The US situation.

[Orangeblossom78]

Finding this difficult to understand. They now have more cases than China and Italy, but Trump is on about loosening restrictions and opening up areas?

I don't understand any thoughts? It seems he is thinking they have done more testing which is the reason for the numbers. www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-52056586

The American situation is a disaster. The intelligent have taken matters into their own hands and are self-isolating if they need to. Trump cares about the economy and his re-election - he doesn't give a shiny shite about people dying. An awful lot of people are going to die though and without containment measures its going to be catastrophic. As the body bags pile up we can all hope that the scales fall from the eyes of his deluded followers ...

Do you think people without insurance would be able to access these beds in the current circumstances?

Yes.

The Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act (EMTALA) 1986 explained for anyone who's interested.

www.alllaw.com/articles/nolo/medical-malpractice/uninsured-patient-denied-emergency-treatment.html

He seems in total denial. I heard on the news that he said he wanted to end the lockdown in a couple of weeks and get things going again. One of his chief advisors said that he can't dictate things the virus will. He's a moron, with no understanding

I'm sure he said he ideally he would like things to start opening again by Easter. Obviously this will be monitored on a day by day basis and timings adjusted accordingly.

Texas Governor let the counties decide. The county Dallas is in locked down and 2 counties where I am followed a couple of days later. Companies that have any ounce of wisdom will not follow trumps lead. He says Easter. My company (well ex as I lost my job yesterday) are saying minion 17 April to be reassessed. Although my friends DH in same industry, different firm think they’re reopening their office next week! It needs a coordinated and clear message.

New Mexico have just said schools won’t open again this school year.

April 17th seems to be the date a lot of organisations are setting as when they will reassess. I don't know of any governmental or private organisations that are considering reopening any earlier.

Sorry about your job HerRoyalNotness :-(

I'm sure he said he ideally he would like things to start opening again by Easter.

My state has one level of lockdown at a state level, then another two levels of lockdown at town level - maybe that gives some idea of how little control Trump has over this whole thing.

In our state the numbers are starting to flatten. I wouldn’t say our health system is “failing” as someone said earlier. Our survival rate is currently around 3 times that of the UK when you look at deaths per million people and we have 160,000 ventilators compared to 5,000 in the U.K. but only 5 times the population. I know where I feel safer right now!

The president doesn’t have much say on what happens on a state level. Each state has their own government that will decide whether a lockdown is necessary, what can and can’t be done, etc. Yes, it’s ambitious to think things will open up again by Easter but he’s not the only world leader to underestimate this. It’s an unknown to everyone.

We are certainly testing more people. Our supermarkets are stocked. And unemployment payments are much higher here than in the UK. We are also receiving stimulus checks regardless of whether we have lost our jobs or not. Don’t believe everything you read in the news. What I am seeing reported by British ”news” sources bears little resemblance to what is actually happening here.

Our survival rate is currently around 3 times that of the UK when you look at deaths per million people and we have 160,000 ventilators compared to 5,000 in the U.K. but only 5 times the population. I know where I feel safer right now

Quite so.

I can't imagine for one minute why anyone would think things could open up at Easter when you are on an upward trajectory?

The UK are not thinking that, I think we realise we are in for the long haul. The Govt are only feeding us in the UK the information we an cope with... saying you are locked down for 4 months would not be good. But even to hint at opening up at Easter is madness.

However, you cannot compare country on country. US is vast, we're not.

I have posted updates from New York City on and off for a while.

I am really thankful for Cuomo, he is doing a great bloody job in these circumstances. Schools are closed but pretty much immediately started handing out breakfast and lunch packs (to any public school child in the area, they didn't have to commute to their particular school) at the front door, so that kids living with food insecurity would be ok. Senior centres are providing meals for vulnerable older adults.

As of today we have over 60,000 healthcare professionals who have volunteered to help us through this here in NY. 10,000 mental health professionals volunteered to provide free remote counselling.

Yes, we are splitting ventilators as I posted the other day, which is shocking and sobering stuff. We have a refrigerated lorry outside a hospital that has been given over completely to covid 19 patients, because they need space for the bodies It is very scary and very sad.

But the leadership and community in New York is excellent.

Illinois governor has done a pretty decent job and although the Mayor of Chicago has perhaps been a little more hesitant much more is shut here than in the UK and has been for longer.
I think we will still be hit quite hard but Trump has been ignored for the most part.

With respect to Trump, Dr Fauci stated last night that Trump is willing to listen to the science - so I think this paves the way for Trump to not go ahead with the Easter date for being back to business as usual, without losing face (as he would see it).

I can see why Trump has a 60% approval rating, many Americans have been watching the Covid-19 task force daily breifings in which he and the various experts have been giving precise information on what they are doing to tackle the problems. Combine that with the $2 trillion stimulus package, banning of evictions, the Defense Production Act etc. Contrast that with the Democrats who called Trump racist for wanting to ban travel from China in January and who voted down the stimulus package twice last week to try and add funding for things completely unrelated to the pandemic. Then there is the mainstream media (current Gallup disapproval of 55%) who relentlessly pumped out "fear porn" and disinformation (the do not resuscitate rumour). The Dems and MSM should pat themselves on the back because they have just guaranteed Trump his 2nd term.
news.gallup.com/poll/300680/coronavirus-response-hospitals-rated-best-news-media-worst.aspx
m.youtube.com/watch?v=6MW8Q5sT0_U

Can anyone explain why the fuck have a Trump’s ratings increased? Are Americans deranged?!

I loathe Trump, but he has been making me chuckle throughout this nightmare. He's like a parody of himself. Amazing

Contrast that with the Democrats who called Trump racist for wanting to ban travel from China in January and who voted down the stimulus package twice last week to try and add funding for things completely unrelated to the pandemic. Then there is the mainstream media (current Gallup disapproval of 55%) who relentlessly pumped out "fear porn" and disinformation (the do not resuscitate rumour). The Dems and MSM should pat themselves on the back because they have just guaranteed Trump his 2nd term

Precisely. Well said.

But wasn't the original stimulus package based on topping up big business (including trump.org) with no transparency and help for small businesses and there was lack of unemployment provisions?

Yes it was Roussette, and many of the things the Democrats fought for were absolutely worth it.

I think people will see pretty soon that the cheque for $1200 that the Republicans touted is small change compared to $600 per week added onto unemployment insurance as demanded by the Democrats. And when you reach 20-25% unemployed, that's a significant proportion of voters.

Yes, absolutely!

More and more people in Germany are saying the ICU capacity is the biggest factor in the lower number of deaths -- not just having a lot of beds, but a lot of staff to run them. So the US may end up with a lower death rate as well.

The US has a much lower smoking rate than countries like Italy and Spain, which seems to be a big risk factor for getting seriously ill. And I'm pretty sure the areas worst hit so far have a younger population, also more likely to survive.

It's taking longer to get organised because there's a total idiot running the country, but the US will ramp up its response quickly I have no doubt.

Nope , all those were included plus Trump specifically stated that big businesses would not be allowed to use the money for share buybacks, dividends etc. His stated purpose was not to rescue the businesses because they were big but to protect the jobs of ordinary hardworking Americans and get them back to work ASAP. Meanwhile among the Dem's demands in coronavirus stimulus bill: -Restricting colleges from providing information about illegal aliens
-Money for Planned Parenthood
-Same-day voter registration
-Online voter registration
-Solar power funding.
The Dems tried to use the crisis for an unashamed power grab, fiddling while Rome is burning.

Nope , all those were included

Not sure what 'those' means - are you saying the Republicans were the party who insisted on people on UI getting $600 a week for a longer period?

Money for Planned Parenthood

The Republicans actually managed to prevent Planned Parenthood from being able to access any of the stimulus money going towards healthcare, despite the fact that PP provides healthcare to low income people and specifically towards women.

The Democrats tried to prevent it - sadly they did not succeed so once again the low income and women are fucked over by the GOP.

American here.
MANY of us feel that Trump is a narcissistic moron. Many of us expect our governors to be more honest and provide better protection to us. We expect and need our Congresspeople to take appropriate actions. We know we can't trust or rely on our president. Trump actually tweeted yesterday that the media is reporting a need to stay closed so that it'll harm his chances of reelection. Meanwhile, many of us happen to believe that the media is reporting in a way meant to save lives and we couldn't care less about his election right now- it's not until November! Quite a lot of Americans currently care more about our health and safety than our economy. The president may be an idiot but we're not. And many of us are also well aware that our health system is unbalanced and likely won't stand well against this virus. We're already seeing rich and connected asymptomatic people getting tests while severely symptomatic people are being told to assume they have it and stay home. You won't get honest numbers from that. All we can do is try to limit our exposure and pray. In November we'll worry about getting rid of the narcissist.