Pro-Trump Protesters Push Back on Stay-At-Home Orders

By Associated Press April 17, 2020 

FILE - protests on the front steps of the Michigan State Capitol building in Lansing, Mich., April 15, 2020.

While many Americans are filled with fear, Melissa Ackison says the coronavirus pandemic has filled her with anger. The stay-at-home orders are government overreach, the conservative Ohio state Senate candidate says, and the labeling of some workers as "essential" arbitrary.

"It enrages something inside of you," said Ackison, who was among those who protested Republican Gov. Mike DeWine's orders at the statehouse in Columbus with her 10-year-old son. She has "no fear whatsoever" of contracting the virus, she said Thursday, dismissing it as hype.

The Ohio protest was among a growing number staged outside governors' mansions and state Capitols across the country. In places like Oklahoma, Texas and Virginia, small-government groups, supporters of President Donald Trump, anti-vaccine advocates, gun rights backers and supporters of right-wing causes have united behind a deep suspicion of efforts to shut down daily life to slow the spread of the coronavirus. As their frustration with life under lockdown grows, they've started to openly defy the social distancing rules in an effort to put pressure on governors to ease them.

Some of the protests have been small events, promoted via Facebook groups that have popped up in recent days and whose organizers are sometimes difficult to identify. Others are backed by groups funded by prominent Republican donors, some with ties to Trump. The largest so far, a rally of thousands that jammed the streets of Lansing, Michigan, on Wednesday, looked much like one of the president's rallies — complete with MAGA hats or Trump flags — or one of the tea party rallies from a decade ago.

FILE - Protesters rally against stay-at-home orders related to the coronavirus pandemic outside Capitol Square in Richmond, Virginia, April 16, 2020.

The signs of frustration come as Trump has pushed for easing stay-at-home orders and tried to look ahead to restarting the economy. He unveiled a framework for governors to follow on Thursday, but acknowledged the governors will have the final say on when their state is ready. Health experts have warned that lifting restrictions too quickly could result in a surge of new cases of the virus.

But the president and some of his supporters are impatient. Thousands of people in their cars packed the streets of Lansing to protest Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's stay-at-home order and other restrictions. Outside the Capitol, some chanted "Lock her up," a throwback to Trump's calls during the 2016 election about his rival Hillary Clinton. One woman held a sign reading "Heil Witmer."

Asked about the protesters, Trump on Thursday expressed sympathy with their frustration — "They're suffering ... they want to get back" — and dismissed concerns about the health risks of ignoring state orders and potentially exposing themselves to the virus.

"I think they're listening. I think they listen to me," he said. "They seem to be protesters that like me and respect this opinion, and my opinion's the same as just about all of the governors. Nobody wants to stay shut."

Polls show the protesters' views are not widely held. An AP-NORC survey earlier this month found large majorities of Americans support a long list of government restrictions, including closing schools, limiting gatherings, and shuttering bars and restaurants. Three-quarters of Americans backed requiring people to stay in their homes. And majorities of both Democrats and Republicans gave high marks for the state and city governments.

But the protests expose resilient partisan divisions, particularly in battleground Michigan. The protest there was organized by the Michigan Conservative Coalition, a group founded by a pro-Trump state representative and his wife, Meshawn Maddock, who is on the advisory board for an official Trump campaign group called "Women for Trump" and is also the co-founder of Michigan Trump Republicans. Their daughter is a field organizer for the Michigan Republican Party.

FILE - Vehicles sit in gridlock during a protest in Lansing, Mich., April 15, 2020.

Another group that promoted the event, the Michigan Freedom Fund, is run by Greg McNeilly, a longtime political adviser to the DeVos family, who are prolific Republican donors and have funded conservative causes across the state for decades. McNeilly was campaign manager for Dick DeVos, the husband of current U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, during his failed bid for governor in 2006. The group, which does not have to disclose its donors, raised over $4 million in 2018, according to its most recent tax statements.

Whitmer was among the governors who expressed concern about the gatherings, saying it put people at risk and could have prolonged the shutdown. Michigan had recorded over 2,000 deaths from COVID-19 as of Thursday, and close to 30,000 confirmed cases of people infected with the virus. Roughly one-quarter of the state's workforce has filed for unemployment.

But it's not just Democratic governors feeling the heat. A procession of cars swarmed around the Republican-dominated statehouse in Oklahoma City on Wednesday, with messages written on windows or signs that said "stop killing our economy," "we need our church" and "time 2 work."

Carol Hefner, who previously served as an Oklahoma co-chair of Trump's 2016 campaign, was a major organizer of the event. Hefner, whose husband is part of the Hefner Energy empire and currently operates a company that makes Argentinian meat sauce, differentiated it from many of the others, characterizing it as a "rally" rather than a protest.

"We're not New York. Their problems are not our problems," Hefner said. "We are rallying around our governor and our state to encourage the opening up of our businesses and the restoration of our state in a timely fashion."

Other gatherings have links to fringe groups. A protest Thursday in the Texas capital of Austin, where protesters chanted "Free Texas" and "Make America Free Again," was broadcast live by InfoWars TV, part of a company owned by conspiracy theorist and radio host Alex Jones.
FILE - Protesters from a grassroots organization called “REOPEN NC” demonstrate against the North Carolina coronavirus lockdown at a parking lot adjacent to the North Carolina State Legislature in Raleigh, North Carolina, April 14, 2020.

The Ohio event earlier this week brought together a collection of anti-vaccine advocates, Second Amendment supporters, tea party activists and other anti-government activists. A Columbus Dispatch photo of Ackison and other protesters yelling through glass doors of the statehouse rocketed around the internet.

Ackison said that while she views DeWine's efforts as constitutional overreach, she would be fine if Trump were to act with similar authority to force governors to bring the states back on line.

"As patriots, we put President Trump in office for a reason," she said. "If he's not able to give a convincing enough argument to these governors that they need to open up, then he needs to do something to take action."

The protests were advertised on Facebook by groups such as Reopen Virginia and End the Lockdown PA. A protest in Richmond, Virginia, on Thursday grew out of a conversation in the Facebook group Virginians for Medical Freedom, organizer Gary Golden said. The group often turns out at the Capitol in Richmond to oppose vaccine-related measures.

Kelly Mullin, who stood near a "don't tread on me" flag spread on the grass near the governor's mansion, said she brought her sons to the event to teach them a lesson about liberty.

Mullin said that she thought the risk posed by the coronavirus depends on an individual's health and that people can take basic steps to protect themselves, including getting enough sleep, eating organic produce and getting outside.

"I mean, that's where our tax dollars should be going. Eat broccoli," she said.

Infectious-disease specialists say there is no evidence that eating specific foods can prevent or kill the virus. Most people with the coronavirus experience mild or moderate symptoms, and people with health issues such as asthma and older people are at greater risk of death from COVID-19.

While many Americans are filled with fear, Melissa Ackison says the coronavirus pandemic has filled her with anger. The stay-at-home orders are government overreach, the conservative Ohio state Senate candidate says, and the labeling of some workers as "essential" arbitrary.

"It enrages something inside of you," said Ackison, who was among those who protested Republican Gov. Mike DeWine's orders at the statehouse in Columbus with her 10-year-old son. She has "no fear whatsoever" of contracting the virus.

Hundreds protest against US virus rules

AFP / Joseph PreziosoHundreds of New Hampshire residents rallied outside the statehouse in Concord on April 18 to urge a quick end to the northeastern state's virus-related stay-at-home rule

Hundreds protested Saturday in cities across America against coronavirus-related lockdowns -- with encouragement from President Donald Trump -- as resentment grows against the crippling economic cost of confinement.

An estimated 400 people gathered under a cold rain in Concord, New Hampshire -- many on foot while others remained in their cars -- to send a message that extended quarantines were not necessary in a state with relatively few confirmed cases of COVID-19.

The crowd included several armed men wearing military-style uniforms, with their faces covered.

AFP / Mark FelixFar-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones addresses a "Reopen America" rally at the State Capitol in Austin, Texas

In Texas, more than 250 people rallied outside the State Capitol in Austin, including far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, founder of the Infowars site, who rolled up in a tank-like truck.

"It's time to reopen Texas, it's time to let people work, it's time for them to let voluntary interaction and good sense rule the day, not government force," said Justin Greiss, an activist with Young Americans for Liberty.

Stay-at-home mother Amira Abuzeid added: "I'm not a doctor but I'm an intelligent person who can do math and it looks like at the end of the day, these numbers are not that worrisome."

Few if any observed social distancing recommendations.

Demonstrators outside Maryland's colonial-era statehouse in Annapolis stayed in their cars but waved signs with messages like "Poverty kills too."

AFP / SAUL LOEBDemonstrators protest from their cars in Annapolis, Maryland

Dolores, a hairdresser, told AFP she is not eligible for unemployment because she is a business owner, not an employee.

"I need to save my business. I need to work to live. Otherwise I will die," she said.

Other demonstrations took place across the country in cities such as Columbus, Ohio and San Diego, California, as well as the states of Indiana, Nevada and Wisconsin.

Few practiced social distancing but many of the protesters waved American flags.

- 'Live Free or Die' -

Protesters have drawn encouragement in certain Democratic-led states from tweets by Trump, who has said he favors a quick return to normal, though protests have also taken place in Republican-led states like New Hampshire and Texas.

AFP / Mark FelixA protester holds up a sign during the "Reopen America" rally in Austin, Texas

The US has seen more coronavirus cases and deaths than any other country in the world -- with more than 734,000 confirmed infections and 38,800 fatalities as of Saturday evening.

The vast majority of Americans are under lockdown orders restricting public movement and keeping all but essential businesses closed.

In Concord, demonstrators carried signs with slogans like "The numbers lie" and "Reopen New Hampshire."

Their common demand was that the stay-at-home order for the state of 1.3 million people be called off before its scheduled May 4 end date.

AFP / Megan JELINGERProtesters rally at the Ohio State House in Columbus

Others, amid a sea of American flags, chanted the state's Revolutionary War-era slogan, "Live Free or Die."

"People are very happy on a voluntary basis to do what's necessary," one demonstrator, 63-year-old Skip Murphy, told AFP by phone.

He added, however, that "the data does not support the egregious lockdown we are having in New Hampshire."

As of early Friday, New Hampshire had reported 1,287 confirmed coronavirus cases and 37 deaths.

- 'Free country' -

"All over the country, a lot of people are saying, 'We will do our part, but at the same time, this is supposed to be a free country,'" Murphy said.

AFP / Joseph PreziosoA protester in Concord, New Hampshire waves a flag during a rally urging a quick end to virus-related confinement rules

"When that gets transgressed, people start to say, 'Wait a minute, this is wrong.'"

Most Americans -- by a two-to-one margin -- actually worry about virus restrictions being lifted too soon, not too late, a recent Pew survey found.

But demonstrators found encouragement Friday from the president, who in a series of tweets called to "LIBERATE" Michigan, Minnesota and Virginia -- all states with Democratic governors -- from stay-at-home orders.

Trump has repeatedly called for the earliest possible return to normality as virus-related closings have had a crushing impact on American workers and businesses.

AFP / Joseph PreziosoSome at the Concord, New Hampshire rally against home confinement rules wore masks or face coverings

"I really think some of the governors have gotten carried away," Trump said at a White House news conference on Saturday.

He welcomed the reopening of some businesses in Texas and Vermont on Monday "while still requiring appropriate social distancing precautions."

The largest protest against stay-at-home rules so far took place Wednesday in the Michigan capital of Lansing, which drew some 3,000 people.

Murphy said he had voted for Trump, but insisted his motives were not partisan. New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu is a Republican, he noted.

"This has nothing to do with Trump or the Democratic and Republican governors," Murphy said.

"It is a case of one size not fitting all -- the lockdown should cease where it does not make sense."

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The coronavirus crisis makes crystal clear that capitalism is failing the vast majority of the world's population.

Homeless people sleep in a temporary parking lot shelter at Cashman Center in Las Vegas, Nevada on March 30, 2020. Steve Marcus

COMPASSIONATE CAPITALISM;
ON THE ROAD TO SOCIALISM

As the 1% eyes their stocks, the rest face financial uncertainty or ruin.
The world's richest people must intervene, using their own wealth to put human lives above profit.

Frank Giustra is a Canadian businessman, global philanthropist and co-chair of the International Crisis Group.

Who wants to be a billionaire? Not me.I'm lucky to be well off, and I believe in free enterprise. But I have come to the conclusion that capitalism has run amok.

In 2017, the US households in the top 1% of income-earners made more than 25 times what families in the other 99% did, according to a paper from the Economic Policy Institute. This glaring inequality confirmed my determination to devote the rest of my life and greatest part of my wealth to philanthropy.

If further urgency was needed, the novel coronavirus pandemic makes my decision even clearer. This moment underscores the pointlessness of accumulating extreme wealth.

Instead, this is a time for bold generosity. Now is not the time to worry about your stocks, when others with much less, from health workers to supermarket employees are putting themselves at risk on the frontline.

Indeed, the consequences of this global pandemic, are likely to be devastating for the most vulnerable.

Even beyond the immediate healthcare needs in some of the hardest hit countries, the coronavirus outbreak is adding another complication for people in precarious positions around the world.

Think of people caught in the midst of conflict. The refugees or internally displaced – the number of which are now higher than at any time since World War II – gathered in overcrowded, under-resourced camps. Think of those relying on humanitarian workers whose access to conflict zones will be dramatically curtailed. And those who count on peacekeeping missions to keep warring sides apart and now will also see their ability to operate affected.

And, of course, think of all those conflict victims whose fate is known to us only because the media and various NGOs shine a spotlight on them and who will now be ignored or forgotten.

Overall, the coronavirus threatens to diminish global attention to conflict situations at the time they most need it. It could fuel skepticism about the urgency of helping others far from home and further deplete faith, already in short supply, in the very possibility of preventing or ending war.

That's why, in addition to my contributions to efforts to reduce inequality, counter suffering and alleviate poverty through my foundation I am also determined to help those trying to prevent and resolve deadly conflict. I have come to believe it's the biggest possible return on investment: in many parts of the world, often unseen because it's not glamorous or sensational, early, upstream action can be taken to stop fighting and end wars, without which none of the other steps will really matter.

With this urgency in mind, I recently stepped down from the chairman's role at the gold mining company I co-founded to become co-chair of the International Crisis Group, an organization dedicated to ending wars and stopping new ones before they start.

I have tremendous respect for ICG's work, having spent 15 years as a board member. The nuclear deal between Iran and world powers; the 2016 peace accord with FARC rebels in Colombia; the successful prevention of a Saudi-led coalition offensive on the port of Hodeida, vital for UN humanitarian supplies in Yemen – Crisis Group played an important role in all of these.

Important as it is, helping war's victims still puts the cart before the horse. We can think bigger: pressure and help decision-makers prevent wars from starting, end wars before they spread and, when all else fails, mitigate the severity of war, saving as many lives as possible. A political settlement, however imperfect, can head off the need for humanitarian aid in the first place.

It's hard work and at times, it feels thankless, but I believe practical solutions to resolve or mitigate deadly conflicts do exist. Even if they are not always visible to the stakeholders. We have proven it time and time again.

Don't get me wrong. I live a very comfortable life, and I will continue to invest in business opportunities alongside my charitable giving. But enough is enough. I don't want to be a billionaire. It feels much more important to use what I have to help build a better and more peaceful world.

The world is in a moment of crisis. How we all conduct ourselves will make the world of difference to the level of suffering to many around us and even the quality of our own lives. I hope other millionaire and billionaire friends will agree and rise to the moment.

Social Capital founder says coronavirus relief should focus on workers, not corporations

Social Capital founder Chamath Palihapitiya told Hill.TV on Friday that Congress should pass legislation that distributes wealth back to employees and individuals rather than large corporations.

"We have now printed more than $12 trillion into the economy. ... That means we could have given every single person in the U.S. their entire 2019 wages and paid off everybody's student debt and still have $5 trillion leftover for companies." 

---30---

GENERAL STRIKE MAY 1 POSTER

#KAKISTOCRACY 

At least 15,000 US hotels have pitched in to help medical personnel amid the pandemic. Trump's properties are not among them.

Paulina Cachero BUSINESS INSIDER 4/18/2020

The White House praised hotels around the country for housing first responders and medical workers on the frontlines of battling the coronavirus. 

But cities where President Donald Trump's company operates large hotels have reported that none of them are participating in any assistance programs. 

The Washington Post confirmed with city officials in New York, Chicago, Miami, Washington, and Honolulu, that the president's hotels were not stepping in to help frontline workers. 

Though widespread coronavirus lockdown measures and closures have sent the hospitality industry into freefall, major hotel chains have pitched in to help including Marriott and Hilton. 

On April 5, the White House's Twitter account praised the hotels housing first responders and frontline medical workers battling the coronavirus. But President Donald Trump's hotels are reportedly not among them.
—The White House (@WhiteHouse) April 5, 202

Amid widespread coronavirus closures, the US hospitality industry has been sent into freefall. In spite of the financial toll, 15,000 US hotels — from independently operated businesses to large hotel chains — have pitched in to help medical personnel amid the pandemic, according to the American Hotel and Lodging Association.

The association declined to release the name of hotels helping essential workers, but city officials in New York, Chicago, Miami, Washington, and Honolulu claimed Trump's properties were not participating, The Washington Post reported. 

None of Trump's large hotels are participating in city programs to house medical workers

The Trump Organization operates 24 hotels and clubs around the world. Like other companies in the hospitality industry, the Trump Organization has been hit by the coronavirus lockdowns. At least 18 properties have closed due to government mandates, or by choice.

Trump's properties have laid off or furloughed more than 2,500 employees amid the pandemic.

The Post reached out to the Trump Organization and authorities in five cities where Trump's hotels are located, inquiring about their participation in essential worker housing programs. All but one in Honolulu have remained open amid the coronavirus outbreak, and none are included in the city's programs.

Ty Warner, the owner of the Four Seasons in New York, near Trump Tower, said he opened up rooms for medical workers because they "are working tirelessly on the front lines of this crisis. They need a place close to work where they can rest and regenerate."

Meanwhile, Trump Tower was not included in two lists of hotels offering reduced rates to hospital workers.

In Florida's Miami-Dade County, Trump's Doral resort continues to operate as usual. Miami-Dade has already rented out two hotels and is working with five more to provide rooms for a lowered rate of $35 per night for first responders and the homeless community. While other hotels offered to donate rooms, Doral was not among them, one official said.

"They did not volunteer, and we did not ask them," Frank Rollason, the head of emergency management for the Miami-Dade fire department, told The Post.

Chicago has reserved over 1,100 rooms at five hotels for hospital workers and patients with mild cases of the coronavirus — Trump's hotel in Chicago is not one of them. The hotel has remained opened and laid off 294 workers in amid the pandemic.

In Washington D.C., the Trump International Hotel is not among the three hotels being used to house frontline health workers, a city official told the Post.

---30---

PROFITEERING
The US shipped millions of masks to China earlier this year, despite warnings from experts that a pandemic was about to hit

The US government reportedly encouraged manufacturers to ship millions of face masks and other protective items to China in January and February, despite warnings that the US would need them.

In the first two months of 2020, US manufacturers exported roughly $17.6 million in face masks and other vital medical supplies, according to a Washington Post analysis of customs data.

The Post reported that during those months, White House national security staff received briefings that a pandemic was looming and that coronavirus would not remain contained in China.

The US has since suffered major shortages of protective items for frontline health care workers and first responders, many of whom ration or reuse their masks.


The US shipped millions of masks to China earlier this year, despite warnings from experts that a pandemic was about to hit

Michelle Mark BUSINESS INSIDER 4/18/2020

Boxes of N95 masks and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) donated by Joe Tsai, co-founder and executive vice chairman of Alibaba Group, are stacked outside Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the Brooklyn borough of New York, U.S., April 8, 2020. Reuters/Brendan McDermidThe US government reportedly encouraged manufacturers to ship millions of face masks and other protective items to China in January and February, despite warnings that the US would need them.

In the first two months of 2020, US manufacturers exported roughly $17.6 million in face masks and other vital medical supplies, according to a Washington Post analysis of customs data.

The Post reported that during those months, White House national security staff received briefings that a pandemic was looming and that coronavirus would not remain contained in China.

The US has since suffered major shortages of protective items for frontline health care workers and first responders, many of whom ration or reuse their masks.

American manufacturers were encouraged by the federal government to ship millions of masks and other medical supplies to China this year, despite warnings that those items would soon be necessary, The Washington Post reported Saturday.

The US has for weeks suffered major shortages of protective items for frontline health care workers and first responders treating coronavirus patients. Meanwhile, hospitals and local US governments have reported major delays in receiving shipments of those products from China.

Doctors and nurses have reported widespread rationing and reusing of masks and other protective items, exposing them to increased risk of coronavirus transmission.

In January and February of 2020, US manufacturers exported roughly $17.6 million in face masks and other vital medical supplies, according to a Post analysis of customs data.

That's a 1,000% increase from the same period last year, where exporters shipped $1.4 million worth of the products, according to The Post.

At the start of 2020 the SNS had barely 1% of the N95 masks that healthcare workers are expected to need during the coronavirus pandemic. Mike Segar/ReutersThe Post reported that during those months, White House national security staff received briefings that a pandemic was looming and that coronavirus would not remain contained in China.

"Instead of taking steps to prepare, they ignored the advice of one expert after another," said Democratic Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas told The Post. "People right now, as we speak, are dying because there have been inadequate supplies of PPE."

The Trump administration has shunted the blame for the lack of masks to China, saying the country bought up masks and PPE from across the world, causing shortages, and tried to cover up the extent of the outbreak, thereby delaying the US response.

White House trade policy adviser Peter Navarro told The Post that "America and the world lost a full six weeks of preparation to the [Chinese Communist Party's] deadly silence, a time during which the Wuhan virus might well have been put quickly back into its lethal bottle."

Damning Washington Post report reveals how America’s PPE crisis resulted from Trump’s coronavirus failures

April 18, 2020 By Bob Brigham

Blunders by the Trump administration resulted in American companies shipping massive amounts of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to China during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“U.S. manufacturers shipped millions of dollars of face masks and other protective medical equipment to China in January and February with encouragement from the federal government, a Washington Post review of economic data and internal government documents has found. The move underscores the Trump administration’s failure to recognize and prepare for the growing pandemic threat,” the newspaper reported on Saturday.

“In those two months, the value of protective masks and related items exported from the United States to China grew more than 1,000 percent compared with the same time last year — from $1.4 million to about $17.6 million, according to a Post analysis of customs categories which, according to research by Public Citizen, contain key PPE. Similarly, shipments of ventilators and protective garments jumped by triple digits,” the newsppaer explained.

Trump’s administration even published a flier guiding businesses on selling PPE to China.

“On Feb. 26 — when total deaths had reached 2,770, nearly all in China — the Commerce Department published a flier titled “CS China COVID Procurement Service,” guiding American firms on how to sell “critical medical products” to China and Hong Kong through Beijing’s fast-tracked sales process,” The Post reported.

The flier was obtained by Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX).

“Instead of taking steps to prepare, they ignored the advice of one expert after another,” Doggett said. “People right now, as we speak, are dying because there have been inadequate supplies of PPE.”

HOW BAD IS IT IN THE BANANA REPUBLIC OF TRUMP

Illinois governor organized secret flights to bring masks and gloves from China out of fear Trump would seize them

• A new report has shed new light on the suspicion and in-fighting hampering the US coronavirus response.
• The Chicago Sun-Times said Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker organized secret charter flights to get protective equipment to the state from China.
• The rationale was fear: Illinois has seen reports of federal officials seizing and diverting shipments bound for individual states.
• Pritzker has described fierce bidding wars between states and the federal government over supplies.
• President Donald Trump has said Pritzker, a Democrat, is "always complaining."

How did Britain get its coronavirus response so wrong?

ANOTHER RIGHT WING GOVERNMENT BLOWS IT

As the warnings grew louder, Boris Johnson’s government was distracted by Brexit. On testing, contact tracing and equipment supply, there was a failure to prepare

 Britain’s health secretary, Matt Hancock, speaks via video link during the official opening of the NHS Nightingale hospital in Birmingham. Photograph: Jacob King/AFP via Getty Images
LOOKING LIKE BIG BROTHER AS ORWELL IMAGINED AS WELL AS MICHAEL MOORE V FOR VENDETTA AND APPLE 1984

by Toby Helm, Emma Graham-Harrison & Robin McKie Sun 19 Apr 2020

By late December last year, doctors in the central Chinese city of Wuhan were starting to worry about patients quarantined in their hospitals suffering from an unusual type of pneumonia.

As the mystery illness spread in one of China’s major industrial hubs, some tried to warn their colleagues to take extra care at work, because the disease resembled Sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome), the deadly respiratory disease that had killed hundreds of people across the region in 2002-03 after a government cover-up.

One of those who tried to raise the alarm, though only among a few medical school classmates, was a 33-year-old Chinese ophthalmologist, Li Wenliang. Seven people were in isolation at his hospital, he said, and the disease appeared to be a coronavirus, from the same family as Sars.

In early January he was called in by police, reprimanded for “spreading rumours online”, and forced to sign a paper acknowledging his “misdemeanour” and promising not to repeat it.

Many early cases were linked to the city’s Huanan seafood and fresh produce market, which also sold wildlife, suggesting that the first cases were contracted there.
The Wuhan hygiene emergency response team leave the closed Huanan seafood wholesale market on 11 January. Photograph: Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images

Scientists would discover the disease had probably originated in bats and had then passed through a second species – in all likelihood, but not certainly, pangolins, a type of scaly anteater – before infecting humans.

But the infections were soon spreading directly between patients, so fast that on 23 January the government announced an unprecedented lockdown of Wuhan city and the surrounding Hubei province.

Two weeks later, on 7 February, Li, who had contracted coronavirus himself, died in hospital from the condition about which he had tried to raise the alarm. He had no known underlying conditions and left behind a wife and young child.


Li became the face of the mysterious new disease. The story of his death and pictures of him in a hospital bed wearing an oxygen mask made media headlines across the globe, including in the UK.

The world, it seemed, was slowly becoming more aware of how lethal coronavirus could be, that it was not just another form of flu with fairly mild symptoms.

But while UK scientists and medical researchers were becoming more concerned, and studying the evidence from China, those among them who were most worried were not getting their messages through to high places.

Distracted by Brexit and reshuffles

The Conservative government of Boris Johnson had other more immediate preoccupations at the start of this year.

Johnson was still basking in his general election success last December. After he returned from a celebratory Caribbean holiday with his fiancee, Carrie Symonds, the political weather for the prime minister seemed to be set fair. It was honeymoon time.

Three and a half years on from the Brexit referendum, the UK was finally about to leave the EU on 31 January. The fireworks and parties for the big night were being planned, the celebratory 50p coins minted.

Minds were certainly not on a developing health emergency far away, as Johnson prepared to exploit the moment of the UK’s departure from the European Union for all it was worth. “I think there was some over-confidence,” admitted one very senior Tory last week.

The prime minister and his chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, wanted to make an early impression at home in other ways too, as domestic reformers. Cummings was waging a war on civil servants in Whitehall, throwing his weight around and deliberately upsetting the Westminster applecart.

While he made the headlines, briefing about his iconoclastic ambitions, Johnson was preparing a big Cabinet reshuffle to assert his own authority in other areas now Brexit was done and dusted.

With Labour effectively leaderless after its fourth consecutive election defeat, there was little opposition to trouble Johnson on any front at all – and certainly no-one of note asking tough questions about coronavirus.

The prime minister duly recast his cabinet team on 13 February – five days after Li’s death in Wuhan. He made big changes but unsurprisingly retained the hitherto safe pair of hands of Matt Hancock as his health secretary.

Boris Johnson speaking about the EU on 3 February. Photograph: Reuters

In a sign of where priorities lay – and the lack of concern that a potential crisis might be heading our way from the east – Hancock wasted no time recording a video of himself grinning with delight on reshuffle day.

He smacked his right fist into his left palm saying he could not wait to “get cracking” and that he relished the chance to deliver the Tories’ manifesto promises, reform social care and improve life sciences. And lastly, in a more sombre voice, he spoke of “dealing with coronavirus and keeping the public safe” before adding, as the grin returned: “Now let’s get back to work!”

It is perhaps too early to conclude for sure that Johnson, Hancock and the government’s entire team of scientific and medical advisers were caught asleep at the wheel. But the fact that Johnson and Hancock themselves, in common with much of the Downing Street staff, would go on to contract the virus or suffer symptoms, further suggests that people at the top had not been sufficiently on their guard.

Now, 11 weeks on from the first cases being confirmed in the UK on 31 January – a period during which more than 14,000 people (and probably several thousands more once care home fatalities are counted) in the UK have died from Covid-19 – and with the country in lockdown, the economy facing prolonged recession as a result, schools closed, and no sign of an end in sight – hard questions have to be asked.

We already know with some certainty that other countries, such as Germany, South Korea, Taiwan and New Zealand, will emerge from this crisis having performed far better than the UK. A few weeks ago the government’s advisers crassly said that fewer than 20,000 deaths would be “a very good result” for the UK.

Boris Johnson missed five coronavirus Cobra meetings, Michael Gove says 

As we fast approach that grim tally, many experts now believe the UK may come out of this crisis, whenever that may be, with one of the worst records on fighting coronavirus of any European nation. Once the full tally is counted, few expect the number of deaths to be below 20,000.

By contrast, on Friday, Germany was saying it thought it had brought coronavirus largely under control. It had had 3,868 deaths, less a third of the total in the UK (and Germany’s population, at 83 million, is far higher), having conducted widespread testing for Covid-19 from early on, precisely as the UK has failed to do.

How, then, did it come to this? How did coronavirus spread across the globe, prompting different responses in different countries? Did the UK simply fail to heed the warnings? Or did it just decide to take different decisions, while others settled on alternative actions to save lives?
The warnings grow louder

David Nabarro, professor of global health at Imperial College, London, and an envoy for the World Health Organization on Covid-19, says one thing is for sure. All governments were warned how serious the situation was likely to become as early as the end of January. Ignorance of the danger that was coming can be no excuse. Yet it would not be until late March – later than many other countries – that Johnson would announce a complete lockdown.

“WHO had been following the outbreak since the end of December and within a few weeks it called a meeting of its emergency committee to decide if this outbreak was a ‘public health emergency of international concern’,” said Nabarro.


WHO made it very clear – to every country in the world – that we were facing something very serious indeedProf David Nabarro, Imperial College, London

“That is the highest level of alert that WHO can issue, and it issued it on January 30. It made it very clear then – to every country in the world – that we were facing something very serious indeed.”

Well before the end of January, the WHO had been tracking the growing threat minutely: 14 January was a key day in the spread of the disease that would become known as Covid-19. The first case was confirmed outside China, with a woman hospitalised in Thailand.

A WHO official warned then that it was possible that human-to-human transmission had occurred in families of victims – a sign that the disease had potential to spread far and fast – and, inside China, officials were quietly told to prepare for a pandemic.

There was little international attention on the day, though, because Beijing’s dire warnings about a pandemic were made in secret, and a WHO spokesman rowed back from his colleague’s claim.

Officially, China had not seen a new case of the coronavirus for over a week; the outbreak appeared to be fading. It took another six days for China to publicly acknowledge the gravity of the threat, time that scientists believed meant a further 3,000 people were infected.

But on 20 January, officials announced more than 100 new cases and admitted the virus was spreading between humans, a red flag for concern to anyone who works on infectious diseases. The virus could no longer be contained by finding the animal source of the infection and destroying it.

Two days later, the scale of the challenge was made clear to the general public when Beijing locked down millions of people. All transport into and out of the metropolis of Wuhan was cut off, an unprecedented modern quarantine that would come at huge human and economic cost.

On 29 January, the UK would have its first two confirmed cases of the disease. There was little sense that China’s dilemma and its approach – shut down life as we know it or watch the death toll spiral out of control – might have to be our nightmare within weeks.

In early February, Donald Trump announced a ban on travellers who had passed through China in the previous 14 days. Europe began focused testing of people with symptoms and travel histories that linked them to the disease, but little else.

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Don’t bet on vaccine to protect us from Covid-19, says world health expert

THE ONLY PEOPLE BETTING ON VACCINES ARE WALL ST INVESTORS

Professor of global health at Imperial College, London warns we ‘may have to adapt’ to virus


Robin McKie, Toby Helm and Michael Savage THE OBSERVER Sat 18 Apr 2020
 

Coronavirus tests at a facility in Lincoln. Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA

Humanity will have to live with the threat of coronavirus “for the foreseeable future” and adapt accordingly because there is no guarantee that a vaccine can be successfully developed, one of the world’s leading experts on the disease has warned.

The stark message was delivered by David Nabarro, professor of global health at Imperial College, London, and an envoy for the World Health Organisation on Covid-19, as the number of UK hospital deaths from the virus passed 15,000.

BIG BROTHER ANNOUNCES SOCIAL DISTANCING

A further 888 people were reported on Saturday to have lost their lives – a figure described by communities secretary Robert Jenrick as “extremely sobering” – while the total number who have been infected increased by 5,525 to 114,217.

The latest figures, which do not include deaths in care homes and in the community, put further pressure on the government amid continuing anger among NHS workers and unions over the lack personal protective equipment (PPE) for hospital and care home staff on the front line.


In late March the government’s health advisers said that if UK deaths from Coronavirus could be kept below 20,000 by the end of the pandemic, it would be a “good result” for country. But with an estimated 6,000 people having already died in care homes from Covid-19 – a figure not included in Saturday’s official tally – the 20,000 figure is likely already to have been exceeded.

In an interview with The Observer Nabarro said the public should not assume that a vaccine would definitely be developed soon – and would have to adapt to the ongoing threat.

“You don’t necessarily develop a vaccine that is safe and effective against every virus. Some viruses are very, very difficult when it comes to vaccine development - so for the foreseeable future, we are going to have to find ways to go about our lives with this virus as a constant threat.

“That means isolating those who show signs of the disease and also their contacts. Older people will have to be protected. In addition hospital capacity for dealing with cases will have to be ensured. That is going to be the new normal for us all.”

The comments came as the former UK health secretary Jeremy Hunt said the only way forward was for nations to support a new global health system that would mean far more international cooperation between governments on health issues. It would also require richer nations doing more to support the health systems of the world’s poorest countries.

“I think global health security is going to be on that small but critical list of topics like climate change that we can only solve in partnership with other countries,” Hunt told The Observer.

In a clear criticism of US President Donald Trump who announced last week he was putting on hold funding to the World Health Organisation (WHO) Hunt added: “Surely the lesson of coronavirus is cure not kill…It certainly does not mean cutting their funding (to the WHO).

“One of the big lessons from this will be that when it comes to health systems across the world, we are only as strong as the weakest link in the chain.

“Although China has rightly been criticised for covering up the virus in the early stages the situation would have been whole lot worse if this had started in Africa. International cooperation and supporting health care systems of the poorest countries has to be a top priority in terms of the lessons we need to learn.”

Nabarro’s message is the second grim warning to come from senior ranks of the WHO in the last three days. On Friday, Maria Van Kerkhove, head of WHO’s emerging diseases and zoonosis unit, warned that there was no evidence that antibody tests now being developed would show if a person has immunity or is no longer at risk of becoming reinfected by the Covid-19 virus.

On Saturday it emerged that doctors and nurses treating Covid-19 face shortages of protective full-length gowns for weeks to come, as anger mounts over failures to stockpile them. Gowns were not included in a stockpile list prepared for a potential flu pandemic.

After The Guardian revealed new guidance from Public Health England which instructs healthcare workers to re-use disposable equipment, the GMB, which represents NHS and ambulance staff, said support was “draining away” from Health Secretary, Matt Hancock.

Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive of NHS Providers which represents many trusts, told the Observer: “We are in a situation where we think this [issue] will last a couple of weeks, which probably does just take us to May. There is a shortage of gowns which is affecting some trusts, but not all. Some have none, and are using the alternatives.”

The government will attempt to gain control of the mounting PPE concerns by appointing Paul Deighton, chief executive of the London Olympics organising committee, to lead efforts to produce equipment in Britain.

Ministers also announced another £1.6bn cash injection to local councils as they attempt to stem a spiralling crisis in social care that is pushing some care providers into the red. Some have been paying inflated prices for commercial protective equipment.

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Groggy grizzly bear caught emerging from hibernation in viral video

Ranger in Canadian Rockies says video she captured was ‘something everybody needed’ in a time of isolation


Leyland Cecco in Toronto Tue 7 Apr 2020 17.30


Ranger captures moment grizzly bear emerges from hibernation in Canada – video


On a bright spring day, a hulking grizzly bear named Boo emerged from his winter den, shaking a dusting of snow from his thick coat as he looked around groggily.

The moment was filmed in a remarkable viral video – which also captures the elated reaction of one of the bear’s closest humans, the manager of grizzly refuge in the Canadian Rockies.

“Mama’s so proud of you! You are such a good sight,” exclaims Nicole Gangnon, in a clip filmed on her mobile phone which has racked up more 100,000 views on Twitter – many by people desperate for distraction from the coronavirus pandemic.

Gangnon had her own reason to be cheerful, she later explained: she had tried unsuccessfully for eight years to document the bear’s emergence from hibernation.

“We’ve always set up trail cameras and our surveillance cameras,” Gangnon told the Guardian. “And it just seems like every time he decides to dig out, our technology fails us and we can never capture that moment.”

Born in the wild, Boo now lives alone at the Grizzly Bear Refuge, a 20-acre enclosure on the property of the Kicking Horse ski resort in near the town of Golden.

After his mother was killed by poachers nearly in 2002, Boo arrived at the refuge with his brother Cari (the pair were named after the Cariboo Mountains where they were found).

Gangnon knows the playful 18-year old bear well. For nearly a decade, she’s helped care for him at the Grizzly Bear Refuge, working as a manager at the custom-built facility for the lone bear.

Cari died from a twisted intestine during the pair’s first winter in the refuge, but Boo has thrived over the years, drawing thousands of tourists to his enclosure.

The log cabin den where Boo sleeps every winter – buried under two meters of snow – also doubles as makeshift laboratory and is designed to allow researchers to study bear hibernation.

On 17 March, Gangnon heard movement from the den and waited anxiously as Boo dug himself out.

“It’s just beautiful to see him face-to-face rather than on a camera. He’s so happy and that just makes your heart sing,” she said. “Once he gets up, you can see he’s got a grin on his face. He’s like: ‘Hello, world, here I am again.’”

“I was moved to tears that day. With the world so uncertain, it was something I needed. I think it was something everybody needed, to be honest,” said Gangnon. “It’s brought a lot of happiness into people’s world’s right now, when people are isolated. It’s really just helped people to see that the world will still go on.”

• This article was amended on 7 April 2020 to add some clarifying text about how long Nicole Gagnon has cared for Boo the bear.

Indigenous input helps save wayward grizzly bear from summary killing

When a bear starts feeding off garbage and loses its fear of humans it is quickly shot but an unlikely conservation partnership may be setting a different path

Leyland Cecco in Toronto THE GUARDIAN Sun 19 Apr 2020 
 

The presence of grizzly bears, like Mali pictured here, along the scattering of islands in British Columbia’s Broughton archipelago has become a cause of concern for locals and conservation officers. Photograph: Suzie Hall

In early April, a young grizzly bear swam through the chilly waters off the western coast of Canada in search of food.

He came ashore on Hanson Island, one of more than 200 rocky outcrops in British Columbia’s Broughton archipelago, and quickly started eating garbage from a cabin.

It was a dangerous move: bears that get too comfortable eating food waste and start to lose their fear of humans are quickly shot.

But this bear’s death was averted through an unlikely partnership between local Indigenous groups and conservation officers, raising hopes of a more holistic approach to wildlife management with greater Indigenous input.


In recent years, the presence of bears along the scattering of islands has become a cause of concern for locals and conservation officers.

Typically, after months of hibernation, grizzlies in the region will hunt for clams and mussels. But this bear smelled something better and easier: garbage.

Locals named it Mali, in honour of the Mamalilikulla First Nation whose traditional territory encompasses the collection of islands.

And as Mali continued to forage for food scraps, conservation officials took notice.

The province has a long and often fraught relationship with grizzly bears. Until 2017, trophy hunting was permitted in the province – a deeply divisive practice that had lost public support in previous years. As many as 250 bears, from a population of 15,000, were killed annually.

The practice has also divided First Nations: many had provided guiding services for hunters and benefited from the hunt, but other Indigenous communities have grown frustrated with the speed with which conservation officers shoot problem bears.

Mali is airlifted to an undisclosed location on the province’s mainland. Photograph: Suzie Hall

In January, a male grizzly named Gatu appeared in a neighbouring community on the northern tip of Vancouver Island. He became too comfortable around humans. First Nations pleaded with conservation officers to come up with a proactive approach.

But their request “just fell on deaf ears” and the bear was shot and killed, said Mike Willie, a wildlife guide and hereditary chief of the Kwikwasut’inuxw Nation.

As elsewhere, conservation officers in British Columbia have long taken the view that a habituated bear – one that has lost its fear of humans and is comfortable rummaging for food in urban areas – is effectively a dead bear walking.

But when a local guide showed him footage of the new grizzly, Willie hoped this time might be different. Working together and with the non-profit Grizzly Bear Foundation, local First Nations hatched a plan to trap the bear and transport him by helicopter.

“We don’t want our bears killed any more. We have the right to govern within our own traditional territories and we have inherent rights and we have title,” said Willie.

Conservation officers were initially set on killing the bear, leading to a brief standoff between the two groups. Soon, the province’s environment minister was weighing in, asking all involved to consider a different, non-lethal approach.

“Once everything settled down, the conservation officers switched from a kill plan to a relocation plan. And it was amazing really to see them in action,” said Nicholas Scapillati, head of the foundation. “They became very caring about how they could trap this bear and relocate him safely.”

On 13 April, Mali was successfully captured alive and moved to an undisclosed location on the province’s mainland.

“Within minutes of waking up, he wasn’t eating garbage. Now he’s in a remote, beautiful estuary, eating sage grass, which is what he should have been doing,” said Scapillati.

The province’s minister of environment, George Heyman, praised the result, saying the “desire for reconciliation” with Indigenous peoples helped guide the process.

While the bear’s life was saved, locals worry that diminishing food sources, including a decline in salmon, could prompt more bears to make the journey.

But for Willie, the success with Mali marks a critical first step in changing what he sees as outdated views of conservation.

“It feels that this could be a blueprint to move forward – for us and for other First Nations on the coast,” he said. “It was a really good ending.”

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