Monday, June 01, 2020

Coronavirus News (127)

Social distancing strictures fall away as crowds gather to party and protest  Local health officials reported that at least one person tested positive for the coronavirus after being in the lake area last weekend. ....... Similar scenes played out around the country as many Americans, eager to recapture a sense of normalcy and seemingly confident that the risk was low, enjoyed public recreation and seemed unbothered by the crowds. .........  Warning that hospitals were “on the verge of being overrun,” Walz said “demonstrators should wear masks and try to practice social distancing.” ........  President Trump, Vice President Pence and their official parties who gathered with other VIPs to watch the launch at the Kennedy Space Center were not seen wearing face masks. .........  “It’s not a crisis. The actual virus is real, but the pandemic is made up,” said Joe Florio, standing in line with his daughter and grandson. ........... others said they were disbelieving or simply mad at what they considered an exaggerated threat. ..........  “All of us old, belligerent people refuse to wear those d----- things,” Lenny Kempf, an 82-year-old retired home builder, said of face masks as he watched the boats easing into slips at the yacht club in Osage Beach, Mo. “I wish I could wring [Anthony S.] Fauci’s neck” ...........   Two to four weeks after many states began lifting restrictions on restaurants, bars and larger gatherings, cases are rising in areas that had previously dodged the worst of the virus’s impact. Arizona, Mississippi, South Carolina, Utah and Wisconsin all set record highs for new cases reported Friday. Restaurants, gyms, and other businesses have been allowed open for at least two weeks in all of the states. ..............  In many areas, large gatherings are cited as the center of major outbreaks. ........  Rex Archer, director of health for nearby Kansas City, Mo., bemoaned not only the behavior of those in attendance, but also the lack of consistent messaging from the federal government that he said facilitated it. ......... “If we had stronger messages, if the CDC had been allowed to give daily briefs, if the public were hearing the concerns and the risks, we might have been able to do differently” 

Buildings burn, and Trump talks tough. Where are the healers? As protests quickly flipped from peaceful to fiery in more than two dozen U.S. cities, President Trump said little Saturday about the frustrations that drove thousands of people to crowd into downtown streets in the middle of a pandemic. Instead, the president defaulted to his usual style of leadership: tearing people down and talking tough. .......... Trump maintained the strategy he has used throughout his tenure, emphasizing the nation’s divisions and seeking to capitalize on them. .......... There is no magic formula for averting a long, hot summer of street violence and social discord, of raging flames and physical confrontations. ......... the people Americans have chosen to take charge in times of crisis have more often left a leadership vacuum — such as the remarkable absence of police and public officials on the streets of Minneapolis in recent days. ..........  A rare exception came on Friday night in Atlanta. As fires burned and angry crowds banged up against lines of police officers, the city’s police chief, Erika Shields, waded into a clot of protesters and listened to their grievances. ...........  Rep. Ilhan Omar (D), who represents Minneapolis, posted a video saying that “we can’t ask our community to be peaceful if we continue to not deliver justice for them.” .........  City leaders “just said okay, if we just give them the precinct, we’ll feed the beast and they’ll be satisfied,” said Gerold, who left the department in 2014. “That’s just feeding the fire. . . . I think that opened the door for the rest of it.” ..........  Probably no political gesture, speech or legislative action could have prevented this week’s explosion of frustrations. But in the long, ugly history of American political street violence, the enduring images of healing often involve dramatic scenes of politicians and police who, rather than facing off against protesters, waded in for tough, painful confrontations that pointed a path toward reforms. ................ On the night the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., was assassinated in 1968, as 34 U.S. cities burned in riots of grief and anger, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy stepped before a crowd in an Indianapolis neighborhood already engulfed in protest. Police had declined to accompany Kennedy because the crowd was too hot. Standing on a flatbed truck, Kennedy said to a virtually all-black crowd: “You can be filled with bitterness, with hatred, and a desire for revenge. We can move in that direction as a country, in great polarization — black people among black, white people among white, filled with hatred toward one another. “Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend, and to replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand with compassion and love.” ...............  The president at that moment, Lyndon Johnson, made no such gesture as U.S. cities burned. He felt betrayed, believing that by winning historic civil rights laws, he had done more for the country’s black population than any president in decades. .............  On Saturday afternoon, Trump urged the nation’s mayors to “get tougher,” and he dismissed protesters as “a lot of radical left bad people.” ........... D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), whom the president had accused of failing to provide police support for Secret Service officers guarding the White House, blasted Trump on Saturday for his brand of leadership. ......... “We need leaders who . . . in times of great turmoil and despair can provide us a sense of calm and a sense of hope. Instead, what we’ve got in the last two days from the White House is the glorification of violence against American citizens,” Bowser said. ..........  Turkey’s leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said that a “racist and fascist approach” led to Floyd’s death and was a symbol of an “unjust order” in the United States. In Iran, people held a candlelight vigil in memory of Floyd. In China, state television broadcast a commentary contending that excessive police force “shows the deep social contradictions” in the United States. .......... Trump continued to talk tough; on Saturday, he reiterated an offer to make the Army available to suppress riots, saying, “We have our military ready, willing and able.” ...........  “This is not a protest,” said Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (D). “This is not in the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. This is chaos. A protest has purpose. . . . You’re not protesting anything running out with brown liquor in your hands and breaking windows in this city. . . . Go home!” .........   “That’s not going to come from this president, but policing is still mostly a local and state issue,” Zelizer said. “Just as we’ve seen with the pandemic, governors can and will step up.” ........... police brutality and racial bias continue to hold explosive power as political issues, and few elected officials spend much energy confronting the problem. It’s easier for some leaders to traffic in pat slogans, bashing either the police or the protesters. .......... Late Saturday, as the nation braced for another scary night, Trump continued his campaign, tweeting, as ever: “Fake News is the Enemy of the People!”



The case for reopening schools this fall “Tinderbox: How the West Sparked the AIDS Epidemic and How the World Can Finally Overcome It.” .............  While most countries have shuttered schools, others such as Taiwan have achieved effective responses without closures. In Denmark and Norway, where schools began reopening in mid-April, covid-19 cases and deaths have decreased. Normally, gregarious youngsters are efficient spreaders of respiratory pathogens. But this appears not to be the case with covid-19. .........  much like with the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic in 2003, children are less likely to become infected with this coronavirus ............  A German study that warns against reopening schools found viral loads in infected children at levels comparable to adults. ........  Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, recently warned against reopening schools too early, and noted complications in some children that resemble Kawasaki disease. ......... The low numbers of children affected by covid-19 and the new syndrome should be considered in additional context: More than 200 U.S. children were killed last year by flu; some 10,000 others died from various childhood diseases. A rare condition that is not commonly fatal does not justify keeping 55 million American students home into the next academic year. ...........  2 to 4 percent of covid-19 deaths in Britain might be prevented by closing schools and colleges, compared with a potential 17 percent to 21 percent prevented from self-isolating. ...... Other consequences of school closures include recent surges in child abuse; hunger from missed subsidized meals; greater anxiety, depression and isolation. Students with autism, Down syndrome, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and other special needs are at particular risk. But months away from friends and school structure takes a toll on all students, as beleaguered parents everywhere can attest. ........ Although some covid-19 cases regrettably may result from reopening schools, the existing evidence does not warrant inflicting potentially long-term academic, social and vocational disadvantages on millions of children.

Biden leads Trump in Post-ABC poll as president’s coronavirus rating slips  Biden leads Trump 53 percent to 43 percent among registered voters nationally. That 10 percentage-point margin compares with what was a virtual dead heat between the two candidates two months ago, when Biden was at 49 percent and Trump 47 percent. Among all adults, Biden’s margin widens to 13 points (53 percent to 40 percent).......  When a Biden-Trump contest is filtered only through those who currently say they are certain to vote, the former vice president’s margin is cut in half (51-46 percent).  ........ On the question of making voting by mail easier, 87 percent of Democrats and 67 percent of independents favor such moves by the states, while 61 percent of Republicans oppose such changes, including 53 percent who say they are strongly opposed. Overall, 65 percent of adults express support. .......... 40 million people have applied for unemployment insurance    







How to Make this Moment the Turning Point for Real Change   Ultimately, it’s going to be up to a new generation of activists to shape strategies that best fit the times. But I believe there are some basic lessons to draw from past efforts that are worth remembering. ......... The overwhelming majority of participants have been peaceful, courageous, responsible, and inspiring. .........   throughout American history, it’s often only been in response to protests and civil disobedience that the political system has even paid attention to marginalized communities. But eventually, aspirations have to be translated into specific laws and institutional practices — and in a democracy, that only happens when we elect government officials who are responsive to our demands. ....... the bottom line is this: if we want to bring about real change, then the choice isn’t between protest and politics. We have to do both. We have to mobilize to raise awareness, and we have to organize and cast our ballots to make sure that we elect candidates who will act on reform. ........ the more specific we can make demands for criminal justice and police reform, the harder it will be for elected officials to just offer lip service to the cause and then fall back into business as usual once protests have gone away 



Coronavirus May Be a Blood Vessel Disease, Which Explains Everything Many of the infection’s bizarre symptoms have one thing in common ........  In April, blood clots emerged as one of the many mysterious symptoms attributed to Covid-19, a disease that had initially been thought to largely affect the lungs in the form of pneumonia. Quickly after came reports of young people dying due to coronavirus-related strokes. Next it was Covid toes — painful red or purple digits. .........  40% of deaths from Covid-19 are related to cardiovascular complications, and the disease starts to look like a vascular infection instead of a purely respiratory one. .......... “All these Covid-associated complications were a mystery. We see blood clotting, we see kidney damage, we see inflammation of the heart, we see stroke, we see encephalitis [swelling of the brain],” says William Li, MD, president of the Angiogenesis Foundation. “A whole myriad of seemingly unconnected phenomena that you do not normally see with SARS or H1N1 or, frankly, most infectious diseases.” ......... “If you start to put all of the data together that’s emerging, it turns out that this virus is probably a vasculotropic virus, meaning that it affects the [blood vessels]” ............ the SARS-CoV-2 virus can infect the endothelial cells that line the inside of blood vessels. ....... damage to endothelial cells in the lungs, heart, kidneys, liver, and intestines in people with Covid-19. .........  A respiratory virus infecting blood cells and circulating through the body is virtually unheard of. ............ infection of the blood vessels may be how the virus travels through the body and infects other organs — something that’s atypical of respiratory infections. ....... The good news is that if Covid-19 is a vascular disease, there are existing drugs that can help protect against endothelial cell damage. ........ “It turns out that both statins and ACE inhibitors are extremely protective on vascular dysfunction,” Mehra says. “Most of their benefit in the continuum of cardiovascular illness — be it high blood pressure, be it stroke, be it heart attack, be it arrhythmia, be it heart failure — in any situation the mechanism by which they protect the cardiovascular system starts with their ability to stabilize the endothelial cells.” ....... “What we’re saying is that maybe the best antiviral therapy is not actually an antiviral therapy. The best therapy might actually be a drug that stabilizes the vascular endothelial. We’re building a drastically different concept.” 


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Saturday, May 30, 2020

Coronavirus News (126)

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Gripped by disease, unemployment and outrage at the police, America plunges into crisis  A global pandemic has now killed more than 100,000 Americans and left 40 million unemployed in its wake. Protests — some of them violent — have once again erupted in spots across the country over police killings of black Americans. .........  “The threads of our civic life could start unraveling, because everybody’s living in a tinderbox” ...........  “People are seething about all kinds of things” ........ “There are major turning points and ruptures in history. . . . This is one of these moments, but we’ve not seen how it will fully play out.” ..........  some said the tumult, set in the broader context of the twin health and economic emergencies, could mark a rupture as dramatic as signature turning points in the country’s history, from the economic dislocation of the Great Depression to the social convulsions of 1968. ........ the past is filled with events whose outcomes have not been as sweeping as they seemed to portend ........ the European revolutions of 1848 — famously said to be the “turning point at which modern history failed to turn” — and Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which exposed lethal failures but did not cause political transformation. ...........  Floyd’s death followed the slaying of a black man, Ahmaud Arbery, who was jogging in Georgia, and a viral dust-up in New York’s Central Park when a white woman called the police on a black man there to bird-watch. ...........  A president’s impeachment, demonstrations over police killings and even global pandemics all have precedents. But their confluence in such a short span of time — under this president, who consistently pushes the boundaries of historic norms associated with his office — has exacerbated the nation’s sense of unease. .........  for millions of Americans, being treated differently on account of race is tragically, painfully, maddeningly ‘normal’ — whether it’s while dealing with the health care system, or interacting with the criminal justice system, or jogging down the street, or just watching birds in a park. ........... Trump responded to the latest crisis Friday as he often does: by lashing out. .......   the unrest was a result of “generations of pain, of anguish” over racism in policing. ............  Trump, he said, seems to see the unrest as a potentially helpful “political issue,” if he can position himself as a law-and-order candidate cracking down on anarchy and possibly distract from the pandemic. ......... “Is this going to be the summer of covid-19? Or is this going to be the summer of urban unrest?” Brinkley said. “And Trump does not want it to be the summer of covid-19.” ..........  at a time when what is most needed is thoughtful, calm, deliberate leadership, we have the opposite 




Pandemic’s overall death toll in U.S. likely surpassed 100,000 weeks ago A state-by-state analysis shows that deaths officially attributed to covid- 19 only partially account for unusually high mortality during the pandemic ........ Between March 1 and May 9, the nation recorded an estimated 101,600 excess deaths, or deaths beyond the number that would normally be expected for that time of year .........   Allies of President Trump have claimed that the government tally is inflated, contending that it includes people with other medical conditions who would have died with or without an infection. ........  an examination of excess deaths by state paints a portrait of two Americas, one pummeled by the pandemic and the other only lightly scathed. ..........  the gap between excess deaths and official covid-19 tallies has been particularly pronounced in several states that currently have the least restrictive social distancing rules in place.  

South Korea closes schools again amid coronavirus spike, days after reopening School districts in the United States that have been closed for months are now trying to figure out when and how they can reopen safely. Some are watching how other countries are handling the reopening of schools, including South Korea, which has been successful in containing the spread of the virus. ............  After putting plastic barriers in many schools to separate students while they eat and learn, disinfecting, and other preventive steps, some schools began to open last week for the first time in several months ..........  But new clusters of the coronavirus have been identified in recent days, leading the government to close not only schools but also parks and museums — and people are being urged again not to gather in big numbers.   





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Friday, May 29, 2020

Coronavirus News (125)

Pakistan locusts




рд░ाрд╖्рдЯ्рд░рд╡ाрджрдХो ‘рдорд╣ाрдоाрд░ी’ рдЕрдШि рд░ाрд╖्рдЯ्рд░рд╡ाрдж рдХोрд░ोрдиा рднाрдЗрд░рд╕рднрди्рджा рдЪрд░्рдХो рд░ рдЦुрдЩ्рдЦाрд░ рдЕрд╡рддाрд░рдоा рддाрдг्рдбрд╡рд░рдд рдЫ ।Trump announces unprecedented action against China announced a slew of retaliatory measures that will plunge US-China relations deeper into crisis. ........... decried the way Beijing has "raided our factories" and "gutted" American industry, casting Beijing as a central foil he will run against in the remaining months of his re-election campaign .........  the US will strip Hong Kong of the special policy measures on extradition, trade, travel and customs Washington had previously granted it. ............ the US would also take action on a number of other fronts, including barring "certain foreign nationals from China" from entering the US and sanctioning officials in China and Hong Kong for their direct or indirect role in "smothering" Hong Kong's freedoms. ........... "US-China relations are in full crisis," said Richard Fontaine, the CEO of the Center for a New American Security. "We've hit the floor and keep falling through it. Beijing will retaliate in response to the Hong Kong steps the administration takes, and then the ball will be back in the President's court. Things will get worse -- potentially much worse -- before they get any better." ..........  revoking Hong Kong's special status and extending Trump's tariffs to the enclave "would have very little immediate impact," given that in 2019, the US imported less than $5 billion of goods from Hong Kong that Trump could hit with new tariffs. ......  Beijing could strike back in ways that would hurt American businesses. .............  the State Department's travel advisory for Hong Kong will be revised "to reflect the increased danger of surveillance and punishment by the Chinese state security apparatus." ..........  "Beijing moving to end Hong Kong's separate political system should trigger an American response, including by terminating Hong Kong's special economic status. The administration has zigged and zagged on questions of democracy and human rights abroad and I'm glad it is standing up."  ..........  visa restrictions on Chinese graduate students and researchers could be among them. .................  Shortly after Trump's remarks, the White House issued a presidential proclamation suspending US entry for graduate and postgraduate students and researchers from China that takes effect at noon on Monday and remains in effect until it is terminated by the President. ............  In October 2019, the State Department began requiring Chinese diplomats posted in the US to report all their meetings with state and local officials, as well as visits to educational and research institutions. And in March, the State Department imposed caps on the number of Chinese nationals who may be employed at five Chinese media entities after designating them as foreign diplomatic missions as opposed to journalistic outlets.

Our Economy Was Just Blasted Years Into the Future The crisis is compressing and accelerating trends that would have taken decades to play out .......... Last week, Seidman Becker launched Clear into a brand new digital space — “touchless technology,” a play built around the fear that the coronavirus may lurk on any surface, anywhere. Against this threat, airports are deploying a new level of security including thermal cameras, all but assuring exceptionally long lines once people resume flying. ...........  hands-free navigation: Clear will upload its clients’ Covid-19 test results, ID, air tickets, credit card, and health quiz. This, along with iris and face scans, will allow them to pass through the new phalanx faster. .........  The concept is now spreading well beyond the airport. Clear, along with Swiftlane and Envoy, are among the companies that have begun to offer similar services to office buildings. They say the technology is deployable anywhere someone needs to prove identity or take out their wallet to pay, raising the specter of biometric entrance to many or most of the places people frequent. The possibilities are limitless. ...................... Big Tech companies were vacuuming up data from laptops, front doors, appliances, kitchens, living rooms, and smartphones and selling the resulting market intelligence for hundreds of billions of dollars a year. ...............  In this makeover, “touchless” becomes more like “wireless,” a benign appellation meant to milk the zeitgeist. ............. Covid-19 had enabled technology to leapfrog into an immediate future of touchless elevators, doors, and trash cans. ..........   In the 16th and 17th centuries, smallpox, measles, and other diseases brought by the Spanish wiped out up to 90% of the South and Central American population, utterly transforming the historic order. Conversely, the global flu pandemic of 1918 to 1919 appeared to establish no new norms .............  Rather, the approximately 50 million flu deaths seemed to blend into the general slaughter of World War I and go on to be all but forgotten until modern historians began to write about the calamity in the 1970s. .............  acceleration is a natural byproduct of crises like pandemics, which “tend to jolt the current system.” ........... Against the backdrop of a two-century period of faster and faster transformation, the coronavirus is compressing and further accelerating the arc of events. .............  look for one after the other to embrace lesser, limited autonomy such as lane changing, highway driving, and automatic parking. ............  A primary economic bright spot in 2019 was the lowest-paid tier of workers, whose wages rose by a dramatic 4.5% after decades of a shrinking share of the economic pie. Companies were snapping up some of the hardest-core unemployed — among them the long-time jobless, felons, and drug users, necessary because, with the unemployment rate at 3.6%, there was no one else to fill the jobs. ..................   42% of those laid off won’t get their jobs back. .........  The virus clearly changed consumer behavior; in just a few weeks, e-commerce achieved years of growth. .......... the opportunity for vulture investment firms .........   For years, trends have favored so-called “superstar companies” — Big Tech and other mega-businesses that typically attract the best research talent, buy up the most valuable new patents, and cut the most advantageous deals. The Covid-19 age is entrenching their dominance ...........  during the Great Depression, the most important inventions, regardless of the creator, ended up in the hands of the largest companies 

Katrina was disastrous for restaurants. The pandemic will be apocalyptic. I lived through one catastrophe for my industry. This one is worse. ............    Hurricane Katrina took everything away from me in one day almost 15 years ago .......  Opening day was a madhouse. Everyone was so happy to be back in a restaurant with full service, complete with wine and real glasses. I’ve never seen such joy and emotion in a restaurant dining room. People were crying. I’m choking up just writing this 15 years later. From that moment on, we were busier than we were before the storm. Six months later, I opened my second restaurant, and the business grew from there. ................   We started offering takeout and delivery but stopped after a week: Our guests weren’t observing social distancing, and no one was wearing a mask. We were also at what turned out to be the height of cases and deaths in the city then. We waited almost two weeks, and when we felt we had safe systems in place, we started up again. But takeout paid only 6 percent of our pre-pandemic business. ..........   the name of the game is survival. We are opening with skeleton crews. We are not going to make money, and we’ve spent all of our reserves. ...........  I find it appalling that the business interruption insurance I have being paying for the past 20 years is absolutely useless. We pay $40,000 to $50,000 a year for coverage to protect us if we’re forced to close. Like many restaurants, we have not received a dime, and it seems unlikely we will, because many insurance policies included loosely worded exemptions for viruses. ..............  My partner said at the start of this crisis: “Donald, you need to be more pessimistic.” 

Former CDC director says U.S. led the world before becoming a global health ‘laggard’    When Tom Frieden looks at the agency he once managed, he’s like a former coach of a championship team watching it suffer under a domineering, impetuous team owner. ..........   “Look at the U.S. role in HIV and malaria under George W. Bush. . . . Look at Ebola under President Obama. The U.S. was clearly the global leader,” he said during an interview. “Now, with covid-19, we’re a global laggard.” ...........  He’s particularly critical of a Trump administration strategy that sidelines the nation’s top public health agency by preventing it from communicating more directly and frequently with the public. ............   The federal response to the pandemic has been exceptionally poor for a country exceptionally rich in knowledge, innovation and resources. .........  In contrast, Frieden has high praise for Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, who drew Trump’s ire and right-wing fire for telling the truth. Her early and repeated warnings about the potential devastation of the coronavirus were bad news the president didn’t want. “She got it right,” Frieden said. “I mean, exactly right. At exactly the right time. In exactly the right words.”   

In Puerto Rico, an economic disaster looms amid fears of coronavirus  The bandaged safety net that has buoyed Puerto Ricans imperfectly in times of crisis has weakened for many during the pandemic. It has given way to new levels of scarcity on an island archipelago pummeled in recent years by hurricanes, earthquakes, political upheaval and bankruptcy. ............   V├бzquez Garced’s stay-at-home policies curbed new infections without overwhelming Puerto Rico’s compromised health system. But an economic disaster is looming. ............   So many U.S. citizens in the territory applied for unemployment insurance in the past several weeks that the system collapsed, and applications had to be processed by hand. The government received more than 120,000 new applications for food stamps; 30 percent of applicants are still waiting to receive benefits, according to government data. About 1 in 5 residents have received stimulus checks, the government said, and the rest will not receive them until at least June. Meanwhile, food and utility costs are rising, and what was left of the middle class has been decimated. ............  They used a cannon to kill mosquitoes, taking a blanket approach, and shutting off the motors of the economy given their lack of capacity to carry out a more precise public health strategy ...........  “I never imagined having to do this at my age. I am a 45-year-old professional with a master’s degree and I should not have to ask for money from anyone,” Nolla said. “The last thing I want to do is depend on my family. I am blessed, but it’s humiliating.” ..........  “This is much worse than Maria.”  

'Many will starve': locusts devour crops and livelihoods in Pakistan Farmers faced with worst plague in recent history say they have been left to fend for themselves 



Coronavirus started spreading in the U.S. in January, CDC says By early February, there was "cryptic circulation" of the virus.

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Thursday, May 28, 2020

Coronavirus News (124)

GOP's no-mask caucus: 'Can you smell through that mask?' - CNNPolitics

GOP operatives worry Trump will lose both the presidency and Senate majority   "Put it this way, I am very glad my boss isn't on the ballot this cycle," said one high-ranking GOP Senate aide. ........ Trump's response to the pandemic and the subsequent economic fallout have significantly damaged his bid for a second term — and that the effects are starting to hurt Republicans more broadly. .......... the trend is bleeding into key Senate races. The GOP already had a difficult task of defending 23 Senate seats in 2020. The job of protecting its slim 3-seat majority has only gotten harder as the pandemic has unfolded. States like Arizona and North Carolina, once thought to be home to winnable Senate races now appear in jeopardy. .......... could be a wipeout for the GOP. ........ The broader fear among Republicans is that the election becomes a referendum on Trump's performance during the pandemic. Coupled with a cratered economy, the effect could be devastating by both depressing the Republican faithful and turning off swing voters. .......... "This is the one thing he (Trump) cannot change the subject on," said a Republican strategist. "This is not a political opponent, this is not going way and he has never had to deal with something like this." ...............  there is a serious worry about bleeding support from both seniors and self-described independent men. ......... GOP-held Senate seats in Georgia and Montana could be in trouble   

GOP's no-mask caucus: 'Can you smell through that mask?'   A contingent of House Republicans continues to defy the recommendations of public health experts and Congress' top physician to wear face coverings to limit the spread of Covid-19, refusing to wear them on the floor of the chamber, in the hallways of the Capitol or when chatting with aides and colleagues -- even when they're unable to maintain a social distance. ..........  "Can you smell through that mask?" Rep. Clay Higgins, a Republican of Louisiana, told CNN on Thursday. "Then you're not stopping any sort of a virus. It's part of the dehumanization of the children of God. You're participating in it by wearing a mask." ..............  "What you're wearing is a bacteria trap; it's not helping your health or anybody else's," said Higgins, who had just gotten off a cramped elevator with two other GOP members, none of whom were wearing masks. .................. Higgins' statement is not supported by the science. Smells do not carry viral particles. ....... Asked about Fauci's and Adams' recommendations to wear masks, Biggs said sarcastically: "Yeah, of course, see they've been right on everything, haven't they?" .........  People can catch coronavirus at any time, even immediately after testing negative. And people can spread the virus before they develop any symptoms. ............ "I wear it for the reason that I believe it is effective," Fauci said on CNN. "It is not 100% effective -- I mean, it's sort of respect for the other person and have that other person respect you. You wear a mask. They wear a mask. You protect each other." ............ And even though the government's top scientists have repeatedly briefed members of Congress, some Republicans seem to have misinterpreted what the science says. ............ Some Republicans seem to misunderstand the science. Rep. Ted Yoho, a Florida Republican, told CNN earlier this month that "there's just no need" to wear a mask, citing "herd immunity." The Florida Republican added: "Viruses do what viruses do," contending that the "only way you're going to get" immunity "is to get exposed." ............  "I have a different medical opinion," he said of wearing masks. ........... When Republican Rep. Greg Walden of Oregon, who was wearing a face covering, approached a maskless Scalise late last month, Walden said to him: "Nice mask." Scalise responded by pointing to his face: "I wear this for Halloween," prompting laughter from a handful of members surrounding them. ............. "It's harder to do with a mask," Scalise said of talking with his colleagues. "Also, it's better to talk in person than do it over the phone." ....... He added that sometimes he stays in the chamber rather than return to his office quickly, because he sees "someone on the floor and you have something to talk" about. "That's the best way to work through these issues."  



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Coronavirus News (123)




Thinking About Flying? Here’s What You Need to Know Now Airplane travel is inching back, but staying safe remains a concern. Here’s how to think about approaching a trip. ........ From the curb to the plane, each portion of the journey has new rules and new things to think about. ............ you should carry — and use — a mask, wipes and hand sanitizer. ........ Some experts suggest wearing gloves ....... Most airlines suggest that travelers download their app for touchless boarding, which will minimize the number of times you have to hand over documents or touch screens. .........  touchless kiosks that allow customers to print bag tags using their own devices to scan a QR code. ......... Airports have been cleaning everything from the floors and surfaces to the air more rigorously. ........ not all airlines are serving food on flights, so you may want to bring your own food for the plane. ....... Do as much of the process on your airline’s app as you can. Bring hand sanitizer in case you need to hand over documents or your phone, or if you need to key anything in at a kiosk. Pay attention to the floor markers indicating the proper social distancing. Even though crowds have been thin, maintaining social distancing may be difficult, so wear your mask. .................. After scanning, you should hold your boarding pass up for an agent to inspect it. ........ If you have food, don’t put it into your carry on. Put it into a clear plastic bag and then put that bag into a bin. ...........  To reduce the number of things that go into the reusable plastic bins, put items, including belts, wallets, keys and phones, into your carry-on bags, rather than into a bin. ....... most airlines are asking passengers to wear masks to board and on flights. .......... airlines say they have stepped up the deep cleaning of planes, sometimes between every flight .........  On average, flights are carrying about 39 passengers, down from the first two months of the year, when flights were carrying about 85 to 100 passengers. ........  most flights — about 73 percent — are less than 50 percent full. How to build mental strength for endurance sports, from ultra running to mountaineering and ocean rowing You are not born mentally strong, but develop grit over time and you can increase that strength like any other muscle with practice ........ The unquantifiable quality of mental strength, or grit, is undeniably a component in endurance sports, and the longer you go, the more important it becomes. ........ To make a muscle stronger, you have to repeatedly put it under stress and push it to its maximum capacity. The same goes for the mind. You do not wake up mentally strong, you become mentally strong.......  Always finish what you set out to do ...... Quitting is a habit. If you practice completing your training, even when you want to quit, you will find it easier to finish your race or challenge even when your body screams to drop out. .......... you always need to finish your session, no matter what. .......  Train when you are mentally drained ......... sometimes you train for your heart, sometimes for your head. By training when you are low on mental energy, you will practice for the latter end of a race or challenge, when your mental stores are depleted. .........  plans long, tough training sessions for post-work on a Friday. The long week will have taken its toll, and all you want is a beer, a relax and a chance to recharge. This is the perfect time to get out and push your mind. ......... Get comfortable being uncomfortable  ....... Be mindful of past experience  ....... When you are in training, practice talking to yourself (even if it’s just in your head), with positive reinforcement and mantras. Have specific times you overcame adversity in your mental armoury, ready to deploy when you hit the pain cave. ......... Don’t beat yourself up ...... understand, internalise and remember what went right when you hit your goals and use that for fuel next time. When you come up short, draw a line under it, go and relax and have a beer.

Want the U.S. to Go Back to Work? Here's How — The critical role of employers as America reopens ...........    despite our best efforts at prevention, infections will strike in the workplace. What should employers do then? ......... employers must take a comprehensive approach to COVID-19 that goes well beyond the current focus on workplace safety. .......... four key pillars: prevention, early detection and expedited testing, clinical support and recovery, and contact tracing and isolation. ........... How employees are managed across the virus's life cycle -- from symptom detection to diagnosis to management and recovery -- will have a material impact on the next wave of the pandemic. .......... the best way to achieve early detection is through on-site testing ......... Generalized fatigue and weakness, which can negatively impact employees' capacity to work, can persist after the infection has cleared. ...........  Success also requires that employers have high rates of engagement with employee communications. New policies won't have the intended impact if they don't drive timely changes in employee behavior. We recommend that employers create multiple channels for pandemic-related communications, such as dedicated email addresses or team work-space channels for COVID-19-related questions, and rigorously track open, click-through, and view rates to continuously iterate and improve their communications. 


Huge Study Throws Cold Water on Antimalarials for COVID-19 — No support for continued use seen in analysis of 15,000 patients who got controversial drugs

Autopsies Turn Up Strange Feature of COVID-19 Lungs — Study finds more thrombi and a new puzzle in the vessels


Masks and Morality — ZDoggMD explains why COVID-19 is so divisive .......... family members are at each other's throats. Everyone online is hating everyone else. Are masks good or are they the devil? Is lockdown good? Is it a disaster? Does the economy matter? Do people matter? Is there a difference? All these questions we see all the time, it's polarized across the cable news networks, which are designed to polarize us, and in social media, which is designed to polarize us. ...........  how we can transcend this to actually be better citizens, more productive, less angry, and actually have debates instead of shutting down debates saying, OK, let's actually talk about this. Because we're all gonna assume that we're coming from a place where we wanna do good in the world. .......... you'll have psychopaths, you'll have extremists who are so entrenched that you cannot reach them. .........    "Elephant and Rider," elephant being our unconscious emotional mind and rider being our conscious strategizing, planning mind that's much smaller and newer to the scene. .......... humans are not rational creatures. We are emotional, moralizing creatures. ..........  so that we can understand why it is people go so nuts about the whole mask thing 


Trump is courting a landslide defeat US president’s bungled coronavirus response has alienated crucial older voters .......... Donald Trump’s 2016 victory caught most people by surprise, including him. ....... 
Mr Trump’s worsening odds can be gauged by his rising sense of panic. ....... Twice this year, including on Mother’s Day, Mr Trump tweeted more than 100 times when most of America was asleep. ........  I cannot find an example in any country, including the US, where an elected head of government has claimed their own system is rigged against them. ........ It is almost as hard to find instances of leaders trying to shrink voter turnout. ........ older voters are turned off by Mr Trump’s pandemic record. In late February, Mr Trump had a double-digit lead over Mr Biden among voters aged over 65. Average recent polls showed Mr Biden 10 points ahead. .........   Even deeply Republican Georgia and Texas show Mr Biden within striking distance. Were such numbers to hold in November, Mr Trump would lose by a landslide. .......  Two things could prevent this. The first is Mr Biden. The November election will be a referendum on Mr Trump. All Mr Biden need do is not interrupt the president while he is defeating himself.  ........... Mr Biden suffers from foot-in-mouth disease. So far the coronavirus is playing to Mr Biden’s advantage by keeping him off the hustings.  

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