Coronavirus and the CDC

Glenn Reynolds (Mr. Instapundit) had this blurb with link:

WELL, THAT’S BECAUSE THE CDC SUCKS. Sick People Across the U.S. Say They Are Being Denied the Coronavirus Test. It sucked with swine flu, it sucked with Ebola, and it’s sucking now.

The link is to a New York Times article, which is behind a paywall. So for a bit of background, you can go instead to Michelle Malkin’s fearless take on the history of the CDC.  A sampling:

I think I’m where most sane people are on the coronavirus outbreak:

—Concerned but not panicked.

—Calm but not apathetic.

—Taking reasonable precautions but remaining skeptical of what all the purportedly “best experts” here in the United States are telling us about every aspect of their belated crisis management and response (especially on their pimping of vaccine development to prevent the disease).

Here are some plain, non-hysterical facts: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control is a bloated federal government agency with a long history of incompetence, fraud, secrecy, mission creep and shady alliances with both social justice causes on the left and private corporations on the big business right. The “deep state” of entrenched bureaucrats embedded in the Beltway bowels is alive and thriving at the CDC. The un-elected elites who’ve occupied top offices at the public health-industrial complex are hostile to public scrutiny while clamoring for ever-ballooning budgets. Their recommendations have often been detrimental to citizens’ well-being and freedom.

Lots more here.

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Coronavirus update from Cleveland Clinic

From a Facebook friend: 

Statement from Cleveland Clinic onTesting for COVID-19 – March 12 2020, Updated at 5:00 PM:

We want to clarify misinformation that has been trending on social media related to Cleveland Clinic testing for COVID-19. Cleveland Clinic has not developed a new test for COVID-19. We have purchased the necessary CDC components and validated the test in our own lab. This means we can now conduct on-site testing for the virus, allowing us to test patients and receive the results more rapidly – in most cases, within one day. We expect other hospitals and academic medical centers across the country will also have this capability.

More here.

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St. Patrick’s Day: no parade, just voting

photo credit: lagunabeat.com

Cleveland.com reports that the traditional Cleveland downtown St. Patrick’s Day parade is cancelled due to concerns over the coronavirus.  But polling places will be open.  The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections has posted all polling locations here;  there is another page, here, that lists locations recently changed or added.

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No rallies this evening

Yesterday, I blogged about Representative Jackie Speier (D-CA), who complained that President Donald Trump was putting “his most ardent supporters at risk” by not canceling his upcoming political rallies in light of the current coronavirus outbreak. No mention of Joe Biden or Bernie Sanders cancelling their campaign rallies.  But both of them just did. Breitbart reports:

Bernie Sanders Cancels Cleveland Rally Over Coronavirus Concerns

And over at cleveland.com:

A rally by Sanders’ rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, also scheduled for Tuesday night in Cleveland, was also called off.

Is the Coronavirus the reason?  If so, will future rallies also be cancelled?

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Hypocrisy on display: Coronavirus and rallies

photo credit: The Nation 

Pam Key at Breitbart reports:

Representative Jackie Speier (D-CA) complained Sunday on MSNBC that President Donald Trump was putting “his most ardent supporters at risk” by not canceling his upcoming political rallies in light of the current coronavirus outbreak.

Speier said, “I don’t think the president is capable of telling us the truth about the coronavirus. And I regret saying that. I think we have to rely on the scientists who are attempting to tell the truth even when they have to contradict the president.”

She added, “The fact that he is not willing to cancel his various rallies suggests that he is willing to place even his most ardent supporters at risk because we’re supposed to stay six feet away from other persons in order to mitigate the exchange of those viruses. I think that he is showing, unfortunately, why he is so ill-prepared to guide our country during this time of the crisis.”

Uh huh.  But as we read at cleveland.com, both Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden are holding rallies in Cleveland on Tuesday, at the Huntington Convention Center and at Tri-C at East 30th.  See here and here.  No comment from Rep. Jackie Speier.

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Weekend meme

Found somewhere on social media by a Steelers fan (with apologies to all you die-hard Browns fans):

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Update: immigration, DACA amnesty

Neil Munro at Breitbart reports:

President Donald Trump and a group of GOP senators quickly rejected a DACA amnesty deal pushed by Sen. Lindsey Graham on Thursday afternoon – but left the door open to future negotiations.

They will now wait until after the Supreme Court decides on the legality of Barack Obama’s work permit giveaway to 800,000 younger illegals, says multiple media reports.

NumbersUSA adds (via subscriber newsletter):

Other Senators reported at the White House meeting represented some mixed immigration positions: Ted Cruz of Texas, Kevin Cramer of South Dakota, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Martha McSally of Arizona, Mike Lee of Utah, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, and David Perdue of Georgia.

Sens. Tillis and McSally would be open to joining Graham in supporting a mass amnesty, particularly if it came with the right tradeoffs. Sen. Tillis, along with Sen. Johnson, is looking for an expansion of guest worker programs. Sen. McSally would likely be willing to trade amnesty for increased border security in Arizona.

Thankfully, Sens. Cotton and Cruz were also in attendance. Both Senators have pushed back against the idea of granting a permanent amnesty to DACA recipients. Coincidently, Sen. Cotton slammed the Trump Administration's decision to increase the number of low-skilled H-2B visas for FY 2020 via Twitter while the meeting was taking place.

For now, the issue is still up in the air, and the NumbersUSA Action Alert to fax or call Senators is probably better implemented closer to the Supreme Court’s decision, expected in June.

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