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The Coronavirus - a virus from eating bats, an accident or something sinister gone wrong?


swordfish

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Tax Day moving to July 15 amid coronavirus crisis, Mnuchin announces: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/tax-day-moving-to-july-15-amid-coronavirus-crisis-mnuchin-announces

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Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced Friday that the deadline for filing federal taxes will move from April 15 to July 15 -- a move to ease the burden the coronavirus outbreak has put on individuals and the economy.

"At @realDonaldTrump’s direction, we are moving Tax Day from April 15 to July 15. All taxpayers and businesses will have this additional time to file and make payments without interest or penalties," he tweeted.

He clarified that taxpayers could still file for refunds now, tweeting: "I encourage all taxpayers who may have tax refunds to file now to get your money."

The move had been expected in some form since earlier this month.

President Trump addressed the change in his daily coronavirus task force briefing.

"Hopefully by that time we'll have people getting back to their lives," Trump said. "Families and businesses will have this extra time to file with no interest or penalties."

He continued: "However if you have refunds or credits you would like to claim, you may still file. In other words you can file early if you are owed money by the IRS."

The administration had announced earlier in the week that it would delay the payments, a move that Mnuchin said would leave $300 billion in the economy at a critical time.

By extending the filing deadline, the government is essentially allowing individuals and businesses to hold on to their money as they deal with lost revenue or paychecks resulting from the economic slowdown as federal and state governments try to keep people home so they don't spread the coronavirus.

...

Good move politically.

 

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Trump Temporarily Suspends Payments On Federal Student Loans: https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahhansen/2020/03/20/trump-temporarily-suspends-payments-on-federal-student-loans/#cf1e59134912

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At a press briefing on Friday, President Trump said that the federal government has temporarily suspended all payments on federally held student loans.

  • Trump said that Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has directed federal lenders to allow borrowers to suspend their student loan payments without penalty.
  • The suspension will be in effect for “at least the next 60 days,” Trump said, “and if we need more, we’ll extend that.”
  • Borrowers should contact their lenders for more information, Trump said, though further guidance has not yet been released.
  • A 60-day waiver on interest that Trump announced last week would have stopped new interest from accruing, but it didn’t make a dent in the amount a borrow must pay every month; this new announcement should.
  • Trump also announced that the Department of Education will not enforce standardized testing requirements for students in elementary through high school this year.
  • ....

Another good political move by Mr. Trump.

 

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UPS Workers Report That UPS' Coronavirus Preparations Are Woefully Inadequate Or Nonexistent: https://jalopnik.com/ups-workers-report-that-ups-coronavirus-preparations-ar-1842420068

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It’s safe to say that, thanks to the COVID-19 Coronavirus, most of you are reading this at home, having willingly separated yourself from other people, from the activities you enjoy, from regular showers and companionship and work and so many other things because you know it’s the right thing to do, and you’re just one person. If you were a massive organization who, by its very design, interacted with thousands and thousands of people every day, you’d think taking Coronavirus precautions would be astronomically more important. If that was so, you would also be making much better decisions than UPS, the huge global package delivery company.

With so many retail businesses shutting their doors during the pandemic, delivery services like UPS have become even more important and crucial than they already were. If you’re stuck at home and you need something, it has to be delivered. There’s just no way around that.

And, even if you’ve effectively quarantined yourself, when you interact with the delivery person you’re exposing yourself to many more people than just that driver, even if you don’t even make physical, direct contact with them.

The cardboard box that you bring into your home has been handled by huge numbers of people, the truck it was delivered in has been occupied by even more people, loaders, drivers, logistics teams. And any COVID-19 viruses that have found their way onto the truck that your package was on can survive for an incredible 72 hours on the hard metal and plastic surfaces. And those same viruses can survive on the cardboard box that’s been in contact with those surfaces and that you’ve just taken into your home for 24 hours.

Package delivery services like UPS are incredible ways not to just deliver huge packages of toilet paper and restaurant-sized tubs of chili, but also to potentially deliver the COVID-19 virus right into your home.

That’s why you’d expect a company like UPS to be taking extreme and comprehensive measures to keep workers safe from infection and, as a result, customers safe as well.

....

As one of the comments states this reads like nothing more than a hit piece aimed at UPS.  Fed Ex and the USPS are probably no better.

How about taking your safety in your own hands and misting your received packages with a bleach solution and letting it dry for like 24 hours before opening it?

 

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2 hours ago, Muda69 said:

UPS Workers Report That UPS' Coronavirus Preparations Are Woefully Inadequate Or Nonexistent: https://jalopnik.com/ups-workers-report-that-ups-coronavirus-preparations-ar-1842420068

As one of the comments states this reads like nothing more than a hit piece aimed at UPS.  Fed Ex and the USPS are probably no better.

How about taking your safety in your own hands and misting your received packages with a bleach solution and letting it dry for like 24 hours before opening it?

 

My dogs actually can discern the Chewy box when it lands on the porch now ......They couldn't care less about the virus - just open the box Dad.......

 

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4 hours ago, Muda69 said:

Tax Day moving to July 15 amid coronavirus crisis, Mnuchin announces: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/tax-day-moving-to-july-15-amid-coronavirus-crisis-mnuchin-announces

Good move politically.

 

I already filed, and I was told the bill was due on April 15. Does that mean that the bill is now due on July 15?

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Justice Department Reportedly Asks Congress for Indefinite Detention Powers To Fight Coronavirus: https://reason.com/2020/03/21/justice-department-reportedly-asks-congress-for-indefinite-detention-powers-to-fight-coronavirus/\

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The Justice Department is using the COVID-19 outbreak to press for sweeping new powers that include being able to detain Americans indefinitely without a trialPolitico reports.

The department is asking Congress to allow the U.S. attorney general to ask courts to suspend court proceedings. These include "any statutes or rules of procedure otherwise affecting pre-arrest, post-arrest, pre-trial, trial, and post-trial procedures in criminal and juvenile proceedings and all civil process and proceedings," reports Betsy Woodruff Swan, citing DOJ documents presented to Congress.

In other words, the Justice Department would be able to postpone trials, hearings, and other procedural steps that follow arrest. That represents a potentially huge violation of the constitutional right to a speedy trial.

Those powers would apply "whenever the district court is fully or partially closed by virtue of any natural disaster, civil disobedience, or other emergency situation," Woodruff Swan writes, and would remain in place for "one year following the end of the national emergency."

 
 

The docs show DOJ has asked Congress to let the attorney general ask chief judges to postpone any and all court proceedings during an emergency, which would include hearings after arresthttps://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/21/doj-coronavirus-emergency-powers-140023 

Perhaps the Justice Department is attempting to find out whether there are any libertarians in a pandemic. The right to see a judge and seek release from detention after an arrest—known in legal lingo as habeas corpus—is one of the fundamental building blocks of a democratic society, one in which the state cannot deprive individuals of their freedom without due process. The times in American history when that right has been suspended or circumvented are some of the darkest. We should not be seeking to repeat them.

"The DOJ proposal is deeply troubling and would raise a whole host of constitutional concerns," says Scott Bullock, president and general counsel for the Institute for Justice, a libertarian law firm. "History demonstrates again and again that governments use a crisis to expand power and violate vital constitutional principles. And when the supposed emergency is over, the expanded powers often become permanent."

Clark Neily, vice president for criminal justice at the Cato Institute, says the Justice Department should not be trusted with more expansive powers.

"If history is any indication, it's a near certainty that these powers will be abused and that DOJ will try to hide those abuses when they occur," says Neily. "This is simply not an agency that has earned the kind of trust implied by these requests for increased authority and discretion."

It's also unclear how allowing indefinite detention would help fight the coronavirus outbreak. It seems more likely that the DOJ is learning from members of Congress and the president that the crisis provides a convenient excuse to ask for things it already wanted in the first place.

"Congress must loudly reply 'NO,'" wrote Rep. Justin Amash on Twitter.

 

Congress must loudly reply NO.

“The Justice Department has quietly asked Congress for the ability to ask chief judges to detain people indefinitely without trial during emergencies.” https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/21/doj-coronavirus-emergency-powers-140023 

 

If you think that those powers, once granted by Congress, would be used only in temporary or emergency situations—well, I have a 2001 Authorization on the Use of Military Force to sell you.

Exactly.  If the Justice Department and Mr. Barr get what they want here it will never go away.  After all never let a good "crisis" go to waste.

Police State.

 

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Israel Pharmaceutical Manufacturer Teva to donate 10 million doses of Hydroxychloroquine to United States. Google has suppressed this information. Bing listed several articles on the first page.

https://www.tevausa.com/news-and-media/press-releases/teva-to-donate-potential-covid-19-treatment-hydroxychloroquine-sulfate-tablets-to-hospitals-nationwide-/

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We Will Regret Not Taking the Economic Effects of Mass Quarantine More Seriously: https://reason.com/2020/03/23/we-will-regret-not-taking-the-economic-effects-of-mass-quarantine-more-seriously/

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"Shelter in place" laws telling residents to stay in their homes whenever possible are sweeping the country, making it clear that public health concerns—as opposed to worries about staving off economic collapse—have carried the day when it comes to responding to the coronavirus. That's a decision we will come to rue as a nation, since a disease's direct death rate is not the only factor to be considered in responding to it.

On Sunday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York, the state with the country's highest number of confirmed coronavirus cases, embodied this decision. During a press conference in which he laid out strict orders for the state's nearly 20 million residents to stay out of parks and offices, he called out New Yorkers who contravened his orders. "It's insensitive, it's arrogant, it's self-destructive, it's disrespectful to other people and it has to stop….This is not a joke, and I am not kidding."

Similar orders have been issued in California, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and other states, with such cities as New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and D.C. adding more localized (and sometimes more onerous) restrictions, such as banning gatherings of more than two people outside of home. Calls for a federal order—resisted so far by President Donald Trump in the name of letting states and cities respond to local conditions—will only intensify as the nation enters the second half of the White House's "15 Days To Slow the Spread" initiative and Congress readies an economic aid bill that will almost certainly top $1 trillion.

It won't be popular to call attention to the possibility that such actions might be an overreaction. But it's a serious point, even if that sentiment has no hopes of carrying the day. The federal government botched the early response to coronavirus, so why should we expect it to get its act together now? Whenever we are finally clear of this pandemic, we will need to study our response to understand what we did right and what we did wrong. With a virtually complete halt of the American economy about to begin, we should enter this phase with full awareness that it wasn't the only choice available to us.

On Friday in The New York Times, David L. Katz of the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center outlined in no uncertain terms what is known about the effects of coronavirus and its likely spread among older and sickly Americans. He pointed out that the death rate on the Diamond Princess cruise ship—"that insular and uniformly exposed population"—is roughly 1 percent. Similar or smaller numbers are observed in countries such as China, Taiwain, Singapore, and South Korea, where the rate of new infections is declining, signaling that infection is at least temporarily under control. As a medical professional, Katz in no way scants public health concerns. But he is also

deeply concerned that the social, economic and public health consequences of this near total meltdown of normal life—schools and businesses closed, gatherings banned—will be long lasting and calamitous, possibly graver than the direct toll of the virus itself. The stock market will bounce back in time, but many businesses never will. The unemployment, impoverishment and despair likely to result will be public health scourges of the first order.

Elsewhere, the Nobel Prize–winning biophysicist Michael Levitt, who predicted—apparently accurately—a much-swifter decline in coronavirus spread in China and elsewhere, is arguing that an overreaction to the disease could do more damage than the disease itself. The Los Angeles Times reports:

While many epidemiologists are warning of months, or even years, of massive social disruption and millions of deaths, Levitt says the data simply don't support such a dire scenario—especially in areas where reasonable social distancing measures are in place.

Levitt isn't waving away health concerns, but he's following the numbers as he finds them. Even in heavily affected countries such as Iran, which is reportedly suffering from a lack of medical resources, new infections have leveled off:

The trajectory of deaths backs up his findings, [Levitt] said. So do data from outbreaks in confined environments, such as the one on the Diamond Princess cruise ship. Out of 3,711 people on board, 712 were infected and eight died. In his view, this unintended experiment in coronavirus spread will help researchers estimate the number of fatalities that would occur in a fully infected population….

He fears the public health measures that have shut down large swaths of the economy could cause their own health catastrophe, as lost jobs lead to poverty and hopelessness. Time and again, researchers have seen that suicide rates go up when the economy spirals down.

On March 19, the editorial board of The Wall Street Journal argued that "no society can safeguard public health for long at the cost of its overall economic health." Just a few days ago, it seemed plausible to argue for a more measured response to the pandemic, one that balanced several areas of concern, including the economy, civil liberties, and the psychological effects of quarantines:

The deadweight loss in production will be profound and take years to rebuild. In a normal recession the U.S. loses about 5% of national output over the course of a year or so. In this case we may lose that much, or twice as much, in a month.

Our friend Ed Hyman, the Wall Street economist, on Thursday adjusted his estimate for the second quarter to an annual rate loss in GDP of minus-20%. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin's assertion on Fox Business Thursday that the economy will power through all this is happy talk if this continues for much longer.

If GDP seems abstract, consider the human cost. Think about the entrepreneur who has invested his life in his Memphis ribs joint only to see his customers vanish in a week. Or the retail chain of 30 stores that employs hundreds but sees no sales and must shut its doors.

Or the recent graduate with $20,000 in student-loan debt—taken on with the encouragement of politicians—who finds herself laid off from her first job. Perhaps she can return home and live with her parents, but what if they're laid off too? How do you measure the human cost of these crushed dreams, lives upended, or mental-health damage that result from the orders of federal and state governments?

Not even a full week later, those concerns seem as distant and irrelevant as arguments against massive (and ineffective) stimulus spending in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. If the problem this time is literally new—"the novel coronavirus"—the politics are all too familiar. As the Journal editors put it:

 

The politicians in Washington are telling Americans, as they always do, that they are riding to the rescue by writing checks to individuals and offering loans to business. But there is no amount of money that can make up for losses of the magnitude we are facing if this extends for several more weeks. After the first $1 trillion this month, will we have to spend another $1 trillion in April, and another in June?

For the next few weeks (months? years?), nothing will matter more to politicians and the media except increasingly stringent public health measures that will become more draconian (and probably less successful) than those taken in countries such as South Korea, where life is beginning to drift back to normal. But as the window on a measured response gets nailed shut like the apartment doors of infected residents in China reportedly were, we should put in a marker to come back to these questions whenever life returns to normal.

These policies are killing the United States of America,  and that death is not from the COVID-19.  

 

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Here's what Indiana's 'stay at home order' means during the coronavirus pandemic: https://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2020/03/23/indianas-stay-home-order-what-means-how-long-lasts/2899240001/

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Gov. Eric Holcomb's office posted a guide to explain the two-week "stay at home" executive order he signed, effective Tuesday, to fight the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The order generally asks Hoosiers to work from home and to limit travel to essential trips, such as buying groceries, caring for others or picking up carryout food from restaurants. He asked that people not buy more than they need. The order allows for outdoor activities such as walking.

Here is the news release:

When does the order take effect?

The Stay-At-Home Order takes effect Tuesday, March 24 at 11:59 p.m. ET.

When does the order end?

The order ends on Monday, April 6, at 11:59 p.m. ET, but could be extended if the outbreak warrants it.

...

"Outdoor activities such as walking."  Good, should be no issues with my short hiking and backpacking trip planned for later in the week.   Not that such an order would stop me in the first place.................

 

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Eating out? Nope 

The Indiana Alcohol and Tobacco Commission will be looking for restaurants, bars and other establishments that remain open for eat-in customers. Fines and suspension of permits are potential penalties for violators. Carry-out and delivery are still permitted

Police State.

 

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Back to Work by March 30: A Coronavirus Imperative: https://spectator.org/back-to-work-by-march-30-a-coronavirus-imperative/

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China and Russia are open for business and working at close to capacity, as America shutters most all business and industry in states such as Pennsylvania, New York, California, New Jersey, and Connecticut. In many cases only select manufacturing companies are allowed to operate, which means most manufacturers will be short of parts and services necessary to produce goods.

Our leaders are creating an economic crisis and a major national security risk with limited data. The cure is far worse than any perceived impact by COVID-19. Our economy is both fragile and interdependent, an economic reality not understood by our leaders as they order mass closings of many states’ business and industry.

Thomas Sowell wrote, “There are no solutions. There are only tradeoffs.” Sowell was informing us that wise and sound judgments are imperative during any crisis.

An opinion piece by John P. A. Ioannidis, professor of medicine, epidemiology, and population health at Stanford University, is headlined, “A fiasco in the making? As the coronavirus pandemic takes hold, we are making decisions without reliable data.”

This season the flu has killed 22,000 Americans versus 388 dead from COVID-19. This the hard data available. There has been no national discussion about the flu but complete panic on the coronavirus.

The restaurant industry, which is the largest employer in America, is closed in most states. Now we will begin to witness the industries that support restaurants and hotels begin to shutter.

Marriott Corporate in Bethesda, Maryland, has furloughed 66 percent of its employees and cut the pay of the remaining employees by 20 percent. Such actions by major employers will have a devastating impact on the U.S. economy.

The Big Three automakers and their suppliers are closed, which means hundreds of thousands of workers are laid off and at home. This will quickly lead to more layoffs and many small business failures. There is no amount of government money that can make up for an economy closed and workers staying home.

We all know that food and supplies are critical to families. Most individuals assume these products and services will be available. But as we have witnessed, when demand exceeds supply and businesses are shuttered, supply runs out.

Supply of goods and services is quickly becoming a more important national issue than the COVID-19 panic. The virus will not adversely impact most Americans, but they will sustain substantial financial losses and at some point supplies will run out.

Schools can shut down, and sick people should stay home, along with older or at-risk individuals, until the panic subsides, but the healthy must be allowed to work.

Every family, state, city, and business can make the best decisions during this crisis, but we cannot have simplistic top-down mandates.

We are quickly moving toward a supply problem. Just-in-time inventory means we make products as needed. If the producers are closed, we run out of goods quickly.

Wiring $3,000 to most Americans may seem like a solution, but unless we have a supply of the goods families need, the money will not help. The best way for families to have income is for America to be open for business and not risk shortages and civil unrest. It is noteworthy that liquor, ammo, and guns sales are robust.

The federal government has no money and is $23 trillion in debt. Now Congress contemplates a $2 trillion economic bailout, which is pushing the limits of how much Congress can borrow and will eventually create a major financial meltdown. The solution is a robust economy producing goods, services, and financial stability.

All healthy Americans who want to work must be allowed to return to work no later than March 30. This common-sense approach will allow new production and for the healthy to support those in need.

I urge our President Trump to speak to Americans from a Midwest manufacturing plant, away from the Swamp, and appeal to all governors and Americans to overcome their fears and take reasonable precautions, but allow America to open for business by March 30.

 

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5 hours ago, TrojanDad said:

Surely Google is always on the up and up......right???

The smart people already Googled and found out this drug used to treat Malaria can very easily be lethal if used against Covid-19. 

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When this is all over, don’t expect politicians to lose their taste for ordering us around.: https://reason.com/2020/03/23/with-covid-19-that-which-is-not-forbidden-is-mandatory-and-subsidized/

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Whatever your feelings about the right response to the COVID-19 pandemic, chances are that what you're actually doing was dictated to you by government officials at one level or another. It's equally likely that you have no idea what costs you'll ultimately face as a result of those mandates from above or because of promised subsidies and economic interventions.

Across the country, political figures are racing to do something—anything!—so long as it's mandatory for you and your neighbors. And they're pleased to offer showers of magic money borrowed from the future to pick up some or all of the costs.

Who knew that a virus would threaten to turn the Land of the Free into a command society where what we do is directed and paid for by the state?

"I'm calling on the Federal Government to nationalize the medical supply chain," Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York announced on Sunday. "The Federal Government should immediately use the Defense Production Act to order companies to make gowns, masks and gloves."

Cuomo joined a chorus of voices including CNN's Jake Tapper and MSNBC's Kyle Griffin asking President Trump to follow up on his invocation of the dusty, Korean War-era Defense Production Act, which gave the government Soviet-style power over the economy in order to fight communism.

But why should the government start bossing private businesses around when these businesses are already scrambling to meet the massive demand for medical equipment driven by the COVID-19 pandemic?

Industrial giant 3M, which makes much-sought N95 masks, has already doubled output to 100 million units per month. Its efforts are being supplemented by fashion industry designers and manufacturers switching from fashion-forward clothes to medical supplies to meet massive demand.

Distillers, who have alcohol to spare, are stepping step into the gap to manufacture hand sanitizer, which is disappearing from shelves as fast as it's restocked (the only help they seem to need is regulators getting out of the way).

Ford and General Motors have announced plans to reopen car factories currently closed by the pandemic in order to manufacture ventilators to help critical-care COVID-19 patients. They're working with existing manufacturers to increase capacity using existing designs.

Some of the more interesting responses are the decentralized ones meeting peculiar local needs. That includes the hospitals and clinics working with their communities to share plans for masks that people can sew at home. It also means the Italian 3D-printer company—one of many such small, responsive firms responding to the crisis—that stepped up to supply components when a local hospital ran short of valves for connecting respirators to oxygen masks.

Nationalization of the medical supply chain, as Governor Cuomo demands, would replace a normal marketplace (well, normal-ish, considering the already considerable government intervention in medicine) of shifting incentives, responsive prices and supplies, and unplanned innovation with a single purchaser. That purchaser—the government—will also decide which lucky recipients get what, and the cost to the end user.

Likewise, social distancing seems to be a good idea during a pandemic, with many employers scrambling to promote telecommuting, schools and families struggling to master distance learning, and businesses innovating to survive the pandemic, if they can. (Even the long-established handshake may fall victim to COVID-19, fated to be replaced by less intimate greetings; the air kiss may finally have its day.) Not everybody is behaving as every official and expert would like, but it's not obvious that they should; we don't all face the same risks and we don't all live in the same circumstances. Nevertheless, most people have made big changes to work safeguards into their lives.

But politicians think such normal safeguards don't count unless they're enforced by law. That means we don't get individual decisions responding to varied preferences, values, and demands, but mandates from above, like California Gov. Gavin Newsom's stay-at-home order, reading in part:

I as State Public Health Officer and Director of the California Department of public Health order all individuals living in the State of California to stay home or at their place of residence except as needed to maintain continuity of operations of the federal critical infrastructure sectors, as outlined at https://www.cisa.gov/identifying-critical-infrastructure-during-covid-19.

Forget that government officials' idea of "critical" may not match yours (Reason's Eric Boehm points out that politicians may disdain laundromats, but they're a necessity for many people). Forget, too, that you can't shut down parts of an economy without affecting the whole thing.

The politicians don't care, and they'll enforce their whims: violation of the California order is a misdemeanor, "punishable by a fine of not to exceed one thousand dollars ($1,000) or by imprisonment for not to exceed six months or by both." States including Connecticut, Illinois, Louisiana, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, threaten similar penalties for not obeying government orders.

Of course, smothering whole sectors of the economy, and maybe the whole thing, might end up being a bit pricey. We should get ready for "a tsunami of economic destruction that will cause tens of millions to lose their jobs as commerce and production simply cease," the Wall Street Journal editorial board warns.

Not to worry, the government has a plan. Another plan, that is.

After ordering people to close businesses and having killed jobs, while threatening to nationalize procurement for the healthcare industry, government leaders want to make it all better by moving money around to offset the losses. With a price tag closing in on $2 trillion, Democrats and Republicans are competing to stuff favored corporate bailouts, interest-group payoffs, unemployment benefits for those forcibly sidelined, and more, more, more!

The ultimate result will be to transform a more-or-less free society, driven by individual preferences and private decision-making, into one in which planning is centralized and costs are shifted according to governmental priorities. You can assume that some calculation will be built into that spending, too – rewards for friends and punishment for enemies, as is always the case in politics. That is, we're becoming a country in which much of what we do is both mandatory and subsidized.

When this is all over, don't expect politicians to lose their taste for ordering us around. That's a hard habit to break. You can be certain, though, that they'll want us to thank them profusely for the checks they cut to offset some of what they inflict on us.

Exactly.  America is quickly becoming a police state, and a lot of it won't end once this COVID-19 scare is over.  After all what will happen when "COVID-20" comes around, we need to keep all of these restrictions, rules, and regulations in place so we will be better prepared.  Right?

 

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Arizona man dies after self-medicating with chloroquine to treat coronavirus: https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/23/health/arizona-coronavirus-chloroquine-death/index.html

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A Phoenix-area man is dead and his wife is under critical care after the two took chloroquine phosphate in an apparent attempt to self-medicate for the novel coronavirus, according to hospital system Banner Health.

It does not appear they took the pharmaceutical version of the drug, but rather "an additive commonly used at aquariums to clean fish tanks," Banner Health said in a statement.
Though Banner did not provide additional details, NBC News spoke to the wife, who said they learned of chloroquine's connection to coronavirus during a President Donald Trump news conference, which "was on a lot actually."
"I had (the substance) in the house because I used to have koi fish," she told the network.
 
Trump has touted chloroquine as a possible treatment for Covid-19. It is approved by the Food and Drug Administration for treating malaria, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, but the FDA has not approved it to treat the coronavirus.
..

<TDS>Absolutely, positively, 100% Mr. Trump's fault.</TDS>

 

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53 minutes ago, Muda69 said:

Arizona man dies after self-medicating with chloroquine to treat coronavirus: https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/23/health/arizona-coronavirus-chloroquine-death/index.html

<TDS>Absolutely, positively, 100% Mr. Trump's fault.</TDS>

 

Certainly not Trump’s fault. It’s not his fault this couple was dumb enough to believe him.

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Latest Coronavirus Relief Draft Bill Includes Suspending Car Payments: https://www.autonews.com/automakers-suppliers/pelosis-25-trillion-stimulus-bill-delays-mortgage-car-payments

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unveiled a $2.5 trillion virus economic stimulus plan in a bid to shape negotiations on a Senate measure that stalled on Monday, triggering a sell-off in U.S. equities markets.

Pelosi’s 1,400-page bill would have broad implications for the financial sector. It would force lenders to grant a temporary reprieve from mortgage and car payments and credit card bills. It would order the Federal Reserve to provide loan servicers with liquidity to allow borrowers to stop paying their mortgages for up to 360 days. Public housing residents would get a temporary reprieve from paying rent, and student loan borrowers would have $10,000 of debt forgiven.

Negative consumer credit reporting would be halted. Foreclosures and evictions would be banned.

There are currently no plans for House members to return to Washington to vote on the bill, and the proposal appears to be a list of demands Democrats want to see included in the Senate bill. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer spent much of Monday negotiating behind closed doors on the Senate proposal, initially introduced last week.

“Secretary Mnuchin just left my office,” Schumer said on the Senate floor shortly after House Democrats introduced their bill. “We are going to work on into the night.”

The auto industry awaits the terms of whatever stimulus bill ends up on President Donald Trump's desk. 

...

Good grief.  

 

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36 minutes ago, gonzoron said:

Certainly not Trump’s fault. It’s not his fault this couple was dumb enough to believe him.

"It's shown very encouraging -- very, very encouraging early results. And we're going to be able to make that drug available almost immediately. And that's where the FDA has been so great. They -- they've gone through the approval process; it's been approved. And they did it -- they took it down from many, many months to immediate. So we're going to be able to make that drug available by prescription or states."

"Normally the FDA would take a long time to approve something like that, and it's -- it was approved very, very quickly and it's now approved, by prescription."

 

Except that it hasn't been approved by the FDA.

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So I guess FDA approval is the pinnacle of safety and efficacy when it comes to medications.

“FDA approval is based on evidence — provided by the company that makes the medical product — that the benefits of the product outweigh the risks for most patients for a specific use. It doesn’t necessarily mean the product is safe.” - Diana Zuckerman, president of the National Center for Health Research

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Doctors hoard unproven COVID-19 meds by writing prescriptions for selves, families: https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/03/doctors-hoard-unproven-covid-19-meds-by-writing-prescriptions-for-selves-families/

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A nationwide shortage of two drugs touted as possible treatments for the coronavirus is being driven in part by doctors inappropriately prescribing the medicines for family, friends, and themselves, according to pharmacists and state regulators.

“It’s disgraceful, is what it is,” said Garth Reynolds, executive director of the Illinois Pharmacists Association, which started getting calls and emails Saturday from members saying they were receiving questionable prescriptions. “And completely selfish.”

Demand for chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine surged over the past several days as President Donald Trump promoted them as possible treatments for the coronavirus and online forums buzzed with excitement over a small study suggesting the combination of hydroxychloroquine and a commonly used antibiotic could be effective in treating COVID-19.

Reynolds said the Illinois Pharmacists Association has started reaching out to pharmacists and medical groups throughout the state to urge doctors, nurses, and physician assistants not to write prescriptions for themselves and those close to them.

“We even had a couple of examples of prescribers trying to say that the individual they were calling in for had rheumatoid arthritis,” he said, explaining that pharmacists suspected that wasn’t true. “I mean, that’s fraud.”

In one case, Reynolds said, the prescriber initially tried to get the pills without an explanation and only offered up that the individual had rheumatoid arthritis after the pharmacist questioned the prescription.

In a bulletin to pharmacists on Sunday, the state association wrote that it was “disturbed by the current actions of prescribers” and instructed members on how to file a complaint against physicians and nurses who were doing it.

“People are losing their minds about this product,” said Brian Brito, president of SMP Pharmacy Solutions in Miami. “We’re selling so much of this stuff and people are just stockpiling it prophylactically if anybody in their family gets sick—they’re just holding on to it.”

The two drugs are only available through a prescription and cannot be purchased over the counter. Hydroxychloroquine, sold under the brand name Plaquenil, is approved to treat lupus and rheumatoid arthritis while chloroquine is an anti-malarial treatment.

There is little evidence that the drugs work to treat coronavirus, although clinical trials are underway to find out. But as coronavirus cases multiply and protective gear for medical workers vanishes from emergency rooms, many patients and physicians see the drugs as the only hope to reverse the course of serious disease.

Brito said his pharmacy had about 800 tablets on Monday and were nearly sold out in about an hour. One doctor called and asked for 200 tablets, but the company refused. “He was a little upset about it but he understood and he went quickly from 200 to 42 tablets, which is essentially treating two people,” Brito said. “So yeah, they’re stockpiling it.”

A pharmacist in Houston, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation and violating patient privacy, said he was recently asked by a surgeon for an unusually large quantity with unlimited refills. “He said it was because his wife had lupus,” the pharmacist said, “but when I asked him for her name and diagnosis, he told me just to put it in his.”

Lupus patients are reporting difficulty in refilling their prescriptions for the drug. On Monday, the Lupus Foundation of America issued a joint statement asking the White House Coronavirus Task Force to “take action to ensure current supplies are allocated for patients taking them for indicated uses.” Several states in the past few days have already moved to limit prescriptions of the drugs, neither of which is approved to treat the coronavirus. Trump, in press conferences and tweets over the past week, has promoted the use of the drugs as potentially blunting the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak.

.....

The power of the U.S. Presidency,  ladies and gentlemen.

 

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27 minutes ago, Muda69 said:

So I guess FDA approval is the pinnacle of safety and efficacy when it comes to medications.

“FDA approval is based on evidence — provided by the company that makes the medical product — that the benefits of the product outweigh the risks for most patients for a specific use. It doesn’t necessarily mean the product is safe.” - Diana Zuckerman, president of the National Center for Health Research

Has nothing to do with it ... the President said those statements and they hadn't been approved.  Matter of fact, the subsequent post helps promote the point in the danger of misinformation ... especially the commentary of the "power of the U.S. Presidency" which can lead to unintentional, or perhaps, intentional consequences.  Perhaps some Senators might be investing in Teva at this point?

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35 minutes ago, foxbat said:

 Perhaps some Senators might be investing in Teva at this point?

Up over 6% on the NYSE as of the writing of this post.  I would buy if I had any $ to invest at the moment. Wouldn't you?

 

 

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Frankfort Utilities Urging People to Not Flush Disinfecting Wipes: https://clintoncountydailynews.com/frankfort-utilities-urging-people-to-not-flush-disinfecting-wipes/

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Due to individuals flushing disinfecting wipes, napkins or paper towels down the toilet, Frankfort Utilities has released the following urging people to not do this. What will happen is that the Wastewater Treatment Plan will become overwhelmed in addition to consumers will face in-home plumbing backups and blockages..

The following is a release from Frankfort Utilities General Manager Todd Corrie.

Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, we are aware of the increased use of “flushable” wipes and flushing of non-flushable materials such as baby wipes, disinfecting wipes, napkins and paper towels. While the “flushable” wipes concern is not new to wastewater facilities, we are instructing our community members to pay extra attention to what they are using and flushing and remind you NOT to flush anything other than toilet paper. The wipes and paper towels do not break down like toilet paper, and therefore clog systems very quickly.

The COVID-19 outbreak concern has created additional stress and uncertainty for everyone, and while we understand that supply shortages exacerbate these stresses and challenges, it is important to keep in mind that flushing anything other than toilet paper can create expensive and unsanitary problems for homeowners and businesses. Flushing wipes (even those labeled “flushable”) and other non-toilet paper materials causes clogs, backups, equipment and pipe breakages, and in bad cases, can even force raw sewage back into peoples’ homes. The cost to repair these damages is unfortunately borne by individual homeowners or the public.

As a reminder, the following products are NOT flushable, dispose in a waste basket:

  • Paper towels
  • Napkins
  • Kleenex and other tissues
  • Wet wipes/baby wipes (even those labeled as “flushable” wipes)
  • Diapers
  • Feminine hygiene products
  • Gauze/Band-Aids

Thank you for helping keep our community and facilities clean and functioning! If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to us at the Wastewater Treatment Plant at 765-659-4741.

Thanks Mr. Trump.

 

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