COVID19 Update - Day 2

US Tests: 13,953
US Cases: 1,583
US Deaths: 38
Worldwide Cases: 128,343
Worldwide Deaths: 4,720

After last night's embarrassing national address from Trump, for which he was rightly excoriated, presumptive Democratic nominee for president Joe Biden showed America the kind of speech a real president gives:

For their part, the Republicans demonstrated that they don't care about the human cost of the pandemic, by:

• The White House continued to advocate for a $9.5 billion cut in the budget of the CDC, the Center for Disease Control (this actually happened on Tuesday, the day before Trump's awful national address).
• Senate Republicans blocked a House bill which, among other things, would have guaranteed free COVID19 testing to anyone who thinks they might be infected, and paid sick leave for all affected Americans.  Then, instead of offering any alternative legislation of their own, they left town for a 3-day weekend (although he did cancel a planned week-long recess).

To be fair, Republicans WERE quick to bail out the constituency most important to them, however:

In the latest sign that even the soberest of American economic policymakers are freaked out by the coronavirus, the Federal Reserve announced on Thursday it's going to drop an extra $1.5 trillion on the financial system. The Fed actually made an emergency cut of 0.5 percentage points to its interest rate target just the other week.

So to summarize: Republicans are willing to loan $1.5 trillion to banks to combat an economic slowdown, but not a dime to the people actually suffering from the virus.  And they actually want to CUT funding for the main federal agency tasked with responding to the pandemic.

Remember this in November.

At least there was ONE bright spot.  U.S. Representative Katie Porter (D - CA45), the first Democrat to represent Orange County in quite a long time, got the director of the CDC to commit to FREE coronavirus testing for all Americans.

I did the math: a full battery of coronavirus testing costs at minimum $1,331.

I also did the legal research: the Administration has the authority to make testing free for every American TODAY.

I secured a commitment from a high-level Trump official that they’d actually do it. pic.twitter.com/RmolCtmNbG

— Rep. Katie Porter (@RepKatiePorter) March 12, 2020

Remember this in November, too.  And maybe show Katie some thanks.  Even in this political climate, a Democrat in Orange County faces an uphill climb to win re-election.

On a more personal note, the pandemic is affecting my life in numerous ways.  In just the past two days:

• My alma mater, Grinnell College, decided to ask students to leave campus when spring break starts, and not to return.  Classes will be conducted online for the rest of the semester.  This affects me personally in that I had planned to take my daughter to campus for a prospective student visit, and that visit was cancelled --- which left me on the hook for a non-refundable hotel room reservation.
• Grinnell is also considering cancelling commencement and reunion --- and my college reunions are some of the most enjoyable events in my life.
• My son's college, University of Minnesota at Morris, has also decided to conduct classes online until at least April 1, although students may still choose to attend classes on campus.
• A college friend of mine was supposed to be a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Morris, and I was planning to go out in a few weeks to visit her and my son.  But Morris has cancelled her appointment due to the pandemic.
• My daughter's long-planned school trip to France has been postponed.
•  Just today, my scrum master made a point of telling everyone on our team to be sure to take their laptops home with them every night, 'in case' the office shuts down and we need to work remotely for the foreseeable future.

This is going to get much worse before it gets better.