Does the coronavirus merit investment, or personal, concern or consideration?

Oh no, not you too! :slight_smile:

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LOL. Don’t know how that happened.

Nice consideration … very fair.

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“A vaccine will soon be approved and we’ll start distributing it to the country” requires advance buy-in? Especially considering the plan all along was for each state to control their own distribution within the state? I didn’t realize that each state has a vote in the FDA approval process…

“Everyone will be eligible by April 19” is way more of a mandate than “distribution will start soon”.

Sure, April 19 may be the last date any state has stated this will happen, so Biden’s statement may just be aggregating the information he’s been given. But oh how different the past 4 years would’ve been, had the reporting been this standard rather than applying the worst characterization possible to every comment.

Dying from covid just got a lot more profitable.

http://archive.is/QUzkK

The Biden administration next week will launch a funeral assistance program that will provide up to $9,000 to cover the burial costs of each American who died of covid-19 — the largest program of its type ever offered by the federal government.

According to FEMA, applicants must be “a U.S. citizen, noncitizen national, or qualified alien” who paid for funeral expenses after Jan. 20, 2020. In addition, the applicant must show a death certificate that states that the death occurred in the United States and “may have been caused by or was likely the result of COVID-19.”

Noncitizen national - no problem:

A noncitizen national is a person whose only connection to the USA is being born in an “outlying possession” belonging to the United States, or being descended from someone else who was. American Samoa is the best-known example, although there are others. If you are born in Samoa and neither of your parents are American citizens, then you are an American national but not an American citizen. However, you can move the USA and work there just like a citizen. You cannot vote in federal or state elections. If you want to become a citizen and not just a national, you have to go through the same naturalization process as any other resident alien.

As a noncitizen national, you carry a US passport, but the passport states that you are a national and not a citizen.

Qualified alien - problem.

Smelling yet another Biden handout of our tax dollars to illegals:

(b)Qualified alien

For purposes of this chapter, the term “qualified alien” means an alien who, at the time the alien applies for, receives, or attempts to receive a Federal public benefit, is—

(1)

an alien who is lawfully admitted for permanent residence under the Immigration and Nationality Act [8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq.],

(2)

an alien who is granted asylum under section 208 of such Act [8 U.S.C. 1158],

(3)

a refugee who is admitted to the United States under section 207 of such Act [8 U.S.C. 1157],

(4)

an alien who is paroled into the United States under section 212(d)(5) of such Act [8 U.S.C. 1182(d)(5)] for a period of at least 1 year,

(5)

an alien whose deportation is being withheld under section 243(h) of such Act [8 U.S.C. 1253] (as in effect immediately before the effective date of section 307 of division C of Public Law 104–208) or section 241(b)(3) of such Act [8 U.S.C. 1231(b)(3)] (as amended by section 305(a) of division C of Public Law 104–208),

(6)

an alien who is granted conditional entry pursuant to section 203(a)(7) of such Act [8 U.S.C. 1153(a)(7)] as in effect prior to April 1, 1980; [1] or

(7)

an alien who is a Cuban and Haitian entrant (as defined in section 501(e) of the Refugee Education Assistance Act of 1980).

(c)Treatment of certain battered aliens as qualified aliensFor purposes of this chapter, the term “qualified alien” includes—

(1)an alien who—

(A)

has been battered or subjected to extreme cruelty in the United States by a spouse or a parent, or by a member of the spouse or parent’s family residing in the same household as the alien and the spouse or parent consented to, or acquiesced in, such battery or cruelty, but only if (in the opinion of the agency providing such benefits) there is a substantial connection between such battery or cruelty and the need for the benefits to be provided; and

(B)has been approved or has a petition pending which sets forth a prima facie case for—

(i)

status as a spouse or a child of a United States citizen pursuant to clause (ii), (iii), or (iv) of section 204(a)(1)(A) of the Immigration and Nationality Act [8 U.S.C. 1154(a)(1)(A)(ii), (iii), (iv)],

(ii)

classification pursuant to clause (ii) or (iii) of section 204(a)(1)(B) of the Act [8 U.S.C. 1154(a)(1)(B)(ii), (iii)],

(iii)

suspension of deportation under section 244(a)(3) of the Immigration and Nationality Act [8 U.S.C. 1254(a)(3)] (as in effect before the title III–A effective date in section 309 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996).[2]

(iv)

status as a spouse or child of a United States citizen pursuant to clause (i) of section 204(a)(1)(A) of such Act [8 U.S.C. 1154(a)(1)(A)(i)], or classification pursuant to clause (i) of section 204(a)(1)(B) of such Act [8 U.S.C. 1154(a)(1)(B)(i)]; [3]

(v)

cancellation of removal pursuant to section 240A(b)(2) of such Act [8 U.S.C. 1229b(b)(2)];

(2)an alien—

(A)

whose child has been battered or subjected to extreme cruelty in the United States by a spouse or a parent of the alien (without the active participation of the alien in the battery or cruelty), or by a member of the spouse or parent’s family residing in the same household as the alien and the spouse or parent consented or acquiesced to such battery or cruelty, and the alien did not actively participate in such battery or cruelty, but only if (in the opinion of the agency providing such benefits) there is a substantial connection between such battery or cruelty and the need for the benefits to be provided; and

(B)

who meets the requirement of subparagraph (B) of paragraph (1);

(3)an alien child who—

(A)

resides in the same household as a parent who has been battered or subjected to extreme cruelty in the United States by that parent’s spouse or by a member of the spouse’s family residing in the same household as the parent and the spouse consented or acquiesced to such battery or cruelty, but only if (in the opinion of the agency providing such benefits) there is a substantial connection between such battery or cruelty and the need for the benefits to be provided; and

(B)

who meets the requirement of subparagraph (B) of paragraph (1); or

(4)

an alien who has been granted nonimmigrant status under section 101(a)(15)(T) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(15)(T)) or who has a pending application that sets forth a prima facie case for eligibility for such nonimmigrant status.

This subsection shall not apply to an alien during any period in which the individual responsible for such battery or cruelty resides in the same household or family eligibility unit as the individual subjected to such battery or cruelty.

After consultation with the Secretaries of Health and Human Services, Agriculture, and Housing and Urban Development, the Commissioner of Social Security, and with the heads of such Federal agencies administering benefits as the Attorney General considers appropriate, the Attorney General shall issue guidance (in the Attorney General’s sole and unreviewable discretion) for purposes of this subsection and section 1631(f) of this title, concerning the meaning of the terms “battery” and “extreme cruelty”, and the standards and methods to be used for determining whether a substantial connection exists between battery or cruelty suffered and an individual’s need for benefits under a specific Federal, State, or local program.

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This is going to open the door to fraud, including people claiming their loved ones died from Covid when the actual cause of death was something else.

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Right? Order one of those home covid tests and find some sick person to cough on it.

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CDC: Do not travel to Canada, even if you are vaccinated

The CDC has issued its highest travel alert level for Canada.

Guys, Canada is not doing all that great. I will continue to monitor events there from a safe distance, on the radio:

Travel to Canada from the United States is being discouraged

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Since the border is still closed, I suspect that most will comply. :smile:

ETA: I’m surprised that Canada is doing so poorly. They took masking and distancing as seriously as if it came from the mouth of Lenin. :wink:

Progress on vaccination, but some states still doing poorly on the virus, esp MI.

New York, Michigan, Florida, Pennsylvania and New Jersey together reported 44% of the nation’s new COVID-19 infections, or nearly 197,500 new cases, in the latest available seven-day period

About 40% of U.S. adults have now received at least one COVID-19 shot, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 23% of American adults have been fully vaccinated — including more than half of Americans 65 and older.

UK variant supposedly the most common strain now in the US. Not sure we have the sequencing tests to be sure, but it wouldn’t be surprising given how the UK and EU went.

On the bright side, the vaccines work nearly as well vs the UK one.

Monitoring CHML (AM 900 - Hamilton) this morning:

They are reporting that current COVID-19 hospitalizations in Ontario are at an all time high! Geez.

For anyone unaware, the City of Hamilton is in Ontario, just down the lake from Toronto.

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Another way to get at the origins of the virus via old blood samples.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/origin-of-covid-19-pandemic-is-sought-in-old-blood-samples-11617874200

In a report published March 30, a team of scientists convened by the World Health Organization called for a study of blood specimens from donations collected in Wuhan, China, before the first known outbreak of the new coronavirus in December 2019.

The scientists want to see whether any of the samples, which were frozen and stored, contain SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, which could help reveal how long the virus was circulating in people before the first cases were discovered.

The report also called for the analysis of blood samples collected prior to the pandemic elsewhere in China and in other countries.

In other news, a sudden power failure struck Wuhan hospitals and, while the backup power worked fine, the blood sample freezers were inexplicably not on this backup system. The parties responsible for this error have been promoted.

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EU buying some nearly 2B doses of PFE out of 2022 and 2023 production. Hardly “warp speed” over there.

But the previous adminstration screwed up and ensured that we would be last in line!

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https://news.yahoo.com/kati-kariko-helped-shield-world-120755458.html

https://www.axios.com/america-coronavirus-vaccines-republicans-rural-states-34755cbf-384e-4539-bb45-68a775581f6f.html

"Donald Trump appointees with no experience in public health celebrated when they managed to wrangle changes in warnings and reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in order to underplay the danger of COVID-19, according to emails obtained by a House subcommittee on the coronavirus crisis.

Yippee!!!” gushed Paul Alexander, science adviser to the Department of Health and Human Services, to HHS public affairs chief Michael Caputo after he pressured the CDC to modify warnings about coronavirus risks to young people, according to one of the emails.

Alexander also plotted with Dr. Scott Atlas, the controversial White House coronavirus adviser, to help him write an opinion article dismissing a CDC report on risks to young people as “timed for the election.” Alexander added in the email that the point of the op-ed would be to “blunt the edge” of the CDC report.

More than 560,000 Americans have died of COVID-19 since the pandemic began. Trump’s COVID-19 task force leader, Dr. Deborah Birx, said last month that “hundreds of thousands” of those lives could have been saved had the Trump administration followed CDC advice and provided “consistent messaging” about social distancing, masks and business restrictions."

For anyone who thinks the coronavirus is real, does any of this behavior by Trump and his officials seem right to you? Like they were concerned with protecting the American people?