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babylonsister
babylonsister's Journal
babylonsister's Journal
March 24, 2020
This is how South Korea flattened its coronavirus curve
South Korea's Covid-19 infection rates have been falling for two weeks thanks to a rigorous testing regime and clear public information.
March 24, 2020, 10:22 AM EDT / Updated March 24, 2020, 11:31 AM EDT
By Grace Moon
SEOUL, South Korea — It took Thomas Streetman two hours to walk out his front door, take a cab to the public health center, get tested for the coronavirus and make it back to his apartment.
The 32-year-old Ohio native — who had a slight fever — was greeted with blue tents scattered across a surprisingly barren street. Medical staff clad head-to-toe in hazmat suits conducted screenings as another fogged the sidewalk with disinfectant spray.
snip//
Here’s what we can learn from South Korea.
Early testing, detection, prevention
News that China had reported its first case of the coronavirus was enough reason for South Korean leaders and medical staff to brace themselves for the worst.
“Acting fast was the most important decision South Korea made,” said Hwang Seung-Sik, a professor at Seoul National University’s Graduate School of Public Health.
more...
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/how-south-korea-flattened-its-coronavirus-curve-n1167376
This is how South Korea flattened its coronavirus curve
This is how South Korea flattened its coronavirus curve
South Korea's Covid-19 infection rates have been falling for two weeks thanks to a rigorous testing regime and clear public information.
March 24, 2020, 10:22 AM EDT / Updated March 24, 2020, 11:31 AM EDT
By Grace Moon
SEOUL, South Korea — It took Thomas Streetman two hours to walk out his front door, take a cab to the public health center, get tested for the coronavirus and make it back to his apartment.
The 32-year-old Ohio native — who had a slight fever — was greeted with blue tents scattered across a surprisingly barren street. Medical staff clad head-to-toe in hazmat suits conducted screenings as another fogged the sidewalk with disinfectant spray.
“It was almost militaristic,” said Streetman, who has lived in the South Korean capital for almost a decade. “They stuck a long swab up my nose pretty deep. It felt like a button poked my nerves and released my sinuses.”
snip//
Here’s what we can learn from South Korea.
Early testing, detection, prevention
News that China had reported its first case of the coronavirus was enough reason for South Korean leaders and medical staff to brace themselves for the worst.
“Acting fast was the most important decision South Korea made,” said Hwang Seung-Sik, a professor at Seoul National University’s Graduate School of Public Health.
more...
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/how-south-korea-flattened-its-coronavirus-curve-n1167376
March 24, 2020
Playwright Terrence McNally Dies Of Complications Due To Coronavirus
By Greg Evans
March 24, 2020 11:38am
Acclaimed playwright Terrence McNally has died of complications due to coronavirus. McNally, the author of Master Class, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune and Love! Valour! Compassion!, among many other major works, was a lung cancer survivor with chronic pulmonary disease, and died today at Sarasota Memorial Hospital in Sarasota, Florida, at the age of 81.
McNally’s death was confirmed by his spokesperson Matt Polk. The Tony Award-winning playwright was 81, and is survived by his husband Tom Kirdahy.
A four-time Tony Award winner and recipient of the 2019 Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, McNally wrote landmark and popular plays and musicals including Master Class, Ragtime, The Ritz, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, The Full Monty, Love! Valour! Compassion!, Kiss of the Spider Woman, The Rink and And Things That Go Bump in the Night. His more recent productions include Anastasia and Mothers and Sons.
more...
https://deadline.com/2020/03/terrence-mcnally-dead-coronavirus-1202891286/?fbclid=IwAR1GxRgJi5zB2153Si2U0TbGQvhBhXmZrwuu7gC5CPQuxHdFDs9bchCJdW4
Playwright Terrence McNally Dies Of Complications Due To Coronavirus
Playwright Terrence McNally Dies Of Complications Due To Coronavirus
By Greg Evans
March 24, 2020 11:38am
Acclaimed playwright Terrence McNally has died of complications due to coronavirus. McNally, the author of Master Class, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune and Love! Valour! Compassion!, among many other major works, was a lung cancer survivor with chronic pulmonary disease, and died today at Sarasota Memorial Hospital in Sarasota, Florida, at the age of 81.
McNally’s death was confirmed by his spokesperson Matt Polk. The Tony Award-winning playwright was 81, and is survived by his husband Tom Kirdahy.
A four-time Tony Award winner and recipient of the 2019 Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, McNally wrote landmark and popular plays and musicals including Master Class, Ragtime, The Ritz, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, The Full Monty, Love! Valour! Compassion!, Kiss of the Spider Woman, The Rink and And Things That Go Bump in the Night. His more recent productions include Anastasia and Mothers and Sons.
more...
https://deadline.com/2020/03/terrence-mcnally-dead-coronavirus-1202891286/?fbclid=IwAR1GxRgJi5zB2153Si2U0TbGQvhBhXmZrwuu7gC5CPQuxHdFDs9bchCJdW4
March 24, 2020
Coronavirus Rhapsody
Well done! 
March 24, 2020
'This is not a playing matter': Perdue plant employees walk out over COVID-19 concerns
Close to 50 employees who walked out Monday morning say some workers on the production line were in contact with people who tested positive for COVID-19
Author: Sarah Hammond
Published: 10:45 PM EDT March 23, 2020
Updated: 9:22 AM EDT March 24, 2020
KATHLEEN, Ga. — The Perdue plant in Kathleen was a little emptier Monday after about 50 employees walked out.
They said they don't feel safe working around people who have potentially been exposed to coronavirus and want the plant to do more to protect their employees.
She said people still working on the production line said they have been exposed to coronavirus.
Granville said her supervisors are telling them they are sanitizing the building every night, but when she comes in every morning, there is food on the floor from the night before and the bathrooms are still dirty.
more...
https://www.13wmaz.com/article/news/local/perdue-employees-walk-out-as-coronavirus-concerns-grow/93-7c7bdcbb-f3ec-439b-b541-9070e758b5cb?fbclid=IwAR2bR1pzP-pZuM_d2MIwmvpxKfHsmDfwzc6jd2QUcTsp8f_34pMSkJlXO-I
'This is not a playing matter': Perdue plant employees walk out over COVID-19 concerns
'This is not a playing matter': Perdue plant employees walk out over COVID-19 concerns
Close to 50 employees who walked out Monday morning say some workers on the production line were in contact with people who tested positive for COVID-19
Author: Sarah Hammond
Published: 10:45 PM EDT March 23, 2020
Updated: 9:22 AM EDT March 24, 2020
KATHLEEN, Ga. — The Perdue plant in Kathleen was a little emptier Monday after about 50 employees walked out.
They said they don't feel safe working around people who have potentially been exposed to coronavirus and want the plant to do more to protect their employees.
"We're not getting nothing -- no type of compensation, no nothing, not even no cleanliness, no extra pay -- no nothing. We're up here risking our life for chicken," said employee Kendaliyn Granville.
She said people still working on the production line said they have been exposed to coronavirus.
Granville said her supervisors are telling them they are sanitizing the building every night, but when she comes in every morning, there is food on the floor from the night before and the bathrooms are still dirty.
"All we're asking now is just to sanitize the building. Sanitize the building. Everybody that's been exposed to it, they need to go home. These folks are still on the floor."
more...
https://www.13wmaz.com/article/news/local/perdue-employees-walk-out-as-coronavirus-concerns-grow/93-7c7bdcbb-f3ec-439b-b541-9070e758b5cb?fbclid=IwAR2bR1pzP-pZuM_d2MIwmvpxKfHsmDfwzc6jd2QUcTsp8f_34pMSkJlXO-I
March 24, 2020
Posted on Tue, Mar 24th, 2020 by Alan Ryland
Even Wall Street Is Asking Trump Not to Restart the Economy Amid Coronavirus Pandemic
President Donald Trump has courted significant controversy since announcing he will look into loosening federal guidelines for social distancing and urge businesses to reopen even as the nation grapples with the coronavirus pandemic.
Health experts have advised against it, saying that relaxing social distancing could increase the death toll from the virus, which has claimed at least 582 lives in the United States.
But even big business appears to side with the experts, and several prominent investors and financiers warn that the economy could take even harsher blows should Trump go ahead with his plan.
Adam Sarhan, CEO of investment firm 50 Park Investments, concurred.
Last week, Bill Ackman, the CEO of Pershing Square Capital, made headlines after he demanded the president order a 30-day nationwide shutdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Ackman warned that postponing a shutdown would cost possibly “millions of lives” while decimating the economy.
more...
https://www.politicususa.com/2020/03/24/even-wall-street-is-asking-trump-not-to-restart-the-economy-amid-coronavirus-pandemic.html
Even Wall Street Is Asking Trump Not to Restart the Economy Amid Coronavirus Pandemic
Posted on Tue, Mar 24th, 2020 by Alan Ryland
Even Wall Street Is Asking Trump Not to Restart the Economy Amid Coronavirus Pandemic
President Donald Trump has courted significant controversy since announcing he will look into loosening federal guidelines for social distancing and urge businesses to reopen even as the nation grapples with the coronavirus pandemic.
“Our country wasn’t built to be shut down,” Trump said during a briefing at the White House. “America will, again, and soon, be open for business. Very soon. A lot sooner than three or four months that somebody was suggesting. Lot sooner. We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself.”
Health experts have advised against it, saying that relaxing social distancing could increase the death toll from the virus, which has claimed at least 582 lives in the United States.
But even big business appears to side with the experts, and several prominent investors and financiers warn that the economy could take even harsher blows should Trump go ahead with his plan.
“You may get a [market] bounce on the headline,” Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist at Prudential Financial Inc., told The Washington Post‘s Tory Newmyer. “Or the market could down even more if the community of investors and traders believe this is the opposite of what is needed. Above all else it will be the empirical data that suggests the virus is receding.”
Adam Sarhan, CEO of investment firm 50 Park Investments, concurred.
“What the world, and the market, needs to see is that number stop going up,” he said. “Think of it as a trade: What’s the risk of reopening early?” Sarhan said. “The risk is the number of cases continues to skyrocket, and longer term, you’re just digging a much deeper hole.”
Last week, Bill Ackman, the CEO of Pershing Square Capital, made headlines after he demanded the president order a 30-day nationwide shutdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Ackman warned that postponing a shutdown would cost possibly “millions of lives” while decimating the economy.
more...
https://www.politicususa.com/2020/03/24/even-wall-street-is-asking-trump-not-to-restart-the-economy-amid-coronavirus-pandemic.html
March 24, 2020
Manu Dibango: African saxophone legend dies of Covid-19
Manu Dibango: African saxophone legend dies of Covid-19
The African saxophone legend Manu Dibango has died in Paris after catching coronavirus.
Dibango - best known for his 1972 hit Soul Makossa - is one of the first global stars to die from Covid-19.
The 86-year-old fused jazz and funk music with traditional sounds from his home country, Cameroon.
He collaborated with numerous artists over a long career, including US pianist Herbie Hancock and Nigeria's Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti.
more...
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-52017834?fbclid=IwAR1_lEEFvQBZRAhpOorxkTXpj5qSnSne0FdGx-2w7_NI_wsFFn_jSO4ciGw#
March 24, 2020
Guests at Trump National Golf Club disco party get coronavirus
By Matthew Ormseth, Los Angeles Times
2 hrs ago
LOS ANGELES — On a Sunday evening two weeks and an eternity ago, Susan Brooks rang in her seventh decade, disco style, in the upstairs ballroom at the Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes.
There were local politicos, hors d’oeuvres, dancing and a lingering, if not overriding, worry of the novel coronavirus, which on March 8 had yet to paralyze daily life in Southern California.
There was also, it turns out, the virus itself. Brooks learned a week later a party-goer had tested positive for COVID-19, the infection caused by the coronavirus. She soon tested positive herself, along with three other guests.
The party, which was first reported by the South Bay-based Easy Reader News, has sparked a minor firestorm in Rancho Palos Verdes, where Brooks is a fixture in local politics and was once the city’s mayor.
It underscores that in a pandemic, certain motions of daily life no more extraordinary and no less cherished than a birthday party can turn perilous, seeding a crowd with a sickness that blooms as the party breaks up, carrying it home, to work — everywhere.
more...
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/guests-at-trump-national-golf-club-disco-party-get-coronavirus/ar-BB11DlYq?ocid=sf2
Guests at Trump National Golf Club disco party get coronavirus
Guests at Trump National Golf Club disco party get coronavirus
By Matthew Ormseth, Los Angeles Times
2 hrs ago
LOS ANGELES — On a Sunday evening two weeks and an eternity ago, Susan Brooks rang in her seventh decade, disco style, in the upstairs ballroom at the Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes.
There were local politicos, hors d’oeuvres, dancing and a lingering, if not overriding, worry of the novel coronavirus, which on March 8 had yet to paralyze daily life in Southern California.
There was also, it turns out, the virus itself. Brooks learned a week later a party-goer had tested positive for COVID-19, the infection caused by the coronavirus. She soon tested positive herself, along with three other guests.
The party, which was first reported by the South Bay-based Easy Reader News, has sparked a minor firestorm in Rancho Palos Verdes, where Brooks is a fixture in local politics and was once the city’s mayor.
It underscores that in a pandemic, certain motions of daily life no more extraordinary and no less cherished than a birthday party can turn perilous, seeding a crowd with a sickness that blooms as the party breaks up, carrying it home, to work — everywhere.
more...
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/guests-at-trump-national-golf-club-disco-party-get-coronavirus/ar-BB11DlYq?ocid=sf2
March 24, 2020
The Trump administration plans to use the Defense Production Act for the first time during this coronavirus pandemic on Tuesday to procure thousands of COVID-19 test kits as the disease continues its spread across the country.
Peter Gaynor, the Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator, told CNN that the administration had decided to use the Defense Production Act to acquire some 60,000 kits. The FEMA chief added that the White House will add “DPA language” into its mass contract for 500 million masks.
more...
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/24/white-house-to-use-defense-production-act-to-procure-test-kits-fema-chief-says.html
White House to use Defense Production Act to procure test kits, FEMA chief says
About goddamned time.
White House to use Defense Production Act to procure test kits, FEMA chief says
Published Tue, Mar 24 202010:58 AM EDTUpdated 20 min ago
Thomas Franck
FEMA chief Peter Gaynor says the Trump administration is using the Defense Production Act for the first time to acquire some 60,000 test kits.
He added that the White House will add “DPA language” into its mass contract for 500 million masks.
The DPA empowers the White House to require and provide incentives to businesses to produce goods to support U.S. national defense.
“So we’re going to use it. We’re going to use it when we need it. And we’re going to use it today,” Gaynor said.
He added that the White House will add “DPA language” into its mass contract for 500 million masks.
The DPA empowers the White House to require and provide incentives to businesses to produce goods to support U.S. national defense.
“So we’re going to use it. We’re going to use it when we need it. And we’re going to use it today,” Gaynor said.
The Trump administration plans to use the Defense Production Act for the first time during this coronavirus pandemic on Tuesday to procure thousands of COVID-19 test kits as the disease continues its spread across the country.
Peter Gaynor, the Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator, told CNN that the administration had decided to use the Defense Production Act to acquire some 60,000 kits. The FEMA chief added that the White House will add “DPA language” into its mass contract for 500 million masks.
“We’re actually going to use the DPA for the first time today. There are some test kits we need to get our hands on,” he told CNN. “And the second thing we’re going to do is we’re going to insert some language into these mass contracts that we have.”
“So we’re going to use it. We’re going to use it when we need it. And we’re going to use it today,” Gaynor said.
“So we’re going to use it. We’re going to use it when we need it. And we’re going to use it today,” Gaynor said.
more...
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/24/white-house-to-use-defense-production-act-to-procure-test-kits-fema-chief-says.html
March 24, 2020
As Postal Workers Fall Sick, Colleagues Keep Working. And Worrying.
As Postal Workers Fall Sick, Colleagues Keep Working. And Worrying.
The coronavirus has affected about two dozen Postal Service workers around the country, and fear of a greater outbreak grows.
By Sam Dolnick
Published March 23, 2020
Updated March 24, 2020, 8:37 a.m. ET
snip//
Neither sleet, nor snow — nor the coronavirus. With tens of millions of people across huge swaths of the country on state-ordered lockdown, the mail has remained one of the few physical tethers to the wider world. Medicine, packages bought online, at-home coronavirus tests, even mail-in presidential ballots — all require a reliable federal mail system.
But mail delivery requires a healthy work force, and postal workers have been falling sick across the country — Miami, Manhattan, Seattle, Portland and more have reported sick workers, according to Paul Hogrogian, national president of the National Postal Mail Handlers Union.
On Thursday, 13 postal workers had tested positive; by Friday, that number was 20, including the one from the Bethlehem facility where Mr. Jackson works, according to Mr. Hogrogian. On Sunday, postal officials in Washington said the number was “fewer than 30.”
With a work force of 630,000, those numbers are still relatively small, but they are expected to keep rising in the coming days and weeks. Mr. Jackson and other rank-and-file workers worry that the Postal Service is not doing enough to protect them, and that they could become unwitting carriers of the virus.
more...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/23/us/coronavirus-post-office-workers.html
March 24, 2020
White House hits CNN, MSNBC for cutting away from coronavirus briefing
By Justine Coleman - 03/23/20 08:42 PM EDT
The White House hit CNN and MSNBC for cutting away from Monday evening's coronavirus briefing from President Trump and his administration.
White House spokesman Judd Deere called it “pretty disgraceful” that the networks, which have been regularly criticized by the president, did not show the entire White House briefing on the pandemic sweeping the country.
Fox News also cut away from the Monday briefing but only just before it ended.
A CNN spokesperson responded to Deere’s tweet in a statement: “If the White House wants to ask for time on the network, they should make an official request. Otherwise we will make our own editorial decisions.”
An MSNBC network spokesperson said the network aired the briefing for more than an hour before cutting away "because the information no longer appeared to be valuable to the important ongoing discussion around public health."
Several people have criticized the administration’s daily coronavirus briefings for allegedly spreading misinformation and urged news networks not to show them live.
more...
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/489150-white-house-hits-cnn-msnbc-for-cutting-away-from-coronavirus-briefing
White House hits CNN, MSNBC for cutting away from coronavirus briefing
White House hits CNN, MSNBC for cutting away from coronavirus briefing
By Justine Coleman - 03/23/20 08:42 PM EDT
The White House hit CNN and MSNBC for cutting away from Monday evening's coronavirus briefing from President Trump and his administration.
White House spokesman Judd Deere called it “pretty disgraceful” that the networks, which have been regularly criticized by the president, did not show the entire White House briefing on the pandemic sweeping the country.
Fox News also cut away from the Monday briefing but only just before it ended.
A CNN spokesperson responded to Deere’s tweet in a statement: “If the White House wants to ask for time on the network, they should make an official request. Otherwise we will make our own editorial decisions.”
An MSNBC network spokesperson said the network aired the briefing for more than an hour before cutting away "because the information no longer appeared to be valuable to the important ongoing discussion around public health."
Several people have criticized the administration’s daily coronavirus briefings for allegedly spreading misinformation and urged news networks not to show them live.
more...
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/489150-white-house-hits-cnn-msnbc-for-cutting-away-from-coronavirus-briefing
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Member since: Mon Sep 6, 2004, 09:54 PM
Number of posts: 171,090
