RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.wsj.com/articles/vitamin-d-and-coronavirus-disparities-11587078141?mod=opinion_lead_pos5

Black Americans are dying of Covid-19 at a higher rate than whites. Socioeconomic factors such as gaps in access to health care no doubt play a role. But another possible factor has been largely overlooked: vitamin D deficiency that weakens the immune system.

Researchers last week released the first data supporting this link. They found that the nations with the highest mortality rates—Italy, Spain and France—also had the lowest average vitamin D levels among countries affected by the pandemic.

Vitamin D is produced by a reaction in the skin to the ultraviolet rays in sunlight. Many Americans are low in vitamin D, but those with darker skin are at a particular disadvantage because melanin inhibits the vitamin’s production. As an Indian-American, my skin type is Fitzpatrick IV, or “moderate brown.” Compared with my white friends, I need double or triple the sun exposure to synthesize the same amount of vitamin D, so I supplement with 5,000 international units of vitamin D3 daily, which maintains my level in the normal range. Most African-Americans are Fitzpatrick type V or VI, so they would need even more.

https://issuesinsights.com/2020/04/16/pelosi-schumer-take-small-businesses-h

Small business relief that was included in the $2.2 trillion legislation passed by Congress and signed into law by President Donald Trump to shore up payrolls of millions of American workers during the Chinese coronavirus pandemic has been so popular that it is in danger of running out.

As of Tuesday, the $350 billion program had already exhausted $257 billion as President Trump’s top economic advisor told Fox Business, “At the present run-rate, we’re going to be out of money.”

Thirty million small businesses employ up to 60 million Americans, the backbone of the U.S. economy, and for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), the shortfalls are just fine. Those are hostages.

The trouble is everyone knows they’ll kill the hostages, figuratively speaking, of course.

That is, they’ll let those funds run out, even if it means tens of millions more Americans will lose their jobs for good while they wait to exact another toll from taxpayers on behalf of their own special interests, including state and local governments they want to bail out again.

It’s a free for all.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/phase-one-of-reopening-will-be-expanding-list-of-essential-businesses-ny-governor_3314817.html

Businesses that aren’t currently labeled essential could soon be allowed to reopen in New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said, suggesting the first phase of reopening will be expanding the list businesses deemed “essential.”

Cuomo last month ordered so-called non-essential businesses to shut down as part of his stay-at-home order, which largely restricted people to their homes. The order and similar ones made by governors across the country crippled the economy and cost millions of jobs. Some experts say they helped slow the spread of the he CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, a novel coronavirus that emerged from mainland China last year, but others say less strict social distancing measures could have accomplished similar effects.

Hospitalizations dropped again in New York overnight, prompting Cuomo to unveil details on the regional plan for reopening.

Officials will work on determining which companies that were shut down can be reopened.

“How essential is that business service, right? You have to start somewhere. Right now, we have the economy working with ‘essential workers’ so we want to start to bring the economy back, move up one tranche with how you define essential,” Cuomo told reporters in Albany on Thursday.

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/coronavirus-small-businesses-relief-funds-run-dry-amid-congressional-deadlock/

The $349 billion in emergency funding for small businesses has run out less than one month after it was created as part of the $2.2 trillion phase-three coronavirus economic relief bill.

“The SBA is currently unable to accept new applications for the Paycheck Protection Program based on available appropriations funding,” the Small Business Administrations said in a statement Thursday. “Similarly, we are unable to enroll new PPP lenders at this time.” Earlier Thursday, the agency said it had approved over 1.6 million loan applications.

It is unclear when the program might be replenished since Congress is not due to be back in session until May 4. Republicans and the White House attempted to add $251 billion more to the program last week, but Democrats pushed back, calling for more targeted relief to minority- and women-owned companies as well as local governments and hospitals.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/04/coronavirus-testing-will-reveal-much-about-virus-lockdowns/

Timelines grow shorter. The virus and the draconian reaction to it are wearing down a quarantined America.

We are a few days away from a rendezvous with some tough conclusions about COVID-19.

A number of concurrent developments are coming to a head. Most will bring light where so far there was only heat.

Greater information about the virus might cause as much acrimony as conciliation. Some experts will be discredited, others reaffirmed.

Antibody testing is expected to get under way shortly. Soon, several representative studies will give the country an accurate idea of how many Americans have been infected in the past few months.

With a more trustworthy denominator to compare against known deaths, we will finally learn just how lethal the virus is and whether comparisons to a severe annual flu are legitimate or still inapplicable.

Likewise, there will be greater precision in distinguishing those whose deaths were exclusively virus-related from those who were afflicted by serious chronic illnesses along with the virus. That will also help provide better data about the actual toxicity of the virus.

Those with antibodies will likely be able to return to work with little risk. Arguments will arise over whether their status should be cataloged and banked, or whether such classification would institutionalize creepy two-tier categories of citizenship.

The prior pessimism of most epidemic models will either be confirmed or refuted, depending on the percentages of Americans who have already weathered the virus.