| I'm a postal worker. In the coronavirus pandemic, I am my customers' link to the world. Posted: 26 Apr 2020 05:00 AM PDT  A California postal worker talks about his interactions with customers during the coronavirus pandemic.
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| Ultraviolet light can be used against coronavirus — just not in the way Trump imagines Posted: 25 Apr 2020 02:00 AM PDT  Researchers have shown that ultraviolet light can be used to disinfect surfaces and kill viruses in ambient air in ways that could be used to reduce transmission in public spaces.
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| Democrats Eye Cold, Hard Cash In Next Stimulus Round Posted: 25 Apr 2020 03:00 AM PDT |
| 'Extensive search' for missing soldier after keys, wallet found Posted: 25 Apr 2020 12:09 PM PDT  Vanessa Guillen, 20, was last seen Wednesday in a parking lot at Fort Hood in Texas.
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| Coronavirus: Ecuador 'victim' found alive in hospital mix-up Posted: 25 Apr 2020 02:40 PM PDT  Alba Maruri was wrongly declared to be dead, and someone else's ashes were sent to her family.
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| Saudi Arabia ends death penalty for minors and floggings Posted: 26 Apr 2020 08:11 AM PDT  Saudi Arabia's King Salman has ordered an end to the death penalty for crimes committed by minors, according to a statement Sunday by a top official. The decision comes on the heels of another ordering judges to end the practice of flogging, replacing it with jail time, fines or community service and bringing one of the kingdom's most controversial forms of public punishment to a close. King Salman's son and heir, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is seen as the force behind the kingdom's loosening of restrictions and its pivot away from ultraconservative interpretations of Islamic law known as Wahhabism, which many in the country still closely adhere to.
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| Philip Kahn, 100, Dies; Spanish Flu Took His Twin a Century Ago Posted: 25 Apr 2020 07:21 AM PDT  Philip Kahn believed that history repeats itself, a truism that has hit home for his family in extraordinary fashion.His twin brother, Samuel, died as an infant during the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918-19. Now Kahn himself has died of the coronavirus. He was 100."He was a very healthy 100," Warren Zysman, one of his grandsons, said in a phone interview. "He watched the news, he was completely aware of the pandemic. When he started coughing, he knew he might have it, and he knew the irony of what was going on."Zysman added: "And he would say, 'Warren my boy, I told you history always repeats itself. We could have been much better prepared for this.'"Philip Kahn, a decorated World War II veteran, died April 17 at his home in Westbury, New York, on Long Island. "Tests confirmed he had COVID-19," his doctor, Sandeep Jauhar, a cardiologist in nearby New Hyde Park, wrote on Facebook."Lovely man, wry wit, a kind soul," Jauhar added. "His twin brother succumbed in a different pandemic, the Spanish flu ... 101 years ago."The chances of siblings dying a century apart in global pandemics seem beyond remote, but the Kahns are not the only ones. Selma Ryan, 96, who died of the virus in San Antonio, Texas, on April 14, lost her older sister, Esther, to the Spanish Flu 102 years earlier, according to News4SA, a local television station. The sisters never knew each other.Philip Felix Kahn did not know his brother either. The twins, whose father ran a bakery on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, were born Dec. 15, 1919, also in Manhattan, while the Spanish flu was still raging. The boys were just a few weeks old when Samuel died."He had this level of sadness about it because, while he was born a twin, he never got to experience being a twin," said Zysman, who is himself a twin."He always told me how hard the loss of his brother was for his parents," he added, "and that he carried this void with him his entire life."Kahn served in an Army aerial unit in the Pacific during World War II, participating in the Battle of Iwo Jima and later in firebombing raids over Japan. He also helped make aerial surveys after the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He earned two Bronze Stars.After the war, he worked as an electrical foreman and helped build the World Trade Center and the first New York City blood bank. He was always active, enjoying swimming and dancing. He would even dance on roller skates.In addition to Zysman, Kahn is survived by his daughter, Lynn Zysman; five other grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.Zysman said that his grandfather loved to talk about the war and history, and that almost every story he told began with his brother, Samuel, and ended with the same point: It was important to learn from experience. Toward the end of his life he spoke often of Samuel.Zysman's wife, Dr. Corey Karlin-Zysman, who has been treating coronavirus patients around the clock at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, called the brothers "pandemic bookends."The Spanish Flu killed 50 million people worldwide; so far, the coronavirus has killed 191,000.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Iran plans to reopen mosques in areas free of coronavirus, president says Posted: 26 Apr 2020 06:04 AM PDT  Iran, one of the Middle Eastern countries hardest hit by the pandemic, will be divided up into white, yellow and red regions based on the number of infections and deaths, Rouhani said, according to the presidency's website. Activities in each region will be restricted accordingly, so an area that has been consistently free of infections or deaths will be labelled white and mosques could be reopened and Friday prayers resumed, Rouhani said. Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi said in an interview with state TV on Sunday that 116 counties in the country could be considered white at the moment and 134 yellow.
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| Re-Opening Politics, North Korea’s Future Draw Scrutiny: Weekend Reads Posted: 25 Apr 2020 05:00 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- How and when to ease lockdowns to fight the coronavirus — along with government efforts to ramp up testing capacity — were the key questions across the globe this week as the pandemic spread.In the U.S., small bands of protesters — driven by the social-media tactics of a coalition of gun-rights activists and far-right groups — staged demonstrations over government-ordered closures of businesses and schools, particularly in Democratic-led states. Elsewhere the impact of the virus on the world's poorest people is coming into focus. And uncertainty swirled around the state of Kim Jong Un's health after reports the North Korean leader was in critical condition following cardiovascular surgery. Dig deeper into these and other topics with the latest edition of Weekend Reads. Patchwork Approach to Reopening States Reveals a Red-Blue DivideAs Amanda Hurley reports, the gap between how Republican- and Democratic-controlled states seek to ease social distacing measures and restart their economies will likely grow wider as the pandemic grinds on.Inside the Dystopian, Post-Lockdown World of WuhanThe first epicenter is coming back to life, but not as anyone knew it. Sharon Chen and Matthew Campbell — with the help of Claire Che and Sarah Chen — tell what it's like for some of the millions of people in Wuhan trying to come to grips with the economic and social fallout from the worst pandemic in a century.The Week Coronavirus Got Away From Boris Johnson's GovernmentBritain had time. Academics, disease specialists and critics say the prime minister wasted it. Alex Morales, Suzi Ring, Robert Hutton and James Paton take you inside a critical week in March. Kim Jong Un Has Put North Korea in Position to Outlast His ReignWhatever the state of Kim's health, he's already put North Korea in its strongest position to resist U.S. pressure in decades. Eight years after Kim filled the power vacuum left by the death of his reclusive father, Kim Jong Il, North Korea is more secure and less isolated. Jihye Lee and Jon Herskovitz explain why that matters right now. Workers Who Make the World's Clothes Are Facing Abject PovertyRozina Begum is worried that she and her husband and two children will starve. Rozina — along with 300 other workers at the Ultimate Fashions plant on the outskirts of Bangladesh's capital lost their jobs March 25. She's one of the millions of people who are on the lowest rung of a global supply chain that has been shattered by the virus, Marvin G. Perez and Arun Devnath report. Virus Care Disruptions Raise Infant Death Risk in Poor NationsThe Covid-19 pandemic has the potential to reverse years of progress in reducing maternal and child mortality worldwide by impairing access to medical care in poorer countries. Anne Pollak takes a closer look. Hope Turns to Doubt, Then Gunfire, as Saudi Megacity EmergesWhen Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman unveiled plans for Neom, a futuristic megacity on the Red Sea coast, residents rejoiced. Jobs and investment would surely accompany the $500 billion development at the center of the young leader's plan to transform his conservative kingdom. But that optimism has faded. Vivian Nereim explores why. High-Seas Energy Fight Off Malaysia Draws U.S., Chinese WarshipsMalaysia's push to explore energy blocks off its coast has turned into a five-nation face-off involving U.S. and Chinese warships. That's raised the risk of a direct confrontation as broader tensions grow between the world's biggest economies, Philip J. Heijmans reports.Religious Group's Mass Gatherings Spark Asian Virus ClustersA conservative religious group's gatherings have emerged as virus hotspots in Malaysia, India and now Pakistan, with authorities tracking people who attended an event with as many as 70,000 worshipers. Faseeh Mangi has more.Tell us how we're doing or what we're missing at balancepower@bloomberg.net.And finally … Sushen Dang, 26, and his fiancee, Keerti Narang, dreamed of making their wedding an affair to remember — but not like this. Instead of hundreds of guests descending on a wildlife resort for a multi-day revelry with cocktail parties and elaborate feasts, the couple got married over the video conferencing app Zoom amid a stringent national lockdown. It's just one example of how India's $70-billion wedding industry has skidded to a stop in the midst of peak marriage season. For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Lawmaker apologizes for face mask that looks like Confederate flag Posted: 25 Apr 2020 11:35 AM PDT  State Sen. Dale Zorn said, "I'm sorry for my choice of pattern," after initially denying that his face mask depicted the Confederate flag.
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| Fact check: Is the economy still in a better place than when Obama left office? Posted: 25 Apr 2020 03:31 PM PDT  Some are comparing the pandemic-hit Trump economy still favorably to its high point under the Obama administration. That claim is partly false.
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| Coronavirus: Cuban doctors go to South Africa Posted: 26 Apr 2020 05:28 AM PDT  The medics are among 1,200 sent to countries that requested help from the communist state.
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| Woman in India gang-raped after being quarantined alone in school: Police Posted: 26 Apr 2020 08:59 AM PDT  A woman was allegedly gang-raped while being quarantined alone in a school amid India's strict coronavirus lockdown, a police official said.
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| French coronavirus deaths reach 22,856 as government eyes how to ease lockdown Posted: 26 Apr 2020 10:27 AM PDT  The death toll in France from the coronavirus has risen by 242 to 22,856, the health ministry said on Sunday, as the government prepares to see how it might ease a national lockdown that has been in place since mid-March. While the number of deaths from the virus has risen, the rate at which the casualties have mounted has steadily fallen over the last two weeks, emboldening those who want France to start to lift the lockdown measures. The numbers of people leaving intensive care units (ICUs) has also outpaced the numbers of those entering those units.
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| Mexico returns Central Americans, empties migrant centers Posted: 26 Apr 2020 03:17 PM PDT |
| Trump's Temporary Halt to Immigration is Part of Broader Plan, Stephen Miller Says Posted: 25 Apr 2020 07:12 AM PDT  WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump's decision to suspend family-based immigration because of the coronavirus is the beginning of a broader strategy to reduce the flow of foreigners into the United States, Stephen Miller, the architect of President Donald Trump's immigration agenda, told a group of conservative allies Thursday.During a private conference call with the president's supporters, Miller sought to reassure them of Trump's commitment to their cause and urged them to publicly defend his executive order. He pledged that it was only a first step in the administration's longer-term goal of shrinking legal immigration."The first and most important thing is to turn off the faucet of new immigrant labor -- mission accomplished -- with signing that executive order," Miller said, according to an audio recording of the conference call obtained by The New York Times.The executive order Trump signed this week bars people from receiving green cards for 60 days, a move that immigration advocates condemned. But it does nothing to limit visa programs that bring tens of thousands of workers to the United States, infuriating groups that call for deep reductions in the number of foreign citizens entering the country.Miller said that further restrictions on programs for foreign workers were likely."In terms of dealing with some of these seasonal flows of guest workers and developing a strategy for that, that's what the president directed us to do," he said. The existence of the tape was first reported by The Washington Post.During the 2016 campaign, Trump seized on fear of immigrants as a powerful political issue, and after winning the election, he aggressively pushed to shut down illegal crossings by demanding a "big, beautiful wall" between the United States and Mexico. In summer 2018, he separated migrant parents from their children when they crossed the border illegally and sent the U.S. military to fortify the border with Mexico.But immigration hard-liners have repeatedly urged the president to do more to permanently reduce the number of foreigners allowed to enter legally. Miller has made that a top priority in the last several years, pushing through regulatory changes aimed at shrinking the opportunities for foreigners to live and work in the United States.During the call, Miller said that the president's executive order, while temporary, would have long-lasting effects because it would disrupt what conservatives call "chain migration," in which the arrival of one immigrant in the United States opens the door to an extended family: parents, adult children, siblings and others."When you suspend the entry of a new immigrant from abroad, you're also reducing immigration further, because of the chains of follow-on migration that are disrupted," Miller said. "So the benefit to American workers compounds with time."Immigration is an issue that Trump has repeatedly turned to as a way to shore up his political base whenever his fortunes have appeared troubled. In late 2018, as polls predicted -- accurately, it turned out -- deep Republican losses in the midterm elections, the president pointed to what he claimed was an "invasion" by a caravan of immigrants who were heading toward the southwestern border.During Miller's call, the deputy secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, echoed Miller's comments by saying the president has been considering such a step "since the economic effects of the COVID virus began."Cuccinelli, a former Virginia attorney general who has long pushed for less immigration, told the president's supporters on the call that "your best approach, in my view, is just to note this is a positive step -- note the president has opened the door to more steps.""You can certainly expect more actions from him as time goes forward," Cuccinelli added.In response to a question from a caller about how to "message" the intent of the executive order, Cuccinelli said, "Talk about the fact that the president is taking steps, is taking this seriously, and has instructed us to prepare for other steps."The issue of what to do about legal immigration has long divided Republicans, and many in the president's party on Capitol Hill oppose proposals that would block businesses -- including technology companies in Silicon Valley and big agricultural industries -- from tapping into large pools of foreign labor.But others in the party, including Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, have repeatedly pushed for legislation that would reduce legal immigration. In 2017, Trump endorsed the RAISE Act, a bill that Cotton sponsored that would have cut legal immigration each year by about half, from about 1 million to about 500,000. The legislation ultimately went nowhere.While Trump has often used immigration as a tool to rally his base, he has not been consistent in his approach. The administration is facing a potential inflection point when the Supreme Court rules in the next few months on whether the administration's end of the program that protects undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children, known as DACA, was done legally.If the administration's decision is upheld, Trump will face the possibility of deporting hundreds of thousands of immigrants, many of whom are in high school or college and have known no other life, while he is in the middle of a reelection battle.On a recent call with Republican senators, Trump told the group that he would not "leave them hanging," in reference to immigrants affected by the decision, but he said nothing further.It is unclear exactly how the executive order that temporarily halted immigration was drafted. Two officials familiar with the discussions said that Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and senior adviser who has taken on a bigger role in immigration discussions, was left out of the process of developing the order.Officials said that the order was initially meant to be broader, putting what the president called "a pause" on both family-based immigration and the guest worker programs that are important to business groups.But Tuesday, after the president tweeted about the executive order the previous night -- which caught several advisers by surprise -- the White House faced fierce criticism from corporate executives, farmers and others who rely on temporary guest workers.Kushner told the president that he should consider alternatives to the strict measures that were under discussion, according to the officials with knowledge of the discussions.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| German Coronavirus Deaths Climb to 5,723 With 148 New Fatalities Posted: 24 Apr 2020 11:52 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- The number of new coronavirus deaths and confirmed cases in Germany slowed, with fatalities dropping to the lowest in five days.Deaths rose by 148 to 5,723 in the 24 hours through Saturday morning, a smaller increase than Friday's daily rise of 260, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. There were 1,416 new cases, bringing the total to 154,545, the fourth-highest in Europe.With Spain, Italy and France, the hardest-hit countries in Europe, reporting their fewest deaths in weeks, European governments are considering ways to ease confinement measures that have crushed their economies. Germany has been spared the much higher number of fatalities seen elsewhere in Europe and globally."Testing is one of the keys to why we have been able to come through this crisis in relatively good shape until now," German Health Minister Jens Spahn said Friday on broadcaster ZDF. "We tested very widely from the start and therefore had a very early picture of the development in Germany."For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Spanish flu-era diaries give Ohio family hope Posted: 26 Apr 2020 09:42 AM PDT  "While a global pandemic shuttering schools and businesses feels like new territory, many of our families still bear the scars of the 1918 influenza pandemic," Amy Patterson says.
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| Fact check: Hospitals get paid more if patients listed as COVID-19, on ventilators Posted: 26 Apr 2020 10:32 AM PDT  Hospitals are paid more for Medicare patients with COVID-19, but a senator who first said that says he doesn't think the system is being gamed.
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| Asian-Americans seek to deter hateful attacks amid pandemic Posted: 26 Apr 2020 08:40 AM PDT  As the coronavirus first seen in China now ravages the U.S., Asian-Americans are wrestling with a second epidemic: hate. Hundreds of attacks on Asian people have been reported, with few signs of decline. Many are filming their interactions or carrying guns.
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| Saudi ramps up virus testing as lockdown relaxed Posted: 26 Apr 2020 08:23 AM PDT  Saudi Arabia announced Sunday a $265 million deal with a Chinese firm to ramp up coronavirus testing as the kingdom eased a 24-hour curfew, except in hotspots including Islam's holy city of Mecca. The agreement with China's Beijing Genome Institute (BGI) will provide for nine million COVID-19 tests, the government said in a statement. Earlier the government decided to relax a nationwide curfew between 9am and 5pm, with malls and retailers allowed to reopen until May 13, according to the official Saudi Press Agency.
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| India's Modi urges citizens to follow lockdown as coronavirus spreads Posted: 26 Apr 2020 12:56 AM PDT  Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged Indians to comply with a nationwide lockdown and social distancing measures on Sunday, a day after some of the world's toughest restrictions were eased slightly while cases of COVID-19 continued to mount. In a radio address, Modi said the country was in the midst of a "war" and the country's 1.3 billion citizens should not be misled into believing the spread of the virus had been brought fully under control by more than a month of lockdown. "We should not be trapped into over-confidence and nurse the belief that coronavirus has not reached our city, our village, our streets, our office, and so will not reach them," Modi said.
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| Court: City must pay for claims police officers planted guns Posted: 25 Apr 2020 10:10 AM PDT |
| Governors say Trump needs to watch what he says Posted: 26 Apr 2020 07:31 AM PDT  Maryland's Larry Hogan and Michigan's Gretchen Whitmer decried his comments on disinfectants.
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| South Africa Plans Curfew From May 1 as It Slowly Lifts Lockdown Posted: 25 Apr 2020 03:58 AM PDT |
| Judge: California can't require background checks for ammo Posted: 24 Apr 2020 11:07 PM PDT  "California's new ammunition background check law misfires," wrote U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez.
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| New York's low coronavirus transmission rate suggests the state's outbreak is contained for now Posted: 26 Apr 2020 12:00 PM PDT  Still, before New York can reopen, its hospitalization rate must be in decline for 14 days, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on Sunday.
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| Body of murdered student tracked down using Apple's Find My Friends app Posted: 25 Apr 2020 11:50 AM PDT  The body of a nursing student who was strangled to death by her classmate was discovered by her friends after they used Apple's Find My Friends app to track her down.Binghampton University student Haley Anderson, 22, went missing in March 2018, and it later emerged she had been killed by Orlando Tercero, 23.
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| Iran says virus cases pass 90,000 Posted: 26 Apr 2020 06:33 AM PDT  The number of novel coronavirus cases in Iran has passed 90,000, according to official figures released Sunday, as Tehran announced its lowest number of new deaths in weeks. Health authorities have registered 1,153 new cases of the COVID-19 illness since midday Saturday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 90,481, health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour told a daily news briefing. Iran announced its first novel coronavirus cases in February, and is the worst-hit country in the Middle East.
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| Russia at risk of spike in coronavirus cases during May holidays: official Posted: 26 Apr 2020 02:07 AM PDT  Russia could experience a spike in cases of the new coronavirus if people flout lockdown measures during public holidays scheduled for early May, a top health official said on Sunday. The number of coronavirus cases in Russia began rising sharply this month, reaching more than 80,000 on Sunday after a record 6,361 new cases were registered over the past day. Anna Popova, head of Russia's consumer health watchdog, said the country had so far avoided a spike in cases and could continue to do so "if only we do not give up during the holidays".
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| Virus lockdown raises tensions in France's poorest areas Posted: 26 Apr 2020 01:15 AM PDT  CLICHY-SOUS-BOIS, France (AP) — Joining more than 1,000 others, Djemba Diatite stood for hours in line to feed her growing family, grateful for handouts of fruits, vegetables and soap. The coronavirus pandemic has turned her world upside down. With open air markets closed around Paris, supermarket prices skyrocketing, an out-of-work husband, two children to feed and another on the way, Diatite said even tomatoes were now too expensive.
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| Pelosi, Schumer demand small business carve-out as SBA restrains loans Posted: 26 Apr 2020 02:50 PM PDT  The request underscored concerns that hundreds of billions of dollars in aid would fail to reach some of the most vulnerable small businesses.
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| South Africa Seeks 95 Billion Rand From IMF, World Bank, NDB Posted: 26 Apr 2020 05:35 AM PDT |
| White House could change virus briefings to limit Trump role Posted: 25 Apr 2020 07:36 AM PDT  For the first time, President Trump cut off his daily coronavirus task force briefing on Friday without taking any questions from reporters, and it may not be the last time.
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| A retired Kansas farmer had an extra N95 mask. He sent it to New York Gov. Cuomo. Posted: 25 Apr 2020 07:55 AM PDT  A Kansas farmer whose letter captured the attention of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo discusses why he sent an N95 mask.
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| Hong Kong protests: Jailed man gets judge's sympathy for stabbing Posted: 25 Apr 2020 07:49 AM PDT  The judge who jailed the man for the attack at an anti-government protest said he was a victim.
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| Saudi eases coronavirus curfews, keeps 24-hour curfew in Mecca Posted: 26 Apr 2020 02:16 AM PDT  Saudi Arabia eased curfews on Sunday across the country but kept 24-hour lockdowns in place in the city of Mecca and neighbourhoods previously put in isolation to curb the spread of the new coronavirus, state news agency SPA said. Outside Mecca and lockdown areas, curfews will be eased between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. (0600-1400 GMT) until May 13.
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| Could a 'controlled avalanche' stop the coronavirus faster, and with fewer deaths? Posted: 25 Apr 2020 02:21 PM PDT  Israeli scientists say they can mimic the effects of a vaccination campaign if certain people willingly get infected with the coronavirus and recover.
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| Trump administration and Mitch McConnell hit with lawsuit over claims they denied stimulus checks to citizens married to 'unauthorized' immigrants Posted: 26 Apr 2020 07:26 AM PDT  There are around 1.2 million "unauthorized" US residents married to US citizens, the lawsuit alleges, citing the Migration Policy Institute.
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| Venezuela Announces Price Controls as Food Shortages Worsen Posted: 25 Apr 2020 07:11 AM PDT |
| El Paso Walmart shooting victim dies, raising death toll to 23 Posted: 26 Apr 2020 03:46 PM PDT  A hospital official said Guillermo "Memo" Garcia died after a nine-month fight.
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| Bill Maher Believes People Should ‘Want’ to Get Coronavirus Posted: 24 Apr 2020 11:39 PM PDT  On Friday night, instead of opting for a despicably racist rant against China over the novel coronavirus or blaming the media, Bill Maher welcomed Dr. David Katz, a doctor and ex-instructor at the Yale School of Medicine, onto his show Real Time. Dr. Katz, who consistently flaunts his Yale ties despite the fact that they were severed in 2016, has become something of a right-wing darling after penning a controversial New York Times op-ed on March 20 titled "Is Our Fight Against Coronavirus Worse Than the Disease?" In it, Katz argues against the self-isolation policies put in place by most of the U.S., instead saying the country should isolate the elderly and infirm, which would thus "allow most of society to return to life as usual and perhaps prevent vast segments of the economy from collapsing. Healthy children could return to school and healthy adults go back to their jobs. Theaters and restaurants could reopen, though we might be wise to avoid very large social gatherings like stadium sporting events and concerts." John Oliver Exposes Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh's Coronavirus BSBen Affleck Smoking in a Mask Might Be the Ultimate Coronavirus MemeFollowing his op-ed, Katz has made appearances on Fox News touting his hole-filled theory, thereby co-signing a network that's called the pandemic a "hoax"; repeatedly downplayed it; and spent hours and hours pushing hydroxychloroquine as a miracle cure, even though it's been determined by most of the medical community to do way more harm than good following a series of poisonings and deaths. On top of that, a convincing refutation of Katz's ill-advised piece was published in The New York Times from those currently at the Yale School of Public Health that read, in part: First, it is not yet known who all of the most vulnerable people are. We believe that it is easier, quicker and more efficient to reduce transmission over all than to permit high levels of transmission in the community but somehow keep it from afflicting susceptible people in our highly networked world.Second, it is likely that more intense transmission among younger people, who Dr. Katz suggests should be freed of most social-distancing restrictions, would result in many more of their deaths, especially as hospitals become overwhelmed.Third, allowing the virus to spread uninhibited across a wide swath of our country might eliminate any hope we might have of snuffing out viral transmission into a new respiratory virus season next winter.Despite all this, there Katz was on Maher's HBO show regurgitating the arguments he made in his ridiculed Times piece—which he wrote when we were at 200 deaths nationwide; we're now at 52,400 deaths and climbing with strict shutdowns and social distancing in place. He said America should take "the middle path," wherein "high-risk people are protected from exposure, low-risk people go out in the world early," before saying something truly wild: "We actually kind of want to get this, and get over with, and be immune, because that is the path to the all-clear that doesn't require us to wait for a vaccine." To Katz's argument that everyone should want to get infected with COVID-19, Maher replied, "Yeah, I think you make a lot of sense there. And I think it's a shame—you talk about politicization, that people like you who sound reasonable, maybe it's not the exact one true opinion you hear somewhere else, has to go on Fox News." Further, Katz claimed that it's "the liberal ideology that seems to be so resistant to talking about unemployment and the economy," when amid the COVID-19 crisis, the progressive left wing of the Democratic Party—Bernie Sanders, AOC and the like—have been fighting hard for workers and arguing for rent cancellation as well as giving $2,000 a month to each household during the shutdown (similar to the policies instituted in Canada, which has done a fine job containing the virus' spread), while Republicans in Congress pushed for tax language in the stimulus bill that overwhelmingly benefits millionaires. But far be it from Bill Maher, a supposed Sanders supporter, to disagree with that dubious claim. Here are some things Katz conveniently left out: as we've seen in New York City, the epicenter of the crisis, approximately 20 percent of deaths have been people under the age of 64. And while people under the age of 44 have only accounted for a comparatively small number of deaths, they've accounted for a high number of hospitalizations, which has not only overwhelmed hospitals (causing many sick people to die due to a lack of supplies or staff) but will also inevitably land many in serious financial debt. I'll leave you with the current leadership of the Yale School of Public Health who, in their letter repudiating Katz, wrote: Until we have a vaccine to prevent COVID-19 and effective antiviral drugs, it is essential to engage in aggressive personal hygiene, social distancing, increased testing, isolation of exposed people, and strategies to avoid transmission in health settings. We must buy time for these advances and save lives in the interim.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. 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