buzzfeed--2020-05-05--Tara Reade Knows She Has A Difficult Allegation. And She’s Had A Difficult Time Getting A Hearing.

Reade , who has alleged Joe Biden assaulted her in 1993 , believes the media is applying a double standard to her story and Democrats aren ’ t taking her seriously .
She has seen Joe Biden take questions on cable news and late-night television .
She has seen him host virtual town halls with voters and online fundraisers with donors .
And from her home in California , where she is keeping a daily watch on Twitter , Tara Reade has been waiting for someone — anyone — to ask the former vice president about her story .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ No one asked him .
No one ’ s asking the question , ” Reade said in a phone interview earlier this month .
“ No one ’ s even posing the question.
” On that particular day , Biden sat for an interview with Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski on MSNBC ’ s Morning Joe , appeared on a CNN coronavirus town hall with Anderson Cooper , and took questions during a 45-minute fundraiser with dozens of donors .
More than a month after Reade first detailed a serious allegation of sexual @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the subject in a Morning Joe interview scheduled for Friday morning .
For weeks , he didn ’ t receive a question about the claims , despite doing multiple interviews .
Reade , who has fielded dozens of requests from reporters this month , said she is acutely aware that her allegations pose complex terrain for the “ mainstream media ’ s ” coverage of a Democratic Party that has long viewed both Biden as a beloved figure and President Donald Trump as a man accused of sexism and more than a dozen @ @ @ @ @ @ @ As Democrats came to Biden ’ s defense this month as an advocate for women — marking a turn for a party that has embraced the notion of “ believing women ” as a baseline posture in the # MeToo era — Reade said she believes her story has been given short shrift compared to other accusations of sexual abuse against powerful figures .
She named as an example Christine Blasey Ford , the woman who said she was sexually assaulted by Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh , then Trump ’ s nominee @ @ @ @ @ @ @ story refracted through the lens of Political Twitter , Reade said in a series of interviews this month , she ’ s felt “ marginalized , ” “ smeared , ” and “ discounted ” — betrayed by Democrats she said she once admired .
“ It was really devastating when [ Kirsten ] Gillibrand and Stacey Abrams and Hillary Clinton , all on the same day , just basically implied my story was n't true and they believe Joe Biden .
I can ’ t describe to you what that felt like @ @ @ @ @ @ @ describing herself as a “ lifelong Democrat ” and in particular a fan of Abrams ' , the former Georgia House minority leader who has been campaigning to serve on the ticket with Biden as his vice presidential nominee .
“ I just— I ’ m stunned , ” Reade said .
“ They did n't just say , ‘ Oh , we 're standing with Joe Biden until we hear more.
’ They just discounted me .
They marginalized me .
They said they did n't believe me .
I ca n't @ @ @ @ @ @ @ trailing off .
“ I cried for a while because they 're important in my life .
They 've been figures that I looked up to.
” At points over the last month , Reade has been scrutinized as much as her allegations .
Some Democrats have pointed to her pro–Bernie Sanders tweets ( “ Bernie stay in !
” she tweeted in late March ) , her writings praising Vladimir Putin ( she told BuzzFeed News earlier this month that she had changed her views about Putin after reading writers like Julia @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) , and her decision to first seek a platform for her story on left-wing media outlets like Katie Halper ’ s podcast ( “ She 's very trauma-informed , ” she says of Halper ) as markers of her credibility .
Reade , a 56-year-old who says she put herself through law school as a single mother and still has hundreds of thousands of dollars in student and medical debt , says she is not ashamed to identify herself as “ a working-class poor person.
” She has followed the online discussion @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ways in which survivors are received in the public square .
“ I am not an ‘ imperfect victim , ’ ” Reade tweeted on Tuesday .
Reade has accused Biden of digitally penetrating her in a Senate hallway when she was a staff assistant in his Senate office in 1993 .
She has said she filed a Senate personnel report at the time , told others in the office about the incident , and was removed from her duty of overseeing the interns .
The Biden campaign has said the incident did @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , all of whom Reade said she complained to directly at the time , have said they don ’ t remember any such complaint or that it did not take place .
One of them , Biden ’ s former executive assistant from 1982 to 2000 , Marianne Baker , said in a statement provided by the campaign that she never once witnessed or heard of “ any reports of inappropriate conduct , period — not from Ms. Reade , not from anyone.
” Subsequent reporting has corroborated elements of Reade ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ office remember Reade being reassigned away from managing them , according to the New York Times .
After Reade mentioned that her mother had called into Larry King Live , the Intercept published the transcript from a 1993 episode where a caller described her daughter ’ s negative experience with a “ prominent senator , ” though the caller does not detail the nature of the experience .
Across different outlets , people who knew Reade have said she told them that she had had a bad experience with her boss in Washington @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In an interview with Business Insider , a former neighbor , Lynda LaCasse , said Reade detailed her full allegation against Biden in the 1990s .
The New York Times and Washington Post each reported they spoke with an unnamed friend who had said Reade told her about the allegation in the 1990s as well .
Others have provided more limited accounts — one friend told the Washington Post , for instance , that she remembered Reade saying Biden touched her arm and behaved inappropriately , but did not have other details .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Post he remembered her telling him that Biden was “ inappropriate , ” but followed up days later to clarify that he recalled Reade telling him that the then-senator had put his hands under her clothes .
Through it all , Biden himself has remained silent .
Publicly , aides have referred reporters back to a single statement , dated April 13 , saying that while the former vice president believes women should have the space to tell their stories , this incident didn ’ t occur .
Privately , they have distributed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to rely on a New York Times investigation and to ( inaccurately ) insist the article concluded the incident never happened .
Though the mainstream media has now started to aggressively cover the story , Reade has been disappointed with the length of time it took major news outlets to cover her allegation , as well as the tone of some of the coverage .
Last year — when other women had come forward to say Biden had touched them in a way that made them uncomfortable — Reade told her local paper @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , he touched her neck and shoulders .
In the same 2019 column , she said a supervisor told her that Biden wanted her to serve drinks at an event because he liked the way she looked .
When she refused , Reade told the newspaper , her responsibilities were reduced .
This spring , she turned to leftist outlets to tell her serious allegation of sexual assault by Biden , appearing on Halper ’ s podcast and Democracy Now .
“ I used to think that a Republican talking point was to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Reade said .
“ So I used to think , Oh , that 's just a talking point for them .
I do n't believe it .
But now I 'm living it [ in ] real time , and I see it — like , I see it for what it is .
Because I am a Democrat , or I was .
But now I 'm not anything , really .
I ’ m politically homeless.
” Reade said she doesn ’ t intend to vote in the national election in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
In one recent interview , she identified herself as a supporter of Elizabeth Warren during this year ’ s Democratic primary .
She later supported Bernie Sanders .
The TV network that has asked her on most frequently , she said , has been Fox News .
She said Thursday that she 's received four or more invitations from the station to come on air .
Only in the last day or two have other TV networks expressed interest ; early on Thursday , Reade said she had just received and was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had been contacted by MSNBC that morning , and CBS News had reached out to her the previous night .
( Asked about their bookings , CNN and ABC News said they do not comment on such practices . )
Later , after the announcement that Biden would address the allegations on Morning Joe , Reade said she had now received invitations to come on air from all of the major networks ; she said she was still deciding where to do her first on-air interview and would likely make a decision by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has declined the Fox News invitations , which she said had been from shows such as Hannity and Tucker Carlson .
“ I 'm not on Fox .
I 'm not cooperating with Republicans , because I 'm not interested in my story being politically hijacked , ” Reade said earlier this month .
“ I want a safe platform to tell my full history with Joe Biden.
” Reade was quoted in the New York Times on Thursday as saying that she plans to do her first on-air interview with Fox News @ @ @ @ @ @ @ News the same day , shortly after the Times piece posted , that she “ hasn ’ t made a decision about that.
” Though Reade said on Thursday that she ’ s “ honored to be invited on a national show ” and has expressed gratitude to Fox News for inviting her , she is “ having to cut through the political noise and people trying to call it partisan politics.
” She ’ d been “ pigeonholed ” as a “ Bernie Bro , ” she said , because she ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and “ then there was this new narrative that it 's only the conservative press , which is pegged by some media as being Fox , you know , to lift my voice .
And so I 've been wanting to find a platform that 's more neutral.
” She is still , she said , handling press requests on her own — no lawyer , no publicist .
She said she doesn ’ t have a television , adding , “ I have to look up names to see who people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that world , it ’ s not my world .
So I 'm learning a lot .
And what I would say is that there has n't been a lot to field , it 's been mostly print that has called me and very little television , if any at all.
” Her daughter recently taught her the word “ doxing , ” she said earlier this month .
Reade said she has received threats and been the subject of online harassment .
She ’ s found support among some prominent women whose @ @ @ @ @ @ @ MeToo wave .
Actor Rose McGowan , who accused Harvey Weinstein of rape and reached a $ 100,000 settlement in 1997 that was a key part in the public case against him before he was ultimately convicted of rape and sexual assault , reached out to her shortly after she went public with her full allegation .
The two connected for a phone call for two or three hours , McGowan said .
They have kept in touch since .
“ She 's a very scared , damaged , traumatized woman , but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gone just get stronger and stronger , and it 's really great to see , ” McGowan said in an interview on Wednesday .
“ She 's challenging , you know , one of the most powerful men on earth .
And when you mess with power , they mess back.
” McGowan said that Reade was being “ belittled and dragged and positioned as just this kind of kooky — which of course they did to me — this kooky woman out there , you know , because she does n't look @ @ @ @ @ @ @ blonde they prefer.
” Reade has also been speaking to Sarah Ann Masse , another actor who also accused Weinstein of sexual abuse and was one of the lead plaintiffs in a class-action suit against him .
“ I do think the press is complicit in sort of not taking this as seriously as they 've taken other stories of sexual violence in the past , ” Masse said .
“ I do think it 's because Joe Biden is , you know — it might be because he 's a Democrat .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's running against Donald Trump .
And most people I know are horrified at the idea of four more years of the Trump presidency .
He 's an incredibly dangerous man .
He is a sexual predator himself .
So I think people have complex feelings about it .
But to me , like nothing should be so dangerous that we ca n't talk about it . ''

At points over the last month, Reade has been scrutinized as much as her allegations. Some Democrats have pointed to her pro–Bernie Sanders tweets (“Bernie stay in!” she tweeted in late March), her writings praising Vladimir Putin (she told BuzzFeed News earlier this month that she had changed her views about Putin after reading writers like Julia Ioffe and Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny), and her decision to first seek a platform for her story on left-wing media outlets like Katie Halper’s podcast (“She's very trauma-informed,” she says of Halper) as markers of her credibility. Reade, a 56-year-old who says she put herself through law school as a single mother and still has hundreds of thousands of dollars in student and medical debt, says she is not ashamed to identify herself as “a working-class poor person.”
She has followed the online discussion, political and academic, over the ways in which survivors are received in the public square.
“I am not an ‘imperfect victim,’” Reade tweeted on Tuesday.
Reade has accused Biden of digitally penetrating her in a Senate hallway when she was a staff assistant in his Senate office in 1993. She has said she filed a Senate personnel report at the time, told others in the office about the incident, and was removed from her duty of overseeing the interns.
The Biden campaign has said the incident did not happen. Three former Senate aides, all of whom Reade said she complained to directly at the time, have said they don’t remember any such complaint or that it did not take place. One of them, Biden’s former executive assistant from 1982 to 2000, Marianne Baker, said in a statement provided by the campaign that she never once witnessed or heard of “any reports of inappropriate conduct, period — not from Ms. Reade, not from anyone.”
Subsequent reporting has corroborated elements of Reade’s story. Former interns from the Senate office remember Reade being reassigned away from managing them, according to the New York Times. After Reade mentioned that her mother had called into Larry King Live, the Intercept published the transcript from a 1993 episode where a caller described her daughter’s negative experience with a “prominent senator,” though the caller does not detail the nature of the experience.
Across different outlets, people who knew Reade have said she told them that she had had a bad experience with her boss in Washington — with varied levels of detail. In an interview with Business Insider, a former neighbor, Lynda LaCasse, said Reade detailed her full allegation against Biden in the 1990s. The New York Times and Washington Post each reported they spoke with an unnamed friend who had said Reade told her about the allegation in the 1990s as well.
Others have provided more limited accounts — one friend told the Washington Post, for instance, that she remembered Reade saying Biden touched her arm and behaved inappropriately, but did not have other details. Reade’s brother initially told the Post he remembered her telling him that Biden was “inappropriate,” but followed up days later to clarify that he recalled Reade telling him that the then-senator had put his hands under her clothes.
Through it all, Biden himself has remained silent. Publicly, aides have referred reporters back to a single statement, dated April 13, saying that while the former vice president believes women should have the space to tell their stories, this incident didn’t occur. Privately, they have distributed talking points to other Democrats advising them to rely on a New York Times investigation and to (inaccurately) insist the article concluded the incident never happened.
Though the mainstream media has now started to aggressively cover the story, Reade has been disappointed with the length of time it took major news outlets to cover her allegation, as well as the tone of some of the coverage.
Last year — when other women had come forward to say Biden had touched them in a way that made them uncomfortable — Reade told her local paper that while working for the former senator, he touched her neck and shoulders. In the same 2019 column, she said a supervisor told her that Biden wanted her to serve drinks at an event because he liked the way she looked. When she refused, Reade told the newspaper, her responsibilities were reduced.
This spring, she turned to leftist outlets to tell her serious allegation of sexual assault by Biden, appearing on Halper’s podcast and Democracy Now.
“I used to think that a Republican talking point was to call the mainstream media biased,” Reade said. “So I used to think, Oh, that's just a talking point for them. I don't believe it. But now I'm living it [in] real time, and I see it — like, I see it for what it is. Because I am a Democrat, or I was. But now I'm not anything, really. I’m politically homeless.”


buzzfeed--2020-05-05--We Will Never Agree On What Happened During The First Wave Of The Pandemic — And That Will Make It H

We Will Never Agree On What Happened During The First Wave Of The Pandemic — And That Will Make It Harder To Survive The Second

BuzzFeed News has reporters across five continents bringing you trustworthy stories about the impact of the coronavirus .
To help keep this news free , become a member and sign up for our newsletter , Outbreak Today .
CDC Director Robert Redfield dropped a bombshell in an interview last week with the Washington Post : The second wave of COVID-19 , the disease caused by the novel coronavirus , could be worse than the current one ravaging the country .
“ There ’ s a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ just went through , ” he said , because it would coincide with the annual flu epidemic , which killed 24,000 to 62,000 people last year and caused 18–26 million hospital visits .
A day later , President Donald Trump tweeted an attack on a CNN report about the Redfield interview .
“ CDC Director was totally misquoted by Fake News CNN on Covid 19 .
He will be putting out a statement , ” the president wrote .
Several hours later , during Trump 's daily coronavirus press briefing , Redfield was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ I didn ’ t say that this was going to be worse .
I said it was going to be more difficult and potentially more complicated because we would have flu and coronavirus circulating at the same time , ” Redfield said .
“ It does n't mean it 's impossible , it does n't mean it 's going to be worse.
” But , as Axios pointed out , if Redfield had any objections to how the Post portrayed him , he didn ’ t mention them when he shared the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ As the back-and-forth showed , there are at least two coronavirus narratives , and to be clear , they are not equal : One is backed by science , data , and objective reality , created by medical workers and the scientists , and another is distrustful of institutions , reliant on pseudoscience , and the product of the paranoid and the president .
As of Monday , 54,877 Americans had died from the coronavirus — more than the 47,434 Americans killed in combat during the Vietnam War .
This week , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ exceeded 1 million .
The first four months of this crisis will assuredly mean that when we emerge , we ’ ll be different people in a very different world .
But we aren ’ t even halfway .
We will never agree , in part because the science is genuinely unsettled , and in part because it 's to Republicans ' advantage to make it seem like those zones of uncertainty are much larger than they actually are .
One of the best examples of our already warped understanding is the persistent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ escaped the Wuhan Institute of Virology .
The narrative is difficult to shake , especially since it marries legitimate scientific caution and doubt with the president 's need to find a scapegoat .
“ These conspiracy theories about the virus 's origin are harming our ability to work together as a global community , ” Columbia University virologist Angela Rasmussen told BuzzFeed News .
“ It 's a pandemic , it 's not China 's virus .
It 's definitely [ the world ’ s ] virus at this point.
” In contrast @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in tech and finance who push uninformed information via sprawling Twitter threads and Medium pieces — Rasmussen has become one of the leading sources on Twitter of reliable information about COVID-19 .
While scientists have not yet ruled it out , Rasmussen said there ’ s also no evidence she ’ s seen that points to the lab in Wuhan .
She also dismissed a related theory that the coronavirus had been created for warfare .
“ It would be a terrible biological weapon , ” she said .
The lab origin theory @ @ @ @ @ @ @ widening informational divide between Republicans and the scientists .
According to Rasmussen , people who only listen to Trump ’ s nightly press briefings would be unprepared for another lockdown , if that 's what 's needed .
“ I think that there is certainly the possibility that we could be back to square one , ” she said .
“ We 're going to be stuck with this for a long time , ” she said .
“ There could be over a million deaths [ worldwide ] by this fall , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to say right now.
” Rasmussen said that there ’ s a disconnect between how the scientific community conducts itself and how laypeople consume information .
She ’ s found Twitter useful for sending facts out to her followers , but for every person reading her tweets who wants to actually learn , there are swarms of harassers , angry because scientific research doesn ’ t line up with their conspiracy theories .
Recently , one Twitter user showed up in her mentions , demanding she prove that demonic possession wasn ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and COVID-19 .
“ It 's important for people to have a basic good understanding of what we do and what we do n't know , ” she said .
“ [ But ] I do n't want to waste my time with people who wo n't be convinced that this is n't a dastardly plot to vaccinate everyone.
” We will never agree , because trolls and kooks are pushing nonsense faster than anyone can clean it up .
If it feels like there ’ s a new conspiracy theory on the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ because there is .
Before the coronavirus , an online fringe narrative would take 6 to 8 months to bubble into the mainstream , according to data from AI software company Yonder .
During the outbreak , it has taken 3 to 14 days .
The QAnon movement and the anti-vax community have moved , if not quite into the center of the national conversation , next door .
Take the toilet paper shortage , for example .
In late February , toilet paper started flying off the shelves at supermarkets around the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bracing for then-imminent statewide lockdowns .
“ The way we track a narrative as it moves from one group online to another is using linguistic idiosyncrasies : Small snippets of text or phrases that are used in an idiosyncratic way , ” Yonder CEO Jonathon Morgan told BuzzFeed News .
“ The one that caught our attention is the early signals from 4chan that there was panic buying at grocery stores at a time when panic buying was n't happening.
” According to Morgan , those panic buying posts predated mainstream media coverage @ @ @ @ @ @ @ end of February , influencers with larger followings picked up the 4chan posts and spread the toilet paper panic onto larger mainstream social networks like Twitter , which in part caused larger , legitimate news outlets to report on the story .
Not only did trolls spread a narrative about panic buying from the fever swamps to the pages of the mainstream press , but even now , 10 weeks after the first posts , it ’ s not clear what the intention was .
The early signals on 4chan may have come @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , but it could also have been an intentional effort to cause the headlines to spread .
Here , there are at least two layers of confusion .
Morgan is watching other false narratives ooze to the surface , including that vitamin C could cure the coronavirus or foreign-born delivery drivers had spread the disease .
He sees this problem worsening as anger and despair escalate — and trust in institutions declines .
“ Instead of taking information from [ institutions ] , ” Morgan said , “ we 're taking advice from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the least-informed , but most passionate , fringe groups.
” The institutions of the 21st century , the major social media platforms , have been waging well-publicized battles against COVID-19 misinformation .
Facebook now alerts users who like , react to , or comment on debunked content with a message directing them to the World Health Organization 's Myth busters page .
Under its coronavirus policy , Twitter has deleted posts and suspended accounts .
YouTube has outfitted search results and videos with coronavirus-related information featuring WHO data and links to official pages @ @ @ @ @ @ @ world .
Aviv Ovadya , founder of the Thoughtful Technology Project , told BuzzFeed News that anti-institutionalism is one of the main drivers of the narrative breakdown .
“ [ People ] are not sure what to trust , and the authorities [ and ] the ways that experts are communicating with them , the media is communicating with them , are not helpful , ” he said .
Ovadya said he thinks trolls spreading explicitly harmful disinformation are only a small part of the problem .
Most of the rumors and hoaxes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ trying to do what ’ s best for themselves or their families .
“ There really is this sort of sense that the government is randomly doing things all over the world that do n't make any sense at all , ” he said .
“ I still do n't feel like I have any sense of here 's a set of milestones we need to hit , very concrete , here 's a date where we intend to hit those.
” But if the problem is anti-institutionalism , then having the institution @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have to a functioning national government — tell you you 're wrong is no better than having a scientist do it .
American chiropractors have used Facebook to promote fake cures and therapies for the coronavirus — with one video viewed over 20 million times .
The celebrities John Cusack and Woody Harrelson have spread the hoax that 5G cellular technology caused the pandemic .
A QAnon YouTuber told his followers to drink chlorine dioxide — the oxidizing agent used in bleach .
A YouTube video accusing Dr. Anthony Fauci , the director @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Infectious Diseases and top-ranking member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force , of being part of the “ deep state ” has been viewed over 7 million times .
In part , we will never agree because some of us simply do n't want to .
The internet is awash in hoaxes , misinformation , conspiracy theories about deep state plots and bioweapons , and state propaganda — and it ’ s getting worse .
Of all of the internet groups that have thrived during the pandemic , the QAnon movement may @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that President Trump is waging a secret war against the deep state and a global cabal of pedophiles .
In the last four months , pieces of that narrative have popped up on more mainstream platforms .
Last month , Instagram influencers shared a hoax that the pandemic lockdown was a government cover-up distracting the world from a covert operation to break up a global child trafficking operation .
“ It 's a mess , ” network analysis company Graphika ’ s cyber intelligence analyst , Melanie Smith , told BuzzFeed News .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ in volume in certain issues that were pretty fringe.
” Smith said Q followers are responsible for conspiracy theories like the hoax that Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates created the coronavirus as a bioweapon and the idea that bleach could be a cure , and have promoted the unfounded claim that 5G caused COVID-19 .
According to Smith , these groups are filling a vacuum left by health professionals unused to combating misinformation in public .
Graphika published a report titled “ The COVID-19 ‘ Infodemic ’ ” last week , analyzing social media @ @ @ @ @ @ @ many countries , these internet-fueled fringe narratives are receding and better information taking their place — except for the US .
Another reason we will never agree : Social media platforms have built spaces in which those of us with the least amount of real information can marinate in falsehoods .
The anti-lockdown protests across the country were the culmination of months of paranoid rhetoric spreading across Facebook Groups .
As thousands of demonstrators swarmed state capitols to protest stay-at-home orders , dozens of Facebook Groups appeared with names like `` Indiana Citizens @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Gridlock Tennessee '' to organize them .
After one of those protests , Audrey Whitlock , a leader of the ReOpen NC Facebook Group , announced in a Facebook post that she had tested positive for COVID-19 .
But contracting the disease hasn ’ t deterred her from demanding an end to social distancing .
“ A typical public health quarantine would occur in a medical facility .
I have been told not to participate in public or private accommodations as requested by the government , and therefore denied my First Amendment right @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wrote .
If you disagree with what the mainstream is thinking , saying , and doing about the pandemic , there ’ s safe harbor for you on Facebook Groups .
Some of those groups are the work of conservative activists .
A network of pro-gun groups run by four brothers — Chris , Ben , Aaron , and Matthew Dorr — were behind five of the largest Facebook groups dedicated to to the protests , according to NBC News .
Another one of the protests in Michigan was organized by a group @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
But the Tech Transparency Project , a research initiative of Campaign for Accountability , a nonpartisan , nonprofit watchdog organization , published a report outlining how extremists were using private Facebook Groups to ramp up support for a violent anti-government uprising .
The Tech Transparency Project ’ s executive director , Daniel Stevens , told BuzzFeed News that the report looked at 125 private groups — some of which were created in the last couple of months .
“ A lot of this stuff is really violent and really extreme , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that they 've been trying to use the outbreak to recruit people to their cause.
” The Tech Transparency Report found protest announcements promoted in private Facebook groups associated with the far-right “ boogaloo ” movement .
“ Boogaloo '' comes from the 1984 movie Breakin ’ 2 : Electric Boogaloo , and is short for “ Civil War 2 : Electric Boogaloo.
” One Facebook event spotted by the Tech Transparency Report encouraged people to attend a Wisconsin protest slated for April 24 , even though the state is under a stay-at-home @ @ @ @ @ @ @ page listed more than 3,200 people as attending and another 12,000 as interested .
These Groups share information psychological warfare and celebrate when President Trump tweets about “ liberating '' states from social distancing , in addition to circulating specific information about how to carry out a violent uprising .
“ In these boogaloo groups , they upload all these files , ” Stevens said .
“ Here 's how to wage the war , here 's how to attack supply lines.
” “ A perfect driver for them to recruit people , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the civil unrest is starting.
” But it ’ s not just far-right extremists that have their own warped view of the crisis .
The fracture is global .
Another reason we 'll never agree : China 's leaders are making it harder for us to do it .
“ This is the first time we 've seen really aggressive disinformation attempts by China that look a lot like Russia 's , ” said Matthew Schrader , China analyst for the Alliance for Securing Democracy , a bipartisan national security advocacy group formed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ undermine democracy in the United States and Europe .
He told BuzzFeed News that for years China ’ s international propaganda efforts had been focused on influencing from the top down — as in Australia , where the largest donors to both of the country 's political parties were proxies of the CCP .
Now , China is using information warfare similar to the Kremlin ’ s Internet Research Agency — engaging with users on platforms like Facebook and Twitter to shape public opinion through trolling and astroturfing .
Schrader released a report @ @ @ @ @ @ @ political interference during the pandemic .
Up until 2020 , there was a shared conversation between the US and China that was mutually beneficial .
“ China 's leaders thought cooperation was a pretty useful means to the end of shared party power , ” he said .
“ The breakdown we 've seen is that shared narrative does n't work anymore.
” Schrader said it ’ s incredibly hard for Americans to identify whether they ’ re looking at Chinese propaganda online .
There is also an increasingly vocal contingent of Chinese @ @ @ @ @ @ @ points in English on Twitter , whether to troll or from sincere belief .
Rui Zhong , program associate for the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States at the Wilson Center , told BuzzFeed News that English-language Chinese propaganda spreading on American social media platforms is deliberate .
“ Within China , we 're seeing more and more rewards and incentives given to people who are more overtly hawkish towards America , ” Zhong said .
According to Zhong , China has the first mover advantage when it comes to international @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were hit first , they had more time to develop a propaganda strategy .
The country ’ s government has also co-opted hate crimes against the Chinese diaspora in countries like the US .
“ It ’ s definitely trying to paint China as a responsible actor given the circumstances of the virus and using opportunities where other states might not look as responsible like the UK and US , ” she said .
Both Schrader and Zhong agreed that the overall impact of Chinese information warfare is probably small , even though @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it .
But some of these efforts have caught on , like a story about a US Army reservist from Virginia falsely accused of being patient zero for COVID-19 .
Chinese internet users on platforms like Weibo and WeChat shared that hoax widely .
But for rival governments , acknowledging that China has stepped up its information offensive carries political risks , and so many have shied away from direct criticism .
The New York Times obtained a revised European Union report last week that revealed officials had softened their criticism of China @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the chief reason we will never agree is n't the commander in chief , the social media platforms , the infowarriors , or the Chinese propagandists .
It 's us .
A day after Redfield walked back his predictions of an impending deadly second wave , President Trump took the podium during his daily COVID-19 briefing and suggested that injecting light or disinfectants into human bodies might kill the virus .
`` I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute , one minute , '' he said .
`` @ @ @ @ @ @ @ something like that , by injection inside or almost a cleaning ?
Because you see it gets in the lungs , and it does a tremendous number on the lungs , so it ’ d be interesting to check that . ''
On Facebook , conspiracy theory and pseudoscientific Groups promoted his remarks , according to NBC News .
The president ’ s remarks about the power of light to kill the virus also fell in line with a popular pseudoscientific article on Medium , “ Coronavirus and the Sun : A Lesson @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by British author Richard Hobday , whose books claim sunlight can help prevent and heal many common and often fatal diseases like breast cancer , heart disease , multiple sclerosis , and osteoporosis , it claims `` sunlight is germicidal and there is now evidence it can kill the flu virus . ''
Ravina Kullar , an infectious diseases researcher , told BuzzFeed News that you would literally need to fry yourself with UV light to rid your body of COVID-19 .
In discussing “ a lesson from the 1918 influencer pandemic , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a popular hoax from that era : sunshine therapy , or the idea that sunlight could cure the flu .
“ There were rampant false cures and treatments peddled by large firms as well as those who could best be understood as charlatans , ” Christopher McKnight Nichols , history professor and director of the Center for the Humanities at Oregon State University , told BuzzFeed News .
Nichols said that in 1918 , hospital wards often believed patients were responding well to sunshine therapy when , in actuality , they were probably @ @ @ @ @ @ @ go outside .
“ There were and are a lot of conflated factors there about this actual treatment as opposed to , for example , being a sign of a patient on the mend or with a more mild case of influenza , ” he said .
In other words , more than 100 years after the influenza pandemic , we still ca n't agree on what happened .
Little wonder , then , that we 're so far away from understanding each other about the coronavirus .
●

.CDC Director Robert Redfield dropped a bombshell in an interview last week with the Washington Post: The second wave of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, could be worse than the current one ravaging the country.
“There’s a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through,” he said, because it would coincide with the annual flu epidemic, which killed 24,000 to 62,000 people last year and caused 18–26 million hospital visits.
A day later, President Donald Trump tweeted an attack on a CNN report about the Redfield interview. “CDC Director was totally misquoted by Fake News CNN on Covid 19. He will be putting out a statement,” the president wrote.
Several hours later, during Trump's daily coronavirus press briefing, Redfield was forced to walk back his statement.
“I didn’t say that this was going to be worse. I said it was going to be more difficult and potentially more complicated because we would have flu and coronavirus circulating at the same time,” Redfield said. “It doesn't mean it's impossible, it doesn't mean it's going to be worse.”
But, as Axios pointed out, if Redfield had any objections to how the Post portrayed him, he didn’t mention them when he shared the story on Twitter before the briefing.
As the back-and-forth showed, there are at least two coronavirus narratives, and to be clear, they are not equal: One is backed by science, data, and objective reality, created by medical workers and the scientists, and another is distrustful of institutions, reliant on pseudoscience, and the product of the paranoid and the president.
As of Monday, 54,877 Americans had died from the coronavirus — more than the 47,434 Americans killed in combat during the Vietnam War. This week, the number of cases in the United States exceeded 1 million. The first four months of this crisis will assuredly mean that when we emerge, we’ll be different people in a very different world. But we aren’t even halfway.


buzzfeed--2020-05-06--A Top Democrat Says The State Department Has Sent Republicans Thousands Of Pages For Their Biden Inv

A Top Democrat Says The State Department Has Sent Republicans Thousands Of Pages For Their Biden Investigation While Ignoring Democratic Requests

“ Glad to see Sen. Wyden agrees that despite Pres .
Obama ’ s assertions , congressional review of federal agency records in the interest of government oversight is worth pursuing , ” Taylor Foy , a spokesperson for Finance Committee Chair Chuck Grassley , said in a statement Wednesday .
“ There ’ s nothing wrong with asking questions , and every senator has an obligation to ask questions they deem important .
That said , it is wrong to leak details of ongoing investigations , as Senate Democrats have done repeatedly.
” In February , Wyden accused the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for records over those from Democrats in Congress , which led Republicans to accuse the senator of leaking sensitive information .
The next month , former president Barack Obama privately condemned the investigation , BuzzFeed News first reported on Tuesday .
The letter adds to Wyden 's criticism of the Trump administration ’ s willingness to cooperate with the Republican-led inquiry and underscores the tension between Republicans and Democrats involved in the probe .
“ It is wholly inappropriate for the State Department to dedicate its limited resources to voluntarily complying with Republican @ @ @ @ @ @ @ effort to respond to Democratic requests , ” Wyden wrote in the letter , which his office provided to BuzzFeed News .
Meanwhile , Wyden says the department has neither produced any of the documents he requested nearly three months ago nor “ communicated with [ his ] office in any way about the request.
” In a letter to the State Department on Wednesday , Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden said the department has provided Senate Republicans with more than 4,000 pages of records — including 1,000 pages in early April as the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ government work .
WASHINGTON — The State Department has continued to turn over thousands of pages of records to Republican senators investigating former vice president Joe Biden and Ukraine during the coronavirus outbreak , prompting outcry from the top Democrat on one of the committees running the probe .
Wyden has previously accused Grassley and Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson — the other Republican leading the investigation — of trying to hurt Biden ’ s presidential campaign against President Donald Trump , whose calls for Biden to be investigated were at the heart of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Grassley and Johnson have maintained that they ’ re conducting legitimate oversight into whether the Obama administration ’ s policy toward Ukraine was improperly affected by Biden ’ s son Hunter serving on the board of a corrupt Ukrainian energy company .
Grassley and Johnson first requested documents on Hunter Biden from the State Department in November , as their investigation took hold .
On Feb. 20 , two weeks after the Senate acquitted Trump in two articles of impeachment , the department “ voluntarily produced ” more than 3,000 pages of records @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s letter said .
On April 8 , the department sent an additional 1,000 pages in response to the Republican requests , he wrote .
“ Since the State Department 's initial production , the United States has become embroiled in a devastating global pandemic , ” Wyden said .
“ To date over 70,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 1 million have been infected .
The pandemic has disrupted the lives of nearly every American and over 30 million Americans find themselves unemployed .
The pandemic has also limited the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ some services are only available for Americans ‘ with a qualified life-or-death emergency.
’ ” Wyden ’ s letter renews his request from February , which demanded a wide range of records on the relationship between the Obama and Trump administrations , as well as people cited in the impeachment inquiry .
Wyden said the State Department shouldn ’ t respond to additional Republican requests until his request is fulfilled .
Wyden also said the records that the department has turned over so far were only from the Obama administration , and that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the productions , too .
The State Department did not respond to a request for comment .
Wyden ’ s letter noted that the National Archives has also turned over thousands of pages of Obama administration records in response to a request from Grassley and Johnson — a request that Obama criticized but ultimately approved .
Wyden said the records included “ voluminous spreadsheets and guest lists from official White House events.
” “ All that said , nothing I have seen affects the conclusion that U.S. policy toward Ukraine — policy that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ change while Hunter Biden was on the board of Burisma , ” Wyden said in a statement to BuzzFeed News .
But Republicans are continuing their work .
As part of the inquiry , Johnson and Grassley have asked a range of individuals — from former State Department officials to a Democratic lobbying firm — for documents and interviews .
It ’ s unclear when those interviews might occur , with the coronavirus complicating the process .
One potential witness , speaking on background to BuzzFeed News , said their communications with committee @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been “ slower and more sporadic ” than before .
Johnson has also said he plans to issue an interim report on the investigation sometime this summer .
Asked about that report , an aide said Democrats will “ be prepared to correct the record if necessary , ” warning that they wouldn ’ t “ allow the Senate to be used to advance foreign election interference efforts .
”

WASHINGTON — The State Department has continued to turn over thousands of pages of records to Republican senators investigating former vice president Joe Biden and Ukraine during the coronavirus outbreak, prompting outcry from the top Democrat on one of the committees running the probe.
In a letter to the State Department on Wednesday, Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden said the department has provided Senate Republicans with more than 4,000 pages of records — including 1,000 pages in early April as the coronavirus crippled the country and halted some government work.
Meanwhile, Wyden says the department has neither produced any of the documents he requested nearly three months ago nor “communicated with [his] office in any way about the request.”
“It is wholly inappropriate for the State Department to dedicate its limited resources to voluntarily complying with Republican requests without also making a good faith effort to respond to Democratic requests,” Wyden wrote in the letter, which his office provided to BuzzFeed News.
The letter adds to Wyden's criticism of the Trump administration’s willingness to cooperate with the Republican-led inquiry and underscores the tension between Republicans and Democrats involved in the probe.
In February, Wyden accused the Treasury Department of prioritizing Republicans' requests for records over those from Democrats in Congress, which led Republicans to accuse the senator of leaking sensitive information. The next month, former president Barack Obama privately condemned the investigation, BuzzFeed News first reported on Tuesday.
“Glad to see Sen. Wyden agrees that despite Pres. Obama’s assertions, congressional review of federal agency records in the interest of government oversight is worth pursuing,” Taylor Foy, a spokesperson for Finance Committee Chair Chuck Grassley, said in a statement Wednesday. “There’s nothing wrong with asking questions, and every senator has an obligation to ask questions they deem important. That said, it is wrong to leak details of ongoing investigations, as Senate Democrats have done repeatedly.”


buzzfeed--2020-05-06--This Is What We Know About The Wuhan Lab That Trump Blames For COVID-19

The Wuhan Institute of Virology previously conducted controversial experiments to test what could make coronaviruses more dangerous to humans , but scientists have ruled out that SARS-CoV-2 is a product of genetic engineering .
President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have been beating a drumbeat of blame for COVID-19 : Both claim that the novel coronavirus behind the pandemic came from a lab in Wuhan , China .
Asked on April 30 by a reporter if he had seen evidence that the virus emerged from the Wuhan Institute of Virology , Trump responded : “ Yes , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” going on to accuse the World Health Organization of being “ like the public relations agency for China.
” On May 3 , Pompeo said on ABC News that there was “ enormous evidence ” that the virus originated in a Wuhan lab .
Both men claimed they were “ not allowed ” to reveal what this evidence was , suggesting their information came from classified intelligence .
Before being seized on by Trump and Pompeo , the theory that the virus came from a Wuhan lab had been promoted by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Washington Examiner , as well as the Epoch Times , a publication linked to the Chinese dissident religious group Falun Gong .
While scientists can ’ t eliminate the possibility of a lab escape entirely , the evidence suggests that the virus most likely evolved naturally , probably spreading to people in a seafood market in Wuhan where live animals were also on sale .
Anonymous briefings from international intelligence officials have also suggested that the Wuhan Institute of Virology is unlikely to be the source of COVID-19 .
Despite the questions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a bit we do know about the research that was done at the Wuhan lab and why it ’ s unlikely to be the origin of the new coronavirus .
Here ’ s what we know : The Wuhan lab began studying bat coronaviruses in 2004 after SARS .
The head of the lab , which is operated by the Chinese Academy of Sciences , is virologist Shi Zhengli .
( Shi did not immediately respond to queries about her work from BuzzFeed News ; a representative said by email that they would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Sciences for her to be interviewed . )
Popularly known as China ’ s “ bat woman , ” Shi studies the many different coronaviruses circulating in bats across China and beyond , trying to assess the risk that they could jump into people and cause a pandemic like COVID-19 .
That became a priority after SARS , a respiratory illness caused by another coronavirus , which appeared in China in 2002 and spread to more than two dozen countries , killing 774 people .
MERS , a similar disease caused by yet @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in 2012 , spread to 27 countries , and has killed 858 people .
Both SARS and MERS are thought to have spread to people from animals — civets in the case of SARS and dromedary camels for MERS .
But bats are believed to be the natural reservoir for these and other potentially pandemic coronaviruses , circulating the viruses in their populations and occasionally passing them to other species .
And so from 2004 onward , Shi searched caves across China for colonies of roosting bats , taking swabs from the animals @ @ @ @ @ @ @ coronaviruses they carry .
Shi ’ s team has since identified dozens of coronavirus variants in bats , constructing an evolutionary tree of how they are related to one another based on the sequences of the RNA that makes up their genetic material , and showing that viruses from distinct branches of this tree seem to be found in different parts of China .
In 2013 , Shi ’ s group identified two coronavirus strains from horseshoe bats that were 95 % genetically similar to the virus that caused SARS , providing the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ likely jumped to humans via a civet , bats were the ultimate origin of the virus .
Shi ’ s team has also studied the genetic mutations that seem to make bat coronaviruses more likely to cross over into people , focusing in particular on the gene that encodes its “ spike protein.
” The halo of spikes on the surface of coronaviruses gives them their signature crownlike appearance when viewed through an electron microscope .
The ability of bat coronaviruses to infect human cells seems to depend on the interaction between the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the surface of cells in the lungs .
The lab previously conducted controversial experiments to test what could make coronaviruses more dangerous to humans .
Most controversially , Shi ’ s research on the spike protein has involved experiments that some scientists view as unacceptably risky : deliberately genetically engineering viruses to study what makes them more dangerous .
In 2015 , Shi and Ralph Baric , a virologist at the University of North Carolina , Chapel Hill , described experiments in which they engineered the spike protein from one of Shi @ @ @ @ @ @ @ another coronavirus that had already been adapted to infect mice .
The engineered virus replicated easily in human cells , and antibodies and vaccines developed against the SARS virus were relatively ineffective in protecting mice from infection .
Shortly after these experiments were run , the US government placed a moratorium on so-called gain-of-function research to make pathogens more dangerous .
The ban was eventually lifted in December 2017 , but the research remains controversial .
“ As the world reels from the impacts of the present pandemic , it should be clear @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that creating new potential pandemic pathogens is unwise , ” Richard Ebright , a molecular biologist at Rutgers University in New Jersey , told BuzzFeed News by email .
Baric did not respond to requests from BuzzFeed News to discuss his work with Shi .
BuzzFeed News could find no evidence that Shi has performed gain-of-function studies since .
Scientists are certain that the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 was not genetically engineered .
In March , an international team of virologists led by Kristian Andersen of the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the genetic sequence of SARS-CoV-2 , the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 .
They concluded : “ Our analyses clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus.
” If the virus had been deliberately engineered , scientists would expect to see sequences that are suspected to make coronaviruses more dangerous spliced into the backbone of a viral strain commonly used for experiments of this type .
Instead of this smoking gun , SARS-CoV-2 has mutations all along its genetic sequence that experts would have had no prior reason @ @ @ @ @ @ @ potentially pandemic virus .
This result is what they would expect to see if the virus had evolved naturally .
“ I am quite sure SARS-CoV-2 was not lab-synthesized , judging by the sequence , ” Susan Weiss , a coronavirus expert at the University of Pennsylvania who was not involved in Andersen ’ s study , told BuzzFeed News by email .
“ It seems impossible that someone could figure out how to make a virus with these properties.
” It ’ s also highly unlikely the virus escaped the Wuhan lab @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t rule out the possibility .
Such “ lab escape ” accidents are not unknown .
They happened several times during the SARS epidemic , with accidental infections occurring at labs in Singapore , Taiwan , and China .
The most serious incidents were at the Chinese National Institute of Virology in Beijing , where the virus escaped and infected people on several occasions .
Scientists also now think that the 1977 reemergence of the H1N1 flu was the result of a laboratory accident .
H1N1 , the subtype of flu that caused @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t been seen in the wild since 1957 .
But in 1977 , an H1N1 virus turned up in China and Russia .
It spread across the world , but fortunately only affected younger people who had not been exposed to similar viruses before and proved less deadly than regular seasonal flu .
The 1977 pandemic H1N1 was very similar to viruses sampled from flu patients around 1950 .
Because viruses typically accumulate genetic mutations as they replicate , making them slowly change over time , the explanation for this uncanny similarity was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for years in a laboratory .
“ We and others estimated that it was 27 years in the freezer , ” Joel Wertheim of the University of California , San Diego , who has studied the origins of the 1977 flu pandemic , told BuzzFeed News .
The closest known virus to SARS-CoV-2 is called RaTG13 .
Isolated by Shi ’ s team from a horseshoe bat in Yunnan province in southern China , hundreds of miles away from Wuhan , RaTG13 has a genetic sequence that is 96 % similar to SARS-CoV-2 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ close match , it means the two viruses are probably separated by “ decades of evolution , ” according to Wertheim .
Andersen ’ s team also considered the possibility that the particular combination of mutations seen in SARS-CoV-2 arose as a result of growing it in cell cultures in the lab .
But they decided this was unlikely .
Some of the mutations , they noted , seemed to be the result of interacting with an animal ’ s immune system , while the part of the spike protein that binds to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ similar to sequences found in coronaviruses in pangolins .
Together , this evidence suggested a natural origin , they concluded .
Shi has said that she initially worried that the virus might have escaped from her lab , but found no close match among her samples .
“ That really took a load off my mind , ” she told Scientific American .
“ I had not slept a wink for days.
” Proponents of the lab-origin theory have also pointed out that only 27 of 41 patients described in a study of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ direct connection to the seafood market that has been blamed for the emergence of COVID-19 .
But unlike the accidents with SARS , there is no evidence that anyone connected to the Wuhan Institute of Virology was among the early patients .
While highly unlikely , scientists can ’ t rule out that SARS-CoV-2 was secretly studied in a lab and accidentally released .
The brief appearance in mid-April of online notices and a Chinese government directive suggesting that research in China on the origins of COVID-19 must be “ strictly and tightly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , has added to suspicion of a cover-up by Chinese authorities .
US intelligence is looking into whether the virus escaped from the lab , but the international intelligence community suggests that ’ s “ highly unlikely.
” Speculation that COVID-19 may have been released from the Wuhan Institute of Virology grew after Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin reported on April 14 that he had seen a 2018 US diplomatic cable warning about “ inadequate safety ” at the facility .
However , Dennis Carroll , a virologist and former official with the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has funded Shi ’ s work , has questioned the importance of the cables , which he saw while working in Beijing .
“ I didn ’ t place an enormous amount of weight on the observations that were made because they were not part of a critical , standardized evaluation , ” Carroll told Science .
On April 30 , after Trump started to blame the Wuhan lab for COVID-19 , the Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued a statement saying that “ the entire intelligence community ” agreed with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not genetically modified , but was leaving open the possibility that it had been accidentally released from a lab .
“ The IC will continue to rigorously examine emerging information and intelligence to determine whether the outbreak began through contact with infected animals or if it was the result of an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan , ” the statement went on .
The same day , the New York Times reported that senior Trump administration officials had been applying pressure to US intelligence agencies to hunt for evidence to support the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Sydney Morning Herald that a dossier shared among political leaders in the Five Eyes coalition — the US , UK , Canada , Australia , and New Zealand — linking the coronavirus to a Wuhan laboratory was mostly based on news reports and contained no original intelligence .
Anonymous officials from the Five Eyes coalition told CNN that an intelligence assessment shared in the network suggests the lab-release theory is “ highly unlikely.
” Nevertheless , the fight over the Wuhan lab has dealt a blow to research into COVID-19 and other potentially @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is a grant to Peter Daszak of the EcoHealth Alliance in New York City from the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases ( NIAID ) , given to understand the risks of coronaviruses spreading from bats to people .
Daszak has worked with Shi to study China ’ s bat coronaviruses , including the 2013 paper on the two horseshoe bat viruses similar to the SARS virus .
But on April 24 , the grant to Daszak was abruptly terminated , as first reported by Politico .
That happened just one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about the funding for the Wuhan lab at a press conference and said : “ We will end that grant very quickly.
” In 2016 , Shi and Daszak also described a “ fast and cost-effective method ” for genetically engineering coronaviruses , funded in part by the NIAID grant .
But it ’ s unclear that this aspect of the work had anything to do with the termination of the grant .
Instead , emails obtained by Science from the National Institute of Health ’ s deputy director for extramural research suggested @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was made because of safety issues at the lab , though no evidence was given to support that claim .
Other scientists have described the termination of the grant as a “ horrible precedent ” that will hamper efforts to understand the threat of future pandemics .
“ Our work on the NIAID funding was to assess the risk of bat-origin coronaviruses getting into people , causing sickness and emerging globally , ” Daszak told BuzzFeed News by email .
“ The real risk is out in nature , not in the lab @ @

President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have been beating a drumbeat of blame for COVID-19: Both claim that the novel coronavirus behind the pandemic came from a lab in Wuhan, China.
Asked on April 30 by a reporter if he had seen evidence that the virus emerged from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Trump responded: “Yes, I have. Yes, I have,” going on to accuse the World Health Organization of being “like the public relations agency for China.”
On May 3, Pompeo said on ABC News that there was “enormous evidence” that the virus originated in a Wuhan lab. Both men claimed they were “not allowed” to reveal what this evidence was, suggesting their information came from classified intelligence.
Before being seized on by Trump and Pompeo, the theory that the virus came from a Wuhan lab had been promoted by right-wing media outlets including Fox News and the Washington Examiner, as well as the Epoch Times, a publication linked to the Chinese dissident religious group Falun Gong.
While scientists can’t eliminate the possibility of a lab escape entirely, the evidence suggests that the virus most likely evolved naturally, probably spreading to people in a seafood market in Wuhan where live animals were also on sale. Anonymous briefings from international intelligence officials have also suggested that the Wuhan Institute of Virology is unlikely to be the source of COVID-19.
Despite the questions and rumors, there’s quite a bit we do know about the research that was done at the Wuhan lab and why it’s unlikely to be the origin of the new coronavirus. Here’s what we know:
The Wuhan lab began studying bat coronaviruses in 2004 after SARS.
The head of the lab, which is operated by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is virologist Shi Zhengli. (Shi did not immediately respond to queries about her work from BuzzFeed News; a representative said by email that they would seek permission from the Chinese Academy of Sciences for her to be interviewed.)
Popularly known as China’s “bat woman,” Shi studies the many different coronaviruses circulating in bats across China and beyond, trying to assess the risk that they could jump into people and cause a pandemic like COVID-19.
That became a priority after SARS, a respiratory illness caused by another coronavirus, which appeared in China in 2002 and spread to more than two dozen countries, killing 774 people. MERS, a similar disease caused by yet another coronavirus, emerged in Saudi Arabia in 2012, spread to 27 countries, and has killed 858 people.
Both SARS and MERS are thought to have spread to people from animals — civets in the case of SARS and dromedary camels for MERS. But bats are believed to be the natural reservoir for these and other potentially pandemic coronaviruses, circulating the viruses in their populations and occasionally passing them to other species. And so from 2004 onward, Shi searched caves across China for colonies of roosting bats, taking swabs from the animals and collecting their droppings to examine the coronaviruses they carry.
Shi’s team has since identified dozens of coronavirus variants in bats, constructing an evolutionary tree of how they are related to one another based on the sequences of the RNA that makes up their genetic material, and showing that viruses from distinct branches of this tree seem to be found in different parts of China. In 2013, Shi’s group identified two coronavirus strains from horseshoe bats that were 95% genetically similar to the virus that caused SARS, providing the strongest evidence that, while the virus likely jumped to humans via a civet, bats were the ultimate origin of the virus.
Shi’s team has also studied the genetic mutations that seem to make bat coronaviruses more likely to cross over into people, focusing in particular on the gene that encodes its “spike protein.” The halo of spikes on the surface of coronaviruses gives them their signature crownlike appearance when viewed through an electron microscope. The ability of bat coronaviruses to infect human cells seems to depend on the interaction between the spike protein and a receptor called ACE2 on the surface of cells in the lungs.


buzzfeed--2020-05-06--The Coronavirus Is Keeping Addiction Counselors From Their Patients. So The Industry Has Transformed

The Coronavirus Is Keeping Addiction Counselors From Their Patients. So The Industry Has Transformed.

BuzzFeed News has reporters across five continents bringing you trustworthy stories about the impact of the coronavirus .
To help keep this news free , become a member and sign up for our newsletter , Outbreak Today .
No one gets turned away .
That was the principle for Options Recovery Services , a Bay Area addiction treatment network : If you showed up asking for help , you got it .
But when the coronavirus pandemic caused a nationwide shutdown , addiction and mental health practitioners scrambled to find a way to keep treating patients .
They faced a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ centers put staff and people already in treatment at a greater risk of infection .
But turning them away can mean leaving people to battle their addictions without help .
Many of Options Recovery Services ’ walk-ins are people recently released from jail or psychiatric institutions .
Overdose deaths have drastically increased in the Bay Area in recent years with the rise of fentanyl .
“ If we turn them away we may be picking how they die , ” said Tom Gorham , executive director of Options ’ drug treatment program .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Gorham decided to keep the doors open despite the coronavirus pandemic .
It ’ s personal for him .
Alcohol once led him to a life of crime and homelessness .
One day when he was in jail he met Davida Coady , the founder of Options Recovery Services .
He got clean and made helping others his life ’ s work .
He ’ d end up marrying Coady .
But the decision to keep taking in patients off the street did not initially go over well with staff , who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It was very unpopular at first , ” Gorham said .
They talked through it and after instituting a slew of safety measures — social distancing , temperature checks , face masks , frequent hand-washing — kept the doors open .
Staff were told that they were not required to physically come to work , but Gorham said everyone has .
So far there have been no infections among the roughly 120 patients being housed .
“ They are very , very grateful and they ’ re letting us know , ” said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ come from traumatic backgrounds .
They ’ ve never seen this kind of love and caring in their entire life and they ’ re overwhelmed .
So that ’ s really beautiful that this moment has created this opportunity , in a way , for them to really redefine their lives like we ’ re all basically doing.
” Elsewhere , centers have closed physically but kept operating by moving to Skype and Zoom and other streaming platforms .
Clinical psychologists across the country told BuzzFeed News that they first scrambled to adapt @ @ @ @ @ @ @ up having lots of uptake for their new remote services .
“ We ’ ve kind of had to reinvent ourselves over the past six weeks , ” said Gerry Schmidt of Valley HealthCare System in Morgantown , West Virginia .
It ’ s a large , comprehensive network with about 370 employees over 18 sites .
Almost all of their outpatient services have been converted to telehealth — video or phone calls .
They ’ ve maintained some limited in-person services such as patients coming for blood draws or injections .
But @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have the technology at home for telehealth ?
Valley HealthCare has set up computers at their sites so that people can come in and videoconference with a clinician in another room .
There have been challenges , such as getting enough personal protection equipment , but Shmidt said overall the transformation has been incredibly successful .
“ I ’ m amazed at how resilient our clients are , ” said Schmidt .
“ They ’ ve been really receptive of it , as have our clinicians.
” It is by no means a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ treating substance abuse and mental health disorders , much of what they look for is nonverbal .
It ’ s harder to get a sense of how stable a patient is from a little box on a screen , especially in group settings .
Things like smelling for drugs or alcohol can be extremely useful and are obviously impossible remotely .
“ I have a couple patients that are anorexic and I typically weigh them in the office , ” said Malcolm Horn .
“ When I see them face to face I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ little thin .
I can ’ t do that with telehealth .
I see them from the shoulders up.
” Horn runs a team of mental health counselors at the Rimrock Foundation in Billings , Montana .
She ’ s already been doing telehealth for five or six years because many of their clients live in rural areas .
She calls group meetings the first line of defense against substance abuse , but said that some of their patients opted out until face-to-face is possible again .
“ Is it better than nothing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ Is it what I would prefer to do ?
No.
” The industry had been moving toward telehealth for years , but it was slowed by a variety of technical and regulatory hurdles .
There were privacy concerns and restrictions on what videoconference technology could be used .
There were jurisdictional issues around treating someone in a different state , and concerns about fraud .
But at the drop of a hat , coronavirus changed everything .
The Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services quickly moved to relax its restrictions .
Billing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been opened up .
The Association for Behavioral Health and Wellness , which represents payers , said its members are all covering telehealth services now .
There is also a feeling among many that there is no going back — the outbreak has permanently changed the industry .
Turning Point Counseling Services in Fairbanks , Alaska , was seeing 400 patient visits per week before the coronavirus .
When a clinician got sick , they switched entirely to telemedicine .
After going through the bumps of getting their whole practice online , they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for video sessions .
“ Our experience is this works .
We are not waiting for this COVID thing to pass over , ” said Turning Point CEO Gunnar Ebbesson .
“ We are doing the work.
” Ebbeson says telehealth has `` completely changed the landscape of what ’ s possible ” in terms of providing addiction and mental health services to far more people .
That ’ s something that could soon become necessary .
Every clinician quoted in this story said they expect the conditions caused by the coronavirus to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ when this is over .
People being stuck inside fearing for their health and stressed about losing their jobs is a societywide recipe for more substance abuse .
“ This has been a public health disaster waiting to happen and here we are , ” said Gorham .
“ We didn ’ t want to address it before , now here you go .
It ’ s in our laps .
”

No one gets turned away. That was the principle for Options Recovery Services, a Bay Area addiction treatment network: If you showed up asking for help, you got it.
But when the coronavirus pandemic caused a nationwide shutdown, addiction and mental health practitioners scrambled to find a way to keep treating patients. They faced a terrible choice. Taking people into outpatient centers put staff and people already in treatment at a greater risk of infection. But turning them away can mean leaving people to battle their addictions without help.
Many of Options Recovery Services’ walk-ins are people recently released from jail or psychiatric institutions. Overdose deaths have drastically increased in the Bay Area in recent years with the rise of fentanyl.
“If we turn them away we may be picking how they die,” said Tom Gorham, executive director of Options’ drug treatment program. “I’m not going there.”
Gorham decided to keep the doors open despite the coronavirus pandemic. It’s personal for him. Alcohol once led him to a life of crime and homelessness. One day when he was in jail he met Davida Coady, the founder of Options Recovery Services. He got clean and made helping others his life’s work. He’d end up marrying Coady.
But the decision to keep taking in patients off the street did not initially go over well with staff, who were afraid for their safety. “It was very unpopular at first,” Gorham said. They talked through it and after instituting a slew of safety measures — social distancing, temperature checks, face masks, frequent hand-washing — kept the doors open. Staff were told that they were not required to physically come to work, but Gorham said everyone has.
So far there have been no infections among the roughly 120 patients being housed.
“They are very, very grateful and they’re letting us know,” said Gorham. “A lot of people come from traumatic backgrounds. They’ve never seen this kind of love and caring in their entire life and they’re overwhelmed. So that’s really beautiful that this moment has created this opportunity, in a way, for them to really redefine their lives like we’re all basically doing.”
Elsewhere, centers have closed physically but kept operating by moving to Skype and Zoom and other streaming platforms. Addiction professionals across the country told BuzzFeed News that they first scrambled to adapt to the outbreak, but have ended up having lots of uptake for their new remote services.
“We’ve kind of had to reinvent ourselves over the past six weeks,” said Gerry Schmidt of Valley HealthCare System in Morgantown, West Virginia. It’s a large, comprehensive network with about 370 employees over 18 sites. Almost all of their outpatient services have been converted to telehealth — video or phone calls. They’ve maintained some limited in-person services such as patients coming for blood draws or injections.
But what about people who don’t have the technology at home for telehealth? Valley HealthCare has set up computers at their sites so that people can come in and videoconference with a clinician in another room. There have been challenges, such as getting enough personal protection equipment, but Shmidt said overall the transformation has been incredibly successful.
“I’m amazed at how resilient our clients are,” said Schmidt. “They’ve been really receptive of it, as have our clinicians.”
It is by no means a perfect solution for everyone. For people treating substance abuse and mental health disorders, much of what they look for is nonverbal. It’s harder to get a sense of how stable a patient is from a little box on a screen, especially in group settings. Things like smelling for drugs or alcohol can be extremely useful and are obviously impossible remotely.
“I have a couple patients that are anorexic and I typically weigh them in the office,” said Malcolm Horn. “When I see them face to face I can see hey, you look a little thin. I can’t do that with telehealth. I see them from the shoulders up.”
Horn runs a team of mental health counselors at the Rimrock Foundation in Billings, Montana. She’s already been doing telehealth for five or six years because many of their clients live in rural areas. She calls group meetings the first line of defense against substance abuse, but said that some of their patients opted out until face-to-face is possible again. “Is it better than nothing? Yes,” she said. “Is it what I would prefer to do? No.”
The industry had been moving toward telehealth for years, but it was slowed by a variety of technical and regulatory hurdles. There were privacy concerns and restrictions on what videoconference technology could be used. There were jurisdictional issues around treating someone in a different state, and concerns about fraud. But at the drop of a hat, coronavirus changed everything.
The Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services quickly moved to relax its restrictions. Billing insurance companies for telehealth services has also been opened up. The Association for Behavioral Health and Wellness, which represents payers, said its members are all covering telehealth services now.
There is also a feeling among many that there is no going back — the outbreak has permanently changed the industry. Turning Point Counseling Services in Fairbanks, Alaska, was seeing 400 patient visits per week before the coronavirus. When a clinician got sick, they switched entirely to telemedicine. After going through the bumps of getting their whole practice online, they’ve now seen near-100% attendance for video sessions.
“Our experience is this works. We are not waiting for this COVID thing to pass over,” said Turning Point CEO Gunnar Ebbesson. “We are doing the work.”
Ebbeson says telehealth has "completely changed the landscape of what’s possible” in terms of providing addiction and mental health services to far more people. That’s something that could soon become necessary. Every clinician quoted in this story said they expect the conditions caused by the coronavirus to lead to a rise in PTSD-type symptoms when this is over. People being stuck inside fearing for their health and stressed about losing their jobs is a societywide recipe for more substance abuse.
“This has been a public health disaster waiting to happen and here we are,” said Gorham. “We didn’t want to address it before, now here you go. It’s in our laps.”


buzzfeed--2020-05-06--A Nominee For A Powerful Appeals Court Defended His Embrace Of “Brett Kavanaugh’s America”

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WASHINGTON — A nominee for a powerful federal appeals court on Wednesday defended a speech he gave earlier this year embracing “ Brett Kavanaugh ’ s America ” and a refusal to “ surrender while you wage war on our work , or our cause , or our hope , or our dream.
” US District Judge Justin Walker , facing criticism @ @ @ @ @ @ @ political for a sitting judge and , now , a nominee to the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit , said his speech in March reflected that he was “ unabashed ” in his “ defense of the rule of law ” and his embrace of judicial decision-making that focuses on the text of laws — a hallmark of the conservative legal movement .
“ Justice Kavanaugh and [ former justice Anthony ] Kennedy are mentors of mine .
I will defend both of them , ” Walker said .
Walker @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Supreme Court ’ s 2012 decision upholding the Affordable Care Act “ indefensible.
” He told Senate Democrats who expressed fear about how he might rule on healthcare issues during the coronavirus pandemic that he was referring to the legal analysis of the Supreme Court ’ s ruling on the ACA , not the substance of the law itself .
He spoke about his mother ’ s own health issues and said he hoped that “ every American is able to get the medical care they need.
” But he said that as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ go where the law leads ” and not base decisions on policy preferences .
It was an answer that did nothing to win support from Democrats , who insisted that his record showed he would use a seat on the DC Circuit — the main forum for legal fights over federal regulations — to undermine the ACA if given the chance .
Walker said he would follow the Supreme Court decision as binding precedent .
Walker , born in 1982 , is set to become one of the youngest federal appeals court judges @ @ @ @ @ @ @ model of the type of young conservative judges whom Trump and Senate Republicans have sought to put on the federal bench .
He clerked for Kavanaugh when the justice was still on the DC Circuit ; he held leadership posts in the Federalist Society , the country ’ s preeminent conservative lawyers group , and his path to the judiciary has been personally backed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell .
Walker has only been a federal judge since October , and when his nomination for the Kentucky court was pending , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nominees rated him “ not qualified , ” citing his lack of legal experience .
Less than a year later , however , a majority of the committee voted him “ well qualified ” for the DC Circuit seat , noting the different job that an appeals court judge performs compared to a trial judge .
Other members of the committee voted him “ qualified ” and “ not qualified.
” Walker was a fervent and public advocate for Kavanaugh ’ s Supreme Court nomination in 2018 , and Democrats pressed him on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ceremonial swearing-in event in March — a ceremony that McConnell and Kavanaugh attended — that attacked “ critics ” of the conservative legal movement .
“ In Brett Kavanaugh ’ s America , we will not surrender while you wage war on our work , or our cause , or our hope , or our dream , ” Walker said in his speech .
Senate Republicans and conservative legal advocates have backed Walker ’ s nomination since the White House announced it in early April .
That support only deepened after he ruled @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a church in Louisville , Kentucky , that sued to challenge a local prohibition on drive-in church services during the pandemic for Easter Sunday .
In the 20-page decision , Walker wrote an impassioned defense of the church to the delight of Republicans and dismay of opponents , who called it an “ audition ” for his DC Circuit nomination .

WASHINGTON — A nominee for a powerful federal appeals court on Wednesday defended a speech he gave earlier this year embracing “Brett Kavanaugh’s America” and a refusal to “surrender while you wage war on our work, or our cause, or our hope, or our dream.”
US District Judge Justin Walker, facing criticism from Democrats that the speech was inappropriately political for a sitting judge and, now, a nominee to the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, said his speech in March reflected that he was “unabashed” in his “defense of the rule of law” and his embrace of judicial decision-making that focuses on the text of laws — a hallmark of the conservative legal movement.
“Justice Kavanaugh and [former justice Anthony] Kennedy are mentors of mine. I will defend both of them,” Walker said.
Walker on Wednesday also defended calling the US Supreme Court’s 2012 decision upholding the Affordable Care Act “indefensible.” He told Senate Democrats who expressed fear about how he might rule on healthcare issues during the coronavirus pandemic that he was referring to the legal analysis of the Supreme Court’s ruling on the ACA, not the substance of the law itself.
He spoke about his mother’s own health issues and said he hoped that “every American is able to get the medical care they need.” But he said that as a judge his job was to “go where the law leads” and not base decisions on policy preferences. It was an answer that did nothing to win support from Democrats, who insisted that his record showed he would use a seat on the DC Circuit — the main forum for legal fights over federal regulations — to undermine the ACA if given the chance. Walker said he would follow the Supreme Court decision as binding precedent.
Walker, born in 1982, is set to become one of the youngest federal appeals court judges confirmed under Trump. He is a model of the type of young conservative judges whom Trump and Senate Republicans have sought to put on the federal bench. He clerked for Kavanaugh when the justice was still on the DC Circuit; he held leadership posts in the Federalist Society, the country’s preeminent conservative lawyers group, and his path to the judiciary has been personally backed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Walker has only been a federal judge since October, and when his nomination for the Kentucky court was pending, the American Bar Association committee that vets judicial nominees rated him “not qualified,” citing his lack of legal experience. Less than a year later, however, a majority of the committee voted him “well qualified” for the DC Circuit seat, noting the different job that an appeals court judge performs compared to a trial judge. Other members of the committee voted him “qualified” and “not qualified.”
Walker was a fervent and public advocate for Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination in 2018, and Democrats pressed him on Wednesday about comments he made at his ceremonial swearing-in event in March — a ceremony that McConnell and Kavanaugh attended — that attacked “critics” of the conservative legal movement.
“In Brett Kavanaugh’s America, we will not surrender while you wage war on our work, or our cause, or our hope, or our dream,” Walker said in his speech.
Senate Republicans and conservative legal advocates have backed Walker’s nomination since the White House announced it in early April. That support only deepened after he ruled shortly after his nomination in favor of a church in Louisville, Kentucky, that sued to challenge a local prohibition on drive-in church services during the pandemic for Easter Sunday. In the 20-page decision, Walker wrote an impassioned defense of the church to the delight of Republicans and dismay of opponents, who called it an “audition” for his DC Circuit nomination.