NOBODY KNOWS MUCH: Infectious Disease Experts Don’t Know How Bad The Coronavirus Is Going To Get, Either.

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Plus, deals in Health and Household.

UNREAL: FDA Sits on Critical Mask-Sanitizing Technology, Leaving the Job Up to Grandmas with Sewing Machines.

I SAW EARLIER THAT THE SURVIVAL RATE FOR NHS PATIENTS ON VENTILATORS WAS SURPRISINGLY HIGH, BUT MAYBE IT’S NOT SO SURPRISING IN LIGHT OF THIS: Intensive care for coronavirus patients now limited to those ‘reasonably certain’ to survive, NHS London Trust concedes. “A department head at Imperial College Healthcare revealed on Sunday that fewer and fewer marginal patients are being selected for ventilator treatment because so many serious cases require a fortnight on the machines.”

GEORGE CREEL IS ALIVE AND WELL IN TODAY’S MEDIA: Never heard of Creel? James Carville has and he loves Woodrow Wilson’s fascistic Committee on Public Information, which progressive journalist Creel ran. Nothing good can come of this.

IF THE PRESS DOESN’T WANT TO BE THOUGHT OF AS GARBAGE, MAYBE IT SHOULD STOP BEING GARBAGE: The Washington Post’s Gleeful Hot Take on the Crashing Economy Gets the Thrashing It Deserves.

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OPEN THREAD: Make this one yours.

UGH. NEWS FROM TENNESSEE: 59 additional residents, 33 staff members of Gallatin Center for Rehabilitation test positive for COVID-19. Gallatin is just outside Nashville, which for some reason seems to have the vast bulk of cases in the state.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Astrophysicist Brian May (of Queen!) teaches you how to play the Bohemian Rhapsody solo while in self-isolation.

HE’D SLEEP WITH THE FISHES IF HE DID: Why Joe Biden doesn’t dare tap Andrew Cuomo for veep.

PROGRESS: FDA issues emergency authorization of anti-malaria drug for coronavirus care.

Politico says there’s “scant evidence,” but that’s ignoring multiple French studies. It’s journalistic malpractice — which is to say, journalism as usual in the age of Trump — to pretend that there’s “scant evidence.” Politico’s Dan Diamond doesn’t even mention the French studies.

Related: Italy and France are now prescribing hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine as treatments for coronavirus patients. Politico’s Dan Diamond doesn’t mention this either, preferring to treat it as purely a hare-brained Trump scheme.

I thought the press usually wanted us to be more like Europe.

UPDATE: “Scant evidence.” Novartis CEO says Malaria drug is biggest hope against coronavirus.

Novartis Chief Executive Vas Narasimhan said his Sandoz generics unit’s malaria, lupus and arthritis drug hydroxychloroquine is the company’s biggest hope against the coronavirus, Swiss newspaper SonntagsZeitung reported on Sunday.

Novartis has pledged to donate 130 million doses and is supporting clinical trials needed before the medicine, which U.S. President Donald Trump also has been promoting, can be approved for use against the coronavirus.

Other companies including Bayer and Teva have also agreed to donate hydroxychloroquine or similar drugs, while Gilead Sciences is testing its experimental drug remdesivir against coronavirus.

“Pre-clinical studies in animals as well as the first data from clinical studies show that hydroxychloroquine kills the coronavirus,” Narasimhan told the newspaper.

I mean, you might disagree, or say it’s early days yet, but “scant evidence?” This is why people think the press is garbage. Because it keeps being garbage.

SINGER JOHN PRINE, 73, IN CRITICAL CONDITION AFTER HOSPITALIZATION FOR CORONAVIRUS.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Country music star Joe Diffie dies of coronavirus at 61.

CHANGE: Checkpoints set up along Florida-Alabama border to keep COVID-19 from spreading in the sunshine state. “Florida law enforcement agencies set up checkpoints at the Alabama-Florida border. On Friday, Governor Ron Desantis issued an executive order to keep people travelling from areas known to have a lot of COVID-19 cases out of the state.”

DISPATCHES FROM THE MANCHURIAN MEDIA: Media Still Pretending We Can Believe China’s Coronavirus Numbers.

Related: 5,000 Urns Shipped to Funeral Homes in Wuhan Raise Questions about China’s True Death Toll.

COMRADE DEBLASIO TEARS UP FIRST AMENDMENT IN NYC: Religious congregations are warned that failing to heed his orders could result in their buildings being permanently shuttered:

https://youtu.be/Qpt2OBqQVns

WELL, OF COURSE: US Department Of Homeland Security Declares That Firearms Related Workers Are “Essential.”

But this wouldn’t have happened in a Hillary administration.

INDEED:

Anyway, it’s a strange matter to compare Trump and Biden on coronavirus. Trump is actively engaged in solving the problem, and we’ve got to be hoping he’ll be effective, though I suspect there are some Americans who care more about installing the Democratic Party into power for the next 4 years than they care about getting us out of this jam. But the idea of Biden stepping in… that’s not even something that can happen for 10 months. Who can think about Biden somehow doing better than Trump 10 months from now?!

Noboy with a brain.

‘NO MORE EASTER DEADLINE:’ President Trump extends social distancing guidelines to end of April.

A MYSTERIOUS GAS IS ESCAPING URANUS.