"I am angry that after..months..isolating..a single chaotic day..got me sick. I am angry..our nation’s leaders were unwilling to..mask..I am angry..attack on..Capitol and my..illness have..same cause:..Republican colleagues’ inability to accept facts."
"I was nervous about spending a week among so many people who regularly flout social distancing and mask guidelines, but I could not have imagined the horror of what happened on Jan. 6."
"[W]e were not safe from the callousness of members of Congress who, having encouraged the sentiments that inspired the riot, now ignored requests to wear masks."
"Refusing to wear a mask is not, in fact, an act of self-expression. It’s an act of public endangerment. The chaos you create in exercising your so-called freedom can cause permanent, deadly damage."
Bonnie Watson Coleman, NJ-12.
(My Representative.)
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"A video released two years before the start of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic shows Wuhan Insitute of Virology..scientists being cavalier toward protective equipment and being bitten by bats.., demonstrating a lax safety culture"
"On Dec. 29, 2017, Chinese state-run TV released a video designed to showcase Shi Zhengli..and her team..in their quest to find the origin of SARS..[T]he scientists..show a shocking disregard for safety when handling potentially infectious bats both in the wild and in the lab."
"From 4:45 to 4:56, a scientist can be seen holding a bat with his bare hands. Team members from 7:44 to 7:50 can be seen collecting potentially highly infectious bat feces while wearing short sleeves and shorts and with no noticeable..PPE..other than gloves."
"Even as reality continues to intrude,..Trump has either largely dismissed or ignored his science and medical advisers. And the result is that the economy, the one thing he seems to care most about..has been devastated."
"Among developed nations,..US ranks first in categories one would prefer to be last in: number of cases and number of deaths. It lags well behind in economic recovery as well."
"Containing the virus has allowed many European economies to recover far better than the US"
""In..April..business in restaurants in Germany and..US were in the identical place, down over 90%.,Since then they have diverged..widely: data for Aug. 16..shows German restaurants enjoyed 9% more business than last year..while US restaurants were down around 50%"
"COVID has reduced to tatters the illusion of American exceptionalism. At the height of the crisis, with..2,000 dying each day, Americans found themselves members of a failed state, ruled by a dysfunctional..government"
"COVID-19 didn’t lay America low; it simply revealed what had long been forsaken. As the crisis unfolded, with another American dying every minute of every day, a country that once turned out fighter planes by the hour could not manage to produce the paper masks or cotton swabs"
"The nation that defeated smallpox and polio, and led..world for generations in medical innovation and discovery, was reduced to..laughing stock as..buffoon of..president advocated..use of household disinfectants as..treatment for..disease..he could not begin to understand."
Taiwan: 0.3 per million (7 deaths)
Hong Kong: 1 per million (7 deaths)
China: 3 per million (4,634 deaths)
Singapore: 5 per million (26 deaths)
South Korea: 5 per million (283 deaths)
US: 400 per million (132,147 deaths..and just starting)
New Zealand: 4 per million (22 deaths)
Australia: 4 per million (104 deaths)
..
UK: 660 per million (44,131 deaths)
Italy: 580 per million (34,833 deaths)
Spain: 610 per million (28,385 deaths)
Nations that successfully suppressed outbreak include both small and large, both island and non-island, and both autocratic and democratic.
Sole relevant parameter for success or failure is whether government took prompt resolute action (success) or whether it did not (failure).
"Americans didn’t fail the Covid-19 test; Republicans did..The question, then, isn’t why 'America' has failed to deal effectively with the pandemic. It’s why the G.O.P. has in effect allied itself with the coronavirus."
"the really bad news is coming from Republican-controlled states, especially Arizona, Florida and Texas, which rushed to reopen and, while some are now pausing, haven’t reversed course. If the Northeast looks like Europe, the South is starting to look like Brazil."
"Nor is it just Republican governors and state legislatures. According to..NYT/Siena poll, voters over all strongly favor giving control of..pandemic priority over reopening..economy—but Republican voters,..taking their cue from..White House and Fox News, take.opposite position."
Trump administration..paid..fledgling Texas company $7.3 M for test tubes needed in tracking..coronavirus..But, instead of..standard vials, Fillakit LLC has supplied plastic tubes made for bottling soda, which..are unusable."
"The Federal Emergency Management Agency signed its first deal with Fillakit on May 7, just six days after the company was formed by an ex-telemarketer repeatedly accused of fraudulent practices over the past two decades."
"Wexler, Fillakit’s owner, has..background in law and real estate, not medical supplies. In 2012,..Federal Trade Commission accused Wexler and his..firm of illegal robocalling, making unauthorized charges to consumers’ bank accounts and falsely claiming to be..nonprofit"