'One Of The Toughest Weeks is Ahead'
COVID-19 Update | #TC58
Welcome to Third Cultured, a Queer Reading of the American Empire through crisis-after-crisis — written by yours truly, Kyle Borland.
Thanks for reading. This newsletter is free but – if you’d like to support it or me – subscribe below, heart this post, forward it to someone, or support my Patreon.
240,000 Americans may die because of Trump’s negligence. For reference, we lost 291,557 in WWII, in Vietnam we lost 47,434, in Korea, it was 33,739, and 5,669 in Afghanistan/Iraq. The death count in the US has more than tripled 9/11’s (2,977).
Even Trump had to acknowledge the bleakness of the next few weeks and months.
If China is any indication, Americans should brace for at least 3-4 more months of COVID life. As intelligence agencies are making official, the numbers coming from the CCP should be taken with a grain of salt but their fledgling attempt to restart their economy provides a window into what the rest of the world should expect.
Stay safe and healthy, beautiful people. And, thanks for reading.
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xoxo,
Kyle (@kgborland)
PS – Want some quarantine entertainment? Check out the 17-day Digital Drag Fest.
“This is the most challenging crisis we have faced since the Second World War.”
— UN Secretary General António Guterres
American COVID-19 Updates
Cases nationally: 336,830; Total deaths: 9,618; Total recovered: 17,97
1,169 US deaths on Thursday was the new record for the most in 24 hours. COVID overtook tuberculosis as the world’s deadliest disease and, unsurprisingly, it’s killing more men than women.
$1,200 checks from the IRS start going out on April 9 – file those taxes, y’all!
10.4 million US jobs vanished in two weeks, as 6.6m filed for unemployment last week and 3.3m filed the week before. It’s the largest spike in US history. Data lags by a week, so next week’s numbers will be similar. (Graphic: GZERO)
America’s Southern states are especially vulnerable to COVID-19 because its young population shares many of the risk factors of older people.
Big Banks warned the $350 billion SMB loan program is not ready for launch.
CDC may recommend Americans wear face masks while out in public.
COVID is the best case in US history for universal healthcare. #MedicareForAll
Oil prices surged after Trump tweeted about his talk with Saudi Arabia’s MBS to persuade the kingdom and Russia to cut oil production to halt the prices collapse.
President Trump has used the Defense Production Act thousands of times while in office for defense but hesitated to activate it for COVID.
The Pentagon knew in 2017 that a pandemic was coming and warned the White House than about a shortage of ventilators, face masks, and hospital beds.
The US Chamber of Commerce, a lobbying group made up of large corporations, is pressuring the White House to not invoke the Defense Production Act for COVID-19 tests, masks and other protective equipment for health care workers.
The White House won’t lift sanctions on Iran for humanitarian reasons.
Trump relented on his Easter deadline because his real estate mogul friend, Stan Chera, fell into a coronavirus-related coma.
US Navy Captain Brett Crozier of the USS Theodore Roosevelt was sacked after he leaked the dire COVID situation on the aircraft carrier. Acting Navy Secretary Thomas B. Modley stated Crozier was fired because the outbreak “overwhelmed his ability to act professionally.” Captain Crozier received a standing ovation from his sailors. The military is more vulnerable than civilians to COVID.
But the virus poses an existential problem to military units and security offices that even a competent administration couldn’t solve quickly. Social distancing runs counter to virtually every facet of military life, where service members of all ranks have been trained to see “lethality” and “readiness” for combat as higher values than their personal well-being.
International COVID-19 Updates
Cases worldwide: 1,274,923; Total deaths: 69,479; Total recovered: 260,484
Authoritarian EU leaders are hopping on the CCP’s propaganda bandwagon even though Berlin, Paris, and Brussels have matched, if not exceeded, Beijing’s contributions to afflicted member states (Italy, Hungary, Serbia).
China’s global health PR blitz hit a snag, as hundreds of thousands of Chinese-sourced tests are being returned for malfunctions in Spain, Czech Republic, and Turkey. Beijing honored its COVID victims with a national 3-minutes of silence.
EU to spend $100 billion to prevent massive layoffs.
Hungary granted PM Viktor Orbán dictator-level powers, cementing the EU member’s slide to autocracy. Brussels isn’t happy at all as this comes on top of the EU’s top court ruling Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic broke the bloc’s migrant agreement.
Iran’s speaker of parliament contracted the virus.
Italy’s death toll is twice as high as reported because so many are dying before they can be tested.
Norway saw a 128% spike in unemployment, testing the resilience of the world’s most successful social democracy, albeit oil-dependent, and its $1 trillion SWF.
Portugal granted citizenship to asylum-seekers and migrants during the crisis.
Taiwan donated 10 million masks to the EU and the US. Probably related to the 2 million masks Beijing promised the EU on March 18 that have not yet arrived.
UK PM Boris Johnson was admitted to the hospital as COVID persists.
While governments shutdown, scientists around bypassing closed borders to create a vaccine for COVID-19 in record time.
Zoom is connected to China and has no way of securing your video calls.
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