You have to find good news where you can at the moment.
There is at least good evidence that testing is starting to pick up. Terribly, terribly below where it needs to be, but here are some numbers. According to imperfect but best available statistics, by March 10th 4,889 people had been tested. By yesterday it was 7,617. As of this morning it’s 8,900. It seems likely to go well over 10,000 today.
After defending his decision to continue holding his beloved re-election campaign rallies earlier this month, President Trump has now begun canceling events and rallies that were previously scheduled for later this month in light of the coronavirus outbreak. Continue reading “Trump Cancels Events ‘Out Of Abundance Of Caution’”
President Donald Trump’s address from the Oval Office on coronavirus Wednesday night didn’t just send markets plunging (again) — it also required some immediate clean-up from the President and others because of numerous significant errors.
Continue reading “The Bizarre List Of Errors In Trump’s Coronavirus Speech”
Top European Union officials were apparently blindsided by President Donald Trump’s ban on incoming travel from Europe in a dubious attempt to stymie the COVID-19 outbreak, learning about it only through the President’s televised address on Wednesday night.
Vice President Mike Pence, who is leading the government’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak, asserted on Thursday morning that President Donald Trump’s announcement of a month-long Europe travel ban was not confusing.
A staffer for Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) has come down with COVID-19, Cantwell’s office announced late Wednesday night, marking the first case of the coronavirus on Capitol Hill.
Continue reading “Senate Staffer Tests Positive For Coronavirus, First Case On Capitol Hill”
This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis.
Where I grew up in Richmond, Virginia, I had to read a lot of Edgar Allan Poe’s gothic poetry and short stories. Richmond claims Poe proudly as one of its native sons. I was told as an article of faith that Poe died in Baltimore on October 7, 1849 (true) and that he was committing voter fraud (maybe not so true). Examining this myth about Poe gives some insight into how the tall tale of voting fraud tends to spread.
Continue reading “What Edgar Allan Poe’s Death And Voter Fraud Myths Have In Common”
We are all coming up to speed with phrases like social distancing, containment and mitigation, disease curves and more. From everything I have heard – and I’ve been listening very closely – a blanket ban on travel to and from Europe is largely irrelevant to the current situation. There is probably a logic to barring travel to and from northern Italy. Screenings at airports make sense. But the virus is here, apparently seeded at multiple locations in the United States and on a growth curve that looks very similar to those of countries that were two or three weeks ahead of us. If I heard him correctly that was the only substantial new policy the President announced other than still quite vague stimulus efforts, which focused on ‘liquidity’, even though liquidity isn’t the core of the economic dimension of the crisis.
The NBA announced Wednesday that it was suspending the remainder of its season after a player on the Utah Jazz tested positive for COVID-19.
Continue reading “NBA Suspends Season After Player Tests Positive For COVID-19”
The Department of Homeland Security offered a few paragraphs of detail Wednesday night after President Donald Trump announced the suspension of travel from Europe into America for 30 days, excluding travel from Britain.
Continue reading “Trump’s New COVID-19 Travel Ban Applies To 26 European Countries”
