One small good thing:
"I've heard from a number of shelters who actually say they've got a backlog of up to a thousand volunteer foster homes on a list, waiting for animals to take care of." https://t.co/H6sWzLmAMi
— ABC News (@ABC) April 5, 2020
Lab workers are unseen warriors fighting the coronavirus. https://t.co/hn0zNadxLh
— ABC News (@ABC) April 5, 2020
Experts and health officials who are battling the coronavirus outbreak are missing a critical piece of information: the number of health care workers who have tested positive for the disease. https://t.co/fe2HX2atwj
— AP West Region (@APWestRegion) April 5, 2020
That literally all of the healthcare workers are infected at this point and the ones still working are just the ones who don't show symptoms is blatantly obvious but nobody wants to talk about it. https://t.co/iyD6omz6bB
— Galar Regional Medical Director (@weedlewobble) April 3, 2020
The fact that warnings about COVID 19 was in the PDB is a smoking gun. https://t.co/1p9O0zsOsZ
— Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) April 4, 2020
My team spent last week trying to understand how the Administration is or isn't directing the medical equipment supply chain.
Our conclusion: it's a total, complete, absolute clusterf**k.
No one is in charge. No one knows the rules. No one knows where the supplies are.
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) April 4, 2020
Intense global demand to get protective equipment for doctors and nurses on the front lines of the coronavirus battle is prompting states and hospitals to compete against themselves in a shady marketplace where prices are soaring. https://t.co/jEZrA6lq71
— The Associated Press (@AP) April 4, 2020
Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland asked his Korean immigrant wife to appeal to South Korean officials for help in combatting coronavirus. They agreed to send tests. ?@jestei? https://t.co/BkxV5FE12v
— Mark Landler (@MarkLandler) April 4, 2020
Asked about people who are still gathering in groups, Pritzker says they're either not paying attention to the news or "they're stupid."
They're putting themselves and their loved ones in danger. https://t.co/7ZR4vprS7W
— Amanda Vinicky (@AmandaVinicky) April 4, 2020
This is where we're at in buying PPE.
An Illinois official sped on a highway to get to a meet-up in a McDonald's parking lot, where she handed off a $3.4 MILLION CHECK to buy N95 masks from China with 20 minutes to spare, beating other bidders. https://t.co/267fo2kpUA
— Nader Issa (@NaderDIssa) April 4, 2020
New York state now has almost as many cases as the whole of Italy https://t.co/idSTwOQycV
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) April 4, 2020
The department, which operates in the most populous city in the state that has the third most COVID-19 cases in the country, has a total of over 500 officers quarantined and 114 civilians and officers test positive for the virus. https://t.co/LvwKbXqSDI
— ABC News (@ABC) April 5, 2020
"We've seen grown men cry," Jeremy Katz said. "They're appreciative because there's none around. I've had emails and Facebook requests from nurses across the country begging for one of them because they're afraid to go to work." https://t.co/vsNZGvfMwD
— CNN (@CNN) April 4, 2020
Intense global demand to get protective equipment for doctors and nurses on the front lines of the coronavirus battle is prompting states and hospitals to compete against themselves in a shady marketplace where prices are soaring. https://t.co/YgysxzIS6t
— ABC News (@ABC) April 4, 2020
“The system that the federal government has put in place is not working, plain and simple. It's not adequate.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says a military leader needs to be in charge of fixing the supply shortage during the coronavirus pandemic. https://t.co/RQZRWylMLy pic.twitter.com/TKqo5Y7Urg
— CNN (@CNN) April 4, 2020
US customers of medical supplies — masks, PPE, ventilators — were VERY late to put in orders relative to overseas customers. Today, American manufacturers are having to balance foreign customers who put orders in early and US customers who put in orders late. 1/7
— Tony Fratto (@TonyFratto) April 3, 2020
In the meantime — TODAY — the best solution is to coordinate the delivery of scarce resources to the acute crisis regions while also increasing production. I’m not a logistics expert, but it seems like better allocation if resources is still possible with federal leadership. 6/7
— Tony Fratto (@TonyFratto) April 3, 2020
State’s coronavirus testing to now include asymptomatic residents https://t.co/vtsiB9rXiv #HNN
— Hawaii News Now (@HawaiiNewsNow) April 5, 2020
Authorities are seeking to secure additional body storage wherever possible as U.S. officials estimate the death toll from the coronavirus could reach as high as 240,000. It’s a crisis being repeated worldwide. https://t.co/hgXletRcuP
— The Associated Press (@AP) April 4, 2020
America's armed services are finding it harder to bring in new recruits as the worsening coronavirus forces families and communities to hunker down, even as the country turns increasingly to the military for help. https://t.co/9XuvtcwRAI
— The Associated Press (@AP) April 4, 2020
The coronavirus pandemic has challenged Christian churches to find socially distant ways to launch Holy Week on Palm Sunday https://t.co/G6DLhLwP7I
— CNN (@CNN) April 4, 2020
The US states which still aren't on coronavirus lockdown, mapped https://t.co/fjZ9MjXsBz
— The Independent (@Independent) April 4, 2020
Eight US governors have decided against issuing statewide directives urging their residents to stay at home as the outbreak of the coronavirus escalates and spreads across the country, the last holdouts in the nation. https://t.co/8pKkZdNE13
— CNN (@CNN) April 4, 2020
Georgia governor put Tybee Island back in the beach business — whether the town liked it or not https://t.co/tXB6WR5juB
— CNN (@CNN) April 4, 2020
A pair of US data companies are making a public pitch by tracking the location data from the phones of people who visited the beach in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, in March https://t.co/52r3uv9NcG
— CNN (@CNN) April 4, 2020
Sean Penn's nonprofit team plans to run three of Los Angeles' six testing sites. https://t.co/k7we5TnpIk
— ABC News (@ABC) April 5, 2020
The Coral Princess cruise ship docked at Flordia's PortMiami with two guests dead and several others ill from Covid-19 after an weekslong search for a port that would let passengers leave https://t.co/g88XCUzik7
— CNN (@CNN) April 5, 2020
Mary G
Shit’s getting real.
rikyrah
Thanks for the information
low-tech cyclist
People are dying NOW, and will continue to die in the coming days and weeks, because Trump is not only failing to do even what a replacement-level President would do, but also because he and Ken-doll Kushner are actively making things worse.
We shouldn’t have to wait until January 20 to have a new President. We need one NOW.
Where are the calls for Trump’s resignation? Where are the calls for the Cabinet to invoke the 25th?
The House must impeach Trump, NOW. No hearings would be needed, just a list of everything Trump has left undone that should be done, and everything he’s doing to make things worse.
Then vote and give the Senate one more chance to remove him. If they don’t, the blood is on the hands of the Republicans who vote to keep him in office.
mrmoshpotato
Yes, he actually said this, and it was beautiful.
mrmoshpotato
In Hawaii. NotMax is gonna want to put on long pants for this one.
OzarkHillbilly
Misery goes into lock down tomorrow.
mrmoshpotato
Iowa has no shelter-in-place order? Can we just burn that white-ass state to the ground already?
OzarkHillbilly
The blood is already on their hands.
low-tech cyclist
@OzarkHillbilly: Better late than never, but still, dayum.
Sure, Missouri is the ‘Show-Me’ state, but hadn’t they been shown enough weeks ago??
mrmoshpotato
@low-tech cyclist: I believe Senator Warren has told him to lead or get out of the way.
25th hahament!
More blood on Russthuglican hands.
low-tech cyclist
@OzarkHillbilly: Yeah, but it’s not going to work to tell voters the blood is on their hands because they didn’t remove Trump over the Ukraine stuff.
There should be a Senate vote on removing Trump because Americans are dying on account of him, right here, right while the Senate is voting about it.
Make it as simple and direct as possible for the voters.
bemused
Every time I see the map of non-lockdown states, I start grinding my teeth. Most of my state, MN, is bordered by ND, SD and Iowa who have brain dead governors.
low-tech cyclist
@mrmoshpotato: Sure, the 25th isn’t going to happen. But I remember how editorial boards across America called for Clinton to resign over l’affaire Lewinsky. What I’m asking re calls for resignation/25th is, why are they silent now? Why are they not calling for one or the other of these to happen?
OzarkHillbilly
Well, some of us had, maybe even most, just not the ones in Jeff City.
mrmoshpotato
@low-tech cyclist: Hmmmmm…….Bill Clinton (D).
Hmmmmm……??????
???????
OzarkHillbilly
@low-tech cyclist: There are a number of reasons for not doing it, the #1 reason being the electoral backlash that would come of “wasting time trying to remove trump again (7 months before an election) while America is fighting a pandemic.” The ads write themselves.
DEMs should have no problem focusing the voters anger where it belongs in November.
JAFD
Good morning, Jackals !
6:15 here in Newark. Going out in an hour or so, get groceries (Man does not live by bread alone, but it’s awfully hard to make a sandwich without it.), wearing winter scarf over face. Scarf will be tossed in hot wash tomorrow. Then to tear up old Tshirts, I guess.
Feeling lethargic this past week. Part spring fever, part depression, part ‘no deadlines, nothing but waiting’. Sleeping and waking out of synch with world. Got first stage of one project finished, anyway, sent out for review a few minutes ago.
Hope y’all are staying healthy and happy, or at least reasonably so.
mrmoshpotato
@JAFD: Balloon Juice doesn’t have a resident ninja – as far as we know.
JAFD
Some nights, trying to get to sleep, angel on right shoulder says “You should be out helping in this crisis, volunteer for something.” Angel on left shoulder says “You’re almost 70, had a heart attack, you should put the experience gained in your (brief) career in the dairy business to use …
… and just stay out of everybody’s whey.” ;-)
mrmoshpotato
@JAFD: Right shoulder angel walks over to left shoulder angel and administers a hearty slap.
New Deal democrat
Now that about 95% of the US population is under “stay at home” orders, aside from procuring the necessary equipment, the next task for the States (since Trump will never act) is to develop “test, trace, and quarantine” strategies a la South Korea. Massachusetts became the first to start development on Friday.
Some good news on the testing front: over 200,000 tests were performed Friday. This is at least getting close to the number currently needed to get ahead of the virus.
satby
@JAFD:
I think a lot of us are in that situation JAFD. I figure I should just roll with it and take naps if I need them.
And I think it’s really hard for a lot of us older volunteer types to realize that the best help we can provide in this crisis is to stay out of harm’s way at home, because if we get sick we will add to the overburdened health care system and potentially expose some health care workers too. Take care of yourself this time, you’ll be around later to help after the crisis has eased a bit and we’ll need all hands on deck for the election.
mrmoshpotato
@New Deal democrat: Along with building 50 different rockets for firing Trump trash into the Sun on January 21.
New Deal democrat
I found an excellent interactive graphic tool, at 91-divot dot com. You can measures cases, new cases, deaths etc by country and by State in the US. The West Coast States and Alaska and Hawaii look like they are close to turning the corner. By contrast, the East Coast megalopolis is in bad shape.
WereBear
@mrmoshpotato: I’m sure Steve qualifies. He is a cat.
Shalimar
I am fascinated to see what the PDBs look like now. We already know from leaks his first year in office that Trump has the attention span of a fruit fly and can’t sit still for more than a page or two of material. Are they just bullet points with pictures?
I’m thinking we will spend the next few weeks wondering what they told him only to find out the entire mention is just “* coronavirus may be bad”.
WereBear
I’m sure they are pop-up books now.
low-tech cyclist
@OzarkHillbilly: There would be no electoral backlash. For one thing, the answers are too easy: the states were fighting the epidemic, but Trump continued to be AWOL. And wasting time? Yeah, maybe a few hours total, unless the GOP drags it out in the Senate.
The Democratic ads write themselves: Trump didn’t do anything to fight the epidemic: he blamed the states, then stole medical equipment from the states and handed it to profiteers who turned around and bilked the states. We tried to replace him with Mike Pence, but your Senator stood in the way, and now X thousand Americans are dead.
WereBear
@low-tech cyclist: While I agree with you… it’s not going to happen.
Like it or not, we have to give him enough rope to hang himself. I am, however, soothed by the Truman-style commission, which will document every single mis-step for possible action down the road.
“Gross incompetence” not being a term we can take action about, and Republicans still clinging to their mistakes because their ideology does not allow them admitting to them.
Even during the Great Depression Hoover wasn’t impeached for following the same dictum: let the free market sort this out.
Andrew Johnston
Reporting again from your future:
Everything is normal, and everything is strange. I was able to get out this weekend and the last – get a little pizza, get a haircut, meet a friend, the usual. Most businesses are now open. That’s the normal part.
The weird part comes from the health code I was complaining about some time back. In theory, everyone should have one, even foreigners. In practice, many of us are having a hard time getting one. It wasn’t an issue until today, because I guess I’ve been going exclusively to places that don’t require it. Thing is, I’m not sure why some places need it and others don’t. Today, I saw two tea shops that faced each other, no more than 30 feet apart. One required the code, the other didn’t.
Main concern now is trying to suss out my legal status. My visa expires next month, and while I should be able to get an extension, I’m not sure what the process will look like since I don’t even know where I’ll be working. I can’t leave the country, and I’m not sure if I can stay, either.
low-tech cyclist
I’m fine with giving him enough rope to hang himself. I’m not so cool with letting him have all the rope he wants to hang thousands of other people.
I think it’s incumbent on the House Democrats to do what they can to try to stop the latter, regardless of the politics of it, and regardless of the near-zero likelihood of success.
Maybe I’m weird, but that seems obvious to me.
low-tech cyclist
This IS a good site, but the URL is 91-divoc.com (COVID-19 spelled backwards).
My brain would have tried to turn it into ‘divot’ too. :-)
Ken
So I heard from my relatives there. I said it was nice of the governor to give everyone one last weekend to have parties, go to church, and lick strangers’ faces on the street.
(OK, not everyone – Missouri cities and counties have been locking down on an individual basis for weeks. But Missouri has over a hundred counties, and an awful lot of them are run by idiots.)
Uncle Cosmo
@Andrew Johnston: For the benefit of those of us who don’t keep extensive data bases of Juicers’ locations (culled from those rare instances where anyone here slips up & mentions a location more specific than the planet s/he inhabits) – where are you that you can actually get a haircut?? I have resigned myself to either learning how to tie back an oldnagtail (the geezer version of a ponytail) or ordering a Flowbee for delivery. EIther is more appalling than appealing.
Ken
@Andrew Johnston: Remind me where you are?
On cracked.com a few days ago, they had a “weird things caused by coronavirus” series. There’s a clothing store that straddles the Belgium-Netherlands border (might be Baarle-Hertog which is famous that way). One country’s locked down, the other isn’t – so you can shop in half the store, but can’t buy items that are shelved in the other half.
Andrew Johnston
@low-tech cyclist:
Except there’s no evidence that Americans are blaming this on Trump. See, for example, here and here – the only people mad at Trump are the ones who were already angry with him, and we don’t really need to win them over. A quixotic impeachment effort (for which there would be no Constitutionally valid basis – Trump saying he doesn’t think COVID-19 is a big deal is not a “high crime,” no matter how much juvenile hyperbole you employ) wouldn’t endear anyone to the Dems, unless you honestly think a bunch of people scared for their lives are really eager to see political news over health news.
Andrew Johnston
@Uncle Cosmo: @Ken: Anhui province (hence my comment about writing from your future)
scribbler
@low-tech cyclist: Thank you for this correction! I really wanted to see this information but couldn’t figure out how to get there.
JAFD
Hello again !
The citizenry of Newark had a powerful cravin’ for chocolate chip cookies this weekend, bought out the store. Also lentils, rice, dry beans, flour & cornmeal. Otherwise OK food supplies. Lots of TP, but again, odd brand, not cheap. No ‘sale flyer’ this week, so effectively prices up. Gotta figure that store has more expenses. Also lots people, usually working, eat out lunch, three meals day at home…
Hours now 8am-7pm (8pm city curfew – wake up in dark thirties seems eerily quiet) Limiting number in store, went right in at 7:45, about 8 people waiting at 8:15
Was sunshine when walking over nd back, now clouded over.
Stay well, wash your hands !
New Deal democrat
@low-tech cyclist: Thanks. I blame autocorrect. “Divoc?!? What’s divoc??? You must mean “divot,” the golfing term….”
Uncle Cosmo
@Andrew Johnston: Xièxiè.
.
Fair Economist
@New Deal democrat:
Unfortunately, not anymore. Based both on estimates of ascertainment bias and on the past number of infected needed for known deaths, we currently have millions of infected, which means hundreds of thousands infected every day. To get ahead, you have to be able to trace at least all close contacts of the newly infected, which means millions of tests per day.
A few weeks ago it would have been enough, but we didn’t have it then because Trump.
Kirk Spencer
I’m lucky. My wife has been cutting my hair for almost 30 years now.
It helps that I like my male pattern fringe short.
Kirk Spencer
Because gigo, I’m treating national covid numbers with skepticism.
Officially Texas has 6110 cases and 105 deaths. In other words in a state with city and county but no statewide lockdowns the state has less than 1% death rate.
The total is also less than the sum of what the threeajuor high pop areas are reporting. That’s greater Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, and San Antonio.
New Deal democrat
@Fair Economist: Upon closer loook, the big surge in tests yesterday was because most of the 60,000 backlog in “pending” tests was cleared.
Germany and Italy stopped their increase with a lower # of tests per capita than South Korea, but in the latter case with the big caveat that they only had to intensively test in the Lombardy region.
Yes, the next step is for States (because Trump won’t act) to implement “test, trace, and quarantine” regimens. Only Massachusetts has started to gear up.
A Ghost to Most
@Andrew Johnston: I’ve been reading stories of American overlanders caught up in countries all over the world. Many are stuck at border crossings, unable to cross or move through the country they find themselves in, often facing animus.
sdhays
@low-tech cyclist: I think the House can investigate and publicize the awful details of the abject failure that is Donald Dump’s Administration, but impeachment is too slow and doomed to failure. The election is our only hope.
I do think that Democrats, not necessarily Schumer or Pelosi, need to start the conversation about how Dump really should resign over his “handling” of this crisis. He’ll never do it, but every moment he’s lashing out over it and his surrogates are focused on protecting him is time away from doing other destructive things.
SFAW
@sdhays:
In addition, he’ll probably ratchet up the crazy to 15 (he passed 11 a long time ago), and (I hope) that would cause more “give me a good reason to vote for Biden” numbnutses to become revulsed/scared of the Murderer-in-Chief.
Kirk Spencer
And last point about Texas (sorry, there are other good conversations here but want these in the Jackal file), Texas DHS reports there have been 63751 tests conducted.
Yes, test-trace-quarantine would be good. But it’s a long way from happening in Texas, even with the threat of Louisiana right next door.
Miss Bianca
@low-tech cyclist: “liberal media”, my left hind cheek.
A Ghost to Most
If you are watching Cuomo, the quintessential NY state – NYC paradigm was on display. The city takes what it needs, and gives what it doesn’t.
piratedan
anecdotally…. from everything I can gather from our daily briefings, the social distancing policies and shutdown of group gatherings and locking down the state has prevented our hospitals from being washed away in a tsunami of cases. Are we still getting folks showing up, yes… are the majority of the ICU beds (that have modified to double the amount of beds) occupied… no (most of them are, but not ALL of them). We’ve managed to avoid sticking people in hallways and the monetary resources that surround healthcare (elective surgery, OP testing from physician visits and health care maintenance) are going to hurt the “bottom line” but we think we’re past the “crisis time”.
still, there are fallout issues, trying to get the reports of data, extrapolating statistics into the hands of those who make calls on state and national trends is still a concern. What I can’t tell you is if the state is even tracking negatives or only positives and how they are tracking former negatives who have turned to positives and where those people are and who is being tapped for studies to check on antibody presence and the like. That is STILL quite haphazard at this point.
ziggy
@sdhays: The best thing for everyone is if Trump would just appoint a competent general to run the whole Covid situation, and then just completely step aside. Disappear for the remainder of his sad term. Which I think he is probably constitutionally incapable of doing. I have no energy and appetite for, thus I doubt the country has an appetite for, any more political drama.
Robby-D
Thank-you for continuing to post these every day, they’re extremely helpful!
joel hanes
The policies of the Trump maladministration are deliberately designed to maximize the opportunities for profiteering, off which the Trumps and their allies can grift.
joel hanes
@mrmoshpotato:
My liberal mother and sisters, residents in Iowa, thank you for your concern.
James E Powell
@low-tech cyclist:
Because they generally like Republicans (taxes, corporate power) and specifically love Trump (produces hot news every day).
Every time we are asking someone else to do something we are wasting time and effort. Register. Get everyone you know registered. Get mail or absentee ballots. Get ready. Vote.
J R in WV
@piratedan:
And, because we are all anonymous nyms who do NOT report their locations, we know nothing constructive from your otherwise helpful comment.
Help us out when you provide information about how things are going in your neck of the woods — tell us generally where you are… west coast, even, or a state name.
tokyokie
@low-tech cyclist: While I was there long, long ago earning my bachelor of journalism degree from UMC, I liked to refer to it as the “Show Me I’m Too Stupid to Understand an Oral Explanation State.” It remains apropos.
piratedan
@J R in WV: sorry JR, forgot that not everyone maintains a map full of color coded pushpins tracking jackal handles with their snippets of personal information like I do… I’m living in Tucson, supporting hospitals in the state of Washington…