Corvid-19

[John Clark]

China says the spread of Corvid-19 is slowing down, but it's not clear if their statistics can be trusted, even if they can be China has used brutal measures to contain it, like locking down 760 million people which is more than half the population and virtually blockading Wutan, a city larger than any in the USA; such measures are unlikely to be repeated in the west. Meanwhile South Korea, who's statistics don't have the same cloud of suspicion on them that those in China have, reports the virus is spreading faster than it is in China. Iran says 139 people have been infected including the deputy health minister and 19 have died, and those two just numbers don't make sense together. Iran also said 24 people were arrested for "virus rumour-mongering", and that may give you a clue as to the reliability of their statistics.

On a unrelated matter (well... maybe not entirely unrelated) are there any constitutional scholars out there? What happens if a presidential candidate dies after being nominated but before the election, or dies after winning the election but before being sworn in? I ask because Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, Mike Bloomberg, Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden are all in their 70's, most of them their late 70's.  

John K Clark

[Alan Grayson]

What happens if the 2020 election is cancelled because of the danger of spreading the virus? AG 

[John Clark]

On Fri, Feb 28, 2020 at 1:32 AM Alan Grayson <agrays...@gmail.com> wrote:

> What happens if the 2020 election is cancelled because of the danger of spreading the virus? AG 

What happens if the virus turns out to be less serious than currently thought but Trump uses it as an excuse to cancel the election anyway? Historically even the Civil War wasn't considered an extreme enough emergency to cancel an election, but Trump may have other ideas. 

A lot depends on how extensive the infection really is and that is a big unknown due to the irresponsibly slow response by the American government in making DNA Corvid-19 testing kits. South Korea, a country with one seventh the population of the USA, has tested 66,652 of its people and found 1766 confirmed cases. The USA has 60 confirmed cases (not 15 as Trump said in his press conference) but due to the severe shortage of test kits to this day only 445 Americans have ever been tested, the city of Hong Kong alone tests 1000 of its citizens every day but the entire USA can't manage half of that. Only about a dozen state and local health departments in the USA have any testing kits at all and are so rare they must be carefully rationed, California with a population of 40 million only has 200 kits. Meanwhile South Korea manufactures thousands of kits a day because they took this pandemic seriously from day one.  

One more thing, it may mean nothing but today the Pope canceled his regular schedule due to a "slight indisposition". Italy has the highest Corvid-19 rate in Europe and during Ash Wednesday mass the Pope was seen coughing and blowing his nose, he later shook hands with people and kissed a baby although for some reason when he net with a group of visiting Bishops they did not embrace him or kiss his ring as is customary.

John K Clark