The Walls Come Down: No Travel Betwen US and Europe for 30 Days

[mr friendly guy]

This whole pandemic could have been prevented if Europe had been more willing to adopt more aggressive approach in lock down or aggressive contact tracing.

That's the story of almost every country. Hard containment measures had to go in early, and all contacts had to be aggressively traced. You can't sit on your ass for a month and wait until there's 5000 confirmed cases floating around and god knows how many unreported cases and asymptotic carriers.

A lot of countries outside of East Asia were basically just following the WHO's script and the WHO's early script was very bad. Probably in part due to lack of knowledge and poor analogies to other viruses (SARS-COV2 is relatively unusual in significant ways), bureaucratic incompetence and bad information coming out from mainland China.

But pretty much all of Western Europe plus the high air traffic areas of North America were in for a rough ride when things spread so bad and so fast in Italy,

WHO was talking about testing and contact tracing, which is stock standard fare. The US fucked up testing kits, and Dr Fauci in march said they wouldn't have the capability to do good contact tracing during the first wave but would be better when the second wave hits in fall. This indicates to me the US at least (and I suspect some other western nations) weren't able to follow even the basic script of WHO. What part of WHO script was bad in your opinion?

[bilateralrope]

The problem is how the fuck are you going to keep those plants open if the workers are dead, too sick too work, or on strike because they don't want to end up sick or dead?

How long until we hear of prisoners being forced to work there because the willing workers died ?

[The Romulan Republic]

The problem is how the fuck are you going to keep those plants open if the workers are dead, too sick too work, or on strike because they don't want to end up sick or dead?

How long until we hear of prisoners being forced to work there because the willing workers died ?

Not long, I expect. The US is already inching toward a return to the pre-Civil War slave economy (the 13th Amendment explicitly gives convict labour an exemption, and the US has greatly increased its private prison industry, housing mostly non-white inmates, in recent decades). I expect this could be just one more thing COVID-19 accelerates.

[Broomstick]

You're both assuming that prisoners will be available, yet covid is running rampant in prison populations already.

[bilateralrope]

If someone is going to force prisoners to work, then having those prisoners come already exposed to Covid19 will be seen as an excuse to not give them PPE they "don't need".

[Ralin]

If someone is going to force prisoners to work, then having those prisoners come already exposed to Covid19 will be seen as an excuse to not give them PPE they "don't need".

I imagine they'd be swathed in masks, gloves, etc to protect the actual meat and threatened with consequences if they remove or fiddle with them.

[mr friendly guy]

Guess what a little birdie said to the NYT
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/30/us/p ... china.html

Trump Officials Are Said to Press Spies to Link Virus and Wuhan Labs
Some analysts are worried that the pressure from senior officials could distort assessments about the coronavirus and be used as a weapon in an escalating battle with China.

I read the full article at work, but apparently at home its not letting me view the full article, most probably because of tracking cookies.

So far no else seems to be reporting this, and its the NYT, hardly friendly with Trump or China, but I would suggest to watch this space. Its not like the US has never ever politicised its intelligence agencies to write bullshit like WMDs in Iraq when it was convenient.

[Highlord Laan]

You will barter your life for wall street, or be left to starve.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/29/politics ... index.html

[aerius]

Nevermind. Drove home early today for a virtual IEP. All of the traffic @1pm, all of the shit is open. Jewelry shops, consignment shops, weave stores ( they never closed, though. ) Burger King loaded with dine-in, McDonalds loaded with dine-in, Chik-fil-La, Zaxbys and Bojangles drive-through only.

So much fun will be had. #SteepenTheSpread. Also, more accusations of #DipshitKemp trying to kill #BlackFolk for political purposes by national outlets.

Good times.

Glad I'm able to lock it down for several years if necessary; food, water, money ammo and allies.

This is going to be so much suck.

Well, at least we're going to have some nice juicy data to sort through, just sucks that you guys are the guinea pigs. Time from first spread to people showing up in the hospital with symptoms is around 10 days on average, so I guess we'll have some interesting data one way or another by next weekend.

[The Romulan Republic]

Yeah, of course Trump is demanding spies back up his bullshit theories about Chinese bioweapons (never mind that if China had actually released COVID-19, it would potentially mean WWIII). Working for this regime means absolutely loyalty- including pretending that whatever conspiracy Dear Leader pulled off Fox or Brietbart today is in fact reality.

Meanwhile new stats out- 30 million filed for unemployment in six weeks:

https://vox.com/covid-19-coronavirus-ec ... us-economy

[The Romulan Republic]

Shared on Facebook, originally attributed to a restaurant owner in Georgia:

It's not a stupid move on Kemp's part. On the contrary, it's very calculated.

Here's the deal.
Kemp mandates restaurants reopen, whether I reopen dining rooms or not.
I file for business interruption insurance, it does not go through since I am "allowed" to operate full capacity.
My landlord can demand all their money, since I am allowed to fully operate.
Furloughed staff that is collecting unemployment insurance have to come back to work or I have to let them go. Their unemployment insurance then goes on my tab.
If things blow up again, they are still on my tab not the states, since they are no longer employed.
Guys, this is about screwing the working class and small business, not about helping us.

[The Romulan Republic]

Promised 8 billion in covid aid has not gone to native tribes:

https://huffingtonpost.ca/entry/tribes- ... ri18n=true

Tribal governments were supposed to get $8 billion in direct emergency relief from the CARES Act, the $2 trillion COVID-19 stimulus bill that became law on March 27.

More than a month later, they haven’t gotten any of it.

Part of the reason is that the Treasury Department, which is charged with distributing that money, has been flailing in its dealings with tribes.

Another reason stems from a lawsuit over whether Alaska Native Corporations are entitled to the money. A federal court on Monday agreed to stop funds from going to those corporations for now, which means Treasury has no reason to not funnel money immediately to the 574 federally recognized tribal governments struggling with the public health and economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.), one of two historic Native American women in Congress, is urging the Treasury Department to hurry up and get emergency COVID-19 relief to tribes.
In a Wednesday letter, House Democrats pressed Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Interior Secretary David Bernhardt to distribute the money now because lives are at stake.

“As you are aware, the detrimental impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have had a disproportionate health care and economic impact on federally recognized tribes due a chronic lack of essential resources,” reads the letter signed by Democratic lawmakers including Deb Haaland of New Mexico, co-chair of the Congressional Native American Caucus; Ruben Gallego of Arizona, chair of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee for Indigenous Peoples of the U.S.; Raul Grijalva of Arizona, chair of the House Natural Resources Committee; and Assistant House Speaker Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico.

“We respectfully request the Treasury Department immediately begin to disburse the $8 billion of Coronavirus Relief Funds to eligible federally recognized tribal governments ... in recognition of the negative impact that every day of delay has on Tribes.”

Here’s a copy of their letter:


A request for comment from the Treasury Department was not returned on why it’s taken so long to get this money to tribes and when it expects to distribute it.

Tribal communities are among the most vulnerable to a rapid and devastating spread of the coronavirus. They face some of the highest rates of health conditions like diabetes, heart disease and asthma, all of which leave them more susceptible to the virus. They are often in remote parts of the country, where it’s tough to quickly disseminate resources and where families live in small homes shared with elderly family members who are particularly at risk. And the Indian Health Service, which provides health care to nearly 3 million Native Americans, is already notoriously and chronically underfunded.

Put those pieces together and add to the situation that tribal governments still haven’t gotten their fair share of federal relief, and it’s not hard to imagine how quickly this could become a disaster.

“It is a perfect storm,” Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) told HuffPost in a recent interview.

To date, the Indian Health Service has reported more than 3,100 confirmed COVID-19 cases among federally recognized national tribes. Navajo Nation, for one, has reported more coronavirus cases per capita than all but two states.

Udall, vice chair of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, said Wednesday that he plans to request oversight hearings on the way the federal government has distributed resources ― or not ― to tribes. He and other ranking Democrats on Senate committees wrote to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) urging him to focus on taking action on the coronavirus when the Senate comes back in session on May 4.

“There is currently no scheduled legislative or committee business related to the COVID-19 public health and economic emergencies,” reads their Wednesday letter. “We respectfully urge you to have the Senate focus on COVID-19 related matters and oversight of all COVID-related legislation enacted by Congress.”

Its also come out that so far, no covid relief checks are being mailed to Puerto Rico:

https://salon.com/2020/04/30/no-one-in- ... uan-mayor/

Fuck Trump.

[The Romulan Republic]

Russian PM tests positive:

https://bbc.com/news/world-europe-52491205#

[The Romulan Republic]

Employees of several major companies including Amazon, Walmart, Whole Foods and Fedex are striking tomorrow:

https://businessinsider.com/amazon-walm ... rus-2020-4

Workers from Walmart, FedEx, Target, Instacart, Amazon, and Amazon's Whole Foods Market plan to go on strike to protest what they say are unsafe working conditions amid the coronavirus pandemic, The Intercept first reported Wednesday.

The members of an unprecedented coalition of employees and gig workers in at least half a dozen states plan to call in sick or walk off their jobs during their lunch breaks on Friday, International Workers' Day, according to The Intercept.

According to The Intercept, the workers are making a variety of demands, including back pay for unpaid time off they've used since the beginning of March, hazard pay or paid sick leave for the remainder of the pandemic, company-provided protective equipment and cleaning supplies at all times, and increased transparency from the companies about the number of COVID-19 cases in their facilities.

The organizers say their employers, all of which have been considered essential business and remained open during the pandemic, are seeing record profits at the expense of workers' health and safety.

"We are acting in conjunction with workers at Amazon, Target, Instacart and other companies for International Worker's Day to show solidarity with other essential workers in our struggle for better protections and benefits in the pandemic," Daniel Steinbrook, a Whole Foods employee and strike organizer, told The Intercept.

Christian Smalls, who was fired by Amazon after his participation in a protest over the company's refusal to close a New York warehouse when a worker there tested positive for COVID-19, tweeted a picture of flyer advertising the strike.

"It's time to join up! Protect all workers at all cost we are not expandable or replaceable enough is enough TAKE THE POWER BACK!" Smalls said in the tweet.

—Christian Smalls (@Shut_downAmazon) April 22, 2020
News of the protests comes as essential workers are increasingly speaking out about working conditions and lawmakers and labor regulators are paying closer attention to companies' responses.

Amazon workers have organized multiple strikes in New York, Chicago, Minnesota, and Italy, as well as virtually, as colleagues have tested positive for COVID-19, calling the company's coronavirus response inadequate and criticizing its refusal to provide information about the number of its warehouses that have seen outbreaks of the disease.

Amazon defended its warehouse conditions and safety procedures, telling Business Insider in a statement that "masks, temperature checks, hand sanitizer, increased time off, increased pay, and more are standard across our Amazon and Whole Food Market networks already."

The company also disputed workers' allegations about a lack of protective equipment, inadequate safety measures, and retaliation for employee activism.

"While we respect people's right to express themselves, we object to the irresponsible actions of labor groups in spreading misinformation and making false claims about Amazon... The statements made are not supported by facts or representative of the majority of the 500,000 Amazon operations employees in the U.S. who are showing up to work," it said.

The company is now also facing multiple inquiries from the National Labor Relations Board about whether it unlawfully retaliated against workers who spoke out, as well as an investigation brought by New York City's human-rights commissioner concerning the same issue. Earlier this week, New York's attorney general said Amazon may have violated the state's whistleblower law by firing Smalls after he went on strike.

In March, more than 10,000 Instacart grocery shoppers went on strike to demand hazard pay and safety equipment, with some eventually calling the company's response, which met some but not all of their demands, "insulting" and "a sick joke."

"Our team has been diligently working to offer new policies, guidelines, product features, resources, increased bonuses, and personal protective equipment to ensure the health and safety of shoppers during this critical time. We welcome all feedback from shoppers, and we will continue to enhance their experience and ensure this important community is supported," an Instacart spokeswoman told Business Insider.

Also in March, Whole Foods workers across the country called in sick and asked for better sick-pay policies and free coronavirus testing. They were joined by workers from Amazon and Instacart.

A Whole Foods spokesperson disputed that the protest resulted in any absenteeism among its workers.

"Statements made by this group misrepresent the full extent of Whole Foods Market's actions in response to this crisis and do not represent the collective voice of our more than 95,000 Team Members," the spokesperson told Business Insider, adding that Whole Foods has increased pay and benefits, enhanced cleaning measures, and provided protective gear for workers.

A Target spokesperson said the company has taken a number of steps directed at improving working conditions, including increased pay for hourly workers, bonuses for store managers, expanded sick-pay policies (such as 30 days of sick pay for elderly, at-risk, and pregnant employees), protective equipment, and social-distancing measures.

Walmart and FedEx did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Do you have a personal experience with the coronavirus you'd like to share? Or a tip on how your town or community is handling the pandemic? Please email covidtips@businessinsider.com and tell us your story.

Get the latest coronavirus business & economic impact analysis from Business Insider Intelligence on how COVID-19 is affecting industries.

Viva la Revolution.

[The Romulan Republic]

https://gizmodo.com/report-over-100-mil ... 1843051231

God help us if Mark Zuckerberg’s next congressional hearing is on the subject of the Bloody Insurrection of 2020. As HuffPost first reported, a scourge of far-right extremist accounts on Facebook appear to be gearing up for a meme-inspired civil war amid the covid-19 outbreak.

The Tech Transparency Project (TTP), a research group focused on exposing large platforms’ misconduct and influence, released a report finding that 125 Facebook groups are promoting the “boogaloo,” a term far-right groups use to refer to a wishful Civil War sequel. The boogaloo appears to have mutated from a joking 4chan meme into a real-life movement of militiamen (“Boojihadeens”) late last year. But the TTP found a surge in boogaloo interest over the past few months, correlating with social distancing measures. According to the report, over 60 percent of the Facebook groups cropped up in the past three months and, as a whole, have attracted over 36,000 members in the last 30 days.

In a statement to Gizmodo Friday night, a Facebook spokesperson said that the company has “removed groups and Pages who’ve used this and related terms for violating our policies.” “We’re reviewing the content referenced in this report and will enforce against any violations,” they added. On Monday morning, dozens of boogaloo-themed pages, including ones mentioned in the TTP report, were still accessible on the platform.

Boogaloo promoters have been attending anti-quarantine protests, events with ties to pro-gun activists. The report says that the Boojahideen have been hearing dog whistles from the president lately, greeting his “LIBERATE” tweets with cheers. “TTP found that some members of private boogaloo Facebook groups reacted to the president’s rhetoric with memes of celebration,” it reads, “and traded details of anti-quarantine protests in Richmond, Virginia, and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.”

Illustration for article titled Report: Over 100 Militant Groups Have Been Promoting Second Civil War on Facebook [Updated]
Image: A Facebook post noting that a boogaloo patch was spotted at an Ohio anti-quarantine protest (Tech Transparency Project)

In total, these Facebook groups boast 72,686 members, although the report did not verify how many members overlap between groups. One merch page, the Thicc Boog Line, admins at least 11 other boogaloo groups.

The vast majority are private, TTP notes. One post screenshot grabbed by TTP crowdsources tips on homemade explosives. It begins:

Let’s talk grenades, flash bangs, and other things you can throw at the enemy. Let’s just say that you didn’t want to get the paperwork in order to possess certain things that go boom or can act as a room clearer/stunner.

Is there anything you can buy to make your own flash bangs?

The report suggests this isn’t just casual dabbling in violent fantasies. The groups have uploaded CIA handbooks, military manuals, and the bomb assembly manual “The Anarchist Cookbook.” One 133-page-plus planning document reviewed by the TTP reportedly identifies strongholds like “national guard depots, police stations, and factories that produce munitions” as “very solid targets” and proposes taking out rail lines and ports to “sabotage shipments.” The TTP found that one Arkansas fan of several boogaloo pages was arrested earlier this month after allegedly livestreaming a hunt to kill a police officer on Facebook Live.

Boogaloo advocates reportedly include Matt Marshall, a leader of the militia group Three Percenters, named for the disputed belief that only three percent of Americans fought in the Revolutionary War. According to the Anti-Defamation League, Marshall suggested that followers wear the Hawaiian shirt, the mark of the Boojahideen, to anti-quarantine protests.

Slides included in the report also outline a propaganda strategy proposing that boogaloo insurgents stick to Revolutionary War-related emblems such as the Gadsden flag, rather than anarchism emblems, which the media will portray as “black and scary.”

YouTube is also culpable. As of this writing, “Top 5 Boogaloo Guns”—a guide to firearms posted on April 15th by a user with 2.35 million subscribers—remains live with over 300,000 views. “The idea being that a boogaloo is something really bad happens, it’s a tyrannical government,” the narrator, in a Hawaiian shirt, explains, “and you’ve gotta take to the streets and take care of business, protect your family, protect your neighborhood, protect your citizens.” He proceeds to review a semi-automatic version of an FN SCAR assault rifle (which, he remarks, has been a popular item at recent unnamed rallies).

YouTube told Gizmodo that “we have strict policies regarding content featuring firearms, and quickly remove content that violates those policies when flagged by our users,” but added that the boogaloo video doesn’t violate their firearms content guidelines.

Facebook was made aware of the boogaloo activity in February, the report notes, after NBC reached out to the company and received the following response:

We’ve been studying trends around this and related terms on Facebook and Instagram. We don’t allow speech used to incite hate or violence, and will remove any content that violates our policies. We’ll continue to monitor this across our platform.

Updated: This story has been updated with comment from Facebook and YouTube.

Correction: 4/17/20, 8:50 a.m. ET: A previous version of this story incorrectly identified a semi-automatic weapon as an “automatic assault rifle.” It has been corrected above and we regret the error.

Whitney Kimball
Posts
Staff reporter, Gizmodo. wkimball @ gizmodo

Trump and his allies push to reopen, and incite the mob to back them up, turning it on Blue State governments who they are scapegoating for coronavirus.

However, the reopenings will harm workers, who will increasingly go on strike for their rights and lives- only to be told that they have to go back to work.

This could easily escalate very quickly into something very bad.

[mr friendly guy]

https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/ ... data-shows

Canada's early COVID-19 cases came from the U.S. not China, provincial data shows
The National Post asked for data on the origins of travel-related cases in Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia and Alberta, which have seen the majority of Canada’s COVID-19 cases

OTTAWA — The global COVID-19 pandemic began in Wuhan, China, but data from Canada’s largest provinces show it was American travellers, not Chinese, who brought the deadly virus to our shores.

Despite this evidence, the federal government brought in travel restrictions on China first and American border restrictions were the last to be put in place.

The National Post asked for data on the origins of travel-related cases in Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia and Alberta, the four provinces that have seen the majority of Canada’s COVID-19 cases.

Canada moved later than many other countries to restrict international travel from China. It began with screening measures at airports that were slow to roll out and relied on passengers to disclose if they had symptoms of the virus. Air Canada suspended flights from China in February and the government encouraged people not to travel to China as early as January, but did not ban travellers until March 18 when it imposed sweeping global restrictions.

When those restrictions went into force virtually all international travel had ground to a halt. International visitors were barred from Canada and only Canadian citizens and permanent residents were allowed to return to the country.

The U.S. border remained an exception for several days, as the government coordinated a plan with the U.S. to keep essential goods flowing.

B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix was critical of that decision at the time because the government was leaving the U.S. border open to travellers. As an outbreak picked up speed in neighbouring Washington state, he was direct with Americans during a press conference that he wanted them to stay out of his province.


“We remain concerned that access from visitors from the United States continues to be allowed,” said. Dix. “It’s our strong message that visitors from the United States not come to British Columbia.”

As of April 17, Ontario has identified 1,201 cases of COVID-19 in people who had recently returned from some type of international travel. Of those cases, just five related to travel from China. By contrast, 404 were from people travelling from the United States.

The other top five destinations were the United Kingdom with 126 cases, cruise ships with 74 cases, Mexico with 68 and sunny Spain with 49 cases. Iran and Italy, two other hot spots for the virus, are also more heavily represented than China; travel from Iran was connected to 19 cases and there were seven cases from Italy.

In Quebec, 373 cases came from the United States and the province reports zero cases connected to travel from China. Travellers from France brought 151 cases to Quebec, 121 originated in Puerto Rico and 117 in Austria.

Alberta didn’t have a complete breakdown of its travel cases, but had only a single case connected to China, while fully 36 per cent of its travel-related cases are from the United States. British Columbia was unable to provide a breakdown by country, but the province’s data shows that, while its first cases were from travel, most came from spread within the community.

The U.S., U.K. and China were the top three destinations for travellers to Canada in 2018, according to data from Statistics Canada.

Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, said they were responding to the information they had at the time and started with enhanced screening and self isolation orders.

“We instituted the enhanced screening focused initially on China and then as it moved into Europe and Iran,” she said.


A body is removed after several residents died of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at the Eatonville Care Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada April 14, 2020. Reuters
She said curbs on travel from Iran came before Iran was even reporting it had cases because the public health data in Canada made it clear there was a problem there.

She said it became clear in March the virus was everywhere, which was why the restrictions were stepped up so quickly.

“In March, we in very quick succession told people not to go on cruises, issued a global travel health notice, because you can’t actually tell which country the virus will come from, followed by the succession of border measures,” she said.

She said the work was difficult and required coordination among multiple government departments.

All of Canada’s early cases came from travel, but overtime as travel restrictions came into force and the number of people visiting slowed to a trickle they have become a much smaller part of the picture.

In Ontario, for example, on April 1, there were 695 cases connected to travel and as of Monday 1,395 — almost double. But during the same time period the overall number of cases has increased roughly five-fold.

The U.S. and several other countries closed borders to China in February. The U.S. also closed its border to many hot spots like Iran and Italy well before Canada did.

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer has been critical of the government for not following suit.


COVID-19: Trudeau says 'different jurisdictions will act differently' as Canada starts to reopen
David Staples: Dr. Theresa Tam should answer questions about COVID-19 failures or resign
Canada's first-ever 'virtual parliament': Here are the best, worst, and eeriest MP backgrounds on show
“The Liberals decided not to impose mandatory screening at airports. They have decided not to impose mandatory quarantine procedures. They have decided not to implement any restrictions on travellers entering into Canada,” he said in question period on March 12.

As of Wednesday however, the U.S. has more than a million cases of the virus, roughly twice the per capita number that Canada has, showing the limits of travel restrictions in a global pandemic.

Tam’s deputy, Dr. Howard Njoo, said it would have been difficult to close the border in March to the United States or Europe with so few cases in Canada, but the virus was already spreading around the globe.

“The world is interconnected and really the virus was spreading throughout,” he said.

He said the steps Canada did take were only part of the solution.

“If you look at border measures, they are only one measure, one layer, of a multi-system approach.”

Njoo said they also know now that the few cases Canada did get from China were Canadians returning home.

So we now know that a lot of American cases came from Europe, we know that at least a lot of European cases cases didn't come from China (eg a recent yahoo article about France cases), and we know that Canada cases came from the US. You know what that means.
1. Canada sues the US.
2. US sues Europe.

But we all know that will never happen. So we end up with Missouri trying to sue China and the double standards again from media.

[whackadoodle]

Shared on Facebook, originally attributed to a restaurant owner in Georgia:

It's not a stupid move on Kemp's part. On the contrary, it's very calculated.

Here's the deal.
Kemp mandates restaurants reopen, whether I reopen dining rooms or not.
I file for business interruption insurance, it does not go through since I am "allowed" to operate full capacity.
My landlord can demand all their money, since I am allowed to fully operate.
Furloughed staff that is collecting unemployment insurance have to come back to work or I have to let them go. Their unemployment insurance then goes on my tab.
If things blow up again, they are still on my tab not the states, since they are no longer employed.
Guys, this is about screwing the working class and small business, not about helping us.

Well, no shit. It's always been about the unemployment insurance and the "intteruption of business" claims on business insurance.

[The Romulan Republic]

Maryland is holding coronavirus tests shipped in from South Korea under protection of the National Guard at an undisclosed location, to prevent seizure by the Federal government for redistribution to Trump's allies:

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watc ... orea-under

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) said Thursday that thousands of coronavirus tests obtained by the state from South Korea are currently protected in an undisclosed location by the Maryland National Guard.

Asked in a Washington Post Live interview whether he was concerned the federal government would seize the tests, Hogan acknowledged “it was a little bit of a concern.”

Maryland @GovLarryHogan on whether he was concerned that the federal government would seize the tests the state procured from South Korea. He says the tests are being guarded by the National Guard at an undisclosed location. https://t.co/uGcUi6U5rL pic.twitter.com/15BhHmLzql

— Washington Post Live (@postlive) April 30, 2020
ADVERTISEMENT
“We spent about 22 days and nights dealing with this whole transaction with Korea. We dealt with the Korean Embassy, folks at the State Department ... and our scientists on both sides trying to, you know, figure out these tests,” Hogan said, adding that he also coordinated with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

“And then at the last moment, I think 24 hours before, we got the sign-off from the FDA and Border and Customs, to try to make sure that we landed this plane safely," he continued.

Hogan said state officials ensured the plane landed at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport rather than Dulles International Airport in Virginia, noting that it was the first time a Korean Air passenger plane had landed at the airport.

“We landed it there with a large contingent of Maryland National Guard and Maryland State Police, because this was an enormously valuable payload. It was like Fort Knox to us, because it’s going to save the lives of thousands of our citizens,” Hogan continued.

Asked whether the National Guard was continuing to protect the tests from seizure, Hogan responded, “They are.”

“The National Guard and the State Police are both guarding these tests at an undisclosed location. These things are being distributed; they’re helping us distribute the tests," he said.

He also said that the National Guard was assisting the state in various other humanitarian efforts, including supply and personal protective equipment distribution.

Hogan’s decision reflects growing distrust between states seeking to outsource their own medical supplies and federal agencies.

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R) had a purchase of 3 million N95 masks confiscated by an unspecified federal agency at the Port of New York in March just as the state was in the process of acquiring another 1.2 million from China.

Baker ultimately relied on a private jet owned by the New England Patriots to transport the other 1.2 million masks that he purchased from China to Boston.

Two weeks later, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) arranged for two charter flights to transport millions of masks and gloves from China to Illinois, intentionally keeping the details of the flights secret from the Trump administration to avoid confiscation.

“It is true that the federal government seems to be interrupting supplies that are being sent elsewhere in the nation, and so I wanted to make sure that we received what we ordered,” Pritzker told reporters at an April 15 press conference.

--Updated 4:05 p.m.

Trump's piracy has essentially forced state governments to become smugglers to protect their citizens' lives.

[The Romulan Republic]

Pence appears to be threatening prosecution of a reporter who tweeted about his lack of a face mask, claiming he violated a confidentiality agreement meant to protect information about the Vice President's location/schedule for security purposes:

https://washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/me ... story.html

Vice President Pence’s office has threatened to retaliate against a reporter who revealed that Pence’s office had told journalists they would need masks for Pence’s visit to the Mayo Clinic — a requirement Pence himself did not follow.

Pence’s trip to the clinic Tuesday generated criticism after he was photographed without a surgical mask — the only person in the room not wearing one. The Minnesota clinic requires visitors to wear masks as a precaution against spreading the coronavirus.

Pence’s wife, Karen Pence, said in an interview with Fox News on Thursday that he was unaware of the mask policy until his visit was over.

But Steve Herman, who covers the White House for Voice of America, suggested that there was more to the story after Karen Pence’s interview.

“All of us who traveled with [Pence] were notified by the office of @VP the day before the trip that wearing of masks was required by the @MayoClinic and to prepare accordingly,” tweeted Herman, who covered the trip as part of his rotation as one of the pool reporters, who share information with other reporters in limited-space situations.

The tweet apparently enraged Pence’s staff, which told Herman that he had violated the off-the-record terms of a planning memo that had been sent to him and other reporters in advance of Pence’s trip.

Herman said he was notified by the White House Correspondents’ Association that Pence’s office had banned him from further travel on Air Force Two, although a spokesperson in Pence’s office later told VOA managers than any punishment was still under discussion, pending an apology from Herman or VOA.

VOA is continuing to talk with Pence’s staff, said Yolanda Lopez, the director of VOA’s news center. She said it wasn’t clear how the vice president intended to proceed.

Pence’s press secretary, Katie Miller, declined to comment.

Pence’s mask-free visit to the Mayo Clinic speaks volumes about Trump’s coronavirus stance

The issue, according to people involved, is whether Herman’s tweet violated the off-the-record terms of a planning document sent via email Monday evening by the vice president’s office to reporters who planned to travel with Pence to the clinic.

A copy of the document obtained by The Washington Post explicitly stated that masks are required for the visit and instructed reporters to wear them. “Please note, the Mayo Clinic is requiring all individuals traveling with the VP wear masks,” the document said. “Please bring one to wear while on the trip.”

The directive confirms that Pence’s staff was well aware of the need for masks, raising the possibility that none of his aides alerted him to the requirement or that Pence had intentionally flouted it, perhaps to avoid being photographed in a mask. (Pence himself told reporters after the visit that because he doesn’t have the coronavirus — he is tested frequently — he decided he could “speak to these researchers, these incredible health-care personnel, and look them in the eye and say thank you.”)

However, the planning document is marked, “OFF THE RECORD AND FOR PLANNING PURPOSES ONLY.” The off-the-record designation is standard for such logistical memos, indicating reporters are obligated not to publish or report the information. The White House typically keeps planning information confidential to maintain security for official trips.

But there’s some question about how long the obligation lasts — whether it is permanent or only applies to the period before and during the trip.

Herman’s tweet came nearly 48 hours after the vice president’s trip had ended, suggesting the vice president’s staff was more embarrassed by the disclosure than concerned about security.

“My tweet speaks for itself,” Herman said in a statement. “We always have and will strictly adhere to keeping off the record any White House communications to reporters for planning purposes involving logistics that have security implications prior to events. . . . All White House pool reporters, including myself and my VOA colleagues, take this very seriously.”

As is, the vice president’s office took no action against another reporter, Gordon Lubold of the Wall Street Journal, who traveled with Pence and tweeted something similar to Herman’s tweet Thursday. “Everyone in the entire Mayo Clinic had a mask on, everyone, and we were all told the day before we had to wear a mask if we entered the clinic,” Lubold tweeted.

In a now-deleted tweet, the clinic said it had alerted Pence to its mask policy before his visit. A later statement from the clinic said only that it had informed Pence’s office of the policy, not Pence personally.

Herman’s employer, Voice of America, is a government-funded but independent news agency that has lately been the object of White House criticism. The Trump administration accused VOA this month of promoting Chinese government propaganda in its reporting about the coronavirus. The VOA’s director, Amanda Bennett, has defended its independence.

On Thursday, Pence wore a mask as he toured a General Motors auto plant in Indiana that has been converted into a factory making ventilators for hospitals around the country.

[Zaune]

Maryland is holding coronavirus tests shipped in from South Korea under protection of the National Guard at an undisclosed location, to prevent seizure by the Federal government for redistribution to Trump's allies:

[...]

Trump's piracy has essentially forced state governments to become smugglers to protect their citizens' lives.

Someone with fewer friends and loved ones in the US than I have might find a certain amount of black humour in the thought that it's going to be federal troops seizing state property that kicks off the Second War of Southern Aggression.

[Ziggy Stardust]

Someone with fewer friends and loved ones in the US than I have might find a certain amount of black humour in the thought that it's going to be federal troops seizing state property that kicks off the Second War of Southern Aggression.

I'm just hoping that somewhere in a secret lab a mad scientist has a clone of William Tecumseh Sherman that just reached maturity and is ready to finish the job.

[MKSheppard]

So today's (1 May 2020) numbers for Maryland:

568 in ICU (FY 2018 Critical Care Bed inventory was 1,200; so 47.3% of all ICU beds in MD are full of Corona Patients)

1,100 in Acute (FY2018 Acute bed inventory was 7,600; so 14.4% of all hospital beds in MD are full of Corona patients)

Hogan had a bunch of field hospitals set up across the state, as well as reopening a closed hospital in Laurel, so I don't know what our actual bed numbers are now.

But a relatively mild outbreak (only 1,098 dead in a state of 6 million) is giving our hospital system a difficult time -- and this is with social distancing in place for a month.

[The Romulan Republic]

Good news: SK says that cases of "reactivated" cases were likely due to flawed tests picking up fragments of the disease in people who had had it, not people who had had it getting reinfected or the disease lying dormant and then reactivating. SK also has no new domestic cases for the first time since February.

https://businessinsider.com/coronavirus ... rts-2020-4

Scientists said the wave of South Koreans who tested positive for COVID-19 even after they recovered did not have the virus reactivate after going dormant and that they were not reinfected.

South Korea announced in early April that some patients who had recovered from and tested negative for the virus later tested positive, suggesting that the virus could reactivate or that patients could be reinfected. The country has recorded this happening in 263 patients, The Korea Herald reported.

But the country's infectious-disease experts said on Thursday that the positive test results were likely caused by flaws in the testing process, where the tests picked up remnants of the virus without detecting whether the person was still infected, The Herald reported.

The Herald described the experts as saying that "dead virus fragments" were lingering in patients' bodies after they recovered and that the virus did not appear to be active in the patients.

Dr. Oh Myoung-don, a professor of medicine and the head of Seoul National University Hospital's division of infectious diseases, said that the committee studying the cases found little reason to believe that the patients had been reinfected or that the virus had reactivated, according to The Herald.

"The tests detected the ribonucleic acid of the dead virus," said Oh, an adviser to the Korean government and the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Jeong Eun-kyeong, the director-general of the KCDC, said earlier in April that the positive test results in these patients could mean that the virus "reactivated" after going dormant, Business Insider's Holly Secon reported.

Jeong said the tests were conducted within a "relatively short time" after the patients were cleared, so it was unlikely that they were reinfected.

"While we are putting more weight on reactivation as the possible cause, we are conducting a comprehensive study on this," Jeong said. "There have been many cases when a patient during treatment will test negative one day and positive another."

But many experts said it was unlikely that the virus would go dormant and then reactivate in people. Instead, they said, it was more likely that patients' bodies still had some fragments of the virus. This would mean a person could get a positive test but not be ill or able to infect others.

"The test may be positive, but the infection is not there," Fukuda said.

Oh said the committee also strongly believes this is what happened.

He said that dead virus cells could take months to leave patients' bodies after they recover and that their test could not determine whether the virus was alive or dead, leading to false positives, according to The Herald.

Other countries have grappled with unreliable tests for the virus and its antibodies, saying that there could be high numbers of false positives and false negatives.

South Korea on Thursday reported no new domestic infections in a day for the first time since February.

It said four new cases were from people traveling into the country.

South Korea has reported a total of 10,765 cases, of which 9,059 "have been discharged from isolation." It has reported 247 deaths.

The country has been a pioneer in the fight to control the spread of the virus — and it has done so without implementing a nationwide lockdown.

South Korea, one of the first countries outside China to record cases of the virus, tested widely and traced the contacts of people who tested positive.

It also implemented sweeping social-distancing guidelines, including seating people far apart at restaurants. But unlike much of the rest of the world, it did not close venues.

South Korea also said it avoided any new cases stemming from the 29 million people who voted in a parliamentary election this month. Voters were made to wear masks and gloves.

Do you have a personal experience with the coronavirus you'd like to share? Or a tip on how your town or community is handling the pandemic? Please email covidtips@businessinsider.com and tell us your story.

Get the latest coronavirus business & economic impact analysis from Business Insider Intelligence on how COVID-19 is affecting industries.

[mr friendly guy]

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watc ... ata-report

Florida ordered coroners to stop releasing coronavirus death data: report
BY ZACK BUDRYK - 04/29/20 03:07 PM EDT

Florida officials have reportedly withheld medical examiners’ data on coronavirus deaths in the state for over a week, with the policy changing shortly after the Tampa Bay Times reported that the medical examiners were counting 10 percent more deaths than the state.

Stephen Nelson, the chairman of the state Medical Examiners Commission, told the Tampa Bay Times that the state health department intervened and told him it planned to remove causes of death and case descriptions from mortality data.

Nelson told the newspaper the data is meaningless without that information, and the entirety of the list should be considered public information.

“This is no different than any other public record we deal with,” he said. “It’s paid for by taxpayer dollars and the taxpayers have a right to know.”

Alberto Moscoso, a spokesman for the state health department, told the Times that the department “participated in conference calls” with the state Department of Law Enforcement, which provides administrative support to the Medical Examiners Commission, saying the discussions pertained to “privacy concerns for the individuals that passed away related to COVID-19.”

He said the state did not provide a formal legal opinion during the calls.

In March, the agency attempted to persuade the Miami-Dade County medical examiner’s office to restrict access to death records, according to the Times, citing correspondence between the two agencies. The county ultimately released the records, including the names of the dead.

Hillsborough County, meanwhile, refused to release records for weeks before eventually releasing a list on Tuesday of those identified as dying from the virus after questioning from the newspaper. The Palm Beach County Medical Examiner, which previously provided a spreadsheet of coronavirus-related deaths, was directed by county attorneys last week to stop releasing it, according to the Times.

“I was actually taken aback when they called us,” Paul Petrino, the Palm Beach County office’s operations manager, told the newspaper, saying the office considers the release of the information essential to providing the public with information.

“I’d hate to see anything hinder that,” he told the Times. “Hopefully, it won’t.”

The Hill has reached out to the Florida Department of Health for comment.

Helping Trump do a "good job" and keeping deaths under 100,000.

[aerius]

Florida. Why am I not surprised?
Oh, yeah, that's the state where the WWE and UFC are essential businesses.
We're in the middle of a pandemic, but we gotta have our blood sports!