Hydroxychloroquine and President Trump’s obsession with it has been something of a running joke during the COVID19 Crisis, to the extent jokes are possible in such a dismal climate. But I want to flag your attention to this new study published in The Lancet, which has dire findings about the impact of hydroxychloroquine and the hydroxychloroquine in combination with the class of antibiotics the President has repeatedly endorsed. Here’s the study and here’s a write-up of the study in The Washington Post. Let me start with an arresting quote: “for those receiving hydroxychloroquine and an antibiotic — the cocktail endorsed by Trump — there was a 45 percent increased risk of death … ”
That is, to state the obvious, a very bad number.
Continue reading “Hydroxychloroquine Isn’t a Joke It’s a Scandal” →
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel asserted on Friday that President Donald Trump’s persistent attacks against her and other female leaders of Michigan at least partially stem from misogyny.
Continue reading “Michigan AG Accuses Trump Of Having A ‘Real Issue’ With Women Leading State” →
Jeff Sessions, the besieged former attorney general to President Donald Trump and now-Alabama senate primary candidate, has reached his breaking point.
Continue reading “Sessions Finally Fires Back At Trump: ‘You’re Damn Fortunate’ I Did My Job” →
The battle lines are beginning to take shape in the extraordinary fight over what should come next in Michael Flynn’s case.
Continue reading “An Early Glimpse Of The Legal Battle Over DOJ Suddenly Going Soft On Mike Flynn” →
We’re getting a mix of information about the state of the COVID epidemic in the United States – much of it contradictory. I wanted to take a few moments to pick apart these seemingly contradictory realities which are happening at the same time.
The first fact is that the initial experiments with easing the strictures on social and economic life have not generated the spikes in new cases that some predicted. Georgia is the clearest case of this. Neighboring Florida is another. We don’t know yet why this is the case. Perhaps we need to wait longer to see the impact. Perhaps continuing mitigation efforts are more effective than anticipated. Perhaps there are cultural, social, epidemiological or even climatic factors that make these states less susceptible to the kinds of outbreaks we saw in New York and other urban centers in the North. But we’ve seen enough data to say with some confidence that the worst predictions are not coming to pass, or at least not quickly.
But there’s another reality that is worth considering. COVID cases across the United States remain notably stable. We may be past the apex but the top looks something like a plateau.
Continue reading “Are We On a Permanent COVID Plateau?” →
WASHINGTON (AP) — FBI Director Christopher Wray has ordered an internal review into possible misconduct in the investigation of former Trump administration national security adviser Michael Flynn, the bureau said Friday.
The review will examine whether any employees engaged in misconduct during the course of the investigation and evaluate whether any improvements in FBI policies and procedures need to be made.
Continue reading “FBI Director Orders Internal Review Of Michael Flynn Investigation” →
This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis.
While no one knows whether COVID-19 will still be as acute a problem in November as it is today, elections administrators need to plan for the worst now. That means offering not only vote-by-mail options, but also some safe in-person voting options so that the general election is as resilient as possible. To help states implement this, Congress needs to fund elections at a $4 billion level.
Continue reading “Elections During A Crisis: Vote-By-Mail Is One Of Several Solutions” →
After an hourlong delay to this press briefing, President Donald Trump spent a minute or so Friday declaring churches and other houses of worship “essential places” and threatened to “override” governors if they don’t let those sites reopen (he does not have the power to do so). Trump did not deliver any public health message that would help Americans navigate life amid the coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed more than 90,000 lives in the U.S.
He ran off immediately afterward without taking any questions, which almost certainly would have forced him to respond to a major study that found hydroxychloroquine, his miracle anti-COVID drug, actually led to more deaths among COVID-19 patients.
