Arwa Mahdawi on the Kushner threat:

On Thursday, Kushner, who has taken on vast responsibilities in the Trump administration’s response to Covid-19, made his first public appearance at the White House daily coronavirus briefing. His moment in the spotlight seemed to serve as a wakeup call for the US. All of a sudden, it was glaringly obvious how dangerous Kushner’s hubris is…

…Kushner was supposedly at the press briefing to explain the work he has been doing. However, despite him repeating the word ‘“data” 13 times, it quickly became clear that he has no idea what he is doing. He doesn’t even seem to know what the purpose of a federal stockpile of medical equipment is. “It’s

Horribly sad and also terrifying.

Major supermarket chains are beginning to report their first coronavirus-related employee deaths, leading to store closures and increasing anxiety among grocery workers as the pandemic intensifies across the country.

You can see how it’s both. Horribly sad for the workers and terrifying for all of us (the workers included) because how will we get food.

A Trader Joe’s worker in Scarsdale, New York, a greeter at a Giant store in Largo, Maryland, and two Walmart employees from the same Chicago-area store have died of covid-19 in recent days, the companies confirmed Monday. In March, a Seattle neighborhood grocer died from the effects of COVID-19.

Though more than 40 states have ordered nonessential businesses to

Another rally.

Trump on hospital workers suiting up and going in: "It's like no different than you watch the war movies or you watch the old clips of war, running up hills. To me, it's the same thing."

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 6, 2020

Yes. That’s right. It’s like movies. War isn’t actually a real thing, with real bullets and explosions and death and mutilation, it’s a thing you watch, with suited up guys running up hills. Then you have cookies and milk and go to bed.

Trump: "Even governor Pritzker from Illinois is happy." He adds that Pritzker may not be happy when he talks to the press, but in reality, he's happy, he's a happy man.

Johnson and his people have been lying a blue streak.

There was a rumor on Thursday that he was on the point of going into hospital, but they denied it.

Johnson’s aides were emphatic. His condition had not deteriorated, he still had only “mild symptoms”, he hoped to be at work from Friday when his coronavirus isolation period was up – and he had not been admitted to St Thomas’ hospital for treatment. When on Monday evening it emerged that contrary to reassurances about him getting on with his red box, he was being admitted to intensive care, the denials were coming under increasing scrutiny.

FDR and polio. Kennedy’s extremely bad health and addiction to uppers. Reagan’s dementia. Woodrow … Read the rest

Back in 1918…

NHS workers could do worse than examine the experience of another London hospital during the Spanish influenza pandemic just over 100 years ago. Today, that hospital is named St Charles and offers walk-in care at the northern end of Ladbroke Grove, Kensington. But in 1918 it was known as St Marylebone Infirmary and had 744 beds for the “sick poor”, many of whom had tuberculosis and other chronic lung conditions.

In October 1918, as a second wave of Spanish influenza spread across Britain, its wards were inundated with pneumonia cases…

“All training, and indeed every sort of trimming, went by the board,” Hood recalled in his notebook 30 years later. “The staff fought like Trojans to

Boris Johnson is now in intensive care.

CNN: British PM Boris Johnson is being moved to intensive care as a spokesperson for the PM says his condition "has worsened and, on the advice of his medical team, he has been moved to the Intensive Care Unit at the hospital."

— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) April 6, 2020

Nebraska is still open.

Nebraska doctors beg Governor Pete Ricketts for a stay at home order.

He apparently thinks everything will be fine without one, though? maybe? sure. why not. why rush. what's the big deal anyway.https://t.co/3t2OFzxRmd

— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) April 6, 2020

… Read the rest

The pretend Secretary of the Navy says his speech to the sailors was fine.

NEW: Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly says, “I stand by every word,” after reportedly calling Captain Crozier "too naive or too stupid” to be in command. pic.twitter.com/Qcbf3JQKqb

— Geoff Bennett (@GeoffRBennett) April 6, 2020

The crew doesn’t seem to have agreed with the pretend secretary.… Read the rest

CNN tells us:

The Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly blasted the now ousted commander of the USS Theodore Roosevelt as “stupid” in an address to the ship’s crew Monday morning, in remarks obtained by CNN.

Modly told the crew that their former commander, Capt. Brett Crozier, was either “too naive or too stupid” to be in command or that he intentionally leaked to the media a memo in which he warned about coronavirus spreading aboard the aircraft carrier and urged action to save his sailors.

Who is Thomas Modly? A businessman who has served as Acting United States Secretary of the Navy since November 24, 2019. A whopping four months in the job and the highly relevant … Read the rest

Watch Trump physically prevent Fauci from answering a question about hydroxychloroquine.

"I answered this 15 times. You don't have to answer." — Trump prevents Dr Fauci from answering a question about hydroxychloroquine pic.twitter.com/8R1K1hDsaX

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 6, 2020

… Read the rest

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