The Real Reason For Hospital Shortages In The United States

/in , , , , , /by

An article published by the Kaiser Family Foundation on Wednesday showed the United States ranked eleventh in the world in per capita distribution of hospitals.  That article pointed out that the United States had a “lower hospital density than almost all comparable countries.”

Predictably, there are a slew of other hospital-related resources in which the United States is lacking, including the number of hospital-employed nurses and the number of physicians.  Although the Kaiser article does not detail the cause of these shortages, I do so in my new book, The Case for Free Market Healthcare.

The reason is actually quite simple and predictable: government intervention.

Although the details of the dynamics are too extensive to cover in this forum (I therefore urge you to explore them further in The Case for Free Market Healthcare), there are a few observations that can be gleaned regarding the degree of error with which we have approached healthcare delivery in our country.

First, government has been openly hostile to hospitals, particularly private hospitals, viewing them mostly as vehicles for greedy investors to make money off the sick and the poor.  This hostile and destructive attitude led to the passage of the Health Planning Resources Development Act in 1974 that actually rewarded states for implementing “certificate of need” (CON) programs to restrict the abilities of entrepreneurs to build hospitals.

Within a few years, forty-nine states enacted CON laws, and their models for governmental interference have since been shown not to lower prices for inpatient services and not improve hospital financial investment in communities as had been touted by the bill’s advocates.

But the damage still persists. To this day, despite the certificate of need program’s total failure, only thirteen states have rescinded it demonstrating the difficulty of undoing misguided legislation after it has been passed.

Government also has and continues to manipulate the market in ways that have destroyed projects aimed at improving the availability of hospital emergency rooms.  In 2018, the Medicare Payment Advisory Board advised Congress to cut reimbursements to freestanding emergency rooms operating within 6 miles of their parent hospitals by 30%.  Why? Because, according to MedPAC, “such systems would encourage providers to treat lower intensity rooms rather than urgent care centers.” Which begs the question: what business is it of Medicare, an insurance company for seniors and the disabled, where the market decides that it is more efficient to treat urgent and emergent patients?

As a result of MedPAC’s misguided market manipulations, over 250 shovel-ready or unfinished projects were canned, robbing America of greater healthcare access — and a lot more beds to deal with today’s crisis.

To be sure, the federal government has also engaged in a wide variety of activities that favor hospitals over other models, but in each of unnatural interventions, the consequences are the same:  government continues to impose delivery models upon the population and with it, its bias of how healthcare is provided to the consumer.

As a result, the market is not free to respond to consumer demands and cost-saving opportunities in an efficient manner.  Thus, we are never given the opportunity to develop the right number of hospitals and the correct number of physicians, nurses, physical therapists. . .you get the point.

Now, we are faced with the challenges of a pandemic where many, including President Trump, have observed that we were not ready with a coordinated response mechanism.  In point of fact, we weren’t even ready with a baseline set of operating resources with which to handle the larger numbers that would present themselves, and the blame lies squarely on government for attempting to impose upon us its ideas of what those numbers should be, instead of allowing the market to settle upon them by itself.

If it had allowed the market to freely operate, we would have more hospital capacity, more medical personnel and more supplies.

© All rights reserved.

PODCAST: Outbreak In the Early Warning Hours

/in , , , , , /by

Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) doesn’t have a medical degree. But what he has, he jokes, are two eyes. And while the rest of the city was too spun up over impeachment to see straight, his sights were 7,500 miles away — on a doomsday he worried was coming. Donald Trump, he tried to tell Congress, isn’t the threat. China is.

While the rest of the Senate plowed through hours of absurd testimony, Senator Cotton was convinced they were missing “the biggest and most important story in the world.” The outbreak, he warned, would be catastrophic — a message he left his chair to deliver to the White House personally. By January 22, he was sounding the alarm at HHS. “While others slept,” John McCormack writes, “Tom Cotton was warning anyone who would listen that the coronavirus was coming for America.”

Now, while Democrats whine and complain about the president’s handling of the pandemic, a lot of people — Cotton included — know they’re just as much to blame as anyone. “It came up,” Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) pointed out earlier this week, “while we were tied down in the impeachment trial. And I think it diverted the attention of the government because everything every day was all about impeachment.”

While Congress may have been distracted, thank goodness the president wasn’t. For hours at a time, Senator Cotton told us on “Washington Watch,” he would sit with the White House team and explain what he was seeing in China and the severity of the outbreak. “I discussed that with some of my Senate colleagues [at the time], and they seemed interested. But frankly, they [were focused] on what Adam Schiff was saying [or what] the president’s lawyers were saying. So there’s no doubt the partisan impeachment of the president did distract attention away from the ordinary business of the Senate. And the ordinary business would have been addressing a growing crisis in China… But all of Washington was obsessed.”

So what was it that made Senator Cotton so unnerved about the situation in China before anyone else noticed? It wasn’t classified information, he explained. Or any sort of infection expertise. It was “common sense.” “Just this weekend,” he pointed out, “China shut down all of its movie theaters again in their entire country after having opened them up a week ago.” Does that sound like a country that feels confident it’s conquered the virus? “This is the exact same reason why I knew in January how serious [things] were, because China was saying it had everything under control. [Meanwhile,] they were locking up 100 million people and shutting down schools nationwide. So the propaganda from the Chinese Community Party — contrasted with their actions — tells you that China is, of course, still lying to this day.”

It’s a wake-up call to the planet of just how untrustworthy the Chinese Communist Party is. (A fact that new intelligence has now confirmed.) And yet, Senator Cotton is heartened — as we all are — that the president took action anyway. “I’ve got to say, many of these public health bureaucrats… [and organizations like] the World Health Organization gave very bad advice about travel restrictions… Their concerns seem quaint these days… [But] the president, to his credit made that decision, even though it wasn’t very popular at the time.” Democrats like Joe Biden kicked and screamed, calling it “hysterical xenophobia.” The situation, even the Washington Post admits, would have been a lot worse if liberals had gotten their way.

“Nearly four years of irrational Trump hatred has brought us to the point where any action he takes is subject to criticism…” Henry Olson laments. “Damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t… No European leader stockpiled COVID-19 tests or ordered ventilators and masks in preparation for the worst… The rational [person] sees these facts and notes that it is extraordinarily difficult for politicians to foresee an event unpredicted in modern times. But Trump-phobia, of which impeachment was only the most obvious symptom, prevents too many from seeing the obvious now. This must end if we are to get through the present crisis.”

Tony Perkins’s Washington Update is written with the aid of FRC senior writers.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Socially Distancing from Everyone but God

From Sandwiches to Field Hospitals: Meeting the Need

What to Expect When You Can’t Expect Anything.

EDITORS NOTE: This FRC-Action podcast with column is republished with permission. © All rights reserved.

Trump’s Travel Ban is Right: Coronavirus Won’t Harm Muslims, Say Many Muslim Clerics

/in , , , , /by

My latest in PJ Media:

Many Muslims around the world aren’t worried at all about the coronavirus. While much of the Western world is in quarantine and many fear that the worst is still yet to come, some Muslim clerics and lay believers are sure that Allah will protect them from the plague. As a result, they’re gathering in large numbers, thereby endangering their coreligionists and infidels alike, showing the wisdom of Trump’s travel ban on several countries, including several majority-Muslim countries, that cannot or will not provide adequate information about people wanting to enter the U.S.

Even in countries not affected by the travel ban, dangerous magical thinking prevails, making a case for an expansion of the countries covered by the ban. In Iraq, Shi’ite leader Muqtada al-Sadr declared: “One of the most appalling things that have caused this epidemic is the legalization of same-sex marriage. Hence, I call on all governments to repeal this law immediately and without any hesitation.” In the meantime, hundreds of his followers gathered in a mosque and chanted “coronavirus has terrified you.” What could possibly go wrong?

Hundreds of Muslims also defied quarantine regulations and crowded into mosques in Cameroon; of them, a student named Koulanya Abo, declared: “This is a time people have to go to the mosque and pray ceaselessly. Anything out of that will not be tolerated by Allah, because this is a period where people are facing a lot of difficulties due to the outbreak of the pandemic COVID-19.”

According to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), Yemeni Islamic scholar Ibrahim Al-Ubeidi explained that many of these difficulties people were facing were the fault of, you guessed it, the Jews. He explained that Jews, working with Americans, had cooked up the coronavirus as part of their nefarious plan to seize control of the two holiest sites in Islam, the mosques in Mecca and Medina. This was, he said, all part of the larger scheme to “Judaize” Mecca and Medina that led the Jews to place the House of Saud on the throne of Arabia 100 years ago.

That’s weapons-grade conspiracy paranoia, and it isn’t al-Ubeidi’s alone. In Pakistan, jihad group leader Hafiz Aakif Saeed said that the coronavirus was “the wrath of Allah Almighty, befalling largely on the developed world and their oppressor rulers who had subjected innocent Muslims to persecution and genocide over the last 50 years.” And in Nigeria, a Muslim leader, Sheikh Sani Jingir, claimed that coronavirus was a Western conspiracy designed to prevent Muslims from performing the rites of their religion. Jingir “insisted that coronavirus was not real,” and “said any Muslims who believed in Trump and stopped praying at the Holy Mosque in Mecca should seek for God’s forgiveness.”

There is much more. Read the rest here.

RELATED ARTICLES:

India: Dozens of coronavirus cases traced to single mosque, 2000 quarantined, area sealed off

Muslim cleric says coronavirus is a blessing, an agent of Allah

What explains the Saudi success so far in combating the coronavirus outbreak in the Kingdom

Pakistan: Mosques sound Islamic call to prayer in order to ward off coronavirus

India: “You are asking us to close the house of Allah…What if we close his house and he closes our house?”

Muslim researcher: Coronavirus produced in US labs as part of “biological war” against “the Islamic nations”

Morocco: “Allah is great! Allah is great and alone is able to help us defeat the coronavirus!”

EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. © All rights reserved.

End the shutdown: Freedom is more important than (the illusion of) security

/in , , , , /by

The shutdown of the American economy by government decree should end. The lasting and far-reaching harms caused by this authoritarian precedent far outweigh those caused by the COVID-19 virus. The American people—individuals, families, businesses—must decide for themselves how and when to reopen society and return to their daily lives.

Neither the Trump administration nor Congress has the legal authority to shut down American life absent at least baseline due process. As Judge Andrew Napolitano recently wrote, business closures, restrictions on assembly and movement, and quarantines are not constitutionally permissible under some magic “emergency” doctrine. At a minimum, the federal government must show potential imminent harm by specific infected individuals at some form of hearing or trial.

These due process requirements are not suspended.

State and local officials may claim, or even possess, lawful police powers to shut down their communities. We offer no analysis of such powers or claims under the myriad of state constitutions and authorizing legislation. But they should resist exercising these powers. The governor of Virginia, in particular, deserves admonition for unilaterally imposing a lengthy period of virtual house arrest.

We do not know, and cannot yet know, how many Americans will become sick or die from the virus. We do know that predictions regarding infection and death rates are highly unreliable. Even actual deaths attributable to COVID-19 are not so easy to count, as Italy has discovered. Age, general health, and comorbidity are difficult variables to assess, and people may die “with” the virus but not “from” it. It is also very difficult to assess the lethality of the virus relative to previously known types of flu and colds.

To date, COVID-19 deaths in the US are far fewer than deaths in ordinary flu seasons or from past pandemics such as the H1N1 virus. This understanding is critically important to put the virus, and the government response to it, in perspective. Even during past pandemics, depressions, and world wars, Americans went to work.

In 1850, French economist Frédéric Bastiat helped the world understand the “seen and unseen costs” of state policies. It is simple to see how quarantines and lockdowns will slow the spread of COVID-19. It is critical, but not so simple, to see the costs and harms caused by the economic shutdown.

Only then can we rationally understand the tradeoffs involved. 

How many Americans suffering from other illnesses cannot see a doctor now? How many Americans will lose their jobs, their life savings, their retirement prospects, and their incalculable feeling of self-worth? How many will succumb to depression, drug or alcohol abuse, and suicide? How many will lose their homes, divorce their spouses, or suffer abuse? How many will never recover in their careers? How many small businesses, including the vital ones of doctors, dentists, and veterinarians, will vanish from your community? How many young people will “fail to launch”?

Worse still, will grocery stores and gas stations remain open and stocked? Will crime spike? Will the American social fabric, already thin from politics, tear apart?

These questions are not rhetorical. All of these things happened, to a degree, following the Great Recession of 2008. They will happen again—very soon—if we fail to act immediately. Tomorrow, on April 1, millions of Americans will not pay rent or mortgages. Millions of small businesses will shutter, just as many large employers such as Macy’s, Kohl’s, airlines, and hotels already have. Millions of service workers are unemployed already, but many more jobs will be lost. The effects will cascade.

There is no conflict between humanitarian and economic concerns; in fact they are flipsides of the same coin. A poorer America will be a much less healthy America, one more vulnerable to future illness and disease. Technology, modern medicine, and market actors can address a virus; already we see entrepreneurs producing cheaper ventilators and doctors using cheap generic drugs with very promising results.

This local, bottom-up approach is the only effective way to confront the virus. The federal government, as we see now and have in the past, is comically incapable of competence in times of crisis.

On a fundamental level, freedom really is more important than security—or, in this case, an illusion of security. We all demonstrate this in our personal lives every day, from flying to driving to riding bicycles, to consuming unhealthy food and drink simply because we like it. Security has never been the sole or even primary goal for a country born in rebellion.

Government cannot decide what aspects of our lives are essential or nonessential. The American people cannot simply sit at home and wait for government checks written on funds that government does not have.

End the shutdown.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Of decency and heroism in a time of plague in Hong Kong

Coronavirus reading: ‘La Divina Commedia’

Washing hands in the slums

Abortion advocates score a win in the UK’s lockdown

Coronavirus reading: Courage, betrayal and survival in wartime Eastern Europe

RELATED VIDEO: Say NO to House Arrest!

EDITORS NOTE: This article by The Editors of Mises Wire is republished under a Creative Commons licence. © All rights reserved.

VIDEO: The Vortex — The Commie Virus and the Dems love it — need it, in fact.

/in , , , , , /by

TRANSCRIPT

Before we begin, we’d like to give you a quick update on affairs here at the studios. As you may know, the governor of Michigan yesterday put the state on lockdown until at least April 13. Since we are in Michigan, that impacts us, but not as much as you might think.

Since the apostolate functions quite often as a media outlet, we’re exempt from the shelter-at-home order when it comes to essential personnel. That means people here can come into work. So we have scaled back to a skeleton crew who are coming in just long enough to get done what can only be done in the studio, and then they go home and complete the work there. This way we strike an appropriate balance between keeping staff safe and still keeping you informed, just like the Marxist media is doing.

Which brings us neatly to our topic today, which comes with a serious warning. Watch out! This whole Chinese virus-event is being weaponized against President Trump by the Left and their Marxist media allies.

While we can talk about how the commies in China are responsible for this — whether they created this virus to dump on the Hong Kong protestors as some speculate, or they made it and it somehow escaped the lab — a few things are certain. They lied, which can’t surprise anyone. The communists in China, like their Marxist buddies everywhere, are stone-cold killers.

What is the essential difference between the Party of Death, the Marxist media and commies? Nothing. Commies, the Marxist media and the Dems are really, today, interchangeable labels. They all believe the same thing.

And they do not believe the same things as well. They do not believe in the sacredness of human life. They do not believe in free speech. They do not believe in the U.S. Second Amendment. They do not, most importantly, believe in God. It is, in fact, their rejection of the Divine that leads them to reject all the other things.

[Transcript unavailable]

So whether it was planned or just a crime of opportunity, that cohort is using this chaos as a way to “get Trump.”

When the Democratic child-killing governor of Michigan announced Monday that the state was going on lockdown, she, like other child-killing governors, couldn’t resist blaming Trump. Like all this was his fault and she and her other child-killing governors were left holding the bag, having to clean up his mess. Again, if you kill children, lying isn’t that big of a deal.

Not sure why so many people are unwilling to see the likes of the Marxist media or Democratic leadership for anything other than what they are, which is killers. What’s the difference between any of them and a mob boss, seriously? In fact, no mob boss in history — in fact, all of them combined — couldn’t reach the death toll of just one day’s worth of child-killing.

These murderers are all in league with one another. They cover for one another because they all have the same father.

Consider the fake outrage at Trump calling the virus from China the “Chinese virus.” But that’s what it is. Would they be as outraged if Obama, one of their club, ever said German measles or Spanish flu? Of course not. He’s not Trump, so they don’t have to “get” him.

All you have to do is look at the kerfuffle on Monday, as The New York Times changed its headline three different times to cover up the truth of what the Party of Death was doing to scuttle the economic stimulus package. Look at these headlines, or rather, the progression of them. We go from the factual headline of  “Democrats Block Action on $1.8 Trillion Stimulus” to “Democrats Block Action on Stimulus Plan, Seeking Worker Protections” to “Partisan Divide Threatens Deal on Rescue Bill.”

This is what this crowd does. They lie and cheat, all to cover for their killing of children. They want Trump gone because of that issue. And frankly, it was looking pretty dismal for them given the soaring economy, the best perhaps in the history of the world.

Then along comes a virus … and you know the rest. It’s Trump’s fault. He’s a racist. He closed the borders too soon. He didn’t act soon enough. We child-killing governors did not prepare over these past years to get our own state’s medical emergency response readiness up to speed, but that’s his fault.

Frankly, there is no reason to believe the Party of Death would want any of this to come to an end before election day, as long as they think they can score political points. They hate Trump — really hate him — and it’s all driven by their love of abortion, which is underlined by their rejection of the supernatural. That’s why they go on non-stop, hypocritically, about the natural world. “Save the planet,” “save the whales”…

Marxists love abortion — the godless, that is. That’s what the Marxist media, the Party of Death and the commies in China, who gave the world this pandemic, all have in common. And when it comes time for the election, don’t believe their point man’s garbage about being a believer. Joe Biden is just as Marxist as Bernie Sanders. He just hides behind religion and specifically the Catholic religion. His campaign has even produced a video — get this — showing Holy Joe talking about going to Mass and saying his Rosary.

[Transcript unavailable]

It’s revolting. So yes, don’t take your eye off the ball on this. Not a single thing on the agenda has changed. Trump has to go because of the abortion issue. It’s just the circumstances and weapons that keep changing. The game is the same.

The commie virus from China, the Party of Death believes, has given them a ray of hope for the upcoming election. Don’t let it happen.

EDITORS NOTE: This Church Militant video is republished with permission. © All rights reserved.

The New York Times Blames Christians for Poor Coronavirus Response

/in , , , , /by

The religious right is anti-science. The religious right supports Donald Trump, and he welcomes their support. Therefore, America is doing much worse in our fight with the coronavirus than we could be. If Trump had not chosen to ally himself with those anti-science Bible-thumpers, the whole world would be better off. So posits an op-ed by Katherine Stewart in the New York Times (3/27/20).

Stewart’s article is entitled, “The Religious Right’s Hostility to Science Is Crippling Our Coronavirus Response,” and the subtitle is “Trump’s response to the pandemic has been haunted by the science denialism of his ultraconservative religious allies.”

Stewart opines, “Donald Trump rose to power with the determined assistance of a movement that denies science, bashes government and prioritized loyalty over professional expertise. In the current crisis, we are all reaping what that movement has sown.”

I noticed one response to this NYT op-ed, where the author asked sarcastically, “[It must be] all those evangelical Christians running Communist China and lying to the global community, right?” And no one ever seems to notice the irony of those who claim Donald Trump is some sort of dictator yet want the federal government to have unlimited power in responding.

I will grant one point to Sullivan: It does not help that there are reports of a few mega-churches in the country that are defying the orders to not meet together in large groups lest we infect one another. But those irresponsible ministers are the exception, not the rule. Shame on those pastors who are disobeying the government’s commonsense orders during the pandemic. They are putting other people’s lives at risk.

But the vast majority of churches in the country are using the tools available to us to “meet” and “hold service” in virtual ways, through the internet.

What is the basis of Stewart’s claim that evangelicals are anti-science? In previous articles, I have demonstrated the indispensable role that Christianity played in the founding of modern science.

It seems that her biggest argument that Christians are supposedly anti-science has to do with climate change. Many Christians, and I am one of them, do not buy into the notion of man-made, catastrophic, global warming. Sullivan writes, “Today, the hard core of climate deniers is concentrated among people who identify as religiously conservative Republicans.”

And the problem is? “Climate change” is the left’s new religion. But it is fraught with all sorts of problems. Climategate, which has been so conveniently forgotten, provided ample evidence that some global warming alarmists were so convinced by their theory that they ignored evidence that was contrary to it—and, worse, they even fudged the raw data.

If Christians are accused of being anti-science because we don’t buy politicized science, then so be it.

Competitive Enterprise Institute compiled a number of different predictions by the expert scientists in the last few decades. They called this article: “Wrong Again: 50 Years of Failed Eco-pocalyptic Predictions.”

For example, Al Gore once predicted that the polar ice cap may disappear by the summer of 2014. It’s still there. Despite one failed prophecy after the next, no one ever seems to hold these people accountable.

When I saw this blame-the-Christians article in the NYT, I turned to Volume II of Philip Schaff of Yale’s History of the Christian Church, written around the turn of the twentieth century.

The great historian describes the unwarranted suspicion and hostility toward Christianity on the part of the Caesars and the Roman people around 200 AD.

Schaff writes:

“The common people also, with their polytheistic ideas, abhorred the believers in the one God as atheists and enemies of the gods. They readily gave credit to the slanderous rumors of all sorts of abominations, even incest and cannibalism, practiced by the Christians at their religious assemblies and love-feasts, and regarded the frequent public calamities of that age as punishments justly inflicted by the angry gods for the disregard of their worship. In North Africa arose the proverb: ‘If God does not send rain, lay it to the Christians.’ At every inundation, or drought, or famine, or pestilence, the fanatical populace cried” ‘Away with the atheists! To the lions with the Christians!’” (p. 43).

The early Christians were called “atheists” because they did not believe in the pantheon of Roman gods. Whatever bad happened—including “pestilence” (and the coronavirus is a pestilence)—in their ignorance they scapegoated Christians.

President Trump has been working very hard to fight this pandemic and to cause private and public entities to partner together to fight the common enemy. If he welcomes divine help as well, what is wrong with that? So have virtually all our presidents.

Scapegoating the Christians because of this virus is an old and failed policy. Too bad the “newspaper of record” would resort to this old tactic.

© All rights reserved.

ISIS Discovers the Cure for Coronavirus: Jihad

/in , , , , , /by

Of course! What else could it possibly be? My latest in FrontPage:

Worried about the coronavirus? Don’t be. All you have to do to make sure you don’t contract the virus is blow yourself up in a crowd of infidels. Well, yes, but there’s always a catch, now, isn’t there?

This sage advice for a coronavirus cure comes from the thoughtful medical researchers of the Islamic State, aka ISIS. The latest edition of the jihad group’s al-Naba newsletter tells Muslims to wash their hands frequently and avoid traveling into Europe in order to avoid contracting the coronavirus, but somewhat contradicts itself in also noting that the best way to turn away “the torment and wrath” of Allah is to wage jihad.

The coronavirus, says ISIS, is a “plague” sent by Allah in order to give “painful torment” for non-believers. This is by no means a novel idea in Islam. The idea that Allah will punish the unrighteous in this world is in the Qur’an: “So if they repent, it is better for them; but if they turn away, Allah will punish them with a painful punishment in this world and the Hereafter. And there will not be for them on earth any protector or helper.” (Qur’an 9:74) The obverse of the idea that Allah will punish the unrepentant in both this world and the next is that if one is righteous, one will prosper in this world as well as in the next.

With that idea likely in mind, ISIS states that “the Muslims should not pity the disbelievers and apostates, but should use the current opportunities to continue working to free Muslim prisoners from the camps in which they face subjugation and disease.” In doing this, they need not worry about the coronavirus: “They should also remember that obedience to God — the most beloved form of which is jihad — turns away the torment and wrath of God.”

The most righteous deed of all, the one that is most effective in turning away Allah’s “torment and wrath,” is jihad. A hadith has a Muslim asking Muhammad: “Instruct me as to such a deed as equals Jihad (in reward).” Muhammad replied, “I do not find such a deed.” (Bukhari 4.52.44)

So while ISIS tells Muslims that they should take sensible precautions against the coronavirus, it also tells them that committing acts of violence against unbelievers will protect them from the virus anyway. Meanwhile, the jihad group asks Allah to make the coronavirus even more lethal than it is already, so as to “increase their torment,” as well as to “save the believers from all that.”

Also, the Qur’an teaches that Allah will place a Muslim’s good deeds on one scale and bad deeds on the other, and send them to Paradise or hell depending on which scale weighs more. A Muslim who is worried about his eternal destiny can decisively tip the scales in his favor by waging jihad, the deed that is greater than all others. He can seize the Qur’an’s promise of Paradise for those who “kill and are killed” for Allah (9:111).

Of course, if one is killed, the points about avoiding the coronavirus are rendered moot, especially in light of the fact that a hadith attributed to Muhammad accords martyr status to those who die in a plague: “There are seven types of martyrdom in addition to being killed in Allah’s cause: one who dies of plague is a martyr; one who is drowned is a martyr; one who dies of pleurisy is a martyr; one who dies of an internal complaint is a martyr; one who is burnt to death is a martyr; who one is killed by a building falling on him is a martyr; and a woman who dies while pregnant is a martyr. (Sunan Abi Dawud 3111)

Another hadith adds that Muslims should not flee an epidemic: “Narrated Aisha: (the wife of the Prophet) I asked Allah’s Messenger about the plague. He told me that it was a Punishment sent by Allah on whom he wished, and Allah made it a source of mercy for the believers, for if one in the time of an epidemic plague stays in his country patiently hoping for Allah’s Reward and believing that nothing will befall him except what Allah has written for him, he will get the reward of a martyr.” (Sahih al-Bukhari 3474)

The only difference, then, between dying in the midst of one’s own jihad massacre and dying from the coronavirus is that in the former, some infidels die as well. For ISIS, that is a big difference, and one worth telling Muslims to wash their hands before they set out to murder infidels.

RELATED ARTICLES:

India: “Infected Muslims want to go and spread Corona to Infidels so they can die in hundreds of thousands”

Muslim World League leader focuses on “spreading awareness of moderate Islam,” calls for interfaith partnerships

Nigeria: Muslims stop vehicles and attack drivers with machetes, five dead, 14 injured

Pakistan: Muslim NGO denies food to poor Hindus and Christians amid coronavirus pandemic

India: ISIS sees chance for jihad in coronavirus pandemic: “Use this opportunity to fill the streets with blood”

India: Islamic movement Tablighi Jamaat accused of spreading coronavirus tied to al Qaeda, Taliban, Kashmir jihadis

EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. © All rights reserved.

When Can Life Return to Normal? 4 Signs to Monitor

/in , , , , /by

Americans can’t wait for the restrictions on their movements and interactions—widely known as social distancing—to end.

That’s completely understandable. The coronavirus crisis has widely disrupted modern life.

But as we learned Sunday, the Trump administration’s commonsense “stop the spread” increased mitigation strategy is with us for a while—at least till the end of April.

Based on the challenges we’re facing, this is a prudent decision.

While a firm date for the end of this biological battle in the United States is just unknowable at this point, it’s reasonable to ask: How will we know when we’re seeing some light at the end of the social distancing tunnel?

Here are some of the things we would want to see:

1. Numbers: Any decision to loosen social distancing restrictions has to be based on data, not emotion. For instance, a locality, state or region must see its confirmed COVID-19 case numbers decrease over a two week period (to account for the disease incubation period) before considering mitigation modifications.

Similar dips in hospitalization and death rates, as well as improved recovery rates, would also be a welcome sign. In addition, experts must develop a comprehensive nationwide reporting system so that the data can be comprehensively collected, collated, analyzed, and shared.

2. Testing: A robust diagnostic test architecture must be in place across the country. Optimally, testing should include not only testing for COVID-19—the disease derived from the SARS-CoV-2 virus— but also for the presence of possible immunity through serological antibody testing in people who may have self-resolved the illness.

Moreover, we need to have widely available testing with quick turnarounds, so that we have the data sooner to make the most efficient and effective public policy decisions in this dynamic situation.

3. Health Care System: Our health care system is under significant stress and strain—not to mention the immeasurable pressure on our intrepid doctors, nurses and medical staff, who are on the front lines working tirelessly to protect and heal us.

We have to get to a place where the health care system is no longer at risk of being overwhelmed, meaning it must have the necessary personal protective equipment to keep the medical staff healthy and enough ventilators for those in respiratory distress.

Taking care of our health care system means rebuilding the Strategic National Stockpile, which can be immediately dispatched to a COVID-19 hot spot if local supplies are on the verge of being exhausted.

4. Medicine: There is not yet a vaccine for this new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, and no proven therapeutics or anti-virals.  However, the Food and Drug Administration has authorized the use of some treatments, such as hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, under an emergency use authorization.

While an effective vaccine is likely at least a year away, proven therapeutics or anti-virals could arrive sooner, reducing pain and suffering. Effective treatments will likely reduce the hospitalization and death rates, too.

Social distancing is a major disruption to our lives in so many ways. It affects the economy and well-being of the American people, hurts the education of our children, and separates us from loved ones, including  those who may be vulnerable.

While social distancing may be painful now, it offers the possibility of reducing the overall level of pain we may have to endure during this crisis. Ultimately, we are social distancing to save lives.

Social distancing won’t last forever—and there are signs that we can watch for to see that it might be coming to an end.

COMMENTARY BY

Peter Brookes

Peter Brookes is a senior research fellow, focusing on weapons of mass destruction and counter proliferation, in the Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy at The Heritage Foundation. Twitter: .

RELATED ARTICLES:

Problematic Women: Is Abortion Really ‘Essential’ During Pandemic?

White House Can’t Verify China’s Questionable COVID-19 Numbers

This Is Xi’s Virus. The Chinese Ought to Pay for It.

When Can Life Return to Normal? 4 Signs to Monitor

5 Keys to Unlocking Why the World Health Organization Bows to China on COVID-19

The Daily Signal depends on the support of readers like you. Donate now

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Signal column is republished with permission. © All rights reserved.

Media Outlets Look to Cut Off Trump’s Daily Briefings While Publishing China’s Propaganda

/in , , , , , , , /by

The lack of regular White House press briefings used to be decried as the end of democracy. Now it’s daily White House briefings that represent the end of democracy.

Actress Jane Lynch demanded on Twitter on Monday that President Donald Trump end his daily press briefings and that the media stop covering them.

Lest one think this is just one misguided voice in the dark crevasse that is celebrity Twitter punditry, there’s now a petition by the left-wing activist organization MoveOn.org to get news outlets to stop covering the briefings.

Many in the political punditocracy are hopping aboard this idea.

“I would stop putting those briefings on live TV—not out of spite, but because it’s misinformation,” liberal MSNBC host Rachel Maddow said on her prime-time program.

“Enough is enough. Americans deserve so much better than what this president offers every time he approaches the podium,” wrote Maria Cardona, a Democratic strategist. “He needs to give up the daily press briefings, and let the experts take control so that they can use these press conferences to reassure Americans in our time of distress and not cause more fear when we need it least.”

Perhaps worst of all, some major media outlets actually seem to be taking the ending of press briefing coverage seriously.

New York Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet explained why the Gray Lady doesn’t find the White House briefings worth covering.

“Nowadays, it seems they make little news. We, of course, reserve the right to show them live [via web streaming], if we believe they will actually make news,” Baquet said, according to The Washington Post. “But that hasn’t happened in quite some time.”

That doesn’t seem consistent, however, with his publication’s own reporting.

A March 25 New York Times article suggested that the media stop covering Trump’s press briefings because they are spreading what it calls “misinformation.”

Just as bad, in the Times’ view, the briefings are popular.

The Times piece began with this lead sentence: “President Trump is a ratings hit, and some journalists and public health experts say that could be a dangerous thing.”

Margaret Sullivan, media columnist at The Washington Post, wrote that the press needs to “adjust accordingly” to the press briefings because, in her view, they are more like political rallies and might serve his political ends.

“Trump is doing harm and spreading misinformation while working for his own partisan political benefit—a naked attempt to portray himself as a wartime president, bravely leading the nation through a tumultuous time, the [Franklin Delano Roosevelt] of the 21st century,” Sullivan wrote.

FDR didn’t use fireside chats for his political benefit?

This is basically just saying that the media need to stop covering the White House coronavirus briefings because they might help Trump.

All of this is coming from publications and an industry that formerly fretted over and lambasted the lack of regular White House press briefings before the coronavirus outbreak. Some even called them “an essential part of democracy.”

Now that everyone is watching the White House briefings, the media aren’t so keen on the daily ritual allegedly sustaining the republic. What gives?

The New York Times and other outlets that accuse the White House of spreading misinformation seem to have had no problem publishing literal Chinese propaganda.

In the past week, countless outlets, including the very same New York Times, published stories saying that the total number of U.S. coronavirus cases has surpassed China’s, despite the fact that there’s no reason whatsoever to trust the information coming out of an authoritarian communist regime that has repeatedly lied to its own citizens and to the world, sparking the greatest global pandemic in the past century.

Remember, it wasn’t long ago that most major media outlets were publishing stories about how Trump’s move to shut off travel from China was misguided, in part based on recommendations from the World Health Organization.

The problem is, the WHO relied on information provided by China, which turned out to be not only wrong, but likely a product of willful misrepresentation.

It’s good for the media to have a healthy skepticism of those in power. That said, however, one would think that skepticism should be directed most strongly at those in positions of absolute power, as in the case of the Chinese communist government.

Despite this, many in the media still seem more consumed with attacking the Trump administration—even through foreign proxies—than simply getting to the truth.

The bottom line is that neither the reduction, nor the uptick, in White House press conferences signals the end of democracy. Americans are stuck at home en masse, and many more than usual want to hear from the president and the administration in a national crisis.

The administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic has been far from perfect, but the media have hardly performed without serious and embarrassing fumbles. Cutting off the president now, when so many Americans are tuning in, would be a travesty.

When one reporter asked Trump at Sunday’s coronavirus task force briefing about outlets discontinuing coverage of the daily events, the president gave a reasonable response.

“I think the American public, ultimately, they should be the decider. If they don’t want to watch, they should not watch,” Trump said. “When [the media] don’t want the president of the United States to have a voice, you are not talking about democracy any longer.”

It might be past time, especially amid an international calamity, to hope the media will make a self-correction and restore some of their lost credibility at this time.

Cutting off the president’s microphone hardly restores confidence in a collective institution that seems hopelessly partisan and one-sided.

COMMENTARY BY

Jarrett Stepman

Jarrett Stepman is a contributor to The Daily Signal and co-host of The Right Side of History podcast. Send an email to Jarrett. He is also the author of the new book, “The War on History: The Conspiracy to Rewrite America’s Past.” Twitter: .

RELATED ARTICLES:

Problematic Women: Is Abortion Really ‘Essential’ During Pandemic?

White House Can’t Verify China’s Questionable COVID-19 Numbers

This Is Xi’s Virus. The Chinese Ought to Pay for It.

When Can Life Return to Normal? 4 Signs to Monitor

5 Keys to Unlocking Why the World Health Organization Bows to China on COVID-19

The Daily Signal depends on the support of readers like you. Donate now

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Signal column is republished with permission. © All rights reserved.

VIDEO OF THE DAY: America is winning together

/in , , , , , , , /by

President Trump didn’t wait to take action on Coronavirus, from imposing swift travel restrictions on China to organizing a White House Task Force in January.

These early moves—which at the time drew criticism from some in Washington as an “overreaction”—have allowed America to slow the spread of the deadly virus today.

“Every one of us has a role to play in winning this war.”

Together, America has mounted a full-scale response to the pandemic. In the Rose Garden yesterday, a number of CEOs joined the President to explain how they’ve transformed their own companies to help fight the virus:

As great American businesses step up, citizens across the country are doing their part to slow the spread, too. “The choices and sacrifices we make will determine the fate of this virus and, really, the fate of our victory,” President Trump says.

READ: “What we at the FDA are doing to fight Covid-19”

POLL: Americans want better from their news media

A majority of Americans—60 percent, according to Gallup—support the President’s response to the Coronavirus pandemic. A slightly smaller majority, 59 percent, approve of Congress’ handling of the crisis. The poll was conducted before President Trump signed the bipartisan CARES Act, which is supported by 77 percent of U.S. adults.

In fact, nearly all of the institutions surveyed by Gallup earned high marks from the public. Americans approve of the efforts by hospitals, state governments, schools, daycares, Federal agencies, and employers to confront the global outbreak together.

There was one exception: the news media. A majority of Americans, 55 percent, disapprove of how the media has handled the Coronavirus response.

Facts and results matter, especially during a crisis. Leaders across the country are putting politics aside to get to work. President Trump and Congress have joined forces on several major emergency-relief bills. Governors are implementing crucial public safety measures. Businesses are repurposing factories to make more masks and other medical supplies available.

Many in the media, however, continue to put ratings before country. Last month, Politico and others spread the false story that President Trump called the Coronavirus “a hoax.” This misinformation came after the Administration had already taken crucial steps to combat the pandemic, including travel restrictions on China in January.

Other pundits have actively rooted for the American response to fail. “On Friday March 20, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow said President Trump was lying when he said the U.S. Navy hospital ships would arrive in Los Angeles and New York City in the near future” to help treat patients, Chrissy Clark wrote for The Federalist yesterday.

“Exactly a week later, the USNS Mercy arrived in the Port of Los Angeles.” And yesterday, the USNS Comfort docked at Pier 90 in New York City.

Washington pundits and reporters must start listening to the American public more and to each other less. As the country fights this Coronavirus together, timely and trustworthy information is essential. The news media should prioritize facts and constructive debate—not obsessive attacks on this President based on false narratives.

Americans have had enough, and they’ve said so clearly. It’s time to hear them.\

PODCAST: ‘You Cry at the Window Knowing There’s Nothing You Can Do’

/in , , , , , , /by

Staying home can be tough, but it’s nothing like the nightmare our health care workers are experiencing. For thousands of brave men and women across country, their office is no longer a hospital or ER — it’s a combat zone. “You spend hours in your [patient’s] room,” nurse Claudia Griffith wrote in an emotional post to the outside world, “gowned up head-to-toe, sweating and not able to breathe. Then you realize… this is it. I can’t save this patient anymore. You sit there and say your goodbyes while they pass without family or loved ones, because nobody is allowed in the hospital for everyone’s safety. You are their only contact and hope.” Nothing, she says soberly, can describe it.Even when they have a chance to sleep, the exhausted staff can’t. “My mind won’t shut off,” one New York City nurse tried to explain. She lays in bed and cries, her mind filled with the faces of patients she lost. The helplessness is brutal, Claudia admits. “You don’t even know how this virus works, but you watch as it kills your patient.” To anyone who hasn’t seen the suffering, she insists, it’s real. And she’s pleading with the country to act like it is. Stay inside, Claudia begs, “as if your life depended on it.”

Theirs already do. And if Americans can’t bring themselves to isolate for their own sakes, then they should do it for the medical teams risking everything. “Take it seriously,” Johns Hopkins’s Dr. Martin Makary told listeners on “Washington Watch, “and take it seriously for the sake of our most vulnerable.” Right now, “our number one at-risk group,” he explained, “the number one profession who is mostly likely to get this infection is health care workers. And what you do in your day-to-day life will actually impact the health of [those] workers you’ve never met.”

“Folks may be going outside right now, saying, ‘It’s a beautiful day… My kids are in the backyard playing. What’s the big deal? I don’t know anyone who’s dying that I’m friends with.'” But the big deal, he said somberly, is that “we’re gearing up for a tsunami that’s going to hit with a massive impact…” With projections topping 200,000 casualties now, Dr. Makary thinks the government was right to limit people’s movements through at the least the end of April. “We want our leaders to… give us spirit and hope. But the reality is, they are all closely following these numbers — not only in the preview that we’re seeing in some countries overseas like Spain, but also locally in New York City…”

The administration is doing the best it can to prepare for the worst. That’s no easy task, Dr. Makary explained, even with all of the metrics and experts they have. Because “when that peak happens, talk to any doctor or nurse. It’s going to be ugly. We are basically at full capacity in some U.S. hospitals with very little room to take care of people that come in from this point forward… We are on track right now to have hundreds of thousands of deaths and millions more cases.”

So when can we expect that peak? “New York is about two weeks away,” Martin believes. “The rest of the United States is probably three to five weeks away depending on where you live. Now, one of the big concerns that many of us have is that some parts of the country were sort of slow to recognize that this is a real threat. Some places immediately took dramatic steps and others [went about] life as usual… even up until recently.” Those are the areas, experts believe, that may be hit hardest. Of course, a lot of things factor into that — like public transit and congestion. But the cities that have been in denial will pay, Dr. Makary warns, “because this infection is seeded everywhere in the United States. We need to abandon the idea that it’s somehow contained.”

Fortunately, there are still things you and your church can do to help. First, take the stay-at-home orders seriously. If not for you, then for someone on the front lines of the coronavirus war. Then, check out the creative ways you can meet the needs of the people in your community. Take a page from Midland, Texas and organize a car prayer chain or fill a truck with food for the hungry. See how you can get involved (from a safe distance!) on our special webpage, FRC.org/church.

Tony Perkins’s Washington Update is written with the aid of FRC senior writers.

RELATED ARTICLES:

N. Korea Takes a Launch Break from Virus

Little Takes a Big Step for Women

The News According to Josh Hawley…

EDITORS NOTE: This FRC-Action column is republished with permission. © All rights reserved.

PODCAST: Honest Elections Project, Philip Haney Assassinated, Trump’s Greatness in a Global Crisis

/in , , , , , , , /by

GUESTS AND TOPICS:

JASON SNEAD

Jason Snead is the executive director of the Honest Elections Project. Prior to heading the project, Jason spent 10 years at The Heritage Foundation, where he had the honor to work for former Attorney General Ed Meese. During his tenure at Heritage, Jason rose to become a senior policy analyst and a recognized expert on a wide range of subjects. He regularly studied, wrote, and spoke on topics ranging from criminal justice and civil asset forfeiture reform, to technology policy and the regulation of drones in American skies, to preserving the integrity of American elections. Jason also managed the development of the Heritage Election Fraud Database.

TOPIC: Honest Elections Project Files Brief in Minnesota Against Partisan Ballot Order Lawsuit.

JAMES SIMPSON

James Simpson is an economist, former White House budget analyst, businessman, and investigative journalist. His professional experience includes working as an economist, businessman, author, and journalist. Simpson is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution. Jim is also seeking the nomination to run for U.S. House Maryland District 2.

TOPIC: Phil Haney: My Friend and Colleague, Assassinated!

ROD THOMPSON

Rod Thomson, founder of The Revolutionary Act conservative commentary site and of The Thomson Group, a public relations and communications company based in Florida. Before launching his own business in 2012, he had 25 years of newspaper experience, from reporter to investigative reporter to columnist to executive editor. He has been published in national publications such as the New York Times, National Review, Newsmax, People Magazine and Focus on the Family. He has been a guest on the Michael Medved Show and the Hugh Hewitt Show, plus several regional programs.

TOPIC: Are We Seeing The Emergence Of Greatness In A Crisis?

© All rights reserved.

White House Projects 100,000 to 200,000 U.S. Deaths From COVID-19

/in , , , , , , /by

Even if Americans follow mitigation guidelines, the United States could see 100,000 to 200,000 deaths as a result of the coronavirus, according to projections explained by health officials Tuesday evening at the White House.

“This is going to be a very, very painful two weeks,” President Donald Trump told reporters of the days to come.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, had mentioned before the possibility of more than 100,000 deaths from COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.

But the number now is the government’s formal projections.

Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House’s coronavirus task force, explained the numbers in a slide show, noting pronounced increases in the states of New York and New Jersey.

“It’s a projection based on using what’s in Italy and then looking at all the [computer] models,” Birx said, adding:

As you saw on that slide, that was our real number, 100,000 to 200,000 [deaths]. We really believe and hope every day we can do a lot better than that [by saving lives], because that’s not assuming 100% of every American does everything they are supposed to be doing. But I think that’s possible.

Trump announced Sunday that the administration was extending social distancing and related government guidelines to “slow the spread” until April 30.

The computer models suggest the number of deaths will peak over the next two weeks, then begin to slowly decline. But deaths will continue into June.

“I want every American to be prepared for the hard days that lie ahead,” Trump said, adding:

We’re going to go through a very tough two weeks. And then hopefully, as the experts are predicting, as I think a lot of us are predicting, after having studied it so hard, you’re going to start seeing some real light at the end of the tunnel. But, this is going to be a very, very painful two weeks.

“They’re shocking numbers,” the president later said. “Even at the low end, they’re shocking.”

Trump explained that he wanted to be positive.

“It’s easy to be negative,” he said. “I’m a cheerleader for this country.”

The president noted models showing that if officials took no mitigation actions, COVID-19 would have killed 2.2 million Americans.

Asked later if it is likely the United States will have 100,000 coronavirus deaths, Fauci said, “The answer is yes.”

“As sobering a number as that is, we should be prepared for it,” Fauci said. “Is it going to be that much? I hope not, and I think the more we push on the mitigation, the less likelihood it would be that number. But to be realistic, we need to prepare ourselves that that is a possibility.”

Fauci also explained that COVID-19 deaths will continue to occur into June.

“Deaths always lag,” he said. “So you will be seeing deaths at a time when, as an epidemic, we are doing really, really well. Because the deaths will lag.”

COLUMN BY

Fred Lucas

Fred Lucas is the White House correspondent for The Daily Signal and co-host of “The Right Side of History” podcast. Lucas is also the author of “Tainted by Suspicion: The Secret Deals and Electoral Chaos of Disputed Presidential Elections.” Send an email to Fred. Twitter: @FredLucasWH.

RELATED ARTICLES:

What’s Really Happening in China With Coronavirus? 4 Things to Know

5 Extraordinary Measures We Should Take to Help Health Workers Fight COVID-19

Amid Coronavirus Pandemic, Doctor and Congressman Discusses Way Forward

A Chinese Biologist Carrying Suspected SARS And MERS Samples Attempted To Enter The US

Political Reporters Fail Miserably at White House Coronavirus Briefings

RELATED VIDEO: MyPillow founder responds to media critique of his faith-based speech.

The Daily Signal depends on the support of readers like you. Donate now

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Signal column is republished with permission. © All rights reserved.

Emergency! Now Is The Time To Narrow The Economic Recovery Curve

/in , , , , , /by

There are three key letters everyone needs to focus on. They are V, U, and L.  These are the common shapes economic recoveries take.

A V shaped recovery is ideal.  It means bounce right back.  This is where we should aim, but if we don’t get the economy functioning fast, the opportunity will be lost.

A U shaped recovery means a reasonable period of loss, followed by growth.  This is more common, but second best.  If we let this scenario slip from our grasp… heaven help us.

An L shaped recovery is the wolf now stalking us.  It means drop down and stay down, with suffering over a prolonged period.  We’re talking stagnation — Japan’s lost decade — if we’re lucky.  It means long-term bread lines, brother can you spare a dime, shanty town, 1930s great depression, if we’re not.

We’ve worked together to flatten the virus transmission curve and enable our medical system to cope.

Well done.

We hope these efforts stem the loss of life and the burden on our nurses, hospitals, and doctors.  To all those who have lost someone, or are concerned about their health, or the well-being of a loved one, our prayers are with you.

We must work together now to narrow the economic recovery curve.

With huge portions of our economy shut down, markets are crashing.

How could they not?

If we don’t get the economy functioning we will all learn a terrible lesson in what “unsustainable” actually means.

Trillions of dollars in bailouts and stimulants will quickly be consumed, vanish and be  wasted, unless markets are permitted to function and the economic motor to run.

The good news is that if we’re smart, we are better equipped to harness the productive power of our free market, and safely phase economic activity back on, than we’ve ever been before.

  • The CODVID-19 crisis is not an opportunity for partisan advantage.  STOP IT!
  • One-size-fits-all edicts are what we issue at the first moment of emergency.  We must do better moving forward.
  • We’re in the digital age.  Information is power.  Use it.
  • Not all activities operate at the same level of risk.  Assess them individually and phase them back on as quickly as reasonable.
  • State-wide orders are inefficient.  Rural and desert counties in California with little exposure, for instance, shouldn’t receive the same mandates as dense urban areas.  Fine tune.
  • Slash bureaucratic red tape and remove unnecessary obstacles to working in novel ways.
  • Remove disincentives and create no new disincentives to hiring Americans and producing goods here.
  • Make remote working incredibly productive.
  • Tailor safety procedures to allow businesses to resume functioning.
  • Set aside unneeded regulations.
  • Keep emergency programs temporary.  Make long-term policy changes through normal due process.
  • Phase activity back on as the virus threat diminishes.
  • Phase activity back on if, sadly, the virus becomes widespread and social distancing is no longer effective.
  • Government is vital, but inefficient.  Enable the private sector to provide solutions.
  • Harness today’s data-driven economy to replace blanket shutdowns with a mosaic of safe activity.
  • Be kind, caring, compassionate, appreciative, polite and helpful to others.
  • Plan a COVID-19 endgame.

If we don’t enable economic recovery to get moving, the resulting harm will exceed the harm from the virus.

Time to be smart.  Fast.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Managing a Disaster

How Crises Shine a Light on the ‘Forgotten American’

EDITORS NOTE: This CFAT column is republished with permission. © All rights reserved.

1 Million Americans Tested for Coronavirus; Rate Now 100,000 Per Day

/in , , , , , , /by

A total of 1 million tests for the coronavirus now have been administered, President Donald Trump announced Monday evening during a Rose Garden press conference.

On a table outside the White House, Trump demonstrated two COVID-19 tests that can be completed within five to 15 minutes.

“Today we reached a historic milestone in our war against the coronavirus. Over 1 million Americans have now been tested, more than any other country by far. Not even close, and tested accurately,” Trump said.

The news comes a day after Trump announced that social distancing and sanitary guidelines that originally were set to lapse today would be extended until April 30 and that the government expects U.S. deaths from the contagious disease to peak in two weeks before declining.

In these trying times, we must turn to the greatest document in the history of the world to promise freedom and opportunity to its citizens for guidance. Find out more now >>

“By very vigorously following these guidelines, we could save more than 1 million American lives,” Trump said Monday. “Our future is in our own hands, and the choices and sacrifices we make will determine the fate of this virus and, really, the fate of our victory.”

“We will have a great victory,” he added. “We have no other choice. Every one of us has a role to play in winning this war.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. has 140,904 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 2,405 total deaths.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar thanked the “many American companies, entrepreneurs, and scientists” who made the boost in testing possible.

“We are now testing nearly 100,000 samples a day, also a level that no other country has reached,” Azar said.

Trump asked several corporate CEOs to speak, including from Honeywell International Inc., Procter & Gamble Co., and MyPillow.

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell said his company has deployed 75% of its employees to produce cotton face masks.

Lindell went on to read remarks that he said he wrote “off the cuff,” lauding Trump’s leadership and calling for the country to use this time of crisis to return to God.

“God had been taken out of our schools and lives. A nation had turned its back on God,” Lindell said. “I encourage you, use this time at home to get back in the word. Read our Bibles and spend time with our families.”

During the press conference, Trump chose to duel with a longtime antagonist, CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta.

“What do you say to Americans who are upset with you over the way you downplayed this crisis over the last couple of months?” Acosta asked, then read a series of Trump quotes from February and early March suggesting that the coronavirus was under control.

Trump said the statements were true and that Acosta was trying to cause panic.

“It will go away. I do want them to stay calm. If you look at those individual statements, they’re all true. Stay calm,” Trump said. “It will go away. You know it is going away. It will go away and we are going to have a great victory.”

Trump continued:

It’s people like you and CNN that say things like that, it’s why people just don’t want to listen to CNN. You could ask a normal question. The statements I made are that I want to keep the country calm. I don’t want panic in the country. I could cause panic, much better than even you. It would make you look like a minor league player.

But you know what, I don’t want to do that. I want to have our country be calm and strong and fight and win. And it will go away. And it is incredible the job that all of these people … are doing. I am very proud of the job they’re doing. …

It’s almost a miracle, and it is, the way it has all come together. Instead of asking a nasty, snarky question like that, you should ask a real question.

COLUMN BY

Fred Lucas

Fred Lucas is the White House correspondent for The Daily Signal and co-host of “The Right Side of History” podcast. Lucas is also the author of “Tainted by Suspicion: The Secret Deals and Electoral Chaos of Disputed Presidential Elections.” Send an email to Fred. Twitter: @FredLucasWH.

RELATED ARTICLES:

How Many Americans Could Die From COVID-19? What the Latest Data, Projections Show

The View From a Field Hospital in Italy

Anti-Malaria Drugs Receive Emergency Authorization for Coronavirus Patients

A Note for our Readers:

This is a critical year in the history of our country. With the country polarized and divided on a number of issues and with roughly half of the country clamoring for increased government control—over health care, socialism, increased regulations, and open borders—we must turn to America’s founding for the answers on how best to proceed into the future.

The Heritage Foundation has compiled input from more than 100 constitutional scholars and legal experts into the country’s most thorough and compelling review of the freedoms promised to us within the United States Constitution into a free digital guide called Heritage’s Guide to the Constitution.

They’re making this guide available to all readers of The Daily Signal for free today!

GET ACCESS NOW! >>

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Signal column is republished with permission. © All rights reserved.