A major government facility here (think 11,000 workers) had its first positive a couple days ago. They have identified 8 workers who had direct extended contact, and another 60 or so workers have potential symptoms. All sent home to self-quarantine, none being tested. Because…very little testing in SC. It must be hard on their families, not knowing.
@compmom I sent you a PM
Senate stimulus bill prohibits funds from going to Trump businesses
From CNN’s Jeremy Herb
The stimulus legislation prohibits federally elected officials and their immediate relatives from obtaining funds from the Treasury Secretary’s $500 billion program, according to a draft copy of the bill text.
The legislation includes a prohibition on distributing funds to businesses that are owned or partly owned by “the President, the Vice President, the head of an Executive department, or a Member of Congress; and the spouse, child, son-in-law, or daughter-in-law.” The legislation says that it applies to anyone with a 20% or greater stake in a business.
This was a key provision for Democrats concerned that Trump would provide funds to his personal businesses in the stimulus package.
Senate stimulus bill will create a congressional oversight commission
From CNN’s Jeremy Herb
The stimulus bill creates a congressional oversight commission to monitor the way the Trump administration is handling the $500 billion program for providing loans, investments and liquidity to businesses, according to a draft of the bill.
The legislation says the commission will provide oversight for both the Treasury Secretary and the Federal Reserve’s efforts to stabilize the economy in response to the coronavirus pandemic, including how the loans and investments have helped the “financial well-being of people in the United States,” the “extent to which the information made available on transactions under this subtitle has contributed to market transparency,” and whether the loans and investments minimized the long-term costs to taxpayers.
How does it work: The bill creates a five-member commission: the House speaker and minority leader and Senate majority and minority leaders each will appoint one member, and the chair will be appointed by both the House speaker and Senate majority leader.
The commission is tasked with issuing reports every 30 days after the program begins. It’s given the power to hold hearings and take testimony. It is scheduled to continue through September 2025.
Uber drivers and Amazon workers could get relief in the Senate’s $2 trillion aid package
From CNN’s Brian Fung
Independent contractors and so-called “gig” workers will be eligible to receive federal aid under the $2 trillion emergency package being considered by the US Senate, according to a CNN review of the document
The language in the draft bill could provide additional certainty to millions of part-time workers who drive for Uber or deliver for Amazon, in what has become a major part of the digital economy.
The provisions are responsive to requests by tech execs including Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, who this week wrote to President Trump asking for economic support for Uber drivers.
“My goal in writing to you is not to ask for a bailout for Uber, but rather for support for independent contractors and, once we move past the immediate crisis, the opportunity to legally provide them with a real safety net going forward,” Khosrowshahi wrote.
Gig economy businesses such as Uber have battled fiercely at the state level, especially in California, to avoid having to classify their drivers as employees who would be eligible for corporate benefits.
The draft bill is not yet final.
I have very mild lupus. The only real lupus symptom is that I get systemically ill in the sun. For many years I took hydroxychloroquine, with a higher dose in spring and summer. It takes weeks to ramp up the effects on the body so I am not sure how they can use it so acutely. I also took it with zithromax for Lyme.
I think there is confusion about chloroquine versus hydroxychloroquine. Chloroquine can be toxic. The fish tank substance was chloroquine.
In all the years I took hydroxychloroquine, I had no recognized side effects. My peripheral vision was tested yearly. Toward the end I had flashing lights in my vision if it was dark, which docs said was not a side effect, but they went away when I stopped.
Ironically I was going to try it again after many years off, so I could go to the beach. Now there is a shortage and I would be only too glad to cede mine to a person sicker with lupus or who needs it for COVID-19.
These drugs change the pH in the body and some antibiotics work better in the changed pH environment. Biaxin is another one. I have recently read that they also are anti-inflammatory. For lupus, cleariy they tamp down the immune system so perhaps they help with the deadly immune storm that actually kills people with this virus.
I don’t really know, obviously. Main point: hydroxychloroquine is relatively benign, chloroquine less so.
Nothing from @doschicos post #10135 about no bonus to execs…
Has this been posted? Video of Italian mayors telling (and yelling) at residents to stay home. I don’t think so many Italian mayors would be posting these types of videos if Covid 19 were no big deal. There message is united, ‘STAY HOME’ (caps because many yell this message in the video.) If you don’t this disease will get similarly out of control here, I wonder what would prevent it from happening? Certainly not continuing to go out and about, even giving 6 feet to others.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxtGJsnLgSc&feature=emb_logo
Their not there! Oy, that is one of my pet peeves and I did it myself! Not embarassed, just mad at myself. I’m sure I make a ton of typos reguarly but not the to, too, two, their, there, they’re. Ugh!
Lol! regularly, not reguarly!
Spanish deputy prime minister tests positive for Covid-19
Spain’s deputy prime minister, Carmen Calvo, has tested positive for coronavirus. It comes after she was hospitalised on Sunday with a respiratory infection.
Calvo tested positive in a test performed on Tuesday after previously testing negative, but one more test was performed because the last one proved inconclusive, the government said.
It added that Calvo, who was born in 1957, was doing well and receiving medical treatment.
The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, has been giving a briefing on the virtual G7 foreign ministers meeting that began by videoconference at 7am (ET). He said the main focus was the coronavirus, which Pompeo made a point of calling the “Wuhan virus”, writes my colleague Julian Borger.
According to a report in Der Spiegel, the G7 ministers have not so far been able to agree on a joint statement because of Pompeo’s insistence that it should refer to the disease as the “Wuhan virus”, a suggestion that was rejected by other members of the group of prosperous democracies.
Asked about the disagreement this morning, Pompeo did not answer directly, but did not deny it.
“I always think about these meetings, the right answer is to make sure we have the same message coming out of it,” he said. “I’m confident that when you hear the other six foreign ministers speak, they will have a common understanding of what we talked about today, and we will talk about the things that we have agreement on.”
Donald Trump has called the disease the “China virus”. Although the president has not used the phrase in his last couple of appearances, the administration is clearly still seeking to emphasise Chinese culpability.
“The Chinese Communist party poses a substantial threat to our health and way of life, as the Wuhan virus outbreak clearly has demonstrated,” Pompeo said this morning.
Guardian
Can anyone provide a clear and definitive source as to whether the IRS has extended the deadline for making IRA contributions? I know that the tax-return deadline has been extended for sure, but there seemed to be some uncertainty whether this also applied to various contribution deadlines.
A few comments:
- Since the president didn't do a national "lock down", how is he going to get everyone back to work by Easter? Isn't it up to the state governors and city mayors, if and when, they remove their "lock downs"?
- While there are millions of people holed up in their homes, many of them are continuing to work remotely (somewhat business as usual), teachers and students are doing online instruction, CPAs are preparing tax returns, lawyers are drafting legal briefs, psychologists are having conference calls with their clients, financial advisors are speaking with clients and processing documents, etc and then there are all of the "essential workers" who are not subject to the "safer at home" rules and are allowed to work at their company's offices (ex. manufacturing, transportation, farmers & agriculture, food service, etc), as we speak.
I understand some business are shutdown and will likely never recover from this pandemic but there is A LOT of commerce that is continuing to go on on a daily basis with or without these restrictions being “lifted”.
@socaldad2002 , you are correct. It’s up to governors and mayors to reopen businesses. And many people still are working. For example, the organization for which I work is considered “essential” and almost all employees are working from home. Lots of types of businesses and activities are considered essential under Gov. Evers’ (Wisconsin) order.
The hardcore efforts of Italy’s mayors to stop residents leaving their houses continues, writes my colleague Lorenzo Tondo in Italy.
Airborne drones in Messina, Sicily, are making sure citizens respect the lockdown. The drone broadcast Mayor Cateno De Luca’s voice saying “What the hell are you doing outside? You don’t go out! That is the mayor’s order and that’s that, I’ll get you one by one”. On Sunday Cateno, in order to contain the outbreak in the island, tried to stop a ferry from Calabria carrying Sicilians arriving from the north of the country.
Although the majority of Italy’s population of 62 million are complying with the regulations, the interior ministry said on Monday that 92,367 citizens had been charged for breaking them since the lockdown was enforced. Police now have permission to use drones as controls are upped across the country, and the army is patrolling the streets in some places.
A compilation video of mayors lambasting people for flouting coronavirus quarantine rules has struck a chord with Italians, who have shared it in their thousands on social media. One of the mayors said: “I saw a fellow citizen amiably jog up and down the street, accompanied by a dog that was visibly worn out. I stopped and told him: ‘Look, this isn’t a film. You are not Will Smith in I Am Legend. So, you have to go home.’”
Guardian
If all our prayers are answered and we get this under control in the next 30-60 days - there is still going to be long term ramifications on the travel industry that will take a while to come back up. I don’t foresee corporate America signing up everyone for conferences this fall because of missed conferences in the spring. Those are gone. The hotels, airlines, and restaurants are hurt because of missed opportunity revenue. There is also fear of a ‘reinfection’ in the fall unless the anti-virals and vaccine really move forward quickly.
Hopefully restaurants and retail will come back more quickly. Depends on how many people lose their jobs.
Hospitals have lost so much revenue. Hospitals make most of their money on elective surgeries and procedures. No hip replacements going on now. Wisdom Teeth extractions are probably down too. My friend who works in a hospital is being furloughed next week because she does studies and there are no studies to be done without elective treatments and surgeries.
UN calls on nations to protect prisoners and those in closed facilities
The UN high commissioner for human rights, Michelle Bachelet, has called on governments to and other closed facilities, as part of overall efforts to contain the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Covid-19 has begun to strike prisons, jails and immigration detention centres, as well as residential care homes and psychiatric hospitals, and risks rampaging through such institutions’ extremely vulnerable populations,” said Bachelet.
“In many countries, detention facilities are overcrowded, in some cases dangerously so. People are often held in unhygienic conditions and health services are inadequate or even non-existent. Physical distancing and self-isolation in such conditions are practically impossible,” she added.
“Governments are facing huge demands on resources in this crisis and are having to take difficult decisions. But I urge them not to forget those behind bars, or those confined in places such as closed mental health facilities, nursing homes and orphanages, because the consequences of neglecting them are potentially catastrophic,” the high commissioner said.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo: streets, playground, park closures likely
New York governor Andrew Cuomo warned that more shutdowns to curb public gatherings may be imminent. New York City will begin closing streets to traffic, he said.
In his daily briefing, the governor once again lashed out at defiant New Yorkers who continue to frequent parks amid a coronavirus pandemic.
While Cuomo cautioned that stay-at-home regulations are voluntary, he warned that parks, playgrounds and streets could see mandatory closures if New Yorkers continued to ignore calls to self-quarantine.
“If you can reduce the density, you can reduce the spread very quickly,” he said.
Marina Fang
@marinafang
Cuomo kicking off today’s presser:
-rate of infection still going up
-80% have “self-resolved”
-15% have required hospitalization
-hospitalization rate is higher than initially projected, hence the need to increase hospital capacity & slow the number of people coming to hospital
Marina Fang
@marinafang
· 1h
Replying to @marinafang
Cuomo lays out greater social distancing/density reduction plan for NYC:
-piloting some street closures so people can walk in the streets
-urging social distancing at parks & playgrounds, no contact sports (but these are voluntary — not closing parks/playgrounds right now)
Marina Fang
@marinafang
Cuomo says there’s evidence social distancing is working: the increase in rate of hospitalization is slowing, doubling every 4.7 days now, instead of every 2 days
Guardian
NYS latest numbers:
Total number of positive cases: 30,811 up by 5,146
NYC 17,856 (+2,952)
Westchester 4,691 (+800)
Nassau 3,285 (+416)
Suffolk 2,260 (+380)
Rockland 968 (+297)
Orange 638 (+140)
Dutchess 153 (+29)
Albany 152 (+6)
Erie 122 (+15)
Monroe 118 (+22)
3,805 people currently hospitalized (12%)
888 ICU Patients (3% of positives)
No numbers of the tests run were given. I wish we knew at least the total number of tests run.
Four more Italian doctors die
Lorenzo Tondo, Guardian
Another four Italian doctors have died with the coronavirus, bringing the toll in the epidemic up to 29, the national federation of doctors told ANSA, reports Lorenzo Tondo in Italy.
Over 5,000 Italian health workers have been infected with Covid-19 so far.
The Assomed union has called for immediate action ‘’to provide all workers with individual protection equipment’’.
Meanwhile, Civil protection department head and coronavirus commissioner Angelo Borrelli has cancelled his daily six o’clock press conference after suffering symptoms of fever. The result of a test is being awaited.
UK coronavirus mass home testing to be made available ‘within days’
Sarah Boseley, Guardian
Thousands of 15-minute home tests for coronavirus will be delivered by Amazon to people self-isolating with symptoms or will go on sale on high street within days, according to Public Health England (PHE), in a move that could restore many people’s lives to a semblance of pre-lockdown normality, writes the Guardian’s health editor, Sarah Boseley.
Prof Sharon Peacock, the director of the national infection service at PHE, told MPs on the science and technology committee that mass testing in the UK would be possible by next week.
The UK government has bought 3.5m of the tests, which the health secretary, Matt Hancock, mentioned on Tuesday with no suggestion they would be available to the public so quickly, and is ordering millions more.
Nigeria has received test kits and protective gear from China’s richest man, Jack Ma, to help fight coronavirus.
So far, the virus has claimed one life and infected 45 others in Africa’s most populous nation.
Nigeria’s top health official, Abdulaziz Abdullahi, told AFP that the country had received 100,000 face masks, 1,000 protective gowns and 20,000 test kits. He said the equipment would be distributed to frontline health workers and hospital laboratories.
Ma, the founder of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, has vowed to donate equal amounts of gear to all 54 countries in Africa. He has also offered the United States half a million test kits and a million masks.
Health experts are worried about Nigeria’s vulnerability to coronavirus because of its huge population and poor healthcare infrastructure.
Turkey will extend the closure of all schools in the country until April 30 over the coronavirus outbreak and home schooling will continue during this period, Education Minister Ziya Selcuk said on Wednesday.
Turkey had shut schools and set up a home-schooling system for students to continue lessons after the outbreak of the virus two weeks ago. Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca, speaking alongside Selcuk, said the closure was not a break, but rather a preventative measure to protect families.
Venezuela’s embattled president Nicolás Maduro has suggested a novel solution for the coronavirus crisis: drink more tea, writes Joe Parkin Daniels in Bogotá.
Late on Tuesday, the leader of the South American nation – which is now under a militarized lockdown – gave a rambling televised address on measures his government is taking to combat the spread of Covid-19, with 91 cases confirmed.
Sipping from a small cup, Maduro told Venezuelans to drink aromática – a herbal tea made of lemongrass, ginger, elderberry, black pepper, lemons and honey – “every two or three hours, five or six times a day”. He added that he and his wife prepared 10 jugs of the elixir for their family. “It’s tasty,” he said.
Maduro’s playful tone jars with the bleak outlook for Venezuela, which despite boasting the largest proven oil reserves on the planet is already mired in social and economic turmoil. Shortages in basic goods and medical supplies are widespread and hyperinflation has rendered the local Bolivar currency practically useless.
Public health experts warn the country is far from ready to handle any outbreak amid an already collapsing health system.
Twitter took issue with Maduro’s comments on the disease on Tuesday morning, deleting one of his tweets that shared articles from a discredited scientist on grounds that it amounted to misinformation. One of those articles alleged the tea would remedy the virus. Another claimed Covid-19 was a “bioterrorist weapon”.
Russia delays vote on changes to allow Putin to stay in power until 2036
Andrew Roth, Guardian
Russian president Vladimir Putin has delayed a public vote on constitutional amendments that will allow him to stay in power until 2036 due to the coronavirus outbreak in Russia, writes Andrew Roth in Moscow.
The plebiscite, which was seen as an important public endorsement of Putin’s ability to remain in power after 2024, were scheduled for 22 April. A new date will be set later, Putin said during a nationwide address. The vote does not have any legal impact and the constitutional amendments have already been accepted into law.
The announcement came as the Russian president rolled out a series of emergency measures to limit the health and economic impact of the spread of the virus in Russia . While asking Russians to stay home, the Russian president stopped short of issuing a mandatory quarantine or state of emergency.
Speaking on television, the Russian president announced a nationwide weeklong holiday in order to slow the spread of coronavirus through Russia. The holiday would extend from 28 March until 5 April, he said. Workers across the country would be guaranteed to receive their salaries, he added.
He also announced a series of economic initiatives, debt relief for those diagnosed with coronavirus, support for the unemployed, additional benefits for families with small children, a tax holiday for small businesses, and a moratorium on some bankruptcies.
In a direct appeal to Russians, Putin said: “Don’t think this can’t happen to me. It can happen to anyone.” He told the country to stay home.
The address came one day after a senior Russian official told Putin that government tallies underestimated the number of coronavirus victims in the country and that the Kremlin needed to take urgent measures to address the virus’ spread before it turned into a crisis.
Moscow’s mayor Sergei Sobyanin told Putin on Tuesday that the rate of coronavirus “growth is high; a serious situation is developing”, and warned that the healthcare system may be overwhelmed at the virus’s peak.
[…]
Official statistics have revealed a significant acceleration in the spread of coronavirus in Russia. A record 163 new cases were confirmed by officials on Wednesday, bringing the country’s total to 658 cases. Most of the new infections were identified in Moscow, which posted a jump of 120, or 43%, overnight. One death has been attributed to the disease.
Russia’s parliament on Wednesday said it would review legislation that could put quarantine breakers in jail for a period of three to seven years. Currently, those who return from abroad or exhibit symptoms of sickness are required to self-isolate for 14 days. And those found guilty of intentionally infecting others could even face terrorism charges, a Russian lawmaker said.
“In the event of intentional causing of one or more deaths as a result of the deliberate violation of sanitary and epidemiological regulations, irrespective of the intentions, such an action will be defined as terrorism, hooliganism or sabotage,” Russian lawmaker Pavel Krasheninnikov told reporters.
The coronavirus is unlikely to disappear in summer, the European Union agency for disease control said on Wednesday, in a stark warning that the epidemic could continue when temperatures rise unless measures to hamper it are applied.
The notice leaves little room for hopes that SARS-CoV-2, the name of the new virus, could behave as the other four coronaviruses, which are endemic in human populations and are usually not detected in summer months.
Mobile phone industry explores worldwide tracking of users
Talks about global data-sharing to counter coronavirus will raise privacy concerns
The mobile phone industry has explored the creation of a global data-sharing system that could track individuals around the world, as part of an effort to curb the spread of Covid-19.
The Guardian has learned that a senior official at GSMA, an international standard-setting body for the mobile phone industry, held discussions with at least one company that is capable of tracking individuals globally through their mobile devices, and discussed the possible creation of a global data-sharing system.
Any move to create such a global tracking system would represent a major escalation in efforts to use mobile phone location data to help stem the pandemic, and would be likely to raise concerns among privacy and security experts.
Until now the use of mobile phone tracking in the fight against Covid-19 has been restricted to national governments, which are either monitoring data within their borders or in discussions with mobile operators and technology companies about doing so.
They include the US, India, Iran, Poland, Singapore, Israel and South Korea. The British government is engaged in talks with BT, the owner of the UK mobile operator EE, about using phone location and usage data to determine the efficacy of isolation orders.
The concept of an international mobile tracing scheme would go further, enabling authorities to monitor movements and potentially track the spread of the disease across borders. The GSMA represents the interests of 750 mobile phone operators and vendors across the world and helps set international standards for companies.
A person familiar with its exploratory talks said they were at an early stage and that decisions had not yet been made about whether to move ahead with the plan. The aim of such a global network would be to enact “contact tracing”, enabling authorities to use mobile location data to track who a person infected with Covid-19 may have come in contact with.
A spokesperson for GSMA strenuously denied it was currently involved in any project to create a global tracking system. “We are not involved in a project of this nature,” the GSMA spokesperson said. However the GSMA also said it would not comment on discussions that had taken place or ideas that were being explored.
“In this emergency situation, the GSMA and its members are doing everything they can to help the global fight against Covid-19,” Mats Granryd, the director of the GSMA, said in a statement emailed to the Guardian. “We are engaging with operators, policymakers and international organisations around the world to explore viable mobile big data and AI solutions to fight this pandemic while adhering to principles of privacy and ethics.”
Advocates of using mobile phone technology in medical emergencies say accurate and up-to-date information can be a vital tool.
The Washington Post reported last week that the US government was in active talks with Facebook, Google and other tech companies and health experts about how location data from Americans’ phones could be used to fight the pandemic. The report suggested public health experts were interested in anonymous aggregate data that could help map the spread of the virus.
The emergency measures approved by the Israeli government last week go further, enabling authorities to track individual people suspected or confirmed to have been infected to notify individuals who may have come into contact with them. They also allow phones to be used to enforce strict quarantine rules.
The proposed UK scheme would involve anonymised mobile phone data being used to monitor whether coronavirus limitation measures such as asking the public to stay at home are working. It could also be used to send health alerts. While the information provided on geographical movement would be delayed by 12 to 24 hours, British privacy campaigners have raised concerns over the scheme, calling for “radical transparency” in the way the government uses mobile data.
One telecommunications expert, who spoke to the Guardian on the condition of anonymity, said GSMA would be capable of creating a global data-sharing network if mobile operators around the world agreed to share usage information. That data would then be used to help authorities visualise the spread of the disease, or to track individual subscribers to perform “contact tracing”, using an individual’s location to detect how the disease might spread.
David Kaye, a UN special rapporteur on freedom of expression, said it was not necessarily a bad thing for governments to use technology as a means to help control the virus. But he said there were important rule of law standards that had to be taken into account if emergency measures were put in place, including the possible tracking of individuals by mobile phone companies.
He said these included alerting individuals whose data was being tracked, being fully transparent about the data collection and subjecting any such initiatives to judicial oversight. He also said there should be sunset provisions in place and continuously reviewed so that emergency measures did not become permanent.
“When I think about how these tools can be helpful, making sure they are adhering to basic standards is really important,” Kaye said.