PANic + EpiDEMIC = PANDEMIC!

I was waiting to see which scumbag would be the first to say "Yay!", I just didn't expect it to be you. Again, you're better than this.

we need term limits to clean out all the old guard from both sides

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Az.) blasted reports that Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) attended the Senate gym and swam in the pool while awaiting his COVID-19 test results, which later came back positive.

“I’ve never commented about a fellow Senator’s choices/actions. Never once.This, America, is absolutely irresponsible,” Sinema tweeted. “You cannot be near other people while waiting for coronavirus test results. It endangers others & likely increases the spread of the virus.”

Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kans.) reportedly told colleagues during a Senate Republican lunch Sunday that Paul had gone to the gym and swam Sunday morning, which was also when he received his COVID-19 test results.

Paul became the first known senator to test positive for the virus Sunday morning. A spokesman said he was asymptomatic and did not know of any infected person with whom he had contact, and that the Kentucky senator would self-quarantine.

That's sick, Chanti. Nobody "deserves" this, political foe or not. Bad politicians deserve to be shamed out of office, not potentially murdered by deadly viruses. Even those worthy of capital offenses have the right to not suffer cruel and unusual punishments.

How did he get it in jail?

From the Democrats point of view, Republicans are not human, much less "people", they don't get rights or consideration.

The government is not giving you money; it is giving you an advance on the tax refund you would be expecting in 2021.

As the hours passed, each side ramped up its demands and backtracked on earlier offers.

Negotiators at one point had agreed to a tentative deal to provide $250 billion in rebate checks — $1,000 for every adult and $500 for each child — matched by $250 billion in expanded unemployment insurance.

But by Sunday, Republicans reverted to their initial call to mail out $1,200 rebate checks at a total cost of $300 billion.

Democrats said the GOP offer on unemployment insurance was inadequate.

The Senate bill as drafted would provide three months of unemployment insurance. Democrats want at least four months, according to a person familiar with the talks.

Republicans said they were stunned that Democrats would not accept what they called a “generous” plan.

Senate Republicans on Saturday asked for $500 billion for the Treasury Department to expand a Federal Reserve corporate bailout fund to help airlines, hotel chains, energy companies and other industries facing a credit crunch because of the economic crisis.

While the money would be used for loans and not cash grants, Democrats balked because Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin would have broad latitude to distribute the relief and CEOs wouldn’t be required to keep workers on payroll in exchange for help.

Democrats also objected to what they called “weak” restrictions on corporate stock buybacks, which Mnuchin could waive.

WASHINGTON, March 22 (Reuters) - Several months before the coronavirus pandemic began, the Trump administration eliminated a key American public health position in Beijing intended to help detect disease outbreaks in China, Reuters has learned....

the American expert, Dr. Linda Quick, was a trainer of Chinese field epidemiologists who were deployed to the epicenter of outbreaks to help track, investigate and contain diseases. As an American CDC employee, they said, Quick was in an ideal position to be the eyes and ears on the ground for the United States and other countries on the coronavirus outbreak, and might have alerted them to the growing threat weeks earlier.

No other foreign disease experts were embedded to lead the program after Quick left in July, according to the sources. Zhu said an embedded expert can often get word of outbreaks early ...

Li Wenliang contracted the virus while working at Wuhan Central Hospital.

He had sent out a warning to fellow medics on 30 December but police told him to stop "making false comments".