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solarbirdLots and lots today. Lots and lots and lots.
----- 1 -----
Hate Group To Sue CA Gov Over New Lockdown Order
July 14, 2020 Christianists, Hate Groups
https://www.joemygod.com/2020/07/hate-group-to-sue-ca-gov-over-new-lockdown-order/
Via press release from hate group leader Mat Staver:
In California, we will be filing suit against Gov. Gavin Newsom on behalf of Pastor Samuel Rodriguez, who is president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference. The NHCLC represents 42,000 churches nationwide. In addition to NHCLC, Sam is the senior pastor of churches in Sacramento and Los Angeles.
On July 1, as anti-American protestors continued to fill California streets chanting songs of revolution, hatred and destruction, Gov. Newsom banned all singing or chanting in houses of worship! If you do an internet search for “singing in the bible,” you will find lots of Scripture texts that speak of singing to the Lord.
Even though the Bible says we should “Praise God in his sanctuary” (Ps. 150:1), Gov. Newsom says you must not! The governor has no authority to ban singing and chanting in churches.
Up until just yesterday, California churches were forced to limit attendance to 25% of capacity or 100 attendees, whichever were lower…no matter the facility size.
This ban ONLY applied to houses of worship, not the throngs of violent revolutionaries mobbing California’s streets or commercial outlets packed with shoppers! But now, Gov. Newsom has flipped the switch and gone back to FULL SHUTDOWN.
Today’s message ends with the usual money beg.
----- 2 -----
The Food-Processing Industry Is the Typhoid Mary of This Pandemic
This New Yorker piece shows vividly how interconnected the current administration*'s malfeasance and nonfeasance in the face of the pandemic is with 40 years of conservative economic doctrine.
By Charles P. Pierce
Jul 14, 2020
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a33309725/new-yorker-mountaire-foods-covid-19-workers/
When the pandemic finally ends, assuming it does, and we take our first tentative steps out of our aquarium lives, the history of this very strange time will reserve a big place for studies of the food-processing industry.
More than any other, this one industry and its underpaid, largely minority, and more than occasionally undocumented workforce—the members of which were judged to be "essential" and, therefore, were forced to choose between employment and good health—accounts for so many hotspots in so many places that the industry can rightly be called the Typhoid Mary of this pandemic, and of American business. In the current issue of The New Yorker, the indefatigable Jane Mayer examines this phenomenon through the prism of one company, Mountaire Foods, and its owner, a guy named Ronald Cameron who, Mayer reports, donated $3 million to the president*'s 2016 campaign, which closes the circle, leaving his workers outside to fend for themselves.
----- 3 -----
OC School Board Votes To Allow In-Person Instruction This Fall Without Masks, Social Distancing
July 13, 2020
https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2020/07/13/oc-school-board-classes-fall/
COSTA MESA (CBSLA) — The Orange County Board of Education voted 4-1 Monday evening to allow schools to reopen next month with in-person instruction.
Students and teachers can choose to attend classes without masks and no social distancing required.
A group of parents and teachers gathered outside of the Monday evening meeting protesting the idea of children returning to school without safety precautions.
Some parents, however, were at the meeting in support of the Board of Education’s decision to start school with in-person instruction.
Last month, the Board of Education held a meeting with experts who concluded in a white paper that requiring students to wear masks “is not only difficult but may even be harmful over time.”
----- 4 -----
southpaw
twitter.com/nycsouthpaw
14 July 2020
https://twitter.com/nycsouthpaw/status/1283123475348164608
[THREAD]
"The Trump administration has ordered hospitals to bypass the CDC and, beginning on Wednesday, send all coronavirus patient information to a central database in Washington — a move that has alarmed public health experts"
[LINKS TO:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/world/coronavirus-updates.html
]
[NEXT]
Here's the document.
"As of July 15, 2020, hospitals should no longer report the Covid-19 information in this document to the National Healthcare Safety Network site," it says.
The National Healthcare Safety Network is CDC's infection tracking system. https://hhs.gov/sites/default/files/covid-19-faqs-hospitals-hospital-laboratory-acute-care-facility-data-reporting.pdf
[NEXT]
I cannot conceive of a good faith rationale for this policy move by the Trump administration, and I hope all hospitals continue to report their Covid-19 data to the nation's public health experts at the CDC.
[THREAD CONTINUES AT LINK]
----- 5 -----
‘Deep State’ Hawk Tom Fitton’s Latest Target: The ‘Medical Media Establishment’
By Jared Holt | July 14, 2020 1:42 pm
https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/deep-state-hawk-tom-fittons-latest-target-the-medical-media-establishment/
Tom Fitton, president of the right-wing communications and legal shop Judicial Watch, spent part of a video presentation last week declaring that the COVID-19 pandemic was “over as a crisis” and that there existed a “crazed anti-Trump media medical establishment” seeking to downplay medical treatments available for the disease.
In a video dated July 10 and uploaded to YouTube Monday, Fitton told viewers that although the number of coronavirus cases in the United States was surging, the death rate was still decreasing. While the death rate has declined for a multitude of reasons—including that there is a lag time for death rates to catch up with case rates—Fitton used this fact to claim that the pandemic was no longer a crisis and that restrictions on business and travel should be lifted. As of Tuesday, more than 135,000 people have died from the virus.
“The cases are going up, but the deaths are going down. You know what that tells me? It tells me the coronavirus is over as a crisis,” Fitton said. “I think it’s long been over. … There should have never been lockdowns.”
Fitton theorized that “more or less” everyone is going to catch COVID-19, so the focus should be placed on formulating and distributing preventative treatments, pointing to hydroxychloroquine as a possible solution. (The FDA has cautioned against taking hydroxycholorquine or chloroquine outside of a hospital setting due to risk of heart rhythm problems.) However, Fitton says that an insider group of medical professionals is standing in the way.
“But you’ve got this crazed anti-Trump media medical establishment that tries to downplay any successful preventative measures or treatments—medical treatments—for coronavirus,” Fitton said. “They’re all hyped on, quote, ‘cases’ and in the meantime, our country is being destroyed.”
Fitton took a moment to criticize what he believed was Attorney General William Barr’s lack of action fighting back against coronavirus restrictions. He claimed the Department of Justice “has been AWOL” on the issue.
----- 6 -----
White House takes aim at Fauci but Trump has no current plans to fire him, source says
By Kristen Holmes and Kaitlan Collins, CNN
Updated 6:03 PM ET, Mon July 13, 2020
https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/12/politics/fauci-trump-coronavirus/index.html?sr=twCNN071320fauci-trump-coronavirus0815PMVODtop
Washington (CNN)The White House is making a concerted effort to discredit Dr. Anthony Fauci as he becomes increasingly vocal about his concerns over reopening the country amid a national surge in coronavirus cases. The moves to undercut Fauci come just days after he gave an unvarnished look at his relationship with President Donald Trump, including that they have not spoken in weeks.
The tension between the two men -- who are no longer speaking, CNN reported last week -- has grown publicly as they have responded to one another through interviews and statements.
Trump does not plan to dismiss Fauci, and probably couldn't directly fire him if he wanted to, White House officials have determined. He insisted on Monday that his relationship with the doctor remains strong.
"I have a very good relationship with Dr. Fauci, I've had for a long time," Trump said at the White House during a roundtable event honoring police officers. "I find him to be a very nice person. I don't always agree with him."
But recent moves by the White House to publicly diminish the nation's top infectious disease expert amounts to a significant escalation as it seeks to divert attention from the government's failure to contain the coronavirus and instead push Trump's call to reopen the country. That effort continued Monday morning, when the President retweeted a baseless claim by game show host Chuck Woolery that "everyone is lying" about the coronavirus -- including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
----- 7 ------
Garrett Haake
twitter.com/GarrettHaake
14 July 2020
https://twitter.com/GarrettHaake/status/1283000970759282693
I’m not sure what “corner” we are turning. According to NBC’s medical unit, 41 states are seeing a percentage increase in cases over the last 14 days, and 8 states are seeing a spike of more than 100% in that time period.
[QUOTED TWEET]
TODAY
twitter.com/TODAYshow
14 July 2020
https://twitter.com/TODAYshow/status/1282997750439841793
“We are in a much different place now than we were several months ago, a much better place … We are still very concerned because as hospitalizations go up, we would expect deaths to also go up.” twitter.com/HHS_ASH tells twitter.com/savannahguthrie.
[EMBEDDED VIDEO AT SECOND LINK]
----- 8 -----
Weijia Jiang
twitter.com/weijia
14 July 2020
https://twitter.com/weijia/status/1283018340907331584
-The rate of positive tests has doubled in the last month.
-Quest diagnostics reports the average time to get a test result back is 7 days or longer. In that time, an infected person may be spreading the virus unknowingly.
-President Trump: “When you test, you create cases.”
[QUOTED TWEET]
CBS This Morning
twitter.com/CBSThisMorning
14 July 2020
https://twitter.com/CBSThisMorning/status/1283004494058586112
President Trump claimed #COVID19 cases are spiking because the U.S. is doing more testing, even though many states are struggling to meet soaring demands.
The president also said he "personally" liked Dr. Anthony Fauci, despite a recent push to discredit him.
weijia reports.
[EMBEDDED VIDEO AT SECOND LINK]
----- 9 -----
Trump is trying to do to Anthony Fauci what the right did to Al Gore — but it's not working
Gaslighting folks on climate change was easy, because it's slow-moving — but the coronavirus is here and now
Amanda Marcotte
July 14, 2020 5:08PM (UTC)
https://www.salon.com/2020/07/14/trump-is-trying-to-do-to-anthony-fauci-what-the-right-did-to-al-gore--but-its-not-working/
It's no exaggeration to say that Republicans bought themselves years of getting away with ignoring and denying climate science by calling former Vice President Al Gore mean names. Beginning in the '80s, Gore, with his earnestly nerdy persona, had become the face of a growing movement to raise the alarm about the rapidly warming planet and the horrors humanity would face if more wasn't done to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. To discredit the entire idea of climate change theory, the right focused not on the science, but on discrediting Gore as a messenger.
Needless to say, the efforts to demonize Gore — and, by association, climate-change theory — were a veritable dictionary of logical fallacies. One common tactic was to call Gore fat, as if there wer any relationship between Gore's waistline and the accuracy of climate science. He was also painted as a hyperbolic and opportunistic liar, with conservatives insisting falsely that Gore had claimed he "invented" the internet, with the implication being he was also making up climate change.
...
Now Donald Trump is in office — elected on a wave of the same "stick it to the liberals" energy that Gore endured for decades — and there's a new inconvenient truth that bedevils Republicans and their loathing for the very idea of the government intervening on the behalf of the public good: The coronavirus pandemic.
The parameters of the current situation aren't mysterious. This virus is washing across the country, infecting millions and killing, as of Tuesday morning's data, at least 135,000 Americans and probably significantly more. Trump, out of a combination of laziness and a faith in his magical powers of gaslighting, believes that if we simply pretend the virus isn't there, kids will go back to school, people will go back to work, the economy will rebound and he'll win the election. He and his cronies are dusting off the climate denial handbook in an effort to confuse the public about science just long enough to drag Trump across the finish line in November.
Their new Al Gore is Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who has served under every president since the '80s and has become a trusted figure for coronavirus information, amid the sea of denialism emanating from Trump's White House.
Trump quite clearly hopes he can do to Fauci what Republicans — and "South Park" — were able to do to Gore, in other words to paint him as a hysterical, attention-seeking busybody who can't be trusted. Along the way, of course, the president would like to cast doubts on every aspect of scientific or medical knowledge about the coronavirus that is currently killing Americans.
...
And let's be clear about the goal of Trump and his allies: They absolutely, undeniably want to convince people to believe the coronavirus is a hoax. While putting out talking points trying to undermine Fauci's authority, Trump retweeted game-show host Chuck Woolery's claiming that "Everyone is lying" about the coronavirus to keep "the economy from coming back, which is about the election."
The implication here — don't trust a medical expert with decades worth of specialized knowledge about infectious diseases; trust a Trump-loving TV personality! — isn't exactly subtle.
Fox News, which has been amplifying and encouraging Trump in his mission to spread the belief that coronavirus is a hoax, doubled down on Monday night, with prime-time hosts telling audiences there is no need for preventive measures like face masks and social distancing.
----- 10 -----
If you aren’t filled with rage at Trump, you aren’t paying attention
Paul Waldman
July 14, 2020 at 12:08 p.m. PDT
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/07/14/if-you-arent-filled-with-rage-trump-you-arent-paying-attention/
Let me take you for a moment to a fantasy land. In this place, the coronavirus pandemic was bad for a couple of months but now it is largely under control. If you lived there you’d still be a little uncertain about going to a concert or a movie, but your life would have largely returned to normal.
You wouldn’t have lost your job; the government would have had a comprehensive support program that kept unemployment low. You’d be able to see your family and friends without fear. Your children would be returning to school in September. There would be some precautions to take for a while longer, but there would be no doubt that the pandemic was on its way to being defeated.
To us here in the United States, this picture seems magical, like a dispatch from the far future. But it isn’t. It’s the situation that exists right now in many of our peer countries around the world. And the fact that our situation is so different? That shouldn’t just make you feel disappointed, or anxious, or upset.
It should make you enraged. That is the proper response to where we find ourselves today.
----- 11 -----
The party of grotesque selfishness
Opinion by
Jennifer Rubin
Columnist
July 14, 2020 at 6:30 a.m. PDT
Add to list
Both “Fox & Friends” host Brian Kilmeade and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos say life is full of risks so send your kids back to school no matter what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say. President Trump has been jetting around, greeting visitors and talking to his supporters (albeit fewer than planned) without wearing a mask in public until Saturday. His cult naturally adopted his contempt for this basic health measure. It was only when the pandemic socked red states that many Republican officials became terribly dismayed that “some people” had politicized masks.
The disdain for science coupled with lack of concern for fellow human beings was evident in Republicans’ statements about the Jacksonville, Fla., convention. The New York Times reports:
What about the risks imposed on Florida’s retirees who will be more likely to contract the virus if thousands flood into the state; on airline travelers exposed to delegates often contemptuous of mask-wearing; on employees of the hotels and venues they will frequent; on those with autoimmune diseases; and on first responders who will have to turn out by the hundreds if not the thousands to secure the event? Oh, no never mind.
----- 12 -----
Inslee pauses reopening of Washington counties through July 28 as COVID-19 cases spike
By Joseph O’Sullivan
Seattle Times staff reporter
July 14, 2020
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/inslee-pauses-further-reopening-of-counties-through-july-28-as-covid-19-cases-spike/
OLYMPIA — Gov. Jay Inslee Tuesday announced he would temporarily pause counties further relaxing restrictions as confirmed cases of the new coronavirus climb around the state.
The pause would prevent counties from advancing to any new phase in the governor’s four-part plan through at least July 28.
----- 13 -----
Kentucky Bar Defies Mask Order: 'We Are Americans—We're Going to Do What We Want'
By Soo Kim On 7/14/20
https://www.newsweek.com/kentucky-bar-defies-mask-order-we-are-americanswere-going-do-what-we-want-1517533
As novel coronavirus cases in the U.S. surpass 3.3 million, a local bar owner in northern Kentucky, where a statewide mask mandate was issued earlier this month, was seen declaring, "We're not wearing any masks...we want to have fun," cheered on by nearly two dozen maskless customers in a viral video shared on his social media account.
In a Facebook Live video, Patrick Townsend, the owner of Town's End Bar and Grill in Florence, part of the Greater Cincinnati area, said: "What we're saying right now is, f*ck you, we're not wearing any masks. We are Americans—we're going to do what we want and we want to have fun."
The video also showed roughly 20 customers standing in a line with arms linked alongside each other, Cincinnati's WXIX-TV reported. The video has been taken down by Townsend, who claimed he usually removes his videos the day after they are posted, WXIX-TV reported.
Under a statewide executive order issued last week by Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, face coverings are required in public, including indoor and outdoor spaces, where a physical distance of at least six feet cannot be maintained from those not within a household. The order went into effect on July 10 at 5 p.m. local time and was to be in effect for 30 days from then.
----- 14 -----
Access to public health official’s emails will cost at least $8,000
By Clark Kauffman
July 14, 2020
https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2020/07/14/access-to-public-health-officials-emails-will-cost-at-least-8000/
The Iowa Department of Public Health is asking for at least $8,000 to publicly disclose two months’ worth of emails between the state medical director and a select group of other state officials.
Last month, the Iowa Capital Dispatch reported that emails obtained from a federal agency show that the state medical director, Dr. Caitlin Pedati, declined an April offer of assistance from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with regard to COVID-19 outbreaks in Iowa’s meatpacking plants.
But the available records give no indication as to why Pedati made that decision or whether she ultimately accepted the CDC’s offer of assistance.
When the Iowa Department of Public Health didn’t respond to questions on the matter, the Iowa Capital Dispatch requested access to all written communications that Pedati would have sent to, or received from, either the CDC, the top two administrators at the IDPH, or the governor’s office during April and May.
In response to that request, the department indicated that during those two months, Pedati sent or received 9,340 emails relevant to the request. More than half of those involved email exchanges with the governor’s office.
The department said it would consider providing public access to the records in return for a fee. The cost for “the email search alone would be $8,006.07,” the department told the Capital Dispatch. It also said the news organization would be billed for 152 hours of labor to produce the records, at a rate of $65.09 an hour, or $9,893.68 total.
----- 15 -----
America’s Jobless Are About to Lose Their $600-a-Week Lifeline
By Reade Pickert, Michael Sasso, and Maeve Sheehey
July 14, 2020
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-14/america-s-jobless-are-about-to-lose-their-600-a-week-lifeline
In about two weeks millions of Americans could lose a crucial economic lifeline of this pandemic: $600 a week in extra federal unemployment benefits.
The scheduled end will ripple through households and the entire economy. The program accounts for a big chunk of the Treasury Department’s record jobless payments last month, which exceeded $100 billion. Without the additional cash, some of the hardest-hit households may be forced to choose which bills to pay and which to let slide.
For Amanda Steinhauser in New Jersey, it will mean burning through meager savings even faster. For Chris Bolei in California, it means not knowing how he’ll make rent. For Raven Gilbert in North Carolina, it could mean struggling to buy food.
The deadline comes as the economic recovery shows signs of losing steam with renewed outbreaks causing states to reverse or stall reopenings. These extra benefits have in some cases prevented working-class people -- and the women and minorities who disproportionately rely on jobless benefits -- from sliding farther down the ladder of prosperity.
Meanwhile, policy makers in Washington are at a standstill in their talks for more stimulus, and in particular whether to include an extension of the extra unemployment benefits. The weekly supplemental federal assistance was added to traditional unemployment benefits, which are administered by states and can vary widely in size.
Democrats want to extend the program, called Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation. Republicans and the Trump administration have called for capping the amount of money jobless Americans can receive, seeing it as a disincentive to return to work.
----- 16 -----
Media Matters
twitter.com/mmfa
14 July 2020
https://twitter.com/mmfa/status/1283130468871876608
Medal of Freedom recipient Rush Limbaugh: Americans should “adapt” to coronavirus, like pioneers who “had to turn to cannibalism” https://mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/rush-limbaugh-americans-should-adapt-coronavirus-famous-pioneers-who-had-turn
----- 17 -----
GOP Senator Says They 'Can Kiss My A**' as Teachers, Unions Oppose School Reopenings Over COVID Concerns
By Jason Lemon On 7/14/20
https://www.newsweek.com/gop-senator-says-they-can-kiss-my-teachers-unions-oppose-school-reopenings-over-covid-1517766
Senator John Kennedy, a Republican from Louisiana, said, during a Monday evening interview with Fox News, that those who oppose schools' reopening "can kiss my a**," despite many educators and teacher's unions raising serious concerns about returning to the classroom during the coronavirus pandemic.
"America's going through a rough patch right now. Some people seem to be enjoying it. Maybe they just hate America. Maybe they just enjoy watching the world burn. I think some are liking the chaos because they think it gives them a political advantage. Part of that chaos is caused by school's closing. For our kids, we need to open them," Kennedy said.
"There are some people who want to keep our schools closed because they think it gives them a political advantage. They are using our kids as political pawns. To them I say, unashamedly, that they can kiss my a**," he said. The GOP lawmaker noted, however, that there are some people who have "good faith" disagreements with his position.
----- 18 -----
Public's disconnect from COVID-19 reality worries experts
By Reid Wilson - 07/15/20
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/507334-publics-disconnect-from-covid-19-reality-worries-experts
The United States is being ravaged by a deadly pandemic that is growing exponentially, overwhelming health care systems and costing thousands of lives, to say nothing of an economic recession that threatens to plague the nation for years to come.
But the American public seems to be over the pandemic, eager to get kids back in schools, ready to hit the bar scene and hungry for Major League Baseball to play its abbreviated season.
The startling divergence between the brutal reality of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the fantasy land of a forthcoming return to normalcy has public health experts depressed and anxious about what is to come. The worst is not behind us, they say, by any stretch of the imagination.
“It’s an absolute disconnect between our perceived reality and our actual reality,” said Craig Spencer, a New York City emergency room doctor who directs global health in emergency medicine at New York Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center. “To look at the COVID case count and the surge in cases and to think that we can have these discussions as we have uncontrolled spread, to think we can have some national strategy for reopening schools when we don’t even have one for reopening the country, it’s just crazy.”
----- 19 -----
If coronavirus transmission levels don’t decrease, King County school buildings should not reopen in fall, report says
July 15, 2020 at 10:56 am Updated July 15, 2020 at 1:06 pm
By Hannah Furfaro
Seattle Times staff reporter
https://www.seattletimes.com/education-lab/recent-coronavirus-transmission-levels-too-high-to-reopen-king-county-school-buildings-says-new-report/
Efforts to curb the spread of coronavirus in school buildings — such as screening students and staff, and requiring masks — won’t control the overall pace of transmission unless community activity, such as going to work or socializing, is kept far below pre-coronavirus levels, suggests a new report based on King County data.
The study, released Wednesday and ordered by state and local health agencies, details a long list of stipulations for schools to reopen safely. Among the conditions: community activity — which includes everything from shopping to going to church — must stay below 70% of where it was before the coronavirus took hold in the Puget Sound region, the report says. As of June 15, before cases spiked again here, activity was an estimated 65% of pre-coronavirus levels.
But the report comes with a big caveat. It is based on data through mid-June, and since it was drafted, the researchers said, they’ve collected additional data suggesting transmission levels are currently too high to reopen schools. Community-wide efforts to contain coronavirus spread “must improve significantly” to support opening school doors in September “without triggering exponential growth in COVID-19 burden,” they wrote.
In a briefing with reporters on Wednesday, King County health officer Dr. Jeffrey Duchin called the report “sobering” and said it may be necessary to return to stricter restrictions on social gatherings to get to a point where it’s safe to open schools, he added. As of Wednesday, 5.6% of King County residents tested for coronavirus were positive, and cases are now rising to levels not seen since late March and early April.
“We’re heading in the wrong direction,” he said. “The bottom line answer is, yes, we will need to consider taking more rigorous restrictions again, unfortunately, if things don’t turn around with voluntary behavior change.”
----- 20 -----
Fauci calls White House attempts to discredit him 'bizarre'
"It doesn’t do anything but reflect poorly on them," Fauci said of the administration's efforts.
July 15, 2020, 12:30 PM PDT
By Dareh Gregorian
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/fauci-calls-white-house-attempts-discredit-him-bizarre-n1233925
Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday the White House's attempts to discredit him are "a bit bizarre" and "it doesn’t do anything but reflect poorly on them."
"I cannot figure out in my wildest dreams why they would want to do that. I think they realize now that that was not a prudent thing to do, because it’s only reflecting negatively on them," the government's top infectious disease expert told The Atlantic in an interview, referring to critical comments from an administration official and opposition research-style information the White House released about him over the weekend.
Asked about the government trying to discredit him, Fauci said, "Well, that is a bit bizarre. I sit here and just shrug my shoulders and say, ‘Well, you know, that’s life in the fast lane.’”
- Hate Group To Sue CA Gov Over New Lockdown Order
- The Food-Processing Industry Is the Typhoid Mary of This Pandemic
- [Orange County, California] School Board Votes To Allow In-Person Instruction This Fall Without Masks, Social Distancing
- The Trump administration has ordered hospitals to bypass the CDC
- ‘Deep State’ Hawk Tom Fitton’s Latest Target: The ‘Medical Media Establishment’
- White House takes aim at Fauci but Trump has no current plans to fire him, source says
- 41 states are seeing a percentage increase in cases over the last 14 days, and 8 states are seeing a spike of more than 100% in that time period.
- Trump continues to lie, say COVID-19 cases are spiking due to increased testing.
- Trump is trying to do to Anthony Fauci what the right did to Al Gore — but it's not working
- If you aren’t filled with rage at Trump, you aren’t paying attention
- The party of grotesque selfishness
- Inslee pauses reopening of Washington counties through July 28 as COVID-19 cases spike
- Kentucky Bar Defies Mask Order: 'We Are Americans—We're Going to Do What We Want'
- Access to public health official’s emails will cost at least $8,000
- America’s Jobless Are About to Lose Their $600-a-Week Lifeline
- Limbaugh: Americans should “adapt” to coronavirus, like pioneers who “had to turn to cannibalism”
- GOP Senator Says They 'Can Kiss My A**' as Teachers, Unions Oppose School Reopenings Over COVID Concerns
- Public's disconnect from COVID-19 reality worries experts
- If coronavirus transmission levels don’t decrease, King County school buildings should not reopen in fall, report says
- Fauci calls White House attempts to discredit him 'bizarre'
----- 1 -----
Hate Group To Sue CA Gov Over New Lockdown Order
July 14, 2020 Christianists, Hate Groups
https://www.joemygod.com/2020/07/hate-group-to-sue-ca-gov-over-new-lockdown-order/
Via press release from hate group leader Mat Staver:
In California, we will be filing suit against Gov. Gavin Newsom on behalf of Pastor Samuel Rodriguez, who is president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference. The NHCLC represents 42,000 churches nationwide. In addition to NHCLC, Sam is the senior pastor of churches in Sacramento and Los Angeles.
On July 1, as anti-American protestors continued to fill California streets chanting songs of revolution, hatred and destruction, Gov. Newsom banned all singing or chanting in houses of worship! If you do an internet search for “singing in the bible,” you will find lots of Scripture texts that speak of singing to the Lord.
Even though the Bible says we should “Praise God in his sanctuary” (Ps. 150:1), Gov. Newsom says you must not! The governor has no authority to ban singing and chanting in churches.
Up until just yesterday, California churches were forced to limit attendance to 25% of capacity or 100 attendees, whichever were lower…no matter the facility size.
This ban ONLY applied to houses of worship, not the throngs of violent revolutionaries mobbing California’s streets or commercial outlets packed with shoppers! But now, Gov. Newsom has flipped the switch and gone back to FULL SHUTDOWN.
Today’s message ends with the usual money beg.
----- 2 -----
The Food-Processing Industry Is the Typhoid Mary of This Pandemic
This New Yorker piece shows vividly how interconnected the current administration*'s malfeasance and nonfeasance in the face of the pandemic is with 40 years of conservative economic doctrine.
By Charles P. Pierce
Jul 14, 2020
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a33309725/new-yorker-mountaire-foods-covid-19-workers/
When the pandemic finally ends, assuming it does, and we take our first tentative steps out of our aquarium lives, the history of this very strange time will reserve a big place for studies of the food-processing industry.
More than any other, this one industry and its underpaid, largely minority, and more than occasionally undocumented workforce—the members of which were judged to be "essential" and, therefore, were forced to choose between employment and good health—accounts for so many hotspots in so many places that the industry can rightly be called the Typhoid Mary of this pandemic, and of American business. In the current issue of The New Yorker, the indefatigable Jane Mayer examines this phenomenon through the prism of one company, Mountaire Foods, and its owner, a guy named Ronald Cameron who, Mayer reports, donated $3 million to the president*'s 2016 campaign, which closes the circle, leaving his workers outside to fend for themselves.
----- 3 -----
OC School Board Votes To Allow In-Person Instruction This Fall Without Masks, Social Distancing
July 13, 2020
https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2020/07/13/oc-school-board-classes-fall/
COSTA MESA (CBSLA) — The Orange County Board of Education voted 4-1 Monday evening to allow schools to reopen next month with in-person instruction.
Students and teachers can choose to attend classes without masks and no social distancing required.
A group of parents and teachers gathered outside of the Monday evening meeting protesting the idea of children returning to school without safety precautions.
Some parents, however, were at the meeting in support of the Board of Education’s decision to start school with in-person instruction.
Last month, the Board of Education held a meeting with experts who concluded in a white paper that requiring students to wear masks “is not only difficult but may even be harmful over time.”
----- 4 -----
southpaw
twitter.com/nycsouthpaw
14 July 2020
https://twitter.com/nycsouthpaw/status/1283123475348164608
[THREAD]
"The Trump administration has ordered hospitals to bypass the CDC and, beginning on Wednesday, send all coronavirus patient information to a central database in Washington — a move that has alarmed public health experts"
[LINKS TO:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/world/coronavirus-updates.html
]
[NEXT]
Here's the document.
"As of July 15, 2020, hospitals should no longer report the Covid-19 information in this document to the National Healthcare Safety Network site," it says.
The National Healthcare Safety Network is CDC's infection tracking system. https://hhs.gov/sites/default/files/covid-19-faqs-hospitals-hospital-laboratory-acute-care-facility-data-reporting.pdf
[NEXT]
I cannot conceive of a good faith rationale for this policy move by the Trump administration, and I hope all hospitals continue to report their Covid-19 data to the nation's public health experts at the CDC.
[THREAD CONTINUES AT LINK]
----- 5 -----
‘Deep State’ Hawk Tom Fitton’s Latest Target: The ‘Medical Media Establishment’
By Jared Holt | July 14, 2020 1:42 pm
https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/deep-state-hawk-tom-fittons-latest-target-the-medical-media-establishment/
Tom Fitton, president of the right-wing communications and legal shop Judicial Watch, spent part of a video presentation last week declaring that the COVID-19 pandemic was “over as a crisis” and that there existed a “crazed anti-Trump media medical establishment” seeking to downplay medical treatments available for the disease.
In a video dated July 10 and uploaded to YouTube Monday, Fitton told viewers that although the number of coronavirus cases in the United States was surging, the death rate was still decreasing. While the death rate has declined for a multitude of reasons—including that there is a lag time for death rates to catch up with case rates—Fitton used this fact to claim that the pandemic was no longer a crisis and that restrictions on business and travel should be lifted. As of Tuesday, more than 135,000 people have died from the virus.
“The cases are going up, but the deaths are going down. You know what that tells me? It tells me the coronavirus is over as a crisis,” Fitton said. “I think it’s long been over. … There should have never been lockdowns.”
Fitton theorized that “more or less” everyone is going to catch COVID-19, so the focus should be placed on formulating and distributing preventative treatments, pointing to hydroxychloroquine as a possible solution. (The FDA has cautioned against taking hydroxycholorquine or chloroquine outside of a hospital setting due to risk of heart rhythm problems.) However, Fitton says that an insider group of medical professionals is standing in the way.
“But you’ve got this crazed anti-Trump media medical establishment that tries to downplay any successful preventative measures or treatments—medical treatments—for coronavirus,” Fitton said. “They’re all hyped on, quote, ‘cases’ and in the meantime, our country is being destroyed.”
Fitton took a moment to criticize what he believed was Attorney General William Barr’s lack of action fighting back against coronavirus restrictions. He claimed the Department of Justice “has been AWOL” on the issue.
----- 6 -----
White House takes aim at Fauci but Trump has no current plans to fire him, source says
By Kristen Holmes and Kaitlan Collins, CNN
Updated 6:03 PM ET, Mon July 13, 2020
https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/12/politics/fauci-trump-coronavirus/index.html?sr=twCNN071320fauci-trump-coronavirus0815PMVODtop
Washington (CNN)The White House is making a concerted effort to discredit Dr. Anthony Fauci as he becomes increasingly vocal about his concerns over reopening the country amid a national surge in coronavirus cases. The moves to undercut Fauci come just days after he gave an unvarnished look at his relationship with President Donald Trump, including that they have not spoken in weeks.
The tension between the two men -- who are no longer speaking, CNN reported last week -- has grown publicly as they have responded to one another through interviews and statements.
Trump does not plan to dismiss Fauci, and probably couldn't directly fire him if he wanted to, White House officials have determined. He insisted on Monday that his relationship with the doctor remains strong.
"I have a very good relationship with Dr. Fauci, I've had for a long time," Trump said at the White House during a roundtable event honoring police officers. "I find him to be a very nice person. I don't always agree with him."
But recent moves by the White House to publicly diminish the nation's top infectious disease expert amounts to a significant escalation as it seeks to divert attention from the government's failure to contain the coronavirus and instead push Trump's call to reopen the country. That effort continued Monday morning, when the President retweeted a baseless claim by game show host Chuck Woolery that "everyone is lying" about the coronavirus -- including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
----- 7 ------
Garrett Haake
twitter.com/GarrettHaake
14 July 2020
https://twitter.com/GarrettHaake/status/1283000970759282693
I’m not sure what “corner” we are turning. According to NBC’s medical unit, 41 states are seeing a percentage increase in cases over the last 14 days, and 8 states are seeing a spike of more than 100% in that time period.
[QUOTED TWEET]
TODAY
twitter.com/TODAYshow
14 July 2020
https://twitter.com/TODAYshow/status/1282997750439841793
“We are in a much different place now than we were several months ago, a much better place … We are still very concerned because as hospitalizations go up, we would expect deaths to also go up.” twitter.com/HHS_ASH tells twitter.com/savannahguthrie.
[EMBEDDED VIDEO AT SECOND LINK]
----- 8 -----
Weijia Jiang
twitter.com/weijia
14 July 2020
https://twitter.com/weijia/status/1283018340907331584
-The rate of positive tests has doubled in the last month.
-Quest diagnostics reports the average time to get a test result back is 7 days or longer. In that time, an infected person may be spreading the virus unknowingly.
-President Trump: “When you test, you create cases.”
[QUOTED TWEET]
CBS This Morning
twitter.com/CBSThisMorning
14 July 2020
https://twitter.com/CBSThisMorning/status/1283004494058586112
President Trump claimed #COVID19 cases are spiking because the U.S. is doing more testing, even though many states are struggling to meet soaring demands.
The president also said he "personally" liked Dr. Anthony Fauci, despite a recent push to discredit him.
weijia reports.[EMBEDDED VIDEO AT SECOND LINK]
----- 9 -----
Trump is trying to do to Anthony Fauci what the right did to Al Gore — but it's not working
Gaslighting folks on climate change was easy, because it's slow-moving — but the coronavirus is here and now
Amanda Marcotte
July 14, 2020 5:08PM (UTC)
https://www.salon.com/2020/07/14/trump-is-trying-to-do-to-anthony-fauci-what-the-right-did-to-al-gore--but-its-not-working/
It's no exaggeration to say that Republicans bought themselves years of getting away with ignoring and denying climate science by calling former Vice President Al Gore mean names. Beginning in the '80s, Gore, with his earnestly nerdy persona, had become the face of a growing movement to raise the alarm about the rapidly warming planet and the horrors humanity would face if more wasn't done to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. To discredit the entire idea of climate change theory, the right focused not on the science, but on discrediting Gore as a messenger.
Needless to say, the efforts to demonize Gore — and, by association, climate-change theory — were a veritable dictionary of logical fallacies. One common tactic was to call Gore fat, as if there wer any relationship between Gore's waistline and the accuracy of climate science. He was also painted as a hyperbolic and opportunistic liar, with conservatives insisting falsely that Gore had claimed he "invented" the internet, with the implication being he was also making up climate change.
...
Now Donald Trump is in office — elected on a wave of the same "stick it to the liberals" energy that Gore endured for decades — and there's a new inconvenient truth that bedevils Republicans and their loathing for the very idea of the government intervening on the behalf of the public good: The coronavirus pandemic.
The parameters of the current situation aren't mysterious. This virus is washing across the country, infecting millions and killing, as of Tuesday morning's data, at least 135,000 Americans and probably significantly more. Trump, out of a combination of laziness and a faith in his magical powers of gaslighting, believes that if we simply pretend the virus isn't there, kids will go back to school, people will go back to work, the economy will rebound and he'll win the election. He and his cronies are dusting off the climate denial handbook in an effort to confuse the public about science just long enough to drag Trump across the finish line in November.
Their new Al Gore is Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who has served under every president since the '80s and has become a trusted figure for coronavirus information, amid the sea of denialism emanating from Trump's White House.
Trump quite clearly hopes he can do to Fauci what Republicans — and "South Park" — were able to do to Gore, in other words to paint him as a hysterical, attention-seeking busybody who can't be trusted. Along the way, of course, the president would like to cast doubts on every aspect of scientific or medical knowledge about the coronavirus that is currently killing Americans.
...
And let's be clear about the goal of Trump and his allies: They absolutely, undeniably want to convince people to believe the coronavirus is a hoax. While putting out talking points trying to undermine Fauci's authority, Trump retweeted game-show host Chuck Woolery's claiming that "Everyone is lying" about the coronavirus to keep "the economy from coming back, which is about the election."
The implication here — don't trust a medical expert with decades worth of specialized knowledge about infectious diseases; trust a Trump-loving TV personality! — isn't exactly subtle.
Fox News, which has been amplifying and encouraging Trump in his mission to spread the belief that coronavirus is a hoax, doubled down on Monday night, with prime-time hosts telling audiences there is no need for preventive measures like face masks and social distancing.
----- 10 -----
If you aren’t filled with rage at Trump, you aren’t paying attention
Paul Waldman
July 14, 2020 at 12:08 p.m. PDT
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/07/14/if-you-arent-filled-with-rage-trump-you-arent-paying-attention/
Let me take you for a moment to a fantasy land. In this place, the coronavirus pandemic was bad for a couple of months but now it is largely under control. If you lived there you’d still be a little uncertain about going to a concert or a movie, but your life would have largely returned to normal.
You wouldn’t have lost your job; the government would have had a comprehensive support program that kept unemployment low. You’d be able to see your family and friends without fear. Your children would be returning to school in September. There would be some precautions to take for a while longer, but there would be no doubt that the pandemic was on its way to being defeated.
To us here in the United States, this picture seems magical, like a dispatch from the far future. But it isn’t. It’s the situation that exists right now in many of our peer countries around the world. And the fact that our situation is so different? That shouldn’t just make you feel disappointed, or anxious, or upset.
It should make you enraged. That is the proper response to where we find ourselves today.
----- 11 -----
The party of grotesque selfishness
Opinion by
Jennifer Rubin
Columnist
July 14, 2020 at 6:30 a.m. PDT
Add to list
Both “Fox & Friends” host Brian Kilmeade and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos say life is full of risks so send your kids back to school no matter what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say. President Trump has been jetting around, greeting visitors and talking to his supporters (albeit fewer than planned) without wearing a mask in public until Saturday. His cult naturally adopted his contempt for this basic health measure. It was only when the pandemic socked red states that many Republican officials became terribly dismayed that “some people” had politicized masks.
The disdain for science coupled with lack of concern for fellow human beings was evident in Republicans’ statements about the Jacksonville, Fla., convention. The New York Times reports:
“It’s a risk you have to take,” said Morton Blackwell, 80, an R.N.C. member from Virginia who has attended every party convention since he was the youngest elected delegate backing Barry Goldwater in 1964. “You take risks every day. You drive down the street and a cement truck could crash into you. You can’t not do what you have to do because of some possibility of a bad result.”
Art Wittich, 62, an R.N.C. member from Montana, said he had a “duty” to travel to Charlotte and Jacksonville to nominate and support Mr. Trump.
What about the risks imposed on Florida’s retirees who will be more likely to contract the virus if thousands flood into the state; on airline travelers exposed to delegates often contemptuous of mask-wearing; on employees of the hotels and venues they will frequent; on those with autoimmune diseases; and on first responders who will have to turn out by the hundreds if not the thousands to secure the event? Oh, no never mind.
----- 12 -----
Inslee pauses reopening of Washington counties through July 28 as COVID-19 cases spike
By Joseph O’Sullivan
Seattle Times staff reporter
July 14, 2020
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/inslee-pauses-further-reopening-of-counties-through-july-28-as-covid-19-cases-spike/
OLYMPIA — Gov. Jay Inslee Tuesday announced he would temporarily pause counties further relaxing restrictions as confirmed cases of the new coronavirus climb around the state.
The pause would prevent counties from advancing to any new phase in the governor’s four-part plan through at least July 28.
----- 13 -----
Kentucky Bar Defies Mask Order: 'We Are Americans—We're Going to Do What We Want'
By Soo Kim On 7/14/20
https://www.newsweek.com/kentucky-bar-defies-mask-order-we-are-americanswere-going-do-what-we-want-1517533
As novel coronavirus cases in the U.S. surpass 3.3 million, a local bar owner in northern Kentucky, where a statewide mask mandate was issued earlier this month, was seen declaring, "We're not wearing any masks...we want to have fun," cheered on by nearly two dozen maskless customers in a viral video shared on his social media account.
In a Facebook Live video, Patrick Townsend, the owner of Town's End Bar and Grill in Florence, part of the Greater Cincinnati area, said: "What we're saying right now is, f*ck you, we're not wearing any masks. We are Americans—we're going to do what we want and we want to have fun."
The video also showed roughly 20 customers standing in a line with arms linked alongside each other, Cincinnati's WXIX-TV reported. The video has been taken down by Townsend, who claimed he usually removes his videos the day after they are posted, WXIX-TV reported.
Under a statewide executive order issued last week by Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, face coverings are required in public, including indoor and outdoor spaces, where a physical distance of at least six feet cannot be maintained from those not within a household. The order went into effect on July 10 at 5 p.m. local time and was to be in effect for 30 days from then.
----- 14 -----
Access to public health official’s emails will cost at least $8,000
By Clark Kauffman
July 14, 2020
https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2020/07/14/access-to-public-health-officials-emails-will-cost-at-least-8000/
The Iowa Department of Public Health is asking for at least $8,000 to publicly disclose two months’ worth of emails between the state medical director and a select group of other state officials.
Last month, the Iowa Capital Dispatch reported that emails obtained from a federal agency show that the state medical director, Dr. Caitlin Pedati, declined an April offer of assistance from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with regard to COVID-19 outbreaks in Iowa’s meatpacking plants.
But the available records give no indication as to why Pedati made that decision or whether she ultimately accepted the CDC’s offer of assistance.
When the Iowa Department of Public Health didn’t respond to questions on the matter, the Iowa Capital Dispatch requested access to all written communications that Pedati would have sent to, or received from, either the CDC, the top two administrators at the IDPH, or the governor’s office during April and May.
In response to that request, the department indicated that during those two months, Pedati sent or received 9,340 emails relevant to the request. More than half of those involved email exchanges with the governor’s office.
The department said it would consider providing public access to the records in return for a fee. The cost for “the email search alone would be $8,006.07,” the department told the Capital Dispatch. It also said the news organization would be billed for 152 hours of labor to produce the records, at a rate of $65.09 an hour, or $9,893.68 total.
----- 15 -----
America’s Jobless Are About to Lose Their $600-a-Week Lifeline
By Reade Pickert, Michael Sasso, and Maeve Sheehey
July 14, 2020
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-14/america-s-jobless-are-about-to-lose-their-600-a-week-lifeline
In about two weeks millions of Americans could lose a crucial economic lifeline of this pandemic: $600 a week in extra federal unemployment benefits.
The scheduled end will ripple through households and the entire economy. The program accounts for a big chunk of the Treasury Department’s record jobless payments last month, which exceeded $100 billion. Without the additional cash, some of the hardest-hit households may be forced to choose which bills to pay and which to let slide.
For Amanda Steinhauser in New Jersey, it will mean burning through meager savings even faster. For Chris Bolei in California, it means not knowing how he’ll make rent. For Raven Gilbert in North Carolina, it could mean struggling to buy food.
The deadline comes as the economic recovery shows signs of losing steam with renewed outbreaks causing states to reverse or stall reopenings. These extra benefits have in some cases prevented working-class people -- and the women and minorities who disproportionately rely on jobless benefits -- from sliding farther down the ladder of prosperity.
Meanwhile, policy makers in Washington are at a standstill in their talks for more stimulus, and in particular whether to include an extension of the extra unemployment benefits. The weekly supplemental federal assistance was added to traditional unemployment benefits, which are administered by states and can vary widely in size.
Democrats want to extend the program, called Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation. Republicans and the Trump administration have called for capping the amount of money jobless Americans can receive, seeing it as a disincentive to return to work.
----- 16 -----
Media Matters
twitter.com/mmfa
14 July 2020
https://twitter.com/mmfa/status/1283130468871876608
Medal of Freedom recipient Rush Limbaugh: Americans should “adapt” to coronavirus, like pioneers who “had to turn to cannibalism” https://mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/rush-limbaugh-americans-should-adapt-coronavirus-famous-pioneers-who-had-turn
----- 17 -----
GOP Senator Says They 'Can Kiss My A**' as Teachers, Unions Oppose School Reopenings Over COVID Concerns
By Jason Lemon On 7/14/20
https://www.newsweek.com/gop-senator-says-they-can-kiss-my-teachers-unions-oppose-school-reopenings-over-covid-1517766
Senator John Kennedy, a Republican from Louisiana, said, during a Monday evening interview with Fox News, that those who oppose schools' reopening "can kiss my a**," despite many educators and teacher's unions raising serious concerns about returning to the classroom during the coronavirus pandemic.
"America's going through a rough patch right now. Some people seem to be enjoying it. Maybe they just hate America. Maybe they just enjoy watching the world burn. I think some are liking the chaos because they think it gives them a political advantage. Part of that chaos is caused by school's closing. For our kids, we need to open them," Kennedy said.
"There are some people who want to keep our schools closed because they think it gives them a political advantage. They are using our kids as political pawns. To them I say, unashamedly, that they can kiss my a**," he said. The GOP lawmaker noted, however, that there are some people who have "good faith" disagreements with his position.
----- 18 -----
Public's disconnect from COVID-19 reality worries experts
By Reid Wilson - 07/15/20
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/507334-publics-disconnect-from-covid-19-reality-worries-experts
The United States is being ravaged by a deadly pandemic that is growing exponentially, overwhelming health care systems and costing thousands of lives, to say nothing of an economic recession that threatens to plague the nation for years to come.
But the American public seems to be over the pandemic, eager to get kids back in schools, ready to hit the bar scene and hungry for Major League Baseball to play its abbreviated season.
The startling divergence between the brutal reality of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the fantasy land of a forthcoming return to normalcy has public health experts depressed and anxious about what is to come. The worst is not behind us, they say, by any stretch of the imagination.
“It’s an absolute disconnect between our perceived reality and our actual reality,” said Craig Spencer, a New York City emergency room doctor who directs global health in emergency medicine at New York Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center. “To look at the COVID case count and the surge in cases and to think that we can have these discussions as we have uncontrolled spread, to think we can have some national strategy for reopening schools when we don’t even have one for reopening the country, it’s just crazy.”
----- 19 -----
If coronavirus transmission levels don’t decrease, King County school buildings should not reopen in fall, report says
July 15, 2020 at 10:56 am Updated July 15, 2020 at 1:06 pm
By Hannah Furfaro
Seattle Times staff reporter
https://www.seattletimes.com/education-lab/recent-coronavirus-transmission-levels-too-high-to-reopen-king-county-school-buildings-says-new-report/
Efforts to curb the spread of coronavirus in school buildings — such as screening students and staff, and requiring masks — won’t control the overall pace of transmission unless community activity, such as going to work or socializing, is kept far below pre-coronavirus levels, suggests a new report based on King County data.
The study, released Wednesday and ordered by state and local health agencies, details a long list of stipulations for schools to reopen safely. Among the conditions: community activity — which includes everything from shopping to going to church — must stay below 70% of where it was before the coronavirus took hold in the Puget Sound region, the report says. As of June 15, before cases spiked again here, activity was an estimated 65% of pre-coronavirus levels.
But the report comes with a big caveat. It is based on data through mid-June, and since it was drafted, the researchers said, they’ve collected additional data suggesting transmission levels are currently too high to reopen schools. Community-wide efforts to contain coronavirus spread “must improve significantly” to support opening school doors in September “without triggering exponential growth in COVID-19 burden,” they wrote.
In a briefing with reporters on Wednesday, King County health officer Dr. Jeffrey Duchin called the report “sobering” and said it may be necessary to return to stricter restrictions on social gatherings to get to a point where it’s safe to open schools, he added. As of Wednesday, 5.6% of King County residents tested for coronavirus were positive, and cases are now rising to levels not seen since late March and early April.
“We’re heading in the wrong direction,” he said. “The bottom line answer is, yes, we will need to consider taking more rigorous restrictions again, unfortunately, if things don’t turn around with voluntary behavior change.”
----- 20 -----
Fauci calls White House attempts to discredit him 'bizarre'
"It doesn’t do anything but reflect poorly on them," Fauci said of the administration's efforts.
July 15, 2020, 12:30 PM PDT
By Dareh Gregorian
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/fauci-calls-white-house-attempts-discredit-him-bizarre-n1233925
Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday the White House's attempts to discredit him are "a bit bizarre" and "it doesn’t do anything but reflect poorly on them."
"I cannot figure out in my wildest dreams why they would want to do that. I think they realize now that that was not a prudent thing to do, because it’s only reflecting negatively on them," the government's top infectious disease expert told The Atlantic in an interview, referring to critical comments from an administration official and opposition research-style information the White House released about him over the weekend.
Asked about the government trying to discredit him, Fauci said, "Well, that is a bit bizarre. I sit here and just shrug my shoulders and say, ‘Well, you know, that’s life in the fast lane.’”
