RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.theepochtimes.com/va-chief-hydroxychloroquine-has-been-working-against-covid-19_3322683.html

The anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine has been working in COVID-19 patients, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie said on Wednesday.

Wilkie’s comments come after a study looking at the effects of the drug in 368 patients in Veterans Health Administration hospitals found no evidence the drug is effective against COVID-19, a new disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.

Responding to the results during an appearance on MSNBC, Wilkie said, “That’s an observational study. It’s not a clinical study. It was done on a small number of veterans; sadly, those of whom were in the last stages of life, and the drug was given to them.”

The drug “has been working on middle-age and younger veterans,” Wilkie added. By that, he meant that it was “stopping the progression of” COVID-19.

The study in question can help inform doctors who are caring for veterans who have the CCP virus, Wilkie said.

https://www.outsideonline.com/2411895/army-ranger-school?utm_source=pocket-newtab

The military’s toughest training challenges have a lot in common with outdoor sufferfests like the Barkley Marathons and the Leadville Trail 100: you have to be fit and motivated to make the starting line, but your mind and spirit are what carry you to the end. A Ranger graduate breaks down an ordeal that shapes some of the nation’s finest soldiers.

Why the hell am I standing here, shivering on a remote mountain trail in the Appalachians?

The answer can be found in my dreams. Starting in 2006, I spent 13 violent months serving as an infantry officer in Iraq. Thankfully, I rarely revisit that experience while I sleep. But hardly a month goes by when I don’t wake up with a jolt, my heart racing. Each dream is different, but the basic plot is the same: I have to go back to Army Ranger School, which I graduated from in 2004.

And so I do.

In late February of 2019, I join 363 soldiers and officers comprising Ranger Class 05-19 at Camp Rogers, which occupies a remote corner of Fort Benning, just outside Columbus, Georgia. These young men, and a few women, are starting what is arguably the most demanding course in the military. (The Navy SEALS would beg to differ. Debate about whose training is tougher is never-ending.)

For the next 61 days, I’ll track them as they shed their ranks and any past military accomplishments. The course they’re taking on is divided into three parts: Benning Phase; Mountain Phase, at Camp Frank D. Merrill, in north Georgia; and Swamp Phase, at Camp James E. Rudder, on the Florida Panhandle. Aside from a few short trips home to check on my family, I’ll lug my own, much lighter rucksack alongside the students, over mountains and through swamps, as I experience what I believe is the first opportunity for a journalist to embed with a class all the way, observing every aspect of their training.

https://pjmedia.com/trending/mayor-de-blasio-says-he-needs-ventilators-while-governor-cuomo-is-giving-them-away-to-other-states/

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is looking to have ventilators built right in New York City in order to build up a reserve and protect the city during future pandemics. “We’ve learned the hard way that we cannot depend on the federal government,” claimed de Blasio said during his daily press briefing. “We’ll purchase what we need and create a stockpile. We New Yorkers will take care of ourselves.”

It was a bizarre announcement, considering that, according to President Trump, the United States is already on track to build as many as 200,000 ventilators in 2020, which is significantly higher than the 30,000 that were built in 2019. So, why is Mayor de Blasio blaming the federal government and claiming he can’t depend on them?

Not only did New York not need the 40,000 ventilators Cuomo requested from Trump, but the amount they had was more than they ultimately needed. Yet, Bill de Blasio, who’s trying to cover up for his own failures to contain the spread of the virus in New York City, is trying to blame the federal government (read: President Trump) for failing to provide enough ventilators and other equipment.

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/juliorosas/2020/04/21/bill-de-blasio-says-trump-should-kiss-his-reelection-goodbye-because-of-his-coronavirus-response-n2567320

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) complained to CNN’s Alysin Camerota on Tuesday about President Trump’s handling of the Wuhan coronavirus and said his poor performance will cost him reelection in November.

“So, I’ve asked President Trump repeatedly not just to help New York City and New York State, but to help all cities and states get back on our feet. We have lost now over $7 billion in revenue. That’s our projection of how much is already gone because of this crisis. That is the money we use to pay police, to pay firefighters, teachers, sanitation workers, health care workers. That money ain’t coming back. The only place it can come from is the federal government,” de Blasio explained. “They gave $58 billion to the airline industry to bail them out. How about bailing out America’s cities, America’s states?”

De Blasio said he told Trump that while he understands the need to reopen the country again to kickstart the economy, New York City is going to need massive amounts of help from the federal government to do so.

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/the-cdc-is-a-disaster/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=homepage&utm_campaign=river&utm_content=featured-content-trending&utm_term=first

The CDC — once the “Communicable Disease Center” before being renamed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — was created to prevent malaria and other dangerous communicable diseases from spreading across the nation. It was not created, you might be surprised to learn, to pester Americans about their salt intake or vaping habits.

The CDC has spent more than a decade spearheading nannyistic efforts to control sodium use, to ban trans fats, and to mislead the public on the dangers of e-cigarettes. Now, it would be one thing if the CDC effectively managed its most vital charge: mitigating the spread of dangerous diseases. But that rarely seems to be the case. Often, it can’t even abide by primum non nocere.

The New York Times reports today that the CDC failed to follow its own protocols when creating coronavirus tests, sending kits out across the country that had been rendered ineffective because they were tainted with the COVID-19 due to sloppiness:

Problems ranged from researchers entering and exiting the coronavirus laboratories without changing their coats, to test ingredients being assembled in the same room where researchers were working on positive coronavirus samples, officials said. Those practices made the tests sent to public health labs unusable because they were contaminated with the coronavirus, and produced some inconclusive results.

https://thefederalist.com/2020/04/21/usc-study-finds-coronavirus-far-more-spread-in-l-a-county-than-reported/

A new study unveiled Monday from the University of Southern California (USC) with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health discovered infections of the novel Wuhan coronavirus to be far more widespread with a lower fatality rate than initially thought.

The California researchers conducted rapid antibody testing of a representative sample of adults and found that approximately 2.8 to 5.6 percent of L.A. County’s adult population already had coronavirus antibodies present, translating to 221,000 to 442,000 past-infected people. The new estimate dwarfs the nearly 8,000 cases that had been reported at the time the study took place April 10-11. There are now nearly 14,000 confirmed cases of the virus and more than 600 deaths officially reported in the county as of this writing, according to L.A. County Department of Public Health.

“We haven’t known the true extent of COVID-19 infections in our community because we have only tested people with symptoms, and the availability of tests has been limited,” said the study’s lead investigator and USC Professor Neeraj Sood in a statement. “The estimates also suggest that we might have to recalibrate disease prediction models and rethink public health strategies.”

https://thefederalist.com/2020/04/21/senate-intel-committee-still-running-interference-for-russia-collusion-nonsense/

The report is yet another reminder of how the committee helped Democrats and other critics of President Donald Trump perpetuate the now-debunked theory that Trump was a secret Russian agent.

A year after Special Counsel Robert Mueller concluded there was no evidence President Trump colluded with Russians to steal the 2016 election, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence issued its fourth of five reports in a slow-moving and muted investigation into the same matter. While the committee asserted in July 2018 that it agreed with a disputed Obama-era finding on Russia’s motivation for interfering in the 2016 presidential election, its highly redacted report on the intelligence community’s January 2017 claim was finally released Tuesday morning.

The report is yet another reminder of how the committee helped Democrats and other critics of President Donald Trump perpetuate the now-debunked theory that Trump was a secret Russian agent. The Senate’s Intelligence Committee is ostensibly chaired by Richard Burr, a North Carolina Republican who is currently avoiding questions about why he dumped stocks after receiving private briefings about coronavirus threats.

In practice, the committee has largely been run by Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va. The committee’s major and perhaps only contribution to the Russia collusion storyline was to employ a high-level staffer tasked with handling classified information who was convicted of lying to the FBI about leaks of classified information to reporters he was having affairs with. Both Burr and Warner begged a judge to be lenient with their former employee. The judge sentenced him to two months in prison.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/493910-white-house-congress-reach-deal-to-replenish-small-business-loan

The White House and Congress have reached a deal on a new funding package that will replenish a lending program meant to aid small businesses impacted by the novel coronavirus outbreak, two administration officials confirmed on Tuesday.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows struck an agreement on the core components of the deal with Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.) and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) early Tuesday morning.

Schumer announced the deal during an interview on CNN shortly after 8 a.m. Tuesday and White House officials confirmed after 1 p.m.

Final details of the package are forthcoming but it is expected to total more than $450 billion and provide roughly $300 billion for the Small Business Administration’s popular Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), and $50 billion for the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, $25 billion for testing and $75 billion for hospitals.

Schumer announced that $125 billion of the money for PPP will be set aside for “under-banked” small businesses that don’t have strong relationships with local banks, such as small restaurants and hair salons.

https://www.foxnews.com/science/fda-authorizes-first-at-home-coronavirus-test

The FDA has authorized the first diagnostic test with a home collection option for COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus.

In a statement released Tuesday, the FDA said that it had reissued an Emergency Use Authorization for LabCorp to COVID-19 RT-PCR Test to permit testing of samples that were self-collected by patients at home using LabCorp’s Pixel by LabCorp COVID-19 Test home collection kit.

“Throughout this pandemic we have been facilitating test development to ensure patients access to accurate diagnostics, which includes supporting the development of reliable and accurate at-home sample collection options,” said FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn.

Coronavirus testing is in the spotlight as America fights to contain the outbreak. Data compiled by the CDC indicate that, since the start of April, up to 140,000 coronavirus tests a day have been conducted in the U.S.

“This reissued EUA for LabCorp’s molecular test permits testing of a sample collected from the patient’s nose using a designated self-collection kit that contains nasal swabs and saline,” explained the FDA, in its statement. “Once patients self-swab to collect their nasal sample, they mail their sample, in an insulated package, to a LabCorp lab for testing.”