Dernière vulnérabilité sur laquelle les Etats-Unis devront bien se pencher un jour : la dérive de la première chaîne d’informations, Fox News, qui a joué un jeu très dangereux dans sa couverture du coronavirus. Approximations, fausses informations, minorations systématiques de la gravité de la situation, la chaîne de Rupert Murdoch n’a reculé devant rien pour protéger Donald Trump, alors que son bilan économique s’envolait en fumée avec la crise sanitaire. Cela a contribué à entretenir jusqu’à très récemment un scepticisme assez fort dans l’électorat républicain, le cœur de l’audience de Fox News.
 
Le directeur du Harvard Global Public Health Institute, Ashish Jha, a même été jusqu’à affirmer au New York Times que Fox News pouvait avoir une part de responsabilité dans la propagation du virus. Ces accusations ont été relayées par une pétition signée par des universitaires et des journalistes de renom pour dénoncer le traitement biaisé de la chaîne.

La colère et le ressentiment des oubliés de la mondialisation avaient été le moteur de la victoire de Donald Trump en 2016. Depuis, il a entretenu l’illusion d’un pays au sommet de sa puissance grâce à une croissance dopée par le déficit budgétaire et des marchés financiers stimulés par le laxisme de la politique monétaire. Le Covid-19 vient de faire éclater cette bulle, laissant le pays encore plus vulnérable à ses inégalités et ses dysfonctionnements. Avant de parler de « grandeur » de la nation, peut-être faudrait-il commencer par la réparer.

Ce gâchis humain pourrait se doubler de conséquences macroéconomiques. Etant donné que selon la Réserve fédérale (Fed), 40 % des Américains ne peuvent pas faire face à une dépense imprévue de plus de 400 dollars, on peut facilement imaginer qu’avec l’explosion du chômage les défauts sur les crédits à la consommation vont se multiplier, ce qui peut déboucher sur une crise bancaire.

Dimon sees 'bad recession' after 'bad planning' for pandemic
 
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon in his annual letter to shareholders Monday warned of a coming deep recession with financial shocks similar to the 2008 Wall Street meltdown, after poor planning by the U.S. before the Covid-19 pandemic.
 
In the letter, Dimon told shareholders that the nation's largest bank by assets was prepared to keep lending billions to clients through the downturn though it was taking steps, including stopping stock buybacks, to protect itself as much of the economy shuts down.
 
(...)
 
Dimon, who just returned to work after emergency heart surgery, took a veiled swipe at the Trump administration and other U.S. leaders for failing to prepare for the outbreak. He said the pandemic "is only one example of the bad planning and management that have hurt our country."
 
(...)

Trump on why he's giving medical advice even though he's not a doctor: "What really do we have to lose? ... we don't have time to go and say, 'gee, let's take a couple of years and test it out' ... it doesn't kill people." (This last point re: hydroxychloroquine is not true.)

"I answered this 15 times. You don't have to answer." -- Trump prevents Dr Fauci from answering a question about hydroxychloroquine

Soon we'll start “temporary interment”. This likely will be done by using a NYC park for burials (yes you read that right). Trenches will be dug for 10 caskets in a line.
 
It will be done in a dignified, orderly--and temporary--manner. But it will be tough for NYers to take.  9/

This tweet has gotten a lot of attention.  So I want to clarify:  the is a contingency NYC is preparing for BUT if the death rate drops enough it will not be necessary.

It’s not just deaths in hospitals which are up. On an average day before this crisis there were 20-25 deaths at home in NYC. Now in the midst of this pandemic the number is 200-215. *Every day*.  5/
Early on in this crisis we were able to swab people who died at home, and thus got a coronavirus reading. But those days are long gone. We simply don't have the testing capacity for the large numbers dying at home.  6/
Now only those few who had a test confirmation *before* dying are marked as victims of coronavirus on their death certificate. This almost certainly means we are undercounting the total number of victims of this pandemic.  7/

Biden Suggests DNC Consider Virtual 2020 Nominating Convention
 
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said the party should consider a virtual nominating convention this summer because the coronavirus has led to limits on public gatherings.
 
“We’re going to have to do a convention, we may have to do a virtual convention,” Biden said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” “I think we should be thinking about that right now. The idea of holding a convention is going to be necessary. But we may not be able to put 10, 20, 30,000 people in one place.”
 
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Defense Secretary Mark Esper asked overseas military commanders to not to make any coronavirus-related decisions that could surprise the White House or contradict President Trump’s statements on the illness, The New York Times reported.

So toward the end, a CNN reporter turned to Anthony S. Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, for his opinion on the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine with a sharper question: “What is the medical evidence?”
 
Standing at the microphone, Fauci opened his mouth — but before he could speak, the answer came out of Trump’s instead.
 
“Do you know how many times he’s answered that question?” Trump cut in. “Maybe 15.”
 
A tight smile stretched across Fauci’s face. His eyes, framed by a pair of wire-rimmed glasses, flicked quickly to Trump. He glanced back at the reporter, who was saying to the president, “The question is for the doctor. … He’s your medical expert, correct?”
 
Fauci’s smile, for just a moment, was all teeth now. Trump raised his finger sternly, telling the journalist, “You don’t have to ask the question,” and so Fauci didn’t answer it, and the news conference shuffled right along.