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solarbirdCOVID-19 news continues to be pretty depressing!
----- 1 -----
Making men feel manly in masks is, unfortunately, a public-health challenge of our time
By Monica Hesse
Columnist
June 27, 2020 at 5:00 a.m. PDT
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/realmenwearmasks-may-be-helpful-but-the-fact-that-we-need-it-is-a-shame/2020/06/27/8f372340-b7eb-11ea-aca5-ebb63d27e1ff_story.html
It’s weird, the things that will break you sometimes. The world is a giant toilet right now, but you’re still paddling as best you can, and then something random and minuscule causes you to throw up your hands and say, “I give up — flush us all!” For me this week that thing was Dick Cheney launching the hashtag #RealMenWearMasks.
This came on the heels of dire coronavirus news. Florida set an ignominious record, with 9,000 new cases reported in a single day. The governor of Texas re-implemented restrictions on public spaces after 6,000 new cases were reported in his state. Drs. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx were back on television for their first coronavirus task force briefing in two months. And shortly after, Cheney was on his daughter’s Twitter account. He wore a navy fleece vest, a tan cowboy hat and, covering everything from his chin to the bridge of his nose, a standard pale blue surgical mask. Typed Liz Cheney, who is also a Wyoming congresswoman: “Dick Cheney says WEAR A MASK.”
Have we gathered here today to mock Dick Cheney, the accidentally-shot-a-friend-in-the-face former Vice President of the United States? We have not. Cheney showed up this week demonstrating that he respected public health. He understood that masks are both the best way to protect other people from your germs, and also one of the few reliable means of slowing the spread of the virus. He was humble enough to do what doctors and epidemiologists recommend.
Thank you, Dick Cheney. Thank you, Mitch McConnell, who lofted a mask at a news conference Friday and declared, “These are really important.”
The maddening aspect of #RealMenWearMasks isn’t the message but what’s behind it: We’ve reached the point of this polarized pandemic where our current plan for salvation is convincing certain recalcitrant men that wearing masks is the testosteroney thing to do.
----- 2 -----
‘Don’t be a sheep’: Sheriffs rebel against new statewide mask requirements
By
Teo Armus
June 26, 2020 at 3:40 a.m. PDT
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/06/26/sheriffs-mask-covid/
Hours after Gov. Jay Inslee (D) ordered Washington state residents to cover their faces in public, a Republican sheriff in a rural southwestern swath of the state suggested they should be doing no such thing.
“Here’s what I say,” Lewis County Sheriff Robert Snaza told the crowd outside a church Tuesday, carrying a megaphone and sporting his green and beige uniform but no face mask. “Don’t be a sheep.”
Few of the people cheering on Snaza covered their faces either, according to video of the scene taken by the Daily Chronicle of Centralia, Wash. Indeed, the words on a billboard above the crowd seemed to capture their feeling about the pandemic: “Oh, no! A virus. Quick — burn the bill of rights.”
With coronavirus infections rapidly spreading across the American South and West and more states making masks a requirement, dozens of sheriffs like Snaza are staging a rebellion against state governments. An adherence to their interpretation of Constitution, they say, comes before any kind of public health advice.
----- 3 -----
Workers removed thousands of social distancing stickers before Trump’s Tulsa rally
By Joshua Partlow
and Josh Dawsey
The Washington Post
June 27, 2020
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/workers-removed-social-distancing-stickers-before-tulsa-rally-according-to-video-and-a-person-familiar-with-the-setup/
In the hours before his rally in Tulsa, President Donald Trump’s campaign directed the removal of thousands of “Do Not Sit Here, Please!” stickers from seats in the arena that were intended to establish social distance between rallygoers, according to video and photos obtained by The Washington Post and a person familiar with the event.
The removal contradicted instructions from the management of the BOK Center, the 19,000-seat arena in downtown Tulsa where Trump held his rally on June 20. At the time, coronavirus cases were rising sharply in Tulsa County, and Trump faced intense criticism for convening a large crowd for an indoor political rally, his first such event since the start of the pandemic.
As part of its safety plan, arena management had purchased 12,000 do-not-sit stickers for Trump’s rally, intended to keep people apart by leaving open seats between attendees. On the day of the rally, event staff had already affixed them on nearly every other seat in the arena when Trump’s campaign told event management to stop and then began removing the stickers, hours before the president’s arrival, according to a person familiar with the event who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters.
----- 4 -----
With Trump leading the way, America’s coronavirus failures exposed by record surge in new infections
By Toluse Olorunnipa, Josh Dawsey and Yasmeen Abutaleb
June 27, 2020 at 2:38 p.m. PDT
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/with-trump-leading-the-way-americas-coronavirus-failures-exposed-by-record-surge-in-new-infections/2020/06/27/bd15aea2-b7c4-11ea-a8da-693df3d7674a_story.html
Five months after the novel coronavirus was first detected in the United States, a record surge in new cases is the clearest sign yet of the country’s historic failure to control the virus — exposing a crisis in governance extending from the Oval Office to state capitals to city councils.
President Trump — who has repeatedly downplayed the virus, sidelined experts and misled Americans about its dangers and potential cures — now finds his presidency wracked by an inability to shepherd the country through its worst public health calamity in a century. The dysfunction that has long characterized Trump’s White House has been particularly ill-suited for a viral outbreak that requires precision, focus and steady leadership, according to public health experts, administration officials and lawmakers from both parties.
As case numbers began rising again, Trump has held rallies defying public health guidelines, mused about slowing down testing for the virus, criticized people wearing masks and embraced the racially offensive “kung flu” nickname for a disease that has killed at least 123,000 Americans.
...
The White House has blocked Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, from some appearances that he has requested to do in recent weeks, according to two people familiar with the matter. White House aides have argued that television interviewers often try to goad Fauci into criticizing the president or the administration’s approach, and that Fauci is not always good about “staying on message,” in the words of a senior administration official. Aides did allow Fauci to appear on CNN recently for a town hall, the official said.
...
As local officials struggled to enforce stay-at-home orders and other restrictions, the virus continued to circulate throughout a country riven by partisan politics and devoid of a national public health strategy, said Max Skidmore, a political scientist at the University of Missouri at Kansas City and author of a book on presidential leadership during health crises.
“We’re the only country in the world that has politicized the approach to a pandemic,” he said.
----- 5 -----
'Free Handout to Insurance Industry': Trump Administration Tells Insurers They Don't Have to Cover Covid-19 Tests for Workers
"According to the Trump administration, insurance company profits are more important than the lives of nursing home residents and workers."
by Jake Johnson, staff writer
Thursday, June 25, 2020
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/06/25/free-handout-insurance-industry-trump-administration-tells-insurers-they-dont-have
The Trump administration issued policy guidance this week telling health insurance companies that they are not required by law to cover the Covid-19 tests employers may compel workers to undergo as a condition for returning to their jobs.
The announcement (pdf) Tuesday by the Departments of Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services alarmed healthcare advocates and lawmakers who warned the move gives profitable insurers a green light to push the costs of potentially expensive coronavirus screenings onto workers.
The Families First Coronavirus Response Act, a relief bill President Donald Trump signed into law in March, includes a provision (pdf) mandating that insurers and employer-provided plans cover "Covid-19 testing and related services without cost-sharing."
But the Trump administration says in its guidance that the law only requires insurers to cover "medically appropriate" coronavirus screenings, not tests "conducted to screen for general workplace health and safety (such as employee 'return to work' programs)."
Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) blasted the Trump administration's interpretation of the law as a violation of congressional intent and "a free handout to the insurance industry."
----- 6 -----
Hugo’s Tacos closes in Studio City and Atwater Village, citing ‘constant conflicts’ with guests over masks
by: Kristina Bravo, Jennifer McGraw
Posted: Jun 28, 2020
https://ktla.com/news/local-news/hugos-tacos-closes-in-studio-city-and-atwater-village-citing-constant-conflicts-with-guests-over-masks/
A local taco restaurant closed both its locations in Atwater Village and Studio City Sunday, citing harassment from customers who refused to wear masks while ordering or picking up food.
In a message to customers, Hugo’s Tacos described the majority of their guests as respectful and kind as the restaurant operates with some restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the message said, “staff have been harassed, called names, and had objects and liquids thrown at them” as they enforce the mask requirement.
“Our Taco Stands are exhausted by the constant conflicts over guests refusing to wear masks,” the announcement said.
Signs about the facial covering rule are displayed on the premises.
“When you ask some of the customers, they get upset, they get mad. They don’t like to do that,” Executive Chef Nabor Diaz told KTLA. “At this point, it’s really important for us to put the safety of our crew first.”
The restaurant, which has been around for 15 years, asked customers to watch its website and social media accounts for updates on reopening.
----- 7 -----
Robert E Kelly
twitter.com/Robert_E_Kelly
28 June 2020
https://twitter.com/Robert_E_Kelly/status/1277471046308773890
[THREAD]
As US corona cases spike, it is worth pointing out that a LOT of people predicted this about a month or two ago. It was clear then that the re-opening was premature and that the lock-down, while it had flattened the curve, was not used as a window of relief by the Trump admin /1
[NEXT]
to set-up national, coordinated, and well-funded mitigation - testing, quarantining, contact-tracing, best practices like masking & temperature checks, more ICU beds, PPE, & ventilators, etc - to battle resurgences post-lock-down. That was the whole point of the lock-down - to /2
[NEXT]
create some breathing space against the initial surge to get a suppression structure up and running to handle the long run of the virus. Trump wasted that window bought at terrible economic pain. Instead,he continued to push it all onto the states and then undermine even those /3
[NEXT]
efforts with his 'liberate' comments. Then, bc of the temporary, lock-down-induced caseload drop, Trump charged recklessly into re-opening, and craven GOP governors followed. So now, when the widely anticipated case resurgence is indeed happening, there is scarcely a structure /4
[THREAD CONTINUES AT LINK]
----- 8 -----
Jacksonville, site of Republican convention, to require masks indoors and in public
By Brett Samuels - 06/29/20
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/505034-jacksonville-site-of-republican-convention-to-require-masks-indoors-and-in
Residents and visitors in Jacksonville, Fla., will be required to wear masks indoors and in public spaces to help slow the spread of the coronavirus, the city announced Monday, potentially complicating President Trump's desire to hold the Republican National Convention there in August without masks or social distancing.
The mandatory mask policy will take effect at 5 p.m. on Monday, city officials said. It's unclear how long it will remain in place.
"At 5 p.m. today, the City of Jacksonville will be adopting a mandatory mask requirement for public & indoor locations, and in other situations where individuals cannot socially distance," the city tweeted. "Please continue to practice personal responsibility to help stop the spread of this virus."
...
The president had demanded the Republican convention be allowed to move forward without restrictions on crowd size, and he opposed the idea of requiring masks or spacing out attendees. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) indicated he would not be able to commit to those terms given the uncertainty of the pandemic, and the two sides were unable to reach an agreement.
But Florida's handling of the coronavirus has cast a cloud over the event. The state has seen record numbers of cases over the past several days as it struggles to get new outbreaks under control.
----- 9 -----
Health officials worry state is heading in wrong direction with rise in COVID-19 cases
Nick Popham, KOMO News
Monday, June 29, 2020
https://www.seattlepi.com/local/komo/article/Health-officials-worry-state-is-heading-in-wrong-15373696.php
SEATTLE -- Local health leaders say they don't like the direction the state is heading in with COVID-19 cases on the rise.
King County Public Health Officer Doctor Jeff Duchin says they'll be proactive.
"We're depending on one another to prevent infections and stay safe," Duchin said. "Unless we can successfully manage the risk of COVID-19, it'll be very difficult to continue to reopen and move forward."
He says from June 14-20, King County saw 156 more cases than the previous week -- a 60% increase in cases.
King County joins places like Whatcom, Snohomish, Skagit and Pierce Counties as seeing more recent cases.
----- 10 -----
Mat Staver: COVID Vaccines Contain “Murdered Babies”
June 28, 2020
https://www.joemygod.com/2020/06/mat-staver-covid-vaccines-contain-murdered-babies/
Via press release from hate group leader Mat Staver:
Moderna, Inovio, CanSino, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Pharmaceuticals and others are using aborted baby cells to fuel their research and build their vaccines, according to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and other sources.
Two of the vaccine makers mentioned above, AstraZeneca and Janssen, have been approved for the Food and Drug Administration’s “warp speed” program, meaning their aborted baby-derived vaccines will likely be the first to market… and the first to be pushed as a mandatory vaccine.
The DNA of murdered children will be injected into the bloodstream of anyone who takes those tainted vaccines.
----- 11 -----
CDC says U.S. has ‘way too much virus’ to control pandemic as cases surge across country
Published Mon, Jun 29 2020
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/29/cdc-says-us-has-way-too-much-virus-to-control-pandemic-as-cases-surge-across-country.html
The coronavirus is spreading too rapidly and too broadly for the U.S. to bring it under control, Dr. Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Monday.
The U.S. has set records for daily new infections in recent days as outbreaks surge mostly across the South and West. The recent spike in new cases has outpaced daily infections in April when the virus rocked Washington state and the northeast, and when public officials thought the outbreak was hitting its peak in the U.S.
“We’re not in the situation of New Zealand or Singapore or Korea where a new case is rapidly identified and all the contacts are traced and people are isolated who are sick and people who are exposed are quarantined and they can keep things under control,” she said in an interview with The Journal of the American Medical Association’s Dr. Howard Bauchner. “We have way too much virus across the country for that right now, so it’s very discouraging.”
----- 12 -----
Nicole Grigg
twitter.com/NicoleSGrigg
29 June 2020
https://twitter.com/NicoleSGrigg/status/1277772261265530880
[THREAD]
SCORE CARDS: Arizona just told hospitals they can implement the Crisis Standards of Care Plan.
This means doctors may have to decide who lives, who dies
This means they will be able to decide who gets what level of care.
It’s all numbers, and algorithms.
My exchange w/ gov:
[EMBEDDED VIDEO AT LINK]
[THREAD CONTINUES AT LINK]
- Making men feel manly in masks is, unfortunately, a public-health challenge of our time
- ‘Don’t be a sheep’: Sheriffs rebel against new statewide mask requirements
- Workers removed thousands of social distancing stickers before Trump’s Tulsa rally
- With Trump leading the way, America’s coronavirus failures exposed by record surge in new infections
- 'Free Handout to Insurance Industry': Trump Administration Tells Insurers They Don't Have to Cover Covid-19 Tests for Workers
- Hugo’s Tacos closes in Studio City and Atwater Village, citing ‘constant conflicts’ with guests over masks
- As US corona cases spike, it is worth pointing out that a LOT of people predicted this about a month or two ago.
- Jacksonville, site of Republican convention, to require masks indoors and in public
- Health officials worry state is heading in wrong direction with rise in COVID-19 cases
- Mat Staver: COVID Vaccines Contain “Murdered Babies”
- CDC says U.S. has ‘way too much virus’ to control pandemic as cases surge across country
- Arizona just told hospitals they can implement the Crisis Standards of Care Plan [EDITOR: Republican governor in Republican state authorises triage panels for COVID-19 care, or what the Republicans used to call "Death Panels."]
----- 1 -----
Making men feel manly in masks is, unfortunately, a public-health challenge of our time
By Monica Hesse
Columnist
June 27, 2020 at 5:00 a.m. PDT
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/realmenwearmasks-may-be-helpful-but-the-fact-that-we-need-it-is-a-shame/2020/06/27/8f372340-b7eb-11ea-aca5-ebb63d27e1ff_story.html
It’s weird, the things that will break you sometimes. The world is a giant toilet right now, but you’re still paddling as best you can, and then something random and minuscule causes you to throw up your hands and say, “I give up — flush us all!” For me this week that thing was Dick Cheney launching the hashtag #RealMenWearMasks.
This came on the heels of dire coronavirus news. Florida set an ignominious record, with 9,000 new cases reported in a single day. The governor of Texas re-implemented restrictions on public spaces after 6,000 new cases were reported in his state. Drs. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx were back on television for their first coronavirus task force briefing in two months. And shortly after, Cheney was on his daughter’s Twitter account. He wore a navy fleece vest, a tan cowboy hat and, covering everything from his chin to the bridge of his nose, a standard pale blue surgical mask. Typed Liz Cheney, who is also a Wyoming congresswoman: “Dick Cheney says WEAR A MASK.”
Have we gathered here today to mock Dick Cheney, the accidentally-shot-a-friend-in-the-face former Vice President of the United States? We have not. Cheney showed up this week demonstrating that he respected public health. He understood that masks are both the best way to protect other people from your germs, and also one of the few reliable means of slowing the spread of the virus. He was humble enough to do what doctors and epidemiologists recommend.
Thank you, Dick Cheney. Thank you, Mitch McConnell, who lofted a mask at a news conference Friday and declared, “These are really important.”
The maddening aspect of #RealMenWearMasks isn’t the message but what’s behind it: We’ve reached the point of this polarized pandemic where our current plan for salvation is convincing certain recalcitrant men that wearing masks is the testosteroney thing to do.
----- 2 -----
‘Don’t be a sheep’: Sheriffs rebel against new statewide mask requirements
By
Teo Armus
June 26, 2020 at 3:40 a.m. PDT
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/06/26/sheriffs-mask-covid/
Hours after Gov. Jay Inslee (D) ordered Washington state residents to cover their faces in public, a Republican sheriff in a rural southwestern swath of the state suggested they should be doing no such thing.
“Here’s what I say,” Lewis County Sheriff Robert Snaza told the crowd outside a church Tuesday, carrying a megaphone and sporting his green and beige uniform but no face mask. “Don’t be a sheep.”
Few of the people cheering on Snaza covered their faces either, according to video of the scene taken by the Daily Chronicle of Centralia, Wash. Indeed, the words on a billboard above the crowd seemed to capture their feeling about the pandemic: “Oh, no! A virus. Quick — burn the bill of rights.”
With coronavirus infections rapidly spreading across the American South and West and more states making masks a requirement, dozens of sheriffs like Snaza are staging a rebellion against state governments. An adherence to their interpretation of Constitution, they say, comes before any kind of public health advice.
----- 3 -----
Workers removed thousands of social distancing stickers before Trump’s Tulsa rally
By Joshua Partlow
and Josh Dawsey
The Washington Post
June 27, 2020
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/workers-removed-social-distancing-stickers-before-tulsa-rally-according-to-video-and-a-person-familiar-with-the-setup/
In the hours before his rally in Tulsa, President Donald Trump’s campaign directed the removal of thousands of “Do Not Sit Here, Please!” stickers from seats in the arena that were intended to establish social distance between rallygoers, according to video and photos obtained by The Washington Post and a person familiar with the event.
The removal contradicted instructions from the management of the BOK Center, the 19,000-seat arena in downtown Tulsa where Trump held his rally on June 20. At the time, coronavirus cases were rising sharply in Tulsa County, and Trump faced intense criticism for convening a large crowd for an indoor political rally, his first such event since the start of the pandemic.
As part of its safety plan, arena management had purchased 12,000 do-not-sit stickers for Trump’s rally, intended to keep people apart by leaving open seats between attendees. On the day of the rally, event staff had already affixed them on nearly every other seat in the arena when Trump’s campaign told event management to stop and then began removing the stickers, hours before the president’s arrival, according to a person familiar with the event who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters.
----- 4 -----
With Trump leading the way, America’s coronavirus failures exposed by record surge in new infections
By Toluse Olorunnipa, Josh Dawsey and Yasmeen Abutaleb
June 27, 2020 at 2:38 p.m. PDT
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/with-trump-leading-the-way-americas-coronavirus-failures-exposed-by-record-surge-in-new-infections/2020/06/27/bd15aea2-b7c4-11ea-a8da-693df3d7674a_story.html
Five months after the novel coronavirus was first detected in the United States, a record surge in new cases is the clearest sign yet of the country’s historic failure to control the virus — exposing a crisis in governance extending from the Oval Office to state capitals to city councils.
President Trump — who has repeatedly downplayed the virus, sidelined experts and misled Americans about its dangers and potential cures — now finds his presidency wracked by an inability to shepherd the country through its worst public health calamity in a century. The dysfunction that has long characterized Trump’s White House has been particularly ill-suited for a viral outbreak that requires precision, focus and steady leadership, according to public health experts, administration officials and lawmakers from both parties.
As case numbers began rising again, Trump has held rallies defying public health guidelines, mused about slowing down testing for the virus, criticized people wearing masks and embraced the racially offensive “kung flu” nickname for a disease that has killed at least 123,000 Americans.
...
The White House has blocked Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, from some appearances that he has requested to do in recent weeks, according to two people familiar with the matter. White House aides have argued that television interviewers often try to goad Fauci into criticizing the president or the administration’s approach, and that Fauci is not always good about “staying on message,” in the words of a senior administration official. Aides did allow Fauci to appear on CNN recently for a town hall, the official said.
...
As local officials struggled to enforce stay-at-home orders and other restrictions, the virus continued to circulate throughout a country riven by partisan politics and devoid of a national public health strategy, said Max Skidmore, a political scientist at the University of Missouri at Kansas City and author of a book on presidential leadership during health crises.
“We’re the only country in the world that has politicized the approach to a pandemic,” he said.
----- 5 -----
'Free Handout to Insurance Industry': Trump Administration Tells Insurers They Don't Have to Cover Covid-19 Tests for Workers
"According to the Trump administration, insurance company profits are more important than the lives of nursing home residents and workers."
by Jake Johnson, staff writer
Thursday, June 25, 2020
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/06/25/free-handout-insurance-industry-trump-administration-tells-insurers-they-dont-have
The Trump administration issued policy guidance this week telling health insurance companies that they are not required by law to cover the Covid-19 tests employers may compel workers to undergo as a condition for returning to their jobs.
The announcement (pdf) Tuesday by the Departments of Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services alarmed healthcare advocates and lawmakers who warned the move gives profitable insurers a green light to push the costs of potentially expensive coronavirus screenings onto workers.
The Families First Coronavirus Response Act, a relief bill President Donald Trump signed into law in March, includes a provision (pdf) mandating that insurers and employer-provided plans cover "Covid-19 testing and related services without cost-sharing."
But the Trump administration says in its guidance that the law only requires insurers to cover "medically appropriate" coronavirus screenings, not tests "conducted to screen for general workplace health and safety (such as employee 'return to work' programs)."
Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) blasted the Trump administration's interpretation of the law as a violation of congressional intent and "a free handout to the insurance industry."
----- 6 -----
Hugo’s Tacos closes in Studio City and Atwater Village, citing ‘constant conflicts’ with guests over masks
by: Kristina Bravo, Jennifer McGraw
Posted: Jun 28, 2020
https://ktla.com/news/local-news/hugos-tacos-closes-in-studio-city-and-atwater-village-citing-constant-conflicts-with-guests-over-masks/
A local taco restaurant closed both its locations in Atwater Village and Studio City Sunday, citing harassment from customers who refused to wear masks while ordering or picking up food.
In a message to customers, Hugo’s Tacos described the majority of their guests as respectful and kind as the restaurant operates with some restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the message said, “staff have been harassed, called names, and had objects and liquids thrown at them” as they enforce the mask requirement.
“Our Taco Stands are exhausted by the constant conflicts over guests refusing to wear masks,” the announcement said.
Signs about the facial covering rule are displayed on the premises.
“When you ask some of the customers, they get upset, they get mad. They don’t like to do that,” Executive Chef Nabor Diaz told KTLA. “At this point, it’s really important for us to put the safety of our crew first.”
The restaurant, which has been around for 15 years, asked customers to watch its website and social media accounts for updates on reopening.
----- 7 -----
Robert E Kelly
twitter.com/Robert_E_Kelly
28 June 2020
https://twitter.com/Robert_E_Kelly/status/1277471046308773890
[THREAD]
As US corona cases spike, it is worth pointing out that a LOT of people predicted this about a month or two ago. It was clear then that the re-opening was premature and that the lock-down, while it had flattened the curve, was not used as a window of relief by the Trump admin /1
[NEXT]
to set-up national, coordinated, and well-funded mitigation - testing, quarantining, contact-tracing, best practices like masking & temperature checks, more ICU beds, PPE, & ventilators, etc - to battle resurgences post-lock-down. That was the whole point of the lock-down - to /2
[NEXT]
create some breathing space against the initial surge to get a suppression structure up and running to handle the long run of the virus. Trump wasted that window bought at terrible economic pain. Instead,he continued to push it all onto the states and then undermine even those /3
[NEXT]
efforts with his 'liberate' comments. Then, bc of the temporary, lock-down-induced caseload drop, Trump charged recklessly into re-opening, and craven GOP governors followed. So now, when the widely anticipated case resurgence is indeed happening, there is scarcely a structure /4
[THREAD CONTINUES AT LINK]
----- 8 -----
Jacksonville, site of Republican convention, to require masks indoors and in public
By Brett Samuels - 06/29/20
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/505034-jacksonville-site-of-republican-convention-to-require-masks-indoors-and-in
Residents and visitors in Jacksonville, Fla., will be required to wear masks indoors and in public spaces to help slow the spread of the coronavirus, the city announced Monday, potentially complicating President Trump's desire to hold the Republican National Convention there in August without masks or social distancing.
The mandatory mask policy will take effect at 5 p.m. on Monday, city officials said. It's unclear how long it will remain in place.
"At 5 p.m. today, the City of Jacksonville will be adopting a mandatory mask requirement for public & indoor locations, and in other situations where individuals cannot socially distance," the city tweeted. "Please continue to practice personal responsibility to help stop the spread of this virus."
...
The president had demanded the Republican convention be allowed to move forward without restrictions on crowd size, and he opposed the idea of requiring masks or spacing out attendees. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) indicated he would not be able to commit to those terms given the uncertainty of the pandemic, and the two sides were unable to reach an agreement.
But Florida's handling of the coronavirus has cast a cloud over the event. The state has seen record numbers of cases over the past several days as it struggles to get new outbreaks under control.
----- 9 -----
Health officials worry state is heading in wrong direction with rise in COVID-19 cases
Nick Popham, KOMO News
Monday, June 29, 2020
https://www.seattlepi.com/local/komo/article/Health-officials-worry-state-is-heading-in-wrong-15373696.php
SEATTLE -- Local health leaders say they don't like the direction the state is heading in with COVID-19 cases on the rise.
King County Public Health Officer Doctor Jeff Duchin says they'll be proactive.
"We're depending on one another to prevent infections and stay safe," Duchin said. "Unless we can successfully manage the risk of COVID-19, it'll be very difficult to continue to reopen and move forward."
He says from June 14-20, King County saw 156 more cases than the previous week -- a 60% increase in cases.
King County joins places like Whatcom, Snohomish, Skagit and Pierce Counties as seeing more recent cases.
----- 10 -----
Mat Staver: COVID Vaccines Contain “Murdered Babies”
June 28, 2020
https://www.joemygod.com/2020/06/mat-staver-covid-vaccines-contain-murdered-babies/
Via press release from hate group leader Mat Staver:
Moderna, Inovio, CanSino, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Pharmaceuticals and others are using aborted baby cells to fuel their research and build their vaccines, according to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and other sources.
Two of the vaccine makers mentioned above, AstraZeneca and Janssen, have been approved for the Food and Drug Administration’s “warp speed” program, meaning their aborted baby-derived vaccines will likely be the first to market… and the first to be pushed as a mandatory vaccine.
The DNA of murdered children will be injected into the bloodstream of anyone who takes those tainted vaccines.
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CDC says U.S. has ‘way too much virus’ to control pandemic as cases surge across country
Published Mon, Jun 29 2020
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/29/cdc-says-us-has-way-too-much-virus-to-control-pandemic-as-cases-surge-across-country.html
The coronavirus is spreading too rapidly and too broadly for the U.S. to bring it under control, Dr. Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Monday.
The U.S. has set records for daily new infections in recent days as outbreaks surge mostly across the South and West. The recent spike in new cases has outpaced daily infections in April when the virus rocked Washington state and the northeast, and when public officials thought the outbreak was hitting its peak in the U.S.
“We’re not in the situation of New Zealand or Singapore or Korea where a new case is rapidly identified and all the contacts are traced and people are isolated who are sick and people who are exposed are quarantined and they can keep things under control,” she said in an interview with The Journal of the American Medical Association’s Dr. Howard Bauchner. “We have way too much virus across the country for that right now, so it’s very discouraging.”
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Nicole Grigg
twitter.com/NicoleSGrigg
29 June 2020
https://twitter.com/NicoleSGrigg/status/1277772261265530880
[THREAD]
SCORE CARDS: Arizona just told hospitals they can implement the Crisis Standards of Care Plan.
This means doctors may have to decide who lives, who dies
This means they will be able to decide who gets what level of care.
It’s all numbers, and algorithms.
My exchange w/ gov:
[EMBEDDED VIDEO AT LINK]
[THREAD CONTINUES AT LINK]
