Coronavirus roundup: Trump frets ratings, dallies on response; trashes CDC rules, AFA steps up unionizing at Delta, opposing paid sick leave endangers lives
From Daily Kos: Trump still isn't concerned about coronavirus. He's concerned about his ratings on coronavirus
By MARK SUMNER
On Friday morning, Donald Trump tweeted praise for his handling of the coronavirus, attacks on how the H1N1 virus was handled in 2009, and a claim that his handling of the crisis has a “78% Approval Rating, the highest on record,” while the way Barack Obama and Joe Biden handled a previous pandemic was “lowest.”
The problem isn’t that Trump is using an approval rating that isn’t from a poll but from an RNC mailing to donors. The problem is that Trump continues to demonstrate not the least bit of concern over the actual damage being done to anything but his ratings. He’s not focused on results. He’s focused on the perception of results. Which is what happens when someone spends his entire life as a huckster and a fraud.
From Daily Kos: Trump's failure to take aggressive action on viral outbreak much worse than simple neglect
By METEOR BLADES
Whether chosen democratically or by some other means, a leader’s true character comes out in a crisis. It’s then that people find out whether the person they have entrusted or acquiesced to be in charge is up to the job. In a democracy, thoughtful and decisive action not only is required of leaders, but it must also be carefully explained, with rationale provided. “We can get through this” is not a bad message to deliver as long as it’s backed by facts, even if those have more than a tinge of grimness. Blood, sweat, and tears kind of stuff, when necessary. Happy talk, on the other hand, is not helpful. And lies—well, lies can be lethal.
From the Washington Post: Trump is breaking eveyr rule in the CDC's 450-page playbook for health crisis
The communication chaos on coronavirus is eroding the most powerful weapon we have: Public trust
By CAROLYN K. Johnson and WILLIAN WANAmid an outbreak where vaccines, drug treatments and even sufficient testing don’t yet exist, communication that is delivered early, accurately and credibly is the strongest medicine in the government’s arsenal.
But the Trump administration’s zigzagging, defensive, inconsistent messages about the novel coronavirus continued Friday, breaking almost every rule in the book and eroding the most powerful weapon officials possess: Public trust.
After disastrous communications during the 2001 anthrax attacks — when white powder in envelopes sparked widespread panic — the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention created a 450-page manual outlining how U.S. leaders should talk to the public during crises.
From The American Prospect: The coronavirus is jump-starting union organizing at Delta.
Organizers started a union drive for flight attendants at Delta last November. Uncertainty about the pandemic is stoking a desire among workers for labor protections.
By MIKE ELK
For more than a decade, the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) has struggled to organize flight attendants at Delta, the largest non-union airline in the country. Now, the spread of the coronavirus is giving new energy to what has long seemed an impossible task.
“There has been an uptick in interest in the campaign due to coronavirus. Flight attendants have started comparing other airlines’ responses to safety and employment concerns with our company’s own responses, or lack thereof,” said one flight attendant, “Cheryl,” who recently returned from a country with a major coronavirus outbreak and declined to give her real name out of fear of retaliation.
New York Times editorial: Opposing paid sick leave risks lives
As the coronavirus spreads, the public interest requires employers to abandon their longstanding resistance to paid sick leave.
Most American restaurants do not offer paid sick leave. Workers who fall sick face a simple choice: Work and get paid or stay home and get stiffed. Not surprisingly, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in 2014 that fully 20 percent of food service workers had come to work at least once in the previous year “while sick with vomiting or diarrhea.”
As the new coronavirus spreads across the United States, the time has come for restaurants, retailers and other industries that rely on low-wage labor to abandon their parsimonious resistance to paid sick leave. Companies that do not pay sick workers to stay home are endangering their workers, their customers and the health of the broader public. Studies show that paying for sick employees to stay home significantly reduces the spread of the seasonal flu. There’s every reason to think it would help to check the new coronavirus, too.