A Mask Is Not a Political Statement. It's an IQ Test.
Once again, the coronavirus is on the rise. And the President of the United States can’t be bothered.
In a Washington Post story that leads with Dr. Anthony Fauci suggesting a new mass method of testing was under consideration, the White House responded to a query by saying there will be no change in the strategy to fight the pandemic, claiming the “vast majority” of the country isn’t experiencing an increase in cases.
Yesterday, the nation set a record for infections reported in a single day for the second day in a row.
States reported nearly 38,500 new cases. Texas, Alabama, Missouri and Nevada reported daily highs. The daily death toll also spiked, to about 2,500, as New Jersey added 1,854 probable deaths.
San Diego County set a new record Thursday for new cases of COVID-19, with more than 300 cases for the fourth time in five days, after weeks in which cases hovered in the low- to mid-100s.
The increase in new cases reported nationally and locally will be followed in July by a surge in deaths. For the moment, California’s hospitals have room for more people in need of care. Texas, which opened up earlier and faster, already has hospitals reporting at or near capacity for ICU patients.
The two San Diegans Republicans fear the most have begun a 14 day self quarantine.
Assembly member Lorena Gonzalez and County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher announced on Thursday that they were self-isolating after learning of a close contact who’d tested positive for COVID-19.
While they report negative test results for themselves, and no symptoms, these folks are doing the right thing.
If your plans include a trip to Europe, think again. It’s likely that most countries won’t want to see you if you’re coming from the United States.
Francine Prose, writing for the Guardian, has the bad news::
America has done such a poor job of controlling the Covid-19 outbreak that our infection rate is increasing dramatically while that of most European nations is either remaining stable or decreasing. We’re simply too dangerous – too likely to bring the deadly virus along with the more welcome (and needed) tourist dollars.
News Flash: There is a method for reducing the spread of COVID-19 by 70%: wear a facemask.
Nationwide deaths caused by the coronavirus are forecasted to grow to a range between 159,497 and 213,715, according to an updated model from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.
But it doesn’t have to be that way.
If we all wear masks, experts say, we might save 33,000 lives, not far from the number of people who die in traffic crashes or in the United States every year, or the number of people who die from firearms
https://twitter.com/OMGno2trump/status/1276185907750752256?s=20
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COVID-19 is going to be around for a while, and those who have long-term health issues or contract the disease in 2021 are looking at serious problems when they need a doctor.
The Trump administration filed a late-night brief with the Supreme Court on Thursday, advocating for judicial action to strike down the remaining elements of the Affordable Care Act.
U.S. Solicitor General Noel Francisco and other Justice Department officials sided with Texas in a case led by Republican attorneys general, arguing that the requirement for people to buy insurance is no longer valid since Congress scrapped the penalty for non-compliance in 2017.
It seems as though eliminating the individual mandate, a cause long championed by conservatives because “freedom,” will be the basis for killing ObamaCare.
If the justices agree to declaring the healthcare legislation unconstitutional, an estimated 20 million Americans will lose their insurance coverage, and protections for pre-existing conditions will be gone.
Here’s Charles P. Pierce at Esquire:
We should also note that the administration* has no replacement plan, and no intention of cobbling anything that possibly could pass before Election Day, and that the president* doesn’t give a damn one way or the other how many people die. They could drop dead on the White House lawn and he’d step over them to get to the helicopter so he could cheat at golf for the afternoon. This is also true of the national leadership of the president*’s party.
The good news is that the court likely (the fix is in to keep this from being a campaign issue) won’t get around to making a ruling until next year. .
The bad news is that, unless the GOP gets their butts kicked in Senate races come November, it won’t be possible to craft a consensus on --at a minimum-- expanding Medicare. Healthcare for all could become just like immigration as an issue; fertile ground for fiery rhetoric and little else.
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Joe Biden comes out swinging:
https://twitter.com/guycecil/status/1276235454757699584?s=20
Now go back to your basement, dear sir. The Trump campaign is doing an excellent job of making a case for their defeat at the polls.
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Protest baiting has become a staple for right wing media looking to talk about anything other than the administration’s abysmal performance, and KUSI is no exception.
https://twitter.com/nathanfletcher/status/1276307277541044224?s=20
If they only had….what do they call that thing?.... Oh yeah, Google!
A new study, published this month by the National Bureau of Economic Research, used data on protests from more than 300 of the largest US cities, and found no evidence that coronavirus cases grew in the weeks following the beginning of the protests.
In fact, researchers determined that social distancing behaviors actually went up after the protests — as people tried to avoid the protests altogether. But obviously, these demonstrations caused a decrease in social distancing among actual protesters.
“Our findings suggest that any direct decrease in social distancing among the subset of the population participating in the protests is more than offset by increasing social distancing behavior among others who may choose to shelter-at-home and circumvent public places while the protests are underway,” the report reads.
Headline h/t to @JohnLundin Twitter
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