Ken wrote:Apparently we aren't in any kind of national emergency after all. McConnell and the rest of the Senate are taking a week's vacation and aren't going to deal with any sort of emergency coronavirus legislation until they return. I'm glad they feel the urgency.
McConnell ally says Senate won’t take up House #coronavirus bill until after recess. “The Senate will act when we come back and we have a clearer idea of what extra steps we need to take,” Sen. Lamar Alexander told reporters.
— Ana Cabrera (@AnaCabrera) March 12, 2020
Meanwhile Major League Baseball just closed down their season.
I'm not sure it's accurate to say the Senate is on vacation - right now, Capital Hill is completely shut down, both House and Senate. It's not currently safe for them to be having large gatherings.
From this point on things run under the executive branch under emergency powers until Congress can reconvene again. I really wish the Congress and Senate had been passing responsible legislation for the last 3 years instead of being busy playing political games and trying, unsuccessfully, to impeach the President.
Add Senegal to the list of countries that are responding to this crisis with more competence than we are:
Washington Post’s West Africa bureau chief
Senegal is testing people and giving results within 4 hours. Senegal’s per capita income is less than $3,000. https://t.co/s0BGBEVyoH
not content with a 4-hour turnover time
Scientists in Senegal have partnered with a UK lab to develop a hand-held coronavirus test kit that can produce results within 10 minutes https://t.co/Q7OwwI13cw
— CNN Africa (@CNNAfrica) March 12, 2020
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A fool can throw out more questions than a wise man can answer. -RZehr
Josh wrote:I'm not sure it's accurate to say the Senate is on vacation - right now, Capital Hill is completely shut down, both House and Senate. It's not currently safe for them to be having large gatherings.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Thursday that the Senate will delay its recess scheduled for next week to continue working on an economic relief package to address the coronavirus outbreak.
"Notwithstanding the scheduled state work period, the Senate will be in session next week," the Kentucky Republican tweeted. "I am glad talks are ongoing between the Administration and Speaker Pelosi. I hope Congress can pass bipartisan legislation to continue combating the coronavirus and keep our economy strong."
By keeping the Senate in session, McConnell will give the chamber more time to address the widespread pandemic. House Democrats and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin are working to hammer out a massive, multi-billion dollar aid package after the White House and Republicans in both chambers rejected an initial Democratic proposal to juice the economy.
This is the kind of thing that might actually bring both parties together to come up with some useful measures. And maybe, with some luck, that experience will spread out to other critical issues.
Ken wrote:Add Senegal to the list of countries that are responding to this crisis with more competence than we are:
Washington Post’s West Africa bureau chief
Senegal is testing people and giving results within 4 hours. Senegal’s per capita income is less than $3,000. https://t.co/s0BGBEVyoH
not content with a 4-hour turnover time
Scientists in Senegal have partnered with a UK lab to develop a hand-held coronavirus test kit that can produce results within 10 minutes https://t.co/Q7OwwI13cw
— CNN Africa (@CNNAfrica) March 12, 2020
People keep asking for testing, but what tests? The tests involved require people to be presenting with symptoms, and do not meet U.S. standards for specificity.
It should be obvious after Italy that running a second-world (or third-world) health system doesn't make things better. I'm going to take a wild guess that a hand-held test kit that gets results in 10 minutes doesn't meet U.K. standards, which is why it's not being used there.
Bad information is often worse than no information. Do you want people to get tested who get false negatives?
Ken wrote:Add Senegal to the list of countries that are responding to this crisis with more competence than we are:
Washington Post’s West Africa bureau chief
Senegal is testing people and giving results within 4 hours. Senegal’s per capita income is less than $3,000. https://t.co/s0BGBEVyoH
not content with a 4-hour turnover time
Scientists in Senegal have partnered with a UK lab to develop a hand-held coronavirus test kit that can produce results within 10 minutes https://t.co/Q7OwwI13cw
— CNN Africa (@CNNAfrica) March 12, 2020
Yes, but the US has to figure out who and how the right donors will make money off testing. Can’t just rush into something with that much cash sloshing around. That would be irresponsible!
Last edited by RZehr on Thu Mar 12, 2020 5:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
RZehr wrote:Yes, but the US has to figure out who and how the right donors will make money off testing. Can’t just rush into something with that much cash sloshing around.
Last I checked, there's nobody willing to go work in factories or labs for free. The govenrment is allocating billions of dollars for mitigating COVID-19; I think we can all agree that the recipients of that money expect to break even, and their employees certainly expect to be paid.
The FDA, NIH, and CDC are not organisations I would call incompetent, despite what President Trump had to say about the CDC and WHO a few weeks ago. I'm pretty confident they're doing a good job coming up with a test that is actually effective, accurate, and can be mass distributed so that it's widely available to Americans who need it.
