Speech said to have been written by Jared Kushner and Stephen Miller. Theme said to be “not my fault.”
You may applaud now.
This post is in: COVID-19 Coronavirus, Dolt 45
Speech said to have been written by Jared Kushner and Stephen Miller. Theme said to be “not my fault.”
You may applaud now.
This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., COVID-19 Coronavirus, Excellent Links
First, some good news:
UPDATED w/ @mikedebonis @seungminkim House moves toward quick vote on Democratic coronavirus package https://t.co/YQrGhcEBLT
— Erica Werner (@ericawerner) March 11, 2020
… Outlines of the plan were shared Wednesday evening with Trump administration officials, with the hope of reaching a bipartisan deal ahead of the vote. The legislation includes free coronavirus testing, up to three months of emergency paid leave benefits to all workers affected by the coronavirus, and could also include an 8 percentage point increase in the federal share of Medicaid payments to states, lawmakers and aides said.
The House effort shows the urgency with which political leaders are moving to contain the economic turmoil caused by the coronavirus outbreak. Although the Senate may not have time to act before a congressional recess scheduled for next week, a number of Republican senators indicated openness Wednesday to at least some elements of the House plan and said it was important to act quickly…
Events were developing rapidly on Capitol Hill after the World Health Organization announced it was declaring the coronavirus a pandemic. A senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal thinking, said that the White House would review details of the plan before commenting. But this official was complimentary of the effort by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), saying, “From the beginning, ideas the speaker had were important parts of the conversation.”
President Trump was scheduled to address the nation from the Oval Office later Wednesday and could announce more economic proposals to address the virus.
Some GOP senators were waiting to take their cues from the White House. “A lot of it will depend on what the White House says,” said Senate Finance Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa).
Trump is pushing aides to develop a large tax cut package, and he could allow people to delay filing their taxes. Trump pitched Republican senators Tuesday on a big payroll tax reduction that could last through the end of the year and his reelection. But the response was skeptical, and House Democratic leaders are not including any such measure in their plan.
The paid sick leave component of House Democrats’ plan would replace two-thirds of wages for most workers, up to a $4,000 a month plan. The proposal would extend eligibility for unemployment insurance. It is also expected to include about $1 billion in emergency appropriations to expand access to food security programs including food stamps, Meals on Wheels and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children. The overall price tag of the plan was unclear as of Wednesday evening, but was expected to be in the tens of billions of dollars at least…
Pelosi spoke twice Tuesday with Mnuchin, including just before meeting with the House Democratic caucus Wednesday evening to discuss the legislation, but she told reporters that White House priorities — included the broad payroll tax cut Trump supports — will not be included in the House package. The tax cuts alone that the White House has proposed could cost as much as $400 billion over one year.
“We made our proposal, and we’ll see how they are in agreement with it,” Pelosi said, adding that White House priorities might be added “for the future, but for right now, families first.”…
Biologist Trevor Bedford is one of the experts I’ve been following for my COVID-19 updates, but a lot of his best stuff is too technical for quick Twitter extraction. Vanity Fair has a new piece on his work — ““The Nature of Viruses Is to Mutate”: Mapping the Spread of a Deadly Disease”:
The map looks like an elaborate subway schematic of lines and circles, except that the dozens of dots aren’t stations in an urban metro system. Colored violet, orange, sky blue, and lime, these circles are places you definitely don’t want to be in. To find yourself inside one of the multihued dots on this highly viral online map means you are at risk of exposure to Covid-19—the novel coronavirus.
Few people are more aware of the literal micro-movements of this tiny bug that’s unnerving billions of people than the map’s cocreator Trevor Bedford, a 38-year-old evolutionary biologist at the Fred Hutch, a medical research center in Seattle, the city that also happens to be something of a ground zero in the U.S. for Covid-19. With red, wavy hair and a reassuring smile, Bedford is part Holmesian sleuth, DNA detective, and graphic artist in the mold of Yale statistician and artist Edward Tufte, whose visual depictions have made data not only accessible, but often beautiful.
Since the outbreak began, Bedford (@trvrb on Twitter) has also become an unlikely social media star. “It’s been very, very surreal,” he said. “I now have 70,000 Twitter followers who are all very interested in genomic epidemiology.” At last glance Bedford had over 106,000 followers.
All of this attention is being directed at a previously obscure website that Bedford cocreated in 2015, now called Nextstrain (nextstrain.org)—which last week recorded over 400,000 hits. Nextstrain tracks the genetic mutation patterns of Covid-19—changes in the virus’s genetic code that appear in newly infected people in different cities and countries—as it spreads around the world.
“The nature of viruses is to mutate,” said Bedford, explaining that as these microorganisms rapidly reproduce, genetic errors can occur. But these aren’t the scary mutations that wipe out billions of people like in Hollywood films. “The vast majority of these mutations are absolutely meaningless,” said Emma Hodcroft, an epidemiologist who is on Bedford’s team and based out of the University of Basel in Switzerland, “but they are useful to help us see how the virus travels and changes.”…
The data for Nextstrain is provided by hundreds of scientists the world over, working to sequence samples of the virus as it expands into new locales. “We can post new data in as fast as five minutes between a genome being released and Nextstrain being updated,” said James Hadfield, a geneticist in Bedford’s lab. “I’d say the vast majority is being done within an hour.”
The sequences that feed into this system, however, can take between one and five days to complete, depending on the logistics on the ground—faster than before, said the CDC’s MacCannell, “but it needs to be even faster.”…
Intriguing article from Asia Times — “Why are Korea’s Covid-19 death rates so low?”:
Robust healthcare, prior preparation, aggressive testing – and good fortune
South Korea has the dubious distinction of suffering the second-highest number of Covid-19 infections after China – but can also boast the lowest death ratio among countries with significant numbers of cases.
According to the WHO on March 6, the crude mortality ratio for Covid-19 – that is, the number of reported deaths divided by the number of reported cases – is between 3-4%. In Korea, as of March 9, that figure was a mere 0.7%.
While 7,478 cases were confirmed in South Korea by the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) on Monday, only 51 have died. Meanwhile, according to data from John Hopkins University, Italy has 7,375 cases and 366 deaths, while Iran has 7161 cases and 237 deaths.
Amid the outbreak, neighboring China has used a “Great Wall” strategy to cordon off entire cities. South Korea has stuck to a liberal playbook: even its most affected city, Daegu, has not been isolated. This makes Seoul’s apparent success in the struggle against Covid-19 a potential benchmark for other affected democracies.
What is behind Korea’s low fatality rate from a virus that has spooked the world? Government briefers speaking to foreign reporters in Seoul on Monday offered some pointers.
Key factors include a robust national health service; prior experience of virus outbreaks and related preparations; aggressive execution of testing, isolation and treatment protocols, fully backed by the law – and two incidences of good fortune…
And a longish (semi-stripped) twitter thread, on what we *should* have learned from earlier pandemics:
1/ Dr. Max Starkloff was a hero who saved countless lives in St. Louis during the Spanish flu pandemic. City governments today ought to follow his example to mitigate the impact of #COVID19.
— Debra Caplan (@debra_caplan) March 10, 2020
2/ Starkloff was the city health commissioner of St. Louis. In October 1918, St. Louis had its first 7 cases. Two days later, Starkloff abruptly ordered the closure of ALL schools, movie theaters, bars, sporting events, religious services, playgrounds, and other public places.
3/ It was a bold move, just two days after the first cases were identified. The mayor backed Starkloff and gave him legal authority to make public health edicts.
City residents had one day to prepare.
4/ St. Louis was the only city in the country to react so swiftly and aggressively. Many in St. Louis initially thought that Starkloff was overreacting. Theater owners protested. There were angry letters to the editor.
5/ Newspapers published political cartoons like this one, entitled "Life's Darkest Moment." pic.twitter.com/29mvctmcnx
— Debra Caplan (@debra_caplan) March 10, 2020
6/ St. Louis’s 7 initial cases quickly grew into hundreds, and then thousands. Starkloff responded by expanding the closures to include most businesses except for banks, newspapers, embalmers, and coffin-makers.
7/ People were furious. Presidents of major companies made statements denouncing Starkloff. The pressure was immense, but he didn’t back down…
10/ But Starkloff never backed down. He instructed his deputies to assert that “the lives of the people should be considered first and the business and money interests of the city later.”
City officials, it’s time to #BeLikeStarkloff…
15/ Starkloff’s measures lasted about two months and had a dramatic impact on the impact of the pandemic on St. Louis.
St. Louis ended up with the lowest mortality rate of any major US city.
16/ Max Starkloff saved lives with quick and decisive action.
No U.S. city has taken up anything like the measures that he put into place, yet. But Starkloff's story offers a powerful illustration of how brave individuals in city government can save lives on a massive scale. pic.twitter.com/RhPDX4cpW8
— Debra Caplan (@debra_caplan) March 10, 2020
COVID-19 Coronavirus: A Few Longer ReadsPost + Comments (33)
by Adam L Silverman| 169 Comments
This post is in: America, COVID-19 Coronavirus, Domestic Politics, Healthcare, Open Threads, Silverman on Security
Dr. Anthony Fauci: "It is ten times more lethal than the seasonal flu."
Watch full #Coronavirus hearing here: https://t.co/qUfpOTAqTq pic.twitter.com/Zfo4SShnij
— CSPAN (@cspan) March 11, 2020
In case you missed it, here’s the video of Dr. Anthony Fauci the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Dr. Robert Redfield the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention testifying before the House Oversight and Reform Committee earlier today.
A transcript can be found at CSPAN below their own video of the event.
Now they get serious about operational and information security!
White House orders #COVID19 meetings to be classified
Not only does this restrict information getting OUT, it prevents experts without security clearance from getting IN and being able to participate in the meetings.
— Leah McElrath ?️? (@leahmcelrath) March 11, 2020
Genius plan! By restricting access to a limited group of people, the novel Coronavirus won’t know what we know or what we’re planning. This way we’ll have the element of surprise!
In reality, this technically makes it impossible for Dr. Fauci or any of the other career subject matter experts that attend these meetings to answer questions from Congress or the news media because the President has decided that everyone who isn’t at the meetings don’t need to know. Also, I’m not sure that the career subject matter experts on this thing even have proper clearances. If they have anything they have public trust certifications, not actual clearances.
Basically, this is where we are:
We’d be far better off with this understanding of planning:
Update at 3:07 PM EDT
VP press sec Katie Miller tells CNN WH Coronavirus meetings are not being made "classified." Miller said the meetings are held in Situation Room. But the meetings themselves are not "classified."
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) March 11, 2020
Open thread!
Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Robert Redfield Congressional Testimony 11 March 2020Post + Comments (169)
by David Anderson| 166 Comments
This post is in: COVID-19 Coronavirus, Open Threads
The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared COVID19 a pandemic:
It’s official: World Health Organization just declared that #COVIDー19 is a pandemic.
— Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) March 11, 2020
Help each other out even as we socially distance ourselves.
Open Thread
This post is in: COVID-19 Coronavirus, Healthcare, World's Best Healthcare (If You Can Afford It)
Reuters: U.S. TREASURY LIKELY TO PUSH BACK APRIL 15 TAX FILING DEADLINE – WSJ
— Vincent Lee (@Rover829) March 11, 2020
Via WereBear & Elizabelle – Flatten the Curve, a handbook with hyperlinks.
I am thrilled @LizSpecht turned her eye-opening tweet thread about what #Covid19 could do to the health care system into an op-ed for @statnews.
If you are *still* wondering what the fuss is about, read this, please. https://t.co/LQLtwZnQ8f— Helen Branswell (@HelenBranswell) March 11, 2020
Thoughts on #COVID19 after a busy telehealth shift:
1. Vast majority of folks very low risk, mostly want to know if they need to change their behavior.
The answer is YES. We will all have to change our habits- if we haven't already- to mitigate spread of disease.
1/x thread
— Michelle Lin (@DrMichelleLin) March 10, 2020
We’ve updated our total number for U.S. #coronavirus daily testing capacity to account for substantial throughput by California’s public and private labs. Based on our current data, about 16,000 patients can be tested per day in U.S. public, private and academic labs. https://t.co/FCnyo318dZ
— Scott Gottlieb, MD (@ScottGottliebMD) March 10, 2020
Wise advice on #COVID19: When a danger is growing exponentially, everything looks fine until it doesn’t https://t.co/bsMcuD23sa
— Crawford Kilian (@Crof) March 11, 2020
I nominate @bereacollege for the best #RealCollege #COVID2019 response I have seen thus far.
Look at the acknowledgment of internet issues, housing, and work.
Show me your favorites and please share why.https://t.co/GSFpKZ6hr0
— Dr. Sara Goldrick-Rab (@saragoldrickrab) March 11, 2020
Got to help produce this very cool, timely new podcast with @ForeignPolicy about the coronavirus and how it may continue to affect our rituals, institutions and the world.
Listen to the first episode here: https://t.co/1Y57fsOjoI
— Darcy Palder (@DPalder) March 10, 2020
I should note that I was not worried as early as @Laurie_Garrett was, who called this epidemic successfully on *January 8th.* https://t.co/kqdgUYYyoB https://t.co/b1qoQ1Yupi
— James Palmer (@BeijingPalmer) March 10, 2020
Meanwhile, all of @statnews's #Covid19 coverage is available for free, in front of our paywall. Has been from the get-go. https://t.co/UHu5iWP5MR
— Helen Branswell (@HelenBranswell) March 10, 2020
How many Americans are infected? New snag to answering the #COVID19 question: https://t.co/2k4iMzFPSU
The country is running out of RNA extraction kits, so Step 1 of RT-PCR ID of the virus can't be executed. That distant mirage of "1 M ppl tested/week"….https://t.co/oESWm4Rhhd— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) March 11, 2020
The #COVID19 tests are RT-PCR. Step 1 in PCR is extracting the viral RNA from sample.
2nd step: amplifying that genetic signal.
Step 3: reading the sequence.
New crisis? The USA is running out of RNA extraction kits: https://t.co/2k4iMzFPSU &https://t.co/9xRiJHuKMx— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) March 11, 2020
There are tough choices coming if #Covid19 isn't beaten back. Italian doctors appear to be facing some of these already. These are choices we think modern medicine will never have to face: Which life to save? https://t.co/t0pZJd1uHC
— Helen Branswell (@HelenBranswell) March 10, 2020
From what I've seen (providing safe housing for homeless persons exposed to #COVID19, ramping up testing, etc.), Seattle is taking steps to #FlattenTheCurve. Here's an interview I did with @MichaelKIRO7 on @KIRO7Seattle on the need to act decisively now! https://t.co/EAE8Ly7Nb4
— Samuel V. Scarpino (@svscarpino) March 10, 2020
There's going to be — there's got to be — more of this coming. This is the responsible thing to do. Political parties are going to need to find creative ways to get their messages out. People need to start finding ways not to be in crowds. #Covid19 https://t.co/rqakYR0FUc pic.twitter.com/2bT54JPWGy
— Helen Branswell (@HelenBranswell) March 10, 2020
1. Want to turn this into a short thread. https://t.co/DJwWzXSrxI
— Helen Branswell (@HelenBranswell) March 10, 2020
3. Testing supplies are running low. The equipment needed to protect health care workers from infection is on back order around the world. The longer the world has to fight #Covid19, the less able it will be to do so.
Everyone has to do their part now. It is on us all.— Helen Branswell (@HelenBranswell) March 10, 2020
I'm afraid people are starting to think China contained virus with cheap surgical masks. China contained the virus by a mass self-quarantine where people only left their apartment complexes twice a week, plus aggressive formal and informal testing to identify new cases early.
— Pete Sweeney (@petesweeneypro) March 11, 2020
The tragedy is that this was *very much* on the agenda of experts at least since since SARS. Almost exactly as it happened. I'm trying to see if I can find my slides but this is pretty much the scenario I taught when I used to teach introduction to sociology (roughly 2005-2010). https://t.co/HtF9HQOpff
— zeynep tufekci (@zeynep) March 10, 2020
It's not correct twice a day thing. News of a mystery virus linked to a seafood/wet market (thus likely zoonotic), along with news of the punishment of whistleblower doctors by the Chinese authorities? Don't need to have watched a movie. We had SARS and other incidents. We knew.
— zeynep tufekci (@zeynep) March 10, 2020
COVID-19 Coronavirus Update (Informational) – Tuesday/Wednesday, March 10/11Post + Comments (130)
This post is in: COVID-19 Coronavirus, Foreign Affairs, Healthcare
Daily #covid19 sitrep from @WHO is up (numbers as of 10am Geneva time):
China:
80924 (+20) cases
3140 (+17) deathsOutside China:
32778 (+4105) cases
in 109 (+5) countries
872 (+186) deathsNew territories here are: Brunei Darussalam, Mongolia, Cyprus, Guernsey and Panama
— Kai Kupferschmidt (@kakape) March 10, 2020
Again, China *locked down the country* six weeks ago. About 10 percent of the *global* population was in quarantine. They tanked their economy. This wasn't a measure to be taken lightly, it was an (overdue even then) recognition of danger.
— James Palmer (@BeijingPalmer) March 10, 2020
The JHU coronavirus map, a resource used by journalists and govt officials around the world, has changed "Taiwan" to "Taipei and environs."
When contacted by Axios, JHU staff said they had already caught it & would change back to "Taiwan" immediately.https://t.co/3k7zHSIIh7
— B. Allen-Ebrahimian (@BethanyAllenEbr) March 10, 2020
Italy today:
* Whole country in lockdown
* Hospitals completely overwhelmed
* Doctors forced to decide which patients get treatment based on who is most likely to surviveItaly today. Spain, Germany, America tomorrow.
Cancel everything.
— Yascha Mounk (@Yascha_Mounk) March 10, 2020
This version includes South Korea. They were on the same growth curve til 7 days ago – ahead of Italy. The measures they adopted then (subject to the lead time in measurements) seem effective – still exponential growth, but similar doubling period to Japan now. pic.twitter.com/CKvgABlQXJ
— Mark Handley (@MarkJHandley) March 9, 2020
China reports a rise in coronavirus infections imported from abroad as the number of cases in the U.S. tops 1,000 https://t.co/b8OEXZXWPF
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) March 11, 2020
Hu is right here – we have what looks like pretty good clinical evidence from Wuhan that centralized quarantine was *extremely effective.* https://t.co/AlLbY2KcQS
— James Palmer (@BeijingPalmer) March 11, 2020
China reports 24 new #Covid19 cases for March 10; 13 are in Hubei province; not clear from the National Health Committee's report where the other 11 are.
There were also 22 new deaths.
China has reported to date:
80778 cases
3158 deaths
61475 patients recovered. pic.twitter.com/OTjRocqpa4— Helen Branswell (@HelenBranswell) March 11, 2020
China's 1st national survey on the psychological toll of the virus outbreak: Almost 35% of the respondents experienced distress; migrant workers reported the highest level; distress influenced by local medical resources & public health policy decisions.https://t.co/n3hXK6Foys
— Amy Cheng (@Amy_23_Cheng) March 11, 2020
“…false information…claiming the disease was controllable and would not spread from human-to-human left doctors and nurses…doing all they could to treat patients without knowing about the epidemic…when they fell ill, they could not report it…”https://t.co/GdtHEQqvfn
— Didi Kirsten Tatlow (@dktatlow) March 11, 2020
Korea is telling its citizens to stay home and avoid gatherings, in an anti-coronavirus campaign known as “social distancing.” But staying put is a luxury for many rent-paying small business owners and workers who can’t afford to take time off. #COVID19https://t.co/Y7FaDdEd5f
— The Korea Herald (@TheKoreaHerald) March 11, 2020
From @AFP – Thai immigration officers at Bangkok airport diagnosed with COVID-19
— Andrew Beatty (@AndrewBeatty) March 11, 2020
Indonesia records first death from coronavirus#MamaBisa #EXO_Repackage_album #WaspadaCegahCorona #RabuAmbyar #DukungOmnibusLaw #Corona #coronavirus #CoronaVirusUpdate #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/tMPVQtWgHw
— InfoAir World (@InfoairW) March 11, 2020
An epidemic in South Asia is likely, given a shortage of testing kits and poor reporting practices because of low literacy rates and weak health care infrastructure, FP's @RaviReports writes.
From our South Asia Brief: https://t.co/PwZgCt3G8f
— Foreign Policy (@ForeignPolicy) March 11, 2020
Cow dung and urine, yoga, and magical thiking in India to cure #COVID19 …https://t.co/wiFp2gRyVr
— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) March 10, 2020
Context: about half of Mongolia's population lives in Ulaanbaatar. https://t.co/NHuHBqqg4x
— Dr. Tara C. Smith (@aetiology) March 10, 2020
Shisha and tobacco were banned in cafes and restaurants in all the municipalities in #SaudiArabia to preserve the health of citizens and residents from #coronavirus. https://t.co/dlPkVxRSCY
— Saudi Gazette (@Saudi_Gazette) March 11, 2020
These photos were taken at an office of Aramco, the Saudi state oil company. I assumed it was some kind of prank / joke at first, but Aramco just issued an apology statement saying it will make sure this doesn't happen again. Incredible. https://t.co/NVjSsvyuFY
— Tom Gara (@tomgara) March 11, 2020
COVID-19 Coronavirus Update (International) – Tuesday/Wednesday, March 10/11Post + Comments (2)
by David Anderson| 21 Comments
This post is in: Anderson On Health Insurance, Balloon Juice, COVID-19 Coronavirus
Last night, Duke University announced that it is beginning social distancing procedures:
Duke is committed to maintaining our daily operations, completing the semester, and ensuring that all students can fulfill their academic requirements as planned. We will, however, institute a series of social distancing practices to protect the health and continuity of our community.
First, all on-campus classes will be suspended until further notice, and we will transition to remote instruction ….
Second, all undergraduate, graduate, and professional students who are currently out of town for Spring Break should NOT return to the Duke campus if at all possible….
At this time, we are also suspending all non-essential university-funded travel, both domestic and international.
West Virginia University is taking similar steps.
We are trying to buy externalities to slow the spread and decrease the size of the spike. For families like mine, where we are all young (enough) with no major health concerns, the personal risk is low. Our goal is to make sure that we don’t get infected and then pass COVID19 to individuals who are at higher risk. We are beginning to lean on our social system to give our medical system a chance next week and the week after that and the week after that.
So what should we be doing?
Checking in on friends, family and neighbors will be critical. This is especially true for our community members who may not have the same abundance of resources or luck in their health profiles. If someone needs a medicine pick-up but they are working, lean into that. If someone needs a lawn mowed but their regular guy is not around, mow the lawn. Lean in. We need to lean into our social networks, even as physical distances increase.
Balloon Juice is as much a community as any neighborhood. Let’s make sure that we’re checking in on each other, and offering whatever support we can when and where we can.