Music: Roberto Di Gioia’s Marsmobil — ‘Flowers’
How Covid-19 spread undetected across America because of a failure to implement large-scale testing
The New York Times reports: Early on, the dozen federal officials charged with defending America against the coronavirus gathered day after day in the White House Situation Room, consumed by crises. They grappled with how to evacuate the United States consulate in Wuhan, China, ban Chinese travelers and extract Americans from the Diamond Princess and other cruise ships. The members of the coronavirus task force typically devoted only five or 10 minutes, often at the end of contentious meetings, to…
Trump suggests he can gag inspector general for stimulus bailout program
The New York Times reports: When President Trump signed the $2 trillion economic stabilization package on Friday to respond to the coronavirus pandemic, he undercut a crucial safeguard that Democrats insisted upon as a condition of agreeing to include a $500 billion corporate bailout fund. In a signing statement released hours after Mr. Trump signed the bill in a televised ceremony in the Oval Office, the president suggested he had the power to decide what information a newly created inspector…
As Congress pushes a $2 trillion stimulus package, the ‘how will you pay for it?’ question is tossed in the trash
Stephanie Kelton writes: Throughout the Democratic presidential primary, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren offered a slew of robust proposals to reshape the American economy. Yet the Democratic presidential primary hardly engaged with questions of whether that restructuring was wise, who would benefit, and who would lose. Instead, the debate was dominated in no small part by a single question: “How will you pay for it?” On Friday, the House of Representatives, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi…
How the world’s wealthiest country ran out of 75-cent face masks
Farhad Manjoo writes: Why is the United States running out of face masks for medical workers? How does the world’s wealthiest country find itself in such a tragic and avoidable mess? And how long will it take to get enough protective gear, if that’s even possible now? I’ve spent the last few days digging into these questions, because the shortages of protective gear, particularly face masks, has struck me as one of the more disturbing absurdities in America’s response to…
Would everyone wearing face masks help us slow the pandemic?
Science reports: As cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) ballooned last month, people in Europe and North America scrambled to get their hands on surgical masks to protect themselves. Health officials jumped in to discourage them, worried about the limited supply of masks for health care personnel. “Seriously people-STOP BUYING MASKS!” began a 29 February tweet from U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams. The World Health Organization and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have both said that only…
More Americans should probably wear masks for protection
The New York Times reports: As the coronavirus pandemic rages on, experts have started to question official guidance about whether ordinary, healthy people should protect themselves with a regular surgical mask, or even a scarf. The World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continue to state that masks don’t necessarily protect healthy individuals from getting infected as they go about their daily lives. The official guidance continues to recommend that masks should be reserved for people…
ER doctor who criticized hospital’s coronavirus protections gets fired
The Seattle Times reports: An emergency room physician who publicly decried what he called a lack of protective measures against the novel coronavirus at his workplace, PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center, has been fired. Ming Lin, who has worked at the hospital for 17 years and became a local cause célèbre for his pleas for more safety equipment and more urgent measures to protect staff, was informed of his termination as he was preparing for a shift at the hospital…
Establishment Democrats and Republicans are starting to sound a lot like Bernie Sanders
Since coronavirus became a pandemic, establishment Democrats and Republicans are starting to sound a lot like Bernie Sanders. It's almost as if Bernie was right this whole time. Newsbroke with @franifio explains. pic.twitter.com/FB7kcKPEwT — AJ+ (@ajplus) March 28, 2020
Coronavirus modelers factor in new public health risk: Accusations their work is a hoax
The Washington Post reports: In the one month since the first U.S. coronavirus death, America has become a country of uncertainty. New cases of infection and casualties continue multiplying. New York and Louisiana hospitals are grappling with a flood of patients that threatens to overwhelm their health-care systems. Meanwhile, the president and political conservatives are increasingly agitating to end drastic restrictions meant to buy time and save lives. Running beneath it all, in a continuous loop through our national psyche,…
The road to coronavirus hell was paved by evangelicals
Katherine Stewart writes: Donald Trump rose to power with the determined assistance of a movement that denies science, bashes government and prioritized loyalty over professional expertise. In the current crisis, we are all reaping what that movement has sown. At least since the 19th century, when the proslavery theologian Robert Lewis Dabney attacked the physical sciences as “theories of unbelief,” hostility to science has characterized the more extreme forms of religious nationalism in the United States. Today, the hard core…
DJT is no FDR
Jamelle Bouie writes: The coronavirus pandemic may plunge the United States into its worst social and economic crisis since the Great Depression. But our response — from the president’s blame-shifting rhetoric to the Senate’s inadequate relief package — has yet to rise to the scale and scope of the challenge. I’ve written before about why Congress needs to do far more than it has if it wants to save the economy from disease-induced depression. Here, I want to focus on…
Death rate soars in New Orleans coronavirus ‘disaster’ that could define city for generations
USA Today reports: Throngs of revelers may have brought the coronavirus to New Orleans during Mardi Gras celebrations here. But the city’s poverty rate, lack of healthcare and affordable housing, and high rates of residents with preexisting medical conditions may be driving its explosive growth and could make it the next U.S. epicenter of the outbreak. The number of known coronavirus cases in Louisiana jumped to 2,305 on Thursday, an increase of 510 cases from Wednesday, and a total of…
Poll finds universal lifestyle changes, rising stress and growing fears about catching coronavirus
The Washington Post reports: The spreading coronavirus pandemic has brought massive and sudden disruption to the daily lives of most Americans amid rapidly rising fears that they could become ill with the covid-19 disease, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll. Almost overnight, the threat from the virus has changed habits and lifestyles. Roughly 9 in 10 say they are staying home “as much as possible” and are practicing social distancing to lessen the risk of getting the virus. Nearly…
Sexual assault allegation against Joe Biden ignites a firestorm of controversy
Vox reports: Last year, several women came forward publicly to say Joe Biden had kissed or touched them in ways that made them uncomfortable. One of them was Tara Reade, who said Biden used to “put his hand on my shoulder and run his finger up my neck” when she worked in his Senate office in 1993. Reade now says there was more to her experience with Biden. In an interview with podcast host Katie Halper, which aired Wednesday, Reade…
Billion-year-old algae and newer genes hint at origin of land plants
Dana Najjar writes: Around 500 million years ago — when the Earth was already a ripe 4 billion years old — the first green plants appeared on dry land. Precisely how this occurred is still one of the big mysteries of evolution. Before then, terrestrial land was home only to microbial life. The first green plants to find their way out of the water were not the soaring trees or even the little shrubs of our present world. They were…