buzzfeednews--2020-03-05--Opinion: Resist The Authoritarian Response To The Coronavirus

Public health officials escorted by armed police through the epicenter of an outbreak .
Government officials , in an effort to contain an epidemic , announcing rules forcing people off the streets .
City residents fearing for their lives as a new virus kills the frail and infirm among them .
That same fear leads to widespread support for draconian public health measures as long as they keep people safe .
The spread of the coronavirus has reminded us of the darker side of epidemic control .
These kinds of `` security-forward '' responses are among the most common ways @ @ @ @ @ @ @ COVID-19 epidemic has made these scenes familiar to us all , the above description applies just as well to the disease epicenter of Wuhan , China , as it does to how authorities right here in the US have responded to both real and perceived local epidemics .
Consider Los Angeles , where the same enforcement-based approach favored by China ’ s government is , with little fanfare , being deployed to fight a more localized outbreak .
The epidemic in question ?
Flea-borne typhus ( Rickettsia typhi ) , a relatively benign @ @ @ @ @ @ @ better known for causing deadly epidemics in Medieval Europe starting in the 15th century .
Since the advent of modern antibiotics , typhus has been a preventable disease , and flea-borne typhus is rare in the US .
So when the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health announced in 2018 that the number of yearly cases of flea-borne typhus had suddenly doubled to over 60 — and that a majority of the ill were people who were homeless — the reaction was swift .
News articles with headlines like “ California Sees @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and “ Are LA 's Medieval Diseases Coming to Your City ?
” stoked a climate of fear and made the city ’ s residents who were experiencing homeless their main target .
The result was a new layer of security imposed upon Skid Row in the name of public health : sanitation workers wielding hoses , bleach , and trash compactors , escorted by a platoon of police to do daily cleanups .
Their mandate ?
Destroy or seize any encampments and belongings that might contribute to the spread of disease .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ has been waged for decades , but the added dimension of disease transformed it from a gentrifying mission into a wholescale public health battle against a terrifying epidemic .
Suddenly , `` cleaning up the streets '' took on a more literal — and urgent — dimension .
Just 130 miles due south of Skid Row , in the Mexican border town of Tijuana , we recently saw another example of public health deployed as a useful pretext to take action against undesirable populations .
When a caravan of Central American migrants numbering @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2018 , the Trump administration made clear how vehemently opposed it was to even considering their claims for asylum .
The extent of the administration ’ s hostility soon became obvious with the deployment of 15,000 troops to the border amid the announcement of a national emergency .
While Donald Trump has from the outset of his presidency articulated a xenophobic vision of America , it was notable that the justification for his heavy-handed response to the migrant caravan was articulated in the language of public health and disease .
Within a subset @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the 2,700-strong caravan was riddled with HIV/AIDS , tuberculosis , and chicken pox was repeated ad nauseam , even from the president himself .
It was a chilling case of the dehumanizing potential of epidemic language , and a defining moment in Trump 's presidency .
While COVID-19 , LA ’ s Skid Row , and Tijuana ’ s migrant caravan have little in common , they have all produced a common outcome : a fear of epidemics that has made us willing to accept restrictions that we would otherwise decry as infringing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ China , which has gone further than anywhere else in combining totalitarian politics with state-of-the-art surveillance technology , the fear of a generalized pandemic has given President Xi Jinping ’ s government maximum leeway to crack down on its citizens .
The international community has mostly applauded the Chinese government ’ s response .
In January , four weeks after the initial outbreak , the World Health Organization praised China for the “ commitment from top leadership , and the transparency they have demonstrated.
” By late February , the scientist who led @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the ground in the country stated it plainly : `` Hundreds of thousands of people in China did n't get COVID-19 because of their aggressive response.
” It ’ s clear that epidemics of this magnitude require a dedicated response , and at least some of the controls that China put in place have likely saved lives .
What ’ s less clear , though , is which ones actually moved the needle , and which ones — like censoring coronavirus posts on the popular social messaging app WeChat — may have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
While perhaps meant to defuse global panic , the praise from the international body allowed the Chinese government to sidestep mounting criticisms of delays , censorship , and the detention of doctors who publicly voiced concerns about the epidemic .
And with the number of cases still growing — roughly 93,000 cases and over 3,100 deaths globally so far — some experts are starting to question the effectiveness of blanket curfews and police-enforced quarantine zones .
But it ’ s not just China ’ s extreme responses to the COVID-19 epidemic that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ home , experts are recognizing that one of the most dangerous symptoms of any epidemic — be it real or fabricated — is fear .
Ricky Bluthenthal , associate dean of social justice at the University of Southern California ’ s Keck School of Medicine , works just a few miles east of LA ’ s Skid Row , though he is often found in the neighborhood meeting with frontline workers and residents who are homeless .
From his vantage point , the single biggest impact of the flea-borne typhus outbreak has been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who are homeless .
That , in turn , has provided the city government with broad impunity to achieve long-standing security and beautification goals .
“ Literally every day they are breaking up homeless encampments , ” Bluthenthal said .
“ They clean up 40 locations a day .
Occasionally they ’ ll make a public health argument for it , but sometimes they won ’ t .
Because the truth is that breaking up the encampments is about political realities ; it ’ s not about the health of the homeless people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Under the direction of Mayor Eric Garcetti , the city of LA launched the aggressive , daily sweeps in 2018 at a cost of $ 30 million per year .
Given the stakes , officials claim that the city government had been left with no choice but to take draconian steps to , in the words of a city spokesperson , “ keep our streets and sidewalks safe for everyone.
” Bluthenthal sees a direct link between epidemic fear and widespread public acceptance of policies that would otherwise be recognized as nakedly authoritarian @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a disaster .
We just keep digging the ditch deeper by making people more vulnerable and disrupting their lives , ” he said .
The upshot is that effective solutions to homelessness , which are often more complicated and take longer to implement , are a hard sell for scared citizens who favor the quick fix of daily crackdowns .
“ Mobile or walk-in centers where people can deal with their natural needs and get cleaned up , ” said Bluthenthal , running down a list .
“ Daily trash pickup and deploying @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their stuff away easily .
Giving people lockers that are publicly available so that they can store their most valuable things on a regular basis.
” These , he said , are just some of the ways that the city could reduce the risk of disease while also increasing the resilience of people who are homeless .
In the case of the migrant caravan , the use of epidemic language was wildly successful in helping the Trump administration gain support for its anti-immigration goals , despite the absence of an actual epidemic .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ infants and small children — gathered at the border fence in Tijuana , the US military fired tear gas and rubber bullets to violently disperse the asylum-seekers .
That military response foreshadowed the cruelty the migrants would endure once detained by the Department of Homeland Security , which includes the ongoing separation of migrant families and long-term detention of young children .
While the street sweeps in Skid Row and the caging of immigrant children have little to do with the spread of COVID-19 , all three episodes make plain the power — @ @ @ @ @ @ @ epidemics .
Bluthenthal , the public health expert , has seen firsthand how ineffective the security-forward approach can be in trying to stem disease .
“ It seems crazy to try to quarantine your fifth-largest city , ” he said of Chinese efforts to create a perimeter around a city of 11 million people .
“ From a public health history standpoint , I don ’ t think that anyone ’ s tried to do that before.
” Bluthenthal is right : The scale of the security perimeter that Xi ’ s government @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is truly unprecedented , and it speaks to the faith the Chinese government has in its own capacity to control its population by any means necessary .
And despite that , there has been a surge of COVID-19 cases in Italy , South Korea , Japan , and Iran in recent weeks , and many observers are now convinced that a global pandemic is more than likely .
All of this has renewed questions about the effectiveness of a Chinese authoritarian response that leaned heavily on twin fears : of the virus itself @ @ @ @ @ @ @ contravene the government quarantine .
What ’ s clear , though , is that far from the exception , China ’ s muscular response is a prime example of how governments tend toward authoritarianism in the face of an epidemic .
As the COVID-19 epidemic continues to spread , our ability to recognize the line between effective public health and all-out repression will continue to be tested .
With COVID-19 now spreading to every continent except Antarctica , we can start to compare different governmental responses to the virus and tease out which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ effective as calls for people to consistently wash their hands — can help stem the epidemic , and which — like threats of severe punishment — might make things worse .
Only then will we really know which aspects of China ’ s response were effective , and which were simply pretext for authoritarian action .
Let ’ s hope the line between the two doesn ’ t disappear completely in the face of our terror at becoming infected .

Public health officials escorted by armed police through the epicenter of an outbreak. Government officials, in an effort to contain an epidemic, announcing rules forcing people off the streets. City residents fearing for their lives as a new virus kills the frail and infirm among them. That same fear leads to widespread support for draconian public health measures as long as they keep people safe.
The spread of the coronavirus has reminded us of the darker side of epidemic control. These kinds of "security-forward" responses are among the most common ways we deal with epidemics. While the COVID-19 epidemic has made these scenes familiar to us all, the above description applies just as well to the disease epicenter of Wuhan, China, as it does to how authorities right here in the US have responded to both real and perceived local epidemics.
Consider Los Angeles, where the same enforcement-based approach favored by China’s government is, with little fanfare, being deployed to fight a more localized outbreak. The epidemic in question? Flea-borne typhus (Rickettsia typhi), a relatively benign member of a group of bacterial pathogens better known for causing deadly epidemics in Medieval Europe starting in the 15th century. Since the advent of modern antibiotics, typhus has been a preventable disease, and flea-borne typhus is rare in the US. So when the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health announced in 2018 that the number of yearly cases of flea-borne typhus had suddenly doubled to over 60 — and that a majority of the ill were people who were homeless — the reaction was swift.
News articles with headlines like “California Sees Resurgence of ‘Medieval Diseases’” and “Are LA's Medieval Diseases Coming to Your City?” stoked a climate of fear and made the city’s residents who were experiencing homeless their main target. The result was a new layer of security imposed upon Skid Row in the name of public health: sanitation workers wielding hoses, bleach, and trash compactors, escorted by a platoon of police to do daily cleanups. Their mandate? Destroy or seize any encampments and belongings that might contribute to the spread of disease.
The battle to clean up Skid Row has been waged for decades, but the added dimension of disease transformed it from a gentrifying mission into a wholescale public health battle against a terrifying epidemic. Suddenly, "cleaning up the streets" took on a more literal — and urgent — dimension.
Just 130 miles due south of Skid Row, in the Mexican border town of Tijuana, we recently saw another example of public health deployed as a useful pretext to take action against undesirable populations. When a caravan of Central American migrants numbering in the thousands arrived in Tijuana in 2018, the Trump administration made clear how vehemently opposed it was to even considering their claims for asylum. The extent of the administration’s hostility soon became obvious with the deployment of 15,000 troops to the border amid the announcement of a national emergency.
While Donald Trump has from the outset of his presidency articulated a xenophobic vision of America, it was notable that the justification for his heavy-handed response to the migrant caravan was articulated in the language of public health and disease. Within a subset of right-leaning media, the trope that the 2,700-strong caravan was riddled with HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and chicken pox was repeated ad nauseam, even from the president himself. It was a chilling case of the dehumanizing potential of epidemic language, and a defining moment in Trump's presidency.
While COVID-19, LA’s Skid Row, and Tijuana’s migrant caravan have little in common, they have all produced a common outcome: a fear of epidemics that has made us willing to accept restrictions that we would otherwise decry as infringing deeply upon our inalienable rights. In China, which has gone further than anywhere else in combining totalitarian politics with state-of-the-art surveillance technology, the fear of a generalized pandemic has given President Xi Jinping’s government maximum leeway to crack down on its citizens.
The international community has mostly applauded the Chinese government’s response. In January, four weeks after the initial outbreak, the World Health Organization praised China for the “commitment from top leadership, and the transparency they have demonstrated.” By late February, the scientist who led a WHO mission to assess the situation on the ground in the country stated it plainly: "Hundreds of thousands of people in China didn't get COVID-19 because of their aggressive response.”
It’s clear that epidemics of this magnitude require a dedicated response, and at least some of the controls that China put in place have likely saved lives. What’s less clear, though, is which ones actually moved the needle, and which ones — like censoring coronavirus posts on the popular social messaging app WeChat — may have inadvertently caused more cases to go undetected.
While perhaps meant to defuse global panic, the praise from the international body allowed the Chinese government to sidestep mounting criticisms of delays, censorship, and the detention of doctors who publicly voiced concerns about the epidemic. And with the number of cases still growing — roughly 93,000 cases and over 3,100 deaths globally so far — some experts are starting to question the effectiveness of blanket curfews and police-enforced quarantine zones.
But it’s not just China’s extreme responses to the COVID-19 epidemic that are under scrutiny. Much closer to home, experts are recognizing that one of the most dangerous symptoms of any epidemic — be it real or fabricated — is fear. Ricky Bluthenthal, associate dean of social justice at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine, works just a few miles east of LA’s Skid Row, though he is often found in the neighborhood meeting with frontline workers and residents who are homeless. From his vantage point, the single biggest impact of the flea-borne typhus outbreak has been a ratcheting up of fear of people who are homeless. That, in turn, has provided the city government with broad impunity to achieve long-standing security and beautification goals.
“Literally every day they are breaking up homeless encampments,” Bluthenthal said. “They clean up 40 locations a day. Occasionally they’ll make a public health argument for it, but sometimes they won’t. Because the truth is that breaking up the encampments is about political realities; it’s not about the health of the homeless people or the health of the community.”
Under the direction of Mayor Eric Garcetti, the city of LA launched the aggressive, daily sweeps in 2018 at a cost of $30 million per year. Given the stakes, officials claim that the city government had been left with no choice but to take draconian steps to, in the words of a city spokesperson, “keep our streets and sidewalks safe for everyone.”
Bluthenthal sees a direct link between epidemic fear and widespread public acceptance of policies that would otherwise be recognized as nakedly authoritarian. “It’s kind of a disaster. We just keep digging the ditch deeper by making people more vulnerable and disrupting their lives,” he said.
The upshot is that effective solutions to homelessness, which are often more complicated and take longer to implement, are a hard sell for scared citizens who favor the quick fix of daily crackdowns. “Mobile or walk-in centers where people can deal with their natural needs and get cleaned up,” said Bluthenthal, running down a list. “Daily trash pickup and deploying garbage cans so that people can throw their stuff away easily. Giving people lockers that are publicly available so that they can store their most valuable things on a regular basis.” These, he said, are just some of the ways that the city could reduce the risk of disease while also increasing the resilience of people who are homeless.
In the case of the migrant caravan, the use of epidemic language was wildly successful in helping the Trump administration gain support for its anti-immigration goals, despite the absence of an actual epidemic. After migrant families — including mothers with infants and small children — gathered at the border fence in Tijuana, the US military fired tear gas and rubber bullets to violently disperse the asylum-seekers. That military response foreshadowed the cruelty the migrants would endure once detained by the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the ongoing separation of migrant families and long-term detention of young children.
While the street sweeps in Skid Row and the caging of immigrant children have little to do with the spread of COVID-19, all three episodes make plain the power — and peril — of stoking fear of epidemics. Bluthenthal, the public health expert, has seen firsthand how ineffective the security-forward approach can be in trying to stem disease. “It seems crazy to try to quarantine your fifth-largest city,” he said of Chinese efforts to create a perimeter around a city of 11 million people. “From a public health history standpoint, I don’t think that anyone’s tried to do that before.”
Bluthenthal is right: The scale of the security perimeter that Xi’s government has imposed on China to contain COVID-2019 is truly unprecedented, and it speaks to the faith the Chinese government has in its own capacity to control its population by any means necessary.
And despite that, there has been a surge of COVID-19 cases in Italy, South Korea, Japan, and Iran in recent weeks, and many observers are now convinced that a global pandemic is more than likely. All of this has renewed questions about the effectiveness of a Chinese authoritarian response that leaned heavily on twin fears: of the virus itself and of severe punishment for those who contravene the government quarantine.
What’s clear, though, is that far from the exception, China’s muscular response is a prime example of how governments tend toward authoritarianism in the face of an epidemic. As the COVID-19 epidemic continues to spread, our ability to recognize the line between effective public health and all-out repression will continue to be tested. With COVID-19 now spreading to every continent except Antarctica, we can start to compare different governmental responses to the virus and tease out which components — even those as basic but effective as calls for people to consistently wash their hands — can help stem the epidemic, and which — like threats of severe punishment — might make things worse.
Only then will we really know which aspects of China’s response were effective, and which were simply pretext for authoritarian action. Let’s hope the line between the two doesn’t disappear completely in the face of our terror at becoming infected.


buzzfeednews--2020-03-05--Congress Quickly Passed An $8.3 Billion Spending Package To Fight And Treat The Coronavirus

WASHINGTON — Congress will send President Donald Trump an $ 8.3 billion emergency spending package to help combat the coronavirus , as the virus continues to spread in the United States .
The Senate voted 96–1 to fund the package .
The bulk of funding is designated to agencies responsible for prevention and care .
The amount is more than three times the original $ 2.5 billion that Trump requested from Congress last week , but he is expected to sign the bill .
Republican Sen. Rand Paul was lone vote against the spending package .
More than $ 7 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ agencies , including $ 2.2 billion allocated to the CDC to contain the outbreak and $ 3 billion toward research and development of vaccines and other treatments .
More than $ 1 billion will fund State Department operations abroad and humanitarian assistance .
The bill comes as the international death toll related to the infection reaches 3,286 people , 11 of which were in the US .
More than 95,000 people worldwide have been infected with the coronavirus , according to a Johns Hopkins University website mapping the spread of the infection .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ plummeted to its lowest since 2008 .
The FDA is closely monitoring potential shortages in critical medical products .
To mitigate the issue , Congress ’ s bill provides nearly $ 1 billion to state and local agencies for medical supplies , including masks and protective equipment .
Small businesses suffering financial losses as a result of the outbreak will have access to $ 1 billion in loan subsidies .
On Wednesday , the House approved the package 415–2 ; Republican Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona and Ken Buck of Colorado voted against @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , House Democrats and Republicans attended separate closed-door briefings with Vice President Mike Pence and Anthony Fauci , the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases .
Trump put Pence in charge of the coronavirus response , much to the chagrin of health experts who cited the vice president ’ s lack of medical experience .
Members leaving the briefing said Pence and Fauci gave the same public health recommendations that health experts have circulated since the outbreak ; Pence and Fauci also announced new guidance for nursing homes to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ according to those who attended the briefing .
“ On travel , Dr. Fauci said there wasn ’ t an official directive but 'just use common sense , ' ” Rep. Carolyn Maloney of New York told BuzzFeed News upon exiting the briefing .
“ The people that are elderly , that have preexisting conditions — with respiratory or heart — they should not be domestically traveling , ” she added .
Maloney , chair of the House Oversight Committee , said she invited Fauci to appear before the committee next Wednesday for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Massachusetts said Pence told Democrats “ that the risk for the average American that ’ s in good health was still small , ” also adding that their concerns were more centered around the “ frail elderly.
” The average age of a US senator is 62.9 years old ; several of them are over the age of 80 .
Still , many senators said they weren ’ t worried about contracting the infection .
Some of their House counterparts seemed rattled when they joined hundreds of their colleagues on the floor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Tennessee wore a blue rubber glove on his right hand during a vote series , and Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida sat in the House chambers wearing a gas mask .
So far , Congress is moving forward with normal in-person voting and is expected to return to the Capitol next week .
When reporters asked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi if the Capitol would remain open , she responded , “ At this time , yes , without question , ” as she walked into a briefing on the coronavirus .

WASHINGTON — Congress will send President Donald Trump an $8.3 billion emergency spending package to help combat the coronavirus, as the virus continues to spread in the United States.
The Senate voted 96–1 to fund the package. The bulk of funding is designated to agencies responsible for prevention and care. The amount is more than three times the original $2.5 billion that Trump requested from Congress last week, but he is expected to sign the bill. Republican Sen. Rand Paul was lone vote against the spending package.
More than $7 billion will be dispersed among government health agencies, including $2.2 billion allocated to the CDC to contain the outbreak and $3 billion toward research and development of vaccines and other treatments. More than $1 billion will fund State Department operations abroad and humanitarian assistance.
The bill comes as the international death toll related to the infection reaches 3,286 people, 11 of which were in the US. More than 95,000 people worldwide have been infected with the coronavirus, according to a Johns Hopkins University website mapping the spread of the infection. Earlier this week, the stock market plummeted to its lowest since 2008. The FDA is closely monitoring potential shortages in critical medical products.
To mitigate the issue, Congress’s bill provides nearly $1 billion to state and local agencies for medical supplies, including masks and protective equipment. Small businesses suffering financial losses as a result of the outbreak will have access to $1 billion in loan subsidies.
On Wednesday, the House approved the package 415–2; Republican Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona and Ken Buck of Colorado voted against the measure.
Prior to the vote, House Democrats and Republicans attended separate closed-door briefings with Vice President Mike Pence and Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Trump put Pence in charge of the coronavirus response, much to the chagrin of health experts who cited the vice president’s lack of medical experience.
Members leaving the briefing said Pence and Fauci gave the same public health recommendations that health experts have circulated since the outbreak; Pence and Fauci also announced new guidance for nursing homes to minimize the spread of the virus, according to those who attended the briefing.
“On travel, Dr. Fauci said there wasn’t an official directive but 'just use common sense,'” Rep. Carolyn Maloney of New York told BuzzFeed News upon exiting the briefing. “The people that are elderly, that have preexisting conditions — with respiratory or heart — they should not be domestically traveling,” she added.
Maloney, chair of the House Oversight Committee, said she invited Fauci to appear before the committee next Wednesday for a public briefing.
Rep. Richard Neal of Massachusetts said Pence told Democrats “that the risk for the average American that’s in good health was still small,” also adding that their concerns were more centered around the “frail elderly.”
The average age of a US senator is 62.9 years old; several of them are over the age of 80. Still, many senators said they weren’t worried about contracting the infection. Some of their House counterparts seemed rattled when they joined hundreds of their colleagues on the floor to vote Wednesday. Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee wore a blue rubber glove on his right hand during a vote series, and Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida sat in the House chambers wearing a gas mask.
So far, Congress is moving forward with normal in-person voting and is expected to return to the Capitol next week. When reporters asked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi if the Capitol would remain open, she responded, “At this time, yes, without question,” as she walked into a briefing on the coronavirus.


buzzfeednews--2020-03-05--The Coronavirus Is Forcing Techies To Work From Home. Some May Never Go Back To The Office.

As the coronavirus spreads in the United States and tech companies ask their workforces to do their jobs from home , some in the industry are looking at the outbreak as a test case for the long-gestating but never-arriving moment when working remotely will broadly replace working in person .
“ We ’ ll never probably be the same , ” Jennifer Christie , Twitter ’ s head of human resources , told BuzzFeed News of the company ’ s workplace practices .
“ People who were reticent to work remotely will find that they really thrive that way .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ could manage teams that were remote will have a different perspective .
I do think we won ’ t go back.
” Twitter — whose CEO , Jack Dorsey , said he wanted to move toward a distributed workforce in the most recent earnings call — is one of a number of companies asking employees to work from home as the coronavirus hits the US .
Square , which Dorsey also runs , asked the same of its employees this week .
Job board website Indeed has mandated it .
Amazon asked employees @ @ @ @ @ @ @ need to work from home as well .
And some tech workers are starting to clock in from home before their companies roll out an official policy of having most or all of their employees work from home or outside a central office .
“ We 've gotten a lot of positive reactions to going in this direction in terms of putting our safety of our employees first , ” Christie said , “ and so some other companies might be willing to take a leap.
” As of Wednesday , the number @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had risen to 153 and the death toll to 11 .
After Twitter announced its work-from-home policy , some employees remained at the office , but at their discretion .
For the most part , the company now has an entirely distributed workforce .
On Tuesday , Twitter held its monthly all-hands meeting entirely online — via Google Hangouts and Slack — with Dorsey dialing in from an undisclosed location .
With no in-person component involved , the Q & A portion of Twitter ’ s all-hands was livelier than usual .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the people that were responding on Slack — it just was so much more engaged , ” Christie said .
“ We ’ ve got a lot of introverts in the company .
It ’ s also a little bit of ... not a level playing field .
You have people in San Francisco , and then people dialing in from around the world who feel like they ’ re not quite having the same experience .
It was much more level setting.
” The push for working remotely wasn ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ San Francisco Chronicle , major Bay Area employers , including Microsoft and JPMorgan , were also encouraging workers to stay home .
Google told most of its workers at its Dublin , Ireland , offices to stay home after a coronavirus case was reported there .
Ed Zitron , a tech PR veteran , told BuzzFeed News he ’ d welcome a move to a virtual workplace .
“ There are no positives in the case of the coronavirus , but I ’ m definitely seeing a reevaluation of whether meeting in person @ @ @ @ @ @ @ see people moving away from having in-persons that they know deep inside are just for the comfort of seeing someone for some reason , ” he said .
“ I just wish it didn ’ t take a global pandemic to make people rethink the necessity of in-person meetings .
That ’ s the valley for you , I guess.
” One tech worker in New York , who has social anxiety , said he started working from home ahead of any company policy , looking at this virus as a chance to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the office .
“ I 'm probably jumping the gun , but since most of my job — really pretty much all of my job — can be done remote , I 'm taking the opportunity to prove that , ” he said .
Still , workers whose jobs can not be performed remotely won ’ t have an easy transition as the virus takes hold in the US .
Twitter , for instance , has facilities and cafeteria workers whose jobs require them to be in the office .
The company @ @ @ @ @ @ @ if they have to work on a reduced schedule , Christie said .
“ We 're not going to put people out and not not pay them .
”

With no in-person component involved, the Q&A portion of Twitter’s all-hands was livelier than usual. “The number of questions that came in, the people that were responding on Slack — it just was so much more engaged,” Christie said. “We’ve got a lot of introverts in the company. It’s also a little bit of...not a level playing field. You have people in San Francisco, and then people dialing in from around the world who feel like they’re not quite having the same experience. It was much more level setting.”
The push for working remotely wasn’t limited to Twitter. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, major Bay Area employers, including Microsoft and JPMorgan, were also encouraging workers to stay home. Google told most of its workers at its Dublin, Ireland, offices to stay home after a coronavirus case was reported there.
Ed Zitron, a tech PR veteran, told BuzzFeed News he’d welcome a move to a virtual workplace. “There are no positives in the case of the coronavirus, but I’m definitely seeing a reevaluation of whether meeting in person is truly necessary. You can really see people moving away from having in-persons that they know deep inside are just for the comfort of seeing someone for some reason,” he said. “I just wish it didn’t take a global pandemic to make people rethink the necessity of in-person meetings. That’s the valley for you, I guess.”
One tech worker in New York, who has social anxiety, said he started working from home ahead of any company policy, looking at this virus as a chance to prove he can do his work outside of the office. “I'm probably jumping the gun, but since most of my job — really pretty much all of my job — can be done remote, I'm taking the opportunity to prove that,” he said.
Still, workers whose jobs cannot be performed remotely won’t have an easy transition as the virus takes hold in the US. Twitter, for instance, has facilities and cafeteria workers whose jobs require them to be in the office. The company will continue to pay these people even if they have to work on a reduced schedule, Christie said. “We're not going to put people out and not not pay them.”


buzzfeednews--2020-03-05--Nurses Said They Can't Protect Themselves And Hospitals Are Unprepared For Coronavirus, Survey Repor

Nurses Said They Can't Protect Themselves And Hospitals Are Unprepared For Coronavirus, Survey Reports

A health care worker prepares to transport a patient on a stretcher into an ambulance at Life Care Center of Kirkland in Washington state .
COVID-19 was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan last December and has since spread to more than 80 countries , including the United States .
`` We also hope that this death will compel hospital management to take seriously our calls for open communication , continuous training in infectious disease protocols and personal protective equipment , PPE , to keep us all safe at work and in turn our wider communities , '' @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not protected , the community is not protected , '' said Cathy Kennedy , a nurse at Kaiser Permanente Roseville in California , where a patient infected with the virus died this week .
Of the more than 6,500 nurses who responded to the survey conducted by the union National Nurses United , only 30 % reported that their employer has sufficient personal protective equipment on hand to protect staff if they see a surge in patients with suspected COVID-19 infections .
Less than half of those who responded — 44 % — @ @ @ @ @ @ @ how to identify and respond to potential cases of the virus .
As the coronavirus spreads in the United States , nurses across the country have said they do n't have enough resources to protect themselves from getting sick and hospitals are unprepared to treat patients who are infected , according to a new survey .
While health officials say the risk to the general public is still low — 209 cases have been confirmed in the US as of Thursday morning — the virus is spreading within communities and health care workers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the infected .
Speaking during a press conference Thursday , nurses said there 's a shocking lack of preparedness at hospitals , which puts nurses who are on the frontlines of providing care at particular risk .
Only 29 % of the nurses who responded said that there was a plan in place at their workplace to isolate patients with possible coronavirus infections and just 19 % reported that their employer has a policy to address employees with suspected or known exposure to the virus .
`` The results of our national survey @ @ @ @ @ @ @ disturbing , '' said Jane Thomason , an industrial hygienist for the union .
`` They show that large percentages of the nation ’ s hospital are unprepared to safely handle COVID-19 . ''
The union also criticized the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for not being more proactive to fight the spread of the disease , demanding that the agency direct health care facilities to put in place measures for screening and isolating patients that show symptoms of respiratory illness .
`` The CDC has been behind the ball at almost @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Thomason said .
Now , Thomason said the CDC has been discussing weakening their guidance for health care workers , including recommending surgical masks — which public health experts say do n't protect against infection — instead of respirators for nurses providing care to patients with COVID-19 .
`` We have ample scientific evidence that this is the wrong step to take , '' she said , citing a report that surgical masks did not protect nurses from SARS , another respiratory coronavirus that spread worldwide in 2002 .
`` Now is the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to guarantee the highest level of protection … to prevent the spread of infection , to protect health care workers , and to preserve our capacity to respond to a potentially widespread outbreak , '' Thomason said .
A spokesperson for the CDC told BuzzFeed News in an email that there have been discussions `` on the possibility of updating standard guidance if supply is limited nationwide or worldwide '' but did not specify whether recommending surgical masks instead of N-95 respirators was part of those discussions .
Meanwhile , another nurse who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a patient with COVID-19 at a hospital in Northern California said in an anonymous statement provided by the union that the CDC has not approved requests from her doctor and county health officials to test her for the virus .
`` They said they would not test me because if I were wearing the recommended protective equipment , then I wouldn ’ t have the coronavirus , '' she said .
`` What kind of science-based answer is that ? ''
The nurse said she volunteered to care for a patient who tested @ @ @ @ @ @ @ protective gear and training to do so .
The last she heard from the CDC was that it needs an `` identifier number '' to initiate her testing and that it was prioritizing testing for people with more severe illness .
Only so many samples can be tested each day , the nurse said she was told .
`` I am a registered nurse , and I need to know if I am positive before going back to caring for patients , '' she said .
`` Delaying this test puts the whole @ @ @ @ @

Speaking during a press conference Thursday, nurses said there's a shocking lack of preparedness at hospitals, which puts nurses who are on the frontlines of providing care at particular risk.
Only 29% of the nurses who responded said that there was a plan in place at their workplace to isolate patients with possible coronavirus infections and just 19% reported that their employer has a policy to address employees with suspected or known exposure to the virus.
"The results of our national survey of more than 6,500 nurses is truly disturbing," said Jane Thomason, an industrial hygienist for the union. "They show that large percentages of the nation’s hospital are unprepared to safely handle COVID-19."
The union also criticized the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for not being more proactive to fight the spread of the disease, demanding that the agency direct health care facilities to put in place measures for screening and isolating patients that show symptoms of respiratory illness.
"The CDC has been behind the ball at almost every step of the way," Thomason said.
Now, Thomason said the CDC has been discussing weakening their guidance for health care workers, including recommending surgical masks — which public health experts say don't protect against infection — instead of respirators for nurses providing care to patients with COVID-19.
"We have ample scientific evidence that this is the wrong step to take," she said, citing a report that surgical masks did not protect nurses from SARS, another respiratory coronavirus that spread worldwide in 2002.
"Now is the time to use every possible tool available to guarantee the highest level of protection … to prevent the spread of infection, to protect health care workers, and to preserve our capacity to respond to a potentially widespread outbreak," Thomason said.
A spokesperson for the CDC told BuzzFeed News in an email that there have been discussions "on the possibility of updating standard guidance if supply is limited nationwide or worldwide" but did not specify whether recommending surgical masks instead of N-95 respirators was part of those discussions.
Meanwhile, another nurse who is sick and in quarantine after treating a patient with COVID-19 at a hospital in Northern California said in an anonymous statement provided by the union that the CDC has not approved requests from her doctor and county health officials to test her for the virus.
"They said they would not test me because if I were wearing the recommended protective equipment, then I wouldn’t have the coronavirus," she said. "What kind of science-based answer is that?"
The nurse said she volunteered to care for a patient who tested positive because she had all the recommended protective gear and training to do so.
The last she heard from the CDC was that it needs an "identifier number" to initiate her testing and that it was prioritizing testing for people with more severe illness. Only so many samples can be tested each day, the nurse said she was told.
"I am a registered nurse, and I need to know if I am positive before going back to caring for patients," she said. "Delaying this test puts the whole community at risk."


buzzfeednews--2020-03-05--Coronavirus Newsletter: First Cases In San Francisco, Nevada, And Tennessee

There ’ s a lot we still don ’ t know about the coronavirus outbreak .
This newsletter does its best to put everything we do know in one place each day .
Do you want to get everything worth knowing about the coronavirus outbreak , straight to your inbox every afternoon ?
Sign up for the Coronavirus Newsletter here .
As of Thursday afternoon , there have been 209 confirmed cases and 11 deaths in the US .
These numbers were accurate when we sent this out ; you can get the latest figures from our live tracker .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ cases .
Officials said the virus appears to be spreading locally and is not being brought in by travelers .
“ We do not know at this point how they were exposed to the virus , which suggests it is spreading in the community , ” said Grant Colfax , San Francisco ’ s public health director .
Nevada and Tennessee also reported their first confirmed cases .
The Tennessee man had recently returned from a trip to Boston ; the Nevada man had recently returned from Washington state .
Health Secretary Alex @ @ @ @ @ @ @ administration ’ s handling of the crisis , Politico reports .
Azar has taken the blame in recent days for the administration ’ s botched response to the outbreak , centered around the slow , chaotic rollout of testing kits by federal authorities .
Today , Vice President Mike Pence is visiting Seattle , the epicenter of the outbreak in the US .
Azar will not be joining him .
Starbucks will temporarily stop allowing customers to bring their own reusable cups to its stores , the company announced .
“ Our focus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for the health and well-being of our partners and customers and playing a constructive role in supporting local health officials and government leaders , ” the company said in a statement .
Do you have questions about the COVID-19 outbreak ?
We 're happy to answer them , and we ’ re trying out a new way of keeping in touch with our readers ; you can sign up here to communicate with BuzzFeed News editors via text : joinsubtext.com/buzzfeednews .
COVID-19 Isn ’ t as Deadly as We Think Here ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Faust in Slate .
“ We need to divert our focus away from worrying about preventing systemic spread among healthy people — which is likely either inevitable or out of our control — and commit most if not all our resources toward protecting those truly at risk of developing critical illness and even death : everyone over 70 , and people who are already at higher risk from this kind of virus.
” Tip of the day Is it actually possible to stop touching your face ?
From personal experience , it ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ get better at it .
Emma Lord has a step-by-step guide on how to do it , including a bunch of useful little tricks to kick the habit , ranging from wearing a scarf — it ’ ll make you more aware when your hands reach up there — to sticky notes on computer screens .
If it works , it works .
Pics of the day Here ’ s a haunting gallery of tourist sites around the world that have been completely abandoned .
If you ’ ve ever been to Venice @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trevi Fountain , these will amaze you .
Quote of the day : “ Per the CDC , hand sanitizer needs to contain at least 60 % alcohol .
Tito 's Handmade Vodka is 40 % alcohol ... ” —the social media team at Tito ’ s Vodka , repeatedly explaining today that you can ’ t use it as a hand sanitizer

San Francisco has its first two coronavirus cases. Officials said the virus appears to be spreading locally and is not being brought in by travelers. “We do not know at this point how they were exposed to the virus, which suggests it is spreading in the community,” said Grant Colfax, San Francisco’s public health director.
Nevada and Tennessee also reported their first confirmed cases. The Tennessee man had recently returned from a trip to Boston; the Nevada man had recently returned from Washington state.
Health Secretary Alex Azar is being sidelined in the Trump administration’s handling of the crisis, Politico reports. Azar has taken the blame in recent days for the administration’s botched response to the outbreak, centered around the slow, chaotic rollout of testing kits by federal authorities. Today, Vice President Mike Pence is visiting Seattle, the epicenter of the outbreak in the US. Azar will not be joining him.
Starbucks will temporarily stop allowing customers to bring their own reusable cups to its stores, the company announced. “Our focus remains on two key priorities: Caring for the health and well-being of our partners and customers and playing a constructive role in supporting local health officials and government leaders,” the company said in a statement.
What we’re reading
COVID-19 Isn’t as Deadly as We Think
Here’s a very convincing argument from Jeremy Samuel Faust in Slate. “We need to divert our focus away from worrying about preventing systemic spread among healthy people — which is likely either inevitable or out of our control — and commit most if not all our resources toward protecting those truly at risk of developing critical illness and even death: everyone over 70, and people who are already at higher risk from this kind of virus.”
Tip of the day
Is it actually possible to stop touching your face? From personal experience, it’s incredibly difficult, but you can get better at it. Emma Lord has a step-by-step guide on how to do it, including a bunch of useful little tricks to kick the habit, ranging from wearing a scarf — it’ll make you more aware when your hands reach up there — to sticky notes on computer screens. If it works, it works.
Pics of the day
Here’s a haunting gallery of tourist sites around the world that have been completely abandoned. If you’ve ever been to Venice, or the Louvre, or the Trevi Fountain, these will amaze you.
Quote of the day:
“Per the CDC, hand sanitizer needs to contain at least 60% alcohol. Tito's Handmade Vodka is 40% alcohol...” —the social media team at Tito’s Vodka, repeatedly explaining today that you can’t use it as a hand sanitizer


buzzfeednews--2020-03-05--Twitter Has Taken Down A Fake Account That Spread A Rumor The Crown Prince Of Abu Dhabi Had The Coro

Twitter Has Taken Down A Fake Account That Spread A Rumor The Crown Prince Of Abu Dhabi Had The Coronavirus

Twitter has suspended an account posing as a journalist that spread a rumor that United Arab Emirates Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan has the coronavirus .
The fake user was seemingly the first to tweet the unverified rumor , which broke the company ’ s policy against platform manipulation .
Several news reports cited the account as the source of the information , which is unconfirmed .
There ’ s no evidence that the crown prince has the virus .
According to the Crown Prince Court media center , he has been actively speaking to other world leaders @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to indicate he has been infected .
BuzzFeed News was unable to reach the court for comment .
The account used the name “ Karen Ann caryl ” and described itself as a “ Specialist Researcher & Journalist in The Yemeni and Gulf States Issues.
” It was created on Aug. 1 , 2018 , and had nearly 23,000 followers before being taken down by Twitter .
“ We have confirmed the transfer of Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Mohammed bin Zayed to Cleveland Hospital in Abu Dhabi , hours sick with a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ internal quarantine in his palace , sick with # coronavirus and the transfer of the disease came from a Filipino worker inside of the family 's palace .
Witnesses confirm that bin Zayed has not been seen for several days , ” the account tweeted in Arabic .
Twitter declined to comment on the record .

Twitter has suspended an account posing as a journalist that spread a rumor that United Arab Emirates Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan has the coronavirus. The fake user was seemingly the first to tweet the unverified rumor, which broke the company’s policy against platform manipulation. Several news reports cited the account as the source of the information, which is unconfirmed.
There’s no evidence that the crown prince has the virus. According to the Crown Prince Court media center, he has been actively speaking to other world leaders and there have been no other reports to indicate he has been infected. BuzzFeed News was unable to reach the court for comment.
The account used the name “Karen Ann caryl” and described itself as a “Specialist Researcher & Journalist in The Yemeni and Gulf States Issues.” It was created on Aug. 1, 2018, and had nearly 23,000 followers before being taken down by Twitter.
“We have confirmed the transfer of Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Mohammed bin Zayed to Cleveland Hospital in Abu Dhabi, hours sick with a health problem and then transferred to an internal quarantine in his palace, sick with #coronavirus and the transfer of the disease came from a Filipino worker inside of the family's palace. Witnesses confirm that bin Zayed has not been seen for several days,” the account tweeted in Arabic.
Twitter declined to comment on the record.


buzzfeednews--2020-01-24--A Second US Coronavirus Case Has Been Confirmed In Chicago

Health officials announced a second confirmed US case of a patient with the new Chinese coronavirus on Friday and said they are monitoring another 62 possible patients in 22 states suspected of having the illness .
All of the patients are travelers from Wuhan , China , the epicenter of the new coronavirus , or 2019-nCoV , outbreak that Chinese health officials by Friday evening reported has caused more than 1,287 cases and 41 deaths .
The first US patient , a Washington state man in his thirties , was announced on Tuesday , and the second one , a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ both recent travelers to Wuhan .
Both arrived in the US before an extensive travel ban from the city was started this week by the Chinese government .
`` We expect to find more cases , '' said CDC 's Nancy Messonnier , director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases , on a telephone briefing for reporters .
Noting that the two confirmed cases were travelers from Wuhan , she said that the risk to the US of a widespread outbreak is low .
`` We are making an aggressive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ '' Both of the confirmed cases entered US airports without symptoms , she noted , and contacted their doctor a few days afterward , leading to their diagnosis and medical isolation .
The CDC did not provide a list of the 22 states with possible cases , but a possible case in Texas was confirmed by Texas A & M University on Thursday .
Eleven additional people suspected of having the coronavirus were screened and tested negative , according to Messonnier .
The first Chinese cases of the coronavirus were reported on Dec. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ meat market in Wuhan .
Like SARS and MERS , the virus is thought to have traveled to people from animals and mutated to become transmissible from person to person .
Cases have been reported in Japan , Thailand , Vietnam , Singapore , and Taiwan , as well as the US .
The Chinese ban on travel from Wuhan was expanded this week to cover much of its central Hubei Province , essentially quarantining 35 million people during the travel-heavy Chinese New Year .
Partly in response , a World Health Organization @ @ @ @ @ @ @ global emergency declaration over the outbreak , arguing that most of the cases were confined to China , where aggressive measures were being undertaken to prevent the spread of the virus .
On the telebriefing , Allison Arwady , the chief medical officer at the Chicago Department of Public Health , suggested that the risk of virus contagiousness appears lower before patients manifest symptoms of the pneumonia-like illness , such as fever , cough , headaches , and difficulty breathing .
The Chicago patient is in stable condition , said Arwady .
She @ @ @ @ @ @ @ public gatherings before she became sick .
So far , CDC has screened about 2,000 travelers from China for the disease on about 200 flights , CDC 's Martin Cetron said , but have not found any cases .
The agency is reevaluating the screening taking place now at five US airports , in Atlanta , Chicago , Los Angeles , New York , and San Francisco , in light of the Chinese travel ban , he added .
`` This is an evolving situation and information is coming in almost hour by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ We are expecting more cases in the US and we are likely to see these cases among close contacts of patients . ''

Health officials announced a second confirmed US case of a patient with the new Chinese coronavirus on Friday and said they are monitoring another 62 possible patients in 22 states suspected of having the illness.
All of the patients are travelers from Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the new coronavirus, or 2019-nCoV, outbreak that Chinese health officials by Friday evening reported has caused more than 1,287 cases and 41 deaths. The first US patient, a Washington state man in his thirties, was announced on Tuesday, and the second one, a Chicago woman in her sixties, were both recent travelers to Wuhan. Both arrived in the US before an extensive travel ban from the city was started this week by the Chinese government.
"We expect to find more cases," said CDC's Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, on a telephone briefing for reporters. Noting that the two confirmed cases were travelers from Wuhan, she said that the risk to the US of a widespread outbreak is low. "We are making an aggressive response to identify these cases early."
Both of the confirmed cases entered US airports without symptoms, she noted, and contacted their doctor a few days afterward, leading to their diagnosis and medical isolation. The CDC did not provide a list of the 22 states with possible cases, but a possible case in Texas was confirmed by Texas A&M University on Thursday. Eleven additional people suspected of having the coronavirus were screened and tested negative, according to Messonnier.
The first Chinese cases of the coronavirus were reported on Dec. 31 and traced to a seafood and meat market in Wuhan. Like SARS and MERS, the virus is thought to have traveled to people from animals and mutated to become transmissible from person to person. Cases have been reported in Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, and Taiwan, as well as the US.
The Chinese ban on travel from Wuhan was expanded this week to cover much of its central Hubei Province, essentially quarantining 35 million people during the travel-heavy Chinese New Year. Partly in response, a World Health Organization panel on Thursday declined to recommend a global emergency declaration over the outbreak, arguing that most of the cases were confined to China, where aggressive measures were being undertaken to prevent the spread of the virus.
On the telebriefing, Allison Arwady, the chief medical officer at the Chicago Department of Public Health, suggested that the risk of virus contagiousness appears lower before patients manifest symptoms of the pneumonia-like illness, such as fever, cough, headaches, and difficulty breathing. The Chicago patient is in stable condition, said Arwady. She did not use public transportation or attend public gatherings before she became sick.
So far, CDC has screened about 2,000 travelers from China for the disease on about 200 flights, CDC's Martin Cetron said, but have not found any cases. The agency is reevaluating the screening taking place now at five US airports, in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco, in light of the Chinese travel ban, he added.
"This is an evolving situation and information is coming in almost hour by hour," Messonnier said. "We are expecting more cases in the US and we are likely to see these cases among close contacts of patients."


buzzfeednews--2020-01-24--Here Are Some Of The Coronavirus Hoaxes That Spread In The First Few Weeks

An outbreak of coronavirus that began in Wuhan , China , and spread globally has caused nearly 3,000 deaths worldwide .
BuzzFeed News has a running list of falsehoods and unverified information following the outbreak .
Scroll down for examples of false and misleading content from when news of coronavirus first broke .
The most recent information and debunks are added to the top .
Two dozen police departments , 10 journalists and radio stations , one Army substance abuse program , and a candidate for local sheriff have spread the false claim on Facebook about meth possibly being contaminated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ A fake Chuck Schumer tweet is being spread across platforms .
Schumer did not say , `` there must be a check and Balance '' on China travel restrictions .
One tell-tale sign this is fake are the misspellings and bad grammar in the tweet .
Some of the president 's supporters have been spreading a false conspiracy theory tying the spread of COVID19 to either Bill Gates or billionaire George Soros .
There is no evidence that either man had any influence about how the virus was spread and the theory about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hold water , experts previously told BuzzFeed News .
According to PolitiFact 's investigation , the website spreading the hoax belongs to Nikolaos Hatziefstathiou , a Pennsylvania man who has fabricated stories , documents , and impersonated reporters .
“ Your typical HEPA filter is not going to be able to remove coronavirus from the air , ” Erin Sorrell , an assistant professor of microbiology and a member of Georgetown University ’ s Center for Global Health Science and Security , told BuzzFeed News .
“ The filter itself is .3 microns @ @ @ @ @ @ @ microns.
” The below debunks are from January , when hoaxes about coronavirus first started gaining traction .
2 .
The information in this tweet is false .
People are not dying in the streets and the director of the World Health Organization did not say that each country is on its own .
6 .
A story about children being abandoned in an airport has spread widely on social media thanks to the website 9Gag .
However , it has not been confirmed by any credible sources .
18 .
Another Canadian @ @ @ @ @ @ @ out a press release about a fake coronavirus report .
`` McMaster has confirmed that this sign was false , and there is no cause for concern , '' the release said .
This is a developing story .
Check back for updates and follow BuzzFeed News on Twitter .

An outbreak of coronavirus that began in Wuhan, China, and spread globally has caused nearly 3,000 deaths worldwide.
BuzzFeed News has a running list of falsehoods and unverified information following the outbreak.


buzzfeednews--2020-04-03--The CDC Is Encouraging Americans To Wear Face Coverings In Public. Trump Said He Won't Wear One.

The journalists at BuzzFeed News are proud to bring you trustworthy and relevant reporting about the coronavirus .
To help keep this news free , become a member and sign up for our newsletter , Outbreak Today .
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called for all Americans to wear face coverings in public to help stop the spread of the coronavirus Friday , pushing for people to wear cloth coverings like a bandana or a scarf .
Announcing the move at his daily briefing , President Trump undermined the recommendation of his experts by emphasizing that it was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one .
“ So it ’ s voluntary , you don ’ t have to do it , ” he said .
“ They suggest it for a period of time .
This is voluntary , I don ’ t think I ’ m gon na be doing it.
” In the recommendation published online Friday , the CDC said that because the virus can “ spread between people interacting in close proximity , ” they would recommend “ wearing cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and pharmacies ) especially in areas of significant community-based transmission.
” The recommendation is less about preventing the wearer from contracting the coronavirus themselves than it is about limiting asymptomatic people from unknowingly spreading the disease .
Wearing cloth masks , the CDC said , could “ help people who may have the virus and do not know it from transmitting it to others.
” Trump , asked about his stance on masks later in Friday 's press briefing , said , “ I just do n't want to wear one myself .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ it .
I 'm feeling good .
I just do n't want to be doing , I do n't know , somehow , sitting in the Oval Office behind that beautiful Resolute Desk , the great Resolute Desk , I think wearing a face mask as I greet presidents , prime ministers , dictators , kings , queens , I do n't know , I do n't see it for myself . ''
The Washington Post first reported Thursday that the White House would soon issue the guidance .
The call represents a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ House and comes in response to studies that found people without symptoms can still spread the virus .
BuzzFeed News reported earlier this week on concerns about the availability of face masks and questions about how effective homemade or fabric masks are in stopping the spread of the virus .
Previously , the CDC had said that people do not need to wear masks unless they are coughing or sneezing , in part to preserve a short supply of masks for health care workers .
But public heath officials told BuzzFeed News that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ appropriate at the time , should evolve to encourage the use of masks .
Trump and the CDC said Friday that the recommendation was not calling for people to wear surgical masks or N95 respirators , saying those should be reserved for health care workers on the front lines .
In recent days , Los Angeles County and New York state have encouraged residents to wear face coverings in public places to help stop the spread of the virus , but officials warned that masks should not give people a false sense of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ some additional protection against COVID-19 , but Californians should not have a false sense of security if they choose to wear them .
Make sure you ’ re also staying 6 feet away from other people if you have to leave your home to get groceries or prescriptions , ” California Health and Human Services Secretary Mark Ghaly said in a statement Thursday .
But there is not much information on how much protection fabric or other homemade face masks can offer .
While they may block larger droplets of water , they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the air .
One small study from 2013 suggested fabric masks are three times less effective than surgical masks .
As Roger Shapiro , a Boston doctor and an associate professor of immunology and infectious diseases at Harvard , told BuzzFeed News this week , “ The first reason to wear a mask is so we all protect each other , ” and so that “ you don ’ t infect someone else .
”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called for all Americans to wear face coverings in public to help stop the spread of the coronavirus Friday, pushing for people to wear cloth coverings like a bandana or a scarf.
Announcing the move at his daily briefing, President Trump undermined the recommendation of his experts by emphasizing that it was voluntary and he would not be wearing one.
“So it’s voluntary, you don’t have to do it,” he said. “They suggest it for a period of time. This is voluntary, I don’t think I’m gonna be doing it.”
In the recommendation published online Friday, the CDC said that because the virus can “spread between people interacting in close proximity,” they would recommend “wearing cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain (e.g., grocery stores and pharmacies) especially in areas of significant community-based transmission.”
The recommendation is less about preventing the wearer from contracting the coronavirus themselves than it is about limiting asymptomatic people from unknowingly spreading the disease. Wearing cloth masks, the CDC said, could “help people who may have the virus and do not know it from transmitting it to others.”
Trump, asked about his stance on masks later in Friday's press briefing, said, “I just don't want to wear one myself. It's a recommendation, they recommend it. I'm feeling good. I just don't want to be doing, I don't know, somehow, sitting in the Oval Office behind that beautiful Resolute Desk, the great Resolute Desk, I think wearing a face mask as I greet presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens, I don't know, I don't see it for myself."
The Washington Post first reported Thursday that the White House would soon issue the guidance. The call represents a shift from earlier recommendations from the White House and comes in response to studies that found people without symptoms can still spread the virus.
BuzzFeed News reported earlier this week on concerns about the availability of face masks and questions about how effective homemade or fabric masks are in stopping the spread of the virus. Previously, the CDC had said that people do not need to wear masks unless they are coughing or sneezing, in part to preserve a short supply of masks for health care workers. But public heath officials told BuzzFeed News that the CDC’s guidance, while appropriate at the time, should evolve to encourage the use of masks.
Trump and the CDC said Friday that the recommendation was not calling for people to wear surgical masks or N95 respirators, saying those should be reserved for health care workers on the front lines.
In recent days, Los Angeles County and New York state have encouraged residents to wear face coverings in public places to help stop the spread of the virus, but officials warned that masks should not give people a false sense of security.
“Face coverings could provide some additional protection against COVID-19, but Californians should not have a false sense of security if they choose to wear them. Make sure you’re also staying 6 feet away from other people if you have to leave your home to get groceries or prescriptions,” California Health and Human Services Secretary Mark Ghaly said in a statement Thursday.
But there is not much information on how much protection fabric or other homemade face masks can offer. While they may block larger droplets of water, they don’t protect against smaller particles in the air. One small study from 2013 suggested fabric masks are three times less effective than surgical masks.
As Roger Shapiro, a Boston doctor and an associate professor of immunology and infectious diseases at Harvard, told BuzzFeed News this week, “The first reason to wear a mask is so we all protect each other,” and so that “you don’t infect someone else.”


buzzfeednews--2020-05-06--Everyone Is Making Porn At Home Now. Will The Porn Industry Survive?

Aleah Jasmine makes a lot of money from what she likes to call her “ fuck machine.
” Jasmine works as a webcam model , shooting porn from her home , so when quarantine first started , she was still making plenty of money .
But the broken fuck machine — a motorized sex toy — was a problem .
“ My number one tipping thing was my fuck machine , ” said Jasmine .
“ But then COVID happened , March happened , everyone was tipping for it , and I broke it.
” She tried to get a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ slowed because of the crisis , and the factory that makes the sex toy is based in China , so it looked like she wouldn ’ t be able to get a new one until nearly June .
“ Last I checked it said it will be here May 25 .
But it keeps getting more delayed , ” she said .
Usually it would be too weird to ask a friend to help her fix the sex toy , but the pandemic has scrambled social norms and Jasmine , 31 , who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spoke to BuzzFeed News over the phone , was losing a lot of money , so she took a friend up on the offer to repair it .
He ’ s an essential worker at a power plant , so he said it was no problem to venture out to Home Depot for the parts .
It ’ s a common refrain that porn is a recession-proof business , and while that hasn ’ t always been the case , there ’ s some truth to it right now .
The global economy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the coronavirus pandemic , but much of the porn industry has — not so surprisingly — benefitted from a world in which everyone is stuck at home and increasingly horny on main .
“ It ’ s sad to say you can be in a good situation right now , with everything that ’ s going on , but certainly the cam industry is based in that zone , ” said Adrian Stoneman , vice president of ImLive , a cam site for live sex shows that ’ s been around for nearly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ being at home , it creates an environment where people are looking to reach out to people.
” But behind the industry ’ s resilient facade , porn stars and academics who study the industry say the pandemic has accelerated major changes in the way porn is produced and distributed .
Jasmine got into making porn about 10 years ago .
She had a child at 20 , and after googling how to make money at home , she learned about camming and clips sites .
Now , while traditional porn studios are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ performers say they are making tens of thousands of dollars each month without ever setting foot on set .
And the pandemic has fueled a wave of people joining Jasmine on sites for amateur porn .
The website OnlyFans , in particular , has become massively popular , with subscriptions up 50 % in April .
After getting a mention in a recent Beyoncé lyric , its chief operating officer Thomas Stokely told BuzzFeed News the site is seeing about 200,000 new users every 24 hours and 7,000 to 8,000 new creators joining @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I dance / on that Demon Time , she might start an OnlyFans , ” raps Beyoncé in a remix of Megan Thee Stallion ’ s song “ Savage.
” “ Demon Time ” is a reference to the nightly livestream of strippers dancing on Instagram that grew out of the pandemic .
Shooting on porn sets screeched to a halt in mid-March as President Donald Trump declared travel bans , and cities shut down overnight .
Falcon/NakedSword , which is one of the largest gay porn studios , had one crew of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ evacuated from Austria when the White House decided to block travel from Europe .
The crew had shot all of the sex scenes , but the film was intended as a narrative feature — the big-budget kind you don ’ t see much these days — so it ’ ll remain on the shelf until shooting can be resumed .
“ We had drones — some of the footage looked like National Geographic with the drones flying and those mountains like I ’ ve only seen on PBS specials .
It was so @ @ @ @ @ @ @ say , ‘ Okay , I ’ ve got to stop doing this , ’ ” said director Steve Cruz .
Cruz and his team went into quarantine when they returned , and by the time the required two weeks had passed , the rest of the studios had been asked to shut down too .
Much of the industry is still based in the San Fernando Valley in California , and the Free Speech Coalition — a trade association for the adult industry — called for the shutdown on March 16 in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ California .
According to Toby Morris , Falcon/NakedSword ’ s vice president of sales and marketing , the company is typically shooting 48 or 49 weeks out of the year , and it puts out a new release every week or so on four different sites .
To satisfy subscribers who pay for regular content updates and to keep paychecks coming for performers , studios like Falcon/NakedSword have had to adapt .
“ We ’ ve all had to get very creative , ” said Morris .
In many cases , this has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ home .
But the content they can make now depends on whether a porn star has roommates to film with and if they ’ re any good at lighting the shot .
Lance Hart , 41 , who runs two subscription sites called Sweet Femdom and Man Up Films and is known as a performer for things like gay robot and hypnotist porn , said he has enough content already shot to keep updates going through July , but he ’ s started working with a few guys who are quarantined together .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ content I get could be subpar because I wasn ’ t there , ” said Hart .
“ So far it ’ s been good .
Parts of it are way better than anything I would have shot because it ’ s new , and you know , ‘ I didn ’ t think of doing it that way .
That ’ s cool !
’ But other stuff it ’ s like , ‘ Ugh , they didn ’ t do the light right so I ’ m going to have to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ !
’ You just kind of roll with it.
” Hart said people living with partners or roommates have an advantage , but some technical ability is still essential .
“ If you happen to be quarantined with roommates , or maybe you ’ re in a polyamorous thing where you ’ ve just got a whole bunch of people quarantined together ... you ’ ve got a leg up right now , for sure , ” said Hart .
“ You ’ ve got ta have some kind of light .
And @ @ @ @ @ @ @ well , we ’ ll call it film , but it ’ s porn .
At the end of the day , technically you produce an .mp4 file that ’ s good to jerk off to .
That ’ s what we ’ re really talking about , so they need to know how to do that , ” he said .
Vixen , a company that focuses on high-production-value porn with pretty lingerie and good lighting , announced in early April that it planned to spend about $ 250,000 to launch a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ featured performers at home .
To keep brand standards high throughout the pandemic , the company will spend some of that money on providing equipment to performers .
Kayden Kross , who is a former porn star and now a director with Vixen ’ s Deeper brand , told BuzzFeed News that it ’ s been a learning process with performers , but she ’ s having fun trying out genres that she wouldn ’ t normally spend time on .
“ One example is a JOI — that stands for jack-off instructional @ @ @ @ @ @ @ camera as if it ’ s the viewer , and she ’ s telling him how to jack off , ” said Kross .
“ Now I ’ m going to do that with the Deeper branding on it , try to give it a really beautiful aesthetic , mess with the language a little bit ...
I wouldn ’ t spend an entire production day creating it , but I would absolutely love to see a solo model create it at home with my meddling to make it look the way I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said .
A spokesperson for the company said Vixen plans to keep the Intimates series going beyond the pandemic and will include the series as part of its other brands going forward .
Porn has been moving in this direction for a long time .
In many cases , the distinction between professional and amateur content is now more of an aesthetic judgment than a meaningful description of how the work was produced , but with studios starting to work from home , those lines are becoming even blurrier .
Lynn Comella , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at the University of Nevada , Las Vegas who studies the industry , said the path was paved during the 2008 recession .
The industry was already weak when the financial crisis hit because online piracy had led to a drop in DVD sales .
“ 2008 , 2009 , 2010 , large porn studios started to just close up shop .
That was one of the big shifts , [ that marked ] the diminishment of the power and maybe status of traditional porn studios in the industry , ” said Comella @ @ @ @ @ @ @ owns numerous sites and production companies like Pornhub and Brazzers — profited off pirated content , scene rates for performers plummeted and stars had to look for ways to supplement that income .
A representative from MindGeek told BuzzFeed News by email : “ MindGeek and our brands take all means necessary to prevent pirated content from reaching our sites .
Anyone uploading content to a MindGeek site must abide by the Terms of Service of the site which requires users to assert that they have rights to distribute the video.
” Live @ @ @ @ @ @ @ provided a way to combat piracy with something unique .
Performers could interact directly with their audience or create custom clips , providing a more personal experience that could not be replicated by simply watching a pirated video .
In recent years , both parts of the industry have fed off each other , with performers making extra money selling behind-the-scenes clips that promoted their studio work , and studios functioning as a launchpad for stars , driving attention and traffic to their personal accounts .
Now , just over a decade after @ @ @ @ @ @ @ months into a new one , that balance has shifted .
Amateur sites are growing rapidly , and with millions of people now stuck at home and out of work , starting an account on an amateur porn site has begun to cross over into mainstream culture .
“ Subscription sites are doing well , but not having the leaps and bounds growth of the individual cam producers , ” Cathy Beardsley , who is the CEO of SegPay , a payment processor that serves the adult industry , told BuzzFeed News .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ the company ’ s adult clients have seen revenue grow by about 10 % in the last two months , while cam sites have grown by 32 % .
Stoneman , from ImLive , said their site is seeing so much traffic that they ’ re adding features , and have begun searching for a sportscaster to narrate some of the cams for people who are blind .
A newer breed of sites that allow amateur performers to sell subscriptions to their content has also been growing rapidly .
The most popular of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ since 2016 and has become a meme during the pandemic , with celebrities joking about joining up .
The site now has more than 30 million users and Stokely , its COO , told BuzzFeed News that subscriptions were up by just over 50 % in April alone .
The site is not all porn .
Stokely said via email that musicians , fitness experts , and reality stars are also posting on the site , and that he estimated that adult material makes up about 50 % of the site ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , that ’ s still a lot of porn .
Sophie Pezzutto , who studies the porn industry as a PhD candidate at the Australian National University , calls this trend the rise of the “ porntropreneur , ” and connects the growth of amateur and performer-produced porn to the broader gig economy .
It ’ s “ part of that change in the economy toward casualized labor , ” said Pezzutto , comparing the move toward performer-produced porn to apps like Uber and TaskRabbit .
“ We ’ re all becoming more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ worker language — ‘ you ’ ve got to hustle , ’ ” said Pezzutto .
“ But now it ’ s not just sex workers who have to hustle .
We all have to hustle .
We ’ re all just working in really underpaid garbage casualized jobs .
Sex work is just another avenue for the average worker to make ends meet.
” For example , one site , IsMyGirl , made a special offer to former McDonald ’ s employees to join the site after reports of layoffs .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the new gig economy , this idea that people can be supported by their fans and their followers , ” founder Evan Seinfeld told Vice .
The transformation of the industry has been beneficial for performers in some ways .
They have more control over when they work , what kind of content they make , how they brand themselves , and they can also resell content rather than being paid just once for a scene .
But , as with the gig economy elsewhere , the work is less predictable , with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ day , and it has become more complex .
MelRose Michaels , 29 , who is one of the top performers on FanCentro , a site for premium Snapchat accounts similar to OnlyFans , said she ’ s making around $ 20,000 a month right now .
She bought property with her partner in Tennessee , and they started building a new home , which they ’ ll finish once the pandemic passes , she said .
To make that money , though , Michaels has to be much more than just a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ director , producer , and a savvy marketer .
And she ’ s great to talk to , an attentive listener who responds thoughtfully .
Michaels makes a commission by referring new performers to join FanCentro , including Jasmine , who recently started posting on the site .
FanCentro typically takes a 25 % cut of what performers make , according to their user agreement .
When performers make a referral , they get 10 % of that for the first year .
Michaels works two hours a night to make a video @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the video three more times : selling it in direct messages , streaming it for followers on FanCentro , and finally , making it available for download .
She said the idea is to squeeze as much money out of the video before she makes it available to download , when it will inevitably get pirated .
“ There ’ s an assumption that anyone can do what we do , and that it doesn ’ t take any skills or any experience to do it well , and I think that ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Michaels .
“ Yeah , we ’ re ... making porn , but at the end of the day we ’ re CEOs of our own company , we ’ re our own product , we ’ re our own service , we have to market ourselves , brand ourselves , do the sales , do everything , ” Michaels explained .
“ It ’ s a lot more involved than people understand it to be.
” Michaels has never done mainstream porn , but she said that especially in the wake of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ imagine why anyone would go back .
“ The only thing that mainstream , the way it was structured , has to offer is that they can distribute it widely , that you kind of blow up and can get a large fan base very quickly , ” said Michaels .
The influx of newcomers in the midst of the pandemic has spurred a mix of solidarity and tension , as people with experience in the industry try to support others who are out of work while grappling with the fact that new @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Jasmine said she had been camming and making good money through March , but when April hit things suddenly dropped off .
She attributed it in part to the broken fuck machine , but she also said newcomers mean viewers are spending less on people who have been on the site for a while .
“ Lots of new people on streaming sites , it ’ s more fascinating [ than ] somebody who ’ s been on there for 10 years .
They ’ re like , Ooh , a newbie @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” she said .
Performers also worry that as the pandemic drags on , subscriptions might drop off as money becomes tighter .
Mutual aid groups for sex workers , sex educators , and industry professionals have stepped up to help educate people who may have lost their jobs because of the pandemic , organizing Zoom webinars to help colleagues make the transition online , and in doing so essentially helping out the competition .
The webinars have included a mix of practical advice about things like contracts and how to stay @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the industry still faces a great deal of stigma .
“ If you ’ re getting into adult entertainment right now , make sure that you ’ re not going to talk shit about it in two months .
If it paid your rent for these times , at least have some level of respect for it and yourself , ” said Romi Rain , during a webinar organized by the Free Speech Coalition .
Rain , Beardsley , Hart , and Kross also participated in a town hall meeting in early April @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by Xbiz , a news site covering the sex industry .
It ’ s impossible to predict how many of the people who join sites like OnlyFans will continue to make porn after the pandemic ends , but experienced performers have also warned that anyone joining now should not expect to remain anonymous online , and should seriously consider the potential consequences .
Mike Stabile , who is the communications director for the Free Speech Coalition , said that is one of the things that has always drawn people toward the formal part @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all well and good until you get fired or you get attacked online … That may scare people away , they may leave entirely and decide not to .
But , if you ’ re going to produce , you need people around who know what you ’ re going through , ” said Stabile .
Stabile also told BuzzFeed News that even though many performers are well-versed in using various platforms , there is also a good portion of the industry that never made the jump and is now struggling to get @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of people who are really eager to get back to work , ” said Stabile , but he acknowledged that even when the shutdown ends , the pandemic would still have a lasting impact because of the awareness that something like this could happen again .
“ As much as this is going to affect a generation of Americans , in terms of maybe being more cautious with their spending or having a different understanding of what the role of government is , I think the same thing is going to happen with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” said Stabile .
Stabile said that while the industry had become much more performer-centric , he doesn ’ t think this is the end of the studios as such .
“ I don ’ t think this is the end .
I don ’ t think this is a meteorite with some dinosaurs , ” he said .
“ I think it ’ s a really interesting time for the industry , where the entire industry rethinks things and decides to become more creative.
” Morris , from Falcon/NakedSword , agreed .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ significant direct mail business and makes about 10 % –15 % of its revenue from DVDs .
“ We muse about the day when the DVD is gone , and it ’ s no longer a reality , but nothing in our data shows us that it ’ s any time soon , ” said Morris .
Morris said the most recent DVD had been held up because the facility that replicates the discs was in California and had been closed .
The company has made the movie available to download , but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t want to make the switch .
“ I just got an email from our customer service guy who is like , ‘ Can we put something on our site that says we just haven ’ t been able to receive these DVDs yet ?
’ because he ’ s getting a lot of calls from people wanting the DVD , ” said Morris .
“ And they ’ re not interested , he tells them it ’ s available for download , but they don ’ t want anything to do with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ●

Kayden Kross, who is a former porn star and now a director with Vixen’s Deeper brand, told BuzzFeed News that it’s been a learning process with performers, but she’s having fun trying out genres that she wouldn’t normally spend time on.
“One example is a JOI — that stands for jack-off instructional, essentially one model interacting with the camera as if it’s the viewer, and she’s telling him how to jack off,” said Kross.
“Now I’m going to do that with the Deeper branding on it, try to give it a really beautiful aesthetic, mess with the language a little bit ... I wouldn’t spend an entire production day creating it, but I would absolutely love to see a solo model create it at home with my meddling to make it look the way I want it to look,” she said.
A spokesperson for the company said Vixen plans to keep the Intimates series going beyond the pandemic and will include the series as part of its other brands going forward.
Porn has been moving in this direction for a long time. In many cases, the distinction between professional and amateur content is now more of an aesthetic judgment than a meaningful description of how the work was produced, but with studios starting to work from home, those lines are becoming even blurrier.
Lynn Comella, a professor of gender and sexuality studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas who studies the industry, said the path was paved during the 2008 recession. The industry was already weak when the financial crisis hit because online piracy had led to a drop in DVD sales.
“2008, 2009, 2010, large porn studios started to just close up shop. That was one of the big shifts, [that marked] the diminishment of the power and maybe status of traditional porn studios in the industry,” said Comella.
As streaming behemoth MindGeek — which owns numerous sites and production companies like Pornhub and Brazzers — profited off pirated content, scene rates for performers plummeted and stars had to look for ways to supplement that income. A representative from MindGeek told BuzzFeed News by email: “MindGeek and our brands take all means necessary to prevent pirated content from reaching our sites. Anyone uploading content to a MindGeek site must abide by the Terms of Service of the site which requires users to assert that they have rights to distribute the video.”
Live webcams and sites to sell homemade clips provided a way to combat piracy with something unique. Performers could interact directly with their audience or create custom clips, providing a more personal experience that could not be replicated by simply watching a pirated video.
In recent years, both parts of the industry have fed off each other, with performers making extra money selling behind-the-scenes clips that promoted their studio work, and studios functioning as a launchpad for stars, driving attention and traffic to their personal accounts.
Now, just over a decade after the last economic crisis and about two months into a new one, that balance has shifted. Amateur sites are growing rapidly, and with millions of people now stuck at home and out of work, starting an account on an amateur porn site has begun to cross over into mainstream culture.
“Subscription sites are doing well, but not having the leaps and bounds growth of the individual cam producers,” Cathy Beardsley, who is the CEO of SegPay, a payment processor that serves the adult industry, told BuzzFeed News. Beardsley said that as a whole, the company’s adult clients have seen revenue grow by about 10% in the last two months, while cam sites have grown by 32%.
Stoneman, from ImLive, said their site is seeing so much traffic that they’re adding features, and have begun searching for a sportscaster to narrate some of the cams for people who are blind.
A newer breed of sites that allow amateur performers to sell subscriptions to their content has also been growing rapidly. The most popular of these, OnlyFans, has been around since 2016 and has become a meme during the pandemic, with celebrities joking about joining up.
The site now has more than 30 million users and Stokely, its COO, told BuzzFeed News that subscriptions were up by just over 50% in April alone. The site is not all porn. Stokely said via email that musicians, fitness experts, and reality stars are also posting on the site, and that he estimated that adult material makes up about 50% of the site’s content. But, with 450,000 creators, that’s still a lot of porn.
Sophie Pezzutto, who studies the porn industry as a PhD candidate at the Australian National University, calls this trend the rise of the “porntropreneur,” and connects the growth of amateur and performer-produced porn to the broader gig economy.
It’s “part of that change in the economy toward casualized labor,” said Pezzutto, comparing the move toward performer-produced porn to apps like Uber and TaskRabbit. “We’re all becoming more commodified.”
“It’s sex worker language — ‘you’ve got to hustle,’” said Pezzutto. “But now it’s not just sex workers who have to hustle. We all have to hustle. We’re all just working in really underpaid garbage casualized jobs. Sex work is just another avenue for the average worker to make ends meet.”
For example, one site, IsMyGirl, made a special offer to former McDonald’s employees to join the site after reports of layoffs. “It’s pretty incredible, in the new gig economy, this idea that people can be supported by their fans and their followers,” founder Evan Seinfeld told Vice.
The transformation of the industry has been beneficial for performers in some ways. They have more control over when they work, what kind of content they make, how they brand themselves, and they can also resell content rather than being paid just once for a scene. But, as with the gig economy elsewhere, the work is less predictable, with cam profits swinging wildly from day to day, and it has become more complex.


buzzfeednews--2020-05-11--The Man From The "Double Rainbow" Viral Video Has Died At 57

Paul Vasquez , the man behind 2010 's `` Double Rainbow '' video and one of the first mainstream viral video stars , has died at age 57 .
Known as `` Bear '' or `` Yosemite Bear '' to his friends , Vasquez died Saturday afternoon in the emergency room of John C. Fremont Hospital , the Mariposa County Coroner ’ s Office in California told the Modesto Bee .
On May 3 , Vasquez posted on Facebook that he was in ill health , writing that he was experiencing heart problems , his lungs were congested , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
On May 5 , he wrote that he received a COVID-19 test but told a friend in a comment Friday that it came back negative for the coronavirus .
He indicated that he had been diagnosed with an unspecified serious condition .
`` It 's a long story that ends with me not having Coronavirus but a ticking bomb in my chest that could go off at any moment , '' he said .
Vasquez became an internet star in 2010 thanks to his exuberant video of himself reacting to two rainbows @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
In the video , which has been viewed over 47 million times , Vasquez marvels at the `` double rainbow all the way across the sky '' and cries over its beauty .

Paul Vasquez, the man behind 2010's "Double Rainbow" video and one of the first mainstream viral video stars, has died at age 57.
Known as "Bear" or "Yosemite Bear" to his friends, Vasquez died Saturday afternoon in the emergency room of John C. Fremont Hospital, the Mariposa County Coroner’s Office in California told the Modesto Bee.
On May 3, Vasquez posted on Facebook that he was in ill health, writing that he was experiencing heart problems, his lungs were congested, and he had a fever of 100.2 degrees. On May 5, he wrote that he received a COVID-19 test but told a friend in a comment Friday that it came back negative for the coronavirus.
He indicated that he had been diagnosed with an unspecified serious condition. "It's a long story that ends with me not having Coronavirus but a ticking bomb in my chest that could go off at any moment," he said.
Vasquez became an internet star in 2010 thanks to his exuberant video of himself reacting to two rainbows in the sky over Yosemite National Park.
In the video, which has been viewed over 47 million times, Vasquez marvels at the "double rainbow all the way across the sky" and cries over its beauty.