Monday, May 04, 2020

Coronavirus News (77)

Kudlow says third round of PPP small business loans might be needed as demand soars
Coronavirus vaccine may never come, health expert warns
Trump warns coronavirus death toll could reach 100,000
Lincoln got better press treatment, Trump claims, as he ups pandemic death estimate
Pence: 'I Should Have Worn A Mask' When Visiting The Mayo Clinic



China pushes back against US claims that coronavirus originated from Wuhan lab
Mike Pompeo: 'enormous evidence' coronavirus came from Chinese lab Secretary of state does not provide any evidence to back claim
Mitch McConnell could yet pay price for 'tone deaf' coronavirus response The Senate majority leader oversaw a huge handout to big business and drew bipartisan ire for suggesting struggling states should go bankrupt ........ It was, New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo observed, “one of the really dumb ideas of all time”. Larry Hogan, his counterpart in Maryland, called it “complete nonsense”. Congressman Pete King of New York said it was the work of

the “Marie Antoinette of the Senate”

. ............. It would be an understatement to say Mitch McConnell’s suggestion that state and local governments should declare bankruptcy rather than seek more federal funding went down like a lead balloon. It was a rare instance of the Senate majority leader overplaying his hand........ “It’s not just the fact that McConnell was remarkably brutal in pairing Americans into red and blue states at a time of national crisis – that is pretty shameless – but I think it was also politically inept because he’s got his colleagues in tough races in blue states.” ........ a $500bn “corporate slush fund”. ....... Last week McConnell retreated from his much-derided position on “blue state bailouts” and bankruptcy, indicating he would consider funds in the next relief bill for state and local governments struggling to pay police and firefighters. ....... “There’s no question all governors, regardless of party, would like to have more money, I’m open to discussing that” .......... “McConnell is now refusing to pass ANY stimulus bill that doesn’t include TOTAL LEGAL IMMUNITY for corporations that get people sick [with] the coronavirus. It’s abhorrent. It’s also totally impractical. How can we reopen the economy if companies have no incentive to keep us safe?” .......... Trump and McConnell appear bound together.

Should the president lose in November, he could bring down Senate Republicans – perhaps even McConnell in Kentucky.

Challenger Amy McGrath, a fighter pilot, outraised McConnell in the first three months of this year. .......... “History will not look back on Mitch McConnell kindly. He has been the most effective enabler of Donald Trump.



Widely Used Surgical Masks Are Putting Health Care Workers At Serious Risk
How air pollution exacerbates Covid-19
Why I'm skeptical about Reade's sexual assault claim against Biden: Ex-prosecutor If we must blindly accept every allegation of sexual assault, the #MeToo movement is just a hit squad. And it's too important to be no more than that. ...... When women make allegations of sexual assault, my default response is to believe them. ........... That so many women were willing to wait in my dreary government office, as I ran to the restroom to pull myself together after listening to their stories, is a testament to their fortitude.

‘It’s being built on our blood’: the true cost of Saudi Arabia’s $500bn megacity With an artificial moon and flying taxis, Neom has been billed as humanity’s next chapter. But beneath the glitzy veneer lies a story of threats, forced eviction and bloodshed ........ The brainchild of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the new city state of Neom, named from a combination of the Greek word for “new” and the Arabic term for “future”, is intended to cover an area the size of Belgium at the far north of Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coastline. ......... the project may include a huge artificial moon, glow-in-the-dark beaches, flying drone-powered taxis, robotic butlers to clean the homes of residents and a Jurassic Park-style attraction featuring animatronic lizards. .......... Yet part of the site is the home of the Huwaitat tribe, who have spanned Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the Sinai peninsula for generations, tracing their lineage back before the founding of the Saudi state. At least 20,000 members of the tribe now face eviction due to the project, with no information about where they will live in the future. ..........

For some Saudis, the Huwaiti tribe among them, Neom, with its parallel legal system reporting directly to the king, represents an elite version of Saudi society, one designed simply to shut them out.

..... is also set to include a vast data-gathering network, including drone and facial-recognition technology covering the entire city-state. ......... A $10bn King Abdullah financial district in Riyadh, intended as a “special zone,” has sputtered since its inception in 2006, weathering construction delays and confusion over its purpose, even after government attempts at a relaunch in 2016. Critics of Neom say the project risks the same fate. ......... For Cooper, Neom is less a shining vision of the future than a grim symbol of Saudi human rights violations, underscored by the treatment of the Huwaitat tribe........“It shows the lack of platforms people have to express their opinions, even on less contentious matters than civil or political rights,” he says.

Stocks Are Recovering While the Economy Collapses. That Makes More Sense Than You'd Think. On March 23, U.S. stock markets closed the day after a multi-week plunge of nearly 30%. ........ the GDP was down 4.8% in the first quarter and this quarter is likely to be much worse. ........ The stock market? Overall, stocks are up across all indices more than 30% from that low point in late March. .......

because of moves by the Federal Reserve, financial markets are awash in money, vast, water-hose supplies of money.

......... Since March, the Fed has committed to lend or buy trillions of dollars of financial assets, which by some estimates might end up exceeding $8 trillion dollars by the time all is said and done. No one knows how high that figure will climb. .......... And it’s not just the Fed. Congress has allocated almost $3 trillion in economic aid; the Bank of Japan is doing much the same as the Fed for the world’s third largest economy; the European Central Bank is not far behind, and multiple governments around the world are following suit. ........

even as real-world economies freeze and implode in the short-term, financial markets are buoyed by a tsunami of liquidity.

.......... That troubles many investors, who see either sharp spikes of inflation or dire reckoning ahead for stocks and bonds. ....... the recent market strength is simply a dead-cat bounce like what happened in 2008 before a more intense crash later that year. .......... all the liquidity in the world cannot compensate for the collapse of real-world economic activity and these moves by the Fed and governments are the equivalent of flooding a drought stricken area with water for a few days. It feels like a relief, but if there is no rain in the months after, it does little good ........... there is a dramatic difference in how individual companies are faring that reflects a cold-eyed assessments of how they will do in a pandemic world ........ Five mega-tech companies – Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook and Google – alone make up $5 trillion of market cap, and Amazon in particular has seen its stock go up more than 30% since mid-March. Costco and Clorox have seen booming business along with Walmart, as has the video conference company Zoom. ........... distinguishing between industries that look to be hardest hits from those that might even benefit from the dramatic economic dislocations that COVID-19 responses are creating. ......... The Fed, for instance, is committed to purchasing hundreds of billions of dollars of municipal bonds at favorable rates, which will mean that cash-strapped state governments should be able to retain teachers and policemen and programs even if Congress proves negligent as Mitch McConnell seems to be pushing for. That will mean that pensions for public servants remain intact. The Fed also is about to lend another $500 billion to Main Street businesses, which is coming too late to avoid the pain of the last month but will still matter greatly to the ability of companies to move forward and eventually rehire. The most visible effect of the money in motion now is the stock market, but that will be not the sole beneficiary as more Fed money flows to states and Main Street. ...........

as bad as things are just now, they actually could be considerably worse.



Millions of farm animals culled as US food supply chain chokes up US government vets said to be ready to assist with culls, or ‘depopulation’ of pigs, chickens and cattle because of coronavirus meat plant closures ........ Covid-related slaughterhouse shutdowns in the US are leading to fears of meat shortages and price rises, while farmers are being forced to consider “depopulating” their animals. ........ At least two million animals have already reportedly been culled on farm, and that number is expected to rise. Approved methods for slaughtering poultry include slow suffocation by covering them with foam, or by shutting off the ventilation into the barns. .......... a clear indication of a national farm animal emergency. ........ producers could be forced to kill 700,000 pigs a week due to meat plant slowdowns or closures. .........

In a letter this month to leading poultry companies, Mercy for Animals called AVMA culling methods – which include water-based foam generators, whole-house gassing and ventilation shutdown – inhumane.

............ Foaming means covering hens with a layer of foam that blocks their airways, gradually suffocating them over several minutes. Ventilation shutdown, meanwhile, although described by the AVMA as “not preferred”, is one of the cruellest, but cheapest options, said Garcés. “Shutting down broiler chicken house ventilation systems means animals die of organ failure due to overheating, as temperatures quickly rise.” ......... On Sunday Tyson chairman, John Tyson, warned in a blog post that: “In addition to meat shortages, this is a serious food waste issue. Farmers across the nation simply will not have anywhere to sell their livestock to be processed, when they could have fed the nation. Millions of animals – chickens, pigs and cattle – will be depopulated because of the closure of our processing facilities. The food supply chain is breaking.” ......... the combination of restaurant and slaughterhouse suspensions meant pigs “are backing up on farms with nowhere to go, leaving farmers with tragic choices to make [because] hog farmers have nowhere to move their hogs.” ......... “It is a black swan event. There are hogs available. We are full to the brim. But when we are down about 23% in hog harvesting capacity and we can’t process at normal rates, then the only option is to depopulate.” .......... “It’s going to be painful for the next few weeks until about mid-May when hopefully processing plants start to come back online.” ......... In Europe, by contrast, the situation appears reversed, as slaughterhouses remain open and intensive pig and poultry farmers benefit from lockdown

shopping sprees for home cooking

. ............. “The irony is that smaller, more sustainable farmers are the hardest hit while supermarkets in the UK stock up on the cheapest, most intensively reared pork and poultry”



Feeding the Nation and Keeping Our Team Members Healthy Sometimes life changes in the blink of an eye, and the world as we know it is different. Anxiety, doubt, and the fear of the unknown are now our constant companions. ............. The private and public sectors must come together. ....... In addition to meat shortages, this is a serious food waste issue. Farmers across the nation simply will not have anywhere to sell their livestock to be processed, when they could have fed the nation. Millions of animals – chickens, pigs and cattle – will be depopulated because of the closure of our processing facilities. The food supply chain is breaking. ........... We have a responsibility to feed our country. It is as essential as healthcare. This is a challenge that should not be ignored. Our plants must remain operational so that we can supply food to our families in America. ......... In January, we formed a coronavirus task force; since then, we’ve put in place numerous measures to protect our team members across the nation. The company’s efforts have included taking worker temperatures and installing more than 150 infrared walkthrough temperature scanners in our facilities; securing a supply of face coverings before the CDC recommended their use – and now, requiring them in all company facilities; and conducting additional daily deep cleaning and sanitizing. We’ve implemented social distancing measures, such as installing workstation dividers and providing more breakroom space. We’ve also relaxed our attendance policy to encourage workers to stay at home when they’re sick or feel uneasy about coming to work. And in a few circumstances where we haven’t been able to meet our own standards, we’ve voluntarily closed operations, only resuming when adequate safety measures were in place. .................... We are also encouraging our team members to continue the social distancing practices we have established within our operations, before and after shifts and in their communities. ................ Tyson is waiving the waiting period to qualify for short-term disability so workers can immediately be paid if they get sick. We’re also waiving the co‑pay, co-insurance and deductible for doctor visits for COVID-19 testing, as well as eliminating pre-approval or preauthorization steps, waiving co-pays for the use of telemedicine, and relaxing refill limits for 30‑day prescriptions of maintenance medication. ........... Tyson Foods is also paying approximately $60 million in “thank you” bonuses to 116,000 frontline workers and Tyson truckers who support our operations every day. ...... more than $11 million worth of food and meals donated by the company since March 11. Over the coming days, we will make more product donations equal to an additional 100 million meals. .......

It hasn’t been easy, and it’s not over.





Some patients who survive COVID-19 may suffer lasting lung damage The similar respiratory disease SARS left lasting lung injury in some patients

Recommended reading RETURNING HOME WITH A Dream PART 1 of 2 By Binod Shrestha Dai It has always been a pleasure to...

Posted by Ashutosh Tiwari on Monday, May 4, 2020


Some patients who survive COVID-19 may suffer lasting lung damage The similar respiratory disease SARS left lasting lung injury in some patients



Japan extends state of emergency amid fears second wave could cripple Tokyo hospitals Shinzo Abe says lockdown measures will remain in place in all regions until 31 May
Russia adds record 10,000 coronavirus cases in dramatic turnaround as Putin's problems stack up
U.K.'s Boris Johnson Says His Battle With Coronavirus 'Could Have Gone Either Way'
Jersey City to expand COVID-19 testing to all residents; offering antibody testing
New Zealand calls for thousands of new 'green' jobs in bold comeback plan There's plenty of speculation over the origins of the pandemic that has ground much of the world to a halt. But there's little doubt about who caused it. As a panel of international scientists noted in a release issued this week,

"There is a single species that is responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic — us."

............. goes on to point the finger squarely at our obsession with "economic growth at any cost." ........

"Rampant deforestation, uncontrolled expansion of agriculture, intensive farming, mining and infrastructure development, as well as the exploitation of wild species have created a 'perfect storm' for the spillover of diseases from wildlife to people."

.......... This week, New Zealand's Green Party unveiled an ambitious plan to get the country back to work and the gears of industry turning once again, in environmentally friendly fashion. ...... And all for the tidy sum of $1 billion.......... It may seem like a lot, but the cost pales in comparison with what we're paying in lost economic output from this pandemic. Early estimates peg that tally at around $2.7 trillion, which is about the entire GDP of the United Kingdom. ............ "Our tourism industry depends on the health of our nature, and culture, and so it is important to invest in this critical infrastructure, rather than just bulldozers and asphalt." ......... One thing, at least, is certain: we can't go back to the way things were. ........ the world needs "transformative change" across the board. That includes fundamental, system-wide reorganization across technological, economic and social factors, including paradigms, goals and values, promoting social and environmental responsibilities across all sectors........ "As daunting and costly as this may sound — it pales in comparison to the price we are already paying."



लकडाउन कसैलाई कश्ट होस् भनेर दिईएको सजाय होइन। यो त केवल कोरोना महाब्याधीको सन्क्रमण फैलनबाट रोकथाम गर्ने एउटै मात्र उत्तम र सजिलो उपाय हो। घरभित्र बसौ। आफु, आफ्ना परिवार र समाजलाई पनि जोगाऔ।

Posted by Rabindra Maharjan on Monday, May 4, 2020

Don't be a Terrorist. Please wear your mask in public places. Time has changed & now without mask, you are terrorizing us. 😂😂

Posted by Tsewang Sherpalama on Monday, May 4, 2020

काठमाडौं का मानिस सबै सुरक्षित थिए ,अब बाहिर बाट गुटुङटुँङ खनिएर कोरोना सार्ने भए। किन आउन देको होला ? दिमाग चाँई हो...

Posted by Kamala Subedi Sapkota on Monday, May 4, 2020
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