coronavirus Archives

Thursday

March 26, 2020

Our brave journalists

Almost every American has undergone a lifestyle change in the wake of the deadly and infectious coronavirus. Almost three million have lost gainful employment and patiently wait on government assistance. None of these circumstances have, however, stopped our brave news media from carrying out their dutiful mission — dividing us.In the latest Gallup poll, the president, hospitals and even Congress are all rated favorably. The only institution whose disapproval rating has increased is the news media, with 55 percent viewing it unfavorably. It’s not particularly hard to understand why. At almost every turn, the news media has attempted to make this pandemic about themselves, and the pointless work they choose to engage in.

Wednesday

March 25, 2020

Amber Duke

Big Pharma and free market orgs unite against Trump’s ‘Buy American’ order

The Association for Accessible Medicines (AAM), a trade association for major pharmaceutical manufacturers such as 3M, is drafting a letter to send to President Trump opposing his proposed ‘Buy American’ executive order reshoring medical supply chains. The letter currently has over 40 signatories, including PhRMA, a Big Pharma lobbying organization, dozens of medical nonprofits, and free market-oriented organizations, indicating the president will face immense pressure across the political spectrum for trying to reduce US medical dependence on China. AAM claims that signing the 'Buy American' executive order during the coronavirus crisis will harm efforts to provide doctors and hospitals with the equipment and medicines they need to stop the spread of COVID-19.

Cockburn

Do Democrats really need Joe Biden to stay alive?

‘Stay Alive Joe Biden’, implored contributing writer Alex Wagner in the Atlantic yesterday, setting perhaps the lowest ever bar for a presidential candidate. She posits that Biden ‘exists primarily as an idea, rather than an actual candidate’ and describes how coming off the campaign trail to pitch his premiership from quarantine has been a boon to the former VP: 'His appearances these days have an almost parallel-universe quality to them: Biden’s audience-less remarks from his home in Delaware have the suggestion of an Oval Office address, and their content seems intended to offer a glimpse into the twilight zone where someone else, someone more empathetic and capable, is president.

Theodore Dalrymple

Fear, guilt and the virus

Fear and the frisson of fear are two very different emotions. The one is horrible and the other delightful or at least often sought after.Who, after all, does not enjoy a good fright in a cinema or while reading a thriller? When I arrived in Paris just before the lockdown was announced and one was no longer allowed out of the house without a laissez-passer (signed by oneself), all the places of public resort such as bars, restaurants and cinemas, had already been closed: but the atmosphere was still one of frisson of fear rather than of fear itself.

Jacob Heilbrunn

Donald Trump’s wishful Easter deadline is a trap for Democrats

Will the stimulus stimulate? Donald Trump, who seems to have had nothing to do with the actual formation of the $2 trillion bill, is exhorting Congress to pass it Wednesday. It contains all kinds of bennies for the Democratic party, including an obscure provision that enables over-the-counter drug reform. But the real shift is that the GOP is now embracing big government — and it’s likely to continue in the form of further stimulus bills.The prospect of over a million workers hitting the unemployment line in March helps to concentrate the mind. And so, Republicans, who used to denounce helicopter money, are showering it on the average American, a nifty direct cash payment of $1,200. Then there is unemployment insurance. It’s being prolonged by 13 weeks.

Freddy Gray

Are you feeling stimulated?

Well, at least this isn’t socialism for the rich. The Trump administration’s gargantuan stimulus package — the third in response to the coronavirus crisis and the biggest by far in American history — is not about bailing out the banks. It’s about saving the financial system tout corps — that means you and me. The government is firing a $2 trillion-plus-sized fiscal rocket in the direction of a looming recession and hoping explodes in roughly the right place. The new bill is expected to include direct payments to most adults of $1,200 or less. Small businesses will get $300 billion, hospitals $130 billion and local and state governments $150 billion.

Tuesday

March 24, 2020

Amber Duke

How the media created its latest anti-Trump hit job

I can't believe I actually have to write these words, but President Trump is not to blame for a couple ingesting fish tank cleaner. NBC News reported Monday that a man died after he and his wife opted to ingest a 'parasite treatment for fish' because it contained chloroquine, an ingredient in anti-malaria medication that Trump touted as a potential treatment or cure for coronavirus. The media zeroed in on the fact that the wife, who survived ingesting the chemicals, said she got the idea to eat the fish tank powder from the president: 'Trump kept saying it was basically pretty much a cure.' 'Oh my God. Don't take anything. Don't believe anything. Don’t believe anything that the President says & his people...

Mary Kate Skehan

Why aren’t my exes texting me during quarantine?

A scroll through a millennial’s Twitter feed in the time of coronavirus shows a few dominant themes: adorable pets; extravagant home-cooked meals; worrying scatter charts; and the Text From An Ex.All our exes are bored, the meme goes, and nostalgic, and it’s so annoying, and so typical. 'Crazy times,' they say, 'Hope you’re doing OK ;).' The thing to do is to post the screenshot and complain about the ex’s ham-fisted manipulations while secretly reveling in the attention, smug and secure in the knowledge that we’re the ones who got away.Don’t get me wrong: a ritual ‘checking in’ on significant figures from your past seems to be a harmless, if slightly disingenuous, emotional safety valve in a catastrophe.

Celia Walden

Celia Walden: the birth of ‘corona kissing’ in LA

Los Angeles If you want to know the general consensus on any given topic in LA, it’s not the cabbies you listen to, but the nail salon buzz. Everything from Michael Bloomberg’s failure in the presidential race and Russian collusion claims to coronavirus conspiracy theories gets thrashed out while women and men have their cuticles trimmed — because, unlike back home in the UK, bankers, bricklayers and Larry David will all come in for regular mani-pedis. As in a chamber of Congress — one offering $1-a-minute shoulder massages — there’s always a dominant topic, and right now it’s Meghan Markle. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been apologized to ‘for Meghan’ in LA nail salons over the past year.

Monday

March 23, 2020

Amber Duke

Skype dates are the latest COVID-19 nightmare

All dressed up with nowhere to go? You might just be one of the self-isolating singles meeting a potential new beau via video chat. Those unlucky enough to be quarantined without a significant other during the coronavirus crisis are seeking companionship (and killing boredom) by swiping incessantly on dating apps like Tinder and Hinge. But what do you do once you have a match? Social distancing recommendations have effectively killed grabbing a coffee or cocktails, and texting can only take a budding relationship so far. Instead, tech savvy youngsters are hopping on Skype, Zoom or other live streaming video services to determine if their sofa sparks are the real deal. Look, first dates are pretty awful.

Roger Kimball

The Democrats just made a huge mistake

'Never let a good crisis go to waste.' When Rahm Emanuel said that during the economic meltdown of 2008-2009, his Machiavellian cynicism was instantly recognized as the calling card of the new breed of Democrat that he and his boss, Barack 'Bring-a-gun-to-the fight' Obama, embodied. We saw it then, when the gargantuan pseudo-stimulus package stimulated little apart from the federal debt, and we are seeing it again now as Democrats hold up an emergency spending bill (also gargantuan) in order to fill it with profligate and politically tendentious provisions. As Rep. Jim Clyburn put it, 'This is a tremendous opportunity to restructure things to fit our vision.' Rahm Emanuel could not have put it any better.

Victor Davis Hanson

The virus is not invincible, but it’s exposing who’s irreplaceable

In all the gloom and doom, and media-driven nihilism, there is actually an array of good news. As many predicted, as testing spreads, and we get a better idea of the actual number and nature of cases, the death rate from coronavirus slowly but also seems to steadily decline. Early estimates from the World Health Organization and the modeling of pessimists of a constant four percent death rate for those infected with the virus are for now proving exaggerated for the United States. More likely, as testing spreads, our fatality rates could descend to near one percent. There is some evidence from Germany and to a lesser extent South Korea, that it may be possible to see the fatality rate dip below one percent.

Amber Duke

Schumer holding up $50 billion in farm aid

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is attempting to hold up $50 billion in farm aid during negotiations over a coronavirus stimulus bill, a GOP aide tells The Spectator. Schumer is 'holding hostage' aid given to farmers through the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC), a USDA-owned entity, according to the aide. The farm aid is just the latest piece of the stimulus package to which Democrats have raised objections. A potential deal to move forward on a bill failed Sunday after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Schumer said they disagreed with the GOP's approach to bailouts for big businesses. Both claimed the bailouts did not include enough protection for workers.

Sunday

March 22, 2020

Jarvis Dupont

We need to verbally distance ourselves from Trump

For the past few days on his Twitter feed, Donald Trump has repeatedly referred to the COVID-19 pandemic as ‘the Chinese virus’ or ‘the China virus’. In almost every press conference he has attended, he has doggedly used the terms ‘China virus’ and ‘Chinese virus’, despite criticism. I cannot stress enough how important it is that the media refrains from co-opting these shockingly racist epithets.It’s obvious to me why Trump is doing this.

Heather Mac Donald

Consider the costs

Less than 24 hours after California governor Gavin Newsom closed 'non-essential' businesses and ordered Californians to stay inside to avoid spreading the coronavirus, New York governor Andrew Cuomo followed suit. 'This is about saving lives,' Cuomo said during a press conference on Friday. 'If everything we do saves just one life, I’ll be happy.' Cuomo’s assertion that saving 'just one life' justifies an economic shutdown raises questions that have not been acknowledged, much less answered, as public officials across the country compete to impose ever more draconian anti-virus measures: Is there any limit to the damage we are willing inflict on the world economy to mitigate the infection?

Friday

March 20, 2020

Amber Duke

Coronavirus will give Trump a second term

Donald Trump is right now facing easily the biggest test of his presidency. That’s a crazy thought considering Trump was impeached just three months ago, spent his first two-plus years in office battling claims his campaign colluded with Russia, and faced allegations of campaign finance violations that included paying hush money to a porn star. But the pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus is totally out of Trump’s wheelhouse. He’s not fighting against a political opponent, the media, or the courts; instead, as the president pointed out on Twitter, he is battling an ‘invisible enemy’ — an unpredictable and deadly illness that’s quickly spread across the globe.

Jacob Heilbrunn

Coronavirus keeps the spotlight on Trump and away from Joe Biden

Well, well, well. There was former White House press secretary Sean Spicer at today’s press conference in a new incarnation as Newsmax reporter. Looking much better tailored than when he was press secretary — Trump was apparently livid about his schlumpy appearance back then and a GoFundMe campaign was launched to buy him fresh habiliments — Spicer was looking quite the dandy, or about as dandyish as he can get: checked jacket, pocket square, shirt and tie all of which appeared to be various hues of purple. For the most part, Spicer’s posture towards Trump remained unchanged, which is to say that he was as cringing as ever. 'Mr President, two questions if you’ll indulge me,' he said. Trump indulged.

Will Lloyd

Please, please let COVID-19 kill the culture wars

A few days ago, with somewhat bittersweet timing, Marvel Entertainment made an exciting announcement. This was at a time when low information people — up to and including the president — were realizing that, uhh, hey Chuck, this virus thingy might be quite a big deal. Might be a good time to stock up on rice and beans, you know? Back to Marvel’s announcement. They were creating a new generation of heroes for a grateful populace! Their names you ask? Well, there was Screentime, a ‘meme-obsessed super teen’ who has the ability to use Google without a WiFi connection. There was Snowflake (they/them) and Safespace; the former throws psychic snowflake shurikens at people who read Breitbart and the latter generates a pink force shield around them as they do so.

Cockburn

The Spectator’s guide to video conference etiquette

Video conferences are like all business meetings — 95 percent pointless and usually arranged and dominated by some self-important twerp. Still, humans attach strange importance to management habits and, now that we are living in the age of the coronavirus, many of us will have to do a lot more video conferences for work. Ever the public servant, Cockburn has compiled the following guide to video conference etiquette. 1) Dress Cockburn prefers formal attire, yet in times of isolation, the rules can be relaxed. Nudity is too much, no matter how matter impressive one's physique. Pajamas are a no-no, too. Sporting a kaftan on the call may make you feel like a charismatic tech billionaire dialing in from Mustique. But everybody knows you aren’t — so put a shirt on.

Charles Lipson

Beijing’s attempts to elude blame for the Wuhan virus will backfire

Facing harsh criticism for allowing the novel coronavirus to spread, Beijing has settled on an international communications strategy: smearing the United States by claiming the virus originated with American soldiers visiting China. This strategy, based on obvious lies, will not work out well.Nobody outside China’s state broadcasters and some information-starved viewers could possibly believe it. For good reason: it’s bunk, and vile bunk at that. An infected unicorn is more likely to have started the virus in Wuhan than the US military. Yet that is the story the Chinese Communist party (CCP) is trying to peddle.