Do you have a dog or a cat so you can practice and show him what you are capable of? 
Top US health expert says he emphasized being “very flexible” on a date to Trump
From CNN’s Allie Malloy
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told reporters that while he met with President Trump in the Oval Office Tuesday he emphasized the need to be “flexible” in determining a date for a bounce back, following Trump’s comments that he may relax guidelines by Easter Sunday.
“We just had a conversation with the President in the Oval Office. You can look at a date but you gotta be very flexible,” Fauci told reporters when asked what he thought of Trump’s timeline.
He also said that parts of the country may be OK by Easter but added other places that are worsening.
“Obviously no one is going to want to tone down things when you see things going on like in NYC," Fauci said.
He also spoke about the need to get more data through testing.
“We need to put a light on those dark spots," Fauci said.
New York City will close streets to create outdoor space for residents
From CNN’s Laura Ly
New York City will initiate a pilot program of closing two streets per borough for outdoor exercise and for people to get fresh air, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday.
The city is aiming to get these sites closed to traffic and open to New York City residents by Thursday. Every site will have authorities who will enforce social distancing policies, de Blasio said.
For now, playgrounds and parks remain open in the city, but the city is working with state and local officials to maximize education and enforcement.
The city will continue to monitor the situation until Saturday evening, at which point they will decide whether residents are adhering to social distancing policies well enough, or if they need to close playgrounds for the foreseeable future.
Citi Bike will also over a free 30-day membership for “essential workers,” de Blasio said.
It would be best if it were federal. But desperate times call for desperate measures. There’s no reason the states can’t work together instead of fighting against each other for the limited resources. If the feds are not providing the leadership the states can still do the right thing. Governors can - and do - talk. We should all be encouraging our politicians to work together on this.
Hopefully this proves effective. Seems like a good option to have.
Another factor relative to those other causes of deaths is that Coronavirus is happening in addition to all those ongoing dangers and threatens to overpower our medical facilities.
Some of those aren’t contagious and some I know I can avoid. For example, snake bites per year are so few in the United States that they list them by name in WIkipedia. If snakes scare me I can easily avoid them.
White House coronavirus official says anyone who was in New York should self-quarantine
From CNN’s Betsy Klein
The administration remains “deeply concerned about New York City and the New York metro area,” Dr. Deborah Birx said Tuesday, providing additional information on the hotspot and urging anyone who may have left the area to self-quarantine.
“About 56% of all the cases in the United States are coming out of that metro area and 60% of all the new cases are coming out of the metro New York Area and 31% of the people succumbing to this disease,” Birx said at Tuesday’s press briefing.
“It means, because they are still at the 31% mortality compared to the other regions of the country, that we can have a huge impact if we unite together. This means that, as in all places, they have to be following the presidential guidelines … and this will be critical,” she said.
Birx sounded an alarm for any New Yorkers who may have left the region for other parts of the country in recent days.
“To everyone who has left New York over the last few days, because of the rate of the number of cases, you may have been exposed before you left New York and I think like Gov. DeSantis has put out today, everybody who was in New York should be self-quarantining for the next 14 days to ensure that the virus doesn’t spread to others. No matter where they have gone whether it’s Florida or North Carolina or out to the far reaches of Long Island,” she said.
Birx said they are “starting to see new cases across Long Island: That suggest people have left the city.”
She explained that the self-quarantine should be timed based on 14 days after they left the New York area.
President Trump wouldn’t say whether he gave New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo a heads-up that guidance for New Yorkers to self-quarantine was coming Tuesday.
“We’re talking to them about it,” Trump said as he left the briefing room, in response to a question from CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.
Two infants in San Diego test positive for coronavirus
From CNN’s Alexandra Meeks
Two infants in San Diego have tested positive for coronavirus, Public Health Officer Dr. Wilma Wooten announced at a news conference Tuesday.
This is the first time San Diego County has reported cases of infants less than one year of age, Wooten confirmed.
“Things are likely to get worse before they get better,” Wooten said. “We do not believe the local wave of COVID-19 cases has crested yet.”
More on the press conference today - Guardian
Larry Kudlow addressed the financial rescue package that lawmakers are currently debating. The bill will total $6 trillion, he said - including $4 trillion in liquidity from the Federal Reserve and $2 trillion in new money.
In his update, Kudlow referred to “chief of staff Meadows,” even though Mark Meadows is still a member of Congress. Meadow’s aide had clarified earlier that Mick Mulvaney is still the acting White House chief of staff.
Kudlow said the impact of coronavirus will last “weeks,” not much longer. “It’s only going to be weeks,” he said. “Weeks and months, not years.”
Trump evaded a question about why he’s fixated on easing back distancing measures by Easter. “I just thought it was a beautiful time” he said. But he said he’ll “be guided very much by Dr. Fauci” and Dr. Demorah Birx.
“Maybe we do sections of the country,” Trump said, appearing to think out loud about how he could make the Easter timeline work.
One key takeaway from that very brief briefing: The White House seems to have new guidance for people who have already left New York to self-quarantine for two weeks.
Fauci responded with a more measured message. The timeline of when the US should ease physical distancing measures is “really very flexible,” he said “You can look at a date but you have to be very flexible.” Fauci once again emphasized the need for data to inform public health policies.
“We are asking anyone who has traveled out of the New York City metropolitan area to anywhere else in the country to self-isolate for 14 days,” Mike Pence said during the briefing. “We have to deal with the New York City metropolitan area as a high-risk area.”
Antony Fauci emphasized that one out of every 1000 New Yorkers may be infected.
It doesn’t seem that New York governor Andrew Cuomo was told about the new public health policy prior to the briefing. When CNN’s Kaitlan Collins asked whether Cuomo had been given a heads up, Trump responded that “we’re talking to them about it.”
The president concluded the briefing with a rare compliment to Congress.
“I also want to thank Congress because whether or not we’re happy that they haven’t quite gotten there yet, they have been working the long hours,” he said. “ I’m talking Republicans and Democrats, all of them, the House, the Senate.”
Considering all the other pork that certain Congresspeople are trying to add into this aid package, I do blame them specifically for it not getting passed. A clean aid package should be a priority. When I read about the ridiculous add-ins it’s no wonder it’s not being passed. This is not the time to try and get pet political projects taken care of. Period.
Promising news out of Oxford in today’s FT. Hard to believe, as it goes counter to everything we are being told, but well worth reading in its entirety, especially by those who dismiss the idea of herd immunity.
[Google “Coronavirus may have infected half of UK population — Oxford study” in the Financial Times (unfortunately behind a paywall).]
We will know shortly whether the radical increases in death recently represent just the very small portion of a very widely infected population that is susceptible or the beginning of a long ramp up. If the former, the wave of illness will pass very quickly. Perhaps explains why only 3000 people died in China. I would think that a professor of epidemiology at Oxford qualifies as an expert.
That would be great if it is the case. Here’s to hoping. Thanks for sharing that information.
^ More on convalescence plasma treatment.
Article states 90 tons was sent to Italy (from China).
^ The entire article is very interesting. Apparently the testing that is being done will not pick up those who have essentially “natural immunity.” It is impossible to believe that a virus that spreads this quickly killed only 3000 people in China in light of the estimated 0.5-1.0% lethality rate that is typically bandied about.
It’s Deborah.
Not NYC. They are just starting while we were almost at 2 weeks of shut down. I think we should quarantine NYC while opening up other places.
Especially when, in the original Senate bill, the $1,200 was in the form of a tax rebate that decreased for those with incomes below about $23,000 (as well as those with incomes above $75,000), and the total amount of those rebates would be far less than the $500 billion business subsidies that were originally to be given with little oversight (some called it a “slush fund” – probably the porkiest thing in the bill, even if the specific recipients are not yet named). Negotiations seem to have changed these provisions to allow lower income people to claim the full $1,200 and add more oversight to the $500 billion, along with other things.
Basically, it needs to be acceptable to all House members for it to pass by unanimous consent. If one House member objects, the House needs to be called back into session (currently in recess) to vote on it, which would delay its passage.
They will soon. They have a new testing that gets results in 45 min. Hospital health professionals and patients get the priority.
US senators are having to step in to get their states the supplies they need
From CNN’s Lauren Fox
As states compete for valuable medical resources like testing kits, face masks and ventilators, some are turning to their senators to help with supply shortages.
Behind the scenes, lawmakers are overwhelmed by the stories they are hearing back home, and stepping in to troubleshoot. Senators are relying on their closer relationships with the White House and federal officials to get states what they need.
Sen. Tina Smith, a Democrat from Minnesota, recounted that in her state, the public health department had been approved to receive more than 55,000 N95 masks, nearly 122,000 surgical masks, 23,145 face shields, more than 18,000 gowns and more than 67,000 gloves from the strategic stockpile. But when health officials opened up their shipment Friday, they saw just 657 pairs of gloves.
They called her office.
“That is kind of frightening when we are seeing the kind of upsurge in cases we are seeing,” Smith said in a phone interview with CNN Tuesday. “I worry that states are competing.”
For the rest of the weekend, Smith and her staff were on the phone with Department of Health and Human Services, troubleshooting with the governor’s office and trying to understand what had gone wrong.
Just days later, after the weekend calls, Minnesota public health officials received another shipment that contained the items they had been approved for. But, Smith said public health officials in her state still warn it’s not likely to be enough for the long haul. She also said that her state still has not received a single ventilator from the stockpile. Other hotspots like New York, California and Washington continue to be top priorities as the government seeks to slow to spread of Covid-19 there.
Smith says she doesn’t blame career officials at HHS or the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“I feel like the career staff are trying their hardest. I don’t blame them,” she said. “It feels as if the administration’s response is haphazard… I cannot help but think that if they had started to prepare for this in early February…we would have been in a better spot…”
It’s not just places like Minnesota that state officials are asking senators with closer ties to the federal government to help.
In South Dakota, Sen. John Thune, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate, stepped in to try and help his state. According to an aide familiar, Thune helped South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem lean on both the White House and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week when the state needed more reagents required to complete the Covid-19 tests.
This has been a theory for a little while now. I was hopeful (and still am because I’d love to see it end quickly!), but the fact that so many being tested now (in the US) are still testing negative (vast majority) even when they are in hot spots makes it less likely unfortunately. Having an antibody test to test those who have been sick in the past (prior to testing) or to test entire communities as test subjects will give us more of an idea, but until now and then, the tidal wave is still on the way (some areas are already getting wet).
I’m hoping one of the medical options proves very helpful. More than one would also help.
Really, anything to diminish the tidal wave. I’m not picky about who comes up with it.
Why can’t we do this in the United States?
https://unitedwithisrael.org/israeli-medical-student-volunteers-speed-up-corona-testing/
California mayor says he got coronavirus after attending a party at Trump’s L.A. golf course
From CNN’s Cheri Mossburg
Rancho Palos Verdes, California, Mayor John Cruikshank said he and his wife contracted coronavirus after attending a birthday party at Trump National Golf Club Los Angeles.
The disco-themed birthday party, held on March 8, was for former Rancho Palos Verdes Mayor Susan Brooks, who is also positive for the virus, according to a statement from the city of Rancho Palos Verdes. Other party guests have also contracted the virus, including several current and former city officials, according to the statement.
City employees, including the mayor pro tem, are self-quarantined out of an abundance of caution. City Hall has been closed since March 14 and is undergoing a deep cleaning, per a directive from City Manager Ara Mihranian.
The Trump National Golf Club Los Angeles is closed until further notice, a club representative told CNN on Friday.
A spokesperson for the Trump Organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did former mayor Susan Brooks.