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šŸ¤® Coronavirus (Community Thread)

Jake Tapper (CNN) calls it the Covid-19 Catch 22

(you can not get tested unless you were in touch with someone with the Covid-19 who wasnā€™t able to get the test)

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I have seen several threads about this from people in serious pain or worried for loved ones, even children, who are told they cannot get tested because there have been no positive cases in their area.

Also:

Itā€™s Time to Declare a National Emergency

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Yes, Fauci has come forth in the last 24 hours to tell it like it isā€¦and it is a horrible situation. Fauci wants to get the private sector to test.

And T is blaming CDC nowā€¦

Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases ā€” who has become a kind of public oracle to a nation gasping for informational oxygen in the vacuum of leadership created by President Trumpā€™s botching of coronavirus ā€” sat for an extended interview on MSNBCā€™s ā€œMorning Joeā€ on Friday. The results were alarming.

Fauci was tactful, and did what is required these days, prefacing some answers with praise for Trumpā€™s decisive decisions.

But read between the lines and you can see that Fauci offered a devastating indictment of the presidentā€™s handling of the coronavirus crisis.

Fauci was asked point-blank whether our failure to act earlier to mitigate the spread of coronavirus has put the United States on track to see a spike in infections similar to that in Italy.

He declined to directly answer.

Layers of Trump pathologies

We are in an extraordinary situation that is deeply colored by multiple layers of Trump pathologies. For weeks, the president has exerted a black-hole-like negative pull on the governmentā€™s response by vastly minimizing and lying about the threat for deeply cynical purposes, which has led health officials to mislead the public and fail to act with necessary urgency.

At the same time, Trump is, in effect, completely absent from the conversation about what the federal response that is actually taking shape right now needs to look like ā€” to the degree there is one at all.

Trump is inventing out of thin air wholesale claims about aspects of the response that donā€™t exist. He just unleashed a crazy rant attacking the Obama administrationā€™s 2009 response to H1N1, or swine flu, with lies.

With the country desperate for answers and leadership, all Trump can do is spread his magical lying and chaos pixie dust everywhere, all to fog over his own emperor-with-no-clothes inability to supply either amid a public emergency happening in the immediate here and now.

Into this vacuum stepped Fauci on ā€œMorning Joe,ā€ to try to create an impression of calm leadership where there isnā€™t any.

ā€˜Things are going to get worseā€™

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I posted about this higher up. Trumpā€™s attacks on the CDC seem to be a concerted effort to continue ahead with cuts he wants to make. Heā€™s using the failure of the CDC as the justification, the way the GOP did to the UPS after they overloaded it, or want to do to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security after their tax cuts for the rich.

Putin and Xi are using the coronavirus crisis to extend their control. Across the world, Trump struggles to keep up

ā€˜It will go awayā€™: A timeline of Trump playing down the coronavirus threat

Please read this thread. This is but one of many devastating stories right now about people who canā€™t get tested, either because there are no tests available, nobody has tested positive where they are, or they havenā€™t had contact with any verified cases.


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https://twitter.com/jaketapper/status/1238532725805637640?s=20

From Johns Hopkins 3.13.20 (The number total cases for Italy looks like 15K)

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#cattening the curve

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Something odd is happening in Ohio. Just saw this:

@ GovMikeDewine just made himself unable to be listed; We have 5 confirmed cases; he just said 13. And @ DrAmyActon "s twitter account is there but unaccessable. Fake. Whatā€™s going on?

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Not sure what you are asking or seeing with Gov Mike Dewine.

Looks like he has been posting and they sound legit.

https://twitter.com/GovMikeDeWine/status/1238542920376033280?s=20

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Not sure, works fine for me. I put out a test tweet linking him and it worked before I deleted it. The other account there definitely is offline, though.

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Trump speech - Declares National Emergency and emphases Telehealth

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Dr. Fauci - says he would not fly
Mnuchin - says he would fly

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Comments

Walmart, Target, Walgreens, Quest Diagnostics, Roche

https://twitter.com/chrislhayes/status/1238552050474065922?s=20

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Pelosi asks for things that would help us survive a catastrophic amount of work stoppages, and life costs during an emergency shut downs.

From the Administrationā€™s point of view, Treasury Secretary (and Trump) are shooting down these requests from Pelosi. From a former Obama Medicaid specialist Andy Slavitt :tired_face:

Andy Slavitt @ASlavitt
Former Medicare, Medicaid & ACA head for Obama.

@MissJava - Can you put this one into the Coronavirus info area please?? Thanks!

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I needed thisā€¦

https://twitter.com/leonardocarella/status/1238511612270690305?s=20

:hugs: to the Italians and wishing them well.

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Trump: People coming into the U.S are heavily tested.

Reality: Absolutely not happening. No way. No how. Total lie.

P.S. We need Rachel Maddow and the rest of our free press more than ever.

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You know he would NEVER take responsibility.

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My thread on the #TrumpPressConference today. It was a bizarre affair full of CEOs, where Trump denied responsibility, called Modi Xi, and insisted he doesnā€™t need to get tested and never saw the photos!
https://twitter.com/windthin/status/1238550150953480195

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This thing about the Democrats not wanting to agree to MORE things feels like #gaslighting when the GOP has been asking for LESS things all along.

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UPDATE: The CDC was reporting that the government conducted only 8 tests for coronavirus on 3/10 (as shown in the image of from their website above and reported by Dr. Sanjay Gupta). They have since revised that figure upward to 28 tests by CDC and 1388 tests by U.S. Public Health Labs (with a footnote that the data is incomplete ā€“ also, this does not include tests by private labs ā€“ I have no idea what that number might be).

So thatā€™s good news, but still far, far fewer tests than we need. For example, Pence told us that every passenger on the Grand Princess would be tested, but days after the ship has docked, many have still not been tested. Chaos reigns during the ship evacuation and many of these people suffering ā€“ my heart goes out to them. Their experience, frankly, makes me feel very uneasy about how the Trump Administration is handling this pandemic and what might be in store for our nation as the virus continues to spread.


San Francisco Chronicle
March 12, 2020, 9:59 p.m.

Camp Corona: Quarantined Princess Cruises passengers describe chaos, lack of COVID-19 tests


Passengers trapped in their rooms for days on the Grand Princess cruise ship cheered when they sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge on Monday and disembarked at the Port of Oakland. But the ordeal is far from over.

In the days following, passengers who are quarantined at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield have described a disorganized situation that is creating a roller coaster of anxiety, boredom and frustration. Some of the passengers say they havenā€™t received tests for coronavirus despite showing symptoms, while other passengers say they have been denied basic supplies, as well as answers on their medical conditions.

ā€œYou feel like Dorothy ā€” you just want to click your heels together and go to ā€˜no place like home,ā€™ā€ Neil Kran, a 69-year-old Sausalito resident housed at the base with his wife, said on Wednesday. ā€œItā€™s absolutely terrible.ā€

After 21 passengers and crew members aboard the voyage from San Francisco to Hawaii tested positive for COVID-19, more than 600 passengers were taken to Travis for a 14-day quarantine period. Meanwhile, 42 were flown to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar near San Diego, 124 were flown to Dobbins Air Reserve in Georgia, and 98 were taken to Lackland Air Force Base near San Antonio as of mid-day Wednesday. Foreign passengers were repatriated on charter flights.

About 700 people remained on the cruise ship by mid-morning Wednesday, state officials said. A relative of one passenger spent the day frantically searching for answers about her elderly motherā€™s situation.

Wendy Breskin, a North Carolina resident, said her 92-year-old mother and a 90-year-old companion left their rooms aboard the ship Wednesday and stood in line for the off-boarding process ā€œfor most of the morning.ā€ They boarded a bus around 1:15 p.m. and waited there for about five hours before getting on a plane that would take them to Miramar in San Diego. Breskin said her mother thought the bus had been forgotten.

One person threw up on the bus, Breskin said. The passengers ā€” many of them elderly ā€” were served lunch and allowed one bathroom break.

ā€œThey have no idea whatā€™s happening to them. Nobodyā€™s telling them anything,ā€ Breskin said. ā€œFor the first time, my mother (was) truly upset and scared.ā€

Stephen and Diane Houghton of Pleasant Hill had a similarly grim experience disembarking the ship and reaching Travis Air Force Base. Fifty passengers packed together on a bus ā€” a move the Houghtons questioned because of how contagious the virus is ā€” and waited inside the vehicle for hours in Fairfield because their accommodations werenā€™t ready.

They got off at 1 a.m. Wednesday morning and had to climb over a pile of 600 pieces of luggage in the dark to find their belongings on their own.

ā€œIt was an absolutely disorganized mess,ā€ said Steve Houghton, 77, adding that his room had no cups for water, no toilet paper and no soap.

He said people in ā€œspacemen-like outfitsā€ have taken their temperature twice, but there has been no offer of testing for COVID-19, and people can wander around the facility.

ā€œIt isnā€™t a quarantine,ā€ he said.

On Thursday morning, he asked someone on the facilityā€™s medical staff for a COVID-19 test, but he was told he didnā€™t qualify because he had no symptoms.

Meanwhile, Kran, who arrived at Travis on Tuesday, said no one had contacted him or his wife, Meryl Schneider, to inquire about their health until Thursday morning, when a doctor came to check their temperature in their rooms. Neither have been tested for COVID-19.

Officials said all passengers will be tested at their quarantine sites.

Kran went to breakfast Wednesday morning and medical personnel took his temperature, wrote down his name and room number, and asked if he was experiencing the symptoms associated with the novel coronavirus, including fever and respiratory issues. But Schneider, who had not been feeling well and did not accompany her husband to breakfast that morning, was not screened until the room visit the next day, he said.

Robert Archer, a 65-year-old San Franciscan who is also housed at Travis, said doctors came to his room twice Wednesday to take his and his wifeā€™s temperature. But neither have been tested for COVID-19 and they received ā€œevasiveā€ answers when they asked.

ā€œIt seems like weā€™ve been here a month already,ā€ Archer said.

Several people have been taken away in ambulances, Archer said, and he saw another person collapse in the hallway. Guards and fences keep the hotel closed off, and ambulances are lined up in wait.

ā€œItā€™s like, ā€˜Welcome to my nightmare,ā€™ā€ Archer said. ā€œItā€™s a very unsettling experience.ā€

Archer shared photos of paperwork saying, ā€œDetails about testing for COVID-19 will be forthcoming.ā€ But in the meantime, passengers were allowed to wander around and socialize freely ā€” signaling the so-called quarantine wasnā€™t really a quarantine at all.

And their experience is confirmed today by BuzzFeed:


Theyā€™re Off the Grand Princess, But Passengers Say They Still Havenā€™t Been Tested for Coronavirus

ā€œWe will be testing everyone on the ship,ā€ said Vice President Mike Pence. But some passengers, now under quarantine in California, said their requests for testing have gone nowhere.

March 13, 2020, 12:26 p.m. ET


Four days after the Grand Princess cruise ship docked, passengers now under quarantine in California expressed frustration that they have still not been tested for the coronavirus.

The Grand Princessā€™s ill-fated voyage sparked international alarm when 21 people on board tested positive for the virus, causing the ship to be held for days off the California coast en route back to San Francisco from Hawaii. ā€¦

Before the shipā€™s more than 3,000 passengers and crew members finally docked in Oakland on Monday, officials announced plans to take the US residents to four military bases for quarantines and screening. ā€œWe will be testing everyone on the ship,ā€ Vice President Mike Pence said late last week. ā€œWe will be quarantining as necessary.ā€

But as the end of this week approached, some passengers said their repeated requests for testing have gone nowhere, making them anxious about whether they have the diseaseā€¦

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Florida. Damn Florida.

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