OT Coronavirus: America in chaos, News and Updates. One million Americans dead and counting

Is there a doctor in the house? Mike Pence unveils the White House's coronavirus taskforce amid growing crisis and Wall Street plunge - with just FOUR medical experts out of 15 chiefs (and one of them isn't even there)

• Pence convenes first meeting of official White House coronavirus taskforce Wednesday afternoon- after appearing at the conservative CPAC conference for a lengthy speech
• Just four out of the 15 people on it are doctors, one of whom was named this morning and was not apparently at the meeting
• Those on the taskforce include Larry Kudlow, the Trump economic adviser who earlier in the week said the U.S. was 'airtight' from the virus
• Also on it is Ken Cuccinelli, the acting deputy Homeland Security secretary who had tweeted a complaint that he could not find a map of coronavirus' spread
• As they met Wall Street saw the worst stock market sell-off since 2008 with the Dow losing almost 1,200 points and officially entering a 'correction'
• Goldman Sachs warned U.S. companies could show no earnings growth this year because of the virus
• In California, the state said it is monitoring 8,400 people for potential coronavirus infection and worldwide the death toll continued to mount
• Pence has gagged all health officials from speaking in public about the threat of the virus without his prior approval, and instead he gave a pre-recorded interview to Fox News' Sean Hannity
• And there was confusion over who is actually in charge of the taskforce with Pence saying 'I'm leading the task force,' but Azar would still hold the title of chairman - when Trump said Wednesday Azar was in charge

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...coronavirus-taskforce-just-THREE-doctors.html

 

This is what needs to happen:

1. All testing for the virus needs to be free.

This is imperative to get a proper understanding of and if the virus spreading and possible containment. Too many people, including those with insurance, will put off going to the doctor for fear of a large bill. ​

2. Up to 30 days paid sick leave for everyone in medically ordered isolation or being treated for the virus.
3. Employees can not be fired for calling in sick because of the virus with a valid doctor's note.
4. Businesses, organizations, etc with employees who have been verified to have the virus must disclose this to other employees and customers.

​

 

U.S. workers without protective gear assisted coronavirus evacuees, HHS whistleblower says

Officials at the Department of Health and Human Services sent more than a dozen workers to receive the first Americans evacuated from Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, without proper training for infection control or appropriate protective gear, according to a whistleblower complaint.

The workers did not show symptoms of infection and were not tested for the virus, according to lawyers for the whistleblower, a senior HHS official based in Washington who oversees workers at the Administration for Children and Families, a unit within HHS.

The whistleblower is seeking federal protection, alleging she was unfairly and improperly reassigned after raising concerns about the safety of these workers to HHS officials, including those within the office of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. She was told Feb. 19 that if she does not accept the new position in 15 days, which is March 5, she would be terminated.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/heal...-coronavirus-evacuees-hhs-whistleblower-says/

 

Sounds like everything is totally under control.

barfo

 

Health workers dealing with Americans in coronavirus quarantine 'did not have proper training or protective gear and moved on and off military bases, interacting with public'

• One Federal employee is even said to have stayed in a nearby hotel in California
• They then left on a commercial flight, according to a report seen by The NYT
• Complaint was filed on Wednesday with the Office of the Special Counsel
• It concerns more than a dozen Department of Health and Human Services workers who worked at two two military bases in California
• Whistleblower says they 'began to field panicked calls from my leadership team'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...-did-not-proper-training-protective-gear.html

 

Now a DOG tests positive for coronavirus: Patient’s pet Pomeranian comes down with the disease in Hong Kong

• Owner of the dog, Yvonne Chow Hau Yee contracted the virus in Hong Kong
• Visited a vets where samples were taken from the dog and tested for the virus
• Dog is being kept in quarantine and will be released within 14 days if clear

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...s-pet-Pomeranian-comes-disease-Hong-Kong.html

 

America’s bad paid sick leave policy could make the coronavirus outbreak worse
The coronavirus makes a good case for America finally guaranteeing paid sick leave.

America’s failure to guarantee paid sick leave for its workers could combine with the coronavirus to pose a serious danger to public health in the coming weeks.

The Covid-19 illness, caused by the coronavirus, is here and likely here to stay for a while. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are warning people to be prepared for major disruptions in their daily lives. That could mean staying home for days if they get sick.

But that is easier said than done for millions of American workers. Employees in the service industry especially, like food workers or personal care assistants, are much less likely than their peers in more lucrative fields to have paid time off if they get sick. But they also make less money in general, meaning a lost day of work hurts their families’ budgets more. That gives them a strong motivation to go into work — even if they’re not feeling well.

And because these workers come in close contact with the rest of humanity, they are a potent vector for spreading contagions, particularly those as infectious as coronaviruses. It’s a recipe for making a bad outbreak even worse, all because America hasn’t decided to guarantee paid sick leave for all workers.

Why having no paid sick leave is a public health risk
There is no federal law guaranteeing paid time off for illness, and paid sick leave is comparatively rare for lower-wage workers. Just 63 percent of people working in service occupations have paid sick leave, versus more than 90 percent of people in management positions, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For people working part-time, just 43 percent can get sick leave from their employer.


And for people working those lower-wage jobs, it’s not easy for them to skip work if they’re not getting paid, even if they’re feeling flu-like symptoms that could be either the flu itself or the coronavirus.

All the public health warnings in the world can’t always stand up against the need to bring home a paycheck. Just 27 percent of people whose wages fall in the bottom 10 percent are able to earn paid sick leave from their job, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Any less pay eats into their basic needs: As EPI put it, the lost wages from missing three days of work can equal a month’s worth of groceries or their monthly utility bills.

People have a strong incentive to go to work, even if they’re not feeling well and authorities have urged them to stay home. And once they come in and start going about their jobs, they can spread illnesses unintentionally. Coronavirus is a pretty contagious disease, with a higher R0 (which measures how many other people a sick person is likely to infect) than the seasonal flu.

Paid sick leave could go a long way toward stopping the spread of the virus. As a group of researchers wrote for the CDC in 2012, while assessing the benefits of providing workers with paid time off if they get sick (emphasis mine):

Access to paid sick leave might reduce the pressure to work while sick out of fear of losing income. Fewer people working while sick, and therefore performing at reduced functional capacity, might lead to safer operations and fewer injuries. The potential safety benefit observed in our study extends previous research demonstrating that paid sick leave is associated with shorter worker recovery times and reduced complications from minor health problems. Paid sick leave also enables workers to care for loved ones and can help prevent the spread of contagious diseases.

America is alone among advanced economies in not having a national guarantee of paid sick leave for workers. As the Center for Economic and Policy Research reported in 2009, most developed economies give workers at least five days off to recover from flu-like symptoms. The US used to lag even farther behind, with less than half of service industry workers getting paid sick leave as recently as 2017. But thanks to a slew of recent state laws mandating such leave, the situation has improved.

Paid sick leave is usually treated as a principle of basic economic justice: People shouldn’t become financially insecure because they get sick and have to miss work. But when we have an outbreak like coronavirus, the failure to provide that security is actively making our society more vulnerable to a big outbreak.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/2/27/21155901/coronavirus-in-us-spread-paid-sick-leave