Sunday, March 29, 2020

CDC issues travel advisory for New York tri-state area after coronavirus kills more than 2,000

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/28/health/us-coronavirus-weekend-saturday/index.html


New York, New Jersey and Connecticut have been placed under a 14-day travel advisory in the latest effort by United States officials to slow down the rapid spread of the deadly coronavirus.
More than 121,000 coronavirus cases have been reported in the US and more than half are in those states, according to CNN's tally of cases reported by health officials.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the new travel advisory Saturday night, urging people in those states to "refrain from non-essential domestic travel" after President Donald Trump announced on Twitter he had asked for it.
The CDC said this advisory does not apply to employees of critical infrastructure industries, including but not limited to trucking, public health professionals, financial services and food supply.

One nation, under coronavirus: How two weeks changed America

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/28/politics/social-distancing-us-coronavirus-15-days-charts/index.html


Early next week, those 15 days will be up. Trump has said he wants to ease restrictions on the public and start opening up the country, against the advice of public health authorities.
The disease is still spreading, with thousands of new cases and deaths despite the efforts to "flatten the curve." The toll of social distancing can be measured in millions of new jobless claims, a $2 trillion stimulus bill, and a modest bump to Trump's approval ratings.
Here's a breakdown of the numbers that defined these two unprecedented weeks in America.

Trump Adviser Claims President Was First Leader to Restrict Travel From China Due to Coronavirus, But North Korea and Italy Did Earlier

https://www.newsweek.com/trump-adviser-claims-president-was-first-leader-restrict-travel-china-due-coronavirus-north-1494559


Trump actually announced the travel restriction on January 31, and they did not take effect until February 2 at 5 p.m. EST. Meanwhile, North Korea had blocked all foreign visitors from entering the country on January 22 over coronavirus concerns. Italy banned all flights from China on January 31.
Trump's travel restrictions were also much less stringent than those put in place by Italy and North Korea. The president's executive action barred foreign nationals that had traveled to China in the last two weeks, with 11 exceptions – including for citizens, their close family members and permanent residents. Those allowed to enter the U.S. after traveling to China faced additional screening measures and in some cases were asked to quarantine. China's Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau were not included in the travel ban.

Trump: NBC Called Me Racist for Banning Travel from China

https://www.cnsnews.com/article/washington/melanie-arter/trump-nbc-called-me-racist-banning-travel-china

During a White House press briefing with the coronavirus task force, NBC News White House Correspondent Kristen Welker asked why the administration wasn’t more prepared to deal with the virus by providing more testing supplies.

“We were very prepared. The only thing we weren't prepared for was the media. The media has not treated it fairly. I will tell you how prepared I was, I called for a ban from people coming in from China long before anybody thought it was -- in fact, it was your network, I believe they called me a racist because I did that,” Trump said.
 

Trump brags about his China travel ban. Health experts say it’s had little effect

https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-03-26/trump-coronavirus-china-claims


Trump has also overstated Democrats’ response to the travel ban, accusing Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Joe Biden, the putative Democratic presidential nominee, of opposing it. Neither one did so, although Biden blasted Trump more broadly for what he called a record of “xenophobia and hysteria.”
 
Washington is justified in criticizing Beijing for covering up the early stages of the outbreak by concealing reports of the virus and detaining doctors who sounded early alarms, according to China experts. But the mounting propaganda battle threatens to hamper cooperation at a critical moment.
“We should be cooperating at a time when China has learned a lot about this virus, and instead we’re engaging in this name-calling,” said Stephen A. Orlins, president of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, a nongovernmental group.
“The nationalism it’s stoked in China is terrible,” he added. “There are people in China who want to send masks and equipment to the rest of the world, but they’d rather send it to the [European Union] than the U.S. at this point.”

Domestic violence 'epidemic' in the wake of COVID-19

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/277940



In the UK, MPs have suggested giving police special authority to evict individuals for committing acts of violence against other family members and allowing courts to withdraw court fees for protection orders.

Saturday, March 28, 2020

Here's how to debunk coronavirus misinformation and conspiracy theories from friends and family

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/28/media/information-coronavirus-reliable-sources/index.html

 Reminder: Some Americans "still think this is a media hoax"
Brian Stelter writes: CNN contributor and WIRED writer Garrett Graff, who recently published an oral history of 9/11, is working on a week-by-week "Covid Spring" oral history for WIRED. The first two installments are out now. Graff told me he was struck by "the number of people" who took Trump seriously when the president was "downplaying this threat for the first chunk of this year." Even now, he said, some people "still think this is a media hoax that is playing out..."
 

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



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.
 

Friday, March 27, 2020

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