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🤮 Coronavirus (Community Thread)

The Racist-In-Chief today equated Chinatown with China, insisting that his closing borders with China should mean nobody goes to Chinatown… in San Francisco.

He’s either that dumb, that racist, or both.

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T is operating on sheer spite - this and the above tweet for Nancy Pelosi. Insane levels of bile for him.

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T putting that caveat that Governors and Mayors will be the final arbiters of when and if the country can open…pulling back on his statement about having total authority.

Feels teflonated to me…and a CYA situation…blame it on the States position.

Facing intense push back on his efforts to swiftly reopen the shuttered economy, President Trump told the nation’s governors Thursday to “call your own shots” in determining how quickly to ease social distancing restrictions in their states even as another huge spike in jobless claims showed the growing devastation of the pandemic.

Trump is expected to announce new federal guidelines at a White House briefing with three tiers of criteria for public health and disease conditions before most businesses can reopen, rather than issue a blanket approval for resuming economic life.

Trump’s deference to governors in a conference call, confirmed by a participant, marked a reversal from his dramatic claims early this week that “the president calls the shots” and has “total” authority to override state and local decisions, assertions that constitutional scholars said were not supported by law.

It’s also an acknowledgment that despite his rhetoric, Trump cannot order mayors and governors to end the stay-at-home restrictions that have forced shops, restaurants, offices and nonessential services to close in most of the country.

Grim new evidence of the economic tailspin came as the Labor Department reported more than 5.2 million new jobless claims last week, bringing the total to more than more than 22 million in a month — essentially wiping out employment gains since the Great Recession more than a decade ago.

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AP received these 3-phase plans to get back to ‘normal’ before they were announced. Slower than the May 1st deadline it seems. And thankfully.

The new guidelines are aimed at easing restrictions in areas with low transmission of the coronavirus, while holding the line in harder-hit locations. They make clear that the return to normalcy will be a far longer process than Trump initially envisioned, with federal officials warning that some social distancing measures may need to remain in place through the end of the year to prevent a new outbreak.

Places with declining infections and strong testing would begin a three-phased gradual reopening of businesses and schools — each phase lasting at least 14 days — to ensure that infections don’t accelerate again.

In phase one, for instance, the plan recommends strict social distancing for all people in public. Gatherings larger than 10 people are to be avoided and nonessential travel is discouraged.

In phase two, people are encouraged to maximize social distancing where possible and limit gatherings to no more than 50 people unless precautionary measures are taken. Travel could resume.

Phase three envisions a return to normalcy for most Americans, with a focus on identification and isolation of any new infections.

The Associated Press obtained a copy of the guidelines before their public release.

Governors of both parties made clear they will move at their own pace.

Delaware Gov. John Carney, a Democrat, said the guidelines “seem to make sense.”

“We’re days, maybe weeks away from the starting line and then you have to have 14 days of declining cases, of declining symptoms and hospital capacity that exists in case you have a rebound,” he said.

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WHAAAAT?

Trump’s ‘Opening Our Country Council’ Runs Into Its Own Opening Problems

Instead of a formal council, the president created several industry groups, and joined four calls with them. But some participants had no notice they would be included, and others could not join in.

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:eyes: :crossed_fingers:

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5 February

‘They aren’t taking this seriously’

After a coronavirus briefing with White House officials, senators express concern that the administration is downplaying the threat. “No request for ANY emergency funding,” notes Democrat Chris Murphy of Connecticut.

They briefed the House on the pandemic the same day the senate acquitted the President? How did I not know this? That is wild

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Not sure if this Covid Tracking has been listed here already…but it is a good aggregator of information and supported by many reputable media sources

And the big one…TESTING

The number of coronavirus diagnostic tests being completed every day has plateaued over the past week — at a number that falls far short of what experts say is needed, Axios’ Caitlin Owens and Andrew Witherspoon report.

  • Why it matters: We’ve got a long way to go before we’re ready to safely resume normal life. Otherwise, the virus will easily be able to spread undetected.
  • Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, said he thinks we need to be doing 500,000 tests a day for the foreseeable future.

Nationwide testing capacity steadily increased for weeks, but has appeared to hit a wall around 145,000 tests a day. Several factors are holding it back:

  • Supply shortages.
  • Poor coordination: Some labs have excess testing capacity, but aren’t being sent more samples.
  • Rules: Many states have limited testing to the sickest patients.
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Recap in bullet points from Axios on the PHASE ONE and PHASE TWO of the propsed get back to normal information T spouted off on Thursday.

Coronavirus%20PHASE%20ONE%20*

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President Trump’s reopening plan includes lots of hurdles for states, but the key factor for him was that he got to fire the pistol, Axios’ Jonathan Swan reports.

  • Why it matters: Even though he’s delegating to governors, Trump didn’t want them to call the reopening first. And if he waited until next week he would’ve been trailing in several red-state governors’ wake.

Between the lines: The plan (“Opening Up America Again”) appears cautious, because doctors wrote it. But the overarching message is that the decision is up to the governors.

  • You’ll start seeing red states announcing reopenings very soon — perhaps within days.
  • Watch for Texas and Florida to set the standard among the red states.
  • Alabama and Mississippi are also expected to move quickly, according to administration sources.

What Trump is being told: The level of concern about the economy is extreme in the senior ranks of the White House.

  • Multiply everything you’re hearing by 100 to get a sense of the mindset, especially within the economic team.
  • Top Trump aides are desperate to get the economy restarted to avoid a depression.
  • But the reason they’re not giving orders to reopen at any cost is that they believe a major second wave would all but guarantee prolonged economic calamity.

Behind the scenes: As you could see from yesterday’s press conference, Trump is far more eager than the doctors to get the economy open and refuses to believe there will be a long “new normal” of impeded business.

  • But advisers have also told him that while most of the public won’t blame him for the arrival of the virus on America’s shores, and while much of the country will view his early missteps as clouded by China’s deceit, Trump won’t be able to avoid responsibility for the calamity if he goes too hard and pushes the country to reopen too quickly.
  • Hence the relatively cautious plan, and the deference to the states.

The bottom line: Some advisers are relieved that POTUS is delegating to the governors so heavily because, among other things, it spreads responsibility away from the federal government.

  • In other words, Trump won’t be the sole proprietor of whatever happens in the coming months.
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Trump just made this claim.
image
Unsurprisingly, it is wrong.


China raised its death toll by 50%, which is not doubling, to about 4k. Ours is over 33k.

They’re probably lying, mind you, but the point is, Trump is definitely lying AND can’t math.

PS: Double post is not a mistake, the second one takes you right to the specific story.





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While there is a lot of cross messaging as to what is happening with Coronavirus…here’s what the research various institutions are doing to look at those who have had it. It is a resource

Mission — Survivor Corps

Ongoing studies

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qAZXrxSowXqf-AXjjceIZuY_IsEtmOJ-/view

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From PBS Newshour journalist

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Steve Schmidt - former Republican strategist sees the inconsistencies within T’s attempt to deal with the pandemic and T’s unfitness for the Presidency.

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https://youtu.be/kA1tEelonKY

‘They’re Death Pits’: Virus Claims at Least 7,000 Lives in U.S. Nursing Homes

More than six weeks after the first coronavirus deaths in a nursing home, outbreaks unfold across the country. About a fifth of U.S. virus deaths are linked to nursing facilities.

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I did not think this could get dumber.

I was wrong.

The CDC and CIA may not back Trump’s miracle drug any longer, but Doctor Dumb is still pushing it:
image

From MSNBC April 17th, 2020 - Trump Again Takes Credit For Coronavirus Successes While Shifting Blame to Governors and Encouraging Outright Insurrection Against Them

https://youtu.be/1TNqSRtzRTk

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RI is only state doing enough tests to safely reopen, Harvard experts suggest

Rhode Island is the only state conducting enough coronavirus tests right now to safely reopen the economy, according to new guidance from researchers at Harvard University.

The Harvard estimates, published by The New York Times, say states should be administering a minimum of 152 tests a day per 100,000 residents in order to have enough data to detect whether the virus is spreading and who has contracted it.

According to The Times, Rhode Island was conducting an average of 185 tests per 100,000 residents during the week ended April 15, making it the only state that had surpassed the minimum recommended by the experts at Harvard. Massachusetts was well below the threshold, at 92 daily tests per 100,000 people, while the country as a whole was even lower.

Dr. Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute and incoming dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health, told the newspaper the rate of testing is a key metric “because the fundamental element of keeping our economy open is making sure you’re identifying as many infected people as possible and isolating them.”

Way to go RI :clap:

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Yeah, what the experts were saying…hydroxychloroquine is not the cure-all that T 'n Co are pushing. it is a colossal “maybe.” drug, but does not prevent death…and it has side effects which make the heart pace abnormally.

The malaria drugs touted by President Trump as potentially “the biggest game changers in the history of medicine” have received a decidedly more sober assessment of their coronavirus-fighting potential from researchers in China, France and Brazil.

Both chloroquine and its close relative hydroxychloroquine offered signs that they may ease some of the hallmark symptoms of coronavirus infection in patients who were hospitalized with COVID-19. But the drugs largely failed to deliver improvements on other key measures when evaluated in rigorous research studies.

In research done in France, hydroxychloroquine reduced neither deaths nor admissions to intensive care units among patients who received it. In a study conducted in China and another in Brazil, the two drugs failed to help patients clear the coronavirus faster.

And in Brazil, two deaths and a rash of heart troubles among patients who got a high dose of chloroquine prompted a hasty alteration of the trial there after just 13 days. Concluding that “enough red flags” had been raised, the researchers halted testing of the drug in its extra-strength form.

“My own impression so far is that these medications are a colossal ‘Maybe,’” said Dr. Michael H. Pillinger, a professor of medicine at New York University and chief of rheumatology at the Veterans Affairs’ New York Harbor Healthcare System.

“Is there enough possible benefit that we could use these on a wing and prayer until something better comes along? I’m underwhelmed” by the evidence for that, Pillinger said.

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Why New Jersey’s ventilator guidelines may favor younger, whiter patients

More than half the patients who have died from Covid-19 complications in New Jersey had an underlying cardiovascular disease. Roughly a third had been diagnosed with diabetes. Chronic lung and renal diseases, which are more common among black residents, also feature prominently in the New Jersey deaths.

“We do know that it exists, institutional bias exists throughout all of health care,” Persichilli said Wednesday, “The allocation policy requires that there are groups of people that help make the decision and the directly-treating physician cannot make the decision. Hopefully, that group will be able to control for the bias we know exists prior to the pandemic.”

[…]

On April 11, the same day the state issued its triage guidelines, state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal released an order recognizing the legal implications of removing a ventilator and granting criminal malpractice immunity as well.

“A clinician who removes a ventilator from a patient — knowing that the patient will or might die as a result — could conceivably face criminal homicide charges, and the risk of such prosecution, however remote, could deter professionals from making medically appropriate decisions in the midst of a public health emergency,” Grewal’s order reads.

The state Legislature followed up with a bill, NJ S2333 (20R), that specifically waived criminal and civil liabilities for health care workers and facilities working in good faith to ameliorate the Covid-19 pandemic. Murphy signed the bill — which stops short of offering blanket protections for crimes, fraud, actual malice, gross negligence or willful misconduct — on April 14.

Gill told POLITICO she agrees a good-faith or qualified immunity policy would be necessary but said she fears the combination of civil and criminal immunity could wind up shielding hospitals and doctors who act on implicit bias from legal recourse. Without family advocates in the room, Gill said, those in black and brown communities are left in the dark.

Nuanced story well worth your time. Access to affordable healthcare should be a right not a privilege.

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Indianapolis Lab’s Coronavirus Test Kits

An Indianapolis lab will provide as many as 450,000 COVID-19 test kits to New York City over the next 2 months, & has offered to donate as many as Indiana needs. But the state doesn’t want the help. Here’s why.

Horrifying situation for the Immigration thread, which needs refreshing.

Quarantine trailers to be installed in White Center for coronavirus patients

A New Statistic Reveals Why America’s COVID-19 Numbers Are Flat

Few figures tell you anything useful about how the coronavirus has spread through the U.S. Here’s one that does.


U.S. sent millions of face masks to China early this year, ignoring pandemic warning signs

There is no one single solution to the coronavirus crisis. Instead, there is a whole set of things we need to be doing, from prevention to treatment, that work TOGETHER to overcome it.

Read this thread to see how this works

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