Free Republic

For many countries staring down fast-rising coronavirus case counts, the race is on to “flatten the curve.” The United States and other countries, experts say, are likely to be hit by tsunamis of Covid-19 cases in the coming weeks without aggressive public health responses. But by taking certain steps — canceling large public gatherings, for instance, and encouraging some people to restrict their contact with others — governments have a shot at stamping out new chains of transmission, while also trying to mitigate the damage of the spread that isn’t under control. The epidemic curve, a statistical chart used to...

U.S. stocks fell sharply once again on Thursday after an address from President Donald Trump failed to quell concerns over the possible economic slowdown from the coronavirus.The S&P 500 dropped 7% shortly after the open, triggering a 15-minute “circuit breaker,” which temporarily halts trading at the New York Stock Exchange. The broad index also joined the  Dow Jones Industrial Average in bear market territory. The 30-stock Dow slid more than 1,600 points, or 7.%. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 7%.  Before the open, futures contracts tied to the major indexes fell to their so-called limit down thresholds, sliding 5%. These limit down levels act as a as...

"President Donald Trump said he will suspend all travel from Europe to the U.S. for the next 30 days, the most far-reaching measure yet in the administration’s efforts to combat the spread of coronavirus."

NEW YORK - The escalating coronavirus crisis is presenting President Donald Trump with a challenge for which he appears ill-equipped, his favorite political tactics ineffective and his reelection chances in jeopardy. A rare crisis battering the White House that is not of the president’s own making, the spreading coronavirus has panicked global financial markets and alarmed Americans, many of whom have turned to the Oval Office for guidance and reassurances. But what they have found is a president struggling for a solution, unable to settle Wall Street and proving particularly vulnerable to a threat that is out of his control....

Since the coronavirus came on the horizon, media figures have been stoking panic, leading to mass shortages of basic health supplies, business travel cancellations, and market drops, all while the confirmed disease number hiked yesterday to around 0.000002 percent of the U.S. population.So far, U.S. cases of the basic seasonal flu outnumber coronavirus cases by a factor of 45,000 (using federal stats for this year’s flu and real-time tracking of coronavirus confirmations). The flu season has even been especially bad this year, with between 20,000 and 52,000 deaths, compared to 29 so far from coronavirus.According to infectious disease expert...

Trump calls emergency meeting with top US health officials at the White House Wednesday

Video at link Cramer's not the biggest Trump fan. Apparently doesn't like the current health system. But he does offer advice that is probably correct in this scenario.

Sunday on ABC News’ “This Week,” former Chicago Mayor and former President Barack Obama’s chief of staff Rahm Emanuel sounded off on the 2020 presidential race amid the coronavirus outbreak. Emanuel said the coronavirus precautions preventing President Donald Trump from having his typical rallies and thus missing out on the admiration he craves will be “devastating” and will “psychologically torment him.

With a visibly aged Joe Biden duking it out with socialist Bernie Sanders, there are three very good reasons that President Trump's greatest opponent in November could be the Coronavirus. Long before the sun rose Thursday, British regional airline Flybe collapsed. Americans probably haven’t heard of it, but when an Englishman flew domestically there was a 40 percent chance it was with Flybe. Its final demise was swift and brutal: Passengers booked to fly as soon as that morning receiving a 2 a.m. text message informing them otherwise. The company employed 2,300 people, and its 1,300 pensioned employees are now...

President Trump visited the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) headquarters Friday and expressed confidence in the public health response to the new coronavirus while airing a disagreement he has with the vice president on whether to bring the Grand Princess cruise ship passengers onshore in California. "I have great experts, including the vice president ... they would like to have the people come off," Trump said in arguing he'd prefer to have the passengers stay idling off the coast of California. "I would rather have the people stay. But I'd go with them. I told them to make...

Vice President Pence will travel on Thursday to Washington state, which is grappling with an increasing number of coronavirus cases. Pence's press secretary, Katie Miller, tweeted that the vice president will travel to Olympia. He will meet with Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) and other state and local officials in the capital city. Pence told reporters during a meeting with medical lab executives on Wednesday that a 10th American has died from coronavirus. Nine deaths have been reported in Washington, where state officials have confirmed 27 total cases of the coronavirus. The vice president was previously scheduled to travel to...

House Democrats argued against diverting funding for the new coronavirus from preparing for the Ebola virus as they said that the $2.5 billion the White House wants for combating the new virus isn’t adequate. The White House submitted an emergency request to Congress on Feb. 24, asking for $2.5 billion to combat the new coronavirus, which causes the COVID-19 disease. The money was meant to help research vaccines, boost the surveillance network, and other efforts, Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar told a congressional committee in Washington on Wednesday. Part of the proposal featured moving $535 million from...

President Trump announced Wednesday that he would be holding a 6 p.m. ET news conference to discuss the coronavirus, which is rapidly spreading around the world and triggering fears of a pandemic. The president also bashed the media and Democrats for allegedly overhyping the threat. "Low Ratings Fake News MSDNC (Comcast) & @CNN are doing everything possible to make the Caronavirus [sic] look as bad as possible, including panicking markets, if possible," Trump said, referencing dives in the U.S. stock market both Monday and Tuesday which were triggered by fears about coronavirus. "Likewise their incompetent Do Nothing Democrat comrades are...

The Trump administration announced Monday night that it will ask Congress for "at least $2.5 billion" in additional funding to fight the coronavirus. The request indicates that the administration is seeking to step up its response to the virus as it spreads to more countries. However, the request met quick resistance from Democrats. Just $1.25 billion of the request is for new funding, with the rest requested to be taken from existing health programs, including $535 million from fighting Ebola. "The Trump administration’s request for emergency funding is woefully insufficient to protect Americans from the deadly coronavirus outbreak," said House...

I have always lived my life around a simple principle, “Don’t eat weird stuff.” And see? I was right. The Coronavirus ripping through the Wuhan region of Red China – and that has now spread here – may well have crossed over to our species because some people in China eat bats. Yeah, on purpose. How the hell did they ever get the idea that dining on Dracula birds was a good plan? It doesn’t matter – what does is our response, and right now the Administration is behind the power curve. With attention fixed on the circle of self-abuse...

Trump administration officials are forbidding officials at the nation's top public health agency from using a list of seven words or phrases - including "fetus" and "transgender" - in any official documents being prepared for next year's budget. Policy analysts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta were told of the list of forbidden words at a meeting Thursday with senior CDC officials who oversee the budget, according to an analyst who took part in the 90-minute briefing. The forbidden words are: "vulnerable," "entitlement," "diversity," "transgender," "fetus," "evidence-based" and "science-based." In some instances, the analysts were given...

George Orwell would have been the first to admit that by controlling language you can control people's attitudes. The government has been doing that for years with code phrases like "Abortion" (also known as ending the life of a baby) and "Earned Income Tax Credit" (also known as welfare). But now liberals are getting upset that President Trump is ripping several pages from their new-speak lexicon. The Trump administration is prohibiting officials at the nation’s top public health agency from using a list of seven words or phrases — including “fetus” and “transgender” — in any official documents being prepared...