CHARLES HARRINGTON ELSTER IS BACK AT 2 For Please Tell Me I'm Right so get your word and grammar questions ready. Email me your questions at mandy@koanewsradio.com if you can't call.
DID THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION SCREW US OVER? I've got a guest at 1:00 today who believes WHO did the world a disservice by taking China's word for things on the ground when the virus broke out. Dr. Roger Klein is a pathologist with subspecialty board-certification in molecular genetic pathology (molecular diagnostics) and he's got some thoughts on this and more.
GOVERNOR POLIS WILL SPEAK AT 12:15 If he's on time. The show will resume as normal after that.
WATCH THIS VERY INTERESTING CONVERSATION ON MODELING IN COLORADO As Jon Caldara talks with El Paso County Commissioner Stan VanderWerf who also happens to have a history of being a scientist at NORAD where he spent time modeling virus outbreaks. He uses that knowledge to analyze Colorado's governmental reaction to coronavirus.
I HAD CORONAVIRUS AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS LOUSY T SHIRT One of the things I love about capitalism is the ability to take a horrible situation and turn it into potential profit. T shirt makers are jumping into the coronavirus game with a bunch of different options to mock or comment on the virus. Etsy, the online retail site for makers, has banned them. Just use the hashtag #coronavirusmerch if you're looking for the perfect thing to wear during lockdown.
BIG GOVERNMENT IS AN INEFFICIENT HURDLE TO EFFECTIVE RESPONSES And if you want example after example of how our enormous bureaucracy has stymied real time, real life needs during this pandemic, read this column by Bret Stephens. From the column:
Has it helped? In March, Julia Ioffe wrote a must-read account in GQ of the FDA’s almost-comical mishandling of an effort to roll out coronavirus test kits. First the FDA approved a flawed test. Then it stymied an effective test by requiring its developer to submit his request not only electronically but also mailed in paper and via thumb drive. Then the FDA demanded that the developer see if his test worked against other coronaviruses. Then the FDA shut down a testing regime developed by the Seattle Flu Study because it lacked the correct licensing requirements.
Congress also had to overturn FDA regulations in order to permit hospitals to purchase N95 masks previously approved only for industrial use. The country may need billions of such masks now. But as Reason magazine reported last month, federal regulators have told one would-be manufacturer that certification and approval might take between 45 and 90 days.
And this is government operatingin an emergency. On Tuesday, New York City’s Health Department sent a stern letter to health providers, warning that there are no approved blood tests for use at point-of-care facilities to check for coronavirus antibodies and that use of such tests “may result in regulatory action.” Everyone knows tests are far from perfect. But they are urgently needed to track the disease and could have been widely available in the U.S. weeks ago. Approval is now expected in a few days, which should at least raise a question about the point of delay.
LET'S KEEP SOME PERSPECTIVE ON THINGS WITH THESE CORONAVIRUS HEADLINES Here is an image and some graphs to keep things in perspective.
IT'S OKAY TO WORRY ABOUT PEOPLE DYING AND THE ECONOMY TOO And it's really ridiculous for comfortable people who are still working to completely ignore the people at the lower end of the economic spectrum who have been thrown out of work and into poverty because of this lockdown. This column is an interesting discussion on how to thread that needle. One of the more interesting turns of events in this has been how progressives, who we are always told are looking out "for the little guy" are willing to crap all over the little guy when it comes to this pandemic.
COULD CSU HELP FIND A VACCINE? Scientists are feverishly working around the world to come up with a Covid 19 vaccine, and now a team of scientists at CSU has pivoted their work on a vaccine for another kind of virus to join in.
I JOINED IN THE HOWL IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD AND IT WAS LOVELY Chuck and I were on a walk with Jinx Saturday night when the howling began in earnest in my neighborhood. I tilted my head back and howled away and it was...fun. I felt connected to all the other people (and dogs) throughout my neighborhood in releasing pent up energy. I highly recommend this for the whole family and here is an article about why it's happening.
COULD ACTUAL INDICTMENTS HAPPEN WITH THE FBI AND TRUMP INVESTIGATION? And I'm not talking about Trump, I'm talking about people in the FBI. Attorney General Bill Barr certainly seems to be strongly hinting that we are going to see people arrested for their actions during the Russia collusion investigation. Wouldn't it be cool if there were actual convictions by Barr when there are no actual convictions by Mueller? Yes, people plead guilty to charges, but they were procedural crimes, not actual crimes. And the Russians who were indicted just saw their charges dropped by Mueller's team.
DENVER FINALLY CLOSES PARKS TO THE HOMELESS and we're talking the big parks, like Civic Center Park downtown. I've gotten numerous emails that there are still large homeless encampments all over the place. I guess those people are expendable.
YOU SHOULD PERHAPS WATCH THESE TWO FOR GOOD NEWS Because Maddie and Willow are crushing it. Watch their show here.
WOW WOW WOW If you didn't see Andrea Bocelli sing yesterday on Easter take a moment and watch this.
CALIFORNIA LIBERALS SHOCKED AND UPSET WHEN THE GUN LAWS THEY VOTED FOR STOP THEM FROM BUYING GUNS Just read this. It's fantastic.
AND SO IT BEGINS IN SWEDEN The Swedish Prime Minister is rethinking the countries' loosy goosy coronavirus strategy now. What are they doing? Not clear yet, but the PM has said their current strategy of pretty much doing nothing needs retooling after a big spike in deaths this week.
AND NOW SOME GOOD NEWS WITH JOHN KRASINSKI The actor has been doing this little series and it's super cool.
HAVE WE KILLED THE HANDSHAKE FOREVER? And if so, what do we replace it with? In all seriousness. A little wave? What? National Review wrote an obit here.