Every US state is now under a disaster declaration. Wyoming has become the 50th, and final, US state to be under a disaster declaration following approval by Donald Trump on Saturday. That means for for the first time in history every US state is under a disaster declaration, which allows federal funds to be used by state and local governments during the pandemic.
With the realities of the coronavirus pandemic’s disproportionate effect on America’s black communities becoming more apparent with each passing day, NFL star Malcolm Jenkins has shared a video telling African Americans that “we must look out for ourselves”.
#dearblackpeople We are the most impacted, yet the focus of resources aren’t being invested in us. We cannot wait for a government that has NEVER prioritized us. We must look out for ourselves. Take care of you first, share resources, protect the elderly, and stay home! pic.twitter.com/Gcc6kJBC4U
“Thank you to all of our first responders, our doctors and nurses who are on the front lines,” said Jenkins, a two-time Super Bowl champion and one of the most visible political activists in the sports world. “You are our heroes. We thank you, we pray for you, we owe you a great debt. This message is for my black brothers and sisters: We must survive. This pandemic is real and the damage that is left in the wake of the coronavirus is realized mostly in our communities. Bad policy, institutional neglect and overexposure place us disproportionately in arm’s reach of the dangers of this deadly virus.
“We are the essential worker. We are the most impacted. Yet the focus of the resources aren’t being invested in us. We cannot wait for a government that has never prioritized us; we must look out for ourselves. So take care of you first, share your resources, protect the elderly and stay home as much as possible. Please stay safe, stay healthy and survive. Because whether they know it or not, the world needs us – and we need us.”
The US Air Force Air Thunderbirds conducted a flyover in celebration of frontline workers, flying past all the major hospitals throughout the Las Vegas valley.
Brigadier general Robert Novotny said: “We were looking at how we could continue to fly and also give back to the community with a salute to the real heroes out there on the front lines who are keeping us safe from the virus.”
The US Air Force Air Thunderbirds fly by University Medical Center as they honor the frontline workers in Las Vegas on 11 April 2020. Photograph: David Becker/ZUMA Wire/REX/Shutterstock
Oklahoma State University football coach Mike Gundy has apologized for comments he made during a teleconference this week about the national response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“I have been made aware that comments from my press conference have offended some,” Gundy said in a statement issued on Saturday. “It was never my intention to offend anyone and I apologize. My first priority is and will always be the student-athletes and doing what is best for the program and the university.”
Gundy has come under criticism since a Tuesday conference call with reporters where he said he hoped to have the team return to the on-campus football facilities on 1 May, in defiance of federal social-distancing guidelines. He said the the media has been overly negative in its coverage of what he called the “Chinese virus and added that if one of his players or coaches were to test positive after then, they would be “quarantined just like we do people that get the flu”.
“We get people that get the flu during the season, we quarantine them, we treat them, we make sure they’re healthy, we bring ‘em back,” Gundy said. “It would be the same thing here, but at some point, we’ve got to go back to work. We’ve got to get these guys back in here. ... From what I read, the healthy people can fight this, the antibodies make it better. They’re doing some blood transplants now with the people that have already gotten the disease, that have gotten over it that have the antibodies that can fight it. There’s a lot of people who can figure this out. May 1’s our goal. Don’t know if it will happen. Players will come in after that.”
The remarks prompted a swift statement from the university, which said: “We will adhere to the advice of public health experts who are making informed decisions in the best interest of the citizens of our nation and state based on sound scientific data.”
It’s not the first time Gundy, whose annual salary is $5.13m, has whipped up controversy over his right-wing views. But USA Today’s Dan Wolken made a salient point in a Wednesday op-ed that Gundy’s political ideology is immaterial:
Hey, according to “Dr. Gundy,” what’s the harm in 18-, 19-, 20-, 21-year-olds possibly getting exposed to coronavirus? If they’re healthy, it’s all good, right? At any rate, we’ve got to get moving, Gundy suggested, because paying salaries and “continuing the economy in this state” relies on the bodies of unpaid amateurs and people will “feel better” watching football on TV.
Herd immunity, right? That’s actually what Dr. Gundy was getting at. In fact, he referred to players as “the herd of healthy people” who can fight the virus, even though that is, uh, not exactly the way any of this works.
None of this should be a surprise. Gundy has been edging toward the cliff of absurdity for a while now. In November 2018, he blamed “liberalism” for players transferring, saying “I’m a firm believer in the snowflake.” He acknowledged Tuesday he’s getting a lot of his information these days from the ultra-conservative One America News Network, an outlet he described as objective and non-political despite its history of pushing debunked right-wing conspiracy theories related to the murder of Seth Rich, and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting survivor David Hogg.
But this isn’t really about Gundy’s political ideology or his sources of information. It’s about him saying the quiet part out loud regarding how many college coaches view their players.
Arkansas senator Tom Cotton, who floated a conspiracy theory which said the Chinese government created Covid-19 in a weapons lab claimed on Saturday that “common sense has been my guide” since he first learned of the outbreak in mid-January.
“Not Chinese communist lies. Not ‘the models’. Not so-called ‘public-health experts’. Just common sense. Many elected leaders have also been guided by common sense. Others haven’t.”
The virus is believed to have originated in a market in Wuhan in which wild animals were sold. But in an appearance on Fox News in February, Cotton floated a conspiracy theory which suggests the virus was manufactured in a Chinese bioweapons facility.
“Here’s what we do know,” he said. “The virus did not originate in the Wuhan animal market. Epidemiologists … have demonstrated that several of the original cases did not have any contact with that food market. That the virus went into that food market before it came out of that food market.
“So we don’t know where it originated. But we do know that we have to get to the bottom of that. We also know that just a few miles away from that food market is China’s only biosafety level four super-laboratory, that researches human infectious diseases.
“We don’t have evidence that this disease originated there but because of China’s duplicity and dishonesty from the beginning, we need to at least ask the question to see what the evidence says, and China right now is not giving evidence on that question at all.”
A federal judge has ruled Kentucky’s largest city cannot halt a drive-in church service planned for Easter. From the Associated Press:
On Fire Christian Church had sued Louisville mayor Greg Fischer and the city after Fischer announced drive-in style religious gatherings were not allowed on Easter.
US district judge Justin Walker sided with the church.
“On Holy Thursday, an American mayor criminalized the communal celebration of Easter,” Walker wrote in his sternly worded 20-page opinion. “That sentence is one that this Court never expected to see outside the pages of a dystopian novel, or perhaps the pages of The Onion.”
Walker added that “The mayor’s decision is stunning. And it is, ‘beyond all reason,’ unconstitutional.”
Fischer had argued that drive-in church services weren’t “practical or safe” for the community. However, Walker noted that drive-thru restaurants and liquor stores were still allowed to operate.
Coronavirus continues to tear through New York City’s jails. The city’s Department of Correction said that 318 detainees, and 562 staff members, have tested positive for Covid-19 as of Saturday morning; two jailed persons have died from the virus. According to the New York Times, seven jail staffers have died due to coronavirus as of Wednesday.
New Jersey governor Phil Murphy has issued an executive order requiring face coverings for all customers entering restaurants and bars to pick up carry-out food in the state.
Murphy’s order, which goes into effect on Monday at 8pm, comes as New Jersey’s numbers continue to surge with at least 58,151 cases and 2,183 deaths due to Covid-19 – including 3,599 new positive tests and 251 new fatalities in the last 24 hours – second only to New York nationally.
“Some may view this as another inconvenience,” Murphy said during his daily press briefing on Saturday in Trenton. “But you know what would be really inconvenient, is if you ended up in hospital with Covid-19 or if you infected a family member. We accept this is inconvenient.”
The order also includes a directive for NJ Transit and private carriers to cut all rail and bus capacity by 50% in an effort to curb the spread and for all transit workers to be provided face masks and gloves.
Every US state is now under a disaster declaration
Wyoming has become the 50th, and final, US state to be under a disaster declaration following approval by Donald Trump on Saturday. That means for for the first time in history every US state is under a disaster declaration. The US Virgin islands, the Northern Mariana Islands, the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico are also under disaster declarations, which allow federal funds to be used by state and local governments during the pandemic.
“Though Wyoming has not reached the dire situations of some states, this declaration will help us to prepare and mobilize resources when we need them,” said Wyoming’s governor, Mark Gordon, in a statement after requesting the declaration earlier this week.
There have been 253 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Wyoming to date. Wyoming is the least populated state in the US. So far there have been no deaths from Covid-19 among its 578,000 residents.
The US government has executed the Defense Production Act for the law’s first project during the Covid-19 outbreak. The act allows the government to order private industry to assist in the defense of the nation. The $133m project will “increase domestic production capacity of N95 masks to over 39m in the next 90 days,” according to a government press release. The release said that the companies involved in the project will be released in the coming days.
