Good morning! Here is your news briefing for Wednesday March 18, 2020.
THE DAILY SIGNAL
Mar 18, 2020
Good morning from Washington, where a growing understanding of what the coronavirus pandemic means to society has some, including our Jarrett Stepman, looking back a hundred years to the devastation of the Spanish flu. On the podcast, Dr. Kevin Pham talks about personal responsibility in the fight against COVID-19. Plus: a new country is tops in economic freedom, online education resources abound amid the pandemic, and we ask you to tell us about your coronavirus experience. Seventy years ago today, nationalist Chinese forces from Taiwan invade the communist-controlled mainland, briefly capturing the town of Sungmen before being driven back.
How is COVID-19 like and unlike? When could a vaccine be ready? Is the government overreacting by closing down so many businesses? A doctor has answers.
Over 120 of 180 countries rated in The Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom saw improvements in scores. The average score is higher than ever.
How are you and your family responding to the “new normal” in this, the time of coronavirus? Here at The Daily Signal, we’d like to hear your stories and observations of what you see around you.
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“As a rule, men worry more about what they can’t see than about what they can.”
JULIUS CAESAR
Good morning,
Experts are questioning statements by China’s communist party that the novel coronavirus is under control and that there are barely any new cases.
Chinese patients with virus symptoms, meanwhile, are untreated, as authorities have shut down facilities and have eased restrictions.
The Senate on March 16 agreed to a 77-day extension of a set of FBI surveillance tools under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that had expired March 15, to allow lawmakers time for further negotiations on necessary reforms to the powerful domestic eavesdropping program that saw wiretapping of individuals in the Trump campaign. Read more
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on March 17 lifted all restrictions on telehealth services for Americans covered by Medicare to address the threat of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic. Read more
When Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) left his Texas home at 3 a.m. on March 16 to drive to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport to catch a flight to Washington, it was to force House Democrats to put changes in writing that they were making to the “Families First Coronavirus Response Act,” which the chamber approved late March 14. Read more
Joe Biden won the Democratic presidential primary in Washington state, making the former vice president the victor in five out of the six states that voted on March 10. Read more
The White House is seeking what President Donald Trump called a “big” and “bold” coronavirus relief plan, said to be worth at least $850 billion. Read more
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio told reporters on March 17 that people living in New York City should be prepared to shelter in place within the next 48 hours over the coronavirus outbreak. Read more
Is your retirement safe from Coronavirus market panic? Experts warn your 401(k) or IRA could be at SERIOUS risk. U.S. stocks plunged recently on fears of a global economic slowdown which led to the Dow Jones losing 2,000 points, its largest ever single-day drop. If that doesn’t get your attention—what will? Retirement accounts, savings accounts, and financial portfolios will be at the mercy of global turmoil. Goldman Sachs, however, has identified one asset class that it deems virus-resistant—Gold. Gold continues to dramatically outperform other safe havens in 2020 and has now officially become, “the currency of last resort.” Don’t wait until it’s too late—Get Your Free Copy: #1 Retirement Playbook
Looking at the Bright Side of a Pandemic
By Roger L. Simon
I know—it’s hard to look at the bright side of a pandemic. But take it from someone who has self-quarantined for the better part of 50 years, it’s not always so bad. That’s what professional writers do… Read more
Coronavirus Pandemic Magnifying the Impact of Trade War on China
By James Gorrie
If China’s latest pronouncement is any indication, the COVID-19 pandemic is raising the tensions between the United States and China to dangerous levels. With the impact of the trade war in China… Read more
Scratching Beneath the Surface of Unemployment
By Heide B. Malhotra
(March 25, 2013)
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released February employment statistics on March 8, reporting that nonfarm employment edged up by 236,000 jobs, and the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate decreased from 7.9 percent in January to 7.7 percent. Read more
A foreign disinformation campaign aimed to sow fear in the United States over the novel coronavirus is currently underway, according to a new report.
All of them called fairly early (Fox News). This story claims Sanders will stay in the race for greater influence at the convention (Politico).
2.
Experts Frustrated as Many Don’t Take Warnings Seriously
Such as the many beach goers this week (Newsweek). The site of them all had Jake Tapper on edge (Mediaite). From another story: “Why would I get sick at the beach? I’m not going to be touching anything,” said 46-year-old David Zimmer of Richmond, Minnesota, as he joined a group of family and friends flip-flopping their way to a beach that police had driven through just an hour before to empty it out (Washington Times). From another story: If the Imperial College’s model of the disease is right, though — and that’s a big “if” — then suppression doesn’t hold the disease at bay once it’s lifted. We’d need an indefinite lockdown, a.k.a. economic suicide, until an effective treatment is available, which could be more than a year away. Social death by contagion or social death by economic depression: It seems like the task for policymakers right now is finding the “optimal” balance between those two that’ll result in the least possible amount of human misery, knowing that the misery will be incredibly vast no matter what they do (Hot Air). National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins was asked what has surprised him most about the coronavirus. “The degree to which this is so rapidly transmissible. More so than SARS was. SARS was a terribly scary situation for the world 18 years ago, but it never reached the level of infections or deaths that we have for this coronavirus because it wasn’t as transmissible. SARS was transmissible but only from people who were really very sick. This one seems to be transmissible from people who have minor illness or maybe no illness at all—which is why it has been so difficult to get control or to know when you should be imposing these stringent measures we’ve been talking about. If you wait until you’ve seen lots of affected cases, you know you’ve waited too late because the number of people who haven’t yet turned up in the health-care system but who are already infected is probably 100 times the number of cases you know about” (The Atlantic). One study suggests 86 percent of those who have coronavirus are undetected (NY Post). Another look at the success of South Korea (Science Magazine). In South Korea, basketball games are scheduled for the end of the month (ESPN). Kevin Durant and three of his Brooklyn Nets teammates have the coronavirus (Washington Examiner). Person by person, what we know about those who have died in the U.S. (CNN).
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3.
MLB Puts Millions into Helping Employees
Major League Baseball teams are each putting one million dollars toward helping ballpark employees affected by the delay (Twitter). Samaritan’s Purse is helping in Italy (Twitter). A list of museums that offer virtual tours (Travel and Leisure) The role the internet is playing in all this (NY Times). Some businesses are looking for innovative ways to keep business going during the crisis (Christopher Schroeder).
4.
Chinese Government Corruption Lead to Coronavirus Pandemic
From Jim Geraghty: Even today, prominent Chinese citizens who criticize the government’s response suddenly disappear. The Chinese government is much more effective at stopping the spread of information about the coronavirus than stopping the spread of the coronavirus. Pardon me, the “Wuhan virus” (National Review). Professor Samuel Abrams explains why he believes this pandemic could be the thing that finally moves us away “from our current state of never-ending anger and chaos” (The Dispatch). From Amy Walter: I’m often asked what will break our current political polarization. My answer has been, it will take a huge crisis. But, here we are in the middle of a crisis and the polling finds us as divided as ever (Twitter).
5.
Philadelphia Police to Stop Many Arrests to Manage Jail Crowding
Protecting the criminals instead of the public (Philadelphia Inquirer). And in San Francisco, the city decided marijuana dispensaries are “essential business” (Business Insider).
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6.
Bidet Sales Skyrocket
As toilet paper hoarders corner the market, people search out the alternative.
Dan Lepinski lost his primary in Illinois (Daily Caller). From Alexandra DeSanctis: There goes the last pro-life Democrat at the national level. If it weren’t already extremely obvious, this is yet another sign that the Democratic Party’s national leaders are unapologetically in lockstep defending abortion for any reason, at any stage of pregnancy until birth (Twitter).
8.
Republicans Sweep Three Special Elections for Pennsylvania House
Democrats are upset that the elections were held at all.
The other two involved in the burglary are charged with the murder because “they committed the felony offense of burglary of a habitation which resulted in the death of another person.”
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