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


GreyhoundFan

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So, a person who swore to defend the constitution wants to ignore it. Par for the freaking course in this sham administration.

 

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OK, the prime minister didn't really say that much other than further restrictions may apply and that we all need to work together and follow the guidelines. We will see what happens on Monday. 

A representative from the public health ministry stated that while we do see an increase of cases in particular in Stockholm the expected increase in cases they expected to happen this weekend doesn't seem to have been as big as they expected so they are pretty happy about that. They will also try to increase testing now too to more groups which Denmark also announced today. Overall things sounded hopeful but it is not easy to feel hopeful these days. 

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It's rare that I agree with Walsh:

 

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12 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

So, a person who swore to defend the constitution wants to ignore it. Par for the freaking course in this sham administration.

 

Yep, they're taking a leaf from Viktor Orban's book. Oh, and Putin's too. Of course.

Not Just a Crisis: Coronavirus Is a Test for Putin’s Security State

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For Vladimir V. Putin’s budding police state, the coronavirus is an unexpected dress rehearsal.

As the Russian president has consolidated power, the police and security services have spent years upgrading their capabilities, from facial-recognition tools to crowd-control methods. Now, the spread of the virus provides a sudden test for those capabilities — and a high-stakes opportunity for Mr. Putin to win support for his hard-line measures.

Russia reported its biggest one-day jump in coronavirus cases on Thursday, with 52 new patients identified across 23 regions. Moscow, which has nearly half of the 199 total cases nationwide, reported first death of a coronavirus patient in the country.

To fight the virus, Russia is taking steps to limit personal freedoms that in many ways mirror those taken recently by Western democracies. Schools, museums and theaters were closed nationwide, and gatherings of more than 50 people have been banned in Moscow and other cities. Anyone arriving from abroad is now required to enter quarantine.

But for Russia, those steps carry an additional significance: they are an opportunity for Mr. Putin to show an uneasy public the effectiveness of rigid top-down governance and of a strong, centralized state.

“A state of emergency is a happy time for any law enforcement authorities,” said Ekaterina Schulmann, a political scientist and former member of Mr. Putin’s human rights council. Referring to the stakes for the Kremlin as it navigates the crisis, she added: “On the one hand, you are viewed as a protector and a savior. On the other, you can become the focus of discontent.”

Mr. Putin’s grand bargain with Russians has been to provide stability, competent governance and greater respect on the world stage, at the cost of fewer democratic rights. The public’s support of the bargain has slipped in recent years amid declining incomes and anger over official corruption.

The coming weeks are shaping up to be critical for Mr. Putin as he tries to cement his power. A national vote to approve constitutional amendments that would allow him to serve as president until 2036 is scheduled for late April. For now, he has avoided much public blowback against the move to hold on to power, but the government’s ability to control the coronavirus outbreak will test his argument that Russia needs his steady leadership in a time of crisis.

Officials ascribe Russia’s relatively low total case count — with more than 133,000 tests performed, according to official figures — to aggressive quarantine efforts and the government’s move in late January to close the border with China. But many Russians believe the total is far higher, and some are drawing comparisons to the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, when the Soviet government was slow to admit the scale of the problem.

“Everybody’s talking about, ‘Oh, it’s Chernobyl again,’” Anna Filippova, a 26-year-old freelance journalist, said in an interview at a Moscow bookstore. “We know the government’s going to lie again, and we’re not going to get any of the truth to come out, so we feel very lost, because maybe they’re underestimating it, maybe they’re overestimating — nobody knows.”

Mr. Putin mentioned the coronavirus last week in his surprise appearance at the lower house of Parliament to endorse a proposal to give him the ability to run for two additional six-year terms after his current tenure expires in 2024. The disease, he said, was one of the many current uncertainties that showed Russia needs the stability his leadership represents.

To fight the outbreak, the Russian authorities have been implementing their expanding surveillance tool kit — and showing it off to the public. On Tuesday, Mr. Putin toured Moscow’s coronavirus monitoring center, with Russian journalists in tow. The city’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, showed Mr. Putin how Moscow’s fast-expanding facial-recognition network allowed the authorities to catch people ignoring home-quarantine orders. The center also monitored social media for false information about the virus.

On Wednesday, Moscow’s top police official said that facial recognition cameras had identified more than 200 people breaking quarantine orders, according to the Tass state news agency. He said an additional 9,000 cameras are to be set up this year in addition to the 178,000 already operating. Russian civil rights activists have criticized the technology as a tool of the Kremlin’s expanding apparatus of repression, since it allows the police to identify and locate people participating in street protests.

What that means in practice has scared some Muscovites but comforted others.

Artyom, 30, who works in the media industry and requested his last name not be published, was of both minds.

He left his apartment building to take out the trash two days after receiving a quarantine order following a flight from Milan, he said in an interview. Two days later, police officers came to his house with an official police report and a printout showing his passport photo alongside his image taken by a surveillance camera.

“On the one hand, it’s concerning, because in the future, who knows how they could use it,” said Artyom, who now faces a court hearing and a fine, of Moscow’s facial-recognition technology. “On the other hand, if it can help them find real criminals, I think it’s a good thing.”

The Russian authorities, meanwhile, have signaled that the government’s virus-related crackdown could also affect freedom of expression. The Russian media regulator, Roskomnadzor, warned Wednesday that news outlets and websites that spread false information about the virus “will be subject to the harshest measures,” including having their licenses revoked.

“For an authoritarian state, this coronavirus is paradise,” a Western diplomat in Moscow said, because the situation allows for the testing of tools of surveillance and control that can be used in the future to counter public unrest. “Next time you need it, just pull it out of the hat again.”

An uncontrolled outbreak of the epidemic, however, would undermine not only the public’s trust in Mr. Putin but also two key events on the Kremlin’s calendar: the April 22 plebiscite affirming Mr. Putin’s continued rule and the festivities planned for May 9 marking the 75th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany.

And the sharp decline in oil prices amid plummeting global demand has highlighted Russia’s economic vulnerability. Its currency, the ruble, fell more than 20 percent against the dollar in the last three weeks to its lowest level in four years.

Mr. Putin personally warned Russians on Wednesday that greater obedience was now becoming necessary.

“This famous Russian devil-may-care attitude is in this case absolutely inappropriate,” Mr. Putin said while visiting Crimea. “The utmost responsibility and discipline must be demonstrated.”

“We know the government’s going to lie again,” one Russian said, “and we’re not going to get any of the truth to come out, so we feel very lost.”

Elsewhere in the former Soviet Union, leaders have also implemented increasingly harsh methods to control the population. Kazakhstan — where the authorities put down protests against the authoritarian government last month — is deploying the police and the military to set up checkpoints and impose a quarantine on its two largest cities. A total of 44 coronavirus cases have been reported in the two cities, Almaty and the capital, Nur-Sultan.

In Ukraine, the government shut down subways and intercity rail, air and bus transport in addition to ordering restaurants and other establishments to close. A member of Parliament was among the country’s 21 confirmed coronavirus cases.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, justified the measures by pointing to the experiences of other countries. For now, he said, some freedoms would need to be put on hold.

“The experience of other countries shows that softness and liberality are allies of the coronavirus,” Mr. Zelensky said in a videotaped speech released Monday evening. “Therefore, we will take harsh, urgent and perhaps unpopular measures for the sake of the lives and health of Ukrainians.”

 

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Blow dryer? You couldn't make that up.

 

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Ironically, the Ds have been pushing to establish remote voting procedures for this emergency, which #MoscowMitch has resisted. 

And a special FUCK YOU, VERY MUCH to Rand Paul, who is the likely source of infection in this cohort. It seems that the R senators now on quarantine were at a lunch with Paul before he was tested or knew the results. He also was seen at the Senate pool just before announcing the diagnosis.

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I saw something about Lee of Utah quaranting due to Rand Paul.

 

 

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The college my daughter works at is basically shut down now (on-line classes starting soon).  The college is asking all departments to go through their lab spaces and donate all unused gloves, medical-grade masks, sanitizers, etc., to the public health department for distribution to local hospitals.  My daughter was tasked with combing through the supplies in her department, and said they ended up donating dozens of boxes of supplies.  I hope other institutions in the same circumstances are being as generous.   (This is in the New York City area.) 

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11 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

I couldn't agree more: "The media must stop live-broadcasting Trump’s dangerous, destructive coronavirus briefings"

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More and more each day, President Trump is using his daily briefings as a substitute for the campaign rallies that have been forced into extinction by the spread of the novel coronavirus.

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.

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. When asked how he would grade his response to the crisis, the president said, “I’d rate it a 10.” Absurd on its face, of course, but effective enough as blatant propaganda

Media-bashing. When NBC News’s Peter Alexander lobbed him a softball question in Friday’s briefing — “What do you say to Americans who are scared?” — Trump went on a bizarre attack. “I say, you’re a terrible reporter,” the president said, launching into one of his trademark “fake news” rants bashing Alexander’s employer. (Meanwhile, he has also found time during these news briefings to lavish praise on sycophantic pro-Trump media like One America News Network, whose staffer — I can’t call her a reporter — invited him to justify his xenophobic talk of a “Chinese virus” by asking rhetorically if he considers the phrase “Chinese food” racist.)

Exaggeration and outright lies. Trump has claimed that there are plenty of tests available (there aren’t); that Google is “very quickly” rolling out a nationwide website to help manage coronavirus treatment (the tech giant was blindsided by the premature claim); that the drug chloroquine, approved to treat malaria, is a promising cure for the virus and “we’re going to be able to make that drug available almost immediately.” (It hasn’t been approved for this use, and there is no evidence to demonstrate its effectiveness in fighting the virus.)

Trump is doing harm and spreading misinformation while working for his own partisan political benefit — a naked attempt to portray himself as a wartime president bravely leading the nation through a tumultuous time, the FDR of the 21st century. 

 The press — if it defines its purpose as getting truthful, useful, non-harmful information to the public, as opposed to merely juicing its own ratings and profits — must recognize what is happening and adjust accordingly. (And that, granted, is a very big “if.”)

Business as usual simply doesn’t cut it. Minor accommodations, like fact-checking the president’s statements afterward, don’t go nearly far enough to counter the serious damage this man is doing to the public’s well-being.

Radical change is necessary: The cable networks and other news organizations that are taking the president’s briefings as live feeds should stop doing so.

Should they cover the news that’s produced in them? Of course. Thoroughly and relentlessly — with context and fact-checking built in to every step and at every stage. 

“There is a very real possibility that in broadcasting these press conferences live or in quickly publishing and blasting out his words in mobile alerts, we are actively misinforming our audience,” Alex Koppelman, managing editor of CNN Business, wrote in an email for the network’s Reliable Sources newsletter.

Koppelman stopped short of overtly calling for the radical solution. That’s not so for Jay Rosen, a journalism professor at New York University who wrote on his PressThink blog that the media needs to switch into “emergency mode”for covering Trump and clearly communicate that change to its readers and viewers.

“We are not obliged to assist him in misinforming the American public about the spread of the virus, and what is actually being done by his government,” Rosen wrote.

Rather than covering Trump live, he recommended, among other things, that the media should “attend carefully to what he says” and subject it to verification before blasting it out to the public. 

It’s important to remember how much Trump’s tune has changed on the coronavirus, from blithely dismissive to self-importantly serious. 

This is what he was saying about the virus in public as recently as Feb. 27: “It’s going to disappear. One day — it’s like a miracle — it will disappear.”

We know, without any doubt, that Trump was ignoring intelligence reports that warned about the likelihood of a pandemic at the same time he was cooing these baseless reassurances. But now he’s claiming that he knew the problem was a pandemic long before others did, and that he took every step possible.

Will people remember the depths of his mendacity and hold him accountable?

“I’m worried about our collective memory when it comes to this,” Charlie Warzel of the New York Times wrote on Saturday. It is this initial lack of action that will cost lives months down the road, he noted. Therefore, “accountability will mean not giving into recency bias when this ends and remembering how it got so bad in the first place.”

There’s a strong counter-argument to be made, of course: that the press shouldn’t be in the business of shielding the public from the president’s statements — no matter how misleading, xenophobic or damaging.

It’s a persuasive argument, and one I wish I could still believe in.

But Trump has proved, time after time, that he doesn’t care about truth, that he puts his financial and political self-interest above that of the public, and that he has no understanding of the role of the press in a democracy. And now lives are on the line.

The news media, at this dangerous and unprecedented moment in world history, must put the highest priority on getting truthful information to the public.

Taking Trump’s press conferences as a live feed works against that core purpose.

 

The only person who should be briefing right now is the Surgeon-general. Trumps entire role should be to say "stay calm, follow health guidelines and now Dr whoeverthehellitis is going to give you the latest guidelines."

And if he can't handle that, let him record speeches from quarantine... and then edit them. 

11 hours ago, clueliss said:

Racist dumbass in Riley county.

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So Iran refused to accept American aid in combating the virus because "It's an American bioweapon and their aid would spread it further" (paraphrased). 

So obviously Trump would be fine with Iranians referring to it as "the American virus", right?

9 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

I'm sure Twitler would applaud this nasty piece of work:

 

OK I am in general a very law abiding quiet type of person. However I would totally steal her entire stash at gunpoint and donate it to nursing homes and food banks. What an arsehole.

4 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Blow dryer? You couldn't make that up.

 

Try using it while you're in the bath, moron, that'll cure you of everything. 

We're locking down further - non-essential businesses close today, schools in my state start holidays at 3.30pm. The Australian Society for Microbiology sent out a call to register volunteers to carry out testing and for Institutes to donate lab space and consumables. I need to find out what is happening with my work - if I am stood down I can possibly volunteer, although my husband works in an essential industry. We're still trying to work out out we can both work from home - so far today I have contacted IT three times. I think I'm sorted, sort of. Downloading the last app I didn't know I needed...

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I'm at the point now where if states wanted to secede from the union due to fuck face's response to all this I'd have no issues with them doing so.

If I got such shitty service from a company I'd cancel the contract then and there and tell them to go fuck themselves in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.  If I was a franchise hotel operation and the franchisor acted so irresponsibly I'd be calling them to tell them to come get their crap, I'm done and I'll figure it out on my own from here.

6 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

So, a person who swore to defend the constitution wants to ignore it. Par for the freaking course in this sham administration.

 

And my brain will be five days dead before I trust any government officials when it comes to emergency powers.  Even if the official is a Democrat I'm not going to blindly say give up the homeworld to them.  And I sure as fuck don't trust any Republicans with emergency powers.  It will be Germany in the 1930s all over again, with the emergency going on indefinitely even if the virus itself is eradicated.  These Republican fucksticks, you give them an inch they'll take a fucking mile.

Now if you excuse me I have a swear 55 gallon drum to fill.

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Yeah I know this is satire but it's not too far from the truth

Quote

Calling it a “promising development,” Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Sunday that alcohol may help people survive the most severe effects of coronavirus briefings.

Noting that millions of Americans have been exposed to the daily briefings of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, Fauci said that he had voluntarily submitted to a preliminary trial of the alcohol-based therapy.

“What we have found is that a single dosage before the briefing and as much as a double dosage after the briefing do much to alleviate the most acute suffering,” Fauci said.

The esteemed virologist said that if Americans are able to administer additional doses during the briefings, “Consider yourself lucky.”

 

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42 minutes ago, 47of74 said:

Now if you excuse me I have a swear 55 gallon drum to fill.

Lord Rufus of Free Jinger just appeared to me in a fever dream vision, and revealed the following to me:

My dear child, putting money in a swear jar will make you more susceptible to Covid-19, so kindly fuck that noise and swear as colorfully and frequently as you possibly can.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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5 hours ago, Ozlsn said:

We're locking down further - non-essential businesses close today, schools in my state start holidays at 3.30pm. The Australian Society for Microbiology sent out a call to register volunteers to carry out testing and for Institutes to donate lab space and consumables. I need to find out what is happening with my work - if I am stood down I can possibly volunteer, although my husband works in an essential industry. We're still trying to work out out we can both work from home - so far today I have contacted IT three times. I think I'm sorted, sort of. Downloading the last app I didn't know I needed...

Ah, so you’re in the state that isn’t cowering to Scotty From Marketing. Your premier sounded clear and authoritative.  I’m in NSW, where the advice AT 8:30 AM was “schools will remain open and no child will be turned away, but we encourage parents to keep their kids home”. For us, this means I’m trying to homeschool the older two (using resources provided by their school online), entertain the 3yr old, and do my PhD study from home, so that 4/5 of our family aren’t exposed to people, while my husband (a high school teacher) is at meetings every morning sitting in a giant circle 2m away from other executive staff so they can discuss how to manage the 30% of students who show up, and act on directives from the government that are literally being announced while they sit there. I get that healthcare workers’ kids need babysitting, and if that’s the part he’s been called to play then he will do it, but in a practical sense for school management, the advice is ridiculous. They can’t tell staff to go home and take care of their own kids/deliver their teaching online, because they don’t know until the school day starts how many children will show up & therefore how many staff will be needed, or whether staff to student ratios have to change anyway because collapsed/combined classes breach social distancing recommendations. The education minister spoke as though schools are prepared and knew what to do, but they’re not, principals are literally listening to the same press conferences.

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1 hour ago, Smee said:

principals are literally listening to the same press conferences.

I got 8 emails from the school Fri-Mon. Everything was/is changing so rapidly. I honestly don't think anyone knows what will happen. My work has fully shut down today, after multiple changes in when it would happen and who would be deemed essential and still be on site. Our team went from essential to maybe to essential to no, able to work from home.  So we are. Hopefully the internet doesn't break! I think the main effect of closing the schools and other indoor centres is to hopefully get people to take it more seriously.

Got to say though... I'm relieved my local cafe is doing take away! And if I can help keep them afloat while recaffeinating then awesome.

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Daily update from Europe and around the world:

  • The Red Cross has received thousands of protective gear: 125.000 masks, 36.000 safety glasses and 500 litres desinfectant; they are asking people to keep on donating
  • there are now 4202 cases in my country
  • 651 people died in Italy yesterday
  • Number of deaths up till now per country:
    - Denmark: 13
    - Sweden: 21
    - Belgium: 75
    - Germany: 86
    - Switzerland: 98
    - Netherlands: 179
    - United Kingdom: 282
    - France: 676
    - Spain: 1813
    - Italy: 5476
  • The first case has been confirmed in Syria. The 20-year-old woman has now gone into 14 day-quarantine. The UN and other humanitarian aid workers fear that an outbreak of the virus in the country could have catastrophic results. Nine years of bloody warfare have left their healthcare in tatters; many houses and infrastructure has been destroyed. All schools, parks and restaurants have been closed and public transport has been terminated. 
  • Japan's prime minister Shinzo Abe has said to be considering postponing the Olympics. Annulling the games is not an option. Many sports organisations have demanded a postponement. Canada has stated that no matter what, they will not be sending any athletes to the Games this year. According to the Canadian Olympic Committee: "Whilst we recognise how complex the postponement of the Games is, we want to underscore that nothing is more important than the health and safety of our athletes."
  • New Zealand will go into lockdown in 48 hours for a four week period. Only supermarkets, pharmacies and essential jobs will remain open. All unnecessary national travel will be stopped. 
  • The Swedish prime minister in a rare speech to the country last night: "We all carry the responsibility. There are a few crucial moments in our lives. Moments in which we have to sacrifice. Not only for ourselves, but especially for those around us. That moment has now come. I understand that it is frustrating to be limited in your movements and social contacts. But it is essential for public health."
  • Phillips is going to double the production of respiratory equipment; by the fall they expect to have doubled that production again. They will also be producing more CT scanners.
  • Judges in the MH-17 trial keeping to the social distancing norms by leaving the chairs between them empty. Only one of the three prosecutors is in the courtroom. The trial will be held without press or public; they can follow the proceedings via livestream.
    image.png.9e2f9daf7b76ee89df71208b72796b77.png
     
  • You can see the current number of cases world-wide on this link. Although it's Dutch, it's easy to understand as it's simply an interactive map of the world with numbers in the countries. You can search by country in the field "Zoek op land".  Updates depend on information from other countries and could lag somewhat from real time information.

 

 

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I would pay money to see Fauci push down Twitler: "Fauci gets frank about Trump: ‘I can’t jump in front of the microphone and push him down’"

Spoiler

Amid the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic, Anthony S. Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has been charged with a herculean task: trying to keep President Trump’s public statements about the novel virus rooted in fact.

Now it appears that Fauci’s frustration is showing.

When asked Sunday by Science magazine’s Jon Cohen about having to stand in front of the nation as “the representative of truth and facts” when “things are being said that aren’t true and aren’t factual,” the 79-year-old said there is only so much he can do.

“I can’t jump in front of the microphone and push him down,” Fauci said, referencing Trump. “Okay, he said it. Let’s try and get it corrected for the next time.”

The frank comment was just one part of a remarkable Q&A published Sunday night in which Fauci shed light on his relationship with Trump, how the pair handles their differences and what happens before each coronavirus task force news conference.

On more than one occasion, Fauci, described by The Washington Post’s Ellen McCarthy and Ben Terris as “the grandfatherly captain of the corona­virus crisis,” has found himself in the uncomfortable position of having to publicly contradict the president — a risky action that could conceivably jeopardize the scientist’s job.

Fauci acknowledged as much on Sunday.

“To my knowledge, I haven’t been fired,” he told Cohen, laughing.

Most recently, Fauci has sought to temper Trump’s comments touting an old anti-malarial drug as a potential treatment for covid-19. At a news conference Friday, one day after Trump called the medicine a possible “game-changer,” Fauci said the only evidence of the drug’s promise so far has been “anecdotal,” adding, “So you really can’t make any definitive statement about it.”

In an appearance on “Face the Nation” Sunday, Fauci downplayed the disagreement, telling CBS’s Margaret Brennan that “there isn’t, fundamentally, a difference” between his view and Trump’s on fighting the virus.

“I was taking a purely medical, scientific standpoint and the president was trying to bring hope to the people,” he said.

Fauci attempted to strike the same diplomatic approach in his interview with Science magazine, saying that though he and Trump sometimes disagree, the president does listen to him “on substantive issues.”

But Fauci admitted that the two stray when it comes to Trump’s delivery of the critical messages.

“It is expressed in a way that I would not express it, because it could lead to some misunderstanding about what the facts are about a given subject,” he said.

Never, for example, has Fauci used “China virus” or " Chinese virus” to refer to covid-19, despite Trump’s repeated usage and defense of such labels. Critics have slammed the language as racist and diversionary, warning that it could lead to an uptick of anti-Asian sentiment in the United States.

“And you never will, will you?” Cohen asked.

“No,” Fauci answered.

Cohen also pressed Fauci on Trump making statements that don’t “comport with facts,” calling attention to the president’s recent misleading suggestion that China could have revealed details of the outbreak “three or four months” earlier.

“I know, but what do you want me to do?,” Fauci responded. “I mean, seriously Jon, let’s get real, what do you want me to do?”

After Trump made the remark about China at Saturday’s briefing, Fauci said he informed “the appropriate people” of the inaccuracy.

“The next time they sit down with him and talk about what he’s going to say, they will say, by the way, Mr. President, be careful about this and don’t say that,” he said.

Fauci later provided a behind-the-scenes look at how the task force advises Trump ahead of his daily news conferences.

“We sit down for an hour and a half, go over all the issues on the agenda,” Fauci said, adding that the group also discusses what they want to emphasize to the public that day before meeting with Trump.

“Then we go in to see the president, we present [our consensus] to him and somebody writes a speech,” he explained. “Then he gets up and ad-libs on his speech. And then we’re up there to try and answer questions.”

Fauci appeared to make his qualms with Trump’s ad-libs known at Friday’s news conference when he was seen covering his face and struggling to maintain his composure after the president mentioned the “Deep State Department.”

Asked if he was criticized for the gesture, Fauci said “no comment.”

The scientist also took issue with Trump’s decision to continue shaking hands at public events and the lack of physical separation at the daily briefings.

While Fauci credited Vice President Pence with keeping people apart during task force meetings, the situation onstage in the press briefing room, where officials are often standing in close quarters, “is a bit more problematic.”

“I keep saying, is there any way we can get a virtual press conference,” he said. “Thus far, no. But when you’re dealing with the White House, sometimes you have to say things 1,2,3,4 times, and then it happens. So I’m going to keep pushing.”

By early Monday, Fauci’s comments were circulating widely on social media with many remarking on his candor.

The Q&A with Science magazine came on the heels of two other illuminating interviews Fauci did that came out over the weekend, prompting some to worry that he might endangering his position.

“Fauci’s going to get fired,” tweeted journalist Joe Nocera. “He’s been way too honest in interviews this weekend.”

But, in a recent interview with the Atlantic published Sunday, Fauci said he didn’t anticipate losing his position.

“I don’t think they’re going to try to silence me. I think that would be foolish on their part,” he said. “I think, in some respects, they welcome my voice out there telling the truth. I’m going to keep doing it. And no matter what happens to me, I’m going to keep doing it.”

 

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We need to get the repubs out of power so nazis won't feel so empowered:

 

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42 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

 

It is rare that someone from Illinois is proud of one of our politicians, but Pritzker made it happen for me with this statement and how he’s been handling the crisis.

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I find it difficult to express how much I despise MoscowMitch:

 

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Continued here:

 

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