The Serious Side - part 7

[size=91]Supreme Court takes crucial Affordable Care Act case



Caitlin Owens[/size]


Photo: Jim Lo Scalzo - Pool/Getty Images

The Supreme Court announced this morning that it will hear a major case against the Affordable Care Act, meaning the health care law's fate will be on the line in the middle of the 2020 presidential election.
Why it matters: The lawsuit — which is supported by the Trump administration — argues that the entire ACA should be struck down, including its most popular provisions, like its pre-existing conditions protections.

Health Care co-pay for pre-existing conditions under the Affordable Care Act are astronomical.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8066947/CDC-stopped-disclosing-number-Americans-tested-coronavirus.html

Ooh, I wonder why??!

I see Texas has called a state of emergency

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/02/texas-governor-cdc-coronavirus-san-antonio-118842

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8066947/CDC-stopped-disclosing-number-Americans-tested-coronavirus.html

[size=34]CDC has stopped disclosing the number of Americans tested for coronavirus as top NYC doctor slams a lack of checks as a 'national scandal'[/size]

• Images posted online show a table published on the CDC's website had, as of Sunday night, a row showing the number of people screened
  
  
• By Monday that information was no longer available and the number removed 
  
  
• One top doctor said the lack of checks so far has been a 'national scandal'
  
  
• The former FDA commissioner said three critical weeks were lost in trying to contain the spread of coronavirus in the U.S. because of the faulty tests
  
  
• The total number of US cases has now soared to 91 with six deaths 
  
  

By LAUREN FRUEN FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 16:58 EST, 2 March 2020 | UPDATED: 17:57 EST, 2 March 2020



The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention appears to have stopped disclosing the number of Americans tested for coronavirus as the death toll in the US hits six. 
Images posted online show a table published on the CDC's website had, as of Sunday night, a row showing the number of people screened. 
By Monday that information was no longer available as the number of confirmed cases across the US reached 100, and the number of people with coronavirus to have died rose to six. 
It comes as a staff physician at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital slammed a lack of checks as a 'national scandal'. DailyMail.com has contacted the CDC for comment.


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Microbiologist Xiugen Zhang runs a Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test at the Connecticut State Public Health Laboratory. The Connecticut Department of Public Health has received federal approval from the CDC to run diagnostic testing for the coronavirus


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Images posted online show a table published on the CDC's website had, as of Sunday night, a column showing the number of people screened



By Monday that information was no longer available as the number of confirmed cases across the US reached 91
[size=10][size=18]Officials confirm the sixth US death from the coronavirus



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Dr Matt McCarthy said he doesn't have the tools to properly care for patients because of the lack of coronavirus tests being made available to hospitals.
He told CNBC's Squawk Box on Monday that the bungled test distribution was a 'national scandal' and claimed New York had only been able to properly carry out 32 tests so far.
'We hear it's coming very soon but I'm here to tell you that at one of the busiest hospitals in the country, I don't have it at my finger tips. I still have to call the department of health, I still have to make my case and plead to test people,' he said.
'This is not good. We know that there are (91) cases in the United States. There are going to hundreds by middle week, there's going to be thousands by next week. This is a testing issue.' 




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Dr McCarthy said the infectious disease team at his hospital, one of the busiest in the country, was equipped to deal with the outbreak but were crippled by the lack of diagnostic tests being made available by the government.
'Keep in mind in New York state the person who tested positive is only the 32nd test we've done in this state. That is a national scandal,' he said. 'They're testing 10,000 a day in some countries and we can't get this off the ground.
'I'm a practitioner on the firing line and I don't have the tools to properly care for patients today.'   
Scott Gottlieb, who is the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, also told CNBC that three critical weeks were lost in trying to contain the spread of coronavirus in the U.S. because of the faulty tests.
'We lost about three critical weeks,' he said. 


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Dr Matt McCarthy, right and Scott Gottlieb, right. Dr McCarthy said he doesn't have the tools to properly care for patients because of the lack of coronavirus tests being made available



Dr McCarthy said the infectious disease team at his hospital were crippled by the lack of diagnostic tests being made available by the government
[size=18]General: US military labs are working on coronavirus vaccine




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Health officials announced on Monday that four additional people had died in Washington state. Two other patients in that same area died over the weekend.
News of the additional deaths came after Dr Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told NBC News on Monday that the disease had now reached 'outbreak proportions'. 
The weeks-long struggle to expand local testing has been criticized as an early misstep in the response by President Donald Trump's administration to the outbreak.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services confirmed on Sunday that it is investigating a manufacturing defect in some initial coronavirus test kits that prompted some states to seek emergency approval to use their own test kits.
Three weeks ago, the FDA gave the green light for state and local labs to start using a testing kit developed by the CDC. But most labs that received the kits complained they had faulty components and produced inconclusive results, which the CDC later acknowledged.
In New York City, the kit they received was even more faulty than most, meaning city officials could not use a workaround released by the CDC this week. Meanwhile, it has had to courier samples to CDC's laboratories in Atlanta, adding a day or more to the process. 


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A woman wears a face mask as she waits on the subway after the first confirmed case of coronavirus was annoucned in New York


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Healthcare workers transport a patient on a stretcher into an ambulance at Life Care Center of Kirkland in Kirkland, Washington. Dozens of staff and residents at Life Care Center of Kirkland are reportedly exhibiting coronavirus-like symptoms, with two confirmed cases associated with the nursing facility reported so far

HEALTH CARE

[size=33]Texas governor slams CDC for releasing San Antonio coronavirus patient[/size]

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott called the CDC’s actions “unacceptable” in a rare rebuke of the Trump administration.






[size=11]Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. | Sue Ogrocki/AP Photo
By RENUKA RAYASAM
03/02/2020 02:17 PM EST

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AUSTIN, Texas — Republican Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday criticized a CDC decision to release a San Antonio patient who later tested positive for the coronavirus, highlighting growing tensions between federal and local officials as new cases of the respiratory disease are reported.
The patient, who had been in Wuhan, China, was treated and tested negative twice before being discharged from the Texas Center for Infectious Disease, according to a Facebook post from San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg. Later, a third test came back positive. The patient spent about 12 hours in public in the interim, visiting a local mall and hotel near the airport.

All three tests were done at CDC's headquarters in Atlanta, according to Texas health officials.



"It appears to be a case of negligence with regard to how this person, who had the coronavirus, could leave TCID and go back into the general population,” said Abbott at a Monday morning news conference related to economic development. “I think they understand the magnitude of the error they made.”
Abbott called the CDC’s actions “unacceptable” in a rare rebuke of the Trump administration.
About 120 patients who were on the Diamond Princess cruise ship off the coast of Japan are scheduled to leave a 14-day quarantine in a San Antonio military base Monday.

POLITICO Pulse

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But Abbott and other local officials have called on the CDC to boost testing protocols to three tests in a 48-hour period instead of two over 24 hours. Texas also asked the health agency for a “written rationale” explaining why each patient should be released from quarantine, in a letter to the agency.
“Local communities, the state, and the nation must be confident that CDC criteria is fully protecting U.S. communities from the risk of exposure,” wrote John Hellerstedt, the state health department commissioner, in a letter to HHS.
The city of Austin is separately in discussions about whether to cancel the annual South by Southwest festival, a weeklong technology, music and film conference, according to Mayor Steve Adler’s office. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has already pulled out of the conference.

Why is because of the idiot in the White House, he doesn't want the truth told. He wants people to believe the lie he is telling about saving lives. He has done nothing but make the situation worse by not telling us the truth.

Yep. They're all covering up for the fact that Trump closed down the CDC pandemic unit as soon as he got into office.

(And Azar doubled the price of insulin when he was head of Eli Lily)

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8067015/Donald-Trump-demands-coronavirus-vaccine-two-months-offers-pharma-chiefs-SEATTLE-trials.html

[size=34]Donald Trump publicly spars with nation's top coronavirus expert Dr Tony Fauci as he demands vaccine in a 'couple of months' - and epidemic chief tells him: 'Like I told you, a year.'[/size]

• Trump holds Cabinet Room summit with his coronavirus taskforce and biggest pharmaceutical company CEOs
  
  
• Says he wants to see a vaccine in 'a few months' and is told by Dr. Tony Fauci, nations top epidemiologist, that it will be a year
  
  
• Used meeting to offer to help with clinical trials, saying pharma firms could use 'Seattle'
  
  
• City is part of Washington where state officials say six people have now died 
  
  
• Trump was told that human trials could take place of a human vaccine within a few months and latched on to that number
  
  
• Dr. Fauci, the NIH's director, said: 'Like I've been telling you, a year to a year and a half,' Dr. Anthony Fauci said.
  
  
• President Trump shrugged him off and said: 'I like the sound of a couple of months better.' only for Fauci to say: 'When is it going to be deployable.' 
  
  

By EMILY GOODIN, SENIOR U.S. POLITICAL REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM and EMILY CRANE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM and NATALIE RAHHAL ACTING US HEALTH EDITOR FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 17:48 EST, 2 March 2020 | UPDATED: 20:04 EST, 2 March 2020

     



President Donald Trump pushed pharmaceutical executives on Monday to develop a coronavirus within 'a couple of months' – as the U.S. death toll reached six.
But he was warned by his own most senior expert, Dr. Tony Fauci, who told the president directly that he had repeatedly told him it would take at least a year. 
'We're working very hard to expedite the longer process of developing a vaccine. We're also moving with maximum speed to develop a therapy so that we can help people recover as quickly as possible and a lot of recovery going on,' the president said during a one-hour briefing in the Cabinet room with executives from 10 pharmaceutical and bio-tech companies.
He also offered up Seattle to one company as a testing ground after Washington state was hit hard by the virus. All six U.S. deaths have happened there.
The executives, however, warned the president that a vaccine to deploy in a large scale public way would take a year to a year and a half even as they emphasized all are at various points in the testing stage, with some saying they could be at the human testing stage in a few months.
Trump latched on to that human testing number only to have Dr Tony Fauci, the NIH's  director, put the brakes on his hopes for a quick solution.
'Like I've been telling you, a year to a year and a half,' Dr. Fauci said.
President Trump shrugged him off. 'I like the sound of a couple of months better,' he said.
'I've heard, very quick numbers, a matter of months. Pretty much a year would be an outside number. So I think that's not a bad,' he added of the time table for a vaccine.
'When is it going to be deployable,' Fauci reminded him. 'That is going to be at the earliest a year to a year and a half, no matter how fast you go.'


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Response talks: Donald Trump held a Cabinet Room White House summit with pharmaceutical chiefs, and the leaders of his coronavirus task force including Mike Pence and HHS Secretary Alex Azar (right)


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The coronavirus death toll in the U.S. has now climbed to six. Five of the six deaths have been linked to the LifeCare (above) long-term aged care facility in Kirkland just outside Seattle in Washington state
 The meeting was held as: 

• Officials have now confirmed that six people have died in Washington after contracting coronavirus
  
• Five of the six deaths have been linked to the LifeCare long-term aged care facility outside Seattle. Health officials there are buying a motel so they can isolate patients  
  
• The total number of coronavirus cases in the United States has now soared to 100
  
• Female healthcare worker, 39, became the first confirmed case of coronavirus in New York and is currently isolated in her Manhattan apartment 
  
• The stock market bounced back with the Dow Jones up more than 1,200 points because analysts believe the Federal Reserve will act to keep the economy from cratering 
  
• Panic buying hit with anxious shoppers clearing supermarket shelves as they stock up on food and medical supplies 
  
• A New York doctor told CNBC's Squawk Box that handling of the virus was a 'national scandal' 
  

The president was also focused on the situation in Washington state, where dozens of schools have closed and nearly 30 firefighters and police officers are in quarantine.
Dr. J. Joseph Kim, the CEO of Inovio Pharmaceuticals, mentioned his company would be doing clinical trials soon overseas on a vaccine.
'In April of this year, followed by shortly thereafter, trials in China and South Korea,' he said.
Trump jumped in to volunteer Seattle
'You can take a look at Seattle again,' he told Kim.
The majority of cases there appear to be linked to a nursing facility, the Life Care Center of Kirkland, in Washington, where about 50 residents and workers have reported feeling ill.
During the briefing, the executives reminded the president of the testing that goes into play in developing a vaccine.
'Vaccines have to be tested because there's precedent for vaccines to make things worse. And you don't want to rush and treat a million people and find out you're making 900,000 worse,' said Dr. Leonard Schleifer, the CEO of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.
But they also assured the president a vaccine would be ready for next year's flu season.
'That's the goal,' said Dr. Paul Stoffels, Chief Scientific Officer of Johnson and Johnson.
But a few pointed out therapies to treat the virus will likely be ready by end of the summer, a timetable that seemed to please President Trump.
'The treatment element of it goes faster than the vaccine, which in my opinion in this case would be better,' Trump said.
He praised the executives for their work.
'And anybody delays you, please call me,' he said.
And he down played an additional federal funding for the companies to do their work.
'Some of them are so rich they can loan money to the federal government,' he said. 
Pence, meanwhile, promised daily briefings to keep the public informed about the pandemic. 
'Get used to seeing us,' he told reporters in the White House briefing room on Monday evening.
Pence also announced that 'within the next 12 hours, 100 per cent screening on all direct flights from across Italy and South Korea' for signs of the coronavirus, which would consist of multiple temperature checks on passengers before they boarded.
His remarks followed comments from President Trump that there would be more travel restrictions in place soon.
'Yes, we are,' the president in response to a question on whether the administration is eyeing new travel restrictions to try to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. 'From certain countries where they're having more of a breakout,' he said but  declined to name the specific countries. 
Pence reminded the public there were no restrictions on domestic travel in the United States but declined to answer a question on whether he'd take his family to Disney World for spring break.
'Let’s be clear: The risk to the American people from the coronavirus remains low,' he said. 
[size=18]Trump spars with coronavirus expert over timeframe for vaccine




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Cabinet room summit: Donald Trump met his coronavirus taskforce and pharmaceutical chiefs. Clockwise from bottom right. Larry Kudlow, chief economic advisor; Dr. John Shiver, of Sanofi; Leonard Schleifer, CEO of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals; Stéphane Bancel, CEO of Moderna; Daniel O'Day, chairman and CEO of Gilead. Far side of table from left: Paul Stoffels, chief scientific officer, Johnson & Johnson; Dr. Anne Schchat, DCD deputy director; Stanley Erck, CEO of Novorax; Debbie Brix, White House coronavirus taskforce response coordinator; Mike Pence; Donald Trump; Alex Azar, HHS Secretary; Emma Walmsley, CEO of GlaxoSmithKline; Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.


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At the table: Donald Trump is joined in the Cabinet Room by (clockwise from left): Alex Azar, HHS Secretary; Emma Walmsley, CEO of GlaxoSmithKline; Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; unknown; Stéphane Bancel, CEO of Moderna; Daniel O'Day, chairman and CEO of Gilead


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Demand: Donald Trump used the White House summit to say he 'liked the sound of month' and was warned by Dr. Tony Fauci that it would take a year


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Expert: Dr. Tony Fauci told Donald Trump that it was likely a vaccine would take a year to implement
Separately, Dr. Fauci told NBC News on Monday that the disease had likely reached 'pandemic proportions' as 100 cases were confirmed across the U.S.  
'We're dealing with an evolving situation. We're dealing with clearly an emerging infectious disease that has now reached outbreak proportions and likely pandemic proportions,' Dr Fauci said. 'If you look at multiple definitions of what a pandemic is... multiple sustained transmissions of of a highly infectious agent in multiple regions of the globe.'
Dr Fauci went on to say the U.S. might need to consider 'social mitigation,' including closing down schools and not allowing events where large crowds are in confined spaces.
'We're not ready for it right now but we need to be at least thinking about the possibility,' he said in the interview that will air in full on NBC Nightly News on Monday. 
It comes after a New York doctor warned coronavirus cases in the U.S. will surge into the thousands by next week and the former head of the FDA claimed three critical weeks were lost in containing the spread of the virus due to faulty test kits given out by the government. 
Health officials have been scrambling to get their own coronavirus testing kits up and running after getting stuck with faulty tests from the federal government that they said left them unable to diagnose people quickly. 
State and local authorities are now also stepping up testing for the illness as the number of new cases grew to 100across the U.S. on Monday, with new infections announced in California, Florida, Illinois, Rhode Island, New York and Washington state. 
New York confirmed its first coronavirus case on Sunday as a female healthcare worker in her 30s who returned from Iran last week and is now being quarantined in her Manhattan home. 
Florida late Sunday declared a public health emergency as it confirmed its first two cases, while Rhode Island announced its two cases - two people who had returned from a school trip to Italy - had prompted the closure of a school so it could be sanitized.  
[size=18]President Trump talks about speeding up coronavirus vaccine




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Dr Matt McCarthy (right), who works at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan, warned coronavirus cases in the U.S. will surge into the thousands by next week. Scott Gottlieb(left), who is the former commissioner of the FDA, said three critical weeks were lost in trying to contain the spread of coronavirus in the U.S. because of the faulty tests 
[size=18]Officials confirm the sixth US death from the coronavirus




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Dr Matt McCarthy, who is a staff physician at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan, has claimed he doesn't have the tools to properly care for patients because of the lack of coronavirus tests being made available to hospitals. 
He told CNBC's Squawk Box on Monday that the bungled test distribution was a 'national scandal' and claimed New York had only been able to properly carry out 32 tests so far. 
'We hear it's coming very soon but I'm here to tell you that at one of the busiest hospitals in the country, I don't have it at my finger tips. I still have to call the department of health, I still have to make my case and plead to test people,' he said. 
'This is not good. We know that there are (91) cases in the United States. There are going to hundreds by middle week, there's going to be thousands by next week. This is a testing issue.' 
He said the infectious disease team at his hospital, one of the busiest in the country, was equipped to deal with the outbreak but were crippled by the lack of diagnostic tests being made available by the government. 
'Keep in mind in New York state the person who tested positive is only the 32nd test we've done in this state. That is a national scandal,' he said.  'They're testing 10,000 a day in some countries and we can't get this off the ground. 
'I'm a practitioner on the firing line and I don't have the tools to properly care for patients today.'
Scott Gottlieb, who is the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, also told CNBC that three critical weeks were lost in trying to contain the spread of coronavirus in the U.S. because of the faulty tests. 
'We lost about three critical weeks,' he said. 
He said they should have also been working with manufacturers and working with academic labs to ensure they weren't just waiting for one test.
Gottlieb said the current situation is a consequence of that 'hiccup'. 
[size=18]Massive lines at Manhattan's Costco after a coronavirus case



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Panic buying hit New York and other parts of the country over the weekend with anxious shoppers clearing supermarket shelves as they stock up on food and medical supplies. Pictured is a Costco in Brooklyn on Monday


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Patrons with shopping carts loaded with tissue and water wait in checkout queues at a very busy Costco in Miami, Florida


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People gather as street vendor Mike James sells them surgical mask, hand sanitizer and alcohol in Flushing, Queens on Monday

How does the coronavirus attack the human body? 

The coronavirus could damage people's kidneys and send their immune systems 'haywire' as well as infecting the lungs, according to scientists.
It does this by attaching to and reproducing in tissue inside the lungs, where it kills cells in the process of spreading. 
As the cells are killed they drop off the lungs' linings and build up in clumps inside the organs, making it hard to breathe and triggering further infections.
The virus can also send the immune system into overdrive as it tries to fight off infection, triggering swelling which can lead to more breathing difficulties.
If a severe infection takes hold it may move on to cause damage or dysfunction to the stomach, intestines, heart, liver and kidneys, and even provoke organ failure. 
The coronavirus is officially a respiratory infection, meaning it affects the lungs and airways. Typical symptoms are a cough, trouble breathing and a fever. 



Health authorities had previously tested more than 30 New York patients who have reported symptoms consistent with the virus, but until now each suspected case had proven to be a false alarm. 
The test confirming the woman's illness was done at New York's Wadsworth Lab in Albany rather than the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 
Gov. Cuomo said on Saturday his state would immediately begin using its own test kit developed in-state after asking the FDA on Friday for permission to do so.  
Previously, tests on New York patients were still being handled only by federal authorities. 
The weeks-long struggle to expand local testing has been criticized as an early misstep in the response by President Donald Trump's administration to the outbreak. 
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services confirmed on Sunday that it is investigating a manufacturing defect in some initial coronavirus test kits that prompted some states to seek emergency approval to use their own test kits. 
Three weeks ago, the FDA gave the green light for state and local labs to start using a testing kit developed by the CDC. But most labs that received the kits complained they had faulty components and produced inconclusive results, which the CDC later acknowledged. 
In New York City, the kit they received was even more faulty than most, meaning city officials could not use a workaround released by the CDC this week. Meanwhile, it has had to courier samples to CDC's laboratories in Atlanta, adding a day or more to the process.  
As of last week, only seven state labs had the ability to test for the coronavirus locally. The CDC has since been working to manufacture new kits that produce more reliable results. 
Over the weekend, authorities confirmed that two people had died in Washington state after contracting coronavirus. 
The total number of U.S. case has now soared to 91. The spread of the disease, which began in China, has now seen more than 89,000 cases worldwide and over 3,000 fatalities.
The coronavirus appeared poised for a spike in the United States in part because of more testing to confirm cases.  
Florida's governor Ron DeSantis disclosed late Sunday that two people had become the first in his state to test positive and ordered his top health officer to declare a statewide public health emergency. 
Two people who returned to Rhode Island from a trip to Europe have also tested positive for coronavirus. The patients in Rhode Island were on a school trip to Italy together in February. A third person from the trip is being tested and the school is shutting down for the week. 
[size=18]General: US military labs are working on coronavirus vaccine




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Empty shelves at a grocery store in New York. Shoppers have been stock-piling essential items over the weekend amid fears of the spreading virus 


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Concerned New Yorkers stocked up on masks and hand sanitizer on Monday after officials confirmed the first confirmed case of coronavirus in Manhattan 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

[size=34]Coronavirus spread in New York City is 'inevitable' and something you 'can't control' claims Governor Andrew Cuomo[/size]

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo revealed that community spread is 'inevitable' on Monday as New York City's first case of the coronavirus was confirmed.
'There is no doubt that there will be more cases. This is New York, we're a gateway to the world,' Cuomo told reporters.
'People are going to test positive, not just one or two or three or five, there will be many who test positive,' he added.
Cuomo said the 39-year-old female healthworker who tested positive at the weekend had mild symptoms and was recovering at home.
He added that the Manhattan resident had been 'very aware of her situation' and had taken a private car to her home from the airport last Tuesday.
'She did textbook everything right. We don't believe she was contagious on the airplane or in the car,' he said.
Cuomo added that she was isolated at home with her husband who is also expected to test positive for coronavirus.
[size=18]Gov. Cuomo talks NY coronavirus patients and continuous virus spread




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New York Governor Andrew Cuomo revealed that community spread is 'inevitable' on Monday as he and Mayor Bill de Blasio vowed to increase testing in the city to up to a thousand people a day by next week
The couple had contacted Mount Sinai on their return to New York aware of the threat that they may have contracted the virus and were tested.
'The positive test was confirmed by New York's Wadsworth Lab in Albany, underscoring the importance of the ability for our state to ensure efficient and rapid turnaround,' Cuomo said.
Cuomo, alongside Mayor Bill DeBlasio, said on Monday they will aim to increase testing in the city to up to a thousand people a day by next week as they look to isolate cases in the 'inevitable' community spread that will hit the city. 
While Cuomo said New York's first case was not itself a cause for broader concern, he announced $40 million to contain the spread of the virus.
He said the city was used to dealing with health crises, citing Ebola and SARS, and said residents should not worry.
'In this situation the facts defeat fear because the reality is reassuring,' Cuomo added.
His news conference came shortly after Trump announced on Twitter that he would meet with leading pharmaceutical companies at the White House on Monday 'about progress on a vaccine and cure'.

Panic buying hits New York City as anxious shoppers stock up on food and medical supplies

Panic buying has hit New York with anxious shoppers clearing supermarket shelves as they stock up on food and medical supplies after a woman became the state's first confirmed coronavirus case. 
People started stockpiling items from stores over the weekend as authorities confirmed on Sunday that a healthcare worker in her 30s had been diagnosed with coronavirus. 
The spread of the disease, which began in China and has seen more than 89,000 cases worldwide and over 3,000 fatalities, prompted panic-buying ever since health authorities warned that Americans should start preparing for domestic acceleration of the virus.  
Videos emerged on social media over the weekend of shoppers rushing to stock up on toilet paper, bottled water, disinfectant wipes and sanitizer at a Costco in Brooklyn. 
Shoppers were pictured lining up outside supermarkets on Monday morning.  


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Shoppers at Costco in Brooklyn panic buy water, tissues and cleaning products after New York confirmed its first case of coronavirus


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The number of Americans diagnosed with the virus has hit 77 over the weekend, but has now climbed to 86


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Paper towels and other cleaning products were selling out in Long Island on Monday after New York's first confirmed coronavirus case was announced 
[size=18]Panic buying at Sam's Club after NY confirms coronavirus case




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Supplies have been flying off the shelves countrywide with people posting photos on social media showing the lack of products available in some stores and pharmacies. 
In southern California, some Walgreens stores had been completely depleted of cough medicines, cold and flue medications, vaporizers, masks and thermometers. Shoppers in Hawaii were buying up flatbeds of canned goods, bottled water, toilet paper and paper towels from a local Costo. 
A supermarket aisle in Virginia had been stripped of non-perishable items like pasta. 
Pictures of empty shelves at grocery stores elsewhere in New York also emerged on the weekend. 
Panic buying in the United States does not yet resembles what Italy witnessed in recent days - where supermarket shelves were stripped bare and videos posted on social media showed consumers coming to blows over bags of pasta. 

Worried families blast Washington nursing home where one man has died from coronavirus and 50 more are ill for 'not testing patients and ignoring phone calls' 

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One distraught woman, Bonnie Holstad (above) has come forward blasting Life Care Center's handling of the outbreak, telling how she has been kept in the dark over her husband's condition and treatment at the home
The Washington state nursing home where the second US man to die from coronavirus was a resident has been slammed by worried families who claim they are not being kept informed about the conditions of their loved ones.
Six coronavirus cases have been confirmed at the Life Care Center in Kirkland, including one resident in his 70s who later died at hospital, while more than 50 staff and residents have shown symptoms and will be tested.
It has also emerged that the facility has been slammed for failing to control the spread of viruses in the past.  
One distraught woman has come forward blasting the facility's handling of the outbreak, telling how she has been kept in the dark over her husband's condition and treatment at the home. 
Bonnie Holstad said her husband Ken was staying at the facility after a fall caused by a broken hip but staff were refusing to speak to her about his condition. 
She says her calls to the center have gone repeatedly unanswered as she is desperate for news that he is okay after he had a cough. He also suffers from Parkinson's disease and dementia.
Holstad stood outside the facility on Sunday with a sign saying: 'No one at Life Care is answering the phones. He needs to be attended to ... what is his temperature?' 
The Life Care facility provides 24-hour care for residents, including physician and nurse coverage, many of whom have long-term and chronic conditions.
Around 27 of the 108 residents and 25 of the 180 staff have shown some symptoms of the virus, including some cases where individuals had contracted pneumonia. 
On Sunday, four new cases were confirmed, including the deceased male, taking the infection rate at the facility to six and counting.


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Medics and other healthcare workers transfer a patient on a stretcher to an ambulance at the home on Sunday


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An employee walks outside Life Care Center of Kirkland, Washington state, Sunday. Concerns are mounting after officials announced that a second person in the US died from coronavirus. The man in his 70s with underlying health conditions was a resident at the Life Care Center in Kirkland
The man in his 70s with underlying health conditions died at the EvergreenHealth hospital in Kirkland on Saturday.
This is the same hospital where a man in his 50s died on Friday night - the US's first coronavirus-related death. 
Holstad told CNN that after she protested, a nurse did then check on him and told her he doesn't have a fever. 
'I was so angry. How can this be that I have to do this, make a sign and go down there?' Holstad said.
'I'm very worried for my husband,' Holstad said. 'He's one of the vulnerable people,' because of his age and his Parkinson's disease.
'I have real problems with how they're handling the interface with family,' she said, remarking it was 'sort of like a movie about an epidemic in a little town, and they don't know how to handle the situation.' 
Holstad told how she only found out about the potential outbreak in the home when she arrived for a visit on Saturday and was turned away by a sign on the door saying no visitors allowed. 
She then got a message from the center telling her about the confirmed cases.  
Before then she had been told staff were wearing masks because some residents had colds.   
Holstad also said her husband had not been tested for coronavirus because he doesn't have all of the symptoms required for testing.

Depending on how fast they can scramble to get their act together - and how many people in drumpf's base get sick - the mishandling of this emergency might be what brings drumpf down. He knows this and he's going to do anything he can to hide the truth.

The information is out there about his budget cutting the CDC and anything science related. Now he wants the Supreme Court to kill the ACA. How many of his base will be happy when they get sick and don't have health insurance anymore?

How many of his base are smart enough to realize he has no back up for them when the insurance ends?

Good point! Probably not a whole lot. Imagine their surprise...

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8068137/Donald-Trump-supporter-rally-North-Carolina-says-doesnt-think-coronavirus-real.html

[size=34]Donald Trump supporter says she doesn't think coronavirus exists because she 'doesn't believe anything the Democrats say' at rally in North Carolina[/size]

• Trump supporter at his Charlotte, North Carolina, rally questioned if coronavirus was real
  
  
• She admitted she does not believe coronavirus is real because she doesn't 'believe anything Democrats say'
  
  
• Others believed the media has blown it out of proportion and stoked panic
  
  
• 9,000 people attended the rally amid Trump's comments that it was 'very safe' to attend to event   
  
  
• Coronavirus has killed 3,000 people and infected at least 90,000 people 
  
  
• Six people have died in the United States as cases continue to spread  
  
  

By LAUREN EDMONDS and EMILY CRANE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 00:38 EST, 3 March 2020 | UPDATED: 04:55 EST, 3 March 2020


A Trump supporter at his North Carolina rally questioned the legitimacy of the deadly coronavirus and said it doesn't exist. 
At President Donald Trump's rally in Charlotte ahead of Super Tuesday, NBC reporter Monica Alba took to the bustling crowd of ardent Republicans to ask them their thoughts on coronavirus.
At the previous Trump rally in North Charleston, South Carolina, one Trump supporter called the coronavirus a 'nothing burger.'   
So far, the coronavirus has killed 3,000 people and infected at least 90,000 people worldwide.
The United States confirmed six coronavirus-related deaths in King County, Washington, this weekend. There are at least 91 cases of Americans sick with the virus across the country. 

NBC News NOW

@NBCNewsNow





[ltr].@realDonaldTrump has a rally in North Carolina tonight before voters hit the polls tomorrow on Super Tuesday.

WATCH: @albamonica met one supporter who doesn't believe #coronavirus exists.

Watch NOW: http://nbcnews.com/NOW [/ltr]











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A Trump supporter (right) attending the president's North Carolina rally Monday night said she does not believe coronavirus is real 
One woman told Alba that she does not believe coronavirus is real or that it was the reason two patients died in Washington.
'I don't trust anything that Democrats do or say,' the woman said, rationalizing that coronavirus is simply a liberal-based hoax. 
Alba points out that Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, as well as bipartisan agencies and lawmakers on both sides have recognized the validity of COVID-19. Still, she did not sway from her opinion. 
A second woman revealed she isn't at all worried about the coronavirus because she is divinely protected. 


'We're under protection,' the woman told Alba reassuringly. 'We're under protection from Psalms 91 and God is out protector.' 
She added that she's happy with Trump's response thus far and blames the media for supposedly inflating the situation.  
'I'm very pleased without president's response so far. I think the media made it a larger thing than what it should be and I think they're trying to incite fear and panic in the public,' she said.  
One man said that he does believe coronavirus is credible and that actions must be taken to ensure it's overcome. 
He said: 'I believe this is a valid virus that's spreading around the world and we've got to do something to protect ourselves.'
The man also admitted that while he did not feel comfortable being in the crowd of 9,000 rally attendees, he arrived to show support for Trump. 


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On Monday, President Trump (pictured) told reporters that it is 'very safe' for people to attend rallies amid the coronavirus outbreak 
The man may have been confident in attending the rally in part by Trump's  assertion that attending rallies was 'very safe' at this time. 
Since the coronavirus popped up in the Hubei province of Wuhan, China, in late December, health officials have been scrambling to put a lid on its rapid spread and determine what caused the sudden outbreak. 
While the source of coronavirus is still being determined, lawmakers like Republican Sen. Cotton are pushing conspiracy theories despite repeated rebukes from officials.
On Fox News, Cotton suggested coronavirus originated from a a biological warfare laboratory in Wuhan. 
'This virus did not originate in the Wuhan market,' Cotton said, referring to a belief that it may have spawned from a live animal market. 


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Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton has accused China of lying and refusing to hand over all the information they have about the origins of the coronavirus outbreak as he suggested it could be linked to a laboratory


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Members of the medical team spray disinfectant to sanitize outdoor place of Imam Reza's holy shrine, following the coronavirus outbreak, in Mashhad, Iran
'We don't know where it originated and we have to get to the bottom of that.'
He acknowledged there was no evidence of links between the lab and the outbreak but Cotton went on to reference the close proximity of the market.  
'We also know that just a few miles away from that food market is China's only biosafety level 4 super laboratory that researches human infectious diseases,' he said.
'Now, we don't have evidence that this disease originated there, but because of China's duplicity and dishonesty from the beginning, we need to at least ask the question to see what the evidence says.
'And China right now is not giving any evidence on that question at all.'


+9


Cotton took to Twitter on Sunday to address claims he was peddling conspiracy theories by linking the lab and outbreak. He listed several hypotheses about the coronavirus outbreak, including natural, deliberate and scientific causes
Cotton also accused China of lying about the outbreak.
'The situation is very grave in part because... China was lying from the beginning, and they're still lying today.'
Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. Cui Tiankai called out Cotton for trying to draw a connection between coronavirus and a laboratory. 
Tiankai told CBS' Face the Nation: 'I think it's true that a lot is still unknown and our scientists, Chinese scientists, American scientists, scientists of other countries, are doing their best to learn more about the virus, but it's very harmful, it's very dangerous, to stir up suspicion, rumors and spread them among the people.' 
'For one thing, this will create panic. There are all kinds of speculation and rumors... How can we believe all these crazy things?' 
Cotton later went on Twitter to share several hypothesis on how coronavirus began, including bad science, natural and deliberate release as reasons.  
California Congress candidate Joanna Wright also shared an unsubstantiated claim that the coronavirus is a man made creation. 
'The Corona virus is a man made virus created in a Wuhan laboratory. Ask [Bill Gates] who financed it,' she wrote on Twitter. 



Joanne Wright suggested the coronavirus is a man made virus created in a Wuhan, China, laboratory 
This is in reference to another Tweet where she said: 'Doesn’t [BillGates] finance research at the Wuhan lab where the Corona virus was being created? Isn’t [George Soros] a good friend of Gates? Isn’t it always when Hillary Clinton tweets that fire and brimstone hits us? Check Gates Foundation and Clinton Foundation for stock sells.'  
In the U.S., health officials in Washington state announced on Monday that four people had died in the Seattle area in addition to the two other patients in that same area who died over the weekend.    
Five of the six deaths have been linked to the LifeCare long-term aged care facility in Kirkland in King County. 


+9


The coronavirus death toll in the U.S. has now climbed to six. Five of the six deaths have been linked to the LifeCare (above) long-term aged care facility in Kirkland just outside Seattle in Washington state
This includes a man in his 70s who was a resident of the LifeCare long-term care facility in Kirkland and had coronavirus had died the day before.
On Saturday, the department had reported the first death of a coronavirus patient in the United States, a man in his 50s who was living in Kirkland - the same city where the nursing home is located. 
Eight of the 18 confirmed coronavirus cases in Washington state have been residents or workers at LifeCare.
The sixth victim was from nearby Snohomish county. Officials say at least four of the six people who have died were elderly and/or had underlying health conditions.
News of the additional deaths came after Dr Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told NBC News on Monday that the disease had likely reached 'pandemic proportions' as 100 cases were confirmed across the U.S.  


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About 50 residents and workers are being tested - several confirmed - and there is fear the virus will spread to anyone who visited the building.


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'We're dealing with an evolving situation. We're dealing with clearly an emerging infectious disease that has now reached outbreak proportions and likely pandemic proportions,' Dr Fauci said. 'If you look at multiple definitions of what a pandemic is... multiple sustained transmissions of of a highly infectious agent in multiple regions of the globe.'
Dr Fauci went on to say the U.S. might need to consider social mitigation, including closing down schools and not allowing events where large crowds are in confined spaces.
'We're not ready for it right now but we need to be at least thinking about the possibility,' he said in the interview that will air in full on NBC Nightly News on Monday. 
Trump and members of his Cabinet later met with Dr Fauci and executives of 10 pharmaceutical companies at the White House on Monday afternoon to learn ways to speed the development of a vaccine for the coronavirus. 
During the meeting Trump reportedly said he had been told a vaccine would be completed in three to four months but Dr Fauci later confirmed that any vaccine would not be ready to hand out for at least a year.


+9


Dr Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has warned that the coronavirus has likely reached 'pandemic proportions'. He is pictured above flanked by Donald Trump and Mike Pence at the White House on Saturday
It comes after a New York doctor warned coronavirus cases in the U.S. will surge into the thousands by next week and the former head of the FDA claimed three critical weeks were lost in containing the spread of the virus due to faulty test kits given out by the government. 
Health officials have been scrambling to get their own coronavirus testing kits up and running after getting stuck with faulty tests from the federal government that they said left them unable to diagnose people quickly. 
State and local authorities are now also stepping up testing for the illness as the number of new cases grew to 100across the U.S. on Monday, with new infections announced in California, Florida, Illinois, Rhode Island, New York and Washington state. 
New York confirmed its first coronavirus case on Sunday as a female healthcare worker in her 30s who returned from Iran last week and is now being quarantined in her Manhattan home. 
Florida late Sunday declared a public health emergency as it confirmed its first two cases, while Rhode Island announced its two cases - two people who had returned from a school trip to Italy - had prompted the closure of a school so it could be sanitized.  






Dr Matt McCarthy, who is a staff physician at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan, has claimed he doesn't have the tools to properly care for patients because of the lack of coronavirus tests being made available to hospitals. 
He told CNBC's Squawk Box on Monday that the bungled test distribution was a 'national scandal' and claimed New York had only been able to properly carry out 32 tests so far. 
'We hear it's coming very soon but I'm here to tell you that at one of the busiest hospitals in the country, I don't have it at my finger tips. I still have to call the department of health, I still have to make my case and plead to test people,' he said. 
'This is not good. We know that there are (91) cases in the United States. There are going to hundreds by middle week, there's going to be thousands by next week. This is a testing issue.' 
He said the infectious disease team at his hospital, one of the busiest in the country, was equipped to deal with the outbreak but were crippled by the lack of diagnostic tests being made available by the government. 
'Keep in mind in New York state the person who tested positive is only the 32nd test we've done in this state. That is a national scandal,' he said.  'They're testing 10,000 a day in some countries and we can't get this off the ground. 
'I'm a practitioner on the firing line and I don't have the tools to properly care for patients today.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8066487/Russian-constitution-define-marriage-heterosexual-Putin-says.html

[size=34]Putin seeks constitutional ban on same-sex marriage and says it's his 'duty' to stop gay people getting married[/size]

• Putin previously claimed it is his 'duty' to stop gay people from getting married
  
  
• Proposed constitutional change as part of proposed political shake-up in Russia
  
  
• Politician Pyotr Tolstoy Putin wants to enshrine 'marriage as a union between a man and a woman'
  
  

By JEMMA CARR FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 13:03 EST, 2 March 2020 | UPDATED: 07:11 EST, 3 March 2020

     


Vladimir Putin said the Russian constitution should define marriage as between a man and a woman and nothing else, a senior politician said. 
Putin - who previously said it is his 'duty' to stop gay people from getting married in an attempt to 'reinforce families' - proposed the changes as part of a far-reaching political shake-up in Russia.  
He and his supporters consider the impending change an opportunity to enshrine what they see as Russia's core moral and geopolitical values for future generations.


+6


Vladimir Putin (pictured in the Kremlin today) said the Russian constitution should define marriage as between a man and a woman and nothing else, a senior politician said


+6


Putin previously said it is his 'duty' to stop gay people from getting married in an attempt to 'reinforce families'. Pictured: Police officers detain a protestor during a rally held by LGBT activists and their supporters in 2019
Pyotr Tolstoy, deputy chairman of Russia's lower house of parliament, said one of Putin's proposed changes was to 'enshrine in basic law the concept of marriage as a union between a man and a woman'.
Putin said last month Russia would not legalise gay marriage as long as he was in the Kremlin. 
He said he would not let the traditional notion of a mother and father be subverted by what he called 'parent number 1' and 'parent number 2'.


+6


Putin proposed the changes to the constitution as part of a far-reaching political shake-up in Russia. Pictured: Putin and the Chairman of the Executive Board at Sberbank Herman Gref today


+6


Homosexuality in Russia was a criminal offence until 1993, and classed as a mental illness until 1999. Pictured: Officers block participants of a rally by members of the LGBT community last year


+6


Western governments and human rights activists have criticised the Russian authorities for their treatment of LGBT people. Pictured: Officers block participants of a rally by members of the LGBT community last year
Homosexuality in Russia - where the influence of the socially conservative Orthodox Church has grown in recent years - was a criminal offence until 1993, and classed as a mental illness until 1999.
Under Russian law, only heterosexual couples can adopt children in Russia.


Western governments and human rights activists have criticised the Russian authorities for their treatment of LGBT people.  
Elton John was among those to speak out against a 2013 law that banned the dissemination of 'gay propaganda' among young Russians.


+6


In June last year, Putin said Russian authorities had a 'relaxed and unprejudiced' attitude towards LGBT people. Pictured: LGBT activists put tape over their mouths during a protest in Saint Petersburg
Under the law, any event or act regarded by the authorities as an attempt to promote homosexuality to minors is illegal and punishable by a fine. 
The law has been used to stop gay pride marches and to detain gay rights activists.
Putin has said he is not prejudiced against gay people, but that he finds a Western willingness to embrace homosexuality and gender fluidity out of step with traditional Russian values.
In June last year, Putin said Russian authorities had a 'relaxed and unprejudiced' attitude towards LGBT people, but decisions about gender identity could only be made by adults and therefore minors need to be 'left alone'.
Russian law bans 'propaganda of homosexuality among minors'.

Mmmm..........ayoung man at the event has tested positive

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/coronavirus-mike-pence-quarantine-florida-sarasota-military-academy-a9372861.html

[size=36][size=36]Coronavirus: Student in quarantine after classmates shook hands with Mike Pence[/size]

Mr Pence met with senior cadets from Sarasota Military Academy on Friday, shaking hands with them and posing for photographs

[/size]

• Oliver O'ConnellNew York
  
  
• 2 hours ago 
  
  
• 15 comments
  
  
  
  

A [size=19]Florida student whose classmates met with and touched vice president Mike Pence is now in coronavirus quarantine.
Mr Pence met with senior cadets from Sarasota Military Academy on Friday, shaking hands with them and posing for photographs.
The vice president was visiting the city for a fundraiser at the Longboat Key home of Representative Vern Buchanan


In a statement, the school confirmed that a student and his mother are in quarantine as a precautionary measure.
The mother came into contact with a patient at Sarasota Doctors Hospital in her professional capacity, and that patient has now tested positive for coronavirus. 

Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty

Show all 10






The Pentagon has been in touch with the school about the student.
Colonel Christina Bowman, executive director of schools at SMA, said: “We have been in touch with the Pentagon, so we assured them that particular cadet was not present for that occasion.”

Mr Pence’s press secretary, Katie Miller, stresses in a tweet that the vice president did not meet or come into contact with the student.
Neither the student nor his mother are exhibiting symptoms, and the school is in contact with them.
“I want our parents and employees to know we are safe,” Bowman said. “We’ve been proactive on sanitising and teaching our students how to make sure they are washing their hands. We are working with the health department and making sure we are following their protocols. At this time, they are not recommending any exclusions. They are recommending we go about our business every day.”

Mr Pence arrived at Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport in Air Force Two on Friday afternoon, shaking hands and taking pictures with approximately 50 supporters. He then posed for a picture in front of his aeroplane with 44 cadets from the academy. 
According to the Florida Department of Health, there are two confirmed cases of coronavirus in the state, eight pending cases, 15 negative results, and 184 people being monitored for possible exposure.





[/size]

I hope George Clooney cancel the March Festival.

I think that George and Amal may have to cancel their engagements. Also , don't know if they will be going to Italy or coming to America any time soon.

Good to know, I really hope George Clooney will cancel his March Festival.

annemarie wrote:I think that George and Amal may have to cancel their engagements. Also , don't know if they will be going to Italy or coming to America any time soon.

How would you have any idea what George and Amal's plans are?

I didn't say I know their plans , I said they may have to cancel and wondered if they would be traveling.

You said you hoped George canceled I said they may both have to cancel.

That's like me saying I think the neighbor two blocks away has canceled their engagements.

I'm just wondering, what gave you the idea they may have canceled their engagements?

You said  George should cancel , I was agreeing that they may both have to cancel because of the virus.

annemarie wrote:You said  George should cancel , I was agreeing that they may both have to cancel because of the virus.

I see...

Entirely possible the conference will be cancelled given the timing and the potential numbers attending, never mind those who are on the stage who will probably be travelling by private plane and will not be travelling on public transport or sharing a small hotel room!

party animal - not! wrote:Entirely possible the conference will be cancelled given the timing and the potential numbers attending, never mind those who are on the stage who will probably be travelling by private plane and will not be travelling on public transport or sharing a small hotel room!

I think it's best for all who are involved.

Oh I don't think they'll feel the need to consult us - and they'll definitely be safer than in the US at the moment!

That is why I was thinking they won't come to the U.S or travel to Italy for the summer.

They'll probably be better off in the UK for the time being, but Italy for the summer shouldn't be off the table yet. It's a while until summer and who knows what the situation will be by then. Besides, they could go to Italy and just hang out at home - no reason to come into contact with anyone else.

Very True...

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8072159/Amazon-employee-companys-Seattle-headquarters-tests-positive-coronavirus.html

[size=34]Manhattan lawyer gave wife, son, daughter AND a neighbor Coronavirus: Frightening infectiousness of disease is revealed as WHO ups the official fatality rate with 137 US cases, including nine dead so far[/size]

• Amazon has informed staff that an employee in Seattle went home feeling sick on February 25
  
  
• The employee subsequently tested positive for coronavirus but has not returned to the offices since then and remains in quarantine
  
  
• Amazon HQ is about 12 miles from the Life Care Center of Kirkland nursing home that has seen an outbreak of deadly coronavirus cases
  
  
• In total, there have been nine coronavirus deaths on US soil with all of them occurring in Washington state 
  
  
• At least six of them are linked to the Life Care Center in Seattle
  
  
• The number of infections in the U.S. overall climbed past 100 on Tuesday, scattered across at least 15 states, with 27 cases in Washington alone 
  
  

By KEITH GRIFFITH FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 20:50 EST, 3 March 2020 | UPDATED: 10:23 EST, 4 March 2020

     



The number of coronavirus cases in New York has now jumped to six after the wife, two children and neighbor of a Manhattan attorney who is currently hospitalized with the disease all tested positive.
In total, nine people have now died from the disease in Washington state and the number of cases across the country have soared to more than 130.
The cases in New York soared to six on Wednesday after officials confirmed that a Manhattan attorney's wife, son, daughter and neighbor had all tested positive for coronavirus.  
The attorney, who lives in Westchester County and works in at his midtown Manhattan law firm, was confirmed as the state's second case on Tuesday. 
At least six of the deaths are linked to the Life Care Center of Kirkland - the long-term care facility near Seattle that has experienced a coronavirus outbreak. 
An Amazon employee at the company's Seattle headquarters - which is just 12 miles from the nursing home - also recently tested positive for coronavirus. 
Amazon confirmed late Tuesday that the employees had tested positive for coronavirus after going home sick from work on February 25. 
An Amazon spokeperson told DailyMail.com: 'We're supporting the affected employee who is in quarantine.'  


+8


The number of coronavirus cases in New York has now jumped to six after the wife, two children and neighbor of a Manhattan attorney who is currently hospitalized (above) with the disease all tested positive 


+8


An Amazon employee at the company's Seattle headquarters (above) has tested positive for coronavirus - just 12 miles away from the nursing home where six infected patients have died 


+8


In total, there have been nine coronavirus deaths on US soil with all of them occurring in Washington state. At least six of them are linked to the Life Care Center of Kirkland - the long-term care facility near Seattle with an acute outbreak (Pictured is a patient being taken from the nursing home on Tuesday)


+8


Amazon's headquarters is just a 12-mile drive away from the outbreak nursing home, the Life Care Center of Kirkland, where at least six residents have died from coronavirus
The internal email sent to Amazon employees in Seattle and nearby Bellvue said that any employees who had been 'in close contact' with the infected worker were notified separately, the Seattle Times reports.  
The email instructed employees experiencing symptoms to stay at home and seek medical attention.
'Your health is our top priority and we are continuing with enhanced deep cleaning and sanitization in the office,' the message said.
Amazon has more than 50,000 employees in Seattle and more than 275,000 full-time workers across the U.S.  
Last week, Amazon became one of the first U.S. companies to crack down on employee travel due to the outbreak, banning all 'non-essential' work trips.
Washington state has become an early coronavirus hot zone as the virus rapidly spreads across the U.S. 
The number of infections in the U.S. climbed past 100 on Tuesday with case scattered across at least 15 states. 
'What is happening now in the United States may be the beginning of what is happening abroad,' said Dr. Nancy Messonnier of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Messonnier noted that in China, where the outbreak began more than two months ago, older and sicker people are about twice as likely to become seriously ill as those who are younger and healthier. Most cases have been mild.  


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Medics wait to enter the Life Care Center in Seattle that has been linked to at least six of the nine coronavirus deaths in the US
[size=10][size=18]Coronavirus infection rates tick up as US death toll reaches nine




L[/size][/size]

WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE 9 US PATIENTS WHO DIED FROM CORONAVIRUS

So far, nine people have died of coronavirus in the US, federal and local health officials say.
All of the deaths have occurred in Washington state - eight are residents of King County and one of Snohomish County.
Six of the patients all died at EvergreenHealth in Kirkland and one died at Seattle's Harborview Medical Center. One was not hospitalized and one case is unknown.
Most came from Life Care Center, a long-term care facility.
Here's what we currently know:
1. A man in his 50s was brought from Life Care Center to Harborview Medical Center on February 24. He died two days later and is the first death in the US from coronavirus
2. A man in his 50s from King County who had underlying health conditions. He was hospitalized and died at EvergreenHealth on February 28. 
3. A man in his 40s from Snohomish County who died after being hospitalized at EvergreenHealth in Kirkland 
4. A woman in her 70s, who lived at Life Care and was hospitalized at EvergreenHealth. She had pre-existing conditions, and died on Sunday,
5. A man in his 70s, who was also a resident of Life Care, was hospitalized at EvergreenHealth. He died on Sunday and also had underlying health conditions.
6. A man in his 70s, linked to Life Care, was hospitalized at EvergreenHealth. He died on February 29 and pre-existing conditions
7. A woman in her 80s, who was linked to Life Care and was previously reported to be in critical condition at EvergreenHealth, died on Sunday.
8. A woman in her 80s, who was a resident of Life Care and was never hospitalized, died at her family home on February 26.
9.  The Washington State Department of Public Health confirmed a ninth deaths, but details remain unclear. 




In suburban Seattle, 27 firefighters and paramedics who responded to calls at the infected nursing home were tested for the virus on Tuesday using a drive-thru system set up in a hospital parking area.
The nursing home outbreak is also the source of the first case in North Carolina, it was revealed on Tuesday. 
A man in Wake County tested positive for the virus after visiting the care facility in Washington and then flying back home. 
It was revealed on Tuesday that two people who had died last week at the nursing home had since tested positive for the disease.
One of those Life Care residents, a male in his 50s, died last Wednesday after being taken to a Seattle hospital. A woman in her 80s, who was a resident of Life Care but was never hospitalized, died at her family home that same day. 
Test results only just confirmed that they both had coronavirus. 
Officials have not yet determined how the senior living facility became the epicenter of where the majority of deadly cases have been linked to. 
The jump in the death toll came as health officials promised to ramp up coronavirus testing across the US and vowed to test a million people by the end of the week. Officials have also revealed that at least a quarter of the cases across the country have been transferred through communities rather than travel.  
An increase in testing for the coronavirus has started to shed light on how the illness has spread in the US with newly confirmed cases in New York, Georgia, Florida and New Hampshire pushing the tally to more than 100 across 15 states.
Florida declared a public health emergency after confirming three cases. A man in his 60s with no recent travel history was diagnosed on Sunday with coronavirus. 
Meanwhile, a 29-year-old woman who had recently returned from Italy tested positive on Sunday before her sister became the third case on Tuesday. 
That woman claims she told the CDC of her symptoms after flying from Italy to New York on her way back to Florida. She claims the CDC told her she was okay to continue on the flight from New York to Tampa. She was tested for coronavirus after arriving back in Tampa last week. 


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Dr Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has said he expects community-related cases to grow in the coming weeks


+8



Dr Fauci speaks to President Trump on Tuesday during a tour of the National Institutes of Health's Vaccine Research Center on Tuesday

WHAT ARE THE CORONAVIRUS SYMPTOMS?

The new virus, called COVID-19, is transmitted from person to person via droplets when an infected person breathes out, coughs or sneezes. 
It can also spread via contaminated surfaces such as door handles or railings. 
Coronavirus infections have a wide range of symptoms, including fever, coughing, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties.  
Mild cases can cause cold-like symptoms including a sore throat, headache, fever, cough or trouble breathing.  
Severe cases can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory illness, kidney failure and death.  
Symptoms may appear 2-14 days after exposure. 




Dr Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has said he expects community-related cases to grow in the coming weeks. 
'My concern is as the next week or two or three go by, we're going to see a lot more community-related cases,' he said. 'That's of great concern.' 
The total number of cases in the US includes people who tested positive after returning from travel to outbreak areas in other parts of the world, their close contacts and infections that appear to be from community spread - people who did not travel or have known contact with other infected people.  
Dr Fauci, who is the top coronavirus expert in the country, said community spread made it almost impossible to predict how many cases there will be. 
'The very fact that you have community spread… the source of these infections are not entirely known. People are cropping up with infections and you can't trace where they got it,' Dr Fauci said.     
State and local authorities have been stepping up testing for the illness following a debacle with faulty kits from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that officials say delayed results. 
In response to the faulty tests, the Food and Drug Administration over the weekend allowed state and local labs to develop their own tests for coronavirus. It will see an increase in tests being carried out, according to FDA Commissioner Dr Stephen Hahn, who said he expects more than 1 million people to be tested within the next week.  
In efforts to try and control the outbreak, some schools across the country have closed for disinfection and officials in the Seattle area where the nine deaths occurred announced they were buying a hotel to be used as a hospital for patients who need to be isolated.
Homeland Security said that it had closed one of its Washington state facilities on Tuesday because an employee became ill after visiting a family member at the Life Care Center linked to the deaths.  
In the nation's capital, officials moved on a number of fronts. 
The Federal Reserve announced the biggest interest-rate cut in over a decade to try to fend off damage to the U.S. economy from the factory shutdowns, travel restrictions and other disruptions caused around the globe by the outbreak. On Wall Street, stocks briefly rallied on the news, then slumped badly. 
On Capitol Hill, lawmakers expressed skepticism about U.S. health officials' claims that testing for the new virus should be widely available by the end of the week. Authorities have said labs across the country should have the capacity to run as many as one million tests by then.

Today in Parliament, the Prime Minister announced that everyone who contracted CVD 19 would automatically be paid statutory sick pay by the Government from the first day of the illness onwards  i e that guarantees that people who have not got paid by the company they work for when they are ill will not need to worry. Normally this kicks in here when they have been ill for more than three days...

How does it work in the States.....?

Being out of the work force now I don't know if there's an across the board policy, but I don't think there is. I think it's pretty much left up to the individual employer in most cases - although I did see something where our governor was asking employers not to penalize employees who stayed out because of the virus. I'm not sure if they're planning to make it mandatory or if they're going to cover the employee's lost wages.

Sorry I didn't pay more attention, but I'm sure the issue will get more media attention as more people are affected.

Quick question. Have you ever heard of a newspaper called "The Epoch Times"? I came across it for the first time today and the newsagent said it's new, but they claim to publish in several states and there's a photo of a man identified as the publisher of the US edition - which makes me think there might be other editions outside the US and I wondered if you'd heard of it. It also just crossed my mind that if I wasn't such a lazy git I could google it myself and quit annoying you! (Which is exactly what I'm going to do right now!)

OK I'm back. Checked out The Epoch Times on Wickipedia and found it's a product of a Chinese American sponsored media conglomerate called Epoch Media Group that reaches 35 countries and publishes in 8 languages - although their website is blocked in mainland China.

Also found out that they are huge supporters of Trump and far-right European politicians. On their news and YouTube sites they have spread conspiracy theories such as QAnon and anti-vaccination theories.

I don't think I'll be buying or subscribing.

In Germany (I know, you were asking about the States, PAN) our employers pay 100 % of our salary for the first six weeks of illness, afterwards our health insurance (which everybody has to have) pays 60 % of our salary.

By the way: We have 280 infected people so far, nobody is seriously ill or died, many have been cured. I don't know about the difference between Germany and Italy (which iy pretty close) and has about 3,000 illnesses and 100 people who died. I'm not sure what actually made the difference. The first cases happened early in January where a lady from China infected about 20 employees (and their families) of a company where she held a conference. They all had been isolated and didn't infect others. Most others had been infected in Italy, and I just read that there are two more infections in my federal state who had been vacationing in Italy but felt ill during their journey home. So luckily they isolated themselves at home and called their doctor. In the next bigger town, a group of pupils from one of the schools had been skiing in Italy, and when the first news of an outbreak in Italy went viral, they were told to away from school for two weeks, noone was infected. Other schools decided to cancel school trips to Italy, it's not an easy decision...

Our government is harshly critisized for not closing schools and universities, for not cancelling big events (which is not the governments' decision anyway). International fairs were calcelled or delayed. But I think you have to find the right balance, since there were no pupils and students infected so far. And nobody is forced to go to a big event like a football match or a concert. It's not easy, I've got a bad cold at the moment and decided not to go to a birthday party and a concert ladt weekend and stay away from work this week. It's not Corona, but I still could infect others

They're telling us that the most vulnerable for serious effects are the elderly and people with already compromised immune systems. Children and younger adults should come through the virus as they would the flu or a bad cold if they get proper treatment. I hope they're right.

I agree, Carol, self isolating is the way to go. I chose not to go to a talk at a conference centre in London this week, which would also have involved me catching tube trains in the rush hour. Problems seem to crop up when people don't even think about it. Several schools have closed here because of positive testing on staff and everybody who might have symptoms has been advised not to turn up at the surgery. A lot of deep cleans going on in affected trains etc

Same here. They're disinfecting the subway stations and trains with bleach every 72 hours. We're being told that masks are really only effective for those who are sick so they don't infect others, and everyone should wash their hands constantly and keep your hands away from your face - really basic advice on how to minimize catching anything. If you think you have the symptoms you're advised to stay home and contact your doctor.

My friend's daughter and granddaughter came home sick from DisneyWorld last week. Luckily they both just have the flu, and not the coronavirus, but they had to be tested and stay home until they were sure.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8076947/Donald-Trump-says-hunch-coronavirus-mortality-rates-LOWER-estimates.html

[size=34]Trump says coronavirus is 'very mild', believes infected patients can get better without seeing a doctor, insists the WHO 3.4% fatality rate is 'false' and accuses the Dems of 'weaponizing' virus against him[/size]

• Trump made the remarks in interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity Wednesday
  
  
• Said he 'personally' believed coronavirus mortality rate is less than 1% 
  
  
• World Health Organization recently updated their figure to 3.4%
  
  
• However a leading Harvard doctor concurred with Trump that it may be lower
  
  
• At issue is whether less severe cases are ever tracked by health authorities
  
  
• Trump also accused Democrats of 'weaponizing' the virus against him
  
  
• He said that they'd accuse him of incompetence even if the virus were cured
  
  

By KEITH GRIFFITH FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 00:40 EST, 5 March 2020 | UPDATED: 07:37 EST, 5 March 2020







President Donald Trump has said he has a 'hunch' that the mortality rate of the coronavirus is lower than recent estimates by the World Health Organization.
WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus this week issued an estimate that the virus kills 3.4 percent of all patients, but Trump says that he believes not all cases are tracked by medical authorities.
'They don't know about the easy cases,' Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity in an interview on Wednesday night. 'I think the number, personally I think the number is way under 1 percent.'
'I think the 3.4% is really a false number,' Trump said. 'Now, this is just my hunch.'
'Because a lot of people will have this, and it's very mild — they'll get better very rapidly, they don't even see a doctor, they don't even call a doctor — you never hear about those people, so you can't put them down in the category of the overall population, in terms of this corona flu, and/or virus,' he said.
Trump's theory is actually shared by Harvard Medical School instructor Dr Jeremy Samuel Faust, who wrote in Slate that the true coronavirus mortality rate is less than 1 percent.


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President Donald Trump has said he has a 'hunch' that the mortality rate of the coronavirus is lower than recent estimates by the World Health Organization


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WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus this week issued an estimate that the virus kills 3.4 percent of all patients


Faust said that looking at the statistics from the doomed Diamond Princess ship gives a better indication of how fatal the disease is than global statistics.
Around 705 passengers out of the 3,711 on board the boat caught coronavirus, and only six people from the boat have died, giving a death rate of 0.85 percent. All deaths are in people over 70.
In the U.S., there are more than 150 officially confirmed cases, and 11 deaths. Because many of the new cases have untraceable origins, however, the true number of total cases must be higher, lending credence to Trump's theory. 
'It's a very very small number in this country and we're going to try to keep it that way,' Trump said, adding that each death made the apparent mortality rate spike because of the small numerator.


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'They don't know about the easy cases,' Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity in an interview on Wednesday night. 'I think the number, personally I think the number is way under 1 percent'
In the interview, Trump also boasted that his early decision to cut off travel to and from mainland China on January 31 had a positive effect in limiting the spread of the virus in America.
'I closed the borders to China, and that's why we have a very small number of people that we have to really worry about,' he said.
Trump went on say that the decision to rescue Americans from the outbreak cruise ship Diamond Princess had been difficult because he knew it would raise the number of cases in the U.S.
'Statistically, I hate to do it because is it going to look bad,' Trump said. He said he felt he had to 'because they're Americans, we've got to take care of them.'
Trump also accused Democrats of using the outbreak as another opportunity to play politics and demonize him.
'The Democrats weaponized the virus against the Trump administration,' he said. 
'No matter how good you do, if you found a cure and everything disappeared in 24 hours, they'd say you did a terrible job,' he said.
'But here I am in the White House,' he added. 'I'm president and they're not.'   
[size=18]Washington residents warned to stay home as coronavirus toll climbs




Lo[/size]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8080111/Mike-Pence-admits-America-does-NOT-testing-kits-meet-coronavirus-demand.html

[size=34]Mike Pence admits America does NOT have enough testing kits to meet coronavirus demand as senators are told pledge for one million this week will NOT happen[/size]

• Mike Pence said the White House would not be able to follow through on its promise to deliver 1 million coronavirus testing kits by the end of this week 
  
  
• 'We don't have enough tests today to meet what we anticipate the demand going forward,' the vice president admitted
  
  
• He made the remarks while visiting a 3M Company plant in Minnesota Thursday
  
  
• Earlier this week, Pence and other administration officials vowed the new kits would be available for doctors and local health officials 
  
  
• But Thursday, senators revealed that the testing kits would not be delivered in the capacity promised
  
  
• 'There won't be a million people to get a test by the end of the week. It's way smaller than that,' Republican senator Rick Scott said 
  
  
• Senator James Lankford said. 'It's going to take time to be able to get them, receive them, re-verify them and then be able to put them into use.'
  
  
• In Washington state medical staff report anger when among people told they could not be tested for the coronavirus due to limited capacit
  
  
• Clinics in the Seattle area reported an increase in patients seeking tests after the state reported 39 cases of coronavirus and 10 deaths - but cannot meet demand
  
  

[size=34]
By KATELYN CARALLE, U.S. POLITICAL REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM  and REUTERS
PUBLISHED: 15:14 EST, 5 March 2020 | UPDATED: 16:35 EST, 5 March 2020

[/size]

Mike Pence admitted Thursday that the administration will not be able to follow meet its promise to deliver one million coronavirus testing kits by the end of the week.
'We don't have enough tests today to meet what we anticipate the demand going forward,' Pence said during a visit to a 3M Company plant in Minnesota Thursday afternoon.
'We're focused very much on a cruise ship just off the California coast today. The Coast Guard delivered a sufficient number of tests for the passengers on that ship,' the vice president said.
Pence spoke after Trump boasted in a tweet that there were only 129 cases of the virus in the U.S. - but that number is a result of the tiny number of tests which have so far taken place.
The unfolding test fiasco started in January.  
The initial test developed to check individuals for if they had contracted coronavirus was flawed and led to several weeks of delays for local health officials and doctors who could not independently check patients for the fast-spreading respiratory virus.


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Vice President Mike Pence said Thursday that the White House would not be able to follow through on its promise to deliver 1 million coronavirus testing kits by the end of this week


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On way to crisis zone: Mike Pence went first to Maplewood, Minnesota, for talks with manufacturer 3M, then was headed to Washington state where 10 of the 12 American deaths occurred


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'We don't have enough tests today to meet what we anticipate the demand going forward,' Pence admitted during a visit to a 3M Company plant in Minnesota Thursday afternoon


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Boast: Pence spoke after Trump boasted in a tweet that there were only 129 cases of the virus in the U.S. - but that number is a result of the tiny number of tests which have so far taken place.


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The CDC says six states are not currently testing for coronavirus but are 'in progress': Alabama, Maine, Ohio, Oklahoma, West Virginia and Wyoming. But MaineHealth said it has begun testing and is sending samples to the CDC
Instead, doctors had to send samples off to the Centers for Disease Control for confirmation.
'As more Americans take an interest in this or have concerns about this, we want to make sure they have access to the coronavirus test as well and we've made real progress on that in the last several days,' Pence continued in remarks at the manufacturing plant in Minnesota.
In Washington D.C. the surgeon general, Jerome Adams, refused to answer questions from reporters but did appear on Fox News where he was not asked about testing kits.
So far 12 Americans have died after contracting coronavirus – 11 in Washington state and one in California.
There are more than 150 confirmed cases in the U.S. as of Wednesday as the president continues to downplay the outbreak.
The nation's top immunologist at National Institute of Health, Anthony Fauci, said the virus has reached 'pandemic proportions.'
Promises of accurate testing results come after changes have been made to the kits – but the news is accompanied by confusion over the messaging of when they will become available for use.
Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephan Hahn earlier this week told senators during a hearing that the U.S. would be able to perform 1 million tests by the end of this week, which Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar backed up during a White House briefing Wednesday. 
Pence also said at the Wednesday briefing that 1.5 million tests would be going out this week.

WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS OF CORONAVIRUS?

[size=34]
Like other coronaviruses, including those that cause the common cold and that triggered SARS, COVID-19 is a respiratory illness.  
[/size]

• The most common symptoms are: 
  
• Fever 
  
• Dry cough 
  
• Shortness of breath
  
• Difficulty breathing 
  
• Fatigue 
  

Although having a runny nose doesn't rule out coronavirus, it doesn't thus far appear to be a primary symptom. 
Most people only become mildly ill, but the infection can turn serious and even deadly, especially for those who are older or have underlying health conditions.  
In these cases, patients develop pneumonia, which can cause: 

• Potentially with yellow, green or bloody mucus
  
• Fever, sweating and shaking chills
  
• Shortness of breath 
  
• Rapid or shallow breathing 
  
• Pain when breathing, especially when breathing deeply or coughing 
  
• Low appetite, energy and fatigue 
  
• Nausea and vomiting (more common in children) 
  
• Confusion (more common in elderly people)
  
• Some patients have also reported diarrhea and kidney failure has occassionally been a complication. 
  

Avoid people with these symtpoms. If you develop them, call your health care provider before going to the hospital or doctor, so they and you can prepare to minimize possivle exposure if they suspect you have coronavirus.  
 




But that claim fell apart Thursday as senators revealed that the testing kits would not be delivered in the capacity promised.
'There won't be a million people to get a test by the end of the week,' Republican Senator Rick Scott said Thursday, according to Bloomberg News. 
'It's way smaller than that. And still, at this point, it's still through public health departments.'
While the government is 'in the process' of sending kits out, lawmakers said the process could take days to weeks as people are trained on how to use them.
'By the end of the week they're getting them out to the mail,' Republican Senator James Lankford said. 'It's going to take time to be able to get them, receive them, re-verify them and then be able to put them into use.'
The issue is affecting people around the country, with the CDC saying six states are currently not testing for coronavirus.
The federal health agency published a map of all states and territories with at least one laboratory using diagnostic tests for the disease. 
Almost every states is listed as currently testing for coronavirus, except Alabama, Maine, Ohio, Oklahoma, West Virginia and Wyoming.
Those six states are currently listed as being 'in progress,' according to the map key. 
However, MaineHealth announced that it has begun testing and is sending samples to the CDC.
Maine say it has begun testing and is sending swabs from test kits to the CDC. 
Oklahoma's Department of Health announced on Tuesday that it plans to do its own coronavirus testing. 
The Ohio Department of Health says it will be conducted its own testing later this week and Alabama and Wyoming say they're in the process of setting up their laboratories.
Meanwhile, Washington state officials are urging patience as medical staff report fear and anger among people told they could not be tested for the coronavirus due to limited capacity.
Clinics in the Seattle area reported an increase in patients seeking tests after the state reported 39 cases of coronavirus and 10 deaths.  
Health officials and front-line medical staff in Seattle's King County, the location of most cases, asked mildly sick people to stay home rather than inundate clinics and hospitals for tests and risk infecting others.


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Thousands of passengers are currently on the Grand Princess cruise ship that was banned on Wednesday from returning to its home port of San Francisco from a voyage to Hawaii amid the suspected coronavirus outbreak (file image)
'We know there is huge demand out there for testing, we know there are a lot of people in our state who are sick and they want to know if they have [coronavirus],' state health officer Kathy Lofy said at a news conference.   
'I want to tell you we are doing everything possible to expand testing capacity here in our state.'
Nurse practitioner Paula Ruedebusch, who works at an urgent care clinic in the Seattle suburb of Monroe,  asked patients not to take out frustrations on front-line medical staff.
'We have had patients presenting here, angry that they cannot be tested for COVID-19, yelling, cussing, throwing their dirty mask at us and even spitting their secretions on the floor and walls on their way out,' Ruedebusch wrote on Facebook.
'Please don't do that. We are not the ones making the decisions here, we are just the ones trying to triage, manage and treat those who are sick and injured...and, that is just gross.  

RELATED ARTICLES

[size=34]WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BEING TESTED FOR CORONAVIRUS[/size]

[size=34]
On Tuesday, Vice President Mike Pence announced that any American can be tested for coronavirus as long as a doctor approves it.
The move appears to expand upon previous criteria needed for testing by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
But how do you determine if you have symptoms of COVID-19 and when you should see a doctor?
We break down everything you need to know about being tested for the virus that has infected more than 120 Americans and killed at least nine. 
WHAT ARE THE LATEST GUIDELINES FOR BEING TESTED? 
There are three groups of people that the CDC recommends get tested.
1. People with symptoms such as fever, cough or shortness of breath who have been in 'close contact' with someone confirmed to have coronavirus
2. Patients with symptoms who have traveled to areas affected by the virus within the last 14 days
3. Those with symptoms who need to be hospitalized and no other cause for their illness is found. They don't need to have a travel history or exposure to another patient   
HOW DOES THIS DIFFER FROM THE PREVIOUS CRITERIA?
When the CDC first began testing, only those with a travel history to China - where the outbreak emerged - or those who had been exposed to a confirmed coronavirus patient were tested.
However, the agency says its criteria for testing is always 'subject to change as additional information becomes available.'  
WHAT TO DO IF YOU NEED A TEST?
Health officials strongly advise that anyone who believes they may be infected not show up unannounced at their doctor's office in case they expose others to the highly-contagious disease.
Instead, the CDC suggests immediately calling your physician or healthcare provider.  
'Your healthcare professional will work with your state's public health department and CDC to determine if you need to be tested for COVID-19,' the CDC's website states.
If you are suspected of having the virus, you will most likely get tested at a hospital.
The test involves getting a swab of the patient's nostril and throat. If the patient has a wet cough, a sample of sputum (a mixture of saliva and mucus) will also be collected.
WHY HAS IT BEEN DIFFICULT FOR PEOPLE TO GET TESTED?
There have been multiple reports of people not having accessing to get tested.
The first batch of test kits that the CDC sent to state and local health departments were faulty, which led to a delay.
Secondly, the CDC had strict criteria for testing, which led to missed diagnoses of people who caught the virus from so-called 'community spread,' meaning it's unknown how they were infected.
A third reason is that some health departments did not leave the decision to test up to doctors as the CDC suggested.
For instance, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health initially required doctors to call a hotline to determine if their patients met CDC criteria for testing.
Then, before the test could be administered, it had to be authorized at the State Public Health Lab.
WILL IT BE EASIER TO GET TESTED NOW?
Since the CDC's testing fiasco, several health departments have either received new kits from the federal agency or made their own.  
Additionally, the US Food and Drug Administration expanded its Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) policy so allow more labs can apply for approval to test for the virus. 
The CDC that 75,000 test kits are currently available and more are being manufactured.
FDA Commissioner Dr Stephen Han told reporters on Monday that close to one million people would be tested by the end of the week.
But figures from the Association of Public Health Laboratories show that likely no more than 100,000 people would be tested by week's end. 



[/size]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8081453/Bush-appointed-judge-rips-Attorney-General-Bill-Barr-lack-candor.html

[size=34]Bush-appointed judge rips Attorney General Bill Barr for 'lack of candor' and 'misleading' statements about Robert Mueller's report and demands to see the unredacted copy[/size]

• U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton issued the stinging rebuke on Thursday
  
  
• Said Barr made 'misleading public statements' about Mueller's report
  
  
• Barr issued a summary of the report before the redacted version was out
  
  
• Judge said his 'lack of candor' spun the findings in favor of Trump 
  
  

By ASSOCIATED PRESS and KEITH GRIFFITH FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 23:21 EST, 5 March 2020 | UPDATED: 01:36 EST, 6 March 2020

     



A federal judge has sharply rebuked Attorney General William Barr's handling of special counsel Robert Mueller's report, saying Barr had made 'misleading public statements' to spin the investigation's findings in favor of President Donald Trump and had shown a 'lack of candor.'
U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton, a George W. Bush appointee, delivered the criticism on Thursday in a 23-page order in which he directed the Justice Department to provide him with an unredacted version of the report so that he could decide if any additional information from the document could be publicly disclosed.
The scolding was unusually blunt, with Walton saying Barr had appeared to make a 'calculated attempt' to influence public opinion about the report in ways favorable to Trump. 
The rebuke tapped into lingering criticism of Barr, from Democrats in Congress and special counsel Robert Mueller himself, that he had misrepresented some of the investigation's most damning findings.


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+3



U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton sharply rebuked Attorney General William Barr's handling of special counsel Robert Mueller's report, saying Barr had made 'misleading public statements'


The Justice Department in April released a 448-page redacted version of Mueller's report, which examined ties between Russia and the 2016 presidential campaign and potential obstruction of justice by the president. 
BuzzFeed News and the Electronic Privacy Information Center later sued under the Freedom of Information Act for access to the entire document.
In his ruling, Walton said he needed to review the entire document itself because he could not trust that the Justice Department's redactions of the report were made properly and in good faith. 
The judge said it would be 'disingenuous' to presume the redactions were 'not tainted by Attorney General Barr's actions and representations' throughout the process.
The actions cited by the judge include Barr's release last March of a four-page summary of Mueller's findings. The letter said that Mueller had found insufficient evidence to establish a criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia to tip the 2016 election, and that Mueller had not reached a determination on the question of whether the president had obstructed to justice.


+3


The rebuke tapped into lingering criticism of Barr, from Democrats in Congress and special counsel Robert Mueller (above) himself
Mueller complained to Barr in a private letter and phone call that he had not adequately captured the seriousness of his report's conclusions. 
Mueller stressed in his report, and in later public statements, that he did not exonerate the president and that it was not an option to charge Trump because of longstanding Justice Department policy that sitting presidents cannot be indicted.
Barr, for his part, has defended his handling of the report, calling Mueller's letter to him 'a bit snitty.' He said it was his prerogative as attorney general to produce a quick summary of the report, which he referred to as 'my baby,' while his staff spent weeks on redactions.
In his opinion Thursday, the judge said he struggled to reconcile Barr's public characterizations of the report - which included his statement that Mueller found 'no collusion' between the Trump campaign and Russia - with what the document actually said.
Those inconsistencies, Walton wrote, 'cause the Court to seriously question whether Attorney General Barr made a calculated attempt to influence public discourse about the Mueller Report in favor of President Trump despite certain findings in the redacted version of the Mueller Report to the contrary.'
[size=18]Judiciary Committee holds AG William Barr in contempt in 2019




L[/size]

Just to lighten things up a bit: The NY Daily News reports that KellyAnne Conway's husband (a staunch Conservative) has donated the maximum allowable amount to Joe Biden's campaign.

There may be hope for us yet!

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8083543/Customs-NOT-screening-passengers-coronavirus-hot-spots.html

[size=34]Customs is STILL NOT screening passengers from coronavirus hot-spots Italy, Iran and South Korea who arrive at major airports, including JFK, LAX, Atlanta and Chicago's O'Hare[/size]

• The CDC is only mandating screening in the US for flights from Iran and China
  
  
• People from Iran, Italy and South Korea are meant to be screened before they board their flights 
  
  
• Whether or not that is actually happening is of concern; several people have been able to return to the US from Italy recently with the virus 
  
  
• One Vice journalist says she walked through JFK on Thursday after returning from Milan - Italy's virus epicenter - without anyone stopping her 
  
  
• On top of that, it's unclear what the screening is meant to look like and if it will be effective
  
  
• Many of the people now diagnosed with coronavirus in the US do not have symptoms, so it's unclear if a temperature check would be sufficient
  
  
• New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has asked people returning from all five countries to self-isolate for 14 days as a precaution  
  
  

By JENNIFER SMITH FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 14:11 EST, 6 March 2020 | UPDATED: 15:41 EST, 6 March 2020

     



Customs agencies are still not properly screening travelers arriving in the US from coronavirus hot-spot countries Italy, Iran and South Korea, with scores of passengers saying they're able to saunter through major airports like JFK and LAX. 
On March 1, President Trump vowed that anyone returning from 'high risk countries' would be screened both before they boarded planes and once they had returned to the US. 
On Monday, Vice President Pence said: 'Anyone traveling on a direct flight to the United States of America receives multiple screenings at all airports in Italy and South Korea.' 
But the CDC is only insisting on screening passengers who arrive in the country from China and Iran.  
As the death toll in the US reached 14 on Friday, many travelers took to Twitter to share stories about returning to America from the high risk countries with minimal to no screening. 
Many said the only question they were asked was if they had traveled recently to China. 
In addition to fears over how flights are being screened, there is growing criticism of the federal government's response to testing. 


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Some passengers are reporting being able to walk through customs without being screened after returning from hot spot corona-virus countries. Above, a passenger arriving at JFK from a flight from China earlier this week 















As the death toll in the US reached 14 on Friday, many travelers took to Twitter to share stories about returning to America from the high risk countries with minimal to no screening
The FDA is yet to approve a test that would be able to tell a person if they had the virus or not within 15 minutes. 
It is a US test that has been developed by a private company and is already being used in Japan, but is yet to pass grade here.
A Vice News journalist said she was able to walk through customs at JFK without being questioned despite having traveled to Milan and Lombardy - the center of the outbreak in Italy - to report on it.  
'I just landed at JFK after reporting on #coronavirus in Milan and Lombardy —the epicenter of Italy’s outbreak— for Vice News. I walked right through US customs. 
'They didn’t ask me where in Italy I went or if I came into contact with sick people. They didn’t ask me anything,' she said. 


She added that she was now following CDC guidelines, which dictate that anyone who has just returned from Italy must stay home for 14 days.  
On Friday morning, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House coronavirus expert, said what was being reported about screening in airports was not what was meant to be happening. 
'I don't know hat happened there but that does not sound like it's the way it should have been,' he said, referring to the Vice journalist who was able to arrive back from Milan without questions or screening. 
[size=18]Worldwide airport screening starts as fear of coronavirus heightens



[/size]






+7


Passengers from China and Iran are being screened, but the CDC is still insisting on others on flights from Italy, South Korea and Japan being tested before they get on planes - and it's unclear if that is happening 


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Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House's expert on the disease , said people from flights from northern Italy ought to be being tested

[size=34]15-minute coronavirus test being used in China, Italy and Japan – but NOT the UK or US because health officials haven't approved it yet[/size]

A 15-minute coronavirus blood test is not being used in the UK, despite China, Italy and Japan diagnosing patients with it. 
The test, which takes a blood droplet from a finger prick, allegedly shows the severity of coronavirus infection in a patient even if they don't show symptoms.
Results are displayed in a similar fashion to those of an at-home pregnancy test within minutes and could potentially save delays in diagnosis.
Currently, swab tests used by Public Health England take 24 to 48 hours to be read by a specialist in a lab. In that time, suspected patients could be spreading germs to other people. 


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BioMedomics claims its test can screen for coronavirus in 15 minutes using a small drop of blood and a tiny device that can be carried into the field
PHE confirmed they were not using the advanced blood test because it was not accurate enough, and are hoping to develop their own. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is also yet to approve it. 
A former PHE strategist said he was 'not confident' the test could produce correct results and is therefore unlikely to be rolled out. However, the method was desirable.  
A small study by Biomedomics showed the test produced a correct response 80 per cent of the time. 
On March 5, BioMedomics claimed its 'quick and easy' test was ready and being used in South Korea, Japan, Italy, China and some countries in the Middle East. 
The BioMedomics test - called COVID-19 IgM/IgG Rapid Test -  takes a human finger-prick or venous blood sample.


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It can be read similarly to a pregnancy test, with one line for a negative test, two signifying it's positive for either early or late antibodies, and three when the sample is positive for both 


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A blood sample is collected, inserted into the reader, a buffer is combined, and results come back within 15 minutes, the company claims 
After the sample of blood is collected, a technician injects it into the analysis device - which is about the size of an Apple TV or Roku remote - along with some buffer, and waits 15 minutes. 
Results are displayed in a similar fashion to those of an at-home pregnancy test. But instead of a 'yes' or 'no' answer, it can reveal at what stage of disease the infected person is at.  
One line means negative, two lines in a spread-out configuration means the sample contains antibodies that the body starts making shortly after infection
Two lines closer together mean the person is positive for the later-stage antibodies, and three lines mean the patient is positive for both types of antibodies.  
 






Trump said on Sunday that passengers would be screened if they arrive back from high risk countries 
'Well obviously, first of all, the flights that come in from Northern Italy need to get screened. Particularly, flights from northern Italy are very tightly screened,' he added. 
But the CDC has not mandated for people from Italy, South Korea or Japan to be checked once they land back in the US. 
Instead, they are relying on passengers being checked in the departure country.
Passengers arriving back in Atlanta from South Korea and Italy are not being screened, nor are passengers at Chicago O'Hare Airport. according to NBC and CBS.
JFK pointed to a travel advisory which said she should have had her temperature checked in Italy, where no one will be able to board with a temperature of 99 degrees or more. 
But it's unclear whether people's temperatures are being taken before they get on the flights, or even how effective it would be. One group of friends recently returned from a ski trip in Italy to the US and 15 of them now have the virus. 
Not all of them have symptoms.  
Others said they were able to enter the country from Iran without being questioned or having their temperature checked. 
[size=18]The latest on the deadly Coronavirus epidemic within the US




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There are now 267 confirmed cases of the virus in the US, including 14 people who have died 
'My mom’s friend just came back from Iran. At LAX she asked if she needed to be tested for corona virus. They asked her if she had a fever. She said no. 
'So they let her pass through. Hearing many other similar stories about people coming from Iran,' Arash Karami said. 
The CDC has not included Japan on its list of high risk countries, but New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has.
On Thursday, he asked all New Yorkers who had returned 'recently' from one of the five countries to self-quarantine as a precaution. 
But it remains unclear how he or anyone else in federal government intends to enforce such self-quarantine. 
It is also unclear what lengths customs agents are going to to determine whether or not people arriving back from China and Iran actually have the virus. 
On Thursday, a health official who joined de Blasio at a press conference about the issue said passengers were being issued information pamphlets with a phone number on it that they should call if they start experiencing symptoms. 
The official said no one had yet called.  
On its website, the CDC says it has banned any foreign national who is coming to the US on flights from Iran or China. 
A US citizen, lawful resident and their families will be 'redirected to one of 11 airports to undergo health screening.' 
'Depending on their health and travel history, they will have some level of restrictions on their movements for 14 days from the time they left China or Iran,' the guidance says. 
It is unknown just how many flights are still arriving in the US from China and Iran every day, let alone from Italy, South Korea and Japan. 
[size=18]Doctor tells people how to protect themselves from the coronavirus




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WHAT IS TAKING THE US SO LONG TO TEST PATIENTS FOR CORONAVIRUS? 
Within days of shipping its tests, several states reported that the CDC's diagnostic was returning 'inconclusive' results. The agency was forced to re-make one of the test components are reissue kits.  
Even since the CDC started to address this issue, delays have continued.   
US officials previously promised a million tests could be run by the end of this week, but Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar admitted 'we currently have capacity to send tests for 15,000 people' on Thursday. 
Vice President Pence reiterated the woe of US doctors Thursday, but said that the US has tested the patients it absolutely needs to. 
'We don’t have enough tests today to meet what we anticipate will be the demand going forward,' he admitted after a meeting with 3M, which is expected to help ramp up mask production. 
'For those that we believe have been exposed, for those who are showing symptoms, we’ve been able to provide the testing.   
The US coronavirus task force promised Monday that, by the end of the week, about a million coronavirus tests would be available. 
Now, it's clear that goal won't be nearly met.  
Secretary Azar explained Thursday the three steps that stand in the way to broader, faster testing. 
He said that even when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) itself developed a test, it had to get approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) before distributing it. 
That request was submitted February 3 and approved February 4. 
The CDC didn't start shipping its first batch of tests until February 6. 
Shortly after those tests arrived to labs, it was discovered a reagent was flawed, forcing the CDC to reissue the test. 
Right now, doctors have to call in to one of just over 70 labs in the US, describe the patient they suspect may have coronavirus, get approval for a test to be sent to them, then test the patient, and send the kit back to one of those 70 labs. 
On Saturday, the FDA gave approval for other states, companies and research institutions to make their own coronavirus tests to expedite increase the number of people who can be tested.  
CDC's own manufacturer, IDT, is ramping up production, and Azar thinks that they'll distribute enough kits to test about 75,000 people for the virus. 
With the addition of outside tests, Azar estimated that enough tests will be sent out to screen about 400,000 people - because two of the nearly one million tests to be shipped have to be used to test each patient under current guidelines. 
He thinks that will happen by the end of the weekend. 
But even then, it could be 'a week, a week-and-a-half, two weeks' before they are 'up and running.' 
Data to allow the CDC to 'validate' the tests has to be sent within 15 days of when these labs started administering them.  
So far, University of Washington scientists have begun using their own test, and is running samples 24-hours a day. 
They believe they'll soon be processing some 1,000 samples each day. 
New York state - where at least 22 people now have coronavirus - as well as partner labs at Northwell Health and Stonybrook are now working on their own test, as well. New York was the first state to get authorization to start distributing its test.  
Meanwhile, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has quickly created an entire public testing lab network across the US to help the state - where so far four positive tests have been confirmed - to help expedite the process. 
He said so far half of the labs spread across 10 US cities are functional and ready to begin testing.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8082821/CNBC-editor-Rick-Santelli-says-coronavirus.html

[size=34]CNBC editor Rick Santelli says the world would be better off if we 'gave everyone coronavirus' to 'get it over' and stop wreaking havoc on the financial markets[/size]

• Santelli, a controversial finance editor, said the mortality rate would be the same if 'we gave it to everybody' as opposed to letting it spread naturally
  
  
• He believes then people would avoid financial havoc and we could 'get back to business' 
  
  
• He made the comments as the Dow slipped 900 points 
  
  
• Santelli apologized for his remarks on Friday morning after being slammed as 'evil'
  
  
• On Friday, it slipped another three percent as the world continued to panic
  
  
• There are now 100,000 cases of coronavirus globally including 267 in the US alone  
  
  

By JENNIFER SMITH FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 10:22 EST, 6 March 2020 | UPDATED: 13:46 EST, 6 March 2020

     




CNBC editor Rick Santelli said on Thursday that the world would be better off if everyone got coronavirus so that we could 'get it over' and stop wreaking havoc on the markets.  
The controversial financial journalist was being asked about the global markets, which have gone haywire since the virus spread, when he made the remarks. 
He was asked what had prompted the markets to go downturn and replied: 'The catalyst? Just watch your local news. There’s your catalyst. 
'All I know is, think about how the world would be if you tried to quarantine everybody because of the generic-type flu. 
'Now I’m not saying this is the generic-type flu,' he said, adding that he was 'not a doctor'. 
'But maybe we’d be just better off if we gave it to everybody and then in a month, it would be over because the mortality rate of this probably isn’t going to be any different if we did it that way than the long-term picture, but the difference is we’re wreaking havoc on global and domestic economies,' he said. 
Scroll down for video 


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CNBC editor Rick Santelli said on Thursday that the world would be better off if everyone got coronavirus so that we could 'get it over' and stop wreaking havoc on the markets

The Dow dropped by 900 points on Thursday as a result of the global panic being caused by the virus spread. 
There are now 100,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus, including 267 in the US.  
Santelli was slammed for his comments which some deemed 'evil'. 


'Maybe we should give EVERYONE #coronavirus so we can get it "over with". 
'Unbelievable,' one person said. 
Another said: 'For those wondering what evil sounds like, Trumper Rick Santelli suggests giving the coronavirus to everyone so the markets and economies of the world can just get over it.' 



















Santelli was slammed for his 'insensitive' and 'evil' outlook on the deadly global epidemic
On Friday morning, he apologized for his 'insensitivity'.
'It was just a stupid thing to say it's not appropriate in this instance and we are resilient, both in the US and in the globe, that resilience will get us through the idea of something so absurd, I just apologize.
'I apologize to everyone on the segment and all my peers at CNBC. Even if one life is affected... I do apologize for my insensitivity,' he said. 
After his remarks, a 2009 clip of him ranting about low mortgage rates amid the global financial crisis during which he said the people receiving them were 'losers' resurfaced. 
'See if we really want to subsidize the losers' mortgages... give them to people who might actually prosper down the road,' he said at the time. 
[size=18]US stock market opens significantly lower amid coronavirus crisis




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The Dow dropped another 780 points on Friday morning as the global panic continued


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There are now 100,000 cases globally

Looks like most of the 3.500 people on the cruise ship held in San Francisco for 48 hours haven't even been tested yet....and of course they have the ability to let the world know!

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8084629/Trump-brags-science-knowledge-super-genius-uncle-MIT-professor.html

[size=34]'Maybe I should have been a doctor': Trump brags about his 'natural ability' for science because of his 'super genius uncle' who was an MIT professor and claims CDC officials ask him how he knows so much about the coronavirus[/size]

• Trump was in Atlanta to visit headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control 
  
  
• President was asked about efforts to curb spread of coronavirus
  
  
• During rambling comments, Trump mentioned his late uncle, John G. Trump
  
  
• The president said his uncle was a 'super genius' who taught at MIT
  
  
• Trump mused about becoming a doctor, saying: 'I like this stuff, I really get it'
  
  
• On social media, Twitter users mocked 'malignant narcissist' president 
  
  

By ARIEL ZILBER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM and ASSOCIATED PRESS
PUBLISHED: 20:10 EST, 6 March 2020 | UPDATED: 20:44 EST, 6 March 2020

     



President Trump on Friday baffled observers while touring the Centers for Disease Control headquarters in Atlanta, where he bragged that he had a predisposition toward science because of his ‘super genius’ uncle.
‘You know my Uncle was a great — he was at MIT,’ the president said while standing next to health officials who are working to contain the outbreak of coronavirus.
‘He taught at MIT for a record number of years. He was a great super genius, Dr. John Trump.’
John G. Trump was an accomplished electrical engineer who went on to become a professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
[size=10][size=18]Trump brags about 'super genius uncle' who was an MIT professor




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President Trump is seen above holding up a picture while touring the Centers for Disease Control headquarters in Atlanta on Friday. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar is seen left. CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield is seen second from right. Associate Director for Laboratory Science and Safety Steve Monroe is seen far right


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Trump, who is holding up a picture of the coronavirus, bragged on Friday that he could have been a doctor


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Trump says his 'natural talent' for science is thanks to his late 'super genius' uncle, John G. Trump (seen in the above undated file photo), who was a professor of electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The president continued: ‘I like this stuff. I really get it.
‘People are surprised that I understand it.
'Every one of these doctors said: "How do you know so much about this?"
Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for president.'
On social media, the reaction to Trump’s comments was harsh.
One Twitter user wrote: ‘The guy who looked into the sun during a solar eclipse thinks he could have been a research scientist?’
That was a reference to the president looking up at the total eclipse of the sun - the first time in more than 40 years that Americans could see one - in August 2017.
Another Twitter user posted a meme showing Abraham Lincoln, the nation’s 16th president, putting his head in his hand.
Another Twitter user commented: ‘Each clip is worse than the previous one. I can’t take it anymore.’
One Twitter user urged the president to follow his passion for science and pursue a new career, writing: ‘It's not too late Donnie. Resign right now and apply to MIT!



One Twitter user urged the president to follow his passion for science and pursue a new career, writing: ‘It's not too late Donnie. Resign right now and apply to MIT! Maybe you will get the Nobel Prize!!!!!!’


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Another Twitter user wrote: ‘I am so tired of having a lying, malignant narcissist for a President. But even more than that, I’m SICK of people pandering to him and acting like his behavior is normal’



Another Twitter user urged the mainstream media to ‘stop acting like this is normal!’ ‘He’s a sick man and it’s time to stop normalizing him!’



Another Twitter user commented: ‘Each clip is worse than the previous one. I can’t take it anymore.’


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Another Twitter user posted a meme showing Abraham Lincoln, the nation’s 16th president, putting his head in his hand



One Twitter user wrote: ‘The guy who looked into the sun during a solar eclipse thinks he could have been a research scientist?’
‘Maybe you will get the Nobel Prize!!!!!!’
Another Twitter user urged the mainstream media to ‘stop acting like this is normal!’
‘He’s a sick man and it’s time to stop normalizing him!’
Another Twitter user wrote: ‘I am so tired of having a lying, malignant narcissist for a President.
‘But even more than that, I’m SICK of people pandering to him and acting like his behavior is normal.’
The comments about his uncle were one of several made by the president that had people scratching their heads.
Trump also called Jay Inslee, the governor of Washington State, a ‘snake’.
He also said he'd prefer that people exposed to the virus on a cruise ship that is currently in the waters off San Francisco be left aboard so they wouldn't be added to the count for the nation's total number of infections.
Trump, wearing his ‘Keep America Great’ campaign hat while discussing the global worry, tried once more to quell growing alarm about the spread of the virus in America.
But he quickly ventured into side matters and political squabbles.


This isn’t the first time that Trump has used his uncle’s name to brag about his knowledge of scientific matters.
In October 2018, the president gave an interview to reporters in the Oval Office during which he boasted of a ‘natural instinct for science.’
Trump was asked at the time about his views on climate change.
Specifically, he was referred to a report issued by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which stated that the world has 12 years to keep global warming to a maximum of 1.5 degree Celsius.


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That was a reference to the president looking up at the total eclipse of the sun - the first time in more than 40 years that Americans could see one - in August 2017
Failure to do so puts the globe at greater peril, significantly increasing the risk of devastating floods, droughts, and fires that will affect hundreds of millions of people, the report’s authors say.
The report was written jointly by a group of 91 scientists from 40 countries who based their analyses on more than 6,000 scientific studies.
But Trump, who has said he thought climate change was ‘a hoax,’ refused to budge.
‘You have scientists on both sides of [climate change],’ Trump told the AP.
‘My uncle was a great professor at MIT for many years: Dr. John Trump. And I didn’t talk to him about this particular subject, but I have a natural instinct for science, and I will say that you have scientists on both sides of the picture.’
Trump also said he was 'truly an environmentalist' and that he agreed the climate was changing, but that it also 'goes back and forth, back and forth.'    
R

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1236215051859693568

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8085081/Trump-names-Mark-Meadows-new-White-House-Chief-Staff-replace-Mick-Mulvaney.html

[size=34]Trump sacks White House Chief of Staff to replace Mick Mulvaney and replaces him with Mark Meadows - the FOURTH person he has now given the job to[/size]

• Meadows takes the job after saying he won't seek re-election in 2020 
  
  
• A Trump ally, Meadows is a Republican Congressman from North Carolina 
  
  
• He takes over for Mulvaney, who was named acting chief of staff in late 2018 
  
  

By ARIEL ZILBER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM and ASSOCIATED PRESS
PUBLISHED: 20:22 EST, 6 March 2020 | UPDATED: 07:03 EST, 7 March 2020


Congressman Mark Meadows will replace Mick Mulvaney as the new White House chief of staff, President Trump announced on Friday.
‘I am pleased to announce that Congressman Mark Meadows will become White House Chief of Staff,’ the president tweeted on Friday.
‘I have long known and worked with Mark, and the relationship is a very good one.
The president continued: ‘I want to thank Acting Chief Mick Mulvaney for having served the Administration so well.


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Congressman Mark Meadows (left) will replace Mick Mulvaney (right) as the new White House chief of staff, President Trump announced on Friday



‘I am pleased to announce that Congressman Mark Meadows will become White House Chief of Staff,’ the president tweeted on Friday. ‘I have long known and worked with Mark, and the relationship is a very good one...'



The president continued: ‘I want to thank Acting Chief Mick Mulvaney for having served the Administration so well. He will become the United States Special Envoy for Northern Ireland.’
‘He will become the United States Special Envoy for Northern Ireland.’
Neither Meadows or Mulvaney were with the president on Air Force One during his trip to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. 


Meadows will be the fourth to serve as Trump's chief of staff. 
Mulvaney held the role as acting chief of staff following the resignation in December 2018 of John Kelly. 
He lasted a little over a year in the position and was never able to shake free from the 'acting' label.
The long-rumored move makes Meadows, who announced he was not seeking reelection for his House seat from North Carolina, effectively Trump´s fourth chief of staff since taking office in 2017.
The decision comes as the Trump administration has faced criticism for its handling of the novel coronavirus outbreak. 
Mulvaney had been leading the interagency response to the virus until Trump designated Vice President Mike Pence to lead the whole-of-government effort more than a week ago. 
Mulvaney has been marginalized inside the White House for months, taking on a more and more narrow role. 
And Trump has been eyeing the change for months, but wanted to wait until after impeachment, according to a person familiar with his thinking who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss it publicly. 
Mulvaney's allies, however, had long brushed off rumblings off his imminent departure and had said as recently as last month that he planned to stay at least through the election in November.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V46PbiMsJso