Five of Donald Trump's most misleading coronavirus claims

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/28/trump-coronavirus-misleading-claims
 

As US deaths rise, the president seems unable to grasp the severity of the problem – and he’s made multiple false claims along the way

 

Pelosi not invited by Trump to White House coronavirus relief bill's signing

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/489913-pelosi-not-invited-by-trump-to-white-house-coronavirus-relief-bills-signing

A White House official confirmed to The Hill that no Democrats were invited to the bill-signing event. But in the Oval Office ceremony, Trump — flanked by top Cabinet members, aides and GOP lawmakers — heaped praise on bipartisan negotiators.

 

Haredi communities urged to ‘wake up’ as infections in Bnei Brak, Jerusalem soar

https://www.timesofisrael.com/ultra-orthodox-communities-urged-to-wake-up-as-virus-infections-soar/

Bnei Brak Mayor Avraham Rubinstein, himself currently quarantined for fear of exposure, urged residents Friday to “wake up!” He said the city was seeing the highest infection rate in the country, with “the forecast far more frightening.” Rubinstein called on the public to “stop with the wise-guy minyans [quorum of 10 Jewish adults required for prayer] of more than 10, keep your distances, and stop the crowding and congestion at supermarkets. Just stay at home and be careful, this is dangerous.”

The US hits a grim new record as Trump continues to preach optimism

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/28/politics/what-matters-march-27/index.html\\\

 The US is now the world leader in coronavirus infections, with more than 100,000 as of Friday. That includes more than 25,000 in New York City, where hospitals are already overwhelmed.

Yet it is impossible to reconcile the messages being blasted to the country on competing platforms by President Donald Trump, on the one hand, and by the nation's top infectious disease doctor, on the other.

 

AP FACT CHECK: Trump’s inaccurate boasts on China travel ban

https://apnews.com/0dc271ad7f7917374a5a0cfb49273783

TRUMP: “Everybody was against it. Almost everybody, I would say, was just absolutely against it. ... I made a decision to close off to China that was weeks early. ... And I must say, doctors — nobody wanted to make that decision at the time.” — Fox News virtual town hall Tuesday.

TRUMP: “I’ll tell you how prepared I was, I called for a ban.” — news briefing on March 19.

THE FACTS: His decision was far from solo nor was it made over opposition from health experts, as the White House coronavirus task force makes clear. His decision followed a consensus by his public health advisers that the restrictions should take place.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, who was coordinator of the task force at the time and announced the travel restrictions, said Trump made the decision in late January after accepting the “uniform recommendation of the career public health officials here at HHS.”

While the World Health Organization did advise against the overuse of travel restrictions, Azar told reporters in February that his department’s career health officials had made a “considered recommendation, which I and the president adopted” in a bid to slow spread of the virus.

Most major airlines had already suspended flights to China prior to the announcement on Jan. 31, following the lead of several major international carriers that had stopped due to the coronavirus outbreak. Delta, American and United cited a sharp drop in demand for the flights, and an earlier State Department advisory told Americans not to travel to China because of the outbreak.

___

TRUMP: “And if we didn’t do that, thousands and thousands of people would have died.” — news briefing Wednesday.

THE FACTS: The impact hasn’t been quantified. While Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health has praised the travel restrictions on China for slowing the virus, it’s not known how big an impact they had or if “thousands and thousands” of lives were saved.

There were plenty of gaps in containment.

Trump’s order did not fully “close” the U.S. off to China, as he asserts. It temporarily barred entry by foreign nationals who had traveled in China within the previous 14 days, with exceptions for the immediate family of U.S. citizens and permanent residents. Americans returning from China were allowed back after enhanced screening at select ports of entry and for 14 days afterward. But U.S. scientists say screenings can miss people who don’t yet show symptoms of COVID-19; while symptoms often appear within five or six days of exposure, the incubation period is 14 days.

https://www.factcheck.org/2020/03/the-facts-on-trumps-travel-restrictions/


Although Democratic leaders and Democratic presidential candidates have been highly critical of Trump’s response to the coronavirus, we couldn’t find any examples of them directly and clearly criticizing the travel restrictions.

Fox News Poll March 21-24, 2020

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/fox-news-poll-march-21-24-2020

- More Democrats than Republicans are concerned about the virus spreading nationally and about personally catching it.

Approval of Trump’s overall job performance is up one point since February to 48 percent, while 51 percent disapprove. That puts him underwater by 3 points. Last month, his rating was 47 approve-52 disapprove (-5).  His best marks were in February 2017, when he had a net positive rating by one point (48-47).

Fox News Poll: Complete Mar... by Fox News on Scribd

Army Corps of Engineers Gives Options To States Facing COVID Crush | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC

Defying ruthless, deadlocked politics, Gantz sacrifices everything for stability

https://www.timesofisrael.com/defying-ruthless-deadlocked-politics-gantz-sacrifices-everything-for-stability/

The right is now celebrating Netanyahu’s emergence from a year-long three-election marathon as the winner. But as with the right’s premature celebrations on March 3, it may come to regret the new alliance Gantz plans to impose on their leader. The serially underestimated Gantz now seems to have made it his mission to wipe those smiles away.

 

Trump Campaign Threatens Legal Action Of Coronavirus Ad | Morning Joe | MSNBC

Kellyanne humiliated BY FOX NEWS as her defense of Trump backfires ON AIR

Trump questions if New York will actually need 30K ventilators

https://nypost.com/2020/03/26/trump-questions-if-new-york-will-actually-need-30k-ventilators/

“I have a feeling that a lot of the numbers that are being said in some areas are just bigger than they’re going to be,” Trump said in a call to Fox News’ “Hannity.”

“I don’t believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators,” Trump continued. “You know you go into major hospitals sometimes they’ll have two ventilators and now, all of a sudden, they’re saying, ‘Can we order 30,000 ventilators?'”

 

Influencer reportedly hospitalized with coronavirus after licking toilet

https://nypost.com/2020/03/25/influencer-reportedly-hospitalized-with-coronavirus-after-licking-toilet/

A California social media prankster claims he was hospitalized with the coronavirus — just days after posting a video of himself licking a toilet bowl for a nauseating online challenge.

As basic supplies run perilously short, hospitals need everyone’s help now

https://nypost.com/2020/03/25/as-basic-supplies-run-perilously-short-hospitals-need-everyones-help-now/

It’s even more alarming than charts of rising corona cases: three Mount Sinai West nurses standing in a hospital hallway, wearing black Hefty trash bags over their scrubs. “NO MORE GOWNS IN THE WHOLE HOSPITAL,” one healer captioned the Facebook photo. “NO MORE MASKS AND REUSING THE DISPOSABLE ONES. NURSES FIGURING IT OUT DURING COVID-19 CRISIS.”

 

The Rachel Maddow Show 3/26/20[NEW] | Rachel Maddow MSNBC News March 26, 2020

"Maitav (Army Draft Office) Corona Recklessness"

BS"D

"Maitav (Army Draft Office) Corona Recklessness" 

1 Nissan, 5780 °° March 26, '20

By Binyomin Feinberg

feinbergbinyomin@gmail.com

~~~~~~~~~~~

To check for updates, on first view of this article, as well as throughout the week,  please visit the Adar Update link:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Z2nuHMNh-CQ3Te2MdV04dmFfkkmQ0TLNKElS9JT6yJc/edit?usp=sharing
~~~~~ 

######################

Coronavirus Testing Scammer Alert:

######################

This just in from NYC government:

"Notify NYC: 

Scammers are calling NYers to set up testing. This is NOT the City. Directly contact your healthcare provider or call 311 for real info."

######################

Below is an brief exchange with the Israeli Health Ministry. It follows eyewitness reporting on the public health hazard at the scene at the Yom Chiyul (Draft Day) last week, as briefly described in last week's post (Parshas VaYakhel-Pekudei:
https://daattorah.blogspot.com/2020/03/corona-concerns.html, and https://firstamendmentactivist.blogspot.com/2020/03/corona-concerns.html).

The blatant disregard for human life exhibited by the Israeli government and the Army Draft Office, in the midst of the escalating Corona outbreak, was on full display at the Yom Chiyul in Tel HaShomer, by virtue of absence of basic distancing precautions between recruits and family members, who were witnessed congregating in large numbers, and in close proximity, that Tuesday morning.

Moreover, the very fact that the Army Draft Offices insists on remaining open and summoning recruits in the midst of the outbreak constitutes a public health hazard. How many lives have already been endangered by recruits who picked up Corona at the Draft Offices and went home to spread it around, including exposing vulnerable family members? Is that the price to be paid for being summoned for military service?

After a former IDF general (res.) publicly critiqued the Army Corona protocols, it was noticed that the Tel HaShomer Draft Office closed this week. However, the Jerusalem Draft Offices remained open for business, summoning recruits as if they were merrily oblivious to the looming collapse of the healthcare system, R"L, and to the broader societal threat, about which Netanyahu so eloquently grandstands.

The question here is really not so much on the Israeli military and draft authorities, whose policies are most unconnected to Jewish Law, and are not at all representative of the desires, concerns, and attitudes of the Jewish community. Their anti-Torah disregard for the wellbeing and rights of Israeli citizens is not new, and has, in modest measure, been repeatedly covered in previous posts and published articles, primarily regarding their female draft policies.  [Just one recent example: For the Army brass, drafting women clearly takes precedence over national security, even to the extent of leaving southern border security partially contingent of all-female tank* crews, as recently reported by JNS.]

(* that's not a typographical error)

We also don't have much to wonder about Netanyahu, whose inspirational deliveries about national preparedness against Corona are exposed in light of his own military's recklessness. He's sold his soul to the Draft Agenda long ago. It's his faux "rightwing" government that pioneered the escalating draft of even religious girls in recent years, with all of the scandalous denial of human rights that goes along with that, as we've covered for over a year now.

The question we have here is more on the Ministry of Health, which is apparently taking Corona very seriously: why do they allow this nonsense to go on unabated?

1.  My original query to the Ministry of Health was as follows:

"From: Binyomin Feinberg <feinbergbinyomin@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, March 19, 2020 7:54 AM
To: דובר‏ <DOVER@MOH.GOV.IL>
Cc: ...
Subject: Question re Corona & IDF

B"H

March 19, '20

Spokesman office

Ministry of Health

P.O.B 1176

Jerusalem 91010

dover@moh.health.gov.il

Tel: 02-5081220/5

Fax: 02-5655965


Dear Spokesman,


Hello, I frequently do contributing to The Jewish Press. I am curious as to why recruitment into the IDF has been continuing despite the Corona epidemic, especially given the primacy of the IDF in maintaining national security in an increasingly unstable world. Do you perhaps have any statement answering that question I could please quote? Thank you in advance,


Binyomin Feinberg

feinbergbinyomin@gmail.com"

2.  Their first reply was:

-------- Original message --------
From: רויטל מימרן
Date:03/19/2020 4:38 AM (GMT-05:00)
To: feinbergbinyomin@gmail.com
Cc: ...
Subject: FW: Question re Corona & IDF

Dear Binyomin Feinberg,

Thank you for your e.mail.
The Ministry of Health is working hand to hand with the IDF.
Questions concerning recruitment into the IDF are under the IDF spokesman's office. Please send your request to them.
Thank you.

revital

3.  My follow up to their reply was:

From: Binyomin Feinberg <feinbergbinyomin@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, March 19, 2020 5:39 PM
To: רויטל מימרן
Cc: ...
Subject: RE: FW: Question re Corona & IDF


B"H

Revital,

Thank you kindly for your email.  Whom specifically in the IDF would I contact to get that type of information?

More to the point, my question really is what is the Health Ministry ITSELF doing to ensure that those Israeli recruits - expected to lay down their lives to defend fellow Jews from those who seek to exterminate us all - are adequately protected from contracting and spreading Corona -- in the midst of what PM Netanyahu described as a global pandemic, one over which he's poised to shutdown the country?

Thank you again, in advance, for providing genuine information.

BF

4. Their brief March 22nd reply was:

"Dear Binyomin Feinberg,

As mentioned in my previous e.mail – we are not allowed to answer questions concerning the IDF.

You should reach the IDF spokesman's office.

Best regards,

revital"

~~~

° To reiterate what was posted last week, we encourage all to employ all due caution to avoid contracting or spreading Corona, or spreading misinformation about it.

בכירי הרופאים במכתב לציבור החרדי: "הישמעו להנחיות – מדובר בפיקוח נפש"

https://www.jdn.co.il/breakingnews/1302432/

עשרות רופאים פנו הערב במכתב פתוח לציבור החרדי בו קראו להם להישמע להנחיות משרד הבריאות על רקע התפשטות נגיף הקורונה: "כל יציאה מהבית שלא לצורך חיוני כמוגדר בחוק, מהווה סכנה מיידית וברורה. בהתאם לצו של ונשמרתם מאד לנפשותיכם"

Copper Destroys Viruses and Bacteria. Why Isn’t It Everywhere?

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/xgqkyw/copper-destroys-viruses-and-bacteria-why-isnt-it-everywhere

It could destroy norovirus, MRSA, virulent strains of E. coli, and coronaviruses—including the novel strain currently causing the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

Blue and White splits as unity deal with Likud approaches

https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Likud-Blue-and-White-negotiations-intensifying-622426

In a dramatic turn of events, the Blue and White Party, which served as the alternative to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the March 2 election, broke up on Thursday after party head Benny Gantz decided to enter Netanyahu's government.

The three parties that made up Blue and White - Gantz's Israel Resilience, Yair Lapid's Yesh Atid and Moshe Ya'alon's Telem – all went in different directions. Israel Resilience is joining the government, Lapid will head the opposition and Telem will split up, with Ya'alon on the outside and divided.

 

In Israel, a Time to Pray Amid a Health Crisis

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/25/world/middleeast/israel-virus-prayer.html

32 Economists From Both Major Parties Sign Letter Urging U.S. Not to Open Country Prematurely

https://www.newsweek.com/32-economists-both-major-parties-sign-letter-urging-us-not-open-country-prematurely-1494352


Members of the bipartisan Economic Strategy Group signed a Wednesday letter which said the U.S. must pull together to combat the coronavirus before opening businesses and attempting to restart the economy.
 

Doctors Condemn Young People Having Parties Amid Coronavirus Outbreak: 'This Is Not the Time to Be Stupid'

https://www.newsweek.com/coronavirus-parties-young-people-mass-gatherings-1494209

 

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear expressed his outrage and frustration at how a group of people in their 20s threw a party in defiance of the guidelines prohibiting mass gatherings to help stop the spread of the virus. At least one person who was at the party later tested positive for COVID-19.

"This makes me mad, and it should make you mad," Beshear told a press conference in reference to the party. "There is the power of forgiveness and we will move on and forgive, but there should not be any more of these parties—for any reason."

Beshear said those who attended the party despite being told to social distance themselves from others must have thought they were "indestructible" and that contagion was only a danger to the elderly.

"We are battling for the health, and even the lives, of our parents and our grandparents," Beshear said. "Don't be so calloused to intentionally go to something that can potentially kill other people. We ought to be much better than that."

More Trumpian nonsense - the elderly should risk their lives to help Trump get reelected?!

They should stop trying to scare people and stampede them into herd hermitry.
Many mental health professionals like to tell their clients that they suffer from anxiety.
So now doctors are playing up on that implanted anxiety.
"Ooooh, big bad Donald Trump is scary...! He wants you to go to work and school...you could never vote for a man that makes you feel anxious....riiiiiiight???? Hmmm???????"
In time of war, we send young people into harm's way and expect them to die for their country. Well, now it is time for older people to engage in some self sacrifice for the good of keeping Donald Trump electable.

James Dyson designed a new ventilator in 10 days. He's making 15,000 for the pandemic fight

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/26/tech/dyson-ventilators-coronavirus/index.html

"This new device can be manufactured quickly, efficiently and at volume," Dyson added, saying that the new ventilator has been designed to "address the specific needs" of coronavirus patients.

A spokesperson for the company, which is best known for its vacuum cleaners and hand dryers, said the ventilators would be ready by early April. Dyson, who has wealth worth $10 billion according to Bloomberg, wrote in his letter that he would also donate 5,000 units to the international effort to tackle the pandemic.

 

The Coronavirus Pandemic May Be Causing an Anxiety Pandemic

https://time.com/5808278/coronavirus-anxiety/

“The worry becomes, ‘How do I pay my bills? What if I lose my job? What if I lose my car?'” McGrath says. “Anxiety disorders are based on two words: ‘What if,’ followed by the worst scenario your brain can devise.”

Andrew Cuomo Hits Back at False Coronavirus Attack That Trump Launched During Fox News Town Hall: ‘That’s Not the Fact’

https://www.mediaite.com/news/andrew-cuomo-hits-back-at-false-coronavirus-attack-that-trump-launched-during-fox-news-town-hall-thats-not-the-fact/

A false attack that President Donald Trump made during his Fox News town hall made its way to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s latest coronavirus press conference, and Cuomo batted it down by telling the reporter “That’s not the fact, and you know it.”

During Tuesday’s Fox News town hall, Trump read portions of a post from conspiracy blogger Jim Hoft of Gateway Pundit that accused Cuomo of rejecting an opportunity to purchase 16,000 ventilators back in 2015, and suggested Cuomo is to blame for his state’s anticipated shortage of the devices.

Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer did not challenge Trump’s attack, and on Wednesday, it was repeated by a reporter at Cuomo’s press conference.

 

Tucker Carlson Roasts the Media for Originally Downplaying the Wuhan Virus After They Try to Blame Fox News

https://www.redstate.com/bonchie/2020/03/25/tucker-carlson-roasts-the-media-for-originally-downplaying-the-wuhan-virus-after-they-try-to-blame-fox-news/

One of the dumber aspects of the mainstream media’s response to the Wuhan virus is their pretending that they’ve been sounding the alarm from the beginning. As I noted last week, The Washington Post tried to essentially rewrite history by sharing anonymous leaks from the intelligence community claiming that the President hadn’t seen the virus as a threat early enough.

 

Here’s the disturbing Fox News clip that appears to have triggered one of Trump’s most dangerous tweets yet

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/03/heres-the-disturbing-fox-news-clip-that-appears-to-have-triggered-one-of-trumps-most-dangerous-tweets-yet/

“[If] you stopped lockdowns, and sent everyone back to work, lots and lots of people would get sick. You’d have workplaces where half the staff were out. And this would roll through all kinds of places, people who maintain the electrical grid and water treatment and sewage systems, etc… Not only that, as the hospitals filled up and horror stories emerged, you’d have tons of deaths from things other than Covid-19 that couldn’t get treated. This would make [people] more scared of getting the bug and lead to further retreat,” he wrote. “Which is to say, even if you care about economic activity as the only value here, it’s really not clear that anything like ‘business as usual’ is even a possibility in the midst of a roaring pandemic, even if you let everything stay open.”

 

Let’s Never Forget That Trump and Fox News Started as Coronavirus Truthers

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/03/trump-republicans-fox-news-coronavirus-truthers-hoax-video.html

President Donald Trump doesn’t tell the truth that often and neither does Fox News. Both, however, seem to have come around to the idea that the coronavirus is not only a bad thing but a real thing. It took each a long time to put aside their own political or financial self-interest in an alternative reality where everything was fine and Trump was to thank, but they more or less got there eventually. We obviously have bigger problems to face at the moment than the damage done nightly by Sean Hannity’s Biff-Tannen-does-the-news routine, though the president lying over and over and over again will never not be a grave threat. It is even more of a problem now, during a pandemic, when people are looking for enlightened leadership and where accuracy and straightforwardness can stave off panic, save lives, and inspire confidence.