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By Amber Phillips
TWP |
As President Trump is pushing to reopen the economy, three new revelations make the idea seem even scarier than it was on Tuesday:
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1. People may have been dying from it as early as early February, according to autopsies of two people in California who died that month and were found to have the coronavirus. Trump implemented social distancing policies in mid-March.
2. A top public health official says a second wave of the virus this fall could be even worse. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield told The Washington Post that he fears the second wave could be worst than the first because it will coincide with the flu season, putting extreme strain on the health-care system. There could even be a corollary second economic downturn, reports The Post’s Heather Long.
3. The virus seems to be even more complicated than doctors thought. Complications from blood clotting are killing those infected at an alarmingly high rate, and it’s not just seniors who are dying, reports The Post’s Ariana Eunjung Cha. Doctors don’t know why and are at a loss for what to do. “The problem we are having is that while we understand that there is a clot, we don’t yet understand why there is a clot,” one said. “We don’t know. And therefore, we are scared.”
Trump is pushing to reopen the economy ASAP, with the unstated goal of having life back to normal by the November presidential election. But that gets scarier as we learn more grave information about the virus.
The protesters against stay-at-home orders are not representative of the nation
Polls regularly show that a majority of Americans support staying at home for as long as necessary. Americans just don’t seem willing to risk their health for their jobs. For example, consider how people responded to these poll questions:
When do Americans expect gatherings will be safe?
A new Washington Post-U. Md. poll found a majority expect that to be June or later.
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Are you worried the government will loosen stay-at-home restrictions too soon?
In a new NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll, 58 percent said yes.
Do you support the protesters calling to immediately end shelter-in-place and social distancing to reopen their states?
In a new Yahoo/YouGov poll, just 22 percent said yes and 60 percent said no, they don’t support these protesters.
Some people protesting are genuinely frustrated about not being able to go to work or keep their business open. But they are being guided along and amplified by groups funded by far-right Republican mega-donors, report The Post’s Isaac Stanley-Becker and Tony Romm.
They trace a network of conservative groups tied to powerful people who are tied to Trump or his Cabinet. This network has helped build online calendars of protests, started raising money to keep them going and produced online videos and ads warning of government overreach. One sociologist likened these anti-quarantine protests to those who deny climate change: “These are extreme right-wing efforts to delegitimize government. It’s an anti-government crusade.”
What’s happening in Kentucky?
Trump has largely left acquiring tests to begin reopening up to the states. "Every state will conduct its own improvised experiment with thousands of lives in the balance,” write The Post’s health care team. Here’s one state’s story about how that’s going.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) moved quickly to keep people at home, but he is limited on what to do next because the state can’t get enough tests for the average person experiencing symptoms, report The Post’s Juliet Eilperin and Chris Mooney.
States have to compete with other states for tests, and for Kentucky that means it is just now setting up a drive-through testing center with the Kroger grocery chain. But it’s largely only for health-care workers, first responders and really sick people.
The head of the public health department in Louisville said there is no testing right now for essential workers. “We need to get that capacity up and going if we’re going to start to open up the economy,” she said.
It’s unclear how officials in states like Kentucky will make that happen.
