Detroit mayor confirms denial of treatment to "extremely sick" patients: "What they put out is honest"
wsws.org | 2020-03-28
One ICU nurse at a local hospital posted a video to social media from her car in tears as she described the COVID unit in her hospital saying that "it felt like I was working in a war zone."
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/03/28/detr-m28.html

Netizens Crack up Over Viral Video of Reporter 'Social Distancing' From a Herd of Bison
sputniknews.com | 2020-03-28
A reporter has recently taught social media users a great lesson on social distancing at Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. The park has been closed until further notice because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
sputniknews.com/viral/202003281078740061-viral-video-of-reporter-social-distancing-from-a-herd-of-bison/

From Coronasutra to Racy Use of Hand Sanitisers: Netizens Come Up With #SafeSexTipsDuringQuarantine
sputniknews.com | 2020-03-28
While everything is more or less clear regarding working from home, as by far not all employment is about close contact, the same cannot by definition apply to one's sex life. However, savvy self-isolated (or not yet) netizens have offered up quite a few options to bump uglies and still stay germ-free.
sputniknews.com/viral/202003281078741193-from-coronasutra-to-racy-use-of-hand-sanitisers-netizens-come-up-with-safesextipsduringquarantine/

Kazakh bodybuilder's 'marriage' to sex doll girlfriend on hold because of coronavirus
rt.com | 2020-03-28
Kazakh bodybuilder Yuri Tolochko has revealed his planned nuptials with sex-doll fiancee Margo have fallen victim to the coronavirus pandemic. Yes, you read that right. | Muscleman Tolochko recently sent social media into a spin when he announced his plans to wed plastic lover Margo, having first shared news of their relationship back in May of 2019. | Also on rt.com | | Freaky romance: Kazakh bodybuilder intends to marry sex doll (PHOTOS) | Silicone sex doll Margo has her own Instagram page run by Tolochko, where the details of their intense preparat…
rt.com/sport/484358-kazakh-bodybuilder-sex-doll-marriage-coronavirus/

'Open your STUPIDLY abandoned plant': Trump lashes out at GM & Ford over ventilator delay
rt.com | 2020-03-27
President Donald Trump has lost his patience with automakers who promised to produce ventilators to treat Covid-19 patients, threatening to invoke his emergency powers to force General Motors and Ford to live up to their pledge. | "They said they were going to give us 40,000 much needed Ventilators, 'very quickly,'" Trump tweeted on Friday. "Now they are saying it will only be 6000, in late April, and they want top dollar." | He added that it's "always a mess" with GM CEO Mary Barra, and that he will invoke the Defense Production Act, a piece of wartime legislation giving the president the power to order manuf…
rt.com/usa/484308-trump-gm-coronavirus-ventilators/

The Tories' latest coronavirus response is peak hypocrisy
Steve Topple | thecanary.co | 2020-03-27
The UK government has announced measures to try and protect rough sleepers from the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. In doing so, it has effectively solved rough sleeping, albeit temporarily. But this move begs the question: why the hell haven't the Tories done this before? | Coronavirus: more UK government action: | Sky News tweeted on Friday 27 March: | The Government has written to all local authorities in England asking them to house all people sleeping rough,those in hostels and night shelters by the w…
thecanary.co/trending/2020/03/27/the-tories-latest-coronavirus-response-is-peak-hypocrisy/

How austerity and anti-immigrant politics left Italy exposed to viral blitzkrieg
Conn Hallinan | peoplesworld.org | 2020-03-27
As the viral blitzkrieg rolls across one European border after another, it seems to have a particular enmity for Italy. The country's death toll has far surpassed China's, and scenes from its hospitals look like something out of Dante's imagination. Why? Italy has the fourth-largest economy in the European Union, and in terms of health …
peoplesworld.org/article/how-austerity-and-anti-immigrant-politics-left-italy-exposed-to-viral-blitzkrieg/

Misinformation and the Coronavirus: On the Dangers of Depoliticization and Social Media
Anthony DiMaggio | counterpunch.org | 2020-03-27
Bill Gates created the coronavirus. China secretly developed it in a lab as a biological weapon. A cure exists and the government controls it, but won't release it to the public. The virus is no more dangerous than the seasonal flu. Coronavirus is a "fake news" hoax manufactured by the news. You can use hand…
counterpunch.org/2020/03/27/misinformation-and-the-coronavirus-on-the-dangers-of-depoliticization-and-social-media/

VIDEO: Israeli Soldiers Spit on Palestinian-owned Property in Hebron
Rami Almeghari | imemc.org | 2020-03-27
Israeli soldiers, on Friday morning, in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, reportedly spat on Palestinian-owned vehicles and property in a Hebron suburb, according to a local official. In video footage, shown on social media, Israeli soldiers were seen spitting on Palestinian vehicles, which were parked in an industrial …
imemc.org/article/israeli-soldiers-spit-on-palestinian-owned-property-in-hebron/

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is Covid-19 Positive
telesurenglish.net | 2020-03-27
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has tested positive for coronavirus, according to what the politician reported in a video posted on his Twitter account on Friday. | RELATED: | Erdogan, Merkel, Macron, Johnson Address Situation of Syria | "In the past 24 hours, I have developed mild symptoms and tested positive for coronavirus," said the conservative leader on th…
telesurenglish.net/news/British-Prime-Minister-Boris-Johnson-is-Covid-19-Positive-20200327-0001.html

Bolivia: TSE Gives Possible Date for Presidential Elections
telesurenglish.net | 2020-03-26
Bolivia's Supreme Electoral Tribunal announced a possible date for the next presidential elections. The elections were supposed to be held on May 3, but were postponed due to the threat of Covid-19. | RELATED: | Bolivian Regime Rejects Cuba's Offer to Help Fight Coronavirus | On its official Twitter profile, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal published a statement announcing the date of the elections between Sunday, June 7 and Sunday, September 6, 2020. | According to t…
telesurenglish.net/news/bolivia-tse-gives-possible-date-for-presidential-elections-20200326-0010.html

Our leaders are terrified. Not of the virus, of us!
Jonathan Cook | dissidentvoice.org | 2020-03-25
You can almost smell the fear-laden sweat oozing from the pores of television broadcasts and social media posts as it finally dawns on our political and media establishments what the coronavirus actually means. And I am not talking about the threat posed to our health. A worldview that has crowded out all other thinking for …
dissidentvoice.org/2020/03/our-leaders-are-terrified-not-of-the-virus-of-us/

Economist Jeffrey Sachs: Trump "Understands Nothing, Listens to Nothing" as Pandemic Surges in U.S
Staff | democracynow.org | 2020-03-24
As #NotDying4WallStreet trends on Twitter, President Trump defies his top scientists and soaring infection rate, saying he will ease restrictions soon to jumpstart the economy. We speak with economist Jeffrey Sachs about the stimulus package that failed to pass again Monday, as Democrats called the measure a slush fund for corporations. Sachs also led the WHO's Commission on Macroeconomics and Health from 2000 to 2001 and played a key role in conceiving and establishing the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which helped distribute new medicines to fight infectious diseases.
www.democracynow.org/2020/3/24/jeffrey_sachs_congress_economic_relief_package

Pakistan PM once again asks Trump to lift Iran sanctions
IRNA | iranian.com | 2020-03-22
Prime Minister of Pakistan who believes that US sanctions against Iran are cruel and unfair has once again called upon Donald Trump to lift economic sanctions from the Islamic Republic. Imran Khan in a tweet on Sunday said the people of Iran are facing untold suffering as sanctions are crippling Iran's efforts to fight COVID19. …
iranian.com/2020/03/22/pakistan-pm-once-again-asks-trump-to-lift-iran-sanctions/

[Correspondence] COVID-19: consider cytokine storm syndromes and immunosuppression
Puja Mehta, Daniel F McAuley, Michael Brown, Emilie Sanchez, Rachel S Tattersall, Jessica J Manson, HLH Across Speciality Collaboration, UK | thelancet.com | 2020-03-16
As of March 12, 2020, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been confirmed in 125 048 people worldwide, carrying a mortality of approximately 3 ∑7%,1 compared with a mortality rate of less than 1% from influenza. There is an urgent need for effective treatment. Current focus has been on the development of novel therapeutics, including antivirals and vaccines. Accumulating evidence suggests that a subgroup of patients with severe COVID-19 might have a cytokine storm syndrome. We recommend identification and treatment of hyperinflammation using existing, approved therapies with proven safety profiles to addre…
thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30628-0/fulltext?rss=yes

[Comment] COVID-19: combining antiviral and anti-inflammatory treatments
Justin Stebbing, Anne Phelan, Ivan Griffin, Catherine Tucker, Olly Oechsle, Dan Smith, Peter Richardson | thelancet.com | 2020-02-27
Both coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) are characterised by an overexuberant inflammatory response and, for SARS, viral load is not correlated with the worsening of symptoms.1,2 In our previous Correspondence to The Lancet,3 we described how BenevolentAI's proprietary artificial intelligence (AI)-derived knowledge graph,4 queried by a suite of algorithms, enabled identification of a target and a potential therapeutic against SARS coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2; the causative organism in COVID-19).
thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(20)30132-8/fulltext?rss=yes