Coronavirus is revealing ugly truths about social structure in the US


The coronavirus pandemic is affecting every possible aspect of life—and thus confronting Americans with ugly truths about the way US society functions.

Any crisis or emergency throws into sharp relief the lack of a social safety net in the US. This virus outbreak, the most widespread in decades, is exposing the country’s social vulnerabilities all at the same time. Some of them will be addressed in a comprehensive relief package that Congress and the White House agreed upon on March 13. It includes “paid emergency leave with two weeks of paid sick leave and up to three months of paid family and medical leave,” according to House speaker Nancy Pelosi, as well as free coronavirus testing for those who don’t have health insurance and increased food aid and Medicaid funding.

But this solution only underscores the fact that Americans lack some basic protections on a day-to-day basis. For one thing, the paid sick leave provision in the coronavirus bill does not apply to companies with 500 or more employees, as The New York Times notes. Such large companies employ more than half of US workers.

Yep, we’re doing great.

Coronavirus: 60% of UK population need to become infected so country can build ‘herd immunity’, government’s chief scientist says


The UK’s chief scientific adviser has said the government wants 60 per cent of the population to catch coronavirus to try and create “herd immunity” to protect against the virus becoming an annual crisis.

Sir Patrick Vallance told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme that he thought the coronavirus was likely to become an “annual virus” and that the strategy was to limit the impact on the NHS but not stop the virus completely.

He said: “What we don’t want is everybody to end up getting it in a short period of time so we swamp and overwhelm NHS services – that’s the flattening of the peak,” he said.

Because that works for the yearly flu.  Thank fuck we have morons like this in charge of our governments.

As major sports shut down, one vulnerable group follows — and it might not recover


Civic officials have long parroted “If you build it, they will come” as an economic development plan, not a movie tagline: Build a sports venue, and restaurants and shops will spring up around it.

Now, with four major sports leagues shutting down indefinitely because of the coronavirus pandemic, those restaurants and shops are the businesses likely to suffer the most. The teams and leagues might have to hash out how to account for any unplayed games within their billions in television revenue, but the small businesses that rely on game-day traffic are likely to be the companies hit hardest by the sports stoppage.

Similarly, while team owners might take a hit in profits and players might take a hit in salaries, the employees who work at those restaurants, shops and venues are at risk of losing their shifts, if not their jobs.

“So what happens with that usher at Dodger Stadium, for whom that second job is vitally important to cover the cost of day care, or other vital needs? That’s where I think it’s going to be interesting,” said David Carter, who teaches sports business at USC. “They may very well never be made whole if the games are not played, or if a league comes back and plays a shortened season. Even a few games is worth a lot of money to these individuals.”

And that’s why the bill that was passed is basically useless; name a company who can’t waive it.  Just one.   Go ahead, I’ll wait.


I have to telework from home this week, so I don’t potentially get my elderly parents sick.  Kind of looking forward to it, kind of curious to see how this works.