It’s a hot time, here in the CatBox, with the next three days forecast in the 80°s. That’s not too bad in itself, but it’s a little strange for May. Yesterday my Oncologist and I agreed that since my treatment had almost killed me from septic shock, we needed a new plan, and she had one ready. First, I’m going to have another PET Scan to verify the progress of my disease, and see if there is a tumor in my liver that they can biopsy. If there is, Evelyn will get me into a clinical trial, sponsored by the American Cancer Society. They analyze the DNA of my cancer and design an individual drug that specifically targets my cancer, without targeting me. I’ll keep you posted. Tomorrow, I’ll probably have no more than an Open Thread or a Personal Update. WWWendy will be gone this weekend. She’s driving to Wyoming for a family reunion first thing Friday morning. She will return Monday night. Please pray for her safety. As a result, my next two WWWendy days are tomorrow and Tuesday. Will I be stinky by Tuesday, or what? Happy Hump day to all!
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:04 (average 4:33). To do it, click here.
The world is dealing with an unprecedented health crisis caused by a new virus. With new insights in the way COVID19 spreads, in the way the virus behaves and in the way to deal with the pandemic every day, it is now more important than ever to safeguard the information we share is accurate and fact-based. We have to inoculate ourselves against the fake news and misinformation that infect our newsfeeds and timelines at this crucial moment by fact-checking.
For the duration of the pandemic, I will try to give you an overview of the main issues in CoronaCheck, an Australian email newsletter with the latest from around the world concerning the coronavirus.*
The stream of misinformation surrounding 5G technology and the coronavirus seems to be exponentially increasing, so much so that it has prompted Australia’s chief medical officer, Brendan Murphy, to address the issue at a recent press briefing where he noted there was “absolutely no evidence about 5G doing anything in the coronavirus space”. Dr Murphy added, “I have unfortunately received a lot of communication from these conspiracy theorists myself it is complete nonsense.”
It prompted the UK government to seek partnership with Twitter; users searching for 5G conspiracy tweets will see a pop-up with the text “the UK government has said there is no evidence of a link between 5G and coronavirus (COVID-19)” and directing them to further information.
Recent 5G misinformation consists of a video, viewed thousands of times, which shows a supposed telecoms engineer who is erecting 5G masts in the UK holding up an electrical circuit board and claiming it is “a piece of kit that has COV-19 on it”.
Reuters found that this video was staged; the circuit board isn’t used in 5G technology but was taken from a Virgin Media box for cable television. Virgin Media told Reuters the board was from a “very old set-top box” and had never been inscribed or imprinted with “COV-19”. Virgin maintained
“[The board] has absolutely no relation with any mobile network infrastructure, including that used for 5G.”
Another claim that “radiation pneumonitis”, allegedly caused by 5G, was being misdiagnosed as COVID-19 was also found to be false by Reuters.
REMDESIVIR FACTS
Remdesivir is an experimental antiviral drug, manufactured by the pharmaceutical company Gilead and recently approved as a COVID-19 treatment in the US. In Australia, the drug is not yet being used in any clinical trials, although it is expected some hospitals are to receive doses of the drug for use with COVID-19 patients.
Misinformation around many COVID-19 treatments, including remdesivir, has spread rapidly throughout the pandemic. For example, a Facebook post claimed that hydroxychloroquine, another touted COVID-19 treatment mentioned here before, was “91 per cent effective” and cheap, while remdesivir was effective in just 50 per cent of patients and cost US$1,000. “Why is Fauci pushing Remdesivir? It was invented by Fauci and Gates. Its stock is now soaring. Always follow the $$$$$$$.” the post stated, pointing to US infectious diseases expert and White House adviser Anthony Fauci and the much-maligned Bill Gates.
But as USA Today found, neither hydroxychloroquine nor remdesivir had been proven effective against COVID-19, with clinical trials ongoing. Further, Gilead Sciences is the only organisation that could profit from the sale of remdesivir and neither Mr Gates nor Dr Fauci had any involvement in the development of the drug.
Another Facebook post imagines a remdesivir conspiracy centred around Unitaid, which it suggests is Gilead’s “drug patent sharing subsidiary branch”. According to the post, Unitaid has an office in Wuhan and is backed by Bill and Melinda Gates, billionaire investor George Soros and the World Health Organisation. Hillary Clinton, Dr Fauci and Wuhan’s Institute of Virology are also mentioned.
Snopes found these claims to be false. Unitaid is not linked to Gilead and does not have an office near Wuhan. And while the organisation, which invests in innovations to prevent, diagnose and treat several global health issues, is supported financially by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, it has no ties to Mr Soros or Dr Fauci. Unitaid is a “hosted partnership” of the WHO but receives no financial support from the organisation.
PNEUMONIA VS THROMBOSIS
Image source: AP/Zhang Yuwei Via Xinhua
Some news stories lately have raised concerns that COVID-19, which has been viewed mainly as respiratory disease, may also have patients die through thrombosis (the formation of blood clots).
Full Fact took a look at claims posted on social media that COVID-19 patients were being misdiagnosed with pneumonia when in fact they were suffering from thrombosis. The posts propagated to fight the disease is with “antibiotics, antivirals, anti-inflammatories and anticoagulants”.
The fact-checkers found that patients were not being “misdiagnosed” with pneumonia. Rather, both pneumonia and Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation (DIC), which leads to thrombosis, was present in COVID-19 cases. Indian-based BOOM also found that respiratory failure rather than thrombosis was the leading cause of COVID-19 deaths with thrombosis of the lungs “a factor that can further complicate the course of pneumonia in COVID-19 patients,” they said.
Full Fact found that antibiotics were not recommended for treatment, as they are effective for bacterial infections only and no specific antiviral has been shown conclusively to be effective against COVID-19. Anti-inflammatories such as ibuprofen could help treat COVID-19 symptoms at home, and there was evidence to suggest anticoagulants facilitated the treatment of some patients.
EXERCISE
Many are turning to exercise to relieve boredom and stay fit and healthy during the coronavirus restrictions. Some online claims, however, have suggested that exercise may weaken the immune system. One advertisement linking to an article claims that a “window of opportunity” exists in the hours after strenuous exercise which can leave people vulnerable to infection from viruses.
USA Today’s fact-checkers found that the “window of opportunity” theory has been around for decades, supported by at least one study that found “vigorous workouts could have a temporary negative effect on the immune system”. But as to the long-term effects of exercising, several scientific studies suggested regular exercise promotes good health and reduces the risk of infections.
John Campbell, of the University of Bath’s Department of Health, told USA Today that “People should not fear that their immune system will be suppressed by exercise, placing them at increased risk of coronavirus.”
FROM WASHINGTON, D.C.
As the US grapples with soaring numbers of COVID-19 cases and the highest number of deaths in the world, Republicans are blaming former Democratic president Barack Obama for having left the current administration poorly placed to cope with the pandemic.
During an online discussionhosted by President Trump’s re-election campaign, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said it may no longer be that pandemics are a once-in-100-year occurrence, and he wanted to be ready for the next one.
“Clearly, the Obama administration did not leave to this administration any kind of game plan for something like this.”
But fact-checkers at the Washington Post, CNN’s Fact First and Politifact found that claim to be false, and that the Obama administration had left behind a 40-page National Security Council “playbook” on fighting pandemics.
“McConnell is wrong to say the Obama administration left “no game plan” to deal with a pandemic,” the Washington Post concluded. “The Obama team crafted a detailed document setting forth questions and policies that should be considered, as well as put in place programs that might have helped spur action sooner.”
#26: Brown sugar “There is no official cure for COVID-19 as of May 21, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). There are several clinical trials being conducted to test potential cures, but consuming brown sugar is not one of them.” – Rappler
*The facts in this article are derived from the Australian RMIT ABC Fact Check newsletters which in turn draw on their own resources and those of their colleagues within the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), of which RMIT ABC Fact Check is a member.
It’s a very busy day, here in the CatBox. WWWendy should be here in half an hour, so I’d better burn rubber. This is today’s only article. Have a great holiday weekend. If you must travel, please protect yourselves.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:07 (average 5:58). To do it, click here. How did you do?
From Alternet: …A new study shows that when it comes to forcing workers to go back into offices, stores, and factories, almost half the online voices shouting for the “reopening of America” were, and are, bot accounts. Of the accounts that have tweeted most on this topic, more than half are bots. Of the most influential, almost all are bots. And behind the bots … is someone still unknown.
The report comes out of Carnegie Mellon University. Digging through over 200 million tweets discussing COVID-19 or the novel coronavirus, researchers focused in on the most influential accounts—those most active, most retweeted, and most liked. Out of the top 1,000 accounts, 62% are bots. Perhaps even more amazing: of the 50 most influential accounts on this topic, 82% are bots.
The bots may be numerous, but their message isn’t varied. They’re not being used to pass along accurate news about COVID-19, to encourage social distancing, or to support state government calls for preventive measures. In addition to pushing false cures, like Trump’s much-pushed hydroxychloroquine, and spreading general false information about the dangers of COVID-19, there’s one point where bots are driving the whole of social media. According to the report, they are “dominating conversations about ending stay-at-home orders and ‘reopening America.’”… [emphasis added]
We can be sure of one thing. Those bots are smarter than the Republican sheeple they influence. Even artificial intelligence is more than no intelligence at all. RESIST!!
From CNN: With restaurants closed or open with limited capacity due to the coronavirus pandemic, a certain subset of those establishments’ “patrons” is struggling.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is warning that certain areas across the country are reporting “an increase in rodent activity,” as rats search for sources of food other than restaurant dumpsters.
“Jurisdictions have closed or limited service at restaurants and other commercial establishments to help limit the spread of COVID-19,” the CDC said. “Rodents rely on the food and waste generated by these establishments. Community-wide closures have led to a decrease in food available to rodents, especially in dense commercial areas.”
As a result, rats are scampering elsewhere — including residential areas. Given the circumstances, they may even exhibit “unusual or aggressive” behavior, the CDC said.
We need to do some heavy duty pest control to kill those rats. Not only do they spread disease, but also, you know they’ll vote Republican in November! RESIST!!
From YouTube (a blast from the past): If I Were a Carpenter
Last Tuesday I was so sick that I could not stand up. WWWendy called my oncologist and called 911 on her instructions. They has to haul me out of here on a gurney. My chemo knocked out my immune system and I picked up an infection. The resulting Republicosis was so severe that I was pumping out fluids faster than I could rehydrate. I became so dehydrated that I ended up in Intensive Care, where they pumped fluids into me through my port and two other IVs. On Wednesday night, they released me from Intensive Care, but kept pumping we full of Ringers Lactate and Antibiotics. They never did identify the bug, but after my white blood count returned to normal, they released me yesterday afternoon with three more antibiotics. Obviously, we’ll need to make some changes in my chemo. WWWendy is going in with me Tuesday. JD, would you do Bill Maher? Tomorrow is a WWWendy day, so please expect only a Personal Update.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:10 (average 4:45). To do it, click here. How did you do?
From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Contact Tracings Show Risk Of Coronavirus Spread Through Churches
As a Christian, (authentic Christian, not Republican supply-side pseudo-Christian [anti-Christian]) I believe in freedom of religion, as defined in the First Amendment. That does not include murdering innocents by infecting them with Trump* virus. RESIST!!
The world is dealing with an unprecedented health crisis caused by a new virus. With new insights in the way COVID19 spreads, in the way the virus behaves and in the way to deal with the pandemic every day, it is now more important than ever to safeguard the information we share is accurate and fact-based. We have to inoculate ourselves against the fake news and misinformation that infect our newsfeeds and timelines at this crucial moment by fact-checking.
For the duration of the pandemic, I will try to give you an overview of the main issues in CoronaCheck, an Australian email newsletter with the latest from around the world concerning the coronavirus.*
REMEMBER CLIVE PALMER, THE AUSTRALIAN TRUMP?
Image source: ABC News – Nick. Haggarty
* Is this a pun on the number of his voters?
The COVID-19 Fact and Fiction #3 article already mentioned that outspoken businessman and Trump wannabee Clive Palmer donated almost 33 million doses of hydroxychloroquine — supposedly more than the equivalent of entire US stocks — to Australia’s national medical stockpile.
In a series of newspaper ads and TV interviews, Mr Palmer claimed this donation was behind Australia’s low mortality rate, which he said had fallen since the drug was made available to treat hospitalised coronavirus patients in early April.
However, Mr Palmer’s claim turns out to be baseless. The drug was already available to hospital patients before Palmer “made it available”, and experts said the death curve had flattened because just a few weeks earlier the case curve had done the same.
The jury is still out on whether the drug works as a treatment for COVID-19 since the evidence isn’t promising. Given the known risks of hydroxychloroquine, Australia’s medicines regulatory body strongly advises against giving it to coronavirus patients in the absence of positive clinical trial results.
Earlier, I noted my suspicion in a comment I made after seeing a video which pointed out that pharmaceutical giant Bayer had offered the millions of doses of chloroquine drugs for free to the US Administration but apparently were refused at that time (perhaps made on the cheap in India and not FDA approved) I deduced that Bayer needed to get rid of this bulk load and offered it to Clive for free too.
The Australian government is feeling the pressure too. Faced with an absence of positive clinical trial results, federal health minister Greg Hunt said about Clive Palmer’s donation yesterday, “he’s made a very generous offer to the national medical stockpile,” and cited two trials underway at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute and the University of Queensland. Note that these trials are undertaken with healthy (no cardiac problems) health-care workers on the frontline with coronavirus to see if the drug works to prohibit infection, not to cure COVID-19 patients. The trials are expected to take 8-10 months.
TEST DISINFORMATION
A post shared widely on Facebook and attributed to the Department of Health claims that tests for the novel coronavirus, known as SARS-COV-2, are not able to distinguish the virus from other illnesses. As the post states “This means the test cannot [distinguish] covid from a cold or measles or ebola.”
A caption alongside the Facebook post claims the information has been taken “from [the Department of Health’s] own website”.
In a statement, a department spokesman told RMIT ABC Fact-check the post contained “selectively chosen information taken out of context” from a factsheet for clinicians, along with “complete inaccuracies”.
“The factsheet is actually dealing with COVID-19 positive people continuing to test positive after the infectious period has passed,” the spokesman said. “It is true that the PCR may still result in a positive test, because of a remaining non-infectious viral load within the patient.” But the test would not detect any pathogen other than the SARS-COV-2 virus.
NewsGuard, a self-described “internet trust tool”, has published a list of Twitter “super spreaders” — accounts that “repeat, share and amplify” coronavirus misinformation and myths to large numbers of followers.
On the list of 10 are accounts of former Nigerian politician Femi Fani-Kayode, conservative radio commentator Bill Mitchell and former British footballer David Icke. All ten together reach a combined 3.3 million followers and have continued to publish misinformation despite Twitter announcing a crackdown on March 18 in a bid to address the so-called “infodemic”.
The accounts have spread myths including that COVID-19 does not exist and that zinc or herbal remedies can prevent or cure the virus, and are propagating unproven claims about the effect of 5G technology on the coronavirus.
It seems, every day more misinformation about Bill Gates and his involvement in global public health is spread, with Mr Gates the alleged ‘villain’ in several convoluted coronavirus conspiracy theories.
This week, fact-checkers at India Today found that a photo of Mr Gates and top US infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci, apparently flouting social distancing and face mask rules, was taken in December 2018, long before the coronavirus outbreak.
AP Fact-check found another claim linking the men by suggesting that Dr Fauci served on Microsoft’s board of directors, to be false.
Meanwhile, Politifact found that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is not out on making a profit from the development of a COVID-19 vaccine, and Reuters discovered that Mr Gates did not present a plan to immunise religious fanatics to the Pentagon, nor could it find any indication Mr Gates had advocated for the permanent banning of religious gatherings.
FROM WASHINGTON, D.C.
US President Donald Trump this week claimed that he had been taking hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 preventative, prompting scorn from political adversaries including House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat.
“He’s our president, and I would rather he not be taking something that has not been approved by the scientists, especially in his age group and, shall we say, his weight group, [which] is morbidly obese, they say,” Ms Pelosi told CNN.
Not quite, according to fact-checkers at PolitiFact, who found that based on figures from Mr Trump’s latest physical examination he would not be considered “morbidly obese” by medical standards. Weighing in at 243 pounds (110 kilograms) and measuring 6 feet 3 inches (191 centimetres), Mr Trump just falls into the obese category; he would need to be shorter than 5 feet 8 inches (173 centimetres) and weigh 260 pounds (118 kilograms) to be classified “morbidly obese”.
Of course, some pundits have questioned the official height (elevated shoes”) and weight figures provided by Mr Trump but even Trump on a good day can’t cheat 7 inches and 17 pounds.
Things that don’t cure and/or prevent COVID-19
#25: A vegetarian diet
“No evidence exists to support the claim that a vegetarian lifestyle can protect someone from contracting COVID-19, a claim that has been debunked by media outlets and the Indian government.” – Snopes
*The facts in this article are derived from the Australian RMIT ABC Fact Check newsletters which in turn draw on their own resources and those of their colleagues within the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), of which RMIT ABC Fact Check is a member.
The world is dealing with an unprecedented health crisis caused by a new virus. With new insights in the way COVID19 spreads, in the way the virus behaves and in the way to deal with the pandemic every day, it is now more important than ever to safeguard the information we share is accurate and fact-based. We have to inoculate ourselves against the fake news and misinformation that infect our newsfeeds and timelines at this crucial moment by fact-checking.
For the duration of the pandemic, I will try to give you an overview of the main issues in CoronaCheck, an Australian email newsletter with the latest from around the world concerning the coronavirus.*
WORLD HEALTH ACCORDING TO ANTI-VAXXERS
A tweet, believed to have been posted by a user named VaccineTruths on May 3, contains a screenshot of a page from the website WorldHealth.net and alleges that a 2017 study showed that people who had received a flu vaccine would be the “first to die” in a global pandemic. The page on the website appears to have been deleted, but an archived version exists.
The text screenshot contains comes from an article headlined “BOMBSHELL: Flu Shots Scientifically Proven to Weaken Immune Response in Subsequent Years”, which cites a 2017 study conducted by Lisa Christian of the Ohio State Medical Centre. This study, however, looked into the effect of flu vaccinations on pregnant women and newborns and makes no mention of a person’s likelihood of dying in a pandemic.
According to RMIT Vice-Chancellor’s Research Fellow Kylie Quinn, who has researched vaccines, there was no evidence in the paper that a flu vaccine made people more susceptible to influenza.
In general, there was no evidence at all that people who had received flu shots would be the first to die in a pandemic. Dr Quinn said that she knew of no credible evidence to support other claims contained in the post, such as people who received a flu jab in 2008 “experienced a 250 per cent increase in influenza infections in subsequent years”.
More misinformation, or should we say disinformation, regarding Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates, appeared as a photo, shared on social media, which showed a crop circle in the UK featuring the Microsoft logo.
“Amazing crop circle arrives overnight near Stonehenge, UK… Think they are trying to tell us something…? Microsoft Bill Gates made the Corona Virus?” one tweet featuring the photo reads.
But fact-checkers at Snopes were able to track down the original image of a 2004 crop circle altered to feature the Microsoft logo.
A passage of text quoting an imaginary exchange between Satan and Jesus has been misattributed to the Chronicles of Narnia author C.S. Lewis, written supposedly during WWII, circa 1942.
The text quotes Satan as saying he will “shut down business, schools, places of worship, and sport events” and “cause economic turmoil”, while Jesus retorts: “I will bring together neighbours [and] restore the family unit.” Jesus continues: “I will help people slow down their lives and appreciate what really matters.”
Reuters found the real author to be a social media user named Heidi May, who told the fact-checkers she wrote the post on a day she was feeling overwhelmed in early March.
An investigation by Spanish Maldita.es into a WhatsApp message claiming that Pope Francis had instructed believers to put a white cloth on their doorsteps to protect them from the plague. They found no evidence of any such advice in the Pope’s public appearances and statements.
The same Spanish outlet also debunked several of the coronavirus-related claims made by disgraced virologist Judy Mikovits in the viral video “Plandemic”, as noted in COVID-19 Fact and Fiction #6
The Mexican fact-checking network Animal Politico looked into claims that COVID-19 is a thrombosis which should be treated with antibiotics. They found that while some Italian researchers found pulmonary thrombosis to be linked to the coronavirus, the virus was essentially a respiratory illness, and was not treatable with antibiotics.
In India, FactCrescendo debunked a video which purported to show bodies of coronavirus victims being thrown into the sea. The video actually showed the bodies of African migrants who had been trying to get to Europe washed ashore in Libya in 2014.
Bothes and India Today debunked the claim that Harvard Professor Charles Lieber was arrested for creating the coronavirus and selling it to China. Lieber was certainly arrested but in reality, charged with concealing a foreign conflict of interest from investigators according to a US Justice Department statement.
In the US, with some states are relaxing lockdown rules and summer holidays approach, the CEO of Southwest Airlines claimed in an appearance on CBS that an aeroplane is “as safe as an environment as you’re going to find”.
Fact-checkers at PolitiFact noted that planes had air ventilation systems that circulate purified air and that airlines were taking substantial steps to protect travellers. Experts said flying would be relatively safe as long as everyone onboard wore masks and wiped down surfaces but also noted passengers would be unable to maintain distance from each other inside the aircraft.
There would still be risks despite protective measures being taken by the airlines. “Is an airplane potentially carrying an infectious passenger safer than your own home, where the only contact with a stranger you have is grabbing the takeout dinner order left on your porch by a delivery person?” PolitiFact posed. “Clearly not.”
FROM WASHINGTON, D.C.
Barack Obama has criticised his successor, calling President Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic “an absolute chaotic disaster“.
The critique led Mr Trump to retweet a claim that “Barack Hussain Obama is the first Ex-President to ever speak against his successor, which was [a] long tradition of decorum and decency.”
But PolitiFact found that, in fact, a long line of former presidents had offered their successors “improvement suggestions”.
Herbert Hoover, for example, railed against Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal and liberalism “from the time he left office in 1933 until his death in the mid-1960s”. Historians contacted by PolitiFact also pointed out that Jimmy Carter’s policies were ridiculed by predecessor Gerald Ford.
“Carter carried on the tradition. In November 1982, he said President Ronald Reagan had undermined confidence in America’s global leadership,” PolitiFact noted.
Things that don’t cure and/or prevent COVID-19
#24: Palm oil
“No, palm oil will not stop the coronavirus.”– Africa Check
*The facts in this article are derived from the Australian RMIT ABC Fact Check newsletters which in turn draw on their own resources and those of their colleagues within the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), of which RMIT ABC Fact Check is a member.
Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”
I have another project which i am not going to be able to finish this week, but when I found this, I thought it was a great opportunity to reinforce a point I have been trying to make for years now. People talk constantly about the American justice system, how it works, how to reform it, when in fact there is no such thing. No single thing. Besides the Federal government, there fifty states, and, oh yeah, 7 territories (some of which are uninhabited), but any or all of which have or could have theoir own systems. I sometimes nod to counties and cities – but I would never have guessed that in the United States, we have more than 90,000 governments, had not Professor Swindell researched it – through the Census Bureau, no less – and cited it here (another reason the Census is so very important.) When one wants to talk about reforming justice system(s), this is a number to be reckoned with.
But it’s also pertinent to everyday, and not-so-everyday occurrences, such as pandemics. And I hope this article will give each of us, in our own separate circumstances, better insight into just who is in charge here. ================================================================
In a nation with more than 90,000 governments, responses to the coronavirus pandemic have highlighted the challenges posed by the United States’ system of federalism, where significant power rests with states and local governments. Wisconsin’s Supreme Court just overturned their governor’s order for residents to stay at home – and then several cities and counties imposed their own restrictions, very similar to the governor’s rules.
So who’s running the show?
I am a scholar of how different levels of government interact and work together to deliver public services, and my answer is: It depends.
In the absence of nationwide coordination and leadership, governors have made their own decisions about how to contain the spread of the virus. Their decisions apply only to their own states, making the country a patchwork of varying efforts.
And as state governments start to lift their lockdown restrictions to varying degrees, the patchwork gets even more complicated. Then factor in the powers and responsibilities of more than 3,000 counties, nearly 20,000 municipalities and almost 13,000 public school districts around the country, and it becomes clear that the answer to “Who’s in charge?” is not so simple.
Who actually has the power to make binding decisions mostly depends on two factors. First, there’s what’s being decided: Is it about public health, police, hospitals, schools, barbershops or other businesses? Second: It depends on the state.
All 50 states, and lots more local governments within each of them, have voices in how the country reopens after the coronavirus lockdown.Vectorios2016/Getty Images
Local control
Historically, the U.S. has divided responsibilities for different services and functions across levels of government, so they could be tailored to regional preferences where possible.
For instance, jails are run locally or by counties; businesses get municipal and state licenses. Similarly, animal control laws, zoning and pothole repairs are typically handled by local governments, not at state or federal levels. States typically regulate businesses and industries, oversee welfare programs and manage major highways.
The national government handles things where widespread coordination and standards are important, like national defense, Social Security, space exploration and trade between states.
Before the Great Depression, state and national government duties were more clearly differentiated. But since the 1930s, this system has evolved, and the distinctions between which levels do what have blurred and blended.
For instance, states are in charge of public K-12 schools and public universities, but the federal government ensures school districts comply with rules about equal access for all students, and provides grants to support needy children and university research.
Likewise, state governments build and maintain the interstate highways, but the federal government pays many of the costs.
Today, this mixing of responsibilities has made difficult a nationally coordinated response to a pandemic whose effects are mostly local. State and local officials have tried to respond as best as possible, but they do not have the information or buying power of the federal government.
The federal government may claim to be able to shut down the economy, but the truth is that states are the ones responsible for regulating the businesses that operate within their boundaries. So the federal government can’t order states to close down or reopen their businesses.
On the other hand, the president or Congress can decide to give more money to states that go along with federal requests, and potentially cut funding to states that don’t.
States depend on federal money for a wide range of programs related to criminal justice, education and highways, so this type of influence can be very effective.
State highway departments do the construction, but much of the money comes from the federal government.AP Photo/Carlos Osorio
Which state?
The second important element comes from another aspect of American federalism: The Constitution ensures that states not only retain powers beyond the federal government’s; they are also very independent from each other. Each state can develop its own policies and systems for delivering the services its residents need.
That means there could be 50 different approaches to combating a pandemic that does not stop at state boundaries. And therefore, the state with the most lax standards may be the one setting the protection level for the whole nation. For instance, the state of Arizona is rapidly relaxing its stay-at-home rules, even allowing restaurant customers to dine inside. Hair salons and theaters are also reopening. Neighboring California is remaining mostly closed, though people can travel freely across the state lines.
As if that weren’t muddy enough, each state relates differently to its local governments. Constitutionally speaking, there are only two levels of government in the U.S.: the national level and the states. Courts and lawmakers have determined that local governments are extensions of states, with varying levels of independence.
In most states, local governments must seek permission from their state legislature before making new regulations, like governing drone flights, or creating a new tax, such as on short-term home rentals. Other states take a different approach and allow municipal governments to take on whatever responsibilities are not expressly reserved to the state government by that state’s constitution.
All this means that responses to the pandemic vary not just from state to state, but also within states.
The way these overlapping authorities play out is relatively easy to see when looking at how school districts, one of several types of local governments, responded to the coronavirus outbreak. In most states, local districts acted on their own. In general, it took a week or two before state departments of education ordered statewide school closures, which affected those local districts that hadn’t already shut their doors.
It took as much as three weeks for states to issue general orders or recommendations for residents to shelter in place – though in some states those instructions never came, even though all the nation’s schools were closed.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp greets President Donald Trump in early March.AP Photo/Alex Brandon
A patchwork of rules
As states begin to reopen, similarly confusing processes are happening in reverse.
While many state governments have now begun to loosen restrictions, some communities within those states have wanted to keep their local shelter-in-place orders in effect because they remain concerned about public health. In Georgia, local efforts to maintain restrictions have been overruled by the governor’s office. The Texas Republican governor has relaxed the statewide rules and explicitly said his reopen orders override any local restrictions.
Utah never established a shelter-in-place order and relied only on recommendations. Urban communities in the state set their own restrictions, and the legislature responded with efforts to limit the ability of local governments to put such measures in place.
Colorado is taking a different approach as the state relaxes its restrictions by explicitly allowing local governments to determine if they want their restrictions to differ from the state standard.
This diversity of precautions and actions can also be seen as one of the strengths of federalism, because it allows the public to see how different responses may affect how quickly the virus spreads. The local and state decisions are creating experimental laboratories for finding different ways to move back into a fully operational economy.
And that’s why your barbershop is still closed while the one in the next town or next state over is already open again.
=>================================================================ Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone, it’s a sad thing to be a Democrat in a state with a Republican governor who is willing to let the whole state die rather than displease Trump*. But it’s almost equally sad to be a Democrat in a state with a Democratic Governor (who has brains), yet live in a Republican-dominated county which thinks it knows best. At least my county knows enough to apply for a waiver before re-opening every restaurant – but I guess I won’t be eating out for many, many months (not that I did much – but I did like knowing it was an option.) And heaven help our high school graduates.
The world is dealing with an unprecedented health crisis caused by a new virus. With new insights in the way COVID19 spreads, in the way the virus behaves and in the way to deal with the pandemic every day, it is now more important than ever to safeguard the information we share is accurate and fact-based. We have to inoculate ourselves against the fake news and misinformation that infect our newsfeeds and timelines at this crucial moment by fact-checking.
For the duration of the pandemic, I will try to give you an overview of the main issues in CoronaCheck, an Australian email newsletter with the latest from around the world concerning the coronavirus.*
THOSE ANTI-VAXXERS AGAIN
Australia’s professional Rugby’s preparations to get back to business was somewhat hampered by the refusal of two Queensland NRL players refusing to have a flu shot, mandated by the Queensland Government, for which they were stood down.
In response to the mandate, Shanelle Cartwright, the wife of one of the players, took to Instagram to say the edict had entered “scary territory”. “Especially considering the flu shot has been proven to increase the incidence of corona viruses by 36%,” she posted on Instagram.
However, fact-checkers at factcheck.org and Lead Stories, as well as scientists at Health Feedback, have found there to be no evidence that the flu jab increases a person’s risk of being diagnosed with COVID-19. The “question of whether the flu vaccine causes an increased risk of coronavirus infection requires more scientific studies to answer” (Health Feedback).
As Health Feedback found, the claim seems to rely on a January 2020 study which showed individuals who received the flu vaccine had a higher chance of contracting the seasonal coronaviruses that lead to the common cold. But these viruses are not the same as the novel coronavirus, which causes COVID-19. And the study itself states that “vaccinated personnel did not have significant odds of respiratory illnesses”.
A second study was also used to support the claim but looked only at children. It suggested an increased risk of non-influenza viruses among kids who were vaccinated but it doesn’t mention an increased risk for seasonal coronavirus infection, according to Sheena Sullivan, an associate professor at Melbourne’s Doherty Institute.
Update: Both players are now allowed to play again; one player because he took the jab – as two other protesters did before him – the other because he showed an allergic reaction to a previous flu jab.
Recently face-mask wearers may have been alarmed by a Facebook post or news article claiming that face masks could cause hypercapnia or hypoxia if worn for too long.
One viral post presents the apparent symptoms of hypercapnia, which is a form of respiratory failure involving a build-up of carbon dioxide in the bloodstream, and states “it can be caused by rebreathing your own exhaled CO2 by wearing a mask continually”.
Reuters found this claim to be partly false, citing the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as saying that while CO2 could build up in a face mask over time, it would likely be tolerable and result in a headache, rather than the more severe symptoms of hypercapnia shown in the Facebook post.
Meanwhile, fact-checkers at Snopes have debunked a Nigerian newspaper column by “Dr Dennis A Castro B” which claimed the prolonged use of face masks could lead to hypoxia with symptoms of discomfort and the “loss of reflexes and conscious thought”.
“Ultimately, the impact of a mask on its wearer depends on the wearer’s health, any pre-existing respiratory illnesses, the type of mask, and the length of time the person wears it,” Snopes found. “In most instances, the effects of prolonged cloth mask usage are small.”
Australia, like many other countries around the world, has developed a telephone app to trace COVID-19 infection. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said that while he wants 40 per cent of Australians to download the government’s COVIDSafe phone app he will not make it compulsory.
But a Facebook post shared more than 34,000 times claims that while the Federal Government may not make downloading the app mandatory, private businesses could pressure individuals to install the app on their phone, on post giving examples such as a supermarket refusing entry if an individual hasn’t got the app on their phone.
The post points to a privacy impact assessment carried out by a law firm on behalf of the government which did acknowledge concerns that individuals could in some circumstances be pressured to download the app.
Not complying with the Biosecurity determination may be a criminal offence, punishable by a maximum of five years in prison.
While Australia has this safeguard built-in with the Biosecurity determination, other countries seeking to implement similar apps may have other safeguards in place.
Fact-checkers at Reuters have debunked a claim, made in a video viewed more than 2.6 million times, that patents for the novel coronavirus have existed since 2006 and were “perfected” in November 2019.
However, the two patents, presented as “proof” that pharmaceutical companies have known about and concealed the novel coronavirus for years, are for SARS, which is caused by SARS-CoV-1, rather than COVID-19, which is caused by SARS-CoV-2.
The fact-checkers also note “[Its] application for the patent was neither hidden nor part of a conspiracy as it was for a different virus strain entirely.”
Dr Buttar, a healthcare professional who keeps himself occupied by spreading misinformation, is featured in the item above about the existence of apparent patents for the novel coronavirus, but he’s also been fact-checked for a claim he made regarding flu vaccines.
“The studies clearly show that if you’ve had a flu shot you’re going to test positive for COVID-19,” Dr Buttar said in an interview posted to Facebook.
Fact-checkers at Reuters and AFP have found that claim to be incorrect. As one US expert, John Sanders, of Wake Forest Baptist Health, told AFP Fact Check: “I’m happy to say this is unsubstantiated rubbish.”
It turned out that of the studies cited by Dr Buttar as “proof” of his claim was conducted on cats in 1984 — 35 years before COVID-19 was identified and became a pandemic. The second study cited by Dr Buttar was published seven years before the outbreak of COVID-19.
FROM WASHINGTON, D.C.
Jimmy Kimmel has “apologised” on Twitter after wrongly suggesting US Vice-President Mike Pence had offered to carry empty boxes to the door of a healthcare centre as part of a delivery of personal protective equipment.
A clip aired by Late night television host Kimmel on May 7 appeared to show Mr Pence suggesting he carry empty boxes “for the camera” after he had helped carry a couple of full boxes.
“Mike Pence pretending to carry a big box of PPEs into a hospital is the perfect metaphor for who he is and what he’s doing: a big box of nothing, delivering another box of nothing,” Kimmel said during the program.
The fact checks prompted Kimmel to delete the clip from Twitter and issue an apology of sorts. “It would appear that [Mr Pence] was joking about carrying empty boxes for a staged publicity stunt,” Kimmel tweeted. “The full video reveals that he was carrying full boxes for a staged publicity stunt. My apologies. I know how dearly this administration values truth.”
The picture in Kimmel’s Tweet shows a van with a large number of apparently empty boxes left after the full ones were taken out. So this filming of Pence, without a face-mask, delivering PPE material was certainly designed as a publicity stunt based on a few full boxes instead of a whole van filled with material.
Things that don’t cure and/or prevent COVID-19
#23: Drinking sugarless black tea at dawn
“Tea cannot protect one from infection with COVID-19.” – Dr Moses Masika, a virologist at the University of Nairobi, as quoted by Africa Check
*The facts in this article are derived from the Australian RMIT ABC Fact Check newsletters which in turn draw on their own resources and those of their colleagues within the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), of which RMIT ABC Fact Check is a member.
