RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://thefederalist.com/2020/03/23/feinsteins-real-insider-trading-scandal-is-selling

The far more consequential story is Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s participation in richly profiting from the U.S.-China policy for which she has lobbied for 40 years.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) rightly faces a potential scandal for dumping several million dollars’ worth of stock while privy to sensitive information as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee before a major drop in financial markets due to coronavirus. But the far more consequential story is Feinstein’s participation in the biggest insider trade of all in her family richly profiting from the U.S.-China policy for which she has lobbied for 40 years.

This policy of dramatically expanded economic and political ties between America and China while turning a blind eye to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) tyranny—enabling China to become a world power heavily integrated into global supply chains and international institutions—has contributed to this China-driven pandemic.

A Long History of Friendship with Communists

As detailed in an earlier Federalist exposéspurred by revelations that Feinstein had employed a staffer for nearly two decades who was spying for the Chinese government, arguably no politician in American history has maintained a deeper, more longstanding, and friendlier relationship at the highest levels of the CCP than Feinstein. This dates back to at least the normalization of U.S.-China relations in 1979, when shortly thereafter, as mayor of San Francisco, Feinstein established a “sister city” relationship with Shanghai and Mayor Jiang Zemin.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-washington-liquidity-infusion-11584919023?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

Federal and state governments have shut down much of the American economy, and now Washington is moving to lend its balance sheet to compensate for some of the losses it is causing. The foremost goal should be to provide liquidity to prevent defaults and business failures that will cascade into mass layoffs and another depression.

By our deadline, the Senate had not reached a final deal. But the bipartisan draft bill and summaries we’d seen on Sunday afternoon were a major improvement on the state of play on Friday. The overall cost is murky, though it will be in the multi-trillions of dollars, and that includes hundreds of billions in subsidy payments to individuals to buy broad political support.

The version we examined is nonetheless worthy of Senate passage—not least to avoid House Speaker Nancy Pelosi making it worse. She and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer were blocking a deal late Sunday with more demands from their non-virus-related policy wish list.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/these-drugs-are-helping-our-coronavirus-patients-11584899438?mod=trending_now_4

A flash of potential good news from the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic: A treatment is showing promise. Doctors in France, South Korea and the U.S. are using an antimalarial drug known as hydroxychloroquine with success. We are physicians treating patients with Covid-19, and the therapy appears to be making a difference. It isn’t a silver bullet, but if deployed quickly and strategically the drug could potentially help bend the pandemic’s “hockey stick” curve.

Hydroxychloroquine is a common generic drug used to treat lupus, arthritis and malaria. The medication, whose brand name is Plaquenil, is relatively safe, with the main side effect being stomach irritation, though it can cause echocardiogram and vision changes. In 2005, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study showed that chloroquine, an analogue, could block a virus from penetrating a cell if administered before exposure. If tissue had already been infected, the drug inhibited the virus.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/03/seeking_a_sense_of_proportion_about_coronavirus_deaths_in_america.html

Every evening during the Vietnam War, the nightly news anchor would announce the number of wounded and dead Americans on that day. Doing this imparted a sense of immediacy to those numbers that undoubtedly helped drive the anti-War movement.

In our coronavirus era, the media are doing the same with the numbers for those stricken or dead. For example, in the Daily Mail’s Sunday night article about the Democrats’ refusal to approve a $1.8 trillion coronavirus economic relief bill, we read this line:

The impact of coronavirus in the U.S. have [sic] skyrocketed in the last week to more than 30,200 confirmed cases and nearing 400 deaths.  

Various websites also keep a ticker tape of the “wounded” and dead. Avi Schiffmann, only 17, put together a simple, yet almost awe-inspiring, website that tracks all the coronavirus statistics from around the world. It’s so accurate that you can practically see people sicken and die in real-time.

Watching the numbers tick up is unnerving, but also misleading because it creates an artificial sense of terror. A sense of proportion helps control that terror.

As of this writing, the number of dead around the world is 14,730. Even if China, Russia, and Iran are lying about their mortality numbers, the actual number probably isn’t higher than 20,000. (And the number could be lower because Italy may have been overstating its mortality rate.)

https://amgreatness.com/2020/03/22/the-virus-is-not-invisible-but-its-exposing-whos-irreplaceable/

When your refrigerator goes out under quarantine and your supplies begin to rot, do you really need another rant from Maxine Waters—or do you rather need a St. Michael Smith and St. Uriel Mendoza to appear out of nowhere as the archangels from Home Depot to wheel up and connect a new one?

In all the gloom and doom, and media-driven nihilism, there is actually an array of good news. As many predicted, as testing spreads, and we get a better idea of the actual number and nature of cases, the death rate from coronavirus slowly but also seems to steadily decline.

Early estimates from the World Health Organization and the modeling of pessimists of a constant 4 percent death rate for those infected with the virus are for now proving exaggerated for the United States. More likely, as testing spreads, our fatality rates could descend to near 1 percent.

There is some evidence from Germany and to a lesser extent South Korea, that it may be possible to see the fatality rate dip below 1 percent. And with the breathing space from the lockdown, better hygiene (the degree of constant and near-obsessive cleaning at businesses that are still open is quite amazing), more knowledge and data, better medical protocols, the use of some efficacious drugs, warmer weather, and experience with the disease will, in perfect-storm fashion, begin to mitigate the effects of the virus.

Should we get the lethality rate down to German levels (currently two to three in 1,000), then we can cautiously assume that those who predicted that the coronavirus could eventually be contextualized as a bad, H1N1-like flu will no longer be demonized as nuts, and life can resume with reasonable precautions and focused quarantines and isolation.

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/nr-coronavirus-update-10-u-s-states-with-500-cases/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=homepage&utm_campaign=right-rail&utm_content=corner&utm_term=fourth

Ten American states now have more than 500 confirmed cases of coronavirus. In comparison, twelve Chinese clusters reached 500 cases (according to the available data, which is by no means totally trustworthy). Most of the outbreaks outside of Wuhan seem to have been contained early, whereas in the U.S., the number of cases within each cluster continues to grow exponentially. 

However, New York is carrying out more tests per capita than other states, so the numbers don’t necessarily reflect the severity of each statewide outbreak. Fifty-five percent of those infected in New York are between the ages of 18 and 55, which, while troublesome, bodes well for the death rate, as COVID-19 is most deadly in elderly populations. New York governor announced that he would send 1 million N95 facemasks to New York City and would continue purchasing medical resources, such as ventilators, to combat the virus.

After initial obstacles, the U.S. has succeeded in massively increasing its testing capacity. Over the past few days, the number of tests administered domestically has grown by nearly 40 percent each day. Yesterday, the FDA approved a test that could diagnose coronavirus in just 45 minutes. As the U.S. ramps up its ability to diagnose the virus, the most severe social-distancing measures could possibly be rolled back, but only if authorities pair testing efforts with tracing efforts, ensuring that those tested remain in strict quarantine. We’ll be watching tracing measures in the next few days to see whether states can capitalize on testing to reduce lockdowns.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/marybethpfeiffer/2020/03/18/science-works-to-use-old-cheap-drugs-to-attack-coronavirus–it-might-just-work/#124588355c49

Update on March 19: In a press conference, President Trump announced that the FDA was fast-tracking use of hydroxycholoquine and other anti-viral drugs for COVID-19 patients.

  An old malaria and autoimmune drug is showing promise as a potential treatment for COVID-19 – although health officials are urging caution until clinical trials are done.

  The drug, hydroxychloroquine, sold under the brand name Plaquenil, was reportedMarch 9 in Clinical Infectious Diseases journal to be effective at killing the virus in laboratory experiments. In a letter in Cell Discovery Wednesday, the study’s authors, mainly from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Wuhan, wrote, “(W)e predict that the drug has a good potential to combat the disease.” 

   Repurposing established drugs like Plaquenil — which was approved in 1955 — may be a quick, safe and economical way to attack emerging illnesses. In this vein, specialists have adapted long-standing leprosy and alcoholism drugs, for example, for patients suffering another global epidemic, Lyme disease.

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/mark-penn-in-coronavirus-fight-america-needs-a-60-day-plan-to-battle-virus-and-save-our-economy

It’s time for the Trump administration to take the next steps now to stop the uncertainty gripping America by adopting a responsible 60-day plan for both retarding the coronavirus and saving our economy.

America can go on lockdown for a month or more, but those days need to be used to prepare to emerge and get back to the essentials of daily life. We have to defeat the coronavirus, not let the virus defeat us.

The back-to-work plan must ensure certainty regarding: plans to deal with liquidity to avoid another full-blown financial crisis, programs to encourage retention of employees during the crisis and benefits for those laid off, and confidence in the health care system to ensure that it is safe enough to go back to work.

Right now we are led by a group of health care experts who have little understanding of the economy, and a group of economists with little understanding of health care. We have turned our country over to the health care experts, but we need a balance. We need our leaders to come together and bridge these disciplines to chart a clear path forward.

We know the worst is yet to come. The statistics show that in most places we are seeing a geometric increase in the spread of the coronavirus that we are working to slow and even reverse.