| Schiff proposes postelection 9/11-style commission to study coronavirus response Posted: 03 Apr 2020 09:03 AM PDT  Rep. Adam Schiff's proposal for a 9/11-style commission to study the nation's response to the coronavirus outbreak "is not an exercise in casting blame or scoring political points, but something that the American people should rightly expect from their government as an exercise in accountability," he said.
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| As coronavirus ravages Spain, doctors get a grim order on 'futility of care' for the very old and very sick Posted: 03 Apr 2020 01:24 PM PDT  A document circulated by the health department of Catalonia recommends that emergency teams and health care workers stop using ventilators for patients older than 80, and further recommends that extremely ill victims of COVID-19 be allowed to die at home rather than being taken to the hospital.
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| North Korea's official coronavirus count: Zero. Why that claim is hard to believe Posted: 04 Apr 2020 10:20 AM PDT  Experts are skeptical of the no-coronavirus claim from the tightly controlled country so desperate to maintain the status of its border with China.
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| Coronavirus: RBS says revamped loan scheme will make 'big difference' Posted: 03 Apr 2020 04:54 AM PDT  The revamped loan fund for ailing firms hit by the lockdown will have an immediate impact, RBS says.
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| Asia virus latest: China mourns dead, S. Korea extends social distancing Posted: 04 Apr 2020 01:08 AM PDT  China came to a standstill to mourn the patients and medical staff who died because of the coronavirus outbreak, with the country observing a nationwide three-minute silence. At 10 am Saturday, Citizens paused as cars, trains and ships sounded their horns, and air-raid sirens rang out in memory of the more than 3,000 lives lost to the virus in mainland China. In Beijing's Tiananmen Square, the national flag flew at half-mast, and state media showed President Xi Jinping and other officials standing outside a government compound wearing white flowers.
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| CDC gives 'voluntary' guidance on wearing coronavirus masks. Trump isn't volunteering. Posted: 03 Apr 2020 03:55 PM PDT  President Trump said Friday that despite new CDC guidance recommending that American citizens wear masks or facial coverings to help slow the spread of the coronavirus, "I don't think that I'm going to be doing it."
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| Making your own face mask? Some fabrics work better than others, study finds Posted: 03 Apr 2020 03:03 PM PDT  Some fabrics were found to work better at filtering small particles than medical grade masks.
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| Trump Sent Them to the Coronavirus Front Line but Denied Them Health Care Posted: 04 Apr 2020 02:06 AM PDT  Thousands of National Guardsmen around the country are in contact with people who've contracted COVID-19. But while the federal government has called on them for frontline assistance in battling the pandemic, it's not giving them what they need to protect themselves: access to the military's health insurance.The approximately 20,000 guardsmen who have been called up to help states around the country deal with the spread of the coronavirus are federalized on what's called Title 32 status, which puts them in command of their various state governors but with the federal government paying costs. But according to the National Guard's advocates and the U.S. governors' association, the guardsmen are activated on orders that last 30 days. That puts them one single day shy of the requirement allowing the military health insurance system known as TRICARE—think of it as Medicare For All In Uniform—to cover them. Military Times first reported the eligibility shortfall. It's an urgent problem for guardsmen now that the pandemic-spurred economic collapse has exposed the folly of the current system of employer-provided health insurance. Some proportion of the guardsmen who may expose themselves to COVID-19 will have lost their jobs, and more surely will in the weeks to come.If their jobs came with health insurance, they would be qualified to shop on the Obamacare exchanges. But that process can be cumbersome and expensive at a moment when they face unemployment. If they never had job-based insurance, then they've lost their income right at the moment they are being asked to risk their own health and what remains of their financial security. Similarly, Guardsmen on orders short of 31 days qualify for an aspect of TRICARE called TRICARE Reserve Select. But that's an optional purchase, and while its premiums are lower than civilian health insurance, Guardsmen will still have to pay.'New York Is in Crisis': Cuomo Pleads for Help as State Suffers Worst Single-Day Death Toll The lack of TRICARE eligibility puts guardsmen and their families "in a terrible position," said J. Roy Robinson, a retired one-star general and the president of the National Guard Association of the United States. "These kids are in jeopardy, and it's wrong." Robinson, who served for 33 years as an officer in the Mississippi National Guard, continued: "Leadership at the Pentagon, either knowingly or unknowingly, are putting soldiers and airmen, in my opinion, in harm's way without them having proper medical coverage."On April 1, Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) asked Trump to ensure federalized guardsmen's TRICARE eligibility during an "unprecedented situation." "During this time, we should do all we can to support the men and women being asked to assist our nation's response to this pandemic and ensure that they are put on orders long enough to make them eligible for TRICARE," Daines wrote.The first U.S. servicemember to die from coronavirus was 57-year-old New Jersey National Guardsman Douglas Linn Hickok, an Army captain. Hickok had not deployed to respond to COVID-19 when he contracted it, but he was preparing to deploy when he grew sick on March 21. He died on March 28. The Pentagon did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast's request for comment. GOP Plows Forward on Plans to Kill Obamacare, Pandemic Be DamnedAs coronavirus has spread, the Trump administration has faced mounting pressure to expand health insurance coverage options for the broad universe of the uninsured. But it has so far resisted allowing a special enrollment period for Obamacare, claiming that there are other options for those in need to get insurance and that cash assistance from the government could help instead. The issue is more acute with members of the Guard who are being tasked by the government to help combat the spread of the pandemic. A senior administration official told The Daily Beast that the governors were receiving "full federal funding of the state National Guard"—a separate issue from the guardsmen's TRICARE access. The official, who would not speak for the record, said that every "request granted is set for a full month," which confirms the activation period falling just short of TRICARE eligibility. "We are working with states and the National Guard by continuously monitoring the situation on the ground to determine any Title 32 extension," the official said. The official would not address why the current orders fall short of the TRICARE eligibility period. Without TRICARE, warned Robinson, members of the Guard will "have to fall back on their personal health insurance. I hate to say it, but in a lot of those areas, a lot of these guys don't have health insurance." Robinson lamented that as of Friday, "there is no agreement to fix this." "We appreciate the administration's willingness to take steps to address this need, however, we are concerned that the current orders coming down from the Department have been limited to only 30 days," said James Nash, a spokesman for the National Governors' Association. "As you note, service members will not have full federal protections for anything under 31 days. We would encourage the administration to look at this and extend orders."Some 24 states and territories are receiving Title 32 funding for their National Guard operations, with other states continuing to submit funding requests, the senior official said. It's unclear how many guardsmen are currently operating without health insurance and require TRICARE—let alone how many of their private insurance companies will charge them substantial deductibles for any COVID-19-related treatment they might require as a consequence of their service. On Friday morning, with no agreement in place to extend the Guard's orders to ensure TRICARE eligibility, President Trump tweeted, "Thank you @USNationalGuard, keep up the great work!"\-- Sam Stein contributed reportingRead more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Airline refutes Mexican authority's account of spring break coronavirus outbreak Posted: 04 Apr 2020 02:25 AM PDT  College students from Texas who tested positive for the novel coronavirus after spring break in Los Cabos traveled to the Mexican beach resort on Viva Aerobus, the airline said, and were there a week later than reported by the local tourist board. At least part of the Texas group stayed at the luxury Pueblo Bonito Los Cabos hotel, two people familiar with the arrangements told Reuters.
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| U.S. warns Americans to leave Japan as COVID-19 cases rise fast Posted: 02 Apr 2020 07:54 PM PDT  Strongest message to date from U.S. Embassy comes as experts warn Japan could be heading for a surge in new coronavirus infections.
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| Here's how to safely reopen America when coronavirus pandemic wanes Posted: 03 Apr 2020 12:13 PM PDT  It's important that we assess the threat of the virus region by region and consider reopening in phases or by industry.
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| 'Protective bubbles': How 2 Army generals stopped the spread of coronavirus among their soldiers Posted: 03 Apr 2020 02:01 AM PDT  Two Army generals took critical actions early to stop the spread of the coronavirus in Asia and Europe from spreading to military bases.
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| After ignoring warnings, Israeli ultra-Orthodox hit by virus Posted: 02 Apr 2020 11:43 PM PDT  Early this week, the streets of the central Israeli city of Bnei Brak were bustling with shoppers as ultra-Orthodox residents, obeying their religious leaders, ignored pleas to stay home in the face of the coronavirus threat. The military will soon be sending troops in to assist local authorities. The city has become a lightning rod for anger and frustration by some secular Israelis who allege insular Haredi communities — with disproportionately high numbers of confirmed cases — are undermining national efforts to contain the virus.
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| FISA court orders FBI to review if wiretaps are invalid after errors found during investigation Posted: 03 Apr 2020 03:22 PM PDT  The directive comes just days after an internal Justice Department review found new problems with the FBI's management of wiretap applications.
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| FEMA said only 3,200 of the 100,000 new coronavirus ventilators it is sourcing will be ready in time for the peak of the pandemic Posted: 03 Apr 2020 04:42 AM PDT  Details of closed-door briefings by US disaster management officials were made public this week, and paint a bleak picture of US preparedness.
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| Bernie Sanders calls for guaranteed paid medical leave, $2,000 monthly checks in new coronavirus relief proposal Posted: 03 Apr 2020 02:17 PM PDT  Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is looking ahead to the next few steps in the coronavirus pandemic response.On Friday, Sanders unveiled his "Priorities for the Next Coronavirus Relief Package," proposing a number of relief measures from guaranteeing paid medical and sick leave to all workers to expanding food programs like Meals on Wheels.The proposal unsurprisingly includes a major expansion of Medicare. "We were facing a catastrophic health care crisis before the pandemic, and now that crisis has become much, much worse," writes Sanders. The legislation would use Medicare to cover all health care expenses, notably including anyone who is sick, "regardless of immigration status." In addition to further invoking the Defense Production Act, Sanders says payment on all rent, mortgage payments, and forms of debt should be suspended entirely, not just deferred during the pandemic only to cause "financial ruin" once they become due. Building on the one-time $1,200 payments, Sanders calls for monthly $2,000 payments.The entire plan fits alongside policy ideas Sanders has touted throughout his presidential bid, but are ramped up in both scale and urgency now that the COVID-19 pandemic has quickly exploded to affect millions of Americans both medically and economically. This week's jobs reports showed that likely 3.5 million Americans have lost employer-provided health insurance since the pandemic began.Bloomberg's Joe Weisenthal noted the similarities between Sanders' presidential platform and his latest proposal to Congress, but argued the ideas now sound remarkably "un-radical." The suggestions are "obviously on par with the scale of this crisis," says Weisenthal, and in line with the $2.2 trillion relief package Congress previously passed, "except on a sufficient scale to really counteract the damage." "To prevent the collapse of the economy is far more humane and cost effective than rebuilding the economy after it collapses," Sanders told MSNBC. See Sanders' proposal, which does not yet have a budget estimate, here.More stories from theweek.com Social distancing is going to get darker The noble lie about masks and coronavirus should never have been told 5 brutally funny cartoons about Trump's TV ratings boast
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| MSNBC Host Stephanie Ruhle Shuts Down Marco Rubio’s Coronavirus Spin Posted: 03 Apr 2020 09:26 AM PDT  "Can we talk about your state of Florida?" MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle asked Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) midway through their interview Friday morning. Explaining Florida is "one of the last states" to issue a stay-at-home order for its residents, Ruhle asked, "What in the world is going on down there? You have a whole lot of senior citizens and last I checked, they're pretty high risk."Despite the fact that Gov. Ron DeSantis waited until this Wednesday to lockdown his state, Rubio claimed that "for all practical purposes, we were in a stay-at-home order" and that "virtually every county in the state had restrictions in place.""Senator, come on now, stop it," Ruhle said, interrupting him. "Sir, hold on," she added. "Those handful of counties don't have walls around them. You and I both saw pictures of partiers on beaches jamming on it, right? They're not bound by those counties. They can get all over the state. Come on!" Rubio dismissed those photos of crowded beaches by noting that they are mostly from two or three weeks ago. "What I'm trying to say is just because you didn't have a stay-at-home order doesn't mean people weren't staying at home," he added. After saying DeSantis did the right thing by deferring to local officials, he admitted, "That said, I think he made the right decision at this point yesterday with regards to it." Fox News Host Martha MacCallum Nails Kellyanne Conway for Rewriting Trump's Coronavirus History"So you support how he's handled it?" Ruhle asked. "You don't think he should have done it two weeks ago, three weeks ago?" "You know, honestly, I think that we will have plenty of time to look back when this is all done and see all the mistakes that were made, all the errors that were committed at every level, starting at the CDC, congressional oversight, maybe we should have started on the relief bill a week earlier in Congress," Rubio answered. "Right now, though, we can't stop to do that. We have to focus on the emergency that's at hand right now." But Ruhle wasn't done. "With all due respect, sir, you're not immune to finger pointing yourself," she said. "Earlier this week you called out people that share my job." She was referring to a tweet Rubio posted this past Sunday that read, "Some in our media can't contain their glee & delight in reporting that the U.S. has more CoronaVirus cases than China." He added that "beyond being grotesque" it is "bad journalism." "I need to ask you this because I am a journalist, we're not just some personalities," Ruhle said. "You called out journalism. And I need to understand why on earth you did this." When he attempted to defend his tweet as an effort to counter "Chinese propaganda," she added, "Sir, just a moment ago you said we shouldn't be wasting any time pointing fingers or criticizing and that's exactly what you did in that tweet." 'Inexcusable': Dr. Sanjay Gupta Goes Off on Georgia Governor's 'Stunning' Coronavirus AdmissionRead more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Spain overtakes Italy in coronavirus cases, death rate slows Posted: 03 Apr 2020 02:57 AM PDT  Spain overtook Italy for the first time on Friday for the number of confirmed coronavirus cases, but the overnight death toll fell from the previous day, providing a small glimmer of hope. With a total 117,710 confirmed cases, Spain is now second in the number of infections only to the United States, which has a population some seven times larger. Spain's total death toll now stands at 10,935, second only to Italy's 13,915 fatalities.
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| French Coronavirus Fatalities Hit 6,507 in Deadliest Day Posted: 03 Apr 2020 11:41 AM PDT |
| Wuhan residents told to stay inside and stay vigilant as China begins to lift virus lockdown Posted: 03 Apr 2020 01:48 AM PDT  The top official in Wuhan, the epicentre of the coronavirus epidemic in China, warned residents to stay vigilant and avoid going out, even as the latest data showed a decline in new cases in the mainland and zero new infections in the city. The country where the virus emerged late last year will hold three minutes of silence nationwide on Saturday to mourn the thousands of "martyrs" who died in the fight against the epidemic, the official Xinhua news agency reported. Air raid sirens and horns of automobiles, trains and ships will "wail in grief" after the minutes of silence are observed at 10 am (0200 GMT) across the country, Xinhua said. China appears to have curbed the epidemic through draconian restrictions that paralysed the country for two months and effectively shut down the world's second-biggest economy.
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| Coronavirus and Hunter Biden: Congressional investigators prepare for war over 2020 election Posted: 03 Apr 2020 08:49 AM PDT  As the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage across the United States, it has, for the moment, brought the partisan investigations taking shape on Capitol Hill that could swing the balance of the 2020 election to a screeching halt.Lawmakers, scattered across the country in their home states and districts for the indefinite future, have the health and economic welfare of their constituents to attend to.
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| A Kentucky resident who was potentially exposed to the coronavirus and refused to self-isolate was forced to wear an ankle monitor Posted: 03 Apr 2020 07:53 PM PDT  One man who tested positive for the coronavirus was put under house arrest after he went out shopping and violated his quarantine.
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| President Trump says US to deploy 1,000 military personnel to New York City to battle coronavirus Posted: 04 Apr 2020 02:21 PM PDT  President Donald Trump says the U.S. will send 1,000 military personnel to New York City to help battle the coronavirus epidemic.
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| Sleeping in the attic: How a NYC nurse is trying to keep her family safe from the coronavirus as she works on the front lines Posted: 04 Apr 2020 06:08 AM PDT  Diana Torres, a nurse who works in Manhattan, moved into her attic to avoid exposing her family to the coronavirus when she comes home after shifts.
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| Controversial Soviet-era statue removed in Prague Posted: 03 Apr 2020 07:14 AM PDT  Prague authorities on Friday said they had removed a controversial Soviet-era statue, despite protests from Moscow, to make way for a World War II memorial. The Russian embassy on Friday protested the removal of the bronze statue of Soviet general Ivan Konev, terming it an "unfriendly" act of "vandalism by unhinged municipal representatives." While Konev is regarded as a hero in Russia, many Czechs see him as a symbol of Soviet-era oppression.
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| 3M pushes back at Trump over order to produce more face masks Posted: 03 Apr 2020 04:48 PM PDT  Manufacturing giant 3M pushed back Friday against criticism from President Trump over production of face masks that are badly needed by American health care workers.
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| Vietnam protests Beijing's sinking of South China Sea boat Posted: 03 Apr 2020 10:36 PM PDT |
| Italy, Spain showing signs of downward coronavirus trends Posted: 04 Apr 2020 10:52 AM PDT  Both countries are far from out of the woods, but Italy and Spain have reported some encouraging novel coronavirus trends over the last few days.Italy continues to see daily increases in new COVID-19 infections and fatalities, but the rate is slowing. While there was a slight uptick in new cases Saturday from the day before, the daily average appears to have mostly plateaued, signaling the country's lockdown which started on March 9 has been at least somewhat effective. The number of deaths also dropped from previous days, though the total — 681 — was again quite high. Deaths will continue to lag behind the infection rate, so another spike remains possible, but the country may be past its peak.> New data from Italy - daily cases and fatalities. pic.twitter.com/mCTu4uyAMW> > — Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) April 4, 2020Perhaps the most positive news from Italy is the announcement that the number of patients in intensive care throughout the country's health care system declined for the first time since the outbreak began in February.Spain, for the first time, overtook Italy as the European country with the highest number of new cases Friday, and it is still overwhelmed by new infections and deaths. Yet Maria Jose Sierra, the deputy head of Spain's health agency, said the figures "confirm the downward trend we have seen in the last few days." Two weeks ago, Spain saw a 20 percent increase in daily deaths, while on Saturday the amount rose by just 7 percent from the previous day. But with the understanding that there's still a long way to go — and that there are likely a large amount of undetected, mild cases — Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez extended lockdown measures for another 15 days until April 26. Read more about Spain and Italy at Reuters.More stories from theweek.com Social distancing is going to get darker The noble lie about masks and coronavirus should never have been told 5 brutally funny cartoons about Trump's TV ratings boast
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| Biden to name VP vetting team, thinking about Cabinet makeup Posted: 03 Apr 2020 05:55 PM PDT  Joe Biden said Friday that he will announce a committee to oversee his vice presidential selection process and is already thinking about whom he'd choose to join his Cabinet. Biden, who holds a significant lead in delegates over Sen. Bernie Sanders in the Democratic presidential primary race but has yet to officially clinch the nomination, also said he's spoken to Sanders to let him know he'd be proceeding with the vice presidential vetting process. Biden, a former vice president himself, has previously committed to choosing a woman as his running mate.
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| Coronavirus: A visual guide to the economic impact Posted: 03 Apr 2020 03:42 AM PDT  Key maps and charts explain how the virus has impacted markets and businesses around the world.
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| There’s Nothing Generous About Putin’s Coronavirus Aid to US Posted: 03 Apr 2020 08:52 AM PDT  The Kremlin's highly publicized "humanitarian aid" to the plague-stricken United States is not an altruistic gesture. It's a coldly calculated political move. But that doesn't seem to worry President Donald Trump, who proclaimed during his press conference Thursday: "I'm not concerned about Russian propaganda. Not even a little bit."A Doctor Who Met Putin Just Tested Positive, and Russia's COVID-19 Crackdowns Could Get Real Ugly.That's a very big mistake. Yes, yet another one. This is an example of the Kremlin's time-honored tactic diverting attention to another country as an example of things going even worse elsewhere, and Russian state media make it clear it's anything but a goodwill gesture.As the official story goes, Russian President Vladimir Putin asked Trump whether the United States needed Russia's help in dealing with the coronavirus. As a publicity stunt, this could hardly be more obvious. But, likely to Putin's surprise, the president of the mightiest country in the world said "Yes." According to Russia's state news outlet TASS, Trump accepted the favor "with gratitude" and is expected to reciprocate as needed in the future.According to Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, the conversation between Trump and Putin pertained to the lack of Personal Protective Equipment, commonly referred to as "PPE," in the United States. (Trump's request is especially puzzling in light of his public statements claiming that there is no shortage of PPE in the U.S.) State media outlet RIA Novosti reported that Putin dispatched a planeload of "disinfectants, glasses, respirators, masks and equipment." Kremlin-funded RT (formerly Russia Today) described it as "a gift from the Kremlin to its coronavirus-stricken rival."Not quite. The U.S. Department of State said that this "gift" was actually a purchase of "needed medical supplies, including ventilators and personal protection equipment, from Russia." Maria Zakharova, representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, specified that the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) paid for half of the shipment. The semi-generous gesture is indeed somewhat of an investment, providing a possible excuse to Trump if he moves to lift U.S. sanctions against Russia, imposed for its unlawful annexation of Crimea, covert military activities in Ukraine, attempted poisoning of Sergei Skripal, the downing of the Malaysian aircraft MH-17, and U.S. election interference.The ventilators provided by Russia, as it happens, were manufactured by a subsidiary of a company that is currently under U.S. sanctions. Concern Radio-Electronic Technologies is a holding company within the Russian state-owned Rostec group.The Kremlin denies that Putin has ever asked Trump to lift the sanctions, while the U.S. president claimed that the Russian president "has been asking that for two years," and Russian state media pundits complain that Trump didn't get the message when Putin called for the immediate removal of all sanctions at the recent G-20 summit. The lifting of the western sanctions remains one of the Kremlin's top priorities.During his press conference on Thursday, Trump claimed that Russia offered to send the supplies to America because it had a surplus. On the contrary, Russia itself is in dire need of tests, disinfectants, PPE and medical equipment, and the consequences are surfacing even on state television. "They say, sew your own masks. There are no antiseptics… The doctors have no masks," complained Russian lawmaker Alexei Zhuravlyov, appearing on Russia's 60 Minutes. Olga Skabeeva, the host of 60 minutes, agreed: "There are no masks. That is completely true. Not a single pharmacy in Moscow has any masks… They don't have the masks in our hospitals," she said. "We're all sewing them," said Russian state TV host Vladimir Soloviev during his own program, The Evening with Vladimir Soloviev. In March, convicts in three Russian prisons produced 132,000 masks. In April, prisoners in 120 of Russia's penal colonies are set to begin mass-producing them. It's unclear whether the masks produced in Russian prisons were sold by Putin to the United States under the guise of "humanitarian aid" requested by Trump."Overnight, the United States became the anti-leader—in the number of infections and deaths from the coronavirus," proclaimed Igor Kozhevin, the host of Russian state TV news show Vesti on channel Rossiya-1, naming the U.S. as an example not to be followed.What the Russians want their people to believe is that they have a handle on the pandemic, and they're going to emerge as the great victors when the COVID-19 crisis eventually subsides. Thus they portray America's failure to contain the disease as the collapse of the entire democratic system of government. Discussing Russia's aid to the United States, the Russian newspaper Vzglyad wrote: "America is no longer a hegemon, but is still trying to act as such… If the death rate from coronavirus in the United States goes to many tens, or even hundreds of thousands, and the economic disruption continues, against the backdrop of the elections, this could lead to serious internal upheavals in the already divided American society."Vzglyad concluded: "In any case, China emerges victorious—not because it defeated the virus first, but because it will continue its expansion into all parts of the world… The U.S.-Chinese battle is only part of a common geopolitical war… In this complex conflict, Russia appears not just as the owner of a 'golden share,' as the Americans think, but as the main engine of the whole process of creating a new world order. Russia and China are essentially allies; we have a very close vision of the post-American world."Appearing on The Evening with Vladimir Soloviev, political scientist Sergey Mikheyev opined about the United States: "They're hiding, trying to solve their own problems. Russia and China are helping them… Everyone noticed it. Even the most pro-Western people noticed it… This will degrade the value of democracy in the entire world." In point of fact, Russia is not doing well at all. After months of denial, the Kremlin is suddenly forced to admit the unfolding reality of the coronavirus pandemic. Official statistics this Friday reported 4,149 cases of infection and 34 deaths, with 215,000 "under observation" for potential exposure to the virus.Russian President Vladimir Putin shook hands with a coronavirus-infected doctor, minutes before encasing himself in a yellow hazmat suit. The stunt of visiting a hospital that treats the coronavirus patients, meant to reassure the general population, turned out to be a much riskier photo-op than bare-chested horse riding.Adding to the Kremlin's worries, two of its officials reportedly have tested positive for the coronavirus. Additionally, Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov attended the same party as singer Lev Leschenko, who was later diagnosed with the coronavirus. Multiple Russian government officials, including Vladimir Putin, are reportedly being tested for the coronavirus on a daily basis.Viktor Maleev, the head of the Central Research Institute of Epidemiology of the Russian government agency Rospotrebnadzor, called the coronavirus test "a psychotherapeutic measure," meant to comfort worried citizens. It seems that these days, Kremlin officials are in need of much comforting. Russian state television program Vesti on channel Rossiya-1 assured anxious audiences: "Situation with the spread of the coronavirus in our country is under control… Unlike a number of other countries, there is no explosive growth of the number of infected people in Russia." The Kremlin is known for its creative approach to facts, skewing heavily in favor of saving face rather than saving the population.Surreal scenes are unfolding in Moscow, where barren streets are being heavily patrolled and the stern voice over the loudspeakers urges citizens to stay at home. Policemen stop passing vehicles and those traveling on foot, asking for their justification to venture outside of their home or work. All patients diagnosed with the coronavirus are entered into a specially-created database that includes their photographs. Appearing on the nightly television show The Evening with Vladimir Soloviev, former Chairman of the National Society of Industrial Medicine Alexey Yakovlev argued that eventually—unless the citizens comply with the terms dictated by the government—the time will come "to close the subways, bring out the army and chase them down with nightsticks." "Hard times lie ahead of us," warned Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin. Russia Claimed It Created a Coronavirus Cure, but It's an American Malaria DrugTensions run high on Russia's state TV, with out-of-control pundits yelling and finger-pointing about the best measures for dealing with the spread of the coronavirus. Appearing on state TV show 60 Minutes, lawmakers Leonid Kalashnikov and Alexei Zhuravlyov accused each other of lying to the people, "licking President [Putin's] behind" and drinking before the show. The host, Evgeny Popov, nervously attempted to calm them down, but the horrid story that the show covered next did little to diffuse the tensions.In a local hospital of Syktyvkar, the capital of Russia's Komi republic, located 620 miles northeast of Moscow, 55 people had been accidentally infected by a doctor. Multiple patients who tested negative for the coronavirus are being confined in the Ezhvinsky district hospital against their will. Terrified of being infected by the medical staff that is freely coming and going from the facility, these hostages of the medical system recorded a video pleading for their release—to no avail. A total of 261 people, including 24 members of the medical staff, remain in isolation at the hospital. After the government announced the commencement of an investigation into this matter, Governor of Komi Sergey Gaplikov promptly resigned."Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes," warns a Latin phrase from Virgil's Aeneid, referring to the hollow horse that defeated Troy's defenses. It has been paraphrased in English as the proverb "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts." The same could be said about accepting aid from the Kremlin.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| The NRA is suing Gov. Cuomo after New York closed gun shops as non-essential businesses Posted: 04 Apr 2020 10:05 AM PDT  Under Cuomo's "PAUSE" order, which is in effect until at least April 15, gun stores were deemed non-essential and ordered to close.
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| Parts of Indian mega-slum cordoned off after virus deaths Posted: 03 Apr 2020 04:10 AM PDT  Indian police barricaded parts of one of Asia's biggest slums Friday after two coronavirus deaths, as under-pressure Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought to dispel "darkness and uncertainty" with a national light show. India so far has largely escaped the pandemic with 2,300 infections and 56 deaths, according to official figures, but two fatalities and a third infection in the Dharavi neighbourhood of Mumbai have set alarm bells ringing. "We have home-quarantined people from these buildings and cordoned off the area so people can't enter them, and enforced social distancing," said Vijay Khabale-Patil, spokesman of Mumbai's city authority.
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| Orban Lashes Out at EU Over Hungary Emergency-Law Criticism Posted: 02 Apr 2020 11:17 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- The European Union should worry about saving lives during the pandemic rather than waste time on criticizing Hungary's measures to combat the coronavirus, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said."In Brussels, they're dishing out criticism instead of saving lives," he told state radio on Friday.He disputed reports that the EU is helping Hungary financially to contain the pandemic, saying he "he hasn't seen a dime." On the other hand, China and the Turkic Council, an alliance of mostly central Asian nations that Hungary joined recently, have delivered aid to fight the virus, he said.Orban won parliament's consent on Monday to rule by decree indefinitely, which he has said is necessary to fight the virus. Critics said that threatens democracy as it lacks a firm end-date. Orban said he'll announce a stimulus package on Tuesday to help the economy, adding that Hungary shouldn't take on too much debt as that could undermine its independence.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| SoftBank's Son tests state of emergency appetite via Twitter poll Posted: 03 Apr 2020 05:08 AM PDT  SoftBank Group Corp founder and CEO Masayoshi Son on Friday began polling his Twitter followers over whether a state of emergency should be declared, as the number of people in Tokyo infected with the coronavirus continues to rise. Japan has so far been spared the explosive surge in cases seen in some other countries but, with the capital the centre of the outbreak, clamour for tighter curbs is growing, with Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike also indicating support for such a step. One of a small number of Japanese executives who are also household names, Son has recently returned to Twitter to express his concern about the coronavirus outbreak.
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| 'We're nesting. We prepared his room': Families adopting children from China anxiously wait Posted: 03 Apr 2020 07:53 AM PDT  At one agency, 250 families in the process of adopting children are on hold and wait for answers.
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| The Trail Leading Back to the Wuhan Labs Posted: 03 Apr 2020 10:20 AM PDT  It is understandable that many would be wary of the notion that the origin of the coronavirus could be discovered by some documentary filmmaker who used to live in China. Matthew Tye, who creates YouTube videos, contends he has identified the source of the coronavirus — and a great deal of the information that he presents, obtained from public records posted on the Internet, checks out.The Wuhan Institute of Virology in China indeed posted a job opening on November 18, 2019, "asking for scientists to come research the relationship between the coronavirus and bats."The Google translation of the job posting is: "Taking bats as the research object, I will answer the molecular mechanism that can coexist with Ebola and SARS- associated coronavirus for a long time without disease, and its relationship with flight and longevity. Virology, immunology, cell biology, and multiple omics are used to compare the differences between humans and other mammals." ("Omics" is a term for a subfield within biology, such as genomics or glycomics.)On December 24, 2019, the Wuhan Institute of Virology posted a second job posting. The translation of that posting includes the declaration, "long-term research on the pathogenic biology of bats carrying important viruses has confirmed the origin of bats of major new human and livestock infectious diseases such as SARS and SADS, and a large number of new bat and rodent new viruses have been discovered and identified."Tye contends that that posting meant, "we've discovered a new and terrible virus, and would like to recruit people to come deal with it." He also contends that "news didn't come out about coronavirus until ages after that." Doctors in Wuhan knew that they were dealing with a cluster of pneumonia cases as December progressed, but it is accurate to say that a very limited number of people knew about this particular strain of coronavirus and its severity at the time of that job posting. By December 31, about three weeks after doctors first noticed the cases, the Chinese government notified the World Health Organization and the first media reports about a "mystery pneumonia" appeared outside China.Scientific American verifies much of the information Tye mentions about Shi Zhengli, the Chinese virologist nicknamed "Bat Woman" for her work with that species.> Shi — a virologist who is often called China's "bat woman" by her colleagues because of her virus-hunting expeditions in bat caves over the past 16 years — walked out of the conference she was attending in Shanghai and hopped on the next train back to Wuhan. "I wondered if [the municipal health authority] got it wrong," she says. "I had never expected this kind of thing to happen in Wuhan, in central China." Her studies had shown that the southern, subtropical areas of Guangdong, Guangxi and Yunnan have the greatest risk of coronaviruses jumping to humans from animals — particularly bats, a known reservoir for many viruses. If coronaviruses were the culprit, she remembers thinking, "could they have come from our lab?"> > . . . By January 7 the Wuhan team determined that the new virus had indeed caused the disease those patients suffered — a conclusion based on results from polymerase chain reaction analysis, full genome sequencing, antibody tests of blood samples and the virus's ability to infect human lung cells in a petri dish. The genomic sequence of the virus — now officially called SARS-CoV-2 because it is related to the SARS pathogen — was 96 percent identical to that of a coronavirus the researchers had identified in horseshoe bats in Yunnan, they reported in a paper published last month in Nature. "It's crystal clear that bats, once again, are the natural reservoir," says Daszak, who was not involved in the study. > Some scientists aren't convinced that the virus jumped straight from bats to human beings, but there are a few problems with the theory that some other animal was an intermediate transmitter of COVID-19 from bats to humans:> Analyses of the SARS-CoV-2 genome indicate a single spillover event, meaning the virus jumped only once from an animal to a person, which makes it likely that the virus was circulating among people before December. Unless more information about the animals at the Wuhan market is released, the transmission chain may never be clear. There are, however, numerous possibilities. A bat hunter or a wildlife trafficker might have brought the virus to the market. Pangolins happen to carry a coronavirus, which they might have picked up from bats years ago, and which is, in one crucial part of its genome, virtually identical to SARS-CoV-2. But no one has yet found evidence that pangolins were at the Wuhan market, or even that venders there trafficked pangolins.On February 4 — one week before the World Health Organization decided to officially name this virus "COVID-19" — the journal Cell Research posted a notice written by scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology about the virus, concluding, "our findings reveal that remdesivir and chloroquine are highly effective in the control of 2019-nCoV infection in vitro. Since these compounds have been used in human patients with a safety track record and shown to be effective against various ailments, we suggest that they should be assessed in human patients suffering from the novel coronavirus disease." One of the authors of that notice was the "bat woman," Shi Zhengli.In his YouTube video, Tye focuses his attention on a researcher at the Wuhan Institute of Virology named Huang Yanling: "Most people believe her to be patient zero, and most people believe she is dead."There was enough discussion of rumors about Huang Yanling online in China to spur an official denial. On February 16, the Wuhan Institute of Virology denied that patient zero was one of their employees, and interestingly named her specifically: "Recently there has been fake information about Huang Yanling, a graduate from our institute, claiming that she was patient zero in the novel coronavirus." Press accounts quote the institute as saying, "Huang was a graduate student at the institute until 2015, when she left the province and had not returned since. Huang was in good health and had not been diagnosed with disease, it added." None of her publicly available research papers are dated after 2015.The web page for the Wuhan Institute of Virology's Lab of Diagnostic Microbiology does indeed still have "Huang Yanling" listed as a 2012 graduate student, and her picture and biography appear to have been recently removed — as have those of two other graduate students from 2013, Wang Mengyue and Wei Cuihua.Her name still has a hyperlink, but the linked page is blank. The pages for Wang Mengyue and Wei Cuihua are blank as well.(For what it is worth, the South China Morning Post — a newspaper seen as being generally pro-Beijing — reported on March 13 that "according to the government data seen by the Post, a 55 year-old from Hubei province could have been the first person to have contracted Covid-19 on November 17.")On February 17, Zhen Shuji, a Hong Kong correspondent from the French public-radio service Radio France Internationale, reported: "when a reporter from the Beijing News of the Mainland asked the institute for rumors about patient zero, the institute first denied that there was a researcher Huang Yanling, but after learning that the name of the person on the Internet did exist, acknowledged that the person had worked at the firm but has now left the office and is unaccounted for."Tye says, "everyone on the Chinese internet is searching for [Huang Yanling] but most believe that her body was quickly cremated and the people working at the crematorium were perhaps infected as they were not given any information about the virus." (The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that handling the body of someone who has died of coronavirus is safe — including embalming and cremation — as long as the standard safety protocols for handing a decedent are used. It's anyone's guess as to whether those safety protocols were sufficiently used in China before the outbreak's scope was known.)As Tye observes, a public appearance by Huang Yanling would dispel a lot of the public rumors, and is the sort of thing the Chinese government would quickly arrange in normal circumstances — presuming that Huang Yanling was still alive. Several officials at the Wuhan Institute of Virology issued public statements that Huang was in good health and that no one at the institute has been infected with COVID-19. In any case, the mystery around Huang Yanling may be moot, but it does point to the lab covering up something about her.China Global Television Network, a state-owned television broadcaster, illuminated another rumor while attempting to dispel it in a February 23 report entitled "Rumors Stop With the Wise":> On February 17, a Weibo user who claimed herself to be Chen Quanjiao, a researcher at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, reported to the public that the Director of the Institute was responsible for leaking the novel coronavirus. The Weibo post threw a bomb in the cyberspace and the public was shocked. Soon Chen herself stepped out and declared that she had never released any report information and expressed great indignation at such identity fraud on Weibo. It has been confirmed that that particular Weibo account had been shut down several times due to the spread of misinformation about COVID-19.That Radio France Internationale report on February 17 also mentioned the next key part of the Tye's YouTube video. "Xiaobo Tao, a scholar from South China University of Technology, recently published a report that researchers at Wuhan Virus Laboratory were splashed with bat blood and urine, and then quarantined for 14 days." HK01, another Hong Kong-based news site, reported the same claim.This doctor's name is spelled in English as both "Xiaobo Tao" and "Botao Xiao." From 2011 to 2013, Botao Xiao was a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital, and his biography is still on the web site of the South China University of Technology.At some point in February, Botao Xiao posted a research paper onto ResearchGate.net, "The Possible Origins of 2019-nCoV coronavirus." He is listed as one author, along with Lei Xiao from Tian You Hospital, which is affiliated with the Wuhan University of Science and Technology. The paper was removed a short time after it was posted, but archived images of its pages can be found here and here.The first conclusion of Botao Xiao's paper is that the bats suspected of carrying the virus are extremely unlikely to be found naturally in the city, and despite the stories of "bat soup," they conclude that bats were not sold at the market and were unlikely to be deliberately ingested.> The bats carrying CoV ZC45 were originally found in Yunnan or Zhejiang province, both of which were more than 900 kilometers away from the seafood market. Bats were normally found to live in caves and trees. But the seafood market is in a densely-populated district of Wuhan, a metropolitan [area] of ~15 million people. The probability was very low for the bats to fly to the market. According to municipal reports and the testimonies of 31 residents and 28 visitors, the bat was never a food source in the city, and no bat was traded in the market.The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization could not confirm if bats were present at the market. Botao Xiao's paper theorizes that the coronavirus originated from bats being used for research at either one of two research laboratories in Wuhan.> We screened the area around the seafood market and identified two laboratories conducting research on bat coronavirus. Within ~ 280 meters from the market, there was the Wuhan Center for Disease Control & Prevention. WHCDC hosted animals in laboratories for research purpose, one of which was specialized in pathogens collection and identification. In one of their studies, 155 bats including Rhinolophus affinis were captured in Hubei province, and other 450 bats were captured in Zhejiang province. The expert in Collection was noted in the Author Contributions (JHT). Moreover, he was broadcasted for collecting viruses on nation-wide newspapers and websites in 2017 and 2019. He described that he was once by attacked by bats and the blood of a bat shot on his skin. He knew the extreme danger of the infection so he quarantined himself for 14 days. In another accident, he quarantined himself again because bats peed on him.> > Surgery was performed on the caged animals and the tissue samples were collected for DNA and RNA extraction and sequencing. The tissue samples and contaminated trashes were source of pathogens. They were only ~280 meters from the seafood market. The WHCDC was also adjacent to the Union Hospital (Figure 1, bottom) where the first group of doctors were infected during this epidemic. It is plausible that the virus leaked around and some of them contaminated the initial patients in this epidemic, though solid proofs are needed in future study.> > The second laboratory was ~12 kilometers from the seafood market and belonged to Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences . . .> > In summary, somebody was entangled with the evolution of 2019-nCoV coronavirus. In addition to origins of natural recombination and intermediate host, the killer coronavirus probably originated from a laboratory in Wuhan. Safety level may need to be reinforced in high risk biohazardous laboratories. Regulations may be taken to relocate these laboratories far away from city center and other densely populated places.However, Xiao has told the Wall Street Journal that he has withdrawn his paper. "The speculation about the possible origins in the post was based on published papers and media, and was not supported by direct proofs," he said in a brief email on February 26.The bat researcher that Xiao's report refers to is virologist Tian Junhua, who works at the Wuhan Centre for Disease Control. In 2004, the World Health Organization determined that an outbreak of the SARS virus had been caused by two separate leaks at the Chinese Institute of Virology in Beijing. The Chinese government said that the leaks were a result of "negligence" and the responsible officials had been punished.In 2017, the Chinese state-owned Shanghai Media Group made a seven-minute documentary about Tian Junhua, entitled "Youth in the Wild: Invisible Defender." Videographers followed Tian Junhua as he traveled deep into caves to collect bats. "Among all known creatures, the bats are rich with various viruses inside," he says in Chinese. "You can find most viruses responsible for human diseases, like rabies virus, SARS, and Ebola. Accordingly, the caves frequented by bats became our main battlefields." He emphasizes, "bats usually live in caves humans can hardly reach. Only in these places can we find the most ideal virus vector samples."One of his last statements on the video is: "In the past ten-plus years, we have visited every corner of Hubei Province. We explored dozens of undeveloped caves and studied more than 300 types of virus vectors. But I do hope these virus samples will only be preserved for scientific research and will never be used in real life. Because humans need not only the vaccines, but also the protection from the nature."The description of Tian Junhua's self-isolation came from a May 2017 report by Xinhua News Agency, repeated by the Chinese news site JQKNews.com:> The environment for collecting bat samples is extremely bad. There is a stench in the bat cave. Bats carry a large number of viruses in their bodies. If they are not careful, they are at risk of infection. But Tian Junhua is not afraid to go to the mountain with his wife to catch Batman.> > Tian Junhua summed up the experience that the most bats can be caught by using the sky cannon and pulling the net. But in the process of operation, Tian Junhua forgot to take protective measures. Bat urine dripped on him like raindrops from the top. If he was infected, he could not find any medicine. It was written in the report.> > The wings of bats carry sharp claws. When the big bats are caught by bat tools, they can easily spray blood. Several times bat blood was sprayed directly on Tians skin, but he didn't flinch at all. After returning home, Tian Junhua took the initiative to isolate for half a month. As long as the incubation period of 14 days does not occur, he will be lucky to escape, the report said.Bat urine and blood can carry viruses. How likely is it that bat urine or blood got onto a researcher at either Wuhan Center for Disease Control & Prevention or the Wuhan Institute of Virology? Alternatively, what are the odds that some sort of medical waste or other material from the bats was not properly disposed of, and that was the initial transmission vector to a human being?Virologists have been vehemently skeptical of the theory that COVID-19 was engineered or deliberately constructed in a laboratory; the director of the National Institutes of Health has written that recent genomic research "debunks such claims by providing scientific evidence that this novel coronavirus arose naturally." And none of the above is definitive proof that COVID-19 originated from a bat at either the Wuhan Center for Disease Control & Prevention or the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Definitive proof would require much broader access to information about what happened in those facilities in the time period before the epidemic in the city.But it is a remarkable coincidence that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was researching Ebola and SARS-associated coronaviruses in bats before the pandemic outbreak, and that in the month when Wuhan doctors were treating the first patients of COVID-19, the institute announced in a hiring notice that "a large number of new bat and rodent new viruses have been discovered and identified." And the fact that the Chinese government spent six weeks insisting that COVID-19 could not be spread from person to person means that its denials about Wuhan laboratories cannot be accepted without independent verification.
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| Boris Johnson's pregnant fiancee Carrie Symonds suffers coronavirus symptoms Posted: 04 Apr 2020 09:49 AM PDT  Boris Johnson's pregnant fiancee Carrie Symonds has revealed she has "spent the past week in bed" after suffering coronavirus symptoms but is now recovering. The 32-year-old, who is expecting the couple's baby in early summer, falls into the group of vulnerable people urged to avoid contact with those with symptoms of Covid-19. Prime Minister Mr Johnson said last week that he had tested positive for coronavirus and has now spent more than a week in self-isolation in Downing Street. Shortly after his announcement, Ms Symonds - who usually lives with the Prime Minister in the Number 11 flat - shared a photograph of herself self-isolating in Camberwell, south London, with the couple's dog Dilyn. But on Saturday evening she revealed she too has suffered coronavirus symptoms. She tweeted: "I've spent the past week in bed with the main symptoms of Coronavirus. I haven't needed to be tested and, after seven days of rest, I feel stronger and I'm on the mend. "Being pregnant with Covid-19 is obviously worrying. To other pregnant women, please do read and follow the most up to date guidance which I found to be v reassuring."
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| About 12 people an hour are dying of COVID-19 in NYC Posted: 04 Apr 2020 04:50 AM PDT  Warning the city is in a race against time, Mayor Bill de Blasio on Friday issued a national call to arms in the fight against COVID-19, seeking thousands of more ventilators, beds and medical personnel as soon as possible.
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| Democrats blast Trump's 'unconscionable' decision to fire IG who informed Congress about Ukraine whistleblower complaint Posted: 04 Apr 2020 05:00 AM PDT  President Trump on Friday fired Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson, who informed Congress about the whistleblower complaint regarding Trump's communications with Ukraine that eventually led to his impeachment. The president said he "no longer" has the "fullest confidence" in Atkinson.Democrats were not happy with the decision, especially considering it came as the novel coronavirus pandemic intensifies across the United States. "In the midst of a national emergency, it is unconscionable that the president is once again attempting to undermine the integrity of the intelligence community by firing yet another intelligence official simply for doing his job," said Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee.The Trump administration has already removed numerous officials from their posts involved with Trump's impeachment proceedings, including Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a former National Security Council official, and former U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland. Others, like former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, resigned.Atkinson won't be immediately removed — the statute for the intelligence community inspector general requires both the House and Senate Intelligence Committees be informed of a dismissal with 30 days notice, so there won't be an official change until next month. Read more at The Guardian and CNN.More stories from theweek.com Social distancing is going to get darker The noble lie about masks and coronavirus should never have been told 5 brutally funny cartoons about Trump's TV ratings boast
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| New York Gov. Cuomo says he expects the peak of the coronavirus outbreak to hit in the 'seven-day' range as cases skyrocket Posted: 04 Apr 2020 11:33 AM PDT  New York has 11,000 new cases and China's donating 1,000 ventilators: Here are all the key takeaways from Gov. Cuomo's coronavirus press conference.
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| Coronavirus: Islamophobia concerns after India mosque outbreak Posted: 03 Apr 2020 01:54 AM PDT  Outrage over a Muslim congregation that led to new Covid-19 cluster turns hateful.
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| Senators urge formal probe of Navy carrier commander's firing over coronavirus plea Posted: 03 Apr 2020 11:23 AM PDT  A group of prominent Democratic senators formally requested on Friday that the Pentagon's independent Inspector General investigate the Navy's firing of the commander of the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, who called for stronger measures to halt a coronavirus outbreak on board. Captain Brett Crozier was relieved of his command on Thursday after his scathing letter was leaked to the media. Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland led the push and were joined by 15 other U.S. senators, including Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar and Kamala Harris.
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