I’m not sure if I’ve followed the conversation in this thread completely, but it might be worth noting that NPR added a clarification to their article?
Clarification
April 21, 2020In this audio story, as well as in a previous Web version, we do not make it clear that Sky Marietta closed her coffee shop voluntarily so that her employees would qualify for expanded unemployment benefits.
Has anyone made a gif of this yet? Jesus, the dawning realization on her face… 
So, the entire whiny thesis of the piece wasn’t just insulting to working people, it was also a lie?
In a statement, the Royal Berkshire said it had correctly applied the NHS-wide guidance on PPE.
Just following orders!
It’s one thing to reject a request because of guidance, but it’s another to say that’s the end of the conversation, especially after someone may have died because of it.
Doctors and hospitals in the UK are aggressively shielded from private litigation in a way they are not here, but that protection has to come with transparency and a willingness to investigate and correct problems.
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe2009758
Asymptomatic Transmission, the Achilles’ Heel of Current Strategies to Control Covid-19
Attn: NYT
Headline Writing Lessons
I’m not actually quite as aggro about the NYT as Atrios, but I do think they need constant kicking in the ass (and other organs) to be better.
March 25th: it was still satire for almost a month. Probably a record.
The president now says he was just being sarcastic
I’m not holding my breath, but we’d all be better off if that just wasn’t acceptable and didn’t produce days of media stories.
That needs to be in bold print for a lot of the non-medical professionals (politicians) who are selectively picking and choosing what to take from these reports.
Even after a few several weeks, I’m still (occasionally) briefly mistaking people in the distance wearing black & white face masks for juggalos.
They could be: they’re apparently all taking sensible precautions…
Funny, we get ours from a labradoodle breeder.
Just a reminder: appointing incomprehensibly unqualified people to critical federal roles in a time of emergency is not a Trump innovation, it’s Republican SOP for at least 20 years.
While he was in college, from 1975 to 1978, he handled “labor and budget matters”[7] as an assistant to the city manager of Edmond, Oklahoma (1980 population of 34,637). His White House biography stated that he had emergency services oversight in this position.[6] However, the head of public relations for the city was quoted as denying that Brown had oversight over anybody and that “the assistant is more like an intern.”
Guilty of the only federal crime left:
…not giving Kushner his cut.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/mask-and-ppe-patronage
At every level, the White House is using access to PPE, medical supplies and testing as patronage. Friends get help; enemies can talk to the hand.
This applies both to government contracts and access to materials. And the key access appears to be to presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Just a reminder: there will be no consequences for this. Well, I mean lots of dead doctors and nurses, and lots of enriched Republican donors, but no justice will be served.
