Today's News (2020/4/3): Harder and harder
Apr. 4th, 2020 02:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
solarbirdJesus fucking christ it's getting harder and harder not to think Donkeyballs Donald isn't trying to get people killed in blue states. Straight up. Fucking hell.
----- 1 -----
Trump administration ended pandemic early-warning program to detect coronaviruses
By Emily Baumgaertner, James Rainey
April 2, 2020
4:35 PM
https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2020-04-02/coronavirus-trump-pandemic-program-viruses-detection
Two months before the novel coronavirus is thought to have begun its deadly advance in Wuhan, China, the Trump administration ended a $200-million pandemic early-warning program aimed at training scientists in China and other countries to detect and respond to such a threat.
The project, launched by the U.S. Agency for International Development in 2009, identified 1,200 different viruses that had the potential to erupt into pandemics, including more than 160 novel coronaviruses. The initiative, called PREDICT, also trained and supported staff in 60 foreign laboratories — including the Wuhan lab that identified SARS-CoV-2, the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
Field work ceased when the funding ran out in September, and organizations that worked on the PREDICT program laid off dozens of scientists and analysts, said Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance, a key player in the program.
On Wednesday, USAID granted an emergency extension to the program, issuing $2.26 million over the next six months to send experts who will help foreign labs squelch the pandemic. But program leaders say the funding will do little to further the initiative’s original mission.
“Look at the name: Our efforts were to predict this before it happens. That’s the part of the program that was exciting — and that’s the part I’m worried about,” Daszak said.
“It’s absolutely critical that we don’t drop the idea of a large-scale, proactive, predictive program that tries to catch pandemics before they happen. Cutting a program that could in any way reduce the risk of things like COVID-19 happening again is, by any measure, shortsighted,” he added.
----- 2 -----
California Gov. Gavin Newsom Says Federal Government Sent '170 Broken Ventilators'
By Sanya Mansoor
March 29, 2020
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Saturday that the federal government had sent the state “170 broken ventilators” amid national concerns about a shortage of the life-saving machines, which can be key to treating the respiratory distress caused by COVID-19.
Newsom said at a press conference that “170 ventilators that came from the national stockpile directly” to Los Angeles county were “not working.” But, he added, “rather than pointing fingers,” authorities in California transported the ventilators to a facility to get them fixed by San Jose-based Bloom Energy.
...
At the beginning of the pandemic, California had about 7,500 ventilators across the state’s hospital systems and aimed to get another 10,000 ventilators, according to the press release. “To date, the state has added 4,252 ventilators, approximately 1,000 of which needed to be refurbished,” it said.
----- 3 -----
Coronavirus update: N.J. gets smattering of faulty ventilators; flags at half-staff
By Nicholas Pugliese
April 3, 2020
https://whyy.org/articles/coronavirus-update-n-j-gets-smattering-of-faulty-ventilators-flags-at-half-staff/
N.J. receives small number of faulty ventilators from federal stockpile
Following reports that California received 170 broken ventilators from the federal stockpile, New Jersey officials said Friday the state also received 14 devices that are faulty from among the 850 that the Trump administration has sent so far.
Eight of those have already been repaired to replace missing parts or fix other defects, State Police Supt. Pat Callahan said at an afternoon briefing, with a private-sector vendor working with the state to assess the rest.
The bigger problem remains the overall shortage of ventilators — in New Jersey and nationally. Gov. Murphy has requested a total of 2,500 of the life-saving breathing machines from the federal stockpile as the state scrambles to prepare for an influx of COVID-19 patients.
The 850 ventilators New Jersey has received so far augments the 1,700 it had before the pandemic began.
----- 4 -----
Thousands of ventilators in maintenance as government struggles to meet needs
By Kristen Holmes and Daniella Diaz, CNN
April 2, 2020
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/02/politics/ventilators-maintenance-fema-coronavirus/index.html
(CNN) The federal government had faulty ventilators. Then the coronavirus hit.
Thousands of ventilators managed by the federal government were unable to be deployed in the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic because of a lapse in the government contract to keep the machines maintained, a source familiar with the matter told CNN.
President Donald Trump said Tuesday the federal government was holding on to 10,000 ventilators because of an anticipated surge in the novel coronavirus. But roughly 20% of that reserve -- were out of commission because they needed maintenance.
The New York Times first reported the missing ventilators.
The news of the inaccessible ventilators comes as states, hospitals and the federal government fight to acquire enough ventilators to treat patients suffering from coronavirus amid the pandemic. And as of this week, the Strategic National Stockpile is almost empty, a source familiar with the situation told CNN Wednesday.
Both California and New York, states reporting higher cases of coronavirus, have reported being sent ventilators that weren't operational.
Late last summer, the US government contract with the company that maintains ventilators and other medical devices within the stockpile lapsed. In September, Agiliti, a Minnesota-based company specializing in these kinds of acute medical devices, was contracted to take over that role but almost immediately after the contract was awarded, the company was told to stand down by the federal government.
----- 5 -----
Jesse Aaron Paul
twitter.com/JesseAPaul
3 April 2020
https://twitter.com/JesseAPaul/status/1246265842699923456
NEW: Gov. Jared Polis says Colorado had an order for ventilators being finalized and then FEMA bought them "from under us."
Here's twitter.com/jaredpolis' remarks to twitter.com/donlemon on CNN a few minutes ago... #copolitics
[IMAGE]
[TRANSCRIPTION BY EDITOR]
"Now we're even competing against the federal government. We had some -- a good lead with a manufacturer on vents at a fair manufacturers' price and they got swept up by FEMA. So, we're not getting 'em. So, it was nice when we're just competing against the states. It's harder to also be competing against FEMA. We don't know yet what we're going to get from FEMA. We've been asking. We'd love a timeline and numbers. In the meantime, we're doing everything we can -- both domestically as well as internationally. Taiwan, Korea, China. We just got some test kits in from Korea. So we're innovative. We're doing our best to do what we can.
"Either you're buying them and you're providing them to states or you're letting us know what we're going to get and when we're going to get 'em. Or stay out, and let us buy 'em."
----- 6 -----
Only In Boston
twitter.com/OnlyInBOS
2 April 2020
https://twitter.com/OnlyInBOS/status/1245675093780508672
Robert Kraft is using the New England Patriots team plane to transport one million N95 masks from China directly to Massachusetts hospitals.
The plane will arrive in Boston full of personal protective equipment this afternoon.
[EMBEDDED VIDEO but it isn't interesting]
----- 7 -----
Nader Issa
twitter.com/NaderDIssa
3 April 2020
https://twitter.com/NaderDIssa/status/1246232950007627776
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.
[LINK TO: https://chicago.suntimes.com/coronavirus/2020/4/3/21207488/coronavirus-illinois-medical-supplies-wild-west]
Illinois adjusts on the fly to meet medical supply needs in a coronavirus ‘Wild West’
To meet the deadline of a supplier and get 1.5 million potentially life-saving N95 masks, Illinois’ assistant comptroller raced north on I-55 with a $3.4 million check.
By Mark Brown
Apr 3, 2020
In a state where the government usually operates on the basis of buy now, pay later (often much, much later), the emergency of the coronavirus pandemic has required a decidedly different approach.
About two weeks ago, Illinois officials tracked down a supply of 1.5 million potentially life-saving N95 respirator masks in China through a middleman in the Chicago area and negotiated a deal to buy them.
One day before they were expecting to complete the purchase, they got a call in the morning from the supplier informing them he had to get a check to the bank by 2 p.m. that day, or the deal was off. Other bidders had surfaced.
Realizing there was no way the supplier could get to Springfield and back by the deadline, Illinois assistant comptroller Ellen Andres jumped in her car and raced north on I-55 with a check for $3,469,600.
----- 8 -----
It's state vs. state in a frantic search for medical gear to battle coronavirus' spread
Morgan Watkins, Matt Mencarini
Louisville Courier Journal
27 March 2020
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/03/27/coronavirus-states-battle-each-other-critical-medical-gear/2931578001/
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The search for life-saving medical gear needed to battle the coronavirus pandemic is pitting state against state – and even against the rest of the world.
Frustrated governors across the U.S. are duking it out in a worldwide bidding war for face masks and other safety gear that doctors and nurses desperately need to battle COVID-19, which has already killed more than 1,500 Americans and infected more than 100,000 others, with no end in sight.
But the increasingly expensive supplies they're so desperately searching for are selling out before they can get them – or are costing them exorbitant amounts when they can find them.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear recently said his state had a line on some protective equipment when the Federal Emergency Management Agency "came out and bought it all out from under us."
"I am willing to pay whatever it takes to protect the people of Kentucky to the maximum extent that we can," he said.
The problem is, everyone else is willing to do the same.
----- 9 -----
Cate Eland
twitter.com/RomancingNope
3 April 2020
https://twitter.com/RomancingNope/status/1246234872663945217
[THREAD, link is to the start]
Just so we're clear on how Trump is handling distributing PPE and ventilators:
1) States are buying PPE and ventilators for themselves because they can't get them from the federal government.
2) The federal government is stopping planes on tarmacs to confiscate these shipments.
3) The federal government is then allowing private distributors like McKesson to transport those confiscated PPE on FEMA planes to recipients determined by federal government. It's unclear what the profit mechanism for these private distributors is or how recipients are chosen.
4) States who had their ordered supplies confiscated turn around and start asking the federal government for supplies, since theirs were confiscated.
5) The Trump family goes on TV to say "it's the FEDERAL stockpile, not the STATE stockpile, you should have planned ahead."
6) States have to go to extraordinary means (like using NFL planes and covertly coordinating with other states) to finally get PPE and ventilators.
7) People die due to lack of needed medical resources.
8) Trump keeps killing people, because no one will hold him accountable.
9) Trump, in fact, blames healthcare workers stealing PPE (which isn't happening) for the shortage.
10) Said healthcare workers are coming to work in homemade masks, getting sick, and dying too.
11) Trump keeps killing them, because no one will hold him accountable.
[MANY SUPPORTING LINKS IN THREAD]
----- 10 -----
After Kushner says 'it's our stockpile,' HHS website changed to echo his comments on federal crisis role
It's the latest salvo in rising tensions between Trump and the states.
By Ben Gittleson
April 3, 2020
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/kushner-stockpile-hhs-website-changed-echo-comments-federal/story?id=69936411
It was a telling moment in the rising tensions between the Trump White House and state governors desperate for medical equipment to deal with the exploding coronavirus crisis.
At Thursday's briefing on how the government is responding, Trump's senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner scolded states for not building up their own stockpiles, saying that the "the notion of the federal stockpile was it’s supposed to be our stockpile, it’s not supposed to be states’ stockpiles that they then use."
Earlier Thursday, President Donald Trump had tweeted, "Some have insatiable appetites & are never satisfied (politics?) Remember, we are a backup for them. The complainers should… have been stocked up and ready long before this crisis hit."
But the national stockpile actually is intended for states' use, which was clearly explained on the government's own website -- until the language was changed, without explanation, hours after Kushner provided his inaccurate description.
Until Friday morning, the website of the Department of Health and Human Services, which maintains the stockpile, read, "When state, local, tribal, and territorial responders request federal assistance to support their response efforts, the stockpile ensures that the right medicines and supplies get to those who need them most during an emergency."
But midday Friday, hours after Kushner directly contradicted the language on the HHS website, the text was changed without explanation. Retroactively matching what Kushner said, the website no longer says states can rely on the stockpile, but now says it exists to “supplement” them.
----- 11 -----
“I’ve Never Seen Anything Like This”: Doctors Without Enough Ventilators Are Being Told Whom To Save During The Coronavirus Pandemic
“I watched like three people die on Saturday — nothing we can do. Zero," one New York City doctor told BuzzFeed News.
3 April 2020
Kadia Goba, BuzzFeed News Reporter
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/kadiagoba/ventilator-shortage-new-york-hospitals-coronavirus
WASHINGTON — At the top of the list for ventilators: patients with just one failing organ. And then there are the others. Doctors with patients who are unresponsive to standard measures, have severe burns, have irreversible low blood pressure, or any other condition that would result in immediate mortality are instructed not to put them on ventilators during the coronavirus pandemic.
As the coronavirus wreaks havoc across the nation, doctors who shoulder much of the crisis are left with devastating life or death decisions.
BuzzFeed News reviewed documents from a New York City public hospital in line with previous reporting from the New York Times that lay out “policy enhancements” for doctors at hospitals across the nation on how to prioritize helping patients who are sick because of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, as medical supplies run low. At least one New York City public hospital sent specific guidelines for doctors on who should receive ventilators in light of the shortages — a harrowing task left to physicians on the front lines.
“I watched like three people die on Saturday — nothing we can do. Zero. You feel defeated,” one city doctor who works at a public hospital with similar guidelines told BuzzFeed News. “You feel drained.”
The doctor asked to remain anonymous, as they were afraid of losing their job should they be identified.
“There’s a list about six [types of] patients that do not get put on a vent. ‘It makes no sense, they’re going to die soon anyway, so let them die’ — like that’s the crazy thought process. This shit hurts,” they said.
----- 12 -----
3 million masks ordered by Massachusetts were confiscated in Port of New York, leading to creative alternative
Seizure led to operation to obtain masks from China
2 April 2020
https://www.wcvb.com/article/3-million-masks-ordered-by-massachusetts-were-confiscated-in-port-of-new-york/32021700#
Gov. Charlie Baker said a complicated international plan to purchase over 1 million N95 masks for Massachusetts health care workers and first responders was hatched after a previous order was confiscated in the Port of New York.
"Around the time that we had our 3 million masks that we had ordered through BJs confiscated in the port of New York, at that point it became pretty clear to us that using what I would describe as sort of a 'traditional approach to this' wasn't going to work," Baker said Thursday.
The governor did not specify the agency responsible for confiscating the masks.
After losing that initial order, Baker said his administration landed on a cooperative effort involving New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, Ambassador Huang Ping, Dr. Jason Li, Gene Hartigan and the state's COVID-19 Command Center.
The coalition arranged a purchase of the masks in China, which were flown back to Massachusetts Thursday aboard a New England Patriots private plane.
----- 13 -----
Adam Rifkin
twitter.com/ifindkarma
https://twitter.com/ifindkarma/status/1240417747260960768
18 March 2020
“He accepted everything. The past was alterable. The past never had been altered. Fox News was at war with coronavirus. Fox News had always been at war with coronavirus.”
[EMBEDDED VIDEO]
----- 14 -----
Fox News execs build legal team in anticipation of getting sued for coronavirus misinformation: report
By Matthew Chapman
3 April 2020
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/04/fox-news-execs-build-legal-team-in-anticipation-of-getting-sued-for-coronavirus-misinformation-report/
On Friday, The Daily Beast reported that Fox News father-and-son owners Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch are assembling a team of lawyers in preparation for lawsuits against the news network for promoting misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic that could undermine public health.
“According to a top Murdoch executive, the father-and-son media moguls are ready to go to war with potential plaintiffs such as the Washington League for Increased Transparency and Ethics — aka WASHLITE — an activist non-profit that filed suit on Thursday against Rupert Murdoch, Fox News, and other defendants,” reported Lachlan Cartwright. “The 10-page complaint, first reported by The Times of San Diego and filed in the superior court of Washington state’s King County, seeks a judgment that the Murdoch-controlled outlets violated the state’s consumer protection laws by ‘falsely and deceptively disseminating ‘News’ via cable news contracts that the novel Coronavirus, COVID-19 was a ‘Hoax,’ and that the virus was otherwise not a danger to public health and safety.'”
----- 15 -----
Washington state nonprofit files lawsuit saying Fox News misled viewers about coronavirus
April 3, 2020
The Seattle Times
By Sara Jean Green
Seattle Times staff reporter
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/washington-state-nonprofit-files-lawsuit-seeking-to-stop-fox-news-from-broadcasting-false-information-about-the-coronavirus/
A little-known Washington nonprofit has filed a lawsuit against Fox News in King County Superior Court, claiming the news station, its parent companies and owners violated the state’s Consumer Protection Act and acted in bad faith by disseminating false information about the novel coronavirus through its television news broadcasts and minimized the danger posed by the virus as COVID-19 began to explode into a pandemic.
----- 16 -----
The US is not issuing new passports unless it's a 'life-or-death' family emergency
Faith Karimi, CNN
Updated 3rd April 2020
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/us-passport-emergencies/index.html
(CNN) — The US has stopped issuing new passports, unless in a "life-or-death emergency,'' in an effort to help stop the spread of coronavirus.
In a statement on its website, the State Department asked Americans to avoid international travel at this time due to the impact of coronavirus. In line with that, it said, it will only offer passports to customers with a qualified emergency.
Examples of emergencies include travel due to serious illnesses, injuries or deaths in the immediate family, it said. Applicants must require travel outside the US within three days, and will have to submit "proof of the life-or-death emergency such as a death certificate, a statement from a mortuary or a signed letter from a hospital or medical professional."
Applications received on or before March 19 will get processed, the agency said.
Individuals needing to renew their passports for future international travel can proceed as usual without the usual option for expedited service (at an additional $60), according to the State Department's website.
----- 17 -----
Adam Schiff
twitter.com/RepAdamSchiff
2 April 2020
https://twitter.com/RepAdamSchiff/status/1245858907882270721
First, Trump says he alone will do the oversight on billions in relief money.
Then, he says he’ll ignore the transparency provisions required by Congress.
Now, he says any oversight is a “witch hunt.”
But here’s the truth:
Real oversight is vital, because incompetence kills.
[EMBEDDED VIDEO]
----- 18 -----
Weijia Jiang
twitter.com/weijia
3 April 2020
https://twitter.com/weijia/status/1246213280839933952
Jared Kushner is in charge of the medical supply chain that delivers critical items to the doctors and nurses who are on the frontlines everyday. Yesterday he said it was “OURS”, so I asked what he meant. Trump did not like the question.
[EMBEDDED VIDEO]
----- 19 -----
Aaron Rupar
twitter.com/atrupar
1 April 2020 [NOT AN APRIL FOOL'S JOKE]
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1245480070111735809
TRUMP: "Did you know I was number one on Facebook? I just found out I'm number one on Facebook." (Trump has 29 million followers; Obama has 53 million.)
----- 20 -----
Exclusive: Kushner Firm Built the Coronavirus Website Trump Promised
The extent of Oscar Health’s work on coronavirus testing hasn’t been previously reported.
by Robinson Meyer
March 30, 2020
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/03/kushner-coronavirus-testing-oscar-company/609139/
On March 13, President Donald Trump promised Americans they would soon be able to access a new website that would ask them about their symptoms and direct them to nearby coronavirus testing sites. He said Google was helping.
That wasn’t true. But in the following days, Oscar Health—a health-insurance company closely connected to Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner—developed a government website with the features the president had described. A team of Oscar engineers, project managers, and executives spent about five days building a stand-alone website at the government’s request, an Oscar spokesperson told The Atlantic. The company even dispatched two employees from New York to meet in person with federal officials in Washington, D.C., the spokesperson said. Then the website was suddenly and mysteriously scrapped.
The site would not have helped many Americans even if it had launched. Today, more than two weeks after the president promised a national network of drive-through test sites, only a handful of such sites have opened, and fewer than 1 million Americans have been tested.
The full extent of Oscar’s work on the project has not been previously reported. The partnership between the administration and the firm suggests that Kushner may have mingled his family’s business interests with his political interests and his role in the administration’s coronavirus response. Kushner’s younger brother Joshua is a co-founder and major investor in Oscar, and Jared Kushner partially owned or controlled Oscar before he joined the White House. The company’s work on the coronavirus website could violate federal ethics laws, several experts said.
----- 21 -----
Early Data Shows African Americans Have Contracted and Died of Coronavirus at an Alarming Rate
No, the coronavirus is not an “equalizer.” Black people are being infected and dying at higher rates. Here’s what Milwaukee is doing about it — and why governments need to start releasing data on the race of COVID-19 patients.
by Akilah Johnson and Talia Buford
April 3, 2020
https://www.propublica.org/article/early-data-shows-african-americans-have-contracted-and-died-of-coronavirus-at-an-alarming-rate/
The coronavirus entered Milwaukee from a white, affluent suburb. Then it took root in the city’s black community and erupted.
As public health officials watched cases rise in March, too many in the community shrugged off warnings. Rumors and conspiracy theories proliferated on social media, pushing the bogus idea that black people are somehow immune to the disease. And much of the initial focus was on international travel, so those who knew no one returning from Asia or Europe were quick to dismiss the risk.
Then, when the shelter-in-place order came, there was a natural pushback among those who recalled other painful government restrictions — including segregation and mass incarceration — on where black people could walk and gather.
“We’re like, ‘We have to wake people up,’” said Milwaukee Health Commissioner Jeanette Kowalik.
As the disease spread at a higher rate in the black community, it made an even deeper cut. Environmental, economic and political factors have compounded for generations, putting black people at higher risk of chronic conditions that leave lungs weak and immune systems vulnerable: asthma, heart disease, hypertension and diabetes. In Milwaukee, simply being black means your life expectancy is 14 years shorter, on average, than someone white.
As of Friday morning, African Americans made up almost half of Milwaukee County’s 945 cases and 81% of its 27 deaths in a county whose population is 26% black. Milwaukee is one of the few places in the United States that is tracking the racial breakdown of people who have been infected by the novel coronavirus, offering a glimpse at the disproportionate destruction it is inflicting on black communities nationwide.
----- 22 -----
Behind the right's obsession with a miracle cure for coronavirus: It's not just about Trump
The conservative run on antimalarial drugs, sparked by Trump, is also about deep-rooted hostility to public health
Amanda Marcotte
April 3, 2020
https://www.salon.com/2020/04/03/behind-the-rights-obsession-with-a-miracle-cure-for-coronavirus-its-not-just-about-trump/
In one of the oddest developments of the coronavirus crisis, there's been a run on a pair of antimalarial drugs, hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, which are used primarily in the U.S. to treat arthritis and to prevent organ damage from lupus. The drugs are being sucked out of pharmacies at an alarming rate, thanks to Americans who have convinced themselves these drugs will save them if the develop COVID-19, and thereby leaving patients who actually need these medications in danger.
This is happening in the face of only thin evidence that these drugs work against the novel coronavirus, and plenty of evidence that they don't work. At one Paris hospital that used the drug heavily — on the recommendation of Didier Raoult, a climate change-denying French doctor with a shady reputation — the results suggest these drugs are not effective at all. Chinese doctors also concluded they were useless. These drugs are known to have some scary side effects, including sudden cardiac death in some patients. They are also notorious for psychological side effects, such as paranoia and nightmares. At least one person in the U.S. has died from swallowing aquarium cleaner that contains a similar chemical compound.
So why are so many people so eager to get their hands on drugs that are clearly dangerous and may do no good?
The most immediate reason is simple: The people rushing the pharmacies are Republicans, and both Donald Trump and numerous Fox News personalities have told them these drugs are a "game-changer" that can save them from the coronavirus.
But there's a reason these false or unproven claims are resonating with the ordinary citizens of Trumpistan. The hope that there's a hard-to-get miracle cure that will save them speaks directly to the poisonous social Darwinism that guides modern conservatism. It reflects deep hostility to the very concept of a shared public good and a fierce attachment to a racialized ideology of individualism that treats public goods such as health care as things to be hoarded by those with the privilege, money and status to do so.
Conservative ideology simply doesn't allow for the possibility that anything, including pandemic management, is best managed with a "we're all in this together" mentality. Instead they're drawn to this fantasy that there's a Platinum Member COVID-19 status that can be purchased, which will allow them to opt out of the suffering of the plebeian class that has to quarantine or risk sickness and death.
There's no question that Trump and other right-wing figures are pushing this hydroxychloroquine angle hard. Trump has talked about these drugs several times during his daily propaganda-dump "press briefings," as well as on Twitter.
Laura Ingraham of Fox News has been hyping this stuff heavily, hosting a doctor who misleadingly argued that "this is the beginning of the end of the pandemic" Wednesday night. She's also had tweets removed by Twitter for promoting medical disinformation.
----- 23 -----
'Ventilators' donated by Elon Musk can't be used on coronavirus patients, health officials say
Kathryn Krawczyk, The Week
April 2, 2020
https://news.yahoo.com/ventilators-donated-elon-musk-cant-150000445.html
Elon Musk's ventilator giveaway may do more harm than good.
After weeks of brushing off the COVID-19 pandemic as "dumb," the billionaire Tesla founder earlier this week announced he had 1,000 "FDA-approved ventilators" and ended up donating 40 to New York City's hospital system. Except the devices Musk gave away aren't powerful enough to use in the ICU, and health officials have actually warned against using them on COVID-19 patients because they could spread the virus further.
What Musk purchased and gave to New York's hospitals were BiPAP machines made by ResMed, a photo shared by the hospital system reveals. ResMed CEO Mick Farrell later confirmed Musk's purchase of 1,000 5-year-old "bi-level, non-invasive ventilators" known as BiPAPs to CNBC, and said it was "fantastic" that Tesla could transport ResMed's product like it did.
But hospitals are far more desperate for ventilators more invasive than BiPAP and CPAP machines, which are usually used to treat sleep apnea — many doctors don't even call them "ventilators," the Los Angeles Times' Russ Mitchell reports. In fact, CPAP machines may have only helped spread COVID-19 through the nursing home outside Seattle that was the center of the U.S.'s initial coronavirus outbreak, NPR reports. These machines can "possibly increase the spread of infectious disease by aerosolizing the virus," NPR writes. Health officials in King County, Washington, have since warned against using CPAP machines on coronavirus patients, as did the American Society of Anesthesiologists back in February.
----- 24 -----
Jason Campbell
twitter.com/JasonSCampbell
3 April 2020
https://twitter.com/JasonSCampbell/status/1246233312575860736
Tucker Carlson says Anthony Fauci is proposing "national suicide"
[EMBEDDED VIDEO]
- Trump administration ended pandemic early-warning program to detect coronaviruses
- California Gov. Gavin Newsom Says Federal Government Sent '170 Broken Ventilators'
- Coronavirus update: N.J. gets smattering of faulty ventilators; flags at half-staff
- Thousands of ventilators in maintenance as government struggles to meet needs
- NEW: Gov. Jared Polis says Colorado had an order for ventilators being finalized and then FEMA bought them "from under us."
- Robert Kraft is using the New England Patriots team plane to transport one million N95 masks from China directly to Massachusetts hospitals.
- 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.
- It's state vs. state in a frantic search for medical gear to battle coronavirus' spread
- After Kushner says 'it's our stockpile,' HHS website changed to echo his comments on federal crisis role
- “I’ve Never Seen Anything Like This”: Doctors Without Enough Ventilators Are Being Told Whom To Save During The Coronavirus Pandemic
- 3 million masks ordered by Massachusetts were confiscated in Port of New York, leading to creative alternative
- Fox News was at war with coronavirus. Fox News had always been at war with coronavirus.
- Fox News execs build legal team in anticipation of getting sued for coronavirus misinformation: report
- Washington state nonprofit files lawsuit saying Fox News misled viewers about coronavirus
- ETA: THIS WAS BADLY REPORTED. See comments below entry. | The US is not issuing new passports unless it's a 'life-or-death' family emergency
- First, Trump says he alone will do the oversight on billions in relief money. Then, he says he’ll ignore the transparency provisions required by Congress. Now, he says any oversight is a “witch hunt.”
- Jared Kushner is in charge of the medical supply chain that delivers critical items to the doctors and nurses who are on the frontlines everyday.
- TRUMP: "Did you know I was number one on Facebook?"
- Exclusive: Kushner Firm Built the Coronavirus Website Trump Promised
- Early Data Shows African Americans Have Contracted and Died of Coronavirus at an Alarming Rate
- Behind the right's obsession with a miracle cure for coronavirus: It's not just about Trump
- Tucker Carlson says Anthony Fauci is proposing "national suicide"
----- 1 -----
Trump administration ended pandemic early-warning program to detect coronaviruses
By Emily Baumgaertner, James Rainey
April 2, 2020
4:35 PM
https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2020-04-02/coronavirus-trump-pandemic-program-viruses-detection
Two months before the novel coronavirus is thought to have begun its deadly advance in Wuhan, China, the Trump administration ended a $200-million pandemic early-warning program aimed at training scientists in China and other countries to detect and respond to such a threat.
The project, launched by the U.S. Agency for International Development in 2009, identified 1,200 different viruses that had the potential to erupt into pandemics, including more than 160 novel coronaviruses. The initiative, called PREDICT, also trained and supported staff in 60 foreign laboratories — including the Wuhan lab that identified SARS-CoV-2, the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
Field work ceased when the funding ran out in September, and organizations that worked on the PREDICT program laid off dozens of scientists and analysts, said Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance, a key player in the program.
On Wednesday, USAID granted an emergency extension to the program, issuing $2.26 million over the next six months to send experts who will help foreign labs squelch the pandemic. But program leaders say the funding will do little to further the initiative’s original mission.
“Look at the name: Our efforts were to predict this before it happens. That’s the part of the program that was exciting — and that’s the part I’m worried about,” Daszak said.
“It’s absolutely critical that we don’t drop the idea of a large-scale, proactive, predictive program that tries to catch pandemics before they happen. Cutting a program that could in any way reduce the risk of things like COVID-19 happening again is, by any measure, shortsighted,” he added.
----- 2 -----
California Gov. Gavin Newsom Says Federal Government Sent '170 Broken Ventilators'
By Sanya Mansoor
March 29, 2020
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Saturday that the federal government had sent the state “170 broken ventilators” amid national concerns about a shortage of the life-saving machines, which can be key to treating the respiratory distress caused by COVID-19.
Newsom said at a press conference that “170 ventilators that came from the national stockpile directly” to Los Angeles county were “not working.” But, he added, “rather than pointing fingers,” authorities in California transported the ventilators to a facility to get them fixed by San Jose-based Bloom Energy.
...
At the beginning of the pandemic, California had about 7,500 ventilators across the state’s hospital systems and aimed to get another 10,000 ventilators, according to the press release. “To date, the state has added 4,252 ventilators, approximately 1,000 of which needed to be refurbished,” it said.
----- 3 -----
Coronavirus update: N.J. gets smattering of faulty ventilators; flags at half-staff
By Nicholas Pugliese
April 3, 2020
https://whyy.org/articles/coronavirus-update-n-j-gets-smattering-of-faulty-ventilators-flags-at-half-staff/
N.J. receives small number of faulty ventilators from federal stockpile
Following reports that California received 170 broken ventilators from the federal stockpile, New Jersey officials said Friday the state also received 14 devices that are faulty from among the 850 that the Trump administration has sent so far.
Eight of those have already been repaired to replace missing parts or fix other defects, State Police Supt. Pat Callahan said at an afternoon briefing, with a private-sector vendor working with the state to assess the rest.
The bigger problem remains the overall shortage of ventilators — in New Jersey and nationally. Gov. Murphy has requested a total of 2,500 of the life-saving breathing machines from the federal stockpile as the state scrambles to prepare for an influx of COVID-19 patients.
The 850 ventilators New Jersey has received so far augments the 1,700 it had before the pandemic began.
----- 4 -----
Thousands of ventilators in maintenance as government struggles to meet needs
By Kristen Holmes and Daniella Diaz, CNN
April 2, 2020
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/02/politics/ventilators-maintenance-fema-coronavirus/index.html
(CNN) The federal government had faulty ventilators. Then the coronavirus hit.
Thousands of ventilators managed by the federal government were unable to be deployed in the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic because of a lapse in the government contract to keep the machines maintained, a source familiar with the matter told CNN.
President Donald Trump said Tuesday the federal government was holding on to 10,000 ventilators because of an anticipated surge in the novel coronavirus. But roughly 20% of that reserve -- were out of commission because they needed maintenance.
The New York Times first reported the missing ventilators.
The news of the inaccessible ventilators comes as states, hospitals and the federal government fight to acquire enough ventilators to treat patients suffering from coronavirus amid the pandemic. And as of this week, the Strategic National Stockpile is almost empty, a source familiar with the situation told CNN Wednesday.
Both California and New York, states reporting higher cases of coronavirus, have reported being sent ventilators that weren't operational.
Late last summer, the US government contract with the company that maintains ventilators and other medical devices within the stockpile lapsed. In September, Agiliti, a Minnesota-based company specializing in these kinds of acute medical devices, was contracted to take over that role but almost immediately after the contract was awarded, the company was told to stand down by the federal government.
----- 5 -----
Jesse Aaron Paul
twitter.com/JesseAPaul
3 April 2020
https://twitter.com/JesseAPaul/status/1246265842699923456
NEW: Gov. Jared Polis says Colorado had an order for ventilators being finalized and then FEMA bought them "from under us."
Here's twitter.com/jaredpolis' remarks to twitter.com/donlemon on CNN a few minutes ago... #copolitics
[IMAGE]
[TRANSCRIPTION BY EDITOR]
"Now we're even competing against the federal government. We had some -- a good lead with a manufacturer on vents at a fair manufacturers' price and they got swept up by FEMA. So, we're not getting 'em. So, it was nice when we're just competing against the states. It's harder to also be competing against FEMA. We don't know yet what we're going to get from FEMA. We've been asking. We'd love a timeline and numbers. In the meantime, we're doing everything we can -- both domestically as well as internationally. Taiwan, Korea, China. We just got some test kits in from Korea. So we're innovative. We're doing our best to do what we can.
"Either you're buying them and you're providing them to states or you're letting us know what we're going to get and when we're going to get 'em. Or stay out, and let us buy 'em."
----- 6 -----
Only In Boston
twitter.com/OnlyInBOS
2 April 2020
https://twitter.com/OnlyInBOS/status/1245675093780508672
Robert Kraft is using the New England Patriots team plane to transport one million N95 masks from China directly to Massachusetts hospitals.
The plane will arrive in Boston full of personal protective equipment this afternoon.
[EMBEDDED VIDEO but it isn't interesting]
----- 7 -----
Nader Issa
twitter.com/NaderDIssa
3 April 2020
https://twitter.com/NaderDIssa/status/1246232950007627776
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.
[LINK TO: https://chicago.suntimes.com/coronavirus/2020/4/3/21207488/coronavirus-illinois-medical-supplies-wild-west]
Illinois adjusts on the fly to meet medical supply needs in a coronavirus ‘Wild West’
To meet the deadline of a supplier and get 1.5 million potentially life-saving N95 masks, Illinois’ assistant comptroller raced north on I-55 with a $3.4 million check.
By Mark Brown
Apr 3, 2020
In a state where the government usually operates on the basis of buy now, pay later (often much, much later), the emergency of the coronavirus pandemic has required a decidedly different approach.
About two weeks ago, Illinois officials tracked down a supply of 1.5 million potentially life-saving N95 respirator masks in China through a middleman in the Chicago area and negotiated a deal to buy them.
One day before they were expecting to complete the purchase, they got a call in the morning from the supplier informing them he had to get a check to the bank by 2 p.m. that day, or the deal was off. Other bidders had surfaced.
Realizing there was no way the supplier could get to Springfield and back by the deadline, Illinois assistant comptroller Ellen Andres jumped in her car and raced north on I-55 with a check for $3,469,600.
----- 8 -----
It's state vs. state in a frantic search for medical gear to battle coronavirus' spread
Morgan Watkins, Matt Mencarini
Louisville Courier Journal
27 March 2020
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/03/27/coronavirus-states-battle-each-other-critical-medical-gear/2931578001/
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The search for life-saving medical gear needed to battle the coronavirus pandemic is pitting state against state – and even against the rest of the world.
Frustrated governors across the U.S. are duking it out in a worldwide bidding war for face masks and other safety gear that doctors and nurses desperately need to battle COVID-19, which has already killed more than 1,500 Americans and infected more than 100,000 others, with no end in sight.
But the increasingly expensive supplies they're so desperately searching for are selling out before they can get them – or are costing them exorbitant amounts when they can find them.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear recently said his state had a line on some protective equipment when the Federal Emergency Management Agency "came out and bought it all out from under us."
"I am willing to pay whatever it takes to protect the people of Kentucky to the maximum extent that we can," he said.
The problem is, everyone else is willing to do the same.
----- 9 -----
Cate Eland
twitter.com/RomancingNope
3 April 2020
https://twitter.com/RomancingNope/status/1246234872663945217
[THREAD, link is to the start]
Just so we're clear on how Trump is handling distributing PPE and ventilators:
1) States are buying PPE and ventilators for themselves because they can't get them from the federal government.
2) The federal government is stopping planes on tarmacs to confiscate these shipments.
3) The federal government is then allowing private distributors like McKesson to transport those confiscated PPE on FEMA planes to recipients determined by federal government. It's unclear what the profit mechanism for these private distributors is or how recipients are chosen.
4) States who had their ordered supplies confiscated turn around and start asking the federal government for supplies, since theirs were confiscated.
5) The Trump family goes on TV to say "it's the FEDERAL stockpile, not the STATE stockpile, you should have planned ahead."
6) States have to go to extraordinary means (like using NFL planes and covertly coordinating with other states) to finally get PPE and ventilators.
7) People die due to lack of needed medical resources.
8) Trump keeps killing people, because no one will hold him accountable.
9) Trump, in fact, blames healthcare workers stealing PPE (which isn't happening) for the shortage.
10) Said healthcare workers are coming to work in homemade masks, getting sick, and dying too.
11) Trump keeps killing them, because no one will hold him accountable.
[MANY SUPPORTING LINKS IN THREAD]
----- 10 -----
After Kushner says 'it's our stockpile,' HHS website changed to echo his comments on federal crisis role
It's the latest salvo in rising tensions between Trump and the states.
By Ben Gittleson
April 3, 2020
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/kushner-stockpile-hhs-website-changed-echo-comments-federal/story?id=69936411
It was a telling moment in the rising tensions between the Trump White House and state governors desperate for medical equipment to deal with the exploding coronavirus crisis.
At Thursday's briefing on how the government is responding, Trump's senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner scolded states for not building up their own stockpiles, saying that the "the notion of the federal stockpile was it’s supposed to be our stockpile, it’s not supposed to be states’ stockpiles that they then use."
Earlier Thursday, President Donald Trump had tweeted, "Some have insatiable appetites & are never satisfied (politics?) Remember, we are a backup for them. The complainers should… have been stocked up and ready long before this crisis hit."
But the national stockpile actually is intended for states' use, which was clearly explained on the government's own website -- until the language was changed, without explanation, hours after Kushner provided his inaccurate description.
Until Friday morning, the website of the Department of Health and Human Services, which maintains the stockpile, read, "When state, local, tribal, and territorial responders request federal assistance to support their response efforts, the stockpile ensures that the right medicines and supplies get to those who need them most during an emergency."
But midday Friday, hours after Kushner directly contradicted the language on the HHS website, the text was changed without explanation. Retroactively matching what Kushner said, the website no longer says states can rely on the stockpile, but now says it exists to “supplement” them.
----- 11 -----
“I’ve Never Seen Anything Like This”: Doctors Without Enough Ventilators Are Being Told Whom To Save During The Coronavirus Pandemic
“I watched like three people die on Saturday — nothing we can do. Zero," one New York City doctor told BuzzFeed News.
3 April 2020
Kadia Goba, BuzzFeed News Reporter
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/kadiagoba/ventilator-shortage-new-york-hospitals-coronavirus
WASHINGTON — At the top of the list for ventilators: patients with just one failing organ. And then there are the others. Doctors with patients who are unresponsive to standard measures, have severe burns, have irreversible low blood pressure, or any other condition that would result in immediate mortality are instructed not to put them on ventilators during the coronavirus pandemic.
As the coronavirus wreaks havoc across the nation, doctors who shoulder much of the crisis are left with devastating life or death decisions.
BuzzFeed News reviewed documents from a New York City public hospital in line with previous reporting from the New York Times that lay out “policy enhancements” for doctors at hospitals across the nation on how to prioritize helping patients who are sick because of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, as medical supplies run low. At least one New York City public hospital sent specific guidelines for doctors on who should receive ventilators in light of the shortages — a harrowing task left to physicians on the front lines.
“I watched like three people die on Saturday — nothing we can do. Zero. You feel defeated,” one city doctor who works at a public hospital with similar guidelines told BuzzFeed News. “You feel drained.”
The doctor asked to remain anonymous, as they were afraid of losing their job should they be identified.
“There’s a list about six [types of] patients that do not get put on a vent. ‘It makes no sense, they’re going to die soon anyway, so let them die’ — like that’s the crazy thought process. This shit hurts,” they said.
----- 12 -----
3 million masks ordered by Massachusetts were confiscated in Port of New York, leading to creative alternative
Seizure led to operation to obtain masks from China
2 April 2020
https://www.wcvb.com/article/3-million-masks-ordered-by-massachusetts-were-confiscated-in-port-of-new-york/32021700#
Gov. Charlie Baker said a complicated international plan to purchase over 1 million N95 masks for Massachusetts health care workers and first responders was hatched after a previous order was confiscated in the Port of New York.
"Around the time that we had our 3 million masks that we had ordered through BJs confiscated in the port of New York, at that point it became pretty clear to us that using what I would describe as sort of a 'traditional approach to this' wasn't going to work," Baker said Thursday.
The governor did not specify the agency responsible for confiscating the masks.
After losing that initial order, Baker said his administration landed on a cooperative effort involving New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, Ambassador Huang Ping, Dr. Jason Li, Gene Hartigan and the state's COVID-19 Command Center.
The coalition arranged a purchase of the masks in China, which were flown back to Massachusetts Thursday aboard a New England Patriots private plane.
----- 13 -----
Adam Rifkin
twitter.com/ifindkarma
https://twitter.com/ifindkarma/status/1240417747260960768
18 March 2020
“He accepted everything. The past was alterable. The past never had been altered. Fox News was at war with coronavirus. Fox News had always been at war with coronavirus.”
[EMBEDDED VIDEO]
----- 14 -----
Fox News execs build legal team in anticipation of getting sued for coronavirus misinformation: report
By Matthew Chapman
3 April 2020
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/04/fox-news-execs-build-legal-team-in-anticipation-of-getting-sued-for-coronavirus-misinformation-report/
On Friday, The Daily Beast reported that Fox News father-and-son owners Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch are assembling a team of lawyers in preparation for lawsuits against the news network for promoting misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic that could undermine public health.
“According to a top Murdoch executive, the father-and-son media moguls are ready to go to war with potential plaintiffs such as the Washington League for Increased Transparency and Ethics — aka WASHLITE — an activist non-profit that filed suit on Thursday against Rupert Murdoch, Fox News, and other defendants,” reported Lachlan Cartwright. “The 10-page complaint, first reported by The Times of San Diego and filed in the superior court of Washington state’s King County, seeks a judgment that the Murdoch-controlled outlets violated the state’s consumer protection laws by ‘falsely and deceptively disseminating ‘News’ via cable news contracts that the novel Coronavirus, COVID-19 was a ‘Hoax,’ and that the virus was otherwise not a danger to public health and safety.'”
----- 15 -----
Washington state nonprofit files lawsuit saying Fox News misled viewers about coronavirus
April 3, 2020
The Seattle Times
By Sara Jean Green
Seattle Times staff reporter
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/washington-state-nonprofit-files-lawsuit-seeking-to-stop-fox-news-from-broadcasting-false-information-about-the-coronavirus/
A little-known Washington nonprofit has filed a lawsuit against Fox News in King County Superior Court, claiming the news station, its parent companies and owners violated the state’s Consumer Protection Act and acted in bad faith by disseminating false information about the novel coronavirus through its television news broadcasts and minimized the danger posed by the virus as COVID-19 began to explode into a pandemic.
----- 16 -----
The US is not issuing new passports unless it's a 'life-or-death' family emergency
Faith Karimi, CNN
Updated 3rd April 2020
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/us-passport-emergencies/index.html
(CNN) — The US has stopped issuing new passports, unless in a "life-or-death emergency,'' in an effort to help stop the spread of coronavirus.
In a statement on its website, the State Department asked Americans to avoid international travel at this time due to the impact of coronavirus. In line with that, it said, it will only offer passports to customers with a qualified emergency.
Examples of emergencies include travel due to serious illnesses, injuries or deaths in the immediate family, it said. Applicants must require travel outside the US within three days, and will have to submit "proof of the life-or-death emergency such as a death certificate, a statement from a mortuary or a signed letter from a hospital or medical professional."
Applications received on or before March 19 will get processed, the agency said.
Individuals needing to renew their passports for future international travel can proceed as usual without the usual option for expedited service (at an additional $60), according to the State Department's website.
----- 17 -----
Adam Schiff
twitter.com/RepAdamSchiff
2 April 2020
https://twitter.com/RepAdamSchiff/status/1245858907882270721
First, Trump says he alone will do the oversight on billions in relief money.
Then, he says he’ll ignore the transparency provisions required by Congress.
Now, he says any oversight is a “witch hunt.”
But here’s the truth:
Real oversight is vital, because incompetence kills.
[EMBEDDED VIDEO]
----- 18 -----
Weijia Jiang
twitter.com/weijia
3 April 2020
https://twitter.com/weijia/status/1246213280839933952
Jared Kushner is in charge of the medical supply chain that delivers critical items to the doctors and nurses who are on the frontlines everyday. Yesterday he said it was “OURS”, so I asked what he meant. Trump did not like the question.
[EMBEDDED VIDEO]
----- 19 -----
Aaron Rupar
twitter.com/atrupar
1 April 2020 [NOT AN APRIL FOOL'S JOKE]
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1245480070111735809
TRUMP: "Did you know I was number one on Facebook? I just found out I'm number one on Facebook." (Trump has 29 million followers; Obama has 53 million.)
----- 20 -----
Exclusive: Kushner Firm Built the Coronavirus Website Trump Promised
The extent of Oscar Health’s work on coronavirus testing hasn’t been previously reported.
by Robinson Meyer
March 30, 2020
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/03/kushner-coronavirus-testing-oscar-company/609139/
On March 13, President Donald Trump promised Americans they would soon be able to access a new website that would ask them about their symptoms and direct them to nearby coronavirus testing sites. He said Google was helping.
That wasn’t true. But in the following days, Oscar Health—a health-insurance company closely connected to Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner—developed a government website with the features the president had described. A team of Oscar engineers, project managers, and executives spent about five days building a stand-alone website at the government’s request, an Oscar spokesperson told The Atlantic. The company even dispatched two employees from New York to meet in person with federal officials in Washington, D.C., the spokesperson said. Then the website was suddenly and mysteriously scrapped.
The site would not have helped many Americans even if it had launched. Today, more than two weeks after the president promised a national network of drive-through test sites, only a handful of such sites have opened, and fewer than 1 million Americans have been tested.
The full extent of Oscar’s work on the project has not been previously reported. The partnership between the administration and the firm suggests that Kushner may have mingled his family’s business interests with his political interests and his role in the administration’s coronavirus response. Kushner’s younger brother Joshua is a co-founder and major investor in Oscar, and Jared Kushner partially owned or controlled Oscar before he joined the White House. The company’s work on the coronavirus website could violate federal ethics laws, several experts said.
----- 21 -----
Early Data Shows African Americans Have Contracted and Died of Coronavirus at an Alarming Rate
No, the coronavirus is not an “equalizer.” Black people are being infected and dying at higher rates. Here’s what Milwaukee is doing about it — and why governments need to start releasing data on the race of COVID-19 patients.
by Akilah Johnson and Talia Buford
April 3, 2020
https://www.propublica.org/article/early-data-shows-african-americans-have-contracted-and-died-of-coronavirus-at-an-alarming-rate/
The coronavirus entered Milwaukee from a white, affluent suburb. Then it took root in the city’s black community and erupted.
As public health officials watched cases rise in March, too many in the community shrugged off warnings. Rumors and conspiracy theories proliferated on social media, pushing the bogus idea that black people are somehow immune to the disease. And much of the initial focus was on international travel, so those who knew no one returning from Asia or Europe were quick to dismiss the risk.
Then, when the shelter-in-place order came, there was a natural pushback among those who recalled other painful government restrictions — including segregation and mass incarceration — on where black people could walk and gather.
“We’re like, ‘We have to wake people up,’” said Milwaukee Health Commissioner Jeanette Kowalik.
As the disease spread at a higher rate in the black community, it made an even deeper cut. Environmental, economic and political factors have compounded for generations, putting black people at higher risk of chronic conditions that leave lungs weak and immune systems vulnerable: asthma, heart disease, hypertension and diabetes. In Milwaukee, simply being black means your life expectancy is 14 years shorter, on average, than someone white.
As of Friday morning, African Americans made up almost half of Milwaukee County’s 945 cases and 81% of its 27 deaths in a county whose population is 26% black. Milwaukee is one of the few places in the United States that is tracking the racial breakdown of people who have been infected by the novel coronavirus, offering a glimpse at the disproportionate destruction it is inflicting on black communities nationwide.
----- 22 -----
Behind the right's obsession with a miracle cure for coronavirus: It's not just about Trump
The conservative run on antimalarial drugs, sparked by Trump, is also about deep-rooted hostility to public health
Amanda Marcotte
April 3, 2020
https://www.salon.com/2020/04/03/behind-the-rights-obsession-with-a-miracle-cure-for-coronavirus-its-not-just-about-trump/
In one of the oddest developments of the coronavirus crisis, there's been a run on a pair of antimalarial drugs, hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, which are used primarily in the U.S. to treat arthritis and to prevent organ damage from lupus. The drugs are being sucked out of pharmacies at an alarming rate, thanks to Americans who have convinced themselves these drugs will save them if the develop COVID-19, and thereby leaving patients who actually need these medications in danger.
This is happening in the face of only thin evidence that these drugs work against the novel coronavirus, and plenty of evidence that they don't work. At one Paris hospital that used the drug heavily — on the recommendation of Didier Raoult, a climate change-denying French doctor with a shady reputation — the results suggest these drugs are not effective at all. Chinese doctors also concluded they were useless. These drugs are known to have some scary side effects, including sudden cardiac death in some patients. They are also notorious for psychological side effects, such as paranoia and nightmares. At least one person in the U.S. has died from swallowing aquarium cleaner that contains a similar chemical compound.
So why are so many people so eager to get their hands on drugs that are clearly dangerous and may do no good?
The most immediate reason is simple: The people rushing the pharmacies are Republicans, and both Donald Trump and numerous Fox News personalities have told them these drugs are a "game-changer" that can save them from the coronavirus.
But there's a reason these false or unproven claims are resonating with the ordinary citizens of Trumpistan. The hope that there's a hard-to-get miracle cure that will save them speaks directly to the poisonous social Darwinism that guides modern conservatism. It reflects deep hostility to the very concept of a shared public good and a fierce attachment to a racialized ideology of individualism that treats public goods such as health care as things to be hoarded by those with the privilege, money and status to do so.
Conservative ideology simply doesn't allow for the possibility that anything, including pandemic management, is best managed with a "we're all in this together" mentality. Instead they're drawn to this fantasy that there's a Platinum Member COVID-19 status that can be purchased, which will allow them to opt out of the suffering of the plebeian class that has to quarantine or risk sickness and death.
There's no question that Trump and other right-wing figures are pushing this hydroxychloroquine angle hard. Trump has talked about these drugs several times during his daily propaganda-dump "press briefings," as well as on Twitter.
Laura Ingraham of Fox News has been hyping this stuff heavily, hosting a doctor who misleadingly argued that "this is the beginning of the end of the pandemic" Wednesday night. She's also had tweets removed by Twitter for promoting medical disinformation.
----- 23 -----
'Ventilators' donated by Elon Musk can't be used on coronavirus patients, health officials say
Kathryn Krawczyk, The Week
April 2, 2020
https://news.yahoo.com/ventilators-donated-elon-musk-cant-150000445.html
Elon Musk's ventilator giveaway may do more harm than good.
After weeks of brushing off the COVID-19 pandemic as "dumb," the billionaire Tesla founder earlier this week announced he had 1,000 "FDA-approved ventilators" and ended up donating 40 to New York City's hospital system. Except the devices Musk gave away aren't powerful enough to use in the ICU, and health officials have actually warned against using them on COVID-19 patients because they could spread the virus further.
What Musk purchased and gave to New York's hospitals were BiPAP machines made by ResMed, a photo shared by the hospital system reveals. ResMed CEO Mick Farrell later confirmed Musk's purchase of 1,000 5-year-old "bi-level, non-invasive ventilators" known as BiPAPs to CNBC, and said it was "fantastic" that Tesla could transport ResMed's product like it did.
But hospitals are far more desperate for ventilators more invasive than BiPAP and CPAP machines, which are usually used to treat sleep apnea — many doctors don't even call them "ventilators," the Los Angeles Times' Russ Mitchell reports. In fact, CPAP machines may have only helped spread COVID-19 through the nursing home outside Seattle that was the center of the U.S.'s initial coronavirus outbreak, NPR reports. These machines can "possibly increase the spread of infectious disease by aerosolizing the virus," NPR writes. Health officials in King County, Washington, have since warned against using CPAP machines on coronavirus patients, as did the American Society of Anesthesiologists back in February.
----- 24 -----
Jason Campbell
twitter.com/JasonSCampbell
3 April 2020
https://twitter.com/JasonSCampbell/status/1246233312575860736
Tucker Carlson says Anthony Fauci is proposing "national suicide"
[EMBEDDED VIDEO]
