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Category: Politics

Why contact tracing may be a mess across America

Why contact tracing may be a mess across America

MIT Technology Review reports: Dozens of states across the US are pinning their hopes on contact tracing to control the spread of the coronavirus and enable regions to reopen without sparking major resurgences of the outbreak. Alaska, California, Massachusetts, New York, and others are collectively hiring and training tens of thousands of people to interview infected patients, identify people they may have exposed, and convince everyone at risk to stay away from others for several weeks. Contact tracing is a…

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States could lose National Guard virus workers just as risk rises for second wave of infection

States could lose National Guard virus workers just as risk rises for second wave of infection

Politico reports: More than 40,000 National Guard members currently helping states test residents for the coronavirus and trace the spread of infections will face a “hard stop” on their deployments on June 24 — just one day shy of many members becoming eligible for key federal benefits, according to a senior FEMA official. The official outlined the Trump administration’s plans on an interagency call on May 12, an audio version of which was obtained by POLITICO. The official also acknowledged…

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Florida government may be censoring Covid-19 data in order to promote re-opening of state

Florida government may be censoring Covid-19 data in order to promote re-opening of state

USA Today reports: The scientist who created Florida’s COVID-19 data portal wasn’t just removed from her position on May 5, she was fired on Monday by the Department of Health, she said, for refusing to manipulate data. Rebekah Jones said in an email to the USA TODAY Network that she single-handedly created two applications in two languages, four dashboards, six unique maps with layers of data functionality for 32 variables covering a half a million lines of data. Her objective…

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EPA staff warned that mileage rollbacks had flaws. Trump officials ignored them

EPA staff warned that mileage rollbacks had flaws. Trump officials ignored them

The Washington Post reports: In its rush to roll back the most significant climate policy enacted by Barack Obama — mileage standards designed to reduce pollution from cars — the Trump administration ignored warnings that its new rule has serious flaws, according to documents shared with The Washington Post. The behind-the-scenes-skirmish in late March between career employees and Trump appointees at the Environmental Protection Agency highlights the extent to which Trump officials are racing to reverse environmental policies by the…

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Preventing a Great Depression will cost $10 trillion. Here’s how it can happen

Preventing a Great Depression will cost $10 trillion. Here’s how it can happen

Derek Thompson writes: Last week, House Democrats unveiled their latest pandemic-relief package. The bill combines aid for families, a bailout for struggling cities and states, and additional funds for testing, tracing, and hospitals. The price tag is about $3 trillion—and it comes just weeks after the president signed an economic-relief package worth about $2 trillion. Republicans have assailed the bill as a profligate wish list. Even Americans who are suffering from the health and economic ravages of the pandemic may…

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Over 100 million in China’s northeast face renewed lockdown

Over 100 million in China’s northeast face renewed lockdown

Bloomberg reports: Some 108 million people in China’s northeast region are being plunged back under lockdown conditions as a new and growing cluster of infections causes a backslide in the nation’s return to normal. In an abrupt reversal of the re-opening taking place across the nation, cities in Jilin province have cut off trains and buses, shut schools and quarantined tens of thousands of people. The strict measures have dismayed many residents who had thought the worst of the nation’s…

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Trump taking potentially deadly hydroxychloroquine ‘because I think it’s good’

Trump taking potentially deadly hydroxychloroquine ‘because I think it’s good’

  The Associated Press reports: President Donald Trump said Monday that he is taking a malaria drug to protect against the new coronavirus, despite warnings from his own government that it should only be administered for COVID-19 in a hospital or research setting due to potentially fatal side effects. Trump told reporters he has been taking the drug, hydroxychloroquine, and a zinc supplement daily “for about a week and a half now.” Trump spent weeks pushing the drug as a…

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The media is helping Trump’s bogus ‘Obamagate’ become the 2020 version of Clinton’s emails

The media is helping Trump’s bogus ‘Obamagate’ become the 2020 version of Clinton’s emails

Margaret Sullivan writes: It’s becoming clear that journalists never fully reckoned with the mistakes of 2016 campaign coverage. We know this because they seem poised to repeat them. As you may recall, the news media — from Fox News to the New York Times and plenty of others across the political spectrum — managed to make the relative molehill of Hillary Clinton’s dicey email practices into a daily obsession, roughly equal to the mountain of Donald Trump’s financial and personal…

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Pentagon contractors’ report on ‘Wuhan lab’ origins of coronavirus is bogus

Pentagon contractors’ report on ‘Wuhan lab’ origins of coronavirus is bogus

The Daily Beast reports: A shocking report suggesting that the coronavirus was “release[d from] the Wuhan Institute of Virology” in China is now circulating in U.S. military and intelligence circles and on Capitol Hill. But there’s a critical flaw in the report, a Daily Beast analysis reveals: Some of its most seemingly persuasive evidence is false—provably false. Multiple congressional committees have obtained and are scrutinizing the 30-page report, produced by the Multi-Agency Collaboration Environment (MACE), a part of Sierra Nevada,…

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A pandemic plan was in place, but Trump abandoned it — and science

A pandemic plan was in place, but Trump abandoned it — and science

Jason Karlawish writes: President Obama was bothered. It was the summer of 2009 and he was in a meeting at the White House to talk about preparations for an expected autumn outbreak of swine flu. Elbows on the table, he thumbed through the pages of a report on preparations for it. “So,” he asked no one in particular, “if you guys are so smart, how come you’re still making this in eggs?” he asked, referring to the nearly century-old process…

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The choice between staying home indefinitely and returning to business as usual now is a false one

The choice between staying home indefinitely and returning to business as usual now is a false one

Julia Marcus writes: In the earliest years of the HIV epidemic, confusion and fear reigned. AIDS was still known as the “gay plague.” To the extent that gay men received any health advice at all, it was to avoid sex. In 1983, the activists Richard Berkowitz and Michael Callen, with guidance from the virologist Joseph Sonnabend, published a foundational document for their community, called “How to Have Sex in an Epidemic.” Recognizing the need for pleasure in people’s lives, the…

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Biden campaign and Democratic Party develop plans for sweeping economic transformation

Biden campaign and Democratic Party develop plans for sweeping economic transformation

The New York Times reports: More than 36 million Americans are suddenly unemployed. Congress has allocated $2.2 trillion in aid, with more likely to be on the way as a fight looms over government debt. Millions more people are losing their health insurance and struggling to take care of their children and aging relatives. And nearly 90,000 are dead in a continuing public health catastrophe. This was not the scenario Joseph R. Biden Jr. anticipated confronting when he competed for…

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New Zealand edges back to normal

New Zealand edges back to normal

The Washington Post reports: Half of New Zealand’s cabinet gathered this past Monday morning in the round meeting room on the top floor of the Beehive, the tiered 1970s landmark here that houses the government’s executive branch. The other half called in on Zoom. Running the meeting was Jacinda Ardern, the liberal prime minister who has won international renown for her empathetic leadership during the global coronavirus pandemic. Next to her was Winston Peters, the wily politician almost twice her…

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A $74 billion investment in testing, tracing and isolation could quickly rescue the economy

A $74 billion investment in testing, tracing and isolation could quickly rescue the economy

Alex Tabarrok and Puja Ahluwalia Ohlhaver write: With the unemployment rate at its highest level since the Great Depression — 14.7 percent and climbing — many Americans are clamoring to reopen the economy, even if it means that thousands of daily covid-19 deaths become part of the backdrop to life. It’s time to move on as “warriors,” President Trump has said, because “we can’t keep our country closed down for years.” We, too, favor markets and share the president’s eagerness…

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WHO Special Envoy on Covid-19 makes an impassioned plea for global leadership

WHO Special Envoy on Covid-19 makes an impassioned plea for global leadership

  Dr David Nabarro: We just have a complete fracture in global leadership right now. To the point where a UN Security Council resolution on Covid was not approved because the World Health Organisation was mentioned in the resolution. The people of the world actually should be going completely crazy with anger. There should be a petition of 500 million people to the world leaders saying, “What on earth are you doing? What on earth are you playing at?” We…

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As Americans fear for their lives and livelihoods, Trump stokes divisions and pursues personal vendettas

As Americans fear for their lives and livelihoods, Trump stokes divisions and pursues personal vendettas

The New York Times reports: Even by President Trump’s standards, it was a rampage: He attacked a government whistle-blower who was telling Congress that the coronavirus pandemic had been mismanaged. He criticized the governor of Pennsylvania, who has resisted reopening businesses. He railed against former President Barack Obama, linking him to a conspiracy theory and demanding he answer questions before the Senate about the federal investigation of Michael T. Flynn. And Mr. Trump lashed out at Joseph R. Biden Jr.,…

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