bonginoreport--2020-05-04--California to Begin Phase Two of Reopening as Early as Friday

• Offices where working remotely is n't possible , but can be modified to make the environment safer for employees SACRAMENTO , Calif. ( KABC ) -- Gov .
Gavin Newsom said he will announce on Thursday plans for California to move closer to reopening parts of the state in a `` very positive sign '' prompted by data on the coronavirus outbreak.The governor said during his daily press conference Monday that the next stage of reopening the state 's economy is expected to begin as early as Friday.Some businesses included in Newsom 's `` Stage 2 '' of reopening @ @ @ @ @ @ @ such as book stores , clothing stores , sporting goods , toy stores and florists , given they follow additional safety protocols that will be released Thursday , Newsom said.The state is also working to create guidelines that will allow restaurants and other hospitality businesses to open their doors again.However , Newsom said the next phase does not currently include the reopening of offices , seated dining in restaurants or shopping at malls.The governor said a key consideration for entering phase two is the ability for health authorities to test and conduct contact @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a very positive sign and it has happened for only one reason : the data says it can happen , '' Newsom said .
`` But we recognize as we begin to modify ... possible community spread will occur .
If that is the case , and we do n't have the capacity to control that spread , to track that spread , to isolate individuals that may have been in contact with COVID-19 , we will have to make modifications anew .
`` The state plans to reopen parts of the state @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Department of Public Health Director Dr. Sonia Angell : Everyone is either staying at home or a member of the essential workforce .
This is the stage we are in now , and will stay in until a modification to the statewide stay-at-home order.Reopening lower risk workplaces , including : Reopening higher risk workplaces , which require close proximity to other people , including : Ending the stay-at-home order , which would allow for the reopening of : However , Newsom emphasized that not all area of the state will be forced to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for moving into Stage 2.Local officials still have the authority to accelerate or slow down reopening at the county level , Newsom said .
`` We are not telling locals that believe it 's too soon , too fast to modify .
We believe those local communities that have separate timelines should be afforded the capacity to advance those timelines , '' he said .
`` If they choose not to come into compliance with the state guidelines , they have that right .
`` More rural or remote counties with fewer COVID-19 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ businesses sooner , the governor said , as long as their decisions do n't risk the `` the health of the entire state .
`` On May 1 , the governor hinted that restrictions may be lifted sooner than previously indicated .
`` We 're getting very close to making very meaningful augmentations to that stay-at-home order .
We said 'weeks , not months ' about four or five days ago .
I want to say 'many days , not weeks , ' '' Newsom said .
`` As long as we continue @ @ @ @ @ @ @ modifications , I think we 'll be making some announcements . ''

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Monday that the next stage of reopening California's economy is expected to begin as early as Friday.
When will California reopen? Governor Gavin Newsom announced Monday that phase 2 of reopening the state's economy to start as early as Friday.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KABC) -- Gov. Gavin Newsom said he will announce on Thursday plans for California to move closer to reopening parts of the state in a "very positive sign" prompted by data on the coronavirus outbreak.
The governor said during his daily press conference Monday that the next stage of reopening the state's economy is expected to begin as early as Friday.
Some businesses included in Newsom's "Stage 2" of reopening will allow for curbside pick-up at businesses such as book stores, clothing stores, sporting goods, toy stores and florists, given they follow additional safety protocols that will be released Thursday, Newsom said.
The state is also working to create guidelines that will allow restaurants and other hospitality businesses to open their doors again.
However, Newsom said the next phase does not currently include the reopening of offices, seated dining in restaurants or shopping at malls.
The governor said a key consideration for entering phase two is the ability for health authorities to test and conduct contact tracing of infections.
"This is a very positive sign and it has happened for only one reason: the data says it can happen," Newsom said. "But we recognize as we begin to modify ... possible community spread will occur. If that is the case, and we don't have the capacity to control that spread, to track that spread, to isolate individuals that may have been in contact with COVID-19, we will have to make modifications anew."
The state plans to reopen parts of the state in four stages, as described by Department of Public Health Director Dr. Sonia Angell:
Stage 1: Everyone is either staying at home or a member of the essential workforce. This is the stage we are in now, and will stay in until a modification to the statewide stay-at-home order.
Stage 2: Reopening lower risk workplaces, including:
Non-essential manufacturing (toys, furniture, clothing, etc.)
Schools
Childcare facilities
Retail businesses for curbside pick-up
Offices where working remotely isn't possible, but can be modified to make the environment safer for employees
Stage 3: Reopening higher risk workplaces, which require close proximity to other people, including:
Hair salons
Nail salons
Gyms
Movie theaters
Sporting events without live audiences
In-person religious services (churches and weddings)
Stage 4: Ending the stay-at-home order, which would allow for the reopening of:
Concert venues
Convention centers
Sporting events with live audiences
However, Newsom emphasized that not all area of the state will be forced to strictly adhere with the state's guidelines for moving into Stage 2.
Local officials still have the authority to accelerate or slow down reopening at the county level, Newsom said.
"We are not telling locals that believe it's too soon, too fast to modify. We believe those local communities that have separate timelines should be afforded the capacity to advance those timelines," he said. "If they choose not to come into compliance with the state guidelines, they have that right."
More rural or remote counties with fewer COVID-19 cases will also be allowed to reopen businesses sooner, the governor said, as long as their decisions don't risk the "the health of the entire state."
On May 1, the governor hinted that restrictions may be lifted sooner than previously indicated.
"We're getting very close to making very meaningful augmentations to that stay-at-home order. We said 'weeks, not months' about four or five days ago. I want to say 'many days, not weeks,'" Newsom said. "As long as we continue to be prudent and thoughtful in certain modifications, I think we'll be making some announcements."
Coronavirus: Orange County conducts beach sweeps after Gov. Newsom orders countywide closures


bonginoreport--2020-05-04--Seattle Councilwoman Calls for “Militant Takeover” Over of Amazon.com

Socialist Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant advocated for a militant mass movement to publicly take over Amazon in a weekend Tweet .
The Tweet comes after Sawant pushes to rally anti-Amazon councilmembers into a dubiously titled “ Amazon tax ” that targets hundreds of local businesses during an economic downturn .
And it ’ s the latest escalation of dangerous rhetoric with a wink and a nod towards her violent Antifa base of support .
It ’ s no secret that Sawant believes businesses should be publicly owned and operated by the workforce , even if the workforce has no @ @ @ @ @ @ @ business acumen , previously tried to rally workers to overthrow Boeing management and build buses .
That didn ’ t work .
So she ’ s sticking to her message , this time with a Seattle-based company .
But this tweet , a response to a troll account named “ KarlMarxJunior , ” is another step in her escalating fight with Amazon ( related note : Sawant is an Amazon Prime member because even socialists enjoy free shipping on millions of items ) .
If she can ’ t destroy Amazon with her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to destroy it with a “ militant ” takeover .
It ’ s the move of a desperate ideologue running out of ways to try to hoodwink the council and constituency .
Militant mass movements have a tendency to strike frequently and represent the most extreme factions within the socialist and progressive movements , viewing democracy in the same vain as the Communists view it .
Some militant mass movements promote violence .
Antifa , for example , use extreme measures including violence to forward a political cause .
Often times , extremist @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Only , the greater good they promote is at-best subjective , at-worst legitimate fascism where political dissent is punished with a brick to the face .
Sawant ’ s language towards her political opponents or targets have grown increasingly hostile and dehumanizing .
Jeff Bezos wants you to suffer .
Support Amazon and you ’ re just a shill for the rich .
Small business owner with property you rent out ?
You ’ re greedy .
The only answer ?
Socialism .
Please donate your dues and become a member of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ doesn ’ t have a significant Twitter history of calling for militant resistance , but she ’ s done it twice before .
It ’ s noteworthy that , in the past , Sawant accompanies “ militant ” action with a note to be peaceful or non-violent .
When she protested against a travel ban by President Donald Trump , Sawant promoted “ militant non-violent ” action .
Similarly , when protesting in favor of # NoBanNoWallNoRaids , Sawant called for “ peaceful & militant mass resistance ” against Trump .
In this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ call for a non-violent or peaceful military mass movement .
Why ?
You could offer a good faith argument that it was a slip-up .
But she could have very easily followed up with another tweet .
She would have had more characters allotted to her socialist message to note that she ’ s not calling for violence .
I asked her if she could explain the context of her message , but she didn ’ t respond when I submitted this blog post .
If she does , you ’ ll find @ @ @ @ @ @ @ worth noting , in her anti-Semitic defense of Hamas ( a terrorist organization ) , she essentially justifies violence without explicitly condoning it .
Listen to the Jason Rantz Show weekday afternoons from 3-6 p.m. on KTTH 770 AM ( or HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3 ) .
Subscribe to the podcast here .
Follow @ JasonRantz on Twitter and Instagram or like me on Facebook .

Socialist Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant advocated for a militant mass movement to publicly take over Amazon in a weekend Tweet.
The Tweet comes after Sawant pushes to rally anti-Amazon councilmembers into a dubiously titled “Amazon tax” that targets hundreds of local businesses during an economic downturn. And it’s the latest escalation of dangerous rhetoric with a wink and a nod towards her violent Antifa base of support.
Kshama Sawant’s wants ‘militant’ Amazon takeover
It’s no secret that Sawant believes businesses should be publicly owned and operated by the workforce, even if the workforce has no business acumen. Sawant, who lacks business acumen, previously tried to rally workers to overthrow Boeing management and build buses. That didn’t work. So she’s sticking to her message, this time with a Seattle-based company.
But this tweet, a response to a troll account named “KarlMarxJunior,” is another step in her escalating fight with Amazon (related note: Sawant is an Amazon Prime member because even socialists enjoy free shipping on millions of items).
Yes, corporations like Amazon need to be taken into democratic public ownership, to be run by workers for social good. We will need militant mass movements, strike actions at workplaces, to begin to fight to win this. Because it will be a political strike against billionaires. — Kshama Sawant (@cmkshama) May 3, 2020
If she can’t destroy Amazon with her tax, then she’ll aim to destroy it with a “militant” takeover. It’s the move of a desperate ideologue running out of ways to try to hoodwink the council and constituency.
Militant mass movements have a tendency to strike frequently and represent the most extreme factions within the socialist and progressive movements, viewing democracy in the same vain as the Communists view it. Some militant mass movements promote violence.
Antifa, for example, use extreme measures including violence to forward a political cause. Often times, extremist activists justify violence for the greater good. Only, the greater good they promote is at-best subjective, at-worst legitimate fascism where political dissent is punished with a brick to the face.
Sawant’s escalating language
Sawant’s language towards her political opponents or targets have grown increasingly hostile and dehumanizing.
Jeff Bezos wants you to suffer. Support Amazon and you’re just a shill for the rich. Small business owner with property you rent out? You’re greedy. The only answer? Socialism. Please donate your dues and become a member of the cult of Socialist Alternative.
Sawant doesn’t have a significant Twitter history of calling for militant resistance, but she’s done it twice before. It’s noteworthy that, in the past, Sawant accompanies “militant” action with a note to be peaceful or non-violent.
When she protested against a travel ban by President Donald Trump, Sawant promoted “militant non-violent” action. Similarly, when protesting in favor of #NoBanNoWallNoRaids, Sawant called for “peaceful & militant mass resistance” against Trump.
In this latest instance, Sawant didn’t call for a non-violent or peaceful military mass movement. Why? You could offer a good faith argument that it was a slip-up.
But she could have very easily followed up with another tweet. She would have had more characters allotted to her socialist message to note that she’s not calling for violence. I asked her if she could explain the context of her message, but she didn’t respond when I submitted this blog post. If she does, you’ll find it below. And it’s worth noting, in her anti-Semitic defense of Hamas (a terrorist organization), she essentially justifies violence without explicitly condoning it.
Can you define "militant mass movements" in this context? — (((Jason Rantz))) on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) May 3, 2020
Listen to the Jason Rantz Show weekday afternoons from 3-6 p.m. on KTTH 770 AM (or HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). Subscribe to the podcast here. Follow @JasonRantz on Twitter and Instagram or like me on Facebook.
Follow @https://twitter.com/jasonrantz


bonginoreport--2020-05-04--SCOTUS Meets by Phone for the First Time Ever

The court 's plaza , normally bustling on the mornings of arguments , was deserted Monday , as it has @ @ @ @ @ closed to the public in mid-March because of the virus outbreak .
Two months of @ @ @ @ @ court decided to hear 10 cases over six days in May .

WASHINGTON — It’s a morning of firsts for the Supreme Court, the first time audio of the court’s arguments was heard live by the world and the first arguments by telephone.
The changes are a result of the coronavirus pandemic, which has made holding courtroom sessions unsafe, especially with six justices aged 65 or older and at risk of getting seriously sick from the virus.
The historic session began at the usual time of 10 a.m. EDT, when Marshal Pamela Talkin called the court to order and Chief Justice John Roberts announced the day’s case.
“Oyez! Oyez! Oyez!" Talkin began, dropping the words commanding people “to draw near" to reflect the unusual circumstances.
Advertisement
Arguments, scheduled to last an hour as they would generally in the courtroom, ran 17 minutes long, but without serious problems. The justices asked roughly two questions apiece at a time, and Roberts occasionally interjected to keep things moving.
And there was one mild surprise: Justice Clarence Thomas asked questions for the first time in more than a year.
Several justices said “good morning" to the lawyers, a telephone nicety not often heard in the courtroom. The justices also did not interrupt each other, as they frequently do in court, and instead took turns asking questions.
The court's plaza, normally bustling on the mornings of arguments, was deserted Monday, as it has been since the building was closed to the public in mid-March because of the virus outbreak. Two months of arguments were postponed before the court decided to hear 10 cases over six days in May.
The experiment could propel the court to routinely livestream its arguments. Or it could just be an extraordinary exception to the court's sustained opposition to broadening the audience that can hear, if not see, its work live.
Cases that will be heard over the next two weeks include President Donald Trump's effort to shield tax and other financial records and whether presidential electors have to cast their Electoral College ballots for the candidate who wins the popular vote in their state.
The court chose a somewhat obscure case about whether the travel website Booking.com can trademark its name for its first foray into remote arguments. The lawyers on both sides are well known to the justices and experienced in arguing before the nation's highest court.
Justice Department lawyer Erica Ross, who once served as a law clerk to Justice Elena Kagan, was first up. She last argued at the court in late February. She delivered this Supreme Court argument, her sixth, from a Justice Department conference room.
She was followed by Lisa Blatt, a onetime government lawyer who will be arguing her 40th Supreme Court case. Blatt will be at her Washington-area home, she told The Washington Post.
She is known for her colorful writing and speaking style and for her ability to engage in a healthy give and take with the justices. She was also a prominent liberal supporter of Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his contentious Senate confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court.
Blatt, representing Booking.com, got Justice Sonia Sotomayor to laugh out loud when she told the justice, “It looks like we would have lost if you were the trial judge.”
Each lawyer got two uninterrupted minutes to make an opening statement, after which Roberts kicked off the questioning. After that, the justices asked questions in order of seniority. Kavanaugh, who joined the court in 2018, went last.
The court sometimes issues opinions at the start of argument sessions, with the justice who wrote for the majority reading a summary of the opinion and, more rarely, a second justice summarizing a dissent. But in another change wrought by the virus outbreak, opinions are being posted online without any statements from justices. The court will next issue opinions on Thursday.
The session ended as it always does in the courtroom. Roberts said, “The case is submitted.”
Talkin followed: “The honorable court is now adjourned until tomorrow at 10 o'clock."


bonginoreport--2020-05-04--Egypt Says They’ve Destroyed 3,000 Hamas Tunnels

By subscribing I accept the terms of use

Sign up for The Jerusalem Post Premium Plus for just $5
Upgrade your reading experience with an ad-free environment and exclusive content


bonginoreport--2020-05-04--Study: In Germany There Could be 10X More Cases Than Reported

Sign up for our special edition newsletter to get a daily update on the coronavirus pandemic .
The number of people in Germany who ’ ve had the coronavirus may be 10 times the official figures , according to a new study .
Researchers from the University of Bonn said the study , which has yet to be peer-reviewed , suggested that about 1.8 million people living in Germany may have been infected — far higher than the confirmed count of more than 160,000 .
The scientists analyzed blood and nasal swabs from a sample of 919 people living in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Heinsberg .
To develop their model , they considered the number of residents who were found to have antibodies — which indicate a past infection — as well as the coronavirus-related deaths in the town and the nationwide death rate .
“ The results can help to further improve the models to calculate how the virus spreads .
So far the underlying data has been relatively weak , ” said co-author Dr. Gunther Hartmann , director of the university ’ s Institute for Clinical Chemistry and Clinical Pharmacology .
The researchers also found @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who had been infected in the town reported no symptoms .
“ Apparently , one in five infections occurs without noticeable symptoms , suggesting that infected persons who secrete virus and can infect others can not be reliably identified on the basis of recognizable symptoms of the disease , ” said co-author Dr. Martin Exner , head of Bonn ’ s Institute for Hygiene and Public Health .
“ Every supposedly healthy person we encounter can unknowingly carry the virus .
We must be aware of this and act accordingly .
”

Sign up for our special edition newsletter to get a daily update on the coronavirus pandemic.
The number of people in Germany who’ve had the coronavirus may be 10 times the official figures, according to a new study.
Researchers from the University of Bonn said the study, which has yet to be peer-reviewed, suggested that about 1.8 million people living in Germany may have been infected — far higher than the confirmed count of more than 160,000.
The scientists analyzed blood and nasal swabs from a sample of 919 people living in a town in the hard-hit district of Heinsberg.
To develop their model, they considered the number of residents who were found to have antibodies — which indicate a past infection — as well as the coronavirus-related deaths in the town and the nationwide death rate.
“The results can help to further improve the models to calculate how the virus spreads. So far the underlying data has been relatively weak,” said co-author Dr. Gunther Hartmann, director of the university’s Institute for Clinical Chemistry and Clinical Pharmacology.
The researchers also found that about one in five of those who had been infected in the town reported no symptoms.
“Apparently, one in five infections occurs without noticeable symptoms, suggesting that infected persons who secrete virus and can infect others cannot be reliably identified on the basis of recognizable symptoms of the disease,” said co-author Dr. Martin Exner, head of Bonn’s Institute for Hygiene and Public Health.
“Every supposedly healthy person we encounter can unknowingly carry the virus. We must be aware of this and act accordingly.”
With Post wires


bonginoreport--2020-05-05--California Becomes First State to Borrow From Feds to Make Unemployment Payments

California has become the first state to borrow money from the federal government so it can continue paying out rising @ @ @ @ @ the coronavirus pandemic .
The Golden State borrowed $ 348 million in federal funds after @ @ @ @ @ to $ 10 billion for this purpose through the end of July , a Treasury @ @ @ @ @ The U.S. government has also approved loans of up to $ 12.6 billion for Illinois @ @ @ @ @ billion for Connecticut through the end of July to replenish state unemployment insurance funds , @ @ @ @ @ ’ t yet started borrowing by the end of April .
California was the only @ @ @ @ @ program so far in the current downturn , the Treasury spokesman said .
An expanded @ @ @ @ @ at WSJ.com .
Smart or Lucky ?
How Florida Dodged the Worst of Coronavirus Should @ @ @ @ @ Exercising Outdoors ?

California has become the first state to borrow money from the federal government so it can continue paying out rising claims for unemployment benefits during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Golden State borrowed $348 million in federal funds after receiving approval to tap up to $10 billion for this purpose through the end of July, a Treasury Department spokesman said Monday.


bonginoreport--2020-05-05--Britain Overtakes Italy for Highest Death Toll in Europe With 32,000 Deaths

LONDON ( Reuters ) - Britain has overtaken Italy to report the highest official death toll from coronavirus in Europe with more than 32,000 deaths , figures released on Tuesday showed .
The high death toll could increase political pressure on Prime Minister Boris Johnson , who waited longer than other European leaders to order a lockdown to curb the spread of the virus in March .
Weekly figures from Britain ’ s national statistics office added more than 7,000 deaths in England and Wales , raising the total for the United Kingdom to 32,313 .
The figure is one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ difficult to compare with other countries , but it offers the clearest sign yet that Britain could emerge as the worst-hit country in Europe , despite being hit later than other countries .
Opposition parties have raised questions about Johnson ’ s initial decision to delay a lockdown at a time when hospitals in Italy were already being overrun .
They also say his government was too slow to introduce mass testing and provide enough protective equipment to hospitals .
The true figure for deaths from coronavirus may be even higher .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people had died than average up to April 24 in England and Wales , compared to 27,365 cases in which coronavirus was mentioned on the death certificates .

LONDON (Reuters) - The United Kingdom has overtaken Italy to report the highest official death toll from the new coronavirus in Europe, figures released on Tuesday showed, increasing pressure on Prime Minister Boris Johnson over his response to the crisis.
Weekly figures from Britain’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) added more than 7,000 deaths in England and Wales in the week to April 24, raising the total for the United Kingdom to 32,313.
Only the United States, with a population nearly five times greater, has suffered more confirmed fatalities from the virus than Britain, according to the data so far.
Tuesday’s figures are based on death certificate mentions of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, including suspected cases.
While different ways of counting make comparisons with other countries difficult, the figure confirmed Britain was among those hit worst by a pandemic that has killed more than 250,000 worldwide.
“I don’t think we’ll get a real verdict on how countries have done until the pandemic is over, and particularly until we’ve got international comprehensive data on all-cause mortality,” Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told reporters.
Opposition politicians said the figures proved the government had been too slow to provide enough protective equipment to hospitals and introduce mass testing.
“I’d be amazed if, when we look back, we don’t think: yep we could have done something differently there,” the government’s chief scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance, said in response to lawmakers’ questions on testing.
Responding to the ONS figures, a Downing Street spokesman pointed to Johnson’s recent comments that Britain had passed the peak of the disease but remained in a “dangerous phase”.
He also cited the advice of England’s chief medical officer, Chris Whitty: “Different countries are recording different things in relation to deaths.”
Italy and Spain, the next worst-hit European countries, have smaller populations than Britain, further complicating comparisons.
“Putting a graph out with the United States at the top and UK second is not helpful, but once you start to break it down by looking at the population we should be seriously asking questions about what’s different,” said Carl Heneghan, professor of evidence-based medicine at Oxford University.
“Why are six countries disproportionately affected?” Heneghan added, referring to a list dominated by Europe.
Slideshow ( 29 images )
The daily cumulative death toll published by Britain’s government, which records deaths only for confirmed coronavirus cases, rose on Tuesday to 29,427 - exceeding Italy’s own daily toll for the first time.
Ministers dislike comparisons of the headline death toll, saying that excess mortality - the number of deaths from all causes that exceed the average for the time of year - is more meaningful because it is internationally comparable.
Slideshow ( 29 images )
EXCESS DEATH
But early evidence for excess mortality suggests Britain will be one of the hardest-hit on this measure, too.
ONS statistician Nick Stripe said excess deaths for the United Kingdom were running about 42,000 higher than average at this point in the year.
However, only about 80% of these excess deaths have been linked specifically with COVID-19.
The weekly ONS data also showed the peak in COVID-19 deaths has likely passed, although the week to April 24 was still the second-deadliest since comparable records began being kept in 1993.
The overall decline also masked a worsening picture in care homes.
The ONS said 7,911 deaths from all causes were registered in care homes in the week ending April 24, three times higher than a month previously.
“These figures show that talk of being ‘past the peak’ of this awful virus simply does not hold true for social care,” said Labour opposition lawmaker Liz Kendall.
A Reuters Special Report published on Tuesday showed that even as the government was promising to protect the elderly and vulnerable from the deadly virus, local councils said they did not have the tools to carry out the plan, and were often given just hours to implement new government instructions.
According to Reuters calculations, the pandemic has resulted in at least 12,700 excess deaths in British care homes.


bonginoreport--2020-05-05--With Nationwide Lockdowns, the Cure Really is Worse Than the Disease – Here’s the Math

Anxiety From Reactions to Covid-19 Will Destroy At Least Seven Times More Years of Life Than Can Be Saved by Lockdowns Medical studies show that excessive stress and anxiety are among the most debilitating and deadly of all health hazards in the world .
Beyond their obvious effects like suicide and substance abuse—these mental stressors are strongly related to and may trigger and inflame a host of ailments like high blood pressure , digestive disorders , heart conditions , infectious diseases , cancer , and pregnancy complications .
Based on a broad array of scientific data , Just Facts has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to Covid-19—such as stay-at-home orders , business shutdowns , media exaggerations , and legitimate concerns about the virus—will destroy at least seven times more years of human life than can possibly be saved by lockdowns to control the spread of the disease .
This figure is a bare minimum , and the actual one is likely more than 90 times greater .
This study was reviewed by Joseph P. Damore , Jr. , M.D.
, who concluded : “ This research is engaging and thoroughly answers the question about the cure being worse @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a certified diplomate with the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology , an assistant professor of psychiatry at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University , an assistant attending psychiatrist at New York Presbyterian Hospital , and an adjunct professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at the U.S. Military Academy .
Scientific surveys of U.S. residents have found that the mental health of about one-third to one-half of all adults has been substantially compromised by reactions to the Covid-19 pandemic .
Examples include the following : • An American Psychiatric @ @ @ @ @ @ @ % of adults report that anxiety over Covid-19 “ is having a serious impact on their mental health.
” • A Kaiser Family Foundation survey in late March found that 45 % of adults “ feel that worry and stress related to ” Covid-19 “ has had a negative impact on their mental health , an increase from 32 % from early March.
” Additionally , 19 % of adults said it is having a “ major impact ” on their mental health .
• A Benenson Strategy Group survey in late March @ @ @ @ @ @ @ already affected ” the “ mental health ” of 55 % of U.S. adults “ either a great deal or somewhat.
” • A Kaiser Family Foundation survey in late April found that 56 % of adults “ report that worry and stress related to ” Covid-19 “ is affecting their mental health and wellbeing in various ways , ” such as “ trouble sleeping , “ poor appetite or over-eating , ” “ frequent headaches or stomachaches , ” “ difficulty controlling their temper , ” “ increasing their alcohol or drug @ @ @ @ @ @ @ conditions like diabetes or high blood pressure.
” Contributors to these mental health impacts include but are not limited to : • anguish over the death of loved ones , although this is limited to a relatively small fraction of the public because the virus has killed one out of every 5,000 Americans , while one out of every 116 Americans die every year .
• media outlets that overstate the deadliness of Covid-19 by : • using false denominators that exaggerate its death rate .
• misreporting about the capacity of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ongoing death toll .
• government stay-at-home orders and self-imposed isolation , as evidenced by : • a survey commissioned by the University of Phoenix in late March that found 44 % of U.S. adults are more lonely than they have ever been in their lives , which is a risk factor for suicide and many other psychologically driven fatal afflictions .
• the late-March Kaiser Family Foundation survey , which “ found that 47 % of those sheltering in place reported negative mental health effects resulting from worry or stress , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ higher than the 37 % among people who were not sheltering in place.
” • the late-March Benenson Strategy Group survey , which found that “ 71 % of Americans say they are concerned that ‘ social distancing ’ measures will have a negative impact on the country ’ s mental health—including 28 % who are extremely or very concerned about this.
” • government-mandated shutdowns of businesses in nearly every state that have cost millions of jobs and are reflected in the : • late-April Kaiser Family Foundation survey , which found @ @ @ @ @ @ @ % of workers “ have lost their jobs or had a reduction in hours or pay as a result of ” responses to Covid-19 .
• mid-March American Psychiatric Association survey , which found that 57 % of adults are concerned that responses to the pandemic “ will have a serious negative impact on their finances , ” and 68 % fear it “ will have a long-lasting impact on the economy.
” Among all of the figures above , the lowest nationwide measure of people who have incurred psychological harm from reactions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ adults in the late-March Kaiser Family Foundation survey who reported a “ major impact ” on their mental health .
This survey included 1,226 respondents and has a margin of sampling error for this result of ± 2.2 percentage points with 95 % confidence .
Therefore , at least 16.8 % of 255,200,373 adults in the United States—or 42,873,663 people—have suffered major mental harm from responses to Covid-19 .
This figure forms the first key basis of this study .
The Deadliness of Anxiety and Stress Medical journals are rich with studies that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , anxiety , depression , and other psychological conditions .
Determining this is very difficult because association does not prove causation , and unmeasured factors could be at play .
For example , a 2011 meta-analysis in the journal Social Science & Medicine about mortality , “ psychosocial stress , ” and job losses finds that “ unemployment is associated with a substantially increased risk of death among broad segments of the population , ” but there are conflicting theories as to why this is so .
One is that “ unemployment causes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in turn lead to deterioration of health.
” Put simply , unemployment causes bad health .
The other theory is that bad health causes unemployment .
Both of these theories may be true , and factors that are not measured in the studies could be causing both unemployment and bad health .
Thus , it is very difficult to isolate these variables and determine which is causing the others and to what degree .
While trying to address such uncertainty , the meta-analysis examined “ 235 mortality risk estimates from 42 studies ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with a 63 % higher risk of mortality in studies controlling for covariates.
” Regardless of whether job losses from Covid-19 lockdowns are brief or sustained , the study found that the death correlation “ is significant in both the short and long term , ” lending “ some support to the hypothesis and previous findings that both the stress and the negative lifestyle effects associated with the onset of unemployment tend to persist even after a person has regained a job.
” Also of relevance to current job losses , the study @ @ @ @ @ @ @ those recently passed into federal law , are unlikely to mitigate the deadliness of job losses .
This is because the meta-analysis found that the associations between unemployment and death in Scandinavia and the U.S. are not significantly different , even though the Scandinavian nations offer more generous welfare benefits .
Thus , the authors conclude that “ these national-level policy differences may not have much of an effect on the rate of mortality following unemployment.
” A broad range of other studies have similar implications for anxiety-related deaths wrought by reactions to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by the New England Journal of Medicine found that “ psychological stress was associated in a dose-response manner with an increased risk of acute infectious respiratory illness.
” A dose-response relationship , as explained by epidemiologist Sydney Pettygrove , “ is one in which increasing levels of exposure are associated with either an increasing or a decreasing risk of the outcome.
” She notes that when this pattern occurs , it “ is considered strong evidence for a causal relationship between the exposure and the outcome.
” • A 2004 paper in The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ result in an impairment of the immune response and might promote the initiation and progression of some types of cancer….
” The paper details many human and animal studies germane to the Covid-19 lockdowns , such as those dealing with a “ lack of social interactions ” that cause certain cancers to metastasize .
• A 2005 paper in the Journal of Experimental Medicine finds that “ psychological conditions , including stress ” trigger a “ sophisticated molecular mechanism ” that increases “ the likelihood of infections , autoimmunity , or cancer.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Medical Journal finds “ a dose-response association between psychological distress and mortality from all causes , cardiovascular disease , and external causes across the full range of distress , even in people who would not usually come to the attention of mental health services.
” Furthermore , “ these associations remained after adjustment for age , sex , current occupational social class , body mass index , systolic blood pressure , physical activity , smoking , alcohol consumption , and diabetes.
” People with the lowest levels of psychological distress in this study @ @ @ @ @ @ @ death , and those with the highest levels had a 94 % greater risk .
• A 2012 paper in the Journal of the American Medical Association Psychiatry analyzes the death rates of more than a million young males in Sweden who underwent a government-mandated military draft physical that “ included a structured interview by a psychologist ” during 1969 to 1994 .
This study is particularly relevant to the effects of the current Covid-19 anxiety because it involves nearly all the healthy young men of a nation and excludes those with “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they were excused from the exam .
The study finds : • Young men who were diagnosed with neurotic and adjustment disorders were 76 % more likely to die in the average follow-up period of 22.6 years .
A neurotic disorder is a problem dealing with anxiety , and an adjustment disorder—which is now called “ stress response syndrome ” —is “ a short-term condition that occurs when a person has great difficulty coping with , or adjusting to , a particular source of stress , such as a major life change , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ apt descriptions of the tens of millions of Americans who report that reactions to Covid-19 are seriously harming their mental health .
• Premature deaths associated with mental illness “ are not primarily due to suicide or accidents , although risk of both is increased , but to a range of natural causes , particularly cardiovascular disease.
” This suggests that the most pervasive harm from lockdowns does not manifest in obvious ways like suicides and overdoses .
• A 2015 paper in the American Journal of Epidemiology examines the death rates of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of reaction to severe stress or adjustment disorders ” between 1995 and 2011 .
The study found that they “ had mortality rates during the study period that were 2.2 times higher than ” those of the general population .
• A 2015 meta-analysis in the Journal of the American Medical Association Psychiatry provides a systematic review of 148 studies of death and mental disorders with follow-up times ranging from one to 52 years , with a median of 10 years .
It finds that the overall risk of death among people with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the general population .
Breaking these results out by condition , the mortality increases were : Among all of the results above , the smallest risk of increased death is 20 % in the 2012 meta-analysis .
This has a margin of error from 13 % to 27 % with 95 % confidence .
The lower limit of 13 % translates to an average of about 1.3 years of lost life per person .
Corroborating that figure , 22 of the studies in the 2015 meta-analysis included estimates for the average years of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mental disorder .
These “ ranged from 1.4 to 32 years , with a median of 10.1 years.
” None of these studies were for anxiety , but the low-end figure of 1.4 years provides additional evidence that those who suffer serious mental repercussions from responses to Covid-19 will lose an average of more than a year of life .
Therefore , the figure of 1.3 years of lost life is a bare minimum and forms the second key basis of this study .
This varies widely by person and could be : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people who commit suicide .
• one month or less for elderly persons who have cardiac events triggered by fear or loneliness .
• two years for the middle-aged people whose blood pressure begins spiking earlier in life than it would have in the absence of Covid-19-related stress .
In the science of epidemiology , or the study of human disease , ethical and practical constraints often make it impossible to conduct experiments that can definitively establish the effects of medical interventions .
This applies to determining how many lives might be saved @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
One can easily compare Covid-19 death rates—or the number of people who die from the disease divided by the total population where they live—in nations and states that took different actions .
However , many other factors can affect these death rates , such as wealth , age , population density , government , hospital protocols , culture , genetics , diet , and exercise .
For example , New York State enacted one of the strictest lockdowns in the U.S. but has 22 times the death rate of Florida , which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Given such considerations , the highest possible figure for lives saved by lockdowns can be estimated by comparing the nations of Scandinavia .
This is because these countries are culturally , economically , and genetically similar to one another but have enacted very dissimilar policies to deal with Covid-19 .
In the words of Paul W. Franks , professor of genetic epidemiology at Lund University in Sweden : The Swedish approach to Covid-19 could not be more different from its neighbors , placing much of the responsibility for delaying the spread of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hands of the public .
It ’ s now April and , albeit with some restrictions , Swedish bars , restaurants and schools remain open .
… This all contrasts the far more assertive physical restrictions imposed in the culturally similar neighboring countries .
Across the borders in Denmark , Norway and Finland , schools closed weeks ago and movement has been severely restricted .
Sweden has taken certain measures to slow the spread of Covid-19 , like limiting public gatherings to 50 people .
However , these can hardly be characterized as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , restaurants , schools , beaches , and other public places are open and bustling .
Comparing the current death rates of Scandinavian nations yields a maximum figure for the lives saved by lockdowns because Sweden ’ s plan involves more deaths in the early stages of the pandemic but less later on .
As detailed by Professor Franks , simulations show that the overall death rate is “ expected to be similar across countries , ” but “ unlike its peers , Sweden is likely to take the hit sooner and over @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of deaths occurring within weeks , rather than months.
” As of April 27th , the death rate in Sweden is 32 % higher than in the United States , 3.1 times that of Denmark , 5.8 times that of Norway , and 6.4 times that of Finland : Applying the Sweden/Finland death rate ratio of 6.4 to the United States , the maximum number of Americans who could have been saved by past and current lockdowns is 616,590 .
This figure is based on the most pessimistic projection of 114,228 deaths in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington .
It is calculated by multiplying 114,228 deaths by 6.4 and then subtracting the 114,228 deaths that occur regardless of the lockdown .
The figure of 616,590 lives saved by lockdowns in the U.S. is at the extreme high-end of plausibility because it : • uses the worst-case projection for the U.S. death toll .
• compares the death rate in Sweden to Finland , even though Denmark—which has also implemented a strict lockdown—has twice the death rate of Finland .
• @ @ @ @ @ @ @ doesn ’ t decline relative to its neighbors over time regardless of Sweden ’ s strategy to build herd immunity consistent with the following facts : • The Imperial College—whose cataclysmic projections of Covid-19 deaths have been a driving force behind government lockdowns—has acknowledged that “ the more successful a strategy is at temporary suppression , the larger the later epidemic is predicted to be in the absence of vaccination , due to lesser build-up of herd immunity.
” • A 2012 paper in the journal PLoS One titled “ Immunity in Society @ @ @ @ @ @ @ high proportion of individuals within a population becomes immune ( either through prior exposure or through mass vaccination ) , community or ‘ herd ’ immunity emerges , whereby individuals that are poorly immunized are protected by the collective ‘ immune firewall ’ provided by immunized neighbors.
” • Large portions of people are highly resistant to Covid-19 and experience no symptoms when they catch it , later making them firewalls against the spread of the disease .
For example , the New England Journal of Medicine reported in mid-April that universal Covid-19 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ York City hospitals found that 88 % of the women who tested positive for the disease were asymptomatic .
• U.S. states with strict lockdowns—like New Jersey and New York—have Covid-19 death rates that are three to five times that of Sweden ’ s : Nonetheless , this study uses the highly improbable and optimistic scenario of 616,590 lives saved by lockdowns .
This figure forms the third key basis of the study .
Combining the first two key figures of this study , anxiety from responses to Covid-19 has impacted 42,873,663 adults @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of 1.3 years of life , thus destroying 55.7 million years of life .
Combining the third key figure of this study with data on Covid-19 deaths , a maximum of 616,590 lives might be saved by the current lockdowns , and the disease robs an average of 12 years of life from each of its victims , which means that the current lockdowns can save no more than 7.4 million years of life .
In other words , the anxiety from reactions to Covid-19—such as business shutdowns , stay-at-home orders , media @ @ @ @ @ @ @ virus—will extinguish at least seven times more years of life than can possibly be saved by the lockdowns .
Again , all of these figures minimize deaths from anxiety and maximize lives saved by lockdowns .
Under the more moderate scenarios documented above , anxiety will destroy more than 90 times the life saved by lockdowns based on : • the mid-March American Psychiatric Association survey that found Covid-19 “ is having a serious impact ” on the “ mental health ” of 36 % of adults .
• the 2015 meta-analysis in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Psychiatry that found a 43 % average increase in mortality for people with anxiety .
• the IHME ’ s midpoint projection of 72,433 Covid-19 deaths through August 4th .
• the fact that the current death rate of Sweden is 5.1 times the average of the other Scandinavian nations .
Even the figure of 90 times is likely a substantial underestimate of the total life destroyed by reactions to Covid-19 because it doesn ’ t account for : • anyone under the age of 18 , even though adolescents are disproportionately prone @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and risky behaviors that cause fatal accidents .
• deaths caused by low levels of psychological distress—which have impacted an additional 20 % of adults beyond the 36 % with serious distress according to the late-April Kaiser Family Foundation survey—and are associated with a 20 % greater risk of death per the 2012 British Medical Journal meta-analysis .
• psychological conditions that are more deadly than anxiety , like depression and mood disorders .
Among the 36 % who report a “ serious impact ” on their “ mental health , ” there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the 2015 meta-analysis in the Journal of the American Medical Association Psychiatry finds that the increased risk of death is lowest for anxiety ( 43 % ) , while it is 71 % for depression , and 110 % for mood disorders .
• deaths from non-psychological causes , such as : • government-mandated and personal decisions to delay medical care , which has postponed tumor removals , cancer screenings , heart surgeries , and treatments for other ailments that can lead to early death if not addressed in a timely manner .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ which have negative effects on healthcare , nutrition , education , and other variables that impact life expectancy .
Unlike analyses that only compare the number of deaths from Covid-19 to other causes , this study accounts for the years of life lost for each victim .
This accords with the CDC ’ s principle that “ the allocation of health resources must consider not only the number of deaths by cause but also by age.
” Thus , the CDC explains that the “ years of potential life lost ” has “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the impact of injuries on public health.
” This doesn ’ t mean that the lives of young people are more important than that of the elderly , but it recognizes and accounts for the facts that : • humans can not ultimately prevent death ; they can only delay it .
• there is a material difference between a malady that kills a 20 year-old in the prime of her life and one that kills a 90-year-old who would have otherwise died a month later .
A possible argument against this study @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to compare anxiety to Covid-19 because the effects of anxiety often don ’ t kill until the distant future , while the deaths from Covid-19 are happening right now .
Such logic relegates the harms of mental distress to years away , but the facts are clear that it can kill immediately , make life a nightmare in the present , and produce current and lasting physical ailments that end in early death .
More importantly , tallying the life lost in any random unit of time , as opposed to an entire @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Other distinctions , such as whether or not the cause of death is contagious , are similarly myopic .
The primary issues are prevention and harm , and the difference between them ultimately determines how much life is saved or destroyed .
One of the most important principles of epidemiology is weighing benefits and harms .
A failure to do this can make virtually any medical treatment seem helpful or destructive .
In the words of Ronald C. Kessler of the Harvard Medical School and healthcare economist Paul E. Greenberg , “ medical @ @ @ @ @ @ @ benefits clearly exceed the sum of their direct costs and their expected risks.
” Likewise , a 2020 paper about quarantines published in The Lancet states : “ Separation from loved ones , the loss of freedom , uncertainty over disease status , and boredom can , on occasion , create dramatic effects .
Suicide has been reported , substantial anger generated , and lawsuits brought following the imposition of quarantine in previous outbreaks .
The potential benefits of mandatory mass quarantine need to be weighed carefully against the possible psychological costs.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ other issues , politicians sometimes ignore this essential principle of sound decision-making .
For a prime example , NJ Governor Phil Murphy recently insisted that he must maintain a lockdown or “ there will be blood on our hands.
” What that statement fails to recognize is that lockdowns also kill people via the mechanisms detailed above .
Likewise , a reporter asked NY Governor Andrew Cuomo about the impacts of his lockdown on people who commit “ suicide because they can ’ t pay their bills ” and others who die from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” In reply , Cuomo stated five times that these fatal outcomes are “ not death.
” He also asked the rhetorical question , “ How can the cure be worse than the illness if the illness is potential death ?
” The obvious answer is that the cure is also potential death .
In situations like pandemics and many other realms of public policy , life-and-death tradeoffs are inevitable , and failing to recognize this can cause tremendous harm .
This is the case with Covid-19 , where a broad array of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reactions to the disease will destroy at least seven times more years of life than can possibly be saved by lockdowns .
Moreover , the total loss of life from all societal responses to this disease is likely to be more than 90 times greater than prevented by the lockdowns .
A final note for readers who are experiencing anxiety : Healthcare professionals can reduce these effects , so seek help .
Dr. Andrew Glen is a Professor Emeritus of Operations Research from the United States Military Academy .
He is a thirty-year @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the field of computational probability .
is the president of , a think tank dedicated to publishing rigorously documented facts about public policy issues .

Anxiety From Reactions to Covid-19 Will Destroy At Least Seven Times More Years of Life Than Can Be Saved by Lockdowns
Medical studies show that excessive stress and anxiety are among the most debilitating and deadly of all health hazards in the world. Beyond their obvious effects like suicide and substance abuse—these mental stressors are strongly related to and may trigger and inflame a host of ailments like high blood pressure, digestive disorders, heart conditions, infectious diseases, cancer, and pregnancy complications.
Based on a broad array of scientific data, Just Facts has computed that the anxiety created by reactions to Covid-19—such as stay-at-home orders, business shutdowns, media exaggerations, and legitimate concerns about the virus—will destroy at least seven times more years of human life than can possibly be saved by lockdowns to control the spread of the disease. This figure is a bare minimum, and the actual one is likely more than 90 times greater.
This study was reviewed by Joseph P. Damore, Jr., M.D., who concluded: “This research is engaging and thoroughly answers the question about the cure being worse than the disease.” Dr. Damore is a certified diplomate with the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University, an assistant attending psychiatrist at New York Presbyterian Hospital, and an adjunct professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at the U.S. Military Academy.
Stress and Anxiety Levels
Scientific surveys of U.S. residents have found that the mental health of about one-third to one-half of all adults has been substantially compromised by reactions to the Covid-19 pandemic. Examples include the following:
An American Psychiatric Association survey in mid-March found that 36% of adults report that anxiety over Covid-19 “is having a serious impact on their mental health.”
A Kaiser Family Foundation survey in late March found that 45% of adults “feel that worry and stress related to” Covid-19 “has had a negative impact on their mental health, an increase from 32% from early March.” Additionally, 19% of adults said it is having a “major impact” on their mental health.
A Benenson Strategy Group survey in late March revealed that the Covid-19 “situation has already affected” the “mental health” of 55% of U.S. adults “either a great deal or somewhat.”
A Kaiser Family Foundation survey in late April found that 56% of adults “report that worry and stress related to” Covid-19 “is affecting their mental health and wellbeing in various ways,” such as “trouble sleeping, “poor appetite or over-eating,” “frequent headaches or stomachaches,” “difficulty controlling their temper,” “increasing their alcohol or drug use,” and “worsening chronic conditions like diabetes or high blood pressure.”
Contributors to these mental health impacts include but are not limited to:
empirically grounded concerns about the virus.
anguish over the death of loved ones, although this is limited to a relatively small fraction of the public because the virus has killed one out of every 5,000 Americans, while one out of every 116 Americans die every year.
media outlets that overstate the deadliness of Covid-19 by: using false denominators that exaggerate its death rate. misreporting about the capacity of the virus to mutate and cause a large, ongoing death toll.
government stay-at-home orders and self-imposed isolation, as evidenced by: a survey commissioned by the University of Phoenix in late March that found 44% of U.S. adults are more lonely than they have ever been in their lives, which is a risk factor for suicide and many other psychologically driven fatal afflictions. the late-March Kaiser Family Foundation survey, which “found that 47% of those sheltering in place reported negative mental health effects resulting from worry or stress,” a rate that “is significantly higher than the 37% among people who were not sheltering in place.” the late-March Benenson Strategy Group survey, which found that “71% of Americans say they are concerned that ‘social distancing’ measures will have a negative impact on the country’s mental health—including 28% who are extremely or very concerned about this.”
government-mandated shutdowns of businesses in nearly every state that have cost millions of jobs and are reflected in the: late-April Kaiser Family Foundation survey, which found that 35% of adults and 55% of workers “have lost their jobs or had a reduction in hours or pay as a result of” responses to Covid-19. mid-March American Psychiatric Association survey, which found that 57% of adults are concerned that responses to the pandemic “will have a serious negative impact on their finances,” and 68% fear it “will have a long-lasting impact on the economy.”
Among all of the figures above, the lowest nationwide measure of people who have incurred psychological harm from reactions to Covid-19 is the 19% of adults in the late-March Kaiser Family Foundation survey who reported a “major impact” on their mental health. This survey included 1,226 respondents and has a margin of sampling error for this result of ± 2.2 percentage points with 95% confidence.
Therefore, at least 16.8% of 255,200,373 adults in the United States—or 42,873,663 people—have suffered major mental harm from responses to Covid-19. This figure forms the first key basis of this study.
The Deadliness of Anxiety and Stress
Medical journals are rich with studies that attempt to measure the lethality of stress, anxiety, depression, and other psychological conditions. Determining this is very difficult because association does not prove causation, and unmeasured factors could be at play.
For example, a 2011 meta-analysis in the journal Social Science & Medicine about mortality, “psychosocial stress,” and job losses finds that “unemployment is associated with a substantially increased risk of death among broad segments of the population,” but there are conflicting theories as to why this is so. One is that “unemployment causes adverse changes in health behaviors, which in turn lead to deterioration of health.” Put simply, unemployment causes bad health. The other theory is that bad health causes unemployment. Both of these theories may be true, and factors that are not measured in the studies could be causing both unemployment and bad health. Thus, it is very difficult to isolate these variables and determine which is causing the others and to what degree.
While trying to address such uncertainty, the meta-analysis examined “235 mortality risk estimates from 42 studies” and found that “unemployment is associated with a 63% higher risk of mortality in studies controlling for covariates.”
Regardless of whether job losses from Covid-19 lockdowns are brief or sustained, the study found that the death correlation “is significant in both the short and long term,” lending “some support to the hypothesis and previous findings that both the stress and the negative lifestyle effects associated with the onset of unemployment tend to persist even after a person has regained a job.”
Also of relevance to current job losses, the study indicates that added unemployment benefits, like those recently passed into federal law, are unlikely to mitigate the deadliness of job losses. This is because the meta-analysis found that the associations between unemployment and death in Scandinavia and the U.S. are not significantly different, even though the Scandinavian nations offer more generous welfare benefits. Thus, the authors conclude that “these national-level policy differences may not have much of an effect on the rate of mortality following unemployment.”
A broad range of other studies have similar implications for anxiety-related deaths wrought by reactions to Covid-19:
A 1991 study published by the New England Journal of Medicine found that “psychological stress was associated in a dose-response manner with an increased risk of acute infectious respiratory illness.” A dose-response relationship, as explained by epidemiologist Sydney Pettygrove, “is one in which increasing levels of exposure are associated with either an increasing or a decreasing risk of the outcome.” She notes that when this pattern occurs, it “is considered strong evidence for a causal relationship between the exposure and the outcome.”
A 2004 paper in The Lancet documents that “stress and depression result in an impairment of the immune response and might promote the initiation and progression of some types of cancer….” The paper details many human and animal studies germane to the Covid-19 lockdowns, such as those dealing with a “lack of social interactions” that cause certain cancers to metastasize.
A 2005 paper in the Journal of Experimental Medicine finds that “psychological conditions, including stress” trigger a “sophisticated molecular mechanism” that increases “the likelihood of infections, autoimmunity, or cancer.”
A 2012 meta-analysis in the British Medical Journal finds “a dose-response association between psychological distress and mortality from all causes, cardiovascular disease, and external causes across the full range of distress, even in people who would not usually come to the attention of mental health services.” Furthermore, “these associations remained after adjustment for age, sex, current occupational social class, body mass index, systolic blood pressure, physical activity, smoking, alcohol consumption, and diabetes.” People with the lowest levels of psychological distress in this study had a 20% greater risk of death, and those with the highest levels had a 94% greater risk.
A 2012 paper in the Journal of the American Medical Association Psychiatry analyzes the death rates of more than a million young males in Sweden who underwent a government-mandated military draft physical that “included a structured interview by a psychologist” during 1969 to 1994. This study is particularly relevant to the effects of the current Covid-19 anxiety because it involves nearly all the healthy young men of a nation and excludes those with “severe” mental or physical disorders because they were excused from the exam. The study finds: Young men who were diagnosed with neurotic and adjustment disorders were 76% more likely to die in the average follow-up period of 22.6 years. A neurotic disorder is a problem dealing with anxiety, and an adjustment disorder—which is now called “stress response syndrome”—is “a short-term condition that occurs when a person has great difficulty coping with, or adjusting to, a particular source of stress, such as a major life change, loss, or event.” These are apt descriptions of the tens of millions of Americans who report that reactions to Covid-19 are seriously harming their mental health. Premature deaths associated with mental illness “are not primarily due to suicide or accidents, although risk of both is increased, but to a range of natural causes, particularly cardiovascular disease.” This suggests that the most pervasive harm from lockdowns does not manifest in obvious ways like suicides and overdoses.
A 2015 paper in the American Journal of Epidemiology examines the death rates of all “Danes who received a diagnosis of reaction to severe stress or adjustment disorders” between 1995 and 2011. The study found that they “had mortality rates during the study period that were 2.2 times higher than” those of the general population.
A 2015 meta-analysis in the Journal of the American Medical Association Psychiatry provides a systematic review of 148 studies of death and mental disorders with follow-up times ranging from one to 52 years, with a median of 10 years. It finds that the overall risk of death among people with mental disorders is 2.2 times that of the general population. Breaking these results out by condition, the mortality increases were: 43% for people with anxiety. 71% for people with depression 110% for people with mood disorders. 150% for people with psychoses.
Among all of the results above, the smallest risk of increased death is 20% in the 2012 meta-analysis. This has a margin of error from 13% to 27% with 95% confidence. The lower limit of 13% translates to an average of about 1.3 years of lost life per person.
Corroborating that figure, 22 of the studies in the 2015 meta-analysis included estimates for the average years of life lost by each person with a mental disorder. These “ranged from 1.4 to 32 years, with a median of 10.1 years.” None of these studies were for anxiety, but the low-end figure of 1.4 years provides additional evidence that those who suffer serious mental repercussions from responses to Covid-19 will lose an average of more than a year of life.
Therefore, the figure of 1.3 years of lost life is a bare minimum and forms the second key basis of this study. This varies widely by person and could be:
50 years or more for young people who commit suicide.
one month or less for elderly persons who have cardiac events triggered by fear or loneliness.
two years for the middle-aged people whose blood pressure begins spiking earlier in life than it would have in the absence of Covid-19-related stress.
Lives Saved By Lockdowns
In the science of epidemiology, or the study of human disease, ethical and practical constraints often make it impossible to conduct experiments that can definitively establish the effects of medical interventions. This applies to determining how many lives might be saved by government lockdowns during the Covid-19 pandemic.
One can easily compare Covid-19 death rates—or the number of people who die from the disease divided by the total population where they live—in nations and states that took different actions. However, many other factors can affect these death rates, such as wealth, age, population density, government, hospital protocols, culture, genetics, diet, and exercise. For example, New York State enacted one of the strictest lockdowns in the U.S. but has 22 times the death rate of Florida, which had one of the mildest lockdowns.
Given such considerations, the highest possible figure for lives saved by lockdowns can be estimated by comparing the nations of Scandinavia. This is because these countries are culturally, economically, and genetically similar to one another but have enacted very dissimilar policies to deal with Covid-19. In the words of Paul W. Franks, professor of genetic epidemiology at Lund University in Sweden:
The Swedish approach to Covid-19 could not be more different from its neighbors, placing much of the responsibility for delaying the spread of the virus and protecting the vulnerable in the hands of the public. It’s now April and, albeit with some restrictions, Swedish bars, restaurants and schools remain open. …
This all contrasts the far more assertive physical restrictions imposed in the culturally similar neighboring countries. Across the borders in Denmark, Norway and Finland, schools closed weeks ago and movement has been severely restricted.
Sweden has taken certain measures to slow the spread of Covid-19, like limiting public gatherings to 50 people. However, these can hardly be characterized as “lockdowns,” and Swedish stores, restaurants, schools, beaches, and other public places are open and bustling.
Stockholm, Sweden, April 1, 2020 (TT News Agency/Fredrik Sandberg via Reuters)
Comparing the current death rates of Scandinavian nations yields a maximum figure for the lives saved by lockdowns because Sweden’s plan involves more deaths in the early stages of the pandemic but less later on. As detailed by Professor Franks, simulations show that the overall death rate is “expected to be similar across countries,” but “unlike its peers, Sweden is likely to take the hit sooner and over a shorter period, with the majority of deaths occurring within weeks, rather than months.”
As of April 27th, the death rate in Sweden is 32% higher than in the United States, 3.1 times that of Denmark, 5.8 times that of Norway, and 6.4 times that of Finland:
Applying the Sweden/Finland death rate ratio of 6.4 to the United States, the maximum number of Americans who could have been saved by past and current lockdowns is 616,590. This figure is based on the most pessimistic projection of 114,228 deaths in the U.S. through August 4th by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. It is calculated by multiplying 114,228 deaths by 6.4 and then subtracting the 114,228 deaths that occur regardless of the lockdown.
The figure of 616,590 lives saved by lockdowns in the U.S. is at the extreme high-end of plausibility because it:
uses the worst-case projection for the U.S. death toll.
compares the death rate in Sweden to Finland, even though Denmark—which has also implemented a strict lockdown—has twice the death rate of Finland.
assumes that Sweden’s death rate doesn’t decline relative to its neighbors over time regardless of Sweden’s strategy to build herd immunity consistent with the following facts: The Imperial College—whose cataclysmic projections of Covid-19 deaths have been a driving force behind government lockdowns—has acknowledged that “the more successful a strategy is at temporary suppression, the larger the later epidemic is predicted to be in the absence of vaccination, due to lesser build-up of herd immunity.” A 2012 paper in the journal PLoS One titled “Immunity in Society” notes that “when a sufficiently high proportion of individuals within a population becomes immune (either through prior exposure or through mass vaccination), community or ‘herd’ immunity emerges, whereby individuals that are poorly immunized are protected by the collective ‘immune firewall’ provided by immunized neighbors.” Large portions of people are highly resistant to Covid-19 and experience no symptoms when they catch it, later making them firewalls against the spread of the disease. For example, the New England Journal of Medicine reported in mid-April that universal Covid-19 testing of pregnant women at two New York City hospitals found that 88% of the women who tested positive for the disease were asymptomatic. U.S. states with strict lockdowns—like New Jersey and New York—have Covid-19 death rates that are three to five times that of Sweden’s:
Nonetheless, this study uses the highly improbable and optimistic scenario of 616,590 lives saved by lockdowns. This figure forms the third key basis of the study.
Comparing Life Lost and Saved
Combining the first two key figures of this study, anxiety from responses to Covid-19 has impacted 42,873,663 adults and will rob them of an average of 1.3 years of life, thus destroying 55.7 million years of life.
Combining the third key figure of this study with data on Covid-19 deaths, a maximum of 616,590 lives might be saved by the current lockdowns, and the disease robs an average of 12 years of life from each of its victims, which means that the current lockdowns can save no more than 7.4 million years of life.
In other words, the anxiety from reactions to Covid-19—such as business shutdowns, stay-at-home orders, media exaggerations, and legitimate concerns about the virus—will extinguish at least seven times more years of life than can possibly be saved by the lockdowns.
Again, all of these figures minimize deaths from anxiety and maximize lives saved by lockdowns. Under the more moderate scenarios documented above, anxiety will destroy more than 90 times the life saved by lockdowns based on:
the mid-March American Psychiatric Association survey that found Covid-19 “is having a serious impact” on the “mental health” of 36% of adults.
the 2015 meta-analysis in the Journal of the American Medical Association Psychiatry that found a 43% average increase in mortality for people with anxiety.
the IHME’s midpoint projection of 72,433 Covid-19 deaths through August 4th.
the fact that the current death rate of Sweden is 5.1 times the average of the other Scandinavian nations.
Even the figure of 90 times is likely a substantial underestimate of the total life destroyed by reactions to Covid-19 because it doesn’t account for:
anyone under the age of 18, even though adolescents are disproportionately prone to stress-related suicides, substance abuse, and risky behaviors that cause fatal accidents.
deaths caused by low levels of psychological distress—which have impacted an additional 20% of adults beyond the 36% with serious distress according to the late-April Kaiser Family Foundation survey—and are associated with a 20% greater risk of death per the 2012 British Medical Journal meta-analysis.
psychological conditions that are more deadly than anxiety, like depression and mood disorders. Among the 36% who report a “serious impact” on their “mental health,” there is a mix of conditions, and the 2015 meta-analysis in the Journal of the American Medical Association Psychiatry finds that the increased risk of death is lowest for anxiety (43%), while it is 71% for depression, and 110% for mood disorders.
Unlike analyses that only compare the number of deaths from Covid-19 to other causes, this study accounts for the years of life lost for each victim. This accords with the CDC’s principle that “the allocation of health resources must consider not only the number of deaths by cause but also by age.” Thus, the CDC explains that the “years of potential life lost” has “become a mainstay in the evaluation of the impact of injuries on public health.” This doesn’t mean that the lives of young people are more important than that of the elderly, but it recognizes and accounts for the facts that:
humans cannot ultimately prevent death; they can only delay it.
there is a material difference between a malady that kills a 20 year-old in the prime of her life and one that kills a 90-year-old who would have otherwise died a month later.
A possible argument against this study is that it isn’t proper to compare anxiety to Covid-19 because the effects of anxiety often don’t kill until the distant future, while the deaths from Covid-19 are happening right now. Such logic relegates the harms of mental distress to years away, but the facts are clear that it can kill immediately, make life a nightmare in the present, and produce current and lasting physical ailments that end in early death. More importantly, tallying the life lost in any random unit of time, as opposed to an entire lifetime, is shortsighted and exclusionary.
Other distinctions, such as whether or not the cause of death is contagious, are similarly myopic. The primary issues are prevention and harm, and the difference between them ultimately determines how much life is saved or destroyed.
Summary
One of the most important principles of epidemiology is weighing benefits and harms. A failure to do this can make virtually any medical treatment seem helpful or destructive. In the words of Ronald C. Kessler of the Harvard Medical School and healthcare economist Paul E. Greenberg, “medical interventions are appropriate only if their expected benefits clearly exceed the sum of their direct costs and their expected risks.”
Likewise, a 2020 paper about quarantines published in The Lancet states: “Separation from loved ones, the loss of freedom, uncertainty over disease status, and boredom can, on occasion, create dramatic effects. Suicide has been reported, substantial anger generated, and lawsuits brought following the imposition of quarantine in previous outbreaks. The potential benefits of mandatory mass quarantine need to be weighed carefully against the possible psychological costs.”
Yet, when dealing with Covid-19 and other issues, politicians sometimes ignore this essential principle of sound decision-making. For a prime example, NJ Governor Phil Murphy recently insisted that he must maintain a lockdown or “there will be blood on our hands.” What that statement fails to recognize is that lockdowns also kill people via the mechanisms detailed above.
Likewise, a reporter asked NY Governor Andrew Cuomo about the impacts of his lockdown on people who commit “suicide because they can’t pay their bills” and others who die from the economic repercussions and “mental illness.” In reply, Cuomo stated five times that these fatal outcomes are “not death.” He also asked the rhetorical question, “How can the cure be worse than the illness if the illness is potential death?” The obvious answer is that the cure is also potential death.
In situations like pandemics and many other realms of public policy, life-and-death tradeoffs are inevitable, and failing to recognize this can cause tremendous harm. This is the case with Covid-19, where a broad array of scientific facts overwhelmingly shows that anxiety from reactions to the disease will destroy at least seven times more years of life than can possibly be saved by lockdowns. Moreover, the total loss of life from all societal responses to this disease is likely to be more than 90 times greater than prevented by the lockdowns.
A final note for readers who are experiencing anxiety: Healthcare professionals can reduce these effects, so seek help.
Dr. Andrew Glen is a Professor Emeritus of Operations Research from the United States Military Academy. He is a thirty-year U.S. Army veteran and an award-winning researcher in the field of computational probability.


bonginoreport--2020-05-05--Treasury Announces Unprecedented $3 Trillion in Borrowing This Quarter

Massive stimulus to support the U.S. economy through the coronavirus crisis will cause the Treasury to borrow a record $ 3 trillion this quarter .
The department on Monday announced the total , which is actually $ 2.999 trillion .
`` The increase in privately-held net marketable borrowing is primarily driven by the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak , including expenditures from new legislation to assist individuals and businesses , changes to tax receipts including the deferral of individual and business taxes from April – June until July , and an increase in the assumed end-of-June Treasury cash balance , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
On top of that borrowing , the Treasury also said it anticipates another $ 677 billion in the third quarter .
First-quarter borrowing totaled $ 477 billion .
The red ink comes thanks to multiple stimulus efforts Congress has passed to resuscitate an economy brought to a standstill amid social distancing efforts to halt the virus spread .
Allocations thus far have totaled more than $ 2 trillion , and at last one more package is expected to help the more than 30 million Americans who have hit the unemployment line as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have seen their revenue streams evaporate .
The Treasury Department also is backstopping several lending programs for the Federal Reserve , which is leveraging Treasury guarantees in programs aimed at providing another $ 2.2 trillion in funding to businesses and households .
Just since March 1 , the national debt has grown by $ 1.5 trillion to $ 24.9 trillion , a 6.4 % increase .
The budget deficit through March , or the first six months of the fiscal year , totaled $ 744 billion , on pace to easily eclipse the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to CNBC PRO for exclusive insights and analysis , and live business day programming from around the world .

Massive stimulus to support the U.S. economy through the coronavirus crisis will cause the Treasury to borrow a record $3 trillion this quarter.
The department on Monday announced the total, which is actually $2.999 trillion.
"The increase in privately-held net marketable borrowing is primarily driven by the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak, including expenditures from new legislation to assist individuals and businesses, changes to tax receipts including the deferral of individual and business taxes from April – June until July, and an increase in the assumed end-of-June Treasury cash balance," the department said in a statement.
On top of that borrowing, the Treasury also said it anticipates another $677 billion in the third quarter. First-quarter borrowing totaled $477 billion.
The red ink comes thanks to multiple stimulus efforts Congress has passed to resuscitate an economy brought to a standstill amid social distancing efforts to halt the virus spread. Allocations thus far have totaled more than $2 trillion, and at last one more package is expected to help the more than 30 million Americans who have hit the unemployment line as well as thousands of other businesses that have seen their revenue streams evaporate.
The Treasury Department also is backstopping several lending programs for the Federal Reserve, which is leveraging Treasury guarantees in programs aimed at providing another $2.2 trillion in funding to businesses and households.
Just since March 1, the national debt has grown by $1.5 trillion to $24.9 trillion, a 6.4% increase. The budget deficit through March, or the first six months of the fiscal year, totaled $744 billion, on pace to easily eclipse the biggest shortfall in U.S. history.
Subscribe to CNBC PRO for exclusive insights and analysis, and live business day programming from around the world.


bonginoreport--2020-05-05--Scientists Say They’ve Discovered Antibody That Blocks Coronavirus From Infecting Cells

Scientists have discovered an antibody which prevents the coronavirus from infecting human cells in `` groundbreaking research '' which could lead to the development of new treatments .
Building on research into the SARS coronavirus , scientists from Utrecht University in the Netherlands , as well as the Erasmus Medical Centre and the company Harbour BioMed ( HBM ) , have identified a potential method of neutralising COVID-19 .
They discovered that an antibody which prevents the SARS virus from infecting human cells could also block the novel coronavirus from infecting human cells too , according a peer reviewed study @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Communications .
Testing their collection of antibodies on cultured human cells , researchers discovered one which binds to a specific part which is present in both SARS and the virus causing COVID-19 .
The discovery could offer an initial step towards developing a fully-human antibody to treat or prevent the disease , which has infected more then 3.5 million people worldwide , and led to more than 247,000 deaths .
: : Listen to Sophy Ridge on Sunday on Apple podcasts , Google podcasts , Spotify , Spreaker The neutralising antibody `` has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the infected host , support virus clearance or protect an uninfected individual that is exposed to the virus , '' said Dr Berend-Jan Bosch , co-lead author on the study .
Dr Frank Grosveld , the study 's other co-lead author , said the discovery provided `` a strong foundation for additional research to characterise this antibody and begin development as a potential COVID-19 treatment '' .
`` The antibody used in this work is 'fully human ' , allowing development to proceed more rapidly and reducing the potential for immune-related side @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fully-human antibody is different from conventional therapeutic antibodies , which are often first developed in other species before being `` humanised '' so they can be transmitted to people .
It was developed using Harbour BioMed 's H2L2 transgenic mouse technology - effectively a mouse which has been genetically engineered to contain human genes , enabling researchers to develop `` human '' antibodies without testing them on living people .
`` This is groundbreaking research , '' said Dr Jingsong Wang , the chief executive of HBM .

Scientists have discovered an antibody which prevents the coronavirus from infecting human cells in "groundbreaking research" which could lead to the development of new treatments.
Building on research into the SARS coronavirus, scientists from Utrecht University in the Netherlands, as well as the Erasmus Medical Centre and the company Harbour BioMed (HBM), have identified a potential method of neutralising COVID-19.
They discovered that an antibody which prevents the SARS virus from infecting human cells could also block the novel coronavirus from infecting human cells too, according a peer reviewed study published on Monday in the journal Nature Communications.
Testing their collection of antibodies on cultured human cells, researchers discovered one which binds to a specific part which is present in both SARS and the virus causing COVID-19.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player 0:50 How does contact tracing app work?
The discovery could offer an initial step towards developing a fully-human antibody to treat or prevent the disease, which has infected more then 3.5 million people worldwide, and led to more than 247,000 deaths.
Podcast Podcast , which may be using cookies and other technologies. To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies. You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable Podcast cookies or to allow those cookies just once. You can change your settings at any time via the This content is provided by, which may be using cookies and other technologies. To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies. You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enablecookies or to allow those cookies just once. You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Podcast cookies. To view this content you can use the button below to allow Podcast cookies for this session only. Enable Cookies Allow Cookies Once
:: Listen to Sophy Ridge on Sunday on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, Spotify, Spreaker
The neutralising antibody "has potential to alter the course of infection in the infected host, support virus clearance or protect an uninfected individual that is exposed to the virus," said Dr Berend-Jan Bosch, co-lead author on the study.
Dr Frank Grosveld, the study's other co-lead author, said the discovery provided "a strong foundation for additional research to characterise this antibody and begin development as a potential COVID-19 treatment".
"The antibody used in this work is 'fully human', allowing development to proceed more rapidly and reducing the potential for immune-related side effects," he added.
Advertisement
The fully-human antibody is different from conventional therapeutic antibodies, which are often first developed in other species before being "humanised" so they can be transmitted to people.
It was developed using Harbour BioMed's H2L2 transgenic mouse technology - effectively a mouse which has been genetically engineered to contain human genes, enabling researchers to develop "human" antibodies without testing them on living people.
"This is groundbreaking research," said Dr Jingsong Wang, the chief executive of HBM.


bonginoreport--2020-05-05--POLITICO Founder Says He Doesn’t Want Joe Biden to Face Justice If He’s Guilty of Tara Reade Allegat

POLITICO Founder Says He Doesn’t Want Joe Biden to Face Justice If He’s Guilty of Tara Reade Allegations

One of the founders of Politico admitted that he doesn ’ t want an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden regarding allegations of sexual assault because it could hurt Biden ’ s chance to win in 2020 .
A piece from the New York Times published Monday showed published letters to the editor regarding a May 2 piece from the editorial board titled “ Investigate Tara Reade ’ s Allegations.
” Reade has accused Biden of sexually assaulting her while she worked as a Senate staffer in the early 1990 ’ s .
Martin Tolchin , a co-founder of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a former member of The Times ’ Washington bureau , wrote in and admitted that he didn ’ t want an investigation into the allegation .
Tolchin wrote that this was simply because it could damage the chance to beat President Donald Trump , adding that he didn ’ t even want justice for Reade if her allegation proved true .
“ I totally disagree with this editorial .
I don ’ t want an investigation .
I want a coronation of Joe Biden , ” Tolchin wrote according to the NYT .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ , whatever that may be .
I want a win , the removal of Donald Trump from office , and Mr. Biden is our best chance.
” Tolchin was particularly concerned about the investigation because of the possibility that it would reveal information that would hurt Biden in the upcoming 2020 election .
Tolchin appeared determined to beat Trump at all costs .
“ Suppose an investigation reveals damaging information concerning his relationship with Tara Reade or something else , and Mr. Biden loses the nomination to Senator Bernie Sanders or someone else @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump , ” Tolchin wrote .
“ Should we really risk the possibility ?
” The NYT ’ s editorial board piece that Tolchin was so frustrated with pushed for an investigation into Reade ’ s accusations .
“ Americans deserve to know more about a sexual assault accusation against the likely Democratic Party nominee , ” the editorial board wrote .
At least six people have corroborated part of Reade ’ s allegations against Biden , the Daily Caller News Foundation previously reported .
Reade ’ s story does have inconsistencies , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The NYT editorial board noted this , but wrote that it doesn ’ t mean the allegation should be ignored .
( RELATED : Joe Biden Says Tara Reade ’ s Story ‘ Has Changed Repeatedly.
’ Here ’ s Why He ’ s Right . )
The “ serious inquiry ” needed should include “ the trove of records ” regarding Biden ’ s “ Senate career that he donated to the University of Delaware in 2012 , ” the NYT editorial board wrote .
Such records are currently being kept @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .

One of the founders of Politico admitted that he doesn’t want an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden regarding allegations of sexual assault because it could hurt Biden’s chance to win in 2020.
A piece from the New York Times published Monday showed published letters to the editor regarding a May 2 piece from the editorial board titled “Investigate Tara Reade’s Allegations.” Reade has accused Biden of sexually assaulting her while she worked as a Senate staffer in the early 1990’s.
Martin Tolchin, a co-founder of Politico and The Hill as well as a former member of The Times’ Washington bureau, wrote in and admitted that he didn’t want an investigation into the allegation. Tolchin wrote that this was simply because it could damage the chance to beat President Donald Trump, adding that he didn’t even want justice for Reade if her allegation proved true.
“I totally disagree with this editorial. I don’t want an investigation. I want a coronation of Joe Biden,” Tolchin wrote according to the NYT. “I don’t want justice, whatever that may be. I want a win, the removal of Donald Trump from office, and Mr. Biden is our best chance.”
Frame it and hang it on a wall. pic.twitter.com/QeBH2P9jnT — Guy Benson (@guypbenson) May 5, 2020
Tolchin was particularly concerned about the investigation because of the possibility that it would reveal information that would hurt Biden in the upcoming 2020 election. Tolchin appeared determined to beat Trump at all costs.
“Suppose an investigation reveals damaging information concerning his relationship with Tara Reade or something else, and Mr. Biden loses the nomination to Senator Bernie Sanders or someone else with a minimal chance of defeating Mr. Trump,” Tolchin wrote. “Should we really risk the possibility?”
The NYT’s editorial board piece that Tolchin was so frustrated with pushed for an investigation into Reade’s accusations.
“Americans deserve to know more about a sexual assault accusation against the likely Democratic Party nominee,” the editorial board wrote.
At least six people have corroborated part of Reade’s allegations against Biden, the Daily Caller News Foundation previously reported. Reade’s story does have inconsistencies, as the Daily Caller has pointed out. The NYT editorial board noted this, but wrote that it doesn’t mean the allegation should be ignored. (RELATED: Joe Biden Says Tara Reade’s Story ‘Has Changed Repeatedly.’ Here’s Why He’s Right.)
The “serious inquiry” needed should include “the trove of records” regarding Biden’s “Senate career that he donated to the University of Delaware in 2012,” the NYT editorial board wrote. Such records are currently being kept under lock and key at the school.


bonginoreport--2020-05-05--Airbnb to Layoff 25% of Workforce

Airbnb to Layoff 25% of Workforce

Airbnb Inc. is slashing nearly one-fourth of its workforce , or 1,900 employees , as it grapples with a free-falling @ @ @ @ @ , first reported by The Information , were announced to employees by company Chief Executive @ @ @ @ @ .
`` We are collectively living through the most harrowing crisis of our lifetime , @ @ @ @ @ unfold , global travel came to a standstill , '' Chesky told employees in a @ @ @ @ @ business has been hit hard , with revenue this year forecasted to be less than @ @ @ @ @ in 2019 . ''
The cuts come days after Gig-based companies such as Lyft Inc. @ @ @ @ @

Airbnb Inc. is slashing nearly one-fourth of its workforce, or 1,900 employees, as it grapples with a free-falling travel industry. The cutbacks, first reported by The Information, were announced to employees by company Chief Executive Brian Chesky on Tuesday afternoon. "We are collectively living through the most harrowing crisis of our lifetime, and as it began to unfold, global travel came to a standstill," Chesky told employees in a note. "Airbnb's business has been hit hard, with revenue this year forecasted to be less than half of what we earned in 2019." The cuts come days after Gig-based companies such as Lyft Inc. LYFT, +3.78% announced layoffs.


bonginoreport--2020-05-05--Disney to Reopen Disneyland Shanghai on May 11th

Disney will reopen its Shanghai theme park on May 11 , the company said during an earnings conference call on Tuesday .
The park has been closed since January 25 .
Disney reopened Disneytown , Wishing Star Park and the Disneyland Hotel in Shanghai in March .
This will be the first Disney theme park to reopen after being closed due to the coronavirus pandemic .
`` We will take a phased approach with limits on attendance , using an advanced reservation and entry system , controlled guest density using social distancing and strict government required health and prevention procedures @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the call .
`` These include the use of masks , temperature screenings and other contact tracing and early detection systems . ''
Typically , he said , the park has 80,000 visitors per day , but the government has mandated they operate at 30 % capacity , or 24,000 visitors .
Chapek said the park would initially open operating well below that capacity and ramp up to reach the 30 % cap over several weeks .
Chief Financial Officer Christine McCarthy said it remains unclear when the rest of Disney 's parks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stores will be able to reopen .
These facets of Disney 's business all fall under the Parks , Experiences and Consumer Products segment .
The segment had been the company 's fastest-growing profit driver , however closures crippled revenue by 10 % during the second quarter .

Disney will reopen its Shanghai theme park on May 11, the company said during an earnings conference call on Tuesday. The park has been closed since January 25.
Disney reopened Disneytown, Wishing Star Park and the Disneyland Hotel in Shanghai in March. This will be the first Disney theme park to reopen after being closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
"We will take a phased approach with limits on attendance, using an advanced reservation and entry system, controlled guest density using social distancing and strict government required health and prevention procedures," CEO Bob Chapek said on the call. "These include the use of masks, temperature screenings and other contact tracing and early detection systems."
Typically, he said, the park has 80,000 visitors per day, but the government has mandated they operate at 30% capacity, or 24,000 visitors. Chapek said the park would initially open operating well below that capacity and ramp up to reach the 30% cap over several weeks.
Chief Financial Officer Christine McCarthy said it remains unclear when the rest of Disney's parks, resorts, cruise ships and Disney-branded stores will be able to reopen.
These facets of Disney's business all fall under the Parks, Experiences and Consumer Products segment. The segment had been the company's fastest-growing profit driver, however closures crippled revenue by 10% during the second quarter.