Lock Down...

Dozens of protesters, some of whom were armed, gathered Thursday inside Michigan's Capitol building to voice their opposition to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's stay-at-home order, with tensions high as lawmakers were poised to debate an extension of the declaration.

Holding American flags and handmade signs, the demonstrators in Lansing first congregated shoulder-to-shoulder outside before demanding to be let inside the building. Some chanted "Let us in," The Detroit News reported.

Similar gatherings have sprouted up across the country with participants denouncing stay-at-home orders in their respective states. Many activists have framed their discontent as a civil-rights issue.

The orders have mandated that people stay home and that businesses temporarily close, resulting in massive job losses and employee furloughs.

A rally on April 15 called "Operation Gridlock" drew thousands outside Michigan's Capitol, in addition to another gathering outside Whitmer's home.

Irrelevant...

Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are planning to introduce a bill to stop mergers of large companies during the coronavirus pandemic, the lawmakers said on Tuesday.

The "Pandemic Anti-Monopoly Act" would ban large mergers until the Federal Trade Commission "determines that small businesses, workers, and consumers are no longer under severe financial distress," the lawmakers said in a statement. 

FTC Commissioner Noah Phillips said M&A activity overall has "dramatically" decreased due to the coronavirus, and shutting down mergers entirely "doesn't make a lot of sense." Speaking on CNBC on Tuesday, he said there has been "absolutely no ramp down in enforcement," and that the agency is carefully monitoring mergers in the healthcare industry.

Casual Friday...

Vote...

Pressure...

Heart attacks are often caused by high blood pressure, which nearly one in every three Americans has.

But a study by the CDC now suggests high blood pressure could also be linked to the coronavirus.

The CDC study examined 14 states in the month of March, finding nearly half of all coronavirus patients with underlying conditions suffered from hypertension.

That number skyrocketed up to 72% for patients 65 and older -- the age group where the virus is most likely to be fatal.

It would make sense since that older patients are succumbing to this disease, a very high percentage of them are going to have hypertension as well.

While concerns have been raised about high blood pressure and the medications used to treat it , there just isn't enough information or data to draw any conclusions.

Shrugged...

His stubborn refusal to take the coronavirus seriously may have caused thousands of deaths.

Aymerica’s COVID-19 devastation is disproportionately a story of New York State’s devastation, and New York State’s devastation is overwhelmingly a story of New York City’s devastation.

There’s a case to be made that New York City mayor Bill de Blasio is the single individual in the United States who is most to blame for the catastrophic loss of human life.

I refer you to a grueling investigation by Charles Duhigg in the New Yorker that painstakingly compares the responses to the outbreak in Seattle and New York City. Seattle, paying heed to warnings from scientists, acted quickly to stem the outbreak; de Blasio, despite having several weeks after Seattle announced its first case to prepare for the deluge, shrugged at the virus and even advised people to go out and mingle. As of April 26 Seattle appears to be in good shape: King County, Washington has had 5,739 cases and 400 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University dashboard.

Yet on March 2, de Blasio urged New Yorkers in a tweet to go out on the town. On March 10, de Blasio said on MSNBC, “If you’re under 50 and you’re healthy, which is most New Yorkers, there’s very little threat here. This disease, even if you were to get it, basically acts like a common cold or flu. And transmission is not that easy.” 

On March 11, the day Seattle closed its schools, de Blasio said in a press conference, “If you are not sick, if you are not in the vulnerable category, you should be going about your life.” De Blasio didn’t acknowledge until April 3 that asymptomatic transmission was taking place, claiming he had learned this in the last two days. It had been 63 days since Anthony Fauci declared that asymptomatic transmission was certainly happening. Just a thought.

Briefings...

Reimagine...

We're going to make reopening decisions on a regional basis. Based on that region's facts and circumstances about the COVID virus,” Cuomo said. “In other words, just like some states will reopen before other states because they have a different circumstance when it comes to COVID and their status with COVID, it's also true across the state.

North Country has a totally different situation than New York City. Central New York has a different situation.”

Cuomo also said the state would try to “reimagine” each region as it went along, making it better than it was before the pandemic.  This would entail significant societal changes at unknown cost in dollars and effort, resulting in greater equality for New Yorkers and sweeping systemic changes.

Cuomo said the Reimagine NY initiative mainly would be focused downstate and upstate would reimagined as well.  

Care...

I think we need to care more for the elderly, much more than what we did during this Covid 19.
Just a thought.

Both...