Coronavirus news from the USA

This 31 March 2020 video from the USA says about itself:

Doctors Resort to Black Market For Medical Supplies As Trump Refuses Pleas for Equipment | NowThis

This doctor had to buy COVID-19 gear on the black market because of the nationwide lack of medical supplies.

In US news and current events today, this doctor spent $17k on black market medical gear because of the nationwide lack of supplies to fight COVID-19. Hospital workers across the country are forced to get creative with how they protect themselves while treating COVID-19 patients.

A NYC nurse who treated COVID-19 patients died from the virus. He worked at a hospital where nurses have taken to wearing garbage bags as protection because they ran out of gowns. Health care workers and state officials are calling on Trump to invoke the Defense Production Act, which would order businesses to produce protective equipment. Trump says that enough companies have been volunteering.

TRUMP SENDS WRONG MASKS TO ILLINOIS Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said the state has purchased more than 5 million N95 masks and more than 5 million surgical masks, which will be arriving by the end of the week. The governor said he asked the federal government to send N95 masks, but the White House instead sent 300,000 surgical masks — not what the state needs to protect health care workers. [HuffPost]

TRUMP AGAIN ACCUSES HEALTH CARE WORKERS For the second day in a row, President Donald Trump pushed groundless speculation that health care workers are stealing or squandering protective masks during the coronavirus pandemic. A reporter began to ask him in the Monday press briefing about remarks he made Sunday that masks may be “going out the back door.” Trump cut off the reporter, saying a “tremendous power in the business,” seemingly a supplier of masks, had backed up his notion. [HuffPost]

INSTACART WORKERS GO ON STRIKE FOR BETTER PROTECTIO Thousands of Instacart grocery shoppers stopped responding to requests for deliveries and say they will not go back to work until the company provides them with protective equipment such as hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes, hazard pay of $5 per order, and expanded paid sick leave to cover those with health conditions that make them more vulnerable to the coronavirus so they can afford to stay home. [HuffPost]

Video shows Amazon workers packed into cafeteria less than two weeks ago.

WAREHOUSE WORKERS’ NEW HEALTH HAZARD: FRIVOLOUS ORDERS Business should be very slow for Pier 1 Imports, which filed for bankruptcy in February. But an employee told HuffPost that business is running full tilt now, with many workers logging overtime since the coronavirus crisis began, leaving them to wonder how critical wind chimes, three-wick candles and artificial plants are during a full-blown pandemic. “This is unnecessary,” said the worker. “I don’t want to be the person who died for fragrant oils.” [HuffPost]

Michigan’s migrant workers especially vulnerable to virus. By Kurt Williams, March 27, 2020.

CORONAVIRUS IS A DEFINING TEST AND U.S. GOVERNMENT IS FAILING It’s not just Trump. Our inept political system is completely unsuited for any real response beyond bailouts for the rich. [HuffPost]

TRUMP HANDS CORONAVIRUS BRIEFING TO MYPILLOW EXEC Trump used Monday’s White House daily briefing on coronavirus to again parade out private company executives — including MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who used the platform to praise Trump and tell Americans amid a global pandemic to “read our Bibles”, During the briefing — meant to inform Americans about COVID-19 — Trump handed the podium to several CEOs. [HuffPost]

SMALL BUSINESSES FACE ‘EXTINCTION’ AS CONGRESS PROTECTS BIGWIGS America’s small businesses may not survive the economic shutdown enacted by federal, state and local governments to stop the spread of the coronavirus — and Congress’ $2.2 trillion relief package is unlikely to save them. “They are all at risk from the shock because small businesses are really facing an extinction-level event,” said Adam Hersh, an economist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. [HuffPost]

FLORIDA MEGACHURCH PASTOR ARRESTED OVER SERVICE Rodney Howard-Browne, pastor of the River megachurch in Tampa, Florida, was arrested Monday for holding a crowded service in defiance of a local order that limits gatherings amid the coronavirus. Hillsborough Sheriff Chad Chronister slammed Howard-Browne at a news conference, saying his “reckless disregard for human life” not only put his congregants at risk of COVID-19 but also those who come into contact with him and his followers. [HuffPost]

There’s no such thing as social distancing when you’re incarcerated.

OHIO, IOWA SUED OVER ABORTION BANS DURING CRISIS State officials in Iowa and Ohio were hit with lawsuits over their bans on abortion during the coronavirus outbreak. Both states recently deemed abortion a nonessential surgical procedure that must be deferred or canceled in order to preserve medical supplies for the pandemic. Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa and Ohio are asking district courts to immediately restore abortion access. [HuffPost]