Deaths of Despair? Maybe It’s Heart Disease Instead.
It feels like no one is interested in any news that’s not coronavirus related right now, but here’s a bit of it anyway. A team of researchers has been digging into the life expectancy numbers for the United States to test the theory that we’re seeing more “deaths of despair”—i.e., deaths due to suicide, drug…
Some Shoe Leather Reporting on Life With the Coronavirus
I just got back from a trip to the market and things seemed to be getting back to normal. Plenty of milk and eggs. Lots of produce, a pretty good selection of meat, and even some pasta and pasta sauce. Still no paper goods, of course, and the bread aisle was pretty picked over—though the…
A Top Republican Senator Dumped $1.6 Million in Stock After Early Coronavirus Briefings. Was It Legal?
Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images In the final days before the coronavirus pandemic crashed fully onto American shores, Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, publicly tried to paint a rosy picture of our chances to fight the virus. He wrote op-eds and released statements, even going so far…
We Need More Ventilators, But We Also Need People Who Know How to Use Them
Marijan Murat/DPA via ZUMA Press In the past days and weeks, health care experts have focused on a horrifying reality: the acute shortage of ventilators, a common medical device that is necessary to help patients with serious respiratory diseases, such as COVID-19, breathe. There are an estimated 160,000 ventilators in hospitals throughout the United States. (The…
“This Is How America Work”: Mind-Boggling New Allegations About a Donor to Trump’s Inauguration
Imaad Zuberi, left, leaves the a federal courthouse in Los Angeles on November 22, 2019.Brian Melley/AP Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles this week described a dizzying array of secret foreign lobbying by a major donor to both political parties—a new twist in a case that could reveal whether there were foreign efforts to funnel money…
Need More Evidence That Trump Is Racist? Take a Look at His Coronavirus Edits.
ZUMA President Donald Trump has drawn widespread condemnation for his new use of the racist label “Chinese Virus” when referring to the novel coronavirus, language experts warn could incite violence against Asians around the world. The president’s decision to go all-in on the xenophobic language—which erases his praise for China’s handling of the virus just a…