via Steven Mnuchin warns coronavirus could bring 20% unemployment | US news | The Guardian
Author: peterimrich
he can’t cover up the facts of his failure — the stock market crash, the impact on the lives of people, the cratering of the economy, and the potency of the pandemic that is infecting and killing people. Emphasizing the foreign-ness of the disease is a cowardly evasion and a pathetic avoidance of responsibility which is emblematic of Trump’s approach as he emphasized at a recent press conference saying: “I take no responsibility at all.”
via Trumpandemic: Trump Spreads the Germs of Racial Hatred and Xenophobia
“With any infectious disease, particularly respiratory ones such as coronaviruses, a primary public health goal is herd immunity,” says Dr Silva.
But Dr Silva says a vaccine, which could be 18 months away, is one of the best and safest ways to do that.
“One thing is to introduce a vaccine to build up community resistance with an eye toward herd immunity. The other is to let a gnarly virus happily spread about,” he says.
“With a vaccine, there isn’t the element of sacrificing a segment of your people.”
Jim Rogers must be wealthy because the majority of the world has been suffering the worst financial crisis it’s called their Lifetime (ODT)
via ‘We’re headed for the worst financial crisis of our lifetimes’ – Jim Rogers — RT Business News
What’s Trump doing he’s blaming China for the virus and keeping sanctions on Iran (ODT)
via Coronavirus: China sends doctors and medical aid to Italy
If you’re flabbergasted at the Australian Liberal/National government’s clumsy, indecisive and incompetent response to coronavirus, now is probably the time to read up on Scott Morrison’s values. (Van Badham)
via Hillsong in Australia: How it makes millions, phone scripts and business model | Daily Telegraph
Italy, the second hardest-hit nation after China in the world’s coronavirus pandemic, has announced a new figures that show it has one-third of the world’s total deaths from the new virus.
The crisis has pushed hospitals to breaking point at the epicentre of the contagion in northern Italy and left other regions scrambling to strengthen their own health systems as the number of infected rises nationwide.
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Coronavirus deaths surpass 2500, Italy rushes new doctors into service
If we are to deliver the most reasoned system of healthcare we need to be far more socialist than we are now and we already have Universal healthcare. Covid-19 is an illness we know a lot about already. Closing down our social system is closing down labour the life force of the nation and socially irresponsible. The Dutch seem to be the only nation to see that. It accepts the reality of the illness and is prepared to deliver healthcare to all the vulnerable rather than draw a cut off point like Italy has. The biggest decision, however, is to least disrupt life as it was and allow Covid-19 to take it’s course encouraging the EU to do the same and not make labour, small business and families pay as they can least afford it. Not so however in Australia. (ODT)
via Coronavirus: Melbourne CBD foot traffic falls as workers stay home
So, maybe Scottie could go on television, and explain away my concerns. Or maybe he really has been struck down and is being kept in quarantine.
Nah, surely we’d be told.
Trump has created a liar’s paradise and on that score alone is an historic winner (ODT)
And Obama did really well with the outbreak as Factcheck writers, “While that death toll may sound high, it’s over an entire year and, in fact, ended up being far lower than was initially expected. The strain of influenza also turned out to have a case fatality rate of just 0.02% — well below even many typical seasonal influenzas.”
This imbecile keeps flailing away with inaccurate talking points and improvised puffery that does nothing absolutely nothing because confusion and chaos is the way he likes things. He thought he could fluff the markets like he did on Friday and instead the opposite happened.
Trump declares himself a perfect 10 for Coronavirus Action while continuing his immoral crusade on Iran and ignoring China’s leap (ODT)
via Chinese experts share experience on how the world can fight COVID-19 – CGTN
Herd Immunity vs Social Distancing. The collective vs Individual Response. (ODT)
via Social distancing: What it is and why it’s the best tool we have to fight the coronavirus
In remarks that make him the first world leader to publicly back the herd immunity theory, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said a mass lockdown was not feasible and the country had instead opted for a plan that included “controlled distribution” of COVID-19 “among groups that are least at risk”.
via Coronavirus: Netherlands to adopt COVID-19 ‘herd immunity’ plan, says Dutch PM Mark Rutte
Fighting Fake News with REAL 17/3/20; Coronavirus Capitalism — and How to Beat It, Scott Morrison & Hillsong;
This crisis — like earlier ones — could well be the catalyst to shower aid on the wealthiest interests in society, including those most responsible for our current vulnerabilities, while offering next to nothing to the most workers, wiping out small family savings and shuttering small businesses. But as this video shows, many are already pushing back — and that story hasn’t been written yet.
From Hoax to Serious to Let’s blame China who has done more to stop it’s spread than Trump blowhard bragging that the USA will save the world (ODT)
Eric Boehlert: ‘Fox News Is A Cancer On This Country’ | Crooks and Liars
Corona Virus has made a mockery of the economic excuses. When the bell tolls for the powerful no level of economic sacrifice is too great, but when it comes to economic realignment to stem climate change, our children and grandchildren can quite literally burn in hell.
via Climate Vse Corona Virus – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Is there a good safe anti-viral drug readily available that seems to work on SARS-CoV-2? Indomethacin is such a drug. Anyone can make it and sell it. It’s safe to use in people. So what’s to lose? asks Dr James Freeman.
In the X-Files they said “the truth is out there”. What if it was, but it was being drowned in all the chatter about coronavirus?
A few days ago, a patient shared a research paper with me. It’s so relevant I thought I would share it with you. It’s a truth, it’s out there, but nobody seems to be taking notice …
No, this is not a conspiracy theory blog. This is a “here is a good safe drug readily available that seems to work on coronavirus” blog.
Now SARS from back in 2003/4 is not exactly the same as SARS-CoV-2 but it is very similar. Will this drug that worked in a test tube and in dogs against SARS work in humans against SARS-CoV-2? The answer is that nobody knows but I’m thinking that if I got a bit feverish, had a headache and had a cough I might just leave the aspirin on the shelf and use some indomethacin instead.
We do know it’s safe in people and it does good just as a pain killer so there is not a lot to lose.
Just my 10c and subject to being proven snake oil but it seemed worthy of a share. On that note, can you share it too? Right this second, this old research paper seems to have been drowned in the noise.
Then again, indomethacin is an old drug, first patented in 1961 so anybody can make it and sell it. With no money in proving it works, I can understand the focus on more profitable opportunities but if there was ever a time to put people before patents and profits, now would be it.
Is the fix for COVID19 hiding in plain sight? – Michael West
In these ways, the coronavirus health and economic crisis will be Morrison’s nemesis as it will his mentor Donald Trump. As Bret Stephens concludes
It should not have had to take a deadly virus to expose this presidency (or prime ministership) for what it is. But it’s fitting that it has. A man who thinks he can twist every truth to suit his needs has at last discovered that he cannot twist the truths of nature and of one of nature’s gods. Her name remains Nemesis.
via Coronavirus will prove Morrison’s nemesis. – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Hillsong, Morrison and Covid-19 stop for nobody. Paraphrasing Gough Whitlam ” Ladies and gentlemen, well may we say ‘God Save Australia because nothing will save the this Prime Minister’s Hypocrisy to put off mass gatherings until Monday for Hillsong. The proclamation you have heard Scott Morrison make, who will take him down in history as the alleged criminal Houston’s cur”.
Trump is Nasty No Question but calls questions he can’t answer Nasty (ODT)
But promises and following through on them are two different things. In case you have not been keeping up, Trump has failed to implement any of the above pledges. Since he got away with making promises that he had no intention of keeping, we can expect Trump to repeat that performance during the 2020 general election campaign.
Why does Trump get a Pass for Pledging Economic Populism, but they Ask Sanders about the Cost?
Now think back to late 2007 and 2008, when eight years of Republican recklessness in war and finance came perilously close to destroying the global banking system and did succeed in crashing the markets and plunging the nation, and the global economy, into what’s now called the Great Recession, the worst recession since the Depression of 1929 and the 1930s. The only one major nation that steered clear of recession was China. While demand was collapsing around the world, it was China, acting like some super engine, that pulled the global economy out of the quagmire. Continuing to wage economic war against China today is thus suicidally insane.
Neither Covid-19 nor a major recession poses a threat to our survival as a species. We do, however, face two existential threats, both created by our species, and each featuring our nation in the lead role. At the very moment when only global unity and cooperation can save us from threats of nuclear holocaust and environmental devastation, deadly nationalism is tearing our species apart. Can Covid-19 teach us that those two great menaces to our existence are also not zero-sum games? That our species either wins or we, as well as many other species, all lose?
So, Trump bleats incessantly about how he wants to withdraw the U.S. from the senseless wars that it has been drawn into but at the same time his State Department sends two Zionist hardliners to Syria on a semi-secret mission to support a policy of regime change in Damascus while also providing aid that will inevitably fall into the pockets of an al-Qaeda linked terrorist group. And ammunition will also be forthcoming for the invading Turks to shoot Syrians, Russians and Iranians. If anyone is seriously interested in what is wrong with U.S. foreign policy, the activity of Craft and Jeffrey might serve as a decent case study on how not to do it. Unless, of course, the actual objective is to screw things up and involve the United States in quarrels that it could easily avoid.
UPDATE:
Instep and doing the Trump our PM believes Prayer will save him (ODT)
Update
Peter Dutton has just admitted in a radio interview that he became symptomatic on Wednesday, not Friday as he stated in his press release. This means anyone in contact with him on Tuesday must self-isolate.
via How the PM’s refusal to isolate puts everyone at risk – » The Australian Independent Media Network
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