Should Businesses That Allow Non-Mask Wearers On The Premises Be Sued When People Contract COVID-19?

The Starbucks in this story was in Paju, Korea but it could just as easily have been at a Starbucks in Spring Branch (Houston), Annandale (Virginia) or Palisades Park in Bergen County-- or in a Stabucks that has nothing to do with anyone with any Korean heritage at all. It's another tragic story from the Age of the Trump Virus. The basics should be all too familiar by now: After a woman with the coronavirus visited a Starbucks this month, more than two dozen patrons tested positive days later. But the four mask-wearing employees escaped infection. "With health authorities around the world still debating the evidence around face masks, the 27-person cluster linked to the air-conditioned coffee outlet adds more support for their mandatory use to help limit the spread of the Covid-19-causing virus."

Mississippi became the 34th state with a mandatory mask policy earlier this month. It's not enforced and means nothing at all. States without mandatory mask policies-- along with how many cases per million residents:

• Florida- 28,192 cases per million Floridians, 2nd worst in America
• Arizona- 27,377 cases per million Arizonans, 3rd worst in America
• Georgia- 24,135 cases per million Georgians, 5th worst in America
• South Carolina- 21,860 cases per million residents
• Tennessee- 21,174 cases per million residents
• Iowa- 18,152 cases per million residents
• Idaho- 16,826 cases per million residents
• Nebraska- 16,567 cases per million residents
• Utah- 15,398 cases per million residents
• Oklahoma- 13,690 cases per million residents
• North Dakota- 13,423 cases per million residents
• South Dakota- 13,005 cases per million residents
• Missouri- 12,520 cases per million residents
• Alaska- 6,575 cases per million residents
• Wyoming- 6,225 cases per million residents
• New Hampshire- 5,247 cases per million residents

Each of these states has a Republican governor who would rather listen to trump than public health experts. And just for comparison's sake, Spain, the European country hit worst by the pandemic, has less than 9,051 cases per million. And in South Korea, where the first cases was reported at around the same time as the U.S.'s first case and where new Starbucks outbreak is causing a national freakout, there are just 350 cases per million residents. 350-- no commas. Compare that number to these U.S. counties' new cases just yesterday:

• Los Angeles- 1,198
• Harris (TX)- 784
• Sacramento- 815
• Riverside (CA)- 800
• Miami-Dade- 773
• Hidalgo (TX)- 675
• Ft Bend (TX)- 606

Meanwhile, the 10 largest retailers in the U.S. all require masks on their premises regardless of state mandates:

• Walmart- 5,355 stores
• Amazon/Whole Foods- 564 stores
• Kroger- 3,003 stores
• Costco- 542 stores
• Walgreens- 9,168 stores
• Home Depot- 1,973 stores
• CVS- 9,909 stores
• Target- 1,868 stores
• Lowe's- 1,727 stores
• Albertson's (including Safeway and Vons)- 2,258 stores

Let me go back to the unwritten GOP platform on the pandemic: "Coronavirus is a much-overhyped problem. It’s not that dangerous and will soon burn itself out. States should reopen their economies as rapidly as possible, and accept the ensuing casualties as a cost worth paying-- and certainly a better trade-off than saving every last life by shutting down state economies. Masking is useless and theatrical, if not outright counterproductive."

On Tuesday, NPR's James Dawson reported that "In Boise, the first day of Idaho's special legislative session erupted into chaos before it began. Dozens of unmasked protesters, some of them armed, shoved their way past state troopers to pack the gallery overlooking the state's House of Representatives. The clash was a manifestation of the anger and frustration from a vocal minority of far-right Idahoans that has been compounding over the last several months as the state has navigated its reopening amid the pandemic. To enforce social distancing, the gallery area above the House chamber was restricted with limited seating. But after the confrontation with state troopers, which resulted in the shattering of a glass door, Republican House Speaker Scott Bedke relented and allowed protesters to fill every seat."

Idaho is in the midst of a COVID-explosion, centered on Boise, the state capital. There were 217 new cases yesterday, bringing the state's total to 30,070, which doesn't sound like a lot-- until you realize that's 16,826 cases per million Idahoans, a gigantic number, more than double the rate in Italy and France combined!

The group of protesters included supporters of a far-right militia and anti-vaccine advocates who were at the Idaho Capitol to demand an end to the current state of emergency and blast a proposal that would limit civil liability for businesses, schools and governments.

The bill would also open up those entities to litigation if they don't follow laws and ordinances, including mask mandates issued by public health districts.

"The insanity of this bill is beyond me," said Boise resident Pam Hemphill, during a committee hearing Monday afternoon. "We don't stop our lives, suspend our civil rights and panic each year for the flu."

These people are like rapid dogs threatening to infect the rest of society because they are mentally intellectually incapable of understanding the most basic tenets of epidemiology and consider themselves experts because they read Q-Anon on the internet. What do you do to a rabid dog? Sorry.

Idaho Gov. Brad Little, a Republican, called the legislature into special session last week to take up civil liability issues as well as election concerns from county clerks. They want to be able to count the massive influx of absentee ballots earlier than they can now under state law and have the option to consolidate polling locations to deal with an extreme shortage of poll workers.

The special session is also the result of months of intense pressure and blowback from Little's own party.

One state lawmaker referred to the governor as "Little Hitler" after he ordered the shutdown of nonessential businesses in late March. His lieutenant governor, Janice McGeachin, who is elected separately and has ties to militia groups, has openly challenged Little's reopening push by visiting businesses that flouted those timelines and welcomed customers back earlier than allowed.

And legislators pressured Little to relinquish control over the state's coronavirus response to regional public health districts, even threatening to come after his executive authority in the future if he didn't comply.

Still, most Idahoans appear to stand by Little. An effort to recall the governor over the summer failed, and three-quarters of registered Idaho voters polled in May supported his handling of the pandemic.

Idaho's rabid dogs have a leader: Lt. Governor Janice McGeachin (R), who is badly in need of psychiatric intervention. When she began her anti-mask crusade last spring, Idaho only had 1,374 cases per million residents. McGeachin, a militia lunatic, should be held responsible for her part in mass murder. But... hey, it's Idaho and if she's on the ballot in 2022, she'll probably be elected. She owns a bar in Idaho Falls, the Celt Pub and Grill which doesn't require masks. I asked one of the employees to describe it to me in terms of the pandemic and he told me the employees where masks but most of the customers don't and acknowledged that most of them are "conspiracy folks" who are hostile towards mask wears who wander in. He said it wasn't specifically McGeachin's fault as much as it is about the people who live in Idaho Falls, which is Idaho's second largest city the county seat for Bonneville County. Hillary only took 20.2% of the vote there in 2016 and the "blue wave" of 2018 didn't reach the county at all. The Little/McGeachin ticket won with 66.6% and the county performed at an R+46 level for Rep. Mike Simpson.

And speaking of idiots, remember the motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota a couple of weeks ago? Forbes reported that "More than 70 coronavirus cases diagnosed in seven states across the West and Midwest have been linked to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, which attracted more than 460,000 vehicles over a 10-day period earlier this month, and at least one state health official expects this is just the start of cases linked to the event." Over two dozen were in neighboring Minnesota and the state's director of infectious diseases, Kris Ehresmann said that "Unfortunately, I think this is just the beginning of the cases we will see from Sturgis." I thought it was interesting that the Republican-controlled city council approved the event, even though 60% of the residents of Sturgis opposed it. So far this week (Monday and Tuesday) South Dakota has reported 229 new cases, brining the state's total to 11,505 or 13,005 cases per million South Dakotans.

Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin, classic idiot

Pride In America-- Shame And Embarrassment About The Soon-To-Be-Gone Political Leadership

I spent most of the years Nixon was in the White House living abroad. He was nearly as bad as Trump and I couldn't live in a country where he was president. So embarrassing. But eventually-- it was a morning after I woke up dreaming in Dutch instead of English-- I decided I wanted to live in my own country. I moved back to the U.S., the country I can now say I chose to live in, didn't just happen to be born in-- though I was that too. And even if I'm on a ferry on the Chao Phraya, Bangkok's river waterway, talking with some friends and a Danish girl comes up and asks us how we can let Trump be president... I'm still proud to be an America. Maybe a little embarrassed sometimes, but never to the point of seriously consider changing my address.

A new Gallup poll released over the weekend, though, shows that national pride here is America has fallen too a record low-- the lowest since Gallup started polling the question in 2001. They report that "15% of Americans say they are 'moderately proud,' 12% 'only a little proud' and 9% 'not at all proud.'"

Do you blame Trump? How could you not? This is just a small thing, but it's a good example. Reporting for Bloomberg News from Seoul yesterday, Jeong-Ho Lee, Nick Wadhams, and Jennifer Jacobs wrote that Trump and Pompeo forced U.S. Ambassador to South Korea, Harry Harris, to remove two gigantic banners on the front of the embassy honoring the kind of U.S. diversity that has been so admired around the world-- and so detested and feared by the Trumpist Regime. One honored the LGBTQ+ community in celebration of Pride Month and the other honored Black Lives Matter. This is the "before" picture:

This makes me feel proud of my country. Trumpists flip out though

Señor Trumpanzee hasn't responded to this tweet from the Embassy on his Twitter account yet... but plenty of Trumpist shills have:

Maybe The Whole World Feels Like It's Falling Apart Because It Is-- And Maybe We Need Better Leadership... MUCH Better Leadership

Never Waste A Serious Crisis by Nancy Ohanian

The pandemic hit South Korea early through crowded churches. The entire society mobilized and beat the crap out of the coronavirus. Korea has been a model of how to handle this-- a model followed by some countries but not others. Korea has only had 10,874 cases (same number as Minnesota-- and South Korea has 10 times more people) and 256 deaths. More importantly the country has had just 212 cases per million in their population. That's tiny. The U.S. has had over 4,100 cases per million! The American states with the fewest cases are doing worse than South Korea:

• Oregon- 765 cases per million
• West Virginia- 760 cases per million
• Alaska- 518 cases per million
• Hawaii- 446 cases per million
• Montana- 429 cases per million

And then something horrible happened. They controlled the outbreak in churches and stopped the spread-- until now. It's back. Caseloads are inching up. Bloomberg reported that on Korea's second wave tied to nightclubs in Seoul and Itaewon visited by just one patient. He exposed between 6 and 7 thousand people. Closing the barn door late, "Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon on Saturday ordered the closing of all nightclubs, discos, hostess bars and other similar nightlife establishments in the capital."

The pandemic didn't hit Britain as quickly or with as much force as it did other European countries. Britain got off easy-- at first. Same with Russia. Phase One passed them both by. Now both countries (plus Brazil) are paying. The countries reporting the largest number of new cases over the weekend other than the U.S. were Russia, Brazil and the U.K. Let's leave Brazil and Russia out of this for the moment and look at the cases per million in the western European countries:

• Spain- 5,661 cases per million
• Ireland- 4,657 cases per million
• Belgium- 4,580 cases per million
• Italy- 3,623 cases per million
• Switzerland- 3,502 cases per million
• U.K.- 3,229 cases per million
• France- 2,710 cases per million
• Portugal- 2,705 cases per million
• Sweden- 2,606 cases per million
• Netherlands- 2,488 cases per million
• Germany- 2,050  cases per million

Other than Britain, most of those countries are seeing the curve flatten. Britain-- which has had the same individualistic, selfish outlook as the U.S.-- is watching the curve steepen. Yesterday, the Associated Press reported that "After a week of mixed messages that started with Johnson indicating there will be changes to the lockdown beginning Monday, the government has sought to douse speculation that they will amount to much. That’s because the U.K., which has recorded the most coronavirus-related deaths in Europe at 31,662, is still seeing a relatively high number of infections. Johnson is expected to announce modest changes in his pre-recorded televised address, including quarantining anyone flying into the country for 14 days except those from Ireland, amid rising evidence that Britons are increasingly flouting the 'stay at home' message. British police warned Saturday that they are 'fighting a losing battle' on this front... Professor Til Wykes of the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London said people need 'clear, concise and accurate' messages on what to do during the pandemic. 'This one is concise only,' she said. 'It will just be confusing, be open to misinterpretation and likely to increase risky behaviour.'"

Speaking of which... on a conference call with former members of his administration, Obama tore into Trump's catastrophic response to the pandemic. "This election that’s coming up on every level is so important because what we’re going to be battling is not just a particular individual or a political party. What we’re fighting against is these long-term trends in which being selfish, being tribal, being divided, and seeing others as an enemy-- that has become a stronger impulse in American life. And by the way, we’re seeing that internationally as well. It’s part of the reason why the response to this global crisis has been so anemic and spotty. It would have been bad even with the best of governments. It has been an absolute chaotic disaster when that mindset-- of 'what’s in it for me' and 'to heck with everybody else'-- when that mindset is operationalized in our government."

And who can't see that every damn day? Yesterday a top Washington Post team of reporters-- Josh Dawsey, Ashley Parker, Phil Rucker and Yaseen Abutaleb-- wrote about Trump's obsession for reopening the economy while it still is far from safe and how he just does not give a damn about the workers. "In a week when the novel coronavirus ravaged new communities across the country," they wrote, "and the number of dead soared past 78,000 80,000, President Trump and his advisers shifted from hour-by-hour crisis management to what they characterize as a long-term strategy aimed at reviving the decimated economy and preparing for additional outbreaks this fall. But in doing so, the administration is effectively bowing to-- and asking Americans to accept-- a devastating proposition: that a steady, daily accumulation of lonely deaths is the grim cost of reopening the nation."

[H]ealth officials warn the number of coronavirus cases could increase considerably in May and June as more states and localities loosen restrictions, and some mitigation efforts are still recommended as states begin to reopen.

The administration is struggling to expand the scale of testing to what experts say is necessary to reopen businesses safely, and officials have not announced any national plan for contact tracing. Trump and some of his advisers are prioritizing the psychology of the pandemic as much as, if not more than, plans to combat the virus, some aides and outside advisers said-- striving to instill confidence that people can comfortably return to daily life despite the rising death toll.

On Friday, as the unemployment rate reached a historically high 14.7 percent, Trump urged Americans to think of this period as a “transition to greatness,” adding during a meeting with Republican members of Congress: “We’re going to do something very fast, and we’re going to have a phenomenal year next year.” The president predicted the virus eventually would disappear even without a vaccine-- a prediction at odds with his own science officials.

...Some of Trump’s advisers described the president as glum and shell-shocked by his declining popularity. In private conversations, he has struggled to process how his fortunes suddenly changed from believing he was on a glide path to reelection to realizing that he is losing to the likely Democratic nominee, former vice president Joe Biden, in virtually every poll, including his own campaign’s internal surveys, advisers said. He also has been fretting about the possibility that a bad outbreak of the virus this fall could damage his standing in the November election, said the advisers, who along with other aides and allies requested anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

The president is also eager to resume political travel in June, including holding his signature rallies by the end of the summer in areas where there are few cases, advisers said. Trump’s political team has begun discussions about organizing a high-dollar, in-person fundraiser next month, as well as preliminary planning about staging rallies and what sort of screenings might be necessary, according to Republican National Committee officials and outsider advisers. One option being considered is holding rallies outdoors, rather than in enclosed arenas, a senior administration official said.

Officials also are forging ahead with the Republican National Convention planned for late August in Charlotte, albeit a potentially scaled-back version.

But Trump’s outward projections of assurance and hope masked the more sober acknowledgments of some outside advisers and experts who worry the number of deaths will either stabilize around 2,000 per day or continue to climb over the next month.

“The question is, will people become anesthetized to it? Are they willing to accept that?” said one adviser to the White House coronavirus task force who, like many others interviewed for this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters or offer candid assessments.

Stephen Moore, a conservative economist who has been informally advising Trump and his team, said making people comfortable returning to work and resuming normal activities will take a long time.

“I’m the biggest advocate for getting the economy up and running there is, but I have two relatives who think I’m crazy, and they’re not going out of their house no matter what,” Moore said. “Just because the president and governors open up a state doesn’t mean that commerce is going to instantly resume. It’s not.”

...The task force’s new strategy came amid broader internal debate about the future of the Pence-led group. On Tuesday, the New York Times first reported that the administration was talking about dismantling the task force, which Pence confirmed to reporters shortly thereafter. The next morning, however, Trump announced on Twitter that the group would “continue on indefinitely with its focus on SAFETY & OPENING UP OUR COUNTRY AGAIN.”

Administration officials stressed that the public may have an outsized impression of the task force. Its purpose was largely to provide a centralized forum for analyzing virus data and crafting response plans, through daily Situation Room meetings, as well as to share information with the public through daily White House press briefings, while much of the government’s substantive work took place at various agencies. The goal behind disbanding the task force, officials argued, was simply to center all coronavirus efforts in the agencies where they could be handled more efficiently.

Whereas initially the task force found itself scrambling to deploy a whack-a-mole management effort, dealing with regular crises as they emerged — from coronavirus-infected cruise ships to the urgent need for ventilators — the administration now intends to shift its focus to what is says is more strategic longer-term planning.

“I think we’re in a really good position now to be able to look around the corner and set ourselves up for the fall,” said Katie Miller, Pence’s press secretary.

However, White House officials declined to provide any specifics as to what the long-term strategy is, what the different plans will look like, and who is leading the various efforts.

The task force had already begun to curtail briefings, following a disastrous performance last month when Trump suggested the idea of injecting disinfectants, such as bleach, to treat the virus.

Although Trump and his aides have boasted that the number of Americans tested continues to rise — the total was 8.4 million as of Saturday — allies and other public health experts bemoan the slow pace. They argue that the country could have tested far more people and initiated a contact tracing plan had the president and his team focused more strategically on that in recent weeks.

“It’s incredibly sad and it shouldn’t be the case,” a former senior administration official said. “We should have testing and contact tracing and we don’t. That’s a concern.” The official added, “You can’t have just whatever the shiny ball is today. You have to be able to do more than one thing at a time and deal with more than one crisis point at a time.”

More than anything, three advisers said, Trump is focused on how to turn the economy around and reopen the country, seeing a nascent recovery as key to getting reelected and his handling of the economy as one of his only strengths in the polls over Joe Biden.

“Given that we’re going to be at 15 or 20 percent unemployment, it is the direction of the economy, rather than the raw numbers of the economy, that I think voters will judge him on,” said Neil Newhouse, a prominent GOP pollster.

The president and senior White House advisers have begun holding meetings on a range of topics other than the coronavirus, such as a session Friday on the thrift savings plan in the Oval Office and a Monday session on health care.

Trump son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, who has been running his own coronavirus effort, has begun interviewing candidates for a new position focused on finding vaccines and therapeutics, but some administration officials say it is another instance of Kushner stepping into territory he knows little about.

On Thursday afternoon, Trump huddled in the Oval Office with a mix of campaign aides and White House officials. No one wore masks, though campaign manager Brad Parscale did tweet a photo of himself in the West Wing sporting sunglasses and a white mask with red “Trump Pence 2020” lettering. Parscale brought five prototype campaign masks to show the president and is planning to send out 50,000 to supporters across the country.

As the president was updated on the Republican convention, various lawsuits the Republican Party and Trump campaign have launched against states over voting rules, and political ads attacking Biden over China, he appeared to be in a good mood, said three people familiar with the meeting.

But reality kept intruding. The same day, news broke that one of Trump’s personal valets, a Navy chief petty officer, had tested positive for coronavirus. And on Friday, Trump himself revealed the name of another White House staffer who had just tested positive for the virus: Miller, the vice president’s press secretary.

At the same time, another Washington Post reporting team-- Karen DeYoung, Katie Mettler and Meryl Kornfield-- were noting how caseloads are increasing in the states opening up too early. They wrote that "Easing of social distancing guidelines-- whether by government edict or individual decision-- has led to new coronavirus flare-ups in the United States and abroad, even as pressure builds to loosen restrictions that have kept millions isolated and decimated economies."

Officials in Pasadena, California, warned Saturday against Mother’s Day gatherings after a cluster of new covid-19 cases was identified there among a large group of extended family and friends attending a recent birthday party, despite a stay-at-home order in effect.

Through contact tracing, investigators discovered more than five confirmed cases and “many more ill individuals” linked to the party, the local public health department said.

The controversy over when, and how much, to open up has taken on sharp political overtones, with protests and occasional violence against those trying to keep the rules in place.

Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a statement that a report by the Associated Press alleging the White House had held back restrictive recommendations from experts on how to safely reopen hinged on a premature “draft” that “had not been vetted through the interagency process.”

Trump administration officials previously said that the recommendations were overly specific and did not take into account regional differences in the threat level.

In a series of Saturday tweets, President Trump accused California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) of opening a public polling place to favor Democrats in a special congressional election to be conducted largely by mail-in ballots next week, while Newsom has refused to open “restaurants, beaches and stores.”

Voters were encouraged to vote by mail because of the novel coronavirus, with a few in-person polling places. Democrats in the district had raised concerns that a city with a large African American population didn’t have an in-person voting place, leading the new voting center to be added... Because of the coronavirus, voters were encouraged to mail-in ballots, with every voter receiving a pre-stamped ballot to fill out and return. But a limited number of in-person polling places were long planned to be open, and one was added recently in Lancaster.

Tesla on Saturday filed a lawsuit against the California county that has prohibited the electric car company from producing vehicles during the outbreak.

The company alleged in its suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, that Alameda County had violated the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment and sought an injunction that would allow the company to operate. Its Fremont manufacturing plant is located in that county.

The suit followed chief executive Elon Musk threatening in a series of tweets earlier Saturday that the company would sue and move Tesla’s headquarters and future programs to Texas and Nevada. He appeared to leave open the possibility of maintaining some operations in Fremont depending “on how Tesla is treated in the future.”

South Korean officials, who recently began to loosen social distancing requirements, ordered more than 2,100 nightclubs, discos and bars in Seoul to close Saturday after the country recorded dozens of new cases linked to partygoers in the city last weekend.

In Germany, where the government has outlined a cautious but steady opening, hundreds of workers in at least three meat-processing plants have tested positive for the coronavirus, medical and local officials said. Word of the new infections came as Chancellor Angela Merkel, speaking in her weekly video message to the nation, said that “we are excited to take the first steps towards normal, everyday life.”

As governments try to balance health and economic priorities, medical experts have said that new flare-ups are inevitable, but that widespread testing and contact tracing are key to preventing breakouts. Both South Korea and Germany have been among the countries adopting the strictest shutdown measures and providing the most testing and contact tracing.

Trump, who has pressed to reopen schools and businesses sooner rather than later, said Friday that “testing isn’t necessary.”

On Saturday, two senior members of the administration’s coronavirus task force said they would self-quarantine after being exposed at the White House.

Redfield and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn will isolate for two weeks, the CDC and FDA said, after coming into contact with White House staffers who have tested positive for the virus.

Vice President Pence’s press secretary, Katie Miller, and one of President Trump’s personal valets tested positive last week, although neither they, nor Redfield or Hahn, have been reported ill.

France and Spain, among the hardest-hit countries, but with declining death rates, have scheduled partial reopenings this week. Italy recorded a decline in new infections, but remains the country with the third-highest confirmed death toll, at more than 30,000, behind Britain, with nearly 32,000, and the United States, the highest at more than 78,000 80,697.

Maybe Elon Musk, a South African asshole, thinks he can sell his Teslas in Mississippi and West Virginia. Good luck with that, prick. If Californians stop buying his defective cars-- as they should-- he's out of business in less than a year-- and is exactly what he deserves. Let him go try to peddle his products in Texas and the Dakotas.

The Trump Regime's Response To The Pandemic Is The Worst In The World But Some Countries Are Getting It Right

COVID-45 by Nancy Ohanian

Chris Martenson, who insists, convincingly, that he is apolitical, has been excoriating the Trump regime's response to the pandemic for months. For nearly as long, he has been holding up the Czech Republic (Czechia) as a model of effective response, primarily because of how quickly and effectively the government got the whole country to wear face masks. After an initial surge in mid-March-- which has led to 6,606 confirmed infections and 181 deaths-- the curve has begun to flatten far more significantly than it has in Italy, Spain, France and the U.K. This is the rate of infection in European countries that are testing, per million in population (as of Saturday morning):

• Spain- 4,101
• Belgium- 3,208
• Switzerland- 3,166
• Italy- 2,910
• Ireland- 2,831
• France- 2,267
• Portugal- 1,931
• Netherlands- 1,844
• Germany- 1,702
• Austria- 1,629
• U.K.- 1,682
• Sweden- 1,369
• Norway- 1,298
• Denmark- 1,250
• Estonia- 1,140
• Czechia- 617

Last night we highlighted Japan, a country that was responding pretty well but, like Switzerland, started opening up too fast and is now suffering dismal consequences-- a model Trump seems determined to use for our country. Last week, CNN tried identifying countries that are doing it right.

Taiwan, they reported, started off with terrible numbers, courtesy of China. But Taiwan, with a population of around 24 million people, has recorded just over 398 cases and six deaths-- just 17 infections per million in the population and, astonishingly, just 0.3 deaths per million. [For comparison's sake, the U.S. now has 2,158 infections per million and 113 deaths per million.] CNN reports that Taiwan has "managed to do that without implementing severe restrictions, like lockdowns, or school and nursery closures... Although Taiwan has high-quality universal health care, its success lies in its preparedness, speed, central command and rigorous contact tracing."

Lesson #1: Be prepared

Taiwan's preparedness came largely from some hard-learned lessons from the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003, which killed 181 people on the island.

As a result, the island established a specialized Central Epidemic Command Center, which could be activated to coordinate a response in the event of an outbreak. In a sign of how Taiwan wanted to get ahead of the coronavirus, the center was activated on January 20, a day before the island even confirmed its first infection.

Because its authority was already established, the center was able to implement stringent measures without being slowed down by lengthy political processes. It put more than 120 action items into place within three weeks, according to a list published by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). That list alone could serve as a manual on exactly what to do during an outbreak.

Lesson #2: Be quick

Taiwan's action came well before its first Covid-19 infection was confirmed on January 21. Three weeks before, within days of China's first reported case to the World Health Organization (WHO), Taiwanese officials began boarding and inspecting passengers for fever and pneumonia symptoms on flights from Wuhan, the original epicenter of the virus in China. The island issued a travel alert for Wuhan on January 20, and two days later, still with just a single case, officials began updating the public in daily briefings.

A week after its first case, Taiwan began electronic monitoring of quarantined individuals via government-issued cell phones, and announced travel and entry restrictions, mostly targeting China's Hubei province, of which Wuhan is the capital. Just about every day after until the end of February, the government implemented new measures to keep the virus at bay.





Taiwan had only 329 cases when it imposed strict social distancing measures on April 1. In comparison, there were already 335 deaths and more than 3,000 cases on March 20, when Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that pubs and restaurants were to close, and that most children would be pulled from schools and nurseries. And as the UK is not testing widely, the true number of infections is believed to be much higher than official figures show.

Lesson #3: Test, trace and quarantine

Authorities carried out widespread testing and tracing the contacts of infected people, putting them all under quarantine. It proactively tested anyone who got off cruise ships and even retested people diagnosed with influenza or pneumonia, to make sure they hadn't been misdiagnosed and were infected with coronavirus.

Lesson #4: Use data and tech

"A coordinated government response with full collaboration of its citizenry [was] combined with the use of big data and technology," associate professor of pediatrics at Stanford Medicine, Jason Wang, told CNN. Wang has also studied public health policy and co-authored the JAMA report on Taiwan's response.

Taiwan merged national health insurance data with customs and immigration databases to create real-time alerts to help identify vulnerable populations.

"Having a good health data system helps with monitoring the spread of the disease and allows for its early detection. When someone sees a physician for respiratory symptoms, the national health insurance database will have a record of it. It is easier to track clusters of outbreaks," Wang said.

Taiwan used mandatory online reporting and check-ins for 14 days after travel restrictions. It also employed "digital fencing" for close to 55,000 people in home quarantine, where alarms would sound if a quarantined person wandered too far from home. The technical surveillance methods used in Taiwan and by other governments have raised privacy concerns from civil society groups.

Iceland

Getting a coronavirus test in many countries can be near impossible, unless you're already very ill. Not so in Iceland, where anyone who wants a test gets one. Widespread testing has been crucial to the country's low number of infections and deaths, authorities there say. Only around 1,700 people have been infected in Iceland, and only eight have died.

Lesson #5: Be aggressive

Iceland's response to the coronavirus hasn't been particularly innovative. It's just been meticulous and quick. Like Taiwan, its speed has meant it hasn't had to be too restrictive-- people can still meet in groups of up to 20, if they stay two meters away from each other. While universities are closed, schools and nurseries are still open, allowing more parents to work.

"From the beginning, since we diagnosed our first case, we worked according to our plan. Our plan was to be aggressive in detecting and diagnosing individuals, putting them into isolation, and to be very aggressive in our contact tracing. We used the police force and the healthcare system to sit down and contact trace every newly diagnosed case," Iceland's chief epidemiologist Thorolfur Gudnason told CNN.

"We are finding that above 60% of new cases are in people already quarantined. So that showed that contact tracing and quarantining contacts was a good move for us," Gudnason said.

Lesson #6: Get the private sector involved

In a public-private partnership between the National University Hospital of Iceland and biotech company deCODE Genetics, Iceland designed tests early and expects to have tested 10% of its population by the end of this week. It aims to test just about everyone and has already become a valuable laboratory for the world to learn more about the novel virus.

Recent revelations that 50% of the people who tested positive in a lab in Iceland showed no symptoms at all, for example, has prompted other countries to take firmer action through social distancing, as they begin to realize preventing the virus' spread will be more challenging than initially thought.

Kári Stefánsson, CEO and director of deCODE Geneticsm, told CNN that as of Monday, it had found 528 mutations of the coronavirus in mass testing in the community. These mutations could give insight to how lethal the virus becomes and offers important data to the world to better understand how it operates.

Lesson #7: Act preventatively

Icelandic Health Minister Svandís Svavarsdóttir has emphasized speed as a powerful tool, saying the approach is to stay "ahead of the curve." The country appears to have done just that. After just six imported cases were confirmed on March 3, Iceland immediately issued quarantine measures for all travelers returning from Italy, and increased travel restrictions in the following weeks.

The National Police Commissioner declared a state of emergency on March 6, when the first two community-transmitted infections were confirmed. This sent a signal to government bodies to improve their preparedness, but it kept public gatherings as they were, only warning vulnerable people to stay away from crowded places.

The country closed universities and junior colleges on March 13 and banned gatherings of more than 100 people on March 16, when it had just 61 confirmed cases and not a single death.

Three days later, all Icelandic residents that entered the country were required to go into 14 days of quarantine, regardless of where they were traveling from.

It wasn't until after all this action that, on March 24, Iceland's first death was reported. That same day, authorities banned gatherings of above 20 people and shut down public amenities, such as bars, swimming pools, museums and gyms.

Lesson #8: Use tech, but respect privacy

Like in Taiwan, Icelandic officials also made an app available for people to download to help chart the virus' spread. It creates a log of where the user has been. Users don't have to share that data with authorities-- but many do as it helps contact-tracing teams work out who may have been put at risk.

In comparison, the UK's response has been slow. A government-supported app is only now in the works and is weeks away from launching. As it lags behind in testing, it is only just now looking into public-private partnerships.

South Korea

It's telling that South Korea reported its first coronavirus case at around the same time as the US and UK. South Korea is confirming around 30 new cases a day, while in the UK it's around 5,000, and the US it's more than 20,000.

The way each country tests varies, but their death rates among the population contrast just as dramatically. Fewer than one in every 100,000 people in South Korea's population have died from the virus, while in the UK it's around 18. It's almost eight in every 100,000 in the US, JHU data shows.

Lesson #9: You can drive-through test

South Korea's success has been largely down to its testing, according to Dr. Eom Joong Sik from the Gil Medical Center near Seoul. Eom is treating coronavirus patients in hospital and sits on a committee that advises the government in its response.

"Early diagnosis, early quarantine and early treatment are key," he told CNN.

"Since the first patient was confirmed, by installing more than 500 screening clinics all over the country, we sorted suspected cases and conducted tests, and we have worked hard to develop and maintain a system to conduct many tests with a small workforce over a short period of time," he said.

The country has also been innovative in how it tests. Eom's advisory team had hundreds of drive-through booths, just like at a McDonald's, set up across the country to offer tests that were largely free, quick and done by staff at a safe distance. The US has since replicated that model in some states.

On March 16, the WHO called on governments of the world to "test, test, test." South Korea had already been doing that for weeks, and has to date tested more than 500,000 people, among the highest number in the world per capita.

Many countries are struggling to carry out thousands of tests each day. It's so difficult to get tested in the UK, for example, that people have been turning to mail-order kits, in an industry that hasn't yet been regulated by the government.

South Korea was also quick to move, implementing quarantining and screening measures for people arriving from Wuhan on January 3, more than two weeks before the country's first infection was even confirmed. Authorities rolled out a series of travel restrictions over the weeks after.

South Korea has also been rigorous in its contact tracing, though it was able to do that easily when it realized a large number of cases could be traced to one religious group in the city of Daegu, making contact tracing easier and giving authorities a specific area to carry out intensive testing.

"By carrying out tests on all members of the congregation and diagnosing even infected people without symptoms, the government carried out quarantine and treatment side by side," Eom said.

Once Daegu was established as the epicenter, authorities were ready with the ability and political will to test broadly, to trace contacts of people infected, and to quarantine them to try and contain the virus before it became a case of mitigating widescale death, as is now the case in much of Europe and the US.

Lesson #10: Learn from the past

South Korea was able to move quickly because, like Taiwan and many other Asian nations, it had been burned before. South Korea was mostly unaffected by the SARS outbreak, only reporting three cases and no deaths at all. But it was caught off guard by the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome in 2015, when it recorded 186 cases and 38 deaths, making it the worst-impacted country outside the Middle East.

So the political will needed to enforce measures during the coronavirus outbreak wasn't a problem and there was good coordination between the central government and the provinces.

It also helped that South Korea is one of the most technologically innovative countries in the world. Much of life there is already conducted online, so developing and enforcing the use of an app to monitor people in quarantine wasn't too difficult, though activists there too have warned of invasion of privacy.

Germany

Germany's case is a little different. The country hasn't really been able to keep infection numbers at bay much better than some of the hardest-hit nations. It currently has more than 132,000 confirmed infections, the fifth-highest in the world, JHU reports.

But Germany has been able to keep the death rate in its population relatively low. More than 3,400 people have died from the virus in Germany, around four people in every 100,000 across the country. That's well below Italy's 35 and the UK's 18.

Lesson #11: Test more as restrictions ease

Germany's success has also been its mass testing, but its well-resourced universal healthcare system has played a major role too, according to Martin Stürmer, a virologist who heads IMD Labor in Frankfurt, one of the labs conducting tests. Germany has also drawn in the private sector to make sure enough tests are carried out.

"From the beginning, Germany didn't stick to one or two or three central labs doing all the tests. Many private companies were involved, so we've been able to do 100,000 tests a day," Stürmer told CNN.

"There are some countries that have done it even better than Germany, in controlling infections, but what's quite important is broad testing, where we were able to see what was happening in our population. Only with mass testing can you identify people who might be infected."

Like Taiwan, South Korea and Iceland, Germany devised a test for the coronavirus and prepared a large number of kits early, well before the country even reported its first death.

As German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced Wednesday that the country would begin gradually scaling back its lockdown, the country is planning on carrying out even more tests, in case the increased contact leads to a second wave of infections. Like many countries, it will also test for antibodies to try and determine who among the community may be immune to the virus.

Germany's death toll has remained relatively low in part because the coronavirus trickled into the country mostly in young people. Many had been visiting Italy or Austria on ski trips.

Authorities were able to test people returning to Germany from these ski resorts and trace their contacts for testing too. Most of those people were young, and still today, the biggest age group by infections is 35-59, followed by 15-34. The virus is proving to be deadlier among the elderly around the world.

But as communal infections in the country grow, Stürmer fears that more elderly people could die in coming weeks and that the country's death rate will go up.

Germany recorded 315 deaths from complications related to Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, the country's center for disease control, the Robert Koch Institute, wrote on its website on Thursday. This is the first time more than 300 deaths have been reported in a 24-hour span.

Lesson #12: Build capacity at hospitals

Germany ranks 18th in the world in terms of access to quality healthcare, according to an index published by The Lancet, sitting above the UK at 23rd and the US at 29th. But these indices only tell us so much. Italy, for example, ranks ninth and the country also carried out rigorous testing, yet it has recorded the second-highest number of deaths per capita in the world, after Spain.

In this situation, the difference appears to be the German healthcare system's huge capacity. Germany is projected to need about 12,000 beds at the peak of this outbreak in the middle of the month, according to projections from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. It has over 147,000, more than 10 times its need. In contrast, the US has around 94,000 beds, some 15,000 beds short of its need. Germany has more spare beds in intensive care units that Italy has altogether.

In fact, Germany's health system has such a large capacity, its hospitals are now treating people for coronavirus from Italy, Spain and France.

Authorities have been able to get people with even moderate symptoms to hospital well before their conditions deteriorate, leading some experts to consider whether treating people early, getting them on ventilators before their condition worsens, for example, improves their chances for survival.

"Germany is not in a situation where the healthcare system is overloaded, like you see in Italy, where they need to decide whether to treat a patient or not. We don't have that," Stürmer said.

Progressive Texan Julie Oliver is running for a congressional seat held by Trump doormat Roger Williams. This morning she told me that "Texas is dead last in testing, and states are begging the Trump administration for PPE, ventilators, and tests which he is refusing to provide. Too many people are hurting because they just lost their job, and are now faced with not having a health insurance, a reality that 5 million of our fellow Texans already know too well. This district deserves better than a Congressman who won't fight for PPE for healthcare providers, and who let a bill designed to help small businesses become almost immediately depleted by providing $90 billion a year for millionaire real estate and hedge fund business owners. They gave trillions in tax cuts to multinational corporations that used the money for stock buybacks and who shipped the jobs overseas. They voted again and again to defund and cut our healthcare infrastructure, so that when the bottom fell out there's no net and no plan to get us out. We can not entrust the rebuilding of the Texas economy to the people that have driven us into the second world historical recession in 15 years." Please consider helping Julie beat Williams at the Take Back Texas Act Blue page here and contributing what you can.

Keepin' Up With Coronavirus

Two weeks ago, on my travel blog, I explained why fear of coronavirus led to me cancelling a trip to France this summer. France doesn't have a coronavirus problem but I have a feeling it will-- we all will-- by summer. As you can see above, South Korea didn't have problem last week; but they sure do now-- a big surge in identified infections and a death of a man who has been hospitalized for more than 20 year. (In other words, medical professionals are failing to contain this in their own facilities.

Want to keep up with the latest coronavirus updates? I'm finding Chris Martenson's YouTube site informative, if a lot more frightening than what Reese Erlich reported last week. And speaking of last week, I want to add to the post from last Monday on how the pandemic could impact our political revolution. First, a couple of Chris Martenson updates:








This is the updated advice we'd pass along to Bernie's campaign:

Health Risk

• This contagion runs far ahead of visible symptoms
• It also hits older people much harder than younger people

Health Precautions

• Immediately reroute Bernie’s schedule away from rope lines and other hands, hugs and crowding

• Quickly refocus national surrogates’ on-site activities away from locations with highest numbers of travellers from Asia, such as Bay Area, Los Angeles and San Diego, in favor of campaigning in South Carolina and Super Tuesday states’ rural areas, where the virus is unlikely to spread as quickly.

Political Risk

• Much worse than suspension of March 3 elections would be appearance that:
(a) Berners had alleged political motives for suspensions, 
(b) which are later perceived to have been justified by public health precautions

Rhetorical Contingencies

Contagious new and stealthy viruses remind us that:



• "Each one of us is easily infected by anybody in our community who faces financial barriers to getting check-ups and treatment, so Medicare For All is a necessary protection for all of us"


• "Each country’s safety now depends on maintaining communication and cooperation with other countries, while minimizing disruption from mutual suspicion and hostility"

• "We remember when news of the Soviet Union’s Sputnik satellite suddenly changed our national culture and catalyzed our development of new technologies and industries. In response to today’s sudden viral pandemic threat, and to the slower but surer threat of climate collapse, we need another change of culture, to resist these threats against all of our people, and all peoples."

This morning, a report in Politico indicates that the White House is already thinking about how the coronavirus can be used to win the election. "The Trump administration," wrote Dan Diamond and Adam Cancryn, "is bracing for a possible coronavirus outbreak in the United States that could sicken thousands-- straining the government's public health response and threatening an economic slowdown in the heat of President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign. That stark realization has taken hold in high-level White House meetings, during which some administration officials have voiced concerns the coronavirus is already spreading undetected within U.S. borders... Though Trump in public has downplayed the virus, privately he has voiced his own anxieties, rebuking public health leaders over last week's decision to fly home 14 Americans who tested positive for the virus while aboard a cruise ship off Japan, said three individuals with knowledge of the situation. Trump was worried that transporting the Americans to the United States without adequate precautions could create new risks, the individuals said. 'The biggest current threat to the president’s reelection is this thing getting out of control and creating a health and economic impact,' said Chris Meekins, a Raymond James financial analyst and former Trump administration HHS emergency-preparedness official."