With each day that the coronavirus outbreak spreads and claims more lives, the damage to global airlines rises too. U.S. carriers on Monday put a price tag on their pain: They asked the federal government for more than $50 billion in rescue aid.Most of the airlines have been effectively shaking down money from their passengers during the 2010s. Seat pitch has gotten tighter. Baggage fees have been going up. Some charge for carry-on luggage, as if anyone can travel without a bag of clothes.
It is a staggering request for an industry that has chalked up tens of billions in profits over the past decade.
Mayor de Blasio is indeed here at the Park Slope YMCA this morning. Passers by have commented negatively. One called him an idot. pic.twitter.com/FIgEmlf4Gf— andrew kaczynski🤔 (@KFILE) March 16, 2020
Representative Devin Nunes, a California Republican, on Sunday encouraged healthy people to dine out at restaurants, contradicting public health advisories that strongly encouraged social distancing and discouraged Americans from attending mass gatherings.Nunes is probably setting a new low for stupid comments by a congressional Trumpist. Which is about what one would expect from that little snowflake.
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Public health experts, however, are urging just the opposite: Stay home if you can.
Berlin is trying to stop Washington from persuading a German company seeking a coronavirus vaccine to move its research to the United States, prompting German politicians to insist no country should have a monopoly on any future vaccine.Is there anyone in the White House with half of a functioning neuron who could foresee how this story would land? Did they really think that they could get away with developing and hoarding a vaccine?
German government sources told Reuters on Sunday that the U.S. administration was looking into how it could gain access to a potential vaccine being developed by a German firm, CureVac.
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Welt am Sonntag quoted an unidentified German government source as saying Trump was trying to secure the scientists’ work exclusively, and would do anything to get a vaccine for the United States, “but only for the United States.”
"This is a very contagious virus, it's incredible, but it's something that we have tremendous control over."Right. Trump sounds like Cadet Diller in Animal House:
President Donald Trump urged Americans not to hoard food on Sunday during a White House press conference that came just minutes after the Federal Reserve announced new steps to shield the U.S. economy from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.Don't be surprised if the stores this afternoon look as though the locusts have descended, if they don't already. Everyone who isn't on Fox News knows that Trump has been lying every step of the way during this pandemic. If Trump was a doctor and told you that you were doing well, you would be smart to buy a funeral plot.
“You don’t have to buy so much,” Trump said. “Take it easy. Relax.”
The Federal Reserve, saying “the coronavirus outbreak has harmed communities and disrupted economic activity in many countries, including the United States,” cut interest rates to essentially zero on Sunday and launched a massive $700 billion quantitative easing program to shelter the economy from the effects of the virus.
“It makes me very happy and I want to congratulate the Federal Reserve,” Trump said. “I think that people in the market should be very thrilled.”And the reaction:
Stock futures were down sharply on Monday even after the Federal Reserve embarked on a massive monetary stimulus campaign to curb slower economic growth amid the coronavirus outbreak.
Stock market futures hit “limit down” levels of 5% lower, a move made by the CME futures exchange to reduce panic in markets. No prices can trade below that threshold, only at higher prices than that down 5% limit.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were off by more than 1,000 points, triggering the limit down level. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures were also at their downside limits. (emphasis added)
On Wednesday, Whole Foods CEO John Mackey sent out an email to grocery store employees with a list of benefits and options for those who fall sick during the coronavirus pandemic.One one concession that Mackey will grant is that anyone who is really sick can take unlimited unpaid time off.
Among his six suggestions was an option for employees to “donate” their paid time off (PTO) to coworkers facing medical emergencies.
“Team Members who have a medical emergency or death in their immediate family can receive donated PTO hours,” Mackey wrote in an email reviewed by Motherboard, “not only from Team Members in their own location, but also from Team Members across the country.”
“You’ve got the richest man in the world asking people who are living paycheck to paycheck to donate to each other. That’s absolute bullshit. With the amount Jeff Bezos makes in one day, he could shut stores down and pay employees to stay safe.”Once the story broke, Amazon announced that they'd give two weeks paid leave to employees who are at home, dying from Covid-19.
