Trump is playing with fire

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/18/opinions/trump-is-playing-with-fire-ghitis/index.html

 President Donald Trump is playing with fire. Just 24 hours after he told the nation's governors, "You are going to call your own shots," when it comes to reopening the economy, the President posted a series of incendiary messages on Twitter that seemed to incite his followers to revolt against the current orders to stay at home.

 

"LIBERATE MICHIGAN!" one tweet shouted in capital letters. He issued similar tweets calling for the liberation of Minnesota and Virginia, including a disturbing addendum for loyalists to "save your great 2nd Amendment," adding, "It is under siege!" It is unclear why Trump brought up gun rights in apparent references to pandemic mitigation measures, but the language is familiar. Who can forget his comments at a rally in 2016, when he considered the possibility that Hillary Clinton might win the presidential election? "If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do folks," Trump said before adding, "Although the Second Amendment people -- maybe there is, I don't know."

A Key G.O.P. Strategy: Blame China. But Trump Goes Off Message.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/18/us/politics/trump-china-virus.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

Republicans increasingly believe that elevating China’s culpability for spreading the coronavirus may be the best way to improve their difficult election chances. The president is muddying the message.

 

Rising Shortage of Dialysis Units Alarms Doctors

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/18/us/coronavirus-updates.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage

Kidney specialists now estimate that 20 percent to 40 percent of patients in intensive care suffered kidney failure and needed emergency dialysis. Outside of New York, the growing demand for kidney treatments is becoming a major burden on hospitals in emerging hot spots like Boston, Chicago, New Orleans and Detroit.

 

White House defends Ivanka Trump's personal travel amid lockdown

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52317673

The White House has defended Ivanka Trump's personal trip to New Jersey last week even as federal guidelines advise Americans to remain at home.

The president's eldest daughter and her family travelled from Washington DC to the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster to celebrate Passover.

Time to fire Jared and Ivanka

 https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/16/opinions/fire-ivanka-and-jared-passover-travel-bergen/index.html

 The hypocrisy of the Kushner and Trump's behavior is breathtaking.

Kushner has now positioned himself as the overall czar of the coronavirus relief effort. Just like his dismal peace-making efforts in the Middle East, Kushner has added another layer of confusion to the muddled White House coronavirus response by, for example, promoting the speedy development of drive-thru nationwide testing sites that still haven't materialized.

Meanwhile Ivanka Trump, a White House adviser, has positioned herself as an avatar of social distancing, telling her 8.5 million followers on Twitter on April 12, "There's no substitute for social distancing."

 Ivanka Trump traveled to New Jersey to celebrate Passover despite coronavirus guidelines

 https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/16/politics/ivanka-trump-travels-to-new-jersey-coronavirus/index.html

  Ivanka Trump traveled with her family from Washington to Bedminster, New Jersey, last week to celebrate Passover, a White House official said Thursday.

Trump's decision to leave Washington, first reported by The New York Times, disregarded the federal coronavirus guidelines advising against discretionary travel that she has urged other Americans to follow.

"Ivanka -- with her immediate family -- celebrated Passover at a closed down facility considered to be a family home. Her travel was no different than had she been traveling to/from work and the location was less populated than the surrounding area near her home in D.C.," the official told CNN in a statement Thursday.

The official continued, "While at Bedminster she has been practicing social distancing and working remotely. Her travel was not commercial. She chose to spend a holiday in private with her family."

 

U.K. Paid $20 Million for New Coronavirus Tests. They Didn’t Work.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/16/world/middleeast/coronavirus-antibody-test-uk.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

 The two Chinese companies were offering a risky proposition: two million home test kits said to detect antibodies for the coronavirus for at least $20 million, take it or leave it.

The asking price was high, the technology was unproven and the money had to be paid upfront. And the buyer would be required to pick up the crate loads of test kits from a facility in China.

Yet British officials took the deal, according to a senior civil servant involved, then confidently promised tests would be available at pharmacies in as little as two weeks. “As simple as a pregnancy test,” gushed Prime Minister Boris Johnson. “It has the potential to be a total game changer.”

There was one problem, however. The tests did not work.

 

White House adviser to 60 Minutes: Show me your pandemic story

Failure: Debunking Trump's Dangerous New Attack On W.H.O During Pandemic | MSNBC

A Crime Against Humanity.’ Why Trump’s WHO Funding Freeze Benefits Nobody

https://time.com/5821122/who-funding-trump-covid19-coronavirus-china/

Public health experts have savaged President Donald Trump’s decision to cut U.S. funding to the World Health Organization (WHO), which he says failed in its “basic duty” during the coronavirus pandemic by promoting “disinformation” from China.

 

The move represents another stunning turnaround for Trump, who in late February praised the WHO for “working hard and very smart,” before souring on the world body in recent days as the U.S. death toll soared. Still, it remains in line with his longstanding distrust of multilateral institutions more generally.

Critics have accused the President of attempting to shift blame away from his own torpid response to the pandemic. The WHO declared a public health emergency on Jan. 30, after which Trump continued to speak at rallies and belittle COVID-19 as “the flu.”

Critics agree the WHO’s response suffered missteps at the outset of the coronavirus outbreak. There was a focus on government information rather than non-official sources, such as whistleblowers like Dr. Li Wenliang. Officials could have investigated how many healthcare workers had become infected, which was clear evidence of human-to-human transmission before official confirmation came Jan. 23. It advised nations not to close borders.

Trump threatens to invoke never-used authority

Ultra-Orthodox Enclave in Israel Opens to Outsiders to Fight a Virus

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/15/world/middleeast/virus-israel-Orthodox-Bnei-Brak.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

When an insular religious community became an epicenter for the coronavirus, its leaders did the unthinkable, calling on the military to help turn things around.

Forbes Magazine: Israel the safest country from coronavirus

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/278720

A study published in Forbes Magazine presents a comprehensive analysis examining the steps taken in various countries around the world as part of the fight against the spread of the Corona virus.

In the study, 60 countries are ranked according to different factors, including safety, risk level, treatment efficacy, and government support for people affected by the economic impact of the virus.

According to Forbes, Israel is the safest country in the world against the virus. In second place are Germany, South Korea and Australia. China is in fifth place.

In the risk index, Italy was ranked as the most dangerous, followed by the US, UK, Spain and France.

Pelosi vows to challenge Trump's 'dangerous, illegal' move to freeze WHO funding

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pelosi-vows-to-challenge-trumps-dangerous-illegal-move-to-freeze-who-funding

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi blasted President Trump’s decision to freeze funding for the World Health Organization, vowing Wednesday to “swiftly” challenge the action amid the coronavirus crisis.

 

Trump’s move to freeze aid to the W.H.O., supported by conservatives, draws criticism.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/15/us/coronavirus-cases-update-live.html

 

President Trump’s public campaign against the World Health Organization — and his order to freeze all money to the group in the middle of a pandemic — is the culmination of mounting anger among his White House advisers, Republican lawmakers and conservative media about the organization’s lavish praise of China’s response to the coronavirus.

Mr. Trump’s decision to attack the W.H.O., a unit of the United Nations, comes as he is under intense fire at home for his administration’s failure to respond aggressively to the virus, which as of Wednesday had claimed more than 25,000 lives in the United States and infected at least 600,000 people in all 50 states.

And the organization was praised by a leading American health official. Dr. Robert R. Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, praised the organization on Wednesday morning, in tones at odds with the president’s harsh criticisms. He told “CBS This Morning” that questions about its pandemic response should be left until “after we get through this.”

Trump retreats from absolute authority claim as he deflects blame for coronavirus crisis to WHO

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/15/politics/trump-coronavirus-crisis/index.html

Deep into his remarks, Trump edged away from his position on Monday that a president could order states to do what he wanted. In face-saving language that lacked constitutional grounding, he said he was "authorizing each individual governor of each individual state to implement a reopening and a very powerful reopening plan of their state." 

 

Trump has spent several days preparing the ground for his attack on the WHO with which he led his news conference. He tapped into legitimate criticism of the WHO's response to the outbreak and complaints that it was too deferential to China and did not act quickly enough to raise the alarm about the novel coronavirus and its pandemic potential.