U.S. suspends travel from 26 European countries, excluding UK, Ireland, for next 30 days

Good to see he's taking it more seriously than "the common flu" which he often uses to downplay the virus. But I'm curious as to why the Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans can fly in but those from France cannot.

If you didn't watch his address I can summarize it for you. The coronavirus is Obama's fault. the economy is the best it's been in 1000 years, I am the greatest most informed, most stable genius in history so the coronavirus will go away next week, and where is Hillary's emails.

its like the only thing he knows how to do is close the border and cut taxes.

The Coronavirus is already spreading in the American population, this is like closing the barn doors after the horses have escaped.

This idiot better get off the golf course and start doing his bloody job, or better yet let people who know what they are doing handle it.

If you didn't watch his address I can summarize it for you.

I watched it and I didn't get that impression.

(WASHINGTON) Today President Donald J. Trump signed a Presidential Proclamation, which suspends the entry of most foreign nationals who have been in certain European countries at any point during the 14 days prior to their scheduled arrival to the United States. These countries, known as the Schengen Area, include: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. This does not apply to legal permanent residents, (generally) immediate family members of U.S. citizens, and other individuals who are identified in the proclamation.  

Homeland security website.

Bye bye global economy.

As things are going this can become an even worst economic recession than the 2008 one.

This is a gross overreaction with no real risk management thought put into it, but people in complete panic will be thrilled.

I can already see a few years from now people asking themselves why there was much panic and overreaction from this.

@carcharodon thank you for providing the information from the website. So it’s the Schengen area, huh? Obviously that makes sense, considering of the whole freedom of travel aspect of the Schengen area.

@SuperLib I agree, The travel restrictions should apply to China, South Korea and Japan as well. Maybe that will be the next part.

But I'm curious as to why the Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans can fly in but those from France cannot.

Yeah, I’m a bit mystified about that one myself....

and yet china hasn't been completely banned even though that's where the darn thing originated. this makes absolutely no sense, but considering the source, it makes beautiful sense. smgdfh.

Luis David Yanez:

I can already see a few years from now...

No, you cannot. Human being is not equipped with ability to see the future.

Unless you're going to include the UK, what's the flippin' point?!

No, you cannot. Human being is not equipped with ability to see the future.

I don't need to see the future to extrapolate how things are going to a near future.

Unless the epidemiology of this virus somehow transforms into a extremely dangerous virus, in the future this will be seen as a overreaction.

The death rate right now is extremely inflated because the number of confirmed cases is way lower than the actual number of cases.

Diamond princess proved this, since about 400 of the 700 cases were asymptomatic.

South Korea with extensive testing came to the conclusion that the actual mortality rate of the virus is around 0.03%, which is basically the same as the flu.

So yeah, In the future, after the hype has died out, more clear numbers start to roll out, and the economic impact of these measures take its toll, yeah, it will probably will be seen as an overreaction.

and yet china hasn't been completely banned even though that's where the darn thing originated.

The U.S. imposed a 14 day quarantine from anyone traveling from China since early February. As of last week, when the CDC made its last update, that rule is still in place.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/from-other-countries.html

Agree with Super. It seems as though Donny just can’t stop after he’s moved the ball forward and this is just another fumble by Donny. With any luck, we only have less than a year left with his incompetence.

It's the right move but it's odd leaving out the UK.

And admonishing the EU is just deflecting from the terrible mess the Trmp administration has presided over.

The death rate right now is extremely inflated because the number of confirmed cases is way lower than the actual number of cases.

This is a common misconception here on JT (maybe elsewhere on the internet).

The CFR (Case Fatality Response - aka "death rate") is calculated based on the number of confirmed cases - and this is the metric for all viruses. This allows for an equivalent comparison between viruses, as there is a consistent standard by which the calculation is applied.

There is no "inflation" or "deflation" of the death rate because of unreported cases, as unreported cases are not used in the calculation of the CFR.

As to why they do this, it's because in order to have a scientific process, there needs to be a standard. Guessing at how many people get a virus vs. how many die is a guess. Calculating the number of people who die to the confirmed cases is a statistic.

The US stands to be the biggest originator of new cases if we ever can get our act together to start actually testing folks.

Our national labs can collectively process 10,000 tests (2 test per patient) daily, yet to date this year, we've performed less than 10,000 test total (current as of 3/10/2020).

This administration is being criminally negligent in its response to this pandemic, and more Americans will die as a direct result of their bungled actions.

He finally gets to build his wall (at least metaphorically).

I didn't see the speech - did he raise the specter of virus flooding in across the southern border?

The media are going out of their way. Sure they like the attention and want to keep people glued to the screen.

A little too late, but better late than never.

Interesting to see that Donny is taking action on something he said would disappear miraculously in a few days.

Reports are that Tom Hanks , Rita Ora and an NBA player have tested positive, I guess unless celebrities get affected, Donny doesn't care!!!

Wonder what the garden fertilizer minder Limbaugh is spewing about now, his common cold got a lot worse!!

The media are going out of their way. Sure they like the attention and want to keep people glued to the screen.

Do you not think this is news worthy?

I don't think this will make any difference. Things like cancelling NBA games will.

He kept banging on about a 'foreign virus', how it's China and Europe's fault and how America and Americans have responded the best, all the while asking us to put politics and partisan issues aside. He looked very uncomfortable during the address.

Guessing at how many people get a virus vs. how many die is a guess. Calculating the number of people who die to the confirmed cases is a statistic.

Back in the swine flu days, the death rate went from about 7% to 0.03%.

It is a good measure for scientists, because they understand what the number actually means, but it is meaningless for all the general public screaming in fear and hoarding toilet paper, who do not understand the basics of epidemiology.

The death rate variate a lot from location to location. Even within china, wuhan has a completely different death rate than the rest of china.

Once again, epidemiologists understand this, and use this number as an statistic number, but I've seen so many none scientists using this number to justify their panic that is worth pointing out.

Also, I must point out that all these measures are not thought by epidemiology experts, they are always politicians that care more about face than the reality of what is going on. Experts have actually advised against swiping travel ban, as they recognize that for the most part are noneffective as a way to fight the spread of the virus, but for politicians, and most of the people, it feels like "doing something", which somehow is better than doing nothing in their heads, but doing nothing in many cases is actually better.

Follow the indications of what expert say. Doing more than that is arrogant and stupid.

Sorry, the UK must be excluded too, if as President Trump contends ....

"This is the most aggressive and comprehensive effort to confront a foreign virus in modern history,"

And not, be seen to be politicising the spread of the so called coronavirus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7KCyRxOoJw&feature=youtu.be&t=38

Yeah, that sounds like a man in control right there.

So, Mr President, when you said the 15 cases would be down to near zero about a week ago - were you pulling that out of your back passage? If so, why should we trust you now (as if we ever did)?

@kittsThe media are going out of their way. Sure they like the attention and want to keep people glued to the screen.

Echo @toastedh. So far this looks like it could be the most impactful event of this century. It's as newsworthy as any event I can recall. And if you don't like the way some outlets are reporting it, you have hundreds of other sources to choose from. Thanks to having a free press. Why attack the media when world leaders sat on this too long, did nothing for whatever reason.

Seems from info so far that this “European” ban means just transit points in the schengen free trade area, so Europeans can still go from UK, Ireland and Cyprus to the US. It’s really just showing off against Merkel and the EU, and a “reward” for Brexit.

@Strangerland

The CFR (Case Fatality Response - aka "death rate") is calculated based on the number of confirmed cases - and this is the metric for all viruses. This allows for an equivalent comparison between viruses, as there is a consistent standard by which the calculation is applied.

There is no "inflation" or "deflation" of the death rate because of unreported cases, as unreported cases are not used in the calculation of the CFR.

I agree with the proper use of mathematics to derive statistics.

However I believe the testing done in South Korea provides some very good insight into this (i.e. it may conclude a lower fatality rate). This is a true statistic.

On the other hand we can also postulate from from the Korean data that there are a lot of un diagnosed cases in the world now. We cannot calculate a statistic from this without additional data.

@Luis The higher death rate in Wuhan may be attributed to what they found with SARS. The death rate was higher for those that had repetitive prolonged close contacts with multiple infected people. On the other hand what is happening in Italy is a bit troubling.

On the other hand we can also postulate from from the Korean data that there are a lot of un diagnosed cases in the world now. We cannot calculate a statistic from this without additional data.

We cannot calculate a 100% accurate statistic, but we can approach it by looking at previous epidemics, the usual growth and the death rate variance from different size data samples in the past.

Once again, experts say that the number of cases IS bigger than the confirmed ones. The epidemiology is really clear in these cases. We know that most of the cases, even confirmed ones, are mild or asymptomatic, so this means that there are a lot of people who had no symptoms or mild symptoms that probably didn't even thought of going to the doctor, because they never do with the flu.

And also, thing is, when you reach the pandemic state, it is really difficult to get actual numbers of all of the infected people.

Most pandemic statistics use approximation models exactly because of this.

There wasn't ever a clear figure of how many people got infected by swine flu, but all models put it at around 11-21% of the world population.

As a result, a large number of new clusters in the United States were seeded by travelers from Europe," he said.

The large increase was not due to European connections. What the CDC keeps saying is that the US acted too late. An example, a lawyer in NY that has infected over 60 people (number still climbing) had no connection to any international movement. Not Europe or Asia. Same thing for cases in Atlanta and Seattle.

if we ever can get our act together to start actually testing folks.

The tests are covered by all insurance plans in the USA. Testing people w/ symptoms will happen, just like people w/ flu or strep throat or a growing mole.

Would people here have everyone line up for mandatory tests when they are asymptomatic and have zero risk factors?

Unrelated, I live just 2 miles from where a batch of Americans from that cruise ship in Oakland have been quarantined. Should I get tested too? No.

Long time ago all the countries had to go on lockdown... Seems all the governments in the world are incompetent and useless... Trump had to suspend the travel many weeks ago when China discovered Coronavirus, not to wait until COVID-19 started biting his and his supporters stupid rears...

I've always wondered of what real value such travel restrictions treally are when;

"The order did not apply to American citizens, legal permanent residents of the United States, immediate family members of U.S. citizens, "

This is an election response...To be seen to be doing something decisive.

I will cause major disruption to peoples lives and the economy but very little if anything to stop the spread of the virus.

After triggering confusion by suggesting that “trade and cargo” from Europe would also be banned, Trump was forced to clarify his statement with a tweet moments after the speech that “trade will in no way be affected” by the travel restriction."The restriction stops people not goods," he said in the tweet.

How did the private company twitter become an official government information release?

At least, he now looks serious. It's good news.

Markets are not reacting well to him.

This is now an American epidemic, keeping Europeans out isn't an adequate way of addressing it.

The tests are covered by all insurance plans in the USA. 

10s of millions of non-insured. Also, lots of surprise medical bills in case of CV infection. Under TrumpCare even if someone has insurance they will get financially burned and bankrupt if they have to be hospitalized for CV. TrumpCare is a failure (like the stock market and his wall).

Trump's coronavirus task force is reportedly awaiting 'research' from Jared Kushner before making an emergency declaration

(news source)

I feel better already. At least Hillary is not behind this.

News source continues....

Ahead of an address to the nation tonight, President Donald Trump is reportedly waiting on a final sign-off from his son-in-law before going with the White House Coronavirus Task Force's recommendation.

We are in safe hands. It couldn't get any better!!! Again, thank god it's Jared and NOT Hillary

Unfortunately, the situation will get worse in the US. US citizens abroad may be safer staying where they are.

Exclusive: White House told federal health agency to classify coronavirus deliberations - sources

https://www.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-white-house-told-federal-163043805.html

The White House insistence on secrecy at the nation’s premier public health organization, which has not been previously disclosed, has put a lid on certain information - and potentially delayed the response to the crisis. COVID19, the disease caused by the virus, has killed about 30 people in the United States and infected more than 1,000 people.

So, experts in this matter are not allowed to go to these meetings but Kushner and Ivanka are.

This idiot worrying about his rallies and funneling money to his businesses is going to get more people killed.

Cue: Blaming President Obama, the EU, Nancy Pelosi, Biden, the Democrats and Hillary's email!

Not to mention praising the economy!

Ahead of an address to the nation tonight, President Donald Trump is reportedly waiting on a final sign-off from his son-in-law before going with the White House Coronavirus Task Force's recommendation.

Have Ivanka and Barron weighed in yet?

Donny-come-lately trying to make a puffed up amends for earlier falsities and baseless utterances.

His speech to the nation - scripted by his PR boyz lil' Kushner and Miller - lacks any sign of strength in humbleness, but instead dishes out globs of blame, while preserving the "perfect", no "beautiful" answers HE has.

If trump was ever to garner some points across the board in this an election year, this was his big chance.

To have come clean on this 2 months ago, declared the possibility of a truly dangerous situation, acted decisively, held open meetings and turned over control to those in the know, would see him in a much better position today.

But it seems like his personal interests - his face, his re-election, his businesses - were of more importance.

For the sake of my dear friends in the US, and all citizens, I hope he can quell his ego for once and let the experts handle this quandary, regardless of how-it-looks-for-him.

Ahead of an address to the nation tonight, President Donald Trump is reportedly waiting on a final sign-off from his son-in-law before going with the White House Coronavirus Task Force's recommendation.

He is waiting to see if his businesses will be safe or if they can stand some way to profit from the pandemic!

Remember: he wanted to pass a stimulus package to airlines and Hoteliers in addition to farmers and corporate America.

I wonder what Hotelier he has in mind?

Can I paying people off for an election be so obvious?

Luis David Yanez

Follow the indications of what expert say. Doing more than that is arrogant and stupid.

Dude, maybe you should sit this one out. The WHO just declared a pandemic about 12 hours ago. Unless you present your medical certifications, cases studies, findings you are in no position to be downplaying this situation. Maybe you should take your own advice and "Follow the indications of what experts say".

Has Trump been tested yet for the virus?

Why is there no such restrictions from Asia, which collectively have been far worse than Europe?

Oh donny, who knows what goes on in that 'brilliant' cranium of his.

I suppose he has the 'best team' in the world

Less misinformation - or "Alternative facts", please.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/03/dont-panic-the-comprehensive-ars-technica-guide-to-the-coronavirus/

The USGovt had kits sent out in EARLY FEBRUARY but the first batch had flaws in the NEGATIVE CONTROL reagent caused by the pharma company mistake. They redid all those kits and shipped them 3/3. Each "kit" can test over 700 samples.

March 4th over 1.1M kits were shipped to labs across the USA w/ another 400K possible shipped by 3/13 by one commercial vendor. That's 20M+ samples.

A different company is making 640,000 test kits, ship target is 3/13, but not confirmed.

Other vendors and private labs are getting into test kit creation and doing the lab tests - expected to be ready in 2 weeks.

https://www.factcheck.org/2020/03/the-facts-on-coronavirus-testing/

Local doc-in-the-box operations are getting the testing kits, and the USGovt has said the cost to a consumer is $35 or less. Medicare fully covers the cost: https://www.medicare.gov/coverage/coronavirus-test

“I’m pleased to report, as you requested, Mr.

President, that all the insurance companies here—either today or before today—have agreed to waive all copays on coronavirus testing and extend coverage for coronavirus treatment in all of their benefit plans,” the Vice President said.

Medicare and Medicaid announced recently that

beneficiaries will have Coronavirus testing and treatment covered. Private insurers have made that commitment, as well.

The current flaw appears to be that a doctor has to order the test still while there aren't 100M kits available. It isn't on the shelf like a pregnancy test that anyone can buy easily. Also, doctors have been told to test for influenza first, until the labs ramp up their ability to actually run the samples through the process to get results.

Facts are power.

Every President would take the blame for this. Doesn’t matter if it’s TRUMP or OBAMA, both would have been equally blamed.

A different company is making 640,000 test kits, ship target is 3/13, but not confirmed.

Who is going to pay for the positive cases with all the people getting burned by TrumpCare?

A teacher who showed coronavirus symptoms was charged $10,000 for her ER visit — and was never even tested for the disease

(news source)

Yes, TrumpCare is really working, isn't it??? Under TrumpCare even if they have insurance they still go bankrupt. TrumpCare is a failure. Like the wall and stock market.

Pathetic speech by a pathetic excuse for a human.

No mention how he downplayed the virus all these days, called it a hoax, saying it would go from 15 to 0....

Instead trying to show this as a foreign threat, blaming China, blaming EU, anything but accepting that he messed up big time.

His uneducated followers will hear the word 'Foreign' and start blaming immigrants and thats what this sorry excuse for a human wants!!!

If this American President spent more time paying attention to scientists, and less time golfing and listening to conspiracy theorists, it would be better for everyone.

Scientists have said we need millions more virus test kits, and they need to be used aggressively to identify who is carrying the virus. Trump has addressed this issue by privatizing the use of test kits, making them harder to find and use.

Scientists have said that the one million hospital beds in the USA are not nearly enough for the number of pneumonia cases we can expect from the Covid-19 flu. We should be finding and preparing places for millions more hospital beds. Trump is doing nothing about this problem.

We need many, many more ventilators than the 65,000 currently available in this country. Trump has done nothing to ramp up the supply of ventilators.

In a month or two when this epidemic becomes a horror flick nightmare, the consequences of incompetency and corruption in the White House will be truly devastating. At this current point in time, we can only hope that both Trump and Pence are removed from office, and Nancy Pelosi, third in line, becomes president. Nothing else will save our country.

Don't forget the stock market will take another nose dive on the president's watch!

The US's top infectious-diseases expert said 'it would be nice' if Trump hadn't scrapped the NSC's global-health unit

https://www.yahoo.com/news/uss-top-infectious-disease-expert-170335225.html

The nation's top expert on infectious diseases said it would be nice if a global-health unit that President Donald Trump scrapped were still around.

Trump thought to himself:

Who knew dealing with dangerous highly infectious viruses could be so hard. I mean who knew!

South Korea with extensive testing came to the conclusion that the actual mortality rate of the virus is around 0.03%

Show us your calculations - what is the denominator and numerator you are using?

Globally we have mortality of 3.67%. South Korea 0.84%. Italy however is 6.6%.

I have calculated all these numbers myself just now from official statistics. What are you using?

The WHO just declared a pandemic about 12 hours ago.

Also from the same announcement:

"Describing the situation as a pandemic does not change WHO's assessment of threat posed by this coronavirus. It doesn't change what WHO is doing, and it doesn't change what countries should do"

A pandemic declaration is nothing more than a formality to reflect the reality of the situation.

Pandemic only means how widespread the virus is. What this says is that its quite widespread.

I'm not downplaying what this is, you people are the one becoming all panicked about this and every other announcement because you don't even understand they mean.

The 2009 swine flu was also a pandemic, and it was really not that different from the regular flu season.

Globally we have mortality of 3.67%. South Korea 0.84%. Italy however is 6.6%.

I have calculated all these numbers myself just now from official statistics. What are you using?

Once again, trying to measure just from pure confirmed results will give you higher than actual mortality rate, this is a fact in epidemiology, and something that medical professionals understand when treating pandemics, that's why for the most part they don't want to give any mortality rate, until there is enough data to have one, and even then they just give probable ranges.

There are many papers that put the mortality rate way bellow of 1% because, as I just said, we need to think about all the asymptomatic and under reported cases. Critical and serious cases are more likely to get reported than the asymptomatic and mild cases.

South Korea has the lowest death rate because they did extensive testing of all people related to one of the clusters (which was a church), and found out a lot of asymptomatic and mild cases that would have otherwise been under-reported. That's also why 99% of reported cases in South Korea are deemed "Mild" (Which includes asymptomatic cases).

Italy in the other hand, didn't really started to test that extensively until there were a lot of dead people.

Just because of the unusually high death rate, experts predict that the number of actual infected people in Italy is a magnitude of times higher than the confirmed cases.

In China, something similar happened, because it started to become obvious that the number of confirmed cases was waaaaay lower than the actual number of cases, so China started to count all "symptomatic cases" even if unconfirmed into their counts, which is why you can see a big spike in numbers in February.

What this also means is that, for the most part China didn't really cared that much about asymptomatic cases, which means that probably the number of infected in China was a magnitude of times higher than the reported cases.

Public health expert Jared Kushner in charge, straight after his super great middle east peace plan. Couldn't make this stuff up of you tried.

you people

What does you people mean?

becoming all panicked

Stock market is crashing. Trump is running the US like his casinos. Should have put a real business pro in charge like Bill Gates.

After downplaying the coronavirus, seems Trump is finally taking it more seriously now

But if he's trying to limit the financial market impact of the coronavirus, this move is doing the opposite

What does you people mean?

People who become panicky, and their words only create more panic.

Basically the equivalent of starting to scream fire in a movie theater.

Stock market is crashing. Trump is running the US like his casinos. Should have put a real business pro in charge like Bill Gates.

All is because of panic. You should have put someone with brain, and with a little bit more scientific literacy, or just a little bit more of rational thinking so that his actions are not just gut reactions of the moment.

The Great Orange Moron again proving to all he is nothing but a tool of Putin.

Almost all the European countries are our NATO allies...and notice Russia wasn't on the suspension list.

When will Trump supporters open their eyes and realize they're being manipulated and conned by Donnie and Vlad...

The Great Orange Moron again proving to all he is nothing but a tool of Putin. 

How did Putin get into this conversation?

Almost all the European countries are our NATO allies...and notice Russia wasn't on the suspension list.

So how many people have the Coronavirus in Russia? Japan is on the list, maybe they had something to do with this as well?

When will Trump supporters open their eyes and realize they're being manipulated and conned by Donnie and Vlad...

Dunno, the FBI after 2 years with over 500 agents couldn’t prove it, so I guess and based on that we don’t have to worry about being manipulated.

Wake up! The real threat has always been China, don’t listen to the liberal media surrogates

Whether in allowing China into the World Trade Organization or cooperating on pharmaceutical research, U.S. policymakers have spent two decades insisting that integration will turn Beijing into a "responsible stakeholder." China has promised the same. As we have learned over and over, and with special danger these past weeks, Beijing has not made good on its promise. Instead, it has weaponized its integration.

China supplies 95% of U.S. ibuprofen imports and 80% of U.S. antibiotics. The drug heparin is made out of pig intestines — China produces 80% of its global supply. Now, if Beijing decides to dedicate all such supplies to domestic use, or if production stops as China enters pandemic lockdown, the rest of us are out of luck. In fact, it’s already happening: On Feb. 27, the FDA acknowledged the first China-induced key drug shortage. That acknowledgment comes more than 15 years after China’s pharmaceutical cartels shuttered the last American penicillin plan.

Forget Russia for once, open your eyes, here’s the real threat.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/op-eds/coronavirus-highlights-the-threat-of-us-china-integration

Purely political move against the Trump-abhorrent EU and its friendly neighboring countries that joined Schengen. No reason why the UK (not in Schengen but still EU free travel) with almost the same amount of people compared to the US confirmed infected on a much smaller territorry. Except passport checks there is no basic difference in EU free travel and Schengen - any EU citizen can still enter the UK without restrictions). And no bans for other Asian countries e.g. the much more affected South Korea? Naw, Trump ist just doing his business as usual, blaming others.

People who become panicky

That's Trump. Heard he was cussing up a storm on a hot mic over the stock market crash

You should have put someone with brain, and with a little bit more scientific literacy, or just a little bit more of rational thinking so that his actions are not just gut reactions of the moment.

Yes I said Bill Gates. He can also actually run a business. What in the world is Trump doing in the WH. And if this is stock market panic and you are a true Trump person then NOW IS THE TIME TO BUY in the Trump stock market before it's too late. Hurry, Merrill Lynch operators are standing by. Buy that stock now Trump people!!!

With the war of internal politics in usa going south, what else can trump do ???. This is his only move to show Europe, who is boss ???.

If you didn't watch his address I can summarize it for you. The coronavirus is Obama's fault. the economy is the best it's been in 1000 years, I am the greatest most informed, most stable genius in history so the coronavirus will go away next week, and where is Hillary's emails.

Your summary bites the big one, Chicano. Sure, just make up stuff and post it. Jeez...

I just want to remind everyone to please remember and pray for the committed doctors, nurses and the EMS medics in the streets. They are the first exposed to everything and are exposed repeatedly.

Their children and families are at risk every day. Yet, these people continue to do their jobs, to help others, despite the risks. They undergo multiple vaccines and testing every year, due to increased exposure potential. Yet, emergency workers on the street, are among the lowest paid workers, with the longest hours. So please, keep them in your heart, they sure keep you in theirs.

The Great Orange Moron again proving to all he is nothing but a tool of Putin. 

How did Putin get into this conversation?

Because Trump doesn't do anything without checking with his Master first...

Almost all the European countries are our NATO allies...and notice Russia wasn't on the suspension list.

So how many people have the Coronavirus in Russia? Japan is on the list, maybe they had something to do with this as well?

No Russia on the list - Donnie wouldn't do anything to offend his Master and business partner...

When will Trump supporters open their eyes and realize they're being manipulated and conned by Donnie and Vlad...

Dunno, the FBI after 2 years with over 500 agents couldn’t prove it, so I guess and based on that we don’t have to worry about being manipulated.

Sure they proved it - Mueller's team has charged 13 Russian nationals, 12 Russian intelligence officers, and three Russian companies - Trump supporters always ignore that - it's not part of the cult narrative...

At least, he now looks serious. It's good news

He looks ill.

He's completely unprepared for something of this magnitude.

He looks ill.

Compared to who? Bernie and Biden?

He's completely unprepared for something of this magnitude.

Newsflash for Toasted: No one was prepared for this. But Trump's taking the proper actions to deal with it. Trump could come up with a cure for coronavirus, and you would complain he took too long.

@Luis David Yanez

I basically agree, subscribe to your story. We better put things into perspective, with reference with past cases. We should improve our science literacy. Seasonal flu is in a way as deadly as Covid-19. But it is so common and taken for granted just like an "annual event." Flu infections with death tolls often seem overlooked and under-reported (I personally suggest learning this time a bit from the ongoing outbreak responses; public are not yet sufficiently informed, nor better prepared with seasonal flu)

I think many parts of the current crisis are much ado about nothing. In public and media discourses, major concerns are more social-psychological and political while substantial, hard science is sidelined.

Perhaps the key to normality is a vaccine development for Covid-19 and smooth application to people in need. It is going underway, expected by the end of this year...