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Due to Covid-19, shows are being prerecorded beginning March 13th and until further notice. We miss our live call-in participants, and look forward to a time we can once again go live.

 

Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig (@ThinkwingRadio), a listener call-in show  airing live every Monday night from 3-4 PM (CT) on KPFT-FM 90.1 (Houston). My co-host and Editor is Andrew Ferguson.

Listen live on the radio, or on the internet from anywhere in the world! When the show is live, we take calls at 713-526-5738. (Long distance charges may apply.)

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For the purposes of this show, I operate on two mottoes:

• You’re entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts;
• An educated electorate is a prerequisite for a democracy.

SIGNOFF QUOTE[s]: “People the world over have always been more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power.” ~ Bill Clinton, Democratic Convention Speech (Wednesday, August 27, 2008)

 

 

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MAIN TOPICS: TOPIC: Voting Info, July 15 Tax Deadline, House coronavirus oversight panel asks five companies to return loans meant for small businesses, Google and Facebook employees can work from home for the rest of the year , Armed activists escort black lawmaker to Michigan’s Capitol after coronavirus protest attended by white supremacists, Two people, including former deputy, to be charged in ‘terrorizing’ incident, 30 Years After Admitting WWII Massacre of Polish POWs, Katyn Memorial Plaques Removed in Russia, Humidity and heat extremes are on the verge of exceeding limits of human survivability, study finds, MORE.

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Make sure you are registered to vote! (Voting and election info are items 1 thru 6. Show information begins after Item 4.)

This program was recorded on SUNDAY, MAY 17. You will NOT be able to get on the air, so please do not call the call-in number. We love our callers, but unfortunately live call-in is one of the casualties of COVID-19.

1. Next Harris County election is a runoff, originally scheduled for May, and is now scheduled for July 14, 2020 – Primary Runoff Elections (at HarrisVotes.com)
2. PRESS RELEASE (In Part): “(Houston, Texas) –… The Harris County Clerk’s Office is currently working on a plan to continue to make voting accessible for the upcoming elections.”
   1. General business for county Clerk: https://www.cclerk.hctx.net/ and indirectly via com
   2. The city of Friendswood Updated at 12:34 p.m. March 27: At the board of trustees special meeting on March 23, the board voted to postpone the district bond election to November.
      1. https://communityimpact.com/houston/pearland-friendswood/government/2020/03/19/city-of-friendswood-friendswood-isd-elections-postponed/
3. Make sure you are registered to vote!
   1. For a personalized, nonpartisan voter guide visit vote411.org (DO NOT!! go to 411Vote!!
   2. If you are denied your right to vote any place at any time at any polling place for any reason, ask for (or demand) a provisional ballot rather than lose your vote.
   3. HarrisVotes.com  (Election Information Line (713) 755-6965) Dr. Diane Trautman, Harris County Clerk
   4. VoteTexas.gov
   5. HarrisVotes.com – Countywide Voting Centers
      1. HARRIS CTY – IDENTIFICATION REQUIRED FOR VOTING: Do not possess and cannot reasonably obtain one of these IDs?
      2. Fill out a declaration at the polls describing a reasonable impediment to obtaining it, and show a copy or original of one of the following supporting forms of ID:
      3. A government document that shows your name and an address, including your voter registration certificate
      4. Current utility bill
      5. Bank statement
      6. Government check
      7. Paycheck
      8. (a) A certified domestic (from a U.S. state or territory) birth certificate or (b) a document confirming birth admissible in a court of law which establishes your identity (which may include a foreign birth document)
   6. You may vote early by-mail if
      1. you are registered to vote and meet one of the following criteria:
      2. Away from the county of residence on Election Day and during the early voting period;
      3. you are registered to vote and meet one of the following criteria:
         1. Away from the county of residence on Election Day and during the early voting period;
         2. Sick or disabled;
         3. 65 years of age or older on Election Day; or
         4. Confined in jail, but eligible to vote.
         5. Make sure you are registered:
   7. Ann Harris Bennett, Tax Assessor-Collector & Voter Registrar
      1. CHECK REGISTRATION STATUS HERE
         1. CLICK How to register to vote in Texas
      2. POLL LOCATIONS & BALLOTS: Find your ballots with simple information entries
   8. Outside Texas, try Vote.org.
4. IRS Announces New July 15 Tax Deadline For Expats, Trusts, Estates And Corporations, Includes June 15 Estimated Payments Fix, By Ashlea Ebeling, Senior Contributor | FORBES.COM| Apr 9, 2020,06:54pm EDT
   1. … Notice 2020-23 confirms get … until July 15 to file and pay federal income taxes. …
5. Supreme Court seems reluctant to unbind ‘faithless electors’ who could ‘create chaos’ in presidential contests – Justice Clarence Thomas even invoked a character from “Lord of the Rings” to make a point. By Pete Williams | NBCNEWS.COM | May 13, 2020, 4:04 AM CDT / Updated May 13, 2020, 12:51 PM CDT
   1. The justices of the Supreme Court seemed reluctant Wednesday to tamper with the system America uses to choose its president, based on their comments during oral arguments over the workings of the Electoral College.
   2. The issue in the two “faithless elector” cases is a simple one: Are the 538 presidential electors free agents, or must they vote in accordance with the election results in their states? If they are free to vote as they wish, a small group of them, or even a single one in a tight contest, could decide who wins.
   3. Opponents of the existing system hope that the legal battle will spur the states to adopt changes that they say would make elections more responsive to the public.
   4. The issue is a simple one: Are the 538 presidential electors free agents, or must they vote in accordance with the election results in their states? If they are free to vote as they wish, a small group of them, or even a single one in a tight contest, could decide who wins the White House. …
   5. … In more than half the country, electors are required to obey the results of their state’s popular vote and cast their ballots accordingly. The problem of “faithless electors” who disregard the popular vote outcome has not been much of an issue in American history, because when an elector refuses to follow the results of a state’s popular vote, the states usually throw the ballot away. But can the states do that?
   6. [Lawrence Lessig, a Harvard law school professor arguing for the electors] has said he hopes the cases will eventually lead to a change in the Electoral College, either through a constitutional amendment or by encouraging more states to adopt a system in which they would assign all of their electors to whoever wins the nationwide popular vote for president.
   7. Fourteen states have already agreed to do so. An interstate agreement to make the change would take effect once the participating states represent at least 270 votes, the minimum number needed to be elected president. [SEE BELOW: National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)]
   8. But after Wednesday’s argument, it seems unlikely these cases will modify the system or spur calls for changing how the Electoral College works.
   9. The court will likely issue its decision by July.

   10. 1960 United States presidential election in Alabama (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

       1. The 1960 United States presidential election in Alabama, was held on November 8, 1960, as part of that year’s national presidential election. Eleven Democratic electors were elected, of whom six voted for Harry F. Byrd and five for John F. Kennedy.^[1]
       2. In Alabama, voters voted for electors individually instead of as a slate, as in the other 49 states. There were 22 electors on the ballot, 11 Republicans and 11 Democrats. Voters could vote for up to eleven candidates. As a result of a state primary, the Democratic Party had a mixed slate of electors, five being pledged to Kennedy and the remaining six being unpledged.^[2][3] The highest vote for a presidential elector was 324,050 votes for Frank M. Dixon, who was unpledged; the highest vote for an elector pledged to Kennedy was 318,303 for C. G. Allen, and the highest vote for a Republican elector was 237,981 for Cecil Durham, which was lower than the vote for any Democratic elector.^[2] As a result, six unpledged electors and five electors pledged to Kennedy were elected. All six elected unpledged electors cast their vote for Byrd.^[4]
       3. Varying methods have been used to break down the vote into Kennedy and unpledged votes. One method is to take the 318,303 votes as Kennedy votes and the 324,050 votes as unpledged votes, giving a total much higher than the actual votes cast.^[5] Another is to take the 318,303 votes as Kennedy votes and the remainder (5,747 votes) as unpledged votes.^[6] A third is to split the 324,050 in the proportion of ​⁵⁄₁₁ to ​⁶⁄₁₁, giving 147,295 votes for Kennedy and 176,755 for unpledged electors.^[7] In all cases Richard Nixon has 237,981 votes. If the last method were used, it would mean that Nixon not only won the popular vote in Alabama, but won it nationally.^[3][7]
   11. National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
       1. The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC) is an agreement among a group of U.S. states and the District of Columbia to award all their electoral votes to whichever presidential candidate wins the overall popular vote in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The compact is designed to ensure that the candidate who receives the most votes nationwide is elected president, and it would come into effect only when it would guarantee that outcome.^[3][4] As of March 2020, it has been adopted by fifteen states and the District of Columbia, although it is suspended in Colorado.^[2] Together, they have 196 electoral votes counting Colorado, which is 36% of the Electoral College and 73% of the 270 votes needed to give the compact legal force. Certain legal questions, however, may affect implementation of the compact.
       2. IMAGE: National Popular Vote Interstate Compact — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NPVIC_top.svg
6. ACLUTexas: COVID-19 and Civil Liberties
   1. Even in a public health emergency, governments still have the duty to protect our rights. Yet since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, we have witnessed countless attempts by state and local agencies to infringe upon Texans’ civil liberties.
   2. Since the onset of the pandemic, the ACLU of Texas has been monitoring government responses to the health crisis closely, and we have acted quickly to protect civil rights and civil liberties while also upholding evidence-based guidance from public health experts. Specifically, we have aggressively acted on behalf of people whose rights and health are at heightened risk, including protections for voters, people in the criminal legal system, and those seeking access to critical abortion care.
   3. Safeguarding access to the ballot box
      1. Victory: On April 15, a Texas court ruled that all registered voters in Texas qualify for voting by mail due to the COVID-19 health crisis.
      2. On April 2, [the ACLUTexas] and … partners joined a lawsuit seeking guidance from the court to declare that all registered voters, under Texas law, qualify to request a mail-in ballot as a result of the COVID-19 public health crisis.
7. Texas Supreme Court puts expansion of voting by mail on hold – The state Supreme Court’s order comes one day after a state appeals court had allowed the expansion to stand while a legal case was appealed. by Alexa Ura | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | May 15, 2020
   1. The Texas Supreme Court on Friday temporarily put on hold an expansion of voting by mail during the coronavirus pandemic.
   2. Siding with Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Supreme Court blocked a state appeals court decision that allowed voters who lack immunity to the virus to qualify for absentee ballots by citing a disability. That appellate decision upheld a lower court’s order that would have allowed more people to qualify to vote by mail. The state’s Supreme Court has not weighed the merits of the case.
   3. It’s the latest in an ongoing legal squabble that in the last three days has resulted in daily changes to who can qualify for a ballot they can fill out at home and mail in.
   4. Federal and state courts are considering legal challenges to the state’s rules for voting by mail as Democrats and voting rights groups ask courts to clarify whether lack of immunity to the coronavirus is a valid reason for people to request absentee ballots. A resolution to that question is gaining more urgency every day as the state approaches the July primary runoff elections.
   5. Paxton asked the Supreme Court to intervene the day after a state appeals court let stand a ruling from state District Judge Tim Sulak that susceptibility to the coronavirus counts as a disability under the state election code and is therefore a legally valid reason for voters to request absentee ballots.
   6. The appeals court rebuffed Paxton’s efforts to block voters from requesting absentee ballots under those conditions while the case was making its way through the courts.
   7. But the Supreme Court’s Friday decision means that order will remain blocked while the appeal of the case moves forward.
8. Coronavirus in Texas: Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick says bring back sports and let fans in the stadiums – Our staff is closely tracking developments on the new coronavirus in Texas. Check here for live updates. by Texas Tribune Staff | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | May 15, 2020
   1. 1. Texas reports 45,198 cases and 1,272 deaths
         1. [4 p.m.] Texas reported 1,347 more cases of the new coronavirus Friday, an increase of about 3% over the previous day, bringing the total number of known cases to 45,198. Three new counties reported their first cases Friday; over 85% of the state’s 254 counties have reported at least one case.
         2. Harris County has reported the most cases, 8,817, followed by Dallas County, which has reported 6,837 cases. See maps of the latest case numbers for each county and case rates per 1,000 residents.
         3. The state has reported 56 additional deaths — the second-highest increase since the state started reporting coronavirus death counts. Harris County reported five additional deaths, bringing its total to 193 deaths, more than any other county.
         4. As of Friday, 1,716 patients are known to be hospitalized in Texas. That’s an increase of 68 patients from Thursday. At least 645,992 tests have been conducted. — Mandi Cai
      2. Dan Patrick pens op-ed saying sports should return with fans in the stadiums
         1. [11:15 a.m.] Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick thinks sports fans should be able to attend games as long as some guidelines are in place, he wrote in a Friday opinion piece for The Dallas Morning News.
         2. “Let’s end all this talk about playing in empty stadiums,” Patrick wrote. “Let the games begin with fans in the seats.”
9. UPDATED: Alvin, Pearland, Friendswood ISDs to honor seniors despite school closures, By Morgan Slutzky | COM | 4:44 PM May 14, 2020 CDT | Updated 6:27 PM May 15, 2020 CDT
   1. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in America, difficult decisions have been made in school districts nationwide. After Gov. Greg Abbott’s April 17 executive order officially canceling in-person school in Texas for the rest of the academic year, one challenge in particular has been how to handle canceled commencement ceremonies for seniors in the class of 2020. …
   2. … Alvin ISD initially planned to have a virtual ceremony in May and hold outdoor ceremonies in July, but according to the district website, with the governor’s announcement approving outdoor ceremonies after June 1, AISD has decided to move its graduation ceremonies to June and cancel the planned virtual event. Pearland ISD is set to have in-person graduations at Pearland ISD Stadium on June 2-4 and has no plans to host a virtual ceremony. …
10. This Mysterious Childhood Illness May Be Linked to Coronavirus, By Amanda Arnold (@aMandolinz) | THECUT.COM | Updated May 13, 2020
    1. Over the past few weeks, a small but growing number of children have been hospitalized with a mysterious illness that may be linked to the coronavirus. As of Wednesday, more than 100 children in New York, many of whom also tested positive for coronavirus or its antibodies, appear to have fallen ill with what doctors are calling “Pediatric Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome.” Fourteen other states and at least five countries in Europe have also reported cases. The syndrome appears similar to Kawasaki disease, a rare childhood illness that causes inflammation of the blood vessels, and, in rare cases, it can be life threatening. So far, at least three children have died. Here’s everything we know.
    2. What is the mysterious illness? According to the New York City Health Department, the most common symptom of pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome (PMIS) is a temperature of 100.4 degrees F or higher that lasts for several days. However, children with the syndrome have exhibited a number of other symptoms, including irritability, abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting, rash, red or pink eyes; an enlarged lymph node on one side of the neck; red lips or tongue; and swollen hands and feet, which may also be red. Per NBC New York, the state health department is working alongside the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to develop national criteria to help state health departments in the rest of country identify and monitor the illness. …
    3. Is there a link between the syndrome and the coronavirus? Medical professionals worldwide are investigating a potential link between PMIS [Pediatric Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome] and coronavirus. In the U.K., at least 12 children have required urgent care due to symptoms linked to the coronavirus, many of whom have been confirmed to have the mysterious illness. Health officials in Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and France have also reported a rise in cases resembling toxic-shock syndrome and Kawasaki disease. …
    4. … “Even though the relationship of this syndrome to COVID-19 is not yet defined, and not all of these cases have tested positive for Covid-19 by either DNA test or serology, the clinical nature of this virus is such that we are asking all providers to contact us immediately if they see patients who meet the criteria we’ve outlined,” New York City health commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot told the Times in a statement. …
11. COVID-19 at least 10 times deadlier than typical flu, analysis finds, By Brian P. Dunleavy | UPI.COM | May 14, 2020 / 1:01 PM / Updated May 14, 2020 at 10:56 PM
    1. COVID-19 causes at least 10 times more deaths than typical seasonal influenza, according to the authors of an analysis published Thursday by JAMA Internal Medicine. …
    2. … [D]ifferentiating between 0.1 percent — the death rate for the flu — and 1 percent — the death rate for COVID-19 — means little to the general public, but when you say that 100,000 people will die from the flu compared to the 1 million people who will die from COVID-19, then people start to take notice,” Kevin S. Harrod, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, told UPI. …
    3. … As many as 50,000 people in the United States die from the flu annually, according to CDC estimates. …
    4. …To compare, the latest figures from Johns Hopkins University indicate that, through Thursday, nearly 1.4 million Americans have been infected with the new coronavirus, while nearly 86,000 died.
    5. The Johns Hopkins data is based on reporting of confirmed cases of COVID-19 and deaths attributed to the disease from county and state health departments across the country.
    6. Public officials, however, continue to liken the impact of COVID-19 with that of seasonal influenza, authors of the new analysis wrote.
    7. For the week ending April 21, researchers calculated that COVID-19 deaths for the week were 9.5-fold to 44.1-fold higher than the peak week of counted influenza deaths over the past seven winter seasons in the United States. …
    8. … This is not something people should be panicking about,” Dr. Liz Whittaker, a member of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health’s allergy, immunology and infectious diseases committee, told the Guardian.
    9. “So far, from what we understand, this is a rare complication in the pediatric population that they believe is related to Covid-19,” New York State health commissioner Howard Zucker told the Times. “We are following it very closely.”
12. ‘I Wish I Could Do Something for You,’ My Doctor Said, By Mara Gay | The New York Times | May 15, 2020
    1. [AS WRITTEN BY MARA GAY]: The day before I got sick, I ran 3 miles, walked 10 more, then raced up the stairs to my fifth-floor apartment as always, slinging laundry with me as I went.
    2. The next day, April 17, I became one of the thousands of New Yorkers to fall ill with COVID-19. I haven’t felt the same since.
    3. If you live in New York City, you know what this virus can do. In just under two months, an estimated 24,000 New Yorkers have died. That’s more than twice the number of people we lost to homicide over the past 20 years.
    4. Now I worry for Americans elsewhere. When I see photographs of crowds packing into a newly reopened big-box store in Arkansas or scores of people jammed into a Colorado restaurant without masks, it’s clear too many Americans still don’t grasp the power of this disease.
    5. The second day I was sick, I woke up to what felt like hot tar buried deep in my chest. I could not get a deep breath unless I was on all fours. I’m healthy. I’m a runner. I’m 33 years old. …
    6. …I am one of the lucky ones. I never needed a ventilator. I survived. But 27 days later, I still have lingering pneumonia. I use two inhalers, twice a day. I can’t walk more than a few blocks without stopping.
    7. I want Americans to understand that this virus is making otherwise young, healthy people very, very sick. I want them to know, this is no flu.
    8. Even healthy New Yorkers in their 20s have been hospitalized. At least 13 children in New York state have died from COVID-19, according to health department data. My friend’s 29-year-old boyfriend was even sicker than I was and at one point could barely walk across their living room. …
    9. MIKE: My first quarantine show was March 13. I drew a metaphorical analogy to the 14th century Black Plague in terms of the social after-effects it wrought.
    10. Now it’s looking like measles or scarlet fever, leaving permanent life-shortening organ damage. With some recurrent herpes thrown in.
13. Newly reopened South Florida seen as an emerging coronavirus hot spot, By Alexander Nazaryan, National Correspondent  | Yahoo News
    1. Federal officials responding to the coronavirus pandemic are concerned about the rapidly rising number of cases in Palm Beach County, Fla., according to an internal Trump administration document reviewed by Yahoo News.
    2. The document, a May 15 daily interagency update on the nation’s coronavirus response circulated by the Department of Homeland Security, notes new areas of concern for coronavirus. It was provided to Yahoo News by one of its recipients under the condition that that recipient not be identified.
    3. “As most states have begun phased re-opening, several COVID-19 hot spots continue to emerge,” the notice says. Three counties are then listed: Palm Beach; San Bernardino County, Calif.; and Marshall County, Ala.
    4. “Palm Beach County, FL reported a 71% increase in new cases the last 7 days compared to the previous 7 days,” the document explains. “The state authorized Palm Beach County to begin Phase 1 of reopening on 11 May, which includes the reopening of barbershops, salons, restaurants, and other businesses.” …
    5. … Marshall County, Ala., the document says, “reported 217 cases in the last 7 days, a 517% increase over the previous 7 days. Marshall County is home to several poultry plants and the meat packing industry accounts for 8% of the county’s employment. On 11 May, additional businesses were reopened.” …
    6. …Florida was one of the first states to reopen, at the urging of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who had also been slow to close his state, effectively waiting for permission from Trump to do so. DeSantis’s faltering and confusing response to the coronavirus made him among the nation’s least popular governors, according to a national survey conducted in April.
14. Lockdown protesters shout ‘be like Sweden’ — but Swedes say they are missing the point – “The Swedish strategy is very much relying on the individual’s trust in the state,” one Swede told NBC News. By Karolina Modig | NBCNEWS.COM | May 15, 2020, 4:13 AM CDT
    1. Known for its socialized health care, progressive tax system and liberal social policies, Sweden rarely finds cheerleaders among conservative commentators and activists in the United States.
    2. But on homemade placards at anti-lockdown protests in the last month, an unusual slogan has been spotted: “Be more like Sweden.” …
    3. … According to the Swedes, however, American admirers of their approach are confusing their own beliefs with what is a prudent and carefully planned public health policy. …
    4. … The Swedish Public Health Agency’s strategy is based on trying to slow the spread of the virus as much as possible, not on keeping the economy going. The Swedish economy, heavily dependent on the global supply chain, is suffering just as much as many other countries. The decision to keep schools open was about freeing up health care workers to deal with the pandemic, not to stimulate the economy
    5. For Swedish entrepreneur Vendela Ragnarsson, it is irresponsible to apply a strategy that Swedish authorities introduced as a proactive measure to slow down the spread of the infection to a different country and situation. …
    6. … “You run the risk of sacrificing a large proportion of low-income earners and others who do not have adequate health insurance,” she says. …
15. Will empty middle seats help social distancing on planes?, By John Walton | COM | 22nd April 2020
    1. As more countries mull lifting Covid-19 lockdowns, airlines are examining what flying might look like as travel restrictions start to be relaxed. Carriers are haemorrhaging money and it’s very much in their interests to get planes back in the air. Passenger confidence will be one of many hurdles to overcome, however, with many worried about keeping a reasonable distance from their fellow travellers.
    2. Several airlines are exploring the idea of keeping middle seats empty, to avoid passengers sitting directly beside each other. …
    3. … Removing the unloved middle seat option would lead to a hearty hooray from the travelling public. Sit by the window and you get a view, plus a bulkhead to snooze against. In an aisle seat, you can pop to the toilet or stretch whenever you like. The middle seat has no such benefits, unless you’re one of those people who strikes up conversations with their seatmates.
    4. But would blocking middle seats actually help us maintain proper social distancing and if so, how long could airlines keep doing it? Is it a realistic option beyond the very short term? …
    5. …Planes are very much not set up for social … Billions of dollars have been spent in recent years in particular to fit as many people as possible into smaller spaces. For example, when the big wide-body, twin-aisle, twin-engine Boeing 777 started flying in the 1990s, most of them had nine seats per economy row on long-haul flights. Today, almost all airlines flying the plane – whether long-haul with the likes of Emirates or short-haul within Japan – have 10 seats, meaning narrower seats and narrower aisles. …
    6. …LIFT Aero Design’s Daniel Baron points out that there are a number of other measures that airlines can use to try and make travel safer. “Let’s not forget that cabin air circulation is on par with operating theatres,” he says. “A combination of pre-flight screening, thorough cabin sanitising, smart seat assignments and masks will likely be the way forward in the short to medium term.”
    7. … Delta Air Lines has changed the way it boards aircraft, and is now boarding them strictly from the rear to the front, so passengers sitting at the back don’t have to pass those sitting at the front. The airline is also boarding fewer people at a time to improve physical distancing of passengers.
    8. Many airlines are also cancelling or reducing inflight food and beverage service to reduce interactions on board: Southwest is serving individual cans of water rather than its usual full drinks round, for example. Some airlines are offering to-go bags in the gate area instead.
16. What went wrong with the media’s coronavirus coverage? And can we do better?, By Peter Kafka | VOX.COM | Apr 13, 2020, 7:10am EDT
    1. … Much of the mainstream media amplified [the] slow and muddled reaction to the rapidly spreading virus. Since alarming reports about Covid-19 began to emerge from China in January, the media often provided information to Americans that later proved to be wrong, or at least inadequate.
    2. For instance: While President Trump has been correctly pilloried for describing the coronavirus as less dangerous than the flu, that message was commonplace in mainstream media outlets throughout February. And journalists — including my colleagues at Vox — were dutifully repeating exhortations from public health officials not to wear masks for much of 2020. …
    3. … [I]t’s worth looking back to ask how the media could have done better as the virus broke out of China and headed to the US.
    4. Why didn’t we see this coming sooner? And once we did, why didn’t we sound the alarm with more vigor?
    5. If you read the stories from that period … you’ll find that most of the information holding the pieces together comes from authoritative sources …: experts at institutions like the World Health Organization, the CDC, and academics with real domain knowledge.
    6. The problem, in many cases, was that that information was wrong, or at least incomplete. Which raises the hard question for journalists scrutinizing our performance in recent months: How do we cover a story where neither we nor the experts we turn to know what isn’t yet known? And how do we warn Americans about the full range of potential risks in the world without ringing alarm bells so constantly that they’ll tune us out? …
    7. … Journalists have been doing crucial reporting about what the US government got wrong as the pandemic advanced, and what US leaders could have done to prepare America. They provided analysis that put the news in context. And they have also provided important on-the-ground dispatches from places around the world that have been devastated by the disease — often at great personal risk — starting at its epicenter in Wuhan, China.
    8. But when it came to grappling with a new disease they knew nothing about, journalists most often turned to experts and institutions for information, and relayed what those experts and institutions told them to their audience.
    9. And given that the Covid-19 coronavirus is brand new, even the best-meaning experts and institutions gave conflicting information, some of which now has proven to be inaccurate or up for debate. That includes National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci, who is now the most trusted official in the federal government when it comes to the Covid-19 response, but as late as February was calling the risk from coronavirus “minuscule” and warning people to worry instead about “influenza outbreak, which is having its second wave.” …
    10. … Laura Helmuth, who was the health and science editor at the Washington Post and recently left to become editor-in-chief of Scientific American, says acknowledging gaps in knowledge is crucial but not easy.
    11. “One thing that science journalists have been getting better at is not just saying what we do know, but what we don’t know,” she says. “But most journalists aren’t accustomed to doing that.”
    12. … Mainstream journalists who know how to read and understand academic research reports are a select group and have been for decades. Many midsize newspapers once employed dedicated science journalists, but those jobs have been dwindling for years. …
    13. … In some cases, the screaming was there, but you had to work to hear it. You wouldn’t find it in a headline or the top of a newscast, but if you absorbed the whole thing, you’d find news that would scare you into some kind of action.
    14. My sort-of come-to-Jesus moment started on February 27 when I listened to Times reporter Donald McNeil on the paper’s Daily He said the worst-case scenario was a repeat of the 1918 flu pandemic, which killed 50 million people worldwide and at least 675,000 in the United States.
    15. In that version, McNeil said calmly: Everybody in the US would “know somebody who dies.”
    16. It’s most gripping in audio form, but I want to pull out a section here:
        1. Donald G. McNeil Jr. – Some big chunk of the country — 30, 40, 50 percent — are likely to get a new virus when it blows through. And if you don’t get it in the first wave, you might get it in the second wave.
        2. Michael Barbaro – And 2 percent lethality rate of 50 percent of the country. I don’t want to do that math. It’s really, really awful.
        3. McNeil – It’s a lot of people. It means, you know, you don’t die, 80 percent of people have mild cases. But you know somebody who dies.
        4. Barbaro – That’s pretty horrible … Okay. Now, the best-case scenario.
        5. McNeil – The best-case scenario is one of these drugs works, and basically everybody gets sick next year, but everybody who is hospitalized gets a drug that keeps them from dying and keeps them from going into deep, deep, deep respiratory distress. And we have the equivalent of a bad flu season. And then everybody says, ‘Oh, the media, they blew it out of proportion again.’ You know, it’s all ridiculous. And, you know, I get blamed.
    17. That was enough for me — sort of. I didn’t change my plans to travel to Los Angeles the following week, but I did start assuming that the rest of my spring plans were going to be up in the air. And I told my family that we should start buying food — not in panic, but slowly. And I wondered how The Daily’s millions of listeners would respond.
17. Program Eligibility by Federal Poverty Level for 2020
    1. FROM HEALTHCARE.GOV: Federal Poverty Level (FPL): The 2020 federal poverty level (FPL) income numbers below are used to calculate eligibility for Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). 2019 numbers are slightly lower, and are used to calculate savings on Marketplace insurance plans for 2020.
    2. How federal poverty levels are used to determine eligibility for reduced-cost health coverage: Income between 100% and 400% FPL: If your income is in this range, in all states you qualify for premium tax credits that lower your monthly premium for a Marketplace health insurance plan.
    3. The Federal Poverty level in California for a family of four is $103,000, according to this chart from com.
    4. MIKE: Think about that, and the overall ramifications on health and opportunity. And what about other states?
    5. Ramifications:
       1. Minimum wage
       2. Executive pay disparity with workers
    6. Impact on public health, the economy, and more.