Trump is still insisting on noisily promoting a drug that’s untested for use against the virus.

With millions of citizens desperate for safe information and trustworthy medical orientations, the President of the #UnitedStates continues to sell medical drugs with unknown consequences on prime time. Beyond surreal. Follow @atrupar's thread. #COVID19 #COVID19Pandemic https://t.co/xxGUYRNLUF

— Alexandre Krauss (@AlexandreKrausz) April 5, 2020

Ooh ooh ooh I know the answer to that one. Sometimes the powerful drugs kill things you DO want living within your body and you wind up dead.

Trump on why he's giving medical advice even though he's not a doctor: "What really do we have to lose? … we don't have time to go and say, 'gee, let's take

Interesting how Trump keeps singling out Yamiche Alcindor to disparage and snarl at her. I wonder why that could be.

Mr. President, @realDonaldTrump, I’ve asked you fair & relevant questions on your evolving approach & rhetoric regarding coronavirus. For example, last Sun., I asked: You've said some governors don't need the equipment they're requesting. How might that impact your decisions? 1/3 https://t.co/vJWH2tk4Ch

— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) April 5, 2020

Now, there are more than 328,000 confirmed U.S. coronavirus cases & more than 9,300 people have died. You have said the next two weeks will be the toughest. I welcome you to come on PBS NewsHour for an interview on your administration's response & how Americans can stay safe. 3/3

Originally a comment by Bruce Gorton on Worst ever.

Recently I heard a rant by Ben Shapiro. I generally avoid Shapiro, because I don’t like disingenuous little shits who think being captain of the debate club equals having an education, but still, I heard it.

Shapiro was going on about how workers who went on strike were just as bad as price gougers right now, and it struck me.

For years the US has had the most expensive medicine in the world. It has gotten so bad that prior to the lockdown, Americans were going to Mexico to buy diabetes medication.

So when it was not a pandemic, and people will die from lack of medication, Shapiro was absolutely … Read the rest

If only it were Trump.

Boris Johnson has been admitted to hospital with coronavirus after suffering persistent symptoms for 10 days.

Downing Street insisted it was just a precautionary measure but Johnson’s admission on a Sunday evening comes after days of rumours that his condition has been worsening.

…

The Guardian was told last week that Johnson was more seriously ill than either he or his officials were prepared to admit, and that he was being seen by doctors who were concerned about his breathing.

But Downing Street flatly denied that the prime minister’s health had seriously deteriorated, and insisted there were no plans at that point for him to be admitted to hospital.

And Downing Street would never … Read the rest

Sad and infuriating:

A California megachurch has found itself at the center of a coronavirus outbreak after public health officials connected it to 71 cases , even as church leaders say they have been unfairly blamed for failing to take action to stop the spread among church members.

County health officials have put Bethany Slavic Missionary church, a Pentecostal house of worship in a suburb of Sacramento, at the heart of one of the largest outbreak clusters in the country. The church is reported to be the largest Slavic congregation in the US, with 3,500 members and a total attendance at some services of up to 10,000.

The county’s public health director said that a third of all coronavirus

Another press briefing campaign rally, perhaps the weirdest yet.

Trump criticizes New York for asking for tens of thousands of ventilators: "When they know they do not need it, they want it anyway. It gives them that extra feeling of satisfaction, but we cannot do that. It is not even possible. We are a backup." pic.twitter.com/h4g8LOinH9

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 4, 2020

At this stage of the rally, the early stage, he comes across as drunk, exhausted, sick, something – gabbling, slurring, and seeming to talk through a gallon or two of his own drool.

“…when thee brunt of it comes, which is coming quickly, you see it, you see it as sure as you can see it” [rising … Read the rest

The long haul:

“I think this idea … that if you close schools and shut restaurants for a couple of weeks, you solve the problem and get back to normal life — that’s not what’s going to happen,” says Adam Kucharski, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and author of The Rules of Contagion, a book on how outbreaks spread. “The main message that isn’t getting across to a lot of people is just how long we might be in this for.”

Predictions are that a vaccine will take 12 to 18 months, so that’s probably how long.

Long.

Very long.

Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, agrees

To the surprise of no one:

JARED KUSHNER’S family real estate company, which owns and manages thousands of apartment units, continued its aggressive eviction practices and debt collection lawsuits as Americans wait for government relief. Well into the coronavirus crisis, which has led to skyrocketing unemployment, court records show properties owned by Kushner Companies are still filing new eviction lawsuits.

No shit. Did anyone think Jared Kushner is any kind of humane or decent person?

At least 15 tenants in New Jersey and Maryland have been on the receiving end of lawsuits from Kushner-owned properties even after both states declared states of emergency. Gov. Phil Murphy, D-N.J., and Gov. Larry Hogan, R-Md., have both called for a moratorium on

Oh really?

Trump: We inherited "obsolete" "broken" tests from Obama admin. Now we have good tests. pic.twitter.com/oEGloP3lAE

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) April 3, 2020

Tests for a virus that didn’t exist until 3 years after Obama’s term expired. … Read the rest

This is an incredible display.

Wow. Trump unloads on a reporter who dared to ask him about Kushner saying on Thursday that the federal ventilator stockpile is "our" stockpile & not the states'.

"When he says 'our,' he's talking about our country … it's such a basic, simple question. You oughta be ashamed." pic.twitter.com/HWWkTWs00e

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 3, 2020

… Read the rest

Another campaign rally:

"We continue to study the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine," Trump says, reading, and will keep Americans updated.

Then, ad-libbing, he says, "I don't know, it's looking like it's having some good results."

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 3, 2020

Meaning, he wants it to have some good results.

Trump thanks the banks, says they're "incredible" and making sure that the money is getting to small businesses so we can get back to "where we were."

He adds, "Eventually, we're going to supersede where we were."

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 3, 2020

Yeah the banks. Let’s talk up the banks. They’re the real heroes here.

Also: no we’re not. We’re going to be in a deep deep hole … Read the rest

Daniel Drezner on Trump as toddler:

Trump’s toddler traits have significantly hampered America’s response to the pandemic. They aren’t new, either. In the first three years of his term, I’ve collected 1,300 instances when a Trump staffer, subordinate or ally — in other words, someone with a rooting interest in the success of Trump’s presidency — nonetheless described him the way most of us might describe a petulant 2-year-old. Trump offers the greatest example of pervasive developmental delay in American political history.

Or delay combined with deterioration. He’s always been stupid and ignorant, but word is he hasn’t always been this stupid.

[T]he Trump White House’s inadequate handling of the outbreak highlights his every toddler-like instinct. The most obvious

Ok this one shocked me. One keeps thinking shock has become impossible but they pull the football away again.

The official government webpage for the Strategic National Stockpile was altered Friday to seemingly reflect a controversial description of the emergency repository that White House adviser Jared Kushner offered at a news conference Thursday evening.

According to a brief online summary on the Department of Health and Human Services website, the stockpile’s role “is to supplement state and local supplies during public health emergencies. Many states have products stockpiled, as well.”

But just hours earlier, the text characterized the stockpile as the “nation’s largest supply of life-saving pharmaceuticals and medical supplies for use in a public health emergency severe enough

Let’s go through The Letter.

Dear Senator Schumer:

Thank you for your Democrat public relations letter and incorrect sound bites, which are wrong in every way.

He manages to dictate the first three words as an adult would, but then the enraged toddler breaks through. The adjective is “Democratic.” The letter was a request to expedite the provision of supplies IN A PANDEMIC – one that threatens the lives of millions or billions of people. It was not a public relations letter, it was a doing government work letter in a dire emergency. Imagine Franklin Roosevelt sending rude childish letters to Republican Senators a few hours after Pearl Harbor. It wasn’t “sound bites,” it wasn’t “incorrect,” it wasn’t “wrong in … Read the rest

Pinocchio-lookalike Jared Kushner takes the stage at a pandemic press briefing to say: “The President wanted to make sure that we had the best people doing the best jobs and making sure we had the right people focused on all of the things that needed to happen to make sure that we can deliver” while Anthony Fauci has to have a security detail.

The government’s top infectious disease doctor, Anthony Fauci, is now receiving security protection after becoming the face of the nation’s coronavirus response — and a target of some supporters of President Donald Trump.

…

HHS Secretary Alex Azar had grown concerned about the growing online attacks against Fauci — whose profile has soared since he started

Reaction to Jared Kushner’s new role as replacement for Anthony Fauci is not universally ecstatic.

Jared Kushner is at the coronavirus press conference. Dr. Fauci is not. So there’s definitely no reason for anyone to air this garbage. #StopAiringTrump

— Scott Dworkin (@funder) April 2, 2020

Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner at briefing, praises his father-in-law's response to the Coronavirus: "The president has been very hands-on…"

— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) April 2, 2020

The president has been very hands on the microphone, the podium, other people, but he has not been busy responding to the pandemic.

One takeaway from Jared Kushner briefing: we did not start active response phase of dealing with this crisis until 13 days ago.

Oh wait, it turns out Kushner is totally qualified to save us from the pandemic.

Here's Jared Kushner going for the world record of most meaningless corporate buzzwords used in a single one-minute video clip pic.twitter.com/Vy1QJEhLQa

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 2, 2020

Data, models, decisions, informed, people, focused, things, deliver, teams, barriers, lines of effort.

It’s a fucking pep talk. From Howdy Doody.… Read the rest