Government Response to Coronavirus 2: It's Not A Hoax

[GreyhoundFan]

"Trump is frantically rewriting his epic failures. Don’t let him."

Spoiler

In retrospect, it’s now clear that when President Trump defiantly declared that “I don’t take responsibility at all” for key aspects of his catastrophic response to the coronavirus, he meant it both seriously and literally.

Two new developments drive this home with great clarity. Trump just rolled out a remarkably dishonest effort to rewrite the early history of this pandemic, and to blame the media for his own failings — at exactly the moment that a new report in the New York Times has now illustrated those failures in extraordinarily damning detail.

When Trump declared that “I don’t take responsibility at all,” he meant it seriously, in that this was more than a mere passing effort to dodge one reporter’s tough question. Rather, it was a clear statement of purpose and intent: Trump will not take responsibility for whatever we learn about his government’s failures, no matter how bad they are established to be.

Trump also meant this literally, in that he literally does not believe it’s his responsibility to effectively manage this response, and literally does not believe he is responsible for the consequences that will now unfold, which may end up proving unbearably awful.

“I always treated the Chinese Virus very seriously, and have done a very good job from the beginning,” Trump just tweeted, hailing his early decision to restrict travel from China. “Many lives were saved. The Fake News new narrative is disgraceful & false!”

This effort to erase the early history of the response is concerted and deliberate. It has been wholeheartedly embraced by some of his leading media propagandists. This rewriting effort will continue, and it will grow worse. Trump is set to hold a news conference on Wednesday, and when pressed about various failings, he will surely falsify key aspects of what really happened.

A damning report

On that score, the new report from the Times is nothing short of infuriating. Among its key revelations:

• Numerous states made frantic early requests for equipment and help that went largely unheard and unmet. It was only last week, after an internal report shook up officials with its harrowing predictions of 18 months of hardships ahead, that the federal government pivoted to treating these state requests much more seriously.
• Numerous federal agencies — such as the Army Corps of Engineers and other parts of the Defense Department — have not been pressed into service in a serious way, more than eight weeks in. As the Times puts it: “Much of that capacity is untapped.”
• Trump’s apparent decision to put the Department of Health and Human Services in charge of the response might have hampered the role that the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be playing, even though FEMA “traditionally is designed as the lead federal agency during major disasters to take requests from individual states.”
• Several states put in requests for masks, and received far less than requested — and many were beyond their expiration date. As one Democratic governor put it: “We’ve been contacting this administration every single day since then and we have received nothing. Zip. Zero.”

It is becoming obvious that Trump genuinely does not “take any responsibility” for any of this.

When Trump declares that the “Fake News” media narrative about all of this is “disgraceful & false,” this really serves as yet another reminder that Trump is actively prioritizing protecting his reelection prospects over protecting the country.

The basic facts of how we got into this catastrophic mess must be rewritten wholesale. He now claims he took it seriously all along, even though a timeline of his own quotes and actions shows that this is steaming nonsense. And going forward, any media efforts to reconstruct the actual story, or inform the public about it, or impose accountability for it must be entirely discredited.

In short: We are heading into an exceptionally grim set of circumstances, yet the president recognizes zero institutional responsibility to publicly acknowledge his own failures in a way that might enable himself or all of us to learn from them — and thus benefit the country in the immediate term and in the long run.

“He’s likely to be responsible for many deaths,” Max Skidmore, a political science professor and the author of a book on presidential responses to pandemics, told me.

“We are weeks behind where we should have been if a competent administration had been handling the reaction," Skidmore continued. "The misinformation that he spread caused people to be cavalier.”

An unprecedented approach

Yet Skidmore told me that in one distressing sense, Trump’s handling of the pandemic may also be unprecedented. Unlike previous presidents, Trump appears to only care about appearances in a way that is entirely detached from concern about his government’s actual performance.

“We have seen presidents who refused to learn from the past,” Skidmore said. “But one great danger of the Trump presidency is that he’s uninterested in performance as long as he can create the image that he’s been successful. Actual success is irrelevant to him. The image of success is what’s important.”

Skidmore added that even presidents whose failures he has criticized — George W. Bush’s on Hurricane Katrina; Dwight Eisenhower’s on vaccinations; Woodrow Wilson’s on the Spanish flu — didn’t sink to quite this level of unconcern about actual results.

“Even if they twisted the truth, they hoped to have a good outcome,” Skidmore said. By contrast, Trump appears to be wholly “unconcerned about his performance, so long as he can look good.”

In sum, we want presidents to acknowledge their own failures as having actual and momentous consequences for real people, as teachable moments for themselves and the nation — not as nothing more than “fake news” that can be expunged and rewritten through sheer force of bluster or tweet.

 

[clueliss]

Well, that’s a bit scary.  MO had a death today.  Boone County.  Which was just announced yesterday.  This was someone in self isolation at home.  912 called so now there are 6 first responders in quarantine.  
 

I saw the press conference for this yesterday.  County health would only say it was in the county and not give a city or other details. Then today the press is telling us that a particular large employer is closed and was being deep cleaned because the spouse of an employee tested positive.  Gives me such confidence.

 

https://abc17news.com/news/2020/03/18/boone-county-records-missouris-first-covid-19-death/

[K'Z'K]

Massachusetts made some good moves: if your MA driver's license is set to expire between March 1 and April 30 (as mine is), you now have an extra 60 days to renew it.  https://www.mass.gov/info-details/rmv-covid-19-information

More broadly, and extra importantly, if you're a Masshole who just lost your job and therefore health insurance, get thee to https://www.mahealthconnector.org/ and apply for coverage. If you already had insurance through the Connector, you can update your income information (https://www.mahealthconnector.org/help-center-answers/how-to-update-your-income-information) and they will decrease your payments accordingly. You can get on MassHealth (Medicaid) if need be. It's not the best coverage, but it's adequate for many things, including covid-19 testing and treatment (yes, Massachusetts requires insurers to cover treatment), and no one's doing elective stuff right now anyway. And even basic insurance beats the nothing you may have otherwise.

[GreyhoundFan]

38 minutes ago, K'Z'K said:

Massachusetts made some good moves: if your MA driver's license is set to expire between March 1 and April 30 (as mine is), you now have an extra 60 days to renew it.  https://www.mass.gov/info-details/rmv-covid-19-information

Virginia and Maryland have done the same thing. They've closed the DMV offices.

[clueliss]

Well, sound logic out of KS.  Johnson county has community spread.  So they are going to do LESS testing there.  The county can continue to report and do alternative methods of diagnosis.  Why?  Because they don’t have enough tests there.  https://www.kansascity.com/news/coronavirus/article241309471.html

this country is so screwed.  
 

meanwhile I’ve got the MO governor babbling about how most of the cases here are related to travel.  Dude, you aren’t ramped up in KC and 5here is community spread just over the state line.  

We have congressional Positive 

 

[HerNameIsBuffy]

Three Chicago suburbs (Oak Park, Forest Park, and River Forest) are being asked to shelter in place.

No word about testing - they aren't advising anyone to test, just isolate.  

 

[Kailash]

People in Wichita, KS are apparently going to have to have it spelled out for them in order to self quarantine or even distance. Driving to the pharmacy and there were people in groups all over the park I went past. ? Idiots.

[clueliss]

Two in Congress positive now

https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/coronavirus-outbreak-03-18-20-intl-hnk/h_163e09fabc8fe0331a77dcbc5fbaf5b5

[hoipolloi]

No cloud without a silver lining.

The Ark Encounter & Creation Museum is closing & will reopen April 2.

[Smee]

You might have to understand the ducked up funding model of the Aus education system for this to make sense, but: our prime minister has threatened to withdraw funding to private schools/the catholic school system if they independently make the decision to close. Heaps of people have pulled their kids out anyway, especially in the most affected or population-dense area, so some made the decision to close in spite of the official government decision for schools to remain open.

[GreyhoundFan]

"American pigs and fried rattlesnakes: What John Cornyn ignores when he blames Chinese culture for epidemics"

Spoiler

While defending President Trump’s use of “the Chinese virus” to describe the novel coronavirus, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) blamed China on Wednesday for the disease and several other viral epidemics from the last two decades.

“China is to blame because the culture where people eat bats and snakes and dogs and things like that,” Cornyn told reporters. “These viruses are transmitted from the animal to the people, and that’s why China has been the source of a lot of these viruses like SARS, like MERS, the swine flu, and now the coronavirus.”

The senator’s comment was immediately panned as racist by Democrats and critics on social media. The Texas Democratic Party said Cornyn was “dog whistling” and urged him to focus on preventing the spread of covid-19. Cornyn did not immediately return a request for comment late Wednesday.

In addition to the offensive language, much in the Texas senator’s comment is either wrong or leaves out important context.

The first human infections involving the novel coronavirus did originate in China, as did the strain of coronavirus that caused the 2003 SARS epidemic.

But neither the 2012 MERS outbreak nor the 2009 swine flu epidemics started there.

MERS, short for “Middle East respiratory syndrome,” reflects that the first human cases of the disease were first identified in Saudi Arabia in 2012, according to the World Health Organization. The largest outbreaks of MERS occurred in Saudi Arabia — where 80 percent of human MERS infections have occurred — as well as the United Arab Emirates and South Korea.

When it comes to the 2009 swine flu pandemic, it started off, as its name suggests, infecting pigs in Mexico and the U.S. The H1N1 virus jumped from North American pig herds to infect humans in the spring of 2009, with the first cases being recorded in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Cornyn also appeared to be off-base about the specific animals that pass other viral infections to people. None of the diseases he mentioned are linked to dogs and snakes, according to the CDC. Bats do carry coronaviruses, but another animal usually catches the virus from a bat before passing it on to a human.

Scientists believe contact with civet cats, which had likely been infected with a coronavirus by bats at a live-animal market, caused the 2003 SARS outbreak in China, according to the CDC. And contact with camels is the likely reason for the MERS outbreak in Saudi Arabia, the WHO said.

Experts don’t know the animal source of the virus that causes covid-19, yet, but there is some evidence it is also linked to a Chinese “wet” market.

Cornyn’s comment appears to capitalize on American taboos against eating certain animals, but the science does not support the suggestion that eating Chinese dishes that include bat, snake or dog meat have contributed directly to the spread of coronavirus, SARS, MERS or swine flu.

And you don’t have to travel as far as China to eat snake meat. In Cornyn’s home state of Texas, several towns host annual festivals where residents milk rattlesnakes for antivenin and fry up filets of snake flesh as a novelty snack.

Cornyn, who published a column last year on his Senate website titled, “The Texas Snake Man: Jackie Bibby and His Rattlesnake Roundups,” has recognized that some people in Texas chow down on snakes.

“Festivals and roundups all across the state showcase daredevil handlers performing bold and dangerous acts, demonstrations of milking the venomous snakes to produce the antidote, and fryers filled with fresh rattlesnake meat, seasoned with garlic and lemon for taste,” the column reads.

Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.), who chairs the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, condemned Cornyn’s comment, calling it “disgusting.”

“Disparaging an entire ethnic group and culture like this is bigotry, plain and simple,” she said in a statement Wednesday. “Over the past few days, Trump has repeatedly labeled this pandemic as the ‘Chinese virus,’ and his loyal Republican followers have come to his defense in increasingly hateful terms. Their words are inciting racism and violence against Asian Americans in the United States.”

The Texas senator is hardly alone in placing blame on China. Trump has repeatedly done so at news conferences and online in recent weeks.

Early on, Trump dismissed concerns about the impending pandemic. He said the risk in the U.S. was limited to “one person coming in from China.”

“We have it under control,” he said on CNBC in January. “It’s going to be just fine.”

On Monday, the president’s tone changed. He acknowledged that covid-19 is a “real pandemic” and urged Americans to avoid gatherings of more than 10 people.

As the president has adopted a more serious tone to discuss the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S., he has also increasingly turned to calling it “the Chinese virus.”

He stopped using the words coronavirus or covid-19 on his Twitter account on Sunday. Since then, he’s exclusively referred to coronavirus as the “Chinese virus” in his tweets.

“It’s not racist at all,” Trump told reporters Wednesday. “Not at all. It comes from China. That’s why. I want to be accurate.”

Several GOP lawmakers, including Cornyn, have followed suit, even after the CDC and WHO rejected the label earlier this month and asked officials to use either “novel coronavirus” or “covid-19” to describe the disease.

Some have argued that the use of the term is a way to shift attention away from the Trump administration’s failures in addressing the covid-19 outbreak early on. Other critics have said blaming China fans anti-Asian American hate, reignites old racist tropes and increases the risk of hate crimes and xenophobic attacks.

“The president’s view that the virus was a Chinese problem contributed to his failure to understand the importance of testing people domestically for the virus and of having enough medical equipment to deal with the outbreak,” Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) wrote Wednesday in an op-ed for The Washington Post. “I wish the president could set aside his xenophobia for the moment while we try to keep Americans from dying.”

 

[47of74]

6 hours ago, hoipolloi said:

No cloud without a silver lining.

The Ark Encounter & Creation Museum is closing & will reopen April 2.

How will James MacDonald survive if he can’t go on road trips there to watch porn and hire hit men? 
 

Quote

Bucur alleged that about three years before that, in 2015, MacDonald asked him to kill his former son-in-law, Tony Groves, and offered to help dispose of the body. He argued that he did not report MacDonald because he was angry about his daughter allegedly being hurt, and chalked up the proposal as a momentary lapse in judgment.

Bucur alleges that MacDonald asked him to kill Groves while they were on a motorcycle trip to the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky, from July 31, 2015, to August 2, 2015. Others who were on the trip are: former HBC Assistant Senior Pastor Rick Donald, former Elder and Executive Director of Harvest Bible Fellowship Kent Shaw, former Elder Marcel Olar, and church members Tom Moore and Steve Lupella.

During breakfast while at a restaurant in Indiana on the last day of the trip, Bucur said, MacDonald asked him to kill Groves while searching pornography websites for damaging material he feared Groves may have posted of his daughter Abby.

MacDonald reportedly asked Bucur if he would be willing to “take Tony out.” Bucur reportedly responded, “Are you asking me what I think you’re asking me?”

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Of course the rich are getting tested first. The wealthy always do better during a pandemic."

Spoiler

The rich are not different. They can get sick and die. Just like the rest of us.

But they have more options, and one of those options is to throw money at the coronavirus.

So they’re fleeing to their country homes. Chartering private jets. Putting their doctors on speed dial and getting home visits. They have pantries full of food and toilet paper. None of these is a guarantee against contracting a deadly disease, but it reduces their exposure and allows them to get treatment sooner.

It’s been this way throughout history. The rich have always fared better during a public health crisis. The poor are exposed at greater rates, get sicker because often they aren’t as healthy to begin with and have higher mortality rates.

“The wealthy have often done better than the poor when faced with epidemics and pandemics because they tend to be resilient as a function of having greater resources,” says Richard Keller, a professor of medical history and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

So it was, so it is, so it always will be. When President Trump was asked Wednesday why athletes and other well-connected people are getting tested before everyone else, he said, “Perhaps that’s been the story of life.”

Will it be any different this time?

The streets of Palm Beach are empty. The boat show is canceled, as is this weekend's International Red Cross Ball, one of the season's leading social events.

The exclusive Florida enclave is home to some of the richest people in the country and some of the oldest. Last week, a man infected with conoravirus flew from New York to West Palm Beach, causing a quiet freakout among the regulars on the island. So the sidewalks in front of the beautiful mansions on this man-made paradise have proverbially rolled up.

“People are staying in place,” says Shannon Donnelly, longtime social editor of the Palm Beach Daily News. “Everything has been canceled.”

The wealthy are hunkering down in their very big houses, and telling staff to stay home or work half days. They’ve just discovered home grocery delivery. Prices are high — as usual — but not out of control. High-end stores are open, but who is going out?

“There’s not a bottle of Purell in Tiffany’s window — yet,” says Donnelly.

One business-as-usual site had been Mar-a-Lago, where Trump and his family celebrated together less than two weeks ago, when some thought coronavirus was still something to joke about. Now club regulars are staying home because the virus doesn’t care how rich or powerful you are.

Not everyone can stay in place. For those who want or need to fly, demand for private jets has soared.

“We have seen a substantial increase in the desire to fly private,” says Stephanie Chung, president of JetSuite, a top luxury rental company. “In the past few weeks and particularly this past week we have seen an uptick of about 5 to 10 percent in new inquiries from travelers that have not flown private in the past.”

New customers include families traveling for spring break and corporate clients restricted from flying commercially who are able to spend up to $7,000 an hour for a charter flight. And this isn’t just about the plane: Many clients have expressed fear of traveling through large airports, especially after seeing news reports of crowds crammed into Chicago’ O’Hare and New York’s JFK. Most private planes fly out of small terminals reserved for VIP customers.

Chung’s current sales pitch is anti-virus focused: “For those that are looking to minimize mass public exposure, private jet travel allows passengers to avoid crowds in security lines and large waiting areas as boarding is often conducted immediately upon arrival at the airport. Furthermore, our aircraft have significantly fewer guests per flight and are regularly cleaned with solvents that target the coronavirus. There are ample hand sanitizers and other options to maintain maximum hygiene while onboard our aircraft.”

On Friday, supermodel Naomi Campbell shared a video of her commercial flight from Los Angeles to New York City wearing a white hazmat suit, safety goggles, a medical face mask and purple gloves. “We have to do what we have to do,” she explained to her fans. Before the flight, Campbell had acupuncture on her ears to “reset the nervous system.” Other celebrities have posted photos of themselves wearing designer protective masks that retail for hundreds of dollars.

Campbell did not share where she was headed, but many of the wealthy residents of Manhattan have already fled to their country or beach homes. The theory is that they’re less likely to be exposed to coronavirus in smaller communities, and self-isolation has historically proved to be a survival strategy for the rich. Unless, of course, they’re already exposed and carrying the virus to those very same communities.

One wealthy Washington woman, who discussed her plan for dealing with the pandemic on the condition of anonymity, is considering decamping to her second home located in a small town of less than 10,000 in Upstate New York. “Because it’s such a rural community with so few people, there are no reports of covid-19 so far,” she explained. On paper, that sounds good: She and her husband are both older than 65 with underlying medical issues, which puts them at high risk. The down side: Rural communities have fewer Level One trauma centers, which means that they fewer options should either of them get sick.

Which is why doctors with concierge service are suddenly in high demand. The idea is simple. Clients pay an annual fee which allows the doctors to spend more time with fewer patients. It’s the modern version of the small-town general physician who’s been taking care of families for decades.

Jim Long, who has a solo practice in Fairfax, has spent most of the past couple weeks talking calls. “I’m spending a lot of time on the phone and texts,” he says. “Having access in real time provides a kind of reassurance and an added sense of security. I’ve had to quell the hysteria.”

Long’s practice isn’t just for the rich, but his clients — about 60 percent are older than 60 — pay about $2,000 a year for the personal attention and access a concierge physician can provide. He started sending email blasts to his patients two weeks ago and gives everyone masks before they enter his office.

Last week, he got 10 coronavirus testing kits. “We don’t get them faster than anyone else,” says Long. One of his patients wanted the test so he could visit his elderly mother; he was asymptomatic and didn’t get a test. The only patient who’s been tested so far was a robust man with a severe fever and cough who tested negative for flu. The novel coronavirus results are pending.

Some concierge services are even more exclusive. Clients with MD2, which has practices in New York, Beverly Hills, McLean and other high-income locations, pay $15,000-$25,000 annually for doctors who serve only 50 families. The headquarters is just outside of Seattle, where the fear is even greater and their doctors are making house calls wearing protective suits and masks.

“A lot of people want tests,” says JoAnn Ollila, director of marketing. But MD2, like most other practices, is using the coronavirus tests for patients who show symptoms. Instead, they’re urging patients to call doctors at any time to assess their risk and help everyone stay calm. “Everyone’s greatest fear is being alone at their greatest time of need.”

Throughout history, scholars, scientists and philosophers have wrestled with the stark fact that the most of the rich survive plagues and pandemics while the poor die cruelly.

“The Decameron,” set in 1348, is a masterpiece of classical early Italian prose by Giovanni Boccaccio. You probably studied it in school: Seven women and three men tell 100 witty tales while staying at a secluded villa outside of Florence. In the fictional account, the 10 had fled to the villa to escape the Black Death. The plague ravaged the Italian city, with bodies piled up in the streets. About half of the population died.

Historians believe the disease killed about 75 million people, a third of Europe’s population overall, and most of the victims were poor. “Plague is primarily an urban phenomenon,” says Keller. As with most pandemics, the disease spread quickly among those living in close quarters, catching the blood-borne bacteria from fleas that fed off infected rats and then bit humans.

The rich fled to the country side — their own homes or that of relatives — sometimes escaping the plague but occasionally carrying it with them in their textiles or food supplies. Mortality demographics are hard to pinpoint before the 19th century, but it is believed that the wealthy fared far better because they were better fed and healthier to begin with.

Cholera is the “health and wealth story of the 19th century,” explains Keller. The first pandemic began in Jessore, India, in 1817 — where hundreds of thousands died — and reached Europe by 1831 killing 6,500 in London and 18,000 in Paris. Almost all of these deaths occurred in the poorest, most-crowded sections of the cities, the product of contaminated food or water.

But tuberculosis was the deadliest disease in that century, especially in France where it killed about 100,000 annually. “The rich were able to send a sick relative to a sanitarium to live in isolation,” says Keller. “Population density was really the critical issue: It killed the poor in far greater numbers than the rich.”

The last time Americans faced a global pandemic was 1918, when Spanish flu ravaged the globe. Health-care systems, already crippled by soldiers returning from World War I, were overwhelmed by the fast-moving influenza. Transmitted by soldiers returning from World War I, it affected families up and the social strata — even President Woodrow Wilson was infected. The death toll in the United States was 675,000; historians believe the worldwide number toll was 50 million.

In 1842, Edgar Allan Poe wrote "Masque of the Red Death." The short story, one of Poe's best, is set in a fictional country where a gruesome disease called the Red Death has ravaged the land. (Sounds familiar? Roger Corman made it into a 1964 horror film starring Vincent Price.)

The ruler, Prince Prospero, is not afraid. He closes his palace to all except a thousand of his favorite knights and ladies, then welds the doors shut. “With such precautions the courtiers might bid defiance to contagion,” writes Poe. “The external world could take care of itself. In the meantime it was folly to grieve or to think. The prince had provided all the appliances of pleasure. There were buffoons, there were improvisatori, there were ballet-dancers, there were musicians, there was Beauty, there was wine. All these and security were within. Without was the ‘Red Death.’”

One night, the prince decides to host a masquerade ball for his friends. At midnight, a guest arrives wearing a mask of a corpse and a costume like a funeral shroud. Prospero is furious at the tasteless display; his guests shrink away. The prince confronts the figure and immediately dies.

You can guess what happens next: Everyone else in the castle dies. “And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all,” concludes Poe.

It’s fiction, of course.

 

[fraurosena]

On 3/17/2020 at 10:26 PM, Carol said:

Now Trump is saying he wants to give a $1,000.00 within the next two weeks to every American adult.  This has to be passed by the House and Senate but there does seem to be bipartisan approval for it 

Where is this money actually coming from (hello, trillion dollar debt)? Plus, what good will it really do? Yes, the influx of cash will be a welcome relief for those in dire financial straits, but a one time payment will not get them out of debt (or save them from it), when the actual cause of their financial status isn't addressed. This money would be put to better use if it were spent on producing enough respirators and ICU beds, to help those that need them and help to save lives during this pandemic.

Meanwhile, in my country:

• Bruno Bruins, the Health Minister, collapsed during a debate last evening. It turns out he was intensely fatigued and overworked and is now working from home for a couple of days on advice from his doctor
• There are 2051 confirmed cases; 58 deaths (aged between 63 and 95)
• There are relatively more younger people on respirators in the ICU's than elsewhere in the world; this is probably due to the fact that the outbreak of the virus came during carnival in the province of Brabant, which was frequented mostly by the younger generations
• The Eurovision Songfestival, which was to be held in our country for the first time since the mid 70s, has been cancelled
• We are expecting between 500 and 1000 new ICU cases next week; the ICU-union is taking measures to spread out the cases over hospitals in the whole country -- right now Brabant is carrying the most of the load
• The yearly 'Bloemen Corso' (Flower Parade) has been cancelled (see some pics under spoiler) -- it usually attracts up to a million people

Spoiler

Yes, these are all made with flowers!

 

• One of our supermarket chains (Jumbo) has instated a daily special 'senior shopping hour' to aid seniors in their social distancing; another supermarket chain (Albert Heijn) has installed plexiglass screens between cashiers and shoppers to minimise possible contamination
• The first convict with COVID19 has been confirmed, he has been isolated from the rest of the population in his detention centre in Scheveningen
• The blood bank is going to start a nationwide (new) test of people's blood for the virus; this will aid scientists in finding out more about the spread of the virus and the status of 'group immunity'
• The Cabinet is looking into the possibilities of giving heathcare workers a financial bonus, in appreciation of all their hard work during this crisis
• On Tuesday night there was a national 'applause for healthcare workers' to give them a morale boost  (short video of the King and his family clapping under spoiler)
   
  Spoiler

   

  
   
• on a personal note, I'm enjoying the quiet now most people are staying home and indoors; as there is hardly any traffic, I can hear the birds chirping and singing clearly; walking the dogs is really calming with hardly any busy people around; we're all still healthy and working/schooling from home - as much as there is stuff left to do that is; parents and DS1, pregnant (yay!) DIL and grandson are all doing fine; I'm spending a lot of time making fairy houses -- my current project is a Wizard's Tower made with a glass whiskey bottle and small jar and some cardboard and toothpicks; it has it's first layer of clay and I'll be starting the masonry work next

Edited March 19, 2020 by fraurosena
autocorrect typo

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[fraurosena]

When you think they can't possibly sink any lower, they have to go and prove you wrong.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

I just hope at least some of the idiots who voted for him decide to either stay home or vote blue in November:

 

[fraurosena]

Minnesota and Vermont Just Classified Grocery Clerks as Emergency Workers

Quote

As the rapidly spreading coronavirus pandemic closes schools across the country, more and more parents are juggling working from home with caring full-time for their children. But working from home isn’t possible for emergency personnel like paramedics, nurses, and public health workers who are on the front lines of the fight against the virus. Some states and cities are providing child care for emergency workers so they can do their jobs.

Minnesota and Vermont have now officially designated another group of workers as emergency personnel: grocery clerks. This means the workers hurrying to stock shelves and check out customers in those states will also receive free child care.

The directive from Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz came as part of an order for “Care for Children of Families of Emergency Workers,” which instructs closed schools to continue to provide care for children of emergency personnel who are “critical to the response of COVID-19.” Under the order, grocery workers are considered “essential tier 2 workers.” “Districts should make every effort to provide care for school-age children” of these workers, the order states. (People caring for the children of emergency personnel are also considered emergency personnel.)

The state of Vermont is developing a plan to reimburse private child care centers for providing care to essential workers. Public safety commissioner Michael Schirling told VTDigger that his office would add grocery store workers to the list of essential employees who would receive services like child care.

Grocery clerks are often underpaid and underappreciated.

San Francisco, which is under a shelter-in-place order, limits its emergency child care to first responders, including hospital staff, public health employees, and disaster service workers. On Tuesday, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWire announced the state would open emergency child care centers for children of health, safety, and “essential service” workers, though the definition of “essential service” was not immediately clear.

Grocery clerks are often underpaid and underappreciated. As they brave the daily crowds of people rushing to stock up their pantries, and risk infecting themselves through contact with so many customers, their essential role in a functioning society has become clearer than ever. Designating them emergency workers and providing them child care is the least we can do.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[laPapessaGiovanna]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[fraurosena]

On the upside:

 

[elliha]

Well, people over 70 are not happy about being told to minimize contacts and avoid shopping etc. Today's press conference seemed like a long sermon to the rebellious old people to stop behaving like little kids and comply. There have been several articles in different papers about 70+ people who openly talk about how they are not obeying this recommendation. People in a facebook group I am in joke about "boomer doomer" and chaining their mom to a long chain so they can only reach the kitchen, bathroom and bedroom. So far we still do not have an overly big number of serious cases but they are growing, in particular Stockholm but also in the other two big city regions. Most other regions are less affected but my region is suspected of having some limited spread in society. It is still pretty OK and I am not yet afraid.

The problems with protective gear are smaller now and they have some orders coming in as well as company offering to deliver much more than usual. This is still something that is a problem but a protective mask used by the military has also been approved for use which can also help this problem. Operations that are not life or death are being cancelled and more beds are being prepared in particular in Stockholm. So far they do not have a problem but they need to keep increasing their capacity.

They are also suggesting that we should avoid travelling to and from the more affected areas to try to prevent increased problems in the less affected regions. Soon it is Easter and we usually get a break of about 10 days then so many people have planned to go skiing. They did not say so out loud but there might be a closing down of at least the most popular areas for skiing to prevent rapid spread. I hope so, those that travelled to Italy despite the reports from there are part of the reason we have the spread we have and the same kind of people might now do the same to small rural towns and with no or small hospitals because of their own pleasure. I don't trust them at all. I don't want people killed because other people cannot abstain from skiing. 

They are going to take a decision today that will make it possible for the government to close schools when they see fit today but they are not saying they will use it right away. They are also going to try to define who can get childcare if schools and preschools are closed, a list of prioritized positions. I will know more later about this later this afternoon. 

We have one more dead and just under 30 in intensive care. Around 80 people in Stockholm are admitted for treatment due to covid but most are not critical. They expect more cases here over the next couple of days. We have 23 known cases in my region and yesterday we got our first intensive care patient, I have not heard any updates for them today.

[Alisamer]

1 hour ago, fraurosena said:

Where is this money actually coming from (hello, trillion dollar debt)? Plus, what good will it really do? Yes, the influx of cash will be a welcome relief for those in dire financial straits, but a one time payment will not get them out of debt (or save them from it), when the actual cause of their financial status isn't addressed. This money would be put to better use if it were spent on producing enough respirators and ICU beds, to help those that need them and help to save lives during this pandemic.

 I'm spending a lot of time making fairy houses -- my current project is a Wizard's Tower made with a glass whiskey bottle and small jar and some cardboard and toothpicks; it has it's first layer of clay and I'll be starting the masonry work next

I agree in theory about the influx of cash, but here on the ground? That potential payment may be all that keeps me from bankruptcy. 

I'm really hoping that Maxine Waters' plan goes through - I don't know details but the brief article I read said it boiled down to $2000 per adult per month during the crisis, and requiring (and helping) all credit payments (credit card, mortgage, etc.) be delayed during that time. If that happened, I would be able to breathe, take care of myself, afford food and necessities, and continue to make most if not all my bill payments.

It would also keep me (and I think many many others) from having to apply for unemployment as the unemployment offices are already flooded with people needing to apply. I'm hearing of many hours of waiting on the phone, if people can get through at all. A $1000 payment a month would help, but I wouldn't be able to pay all of my bills and would still need to apply for unemployment (assuming we have to close the shop, which seems more likely by the day). A direct payment without all the red tape would seem to relieve a lot of the stress on the system, I'd think.

And many states require people on unemployment to prove, weekly, that they are actively looking for work. Some have waived that requirement, but not all. There's no work to be had, at the moment, except possibly actually working for the unemployment office itself! And grocery stores, maybe. 

 

Fairy houses! That sounds SO fun. I've made just one, using coke bottles and paperclay, for my fairy garden at work. Are you sharing photos anywhere here? I think there might be a thread somewhere for fairy gardens... I'll have to look again.

 

Coronavirus, an earthquake in Salt Lake City, storms in the US... It does seem like nature is hitting the reset button. It's going to be really interesting to see what the world looks like in a year.

 

[fraurosena]

29 minutes ago, Alisamer said:

I'm really hoping that Maxine Waters' plan goes through - I don't know details but the brief article I read said it boiled down to $2000 per adult per month during the crisis, and requiring (and helping) all credit payments (credit card, mortgage, etc.) be delayed during that time. If that happened, I would be able to breathe, take care of myself, afford food and necessities, and continue to make most if not all my bill payments.

This sounds much more helpful (although I still wonder how this is going to get paid for), and I hope for you that they'll vote for her plan!

29 minutes ago, Alisamer said:

It would also keep me (and I think many many others) from having to apply for unemployment as the unemployment offices are already flooded with people needing to apply. I'm hearing of many hours of waiting on the phone, if people can get through at all. [snip]

And many states require people on unemployment to prove, weekly, that they are actively looking for work.

Oh wow. I'm flabbergasted. You still have to do this in person? Over here you can apply for unemployment benefits online. You also have to prove on a weekly/monthly basis that you are actively looking for work -- online. You cannot apply for benefits in any other way. All Dutch people have their personal ID-code; this is used for these types of applications: you log in to these sites using a unique name plus that code, which is password/text-verification protected.

29 minutes ago, Alisamer said:

Fairy houses! That sounds SO fun. I've made just one, using coke bottles and paperclay, for my fairy garden at work. Are you sharing photos anywhere here? I think there might be a thread somewhere for fairy gardens... I'll have to look again.

Yes, they are very fun indeed! I haven't shared photo's on FJ yet, but would be interested in posting them and seeing the works of others too. I don't know if there is a fairy garden thread on FJ -- maybe in the hobby-threads? Although last time I went there nobody had posted in them for over a year. Maybe we should start one?

ETA: I looked in Quiverful of Distractions and couldn't find any fairy garden related posts. I would have expected them in Quiverful of Crafts or Quiverful of Arts (something something), but nope. 

Edited March 19, 2020 by fraurosena