American Catastrophe
Let Them Eat Chloroquine: President Trump Says Has Not Compelled Companies to Make Coronavirus Gear Despite Nationwide Shortages (thedailybeast.com)Pence says he and wife will be tested for coronavirus (rss.cnn.com)Gov. Andrew Cuomo Shows Trump How A Real Leader Is Supposed To Manage A Crisis (politicususa.com)New York state is sending one million masks to NYC, Gov. Cuomo says (rss.cnn.com)Trump’s Botched Coronavirus Response Has Caused A Recession (politicususa.com)Trump slammed by national security expert for more pandemic bungling: ‘You don’t fight a war through charity and tweets’ (alternet.org)‘A weak man with delusions of competence’: Trump buried for lying his way through the daily pandemic press conferences (alternet.org)Trump’s Has A Saturday Meltdown And Tweets False Coronavirus Cures (politicususa.com)'We must be at war with it': Mike DeWine remains collected and directed in the face of the pandemic (rss.cnn.com)Covid-19: disaster declared in New York as fears grow over lack of ventilators (theguardian.com)Why Italy? The factors behind a coronavirus disaster (alternet.org)Australia's Bondi Beach closed down after crowds defy ban on gatherings of more than 500 people (theguardian.com)Pressure mounts for President Trump to actually use Defense Production Act (rss.cnn.com)Lou Dobbs in Self-Quarantine After Downplaying Coronavirus Threat (thedailybeast.com)Staff Member in Mike Pence’s Office Tests Positive for Coronavirus (politicususa.com)
The Atlantic’s Alexis Madrigal and Robinson Meyer pull no punches:
[E]xperts believe that the United States still isn’t testing enough people to detect the outbreak’s true spread. The virologist Trevor Bedford has found evidence that the coronavirus began spreading in the United States in January. It has already infected approximately 87,000 Americans, he says. … COVID-19 is an American catastrophe, a slow-motion disaster only now coming into view. When its true proportions have been measured, it will make the early government response look even more outrageous than it already seems. What’s happening here, in this country, was avoidable. Nearly every flaw in America’s response to the virus has one source: America did not test enough people for COVID-19.
We strongly advise you to read the entire article, along with Charles Pierce’s unflinching and masterfully invective-laced takedown of Donald Trump’s latest campaign gimmick:
It is time for networks to stop televising the daily briefings from the Coronavirus SuperFriends live. They are vehicles for dangerous disinformation and for the president*’s re-election campaign. You get the sense that he’s getting juiced for them now that he can’t hold his mass rallies any more. But, mainly, people are told things at these briefings that at worst are perilously untrue. (Has he actually activated the Defense Production Act? Nobody seems sure.)
Go read!