Texas has emerged as one of the United States’ coronavirus hot spots in recent weeks, and data shows the recent spike doesn’t completely match up with the early days of the pandemic in terms of demographics. Back in April, when the virus first peaked, most of the patients testing positive in the Houston Methodist Hospital system were over 50, The New York Times reports. Now, the majority are reportedly relatively young. And while it’s widely believed younger, healthier people are at a lower risk of developing severe infections or dying, there are no guarantees. In the Methodist system, nearly one-third of intensive care patients are under 50, which the Times notes is higher than the previous surge. Meanwhile, TheTexas Tribune and Fox4 in Dallas previously reported that people under 50 made up 50 percent of those hospitalized with the virus in June, as well as 30 percent of those in intensive care.
Of note: hospitals are seeing younger patients now in June compared to March around when coronavirus started appearing in North Texas. Seeing a sharp jump in hospital patients ages 21-40. 50% of hospitalizations are under 50, 30% critical care under 50. @FOX4pic.twitter.com/kUqFl8a7Zt
The trend doesn’t appear to be confined to Texas, at least anecdotally. Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported that states like Arizona, Florida, and California were also seeing more patients in their 20s, 30s, and 40s testing positive and winding up in the hospital. Read more about Houston Methodist Hospital’s experience with the coronavirus at The New York Times. Nick Note: Party Hardy millennias because the coronavirus with super powers is coming to get you.
The WHO warns the pandemic ‘is not even close to being over’, as the number of deaths worldwide exceeds 500,000.
Global coronavirus cases now exceed 10 million and more than half a million people have died from the respiratory disease, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States accounts for about a quarter of all deaths.
Pakistan’s COVID-19 cases have passed the 200,000 mark after 3,602 new infections were reported on Sunday.
The US health secretary Alex Azar has warned the “window is closing” for decisive action to curb the virus as cases there surge.
The Australian state of Victoria has found 75 new cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours – the highest daily count in two months. Its top health official says the number is “absolutely concerning”.
Six months since the new coronavirus outbreak, the pandemic is still far from over, the World Health Organization said Monday, warning that “the worst is yet to come.” Reaching the half-year milestone just as the death toll surpassed 500,000 and the number of confirmed infections topped 10 million, the WHO said it was a moment to recommit to the fight to save lives. “Six months ago, none of us could have imagined how our world — and our lives — would be thrown into turmoil by this new virus,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual briefing. “We all want this to be over. We all want to get on with our lives. But the hard reality is this is not even close to being over,” he said. “Although many countries have made some progress, globally the pandemic is actually speeding up.”Tedros added that ” we’re all in this for the long haul.” “We will need even greater stores of resilience, patience, humility and generosity in the months ahead,” he said. “We have already lost so much — but we cannot lose hope.” Tedros also said that the pandemic had brought out the best and worst humanity, citing acts of kindness and solidarity, but also misinformation and the politicization of the virus. In an atmosphere of global political division and fractures on a national level, “the worst is yet to come. I’m sorry to say that,” he said. “With this kind of environment and condition, we fear the worst.” Nick Note: I truly believe if America had a world leader and not a political hack as leader. Mankind under American technology and forbearance could have had this pandemic under control. I believe the plague is among us and it will be ugly!
The United States is in the midst of a full-blown second wave of coronavirus. According to Worldometers, Tuesday had 36,015 new cases — the highest number since May 1, and the third-highest ever. Arizona, Florida, South Carolina, California, and Texas are headed for a dire emergency fast. So far deaths have thankfully not returned to their previous highs, probably in part because the new surge appears to be hitting younger patients. But deaths are also a lagging indicator, and they are highly likely to start increasing soon. Europe, where most countries have largely contained the virus (after initial screw-ups), is looking at America with slackjawed horror. The European Union is likely to close its borders to American travelers when it restores some international travel on July 1. Canada will most likely keep its U.S. border mostly closed when the current agreement expires on July 21. Around the world, it is beginning to sink in how profoundly rotten the United States is. Unless America manages to turn things around, it will slide from the center of the international order to a peripheral, mistrusted basketcase, and it will deserve it. It is plainly obvious why the U.S. is experiencing a second wave. The point of coronavirus lockdowns, as I and dozens of others explained months ago, was to buy time for the government to set up more fine-grained containment protocols that could contain the virus more effectively. With transmission reduced to a manageable rate and a test-trace-isolate system in place, countries can return to something like normal life, and an increasing number are doing so. It’s a tricky business and renewed lockdowns may be necessary, as fresh outbreaks in China and elsewhere have shown, but it can be done. But the Trump administration did not even try this on a national level, or do anything of significance. Indeed, American politics is so broken that we couldn’t even manage the simplest common-sense containment strategy of mandating universal mask-wearing in any indoor space. American public health experts spent weeks on a bizarre and scientifically illiterate crusade against masks — a study years ago found that even cheap homemade masks significantly reduce droplet-based infection — but even after plenty of new evidence has come in, Trump and most Republicans keep insisting a mask is a matter of personal choice. Instead masks got sucked into the conservative grievance industrial complex, becoming another postmodern cultural signifier for right-wingers trying to own the libs. Trump simply cannot grasp what the pandemic is, because in his mind nobody save himself is a real person. Appearances are all that matter — he is plainly most upset about the Bad Numbers of infections and deaths, and continues to suggest in public that the U.S. should be testing less so he looks less bad. He promises there will be no more lockdowns even as cases spike, and recently held a huge indoor rally in Tulsa — perhaps the worst possible thing he could do, especially because his followers mostly refused to wear the free provided masks. Despite being poorly attended, that rally still could easily turn out to be a mega-spreader event. It is no doubt extremely alarming for people around the world coming to really grasp the fact that the world’s most powerful country is being run by an incompetent buffoon who could not be trusted with a lemonade stand yet still commands the lockstep loyalty of one of two major political parties. “I can’t imagine what it must be like having to go to work knowing it’s unsafe,” Siouxsie Wiles, a New Zealand disease scientist, told The Washington Post. “There are just going to be more and more people infected, and more and more deaths. It’s heartbreaking.” Indeed, American political reporters have struggled to grasp the reality of Trump as well, though the ongoing catastrophe seems to have finally beaten it into their heads. American politicians: blame avoidance. When faced with a problem, most top politicians in both parties think first about how they can shift blame to others or appear the victim of circumstance. Halting the epidemic in its early stages would have required a lot o Politicians would have had to exercise power in a way that upset people, and carefully communicate why they were doing so. Instead they largely let events do their work for them — once outbreaks were underway and sports seasons were being canceled, they could impose lockdowns without risking a backlash. That cowardice killed tens of thousands of people. Only a handful of state governors, like Washington’s Jay Inslee, actually listened to their scientists and got out ahead of events.Now multiple states are in the throes of accelerating outbreaks, and once again politicians are following events rather than anticipating them. Back in late May many experts warned California Governor Gavin Newsom that he was reopening the state too quickly, but under criticism from those who didn’t like lockdowns, he pushed forward. He largely left things up to county officials, many of whom are conservative goofballs who refuse to obey his authority. Now that reopening has plainly backfired — the state shattered its daily case record on both Monday and Tuesday — Newsom has belatedly threatened that counties that refuse to follow pandemic control guidelines may lose state aid. It’s a month late and a billion dollars short. In Texas, Governor Greg Abbot has twisted himself in knots trying to avoid any kind of responsibility. He quickly rescinded his own order closing businesses when conservatives got mad, and refused to allow local cities to implement mandatory mask orders. Instead, he left a loophole allowing them to mandate businesses to require masks, but told nobody about it until a local judge actually tried it. Florida governor Ron DeSantis, meanwhile, is weeks behind the times. At time of writing he has merely promised he will actually enforce pandemic rules on bars and restaurants, and still has not mandated mask-wearing in public. Arizona is also way behind the curve. But countries around the world are no doubt grappling with some unpleasant truths. A nation that could elect Donald Trump is deeply, deeply sick. We are comparatively lucky that Trump appointed Jerome Powell chair of the Federal Reserve board (who turned out to be at least in possession of his faculties), instead of, say, Jared Kushner. When a country is as gangrenous as the United States, the rot tends to spread through its entire system sooner or later. Nick Note: America ha ha ha leaders blew it big time. And millions of people will pay the ultimate price.
(CNN)Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar warned Sunday that the “window is closing” for the United States to get the coronavirus pandemic under control, as confirmed cases are surging in a majority of the country and some states are dealing with record numbers of hospitalizations. “Things are very different from two months ago… So it is a very different situation, but this is a very, very serious situation and the window is closing for us to take action and get this under control,” Azar told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.” He suggested that the US is better positioned to handled the pandemic than before, pointing to increased testing, contact tracing, hospital capacity, reserves of personal protective equipment, and advancement toward therapeutics and potential vaccines for the virus. The top health official’s message differs from that of President Donald Trump, who seems ready to move on from the still-raging pandemic, and Vice President Mike Pence. With no course correction in sight, Trump risks defeat At a Friday press briefing by the White House’s coronavirus task force, the first in nearly two months, Pence declared that the US had “flattened the curve,” painting a rosy picture at odds with reality. Thirty-six states are reporting a rise in positive coronavirus cases, and only two are reporting a decline in cases compared to last week. On Friday, the US reported the highest number of new cases in a single day, with at least 40,173 new infections. The previous daily high was reported on Thursday. Several states, including Texas and Washington state, and localities have paused their reopening plans or reimposed some restrictions in hopes of curbing the spread of the virus. Azar denied that reopening too quickly was tied to the rise in cases, but instead “inappropriate individual behavior” that has enabled the spread of the virus. “That’s not so much about what the law says on the reopening as what our behaviors are within that,” he told Tapper. He cautioned that if Americans “act irresponsibly, if we don’t socially distance, if we don’t use face coverings in settings where we can’t social distance, if we don’t practice appropriate personal hygiene, we’re going to see spread of disease.” Trump’s effort to dismantle Obamacare during the pandemic might be his riskiest move yet Asked about the Trump’s administration’s request to the Supreme Court on Thursday to invalidate the Affordable Care Act amid a pandemic, Azar said that they will work with Congress on a replacement plan. “We have made very clear that the Supreme Court strikes down all or a large part of Obamacare, because it is constitutionally or statutorily infirm, we will work with Congress to create a program that genuinely protects individuals with pre-existing conditions,” Azar said, adding that the exact details will be dependent on the court’s decision and makeup of Congress. Former US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Tom Frieden cautioned on Fox News Sunday that while the US is doing more testing and our hospitals are better prepared, “this virus still has the upper hand.” When asked whether the Trump administration’s claims of rising case numbers was the result of more testing being done, Frieden dismissed it, saying, “As a doctor, a scientist, an epidemiologist, I can tell you with 100% certainty that in most states where you’re seeing an increase, it is a real increase. “It is not more tests, it is more spread of the virus,” Frieden said. Nick Note: You should be very very careful who you choose as your champion. An the END never ever Justified the means. Well centered conservatives chose a raciest, whore Monger PIG to be their leader. Now you have lost it all. Black Supremacists and liberal socialist will come to power. And like they have done in EVERY country they take over. They will destroy America. Its it not ironic that screaming from the roof tops and paining on the streets that Black Lives Matter is a honorable and acceptiable thing to do. But uttering from your golf cart White Lives Mater is raciest. Racism is evil and destructive to a society weather its white racism or black racism. YOUR FUCKED. SAY HELLO TO PRESIDENT BIDEN AND HIS BLACK FEMALE VICE PRESIDENT WHO WILL ASSUME OFFICE IN 2 YEARS.
Amid a mountain of bad polling and stark warnings from allies, the president has acknowledged his reelection woes to allies.
In the time since his Tulsa rally, President Donald Trump has grudgingly conceded that he’s behind, according to three people who are familiar with his thinking. | Alex Brandon/AP Photo
Donald Trump knows he’s losing. The president has privately come to that grim realization in recent days, multiple people close to him told POLITICO, amid a mountain of bad polling and warnings from some of his staunchest allies that he’s on course to be a one-term president. Trump has endured what aides describe as the worst stretch of his presidency, marred by widespread criticism over his response to the coronavirus pandemic and nationwide racial unrest. His rally in Oklahoma last weekend, his first since March, turned out to be an embarrassment when he failed to fill the arena. What should have been an easy interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity on Thursday horrified advisers when Trump offered a rambling, non-responsive answer to a simple question about his goals for a second term. In the same appearance, the normally self-assured president offered a tacit acknowledgment that he might lose when he said that Joe Biden is “gonna be your president because some people don’t love me, maybe.” In the hours after the interview aired, questions swirled within his inner circle about whether his heart was truly in it when it comes to seeking reelection. Trump has time to rebound, and the political environment could improve for him. But interviews with more than a half-dozen people close to the president depicted a reelection effort badly in need of direction — and an unfocused candidate who repeatedly undermines himself. “Under the current trajectory, President Trump is on the precipice of one of the worst electoral defeats in modern presidential elections and the worst historically for an incumbent president,” said former Trump political adviser Sam Nunberg, who remains a supporter. Nunberg pointed to national polls released by CNBC and New York Times/Siena over the past week showing Trump receiving below 40 percent against Biden. If Trump’s numbers erode to 35 percentage points over the next two weeks, Nunberg added, “He’s going to be facing realistically a 400-plus electoral vote loss and the president would need to strongly reconsider whether he wants to continue to run as the Republican presidential nominee.” Behind the scenes, Trump and his team are taking steps to correct course. In the week since his Tulsa rally, the president has grudgingly conceded that he’s behind, according to three people who are familiar with his thinking. Trump, who vented for days about the event, is starting to take a more hands-on role in the campaign and has expressed openness to adding more people to the team. He has also held meetings recently focusing on his efforts in individual battleground states. Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who effectively oversees the campaign from the White House, is expected to play an even more active role. Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale was blamed internally for the Tulsa rally failure. Some people complained about him trumpeting that 1 million people had requested tickets, a boast that fell flat when thousands of seats sat empty during Trump’s speech. Parscale has been a target of some Trump allies who argue the campaign is lacking a coherent strategy and direction. But people close to the president insist that Parscale’s job is safe for now. Trump, who visited the campaign’s Arlington, Virginia headquarters a few months ago, has told people he came away impressed with the sophistication of the organization.Parscale, whose background is as a digital strategist, has received some reinforcements in recent weeks. Longtime Trump adviser Bill Stepien was given added responsibilities in the campaign, including working with political director Chris Carr and the Republican National Committee on voter turnout. And Jason Miller, a veteran of the 2016 campaign, was brought back to serve as a chief political strategist, a position that had been unfilled. But those internal moves have done little to calm Republican jitters about the president’s personal performance. Fox News host and Trump favorite Tucker Carlson issued a blunt warning on his show this week that the president “could well lose this election.” South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, another close Trump ally, told reporters that the president needs to make the race “more about policy and less about your personality.” Nick Note: The coronavirus will kill a million people and Trumps presidential bid. Put a fork in his ass he is done!
(CNN)Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar warned Sunday that the “window is closing” for the United States to get the coronavirus pandemic under control, as confirmed cases are surging in a majority of the country and some states are dealing with record numbers of hospitalizations. “Things are very different from two months ago… So it is a very different situation, but this is a very, very serious situation and the window is closing for us to take action and get this under control,” Azar told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.” He suggested that the US is better positioned to handled the pandemic than before, pointing to increased testing, contact tracing, hospital capacity, reserves of personal protective equipment, and advancement toward therapeutics and potential vaccines for the virus. The top health official’s message differs from that of President Donald Trump, who seems ready to move on from the still-raging pandemic, and Vice President Mike Pence. At a Friday press briefing by the White House’s coronavirus task force, the first in nearly two months, Pence declared that the US had “flattened the curve,” painting a rosy picture at odds with reality.
Thirty-six states are reporting a rise in positive coronavirus cases, and only two are reporting a decline in cases compared to last week.
On Friday, the US reported the highest number of new cases in a single day, with at least 40,173 new infections. The previous daily high was reported on Thursday.
Several states, including Texas and Washington state, and localities have paused their reopening plans or reimposed some restrictions in hopes of curbing the spread of the virus. Azar denied that reopening too quickly was tied to the rise in cases, but instead “inappropriate individual behavior” that has enabled the spread of the virus. “That’s not so much about what the law says on the reopening as what our behaviors are within that,” he told Tapper.
He cautioned that if Americans “act irresponsibly, if we don’t socially distance, if we don’t use face coverings in settings where we can’t social distance, if we don’t practice appropriate personal hygiene, we’re going to see spread of disease.”
Trump’s effort to dismantle Obamacare during the pandemic might be his riskiest move yet
Asked about the Trump’s administration’s request to the Supreme Court on Thursday to invalidate the Affordable Care Act amid a pandemic, Azar said that they will work with Congress on a replacement plan. “We have made very clear that the Supreme Court strikes down all or a large part of Obamacare, because it is constitutionally or statutorily infirm, we will work with Congress to create a program that genuinely protects individuals with pre-existing conditions,” Azar said, adding that the exact details will be dependent on the court’s decision and makeup of Congress.
Former US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Tom Frieden cautioned on Fox News Sunday that while the US is doing more testing and our hospitals are better prepared, “this virus still has the upper hand.” When asked whether the Trump administration’s claims of rising case numbers was the result of more testing being done, Frieden dismissed it, saying, “As a doctor, a scientist, an epidemiologist, I can tell you with 100% certainty that in most states where you’re seeing an increase, it is a real increase.
“It is not more tests, it is more spread of the virus,” Frieden said.
Anyone who believes that we are now well on the road to a global V-shaped economic recovery has not read the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) recent gloomy World Economic Outlook. More tellingly, they clearly have not considered how very likely it is that, if the IMF’s depressing world economic outlook is realized, we will have a series of major debt crises in systemically important countries such as Italy and Brazil.
On the basis of a longer-than-expected pandemic, the IMF now forecasts that the global economy will contract by almost 5 percent in 2020. That would mark the global economy’s worst year since the 1930s Great Depression. It would also represent a much worse economic performance than that in the 2008 Great Recession.
The IMF is particularly gloomy on the United States’ and Europe’s economic outlooks. For the United States, it now expects that GDP will decline by as much as 8 percent in 2020 before rebounding by 4.5 percent in 2021. It is even gloomier on the European economic outlook. It now expects that the Euro area economies will contract by more than 10 percent in 2020 before bouncing back by some 6 percent in 2021. The IMF correctly emphasizes that its economic forecast is subject to more than the usual degree of uncertainty. The world economic outlook would be considerably better if a vaccine or a cure for COVID-19 were soon to be developed. However, the outlook would be appreciably worse if there were to be a second wave of the pandemic or if there were to be debt-related problems associated with the economic downturn. Nick Bit: Here is a news flash the second wave is upon us. INCOMING!
In a world drowning in debt, it is this latter risk that must be most troubling to global policymakers. This is especially so at a time when the world is experiencing its worst economic recession in the last 90 years. It is not only that on the eve of the coronavirus pandemic, world debt levels were at very high levels. Nor is it only that aggressive budget deficit financing now threatens to raise world debt ratios to above their peak after World War II. Rather, it is that debt has now reached clearly unsustainable levels in systemically important countries such as Italy and Brazil. Even before the pandemic chose Italy as its European epicenter, that country had an excessive public debt-to-GDP ratio of 135 percent. In the wake of the pandemic, the IMF now expects that in 2020 Italy’s economy will contract by a staggering 13 percent and its budget deficit will widen to around 10 percent of GDP. That in turn will cause the country’s public debt to skyrocket to an unsustainable 160 percent of GDP by the end of 2020. Markets know that Italy’s very poor past economic growth record within the Euro makes it highly improbable that it will ever be able to grow its way out of its debt problem. As investors have started to shun Italian government bonds, the only thing right now keeping that country afloat is the large-scale Italian bond purchases by the European Central Bank (ECB). However, there are political limits to how long the ECB can keep bailing out a member country on the scale at which it is doing in Italy. It would seem that those limits make it only a matter of time before we have a full-blown sovereign debt crisis in a major European economy. Brazil is another large country in which we could soon have a debt related economic crisis that could roil global financial markets. This is not least because of the Bolsonaro government’s total state of denial about the seriousness of the COVID-19 pandemic. That state of denial is rapidly transforming Brazil into the global epicenter of the pandemic. It is also seriously undermining the credibility of the Bolsonaro government. Since the start of the year, the Brazilian currency has lost around 25 percent in its value as both foreign investors and domestic residents have lost trust in the country’s ability to control its public finances. It is not helping matters that Brazil’s public debt-to-GDP ratio now looks set to rise to more than 100 percent, which would be unusually high for an emerging market economy. It will do so as the country’s economy looks set to contract by around 10 percent of GDP in 2020 and as its budget deficit looks set to balloon to 10 percent of GDP. Hopefully the world’s economic policymakers do not have their heads in the sand about the risk of a real economic crisis in Italy and Brazil. Otherwise, we should start bracing ourselves for the economic fallout from policymakers once again being caught flatfooted by an external economic shock.Nick Note: Brazil and Italy is the least of their problems. The US economy is about to implode. And this time 3000 banks will go broke stay broke and stock holders and depositors will lose everything. You heard about the people who lost everything in the LAST great depression. This time i want to make sure we are among the people that collect a great big fat stupid tax from the deep in debt assholes.
Russian intelligence officers offered cash rewards to Taliban fighters to kill US, UK troops in Afghanistan, source says
(CNN)Russian intelligence officers for the military intelligence GRU recently offered money to Taliban militants in Afghanistan as rewards if they killed US or UK troops there, a European intelligence official told CNN. The official was unclear as to the precise Russian motivation, but said the incentives had, in their assessment, led to coalition casualties. The official did not specify as to the date of the casualties, their number or nationality, or whether these were fatalities or injuries. “This callous approach by the GRU is startling and reprehensible. Their motivation is bewildering,” the official said.This story was first reported by the New York Times.
US intelligence concluded months ago that Russian military intelligence offered the bounties, amid peace talks, the New York Times reported Friday.
Citing officials briefed on the matter, the Times reported that President Donald Trump was briefed on the intelligence findings and that the White House’s National Security Council held a meeting about it in late March.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a statement Saturday that the President and Vice President Mike Pence were not briefed “on the alleged Russian bounty intelligence.”
McEnany said her statement “does not speak to the merit of the alleged intelligence but to the inaccuracy of the New York Times story,” which said Trump had been briefed. McEnany did not deny the validity of the reported US intelligence that a Russian intelligence unit offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants to carry out attacks on coalition forces in Afghanistan.
Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said in his own statement late Saturday that he had “confirmed that neither the President nor the Vice President were ever briefed on any intelligence alleged by the New York Times in its reporting yesterday.” He added: “The White House statement addressing this issue earlier today, which denied such a briefing occurred, was accurate. The New York Times reporting, and all other subsequent news reports about such an alleged briefing are inaccurate.” According to the Times, the Trump administration held expanded briefings about the intelligence assessment this week and shared information about it with the British government, whose forces were also believed to have been targeted.
The newspaper reported that officials thought of possible responses, including beginning with a diplomatic complaint to Moscow, a demand to cease, and sanctions — but the White House has yet to authorize any action. Nick Note: Trumps says he did not know….. No one told him! Do you believe that shit? OK look at it this way. He did not know ok! So let me ask you a question NOW we know he KNOWS. So why is he still not doing anything? Its all about the rain. The yellow rain of Russian blonds pissing on him. Trump is Putin’s Bitch.. He often tells the military thank you for your service. Stick the thanks up your ass and show the troops you REALLY got their back. What a sleaze. its ok we will soon be ride of him!
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down sharply Friday afternoon along with the other major stock indexes. Goldman Sachs (GS), Nike (NKE) and JPMorgan (JPM) took the biggest hits in the DJIA. Facebook (FB) was the worst performing FANG stock after Unilever (UL) became the latest company to stop advertising on the social network because of what they see as Facebook’s lack of response to hate speech on its platforms. Facebook plunged nearly 8% as it tests support at the 50-day moving average. Financial stocks led a bullish performance for the stock market Thursday, but banks were among Friday’s biggest losers after the Federal Reserve late Thursday announced new restrictions on stock buybacks and dividends. Financial Select Sector SPDR (XLF) was down more than 4%. The Dow Jones was down 2.7%, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite gave back 2.3%. The Russell 2000 small-cap indexes fell 2.5%. Another distribution day was taking shape for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, with volume tracking higher than Thursday’s levels.
After hitting resistance at its 200-day moving average, the Dow Jones is nearing a test of its 50-day moving average. The S&P 500, meanwhile, is testing support at its 200-day line after a bounce off the support level Thursday. The Nasdaq is close to another test of its 21-day moving average, where it’s been finding support.
Money flowed into bonds, sending the 10-year yield lower by 5 basis points to 0.63%.
Dow Jones stock Nike slumped 7% after the company reported an unexpected loss and disappointing revenue. Losses in Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and American Express (AXP) ranged from 4% to 8%. Sentiment was negative as the coronavirus continues to spread in the U.S. As the U.S. economy reopens, several states are experiencing record levels of new Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations as case counts rise. Texas, one of the hardest hit states, said it will halt its reopening. In the U.S. Thursday, new coronavirus cases topped 40,000, a new daily record. Florida reported a record 8,942 new coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours, while in Texas, Governor Greg Abbott announced that he is pausing the state’s reopening plan amid the surge in new coronavirus cases. San Francisco is also delaying its reopening over fears that new infections might be increasing rapidly. Nick Note: Hear me well here. This is the wipe out of the 10 year endless easing. The entire Wall Street con job was broke in the 2008 wipeout. The only money the Listed companies are making is from borrowing to buy share buyback and bribe investors with dividends paid form capital (all Borrowied) how do you think this is going to turn out. Did i hear depression. Your DAMN Straight and none None NONE will survive.
With coronavirus outbreaks continuing to spread across the world, the United States is “likely” to see a shortage of generic pharmaceutical drugs, according to a new federal intelligence report obtained by ABC News.The report, prepared by the Department of Homeland Security and distributed Thursday to law enforcement and government agencies around the country, warned that the U.S. is already seeing shortages of more than 200 drugs and medical supplies due to strains on the supply chain caused by international shutdowns early on in the pandemic.
Those shortages would only be made worse should unchecked outbreaks force yet another round of widespread shutdowns, the analysts concluded, further straining the system in a way that many U.S.-based pharmaceutical companies would be “unable to quickly offset.” “Chinese factories that produce raw ingredients for common antibiotics closed for weeks as of March and India’s lockdown extended until the end of May,” the report said, citing news reports. “France, Germany, and China have also considered re-imposing lockdown measures as COVID-19 cases have begun to re-emerge.” The warning comes as officials in some states have already halted some reopening plans or closed back down as coronavirus cases rise in at least 29 states, according to an ABC News analysis. Florida reported just under 9,000 new cases on Friday, the highest number since the start of the pandemic.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease official, made what he called a “plea” to the country on Friday to understand that the outbreaks, which are mainly in the South and West, could potentially spread to the entire country.
“If we don’t extinguish the outbreak, sooner or later, even ones that are doing well are going to be vulnerable to the spread,” Fauci said. “So we need to take that into account because we are all in it together, and the only way we’re going to end it is by ending it together.”
Vice President Mike Pence, however, said the country has made “truly remarkable progress” in moving forward and commended “all 50 states in this country are opening up safely and responsibly” before acknowledging some increases.
Dr. Jay Bhatt, former medical chief at the American Hospital Association, called the report “extremely concerning” — especially in the middle of a pandemic. “Accessing affordable generic medications for vulnerable populations can mean the difference between a good outcome and a bad outcome,” said Bhatt, an ABC News contributor. “As infections and hospitalizations rise, our patients can’t endure shortages from lifesaving medications. We have to apply our lessons from several months ago so we don’t end up in dire straits.” Nick Note: We just finished a inventory of all our medicines prescription and over the counter. I placed a BIG order. And had to do my wiggle waggle to get supplied. Shortages are already popping up. STOCK UP NOW! Make sure you have prescriptions and keep copis!
The report further warned drug shortages would have a disproportionate effect on low-income Americans.
A decrease in generic pharmaceuticals, which are significantly less expensive than their brand-name counterparts, would “most risk the health of low-income and unemployed Americans,” who have already been hard hit by the economic hardships of the pandemic, the report found.
“Individuals who cannot afford generic pharmaceuticals are unlikely to switch to brand-name prescriptions because they can cost as much as 95 percent more,” the report said, citing data from a U.S. pharmaceutical research company and a Food and Drug Administration study.
“I am worried about underserved communities and safety net hospitals without significant resources in urban and rural communities as well,” Bhatt said. “I hope hospitals and states not facing shortages can share with those that are to meet the need.”