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Italy Recovering Nicely from Coronavirus; U.S. Stuck in Stupids

Trump fiddles while Rome does not burn—Italy, which was hit much harder by coronavirus toward the end of winter than the United States, has bounced back from the pandemic pretty well, while the United States continues to suffer from the virus and poorly coordinated responses thereto:

…Italy announced just 264 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday — the same day that the United States reported nearly 32,000. The European nation opened its restaurants and stores a month ago, albeit under new, national safety measures, even as U.S. states wrestled with inconsistent, hasty reopening efforts that have been blamed for new virus spikes. And Italy’s outbreak has dramatically ebbed from its mid-March peak, while America’s new per capita cases remain on par with Italy’s worst day — and show signs of rising further, with record hospitalizations in states like Arizona, Florida and Texas last week.

“I think there are going to be states in our country that can replicate Italy,” said Ashish Jha, head of Harvard’s Global Health Institute, noting that New York has made its own dramatic strides in containing the virus.

“But I would rather spend this summer in Rome with my family than in Phoenix” [Dan Diamond and Sarah Wheaton, “How the U.S. and Italy Traded Places on Coronavirus,” Politico, 2020.06.22].

Italy listens to scientists; the United States ignores them.

32 Comments

  1. Steve

    Uh, I think your stuck in stupids should be pointed at Blue States mostly.

  2. jerry

    Universal healthcare is so necessarily obvious, Americans can’t see it. We Americans are blind to the facts of the life giving healthcare. We cling to that ignorance as a crutch to show the world just how advanced they are, while we embarrass ourselves.

    In the meantime, GNOem’s office announces that there will be sporadic nursing home and assisted living testing for the Covid…why bother if that is all that will be done? China is now manufacturing mobile testing labs that can test 10,000 people a day. According to trump, here we are gonna slow the testing down to a bare minimum.

    Testing testing testing at no cost. That is what the rest of the world does. Here, we only see dollar signs.

  3. Loren

    You know why that is, Steve? Maybe because large populations live in blue states with a viable economy, business opportunities, cultural events, entertainment, etc. Ever wonder why people don’t flock to WY? OK, they do have rodeos and fly fishing, but as Trump would say, “If you don’t have people, you won’t have disease.”

  4. o

    Jerry, the universe health care issue has shown its ugly head with the Covid-19. That virus is especially lethal for those with underlying health conditions; many who have succumbed have been found to have those underlying conditions BUT did not know so were not being treated for those conditions because they had insufficient health care. Because of that, they died.

  5. Debbo

    Here’s the latest Lincoln Project ad:
    🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

    is.gd/78VhXU

  6. jerry

    In the United Kingdom, there is some substance to that, as the right wing has decimated a once pride of service into one that is much like ours, barely in existence. China proves beyond a doubt the merits of universal healthcare. https:/ /www.aetnainternational.com/en/about-us/explore/living-abroad/culture -lifestyle/health-care-quality-in-europe-and-scandinavia.html

    The numbers in the EU show that they are now open, for the most part, to do business with one another. Here, we are not allowed to vacation there unless you want to quarantine for 2 weeks or are a resident.

  7. jerry

    3 more deaths in Rapid City.

    “Three residents have died of coronavirus at Avantara Arrowhead after 39 residents and 20 employees tested positive for COVID-19 following mass testing events across the state in long-term care facilities.

    “While we are heartbroken over the three residents that have passed away from this devastating virus, we are encouraged to know that many of our residents and staff members have started to begin to recover from their symptoms,” said Tatiana Johnson, regional director of operations for Avantara Arrowhead.” Rapid City Journal 6.22.20

    All of these folks that have “recovered” will now have pre existing conditions that could render them ineligible for healthcare if the ACA is thrown under the bus by the Supreme Court when they hear it in October. Nice.

    That is what you get when you do not have universal health care or at the least, the ACA. When you are denied, then what?…You die broke and broke, so is your family. No one goes bankrupt in the EU from medical bills.

  8. leslie

    Not stupid, but malicious knowledge of who are dying.

  9. Debbo

    National Memo has the cold, hard facts of red state “stuck in stupid” that’s killing people. Charts to illustrate as well.

    is.gd/BPcHEm

  10. jerry

    Not to worry, Americans are not smart enough to put in healthcare for all. We are just dying to keep what we have.

  11. Debbo

    This is a fascinating article about insurance. Really!

    It’s about people who were ahead of COVID-19 and had a plan. It’s about how the plan worked, who figured it out, who was not interested (pretty much everybody), and how people are governed by our emotions.

    It’s long and has a lot of numbers and it’s totally worth your time. Seriously.

    “We Can Protect the Economy From Pandemics. Why Didn’t We?”
    https://flip.it/y0zzS4

  12. grudznick

    As a scientist, grudznick wishes they would put Mr. H in charge of coordinating the U.S.A. responses, or at least the South Dakota responses. Then there would be no disagreements.

  13. jerry

    Very very good mfi! The money quote “Meanwhile, the administration’s aggressive, isolationist posture — with Trump bashing global health experts and threatening to yank the United States’ funding from the World Health Organization — has done little to help coordination. And nations like Italy, which provide universal health care access to citizens, simplified residents’ efforts to get tested and treated.”

    Yes, nations like Italy, which provide universal health care access to citizens, now that is freedom!!

  14. jerry

    Then we have this “South Dakota health officials are disputing an NPR survey published on June 18 dthat shows the state has an inadequate staff to help with contact tracing COVID-19 cases.

    The NPR survey reports South Dakota, along with 37 other states, does not meet the state’s estimated need for contact tracing staff.” Rapid City Journal 6.22.20

    Very good article on our failures here in South Dakota, Impeach GNOem! Lock her up!!

  15. David King

    Hello folks! Been watching & reading about Your so called governor, Pretty sad Clown Show. For Jerry’s comment, just for the record, I live on the Navajo Reservation. As of June 24, 2020 there are 6990 positive & 335 deaths. I read what governor Noem Nothing said, it about freedom, the people themselves are primarily responsible for their safety. So, Harold Frazier Tribal Chairman said when He first heard about the Virus in late March He knew He had to do something to protect His people. So He issued shelter in place, social distancing, masks etc. BECAUSE HE CARED ABOUT HIS PEOPLE & KNEW what a deadly virus could do & He wouldn’t get help from the Government. Then governor Noem Nothing tries to stop Him because of Ck-points. Isn’t that a contradiction of The Freedom she was talking about? But, how I see things it was a good way for governor Noem Nothing to not be blamed so she thought, because she didn’t know how to handle The Virus in the first place. Whats messed up is she is more concerned about Zebra Mussels & kissing up to The President with Fire works at Mt Rushmore. All this said, she hires out of State Advertising companies for her pathetic Meth were on it! idea & then hires out of State Pyrotechnics at $350,000.00 all this money not going to Local Businesses. Wow, now here is a governor that Noem Nothing!!! Oh Yeah! Great Job Dakota Free Press, keep keeping it real.

  16. Debbo

    That’s a very succinct and fitting description of governorship in my home state. Sometimes a better view comes with some distance. Well done, Mr. King.

  17. mike from iowa

    Mr King, Noem Nothing has the ring of a stereotypical name some tv Indian would be harnessed with. It also fits Guv Noem and about the majority of wingnuts in Washington DC.

    Let’s see if it sticks. l like it. :)

  18. jerry

    Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and the Oglala Sioux Tribe sue trump. Damn, the day before those same tribes Siouxed Custer at Greasy Grass, Lakota Territory.

    ” “Since Governor Noem’s White House plea, all named defendants have worked in concert, abusing the power of the federal government, to coerce the tribe” to dismantle its checkpoints, the lawsuit says. “When that did not work, defendants pivoted to punishment: threatening” to take over tribal law enforcement, “imperiling tribal public safety as well as public health.”

    “Such threatened governmental actions represent unlawful infringement on tribal self-government and self-determination and put the tribe’s members at risk of imminent harm,” the lawsuit says.

    The complaint against President Donald Trump, White House officials, and leadership in the Department of Interior and Bureau of Indian Affairs was filed Tuesday at the federal court in Washington, D.C.” Rapid City Journal 6.24.2020

  19. bearcreekbat

    jerry, I saw that article in today’s RC Journal. According to the article, Noem asked the federal government to put pressure on the Tribe and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) responded with a memo stating:

    . . . that tribes have the right to close or restrict access on tribal roads. But it said tribes can only do the same on state and federally owned roads “only on behalf of the affected road owner after tribe has consulted and reached an agreement.” [original BIA memo italics placed on “after” and “and” were removed by the RC Journal for unexplained reasons]

    https://rapidcityjournal.com/news/local/cheyenne-river-sioux-tribe-sues-federal-government-to-keep-covid-19-checkpoints/article_4667b93d-6dc0-501d-b030-9eaa30518c70.html#utm_source=rapidcityjournal.com&utm_campaign=/newsletter-templates/news-alert&utm_medium=PostUp&utm_content=23cec0bcd45764865e0126434fbda7815feaa9d4

    The BIA memo cited 25 C.F.R. 170.114(a)(1) and (b) as authority for this assertion. After declaring a Tribe was a “public authority” as defined by the regulations, and stating that the memo did not question the Tribe’s “civil” or “criminal” jurisdiction, apparently over the roads in question, the actual BIA memo linked by the Journal emphasized three words, stating that a Tribe with jurisdiction can close a road owned by the state or federal government:

    . . . only on behalf of the affected road owner after the Tribe has consulted and reached an agreement [concerning details of the road closure] . . .

    The State jumped on that emphasized language plus “agreement” and claimed the Tribe violated the regulation because the State refused to “agree” with the Tribe to the checkpoint.

    The cited regulation, however, seems to indicate that the BIA added this “agreement” requirement. I saw it nowhere in the actual language of the regulation, which reads:

    (a) All Tribal transportation facilities listed in the approved NTTFI must be open and available for public use as required by 23 U.S.C. 101(a)(31). However, the public authority having jurisdiction over these roads or the Secretary, in consultation with a Tribe and applicable private landowners, may restrict road use or close roads temporarily when:

    (1) Required for public health and safety or as provided in § 170.116.

    . . .

    (b) Consultation is not required whenever the conditions in paragraph (a) of this section involve immediate safety or life-threatening situations.. . .

    https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/25/170.114

    Indeed, the BIA also said consultation was not required to close a tribal road due to the section (b) exception. How the BIA came to the conclusion that the exception did not apply to a checkpoint on a federal or state highway is a mystery. The even bigger mystery is how the BIA came to the conclusion that an “agreement” with the State or any other entity is required.

    The memo states it was issued by the BIA Director, Darryl LaCounte, who was appointed by Trump appointed Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs, Tara Mac Lean Sweeney. Both Sweeny and LaCounte are Native Americans and although Sweeny has Republican credentials, I saw nothing on Google to suggest LaCounte is politically motivated, but in this day and age given Trump’s proclivity to fire anyone who doesn’t do his friends the favors he wants it might be worth looking into – could this be a “quid pro quo:” Re-election photo op fireworks for bogus memo???.

  20. jerry

    Crow scouts took Custer to his maker on June 25, 1876.

  21. jerry

    bcb, did you catch this one in that article?

    “Brix said the checkpoints should be removed because South Dakota’s infection rate had already peaked and the tribe should instead focus on testing people who live on and visit the reservation. She did not acknowledge tribal barriers to health care nor the success of the tribe’s comprehensive COVID-19 prevention plan.” Rapid City Journal 6.24.2020

    Since when did South Dakota’s infection rate peak? We are still not testing all, how is that that we are peaked?

  22. jerry

    The U.S. recorded a one-day total of 34,700 new COVID-19 cases, the highest in two months, according to the count kept by Johns Hopkins University. The number of new cases per day is now running just short of the nation’s late-April peak of 36,400.

    Boy, that trump is doing a helluva job ain’t he folks? Short Rounds and Thune need to be high five’d as well for keeping this turd in office. What a team.

  23. Debbo

    Was Brix going to ensure that the tribes have everything necessary to test and receive prompt results?

  24. bearcreekbat

    mfi, the Flynn panel decision was odd indeed. I haven’t read the panel’s actual decision, but have heard speculation that the full court, en banc, might review the panel decision since it is so unusual.

    Jerry, I did see that and also wondered where it came from. It sounds like wishful thinking.

  25. bearcreekbat

    leslie, you have great taste in music! Love that old ragtime style of pickin’.

  26. Debbo

    I like that too. Then I listened to his song, “When I Rise.” It’s a very thoughtful story told through a video. Great imagery, very different music. Try it.

  27. leslie

    Met Cary from Ft Collins/Mishawauka on the Cache le Poudre river, at the Eagle bar Deadwood-we were graced with his super tight world beat reggae band for several years. Later the Atoll became a popular downtown outdoor RC draw for several more years. A cult following like New York’s Dry Jack ( Margolis jazz fusion) spawned in the hills a decade earlier reflects the paucity of musical artistry and creativity in the desert of the island of the prairie. Belgian drummer and Jersey Wes, fretless bassist, brought the highest quality arrangements-Tears of a Clown, Dylan ect, and native originals direct from of all places, Crow country MT. Character!

  28. leslie

    Stupid Trump and his stupid fascist minions in the Republican party filed SCOTUS pleadings at 2 a.m. to invalidate the entire Affordable Care Act as CDC warns actual national pandemic infection numbers are much higher than the government acknowledges, and as the TX governor says the state’s medical systems are NOT threatened while they obviously are. Remember Steve Bannon and billionaires Bob and Rebecca Mercer who resuscitated Trump’s losing 2016 campaign and told confidants they just wanted to “burn it all [the US government] down!” And top Republican Leader McConnell mumbles vaguely about “original sin” which could be construed to be anything, depending on the political wind.

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