Stephan: I have held this report for a few days to see if there was any change in the direction of the data. There hasn't been.
Sweden, as the article mentions, is a kind of a control group, just the way Red and Blue state governors are teaching us what works, and what does not. The question is going to be: Will we learn from this experience? It is going to depend on whether things are assessed on the basis of facts, or ideology.
Anders Tegnell, the architect of Sweden’s “keep everything open” approach to the coronavirus, is having second thoughts. Credit: AFP/Getty
Many conservatives are in love with the idea of Sweden’s approach—no lockdown. They don’t take into consideration that half of Swedes live alone, or that they have a top-notch universal healthcare system. They just think “no lockdown” is a better response to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
If nothing else, Sweden’s alternative response to the virus was … a good control group. And what we’re learning now is that failing to shut down hasn’t just led to more deaths, but—surprise surprise!—it also didn’t prevent its economy from tanking. In fact, Sweden is poised for more economic pain than its neighbors.
Sweden is quickly rising up the ranks of the world leaders in deaths. Here is the world ranking of deaths per million residents, excluding micro-nations:
DEATHS PER MILLIONBELGIUM726SPAIN558ITALY495UK451FRANCE395NETHERLANDS309SWEDEN301IRELAND284USA230
Sweden (like the United States) has been quickly moving up this horrid chart and will overtake the Netherlands sometime this weekend for the sixth spot in the world. Meanwhile, its neighbors following more standard shutdown protocols are looking pretty okay:
Stephan: Over just the past week I have been notably struck by the behavior, attitude, and anti-democracy corruption of the Republican Party, which I now see as a White Supremacy christofascist Trumpian cult. The stories in today's SR are far from the only stories about this I have seen. There is Attorney General Bill Barr's behavior, for instance. But that's getting lots of coverage, so you already know about that. Instead, I have chosen a representative selection of stories that aren't getting a lot of national coverage.
Frankly, I see these actions, these events, these attitudes, as an intentional attempt to foment a quiet coup to create a racist fascist kleptocracy. If you find that as unacceptable as I do you better get out and vote these people out of office because if Trump, Barr, Mitchell, Mnuchin, and Devos and the others stay in power you may not get another chance.
Stephan: Here is the basic Trump strategy: Don't pay any attention to facts, scientists, or doctors peasants. Just listen to the president, he will tell you what reality is, and what to think.
As all my readers know, my first priority is fostering wellbeing and I do not think that at any time in American history there has ever been a president, an administration, or a party (read cult) less interested in that.
Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci listens to President Donald J. Trump as he speaks with members of the coronavirus task force during a briefing in response to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on Monday, April 13, 2020 in Washington, D.C. Credit: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post/Getty
Scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were told by the White House that the agency’s detailed guidance on reopening local economies would “never see the light of day,” according to an Associated Press report published Thursday.
The guidance was set to be released last Friday and provided specific advice for local officials and business owners as many states begin to reopen. It covered safety protocols that should be in place before restaurants, childcare facilities, and other venues can begin operating as normal again.
Evidently preferring that the public rely on the White House’s more vague guidelines, the Trump administration shelved the 17-page report, which was then provided to the AP by CDC scientists on the condition of anonymity.
Stephan: Twenty percent of American children face hunger. If I wrote that about Guatemala or Ethiopia you'd think, Oh that poor third world country. How do you feel about that being true in the United States? And how do you feel about the Republican cult's response to this reality?
Once again I will state what I believe: It is not possible to be an ethical person and vote for Republicans. It is just that simple
As a padlocked economy leaves millions of Americans without paychecks, lines outside food banks have stretched for miles, prompting some of the overwhelmed charities to seek help from the National Guard.
A hungry child receiving food support Credit: Vetri Community Partnership
New research shows a rise in food insecurity without modern precedent. Among mothers with young children, nearly one-fifth say their children are not getting enough to eat, according to a survey by the Brookings Institution, a rate three times as high as in 2008, during the worst of the Great Recession.
The reality of so many Americans running out of food is an alarming reminder of the economic hardship the pandemic has inflicted. But despite their support for spending trillions on other programs to mitigate those hardships, Republicans have balked at a long-term expansion of food stamps — a core feature of the safety net that once enjoyed broad support but is now a source of a highly partisan divide.
Democrats want to raise food stamp benefits by 15% for the duration of the economic crisis, arguing that […]
Stephan: This statement by Trump is so obviously stupid it is breath-taking. But it is very revealing. It makes perfect sense if your own approach to the pandemic is to get re-elected and that from Trump's is what matters. The health and wellbeing of the peasants, as he sees us, is only marginally important.
The single most disastrous element of the failed federal response to the Covid-19 pandemic is Donald Trump’s continued refusal to launch a massive federal effort to develop the capacity to test more Americans for the virus.
Without magnitudes more testing, public health experts agree, reopening the country is a death sentence for countless Americans, particularly the less affluent. And only the federal government is capable of what’s required.
On Wednesday, Trump explained himself with an extraordinarily revealing quote – one that included both a lie and a confession.
It was a lie because the number of tests administered in the U.S. – currently about 7 million – is tiny compared to the actual need.
And it was a confession because Trump was acknowledging that he sees testing as a matter of his own political health rather than the public’s.
The context of his comment was also revealing, because he was speaking entirely about the public perception of the problem rather than the problem itself — and […]
