The Daily Moth 3-9-2020

———

Hello, welcome to The Daily Moth! It is Monday, March 9. I’m going LIVE today. Ready for news? 

Coronavirus updates: Monday, March 9

The first news — of course it’s about coronavirus. The number of coronavirus cases in the United States jumped past 500 over the weekend. There are now 600 cases as of this afternoon in 34 states. The hardest-hit areas are Washington state, Oregon, California, and New York.  

There are almost 110,000 cases in the world with 80,000 cases in China and over 7,000 cases in Italy and South Korea each. Iran has 6,500 cases while France and Germany have over 1,000 cases each. Canada has 69 cases with the most cases in Ontario and British Columbia. 

This morning U.S. stock markets went into a very steep dive, dropping 1,900 points because of fears of coronavirus’ impact on global economies and because Saudi Arabia is in some kind of price war with Russia over oil. The plunge forced the New York Stock Exchange to temporarily halt trading. It later resumed and this afternoon the DOW Jones closed today down over 2,000 points for a 7.8% drop. It’s the worst day since 2008 for the DOW. 

Italy’s Prime Minister ordered almost of the entire northern part of the country to go into lockdown this morning with mandatory quarantines. This is a graphic from BBC that shows which areas are affected. The biggest cities are Milan and Venice. A total of 16 million people live in those areas. Most people can’t go in or out of northern Italy until April 3. There can’t be any weddings, funerals, or religious or cultural events. Movie theaters, gyms, museums, ski resorts, and nightclubs are closed. Everybody in the quarantined zone were ordered to stay at home as much as possible. Those who ignore the quarantine order can be sentenced to three months in jail. 

That was this morning. As of this afternoon, the Washington Post reported that Italy would expand the restrictions to the entire country. So the whole country is shut down. There is also an update on the number of cases with about 9,000 and 400 deaths. Italy is hit hard. 

There are some concerns that there might be mass quarantines here in the U.S. if the outbreaks continue to spread. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said he was considering imposing mandatory rules to keep people apart. 

The chief of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Rick Cotton, tested positive for coronavirus. He is responsible for overseeing New York City’s airports and bus terminals. He is now self-quarantining at his home in New York City. Now those who worked with Cotton are being tested for the virus. 

The Grand Princess cruise ship, who has been stranded in waters off the coast of California with at least 21 people onboard testing positive for coronavirus, finally docked in Oakland today. About 3,500 people on it will disembark over the next three days. Americans will be quarantined for 14 days at military bases in California, Georgia, and Texas, while foreigners will fly home on charter flights from a sealed-off section at Oakland International Airport. The outbreak on the ship seems to have come from an elderly California man who was on the ship on a voyage to Mexico in the middle of February. The man was infected with coronavirus and died in Sacramento last week. So it’ll be another strain on our public health system to work out the logistics of putting 3,500 people in quarantine while making sure that caretakers don’t become infected. 

On Saturday, leaders who organized the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), an annual convention that brings in top Republican lawmakers, announced that there was one attendee who tested positive for coronavirus. President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence attended the conference two weeks ago. 

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) announced that he shook hands with the infected person and had a brief conversation with him. He said he feels healthy and that he has not experienced any symptoms, but out of “an abundance of caution,” will self-quarantine at his home in Texas this week. 

Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) said he interacted with the same infected person for an “extended period of time” and shook hands several times with him. He said he doesn’t have any symptoms but will remain home until a full 14 days has passed from his meeting with the man. 

Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA) announced that he also interacted with the infected person and would self-quarantine at his home until he reaches 14 days. 

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) announced the same and will stay home until he reaches 14 days. He posted pictures on Twitter last week of himself wearing a gas mask while Congress was discussing an emergency coronavirus bill. 

Some of the lawmakers shook hands with President Trump, so the coronavirus concerns have hit the White House. There is no indication that anyone in the White House is infected, but it shows how easily the virus can spread. 

President Trump tried to calm down fears of the coronavirus by tweeting that last year 37,000 Americans died from the common flu and that life and the economy went on without anything shut down. Several people responded that COVID-19 has a much higher death rate of about 3% or 4% and that there is no vaccine for it. 

The Washington Post reported that Trump played golf on Saturday and Sunday morning and brought up an old tweet from Trump in 2014 in which Trump criticized then-president Barack Obama for playing golf while there was a major Ebola outbreak. 

President Trump has continued to say that his administration saved many lives by stopping travel to and from certain parts of the world and said that Vice President Pence and the coronavirus task force is doing a great job. 

Many are looking at this coronavirus crisis as the biggest test yet of Trump’s leadership abilities as a president. 

That’s all the updates with coronavirus for now. 

https://www.axios.com/coronavirus-latest-developments-8b8990c4-6762-494a-8ee0-5091746bda9b.html

https://www.npr.org/2020/03/09/813619387/dow-dives-1-900-points-nyse-halts-trading-as-stock-indexes-plummet

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-51787238

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/09/world/coronavirus-news.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/486457-cpac-attendee-tests-positive-for-coronavirus

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/03/08/after-stopping-cdc-his-way-mar-a-lago-trump-heads-golf-course-two-days-row/

———

Six states to vote on “Big Tuesday” 

The next news — six state will vote on “Big Tuesday” — Democratic primaries tomorrow. “Big Tuesday.” The states are Michigan, Washington, Missouri, Mississippi, Idaho, and North Dakota. 

The most watched state is Michigan because it has 125 delegates. Michigan is also important because Bernie Sanders narrowly defeated Hillary Clinton during the 2016 primaries. Bernie had 49.8% to Hillary’s 48.3%. 

But now it’s 2020 and tomorrow Bernie is up against the resurgent Joe Biden. Several polls show Biden with a large lead over Bernie. What is interesting is that four years ago, polls also showed Hillary with a large lead over Bernie. We’ll see if the polls are right this time around or if history will repeat itself. 

Washington has 89 delegates. In 2016, Bernie easily won the state with 72% of the vote over Hillary’s 27%. We’ll see if Bernie can maintain that popularity or if Biden turns out to be the state’s preferred candidate. 

Polls say Biden has a lead over Bernie in Missouri. Biden is expected to easily win Mississippi. There are no recent polls for Idaho or North Dakota, but for historical facts, Bernie won both states over Hillary in 2016. 

Elizabeth Warren, who dropped out of the 2020 race last week, has not announced an endorsement. Bernie told CNN that he would love to have her support and said they have reached out and hopes that Warren comes onboard. 

Biden received two big endorsements in recent days in former Democratic rivals Kamala Harris and Cory Booker. 

Bernie received an endorsement from civil rights activist Jesse Jackson. 

Tulsi Gabbard is still in the Democratic race despite only having two delegates so far. 

So tomorrow, Big Tuesday, will tell us a lot about about the Democratic race. 

https://www.npr.org/2020/03/09/813227105/6-more-states-vote-tuesday-heres-your-guide-to-michigan-and-the-rest

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/09/joe-biden-michigan-poll-124399

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/08/bernie-sanders-wins-michigan-primary-hillary-clinton

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/486372-where-biden-sanders-stand-in-march-10-polls

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/08/bernie-sanders-elizabeth-warren

———

That is all for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light!