devices, manufactured faster.”

But the executive order issued by Trump in September 2019 did not include that money.

In late January, Azar began telling OMB about the need for a supplemental budget request for stockpile supplies — and was rebuffed at a time when the White House did not yet acknowledge any supplemental money would be needed, according to several individuals familiar with the situation who spoke anonymously to discuss internal conversations.

Then came the Feb. 5 argument.

The article does point out that the Obama administration had failed to fully restock the stockpile. And it’s clear that the bureaucracy was unable to move quickly But what a trainwreck this was just in the last few months.

In January we were all watching Wuhan and knew there was a good chance that this thing could go global. Azar went to the budget busters who were spewing a firehose full of money at the military for no good reason and asked for more money to prepare. They said no.

This could have been avoided in so many ways. This is just another one of their mammoth screw-ups.

Devastating Biden video:

John Burn-Murdoch, who’s been creating some excellent charts for The Financial Times, explains that larger countries have not been suffering more rapid virus spread than smaller countries: “Population does not affect pace of spread.”

McKay Coppins, The Atlantic: “Hundreds of people dying in a day, makeshift hospital tents popping up in Central Park, bodies being loaded into refrigerated trucks, a Navy hospital ship pulling into the harbor — four weeks ago, this would have been dismissed as a wildly alarmist view of the coronavirus in NY.”

Connor Harris of the Manhattan Institute writes that Sweden also appears to have responded poorly to the virus and is now suffering substantially more deaths than Denmark or Norway. “Sweden took a laissez-faire approach to COVID-19 while their neighbors shut down public life and sealed the borders. It looks like we’re finally seeing the results,” Harris writes.

Politico:

YOU’D BE FORGIVEN, in this time of trouble and distress,for wondering whether your federal government has a handle on this pandemic, or if it’s a complete and utter train wreck.

FIRST THEY TOLD US they had the coronavirus under control; now they tell us hundreds of thousands of people could die.

FIRST THEY TOLD US you’d need prolonged physical contact with someone with the virus to be exposed; now there are reports suggesting the disease might be transmitted in the air.

FIRST THEY TOLD US only old people or those with severely compromised immune systems were at risk; now people of all ages are dying due to COVID-19.

FIRST THEY TOLD US that we would be out of our houses by Easter; nowwe’re all quarantined in our homes, with Virginia suggesting residents can’t leave until June.

FIRST THEY TOLD US we didn’t need to cover our mouths in public because it would do no good; now the CDC says they might recommend it.

FIRST THEY TOLD US tests are available, plentiful and easy to get; now we hear stories almost daily about how some people can’t get tested, and if they can, many are waiting weeks for results. We’ve heard some grim stories about people dying before their results are in.

FIRST THEY TOLD US Google would be building a website to help people figure out if they need to get tested, and direct them where to go if so; now, we see the site is live in just four counties in California, not across the country, as they indicated.

FIRST THEY TOLD US they had enough ventilators; now, in New York — one of the world’s most important cities — a top hospital is telling doctors to “think more critically” about who to give assistive air to.

This morning, Trump watches TV:

There’s a fake argument circulating that goes something like this. The president isn’t to blame for the coronavirus pandemic that has now killed more Americans than were murdered on Sept. 11, 2001. Instead, the Democrats are to blame. They distracted Donald Trump with their pointless impeachment and failed attempt to remove him.

We know the truth.

US intelligence officials briefed Trump in early January, warning that a contagion was coming the likes of which we have never seen before. The president did nothing. Senators from both parties were briefed in early February. They urged Trump to ask for emergency funding to counteract COVID-19’s spread. The president did nothing.

COVID-19 Update: Trump Learns About This Thing Called “Projections”

Ken AshfordEbola/Zika/COVID-19 Viruses, Election 2020, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

North Carolina: 1,167 cases and 5 deaths in the state as of Sunday. State-wide lockdown starts effective today.

Forsyth County has 35 positive coronavirus case

The numbers are still rising exponentially. We seem to have a working model from University of Washington.

So that national peak appears to be April 15 with a total projected death total of 82,121; the NC peak seems to be a week later with a total projected death total of 1,721.

Trump still holds his daily fiasco press briefings, although the one yesterday showed him to be more fearful than in the past. He seemed to have a grasp of the models and the severity of what we are facing – a 1 million to 2.2 million person death toll in the United States… if we do nothing. Fortunately, we as a society are not “doing nothing”.

One exception: Awful news about the students who followed Falwell’s utterly insane decision to re-open Liberty University and returned to school:

…Mr. Falwell — a staunch ally of President Trump and an influential voice in the evangelical world — reopened [Liberty University] last week, igniting a firestorm. As of Friday, Dr. Eppes said, nearly a dozen Liberty students were sick with symptoms that suggest Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. Three were referred to local hospital centers for testing. Another eight were told to self-isolate.

I am at a loss for words and sick to my stomach over this. I can only hope and pray that these poor kids recover. And that somehow, Falwell and Trump are held accountable.

Darwin’s theory shows itself elsewhere.

Religious Ignorance Kills: Landon Spradlin, a Virginia pastor who claimed the “mass hysteria” around the coronavirus pandemic was part of a media plot against Trump, has died from the virus.

ABC News reports:

 Landon Spradlin’s family never got to say goodbye.

The 66-year-old father and husband from Virginia died due to complications from COVID-19 on Wednesday morning in North Carolina.

While on the way home from a mission trip, Spradlin collapsed and was taken to a hospital in Concord, North Carolina. He was eventually put on a ventilator as his condition worsened.

According to reports, Spradlin, a 66-year-old Christian “musical evangelist,” fell ill while on a missionary trip to New Orleans with his wife. 

Friendly Atheist reports Spradlin went to New Orleans to “wash it from its Sin and debauchery.”

On his Facebook page Spradlin shared a misleading meme attempting to minimize COVID-19, comparing the virus to the swine flu, and suggesting that the response to the coronavirus pandemic was media created “mass hysteria” to damage Trump.

But, less than a week after speculating that we may be over this by Easter, Trump recommended that restrictions extend to the end of April.

Trump said the Easter target date was “just an aspiration” and said he expects “great things to be happening” by June 1. Instead, Trump said he believes Easter will mark “the peak number, and it should start coming down, hopefully very substantially at that point.”

Still, there were many lies in the briefing.

Trump falsely denied that he claimed governors from certain states are asking for equipment they don’t need. At Sunday’s briefing, Alcindor, Newshour’s White House Correspondent, asked the President whether he felt his comments and belief “that some of the equipment that governors are requesting they don’t actually need” would have an impact on the federal distribution of ventilators and other medical resources. As Alcindor attempted to finish her question, the President interjected, “I didn’t say that,” before going on to say it wouldn’t have an impact.

But he did say that. On March 26 during a Fox News interview with Sean Hannity, Trump said, “a lot of equipment’s being asked for that I don’t think they’ll need” specifically in reference to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and following a tirade against Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Trump later said he felt Cuomo was requesting an unnecessary number of ventilators. “I have a feeling that a lot of the numbers that are being said in some areas are just bigger than they are going to be,” Trump said. “I don’t believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators.”When Alcindor noted that she was quoting from the President’s interview with Hannity, Trump said: “Take a look at my interview. What I want to do is if there is something wrong, we have to get to the bottom of it.”

CNN’s Jeremy Diamond began a question to Trump as follows: “I’d also like to ask you about some comments you made on Friday. You were talking about governors of different states and you said, ‘I want them to be appreciative.’ You also said, ‘if they don’t treat you right, I don’t call.'” After Diamond said the words “if they don’t treat you right,” Trump said, “But I didn’t say that.” When Diamond finished the sentence, Trump said “I didn’t say that” once more.

But Trump did say what he claimed he didn’t. As Diamond told Trump, Diamond was reading direct quotes from Trump’s Friday briefing. Trump went on to argue Sunday that he was being taken out of context, noting that on Friday he had also said of his “I want them to be appreciative” comment, that he was talking about people other than himself.

Trump had said Friday: “I’m not talking about me. I’m talking about Mike Pence, the task force; I’m talking about FEMA, the Army Corps of Engineers.” Trump is within his rights to urge media outlets to play the full clip, but those additional comments do not change the fact that he had said exactly what Diamond said he did.

Then there was this fucked-up accusation:

That’s a pretty horrible (and unfounded) accusation against heroes.

Other updates and musings to follow, as needed.

This is grim:

FEMA is sending refrigerated trucks to New York City to serve as temporary morgues as the death toll from the coronavirus grows.

There is a “desperate need” for morgue space in Queens in particular, FEMA regional administrator Thomas Von Essen said Monday. The borough has the most coronavirus cases in the city, and Elmhurst hospital has been swamped with gravely ill patients.

“We are going to have an awful lot of folks that aren’t going to make it,” Von Essen said at a press conference with Mayor Bill de Blasio, as they welcomed the hospital ship USNS Comfort to the city.

As of Monday morning, 790 people have died in the city from the coronavirus. There are 36,221 confirmed cases.

Whatever happened to those senators who sold stock after learning of COVID-19? A little over a week ago, we found out that a group of senators (like North Carolina Republican Richard Burr and appointed Georgia Republican Kelly Loeffler) cashed out of the market after receiving a classified briefing on the severity of the looming coronavirus pandemic. Then they went out and told the public that everything was fine and the impeached president had it all under control. Loeffler even bought stock on a teleconferencing company. 

It’s been rough going for those two since the revelations, and it’s gotten worse for them (and potentially several others) now that the Justice Department, in coordination with the Securities Exchange Commission, has announced an investigation into the stock transactions—all of which could have a real impact on this November’s Senate picture. 

Democrats are currently a 53-47 minority in the U.S. Senate. Given the expected loss of our Alabama seat (a lucky special-election rental), that means we need to pick up four seats to get to a 50-50 tie, which would hopefully be broken in our favor by future Vice President Kamala Harris, Stacey Abrams, or Elizabeth Warren. Ideally we’d win more than that, not just to give Democrats some breathing room (let’s not forget that conservative Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema will be regularly voting against us), but also to ensure control if Trump managed to win reelection, which is still a real possibility. 

We are almost guaranteed a pickup in Colorado. Republicans have all but surrendered that seat. We are narrowly favored in Arizona and Maine. No guarantees! But we look good. We also look pretty good in North Carolina, which kinda surprises me, but it’s legit. Montana sneaks into the top tier given the Democrats’ recruitment coup of Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock, but it’s a tough state at the federal level, so that one likely leans slightly red. 

Then we get to the second-tier Senate races—two in Georgia and Iowa … pickings start getting slim. In the third tier, we have long-shot races in Kansas, Kentucky, and Texas—races we wouldn’t win in a normal political climate, but nothing is normal about today’s climate. 

Daily press conference now at 5:30 — it’s like an infomercial. All these business executives congratulating themselves.

OMG. The My Pillow guy.

Trump tells of a friend who is “unconscious” and “in a coma”. That might explain while this is no longer abstract to him.

Presser is over… and now Trump is tweeting… Rachel Maddow?

Oh… he’s spoofing her. But she was right. He was wrong.

Weekly List 176

Ken AshfordWeekly ListLeave a Comment

This week the U.S. continued exponential growth of coronavirus cases, finding itself with the most cases in the world on Thursday — surpassing Italy and China. The number of deaths likewise continued to grow exponentially. New York was hardest hit, accounting for roughly half the cases, but was also ahead of the rest of the country in aggressively testing and quarantining.

An impetuous Trump, eager to put this all behind him, and concerned about the stock market and his re-election, continued to minimize the pandemic, saying Monday he wanted to reopen the economy at the end of a 15-day period, meaning next Monday. On Tuesday, he tweaked that slightly to say he wanted to have the churches full by Easter Sunday, saying it would be “beautiful.” Dr. Anthony Fauci, who seemed to be the sole voice of reason in the task force, pushed Trump to be flexible and watch the virus. This week, the daily coronavirus task force briefing devolved into Trump campaign rallies, filled with lies and disinformation — causing one death in Arizona where a man and his wife ingested Trump’s supposed coronavirus cure.

This week, Trump shifted from blaming China and using the term “Chinese virus,” to blaming New York as a “hot spot” — by week’s end, threatening a quarantine of the state and neighboring New Jersey and Connecticut. During the week, as confusion reigned with Trump’s inaction, states were left to fend for themselves, often bidding against one another amid a nationwide shortage of medical supplies. Rather than leading and unifying, Trump targeted governors who were, in his view, not nice enough to him — singling out Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer as that state saw a surge in cases and deaths for his ire, refusing to declare the state a disaster, and according to Whitmer, telling vendors not to fulfill orders for medical supplies. States also started to follow Trump’s lead and target one another.

Congress passed a $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief package, as more than 3 million Americans filed for unemployment. Trump continued to attack the media for their coverage of his and his regime’s failures to lead and take action on this national emergency.

  1. On Tuesday, a Gallup poll found Trump’s approval rating rose to 49%, matching the highest point of his time in office, and up from 44% earlier this month. Trump improved among Independents (+8) and Democrats (+6).
  2. Gallup noted, “historically, presidential job approval has increased when the nation is under threat,” from Franklin Roosevelt through George W. Bush, who saw a 35 point surge in the aftermath of 9/11.
  3. On Trump’s handling of the coronavirus, 60% approve and 38% disapprove. 94% of Republicans, 60% of Independents, and 27% of Democrats approve of his response.
  4. On Saturday, Politico reported the Justice Department asked Congress for emergency powers amid the coronavirus crisis to detain people indefinitely without trial during national emergencies, which Trump has declared.
  5. The DOJ proposed granting the attorney general power to ask any chief judge to pause proceedings, to grant top judges the power to pause, and to use videoconference hearings without the defendant’s consent.
  6. The proposal also asked to empower Trump or his successors to eliminate legal protections for asylum seekers, a permanent change to immigration law. This idea was reported to be dead on arrival.
  7. On Sunday, NYT reported Trump sent a letter to North Korea’s Kim Jong-un offering help in fighting the coronavirus, according to North Korea state media. Kim’s sister called the letter “a good judgment and proper action.”
  8. On Sunday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost ordered clinics to stop performing ‘non-essential and elective’ surgical abortions during the coronavirus health emergency, or face consequences from the state.
  9. On Sunday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told Fox Business, “I’ve seen a bunch of fake news over the last couple of days about a complete shut down of the economy,” adding, Trump “has not made that decision.”
  10. On Sunday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio told “Meet the Press” that Trump “will not lift a finger to help his hometown,” adding, “If the president doesn’t act, people will die who could have lived otherwise.”
  11. On Sunday, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker told “State of the Union” that federal government inaction has forced states to compete “against each other” for supplies, adding, “It’s a Wild West out there…We are overpaying.”
  12. On Sunday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo requested a temporary hospital be built at the Jacob Javits Convention Center, as the number of confirmed cases in the state hit 15,168. Cuomo added, “There are masks that we were paying 85 cents for. We’re now paying $7.”
  13. On Sunday, Reuters reported the Trump regime eliminated a key CDC public health position in Beijing in July 2019 intended to help detect disease outbreaks in China, months before the first case in November.
  14. The American expert, Dr. Linda Quick, trained Chinese field epidemiologists who were deployed to the epicenter of outbreaks. No other foreign disease experts were embedded after Quick left.
  15. On Sunday, Trump sent scores of tweets, promoting conspiracy theories about the coronavirus and sharing an article suggesting a miracle cure was at hand. Trump sent 66 tweets before 9:30 a.m. alone.
  16. On Sunday, Germany banned meetings of more than two people in public, in addition to shuttering businesses. German Chancellor Angela Merkel self-quarantined after contact with a doctor who tested positive.
  17. On Sunday, Sen. Rand Paul became the first U.S. Senator to test positive for the coronavirus. Paul was the only senator to vote against the first round of $8.5 billion in coronavirus funding earlier in March.
  18. Sens. Mitt Romney and Mike Lee announced they would self-quarantine, after having had “extended” interactions with Paul, and would miss floor votes. Paul worked out in the Senate gym and pool Sunday morning.
  19. On Sunday, governors from Ohio and Louisiana became the latest states to issue state-at-home orders, joining NY, NJ, CA, IL, and CT, as U.S. confirmed coronavirus cases passed 33,000, with at least 390 dead.
  20. On Sunday, in an op-ed, a doctor at Massachusetts General Hospital on the front line of fighting the coronavirus wrote about “How America Can Avoid Italy’s Ventilator Crisis,” where life rationing choices have been made.
  21. Dr. Daniel Horn warned, “Without swift action, parts of the United States will run out of ventilators in the coming weeks,” and urging Trump to invoke the Defense Production Act and organize American companies now in production.
  22. On Sunday, at his daily press briefing, Trump said he was deploying the National Guard to California, New York, and Washington, saying, “I’m a wartime president,” and, “This is a war — a different kind of war.”
  23. Trump rejected calls from governors around the country and others to invoke the DPA, saying, “We’re a country not based on nationalizing our business. Call a person over in Venezuela.”
  24. White House adviser Peter Navarro added, “We’re getting what we need without putting the heavy hand of government down,” pointing to company 3M shipping masks to New York and Seattle.
  25. When asked about Romney being in isolation after exposure to the coronavirus, Trump responded, “Romney’s in isolation? Gee, that’s too bad.”
  26. Later Sunday, Trump tweeted, “My friend (always there when I’ve needed him!), Senator @RandPaul was just tested “positive” from the Chinese Virus,” adding, “That is not good! He is strong and will get better.”
  27. On Sunday, as Trump was speaking, the Dow Jones futures fell sharply, triggering a halt after reaching a 5% drop due to the Senate not reaching a funding deal. The deal size was expected to be $2 trillion.
  28. On Sunday, NYT reported that under the leadership of Lachlan Murdoch, Rupert’s son, Fox News played down the dangers of the coronavirus to it viewers, saying it was a Democratic- and media-led plot against Trump.
  29. For weeks, as the number of cases rose, Lachlan failed to correct the narrative that the virus was not a big threat in the U.S. Experts say the misinformation spread by the network will lead to American deaths.
  30. On Sunday, late evening, Trump tweeted, “I watch and listen to the Fake News,” listing networks and newspapers, adding, “all I see is hatred of me at any cost. Don’t they understand that they are destroying themselves?”
  31. Trump also tweeted, just before midnight, “WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF. AT THE END OF THE 15 DAY PERIOD, WE WILL MAKE A DECISION” on which way to go.
  32. The 15 day period ends next Monday. Health care officials have warned social distancing, school and office closing, and other measures were needed. The U.S. had the third most cases, behind China and Spain.
  33. On Monday, National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow told Fox News, “The president is right. The cure can’t be worse than the disease,” adding, “And we’re going to have to make some difficult trade-offs.”
  34. On Monday, the Federal Reserve announced it would launch a barrage of programs to help markets function more efficiently, including an open-ended commitment to buy assets under quantitative easing measures.
  35. On Monday, Bank of America Securities found the S&P 500 drop of 30% in 22 trading days from its record high on February 19 is the fastest stock market drop of this magnitude in history.
  36. On Monday, CNBC host Jim Cramer, discussing how companies can profit during the crisis, suggested uninfected airline passengers could wear a star: “maybe we have to give people a star. Then, WE’RE BACK!”
  37. On Monday, NYT reported South Korea, which quickly ramped up testing, reported just 64 new cases Sunday. South Korea is producing 100,000 tests per day, and is in talks with 17 other countries about exporting to them.
  38. On Monday, in a nighttime address to the nation, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced what amounted to a national lockdown, closing all shops not selling “essential goods,” including libraries and playgrounds.
  39. Johnson also said not to meet friends or “family members who do not live in your home,” adding only shopping for “essentials like food and medicine” was allowed, and that the police would enforce the new rules.
  40. On Monday, Surgeon General Jerome Adams warned on the “TODAY” show that Americans are not taking coronavirus seriously enough, saying, “I want America to understand this week, it’s going to get bad.”
  41. Adams cited there are still young people flocking to the beaches and heading to the National Mall to see the cherry blossoms, saying, “Right now, there are not enough people out there who are taking this seriously.”
  42. Asked about Trump’s failure to invoke the DPA, Adams said, “You don’t need to compel someone to do something they are already doing,” citing companies Honeywell and Hanes that are producing items needed.
  43. On Monday, Rep. Ben McAdams, who said last week he had tested positive for Covid-19, said in a statement that he had been hospitalized since Friday because of “severe shortness of breath.” McAdams is 45 years-old.
  44. On Monday, Sen. Amy Klobuchar announced on Twitter that her husband, John Bessler, had tested positive and was admitted to a hospital and is on oxygen. Bessler, who had quarantined himself, is 52 years-old.
  45. On Monday, at his daily press conference, Gov. Cuomo said New York coronavirus cases had surged overnight by 38% to 20,875. Cuomo issued an emergency order, telling hospitals to increase their capacity by 50%.
  46. Cuomo said 13% of cases had been hospitalized, adding, “This could go on for several months.” New York has 78,289 Covid-19 tests — roughly 30% of the U.S. total — and is testing more than 16,000 people a day.
  47. On Monday, Trump attacked NYT for changing a headline, tweeting, “The New York Times changed headlines 3 times in order to satisfy the Radical Left. What should have been a good story got “worse & worse.””
  48. Trump added, “Fake & Corrupt News that is very dangerous for our Country!” He retweeted an image of the three headlines from an unverified account that referred to the NYT as “ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE.”
  49. On Monday, governors of Indiana, Oregon, Michigan, and Wisconsin issued stay-at-home orders, impacting 36 million people. Massachusetts, Kentucky, and Maryland ordered all non-essential businesses to close.
  50. On Monday, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves rejected calls for a stay-at-home order, saying, “Mississippi’s never going to be China.” The state had 249 detected cases out of 1,392 tests — a 213% increase from Friday.
  51. On Monday, Trump ally Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty University, announced the school would reopen to its 5,000 students after spring break, despite an outbreak in the Lynchburg, Virginia area.
  52. Lynchburg Mayor Treney Tweedy denounced the move, saying, “We are in the midst of a public health crisis,” calling it “reckless.” Gov. Ralph Northam’s office said the state has banned gatherings of more than 10.
  53. On Sunday, the University of Tampa in Florida announced at least five students traveling with students from other schools had tested positive for coronavirus. Gov. Ron DeSantis resisted calls to close the state’s beaches.
  54. On Monday, DeSantis ordered a 14-day quarantine for anyone flying from New York or New Jersey to Florida. The quarantine applies to those who fly, but not drive. Criminal charges may apply for those who do not obey.
  55. On Monday, the Dow Jones closed down another 3% after Congress failed to push through a fiscal stimulus bill. The Dow closed at 18,592, its lowest closing level since November 2016.
  56. On Monday, NBC News reported an Arizona man died after he and his wife ingested chloroquine as a way to prevent coronavirus. The man’s wife, who was in critical care, said they got the idea from Trump’s briefings.
  57. On Monday, Vanity Fair reported Trump is frustrated and furious with Anthony Fauci and governors who advocated for shutting down large parts of the country, and is calling business leaders asking if he should just re-open.
  58. Jared Kushner is telling Trump he can ignore Fauci, and bringing him conspiracy theories and experimental treatments he had heard about from Silicon Valley. One officials said Trump is waiting for the magic pill.
  59. On Monday, AP reported Trump is struggling to adjust amid the coronavirus crisis, agitated he cannot run the campaign he wants against Joe Biden, and instead is using the daily briefing as a campaign rally proxy.
  60. While some around him told him to only appear at the daily briefings when there is major news, Trump wants to be in the spotlight. His Sunday briefing scheduled for 4:30 p.m. was pushed later to improve ratings.
  61. Trump has been furious about his inability to stop the stock market drop. He has called friends and economists at all hours, and berated aides and reporters who try to explain to him the severity of the outbreak.
  62. On Monday, at his daily press briefing, Trump vowed to reopen businesses, saying, “America will again and soon be open for business — very soon,” adding, “We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself.”
  63. Trump added, “If it were up to the doctors, they’d say let’s keep it shut down, let’s shut down the entire world…for a couple of years,” adding, “We can’t do that.” Notably, Fauci did not attend the briefing.
  64. Trump compared coronavirus deaths to the flu and accidents, saying, “You look at automobile accidents, which are far greater than any numbers we’re talking about. That doesn’t mean we’re going to tell everybody no more driving of cars.”
  65. Dr. Fauci has called out the “false equivalency” of comparing Covid-19 deaths with accidents, calling it “way out” and questioning how anyone with a “moral conscience” could say “just let it rip” and see people die.
  66. The argument made by some business leaders, Trump allies, and media on the right is that no matter how many lives are lost to the coronavirus, millions more may lose their jobs if the economy does not reopen.
  67. Conservatives close to Trump also embraced an article last week by the Hoover Institution titled “Coronavirus Perspective,” which said deaths would peak at 500. On Monday, there were already close to 600 deaths in the U.S.
  68. The consensus among health experts is that businesses, schools, and other gathering places should stay closed for many more weeks to mitigate spread, saying without that effort hospitals would be overwhelmed.
  69. In explaining his rationale, Trump compared Covid-19 to the flu, which he said was on pace to kill 50,000 — what Fauci called a false equivalency — and to deaths in automobile accidents, arguing that people still drive cars.
  70. There was also dissent to Trump’s idea, including from his ally Sen. Lindsey Graham. However, Trump was fixated on the economy, and the impact of a recession and unemployment on his chances for re-election.
  71. Trump also falsely promised, “The vaccines are coming along very quickly,” and said, “Our country will be stronger than ever before, and we fully anticipate that,” and falsely claiming, “And it won’t be that long.”
  72. Trump also complimented Idaho, Iowa, and Nebraska for being “countries” he said were handling the virus well. As of Monday evening, there were more than 375,000 cases worldwide, and more than 16,000 had died.
  73. Shortly after, Kudlow echoed Trump’s remarks, telling reporters that some states with low numbers of confirmed cases might be able to ease off their restrictions quickly, and predicting an economic rebound.
  74. Shortly after, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who turns 70 next week, echoed Trump, telling Fox News that he was “all in” with risking death for “the America that all America loves for your children and grandchildren.”
  75. Patrick added, “My messages is that let’s get back to work, let’s get back to living. Let’s be smart about it and those of us who are 70+, we’ll take care of ourselves. But don’t sacrifice the country.”
  76. On Monday, NYT reported Trump is losing patience with Fauci, who has served every president since Ronald Reagan. Trump has given him leeway but his public disagreements with Trump is rankling the regime.
  77. In the past two weeks, Fauci has done more interviews, and officials have become concerned with his publicly criticizing Trump. On the facepalm moment last Friday, Fauci claimed a lozenge got stuck in his throat.
  78. On Monday, NYT reported Chinese-Americans are contending with growing racism in the form of verbal and physical attacks, and fear for their safety — afraid to go to grocery stores, on buses, or outside alone.
  79. Americans with families from Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines, Myanmar and other places are also facing threats, being lumped in by those who do not know the difference.
  80. Unlike after 9/11 when President George W. Bush urged tolerance of American Muslims, Trump and his allies are using language which is inciting racist attacks according to Asian-Americans.
  81. On Monday, a federal appeals court affirmed a ruling that Trump cannot block critics on Twitter from the account he uses to communicate with the public, saying he violated the First Amendment when he blocked people.
  82. On Monday, ABC News reported that FBI intelligence has found that white supremacists are encouraging their members who contract the coronavirus to spread it to police and Jews.
  83. An alert warns extremists are told to spread it “through bodily fluids and personal interactions,” and use spray bottles to spread bodily fluids to cops, and to spread to Jews “any place they may be congregated.”
  84. On Tuesday, ABC News reported the FBI stopped white supremacist Timothy Wilson, 36, who was on the verge of trying to detonate a car bomb at a Kansas City-area medical center amid the Covid-19 panic.
  85. The FBI said Wilson had also shared instructions with an active U.S. Army soldier, who wanted to attack a major American news network and discussed targeting Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke.
  86. On Tuesday, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, scheduled to take place in the summer, will be postponed, following an agreement with the International Olympic Committee.
  87. On Tuesday, Trump again mocked Romney, quoting a tweet with an article about his test for the coronavirus coming out negative, and adding, “This is really great news! I am so happy I can barely speak.”
  88. On Tuesday, Cuomo grew visibly angry at his briefing, saying he had asked for 30,000 ventilators to prepare for the “apex” of the caseload, which his team predicted was two to three weeks away. New York had 25,665 cases.
  89. Cuomo said Trump “says it’s a war. Well, then, act like it’s a war!” adding, “You pick the 26,000 people who are going to die because you only sent 400 ventilators.” New York had 3,000 to 4,000 ventilators on hand.
  90. Cuomo also fired back at Trump’ idea to reopen the economy, citing health experts say people will die if there is a pullback, adding, “No American is going to say ‘accelerate the economy at the cost of human life.’”
  91. On Tuesday, Rep. Liz Cheney, the No. 3 House Republican, tweeted her disagreement with Trump, saying, “There will be no normally functioning economy if our hospitals are overwhelmed” and thousands lay dying.
  92. On Tuesday, in an interview, Bill Gates called Trump’s approach “very irresponsible,” saying we cannot simply restart the economy and “ignore that pile of bodies over in the corner.”
  93. On Tuesday, instead of a daily press briefing, Trump held a “virtual town hall” event at the White House broadcast by Fox News. There was no scheduled task force briefing that day by any of the medical experts.
  94. Trump said he wants the economy to “open” back up by Easter Sunday, April 12, saying, “Wouldn’t it be great to have all the churches full?” As Trump was speaking the number of cases in the U.S. passed 50,000.
  95. Trump added, “I would love to have the country opened up, and rarin’ to go by Easter,” adding, “You’ll have packed churches all over our country … I think it’ll be a beautiful time.”
  96. Dr. Tina Tan, a doctor and board member of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, told CNBC, “Obviously Trump is not rooted in reality,” adding, “This is the making of a major public health disaster.”
  97. Trump also blamed governors, including Cuomo, for not getting ventilators and other medical supplies they requested, saying, “It’s a two-way street. They have to treat us well, too.”
  98. Trump also said he would stop calling Covid-19 the Chinese virus, saying, “Look, everyone knows it came out of China, but I decided we shouldn’t make any more of a big deal out of it,” adding, “I think people understand it.”
  99. On Tuesday, a World Health Organization spokesperson said roughly 40% of the newest coronavirus cases are coming from the U.S., and that the U.S. could become the new epicenter for the pandemic.
  100. On Tuesday, Vanity Fair reported Trump’s private business has shut down six of its top seven revenue-producing clubs and hotels because of coronavirus restrictions— a possible motivation to re-open the economy.
  101. On Tuesday, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported one person tested positive for Covid-19 after attending a “coronavirus party” of young people. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear admonished the practice.
  102. On Tuesday, the Dow rebounded 11%, up 2,113 points, the best day since 1933, as investors bet that Congress would deliver on a coronavirus stimulus deal, after Speaker Pelosi said there is “real optimism.”
  103. Later Tuesday, Trump went ahead with a briefing, along with Dr. Deborah Birx and Fauci. Trump called New York City a “hot spot,” and Birx and Fauci urged anyone who has left the city to self-quarantine for 14 days.
  104. Birx said, “Everybody who was in New York should be self-quarantined, meaning for the next 14 days, to ensure that the virus doesn’t spread to other,” while Fauci called it a “very serious situation.”
  105. Trump said the country was beginning to see the “light at the end of the tunnel,” even as the number of cases is doubling every two to three days, adding he and his regime “will deliver for you as we have in the past.”
  106. When asked about Trump’s Easter Sunday goal for lifting restrictions,
    Fauci said, “you’ve got to be very flexible     and on a literally day-by-day and week-by-week basis,” and “evaluate the feasibility” of what you are doing.
  107. It was Fauci’s first time appearing alongside Trump since Friday. Trump said, “I think that would be a great thing for our country and we’re all working very hard,” and said he would listen to advice from Birx and Fauci.
  108. Trump also falsely claimed, “We kept hearing about South Korea. In eight days, we’re doing more testing than they’ve done in eight weeks. That’s a tremendous turn.” The U.S. has done 367,710 tests, far less than South Korea.
  109. Kudlow said the economic package “urgently needed to bolster the economy” is roughly $6 trillion, the largest in history, including $2 trillion for direct assistance, and $4 trillion in Federal Reserve lending power.
  110. On Tuesday, Seattle’s NPR station, KUOW Public Radio, announced it will no longer air Trump’s briefings live “due to a pattern of false or misleading information provided that cannot be fact checked in real time.”
  111. Shortly after, conservative radio host Glenn Beck echoed Trump, saying, “I would rather have my children stay home and have all of us who are over 50” go to work, adding, “it’s not the economy that’s dying, it’s the country.”
  112. Shortly after, Fox News commentator Brit Hume echoed Trump, telling host Tucker Carlson that is an “entirely reasonable viewpoint” to expect grandparents to die to protect the economy.
  113. Hume added, “this circumstance as we try to beat this virus, is not sustainable,” and, “We don’t shut down the economy to save every single life that’s threatened by a wide-spread disease. We just don’t.”
  114. On Tuesday, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro echoed Trump, urging Brazilians to go back to work and school, attacking governors, and blaming the media for a climate of “hysteria” in the country.
  115. On Wednesday, Trump repeated his false claim, tweeting, “Just reported that the United States has done far more “testing” than any other nation, by far!” The U.S. has done among the fewest tests per capita of any country.
  116. Trump added, “over an eight day span, the United States now does more testing than what South Korea…does over an eight week span. Great job!” South Korea has tested 1 in 170 people. The U.S. has tested 1 in 1,090.
  117. On Wednesday, as Trump considered re-opening, a Morning Consult poll found 74% of Americans support a national quarantine, including 81% of Democrats, 72% of Republicans, and 69% of Independents.
  118. The poll found 1 in 5 support Trump’s idea to resume normal activity next month. On handling the crisis, 56% of Republicans said Trump’s response is “excellent,” while 16% of Independents and 6% of Democrats agree.
  119. On Wednesday, CNN reported the State Department is asking other countries to sell the U.S. a list of 25 items related to fighting the coronavirus, ranging from basics like hand sanitizer to ventilators.
  120. The list also included hospital items: biohazard bags, N95 masks, gloves, gowns, surgical caps, shoe covers, sharps containers, protective eyewear, metered dose inhalers, elastomeric and air purifying respirators.
  121. Shortly after, Trump blamed the media, tweeting, “The LameStream Media is the dominant force in trying to get me to keep our Country closed,” adding the media hopes “it will be detrimental to my election success.”
  122. On Wednesday, at the daily press briefing, Trump said he approved major disaster declarations for New York, California, Washington, Iowa, Louisiana, Texas, and Florida. Birx and Fauci also attended.
  123. WAPO calculated Trump spent 25% of his time congratulating himself and blaming others. Trump said, “It’s been incredible how we’ve done,” adding, “We’ve done one hell of a job; nobody’s done the job that we’ve done.”
  124. Trump again pointed to his closing the border with China, calling it a “great response, and we’re the ones that kept China out of here,” adding if he “didn’t do it, you’d have thousands and thousands of people dead.”
  125. Trump also falsely claimed that testing capacity is growing “exponentially,” and touted the success of deploying supplies to states, “It’s hard not to be happy with the job we’re doing, that I can tell you.”
  126. Trump also continued to blame the Obama administration, saying, “We’ve come a long way from an obsolete, broken system that I inherited,” despite this being Trump’s fourth year in office.
  127. Trump indicated he reached a truce with Cuomo, saying New York is facing a “number of very tough weeks” but Cuomo was doing “a very good job,” and “I’m doing everything in my power to help the city pull through.”
  128. Trump was asked about his LameStream Media tweet, and replied, “I think there are certain people that would like it to do financially poorly because they think that would be very good as far as defeating me at the polls.”
  129. Trump added of the media, “I do think it’s so that there are people in your profession that would like that to happen, I think it’s very clear,” and the media would love to see him lose “because we’ve done one hell of a job.”
  130. Trump bragged, “nobody’s done the job that we’ve done,” adding, “and it’s lucky that you have this group here right now for this problem or you wouldn’t even have a country left.”
  131. After his appearance, Trump tweeted, “I hear that Fake News CNN just reported that I am isolated in the White House, wondering out loud, ‘when will life return to normal?’ Does anybody really believe that?”
  132. Trump added, “they made it up — they are CORRUPT & FAKE NEWS,” and, “I have been packed all day with meetings, I have no time for stupidity. We’re working around the clock to KEEP AMERICA SAFE!”
  133. Shortly after, Daily Beast reported that CNN and MSNBC staffers have acknowledged that airing Trump’s briefings live and in full amplifies the spread of misinformation, citing the Arizona death as an example.
  134. Going forward, the two networks will air the beginning of the briefings, then cut away after Trump’s first lie, and return when the lies stop to air Fauci and Birx.
  135. On Wednesday, NYT reported hospitals in New York City are facing a surge in coronavirus cases, the kind that overwhelmed the healthcare systems in China and Italy. Doctors and nurses are stretched and lack adequate PPE.
  136. A refrigerated truck has been place outside Elmhurst Hospital in Queens to hold dead bodies. People line up at 6 a.m. to be tested. In 24 hours, 13 people died. One general medicine resident said, “It’s apocalyptic.”
  137. At least two city hospitals have filled their morgues. Medical workers say in early March they saw an increase of patients with flu-like symptoms, but did not know much about Covid-19. Tests now show it was the virus.
  138. Close to 4,000 have been hospitalized in NYC. All of the city’s 1,800 ICU beds are expected to be filled by Friday. Officials have begun building four 250-bed hospitals at the Javits Center in Manhattan.
  139. On Wednesday, Arizona Health Department Director Dr. Cara Christ told healthcare providers not to test most patients for Covid-19, saying the state’s “current reality” is that it does not have enough supplies.
  140. She also advised given the PPE shortage that health care professionals move testing outdoors, and, if possible, to reuse equipment, and for primary care officials to send patients to “higher care” without testing.
  141. On Wednesday, right-wing commentator Dinesh D’Souza told Fox News the virus “spreads are mainly in the blue states,” and after criticizing Trump, “they want the racist and the fascist to step in and help them.”
  142. On Wednesday, according to online ammunition retailer Ammo.com, there has been a massive increase in sales of guns and ammunition amid the coronavirus. Ammunition sales were up 1000% in some states.
  143. On Wednesday, Trump’s re-election campaign sent a “cease and desist” letter to liberal super PAC Priorities USA over an ad running in battleground states which claims Trump called the virus a “hoax.”
  144. The ad, titled “Exponential Threat,” splices together clips of Trump downplaying the virus over a graphic showing the number of cases sharply rising, and a clip of him saying, “The coronavirus, this is their new hoax.”
  145. On Wednesday, an entire nursing home in New Jersey was evacuated and moved to a new home. At least 24 of the 94 residents had tested positive for the coronavirus, and the other 70 were presumed to have it as well.
  146. On Wednesday, NY Post reported hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, who said on CNBC last week that “hell was coming” due to the pandemic, netted $26 billion by shorting the stock market.
  147. On Wednesday, the number of U.S. deaths topped 1,000— almost double from two days before. There was 68,960 confirmed cases, with the U.S. third behind Italy (74,386) and China (81,667).
  148. On Wednesday, NYT reported on an anonymous forum of more than 1,200 health care workers sharing coronavirus stories. Over 90% said lack of proper equipment, particularly the N95 masks, is the biggest problem.
  149. A nurse in New York City said, “Our hospital is taking on way more patients than we can handle.” Roughly 26% said “they weren’t sure” if patients they were treating had the coronavirus due to lack of testing availability.
  150. A nurse in Texas with 17 years of emergency room experience said, “Protocols change minute to minute if there are any at all. I can no longer trust the CDC. For the first time in my career I am scared to go to work.”
  151. On Wednesday, WAPO reported hospitals on the front-line of the pandemic are discussing universal do-not-resuscitate orders for coronavirus patients, given the surge in new cases, regardless of family wishes
  152. The conversations were in part prompted by the risk to staff amid a dwindling supply of PPE. Hospitals systems in cities and states including Chicago, D.C., Pennsylvania, and the Carolinas have had discussions.
  153. On Thursday, just after midnight, the Senate passed a $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief bill, with a unanimous vote, 96–0. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she would take up the bill on Friday.
  154. On Wednesday, local NBC News reported more than 100 employees staffers at Boston-area hospitals — ⁦⁦Brigham & Women’s, Mass General Hospital and Boston Medical Center — had tested positive for Covid-19.
  155. On Thursday, the Labor Department said a record 3.3 million Americans filed for unemployment last week. Just 282,000 filed for unemployment the week prior. The prior record was 695,000 in October 1982.
  156. On Thursday, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell appeared on the “TODAY” show. He promised continued action by the central bank, saying, “When it comes to this lending, we’re not going to run out of ammunition.”
  157. When asked about Trump’s plan to reopen the economy, Powell said, “We’re not experts in pandemics over here,” adding, “Dr. Fauci said the virus is going to set the timetable. That sounds right to me.”
  158. On Thursday, at the G-20 virtual summit, U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said of the coronavirus, “The challenges before us dwarf those of 2008. And what we face today is not a banking crisis; it is a human crisis.”
  159. On Thursday, Global News in Canada reported Trump is considering putting troops near the Canadian border in light of security concerns amid the pandemic. Canada has roughly 3,000 cases, the U.S. nearly 70,000.
  160. Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said, “Canada is strongly opposed to this U.S. proposal and we’ve made that very clear to our U.S. counterparts.”
  161. On Thursday, Yahoo News reported as the U.S. struggles with the coronavirus, China is asserting itself as the global leader, stepping up to help in the global pandemic, a role typically played by the U.S. in the past.
  162. China has promised to send a thousand ventilators and 2 million masks, as well as a gift of $20 million to the WHO earmarked for the pandemic. Trump proposed slashing U.S. funding to the WHO last month.
  163. While China is helping other countries, according to a South Korean government readout, Trump asked the country’s president on Tuesday for help with medical equipment, an extraordinary request by a U.S. leader.
  164. On Thursday, in a stunning reversal in Israel, Benny Gantz agree to join forces with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu due to the coronavirus crisis. Gantz will serve as vice PM, then in 18 months assume the PM role.
  165. On Thursday, Gov. Cuomo said NY has 37,258 cases and 100 new deaths. He called the Senate’s $2.2 trillion emergency relief bill, in which NY will receive just $5 billion, “irresponsible” and “reckless.”
  166. Shortly after, the number of worldwide cases surpassed 500,000 — reaching 510,000 at mid-day with 23,000 dead worldwide. The U.S. had more than 75,000 cases and 1,070 had died.
  167. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the pandemic is “accelerating,” saying, “It took 67 days… to reach 100,000 cases, 11 days for second…four days for the third.” The last 100,000 took 2 days.
  168. On Thursday, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said “right now is not the time” for a shelter-in-place order, saying, “we are not Louisiana, we are not New York State, we are not California.” So far, 21 states have shelter-in-place orders.
  169. Alabama had 517 cases, up 34% from Wednesday. According to an Alabama reporter, Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth told the governor’s Covid-19 task force this week that the state has “not done enough to prepare.”
  170. On Thursday, Germany’s Der Spiegel reported G7 foreign ministers have been unable to agree on a joint statement because of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s insistence on calling Covid-19 the “Wuhan virus.”
  171. On Thursday, in a letter to governors, Trump provided guidelines for state and local governments to use when making decisions about “maintaining, increasing or relaxing social distancing and other mitigation measures.”
  172. Trump said officials are gathering data to categorize counties as “high risk, medium risk or low risk” for the virus, which will drive “the next phase” of the response, so parts of the U.S. economy can reopen by April 12.
  173. On Thursday, Fauci countered Trump, saying in an interview, the U.S. “can start thinking about getting back to some degree of normality when the country as a whole turns that corner” of reducing the spread of virus.
  174. Fauci added, “You need to see the trajectory of the curve start to come down” before the country reopens. Fauci said New York City is experiencing a “terrible time,” and, “This is serious business.”
  175. On Thursday, the U.S. passed China and Italy to have the most confirmed coronavirus cases in the world, with at least 81,321 infected at mid-day of more than 522,000 cases worldwide.
  176. NYT reported a series of missteps and missed opportunities dogged the nation’s response. Importantly, Trump and his regime failed to take the pandemic seriously, even as it engulfed China.
  177. There was no coherent message from the regime, as Trump sent mixed messages about scale of the virus and how to fight it. The regime failed to provide mass testing which left the U.S. blind to the scale of the spread.
  178. These actions with little and late response left the U.S. with a shortage of masks and protective gear to protect doctor and nurses, as well as a shortage of ventilators to keep people alive.
  179. Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan quickly began preparing for the worst early on, while the U.S., which should have been ready, was not, as Trump focused on other things.
  180. A Johns Hopkins infectious disease doctor said, “We are the new global epicenter of the disease,” adding, “all we can do is to slow the transmission” by staying home and ramping up PPE, ventilators, testing.
  181. On Thursday, the Dow rallied 1,352 points, or 6.4%, on moves by the Fed to shore up the economy and the Senate passing the bill. The Dow is up 20% in the past three days, the biggest three-day surge in 1931.
  182. On Thursday, at the daily press briefing, Trump said, “We will vanquish this virus,” and “large sections of our country” can probably “go back to normal” much sooner than others.
  183. Without specifying a time, Trump said Americans should go back to work “pretty quickly,” adding, “Our people want to work. They want to go back. They have to go back. And we’re going to be talking about dates.”
  184. On the unemployment report, Trump said, “it’s nobody’s fault. Certainly not in this country. Nobody’s fault,” adding, “When I heard the number — I mean, I heard it could be 6 million, could be 7 million. It’s 3.3 or 3.2.”
  185. Trump added, “I think we’ll come back very strong the sooner we get back to work. Every day we stay out it gets harder to bring it back very quickly,” adding, “you’ll see a very fast turn around once we have a victory.”
  186. On criticism over lack of medical equipment being provided to states, Trump said, “we’ve got tremendous amounts of equipment coming in. A lot of great companies are making equipment,” and “ventilators…take a little longer to make.”
  187. Asked if he had taken steps to protect Asian-American from hate, Trump said, “Asian-Americans in our country are doing fantastically well,” adding, “I’m very close to them…I think they appreciate the job we’re doing.”
  188. Trump repeated his false claim that the virus was “unforeseen” saying, “this was something that nobody has ever thought could happen to this country. Nobody would have ever thought a thing like this could have happened.”
  189. Birx claimed she was told New York had enough ventilators to meet its current needs in locations upstate, saying there are “over a thousand or two thousand ventilators that have not been utilized yet.”
  190. Birx also denied reporting on do-not-resuscitate measures, saying, “There is no situation in the United States right now that warrants that kind of discussion… we don’t have evidence of that right now.”
  191. On Thursday, at a press conference, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker emotionally ripped into the Trump regime for outbidding states for PPE after Trump told states they are on their own to buy the equipment.
  192. Baker said he has “had confirmed orders for millions of pieces of gear evaporate in front of us,” adding, “Our first responders, our health care workers, everybody deserves to have that gear.”
  193. On Thursday, a Fox News poll found Fauci had the highest approval on response to the coronavirus: 77% approve, 12% disapprove, and the only one with bipartisan support: Democrats (74%) and Republicans (85%).
  194. Trump had the lowest support (51% approve/46% disapprove), followed by the federal government (55/41), Vice President Mike Pence (55/37), and “your state government” (74/23).
  195. On Thursday, WAPO reported as Trump prepares to break from the advice of health experts on reopening the economy, a cadre of right-wing news sites are attacking and seeking to discredit Fauci.
  196. The sites have cited a hacked email published on WikiLeaks that Fauci sent in 2013 to one of Hillary Clinton’s top aides, Cheryl Mills, in which he praised her “stamina and capability” during the Benghazi hearing.
  197. A meme circulating on social media showed Fauci with his arm around Nancy Pelosi, with the question, “Look trustworthy to you?” and others accusing Fauci of trying to turn the country into a “police state like China.”
  198. Some of the same Twitter accounts that attacked the Ukraine whistleblower are attacking Fauci. However, so far Fauci does still have the support of mainstream Republicans.
  199. On Thursday, at her weekly news conference, Pelosi said the focus of bills was on “testing, testing, testing, very important so that we know,” and “masks, masks, masks, so that we can test, test, test.”
  200. Pelosi closed by saying to succeed, “It won’t happen unless we respect science, science, science. And for those who say we choose prayer over science, I say science is an answer to our prayers.”
  201. Late Thursday, House leadership told members to return to Washington D.C. for an in-person roll-call vote on the stimulus package, after Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) aired grievances that jeopardized a voice vote.
  202. On Thursday, NYT reported the White House was prepared to announce a joint venture between General Motors and Ventec Life Systems to produce 80,000 ventilators, when suddenly word came down the deal was off.
  203. The decision to cancel the announcement came after the Federal Emergency Management Agency said it needed more time to assess the price tag of $1.5 billion, roughly $18,000 per ventilator.
  204. Jared Kushner was brought in by Pence to ramp up ventilator production, and has been directing efforts at FEMA. Part of the reason for the hold-up was concern of over-ordering and the government having a surplus.
  205. Later Thursday, Trump called into Fox News host Sean Hannity’s show. Trump bragged he had postponed a conference call with Chinese President Xi Jinping to call in, after being prompted by Hannity asking about the call.
  206. Trump said of Cuomo’s request, “I don’t believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators. You go into major hospitals sometimes, and they’ll have two ventilators,” and now suddenly they need 30,000 ventilators?
  207. By Thursday evening, there were more than 85,000 confirmed cases in the U.S. Almost half of those cases, 39,000, were in New York. The state has had 519 deaths.
  208. Trump also attacked Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, both Democrats. Trump said of Inslee, “He shouldn’t be relying on the federal government. He’s always complaining.”
  209. Trump added, “the young, a woman governor, you know who I’m talking about, from Michigan,” adding, “She is a new governor and it’s not been pleasant,” and, “All she does is sit there and blame the federal government.”
  210. On Friday, Rudy Giuliani joined, tweeting, “Hydroxychloroquine is safe and in at least three international tests was found 100% effective in treating the coronavirus,” but Whitmer threatened doctors who prescribed it.
  211. Twitter took the unusual step of removing Giuliani’s tweet, citing it violated rules by providing false information. Giuliani appeared to get the false information from conspiracy blogger Jim Hoft of Gateway Pundit.
  212. On Friday, Whitmer told WWJ 950 the state is having trouble getting the equipment they need, saying she is being told by vendors the state procured contracts with, “They’re being told not to send stuff to Michigan.”
  213. On Friday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced in a video that he had tested positive for Covid-19 and would self-quarantine. He said he had “mild symptoms,” including a fever and “a persistent cough.”
  214. Shortly after, British Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced he also had tested positive, and chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, said he had symptoms. The U.K. had roughly 12,000 cases, and 580 people have died.
  215. On Friday, the House passed a $2 trillion coronavirus relief package, the largest package in U.S. history. The bill passed in a voice vote, overriding Massie’s request for a recorded vote by having a 216 person quorum.
  216. On Friday, an ABC News/WAPO poll found 51% of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of the coronavirus crisis, 45% disapprove. A similar ABC News/Ipsos poll last week found 55% approved,43% disapproved.
  217. Trump’s overall approval in the poll rose to 48% approve, 46% disapprove — the first time since Trump took office with a positive net approval. ABC News noted presidents’ poll numbers typically rise in a time of crisis.
  218. On Friday, the U.S. index of consumer sentiment dropped to 89.1 in March, its lowest level since October 2016, from 101 in February. The drop was the fourth-largest in the past 50 years.
  219. On Friday, following the NYT reporting, Trump tweeted, “As usual with “this” General Motors, things just never seem to work out. They said they were going to give us 40,000 much needed Ventilators, ‘very quickly.’”
  220. Trump added, “Now they are saying it will only be 6000, in late April, and they want top dollar. Always a mess with Mary B. Invoke ‘P’,” seeming to refer to the Defense Production Act.
  221. Trump continued, GM “MUST immediately open their stupidly abandoned Lordstown plant in Ohio, or some other plant. START MAKING VENTILATORS, NOW!! FORD, GET GOING ON VENTILATORS, FAST!!!”
  222. Trump added in another tweet, “Invoke “P” means Defense Production Act!” And also tweeted, “We have just purchased many Ventilators from some wonderful companies.”
  223. Trump then attacked NYT, tweeting, “Will someone please explain to the Fake News New York Times (ALL THE NEWS THAT’S NOT FIT TO PRINT) that the Democrats make it almost impossible for us to fill positions.”
  224. Shortly after, Trump said he had signed an order directing Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar to investigate applying the DPA against General Motors
  225. On Friday, NYT reported luxury brands, including Fendi, Celine, and Chanel, boarded up their stores in the SoHo section of New York City in anticipation of possible riots and civil disobedience.
  226. On Friday, Fox said it “has parted ways” with Fox Business anchor Trish Regan, after her monologue in which she dismissed concerns about the coronavirus as a “scam” fueled by enemies of Trump.
  227. On Friday, WAPO reported New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said agencies that are part of Mardi Gras every year planning, including the FBI and DHS, did not raise concerns about the coronavirus before it was held.
  228. The open-air party held in February had more than a million attend, including visitors from overseas. On March 9, the first Covid-19 cases appeared. Louisiana had 2,305 coronavirus cases and 83 deaths as of Thursday.
  229. Forecasting showed when the peak was expected to occur on April 8, Louisiana could be short 1,436 ICU beds. Morial Convention Center will be used for hospital beds starting this weekend.
  230. The city has had very limited testing available, with just 250 test kits per day allotted to two drive-thru sites, and are usually gone by midday. Area city hospitals have ramped up testing, including 1,900 Thursday.
  231. On Friday, Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo tweeted that she signed an “executive order mandating that anyone who’s traveled to NY by any form of transportation must self-quarantine for 14 days upon arrival in RI.”
  232. Raimondo added, “We’ll be stationing National Guard members at bus stops & at the train station” and State Police will stop cars, “to gather contact information from travelers and inform them of the quarantine.”
  233. She added on Saturday, Rhode Island law enforcement officers and the National Guard will be “going door-to-door,” asking people if they’ve been to New York and requesting their contact information.
  234. The ACLU of RI said, “While the Gov may have the power to suspend some state laws and regulations…Under the Fourth Amendment, having a NY state license plate simply does not..constitute ‘probable cause.’”
  235. On Friday, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear urged residents not to cross the border to Tennessee unless they must do so for work or to visit a loved one. Tennessee had 1,203 cases, while Kentucky had just 22 as of Friday.
  236. On Friday, Trump declined to invite Speaker Pelosi to the White House ceremony where he planned to sign the coronavirus relief bill. The two have not spoken since October 16.
  237. On Friday, flanked by white male leaders in front of the media, Trump signed the bill, saying, “We got hit by the invisible enemy and we got hit hard,” and adding, “I think we are going to have a tremendous rebound.”
  238. Notably, amid the national call for social distancing, attendees which included Republican leaders and cabinet members stood close together. Trump also handed out pens to several attendees after he signed the bill.
  239. On Friday, in a statement released in the early evening, Trump said he would not comply with the portion of the bill that authorizes an inspector general to oversee how $500 billion in business loans will be spent.
  240. On Friday, the Dow fell 915 points or 4%, breaking its three-day winning streak, on concern the stimulus package might not be enough to address the systemic risks.
  241. On Friday, the Boston Globe reported Larry Rasky, a longtime adviser to former vice president Joe Biden, posthumously tested positive for the coronavirus according to his son, after he died Sunday at the age of 69.
  242. On Friday, at the daily press briefing, Trump said he had instructed Pence, who leads the virus task force, not to reach out to governors who aren’t “appreciative” of the regime’s efforts.
  243. Trump added, “I think they should be appreciative. Because you know what? When they’re not appreciative to me, they’re not appreciative to the Army Corps, they’re not appreciative to FEMA. It’s not right.”
  244. Trump said he told Pence not to call Inslee, saying, “You’re wasting your time with him,” and Whitmer, saying, “Don’t call the woman in Michigan. It doesn’t make any difference what happens.”
  245. Trump said he had invoked the DPA to manufacture 100,000 ventilators, saying, “We will not hesitate to use the full authority of the federal government to combat this crisis. We have to get these people on board.”
  246. Trump also told ABC News’s Jonathan Karl, “Don’t be a cutie pie,” after Karl pressed Trump, asking if everyone who needs one will “be able to get a ventilator?” Trump added, “Nobody’s done what we’ve been able to do.”
  247. Fauci told reporters, “This is something that we have never seen before at least in our generation…We are really being challenged to not only learn in real time,” adding, “But we are also in uncharted waters.”
  248. Trump’s remarks came shortly before the number of U.S. cases passed 100,000, doubling in three days. In the early evening, there were 101,707 confirmed cases and 1,544 American deaths.
  249. Later Friday, Gov. Whitmer told CNN, “we’ve entered into a number of contracts, and as we get closer to the date when shipments…they are getting canceled — getting delayed.”
  250. Whitmer said the shipments are going to the federal government instead, adding this is an issue other cities and states are facing: “This is an issue we are confronting as a nation, where we are bidding against one another.”
  251. Later Friday, Whitmer tweeted, “I’ve asked repeatedly and respectfully for help. We need it. No more political attacks, just PPEs, ventilators, N95 masks, test kits. You said you stand with Michigan — prove it.”
  252. Shortly after, Trump tweeted, “I love Michigan,” which is why he is doing a “GREAT job for them,” but “Gretchen “Half” Whitmer is way in over her head, she doesn’t have a clue..blaming everyone for her own ineptitude!”
  253. Whitmer did not respond. Late Friday, Trump signed off on an emergency declaration for Michigan. The U.S. had more than 105,000 cases.
  254. Shortly after midnight, Trump tweeted, “Such Fake reporting by the @nytimes, @washingtonpost, @CNN & others,” claiming, “They use a small portion of a sentence out of a full paragraph in order to demean.”
  255. Trump added of the media, “They really are corrupt and disgusting,” adding, “No wonder the media is, according to polls, record setting low & untrusted. #MAGA”
  256. On Saturday, Trump continued a storm of tweets, again attacking the media, saying, “So much of the Lamestream Media is writing and broadcasting stories with facts that are made up and knowingly wrong.”
  257. Trump added the media is “doing it by quoting unnamed sources that simply do not exist,” adding, “These are very dangerous & corrupt people, who will do anything to win. NAME YOUR SOURCES!”
  258. Trump added, “One of the reasons that Fake News has become so prevalent & far reaching is the fact that corrupt “journalists” base their stories on SOURCES that they make up” to “distort” a story.
  259. Trump continued, “When you see, “five sources say”, don’t believe the story, it is very often FAKE NEWS,” adding, “Lamestream Media should be forced to reveal sources, very much as they did in the long ago past.”
  260. On Saturday, Cuomo said the state should reach its apex in 14 to 21 days. New York has 52,000 confirmed cases and at least 728 deaths, but saw a slow in admits to the hospital and ICU for the day.
  261. Cuomo said he spoke to Trump that morning about new hospital sites, and later called out states having to compete with one another for supplies, and the lack of mass testing (New York has done 155,000 tests).
  262. On Saturday, Trump told reporters he is considering an “enforceable” two-week quarantine on New York, New Jersey, and part of Connecticut. Cuomo said Trump did not mention the measure in their morning call.
  263. Trump then left the White House for the first time in a week, to fly to Norfolk, VA along with Defense Secretary Mark Esper for a ceremony setting off hospital ship USNS Comfort on its way to New York.
  264. As the week came to a close, there were 640,589 cases worldwide and 29,848 deaths. In the U.S. at midday, there were 112,468 cases and 1,841 had died, including 400 on Friday and 270 on Thursday.

COVID-19: End of Week Two

Ken AshfordEbola/Zika/COVID-19 Viruses, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

World as of this morning:

And in the U.S., we have more cases than any other country:

636 in North Carolina (2 deaths); 17 in Forsyth County.

Boris Johnson – England’s PM – has tested positive.

There is massive outrage as many are hearing President Donald Trump telling Fox News host Sean Hannity that New York City hospitals usually just have two ventilators while he mocked Governor Andrew Cuomo’s request – based on scientific models – for 30,000 to 40,000 of the life-saving units. That outrage is growing as more and more read The New York Times article revealing FEMA is refusing to place an order for ventilators fearing the price tag is too high.

“You know you go into major hospitals sometimes they’ll have two ventilators,” Trump continued. “And now, all of a sudden they’re saying, ‘Can we order 30,000 ventilators?’ so it’s a very bad situation, we haven’t seen anything like it, but the end result is we gotta get back to work.”

The outrage online is palpable.

But as Trump scoffs at the idea that hospitals actually need more ventilators, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital has begun a desperate practice: sharing a ventilator between two patients. Because when Trump is providing nothing at all, half a lung is better than nothing. Maybe.

Trump’s scoffing at the idea that New York hospitals actually need thousands of additional ventilators got additional support from another member of his coronavirus task force. Incredibly, this support didn’t come from Mike Pence or Steven Mnuchin, but from actual doctor: Deborah Birx.

Speaking at the daily coronavirus-themed Trump rally on Thursday, Birx dismissed the thought that hospitals were short of either beds or ventilators, denied that a large percentage of the public would become infected, and suggested that there were “thousands” of ventilators sitting idle in New York state hospitals that could be moved to where they were needed. 

With less than 1% of the United States currently infected, Birx was particularly dismissive of the idea that there would be widespread infection. “When people start talking about 20% of a population getting infected, it’s very scary but we don’t have data that matches that based on the experience,” said Birx. Except, of course, we do. The seasonal flu regularly infects 20% or more of the population in spite of a widely available vaccine, residual immunity in a large portion of the population, and a transmission rate that is much lower than that of COVID-19. There is absolutely no evidence that the infection in the United States will not spread to much more than 20% of the population, unless it’s held in check by social distancing and a greatly expanded testing program.

As if realizing that 20% might be something of a low mark, Birx’s next statement moved the bar considerably higher: “There’s no … no reality … on the ground where we can see that 60% to 70% of Americans are going to get infected in the next eight to 12 weeks,” said the White House coronavirus response coordinator. Actually, the current doubling rate of the coronavirus in the United States is between two and three days. Unchecked, the United States could top 20% in fewer than three weeks. Eight weeks to get to 60% from there would mean that things had actually improved considerably.

But long before either of those numbers would be reached, the health care system would absolutely collapse under the weight of the epidemic. There are only enough hospital beds out there in the entire nation to accommodate less than 0.3% of the population. On any given day, more than half those beds—including the ones that need ventilators—are already occupied by people fighting ordinary, non-epidemic diseases and recovering from accidents. 

But Birx insisted that there are still somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 ICU beds with ventilators in New York state, outside of New York City. Birx suggested that these ventilators, and presumably the beds, should be stripped and shipped to the hot spots rather than bothering the federal government with requests for more equipment. Except taking those beds away from the remainder of the state would mean that those hospitals have absolutely no capacity to deal with coronavirus cases in their area—or even a large accident or other cause that brought in patients. What Birx is suggesting is that, rather than bolster the straining system, the system be made even more fragile in the midst of a crisis. Even then, the number of devices she is talking about are unlikely to meet the number of cases that will be present in New York in the next 48 hours, much less the next weeks and months.

Again and again, Birx dismissed questions about hospitals under strain, or large numbers of patients waiting for care, or health care workers without needed equipment. “We don’t have any evidence of that right now,” said Birx. Instead, she accused news media of “spreading fear.” She also insisted on spending much of her time talking about “19 states” where the number of cases were low.

Which is exactly what you want to hear from a doctor in a crisis: “Did you know there are some people who are not sick?”

THIS graph is crazy:

UPDATES:

Trump, meanwhile is LOSING it.

This is, of course, blame-shifting. Trump could have invoked the Defense Production Act days ago, but refused to, saying that companies are stepping up. he lied.

In fact, Trump could invoke the DPA right NOW. And he’s not. He’s just complaining on Twitter.

The other development of the day is Republican Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who is insisting on a floor vote in the House to approve the financial assistance package. NOBODY is happy about this, even Trump, as it will mean a delay. It would also mean that Congressional representatives would have to get on planes, risking themselves to illness.

A few conservatives back Massie, but not many:

Other developments:

In recent days, a growing contingent of Trump supporters have pushed the narrative that health experts are part of a deep-state plot to hurt Trump’s reelection efforts by damaging the economy and keeping the United States shut down as long as possible. Trump himself pushed this idea in the early days of the outbreak, calling warnings on coronavirus a kind of “hoax” meant to undermine him.

The notion is deeply troubling, say leading health experts, because what the country does next and how many people die depend largely on what evidence U.S. leaders and the public use to inform their decisions. Epidemiologists worry their research — intended to avert massive deaths in situations exactly like this pandemic — will be dismissed by federal leaders when it is needed most.

1:40 pm:

Massie got foiled. The House just passed the bill.

Here’s the moment:

Fox Business Network’s Trish Regan is leaving the network.

In a statement provided to Mediaite Friday, the network announced, “FOX Business has parted ways with Trish Regan – we thank her for her contributions to the network over the years and wish her continued success in her future endeavors.”

Recently Regan came under scrutiny for her commentary calling the media coverage of coronavirus another “impeachment scam” trying to “destroy the president.”

A few days later the network announced her primetime show would be going on hiatus, citing demands of coronavirus coverage.