| Fauci tempers Trump's optimism on chloroquine use for coronavirus Posted: 20 Mar 2020 11:10 AM PDT  President Trump and the leading scientific expert on infectious diseases on his coronavirus task force offered starkly different views Friday about whether Americans should feel hopeful that the antimalarial drug chloroquine could be used to stop the spread of COVID-19.
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| Why did coronavirus hit hard in Italy and Spain? Some blame a lack of social distancing — and a lot of social kissing. Posted: 20 Mar 2020 02:00 AM PDT  A seeming lack of urgency marks the coronavirus in Spain, where cases began climbing three weeks ago, and where concepts like social distancing didn't enter the discussion until this week.
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| China says Pompeo 'lying' in new coronavirus clash Posted: 20 Mar 2020 07:54 AM PDT  The United States and China on Friday took their growing clash over the coronavirus pandemic to social media, with Beijing telling Secretary of State Mike Pompeo he was "lying through (his) teeth." In an interview on Fox News, Pompeo said Beijing "wasted valuable days" after identifying the novel coronavirus by letting "hundreds of thousands" leave the epicenter of Wuhan to places including Italy, which has surpassed China as the country with the highest death toll.
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| Taiwan reports 18 new coronavirus cases, all imported Posted: 20 Mar 2020 11:58 PM PDT  Taiwan reported 18 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, all imported from people coming from countries including the United States, Britain, South Africa and Indonesia or those having contact with them, bring the total number of infected to 153. While Taiwan's initial efforts to control the spread of the virus have won praise at home and abroad, it is now facing an upsurge in cases from people bringing the virus with them to the island, as are some other countries in Asia. Taiwan has reported two deaths, while 28 have been released from hospital.
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| Sen. Lindsey Graham Says Government Could Underwrite ‘70 Percent’ of U.S. Payroll if Coronavirus Containment Continues Posted: 20 Mar 2020 12:20 PM PDT  Senator Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) on Friday warned that federal and state governments could be forced to support a large segment of the American workforce if measures designed to contain the Wuhan coronavirus remain in place."I talked with [Treasury Secretary Steve] Mnuchin this morning. Here's the challenge, and we've just got to tell the public the truth: we're going to be floating probably 70 percent of the nation's payroll," Graham told reporters on Capitol Hill. "The federal government in some form, working with the states and the private sector, but mostly the federal government is going to underwrite 70 percent of the payroll in this country if the containment policies continue to be this aggressive."Graham said the economic stimulus currently being hashed out by senators in conjunction with the White House will be much more expensive than originally thought."It's going to be a hell of a lot more than $1 trillion," Graham said. Other Republican and Democratic senators have privately agreed that the stimulus will exceed the $1 trillion mark, CNN reported on Friday. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) said the body would be ready to vote on the stimulus by Monday."We expect to have an agreement by the end of today," McConnell told CNN. "The game plan remains the same. We will be voting on a final package in the Senate on Monday."The Wuhan coronavirus pandemic has caused large swaths of the U.S. to implement closures of schools, theaters and other public venues, with New York and California ordering nonessential workers to stay at home and residents to remain home as much as possible. Jobless claims have surged by 281,000 since March 8, the highest rise since September 2017.
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| An infectious disease expert explains why herd immunity probably won't work in the fight against coronavirus Posted: 20 Mar 2020 02:59 PM PDT  The only safe way we'll achieve herd immunity against the coronavirus is with the help of a vaccine, which will be available in at least 18 months.
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| Coronavirus: Has America ever been this humbled? Posted: 20 Mar 2020 11:41 AM PDT  The outbreak has exposed US weaknesses and shaken its bravado - but its entrepreneurial spirit gives hope.
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| Dallas megachurch pastor Jeffress capitulates to coronavirus warnings, moves services online Posted: 20 Mar 2020 02:11 PM PDT  The pews will be empty this Sunday at First Baptist Dallas, the megachurch whose pastor, Robert Jeffress, is one of President Trump's most ardent supporters and a frequent guest on Fox News.
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| Fact check: Were elderly Italians left to die? And is socialized health care to blame? Posted: 21 Mar 2020 08:31 AM PDT  Claims have surfaced that Italy, ravaged by coronavirus, would leave its elderly to die. And blame falls on Italy's socialized health care system.
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| China Orders Local Staff Out of U.S. News Outlets in Beijing Posted: 21 Mar 2020 06:21 PM PDT |
| Warning of long battle as Africa's virus numbers rise Posted: 20 Mar 2020 01:11 PM PDT  Sub-Saharan Africa recorded its second coronavirus death on Friday as infections rose in South Africa, where the government warned bluntly of a long haul in the fight against the disease. Despite stringent restrictions ranging from flight bans to school closures, countries south of the Sahara have recorded two deaths in three days, and the case tally on Friday had more than tripled in the space of a week. The central African state of Gabon announced its first fatality from coronavirus -- a 50-year-old man, whose death followed that of a 62-year-old woman in Burkina Faso on Wednesday.
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| Bloomberg Scraps Plan to Fund Biden Campaign, Will Donate to DNC Instead Posted: 20 Mar 2020 08:49 AM PDT  Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg is shelving plans for an organization that would have channeled funds toward the Democratic presidential nominee's campaign, electing instead to donate funds to the Democratic National Committee, NBC reported on Friday."While we considered creating our own independent entity to support the nominee and hold the President accountable, this race is too important to have many competing groups with good intentions but that are not coordinated and united in strategy and execution," the Bloomberg campaign told NBC.Bloomberg will soon transfer $18 million to the DNC while laying off for his originally planned organization. The group was made up of former campaign staff."With this transfer from the Bloomberg campaign, Mayor Bloomberg and his team are making good on their commitment to beating Donald Trump," said DNC chairman Tom Perez in a statement. "This will help us invest in more organizers across the country to elect the next president and help Democrats win up and down the ballot."Bloomberg spent an unprecedented $500 million of his own fortune on his presidential campaign, but only began competing in the Super Tuesday primaries. The former mayor ultimately failed to win a significant number of delegates and dropped out of the race almost immediately, endorsing former vice president Joe Biden.Bloomberg had pledged in January to contribute vast funding for whoever became the Democratic nominee. While the Senator Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) campaign had made clear it did not want funds from Bloomberg, Biden has since pulled far ahead of Sanders in the delegate count and is the favorite to win the Democratic primary.
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| States across the US are investigating thousands of reports of coronavirus price gouging, from a $50 bottle of Purell to $10 for a single toilet roll Posted: 20 Mar 2020 04:26 AM PDT  Most states have laws that prohibit price gouging under a state of emergency. Hundreds of cases are reported every day, the Associated Press found.
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| Thousands defy Iraq's coronavirus curfew to visit martyred imam's shrine Posted: 21 Mar 2020 02:40 AM PDT  "We believe that the number of infected people will increase next week because of this visit," security source tells NBC News.
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| Brazil's Sao Paulo to get two-week coronavirus shutdown, Bolsonaro blasts 'hysteria' Posted: 21 Mar 2020 11:23 AM PDT  RIO DE JANEIRO/BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil's largest state Sao Paulo will essentially shut down for two weeks to help fight the coronavirus, its governor said on Saturday, as President Jair Bolsonaro again claimed that "hysteria" over the outbreak could cause more harm than the virus itself. Sao Paulo state Governor Joao Doria said a statewide quarantine order would take effect on Tuesday and last through April 7. All but non-essential businesses and services, including bars and restaurants, will remain closed across the country's most populous state, which includes its financial hub, for the duration.
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| President Trump's top scientist, once sidelined, now faces a coronavirus test Posted: 20 Mar 2020 10:54 AM PDT  As one of President Trump's top scientific advisers, Kelvin Droegemeier is a key figure in the fight to curb the coronavirus pandemic.
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| Air pollution clearing due to coronavirus lockdowns Posted: 20 Mar 2020 02:42 AM PDT  Satellite images show strict lockdowns to stop the spread of the coronavirus are also having an impact on the environment.
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| Trump on China: ‘I just wish they could have told us earlier’ Posted: 21 Mar 2020 01:05 PM PDT  President Trump on Saturday said he wished that China would have notified the United States sooner about the coronavirus and its impact.
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| Imports of medical supplies plummet as demand in US soars Posted: 20 Mar 2020 02:51 PM PDT  The critical shortage of medical supplies across the U.S., including testing swabs, protective masks, surgical gowns and hand sanitizer, can be tied to a sudden drop in imports, mostly from China, The Associated Press has found. Trade data shows the decline in shipments started in mid-February after the spiraling coronavirus outbreak in China led the country to shutter factories and disrupted ports. Some emergency rooms, hospitals and clinics in the U.S. have now run out of key medical supplies, while others are rationing personal protective equipment like gloves and masks.
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| Italy's virus toll tops 4,000 after new one-day record Posted: 20 Mar 2020 01:02 PM PDT  Italy reported a record 627 new coronavirus deaths Friday and saw its world-topping toll surpass 4,000, despite government efforts to stem the pandemic's spread. "There are so many people walking around who have the virus and who are at risk of infecting others," Bassetti told Italy's AGI news agency. "The 40,000 cases we are talking about (in Italy) could actually be 100 times higher."
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| America's extreme neoliberal healthcare system is putting the country at risk Posted: 21 Mar 2020 03:32 AM PDT  Single-payer healthcare can't prevent a novel virus like Covid-19 but it could help us plan, coordinate and save lives * Coronavirus – latest updates * See all our coronavirus coverageAt the final debate of the Democratic presidential primary on Sunday, Senator Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden clashed on the coronavirus. Sanders contended the pandemic laid bare "the incredible weakness and dysfunctionality" of the US healthcare system, and called for single-payer reform. Biden countered that Italy's universal system had failed to protect the Mediterranean nation, and asserted that Covid-19 "has nothing to do with Bernie's Medicare for All". At first glance, the ex-vice-president seems right: of course single-payer can't close the door to a novel virus, any more than it can forestall a deadly earthquake or fend off a zombie apocalypse. Nonetheless, a national health program with unified financing and governance – basically the opposite of what we have in America today – is a powerful tool in a health crisis.The debate over Medicare for All in the age of Covid-19 is complicated by the fact that it is our public health agencies – and not the medical care system – that serve as our first line of defense against novel epidemics. In that regard, we've shot ourselves in the foot with a 12-gauge shotgun: year after year of underfunding of our federal, state and local public health agencies has left us ill-prepared for the Covid-19 challenge (as evidenced by the testing fiasco). How we finance medical care, however, is also critical. On the most basic level, containing the coronavirus will require those infected to seek medical care, so that they can be diagnosed and isolated. Fear of devastating ER or hospital bills, however, could keep some home – or at work. As a Taiwan government spokeswoman, lauding her country's single-payer system for its successful containment of Covid-19, told NBC News, "Taiwan's health insurance lets everyone not be afraid to go to the hospital. If you suspect you have coronavirus, you won't have to worry that you can't afford the hospital visit to get tested."On Wednesday, Trump signed into law a bill that would make Covid-19 testing – but not treatment – free. It's hence inadequate, given the predicted looming surge in hospitalizations from Covid-19 pneumonia. After all, 30 million Americans are uninsured – a number that will surely grow as the economy tanks and millions or tens of millions of Americans lose their jobs. Even more are underinsured, and for these individuals, co-pays and deductibles will only become more unaffordable as disposable income falls and savings dwindle. For both groups, medical bills for an intensive care unit (ICU) stay for Covid-19 could be devastating. People, of course, will also not stop having heart attacks, cancer or traffic accidents during this outbreak – on the contrary, medical needs are likely to rise in the face of a recession, as unemployment and misery takes its toll on the nation's health. Financial ruin from medical costs – whether it stems from Covid-19 pneumonia or the looming Covid-19 recession – is financial ruin all the same, and will compound the harm of the epidemic.But there's more to it than that. We need single-payer not only to protect us from healthcare costs, but to transform our healthcare infrastructure. In recent weeks, you may have heard that the US, despite our high healthcare spending, has fewer hospital beds per capita than many other wealthy nations. You may have also heard in recent years about an epidemic of hospital closures in poorly served rural areas, or the 2019 closure of a major academic safety-net hospital in Philadelphia. These hospitals closed not because they are unneeded, but because they are unprofitable. For the American hospital landscape is shaped by market forces, which largely determine where hospitals grow and where they wane.> Healthcare in America is uncoordinated – and ungovernedAt the same time, while our hospital bed supply is relatively low, our ICU bed supply per capita is among the highest in the world. Yet those beds aren't necessarily where they need to be: a 2010 study in the Journal of American Medical Association, for instance, found large regional disparities in the distribution of ICU beds; the researchers concluded that in the face of a major epidemic, some areas might have empty beds, while others would have too few. Again, this distribution, far too often, is driven by market logic – not health needs.Finally, healthcare in America is uncoordinated – and ungoverned. Since the epidemic's onset, hospital and city and state governments have waged "bidding wars" over crucial supplies and ventilators, the New York Times noted. It's every hospital for itself: some are resorting to pleas to the community for donations of masks; presumably, others are well-stocked – but who knows? "Respirators, ventilators, all of the equipment – try getting it yourselves," Trump suggested to state governors on Monday, quoted by the New York Times. This is not a healthcare system – it is atomized chaos. For again, in the American way of paying for healthcare, our hospitals (or increasingly, our multi-hospital systems) are silos, some rich and some poor, each fending for themselves, locked in market competition.This is neither necessary nor rational, leading both to excess and shortfalls, to generous overall health system funding yet care that remains unaffordable for many. A single-payer national health program would allow us to move past the market-driven status quo to remake this chaotic healthcare landscape of simultaneous healthcare plenty and poverty. It would, in short, allow us to begin to plan – not merely for this epidemic, but for the one that follows. * Adam Gaffney is an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School and a pulmonary and critical care doctor at the Cambridge Health Alliance. He is President of the advocacy organization Physicians for a National Health Program. He blogs at theprogressivephysician.org
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| Peloton is temporarily halting sales and deliveries of its $4,295 treadmill because of the coronavirus, just as people are looking for new ways to work out at home Posted: 20 Mar 2020 09:58 AM PDT  Peloton is suspending delivery and sales of its treadmill, but it's still selling its bike and offering a free 90-day trial of its workout app.
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| Remains of missing Colorado boy, 11, found in Florida Posted: 20 Mar 2020 05:50 PM PDT  Investigators want to know if anyone saw suspect Leticia Staunch in the Panhandle in early February
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| Coronavirus bungling by White House is now 'too late to be fixed,' Obama's Ebola czar says Posted: 20 Mar 2020 06:52 AM PDT  Ron Klain, who was the Obama administration's Ebola response coordinator, said he expects that the shortage of tests in the United States will be one of the most enduring legacies of the crisis.
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| Coronavirus: Elon Musk 'child immunity' tweet will stay online Posted: 20 Mar 2020 09:07 AM PDT  The entrepreneur falsely claimed that children were "essentially immune" to the virus.
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| New York, New Jersey Among Four States Seeking $100 Billion Aid Posted: 20 Mar 2020 12:06 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- The governors of New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and Pennsylvania urged the federal government to consider a fiscal stimulus of at least $100 billion in direct cash to all four states to help cover costs related to coronavirus response operations.They made the request Friday in a letter to President Donald Trump and congressional leaders in both parties.Together, the four states represent 16% of the U.S. economy. After closing schools and nonessential businesses, the governors are forecasting billions of dollars in lost revenue from sales taxes and other sources."We have dramatically increased spending to protect our residents from this virus and to provide critical relief for individuals whose livelihoods are threatened or upended by our response," they wrote.Without at least $100 billion immediately, "we will be forced to make incredibly difficult choices," including laying off public employees, cutting funding for education and transportation, and "substantially" reducing critical services just as they are needed the most, said the governors, who are Democrats.The announcement came as New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said the state now had 890 confirmed Covid-19 cases, up from 742 a day earlier. Two more people died, for a total of 11.Restrictions on business activities and public assembly have already begun to affect states' revenue and costs. The market has priced in the impact of the slump, leading to the worst muni-bond rout since 1984 and prompting desperate calls for federal support.New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio had already asked for aid. State officials estimate New York could lose anywhere from $4 billion to $7 billion in tax revenue out of the $87.9 billion projected for next year's budget. The city will lose $3.2 billion in revenue over the next six months, Comptroller Scott Stringer estimated.During a Thursday morning briefing, Cuomo drove home the dire needs: "We have to run a government. We need the health-care system up and running. We need police. We need fire fighters. We need bus drivers. We need daycare workers. All these functions have to continue."Transit agencies were among the first to seek federal lifelines. Steep ridership declines in New York led the nation's largest transit system, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, to request $4 billion in aid Wednesday. On Thursday, New Jersey Transit requested $1.25 billion after ridership fell 88% since March 9. That evening, it reduced its service to weekend levels until further notice.During the 2008 financial crisis, the federal government stepped in with infrastructure funding through the Build America Bond program, as well as increases in the Medicaid matching rate, which injected billions of dollars into state coffers. Analysts predict similar measures this time.Since early March, the federal government already has injected nearly $1 billion in direct public-health aid for state and local governments, provided $40 billion in disaster relief and provided billions more through an increase in the matching rate, according to Fitch Ratings.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Russia deports Chinese for violating self-quarantine rules Posted: 20 Mar 2020 06:21 AM PDT  Authorities in Moscow are detaining and deporting Chinese nationals for violating quarantine procedures the city government mandated in response to the coronavirus, according to court filings and a lawyer working on at least 15 cases. Since the beginning of the year, as many as 79 Chinese people have been taken into custody and fined for leaving their place of residence during the 14-day self-quarantine period they were ordered to observe after returning from China, defense lawyer Sergei Malik told The Associated Press. The majority have been deported from Russia, while 27 remain at Moscow's migrant detention facility awaiting deportation or rulings on appeals arguing the detentions were arbitrary, Malik said.
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| Italy shuts factories as daily toll nears 800 Posted: 21 Mar 2020 04:11 PM PDT  Italy on Saturday shut all non-essential factories after recording another record coronavirus toll that brought its fatalities to 4,825 -- over a third of the world's total and a grim reminder that the pandemic remains out of control. "The decision taken by the government is to close down all productive activity throughout the territory that is not strictly necessary, crucial, indispensable, to guarantee us essential goods and services," Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said in a dramatic late-night TV address. "We will slow down the country's productive engine, but we will not stop it," Conte said.
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| Why is the coronavirus so much more deadly for men than for women? Posted: 21 Mar 2020 03:00 AM PDT  Italy announced that coronavirus deaths of men outnumbered those of women by a factor of 2 to 1. That mirrors the experience of China. What gives?
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| Purell makers made 'misleading' claims to customers about killing germs, new suit says Posted: 21 Mar 2020 11:18 AM PDT  The manufacturers of Purell hand sanitizer is facing a new class-action lawsuit accusing them of "false and misleading" claims.
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| China, South Korea, Taiwan sending masks and medical staff to other countries in need Posted: 21 Mar 2020 03:33 AM PDT  The Chinese Red Cross shipped 30 tons of medical equipment along with nine Chinese medical staff to assist with preventing and controlling the virus.
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| What COVID-19 looks like inside the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Posted: 20 Mar 2020 10:02 AM PDT  The coronavirus continues to affect communities across the globe. Yahoo News spoke with Jerry Allred and his daughter Rachel about how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is dealing with the pandemic.
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| Trump, Pompeo walk to brink of blaming Iran for rocket attack Posted: 20 Mar 2020 01:03 PM PDT  President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday came close to blaming Iran for a rocket attack in Iraq last week in which two American troops and a British service member were killed. "Maybe we shouldn't say yet," said Trump when the question was posed to Pompeo at a White House news conference. The Pentagon said last week that Trump had authorized the U.S. military to respond to the March 11 rocket attack in Iraq.
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| I live in San Francisco and I'm on Day 4 of a 3-week shelter-in-place order to contain the coronavirus. Here's what it's been like. Posted: 20 Mar 2020 01:18 PM PDT  The order directs me and an estimated 6.7 million residents to stay inside, turning our apartments into our homes, offices, gyms, and schools.
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| ‘There is hope’: 90-year-old grandmother is recovering from COVID-19 Posted: 20 Mar 2020 01:48 PM PDT  The family all said their goodbyes to Geneva Wood in what seemed like her last days. But the 90-year-old kept fighting.
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| India may be about to discover "tens of thousands" more COVID-19 cases Posted: 20 Mar 2020 05:46 AM PDT  After criticism over low test rates, government vows to ramp up "very narrow" efforts to detect the disease.
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| US airlines warn of 'draconian' steps if Congress fails to help Posted: 21 Mar 2020 02:14 PM PDT  The chief executives of the largest US airline companies asked Congress Saturday for urgent help avoiding widespread layoffs among the industry's 750,000 employees. "Unless worker payroll protection grants are passed immediately, many of us will be forced to take draconian measures such as furloughs," the CEOs said in a letter to leaders of both houses of Congress distributed by the Airlines for America trade group. Airlines for America represents American Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines as well as shippers FedEx and UPS.
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| Editorial: Don't be fooled. The coronavirus pandemic is deadly serious, and it's everyone's problem Posted: 20 Mar 2020 11:18 AM PDT  California's order might seem like a big deal. But what we don't know about this virus, which is a lot, means the risk of inaction is too high.
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| Experts fear India will be the next coronavirus hotspot Posted: 21 Mar 2020 10:17 AM PDT  Experts question India's coronavirus preparedness in light of its crowds, weak public health system and prevalence of other respiratory illnesses.
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| New Jersey governor issues stay-at-home order for nearly all of state's 9M residents Posted: 21 Mar 2020 01:54 PM PDT  "We must flatten the curve and ensure residents are practicing social distancing," the governor said in announcing the sweeping mandate.
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| To Protect the Future, Hold China to Account Posted: 21 Mar 2020 01:54 PM PDT  In the winter of 2002–2003, the deadly SARS coronavirus exploded out of China's 'wet-blood' wildlife markets. SARS infected over 8,000 people worldwide and killed almost 800. Yet post-crisis, China laxly enforced bans on the offending markets, only to permit them to flourish soon thereafter. Today's COVID-19 is the deadly and avoidable legacy of China's recklessness.U.S. secretary of state Mike Pompeo has proclaimed that COVID-19 stems from just such Chinese 'wet-blood' markets. While Beijing has praised them as protein sources, their unsanitary practices have long been identified as "perfect viral melting pots" for zoonotic diseases -- diseases that jump from animals to man. In COVID-19's wake, China shut down cities and shuttered the offending Wuhan markets — for now.Today the world strains to curtail COVID-19, mourn losses, and salvage livelihoods. Tomorrow it must prevent a like recurrence and account for damage done. Tomorrow's tasks regrettably require forthrightly identifying and addressing Beijing's wrongful, unnecessary, and repeated misdeeds.As many, including Dr. Bill Karesh of the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense, have shown, readily affordable measures, including refrigeration and culturally sensitive regulation, could replace China's lax and dangerous wet-market practices. Yet Beijing persisted, even after SARS illustrated the international risks. That disturbing record proved a breeding ground for COVID-19 and may recur.Despite a vast treasury and a world-leading economy, the Chinese Communist leadership has neglected necessary reforms, spending lavishly instead to further hegemonic ambitions in Asia and beyond, as well as its hold on China.To expand her geo-political reach, China's Belt and Road Initiative throws money at infrastructure projects from South Asia to the North Atlantic and from the South China Sea to Palau. National Bureau of Asian Research currently estimates BRI to cost around $1-1.3 trillion (USD). Over the past decades, China's defense spending increased on average roughly 10 percent per year, a rate vastly exceeding any competitor. For a pittance of such expenditures, China could have avoided today's pandemic and helped prevent future ones.Internally, the CCP has spent millions viciously repressing multi-child families, Internet use, Muslim Uighurs, Hong Kong democrats, and the Dalai Lama's Tibet, to name a few. Food stalls would be child play.Who suffers from CCP leaders prioritizing international hegemony and party supremacy? The world.Sadly, after COVID-19 began to spread, China exacerbated its wrongful conduct: first covering it up; then hindering others' abilities to understand, halt, and mitigate the disease; and finally blaming its victims.In a recent interview, National Security adviser Robert O'Brien suggested that China's cover-up of the coronavirus outbreak delayed the global response by two months. Chinese authorities, he noted, actively suppressed doctors' warnings.Once word got out, China then barred health experts from China, where they had hoped to study the disease and its spread.These lost months were costly. All the while, unwitting travelers spread the virus. Lost weeks delayed gathering medical supplies, readying facilities, and developing countermeasures.Having unnecessarily caused and exacerbated a worldwide pandemic, untouchable Chinese officials added their next outrage — blaming America. Beijing shamelessly poses as both victim and savior, seeking disproportionate praise for sharing genome information, casualty data, and, relative to the harm, limited supplies.In any just and lawful setting, actors who recklessly pursue hazardous activities would be held accountable for foreseeable harm caused to others. It would not matter if the wrongdoers did not intend such harm; it would be enough that they knowingly persisted. Exacerbating harm by concealing it and retarding mitigation only increases such liability.Prevention and simple justice require that Beijing accept consequences facing any other wrongdoer — including an end to dangerous practices and extending at least partial compensation to those so grievously harmed outside China. International diplomacy, legislation, executive action or legal proceedings here and abroad should seek to ensure Beijing acts responsibly.Yes, China, too, has suffered from its irresponsible practices. Many Chinese have tragically died, and Beijing's guided economy has stumbled from Beijing's misguided choices.However, the free world groans under horrendous losses of Beijing's making. The unnecessary deaths will be staggering and financial losses crippling. According to assessments by the UN and others, this outbreak could cost the world between $1 to $2.7 trillion. As of mid-March, the U.S. stock market has dropped almost 30 percent from its mid-February high, wiping out nearly $3.7 trillion from the U.S. market alone. As families cower amid Lysol wipes, businesses reel from disrupted supply chains and operations. Recession looms, forcing states worldwide to introduce stimulus packages, with the U.S. debating a $1 trillion plan.Over the years, the self-appointed rulers of China have escaped not just domestic, but international liability for their wrongdoing. Over the years, their thefts of intellectual property, wrongful trade practices, ruthless domestic oppression, support of rogue regimes, proliferation of nuclear technology, and unlawful conduct in the South China Sea have been excused or effectively ignored. Certainly, China has never suffered setbacks commensurate with what it sought to gain.Why do Chinese leaders think they can get away with such wrongs? As President Trump warned Americans years ago, because they have. He added, shame on us for letting them do so.To his enormous credit, President Trump has said, "Enough." His administration has made great strides reversing the world's complacency toward Beijing's misdeeds. As the president and leaders like Senators Cotton and Rubio turn to bolstering U.S. defenses and preventing future devastation, American and world leaders alike should find ways to ensure that this time, China does more than temporarily close a market. Otherwise, the next 'wet-blood' pandemic awaits.
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| Trump says respects China, but unfortunate virus got out of control Posted: 20 Mar 2020 11:00 AM PDT  U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he greatly respects China and Chinese President Xi Jinping, but it was unfortunate the coronavirus began there and got out of control. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, referring to the "Chinese virus" - a term Trump has used repeatedly, greatly angering Beijing - told the same briefing of the U.S. coronavirus task force that Beijing's delay in sharing information about the virus had created risks to people worldwide. It came from China, it got out of control.
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| Italy surpasses its own record death toll for a single day, with 793 coronavirus deaths in 24 hours Posted: 21 Mar 2020 12:14 PM PDT  As of March 21, Italy has now recorded a total of nearly 5,000 deaths related to the novel coronavirus, and more than 53,500 infections.
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| Coronavirus may change your vacation plans, but it doesn't have to ruin them Posted: 20 Mar 2020 06:00 AM PDT  If your vacation is still a ways off, there are ways to save it like changing destinations. But remember to follow protocols and buy travel insurance.
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| Coronavirus: Four members of New Jersey family die Posted: 21 Mar 2020 02:35 PM PDT  The death of Grace Fusco and three of her adult children is an "unbearable tragedy", relatives say.
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| Emirates Airlines suspends flights to dozens more cities Posted: 21 Mar 2020 11:57 AM PDT  Dubai carrier Emirates Airlines announced Saturday it would suspend flights to dozens more cities, taking its total route closures past 100, in a bid to forestall the spread of coronavirus. The United Arab Emirates on Friday announced its first two deaths from the disease. Total recorded infections in the UAE stood at 153, of which 38 have recovered.
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