I couldn’t decide, humor or COVID-19 thread? 
Hillary Clinton@HillaryClinton
Please do not take medical advice from a man who looked directly at a solar eclipse.
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Belongs under very dark humor…but still sucks like COVID-19 
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https://twitter.com/windthin/status/1242640790263943168
Bill Gates says the US missed its chance to avoid coronavirus shutdown and businesses should stay closed
There has been a coronavirus outbreak aboard a deployed US Navy aircraft carrier
Teenager Dies From the Coronavirus in California
The victim is one of the youngest in the United States. “Covid-19 does not discriminate by age, race or income level,” the Los Angeles County health department said.
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From 2015
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Thermometer app is helping map the spread of illnesses
Tonight Rachel Maddow once again hosted a highly compelling show. One fascinating segment detailed the work of Kinsa Health which sells an app-connected thermometer. By anonymously aggregating data from the app, it can produce “heat maps” which may alert communities to possible outbreaks of illness in their area. The app is measuring only one specific thing: the temperature of the user, but even that one bit of data, when collected from a large number of users across the nation, can be very illuminating.
One thing it’s doing is helping to confirm that social distancing really does work to reduce the spread of illnesses. You’d might think “well that’s common sense,” but science demands supporting data before a theory can be elevated to a fact – and this app is helping with that.
It’s also pointing to anomalies that can serve as “red flags” to health providers and local officials responsible for making decisions about health policies. Right now, one of the anomalies appears to be covering much of the state of Florida – it’s showing more people with elevated temperatures than would normally be expected – taking into account the seasonal impact of the flu. Could this be an early warning sign that coronavirus is spreading in Florida? – or could it be some other factor, or even a problem with the data reporting? One of the shortcomings of Kinsa’s heat maps is that they currently don’t have as a large a data sample as they would like – so they caution about jumping to conclusions. But certainly you would think that officials in Florida would want to take a deep dive into what may be happening in their state.
When Maddow’s segment becomes available, I’ll post it. In the meantime, here’s a good article about what Kinsa is up to – it highlights the promising possibilities of their work, along with its current limitations. It has some good information, but reads a little like a press release so I’d take it with a grain of salt.
Kinsa Insights has long worked to improve real-time illness tracking with its flagship smart thermometer. Kinsa’s smart thermometers report users’ temperatures back to the company’s databases, and that data is then compiled into graphs and maps of fevers across the United States. In the past, this data has been used to accurately predict the spread of influenza across the country.
Now Kinsa has set its sight on the COVID-19 pandemic. By comparing current spikes in fever reporting to those typical of an area at a given time, Kinsa has created a map of “atypical” illness levels across the country. The resulting Health Weather Map presents a picture of abnormal numbers of fevers, which may be linked to localized outbreaks of COVID-19.
Kinsa notes — prominently, at the top of the map’s page — that this data does not represent COVID-19 activity. Rather, Kinsa hopes this data can be viewed alongside other indicators to show where and how COVID-19 is spreading.
Kinsa is right: live-tracking the spread of a novel virus like COVID-19 could prove invaluable in ending the pandemic. **But if the prospect of doing so sounds like a futuristic dream, that’s because it is. Between a shortage of the company’s smart thermometers and scattered, incomplete data, Kinsa’s Health Weather map is more a prototype for the future than a solution for the present.
Kinsa Health chart with data that supports the effectiveness of social distancing measures in two counties (from this tweet by Kinsa).
_
Today’s national “Health Weather Map” from Kinsa showing possible atypical temperature readings in Florida.
Note: If you go to Kinsa’s map page, you can display this version of the map by clicking on the “Atypical” button in the upper right corner.
Kinsa is very clear that its data collection and reporting has limitations. In other words, we should not jump to conclusions, but only use their data as a way of pointing to areas that may warrant additional research.
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Is this just blind allegiance, religious calling or absolute insanity? Thx to a Jerry Fallwell Jr. Who just wants to 'see no evil" and have his students come flocking.
Liberty University let more than 1,000 students return to campus during the coronavirus outbreak - CNN
At a time when countless universities have sent students home, one university is reopening its doors.
About 1,900 students returned to Liberty University, a private evangelical Christian university, in Lynchburg, Virginia, a spokesman confirmed to CNN on Tuesday.
Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. and other leaders discussed whether to extend spring break and “risk students having a longer time to become exposed to the virus,” the school said in a statement. It decided it was safer to bring the students back to campus.
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Congress Reaches Deal on Coronavirus Stimulus Package
Apparently not actually passed yet, but a bipartisan deal has been struck.
White House and Senate leaders struck a major deal early Wednesday morning over a $2-trillion package to provide a jolt to an economy struggling amid the coronavirus pandemic, capping days of marathon negotiations that produced one of the most expensive and far-reaching measures in the history of Congress.
“Ladies and gentleman, we are done,” White House legislative affairs director Eric Ueland said right before 1 a.m. after leaving Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office following negotiations that have gone around the clock since last Friday. “We have a deal.”
McConnell was preparing to take to the floor to announce that a deal had been reached on the proposal.
The full details have yet to be released. But over the last 24 hours, the elements of the proposal have come into sharper focus, with $250 billion set aside for direct payments to individuals and families, $350 billion in small business loans, $250 billion in unemployment insurance benefits and $500 billion in loans for distressed companies.
The package, if it passes Congress, would be the most significant legislative action taken to address the rapidly intensifying coronavirus crisis, which is overwhelming hospitals and grinding much of the economy to a halt.
The plan will deliver a massive infusion of financial aid into a struggling economy hard hit by job loss, with provisions to help impacted American workers and families as well as small businesses and major industries including airlines.
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And here is yet more stupidity on display:
A group of young adults held a coronavirus party in Kentucky to defy orders to socially distance. Now one of them has coronavirus
At least one person in Kentucky is infected after taking part at a “coronavirus party” with a group of young adults, Gov. Andy Beshear said Tuesday.
The partygoers intentionally got together “thinking they were invincible” and purposely defying state guidance to practice social distancing, Bashear said.
“This is one that makes me mad,” the governor said. “We have to be much better than that.”
While Covid-19 has been more deadly and severe for people older than 60 and those with underlying health issues in data from China, health officials and leaders around the country have been imploring millennials and other young people to practice social distancing, because even people who are infected but without symptoms can transmit it to other people.
In fact, recent modeling based on Chinese data shows that asymptomatic carriers of the virus may have been responsible for its initial rapid spread there.
And the virus seems to be affecting young people in the United States more than it has in China. A report released last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that up to 20% of people hospitalized with coronavirus in the United States are between the ages of 20 and 44.
“So far the demography definitely seems to be very different in the United States versus in other countries that saw this hit earlier,” US Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams said on NBC’s “Today” on Monday.
In New York state, more than half of coronavirus cases – 53% – have been among young people between the ages of 18 and 49, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Sunday.
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The bill is coming very close to vote…and more details on this potential passing of the bill - particularly that the Trump family will be blocked from receiving any funds. As well as the $500B in loans for businesses, that Mnunchin would distribute would be subjected to a review by Inspector General and a 5-person Congressional panel, as well as no stock buy-backs.
Glad there would be way more oversight on any play to serve R’s favored companies or GOP donors. No joke…stop the pay-for-play Federal funding of pet GOP prospects.
After complaints from Democrats, a $500 billion fund — $425 billion for the Federal Reserve to leverage for loans in order to help broad groups of distressed companies and $75 billion for industry-specific loans — will now have far stricter oversight, in the form of an inspector general and a 5-person panel appointed by Congress, lawmakers said. Companies that accept money must also agree to halt any stock buybacks for the length of the government assistance, plus an additional year.
Democrats also secured a provision that will block Trump family businesses — or those of other senior government officials — from receiving loan money under the programs, Mr. Schumer said in a letter to Democrats.
Both Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Schumer, on separate calls laying out the deal for their Democratic colleagues, said they had secured $130 billion for hospitals, $55 billion more than originally agreed to, people familiar with the calls said, as well as $150 billion for state and local governments.
“Like all compromises, this bill is far from perfect,” Mr. Schumer said early Wednesday on the Senate floor. “But we believe the legislation has been improved significantly to warrant its quick consideration and passage.”
The agreement also includes $350 billion that would establish lending programs for small businesses, but only for those who keep their payrolls steady through the crisis. Small businesses that pledge to keep their workers would also receive cash-flow assistance structured as federally guaranteed loans. If the employer continued to pay its workers for the duration of the crisis, those loans would be forgiven.
Lawmakers in both chambers have also acknowledged that it is likely other legislative measures will be needed in the coming months to counter the consequences of the pandemic.
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More evidence that Coronavirus is an equal opportunity disease, it’s everywhere.
https://twitter.com/AP/status/1242768006364696577?s=20
LONDON (AP) — Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne, has tested positive for the new coronavirus, his office said Wednesday.
The 71-year-old is showing mild symptoms of COVID-19 and is self-isolating at a royal estate in Scotland, his Clarence House office said.
It says his wife Camilla, 72, has tested negative.
“The Prince of Wales has tested positive for Coronavirus,” Clarence House said. “He has been displaying mild symptoms but otherwise remains in good health and has been working from home throughout the last few days as usual.’’
Britain’s Press Association, citing a source, said the prince and the duchess remained in good spirits, and that Charles was not bedridden.
The tests were carried out by the National Health Service in Scotland.
The Queen has moved to the country Windsor Palace away from central London.
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White House: We’re Going to Have to Let Some People Die So the Stock Market Can Live
“We’re gonna have to make some difficult trade-offs.”
Donald Trump Is Trying To Figure Out How Many Americans He Needs To Sacrifice To Keep The Economy Going
“The whole concept of death is terrible,” said the president. “But there’s a tremendous difference between one percent and four or five.”
Pastor again defies state order not to hold large gatherings. He says 1,000 people came to his church Sunday
India declares 21-day ‘total lockdown’ as coronavirus cases rise
Africa coronavirus cases over 2,000 as South Africa rushes into lockdown
https://ti.me/39e3Pcn?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social-share-article
Coronavirus adds peril to the already at-risk: ‘If I get this stuff, it’s going to kill me.’
The Deafness Before the Storm
Trump’s revenge on New York City continues.
Trump to New York: Drop Dead
Untold thousands will likely die, absent federal intervention. And it needs to happen this instant. Why won’t the president help?
Schumer blocks Trump from bailing out his hotels:
An Experimental Coronavirus Vaccine Is Already Being Tested on People
But it still won’t be widely available for at least a year
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Trump wants ‘packed churches’ and economy open again on Easter despite the deadly threat of coronavirus
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Trump’s love of revenge is about to cause a lot of death.
https://twitter.com/fred_guttenberg/status/1242819663425417216
They Say Coronavirus Isn’t Airborne—but It’s Definitely Borne By Air
The word “airborne” means different things to different scientists, and that confusion needs to be addressed.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article241464406.html
If you’ve never read World War Z (the book is a far cry from the dreck-filled movie), replace “zombie apocalypse” with “global pandemic” and they’re not that much different, as their author could tell you.
‘All Of This Panic Could Have Been Prevented’: Author Max Brooks On COVID-19
https://twitter.com/Millennial_Dems/status/1242844527091683330
Vir Biotechnology reports early progress in antibody treatment for Covid-19
https://twitter.com/statnews/status/1242843871693996032
https://twitter.com/MorriganResists/status/1242860822772121600
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As Rebecca once said on Cheers (referring to herself at the time): “…too stupid to live!”
This isn’t much different from the “believers” that like to test their faith in God by handling live rattlesnakes. 
Personally, whether you think it’s God-given or by evolution, I think we ought to use the brains we have.
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That’s funny, that’s the term my wife told me is used by readers of romance novels to describe a certain class of female protagonist that drives many of them nuts, often shortened to TSTL.
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Trump hasn’t yet released disaster unemployment funds
President Donald Trump approved three states’ disaster declarations during the past week, but not the sought-after disaster unemployment assistance.
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A horrific day…despite what T says.
A refrigerated truck has been stationed outside to hold the bodies of the dead. Over the past 24 hours, New York City’s public hospital system said in a statement, 13 people at Elmhurst had died.
“It’s apocalyptic,” said Dr. Bray, 27, a general medicine resident at the hospital.
Across the city, which has become the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States, hospitals are beginning to confront the kind of harrowing surge in cases that has overwhelmed health care systems in China, Italy and other countries. On Wednesday morning, New York City reported 16,788 confirmed cases and 199 deaths.
https://twitter.com/brianstelter/status/1242940053187375104?s=20
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Coronavirus has officially hit my neck of the woods, with 3 cases known in my county so far.
In other news:
https://twitter.com/shaunwalker7/status/1242862303990726656
Weirdness in Italy:
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I want the networks to shut down T’s pressers, where he is telling lies, but also doing campaigning. Unfortunately there is no clear direction on this. Big ratings dictate this.
The nation’s television news outlets, especially the three major cable-news networks, are grappling with a nagging paradox as President Donald Trump continues to orchestrate his White House briefings on the novel coronavirus pandemic*.
On the one hand, their ratings have never been higher, and viewers’ appetites for the live sessions have shown no signs of dwindling. On the other hand, journalists and executives at MSNBC, CNN and the often Trump-friendly Fox News—which scored an impressive 6.2 million viewers for Sunday’s installment of the Trump show, according to Nielsen—are increasingly facing the likelihood that they are becoming an uncritical and unvetted transmission belt for propaganda and misinformation.
“These White House sessions—ostensibly meant to give the public critical and truthful information about this frightening crisis—are in fact working against that end,” wrote Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan, summarizing such concerns. “Rather, they have become a daily stage for Trump to play his greatest hits to captive audience members. They come in search of life-or-death information, but here’s what they get from him instead: Self-aggrandizement… Media-bashing… Exaggeration and outright lies.”
In an echo of the self-criticism expressed during the 2016 presidential race, when the cable networks repeatedly broadcast Trump’s campaign rallies live and unexpurgated, top MSNBC anchors have already argued publicly that their own network should not air the president’s pandemic musings in full.
Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough **tweeted during Trump’s briefing on Monday that there was “no public benefit to this briefing,” and the cable news networks should “cut away.” MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, who anchor’s the network’s most highly rated program, also repeatedly called for news networks to stop carrying Trump’s statements live, saying that the president’s daily comments contribute to the spread of misinformation.
“If it were up to me, and it’s not, I would stop putting those briefings on live TV,” Maddow said on her show earlier this week. “Not out of spite, but because it’s misinformation. If the president does end up saying anything true, you can run it as tape. But if he keeps lying like he has been every day on stuff this important, we should, all of us should stop broadcasting it. Honestly, it’s going to cost lives.”
That T’s approval ratings have improved with this ‘handling’ of the coronavirus…
Does Trump deserve more blame for a coronavirus-triggered recession than Bush did for the financial crisis in 2007 and 2008, or Carter did for the rampant inflation and the oil crisis of 1979 and 1980? Well, the Democrats will say yes — especially given Trump’s slow-footed, erratic response on coronavirus — and the White House will say no. But the more a recession brings hardship to families and communities, the more the Republican side of the argument will be pushing uphill.
But what about Trump’s approval rating improving since the coronavirus crisis began? Indeed, Trump’s approval rating has improved in recent days so that it’s among the highest ratings of his presidency. As I mentioned, his approval rating among voters is now roughly 45 percent, which is up from 43 or 44 percent since early March, while his disapproval rating has fallen from 52 to 53 percent to 51 percent.
Popularity of T 44.6 % Approval and 50.7% Disapprove (combinations of polls)
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