Coronavirus disaster in Trump’s USA

This 15 May 2020 video from the USA is called Dr. Fauci Warns Senators Against Reopening States Prematurely | NowThis.

WHISTLEBLOWER DOC: NO NATIONAL PLAN Dr. Rick Bright, the whistleblower abruptly fired after pushing back against the Trump administration, described an urgent need to develop a national plan to combat the coronavirus to avoid disastrous overlap with the regular flu season. Failure to do so will be “devastating for our health care systems,” he said in congressional testimony. “I believe we could have done better … I believe there were critical steps we did not take in time,” he added. Trump has faced relentless criticism for his administration’s delay in forming a coherent federal response to the crisis. [HuffPost]

TRUMP: TESTING IS ‘OVERRATED’ President Donald Trump griped about the pressure he’s facing to increase the ability to test people for the coronavirus, saying that testing might be “overrated” anyway. “We have the best testing in the world. Could be that testing is, frankly, overrated. Maybe it is overrated,” Trump said during a visit to Owens & Minor, a medical supply company in Allentown, Pennsylvania, that distributes masks and other products.“ Trump did not wear a mask during his visit, nor did his chief of staff, Mark Meadows. Everyone else did. [HuffPost]

100 PROMINENT HEALTH OFFICIALS SIGN OPEN LETTER TO MAKE MASKS MANDATORY More than 100 prominent health officials have signed an open letter urging governors to make wearing cloth masks in public mandatory, citing a “preponderance of evidence” they greatly reduce the transmissibility of COVID-19. The letter was written by Jeremy Howard, a research scientist who has studied the efficacy of masks at length. Research suggests mask-wearing could effectively halt the spread of the virus ― but only if at least 80%, and ideally all people, wear them. [HuffPost]

Stone Cold Steve Austin shuts down critic who calls his face mask “communism.”

Donald Trump‘s and Elon Musk’s ‘Flu Klux Klan‘ say that social distancing and other measures to protect public health from COVID-19 are supposedly ‘communist’. Like the Ku Klux Klan says that ‘race mixing’ is ‘communist’.

The grammar of American reaction is eerily resilient. pic.twitter.com/NKvHinWY0Y

— Richard Seymour (@leninology) April 18, 2020

REPUBLICANS: THAT’S ENOUGH RELIEF FOR NOW The U.S. keeps shedding jobs by the millions, a deepening economic collapse that has the Federal Reserve pleading with Congress to keep its foot on the gas in providing Americans additional fiscal relief amid the coronavirus pandemic. But to many Republicans, the daunting situation calls for introspection and no further legislative action on major programs to help people struggling to make ends meet. Since returning to Washington two weeks ago, the Republican-controlled Senate has done no legislating directly related to the coronavirus pandemic. [HuffPost]

CDC ISSUES ALERT ABOUT COVID-19 IN KIDS AS TRUMP PUSHES TO OPEN SCHOOLS Surging cases of a mysterious illness in children linked to COVID-19 has triggered an alert by the CDC warning physicians what to look out for. Seventeen states have reported cases of what’s now labeled multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), which has been fatal in rare instances. New York has reported 102 cases. Three of the children died. The troubling news comes as Trump is pushing for schools to reopen. [HuffPost]

4TH USDA FOOD INSPECTOR DIES A fourth food safety inspector for the U.S. Department of Agriculture has died of COVID-19 as cases continue to surge at meat processing plants across the nation. About 10,000 COVID-19 cases have been linked to workers at the plants and their contacts. The cases involve about 170 plants in 29 states. At least 30 workers have died. Of the 30 counties in the U.S. with the highest per capita COVID-19 cases last week, 10 have major meatpacking plants. [HuffPost]