week 5

When state governors were asking for federal help in acquiring PPEs, tests, and medical equipment, Trump told them they were on their own. Trump desperately wants to get the country back to work, not because he is concerned about the financial impact on the workers but because he sees the economy as his only chance of reelection and so is talking about ending the closure of all non-essential businesses at the end of the month if not before regardless of how many people are still getting sick and ordering the governors to end their quarantines only he doesn't have the power to do that. So in response, the governors of states in the northeast and the west coast and the north central have formed pacts to help each other to determine when and how they will lift the lockdown orders in their states in order to get people back to work and life back to normal regardless of what Trump tells them to do. Trump went ballistic at his briefing rally Monday, opening with a campaign video produced there in the White House touting what a good job Trump has done in combating the virus which we all know is a pack of lies. Then he ranted on about how he was the president and he had total authority to open the states. The truth is there is nothing in the constitution and no legislation that gives him power to override any state's public health measures.

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After initiating post mortem testing, NY added more than 3,700 more deaths to their total. Approximately 1 in 800 New Yorkers have died from the coronavirus.

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A NY Times article  today reports changes in the way doctors are treating covid-19 patients. “Instead of quickly sedating people who had shockingly low levels of oxygen and then putting them on mechanical ventilators, many doctors are now keeping patients conscious, having them roll over in bed (lay on their stomachs), recline in chairs and continue to breathe on their own — with additional oxygen — for as long as possible.” “Some patients, by taking oxygen and rolling onto their sides or on their bellies, have quickly returned to normal levels” making intubation (inserting a breathing tube and being put on a ventilator) unnecessary though it doesn't seem to work as well in older patients. I've already decided that, if I get infected and get so sick they want to put me on a ventilator, I'm going to decline as a very small percentage of people on ventilators recover and when they do their whole bodies are fucked up.

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Trump has, in fact, withheld funds from the World Health Organization in an attempt to shift blame by accusing them of the very things that Trump has done or rather, has not done.

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In another round of threats and bluster, Trump has said he will adjourn Congress so he can make recess appointments if the Senate doesn't start confirming his nominees. Congress has not adjourned even though they aren't sitting in chambers due to the virus and social distancing. While Trump does have a constitutional right to do this, he can only do it under certain conditions which he doesn't have. And the fact is that he either hasn't nominated anyone or the people he nominates are so unqualified that even the Republican Senate won't confirm them. McConnell's Senate has however been stacking the judiciary with right wing judges many of whom are considered unqualified by their peers in an attempt to put the president out of reach of any check from Congress or the courts. They're assuming, I guess, that their voter suppression tactics will prevent any Democrat from ever gaining the presidency again because I don't see them supporting an untouchable Democratic president.

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His bluff called by the governors who are following the health guidelines set out by Trump's own administration re reopening the economy, which Trump is desperate to do as he links his reelection to a good economy, he now says that the governors are in charge and he is talking with them daily and he issued reasonable guidelines for reopening the economy based on testing, leveling out of infections and a lowering death rate and then told the governors that the federal government would not help the states with the necessary testing. In response and I'm sure at Trump's behest, his Republican support groups and all the fringe idiots and his cult followers started mounting protests at the state capitals about the stay at home orders demanding their (surprise, surprise) Democratic governors open up their state's economies NOW. And then he tweets “LIBERATE MINNESOTA”, “LIBERATE MICHIGAN”, “LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!”, all states with Democratic governors, inciting violence. And in this way he plans to blame the Democrats for the faltering economy. Remember, Trump is nothing if not vindictive.

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Trump is setting us up for a more deadly second wave.

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The money that the Democrats fought for for small businesses has run out and it didn't go to small businesses but to larger businesses and chains and by far the vast majority went to businesses in red states once again proving that Trump and his administration doesn't give a shit about most Americans.

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Anyone else getting healthcare spam headlined Trumpcare?

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I continue to be eternally grateful that we had the foresight to escape a big urban area. Life goes on pretty much as before except for no extracurricular activities ie no in person yoga classes or dashing off to the big box store for something I want but don't necessarily need or hanging with friends and family or hugs. Even though my age puts me in the most at risk category, I am grateful that I am old enough that I don't have a job I can't go to or have kids at home I have to educate or have parents to care for or have loans I can't repay.

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Thirty five cases now in my county.

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Current US statistics as of today 4/19/20, 15:51 GMT (last four weeks' totals in parenthesis): cases – 741,230 (534,494, 312,223, 123,958, 38,757); deaths – 39,103 (20,637, 8,483, 2,231, 400); recoveries – 68,610 (30,548, 14,828, 3,238, 178). Some good news...even though deaths doubled this week, recoveries jumped way up. The death tally, though, is hardly complete because it doesn't include the rise in deaths at home. And this is just the first wave.