"Italy eases virus lockdown, and gets first reckoning of toll" by Jason Horowitz New York Times, May 4, 2020
The Globe put a Muzzolini on my printed piece from the AP(?):
"Athens hairdresser Konstantina Harisiadi had installed plastic glass barriers at reception and at manicure stations. A new sign, "Silence is security," was meant to discourage chit-chat and limit the potential for virus transmission. "Things are different. There's no spontaneity — we can't greet each other, speak, laugh. We're entering a new era," she said....."
Sorry, that's in Greece (just over the border), where the work will make you free and the haircuts may never be the same (I'm glad I do my own).
Got your mask on?
"Masks become a flashpoint for protests and fights as businesses, beaches and parks reopen" by Katie Shepherd Washington Post, May 5, 2020
Speaking of the plandemic facial mask issue, you would very well advised to see the Covid catalyst to convert/subvert/bastardize humanity that is Satanic in nature.
The rule-breakers cost everyone the chance to enjoy the city’s popular beach, and the scofflaws in the southern Florida city are hardly alone. People in many states have resisted guidelines that encourage or require face masks in public spaces to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.
It's that kind of behavior that gives me hope.
The masks are hot, uncomfortable, and annoying for many. Others view the mandate to cover their faces as government overreach. Escalating tension over the precaution has spurred protests fights, and even an alleged murder.
They are also counterproductive to good health. It's just common sense. Breathing in your own exhale is depriving you of oxygen amongst other things.
Police arrested a man in Decatur, Ill., on Friday after he shoved a gas station clerk who insisted he wear a mask while paying for fuel on the first day of the state’s newly imposed rules that require people to cover their faces inside businesses.
Officers in Michigan are searching for a man who allegedly wiped his nose on a Dollar Tree employee’s sleeve on Saturday after she told him he had to wear a mask to shop inside, the Detroit Free Press reported, and a man shot and killed a security guard at a Family Dollar in Michigan after the guard had an argument with a woman who refused to comply with the statewide executive order that requires people to wear masks inside shops, Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton said at a news conference Monday.
Related: "A woman, her adult son, and husband have been charged in the fatal shooting of a security guard who refused to let her daughter enter a Family Dollar in Michigan because she wasn’t wearing a face mask to protect against transmission of the coronavirus. Calvin Munerlyn was shot Friday at the store just north of downtown Flint a short time after telling Sharmel Teague’s daughter she had to leave because she lacked a mask, according to Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton. Larry Teague also is charged with violating Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s executive order mandating that all customers and employees must wear face coverings inside grocery stores, Leyton said. Witnesses identified Ramonyea Bishop as the man who shot Munerlyn in the back of the head, Leyton said. Sharmel Teague has been arrested. Police were looking for her husband and son. No information has been released about the daughter, who has not been charged in the shooting....."
It has gotten a lot of airtime.
Ohio Republican Governor Mike DeWine reversed a statewide edict to require masks because people ‘‘were not going to accept the government telling them what to do.’’
Seems to matter where you live.
Even states that have largely embraced public health experts’ advice, like California, have seen some rebellions over masks. In a San Diego suburb, a man wore a Ku Klux Klan hood to the grocery store in an apparent protest of the store’s mask requirement for shoppers. Meanwhile, the San Francisco police chief barred officers from wearing masks decorated with ‘‘Thin Blue Line’’ imagery.
Wearing the hood has been judged as okay since it acts as a mask (but not in France):
"A California man who wore a Ku Klux Klan hood to a grocery store in lieu of a mask earlier this month will not face any criminal charges for his actions, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department announced Monday night. The man, who has not been identified by police, was seen wearing the pointed white KKK hood with two holes for his eyes while shopping at a Vons grocery store in Santee, Calif., on May 2, the day after San Diego County ordered people to wear masks in public settings including grocery stores. Store employees asked the man repeatedly to remove the hood until he finally complied at checkout. In interviews with sheriff’s investigators, the man ‘‘expressed frustration with the coronavirus and having people tell him what he can and cannot do,’’ the sheriff’s office said in its statement. ‘‘He said that wearing the hood was not intended to be a racial statement,’’ the sheriff’s office said. ‘‘In summary, he said, ‘It was a mask and it was stupid.’’’ Typically, cases involving hateful symbols or speech must involve some type of verbal threat to rise to the level of a crime. After speaking with witnesses, the sheriff’s office apparently found none in this case."
Also see:
"A Northern California city official has been ousted after he suggested on social media that sick, old, and homeless people should be left to meet their “natural course in nature” during the coronavirus pandemic. City council members in Antioch, a city of about 110,000 people 35 miles east of Oakland, voted unanimously Friday night to remove Ken Turnage II from his post as chairman of the city’s planning commission. NBC Bay Area reports there was a swift uproar after Turnage characterized people with weak immune systems as a drain on society. Turnage later deleted the post but refused to resign or back down from his comments."
We have a bunch of eugenicists in charge!
"California Governor Gavin Newsom will order all beaches and state parks closed starting Friday after people thronged the seashore last weekend despite his social distancing order that aims to slow the spread of the coronavirus. While most state parks and many local beaches, trails, and parks have been closed for weeks, Newsom’s order is sure to ignite pushback from community leaders who argue they can safely provide some relief to residents. Last weekend, some 80,000 people flocked to Newport Beach in Orange County, south of Los Angeles, with additional thousands gathering at open beaches in Ventura County, northwest of LA. Beaches in Los Angeles County remained closed. The city of San Diego reopened its beaches Monday to active users ranging from swimmers to walkers, but most coastal communities in San Diego County kept their beaches closed."
Turns out Newsom was right; a lot of surfers washed ashore dead.
"California will have a budget shortfall of $54.3 billion because of the economic devastation wrought by the coronavirus, Governor Gavin Newsom’s administration announced Thursday, a stunning reversal for a state that had a $21 billion surplus a year ago. Lawmakers are already considering a new tax on vaping, but new taxes will be difficult to pass at a time when so many people are out of work. The virus-induced business closures, unemployed workers, and cratering of the restaurant, tourism, and entertainment industries have resulted in a staggering loss of tax revenue for California....."
That is the price of weakening Trump and going along with the globali$ts, and the mask rules vary as California has eased stay-at-home orders.
As many elected officials and doctors plead with the public to wear masks if they leave their homes, some politicians are leading by example in the other direction.
Vice President Mike Pence drew criticism last week when he violated a mask requirement during a visit to the Mayo Clinic. On Monday, he issued a mea culpa and admitted that he should have worn a mask despite being tested frequently for the virus. ‘‘I didn’t think it was necessary,’’ Pence said Monday, ‘‘but I should have worn a mask at the Mayo Clinic.’’
For the symbolism, if nothing else.
Similarly, Missouri Republican Governor Mike Parsons refused to sport a mask as he visited small businesses in his state. In photos, he stood barefaced among workers wearing masks. He told reporters at a news conference that he did not believe the government should force people to cover their faces, despite guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that recommend face masks. ‘‘It really goes back to your personal responsibility,’’ Parsons told reporters, the Kansas City Star reported. He said wearing a mask, or not, is a personal choice. ‘‘I chose not to,’’ he said.
I am embarrassed to admit I have been wearing one when entering stores per a request from a loved one and out of respect for my fellow citizen, but I hate it and it gets ripped off as soon as I exit.
In Ohio, where protests against the state’s stay-at-home policies have grown increasingly testy in recent days, a state lawmaker justified his lack of a mask with a religious argument.
‘‘We’re created in the image and likeness of God,’’ state Representative Nino Vitale, a Republican, said in a video clip he posted on Facebook. ‘‘When we think of image, do we think of a chest or our legs or our arms? We think of their face. I don’t want to cover people’s faces.’’
Although resistance to wearing masks appears to split along ideological lines in many instances, with protests against the measures organized largely by conservative activists and championed by Republican lawmakers, polling has consistently indicated that most Americans support the social distancing precautions in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and many have been willing to wear masks.....
Masochists often support their own bondage, too.
--more--"
Also see:
"Colorado Governor Jared Polis weighed in Wednesday on the controversy over Vice President Pence going maskless during a visit to the Mayo Clinic, saying elected officials “should be role models” and don face coverings in such settings. “Look, as elected officials, I think we have an additional responsibility, with the soapbox we have, to practice what we preach,” Polis, a Democrat, said during an interview on CNN. “Elected officials should be role models and should demonstrate the importance of wearing masks, which could absolutely help save lives and help us return to economic normalcy sooner rather than later.” Polis relayed that he wears a mask when walking to the podium at news conferences, taking it off only when he is at a safe distance from others. He added that he and his partner and children also wear masks every day when walking their dog “because it’s important.” Pence drew widespread criticism Tuesday after visiting the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and speaking with patients and staff while not wearing a face mask, in an apparent violation of the medical center’s policy. It was a decision that also appears to run contrary to the Trump administration’s recommendations for combating the outbreak. Asked later about his decision, Pence noted that he is frequently tested for the coronavirus and so didn’t need to wear a mask. Earlier this month, Pence was photographed arriving in Colorado Springs and being greeted by Polis, who wore a face mask emblazoned with images of his state’s flag. Pence’s face was bare."
Related:
Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) in 2013, with his son, Caspian, and partner, Marlon Reis, was the first openly gay man elected as a nonincumbent to Congress. (Taylor Hill/Getty Images)
Is that setting a good example?
What is the age difference there?
"A retired Colorado paramedic who died from coronavirus after volunteering to help combat the pandemic in New York City was being honored Sunday as his body was due to be returned to Denver. Paul Cary, 66, who worked 32 years as a firefighter paramedic in the Denver suburbs, died April 30, a month after he began working in New York. He was part of a wave of out-of-state medical technicians, doctors, and nurses who came to the city to help relieve a health care system being overwhelmed by the virus. Governor Jared Polis said Cary had “heroically” served his community and country. A procession of fire trucks, EMS, and other emergency vehicles was scheduled to drive from the airport after Cary’s body was returned late Sunday."
According to the mass simulation gone live anyway.
"This time, he wore a mask. Vice President Mike Pence donned a face covering Thursday as he toured a General Motors/Ventec ventilator production facility in Indiana after coming under fire for failing to wear one earlier this week in violation of Mayo Clinic policy. Pence on toured the General Motors facility in Kokomo, which had been closed due to the coronavirus and was brought back online in mid-April to produce critical care ventilators for hospitals around the country. The transformed facility has already manufactured hundreds of the units, including some that were sent to hospitals in Gary, Ind., that were struggling with supply. General Motors requires workers to wear surgical masks at the Kokomo facility except when they are eating lunch, United Auto Workers spokesman Brian Rothenberg said. Pence’s visit to the facility came hours after his wife, Karen Pence, defended her husband’s decision to not wear a mask during a Tuesday visit to the Mayo Clinic Rochester, Minn., telling Fox News Channel that he had been unaware of the hospital’s coronavirus policy until after he left. She said the vice president has been following the advice of medical experts and hadn’t intended to offend anyone. Pence, like other senior White House staff, is tested for the virus at least once a week."
This will make you go quiet real quick:
"Trump seeks push to speed vaccine, despite safety concerns" by David E. Sanger New York Times, April 29, 2020
WASHINGTON — President Trump is pressing his health officials to pursue a crash development program for a coronavirus vaccine despite widespread skepticism that such an effort could succeed and considerable concern about the implications for safety.
The White House has made no public announcement of the new effort, called Operation Warp Speed, and some officials are apparently trying to talk the president down, telling him that it would be more harmful to set an unreasonably short deadline that might result in a faulty vaccine than to wait for one that is proved safe and effective, but after the existence of the effort was first reported Wednesday by Bloomberg News, the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed it. “Operation Warp Speed is clearly another extension of President Trump’s bold leadership and unwillingness to accept ‘business as usual’ approaches to addressing the COVID-19 crisis,” said Michael Caputo, the department’s assistant secretary for public affairs.
In other words, he has thrown in with the evil, genocidal globalists.
Trump’s order came after he grew frustrated by warnings from Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and other experts on the coronavirus task force, who said that development of a vaccine would take a year to 18 months, and that even that schedule might be ambitious. Trump told Alex M. Azar II, the health and human services secretary, to come up with a faster program.
Why not fire Fauci and out the whole thing?
According to one official, the idea would be to indemnify the major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies from liability if the vaccines cause sickness or death, and to involve the Pentagon in the testing program, but most of the military’s efforts have focused on defenses against biological weapons, not viruses that arise naturally or are transmitted by community spread.
Yeah, they had nothing to do with this despite the sloppiness at Ft. Detrick and Fauci moving research to Wuhan after Obama shut it down, and the pharmaceuticals already have immunity.
Seventy to 100 companies, groups, and academic institutions around the world are working on vaccines, including Oxford University and several projects in China, but many of the most experienced vaccine makers and experts are in the United States.
Oh, so that is why they are stealing secrets from the U.S. (although one wonders why when they have passed the peak of the pandemic)!
Trump’s policymakers and image handlers may be trying to consolidate, under one name, a series of efforts already underway. Almost as soon as the coronavirus outbreak began, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, issued grants totaling about $1 billion to two big US-based companies, Johnson & Johnson and Moderna, to speed development of different approaches to a vaccine.
Most of that money is for research and clinical trials.
--more--"
At least he wore a mask in Phoenix.
Related:
"The nation’s top infectious diseases expert says he expects the US Food and Drug Administration to quickly approve a new experimental drug that showed promising signs in treating patients with COVID-19. Anthony Fauci told NBC’s “Today” show Thursday that he anticipates the go-ahead for the emergency use of Remdesivir to happen “really quickly.” He says he spoke with FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn on Wednesday, and while Hahn had yet to make a final decision, “I would project that we’re going to be seeing that reasonably soon.” The drug was shown in a major study to shorten recovery time of hospitalized patients. Fauci said the drug’s manufacturer has committed to scaling production of the drug as quickly as possible as the world hunts for an effective treatment and ultimately a vaccine. Fauci has been working on a project to fast track the development of a vaccine by mass producing formulas that appear safe and effective before they’re fully vetted. The goal is to get hundreds of millions of doses to the public by January."
Hahn is going to need the drug for himself now, and Fauci is up to his eyeballs in conflicts-of-intere$t!
"A top aide to Vice President Mike Pence tested positive for coronavirus on Friday, making her the second known person working at the White House to contract the illness in the past two days, according to several sources familiar with the situation. Katie Miller, the vice president’s press secretary, was notified Friday about the result, according to people familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity because it had not been publicly announced by the White House. Miller confirmed to NBC News that she tested positive and said she was asymptomatic. The White House earlier in the day confirmed a member of Pence’s staff tested positive but did not disclose the individual’s name. President Trump later appeared to confirm it was Miller. ‘‘She’s a wonderful young woman, Katie, she tested very good for a long period of time and all of a sudden today she tested positive,’’ Trump told reporters. ‘‘She hasn’t come into contact with me; she’s spent some time with the vice president.’’ Miller is a fixture around Pence and has attended the coronavirus task force meetings that he leads. She is married to White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller and Trump attended their wedding at his Washington hotel in February. On Thursday, the White House acknowledged the positive test result for a member of the US military who works on the White House campus and added that both Trump and Pence had since tested negative. The infected staffer is one of Trump’s personal valets, the military staff members who sometimes serve meals and look after personal needs of the president. That would mean the president, Secret Service personnel, and senior members of the White House staff could have had close or prolonged contact with the aide before the illness was diagnosed. During a White House press briefing Friday, McEnany was asked how Americans should feel about going back to work when people in the administration were still getting sick. ‘‘We have put in place the guidelines that experts have put forward to keep this building safe,’’ she said, ‘‘The guidelines we have for businesses that have essential workers we’re now putting in place here in the White House. So as America reopens safely, the White House is continuing to operate safely.’’ Trump was asked if he is worried now that two people in the White House have contracted the disease. ‘‘I’m not worried, no. Look, I get things done. I don’t worry about things. I do what I have to do,’’ he said. ‘‘Again, we’re dealing with an invisible situation. Nobody knows.’’
Is he positive of that?
Is that why they are not wearing the masks?
What do they know that you do not?
"Vice President Mike Pence is staying away from President Trump for an indefinite period after Pence’s spokeswoman tested positive for coronavirus, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Tuesday. “The vice president has made the choice to keep his distance for a few days,” McEnany said at a briefing for reporters, “and I would just note that that’s his personal decision to make that. As to how many days he does it, again, that’s a decision for the vice president.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that anyone with close contact to a person infected with coronavirus should quarantine for 14 days. Pence learned of his press secretary’s diagnosis Friday morning but chose to proceed with an official trip to Iowa that day. He began isolating himself on Saturday, when he skipped a meeting between President Trump and military leaders at the White House, according to people familiar with the matter. He returned to the White House campus on Monday, though he had no contact with the president. He was seen arriving at the campus again on Tuesday wearing a mask."
She was not wearing a mask at the briefing, and if only we had the kind of vice president that does Taiwan:
"Taiwan’s weapon against coronavirus: epidemiologist as vice president" by Javier C. Hernández and Chris Horton New York Times, May 9, 2020
TAIPEI — The calls come at night, when Taiwan’s vice president, Chen Chien-jen, is usually at home in his pajamas. Scientists seek his advice on the development of antiviral medications. Health officials ask for guidance as they investigate an outbreak of the coronavirus on a navy ship.
Like many world leaders, Chen is fighting to keep the coronavirus at bay and to predict the course of the pandemic. He is tracking infections, pushing for vaccines and testing kits, and reminding the public to wash their hands, but unlike most officials, Chen has spent his career preparing for this moment — he is a Johns Hopkins-trained epidemiologist and an expert in viruses.
So he is also part of the global public health mafia?
That experience has thrust Chen from behind the scenes to the forefront of Taiwan’s response to the crisis. He has embraced his rare dual role, using his political authority to criticize China for initially trying to conceal the virus even as the scientist in him hunkers down to analyze trends in transmission.
Chen is straddling the two worlds at a time when science has become increasingly political. Chinese and American officials are regularly trading unsubstantiated theories attacking each other about the origins of the virus.
Related:
"The head of emergencies at the World Health Organization reiterated that the group believes the novel coronavirus is “natural in origin.” Dr. Michael Ryan responded Friday to to comments by Trump, who said he has seen information that the virus may have emerged from a virology institute in China. Ryan said WHO teams have listened “again and again” to many scientists who have looked at the gene sequences and the virus, “and we are assured that this virus is natural in origin.” Ryan said it was important to establish the natural host of the virus, which could help pave the way for a better understanding of it and ways to prevent and respond to future outbreaks. On Thursday, Trump suggested he was confident that China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology was at the origin of the coronavirus, before again criticizing WHO’s early response to the outbreak. Most scientists believe the virus emerged at a market in the Chinese city, linked to an animal that has not yet been identified. The WHO’s Emergency Committee on the COVID-19 outbreak recommended Friday that the outbreak remains an international public health emergency, its highest level of alert."
That is almost a confirmation that is was man-made, and the question would then be by WHO?
Better to bury it instead, and isn't Ryan the guy who advocates government snatch and grab teams to forcefully remove and detain COVID-19 positive family members or children from their homes?
"The World Health Organization said Friday that although a market in the Chinese city of Wuhan selling live animals likely played a significant role in the emergence of the new coronavirus, it does not recommend that such markets be shut down globally. In a press briefing, WHO food safety and animal diseases expert Peter Ben Embarek said live animal markets are critical to providing food and livelihoods for millions of people globally and that authorities should focus on improving them rather than outlawing them — even though they can sometimes spark epidemics in humans. “Food safety in these environments is rather difficult and therefore it’s not surprising that sometimes we also have these events happening within markets,” Ben Embarek said....."
That cavalierly cryptic statement is eerie, and it comes from the front organization of Gates, et al.
Also see:
"Parks and museums in China’s capital, including the ancient Forbidden City, reopened to the public Friday after being closed for months by the coronavirus pandemic. The Forbidden City, past home to China’s emperors, is allowing just 5,000 visitors daily, down from 80,000, and parks are allowing people to visit at 30 percent of the usual capacity. Large-scale group activities remain on hold and visitors must book tickets in advance online, according to the Beijing Gardening and Greening Bureau. Photos on social media showed visitors to the Forbidden City wearing face masks and being escorted by police along designated routes. Beijing on Thursday downgraded its level of emergency response to the virus from first to second tier, but temperature checks and social distancing remain in force."
I know I'm not supposed to say anything, but that will soon be America.
"HSBC, Goldman Sachs, and Barclays allowed more employees to resume working from their offices in Hong Kong Monday as the city relaxes social-distancing curbs after largely containing coronavirus infections. HSBC said 30 percent of its Hong Kong staff can return, according to a memo seen by Bloomberg News and confirmed by a bank spokeswoman. Goldman Sachs has been gradually ramping up returns and had a third of its employees, or almost 600 people, back as of Monday, a spokesman said. At Barclays, about 270 workers, or 60 percent, of staff, are working from their offices, according to Anthony Davies, chief executive of the Hong Kong branch."
That should end that, right?
Wrong:
"Authorities in the Chinese city of Wuhan plan to test all 11 million residents for COVID-19 by the end of next week, in a massive push to extinguish any remnants of the coronavirus from the original epicenter of the global pandemic. The all-encompassing mission, paid for by district governments, contrasts with shortages of testing kits in some other countries, including the United States, where people have complained about not being able to get a test despite having coronavirus symptoms, but the scope of the endeavor underscores official sensitivities about any new flare-up in Wuhan, where the virus emerged in a market late last year. It comes after officials reported six new cases in two days, confounding health specialists after a 35-day streak without infections. Local health authorities reported that five people in one residential compound in Wuhan had been diagnosed with the coronavirus Sunday, all of them linked to an elderly man who had been confirmed as infected the previous day. They all lived in the Sanmin compound in the East West Lake district of Wuhan, which Chinese leader Xi Jinping visited in March during his first trip to the city since the outbreak began. The infections were the first found in Wuhan since the city emerged from its stringent 11-week lockdown on April 8. The city’s epidemic prevention and control headquarters issued an emergency notice Monday ordering all district management units to submit plans by Tuesday for completing nucleic acid testing of all residents in their jurisdiction within 10 days."
The plan is the same here!
Around the world, public health experts routinely spar with political leaders over how the virus spreads and the costs and benefits of lockdowns. Chen says that as vice president, only facts inform his policies.
“Evidence is more important than playing politics,” he said in a recent interview in Taiwan’s capital, Taipei.
Now in the final weeks of his term, Chen’s legacy as vice president may be shaped by Taiwan’s success.
Chen, 68, with his frizzy gray hair and a toothy smile, is known affectionately in Taiwan as “elder brother,” and many people credit him with helping the island avoid the large-scale infections and deaths from the coronavirus that have overwhelmed many countries.
As a top health official during the SARS crisis of 2003, he pushed a series of reforms to prepare the island for the next outbreak, including building isolation wards and virus research laboratories.
Taiwan’s early preparations put it in a strong position when the virus hit, and the island has earned widespread praise for its response. It has so far reported about 400 confirmed cases and six deaths, far fewer than many countries.
Chen maintains the bookish manner of a research scientist and is largely unaccustomed to the attention. He has made a career out of staying out of political fights, even refusing to join the governing Democratic Progressive Party that is led by President Tsai Ing-wen.
“He is a scholar; he actually doesn’t care much about the power game,” said Chen Chi-mai, a deputy prime minister who as a public health student in the 1990s took an epidemiology class from Chen and remains a close friend. “He is popular because he is neutral.”
From a young age, Chen was surrounded by politics. He is the son of a powerful county leader in southern Taiwan and said he quickly developed an appreciation for the art of compromise. For much of his career, he made a point of avoiding politics, instead focusing on his first love, the natural sciences. He earned a doctorate in epidemiology and human genetics from Johns Hopkins University in 1982, and became an authority in hepatitis B as well as diseases associated with arsenic exposure.
At the height of the SARS outbreak, which infected 671 people and killed 84 people in Taiwan, Chen was tapped to be health minister.
After working to contain SARS, Chen led Taiwan in its efforts to prepare for the next outbreak. The government established a disaster management center, increased production of protective gear and revised the infectious disease law, among other measures.
Once again, another guy up to his eyeballs in this stuff and he is being featured by the New York Times.
Chen returned to academic life until 2015, when Tsai, then a presidential candidate, tapped him to be her running mate. On May 20, Chen will step down as vice president. He plans to return to academia and says the coronavirus will be a focus of his research.
In Taiwan, a society where he said there was strong trust in science and respect for medical professionals. Now Chen hopes Taiwan can play a leading role in helping the world recover from the virus and restart economic growth. He is overseeing efforts to develop a vaccine and produce tools like rapid coronavirus testing kits......
--more--"
Being a devout Catholic, I wonder where he is on the issues before the church:
"Pope Francis waded into the church-state debate about virus-imposed lockdowns of religious services, calling Tuesday for “prudence and obedience” to government protocols to prevent infections from surging again. His appeal came just two days after Italian bishops bitterly complained that the Italian government offered no provisions for Masses to resume in its plan to reopen Italian business, social, and sporting life starting May 4. While it wasn’t clear whether Francis intended to send a different message than the bishops, his appeal for obedience and prudence was in line with his previous calls to protect the most vulnerable, and for economic interests to take a backseat to shows of solidarity. At the same time, Francis has certainly chafed at the lockdown, saying early on that he felt like he was in a “cage’’ and lamenting more recently that the church isn’t really “Church’’ without a community of faithful present and the administration of sacraments. Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte’s government announced Sunday that funerals could resume starting May 4, but there was no information on when the faithful could attend Mass."
His counsel is don’t try that at home, and everyone knows Francis is a sell-out to the globalist cause.
Thankfully, there are some rams among the sheep:
"A petition signed by some conservative Catholics claiming the coronavirus is an overhyped “pretext’’ to deprive the faithful of Mass and impose a new world order has run into a hitch. The highest-ranking signatory, Cardinal Robert Sarah, head of the Vatican’s liturgy office, claims he never signed the petition, but the archbishop who spearheaded it said Friday that Sarah was fully on board, and he has the recorded phone conversations to prove it. Thus Sarah, the Guinean-born hero to the Catholic right-wing, has landed in another he said-he said controversy, following the polemics over a book he penned with retired Pope Benedict XVI on priestly celibacy that created a huge firestorm this year. The virus petition, signed mostly by Italian clergy, academics, and journalists, is the latest initiative by conservatives to frame COVID-19 lockdowns as an assault on religious liberty, a threat to the global economy, and a conspiracy to separate families."
It is encouraging to see some in the know.
Time to leave the island:
"Intel is talking about building a new US semiconductor plant amid concern about relying on suppliers in Asia for electronic chips. A spokesman said Sunday that the company is in discussions with the Defense Department about improving domestic technology sources. He said Intel is well-positioned to work with the government “to operate a US-owned commercial foundry.” The discussions were first reported by The Wall Street Journal, which said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is also talking with the administration and with Apple Inc., one of its biggest customers, about building a US plant."
It will be as scary as working at the White House:
"‘Scary to go to work’: White House races to contain virus in its ranks" by Michael D. Shear and Maggie Haberman New York Times, May 10, 2020
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is racing to contain cases of the coronavirus inside the White House as some senior officials believe that the disease is already spreading rapidly through the warren of cramped offices that make up the three floors of the West Wing.
They don't mean the Zioni$t infiltrators with dual nationality.
Three top officials leading the government’s coronavirus response have begun two weeks of self-quarantine after two members of the White House staff — one of President Trump’s personal valets and Katie Miller, the spokeswoman for Vice President Mike Pence — tested positive, but others who came into contact with Miller and the valet are continuing to report to work at the White House.
“It is scary to go to work,” Kevin Hassett, a top economic adviser to the president, said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” program Sunday. Hassett said he wore a mask at times at the White House but conceded that “I think that I’d be a lot safer if I was sitting at home than I would be going to the West Wing. It’s a small, crowded place. It’s, you know, it’s a little bit risky, but you have to do it because you have to serve your country,” he added.
TEN-HUT!
The discovery of the two infected employees has prompted the White House to ramp up its procedures to combat the coronavirus, asking more staff members to work from home, increasing usage of masks, and more rigorously screening people who enter the complex.
It is not clear how many other White House officials Miller or the valet might have come into contact with in recent days, but many members of the West Wing staff who were most likely in meetings with Miller before she tested positive are still coming to work, according to senior administration officials.
Late Sunday, the White House put out a statement saying that Pence would not alter his routine or self-quarantine. The vice president “has tested negative every single day and plans to be at the White House tomorrow,” said Devin O’Malley, a spokesman for Pence.
He will be social distancing from Trump, though.
The concern about an outbreak of the virus at the White House — and the swift testing and contact tracing being done to contain it — underscores the broader challenge for Americans as Trump urges them to begin returning to their workplaces despite warnings from public health officials that the virus continues to ravage some communities.
Most restaurants, offices, and retail stores do not have the ability to regularly test all their employees and quickly track down and quarantine the contacts of anyone who gets infected. At the White House, all employees are being tested at least weekly, officials said, and a handful of top aides who regularly interact with the president are being tested daily. “To get in with the president, you have to test negative,” Hassett said on CNN’s “State of the Union” program.
Or be white, right?
No wonder there are not enough tests to go around; the White House has them all.
Trump continues to reject guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to wear a mask when meeting with groups of people, but a senior administration official said the president was uneasy that his valet, who is among those who serve him food, had not been wearing a mask, and he was annoyed to learn that Miller tested positive and has been growing irritated with people who get too close to him, the official said.
He is a germaphobe.
Two senior administration officials said there were no plans to keep Trump and Pence apart because of a concern that they both could be incapacitated by COVID-19.
Pence will keep his distance, though.
Concern about the spread of the virus in the White House has temporarily sidelined three of the most high-profile members of the coronavirus task force — Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Dr. Stephen Hahn, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration; and Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Redfield and Hahn announced over the weekend that they would self-quarantine for two weeks. Both attended a meeting in the Situation Room last week where Miller was present.
Are they really sick, or is that just a convenient way to remove them from the line of fire now that their fraud is being exposed?
Both doctors said they would continue to participate in the response effort from home, and Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee, said in a statement that they would participate Tuesday by videoconference in a previously scheduled hearing. Fauci said he, too, had begun a “modified quarantine” after what he called a “low-risk” contact with an infected staff member.
You all stay away from me!
Miller, who was a fixture at the White House during the weeks when the task force was holding daily briefings, received her positive diagnosis Friday morning but had been negative on previous tests as recently as the day before. It is unclear whether the earlier results might have been in error.
The tests are riddled with false positives and negatives, and some are contaminated with COVID.
Like other members of the White House staff, Miller did not regularly wear a mask while at work. On Thursday, just hours after receiving a negative diagnosis, she was seen on television talking without a mask within a few feet of several reporters, all of whom were wearing one.
Then they have nothing to worry about, right?
Stephen Miller, one of the president’s closest advisers and Miller’s husband, is also not expected to come into the White House for the foreseeable future, according to people familiar with his plans. He tested negative for the virus Friday.
The White House is frequently testing its staff using ID Now, a rapid test by Abbott Laboratories that can generate a result in five to 13 minutes. The benefit is its speed and portability; the testing machine is about the size of a toaster oven, but some hospitals and doctors found that it was turning up too many false negatives — cases in which people really had the virus but the test said they did not.
More like the opposite!
The ID Now test was granted emergency authorization by the Food and Drug Administration on March 27. As hospitals and clinics began using the new test, they were finding that it was missing infections, especially when the testing swabs were not placed directly into the machine but were first stored in vials filled with liquid. Abbott later changed its instructions to advise against placing the samples in liquid.
WTF?
The company advises health care providers to consider retesting patients who test negative but have symptoms of COVID-19 or have been exposed to someone infected.
Yeah, keep testing until you get a positive!
In recent weeks, some White House aides have also received other tests that require deep nasal swabs and take several hours to process.
Those are painful.
Those tests more closely resemble the ones used to diagnose the virus in the United States, which are done in laboratories on high-capacity machines that can process hundreds of samples at a time. They can take several hours to yield results. Those tests, which are made by several companies, are also not infallable. The accuracy of most tests can depend on a range of factors, including how expertly the sample was collected, how it was stored, and how long the virus was circulating in the patient’s body.
WTF?
Previous memos to the staff at the White House had encouraged West Wing employees to “telework whenever possible,” but Trump administration officials moved beyond that over the weekend, telling several lower-level aides in the press office, who had been coming into the White House, to work from home regardless of how they were feeling. Staff members in the East Wing, who work for the first lady, Melania Trump, are also working from home; other members of the president’s personal staff in the residence are regularly wearing masks.
Senior officials said that they are urging all White House employees to stay home if they felt even remotely sick, a decision that cuts against all the traditional impulses for people who work for the president, which is to keep working no matter what.
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Related:
White House orders staff to wear masks as Trump misrepresents testing
That is a false negative by the New York Times.
Also see:
Gilead Sciences Chairman and CEO Daniel O'Day in the Oval Office with President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence on May 1.
No masks and no social distancing.
What do they know that you do not?
"Gilead’s virus drug seen in short supply for Americans" by Cristin Flanagan Bloomberg News, May 11, 2020
The United States will get less than half of Gilead Sciences Inc.’s worldwide donation of 1.5 million vials of its COVID-19 medicine over the next six weeks, which isn’t expected to be enough to treat all the patients who would qualify for it.
Gilead is donating about 607,000 vials of its remdesivir in the United States during that time frame. That’s enough to treat 78,000 hospitalized patients, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Health officials authorized emergency use of the treatment earlier this month.
“Initial supply of remdesivir is likely to be constrained to an even greater degree than we had previously estimated,” RBC analyst Brian Abrahams wrote in a note to clients. He said he had been expecting 80 percent of Gilead’s donation to be distributed in the United States. With less than 50,000 going out in the first two shipments, the rollout was also slower than what he was expecting.
More than 300,000 eligible patients in the United States won’t have access to the company’s treatment through the end of July. That and “continued limited supply through almost the end of the year” could put pressure on state health departments, according to Abrahams.
Gilead said the company wasn’t deciding the allocation of remdesivir and deferred questions on donation and distribution to the US government. HHS didn’t respond to requests seeking comment.
Shares of Gilead rose 4.27 percent Monday and have climbed about 22 percent this year.
New York State has been at the center of the pandemic with more the 330,000 of the 1.3 million cases of COVID-19 in the United States, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The state received the largest donation so far when an initial 565 cases were delivered last week as part of an initial allocation to the first seven states, HHS said a statement on Saturday.
In New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio said the amount of the drug shipped to his city was about 10 percent of what it needs.
“We’re still the epicenter of this crisis. So, I am hoping that the White House will hear our plea and quickly get us the additional doses we need,” the mayor said during his daily briefing on Sunday.
The agency said that starting on the evening of May 7, six more states would get shipments. That included 30 cases each for Maryland and Connecticut while Michigan would get 40. Hotspots like Illinois and New Jersey would get more at 140 and 110 cases each. Iowa is set to get 10 of the cases, each of which contain 40 vials of remdesivir.
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With remdesivir, Gilead finds itself at strategic crossroads, with its reputation (and far more) at stake.
Also see:
In the early days of the pandemic, the US government turned down an offer to manufacture millions of N95 masks in America
It was just a drill, after all, and that was before a whistle-blower exposed infighting and animus in Trump’s coronavirus response (the New York Times says the personal animus and dysfunction revealed by Dr. Rick Bright’s allegations have shed light on the failures of the Trump administration’s coronavirus response -- which is likely why the White House is winding down the task force on the pandemic).
Meanwhile, on the local level, the masks are going to basically be “a way of life, no ifs, no ands, no buts, and no doubts. If you can’t [socially distance] inside or outside, you’re going to be expected to wear a face covering or a mask,” even as safely resuscitating an economy laid low by the coronavirus likely will be painfully slow and require a gradual return to the workplace supported by mandatory face masks, social distancing, and an expansion of state testing that could cost $720 million a year.
Here is what you need to know with mandatory masks in effect:
Mass. nurses union balks at reused face masks
Even after decontamination, the equipment puts health care workers at risk while Baker said they are doing their best to manage a difficult situation.
Researchers say some fabrics can filter nearly as well as an N95
You can make your own mask!
"Armed with sewing machines, ‘Sew We Care’ hand-makes masks for Massachusetts; With health care facilities across the state confronting shortages, volunteers band together to help fill the void" by Alexa Gagosz Globe Correspondent, April 26, 2020
The patterned drone of the sewing machine has been constant, much like the ringing doorbell alerting the family that another bag of materials has been left at the door. Whatsapp message notifications buzz as fabric is snipped and a steaming iron hums. The Jain household of five in Dover has become a makeshift assembly line, churning nonstop for the past three weeks.
Outside the house, more than 100 volunteers across the Commonwealth are donating fabric, learning how to cut and iron patterns, and sometimes sewing themselves, leaving the materials in a bag outside their front doors.
The bags are ultimately picked up and brought to the Jains, who are leading an effort to craft and donate hand-made face masks to health care facilities to help protect doctors and nurses from the novel coronavirus.
Manisha Jain and her newly formed team, “Sew We Care,” are following the lead of many other home-bound Americans who have transformed their kitchen tables into temporary production floors and recruited family members as shop workers to meet the needs of overwhelmed front-line workers.
Saloni Jain held bags of masks for delivery while talking with her mother, Manisha Jain, who was sewing masks to donate to local facilities. (David L. Ryan/Globe Staff)
“It’s amazing to see how the community has come together during a time like this,” said Jain, who has made it her personal goal to sew at least 50 face masks a day with precut and ironed cotton fabric that others leave on her doorstep. “It’s totally a war effort. The people that are at war are our health care workers, and it’s our duty to help them.”
TEN-HUT!
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Related:
"In Germany, in March, the authorities made a nationwide appeal: More safety masks were urgently needed. At Melitta, the company that pioneered the paper coffee filter, inspiration was close at hand. “The ergonomics of the thing, the fact that the filter fits exactly over mouth, nose and chin is so unbelievable that you might call it a gift from heaven,” said Katharina Roehrig, a managing director at Melitta, which has a 112-year history with coffee filters. As Germany scrambles to find enough face masks to reopen the economy and public life, serious and not-so-serious businesses have jumped into the fray. They have tried to produce the bizarre (masks made from bras), the unexpected (the Playmobil mask), and the hip (an upcycled cotton mask by a Berlin designer). Melitta has produced about 10 million masks."
You can lead a horse to water.....
"Most heed new rule and cover faces in public, but concerns persist as some scofflaws flout governor’s order" by Dan Adams, Matthew Berg and Stefania Lugli Globe Staff and Globe Correspondent, May 6, 2020
On Wednesday, it became official: Massachusetts residents under an emergency order from Governor Charlie Baker must wear face masks in public if they can’t distance themselves from others, or risk fines of up to $300, but would they fall in line?
The universe quickly set about testing our collective resolve, with the morning offering blue skies, modestly warm temperatures, and the palpable temptation of fresh air, but according to a series of (admittedly unscientific) observations by Globe reporters around the Boston area, a clear majority appeared to be following the rule.
People sported various coverings, including colorful bandanas, hand-sewn cotton-and-elastic affairs, disposable surgical masks, and professional gear meant for medical or industrial use.
Some overachievers were even wearing masks inside their cars, or for the 20-foot walk between the front door of their apartment building and the garbage bins, and nearly everyone seemed to be making at least some effort to keep a safe distance from others by, for example, stepping into the street if others approached on the sidewalk.
(Be sure to salute them)
A significant number of residents, however, were spotted flouting the new requirement — some rather unapologetically.
“[Expletive] off!” a man walking near Maverick Square in East Boston snarled after a reporter asked why he wasn’t wearing a mask as he walked in close proximity to other pedestrians. “Mind your own [expletive] business!"
(Blog editor offers loud applause to the hero)
He wasn’t alone. Nearby, a group of men without face coverings stood in a circle, talking and smoking cigarettes; across the street, an older woman lugging several heavy bags of groceries huffed and puffed with her face exposed, a mask hanging uselessly from a strap around her neck; and two mask-free rollerbladers engaged in a breathless conversation whizzed by at high speed.
How defiant!
One jogger without a mask claimed he had already had COVID-19, but agreed that runners seemed more likely than others to go without a mask. In fact, scofflaws can be found practically everywhere one looks. That’s a cause of concern for those on the front lines of the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
You don't want to run with a mask on; you need oxygen, not CO2.
While failing to wear a mask around others in public can bring significant fines, many local police departments said Wednesday that they would enforce the order through gentler means.
In Worcester, officers will hand out masks to violators, while Springfield officials said they would issue $50 citations only to repeat offenders. Police in Quincy, meanwhile, plan to simply inform residents of the policy and ask them to wear masks.
A number of municipalities had required masks even before Baker’s order, including Brookline, where nearly all the pedestrians in busy Washington Square were covering their faces around lunchtime Wednesday.
For some reluctant mask-stragglers, though, the new statewide rule and the threat of fines prompted them to finally cover up. Adam Rowton, 23, who was jogging in Brookline, was one of them.
“It’s bad to inhale your expired air, and it’s even worse when your heart rate is elevated and you’re breathing heavier," Rowton said from behind a red bandana, explaining why he previously had run without a covering. “I’m hoping [the bandana] will block particles from my breath enough for someone I come close to, but also allow fresh air to be drawn back in.”
Finally, a breath of fresh air!
Many residents said they had noticed a steady increase in the number of people wearing masks in their neighborhoods. For most, with anxieties about the pandemic running high, that’s a welcome trend.....
Good little slave!
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It's all a POLITICAL STATEMENT, readers:
"Face masks make a political statement in era of coronavirus" by Will Weissert and Jonathan Lemire Associated Press, May 7, 2020
WASHINGTON — The decision to wear a mask in public is becoming a political statement — a moment to pick sides in a brewing culture war over containing the coronavirus.
Look at the pre$$ fanning the flames!
While not yet as loaded as a “Make America Great Again” hat, the mask is increasingly a visual shorthand for a debate pitting those willing to follow health officials’ guidance and cover their faces against those who feel it violates their freedom or buys into a threat they think is overblown.
That resistance is fueled by some of the same people who object to other virus restrictions. The push back has been stoked by President Trump — he didn’t wear a mask during a Tuesday appearance at a facility making them — and some other Republicans, who have flouted rules and questioned the value of masks. It’s a development that has worried experts as Americans are increasingly returning to public spaces.
HOW DARE THEY!
“There’s such a strong culture of individualism that, even if it’s going to help protect them, people don’t want the government telling them what to do,” said Linsey Marr, a Virginia Tech engineering professor with experience in airborne transmission of viruses.
He must be talking about Ohio.
Inconclusive science and shifting federal guidance have no doubt muddied the political debate. Whether Americans are embracing the change may depend on their political party. While most other protective measures such as social distancing get broad bipartisan support, Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say they’re wearing a mask when leaving home, 76 percent to 59 percent, according to a recent poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
How you feeling about your job prospects now, 'murkin?
The split is clear across several demographics that lean Democratic. People with college degrees are more likely than those without to wear masks when leaving home, 78 percent to 63 percent. Black people are more likely than either white people or Latinos to say they’re wearing masks outside the home, 83 percent to 64 percent and 67 percent, respectively.
How come White is the only ethnicity that doesn't deserve a capital letter in my $upremaci$t Jew pre$$?
The notable exception is among older people, a group particularly vulnerable to serious illness from the virus. Some 79 percent of those age 60 and older were doing so compared with 63 percent of those younger.
“Who knows what the truth is on masks?” asked Republican Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, who, unlike some of his colleagues, went without a mask Tuesday in the Senate. Paul already contracted the virus and believes he is no longer contagious.
Not only is he now immune from virus ‘‘so he can’t get it again, and can’t give it to anybody,’’ he is a DOCTOR who is speaking truth to power (btw, power already knows the truth; it is mainly concerned with keeping you from realizing it).
Effectiveness aside, politicians of both parties are clued into the powerful symbolism of the mask.
Trump was barefaced when he spoke to masked journalists, workers, and Secret Service agents at the Arizona factory Tuesday. He later said he briefly wore a mask backstage but took it off because facility personnel told him he didn’t need it, but Trump has been mask averse for weeks.
Trump has told advisers that he believes wearing one would “send the wrong message,” according to one administration and two campaign officials not authorized to publicly discuss private conversations. The president said doing so would make it seem like he is preoccupied with health instead of focused on reopening the nation’s economy — which his aides believe is the key to his reelection chances in November.
Then he is a one-term president.
Moreover, Trump, who is known to be especially cognizant of his appearance on television, has also told confidants that he fears he would look ridiculous in a mask and the image would appear in negative ads, according to one of the officials.
“It’s a vanity thing, I guess, with him,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said of Trump on MSNBC.....
She is a fine one to talk!
Go get another botox and collagen treatment, $kank!
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It’s live and let die with — or without — a mask as communities of color fear unequal enforcement during pandemic.
