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TODAY'S HEADLINES:
The Republican party pivoted toward death today, as President Donald Trump openly considered easing preventative restrictions that slow the spread of the virus and allowing hundreds of thousands to die in order to prevent an economic recession.
Meanwhile, New York City has emerged as the dire center of the coronavirus epidemic in America, as its high population density means the virus is spreading like wildfire.
And lastly, an Arizona man died after ingesting chloroquine phosphate, a toxic chemical that he thought would protect him from the coronavirus, something that his grieving wife says was inspired by Donald Trump’s ill-informed tweets about the substance.
THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:
The Republican party made it clear that it is willing to kill as many Americans as it takes to save its precious free-market economy.
I wish that were an exaggeration, but the actions of President Donald Trump and other Republican leaders on Monday have made their position clear.
During a press briefing on Monday, the president started openly floating the idea of re-opening the economy and easing social restrictions that have crippled business and destroyed jobs, an idea that horrifies pretty much every public health official who understands the crisis we’re in.
He said QUOTE:
“If it were up to the doctors, they’d say let’s shut down the entire world. This could create a much bigger problem than the problem that you started out with.”
ENDQUOTE.
Buddy, it should be up to the doctors!
The economic effects of these restrictions are real, but the public health risk without them is so much greater. And there’s always another option: pass a stimulus package that actual helps American workers, not the corporations trying to save their bottom line.
The New York Times reports that even if we relax the restrictions now, experts say the economy will still crash as new virus cases overwhelm the U.S.’s pitiful healthcare system and make the recession that we’re already in that much worse.
In an appearance on Tucker Carlson’s sociopath hour on Monday, Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick claimed that there were quote “lots of grandparents out there” endquote who would be willing to take the risk of dying in order to save capitalism.
Sure sounds like a death cult to me.
New York City is now the center of the coronavirus in America, and the infection rates in the nation’s biggest city are starting to look truly dire.
The problem, of course, is New York’s population density. Since the state finally got its act together and began testing aggressively, there have been 13,000 confirmed cases in New York City, and 125 deaths. By comparison, Los Angeles, America’s second-biggest city, has only 500 confirmed cases and seven deaths, although it is far behind on widespread testing.
The virus’s quote “attack rate” in NYC is nearly one in one thousand, which the Times reports is over five times higher than anywhere else in the country.
On Monday, the New York Board of Corrections urged the city’s jails to start releasing vulnerable inmates and those being held on low-level offenses in order to curb the spread and protect them from the virus, which is spreading across the prison system.
So far, Mayor De Blasio has only released 23 inmates. New York also has roughly 400,000 people in crowded public housing buildings, which will surely be devastated by the disease.
As always, it’s the most vulnerable people that this is going to hurt.
An Arizona man died on Monday after ingesting chloroquine phosphate, a toxic substance that he mistakenly thought would prevent the coronavirus. His wife also took the substance and is in critical care.
Chloroquine does have medical uses, largely as an anti-malarial drug, and has been floated as a possible treatment for coronavirus - claims which have not been evaluated or approved by the FDA.
They have, however, been spread by the president, who has spoken and tweeted about the positive benefits of the drug, dangerously spreading unproven and incomplete information.
The couple didn’t take the medical version of the substance. Per NBC News, they ingested a small amount of an ingredient listed on a parasite treatment for pet fish, because they were quote “scared of getting sick.”
The wife told NBC news that they decided to take the substance because they thought it was what they had seen President Trump talking about on TV.
Within 20 minutes they both became extremely ill. Her husband died shortly after arriving at the hospital, one of the first direct casualties of Trump’s fast-and-loose response to the disease.
AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:
Michael Bloomberg’s laid-off staff members in Texas are suing his campaign, alleging that the former mayor of New York City promised them jobs and health care coverage through the November general election, but then laid them off when he dropped out of the race. The workers are suing for the pay and benefits that were promised to them.
Amazon workers in Chicago, Sacramento, and New York united to fight for paid time off and sick leave across the company, and recently succeeded in getting Amazon to change its policies and offer paid time off to all regular and seasonal employees. The company’s wider sick leave and time off policy is still miserable, however, so the fight continues.
In China, there are signs of recovery from the virus. Chinese officials lifted the total lockdown over Hubei [HOO-BEY] province on Tuesday. The city of Wuhan, where the original epidemic appears to have started, will remain on lockdown until April 8.
Lawmakers and activists in New York City and other major cities continue to call for a widespread rent freeze, freeing the millions of recently-laid off Americans from the burden of paying rent come April. Evictions in many states have been halted, but as of now, rent is still due and the fight continues.
That’s all for the Majority Report’s AM Quickie today. Stay well and stay inside. Sam will be with you this afternoon with the full show.
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#AMQuickie: March 24, 2020
HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner
WRITER - Jack Crosbie
PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn