Vice President Mike Pence said Saturday that he and his wife Karen would be tested for the coronavirus after a staff member in his office tested positive for the virus this week.
âGiven the unique position that I have as vice president and as the leader of the White House coronavirus task force, both I and my wife will be tested for the coronavirus later this afternoon,â Pence said during a news conference at the White House.
His office announced Friday that one of its members tested positive for the coronavirus â the closest confirmed case to Pence that is publicly known.
Pence told reporters Saturday that his staffer who tested positive for coronavirus is âdoing well.â
He reiterated neither President Donald Trump nor himself had direct contact with the staff member, and said that health authorities have traced his contacts.
Dr. Emily Landonâs talk about the #coronavirus has become widely considered one of the best for explaining the importance of sheltering in place.
âIf we do this right, nothing happens.â - Dr. Emily Landon
Itâs always about money.
The Latest Obstacle to Getting Tested? A Shortage of Swabs and Face Masks
Hospitals and doctors say they are critically low on swabs needed to test patients for the coronavirus, as well as face masks and other gear to protect health care workers.
What Are Viruses Anyway, and Why Do They Make Us so Sick? 5 Questions Answered
Viruses are basically parasites and, as such, can wreak havoc â but not always. They cause the most damage when jumping from a familiar host to a new host.
https://twitter.com/NYCAviation/status/1241424691262304257
https://twitter.com/NYCAviation/status/1241433553520427008
If true that would be excellent progressâŠ
Thx @matt who tweets all important news day and night.
Washington, DC(CNN)The US Food and Drug Administration announced it has authorized the use of the first rapid diagnostic test that could detect the novel coronavirus in approximately 45 minutes.
The authorization was made Friday and tests will begin shipping next week, according to a statement from California-based Cepheid, the company manufacturing the tests.
âDuring this time of increased demand for hospital services, Clinicians urgently need an on-demand diagnostic test for real-time management of patients being evaluated for admission to health-care facilities,â said Dr. David Persing, MD, Ph.D., chief medical and technology officer at Cepheid.
An accurate test delivered close to the patient can be transformative â and help alleviate the pressure that the emergence of the 2019-nCoV outbreak has put on healthcare facilities that need to properly allocate their respiratory isolation resources," Persing added.
Instead of working to get more masks made and shipped to hospitals around the country, our #COVIDIOT - in-chief is chastising them for how they dispose of masks.
https://twitter.com/shannonrwatts/status/1241422580675829760
https://twitter.com/shannonrwatts/status/1241451917466689536
To be very, very clear, no, you cannot safely de-sanitize your masks the way Trump says. They are single-use for a reason, and before this they were quite cheap to obtain. Trump is a moron.
This will definitely make China want to resolve that trade war nicely and swiftly, right?
âOur warehouse is emptyâ: Washington state epidemiologist describes severe shortage of medical supplies
Washingtonâs state epidemiologist on Friday offered a stark assessment of a critical shortage of personal protective gear for health care workers and testing supplies needed to combat the coronavirus pandemic and safeguard workers.
âWe have health care workers wearing bandannas at this point,â Dr. Scott Lindquist told The Seattle Times on Friday. âOur warehouse is empty. Literally, we donât have any [equipment] to be given out. And when we do get it, we give it out right away.â
There will be a spike in the numbers as supplies dwindle.
Oh, and it turns out that the DoJ wants to be able to hold ANYBODY indefinitely during an emergency, once again showing what the Trump regime thinks of the Constitution.
DOJ Wants to Suspend Certain Constitutional Rights During Coronavirus Emergency
The DoJ has secretly asked Congress for the ability to detain arrested people âindefinitelyâ in addition to other powers that one expert called âterrifyingâ
trumpâs weeks of downplaying COVID-19âŠWatch the lies unfold. 
Senator Rand Paul Tests Positive for Coronavirus
Kentucky Republican Rand Paul is the first US senator to test positive for coronavirus, according to a statement on Twitter.
âHe is feeling fine and is in quarantine. He is asymptomatic and was tested out of an abundance of caution due to his extensive travel and events. He was not aware of any direct contact with any infected person,â the post said.
Wishing Mr. Paul well and hoping he recovers quickly without infecting others.
However, we should not forget his shameful behavior just last week. In the middle of this crisis, when every hour counts as the virus spreads exponentially, Rand Paul, a self-styled âlibertarian conservative,â was solely responsible for delaying the coronavirus relief bill a full day just so he could grandstand his views in the Senate.
Senator Rand Paul Single-handedly Delayed Coronavirus Relief Bill
Senate leaders were scrambling Tuesday to pass coronavirus legislation as quickly as possible, but Sen. Rand Paul put a damper on those plans, two leadership sources told NBC News.
Senators were heading toward a vote on the package â which would include provisions for free coronavirus testing, secure paid emergency leave, enhance unemployment insurance, strengthen food security initiatives and increase federal Medicaid funding to states â but they had to slam on the brakes because of an amendment Paul proposed.
The sources said Paul is forcing a vote on his amendment, which would ârequire a social security number for purposes of the child tax credit, and to provide the President the authority to transfer funds as necessary, and to terminate United States military operations and reconstruction activities in Afghanistan.â
âŠ
The House bill âmust pass the Senate today but unfortunately, first we must dispose of a Republican amendment that would make a condition of the bill to require the president to terminate military operations in Afghanistan. Yes you heard me right!â Schumer said on the Senate floor. "In a time of national emergency this Republican amendment is ridiculous, a colossal waste of time. We probably could have voted on this bill a day or two ago if not for the need to schedule this amendment."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel in quarantine after doctor tests positive
⊠Chancellor Angela Merkel must now go into quarantine, her spokesman Steffen Seibert has announced. Immediately after announcing drastic, Germany-wide measures on limiting contact among the population, Merkel was informed that a doctor she had been in contact with on Friday had meanwhile tested positive for the coronavirus.
âEven from domestic quarantine, the Chancellor will continue her official businessâ, Seibert said.
Elizabeth Warren critical of coronavirus relief bill, âNot bipartisan,â âSlush fund for the big guysâ
Trump has sent a letter to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un offering aid with the coronavirus, making North Korea the first nation, including the US, for Trump to offer assistance to.
The thread is worth reading, it has some stunning info also.
Lawsuit: Trump Admin Using Coronavirus as Political Weapon to Punish California and âRewardâ Red States
President Donald Trump is using the Coronavirus as a political weapon to reward his allies and punish his enemies, according to court documents filed on Monday morning.
City leaders in Costa Mesa, California are currently engaged in a volley of words and legal briefs with the Trump administration in generalâand the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in particularâover a plan to move several dozen Coronavirus patients from a military lockup facility to a civilian-run facility.
Local officials there are backed up by their counterparts in Orange County, as well as state and federal officials representing California.
The feud has been simmering for awhileâthough the legal battle itself is only a few days oldâas the woefully unprepared Trump administration scrambles to control the deadly outbreak.
The plan from Trumpâs HHS to transfer the 50-plus patients out of military custody to a state-run facility have been vociferously opposed from the startâbut the latest filings add an entirely new political dimension rife with themes of reward and retribution.
The struggle in the Monday filing paints the choices and preferences of HHS Director Alex Azar âseemingly acting on Trumpâs behalf and/or in order to please his bossâas a tribal and partisan battle between red states and the bluest state in the nation.
The filing begins with decided aplomb:
If there were any doubt that the federal government has no plan and is not acting in the best interests of the community, those doubts have been laid to rest by the Federal Governmentâs most recent actions. On February 23, 2020, President Trump spoke with Alabama Senator Richard Shelby and promised to protect the people of Alabama by not sending Coronavirus patients to that state even though the facility there is a former military base, a multi-jurisdictional training center for chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats, and one of the most suitable in the country to handle the unique challenges of isolating and treating Coronavirus patients. Yet Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar confirmed to Alabama Congressman Mike Rogers that no one exposed to Coronavirus would be sent to the Center for Domestic Preparedness in Anniston, Alabama.
âInstead, it now seems like the entire national burden of isolating and caring for this entire cohort of people in the United States infected with the Coronavirus â and perhaps more, once Costa Mesa is established as the âgo toâ place for these folks â will fall on the community of Costa Mesa and its surrounding cities,â the citiesâ brief continues. âThe Defendants have called this action interference with federal-state cooperation on federal quarantine issues. To the contrary, it has shined a light on the fact that the federal government is acting for arbitrary and capricious political reasons, and not based on the best scientific evidence or to protect the public.â
Far from subtle, the Costa Mesa lawsuit directly accuses Trump and his subordinates of using the deadly sickness as a cudgel against his enemies.
One section heading reads: âPresident Trumpâs Promise to Alabama Confirms that Coronavirus Patients Pose a Public Health Risk, and Reveals the Federal Governmentâs Plan as an Effort to Use this Crisis as a Political Weapon.â
That section states its case plain:
President Trump put a finer point on the harm threatened against Costa Mesa Sunday when he promised to protect Alabama residents from this very same danger even though the facility in Alabama selected as a location to treat other Coronavirus patients is far more secure and suitable for this purpose. The public statements of Governor [ Kay ] Ivey , Senator Shelby, and Congressman Rogers thanking President Trump for cancelling the plans to use the Center for Domestic Preparedness and thereby âkeeping Alabamians safe,â make clear that President Trumpâs promise presumed that moving individuals with Coronavirus to the State of Alabama posed a danger to that stateâs public health and safety.
Ivey recently moved to allay fears in her home state after it was reported that a FEMA Facility in Anniston, Alabama was being considered due to its highly-specialized nature and ability to handle such cases.
âLate Friday night, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) informed me about their proposal to transport Americans who have tested positive with the Coronavirus (COVID-19) from the Diamond Princess cruise ship to a FEMA Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP) in Anniston,â Iveyâs statement said. âSensing the urgency, I quickly informed the offices of Senators Richard Shelby and Doug Jones and Congressman Mike Rogers, as well as Dr. Scott Harris with the Alabama Department of Public Health. On Saturday, it appears that a press release from HHS was inadvertently, and perhaps prematurely, sent notifying the State of Alabama that these individuals were scheduled to begin transporting to Alabama as early as Wednesday.â
Instead, Ivey insisted, the Anniston facility was simply a âback-up plan.â
But California officials apparently smelled a rat.
âBecause we were not given the opportunity to play a role in that decision, we decided that the only way we could stop the process was to seek a federal court judgeâs help and get the injunction,â Costa Mesa Mayor Katrina Foley said at a slapdash press conference after she and other California officials were apparently blindsided by the Trump administrationâs shifting proposal. âWe are not going to continue to be the place where everybody drops off their crises and expects us to correct it.â
Again the filing at length [emphasis theirs]:
Moreover, if it were truly necessary to send the Coronavirus patients to new locations now, then President Trump would not have withdrawn the Governmentâs supposedly well thought out and scientifically based plan to locate the majority of those patients at a facility in Alabama uniquely qualified to handle this threat. And the people of Costa Mesa are now left to wonder if everyone infected with Coronavirus will be housed in a dilapidated former assisted living facility the State of California declared just three weeks ago to be unsuitable as an emergency shelter. Indeed, the State determined this facility could not be used even as an alternative to having people sleep on the street because it required two years and $25 million dollars in rehabilitation just to make it habitable. Are the people of Costa Mesa really supposed to believe this is the best location in the entire country to serve as the frontline for combatting [sic] and containing this potential epidemic?
âIn the absence of any meaningful communication from the federal government, Plaintiffs and the people of Costa Mesa and Orange County are left wondering why their community was chosen and why Alabama was spared,â the filing continues before begging the question: âWhy are secure federal facilities and specialized medical facilities inappropriate, but a rundown former home for people with developmental disabilities is perfectly situated to contain a dangerous and deadly disease?â
Read the full filing below:
Federal law enforcement document reveals white supremacists discussed using coronavirus as a bioweapon
White supremacists discussed plans to weaponize coronavirus via âsaliva,â a âspray bottleâ or âlaced items,â according to a weekly intelligence brief distributed by a federal law enforcement division on Feb. 17.
Half a million N95 masks are on their way to New York and Seattle, manufacturer says
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/03/22/masks-ppe-3m-coronavirus/
A 3M factory in South Dakota is now producing 35 million N95 masks a month, 90 percent of which the company is selling for healthcare workers after a change in law last week eliminated the threat of lawsuits from such sales.
U.S. axed CDC expert job in China months before virus outbreak
Why Hasnât Trump Ordered the Army Corps of Engineers to Build Out Hospital Capacity?
We are going to need a lot more hospital beds. The lack of action is in line with the administrationâs response when it comes to coronavirus testing and a whole lot else.
Ocasio-Cortez says President not using his Defense Production Act powers will cost lives
And it would seem they still plan to.
White supremacists encouraging their members to spread coronavirus to cops, Jews, FBI says
The alert was sent to local police agencies by federal officials.
New York to run out of ventilators in days, mayor says
Bill de Blasio says people to die unnecessarily, due to a âwidespread shortageâ of basic supplies needed to keep hospitals running
The GOP Slush Fund version of a coronavirus bill has failed to pass.
https://twitter.com/B52Malmet/status/1241865255279624195
https://twitter.com/GovHowardDean/status/1241769253797232641
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/03/22/treasury-coronavirus-senate-corporate-loan/
U.S. Jobless Rate May Soar to 30%, Fedâs Bullard Says
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard predicted the U.S. unemployment rate may hit 30% in the second quarter because of shutdowns to combat the coronavirus, with an unprecedented 50% drop in gross domestic product.
Bullard called for a powerful fiscal response to replace the $2.5 trillion in lost income that quarter to ensure a strong eventual U.S. recovery, adding the Fed would be poised to do more to ensure markets function during a period of high volatility.
âEverything is on the tableâ for the Fed as far as additional lending programs, Bullard said in a telephone interview Sunday from St. Louis. âThere is more that we can do if necessaryâ with existing emergency authority. âThere is probably much more in the months ahead depending on where Congress wants to go.â