Tag: coronavirus

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Trump Twitter Rant: “Barack Was Always Playing Golf!”

Donald Trump

Predictably, Donald Trump has become triggered by the fact folks noticed he took time to play golf on Saturday and Sunday this weekend. First, he lashed out at a campaign ad regarding his golf habit. Then, as he’s done many times in the past, he turned his focus on his predecessor claiming Obama was “always” playing golf. Many on social media criticized the Donald for his bad timing as the coronavirus death toll nears 100,000. Plus, the obvious hypocrisy after frequently harping on President Obama playing golf during his 8 years in the White House. Note – at this point in his administration, Obama had played 70 rounds of golf over more than three years. To date, Trump has played golf or visited one of his golf properties 251 times. “Sleepy Joe’s representatives have just put out an ad saying that I went to play golf (exercise) today. They think I should stay in the White House at all times. What they didn’t say is that it’s the first time I’ve played golf in almost 3 months, that Biden was constantly…vacationing, relaxing & making shady deals with other countries, & that Barack was always playing golf, doing much of his traveling in a fume spewing 747 to play golf in Hawaii – Once even teeing off immediately after announcing the gruesome death of a great young man by ISIS!”

Please remember that when it comes to Trump’s hypocrisy, there’s always a tweet:

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NY Times Prints 1000 COVID Obituaries On Front Page

(image via New York Times)
The front page of today’s New York Times lists one-sentence obituaries of 1,000 people who have died from the COVID-19 pandemic here in the United States. With the death toll about to cross the 100,000 mark, those names represent a scant 1 percent of those lost in just over 3 months – an average of 1,100 deaths a day. From the New York Times:

Instead of the articles, photographs or graphics that normally appear on the front page of The New York Times, on Sunday, there is just a list: a long, solemn list of people whose lives were lost to the coronavirus pandemic.

As the death toll from Covid-19 in the United States approaches 100,000, a number expected to be reached in the coming days, editors at The Times have been planning how to mark the grim milestone.

Marc Lacey, National editor, had warned Tom Bodkin, chief creative officer of The Times, that the milestone was coming. “I wanted something that people would look back on in 100 years to understand the toll of what we’re living through,” Mr. Lacey said in an email.

There’s an interactive article on the Times‘ website expounding on the list of those lost and included on the front page. As the Times was prepping its cover story yesterday, Donald Trump played golf at his National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia. According to reports, he is playing another round of golf again today. CNN notes this is his 358th visit to one of his properties and his 266th trip to one of his golf clubs since he took office in January 2017. The Biden campaign noted the widely divergent perspectives on the gravity of the COVID-19 threat.

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Trump Plays Golf As U.S. COVID-19 Deaths Approach 100K

According to Bloomberg News (and other sources), Donald Trump headed to the Trump National Golf Club in suburban Virginia today.

President Donald Trump headed to the golf course for the first time in over two months, engaging in his personal passion as well as attempting to show how the country can return to normal after stay-at-home orders taken against the coronavirus.

Trump arrived at the Trump National Golf Club in suburban Virginia around 10:30 a.m. on Saturday. He was spotted earlier wearing a white polo shirt and signature white “Make America Great Again” cap. The White House doesn’t always confirm Trump’s activities while at his golf courses.

The president’s most recent golf outing was March 8 at the Trump International course in West Palm Beach, Florida. He teed it up with members of the World Series-winning Washington Nationals baseball team, according to images posted by the players on social media. Trump played at the same course on March 7.

In 2014, Trump criticized President Barack Obama for playing golf when there were TWO cases of Ebola in the U.S. As of today, there are 1.6 million cases of COVID-19 which has claimed the lives of nearly 100,000 Americans. And according to the most recent report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate has soared to 14.7 percent. But in 2014, when the unemployment rate was 5.8 percent and the Ebola outbreak had been contained, Trump took time to criticize Obama…?

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Michigan: Sex Club Shut Down For Operating During COVID-19 Threat

(image via Facebook)
A retail ‘sex complex’ in South Lansing, Michigan, has been shut down for operating a backroom sex club during the state’s coronavirus restrictions. Ingham County Health Officer Linda Vail told the local news outlet City Pulse that, while the retail store Fantasies in the front of the building hasn’t been allowed to operate during the current shutdown, the “men’s lounge and maze” located in the back has been open for business violating Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s statewide orders. “There’s a lot of close contact,” said Vail. “No way they are 6 feet apart.” Carol Siemon, the Ingham County Prosecutor, ordered police to serve a cease-and-desist letter last week but the owners of the sex club continued. Police returned on Friday to shut down the business. A website for the club referred to the space as Club Tabu and describes itself as a maze of “paths and hedges,” designed to be “very dark and made with walls that have a few holes in them.” “This is an alternative club, with an emphasis on gay/bi/ts/tg. No one will ever be turned away, however, this is by no means a ‘swingers lounge.’ Although we would love to cater to every specific need and fantasy, this club is primarily focused on “male/trans fantasies” If there is a great enough need, we will designate a day for couples with bi to meet.” To be clear, I have no moral judgments about what people do sexually in private, whether at home or a private club. But during a pandemic that’s killed nearly 100,000 Americans, and racked up over 340,000 deaths around the world so far, it’s ridiculous to imagine that people would put not only their health but the health of others at risk for some anonymous encounter. There, I said it.

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Thousands Forced To Leave Ford Assembly Plant On Day Two Of Reopening

(screen capture via CBS 2 Chicago)
Day two of the reopened Ford assembly plant in Chicago came to a stop for many when an employee tested positive for COVID-19. CBS Chicago’s Charlie De Mar spoke to many employees who are conflicted about their working environment.

“I’m worried right now,” said employee Timothy Shy. “This is the second day, and we are already hearing about this.”

Production was temporarily halted at part of the facility and the main plant.

“Social distancing doesn’t really work,” said employee Billy Cowart.

There are changes, from the social distancing reminders outside to temperature checks and re-configured work stations inside. Ford provided a video highlighting some of the updated health changes COVID has brought along to their plants

“All these people are crowded and on top of each other,” said Michael Hopper while wearing his Ford issued face mask.

“I lost a brother to coronavirus May 6,” Hopper said.

Hopper along with others describes an experience inside the plant that doesn’t sound or look like the polished video.

“I cleaned my own workstation myself,” said Hopper. “How our jobs are set-up, if one person gets in the hole that would affect the person behind him.”

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#CostcoTison Wins The Day After Rude Customer Booted From Store

CostCo manager Tison and Mr. 3K
The latest video to go viral on Twitter involves a CostCo store manager who politely stopped a shopper in his Colorado-based store who wasn’t wearing a face mask. For health reasons involving the current COVID-19 health crisis that has killed over 90,000 Americans to date, the store posted its requirement for all shoppers to wear a mask weeks ago. Tison let the gentleman know he needed to wear a face mask – like all the other shoppers in the store – or he’d need to leave. The shopper began recording the encounter and proudly announced his bigly 3K following on Instagram. Mr. 3K informed the store manager he didn’t have to wear a mask because “he woke up in a free country.” Tison politely looked in the camera and restated the policy. When Mr. 3K refused to wear the mask, Tison took the man’s shopping cart and departed saying, “Have a great day.” “So you’re gonna take this cart from me full of stuff?” the shopper asked, to which Tison replied, “You are no longer welcome here in our warehouse. You need to leave, thank you very much.” “He’s gonna take the cart away because he’s a pu**y little bitch,” said Mr. 3K as Tison walked away. “There he goes walking away with all my stuff, there he goes because I’m not a f**king sheep.” Note – the goods weren’t Mr. 3K’s yet as he hadn’t paid, but I digress. Mr. 3K apparently posted the video (thinking he was victorious) on Reddit, but soon deleted the clip as he was being ridiculed across the interwebs. But, as they say, the internet is forever… Here is Mr. 3K and our hero, Tison via Twitter. For the record – what I see here is a responsible front line supermarket employee doing his job and enforcing company policy, he did not deserve the abuse.

“People of Twitter thank you for all of the support,” @Thoff821 tweeted. “I was just trying to protect our employees and our members #Tison.”

Mr. 3K came back to announce, “I got every f—ing right to not wear a mask,” he said. “This isn’t about wearing a mask, it’s about control. I’m not the f—ing sheep … I was one of the only people in that store not wearing a mask.”

Dude, you pay ‘membership’ to belong to CostCo and the rules state membership may be terminated at any time. Plus, policies and practices may be amended from time to time.

And, saving the best for last:

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Fox News Guest: Epidemics Like COVID ‘Last About Five Weeks, We Have Immunity, We Don’t Have To Think About It Anymore’

Dr. Knut Wittkowski
In case you don’t watch much Fox News, although a lot of people do, take a listen to recent guest Dr. Knut Wittkowski, an epidemiologist who told viewers Monday night that epidemics like the ongoing COVID-19 threat are usually over in around five weeks, we gain immunity and “we don’t have to think about it anymore.” “Respiratory disease epidemics, and this is just one of those, they come and last about two weeks,” said Wittkowski during an appearance on “The Ingraham Angle.” “They peak, they go for about two weeks – in a large country it lasts a bit longer, in smaller countries a bit shorter. After three, four, five weeks the whole thing is over. We have immunity, we don’t have to think about it anymore.” More from Fox News:

A renowned epidemiologist told the “The Ingraham Angle” on Monday that a video he posted on YouTube questioning the effectiveness of widespread lockdowns amid the coronavirus pandemic was removed for violating “community standards.”

Host Laura Ingraham noted that his video was viewed nearly 1.5 million times and asked Dr. Knut Wittkowski why he thinks “there is so much pushback to your line of thinking?”

“Because I think so many people have invested so much of their ego and so they have a problem acknowledging that maybe it was a little bit too much,” he said in response. “This in itself is restricting freedom of speech,” he continued.

In the YouTube video referenced above, Wittkowski declared, “With all respiratory diseases, the only thing that stops the disease is herd immunity. About 80% of the people need to have had contact with the virus, and the majority of them won’t even have recognized that they were infected.” So, 80 percent of the U.S. would need to be exposed to the virus and POOF! it will be gone…? Umm, no. At this writing, that virus has killed 91,750 Americans. And that’s in two and a half months, which is a lot longer than ‘five weeks.’

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Biotech Companies Share Upbeat News On Experimental COVID-19 Vaccines

Some prominent biotech companies report upbeat indications regarding possible coronavirus vaccines that have begun human trials around the world. Biotech firm Moderna, based in Massachusetts, saw its stock jump 20% on news that their experimental vaccine showed considerable efficacy. From the Washington Post:

The eagerly-awaited data provide a first look at one of the eight vaccines worldwide that have begun human testing. The data have not been published in a scientific journal and are only a preliminary step toward showing the experimental vaccine is safe and effective.

The company’s stock, along with the Dow Jones industrial average, soared on the report that eight participants who received low and medium doses of Moderna’s vaccine had blood levels of virus-fighting antibodies that were similar or greater than those in recovered covid-19 patients. That suggests, but doesn’t prove, that it triggers some level of immunity.

An effort led by the University of Oxford, in partnership with pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, plans to have millions of doses of vaccine available by fall. Last week, those researchers disclosed that more than 1,000 patients had already enrolled in the initial trial of its vaccine, which began in late April.

A Chinese company, Sinovac Biotech, recently published a study in the journal Science showing that its vaccine protected rhesus monkeys against infection and is currently being tested in 144 people. Two other safety trials are ongoing in the U.S., led by Pfizer and Inovio Pharmaceuticals.

Vaccine experts have said that these accelerated development timelines are theoretically possible, but extremely optimistic — and depend on everything going right. They stress that it will be crucial to gather convincing data the vaccines are safe and effective before using them broadly — and the new data are promising but preliminary, from the earliest phase one trials that test safety in healthy people.

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Florida Man Was Skeptical Of COVID-19 Threat Until He & His Wife Got It

Brian Lee Hitchens (screen capture/WPTV)
A Florida man thought the coronavirus health threat was “a fake crisis” that was “blown out of proportion” and “wasn’t that serious.” And then he and his wife contracted COVID-19. “I thought it was maybe the government trying something, and it was kind of like they threw it out there to kinda distract us,” Hitchens told local news station WPTV. In a lengthy Facebook post, Brian Lee Hitchens shared how the pandemic affected he and his wife’s lives.

Many people still think that the Coronavirus is a fake crisis which at one time I did too and not that I thought it wasn’t a real virus going around but at one time I felt that it was blown out of proportion and it wasn’t that serious.

We kept on watching the news and kept on hearing about the spreading of the Coronavirus and to be honest I didn’t really think nothing of it. I still thought it was being blown out of proportion until about 4 and 1/2 weeks ago when I started to feel sick and once I started to feel sick I stopped working and stayed home.

Yes, I came down with the Coronavirus and a couple days later after I started to not feel good my wife started to not feel good and we stayed at home quarantined and my wife did go to the hospital to get tested and they told her yeah you probably have the coronavirus so go home and quarantine yourself.

Well a few days went by and we both started feeling worse and worse and worse to the point where we barely had any energy left to do anything and all we want to do is sleep. So three weeks ago Sunday we decided not to play around with this anymore and I had just enough energy to drive us to the hospital Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center and we both got confirmed that we had the Coronavirus.

They admitted us right away and we both went to ICU. I started feeling better within a few days but my wife got worse to the point where they sedated her and put her on the ventilator. I was never put ventilator and started feeling better feeling stronger never had terrible aches and pains just weak and exhausted.

Even now I am feeling better. A lot better then a few weeks ago. I still have COVID-19 and some pneumonia in my lungs and we’ve been here 3 weeks as of yesterday.

As of today my wife is still sedated and on the ventilator with no signs of improving. There were a couple times were they tried to start weaning her off the ventilator but as soon as they’ve done that her oxygen level dropped and they had to put her back on the ventilator full time.

My wife has been sick before in the past quite a few times and she always fought through to get better but now after 3 weeks I have come to accept that my wife may pass away and the peace I have about it is that I know without a shadow of a doubt that she will be going home to be with the Lord.

But I also do believe in miracles and I’m holding on to the chance that she may get healed. But if not I am thankful for her I know we’ve been married for 8 years.

So think about what I wrote and think about if this thing is a fake crisis. This Coronavirus affects people differently. My wife has suffered from different physical ailments which she has overcome before but she sure is struggling and the doctors have said they have had a tough time getting her better.

This thing is nothing to be messed with please listen to the authorities and heed the advice of the experts. We don’t have to fear this, and by heeding the advice doesn’t mean that you fear it – that means you’re showing wisdom during this epidemic time.

Looking back I should have wore a mask in the beginning but I didn’t and perhaps I’m paying the price for it now. But I know that if it was me that gave it to my wife I know that she forgives me and I know that God forgives me.

Whether man forgives me or not that’s out of my control, but as long as I have the assurance that God forgives me and my wife forgives me I am good.

So just think about what I said and if you have to go out, please use wisdom and don’t be foolish like I was so the same thing won’t happen to you like it happened to me and my wife.

In a subsequent post, Hitchins shares that he is continuing to recover. His wife is reportedly stable, but still sedated and on a ventilator. Here’s his interview from his hosptial bed in Jupiter, Florida, with local station WPTV.

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Six Regions Of New York State To Start Reopening Businesses

Five upstate regions of New York state became eligible to start phase one of reopening businesses on Friday. Additionally, the western region which includes Buffalo can start to reopen beginning Tuesday. More from the New York Times:

The region around Albany needs only to hire more contact tracers before it can enter “phase one.”

In the regions that can restart, construction, manufacturing, and wholesale trade can resume. Retail businesses that sell clothing, electronics, furniture, books, sporting goods, shoes, flowers, jewelry and some other types of goods can open for curbside service.

Other activities that are allowed to operate include drive-in movies, landscaping and gardening services and “low-risk recreational activities” like tennis.

Mr. Cuomo also encouraged sports teams in the state to start planning to hold games, but without fans in attendance.

As those areas of the state get back to work, the only regions left to become eligible to entering phase one are the Hudson Valley, Long Island, and New York City. Mayor Bill de Blasio told the New York Times he expects New York City to satisfy phase one criteria sometime in the first half of June.