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BBC: China pneumonia outbreak: COVID-19 Global Pandemic


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Spreading conspiracy theories about how kicking out 5 U.S. news organizations from China means there's a 2nd wave coming is reckless fearmongering. The U.S. has more than 5 news organizations, and there are countless more from Canada, the UK, and the EU. WaPo and the NYT are not the only news organizations in the world that know how to report about epidemics and death tolls.

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This article is mostly about how our current predicament is the culmination of a decades-long crusade by conservative media/thinkers to undermine science, but this part is really jarring.

 

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/3/17/21176737/coronavirus-covid-19-trump-response-expertise

 

Quote

Jared Kushner, the president’s wildly unqualified son-in-law, is apparently playing a leading role in developing the White House’s coronavirus response. As if that weren’t scary enough, Kushner himself seems to be turning to a novel source for policy ideas: a supermodel’s physician father.

 

“If you were in charge of Federal response to the Pandemic what would your recommendation be. Please only serious responses,” Kurt Kloss, father of Karlie Kloss, wrote in a Facebook group called EM Docs. “I have direct channel to person now in charge at White House.”

Kushner turned to Kloss not because he’s a leading expert on Covid-19 but because he’s family: Jared’s brother is married to Karlie, so he figured he’d keep it in the family.

 

This nepotism folded in on itself speaks volumes about the Trump administration’s faulty response to the coronavirus crisis — both the uniquely Trumpy incompetence at play and a deeper flaw in the specific kind of right-wing populism that has taken over the Republican party. While the White House has pivoted to somewhat more responsible messaging in the past 12 hours, it’s not clear how long that will last — and it can’t make up for botching the outbreak during the critical early stages.

...

The result is not only a White House that’s outsourcing response ideas to the president’s son-in-law’s brother’s father-in-law’s Facebook group, but a right-wing media infrastructure that has worked overtime to cover for the president and paint the coronavirus as some kind of liberal plot to unseat him. Poll data shows that ordinary Democrats are both more likely to worry about the coronavirus than ordinary Republicans and more likely to change their behavior in ways recommended by experts (e.g., more hand-washing).

 

Read the part in bold a few times.  

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25 minutes ago, spjunkies said:

Am I alone in thinking that we should properly supply hospitals before attempting to buy off citizens with $1,000?

 

Probably not.  Lots of people believe lots of things.  

 

Like, that the hospitals don't have enough supplies because they need the government to give them money.  

 

18 minutes ago, PleaseBlitz said:

Read the part in bold a few times.  

 

Seem to recall that, at the time of Katrina, the head of FEMA . . . 

 

Had been filled by W by a campaign donor who's qualification was that he had publicly announced that FEMA shouldn't exist. 

 

And who had resigned after a year, and been replaced by a deputy.  A person who's previous job had been beeing fired from being in charge of judging Arabian horse shows.  And who, in college, had been in the same fraternity as the outgoing head, and needed a job.   

Edited by Larry
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24 minutes ago, spjunkies said:

Am I alone in thinking that we should properly supply hospitals before attempting to buy off citizens with $1,000?


I agree, but actually I think you have to say you are going to do something for them so they agree to self quarantine... one way or another, ends have to be met..

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11 minutes ago, Elessar78 said:

Problem is the administration is trying to solve a financial economic problem, but the underlying cause isn't financial/economic in nature. The BEST thing you can do for the economy is tackle this COVID19 thing head on.

 

Exactly.  From day 1, Trump has treated this as an economic threat, not a public health emergency.  This is consistent with both his view of his reelection chances (he'll be in good shape so long as the economy is strong) and his extreme narcissism (if does not give a **** about people other than himself and his family).  

 

Edited by PleaseBlitz
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1 hour ago, Destino said:

We have video of him saying it was less than flu and that the 15 cases would soon be zero, and that’s just the beginning.  He screwed up and did so in front of the cameras.  All the right wings loonies calling it a hoax were just following his lead.  
 

 

The video doesn't matter, as before. I've already seen an animation with Trump's quotes overlaid against a timeline of the growth in cases over several months. The final Trump quote is "nobody could have forseen this", and on Twitter his fans are saying his earlier quotes are taken out of context.

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Dare County, North Carolina has cut off access to OBX for all visitors as of 2:00 pm today.

 

https://obxtoday.com/coronavirus/dare-county-restricting-visitor-access-to-outer-banks-beginning-at-2-p-m/

 

This includes people attempted to travel through Dare County to get to locations in Currituck County, like Corolla, Whalehead, and other northern beaches.

 

A lot of people who had spring break vacations are gonna be PISSED.

 

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As to "Why didn't Trump allow the WHO test be used?"

 

Just pointing out, this is supposedly the same President who has been quoted as saying that he won't allow an infected cruise ship to dock because, if he lets them dock, then the infected/dead people count against the US statistics.  

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