Trump on March 6 on testing: "Anybody that wants a test can get a test."
Trump TODAY on a nationwide testing system: "Do you need it? No. Is it a nice thing to do? Yes. We're talking 325 million people. That's not going to happen, as you can imagine."
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) April 9, 2020
For the “it’s just like the flu” crowd: Coronavirus is now the leading cause of death each day in the United States. pic.twitter.com/3ivH7e2qrk
— Tim Hogan (@timjhogan) April 9, 2020
"Speak the truth. Speak it clearly. Speak it with compassion." Former US Pres. Obama gave some advice to a group of mayors on how to deal with coronavirus concerns, saying that "the biggest mistake any (of) us can make in these situations is to misinform" https://t.co/qs5itXEBJ3
— CNN International (@cnni) April 10, 2020
“social distancing was unnecessary” is the new “why should we vaccinate against diseases nobody gets any longer?” https://t.co/kgB2Rwi4W8
— Daniel Summers (@WFKARS) April 9, 2020
Coronavirus is now the leading cause of death in the US. If you still think #COVIDー19 is just like the flu, you are either stupid or part of a cult.
Don’t be stupid or part of a cult.
Practice social distancing. Lives are at stake. https://t.co/EOAafiQN1S
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) April 10, 2020
The coronavirus is now projected to kill as many people in a few weeks as the flu did in a particularly nasty *year* even though we put the entire United States on lockdown to slow it down, and that is apparently now the rallying cry of the corona contrarians https://t.co/CDg3bqZbiR
— Tom Gara (@tomgara) April 9, 2020
It feels a little crude and conspiratorial to assume: fewer testing sites -> fewer confirmed cases -> fewer official deaths -> greater "victory" over COVID.
But this kind of thinking is literally why we are in this catastrophe, and Trump set his "death" goalposts for a reason. https://t.co/BmCU3LoV7b
— subscribe to my newsletter (@brianbeutler) April 9, 2020
By far the smartest piece I've read yet on #COVID19 vaccines by a brilliant writer specializing in epidemics @marynmck. A glimpse at history shows it's not simply find vaccine->give vaccine. “The last, awful act of any pandemic, is amnesia.” A must read: https://t.co/y1IyhR3jAA
— Amy Maxmen (@amymaxmen) April 8, 2020
Outrageous. https://t.co/c7hm4hOATs
— Susan Rice (@AmbassadorRice) April 10, 2020
Study finds evidence that the first COVID-19 cases in New York City originated in Europe and occurred as early as February. https://t.co/NRkxQNakxD
— ABC News (@ABC) April 10, 2020
As I've said before, the China travel ban was a Maginot Line – it provided a false sense of security that diverted attention from the real vulnerabilities. Instead of ramping up early testing, hospital preparedness, etc, the USG held up a leaky sieve. https://t.co/B3zOnYRJfc
— Jeremy INVEST IN PUBLIC HEALTH Konyndyk (@JeremyKonyndyk) April 9, 2020
Read @jessicacweiss + @jerometenk sharp reminder that focusing on China's #COVID19 numbers and transparency is only part of the story in explaining the pandemic spread:https://t.co/zPCa9OIQX3
— Courtney J. Fung (@CourtneyFung) April 9, 2020
"The president has not, as Pence claimed, 'suspended all travel from China.' There is no 'travel ban' from China. And even today, travel from China to the United States continues for Americans and some foreign citizens."@thedispatch breaks it down. https://t.co/9OqNh7KXRP
— Will Saletan (@saletan) April 9, 2020
More bodies are being buried in trenches like this in Hart Island off the Bronx as New York's #coronavirus death toll rises.
New York reported its deadliest day on Thursday with 824 deaths in one day. More @business: https://t.co/Nwej6yY6VE #coronavirusoutbreak pic.twitter.com/LNmp33mC2A
— QuickTake by Bloomberg (@QuickTake) April 10, 2020
Did Ohio get it right? The state intervened in the coronavirus pandemic, and its medical systems prepared, earlier than most. Now its numbers are much lower than comparably-sized, nearby states. @LennyMBernstein: https://t.co/T0XOABMorv
— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) April 9, 2020
2. More demographic information from California on their #Covid19 cases. pic.twitter.com/YLh1a9uV5v
— Helen Branswell (@HelenBranswell) April 9, 2020
Two weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal editorial page praised Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for not shutting down the state, which had about 2,300 cases. In the 14 days since then, Florida's cases have risen seven-fold https://t.co/cw6IplZhAH
— Daniel Gross (@grossdm) April 9, 2020
Opinion: Without mass testing, we’re flying blind through this crisis https://t.co/Umftlfqw25
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) April 10, 2020
The TSA screened just 97k air passengers on Tuesday. The last time only 97k people traveled by air in the United States: 1954. https://t.co/aNfbWKzCAV
— Reid Wilson (@PoliticsReid) April 9, 2020
Rational choice theory had a good run. https://t.co/hB320lMnFn
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) April 10, 2020
People want to keep doing what they enjoy. And quite possibly some of these bookings are more about present cabin fever than actual future trips. (But I’m bitterly reminded of the righteous individuals who greeted the AIDS crisis by saying, Well, those people could just stop having sex, couldn’t they?)
… In the last 45 days, CruiseCompete.com, an online cruise marketplace, has seen a 40% increase in bookings for 2021 compared with 2019, said Heidi M. Allison, president of the company. Only 11% of the bookings are from people whose 2020 trips were canceled, she said…
In an analysis of the cruise industry, Swiss banking giant UBS wrote that cruise booking volume for 2021 was up 9% in the last 30 days compared with the same time last year.
The UBS report, issued March 31, said the bookings for 2021 cruise trips included people using their credit for canceled sailings but added that volume “still shows a surprising resilience in desire to book a cruise.”
AAA has also noticed an increase in cruise bookings beyond the numbers attributed to people rebooking canceled trips, said Paula Twidale, a senior vice president at AAA Travel…
“We are optimistic that once this crisis is behind us, travel will rebound quickly, which bodes well for 2021,” she said.
An online poll of more than 4,600 cruise passengers found that about 75% said they plan to either resume taking cruises at the same frequency as before or more often once the coronavirus crisis subsides, according to CruiseCritic.com, a cruise review site…
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, international cruise lines have had outbreaks — primarily of the extremely contagious norovirus, which causes gastrointestinal problems — nine to 12 times a year for the last five years. But the nearly 130,000 passengers sickened during those outbreaks represent a tiny fraction of the 74 million people that took cruises during that period…
It’s much much more than that….so many haven’t been able to file or don’t qualify https://t.co/RKac3kkvol
— Yashar Ali ? (@yashar) April 9, 2020
I bet most readers don’t know this, but…
… media outlets are scrambling to cover coronavirus and readership is very high, but advertisers are specifically blocking corona-adjacency so revenue is collapsing. https://t.co/OfV1e3dFsu
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) April 9, 2020
The US now spends > $11,000 per person/year for healthcare.
How much of that is for public health?
**$245**https://t.co/XO0oBWQE2a @Newsweek by @ehbvassar pic.twitter.com/CAglJngFQt— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) April 8, 2020
rikyrah
Thanks for the info
rikyrah
Until we start testing like South Korea and Germany, we can’t re-open for business.?
rikyrah
Lord have mercy ???
rikyrah
Trying to cover his lying, incompetent azz decision to allow Spring Break on Florida’s beaches ???
rikyrah
???
Amir Khalid
@rikyrah:
At his daily Covid-19 press conference a few minutes ago, my country’s director-general of health mentioned that one of the latest deaths was of a 23-year-old woman. I find it implausible that no young adults in the US have died of Covid-19.
Kirk Spencer
So I’m going to predict a second, larger size he that starts about two weeks after various governor’s and mayor’s are forced to lift restrictions. The reason it’ll be larger is all the idiots saying the forecasts were wrong and fighting or ignoring the reestablishment of restrictions
Assuming may 1 lift that’s a summer of death.
Amir Khalid
Has anybody seen this?
Singapore’s education ministry stopped using Zoom after hackers took over a geography lesson and started showing porn and making lewd remarks to the children.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Amir Khalid: I guess Baud is having a bit of cabin fever.
Rusty
@rikyrah: Even if this was true (which it’s not), young people never, ever, ever interact with older people. Ever. What an asshole.
YY_Sima Qian
NYC digging trenches to temporarily bury bodies… I remember Iran doing something like that. The trenches on Hart Island can probably be seen by satellite, too.
Why are people so opposed to cremation? That could ease the storage issue.
WereBear
@Rusty: Oh, governor of Florida is indeed a Florida Man.
WereBear
@YY_Sima Qian:
Like so many US problems, religion and people afraid of doing anything different from the way it has been done for generations.
Kristine
Given the short convo about Instacart in a downstream thread, it’s so good to note that assholes gonna asshole no matter the circumstances: People are luring Instacart shoppers with big tips — and then changing them to zero
sdhays
@Amir Khalid: I remember reading a week or two ago about a 17 year old dying in LA from COVID-19. Of course, I also seem to recall that he was without health insurance, so our medical “system” is partially responsible for killing him as well. Maybe that makes it “not count”.
Denali
Thanks for the info. The Wired article on the history of vaccines was especially informative. Can’t imagine the current administration handling any vaccine production and administration effectively. Look at how we botched the simple supply of PPE and ventilators. Why do they want to kill us all?
Tenar Arha
@YY_Sima Qian: It’s a very big deal refusing to be buried & being cremated in Judaism. A lot of Jewish cemeteries have strict rules about who can be buried in them. I couldn’t put a marker for my father in the cemetery where my mother was buried because he insisted on cremation & my brother & I honored his wishes.
Of course it’s not unheard of to have a marker wo a body, like if a person is lost at sea you can receive dispensation for a marker. If this goes on, there will likely be dispensations bc we’ll run out of room for temporary burials in some places.
MoCA Ace
@Kristine:
So reading the article it looks like Instacart does not “steal” the tips but gives them to the employee (sorry, “private contractor”)? I want to use the service but no F’n way if the company is keeping even a penny of my tip.
And Instacart employees need a rating system where they can score the customer… maybe that would fix those shitheads.
Ohio Mom
YY Sima Quian: It may be that the US does not have enough crematoria capacity, in addition to the cultural reasons for sticking to burial, even mass ones. Obviously we don’t even have enough capacity for traditional American funerals.
What a mess it will be if later on, if/when families want to disinter their loved ones from Hart Island and give them a “proper” burial in the family plot. I assume someone is keeping rough records of who is buried where.
Another random thought: med schools might be facing a shortage of cadavers for anatomy classes. I doubt they are going to be accepting COVID19 bodies for safety reasons.
Ohio Mom
Instacart is a miserable company to work for. Ohio Son did a short stint with them last year. Ridiculously high quotas for how many items in how much time.
Neldob
@YY_Sima Qian: also it is very energy inefficient.
Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]
@YY_Sima Qian: So one of the reasons why people are being buried in trenches like this is because the local death industry is currently overwhelmed, and they have run out of standard and emergency storage.
Second, as far a cremation is concerned, American cremation uses specialized equipment with limited capacity.
Here is where I got most of this information from a kick-ass woman Caitlin Doughty who is a licensed mortician and author.
Here is her video dealing with how to treat bodies in mass death situations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qq6_xujk-fI
YY_Sima Qian
Yeah, lack of cremation capacity would be a big issue. Chinese culture placed huge importance on burying the whole body, which is why traditionally emperors would grant honored officials sentenced to death to suicide by poison, while the hated ones would be decapitated or torn to pieces. However, on Mainland China cremation has become the overwhelming majority method of disposal of the deceased, through government regulation of cemeteries, did not want to “waste” valuable arable land for burial grounds.
During the approximately three weeks of the height of the epidemic in Wuhan, the city had to bring in “volunteers” from neighboring cities and provinces to staff the three major crematoriums in the urban area, and run them around the clock, to keep up…