steve2470
steve2470's JournalCoronavirus: 38 days when Britain sleepwalked into disaster
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/coronavirus-38-days-when-britain-sleepwalked-into-disaster-hq3b9tlgh(paywall but you can register for free to read it)
On the third Friday of January a silent and stealthy killer was creeping across the world. Passing from person to person and borne on ships and planes, the coronavirus was already leaving a trail of bodies.
The virus had spread from China to six countries and was almost certainly in many others. Sensing the coming danger, the British government briefly went into wartime mode that day, holding a meeting of Cobra, its national crisis committee.
But it took just an hour that January 24 lunchtime to brush aside the coronavirus threat. Matt Hancock, the health secretary, bounced out of Whitehall after chairing the meeting and breezily told reporters the risk to the UK public was “low”.
This was despite the publication that day of an alarming study by Chinese doctors in the medical journal The Lancet. It assessed the lethal potential of the virus, for the first time suggesting it was comparable to the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, which killed up to 50 million people.
Lions being very lazy on South African roads
eta:
https://twitter.com/SANParksKNP/status/1250453004094001152
from:
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/lions-kruger-lockdown-scli-intl/index.html
SCOTUS telephone argument on Trump tax case scheduled for May 12th
https://twitter.com/adamliptak/status/1250472032510316546some Florida humor: "Please remember to keep at least 1 large alligator between you and everyone....
https://twitter.com/LeonCounty/status/1245796313658163201
Leon County has Tallahassee, which is the state capitol.
Philadelphia's "Pizza Groundhog" is enjoying this coronavirus quarantine with a full stomach!
https://twitter.com/6abc/status/1250223666589204480https://6abc.com/pets-animals/philly-has-a-pizza-groundhog/6103207/
Old but this should be a recurring election ad: "Top White House official in charge of pandemic..."
Top White House official in charge of pandemic response exits abruptly
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2018/05/10/top-white-house-official-in-charge-of-pandemic-response-exits-abruptly/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=
&w=1440
Rear Adm. R. Timothy Ziemer was the Trump administration's senior director for global health security and biodefense at the National Security Council. He left that post Tuesday as part of a reorganization under national security adviser John Bolton. (Khin Maung Win/AP)
By
Lena H. Sun
May 10, 2018 at 4:32 p.m. EDT
The top White House official responsible for leading the U.S. response in the event of a deadly pandemic has left the administration, and the global health security team he oversaw has been disbanded under a reorganization by national security adviser John Bolton.
The abrupt departure of Rear Adm. Timothy Ziemer from the National Security Council means no senior administration official is now focused solely on global health security. Ziemer’s departure, along with the breakup of his team, comes at a time when many experts say the country is already underprepared for the increasing risks of a pandemic or bioterrorism attack.
Ziemer’s last day was Tuesday, the same day a new Ebola outbreak was declared in Congo. He is not being replaced.
Pandemic preparedness and global health security are issues that require government-wide responses, experts say, as well as the leadership of a high-ranking official within the White House who is assigned only this role.
*end of excerpt*
This happened about 19 months before the pandemic started in China, then came to the USA. This horrible decision is why we are all suffering, and, in some cases, dying because of the virus.
Trump will lie about, distort and deny this. We cannot let him. This needs to become thoroughly ingrained in the minds of the electorate. Trump, and Trump alone, is to blame for the suffering, deaths, and economic wreckage we are now witnessing and undergoing.
I really hope the Biden campaign hammers this home.
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