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Government Response to Coronavirus 3: Locked Down


GreyhoundFan

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Of course he has to make it all about himself. Why does he need to go and wave the ship off? Now they have to wait for him to arrive before they can depart, all because he needs to show off and make himself look good. As if one little ship with goods is going to be enough for New York, let alone the whole freaking country.

 

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3 hours ago, AuntK said:

Can someone please explain why an obese, almost 74-year-old male in a stressful position, with poor dietary habits, little exercise, poor sleep habits, known drug user, who has been exposed to the coronavirus at least 3 times has not tested positive for COVID-19? Asking for a friend. 

Spoiler

1408499285_Trumpwhomoi.jpg.acefb463e4466630702dc13a1b16c3be.jpg

I know, I know - he probably doesn't know that much French.

 

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I'm guessing he wants to quarantine all Democratic strongholds. "Trump says he is considering quarantine of New York metro area; Cuomo says he has not been told of possibility"

Spoiler

President Trump on Saturday raised the prospect of a federally-mandated quarantine on the New York metro region later in the day, placing “enforceable” travel restrictions on people planning to leave the New York tri-state area because of the coronavirus outbreak.

But New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D), who was giving a news briefing at the same time, said he had not spoken to Trump about a potential federal quarantine. “I haven’t had those conversations,” Cuomo said when asked about Trump’s comments. “I don’t even know what that means.”

In a gaggle with reporters Saturday, Trump said he was considering the measure because New York had become a viral hot spot. He spoke to reporters again about an hour later and said governors from other states had asked him to consider it.

“Some people would like to see New York quarantined because it’s a hot spot,” Trump told reporters outside the White House before departing for an event. “I’m thinking about that right now, we might not have to do it, but there’s a possibility that sometime today we’ll do a quarantine, short-term, two weeks, on New York. Probably New Jersey. Parts of Connecticut.”

The quarantine pertains only to people leaving those areas, Trump clarified during a brief second gaggle with reporters before he boarded Air Force One to Norfolk, to see off a hospital ship filled with medical supplies headed for New York.

“We’re looking at it and we’ll be making a decision,” Trump said. “A lot of the states that aren’t infected that don’t have a big problem, they’ve asked me if I’d look at it so we’re going to look at it. It’ll be for a short period of time if we do it at all.”

He said he planned to discuss it with Cuomo “later.”

 

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I can just picture the temper tantrum, with him screaming that there has to be a way to quarantine all of Cuomo's words.

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I have a feeling I'm going to be in that quarantined area. I have a few questions, one wtf does he mean by quarantined and how is he going to enforce it? Two should I run to the liquor store now?

On a more serious note an army mobile hospital has been set up on our hospital grounds. Also it has been amazing to learn that people with 3D printers are making masks and ventilator parts and handymen and women are making shields of plexiglass. 

Now back to the liquor store question...

Edited by WiseGirl
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6 hours ago, AuntK said:

Can someone please explain why an obese, almost 74-year-old male in a stressful position, with poor dietary habits, little exercise, poor sleep habits, known drug user, who has been exposed to the coronavirus at least 3 times has not tested positive for COVID-19? Asking for a friend. 

i suspect that he has  takes the test to ealy as to be sure that it would be negative ...you know just in case others where right and he had it but still not showing symptoms...unlike his friend BoJo who was showing symptoms and had to take a  test 

Edited by Italiangirl
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So we have 39 cases in my city/municipality and 122 ventilators. 200 in the state with a state-wide shelter-in-place executive order. They plan to run out of masks before Friday, and put out an alert that they will take all unused masks - fabric, homemade, open, whatever. I know from my next door that people have been looking for them at industrial stores for months - and there's at least one guy who has boxes of them and probably won't donate them. It's so scary. 

6 hours ago, AuntK said:

Can someone please explain why an obese, almost 74-year-old male in a stressful position, with poor dietary habits, little exercise, poor sleep habits, known drug user, who has been exposed to the coronavirus at least 3 times has not tested positive for COVID-19? Asking for a friend. 

Because he pays off a doctor to say whatever he wants them to say. "Healthiest president ever" etc. 

There's also the idea that world leaders can not be sick. It goes way back to the middle ages - frail/sick/young kings didn't last long. 

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4 hours ago, clueliss said:

I wish we could say the same for Missouri

 

and heads up contact lens wearers (I’m a glasses girl)

.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Picture with a map of current Kansas cases.  

Never wanted to wear contacts in the first place.  Not comfortable with putting something directly on my eyes in any event.  Even if it's easy to do that I'd be too concerned about a mishap putting them on or taking them off. 

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10 hours ago, fraurosena said:

Quite a number of young people were fined in the Netherlands last night for holding anti-corona parties or congregating in large groups. They each received a 400 euro fine

I would say what the hell is wrong with people, but really? The level of denial is just unbelievable. Glad they were fined, hope that does make some of them think twice - obviously the risk of death, either to themselves or others, doesn't.

Then again human behaviour apparently hasn't changed much since 1664:

Edit: just found out that it's apparently from a Twitter account documenting current events in the style of Pepys. Damn. Keeping it in for the "striplings" reference!

Spoiler

ET3oAnjWkAE4g06.thumb.jpg.8a3e6b9622c43845c6159cf9383749a3.jpg

 

Edited by Ozlsn
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anyone knows how the deaths are being counted in the US? i mean are they using an Italian and spanish approach so that all those that test positive and die are counted as virus related death or a french approach so only those who dies in a hospital after a positive test are counted?

Tonight we have had a great number of recovered 1434 and now since is a week that we are more or less every day n the same number of new cases the expert start to show a moderate positive, face? hope? i don't know ho to describe it lets say that we start to hear about timing to reopen if everything goes in the right direction and the number keep going down,,

,https://lab24.ilsole24ore.com/coronavirus/en/

 

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Australian update:

Well we're over 3,600 cases (and rising). This isn't unexpected based on epidemiological modelling but still worrying. 14 deaths as of last night. Every state and territory now has confirmed cases in double figures - NSW as the most populous state had 1,617 as of last night, followed by Vic (685), QLD (625), SA (287), WA (278), ACT (71), Tas (62) and the NT (15). 

21 of the confirmed cases in Vic have no travel history or exposure to a known case, which means that community transmission is definitely happening.

There is a lot of concern about the virus spreading to remote Indigenous communities, who already have poor access to health care and who have a large number of people who are high risk. 

Meanwhile social media is going off about the "Aspen cluster" - at least 2 financially well off idiots went to Aspen, Colorado to ski, ignored the distancing protocols there, came back, ignored the request to self-isolate here for 14 days, went to any number of social events (pre-shutdown) including a cocktail party for a highly prestigious private school, then tested positive after developing symptoms - and unsurprisingly are directly responsible for quite a bit of transmission, including 2 cases in ICU. There is apparently quite a bit of outrage in their social circle - others who also went skiing have been very quick to point out they followed the guidelines and self-isolate appropriately. These two though? May find themselves shunned.

Edited by Ozlsn
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Why is this not a surprise? "Trump takes immediate step to try to curb new inspector general’s autonomy, as battle over stimulus oversight begins"

Spoiler

President Trump on Friday took a step to immediately try to curb oversight provisions in Congress’ $2 trillion coronavirus spending package, seeking to assert presidential authority over a new inspector general’s office.

The move could presage a major battle between the White House and Capitol Hill as the Trump administration moves to implement the new law.

In a White House signing statement released Friday evening, Trump called “unreasonable” the law’s mandate that a new Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery notify Congress immediately if the White House doesn’t cooperate with an audit or investigation. The new inspector general is supposed to monitor how the Treasury Department extends loans and loan guarantees to businesses, among other things.

Under the legislation, the new inspector general’s office is required to tell Congress “without delay” whenever administration officials are unreasonably withholding crucial information from investigators. But the White House signing statement said the administration will not allow the inspector general to tell Congress without “presidential supervision,” calling it a violation of executive branch authority.

“I do not understand, and my Administration will not treat, this provision as permitting the [inspector general] to issue reports to the Congress without the presidential supervision required by the Take Care Clause, Article II, section 3,” the White House statement said.

The new inspector general is supposed to be nominated by the White House and confirmed by the Senate.

The $2 trillion spending law gives the Treasury Department broad discretion in how it sets up new lending programs. Trump has signaled he wants certain industries, such as hotels and cruise ships, to have access to the taxpayer-backed funding. The Treasury Department has not said so far how it will decide who receives money and what the terms will be. Trump said Friday night that his aides would be consulting with top Wall Street executives to make some of the decisions.

The administration agreed to create the new inspector general’s office in response to Democratic lawmakers who balked at giving the Treasury Department wide latitude to disburse more than $400 billion in emergency loans to corporations, cities and states. Senate Democrats voted down the initial Senate Republican bill because of the lack of oversight measures over this pot of funding, only agreeing to approve the broader package after the inspector general’s office was added to the legislation.

On MSNBC Friday night, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) criticized Trump’s signing statement as “indicative of the difference between Democrats and Republicans when it came to this bill.” Congress will also soon establish its own panel, as allowed under law, “in real time to make sure we know where those funds are," Pelosi said.

Earlier in the week, when asked about oversight of the lending programs, Trump told reporters that “I’ll be the oversight.”

Michael R. Bromwich, former inspector general at the Justice Department, wrote on Twitter Saturday that Trump’s “signing statement threatens to undermine the authority and independence of this new IG. The Senate should extract a commitment from the nominee that Congress will be promptly notified of any Presidential/Administration interference or obstruction.”

It’s unclear what other steps Congress could take if Trump seeks to weaken the new inspector general. The nominee only needs to be confirmed with a majority in the Senate, so Republicans could attempt to push someone through without Democratic support. Democrats could attempt to file a lawsuit, but doing so would likely take months and potentially never reach a resolution, according to Steve Rosenthal, a legal expert at the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank.

Given the scale of the money involved, Congress is likely to push back against Trump’s demands for presidential oversight over the new inspector general’s office.

“Whenever the government is trying to spend this much money, we should have good transparency and good accountability to the extent that we can,” said Marc Goldwein, senior vice president at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan think tank.

 

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I think Trumpy has some type of illness besides his obvious crazy - the bronzer he wears has been applied with an abnormally heavier hand lately, his eyes have been mere slits at the daily presser. He also seems to huff and puff more than usual, I'm sure they've got him drugged up, he rambles live-action constantly, he's obviously deteriorating.

On his threat to quarantine certain states - I'm not aware of any legal authority the POTUS has to impose a quarantine. I know the CDC does, for public health reasons. A quarantine was imposed for the Spanish flu in 1918-19, but I don't believe Trump has the authority, not that that would stop him. 

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21 minutes ago, AuntK said:

I think Trumpy has some type of illness besides his obvious crazy - the bronzer he wears has been applied with an abnormally heavier hand lately, his eyes have been mere slits at the daily presser. He also seems to huff and puff more than usual, I'm sure they've got him drugged up, he rambles live-action constantly, he's obviously deteriorating.

On his threat to quarantine certain states - I'm not aware of any legal authority the POTUS has to impose a quarantine. I know the CDC does, for public health reasons. A quarantine was imposed for the Spanish flu in 1918-19, but I don't believe Trump has the authority, not that that would stop him. 

I wonder if Trump's faster decline is because the covid-19 crisis actually requires him to work, instead of taking really short days, watching Fox news, sitting around tweeting, and playing golf.

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There’s a battle brewing between the governors of New York and Rhodes Island. NY is threatening legal action because RI is stopping every car with a NY license plate and not letting them enter the state 

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"Desperate for medical equipment, states encounter a beleaguered national stockpile"

Spoiler

On Feb. 5, with fewer than a dozen confirmed novel coronavirus cases in the United States but tens of thousands around the globe, a shouting match broke out in the White House Situation Room between Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and an Office of Management and Budget official, according to three people aware of the outburst.

Azar had asked OMB that morning for $2 billion to buy respirator masks and other supplies for a depleted federal stockpile of emergency medical equipment, according to individuals familiar with the request, who spoke on the condition of anonymity about internal discussions.

The previously unreported argument turned on the request and on the budget official’s accusation that Azar had improperly lobbied Capitol Hill for money for the repository, which Azar denied, the individuals said.

The $2 billion request from HHS was cut to $500 million when the White House eventually sent Congress a supplemental budget request weeks later. White House budget officials now say the relief package enacted Friday secured $16 billion for the Strategic National Stockpile, more money than HHS had asked for.

The dispute over funding highlights tensions over a repository straining under demands from state officials. States desperate for materials from the stockpile are encountering a beleaguered system beset by years of underfunding, changing lines of authority, confusion over the allocation of supplies and a lack of transparency from the administration, according to interviews with state and federal officials and public health experts.

The stockpile holds masks, drugs, ventilators and other items in secret sites around the country. It has become a source of growing frustration for many state and hospital officials who are having trouble buying — or even locating — crucial equipment on their own to cope with the illness battering the nation.

Despite its name, it was never intended for an emergency that spans the entire nation.

“The response contains enough for multiple emergencies,” said Richard Besser, a former acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Now president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, he previously led the CDC’s Coordinating Office for Terrorism Preparedness and Emergency Response that oversaw the stockpile during Hurricane Katrina. “Multiple does not mean 50 states plus territories and, within every state, every locality.”

The federal cache has been overwhelmed by urgent requests for masks, respirators, goggles, gloves and gowns in the two months since the first U.S. case of covid-19 was confirmed. Many state officials say they do not understand the standards that determine how much they will receive.

Anecdotally, there are wide differences, and they do not appear to follow discernible political or geographic lines. Democratic-leaning Massachusetts, which has had a serious outbreak in Boston, has received 17 percent of the protective gear it requested, according to state leaders. Maine requested a half-million N95 specialized protective masks and received 25,558 — about 5 percent of what it sought. The shipment delivered to Colorado — 49,000 N95 masks, 115,000 surgical masks and other supplies — would be “enough for only one full day of statewide operations,” Rep. Scott R. Tipton (R-Colo.) told the White House in a letter several days ago.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency inherited control of the stockpile barely a week ago from HHS. Lizzie Litzow, a FEMA spokeswoman, acknowledged the agency maintains a spreadsheet tracking each state’s request and shipments. Litzow declined repeated requests to release the details, saying the numbers are in flux.

Florida has been an exception in its dealings with the stockpile: The state submitted a request on March 11 for 430,000 surgical masks, 180,000 N95 respirators, 82,000 face shields and 238,000 gloves, among other supplies — and received a shipment with everything three days later, according to figures from the state’s Division of Emergency Management. It received an identical shipment on March 23, according to the division, and is awaiting a third.
“The governor has spoken to the president daily, and the entire congressional delegation has been working as one for the betterment of the state of Florida,” said Jared Moskowitz, the emergency management division’s director. “We are leaving no stone unturned.”
President Trump repeatedly has warned states not to complain about how much they are receiving, including Friday during a White House briefing, where he advised Vice President Pence not to call governors who are critical of the administration’s response. “I want them to be appreciative,” he said.

At briefings, Trump and Pence routinely say material is being purchased for the stockpile, supplies are being shipped out and manufacturers under federal contract are ramping up supplies. On Thursday, Pence said the stockpile had shipped 9 million N95 masks and 20 million surgical masks, as well as “millions” of gloves, gowns and face shields.

But Trump and Pence also urge states to buy supplies on their own. During the March 19 briefing, Trump said governors “are supposed to be doing a lot of this work. . . . You know, we’re not a shipping clerk.”

State officials say the advice is unrealistic.

“Allowing the free market to determine availability and pricing is not the way we should be dealing with this national crisis at this time,” said Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D). “This is why we need a nationally led response.”

Leaders in the District, Maryland and Virginia say their requests for aid from the stockpile have come up short. They have been competing with their counterparts to try to buy gear on the open market.

“The federal government has the keys to the front door,” said Nirav Shah, Maine’s state health officer and director of its own Center for Disease Control and Prevention. He said the state has been scouring the country and overseas for companies that can supply protective masks. The stockpile, he said, is a critical “leg of the stool.”

Hospital industry executives agree.

“There is no [protective gear] to be bought on the private market through vendors,” said Kevin Donovan, president of Lakes Regional HealthCare, which has two hospitals in central New Hampshire. “We order but don’t have any money to pay for it,” because companies manufacturing masks and other emergency gear are demanding cash payments on delivery. Donovan said his hospitals, like others, are low on cash because they have canceled the elective procedures that are their moneymakers.

“Unless we start getting material from the national stockpile,” Donovan said, “I don’t know where we are going to get it.”

Stocking the stockpile

Severe organizational and financial challenges left the national stockpile unprepared when the novel coronavirus arrived in the United States.

The stockpile program was created at the end of the 1990s in response to terrorist events. The original goal was to be prepared for chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats. The reserve, for example, was stocked with nerve agent antidotes, stored and maintained at more than 1,300 locations around the country, where they could be accessed quickly.

In the decades since, its mission has widened to include responses to natural disasters and infectious disease threats.

Even with its expanded mission and supplies, the stockpile’s “original design and its current funding do not support responding to a nationwide pandemic disease of this severity,” said Greg Burel, who was the stockpile’s director for a dozen years before he retired in January.

The last time it was deployed on a national basis was during the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, when the stockpile distributed 85 million N95 respirators, along with millions of other masks, gowns and gloves. Afterward, trade groups and public health agencies called for the stock of masks to be replenished, but the supplies were not significantly restored, according to health-care industry and public health experts.

Officials at the CDC, which previously oversaw the stockpile, focused their annual budget of roughly $600 million over the past decade purchasing lifesaving drugs and equipment for bioterror and other attacks, rather than equipment vital in a viral pandemic.

In late 2018, the Trump administration transferred responsibility for managing the stockpile from the CDC to a different part of HHS — a controversial move resisted by the CDC that placed the stockpile under the assistant secretary for preparedness and response (ASPR). According to current and former state and federal officials, the handover was bumpy.

The CDC still oversees clinical guidance to state health departments responding to public health threats, including infectious diseases. But the stockpile’s resources are now under ASPR.

“The transition has been difficult because the left hand is not talking to the right hand,” said one state health official with more than a decade of experience in emergency preparedness, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he needs to maintain relations with ASPR.

HHS officials have sparred for more than a year with White House budget officials over money to buy more stockpile supplies.

In February 2019, the White House was planning for a presidential executive order on preparing for a potential flu pandemic. HHS requested a more than $11 billion investment over 10 years for ASPR, including $2.7 billion for “treatment and control,” according to a document read by a Washington Post reporter that said some of those funds would go toward “better protective devices, manufactured faster.”

But the executive order issued by Trump in September 2019 did not include that money.

In late January, Azar began telling OMB about the need for a supplemental budget request for stockpile supplies — and was rebuffed at a time when the White House did not yet acknowledge any supplemental money would be needed, according to several individuals familiar with the situation who spoke anonymously to discuss internal conversations.

Then came the Feb. 5 argument.

The White House official said that beyond the $500 million, money was reprogrammed by HHS that significantly boosted funds for the stockpile.

The White House official also said that, before the massive relief bill that Trump signed Friday, OMB had urged HHS to ask for more money for the emergency medical supplies.

An OMB spokesperson said Saturday, “Funding has never been a constraint on agency action in coronavirus response. . . . The president has made it clear that the federal government will throw everything we have at this.”

FEMA takes on the stockpile

In mid-March, Trump declared the coronavirus outbreak a national emergency. As a result, control of the stockpile shifted again — from HHS to FEMA.

Since then, FEMA’s administrator, Peter Gaynor, has been asked frequently how many supplies have been shipped to states and how allocation decisions are being made.

To a question about masks from ABC News on March 22, Gaynor replied, “Well, I mean, there’s hundreds of, thousands of, millions of things that we’re shipping from the stockpile. I mean, I can’t give you the details about what every single state, of what every single city’s doing.”

State officials and federal lawmakers are demanding to know.

“We don’t know how the federal government is making those decisions,” said Casey Katims, the federal liaison for Washington state, the site of the nation’s first confirmed case on Jan. 21 and of an early deadly cluster at a nursing home.

Since the state made the first of several requests — 233,000 respirators and 200,000 surgical masks — the supplies have been arriving piecemeal and without any explanation of the numbers. The state is now awaiting more, including a plea for 1,000 ventilators, and has been told 500 are en route, Katims said.

The Minnesota congressional delegation wrote on March 22 to Azar, also perplexed: “How is HHS determining which states receive certain medical supplies? When will Minnesota receive the full order of medical supplies that state officials have requested?”

The next day, the chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), sent a letter to HHS and the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees FEMA. The letter demanded to know the stockpile’s inventory of protective gear and ventilators, how much has been distributed, how the allocations are being made and how much is on order from manufacturers.

Explanations of the decision-making process have been inconsistent.

Gaynor told the homeland security committee during a conference call, according to Thompson’s letter, that states would be receiving protective gear based on each state’s population and that state needs would be factored in. The letter did not provide further detail.

While the stockpile was still under HHS as the virus began spreading in the United States, the department for the first time used a formula, according to individuals familiar with the system. Under that formula, 25 percent of a state’s requests were fulfilled based on its population and 25 percent on its number of covid-19 cases. The remaining supplies were held back so the stockpile would not be depleted.

These individuals said that, even before FEMA took over, the formula had changed again to put more emphasis on need.

Asked to explain the current process, a statement from FEMA on Wednesday said, “The allocation process of PPE (personal protective equipment) to states is now focused on meeting future demand models where patient levels are expected to strain state and local medical conditions in coming weeks.” Asked which models FEMA is relying on, Litzow said Thursday, “future modeling is mostly based off of data from HHS and CDC that is continually updated as more information about this emerging disease becomes available.”

For the coronavirus outbreak, California has asked for 20 million N95 respirators — more than the stockpile’s entire inventory, estimated at about 12 million.

California has received 358,381 N95 masks and about 1 million surgical masks and face shields, according to the governor’s office. The state is now scouting the global market. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has noted that California is in a better position because its size gives it purchasing leverage.

California officials said they welcomed FEMA’s involvement because they already had a strong working relationship with the agency after months of fighting the state’s catastrophic wildfires.

Minnesota’s manager of public health emergency preparedness, Deborah Radi, said FEMA has been clearer about stockpile deliveries than HHS. She said her state’s first shipment from the stockpile had arrived one night at 1 a.m., when the state’s warehouse to receive it was closed. When FEMA handled a more recent delivery of protective gear, she said, it alerted the state about a delay and then again when the truck was one hour away.

States continue to press their cases with federal officials. They point out the severity of the outbreak in their state, or the vulnerability of their population. As of mid-March, West Virginia had not reported a confirmed case, but it has one of the nation’s oldest populations. It received an initial shipment of slightly more than 1 percent of its request for 160,000 masks — 2,220 N95s.

Trump’s warnings for states not to complain have not subdued Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D), who has been particularly outspoken during the crisis. Illinois has received 10 percent of the N95s and surgical masks it has requested from the stockpile.

“I will continue to pound the table to get the federal government to acquire the supplies our states so critically need and allocate them accordingly,” Pritzker tweeted on Tuesday. “Lives depend upon it.”

 

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2 hours ago, AuntK said:

bronzer he wears has been applied with an abnormally heavier han

I've noticed it too and I don't usually look at him when he's on television.  What are they trying to cover up? Or does he actually think it looks good?

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20 minutes ago, AnneH said:

Good for RI.  I think that New York State should be quarantined. Nobody(except truckers) should come in or out. 

I'm uncomfortable though with vehicles being targeted just because they happen to have New York plates.  A few years back I rented a vehicle here in Iowa for a trip to Minnesota.  Car had New York plates.  Your guess is as good as mine as to when the car was actually in New York.  I've also rented cars on other occasions that had Texas license plates.  I have never been in Texas in my entire fornicating life.  Just because a car has plates on it from a certain state that doesn't automatically mean the occupants are from that state and the occupants probably didn't have a choice.  It was likely take the car with NY plates or fucking forget it.

And Joe ain't having none of Donald Fuck Face's horseshit.

 

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2 minutes ago, 47of74 said:

I'm uncomfortable though with vehicles being targeted just because they happen to have New York plates.  A few years back I rented a vehicle here in Iowa for a trip to Minnesota.  Car had New York plates.  Your guess is as good as mine as to when the car was actually in New York.  I've also rented cars on other occasions that had Texas license plates.  I have never been in Texas in my entire fornicating life.  Just because a car has plates on it from a certain state that doesn't automatically mean the occupants are from that state and the occupants probably didn't have a choice.  It was likely take the car with NY plates or fucking forget it.

And Joe ain't having none of Donald Fuck Face's horseshit.

 

If someone is driving a rental I’m sure if they get pulled over and explain they’ll be allowed to go home to RI if they live there.

There will always be exceptions to every rule, that shouldn’t keep people from making rules if they make sense the vast majority of time.

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2 hours ago, WiseGirl said:

I've noticed it too and I don't usually look at him when he's on television.  What are they trying to cover up? Or does he actually think it looks good?

Whoever is doing it is probably trying to create the illusion that Trump is in good health. Even though we all know that tanning is bad for you, many still prefer the look of at least a light tan, which is what Trump's orange is trying to simulate.

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So Queensland (Australia) had local government elections yesterday. There was an unprecedented number of postal votes, prepolls had extended hours, people were encouraged to bring their own pencil, hand sanitizer was on hand and queues were spaced, but obviously many people were still uncomfortable voting. This is a country where voting is compulsory, so it will be interesting to see whether they actually do fine anybody for not voting or waive the rule given the circumstances. I’ll also be interested to see the eventual figures on turnout.

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5 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

On Feb. 5, with fewer than a dozen confirmed novel coronavirus cases in the United States

 

5 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

The $2 billion request from HHS was cut to $500 million when the White House eventually sent Congress a supplemental budget request weeks later. White House budget officials now say the relief package enacted Friday secured $16 billion

That just sums up this Administration. Seriously, $2 billion on Feb 5th - let's say Feb 19th to get it through Congress, and Feb 26th to get the orders starting to come in, or $16 billion to chase the horse back into the barn. 

Seriously I'm starting to think the best way to get Trumps approval would have been to include a line saying that incoming cases would be quarantined at Trump hotels.

And now, instead of a coherent national strategy for buying and distributing essential items you have states outbidding each other like separate nations. I am seriously wondering if this is the beginning of the end of the Union - if there is no federal strategy then why stay together?  Yes, I am possibly overreacting, but if there is no national coherency, leadership and organisation in the face of a national disaster, then will there be for the next one either?  I don't think it has ever been just so apparent how utterly, totally destructive to the Union Trump and all his enablers have been.

Edited by Ozlsn
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5 hours ago, AnneH said:

Good for RI.  I think that New York State should be quarantined. Nobody(except truckers) should come in or out. 

It's one of those things that I think could and probably should be negotiated and announced by both governors - and things like who has exemptions, who is policing it, and other details worked out by both states beforehand. We have closed borders here, and it's been a bit of a schmozzle - people who live in SA but work in Vic, or who bought cows in SA and were transporting them back to Vic were left confused about how to get exemptions - or who was actually enforcing it.

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11 hours ago, Audrey2 said:

I wonder if Trump's faster decline is because the covid-19 crisis actually requires him to work, instead of taking really short days, watching Fox news, sitting around tweeting, and playing golf.

Is this the longest he has gone without taking a golf vacation since being president? It feels like it is. Trump is having to actually do some work, he is being slammed with ads that use his words against him and he can't rush to have the rallies he desperately needs to keep his ego going. He doesn't even need the virus to start declining because these things alone have to be sending him on a downward spiral. 

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