Interesting. As the virus numbers go up, the taking it seriously numbers go down.

In the face of the coronavirus worsening across the U.S. and reordering the daily life of millions of Americans, fewer people view the pandemic as a real threat, according to a new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll.

Just about 56% of Americans consider the coronavirus a “real threat,” representing a drop of 10 percentage points from last month. At the same time, a growing number of Americans think the coronavirus is being “blown out of proportion.”

The differences between political parties are stark, with a majority of Republicans saying it is overblown and the vast majority of Democrats considering it a legitimate threat.

A … Read the rest

About that 1918 flu pandemic…the CDC has some basics.

The 1918 influenza pandemic was the most severe pandemic in recent history. It was caused by an H1N1 virus with genes of avian origin. Although there is not universal consensus regarding where the virus originated, it spread worldwide during 1918-1919.  In the United States, it was first identified in military personnel in spring 1918.

It is estimated that about 500 million people or one-third of the world’s population became infected with this virus. The number of deaths was estimated to be at least 50 million worldwide with about 675,000 occurring in the United States. Mortality was high in people younger than 5 years old, 20-40 years old, and 65

Qu’ils mangent de la brioche.

I thought she had a “job” in the White House.

Also – okay you drape some sheets to make a tent; then what?

Games with tents and playing camp and stuff are fun with other kids or alone, not with Barbie Mommy in her makeup and earrings.

Plus it’s Princess Ivanka. Don’t nobody want to play with no Princess Ivanka.

Cushions available at Shop Princess Ivanka for $5000 apiece; sheets extra.… Read the rest

It turns out he didn’t take the COVID-19 test after all.

Asked what it was like to take the test, Trump says, "Not, not uh – something I want to do everyday…you know, it's a little bit of a — it's a little bit of — good doctors in the White House, but it's a test. It's a test. It's a medical test. Nothing pleasant about it."

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) March 16, 2020

Here he is saying it.

President Trump was asked how he felt taking the coronavirus test last week: "Nothing pleasant about it" pic.twitter.com/BLKngyGVtZ

— Bloomberg Originals (@bbgoriginals) March 16, 2020

It’s a swab. That’s all, just a swab. Even whiny Trump wouldn’t whine about that. He … Read the rest

He said that? Really?

Pres Trump: "I've felt it was a pandemic before it was called a pandemic. All you had to do was look at other countries…I have always viewed it as very serious."

Note: Last month, Trump said reaction to coronavirus by some was "hoax" and the virus would be "disappear" soon.

— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) March 17, 2020

Updating to add: yes he really said it.

Trump, who not a month ago characterized Democratic criticism of the coronavirus response as a "hoax," now claims, "I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic." pic.twitter.com/6GTpZ59b75

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 17, 2020

Question: Was there a shift in tone?

Answer: I didn’t think, I

David Frum is on a tear.

The President of the United States is up past midnight, not doing any useful work for the nation, but retweeting third-hard accusations that the author of the classic histories of the Soviet Gulag and the Ukrainian famine is soft on communism. pic.twitter.com/io8PKvpUzv

— David Frum (@davidfrum) March 17, 2020

The author in question is Anne Applebaum.

That this president who lavishly praised Kim Jong Un and turned his back on Hong Kong's democracy protesters now positions himself as foe of communism is too ludicrous even to be dishonest. But …

— David Frum (@davidfrum) March 17, 2020

It was not the Chinese Communist Party that crammed thousands of American air travelers into high-exposure holding

Anne Applebaum points out that however good US technology may be, its political system is backward and primitive and thus renders the technology far less useful than it could be.

[N]o officials from the Chinese Communist Party instructed anyone in the United States not to carry out testing. Nobody prevented American public officials from ordering the immediate production of a massive number of tests. Nevertheless, they did not. We don’t know all the details yet, but one element of the situation cannot be denied: The president himself did not want the disease talked of too widely, did not want knowledge of it to spread, and, above all, did not want the numbers of those infected to appear too high. He

Of course he did. Pandemics and cratering economies and millions thrown out of work are one thing, and sticking to a habit of racist name-calling is another.

President Trump drew backlash after posting a tweet using the phrase “Chinese Virus.”

Many officials, including the CDC chief, have criticized the phrase as both inaccurate and harmful in tying racist associations between the virus and those from China. https://t.co/z18jkmjWeD

— NBC News (@NBCNews) March 17, 2020

Fifteen hours ago. No one has deleted it so far.

The United States will be powerfully supporting those industries, like Airlines and others, that are particularly affected by the Chinese Virus. We will be stronger than ever before!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 16, 2020

The Guardian reports:

The Royal Shakespeare Company’s three theatres will close, in line with government advice. The Royal Shakespeare Theatre, the Swan Theatre and the Studio Theatre at The Other Place will all shut for an “undetermined period of time”, the company has said.

Shakespeare was used to that. Playing companies often had to hit the road to tour when plague in London closed the theaters.… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Bruce Gorton on Benefits and their absence.

Just a point here, this is not just a problem with Covid-19.

Look at how many of those people work with food.

Now go look at the CDC:

Sick food workers have been implicated in foodborne illness outbreaks caused by at least 14 different germs. Many of these outbreaks could be prevented simply by making sure that food workers don’t work while they are sick.

Now Covid-19 isn’t transmitted through food so far as anybody knows, but its quite startling when you read:

20% of food workers say they worked at least one shift with vomiting or diarrhea in the past year.

Oh yeah and they’re more … Read the rest

Q: How would you rate your response to the coronavirus on a scale of 1 to 10?

President Trump: "I would rate it a 10."

— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) March 16, 2020

… Read the rest

Trump insists on continuing to tell us he’s got this whole thing under control. He has nothing under control.

America’s top infectious diseases expert is warning that hundreds of thousands of Americans could die unless every citizen joins an effort to blunt the coronavirus pandemic — only to be contradicted by President Donald Trump, who insists the virus is under “tremendous” control.

Fauci knows what he’s talking about, and Trump knows how to flap his lips.

Amid calls for a stronger federal response, Trump urged the nation’s governors late Monday morning to try to secure additional medical equipment on their own without waiting for the federal government to intervene, though he did say they would try to help.

Another one of these “we’re safe because we’re on Team God” fools:

Seriously? #Pakistan #Coronavirus https://t.co/dpZTW3E3CJ

— beena sarwar (@beenasarwar) March 16, 2020

Asif Ashraf Jilali is failing to take into account that God could very well want people to do the right thing, pay attention to medical advice, have a care for other people, and the like. The Koran is full of a whole lot of instructions for how people are to act, right? So the God in question seems to pay attention to what people do, and to judge them for it. Isn’t it blasphemous to think God wants people to be so stubborn and reckless that they insist on gathering in crowds to talk about God instead … Read the rest

One issue:

Source: https://t.co/ZSBuWsPsVF pic.twitter.com/3TBXGutAyT

— Public Citizen (@Public_Citizen) March 16, 2020

Another issue: prisons.… Read the rest

Why Trump’s lies matter:

It’s bad enough that President Trump has relentlessly minimized the coronavirus threat for nakedly political reasons, disastrously hampering the federal government response to the crisis, with untold consequences that we can only guess at.

Determined not to be outdone by his own malice and depravity, Trump is taking new steps that threaten to make all of it worse. He’s telling millions of Americans to entirely shut out any and all correctives to his falsehoods. He’s insisting they must plug their ears to any criticism designed to hold his government accountable for the failures we’re seeing, even though such criticism could nudge the response in a more constructive direction.

And even though getting it wrong means … Read the rest

Jesus won’t let you get the COVID-19 because you’re not pansies.

Right-wing pastor Rodney Howard-Browne is not about to cancel church or prevent congregants from shaking hands because they are not a bunch of "pansies." pic.twitter.com/C36kBIEWqF

— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) March 15, 2020

… Read the rest

Oh look, now Chase Strangio is just plain grooming kids.

Back in the real world, if you find your child is having private video chats with any random adult on the internet, you should definitely take steps to stop that. This not normal, or safe, and all efforts to normalise it should be resisted https://t.co/zKggYQSDHH

— Ben (@BenWlv) March 15, 2020

… Read the rest

The quarantined people of Italy are singing to each other from balconies or windows.

Tenor Maurizio Marchini did just this, taking to his balcony to serenade the rooftops of his hometown, Florence.

Marchini sings Puccini’s impassioned aria from his opera Turandot, ‘Nessun Dorma’, or ‘None shall sleep’. After the aria’s climax with a high B, Maurizio picks up his son and repeats the line Vincerò!, or ‘I will be victorious.’

At full from-the-rooftops volume, which makes the little guy try to cover his ears, but it’s great for the rest of us.

Pandemic? What pandemic?

Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos…

When progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders say “now is the time for solidarity” amid the coronavirus outbreak, they likely do not mean that employees of Whole Foods—owned by the world’s richest man, Jeff Bezos—should be asked to give their own accrued paid sick days to their co-workers who have either contracted the deadly virus or been forced to take time out of work because of what is now a global pandemic.

But that is exactly what executives with the grocery chain are asking its employers to do, even though Bezos could effectively give them unlimited paid sick leave during the current national emergency without barely a scratch in his bank account.

In a