"If the President is expressing himself in ways that 'could lead to some misunderstanding about what the facts are about a given subject' (in Fauci's words) then the possibility of misinformation being pushed to the public is high. And that misinformation could cost lives."
"New York and New Jersey are seeing coronavirus attack rates at least five times higher than other parts of the country, a U.S. official in charge of the White House’s pandemic response efforts said Monday." It's called "population density."
"President Donald Trump appears to have made his choice in the awful dilemma posed by the coronavirus pandemic -- whether to destroy the nation's economic foundation in order to save lives… In his zeal to fire up American prosperity after helping to trigger an unprecedented self-inflicted economic meltdown, Trump is already losing patience -- weeks before the virus may peak." Trump is the one guy in the zombie flics who claims it's not as bad as everyone things and is promptly eaten by a zombie. Only this president wants you to try it first.
"Dan Patrick, Texas’ Republican lieutenant governor, on Monday night suggested that he and other grandparents would be willing to risk their health and even lives in order for the United States to 'get back to work' amid the coronavirus pandemic… 'Those of us who are 70 plus, we’ll take care of ourselves. But don’t sacrifice the country,' Patrick said on Fox News’ 'Tucker Carlson Tonight.'" Sure we'd like to keep grandpa alive, kids, but, you know, we'd also like to get the stock market back above 28,000 ASAP.
How long would lockdowns need to be? "Two months after Chinese authorities locked down the city at the center of the country’s coronavirus outbreak, the end is in sight… Hubei province said Tuesday that travel restrictions on the capital city of Wuhan will be removed starting April 8, which would end a lockdown that began on Jan. 23."
"The UK is banning people from leaving their homes apart from for a few 'very limited' reasons, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Monday, as he imposed the most stringent restrictions seen in Britain since the end of World War II."
"Roads were much quieter than usual on Tuesday after Britain went into virtual lockdown to try to curb the spread of the coronavirus, but London Underground trains were crammed with people and streets were far from deserted."
"This has all sparked a serious question among many people: Are we overreacting? It’s not just a question being asked by partiers and bar-goers — it has also been asked in the New York Times. A widely circulated article by Stanford’s John Ioannidis suggests that the stepped-up US response is a 'fiasco in the making' that’s being made without enough data… In other words, there’s a simple answer to the question: No, we’re not overreacting."
On the other side… "It was a jarring image from the coronavirus crisis: thousands of people frolicking on Clearwater Beach and seemingly thumbing their collective noses at the deadly pandemic sweeping across Florida and the rest of the country… And the man who had the power to close the state's beaches and send everybody packing was refusing to do so." Most of the beaches are now closed. Most.
"'For those who want to criticize me for lack of quarantine, realize that if the rules on testing had been followed to a tee, I would never have been tested and would still be walking around the halls of the Capitol,' (Sen Rand) Paul added. Current federal guidelines would not have called for him to get tested or quarantined, Paul said." Senator Paul kept working and interacting with people in the Senate for six days after taking the SARS-CoV2 test. On the outside it takes 72 hours for results, so that means he knew his positive status and continued to be in close contact with people in the Senate for at least 3 days before he went into quarantine. (Grokked from Xeni Jardin)
"An Arizona man has died after ingesting chloroquine phosphate — believing it would protect him from becoming infected with the coronavirus. The man's wife also ingested the substance and is under critical care… The toxic ingredient they consumed was not the medication form of chloroquine, used to treat malaria in humans. Instead, it was an ingredient listed on a parasite treatment for fish." Why STEM education is so damn important and why the president should STFU and listen to the experts.
"So, consider this permission to create a bullet journal that doesn’t contain a single piece of art. No washi tape. No illustrated monthly splash pages. Not a single beautifully lettered title. You do not need any of this. The purpose of a bullet journal is to make your life easier. That’s it." And then Jenn Lyons reminds you that, yes, indeed she is an artist and then fills the page with photos of her bullet journal. Sighs. The title of the article is "plotting your fantasy novel with a bullet journal" and there is a little of that in there, but it's not like a how to. The best advice here is, "Any part of bullet journaling that doesn’t (help you) can be safely and guiltlessly discarded. You have my permission. Do it, guilt-free… Likewise, if you feel like you’d be better served by changing something, change it. There is no wrong way to do this. And supplies? Whatever."
"Our galaxy is a whole lot bigger than it looks. New work finds that the Milky Way stretches nearly 2 million light-years across, more than 15 times wider than its luminous spiral disk. The number could lead to a better estimate of how massive the galaxy is and how many other galaxies orbit it."
"Traditions that spacefarers have observed for decades have fallen foul of efforts to rein in the coronavirus pandemic as astronauts and cosmonauts face more stringent quarantine measures before they blast into orbit."
"Global equities rebounded almost 2% on Tuesday, off near four-year lows, and the dollar slipped as investors pinned hopes on unprecedented stimulus steps by the U.S Federal Reserve and other policymakers to ease strains in financial markets." Wall Street loves it when the Fed prints them more money… because most of the financial titans only understand hard figures, not the concept of central banking.
"A gauge of the dollar snapped a 10-day gain as the Fed’s unlimited quantitative easing prompted traders to embrace risk assets again. Group-of-10 currencies were the biggest winners, with Australia’s dollar extending a rebound from a multi-year trough. The pound pulled back from near its lowest in 35 years -- even after the U.K. entered a full lockdown to contain the coronavirus."
"U.S. index futures and European stocks rallied alongside Asian shares on Tuesday as investors rediscovered some appetite for risk after global equities hit their lowest level since 2016. The dollar slumped following a 10-day winning streak, and Treasuries slipped."
"The locust crisis that has now reached 10 countries could carry on to endanger millions more people, forecasters have said… Climate change created unprecedented conditions for the locusts to breed in the usually barren desert of the Arabian gulf, according to experts, and the insects were then able to spread through Yemen, where civil war has devastated the ability to control locust populations."
"US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday announced a $1bn cut in American aid to Afghanistan after he failed to convince Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and his political foe to end a feud that has helped jeopardise a US-led peace effort."
"Ruling unanimously in favor of states' rights on Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court said that a videographer who spent two decades documenting the salvaging of Blackbeard's ship cannot sue the state of North Carolina in federal court for using his videos without his permission." City hall wins.
"Schumer said Monday the two parties had already come to certain agreements about revisions to the Republicans’ bill, including adding more unemployment protections and adding more money to hospitals."
"There was an hour devoted to floor debate before the next vote, and it was used for that rarest of purposes: debate. Typically a Senate 'debate' involves lone floor speeches, with senators pretending for the cameras that they’re owning the other side into speechlessness when, in reality, few if any members of the other side are even in the chamber. It made for a weird scene, then, when senators actually got into arguments. After a mad Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown said that McConnell had taken days to call up the previous coronavirus response bill a week earlier, a mad Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton took objection to his timeline, noting that the House hadn’t transmitted the final version until the day before the Senate voted on it."
"In the midst of Senate negotiations on a massive stimulus package in response to the coronavirus pandemic, House Democrats have drafted their own counterproposal titled the Take Responsibility for Workers and Families Act." I know it's because most people won't read beyond the title of legislation, but can we stop stupid marketing moves like that.
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