The threat of death by a novel disease has nearly the whole world in mobilization against it. When this comes to pass, let it show that we can and should do the same for the mortal threat of climate change.
— Diego Morales 🌹 (@DiegoAlways_) March 12, 2020
"Trump’s Speech Shows He Has No Idea What to Do About the Coronavirus"
Trump’s gross negligence and incompetence are Constitutionally impeachable offenses.
Trump’s speech had no mention of the central problem in the American response to the coronavirus, which is the lack of a functioning testing regime. Having falsely promised on Friday that everybody who currently wants a test can get one, Trump simply ignored the question altogether. At the moment, people who have symptoms do not know what they can do about it. The number is due to explode, and Trump offered them no guidance.
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Even the nonsensical measure of the travel ban contains its own nonsensical exemption for the United Kingdom. Why Trump left out a country that has far more confirmed cases than many of the countries whose residents are banned, he did not say. Political affinity with its Prime Minister? A personal business stake for his European golf resorts, which are coincidentally located in exempted countries? No account was even offered.
Perhaps most astonishingly, the White House had to retract two policy announcements that Trump erroneously made either because he failed to read his text properly, or his speechwriters failed to describe his position. Trump announced his European travel ban would apply to “trade and cargo,” before the White House announced this was an error. Trump also told his audience, “I met with the leaders of health insurance industry who have agreed to waive all co-payments for coronavirus treatments, extend insurance coverage to these treatments and to prevent surprise medical billing.” The Insurance Industry quickly announced it had only agreed to cover testing, not treatment, for the coronavirus.
The cliche about Trump’s presidency is that it is malevolence tempered by incompetence. His haplessness would undermine his corruption and authoritarianism. But now, finally, the country faces a crisis in which Trump’s incompetence will not save us from him. His wholesale unfitness was on bright display from the Oval Office. It may be the most unsettling moment yet of this bleak era.
What to do if you get COVID-19
@smashingteacups, an RN, explains what to do if you contract the virus:
I know we’re all tired of hearing/talking about it, but one thing I HAVEN’T really seen going around is advice for what happens if you DO get coronavirus (many of us will), only advice for how to try to AVOID it. So as your friendly neighborhood RN, a wee thread:
Things you should *actually* buy ahead of time (Erm, not sure what the obsession with toilet paper is?): Kleenex, Acetaminophen (Tylenol) in 350 mg tablets, Ibuprofen (Advil) in 200 mg tablets, Mucinex, Robitussin or DayQuil/NyQuil, whatever your cough medicine of choice is.
If you don’t have a humidifier, that would also be a good thing to get. (You can also just turn the shower on hot and sit in the bathroom breathing in the steam). Also a good time to make a big batch of your favorite soup to freeze and have on hand.
If you have a history of asthma and you have a prescription inhaler, make sure the one you have isn’t expired and refill it/get a new one if it is.
You basically just want to prepare as though you know you’re going to get a nasty respiratory bug like bronchitis or pneumonia. You just have the foresight to know it’s coming.
For symptom management, use the meds I mentioned. For a fever over 101, alternate Tylenol and Advil so you’re taking a dose of one or the other every 3 hours. Use both cough suppressants and expectorants (most cough meds have both). Drink a ton, hydrate hydrate. Rest lots.
You should not be leaving your house except to go to the doctor, and if you do, wear a mask (regular is fine, you don’t need an N95). You DO NOT NEED TO GO TO THE ER unless you are having trouble breathing or your fever is very high and unmanaged with meds.
90% of healthy adult cases thus far have been managed at home with basic rest/hydration/over-the-counter meds. We don’t want to clog the ERs unless you’re actually in distress. The hospital beds will be used for people who actively need oxygen/breathing treatments/IV fluids.
If you have a pre-existing lung condition (COPD, emphysema, lung cancer) or are on immunosuppressants, now is a great time to talk to your PCP or specialist about what they would like you to do if you get sick. They might have plans to get you admitted and bypass the ER entirely.
One major relief to you parents is that kids do VERY well with coronavirus— they usually bounce back in a few days, no one under 18 has died, and almost no kids have required hospitalization (unless they have a lung disease like CF). Just use pediatric dosing of the same meds.
One fundamental difference between Bernie and Biden
"Democrats, You Really Do Not Want To Nominate Joe Biden"
We need to reject Joe Biden. He represents everything wrong with the “civility"-first faction of Democratic elitism that’s been in charge of the Party for the last thirty-plus years. The kowtowing to power, the emphasis on “bipartisan” compromises no matter how damaging they may be to the services we all agree are good and necessary and pay for through our taxes. Biden isn’t the devil; he just never realized that’s who he was making deals with. He was a convenient mark for the real bad actors. We needed better, to resist corruption and evil. He should have been replaced decades ago, yet here he still is, and here the national Democratic Party is yet again rallying around an amoral elitist because they sense their power’s being threatened by the grassroots. If this election comes down to Biden and Trump, then we’re left with Trump the fascist, or Biden the weak-willed opposition coopted by the fascists.
Bernie Sanders is still in this race. If you haven’t yet, please vote for the only person remaining who understands the insidiousness of power, and whose plans we desperately need to begin reversing the ever-widening gap in power and control between the public and the oligarchs.
If you’re not convinced Biden was so bad, or his presidency wouldn’t be such a disaster (if not the nightmare that a second Trump term would be), read Nathan J. Robinson’s latest essay in Current Affairs, thoroughly debunking Biden’s tenure as decent:
Because you are a Democrat, I assume you believe in things. You deplore racism, sexism, and inequality. You believe that people shouldn’t die because they can’t afford healthcare, you are disturbed by needless destructive wars, you think climate change is real and urgent, and you think Democratic social programs like Medicare and Social Security are vital for keeping seniors comfortable in old age. You think the criminal punishment system can be harsh and excessive, that a woman’s right to choose is paramount, and that corporations shouldn’t take advantage of vulnerable people. Perhaps you wouldn’t describe yourself as a socialist like Bernie Sanders, but you do see how life for working people in America can be brutal and unfair, and you think it’s the government’s job to do something about it. The question, then, is which candidate can be trusted to best live up to your values, address the social problems that concern you, and fight for the things that are right.
The reason many of us are so turned off by Joe Biden is that, over the course of a many-decade career in Washington, he has let us down on the key issues when it matters most. Joe Biden has shown himself to be fundamentally weak, unreliable, and dishonest. He gets taken advantage of by Republicans, and he seems more interested in making friends than advancing Democratic ideals. Biden, ultimately, is truly “just another politician”: a guy who will give you a warm smile and then sell you out behind closed doors, a person who will make terrible decisions and grubby deals and then cover them up with lies. He adopts a “middle class” image but sucks up to the rich and powerful, and has contempt for ordinary voters and their concerns. He’s a man with little integrity or moral character, whose choices in office have caused a lot of people a lot of harm.
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Why would Biden do these things, you might ask? He clearly didn’t desire for hundreds of thousands of Iraqis to die, or for old people to suffer. But here’s an important thing to understand about Washington: The worst human consequences of political decision-making don’t come about because of outright malice, but because of indifference, self-interest, and ignorance. Politicians repeat facile dogmas about the need to “control the deficit” or “get tough on Saddam” without thinking about what the real-world effects of their actions are on the people whose benefits are cut and whose country is invaded. Insiders like Biden (who has been in Washington since 1972) are out of touch with what the world looks like for the people their policies affect. They listen only to the opinions of those who surround them, and those people are often self-interested lobbyists and donors. Someone like Biden is more interested in protecting his own position than on how his votes could impact people like you.
Voter suppression by another name
Vastly poorer countries, including ones with remote mountain villages, hold efficient elections where results are known in hours. Yet the wealthiest country on the planet, including some of its wealthiest cities and college towns, doesn’t, where people are forced to stand in lines for hours, just to cast a ballot. This is voter suppression, and it’s systematic, concentrated in areas where people are younger and browner. We need to overhaul our election system, guaranteeing the right to vote, and holding municipalities accountable when election boards fail their duty. We should also make election days federal and state holidays.
"Free Public Childcare and Pre-K is Popular and Affordable"
The people of the US need to take back the levers of our government from the wealthy. If we had a functioning democracy, we would have many of the nice things other advanced countries do. More of us need to join active political organizations, and fight for the changes we need.
Matt Bruenig, making the case for public childcare and pre-K:
In October of last year, People’s Policy Project commissioned a poll from YouGov to determine the popularity of this proposal. The poll asked 1,004 registered voters the following question:
“Would you support or oppose a policy to have the federal government provide grants to local school districts to provide free public child care for all children too young to attend school?”
YouGov found that the proposal was popular. Overall, 57 percent of Americans support the proposal while only 35 percent oppose it. Among Democrats, the support was overwhelming, with 82 percent in favor of the proposal and only 12 percent against it.
"Pete Buttigieg’s Health Care Plan Is A Joke"
Buttigieg is a standard empty politician, who either doesn’t understand the issues and how to fix them, or doesn’t care, but is very good at convincing you he knows what he’s talking about. Thankfully there are experts who actually do.
Buttigieg’s health plan is too vague to score in any kind of precise way, but it is clear enough from its text that it will cause national health expenditures to go up, not down. This is because it insures 30+ million more people but does very little to lower unit prices. The increase in the insured population and resulting utilization increases should more than overwhelm his puny cost-cutting measures, meaning that the total health bill under ButtigiegCare is actually higher than the total health bill under M4A.
So when you put it all together, what we have with Buttigieg’s plan is a proposal that combines administrative impossibilities with an extremely unpopular mandate and then delivers a system that provides less coverage at higher cost than Medicare for All. In short, a joke.