I’m shocked. Shocked.
I think that directly giving false information that all travel from Europe is being suspended, causing US citizens to rush back, was a serious and unacceptable failure. That’s not political, it was a plainly wrong statement.
Thankfully Sean Hannity is a tv host and not in leadership. I’m sure we can pick out stupid things tv hosts stay all the time.
Devon Nunes represents his district only and I wonder if there was more context. I’m not following his advice. And if that was all he said it was stupid.
I’ll personally follow the advice of the medical people, cdc and task force.
Devin Nunes has a lot more responsibility when he is on the national news and is given a huge platform. But yes, I agree that there is more context there.
@sorghum that’s a valid point. But it was immediately clarified and disseminated widely and amplified across social media.
Grown ups who can get to Europe can’t be aware of an update. Nonsense. Where’s personal responsibility. I don’t believe one person wasn’t aware.
I think it’s more likely everyone read the writing on the wall and was getting “out of Dodge” regardless.
How about
- Make sure there’re only limited number of international flights to each airport;
- Assure all Americans abroad their returns to the US will be guaranteed, and they shouldn’t rush to return;
- Reallocate resources (including staffing) to those 14 airports;
- Practice social distancing and keep returning passengers at safe distances from each other. Handout protective gears to waiting passengers if necessary
Among all the returning passengers, some are guaranteed to have been infected. By not separating them, others will be infected and the number of total infected will quickly multiply.
Ok I get it’s not perfect. But no one thought about that besides us?
They are all incompetent. And European officials and German travel ministers as well. They are having massive problems too.
Let’s not forget people are trying to leave the USA through airports as well. Cruise ships canceled in Miami have huge UK populations in that airport.
I just don’t believe everyone isn’t trying their best. And I personally know people working literally around the clock on these issues.
Some airports are working ok it seems.
Also I am not pointing out specific people every time they post. Even if we disagree. I just make my position and leave it at that until tagged in a response usually.
Please remember we all have a right to our opinions here and this is supposed to be a welcoming place.
A follow-up that “we assure all Americans that they will continue to be free to return to the US at any time” might have helped. And the stuff about banning trade only added to the apocalyptic messaging.
I think the airport authorities could have mitigated the crowding in the terminal by keeping planes on the tarmac and at the gate and disembarking passengers in an orderly fashion. What guidance from the feds do you need to do that. It’s just common sense.
Talking heads on TV , like Hannity, are NOT leaders, and anyone counting on them for sage advise regarding this pandemic is a fool, imho.
He carries a lot of weight with the people in charge.
Politicians and their servants can be competent yet do things we disagree with.
Every government is balancing the medical, economic, and political in it’s response.
We the toiling masses may prefer more emphasis on our health, the political class may have a stronger thumb on the balance towards their own power or the good of their own special constituencies. Different countries’ governments are balancing things differently.
Newt Gingrich commenting from his home in Italy:
“ While these have been the right steps, and while the Coronavirus Task Force led by Vice President Pence has been making progress, there are some big things that need to be done on both the public health and the economic fronts.
Faced with a pandemic threat, history teaches us it is far better to be over prepared than underprepared.
As I indicated earlier, if America begins to have the Italian scale of deaths, we would be losing 5,000, 10,000 or 15,000 Americans. If it really got out of control, the rates could go higher.
Italy has a unique vulnerability to coronavirus, because it has the second oldest-aged population in the world (only Japan has older citizens on average). This virus especially hits the elderly, and in Italy the average age of death is 81. The tragic experience of the Washington state nursing home simply reinforced the sense of vulnerability of older people.
However, America has a uniquely vulnerable population, too. There are tens of thousands of homeless people in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland and Seattle. If the coronavirus ever began spreading among those folks, who already suffer from malnutrition and other health problems, the losses could be catastrophic.
While Trump’s decisive actions have bought us time, it is important to recognize that we must use that time to think through the health threat in every component and react accordingly.”…
‘’ We should be planning for a worst-case pandemic and using the kind of intensity of implementation which served us so well in World War II. Getting enough ventilators, masks, intensive care units, treatment medications and aggressive community-wide testing are the minimum steps to saving lives and stopping the pandemic.
The Pence-led Coronavirus Task Force has begun to pull things together, but it should have a planning group that creates a worst-case projection and then devises the steps necessary to smother the pandemic and minimize its impact.
At the same time, we are solving the public health crisis we also must solve the economic challenge.”
Of course, they can also be incompetent, regardless of whether you agree or disagree with them. But note that pre-existing agreement or disagreement with a politician tends to lead people to automatically support or oppose any statement or action by that politician; see https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-concerned-are-americans-about-coronavirus-so-far/ .
Also, regardless of competence or lack thereof, they may have incomplete information on which to make decisions, so even those who are competent may not be able to make more than a poorly informed guess.
This was a good visual.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/world/corona-simulator/
This whole thread has once again moved from updates and info on the virus to politically focused opinions and non nuanced selective articles and perspectives. It’s not the time.
I’m really down the middle of the road. But it’s so one sided here and negative it’s less helpful than it could be.
Customs and Border Protection commissioner calls long wait times “unacceptable”
From CNN’s Kevin Bohn
Acting Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Mark Morgan issued a statement saying the “wait times experienced yesterday at some locations were unacceptable.”
Morgan said CBP continually adjusts resources “in real times as needed and we will continue to do so."
“With this national emergency, there will unfortunately be times of disruption and increased processing times for travelers. CBP is working around the clock to minimize these inconveniences," Morgan added.
Chef José Andrés closes all Washington, DC, restaurants due to coronavirus
From CNN’s Gregory Clary
Chef José Andrés is closing all of his restaurants around Washington, DC, but says some will open as, “Community Kitchens to offer to-go lunches for those who need a meal,” according to a series of tweets he sent today.
Andrés went on to say those kitchens will expand across the country in the coming days and weeks.
Andrés is known for opening kitchens in times of disaster, like when Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in 2017.
Read some of Andrés’ tweets:
José Andrés
@chefjoseandres
People of America…Important News: All my restaurants in DC area are closed until further notice. Here at @ThinkFoodGroup safety of employees & guests is too priority. Some restaurants will transform into Community Kitchens to offer to-go lunches for those who need a meal. (1/4)
Embedded video
13.6K
11:57 AM - Mar 15, 2020
José Andrés
@chefjoseandres
· 1h
People of America…Important News: All my restaurants in DC area are closed until further notice. Here at @ThinkFoodGroup safety of employees & guests is too priority. Some restaurants will transform into Community Kitchens to offer to-go lunches for those who need a meal. (1/4)
Embedded video
José Andrés
@chefjoseandres
These Community Kitchens will be part of @WCKitchen efforts across the country in the coming days & weeks. Not for enjoyment…but a service for people in need of a plate of food during this emergency. (2/4)
[Once again, Jose Andres and his team rise to meet needs in a crisis. Leadership and heart. ]
@Nrdsb4, I wonder if my D and your brother are on the same flight. D is airborne right now on a flight that left, I believe, 15 minutes after Morocco announced it was suspending all international flights. I am so relieved she’s on her way home.
I do know there’s a group of people from the metro Detroit area that are traveling in Morocco and were trying to get out on an earlier flight…The announcement I read didn’t say ‘effectively immediately’ so I’m hoping Morocco is happy to have foreigners LEAVE their country and will allow for some flights to depart.
This is bad …
Recap of Cuomo’s press conference (I missed the beginning):
NYS has about 3,000 ICU beds, out of which 80% are occupied. That leaves 600 beds for coronavirus patients. There are already about 65 COIVD19 patients in ICU.
NYS will be short of thousands of ICU beds. The only solution he sees is to retrofit existing buildings to hospitals using Army corps and for that he needs help from the federal government.
Current number of NYS cases - 729
Here are the corresponding tweets that came up while I was writing this:
@NYGovCuomo
We need more ICU beds and we need the federal gov’t to help us meet this urgent need.
It is only a matter of time before ICU beds are full.
We are identifying reserve health care staff (retired drs, nurses, Nat’l Guard medics). #COVID19
@NYGovCuomo
·
4m
We have facilities that could serve as temporary hospitals, like SUNY dorms.
I am urging the President: deploy the Army Corps of Engineers, retrofit these buildings as medical facilities to free up hospital beds.
The federal gov’t alone has the ability to do this fast enough.
Chicago mayor asks businesses that sell liquor to adjust operating procedures
From CNN’s Artemis Moshtaghian
Concerned about St. Patrick’s Day festivities and the coronavirus outbreak, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is enforcing all businesses that sell liquor to have less than half of their regular max capacity and requiring any establishments that sell liquor to have a max capacity of 100 people.
Lightfoot is requiring business owners to discontinue lining patrons up who are waiting for entry outside of establishments.
Last week: The mayor announced new guidance on large gatherings, mandating that events exceeding 1,000 individuals be cancelled and recommending that community events of 250 people or more should be cancelled or postponed.
What the US military could and couldn’t do in the fight against coronavirus
From CNN’s Ryan Browne and Barbara Starr
Many pundits and politicians have been asking why the US military isn’t doing more to help combat the spread of the coronavirus in the US.
On Sunday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo called on President Trump to mobilize the military to help deal with the outbreak. This follows after former Vice President Joe Biden said the Department of Defense should be planning to deploy.
“The Department of Defense should be planning now, should have been planning to prepare for the potential deployment of the resources provided, medical facility capacity and logistic support that only they can do,” Biden said Thursday.
Defense officials say there first priority is maintaining the health, welfare and “readiness” of the 1.36 million members of the active duty military, as well as the 800,000 members of the National Guard and Reservists in addition to some 730,000 civilian employees in the Department of Defense.
And while some National Guard units have been involved in helping with logistics and planning at the state level, the US military’s capacity to provide medical support is limited.
By the numbers: There are 51 military hospitals compared to some 6,000 civilian hospitals nationwide, according to one US defense official, meaning the US military has only about 1% of the nation’s hospital capacity.
Military hospitals admit some 200,000 patients annually as compared to civilian hospitals which admit about 36 million.
New York reports third coronavirus-related death
From CNN’s Elizabeth Joseph
Another person with underlying health conditions has died in New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo just announced in a press conference.
The death of a 79-year-old woman who had “multiple major underlying health issues” brings the state-wide death toll of those who had coronavirus to three, Cuomo said.
There are 729 confirmed coronavirus cases across the state, Cuomo said, adding, “New York is the state with the most number of cases.”