Vice President Mike Pence says he’d like to see former national security adviser Michael Flynn reinstated in President Donald Trump’s administration after the Justice Department made the jaw-dropping decision to drop Flynn’s criminal case last week.
Continue reading “Pence: I’d ‘Be Happy’ To Have Flynn Return To Trump Administration”
We’ve discussed numerous times this question of, how deadly is COVID19? Or to put it more technically, what is the infection fatality rate (IFR) for the disease? What percentage of people who get infected die from it?
There are a host of technical factors and data we don’t yet have that go into answering this question. But I want to share with you something I just happened upon. If you look at the current New York State serology study and use an apples to apples comparison of the COVID19 death toll in New York City and New York state, it generates an IFR that is basically identical. For the state it’s .88% and for the city it’s .87%.
There’s a flurry of reporting about how South Korea’s early success breaking the COVID19 epidemic in the country has now ‘dimmed’, as the The Wall Street Journal puts it, with a new potential outbreak. This stems from a new case in which one 29 year old man hit five different bars last weekend in one part of Seoul and exposed as many as 2,000 people. More than fifty new cases have now been identified tied to this one man.
But there’s a more optimistic way of looking at this new rash of cases.
LONDON (AP) — The British government has replaced its “stay at home” coronavirus slogan with a new “stay alert” message, a move that has met with widespread criticism ahead of a speech Sunday in which Prime Minister Boris Johnson will lay out the stages for lifting the country’s lockdown.
Britain’s lockdown, which began March 23, has clearly reduced the transmission of the virus but the country’s daily death toll remains uncomfortably high, and as a result most restrictions are expected to remain.
Continue reading “‘Stay At Home’ Shifts To ‘Stay Alert’ As UK’s Lockdown Eases Slightly”
WASHINGTON (AP) — Three members of the White House coronavirus task force, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, placed themselves in quarantine after contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19, another stark reminder that not even one of the nation’s most secure buildings is immune from the virus.
Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a leading member of the task force, has become nationally known for his simple and direct explanations to the public about the coronavirus and COVID-19, the disease it causes. Also quarantining are Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, Stephen Hahn.
Continue reading “Fauci And Other Top Health Officials Will Quarantine After COVID Exposure”
Former President Barack Obama gave a stark warning on Friday about the national crisis that could arise after President Donald Trump’s Justice Department made the shocking decision to drop its case against former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn this week.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) issued an executive order on Friday allowing all voters in the state to vote by mail in the upcoming November elections to protect them from exposure to COVID-19 at polling sites.
Now a furious President Donald Trump is demanding that the votes in the deeply Democratic state be thrown out.
Dr. Rick Bright, a top public health official at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) who was removed this week after rejecting President Donald Trump’s unproven COVID-19 drug, spoke out against the Trump administration’s dismissiveness toward science amid the pandemic on Friday.
A personal assistant to Ivanka Trump, who is President Donald Trump’s daughter and a top White House adviser, has reportedly tested positive for COVID-19.
Continue reading “Report: Ivanka Trump’s Personal Assistant Tests Positive For COVID-19”
The news moves so fast these days, it’s nearly impossible to keep up with every headline. Here are some key TPM stories from this week to help you catch up.
DOJ Drops Case Against Flynn
A stunning conclusion to a strange saga. The Department of Justice on Thursday dropped its criminal case against former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Trump cheered the news, and Attorney General Bill Barr said it was an “easy” call to make. The final call on the case is ultimately up to the judge.
Coronavirus Flashpoints Across The Country
Here’s a sampling of some of the local coronavirus stories bubbling up this week:
Grim Figures
As the coronavirus outbreak in New York City and other major metropolitan areas starts to ebb, less populous areas are beginning to see a spike in cases. A CDC document projects that more than 3,000 Americans will die of COVID-19 every day by June 1. President Trump has ditched his earlier death toll projections, and now acknowledges that as many as 100,000 people could die from the virus. And the CDC released a tool earlier this week that calculates excess deaths in the U.S. amid the pandemic.
