motherjones--2020-03-18--What to Expect When You’re Expecting—During a Pandemic

For the past couple weeks , Talia Parks , who is 16 weeks pregnant , and her husband , David , have been cooped up in their townhouse in Milcreek , Washington , under a voluntary quarantine .
David , who works at Microsoft , began displaying symptoms related to the coronavirus two weeks ago after working in an office building where two cases of the virus were confirmed .
He ’ s come down with a cough and fever but when we first spoke last week , he had not been able to get tested .
“ I am @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but also what this could mean for my fetus , ” says Parks .
” I try not to worry too much but I ’ ve heard that people that had bad cases of the flu have miscarriages , stillbirths…I can ’ t not think about it.
” The coronavirus has been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization .
Approximately 5,002 people in the United States have tested positive for the coronavirus , which causes COVID-19 , and the death toll now stands at 93 .
There has been a great @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vulnerable populations : people over 65 and those with underlying health conditions like diabetes , heart disease , and respiratory problems .
But there is scant information about whether pregnant women , new mothers , or infants fall into the category of high-risk populations .
Emily Vraga , an associate professor at Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota , specializes in misinformation related to health , science , and politics .
She explains that when pregnant women search for reliable information to learn how they could be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can be “ deeply unsatisfying.
” In 2016 , during the Zika outbreak , the World Health Organization was forced to put out a list that debunked a number of misleading claims that had appeared .
Many of them were targeted at pregnant women , since the virus was known to cause birth anomalies in children born to mothers who were infected .
While some of the misinformation was more benign , many of the claims , such as the one that the vaccine to prevent Zika could cause specific “ birth defects @ @ @ @ @ @ @ health efforts to contain the disease .
Vraga worries that a lack of authoritative information could result in a similar contagion of misinformation .
“ Unfortunately the medical community just doesn ’ t have enough information to give strong guidance and that creates a really big gap , ” she says .
“ My concern is that if people can ’ t find the information they ’ re looking for through official websites , they ’ re going to turn to others and that ’ s where misinformation really spreads.
” Parks works @ @ @ @ @ @ @ company in Kirkland , Washington , which has become the epicenter of the largest outbreak of the virus in the United States .
There have been 63 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and over 23 deaths at the Life Care Center nursing home in Kirkland .
Her office has since closed until April , but Parks had already been told to stay home because of her husband ’ s symptoms .
“ My panic mode was already over the top , ” Parks says , “ but when I found out my area @ @ @ @ @ @ @ just been scary.
” When I first spoke with Parks , she had been told her husband did not meet the guidelines for testing despite showing symptoms and having been in proximity to individuals who tested positive for the virus .
Since then , they ’ ve been told that he does meet the guidelines for testing , but Parks says she ’ s afraid to bring him to any of the now overcrowded hospitals in their area , where she worries either one of them could become infected with the coronavirus .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and improvised an internal quarantine for David while he ’ s been symptomatic .
They ’ ve been told to keep at least six feet apart , so they separated their townhome into two distinct living areas , with her upstairs and her husband in the living room .
“ It ’ s been awful , ” Parks says .
“ I just want to hang out with him , watch Westworld , and YouTube , and instead I just find myself shouting down the stairs to see how he ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a problem for pregnant women , says Dr. Joia Crear-Perry , an OBGYN and the president of National Birth Equity Collaborative , an organization focused on black maternal and infant health .
Studies have shown that social deprivation is associated with adverse maternal outcomes .
“ The hard part is we have been encouraging people to not be isolated when you ’ re pregnant and the need for connectedness , ” says Crear-Perry , “ and so finding new ways to connect while doing social isolation is important.
” Vraga says that people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ resources such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists , as well as their providers .
But even then , both national organizations are repeating the advice on hand-washing and avoiding people who are sick , but offer no specific guidelines for pregnant women to follow during this epidemic .
“ You should still plan to have your prenatal visits and other reproductive health needs throughout the course of your pregnancy , ” writes Courtney Benedict , a certified nurse-midwife and director of medical @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , she adds , if you are experiencing symptoms of the virus , you should call your health care provider before trying to go in for care .
Initial studies on babies born to mothers with the coronavirus originating in China , which saw the first case in November , have suggested that the disease does not pass from pregnant women to newborns and has not been found in breastmilk .
Women who contracted the virus in their second trimester did not experience “ critical maternal illnesses ” as had been seen in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ such as SARS or MERS .
Adverse outcomes such as preterm births have been reported for infants born to women with the virus , but there isn ’ t enough information to determine whether those results were caused by the virus or other factors .
Data on women who contract the virus in their first trimester is not available , although high fevers during early pregnancy , one of the main symptoms , have been known to cause birth defects .
Then there ’ s the question of where to give birth during @ @ @ @ @ @ @ overrun with contagious patients .
“ This pandemic really stresses the capacity of our health care system , ” says Crear-Perry .
Most hospitals outside of major cities aren ’ t set up to treat severely ill women giving birth .
She urges people intending to give birth in hospitals , birthing centers , or at home to ask their provider about their ability to safely deliver babies—including whether the locations have enough ventilators and have had cases of the virus , and whether the person doing home birth has been exposed to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for everyone is probably not an option , she says .
The home birth world is overburdened .
There aren ’ t enough people doing that either .
It ’ s not like we have this great system.
” Remaining calm and informed during this pandemic is important for everyone but especially for those who are pregnant .
Stress is already a major health concern for pregnant women and can cause adverse outcomes such as miscarriages or hypertension .
“ The truth is their lives are already stressful , ” , Crear-Perry says @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of other family members and themselves , and this human being inside of them and , all that comes with that.
” Whether stress relief comes from reading a book , meditating , or chatting with friends—with appropriate social distancing—Crear-Perry encourages pregnant women to find ways to take time for themselves without feeling selfish .
Lucy Schulson , a primary care physician in Boston , whose first child is due in May , says that being a doctor has helped reduce some her anxieties about the coronavirus .
“ There is a lot @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , “ but it is a little easier for me to digest the data because I am a physician.
” She washes her hands regularly and follows basic guidelines but is more troubled about what could happen once the baby arrives .
Information about the virus ’ s impact after birth is virtually nonexistent .
She ’ s especially worried because her husband is an intensive care physician , which means he ’ s likely to come in contact with people who have been infected .
“ It ’ s understandable that pregnant @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the virus and any negative effect it could have on their health and the health of their fetus , ” says Christopher Zahn , vice president of practice advisories for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists .
“ However , it is critical to note that at this time , for the general public in the United States , the immediate health risk from COVID-19 is considered low.
” Parks says she has continued to feel healthy , outside of the occasional bouts of morning sickness , and that her husband has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fears about the virus remain .
“ I think the worst part , ” she says , “ is really just not knowing .
”

For the past couple weeks, Talia Parks, who is 16 weeks pregnant, and her husband, David, have been cooped up in their townhouse in Milcreek, Washington, under a voluntary quarantine. David, who works at Microsoft, began displaying symptoms related to the coronavirus two weeks ago after working in an office building where two cases of the virus were confirmed. He’s come down with a cough and fever but when we first spoke last week, he had not been able to get tested. “I am worried not only for my husband, but also what this could mean for my fetus,” says Parks. ” I try not to worry too much but I’ve heard that people that had bad cases of the flu have miscarriages, stillbirths…I can’t not think about it.”
The coronavirus has been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. Approximately 5,002 people in the United States have tested positive for the coronavirus, which causes COVID-19, and the death toll now stands at 93. There has been a great deal of attention focused on the most vulnerable populations: people over 65 and those with underlying health conditions like diabetes, heart disease, and respiratory problems. But there is scant information about whether pregnant women, new mothers, or infants fall into the category of high-risk populations.
Emily Vraga, an associate professor at Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota, specializes in misinformation related to health, science, and politics. She explains that when pregnant women search for reliable information to learn how they could be impacted by the virus, the results can be “deeply unsatisfying.”
In 2016, during the Zika outbreak, the World Health Organization was forced to put out a list that debunked a number of misleading claims that had appeared. Many of them were targeted at pregnant women, since the virus was known to cause birth anomalies in children born to mothers who were infected. While some of the misinformation was more benign, many of the claims, such as the one that the vaccine to prevent Zika could cause specific “birth defects,” could have seriously damaged public health efforts to contain the disease.
Vraga worries that a lack of authoritative information could result in a similar contagion of misinformation. “Unfortunately the medical community just doesn’t have enough information to give strong guidance and that creates a really big gap,” she says. “My concern is that if people can’t find the information they’re looking for through official websites, they’re going to turn to others and that’s where misinformation really spreads.”
Parks works as an administrative assistant at a fishing company in Kirkland, Washington, which has become the epicenter of the largest outbreak of the virus in the United States. There have been 63 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and over 23 deaths at the Life Care Center nursing home in Kirkland. Her office has since closed until April, but Parks had already been told to stay home because of her husband’s symptoms. “My panic mode was already over the top,” Parks says, “but when I found out my area was the hardest hit it’s just been scary.”
“My panic mode was already over the top, but when I found out my area was the hardest hit —it’s just been scary.”
When I first spoke with Parks, she had been told her husband did not meet the guidelines for testing despite showing symptoms and having been in proximity to individuals who tested positive for the virus. Since then, they’ve been told that he does meet the guidelines for testing, but Parks says she’s afraid to bring him to any of the now overcrowded hospitals in their area, where she worries either one of them could become infected with the coronavirus. The couple has adopted a wait-and-see attitude, and improvised an internal quarantine for David while he’s been symptomatic. They’ve been told to keep at least six feet apart, so they separated their townhome into two distinct living areas, with her upstairs and her husband in the living room. “It’s been awful,” Parks says. “I just want to hang out with him, watch Westworld, and YouTube, and instead I just find myself shouting down the stairs to see how he’s doing.”
The isolation itself can be a problem for pregnant women, says Dr. Joia Crear-Perry, an OBGYN and the president of National Birth Equity Collaborative, an organization focused on black maternal and infant health. Studies have shown that social deprivation is associated with adverse maternal outcomes. “The hard part is we have been encouraging people to not be isolated when you’re pregnant and the need for connectedness,” says Crear-Perry, “and so finding new ways to connect while doing social isolation is important.”
Vraga says that people should continue to turn to trusted medical resources such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, as well as their providers. But even then, both national organizations are repeating the advice on hand-washing and avoiding people who are sick, but offer no specific guidelines for pregnant women to follow during this epidemic.
“You should still plan to have your prenatal visits and other reproductive health needs throughout the course of your pregnancy,” writes Courtney Benedict, a certified nurse-midwife and director of medical standards implementation at Planned Parenthood. But, she adds, if you are experiencing symptoms of the virus, you should call your health care provider before trying to go in for care.
Initial studies on babies born to mothers with the coronavirus originating in China, which saw the first case in November, have suggested that the disease does not pass from pregnant women to newborns and has not been found in breastmilk. Women who contracted the virus in their second trimester did not experience “critical maternal illnesses” as had been seen in pregnant women who had contracted previous coronaviruses such as SARS or MERS. Adverse outcomes such as preterm births have been reported for infants born to women with the virus, but there isn’t enough information to determine whether those results were caused by the virus or other factors. Data on women who contract the virus in their first trimester is not available, although high fevers during early pregnancy, one of the main symptoms, have been known to cause birth defects.
Then there’s the question of where to give birth during a pandemic, when hospitals could be overrun with contagious patients. “This pandemic really stresses the capacity of our health care system,” says Crear-Perry. Most hospitals outside of major cities aren’t set up to treat severely ill women giving birth. She urges people intending to give birth in hospitals, birthing centers, or at home to ask their provider about their ability to safely deliver babies—including whether the locations have enough ventilators and have had cases of the virus, and whether the person doing home birth has been exposed to the virus. Moving to home births for everyone is probably not an option, she says. The home birth world is overburdened. There aren’t enough people doing that either. It’s not like we have this great system.”
Remaining calm and informed during this pandemic is important for everyone but especially for those who are pregnant. Stress is already a major health concern for pregnant women and can cause adverse outcomes such as miscarriages or hypertension. “The truth is their lives are already stressful,” , Crear-Perry says. “They are often taking care of other family members and themselves, and this human being inside of them and, all that comes with that.” Whether stress relief comes from reading a book, meditating, or chatting with friends—with appropriate social distancing—Crear-Perry encourages pregnant women to find ways to take time for themselves without feeling selfish.
Lucy Schulson, a primary care physician in Boston, whose first child is due in May, says that being a doctor has helped reduce some her anxieties about the coronavirus. “There is a lot that is unknown,” she says, “but it is a little easier for me to digest the data because I am a physician.”
She washes her hands regularly and follows basic guidelines but is more troubled about what could happen once the baby arrives. Information about the virus’s impact after birth is virtually nonexistent. She’s especially worried because her husband is an intensive care physician, which means he’s likely to come in contact with people who have been infected.
“It’s understandable that pregnant women would be concerned about exposure to the virus and any negative effect it could have on their health and the health of their fetus,” says Christopher Zahn, vice president of practice advisories for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. “However, it is critical to note that at this time, for the general public in the United States, the immediate health risk from COVID-19 is considered low.”
Parks says she has continued to feel healthy, outside of the occasional bouts of morning sickness, and that her husband has even started to improve, but her fears about the virus remain. “I think the worst part,” she says, “is really just not knowing.”


motherjones--2020-03-18--We Went to Chinatown in Queens Last Week and Saw the Future of Restaurants. It Was Grim.

When the Flushing Chamber of Commerce met last Wednesday , the Knicks were about to tip off against the Hawks , Broadway was open , and a St. Patrick ’ s Day parade was set for Tuesday .
But the situation in Queens ’ main Chinatown was already dire : John Choe , the chamber ’ s executive director , said food courts were deserted and business at local restaurants was down by half or more .
Choe announced a “ solidarity lunch ” that would be held at a Taiwanese beef noodle soup spot on Monday to help support @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , mostly Asian-American New Yorkers had gathered at the historic St. George ’ s Episcopal church—which has withstood many catastrophes since it was established in 1702—to discuss what could be done to help neighborhood businesses survive the impacts of the new coronavirus .
Todd Leong , the sharply dressed co-owner of the Leaf Bar & Lounge atop Flushing ’ s Hyatt Place Hotel , took the mic and offered to hold a party to show the media that it was alright to go out .
“ I don ’ t know , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he could help .
“ It ’ s an idea.
” ( By Sunday , the Leaf Bar & Lounge would be voluntarily shut down to help stop the spread of coronavirus . )
A woman , who spoke with endearing nervousness , proposed an elaborate plan to teach older people to use food delivery apps .
A Korean-American bank manager said it was time to stop the hysteria , floating the idea of a “ Purell party ” that would bring together a clean-handed group to show that people could still safely @ @ @ @ @ @ @ admirable earnestness , but it was also painfully clear that the proposals would do far from enough for restaurants ’ bottom lines and , worse , could spread the virus .
Their efforts took place before most businesses had come to grips with the fact that this crisis could not be addressed by messaging or marketing .
Indeed , Chinatowns in Flushing and across the country foreshadowed what the restaurant industry everywhere would come to look like in the age of coronavirus : layoffs , shuttered businesses , and potential bankruptcy .
Listen @ @ @ @ @ @ @ community of Flushing , New York City , where widespread closures could permanently endanger a food-lover ’ s paradise , in this edition of the Mother Jones Podcast .
Flushing was home to 72,000 people as of the 2010 Census , nearly 70 percent of whom were Asian and two-thirds of whom were born abroad .
It is known for its mom-and-pop shops run by Chinese immigrants .
But over the past decade , it has seen more luxury condo development than all but one New York neighborhood , Williamsburg in Brooklyn , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ York Times .
Choe said that commercial rents can now exceed parts of midtown Manhattan .
The last stop on New York ’ s 7 train , Flushing is normally packed with locals , as well as food tourists from across the city .
Both groups have been staying away .
James Chen , the founder of a delivery app called GoHive , told me last week that half the stalls at one Flushing ’ s main food halls had already closed .
Chinese immigrants were growing fearful from what they saw happen @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the sometimes misleading information spreading on the messaging platform WeChat that made the virus seem even more deadly than it already is .
Another problem was that many American news outlets had used photos of Flushing to illustrate stories about the coronavirus , feeding the false impression that the neighborhood of small businesses and apartment buildings was at the heart of the pandemic .
I had been one of those food tourists from Brooklyn two months ago , when I ’ d angled for a table in the packed New World Mall food @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more staff than patrons .
After I got home last Wednesday , NBA commissioner Adam Silver suspended the league ’ s season and Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the cancellation of the St. Patrick ’ s Day parade .
On Thursday , Broadway closed , too .
And the stock market closed the week down nearly 10 percent , despite Friday , when President Donald Trump finally declared a national emergency , ushering in the best day for stocks in more than a decade .
But Joe DiStefano , a food writer whom I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ eating tour of Flushing on for Saturday .
When we met up over the weekend , he wore a flat brimmed hat with “ Queens ” on the front and “ Nueva York ” across the back .
DiStefano and a few other foodies—two of whom brought handheld lights for photo taking—made their way through a parade of dumplings and noodles .
He and Hannah Goldberg , a classically trained chef who started a catering company , Tanabel , that serves food cooked by refugee women , disagreed over the strength of a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ unusual it was ; she compared it to Hamburger Helper .
They agreed on the strength of the pastries at New Flushing Bakery before parting ways .
Even though everyone had been careful not to shake hands or share utensils , the tour defied the recommendations on social distancing from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention .
But DiStefano felt a deep loyalty to the businesses that have made his livelihood possible .
Podcast producer Molly Schwartz and I returned to New Word Mall food court after DiStefano ’ s group departed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stall called Shanghai Taste , held up the metal spike he uses to impale paper order tickets .
He had only about 20 tickets at a point in the afternoon when he should have had 80 .
Keeping the stall open costs at least $ 25,000 a month , but between March 1 and March 14 he ’ d made only $ 6,000 .
Daily business was down from about $ 1,200 to $ 350 , and he estimated that at this rate he ’ d only be able to remain open for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lives outside Washington , DC , in Maryland , where Governor Larry Hogan has closed schools and activated the National Guard .
They have another Shanghai Taste restaurant in Rockville , this one in a strip mall sit down establishment known for its soup dumplings .
He ’ d just heard business was similarly bad there .
He picked up his phone to show me photos of the empty shelves at a Whole Foods in DC .
They were taken right after Trump spoke on Friday , he said .
On Sunday night @ @ @ @ @ @ @ New York restaurants would have to stop sit-down service by Tuesday .
When I called Choe , from the Chamber of Commerce , after the announcement , he said small businesses in Flushing were already struggling before coronavirus hit .
He feared that the coronavirus would be the death blow for many of them , estimating that up to half of the places that are closing would never reopen .
Some , he ’ s heard , are only staying open to sell the food they ’ ve already bought .
They will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more of the chains from China and the United States—like Haidilao for hotpot or Sonic for burgers—that have already been moving into Flushing .
Choe , who has lived in Flushing for about 15 years , said the neighborhood managed to thrive during the Great Recession .
This time is looking different .
He ’ s hoping the government will declare the crisis a natural disaster so that more aid will flow to business owners .
New York City has already announced an up to $ 75,000 zero-interest loan program for small business @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on how to apply are not yet available .
For many businesses , he added , $ 75,000 would only last about about two months .
The situation for their workers is likely to be even worse .
Choe worried they ’ d wind up homeless or dependent on the food bank that also operates out of St. George ’ s .
When I caught up with Timmy Chen on Monday , he was still making sense of de Blasio ’ s announcement on restaurant closures .
Maryland was also ending sit-down service @ @ @ @ @ @ @ further underwater .
Carry out was a possibility in both places , but that was only about 20 percent of his sales in New York .
It ’ s not enough .
I asked him what he would he would do .
“ No plan , my friend .
No plan , ” he replied .
“ Nothing I can do , you know.
” I could hear him laughing over the phone .
He seemed in oddly good spirts despite it all .
Later that day , he decided to close the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we spoke on Tuesday , he was already back home in Maryland , where he ’ s still doing takeaway .
At least , for now .

When the Flushing Chamber of Commerce met last Wednesday, the Knicks were about to tip off against the Hawks, Broadway was open, and a St. Patrick’s Day parade was set for Tuesday. But the situation in Queens’ main Chinatown was already dire: John Choe, the chamber’s executive director, said food courts were deserted and business at local restaurants was down by half or more. Choe announced a “solidarity lunch” that would be held at a Taiwanese beef noodle soup spot on Monday to help support the struggling restaurants.
A few dozen, mostly Asian-American New Yorkers had gathered at the historic St. George’s Episcopal church—which has withstood many catastrophes since it was established in 1702—to discuss what could be done to help neighborhood businesses survive the impacts of the new coronavirus. Todd Leong, the sharply dressed co-owner of the Leaf Bar & Lounge atop Flushing’s Hyatt Place Hotel, took the mic and offered to hold a party to show the media that it was alright to go out. “I don’t know,” he said, unsure of how else he could help. “It’s an idea.” (By Sunday, the Leaf Bar & Lounge would be voluntarily shut down to help stop the spread of coronavirus.)
A woman, who spoke with endearing nervousness, proposed an elaborate plan to teach older people to use food delivery apps. A Korean-American bank manager said it was time to stop the hysteria, floating the idea of a “Purell party” that would bring together a clean-handed group to show that people could still safely gather.
The suggestions were made with admirable earnestness, but it was also painfully clear that the proposals would do far from enough for restaurants’ bottom lines and, worse, could spread the virus. Their efforts took place before most businesses had come to grips with the fact that this crisis could not be addressed by messaging or marketing. Indeed, Chinatowns in Flushing and across the country foreshadowed what the restaurant industry everywhere would come to look like in the age of coronavirus: layoffs, shuttered businesses, and potential bankruptcy.
Listen to Noah Lanard tour the hard-hit immigrant community of Flushing, New York City, where widespread closures could permanently endanger a food-lover’s paradise, in this edition of the Mother Jones Podcast.
Listen to the latest episode of Bite: Subscribe using Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app.
Flushing was home to 72,000 people as of the 2010 Census, nearly 70 percent of whom were Asian and two-thirds of whom were born abroad. It is known for its mom-and-pop shops run by Chinese immigrants. But over the past decade, it has seen more luxury condo development than all but one New York neighborhood, Williamsburg in Brooklyn, according to data published by the New York Times. Choe said that commercial rents can now exceed parts of midtown Manhattan. The last stop on New York’s 7 train, Flushing is normally packed with locals, as well as food tourists from across the city. Both groups have been staying away.
James Chen, the founder of a delivery app called GoHive, told me last week that half the stalls at one Flushing’s main food halls had already closed. Chinese immigrants were growing fearful from what they saw happen in their homeland, as well as the sometimes misleading information spreading on the messaging platform WeChat that made the virus seem even more deadly than it already is. Another problem was that many American news outlets had used photos of Flushing to illustrate stories about the coronavirus, feeding the false impression that the neighborhood of small businesses and apartment buildings was at the heart of the pandemic. I had been one of those food tourists from Brooklyn two months ago, when I’d angled for a table in the packed New World Mall food court; now there appeared to be more staff than patrons.
After I got home last Wednesday, NBA commissioner Adam Silver suspended the league’s season and Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the cancellation of the St. Patrick’s Day parade. On Thursday, Broadway closed, too. And the stock market closed the week down nearly 10 percent, despite Friday, when President Donald Trump finally declared a national emergency, ushering in the best day for stocks in more than a decade. But Joe DiStefano, a food writer whom I met at the meeting, kept an eating tour of Flushing on for Saturday.
When we met up over the weekend, he wore a flat brimmed hat with “Queens” on the front and “Nueva York” across the back. DiStefano and a few other foodies—two of whom brought handheld lights for photo taking—made their way through a parade of dumplings and noodles. He and Hannah Goldberg, a classically trained chef who started a catering company, Tanabel, that serves food cooked by refugee women, disagreed over the strength of a chopped noodle dish. He liked how unusual it was; she compared it to Hamburger Helper. They agreed on the strength of the pastries at New Flushing Bakery before parting ways.
Even though everyone had been careful not to shake hands or share utensils, the tour defied the recommendations on social distancing from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But DiStefano felt a deep loyalty to the businesses that have made his livelihood possible.
Podcast producer Molly Schwartz and I returned to New Word Mall food court after DiStefano’s group departed. Timmy Chen, who runs a stall called Shanghai Taste, held up the metal spike he uses to impale paper order tickets. He had only about 20 tickets at a point in the afternoon when he should have had 80. Keeping the stall open costs at least $25,000 a month, but between March 1 and March 14 he’d made only $6,000. Daily business was down from about $1,200 to $350, and he estimated that at this rate he’d only be able to remain open for another month or two.
His family lives outside Washington, DC, in Maryland, where Governor Larry Hogan has closed schools and activated the National Guard. They have another Shanghai Taste restaurant in Rockville, this one in a strip mall sit down establishment known for its soup dumplings. He’d just heard business was similarly bad there. He picked up his phone to show me photos of the empty shelves at a Whole Foods in DC. They were taken right after Trump spoke on Friday, he said.
On Sunday night, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that New York restaurants would have to stop sit-down service by Tuesday. When I called Choe, from the Chamber of Commerce, after the announcement, he said small businesses in Flushing were already struggling before coronavirus hit. He feared that the coronavirus would be the death blow for many of them, estimating that up to half of the places that are closing would never reopen. Some, he’s heard, are only staying open to sell the food they’ve already bought. They will likely sit vacant or be replaced by more of the chains from China and the United States—like Haidilao for hotpot or Sonic for burgers—that have already been moving into Flushing.
Choe, who has lived in Flushing for about 15 years, said the neighborhood managed to thrive during the Great Recession. This time is looking different. He’s hoping the government will declare the crisis a natural disaster so that more aid will flow to business owners. New York City has already announced an up to $75,000 zero-interest loan program for small business owners, but Choe said the details on how to apply are not yet available. For many businesses, he added, $75,000 would only last about about two months. The situation for their workers is likely to be even worse. Choe worried they’d wind up homeless or dependent on the food bank that also operates out of St. George’s.
When I caught up with Timmy Chen on Monday, he was still making sense of de Blasio’s announcement on restaurant closures. Maryland was also ending sit-down service, meaning his two restaurants will be further underwater. Carry out was a possibility in both places, but that was only about 20 percent of his sales in New York. It’s not enough.
I asked him what he would he would do. “No plan, my friend. No plan,” he replied. “Nothing I can do, you know.” I could hear him laughing over the phone. He seemed in oddly good spirts despite it all. Later that day, he decided to close the New York outpost. By the time we spoke on Tuesday, he was already back home in Maryland, where he’s still doing takeaway. At least, for now.


motherjones--2020-03-18--States May Not Have Enough Time to Institute Voting by Mail

The coronavirus is wreaking havoc on the United States ’ primary election season , and the commotion is prompting politicians , candidates , and voting rights advocates to raise a seemingly simple solution : a quick nationwide turn to voting by mail .
But the reality is that modifying a state ’ s election system to properly conduct a vote-by-mail election is complicated and takes time—perhaps more time than exists between now and the time when general election candidates are typically selected .
While some states already conduct all-mail elections , enacting those systems required resolving many thorny legal and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to go all mail in 1998 and automatically send postal ballots to all registered voters ahead of Election Day , followed by Washington in 2011 , Colorado in 2013 , and Hawaii and Utah in 2019 .
Last week , when Louisiana became the first state to reschedule a primary in the face of the coronavirus by postponing its election from April 4 until June 20 , the secretary of state ’ s office fielded criticism for not moving to an all vote by mail election for the new date .
“ Logistically @ @ @ @ @ @ @ enough time to get the ballots printed , the envelopes , the scanning equipment—that would need to be certified before we could use it , ” press secretary Tyler Brey told Mother Jones .
“ Quite frankly , we didn ’ t want to have the Louisiana voters be a guinea pig for something that we were putting together so last minute and so outside of our expertise.
” “ The real challenge here is that we want to make sure that the election is conducted with utmost integrity of the process , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ anything , ” said Tammy Patrick , an election administration expert at the Bipartisan Policy Center and former election official in Maricopa County , Arizona , which is home to Pheonix and is one of the country ’ s largest voting jurisdictions .
“ In order to do it well and service the population as best as one can , we need it to be a very thoughtful process.
” Elections in the US are typically run at the county level , with heavy interaction , coordination , and funding through state officials @ @ @ @ @ @ @ coordination with federal officials .
In the best of times , election administrators face a range of complicated and , at times , contentious issues to work through when tinkering with election policy .
Many changes require state legislative action .
In 33 states , and in the District of Columbia , existing laws allow for “ no-excuse ” absentee voting , which means that while voters don ’ t automatically receive mailed ballots , any registrant can request one .
In the remaining states an “ excuse ” is needed , such @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , on jury duty , having a physical disability , or some other reason why they can not go to a polling place to cast their ballot .
Patrick said some states are well suited for a switch to full vote-by-mail , such as Arizona , where a no-excuse policy means most people already cast absentee ballots .
But other states , like Louisiana , would have to scale up an entire system that would take time , money , and the negotiation of logistical issues and legal requirements .
One set of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ state secure enough paper to print ballots , and of a high enough quality that scanners can properly function ?
What about enough envelopes , and how will they be designed ?
What about proper equipment to fold ballots and stuff hundreds of thousands or millions of them into envelopes in a reasonable amount of time ?
Are voter rolls accurate enough to ensure every registered voter actually gets a ballot ?
Then there are complex legal questions that that represent some of the biggest fights in election policy over the years and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ political arguments : How many days after an election can a ballot arrive and still be counted ?
Should it be legal for canvassers to go door-to-door to collect voters ’ ballots ?
At what date after the election must results be certified and all counting be stopped ?
A federal bill announced by Sen. Ron Wyden ( D-Ore. ) last week would provide funding and require all states to offer a vote-by-mail option this year , or to allow for the dropping off of paper ballots , if 25 percent of states @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had already been met when he announced the proposal .
Wyden , a longtime advocate of vote-by-mail , introduced another bill with Sen. Amy Klobuchar ( D-Minn. ) , that would expand early in-person voting and no-excuse absentee and mail voting in all states , and allow voters who did not receive an absentee ballot to use print-at-home ballots that currently are only available to military and overseas voters .
In Illinois , which forged ahead with its scheduled primary election on Tuesday , a debate between officials over postponing the election and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Jim Allen , the spokesman for the Chicago Board of Elections , said the city had urged Gov .
J.B. Pritzker to prohibit in-person voting and go to vote-by-mail , and on Tuesday described “ conducting an election in the midst of a global pandemic ” to Chicago reporters as “ a curse.
” The governor ’ s chief of staff , Anne Caprara , tweeted that the governor moved ahead with the election in part out of at attempt at “ avoiding a legal crisis.
” Jordan Abudayyeh , the governor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an email to Mother Jones that he “ can not unilaterally cancel or delay an election…No one is saying this is a perfect solution .
We have no perfect solutions at the moment .
We only have least bad solutions.
” Part of the debate in Illinois centered over the risk the coronavirus presented to elderly poll workers , a concern also cited by Louisiana officials in postponing their primary .
Patrick says mail in systems only go part way toward resolving such concerns .
“ Every plan relies on people , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ processes the vote-by-mail ballots in large jurisdictions ?
Hundreds of temporary workers , and many of them are the same population as the poll workers.
” Still , Patrick says a switch to vote-by-mail can be accomplished with adequate resources—the most important of which may be time .
“ None of it is simple , none of it is easy , and none of it is cheap , ” she said .
“ If we ’ re talking about November , that ’ s one thing .
But if we ’ re talking @ @ @ @ @ @ @ election , that ’ s a different conversation .
”

The coronavirus is wreaking havoc on the United States’ primary election season, and the commotion is prompting politicians, candidates, and voting rights advocates to raise a seemingly simple solution: a quick nationwide turn to voting by mail.
But the reality is that modifying a state’s election system to properly conduct a vote-by-mail election is complicated and takes time—perhaps more time than exists between now and the time when general election candidates are typically selected.
“Logistically, we just don’t have enough time.”
While some states already conduct all-mail elections, enacting those systems required resolving many thorny legal and logistical issues. Oregon was the first to go all mail in 1998 and automatically send postal ballots to all registered voters ahead of Election Day, followed by Washington in 2011, Colorado in 2013, and Hawaii and Utah in 2019.
Last week, when Louisiana became the first state to reschedule a primary in the face of the coronavirus by postponing its election from April 4 until June 20, the secretary of state’s office fielded criticism for not moving to an all vote by mail election for the new date. “Logistically, we just don’t have enough time to get the ballots printed, the envelopes, the scanning equipment—that would need to be certified before we could use it,” press secretary Tyler Brey told Mother Jones. “Quite frankly, we didn’t want to have the Louisiana voters be a guinea pig for something that we were putting together so last minute and so outside of our expertise.”
“The real challenge here is that we want to make sure that the election is conducted with utmost integrity of the process, and that doesn’t mean rushing anything,” said Tammy Patrick, an election administration expert at the Bipartisan Policy Center and a former election official in Maricopa County, Arizona, which is home to Phoenix and is one of the country’s largest voting jurisdictions. “In order to do it well and service the population as best as one can, we need it to be a very thoughtful process.”
Elections in the US are typically run at the county level, with heavy interaction, coordination, and funding through state officials and state laws, along with additional coordination with federal officials. In the best of times, election administrators face a range of complicated and, at times, contentious issues to work through when tinkering with election policy. Many changes require state legislative action.
In 33 states, and in the District of Columbia, existing laws allow for “no-excuse” absentee voting, which means that while voters don’t automatically receive mailed ballots, any registrant can request one. In the remaining states an “excuse” is needed, such as a voter being out of town, on jury duty, having a physical disability, or some other reason why they cannot go to a polling place to cast their ballot.
Patrick said some states are well suited for a switch to full vote-by-mail, such as Arizona, where a no-excuse policy means most people already cast absentee ballots. But other states, like Louisiana, would have to scale up an entire system that would take time, money, and the negotiation of logistical issues and legal requirements.
“None of it is simple, none of it is easy, and none of it is cheap.”
One set of questions are purely technical: Can a state secure enough paper to print ballots, and of a high enough quality that scanners can properly function? What about enough envelopes, and how will they be designed? What about proper equipment to fold ballots and stuff hundreds of thousands or millions of them into envelopes in a reasonable amount of time? Are voter rolls accurate enough to ensure every registered voter actually gets a ballot?
Then there are complex legal questions that represent some of the biggest fights in election policy over the years and that states have only resolved after bitter political arguments: How many days after an election can a ballot arrive and still be counted? Should it be legal for canvassers to go door-to-door to collect voters’ ballots? At what date after the election must results be certified and all counting be stopped?
A federal bill announced by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) last week would provide funding and require all states to offer a vote-by-mail option this year, or to allow for the dropping off of paper ballots, if 25 percent of states declared a state of emergency—a threshold that had already been met when he announced the proposal. Wyden, a longtime advocate of vote-by-mail, has introduced another bill with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), that would expand early in-person voting and no-excuse absentee and mail voting in all states, and allow voters who did not receive an absentee ballot to use print-at-home ballots that currently are only available to military and overseas voters.
In Illinois, which forged ahead with its scheduled primary election on Tuesday, a debate between officials over postponing the election and switching to all mail voting turned heated. Jim Allen, spokesman for the Chicago Board of Elections, said the city had urged Gov. J.B. Pritzker to prohibit in-person voting and go to vote-by-mail, and on Tuesday described “conducting an election in the midst of a global pandemic” to Chicago reporters as “a curse.” The governor’s chief of staff, Anne Caprara, tweeted that the governor moved ahead with the election in part out of at attempt at “avoiding a legal crisis.” Jordan Abudayyeh, the governor’s press secretary, wrote in an email to Mother Jones that he “cannot unilaterally cancel or delay an election…No one is saying this is a perfect solution. We have no perfect solutions at the moment. We only have least bad solutions.”
Part of the debate in Illinois centered over the risk the coronavirus presented to elderly poll workers, a concern also cited by Louisiana officials in postponing their primary.
Patrick says mail in systems only go part way toward resolving such concerns. “Every plan relies on people,” said said. “You know who processes the vote-by-mail ballots in large jurisdictions? Hundreds of temporary workers, and many of them are the same population as the poll workers.”
Still, Patrick says a switch to vote-by-mail can be accomplished with adequate resources—the most important of which may be time.
“None of it is simple, none of it is easy, and none of it is cheap,” she said. “If we’re talking about November, that’s one thing. But if we’re talking about a May election or a June election, that’s a different conversation.”


motherjones--2020-03-18--The Biggest Story From Tonight’s Elections Is That They Happened At All

Joe Biden won Tuesday ’ s Democratic primaries in Florida , Illinois , and Arizona .
Of course he did—that was never really in question .
The former vice president is the overwhelming favorite in the Democratic presidential race , with a hundred-plus-delegate lead that Sen. Bernie Sanders has little chance of making up in the remaining states .
With the win in Arizona , a heavily Latino Western state , Biden demonstrated the strength of his coalition in the kinds of places Sanders has previously done well .
In his victory remarks , Biden struck a diplomatic note .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ having “ shifted the fundamental conversation in this country , ” and told them , “ I hear you.
” But the biggest story on Tuesday isn ’ t that Biden won the primaries , it ’ s that the primaries happened at all .
Or , to be clear , three out of the four scheduled for Tuesday did .
The Ohio primary , in which Biden was expected to do well , was postponed , after a last minute back-and-forth between Gov .
Mike DeWine and state courts .
DeWine argued @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pandemic would put voters in danger , and that the results of such an election might not be considered “ legitimate ” by voters .
In delaying its election , Ohio joined a procession of other upcoming states that have postponed their elections or dramatically altered the way they ’ re conducted .
Maryland moved its April 28 primary to June .
Kansas Democrats , who run their state ’ s primary , announced it would now be mailing ballots to voters .
Georgia , Kentucky , and Louisiana have all moved to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ National Committee chairman Tom Perez released a statement calling for upcoming states to keep to their set schedule , but to adopt more flexible vote-by-mail procedures .
In forging ahead , Illinois did its best to show why other states had pressed pause .
The Chicago Board of Elections feuded publicly during the day with Gov .
J.B. Pritzker , as local elections officials continued to argue that the vote should be postponed .
Dozens of polling locations were changed at the last minute , in order to move voters away from at-risk @ @ @ @ @ @ @ confusion and frustration .
One site in Chicago didn ’ t open until the early afternoon , hours after polls were supposed to start welcoming voters .
Turnout in Chicago and other parts of the state fell off sharply from the 2016 primary .
( Turnout actually appeared steady if not up in both Arizona and Florida , both states with more early voters and votes-by-mail . )
Logistical issues happen in every election , of course , but the pandemic offered a different kind of problem for voters .
The Sanders campaign @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it would forego all get-out-the-vote activities on Tuesday and would not even encourage supporters to vote .
Instead , it would simply recommend they comply with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines and make a “ personal decision ” about what ’ s best for them .
It ’ s hard to square those CDC recommendations with showing up to vote .
It recommends putting “ distance between yourself and other people if COVID-19 is spreading in your community.
” ( It ’ s currently in all 50 states . )
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ or more , and in places where the virus is particularly prevalent , businesses have shuttered , schools have closed , and residents have been instructed to stay home and practice social distancing—which means minimizing interactions with anyone outside your household .
As one Chicago Tribune columnist put it , “ On one hand , state officials are telling people to stay at home from restaurants and bars , and at the same time , they ’ re saying it ’ s OK to go to the polls.
” Or just look at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ began breaking down the usual demographic data during Tuesday ’ s returns , the numbers they relied on came from phone surveys .
Why ?
They considered it too dangerous to conduct in-person exit polls .

Joe Biden won Tuesday’s Democratic primaries in Florida, Illinois, and Arizona. Of course he did—that was never really in question. The former vice president is the overwhelming favorite in the Democratic presidential race, with a hundred-plus-delegate lead that Sen. Bernie Sanders has little chance of making up in the remaining states. With the win in Arizona, a heavily Latino Western state, Biden demonstrated the strength of his coalition in the kinds of places Sanders has previously done well.
In his victory remarks, Biden struck a diplomatic note. He praised Sanders and his supporters for having “shifted the fundamental conversation in this country,” and told them, “I hear you.”
But the biggest story on Tuesday isn’t that Biden won the primaries, it’s that the primaries happened at all. Or, to be clear, three out of the four scheduled for Tuesday did. The Ohio primary, in which Biden was expected to do well, was postponed, after a last minute back-and-forth between Gov. Mike DeWine and state courts. DeWine argued that holding an election during a national pandemic would put voters in danger, and that the results of such an election might not be considered “legitimate” by voters.
In delaying its election, Ohio joined a procession of other upcoming states that have postponed their elections or dramatically altered the way they’re conducted. Maryland moved its April 28 primary to June. Kansas Democrats, who run their state’s primary, announced it would now be mailing ballots to voters. Georgia, Kentucky, and Louisiana have all moved to postpone voting. On Tuesday, Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez released a statement calling for upcoming states to keep to their set schedule, but to adopt more flexible vote-by-mail procedures.
In forging ahead, Illinois did its best to show why other states had pressed pause. The Chicago Board of Elections feuded publicly during the day with Gov. J.B. Pritzker, as local elections officials continued to argue that the vote should be postponed. Dozens of polling locations were changed at the last minute, in order to move voters away from at-risk locations like nursing homes, creating widespread confusion and frustration. One site in Chicago didn’t open until the early afternoon, hours after polls were supposed to start welcoming voters. Turnout in Chicago and other parts of the state fell off sharply from the 2016 primary. (Turnout actually appeared steady if not up in both Arizona and Florida, both states with more early voters and votes-by-mail.)
Logistical issues happen in every election, of course, but the pandemic offered a different kind of problem for voters. The Sanders campaign took the unusual step of announcing that it would forego all get-out-the-vote activities on Tuesday and would not even encourage supporters to vote. Instead, it would simply recommend they comply with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines and make a “personal decision” about what’s best for them.
Remarkable statement from @BernieSanders spokesman @cascamike: No traditional get-out-the-vote efforts today. Going to polls during the coronavirus outbreak “is a personal decision.” pic.twitter.com/5jgz9RsWks — Paul Heintz (@paulheintz) March 17, 2020
It’s hard to square those CDC recommendations with showing up to vote. It recommends putting “distance between yourself and other people if COVID-19 is spreading in your community.” (It’s currently in all 50 states.) The agency discourages gatherings of 50 people or more, and in places where the virus is particularly prevalent, businesses have shuttered, schools have closed, and residents have been instructed to stay home and practice social distancing—which means minimizing interactions with anyone outside your household.
As one Chicago Tribune columnist put it, “On one hand, state officials are telling people to stay at home from restaurants and bars, and at the same time, they’re saying it’s OK to go to the polls.” Or just look at this way: When cable news networks began breaking down the usual demographic data during Tuesday’s returns, the numbers they relied on came from phone surveys. Why? They considered it too dangerous to conduct in-person exit polls.
National vote-by-mail can’t come fast enough.


motherjones--2020-03-18--Trump’s Spiritual Adviser Paula White Is Using the Coronavirus Crisis to Bankroll Her Church

On Tuesday , Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin warned senators that the outbreak of Covid-19 , the disease caused by the coronavirus , and the massive recession that likely will take place might cause the unemployment rate to balloon to 20 percent .
( He later walked back that dire prediction . )
The same day , the president ’ s spiritual adviser , Paula asked her followers for private donations to bankroll her private church , which she described as a “ hospital to the sick ” —the metaphysically sick , that is .
Since October , White has served @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for Faith and Opportunity Initiatives in the Trump Administration .
During a coronavirus-themed “ prayer session ” that she delivered to her online congregation , she conflated the coronavirus outbreak—a quickly-spreading pandemic which has infected more than 6,000 Americans and by Wednesday had killed 146—with the fundraising needs of the City of Destiny , an Apokpa , Florida , church in which she holds a prominent position .
Though she clarified that donations wouldn ’ t actually go to help those infected , White used medical imagery to add urgency to her fundraising @ @ @ @ @ @ @ single day we are a hospital to the sick , not necessarily the physically sick , ” she said .
“ But we are a hospital for those who are soul sick , those who are spiritually sick.
” White went on to suggest that contributors offer a $ 91 donation , citing Psalm 91 , or “ maybe $ 9 or whatever God tells you to do.
” White ’ s career as a religious figure has long featured the solicitation of money from followers in exchange for her intervention in expediting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on to finance her lucrative lifestyle .
As Mother Jones ’ Stephanie Mencimer reported in February : “ A Senate report found that White ’ s personal ministry and the church she ran with her now ex-husband used tax-exempt ministry funds to pay nearly $ 900,000 one year for the Whites ’ waterfront mansion .
It paid over a million dollars in salaries to family members and kept the Whites in the air with a private jet .
White and her church refused to cooperate with the investigation and in 2011 , Sen. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a report outlining the committee ’ s findings but took no other action.
” Now from Trump ’ s pulpit—a ripe opportunity for more lucrative gains—White ’ s financial requests are more visible than ever .
Plus , they ’ re wrapped in the implicit endorsement by the president by virtue of her close association to him .
As Mencimer wrote : The melding of White ’ s public and private jobs is nearly seamless , as she invokes her relationship with Trump in her sermons and fundraising pitches , even as she @ @ @ @ @ @ @ president .
But experts say the arrangement raises significant conflict of interest questions , concerns about her compliance with tax laws banning nonprofit churches from endorsing candidates .
And there ’ s the more fundamental question as to whether by installing her in a White House job , Trump has put the government ’ s stamp of approval on a religious ministry that includes faith healing and preying on vulnerable people for money .
One thing is clear : The donations that White is soliciting won ’ t be heading towards the real @ @ @ @ @ @ @ frontline of the coronavirus pandemic .

On Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin warned senators that the outbreak of Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, and the massive recession that likely will take place might cause the unemployment rate to balloon to 20 percent. (He later walked back that dire prediction.) The same day, the president’s spiritual adviser, Paula White asked her followers for private donations to bankroll her private church, which she described as a “hospital to the sick”—the metaphysically sick, that is.
Since October, White has served as the special adviser to the Center for Faith and Opportunity Initiatives in the Trump Administration. During a coronavirus-themed “prayer session” that she delivered to her online congregation, she conflated the coronavirus outbreak—a quickly-spreading pandemic which has infected more than 6,000 Americans and by Wednesday had killed 146—with the fundraising needs of the City of Destiny, an Apokpa, Florida, church in which she holds a prominent position.
Trump's "spiritual adviser" (and head of the White House's "Faith and Opportunity Initiative" program) Paula White asked for cash during a coronavirus-related prayer session this afternoon. "Maybe you’d like to sow a $91 seed… Or maybe $9. Or whatever God tells you to do." pic.twitter.com/zUoeufRhda — Hemant Mehta (@hemantmehta) March 17, 2020
Though she clarified that donations wouldn’t actually go to help those infected, White used medical imagery to add urgency to her fundraising plea during a pandemic. “Every single day we are a hospital to the sick, not necessarily the physically sick,” she said. “But we are a hospital for those who are soul sick, those who are spiritually sick.” White went on to suggest that contributors offer a $91 donation, citing Psalm 91, or “maybe $9 or whatever God tells you to do.”
White’s career as a religious figure has long featured the solicitation of money from followers in exchange for her intervention in expediting their access to God—money that has gone on to finance her lucrative lifestyle. As Mother Jones’ Stephanie Mencimer reported in February:
“A Senate report found that White’s personal ministry and the church she ran with her now ex-husband used tax-exempt ministry funds to pay nearly $900,000 one year for the Whites’ waterfront mansion. It paid over a million dollars in salaries to family members and kept the Whites in the air with a private jet. White and her church refused to cooperate with the investigation and in 2011, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), issued a report outlining the committee’s findings but took no other action.”
Now from Trump’s pulpit—a ripe opportunity for more lucrative gains—White’s financial requests are more visible than ever. Plus, they’re wrapped in the implicit endorsement by the president by virtue of her close association to him. As Mencimer wrote:
The melding of White’s public and private jobs is nearly seamless, as she invokes her relationship with Trump in her sermons and fundraising pitches, even as she wields her spiritual authority to defend the president. But experts say the arrangement raises significant conflict of interest questions, concerns about her compliance with tax laws banning nonprofit churches from endorsing candidates. And there’s the more fundamental question as to whether by installing her in a White House job, Trump has put the government’s stamp of approval on a religious ministry that includes faith healing and preying on vulnerable people for money.
One thing is clear: The donations that White is soliciting won’t be heading towards the real hospitals serving those in need at the frontline of the coronavirus pandemic.


motherjones--2020-03-18--How QAnon Fueled a Hoax About Oprah Being Arrested

Seemingly out of nowhere on Tuesday night , an outlandish hoax about Oprah Winfrey getting arrested and Tom Hanks ’ coronavirus diagnosis went massively viral only to be debunked by Winfrey herself—all in the period of time when many Americans were asleep .
“ Just got a phone call that my name is trending .
And being trolled for some awful FAKE thing .
It ’ s NOT TRUE .
Haven ’ t been raided , or arrested .
Just sanitizing and self distancing with the rest of the world .
Stay safe everybody , ” Winfrey tweeted at 1:40am @ @ @ @ @ @ @ baseless claims that she had been arrested in a police raid for running a child sex trafficking ring that went viral and started trending on Twitter .
The story had seemingly materialized out of thin air .
No authoritative sources or legitimate outlets reported on it , but it still caught traction , confusing most people who saw it .
“ where is this oprah news coming from ?
a facebook post ?
is everyone this bored inside rn ?
is this real ?
” tweeted Hasan Piker , a leftist political streamer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ same questions that a lot of people had .
It was not real .
The answers to his other questions are : • It probably started on YouTube before being elevated to Twitter ’ s mainstream by QAnon groups eager to push pedophile conspiracies .
• Facebook posts did have something to do with it .
• Yes , many people stuck inside in the age of the coronavirus are that bored .
It all seemed to begin late on Monday night when , according to YouTube video metadata , a middling poster @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hoaxes that usually get little to no attention uploaded two clips .
One appeared to be a recorded livestream of him from earlier in the day , in which he claimed he was near where Winfrey had just been arrested in a police raid .
Another purported to be footage of the raid .
That “ footage ” was completely bogus , and appeared to just be a video of unrelated police action at a house that did not appear to be Winfrey ’ s , or even the kind of house one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to call home .
Regardless , the video and the personal webpage that the YouTuber had posted it on started circulating on QAnon Facebook groups and other fringe right message boards , accruing thousands of likes and shares within hours , according to analytics recorded by Facebook ’ s own CrowdTangle app .
The theory was particularly attractive to QAnon groups who already believe that liberal and Hollywood elites are running secret pedophile rings and that mass arrests of the perpetrators are imminent .
Winfrey has been an occasional but recurring subject of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ least one other post about Winfrey trafficking children popped up on a MAGA Twitter account in November .
The Winfrey rumor continued to bounce around Facebook and 4chan posts for the rest late Tuesday morning and early afternoon , before finally hitting Twitter .
There , it began to catch mainstream attention when a user with just over 4,000 followers posted a video of the fake footage and ran with the baseless theory , tacking on two other Hollywood current events stories , including one involving movie producer and convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s house and found out she ’ s running a sex ring with Weinstein and Weinstein is snitching on everybody to get less time .
And tom hanks is apart of it too so he ’ s using the corona virus as an excuse to not come back from Australia ?
” That tweet garnered over five thousand retweets and over 20 thousand likes , likely galvanizing others to post about the hoax .
Those messages drove it up Twitter ’ s trending section , where in the evening it was finally @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and Winfrey herself .
When asked for comment about its role in spreading the hoax , Twitter declined to comment .
YouTube didn ’ t comment directly on the matter , but pointed to past work on reducing the spread of misinformation by downranking and demonetizing certain types of videos , even when it doesn ’ t outright delete them .
In this case , YouTube ’ s strategy might have helped—both videos received only roughly 50,000 views each , a significant , but not extremely viral amount .
But the incident @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t enough to stop it .
Even if a hoax is stemmed on YouTube , there ’ s nothing to keep it from going viral on Facebook or Twitter .
Let that be your Aha Moment for the day .

Seemingly out of nowhere on Tuesday night, an outlandish hoax about Oprah Winfrey getting arrested and Tom Hanks’ coronavirus diagnosis went massively viral only to be debunked by Winfrey herself—all in the period of time when many Americans were asleep.
“Just got a phone call that my name is trending. And being trolled for some awful FAKE thing. It’s NOT TRUE. Haven’t been raided, or arrested. Just sanitizing and self distancing with the rest of the world. Stay safe everybody,” Winfrey tweeted at 1:40am Eastern time.
She was responding to baseless claims that she had been arrested in a police raid for running a child sex trafficking ring that went viral and started trending on Twitter. The story had seemingly materialized out of thin air. No authoritative sources or legitimate outlets reported on it, but it still caught traction, confusing most people who saw it.
“where is this oprah news coming from? a facebook post? is everyone this bored inside rn? is this real?” tweeted Hasan Piker, a leftist political streamer and influencer. He was asking the same questions that a lot of people had.
It was not real. The answers to his other questions are:
It probably started on YouTube before being elevated to Twitter’s mainstream by QAnon groups eager to push pedophile conspiracies. Facebook posts did have something to do with it. Yes, many people stuck inside in the age of the coronavirus are that bored.
It all seemed to begin late on Monday night when, according to YouTube video metadata, a middling poster who frequently uploads outlandish and bizarre video hoaxes that usually get little to no attention uploaded two clips. One appeared to be a recorded livestream of him from earlier in the day, in which he claimed he was near where Winfrey had just been arrested in a police raid. Another purported to be footage of the raid.
“tom hanks is apart of it too.”
That “footage” was completely bogus, and appeared to just be a video of unrelated police action at a house that did not appear to be Winfrey’s, or even the kind of house one would expect the billionaire talk show mogul to call home. Regardless, the video and the personal webpage that the YouTuber had posted it on started circulating on QAnon Facebook groups and other fringe right message boards, accruing thousands of likes and shares within hours, according to analytics recorded by Facebook’s own CrowdTangle app.
The theory was particularly attractive to QAnon groups who already believe that liberal and Hollywood elites are running secret pedophile rings and that mass arrests of the perpetrators are imminent. Winfrey has been an occasional but recurring subject of posts pushing that false conspiracy; at least one other post about Winfrey trafficking children popped up on a MAGA Twitter account in November.
Video Related: How QAnon Is Mutating for 2020
The Winfrey rumor continued to bounce around Facebook and 4chan posts for the rest late Tuesday morning and early afternoon, before finally hitting Twitter. There, it began to catch mainstream attention when a user with just over 4,000 followers posted a video of the fake footage and ran with the baseless theory, tacking on two other Hollywood current events stories, including one involving movie producer and convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein: “So they raided Oprah Winfrey’s house and found out she’s running a sex ring with Weinstein and Weinstein is snitching on everybody to get less time. And tom hanks is apart of it too so he’s using the corona virus as an excuse to not come back from Australia?”
That tweet garnered over five thousand retweets and over 20 thousand likes, likely galvanizing others to post about the hoax. Those messages drove it up Twitter’s trending section, where in the evening it was finally debunked by journalists, discerning Twitter users, and Winfrey herself.
When asked for comment about its role in spreading the hoax, Twitter declined to comment. YouTube didn’t comment directly on the matter, but pointed to past work on reducing the spread of misinformation by downranking and demonetizing certain types of videos, even when it doesn’t outright delete them.
In this case, YouTube’s strategy might have helped—both videos received only roughly 50,000 views each, a significant, but not extremely viral amount. But the incident exposes how simply limiting misinformation often isn’t enough to stop it. Even if a hoax is stemmed on YouTube, there’s nothing to keep it from going viral on Facebook or Twitter.
Let that be your Aha Moment for the day.


motherjones--2020-03-18--Can I Get It Twice? Why Don’t Some People Have Symptoms? Experts Answer Our Big COVID-19 Questions.

There ’ s a lot of information out there about how to protect yourself from the coronavirus—which hand sanitizer to buy , when to wear a mask , which 20-second hand washing songs to hum , how to have safe sex during the outbreak , and so , so much more .
But there isn ’ t much about how and why the body responds to the coronavirus .
Why , for instance , do some people show symptoms and others don ’ t ?
Why don ’ t children seem to be getting sick ?
Why are older folks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ?
How many people will need to be infected to achieve herd immunity ?
And , crucially , how—if at all—can we give our immune systems a better chance of fighting this thing ?
I posed some of these big , complicated questions about individual and community immunity to three experts : Rachel Graham , an assistant professor in the department of epidemiology at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ; Nathan Grubaugh , an assistant professor of epidemiology of microbial diseases at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and John Swartzberg , a clinical professor emeritus specializing in infectious diseases and vaccinology at UC Berkeley ’ s School of Public Health .
Below I ’ ve distilled our conversations into a few key points : Many of the symptoms of COVID-19 are due to our body ’ s response to the virus , not just the virus itself .
When the coronavirus infects us , the symptoms we end up getting are not simply due to the virus attacking the body .
Often , the symptoms we exhibit are our immune @ @ @ @ @ @ @ explains Swartzberg , is one technique humans have developed to get pathogens out of our airways .
“ It ’ s a defense mechanism , ” he says , much like how food-borne pathogens can result in diarrhea and vomiting .
“ Those are mechanisms that we use to get those organisms outside of us.
” Our immune response to the virus also causes inflammation in our lung tissue , which fights off the virus but can cause tissue damage in the process .
“ Ironically , to kill the virus , we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ airways and lung tissue , ” Swartzberg says .
The inflammation can also make it hard to breathe , which is why some people infected with the coronavirus need external oxygen or a ventilator .
Once inflammation does its work , and the tissue that “ harbors ” the virus is destroyed , he says , our bodies can begin to heal .
Some people who are infected with the coronavirus will show symptoms .
Others won ’ t .
Unfortunately , it ’ s not clear why .
People have responded in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ some people , Swartzberg says , the virus prompts so little inflammation in their lungs that they don ’ t even notice they ’ re sick , while others exhibit minimal symptoms that people might be inclined to ignore .
But in some individuals , he says , the virus causes an overwhelming inflammatory response—called a “ cytokine storm , ” or a mass release of proteins called cytokines and immune cells—that can be deadly .
Why people respond differently is not well understood , he says .
Graham notes that some otherwise @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sick .
“ It could have to do with the tendency of just the individual to show symptoms to respiratory infections , ” she says .
Graham adds , “ It could be personal genetic factors , but it could also be that people who are younger also tend to be more active , ” which can help keep your immune system healthy .
It ’ s true that contracting the virus is deadlier for people over 60 .
The reason is likely in part due to how their immune systems respond to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Graham says , their immune systems may be gradually declining , a phenomenon called “ immunosenescence.
” While this is happening , if they get a respiratory infection , their immune system response can be “ hyperactive , ” which means it can over-respond to pathogens like the coronavirus .
But they may be low in the correct , infection-fighting cells , she says , “ so your body just releases whatever it has , and it releases gigantic proportions of whatever it has.
” A hyperactive immune response can cause irreparable damage @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you ’ re talking about the lungs , you ’ re talking about a single cell layer of gas exchange-capable cells , and when you ’ ve damaged those , you can no longer provide oxygen to the rest of your body , ” says Graham .
This , unfortunately , can be dangerous and even fatal .
Children and babies aren ’ t really getting sick .
There are a few theories about why .
Respiratory infections are often worse for the very young and very old .
It ’ s common @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who is most at risk , Grubaugh explains , with the young on one end and the elderly on the other .
The flu , for instance , hits the youngest and the oldest the hardest most years , producing a U-shaped curve .
But in the case of the novel coronavirus , the elderly are the most at risk and children largely seem to be spared .
( That said , children getting sick is not unheard of ; in China , about 2 percent of reported cases were children .
And @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mild to moderate symptoms , in some the response can be severe or critical , a recent study of more than 2,000 children in China found . )
Early on , Swartzberg says , one of the theories about why children weren ’ t getting sick was that they weren ’ t exposed to the virus in the first place .
At the start , for example , in Wuhan , China , those primarily infected were adults shopping at the animal market where the coronavirus is thought to have originated .
Experts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ coming down with the illness .
Swartzberg doesn ’ t seem to find that hypothesis convincing— ” eh , maybe , ” he concludes .
Another hypothesis : “ Is there something about the immune status of young children ?
” he asks .
“ And the answer to that is we don ’ t know.
” There ’ s some data to support that second hypothesis , though .
According to Graham , research suggests children can become infected , but they may not necessarily develop severe disease or really even disease @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t show symptoms but can pick up the virus and pass it on to others .
Again , it ’ s not clear why .
Increased or prolonged exposure to the virus may lead to more severe disease .
That could be why doctors and health care professionals may be at a higher risk than the rest of us .
Late last month , when the virus had infected 80,000 worldwide , the Los Angles Times reported that 3,387 health workers in China had contracted COVID-19 .
Among the first health care professionals @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 29 and 34 years old .
As a whole , doctors and nurses are more exposed to the coronavirus just by nature of working with the ill .
But research also suggests that how much virus they ’ re exposed to matters , too .
As Anna Yeung-Cheung , a virologist at Manhattanville College , told Slate ‘ s Shannon Palus in February , the reason a young doctor died of COVID-19 is , in part , because he was a doctor .
“ It ’ s a dosage thing , ” she @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been tested in human trials for obvious ethical reasons , we do have some information about how other coronaviruses affect animals : Researchers have found the more of a virus the animal is exposed to , the worse disease it develops .
“ When we infect animals with related coronaviruses with a lower dose of viral particles , they don ’ t become as ill as if we infect them with a higher dose of viral particles , ” Graham says .
“ So there is a dose-dependent response to illness.
” The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ indicator , ” she says , of why health professionals who work directly with infected people are experiencing more severe illness .
If you get the coronavirus once , we don ’ t know if you ’ re immune from getting it again .
If you get measles , Swartzberg explains , you ’ ll be immune for the rest of your life .
Your body ’ s antibodies and the cells that produce them will be ready to fight off the virus if you ever encounter it again .
“ That ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ disease , ” he says .
“ But not all infectious diseases.
” In the case of syphilis , for instance , we don ’ t develop immunity in the same way .
Historically , with other human coronaviruses—the ones that nobody talks about because they basically only cause the common cold—experts have observed limited immunity after an infection .
Once you get one of those viruses , says Graham , you typically gain immunity for a couple of years .
It ’ s not yet clear which camp COVID-19 falls into .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ tell what kind of immune response people are amounting to this virus and if they ’ re able to produce the proper kinds of antibodies that would neutralize a subsequent infection , ” Graham says .
Still , for our purposes right now , let ’ s assume getting the coronavirus once means you ’ re protected .
That means we could eventually see herd immunity , right ?
Herd immunity occurs when enough people in a community are immune to a disease that it won ’ t spread to people that are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ protects the most vulnerable individuals .
So if we assume people who recover from the coronavirus are protected for at least a year , Swartzberg says , “ modeling suggests herd immunity could occur as early as a few months to as long as a year or more.
” The counterintuitive part is , the more people that become infected , the earlier we ’ d see herd immunity .
So if social distancing and other measures like hand washing are effective , and the virus spreads more slowly , it ’ ll @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in .
That said , do not consider this a recommendation to go outside and infect yourself !
!
Social distancing can reduce the stress on our health care system and reduce deaths in the long run .
Finally , how can individual people protect themselves ?
Is there anything we can do to boost our immune systems ?
There are no treatments or vaccines for the coronavirus at this time , so taking general steps to prevent illness is the most important thing you can do .
“ Be aware .
If @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to be ill , watch that you ’ re not getting so close that someone can sneeze on you .
Make sure you ’ re washing your hands .
Make sure you ’ re washing your face .
Make sure you ’ re not touching your face , ” Graham says .
“ Make sure , if you need to put your hand on your mouth and on your nose , that your hand is clean.
” This is already advice you ’ ve heard at this point , but unfortunately , there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , exercise , and a good diet to protect your immune system at the moment .

There’s a lot of information out there about how to protect yourself from the coronavirus—which hand sanitizer to buy, when to wear a mask, which 20-second hand washing songs to hum, how to have safe sex during the outbreak, and so, so much more. But there isn’t much about how and why the body responds to the coronavirus.
Why, for instance, do some people show symptoms and others don’t? Why don’t children seem to be getting sick? Why are older folks at a much higher risk of dying? How many people will need to be infected to achieve herd immunity? And, crucially, how—if at all—can we give our immune systems a better chance of fighting this thing?
I posed some of these big, complicated questions about individual and community immunity to three experts: Rachel Graham, an assistant professor in the department of epidemiology at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Nathan Grubaugh, an assistant professor of epidemiology of microbial diseases at the Yale School of Public Health; and John Swartzberg, a clinical professor emeritus specializing in infectious diseases and vaccinology at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health.
Below I’ve distilled our conversations into a few key points:
Many of the symptoms of COVID-19 are due to our body’s response to the virus, not just the virus itself.
When the coronavirus infects us, the symptoms we end up getting are not simply due to the virus attacking the body. Often, the symptoms we exhibit are our immune systems responding to it. Coughing, explains Swartzberg, is one technique humans have developed to get pathogens out of our airways. “It’s a defense mechanism,” he says, much like how food-borne pathogens can result in diarrhea and vomiting. “Those are mechanisms that we use to get those organisms outside of us.”
Our immune response to the virus also causes inflammation in our lung tissue, which fights off the virus but can cause tissue damage in the process. “Ironically, to kill the virus, we wind up having to damage our own airways and lung tissue,” Swartzberg says. The inflammation can also make it hard to breathe, which is why some people infected with the coronavirus need external oxygen or a ventilator.
Once inflammation does its work, and the tissue that “harbors” the virus is destroyed, he says, our bodies can begin to heal.
Some people who are infected with the coronavirus will show symptoms. Others won’t. Unfortunately, it’s not clear why.
People have responded in vastly different ways to COVID-19. In some people, Swartzberg says, the virus prompts so little inflammation in their lungs that they don’t even notice they’re sick, while others exhibit minimal symptoms that people might be inclined to ignore. But in some individuals, he says, the virus causes an overwhelming inflammatory response—called a “cytokine storm,” or a mass release of proteins called cytokines and immune cells—that can be deadly.
Why people respond differently is not well understood, he says.
Graham notes that some otherwise healthy people are just predisposed to getting sick. “It could have to do with the tendency of just the individual to show symptoms to respiratory infections,” she says.
Graham adds, “It could be personal genetic factors, but it could also be that people who are younger also tend to be more active,” which can help keep your immune system healthy.
It’s true that contracting the virus is deadlier for people over 60. The reason is likely in part due to how their immune systems respond to the virus.
For older people, Graham says, their immune systems may be gradually declining, a phenomenon called “immunosenescence.” While this is happening, if they get a respiratory infection, their immune system response can be “hyperactive,” which means it can over-respond to pathogens like the coronavirus. But they may be low in the correct, infection-fighting cells, she says, “so your body just releases whatever it has, and it releases gigantic proportions of whatever it has.”
A hyperactive immune response can cause irreparable damage in fragile lung tissue. “When you’re talking about the lungs, you’re talking about a single cell layer of gas exchange-capable cells, and when you’ve damaged those, you can no longer provide oxygen to the rest of your body,” says Graham. This, unfortunately, can be dangerous and even fatal.
Children and babies aren’t really getting sick. There are a few theories about why.
Respiratory infections are often worse for the very young and very old. It’s common to see a U-shaped mortality curve of who is most at risk, Grubaugh explains, with the young on one end and the elderly on the other. The flu, for instance, hits the youngest and the oldest the hardest most years, producing a U-shaped curve.
But in the case of the novel coronavirus, the elderly are the most at risk and children largely seem to be spared. (That said, children getting sick is not unheard of; in China, about 2 percent of reported cases were children. And although most children who fall ill show mild to moderate symptoms, in some the response can be severe or critical, a recent study of more than 2,000 children in China found.)
Early on, Swartzberg says, one of the theories about why children weren’t getting sick was that they weren’t exposed to the virus in the first place. At the start, for example, in Wuhan, China, those primarily infected were adults shopping at the animal market where the coronavirus is thought to have originated. Experts thought that could be why adults were coming down with the illness.
Swartzberg doesn’t seem to find that hypothesis convincing—”eh, maybe,” he concludes. Another hypothesis: “Is there something about the immune status of young children?” he asks. “And the answer to that is we don’t know.”
There’s some data to support that second hypothesis, though. According to Graham, research suggests children can become infected, but they may not necessarily develop severe disease or really even disease at all, meaning they won’t show symptoms but can pick up the virus and pass it on to others. Again, it’s not clear why.
Increased or prolonged exposure to the virus may lead to more severe disease. That could be why doctors and health care professionals may be at a higher risk than the rest of us.
Late last month, when the virus had infected 80,000 worldwide, the Los Angles Times reported that 3,387 health workers in China had contracted COVID-19. Among the first health care professionals to die were two doctors, just 29 and 34 years old.
As a whole, doctors and nurses are more exposed to the coronavirus just by nature of working with the ill. But research also suggests that how much virus they’re exposed to matters, too. As Anna Yeung-Cheung, a virologist at Manhattanville College, told Slate‘s Shannon Palus in February, the reason a young doctor died of COVID-19 is, in part, because he was a doctor. “It’s a dosage thing,” she said.
While this hasn’t been tested in human trials for obvious ethical reasons, we do have some information about how other coronaviruses affect animals: Researchers have found the more of a virus the animal is exposed to, the worse disease it develops. “When we infect animals with related coronaviruses with a lower dose of viral particles, they don’t become as ill as if we infect them with a higher dose of viral particles,” Graham says. “So there is a dose-dependent response to illness.” The animal models are “a pretty good indicator,” she says, of why health professionals who work directly with infected people are experiencing more severe illness.
If you get the coronavirus once, we don’t know if you’re immune from getting it again.
If you get measles, Swartzberg explains, you’ll be immune for the rest of your life. Your body’s antibodies and the cells that produce them will be ready to fight off the virus if you ever encounter it again. “That’s a typical response to an infectious disease,” he says. “But not all infectious diseases.” In the case of syphilis, for instance, we don’t develop immunity in the same way.
Historically, with other human coronaviruses—the ones that nobody talks about because they basically only cause the common cold—experts have observed limited immunity after an infection. Once you get one of those viruses, says Graham, you typically gain immunity for a couple of years.
It’s not yet clear which camp COVID-19 falls into. “It’s too early to tell what kind of immune response people are amounting to this virus and if they’re able to produce the proper kinds of antibodies that would neutralize a subsequent infection,” Graham says.
Still, for our purposes right now, let’s assume getting the coronavirus once means you’re protected. That means we could eventually see herd immunity, right?
Herd immunity occurs when enough people in a community are immune to a disease that it won’t spread to people that are unprotected. That is, the herd protects the most vulnerable individuals.
So if we assume people who recover from the coronavirus are protected for at least a year, Swartzberg says, “modeling suggests herd immunity could occur as early as a few months to as long as a year or more.”
The counterintuitive part is, the more people that become infected, the earlier we’d see herd immunity. So if social distancing and other measures like hand washing are effective, and the virus spreads more slowly, it’ll take longer for herd immunity to set in.
That said, do not consider this a recommendation to go outside and infect yourself!! Social distancing can reduce the stress on our health care system and reduce deaths in the long run.
Finally, how can individual people protect themselves? Is there anything we can do to boost our immune systems?
There are no treatments or vaccines for the coronavirus at this time, so taking general steps to prevent illness is the most important thing you can do. “Be aware. If you’re around people who seem to be ill, watch that you’re not getting so close that someone can sneeze on you. Make sure you’re washing your hands. Make sure you’re washing your face. Make sure you’re not touching your face,” Graham says. “Make sure, if you need to put your hand on your mouth and on your nose, that your hand is clean.” This is already advice you’ve heard at this point, but unfortunately, there’s nothing else besides some sleep, exercise, and a good diet to protect your immune system at the moment.
God speed, dear readers!


motherjones--2020-03-18--Never Trumpers Release Ad Comparing Trump to the Coronavirus

On Wednesday , a group of Never Trumpers is set to release an ad that compares Donald Trump to the coronavirus .
The Lincoln Project , a band of past and present Republicans who fervently oppose Trump ( including George Conway , Steve Schmidt , John Weaver , and Rick Wilson ) , produced the spot , which shows a series of photos related to the coronavirus : empty streets , a medical lab , a hospital hallway .
A narrator intones , “ There ’ s a virus in the world .
For some people , the virus is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t see it all .
Some say the virus isn ’ t that bad .
Others say it ’ s malicious and dangerous .
Since there are those who still can ’ t see it .
Wouldn ’ t it be smart to tell the truth about the virus ?
” The ad—bam !
—then lands on a photo of Trump , and the narrator concludes , “ Since there is a virus.
” This hit on Trump and his failure to tell the truth about the coronavirus is based on a classic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in 1984 called “ The Bear.
” It was a Cold War shot at liberals and Democrats who didn ’ t accept the hardline view that the Soviet Union was an immediate threat to the United States and Washington had to dramatically increase the military budget .
Historians can argue whether the “ Bear ” ad was on the mark or not .
( The Soviet Union started collapsing a few years later . )
But at the time the spot was considered wily and effective .
This time around , there is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that the threat has been compounded by weeks of Trump ’ s inaction , incompetence , and false or misleading statements .
In essence , the Lincoln Project is saying that the United States has been infected by not one but two viruses .
And it ’ s a lethal combination .

On Wednesday, a group of Never Trumpers is set to release an ad that compares Donald Trump to the coronavirus.
The Lincoln Project, a band of past and present Republicans who fervently oppose Trump (including George Conway, Steve Schmidt, John Weaver, and Rick Wilson), produced the spot, which shows a series of photos related to the coronavirus: empty streets, a medical lab, a hospital hallway. A narrator intones, “There’s a virus in the world. For some people, the virus is easy to see. Others don’t see it all. Some say the virus isn’t that bad. Others say it’s malicious and dangerous. Since there are those who still can’t see it. Wouldn’t it be smart to tell the truth about the virus?”
The ad—bam!—then lands on a photo of Trump, and the narrator concludes, “Since there is a virus.”
This hit on Trump and his failure to tell the truth about the coronavirus is based on a classic political ad the Ronald Reagan campaign aired in 1984 called “The Bear.” It was a Cold War shot at liberals and Democrats who didn’t accept the hardline view that the Soviet Union was an immediate threat to the United States and Washington had to dramatically increase the military budget.
Historians can argue whether the “Bear” ad was on the mark or not. (The Soviet Union started collapsing a few years later.) But at the time the spot was considered wily and effective.
This time around, there is no question about the danger at hand—and that the threat has been compounded by weeks of Trump’s inaction, incompetence, and false or misleading statements. In essence, the Lincoln Project is saying that the United States has been infected by not one but two viruses. And it’s a lethal combination.