The Department of Health and Human Services experienced some form of cyberattack Sunday night related to its coronavirus response, administration sources confirmed to ABC News Monday
“As federal state and local governments focus on handling the current public health crisis, national security officials are also tracking other threats -- in particular those posed by terrorist or extremist groups and foreign adversaries who may seek to take advantage of all of the attention being focused on the coronavirus and conduct an attack,” said John Cohen, a former acting Undersecretary of the Department of Homeland Security and contributor to ABC News.
@laura-f, Bezos would probably justify that decision because he recently lost $6.4 billion in the stock market, bringing his net worth down to a mere $110.5 billion.
The Bezos story gets even more disgusting. Bezos owns Whole Foods, and apparently the WF CEO, John Mackey, sent a letter to all employees, asking them to donate their accrued paid time off to a pool that their co-workers, sick with the virus, could draw from. Although such labor practices are not unusual--I even worked for two firms that had such a policy--doing so in the face of a pandemic, in which all members of society are equally at heightened risk, is really shortsighted, tone deaf, and cruel.
Here is the richest man in the world, asking people who are living paycheck to paycheck, to donate their PTO time. That cheap b**tard. He ain't no Daddy Warbucks, even though he looks like him.
@deetoo because we can all use a laugh - re Whole Foods. Apparently over Xmas or Thanksgiving they had a food drive - you could purchase food and put it in a container of food being doled out to the needy.
This man left a message on FB that was so hilarious. He said why the hell should he have to buy food so that Whole Foods can donate it, why aren't they just donating food? So he said he went shopping there, and then put all kinds of food in the container before he went to the cash register. He said he knew no o one of those overworked and underpaid Whole Food employees would catch him.
"As others have wondered, I would like to know when COVID really arrived in the US. If the outbreak started in November, I find it odd that it took so long to begin seeing cases here, especially given the number of flights between here and China. But then the outbreaks in Italy and Iran wouldn't make sense either."
I have a 100% unsupported, anecdotal theory. Beginning in mid-November, many of my age peers, especially females over age 50, we all started getting severe URIs, bronchitis, fever, mild diarrhea. Many got pneumonia. Most had gotten flu shot, many have had pneumonia vaccine too, and all were tested for flu - all negative. All of us had the same symptoms: day or 2 of runny nose, low grade fever, dry unproductive cough, fatigue, strange body aches, loose stools (but not true diarrhea). Most of us recovered and then relapsed. We all got antibiotics (Z-pack or Doxycycline). Many of us are still coughing. No one in our immediate families came down with it. We are all people who travel for biz and/or pleasure. I was in Hawaii and DC in October, and Florida last month. I live in a tourist-heavy city (San Diego). Most of the women I know who went through similar were here in SoCal, but some were from up and down the East Coast too.
My own process began on Dec. 9, I was sick almost til Christmas, it cleared up for about a week and came roaring back, improved but lingered. I had 3 trips to urgent care, 3 courses of antibiotics (in order: Z-pack, Doxy, Z-pack). I have a home pulse-ox, and at times my O2 sats (percentage of oxygen saturation in the blood), fell down to the low 80s. My asthma has been flared up this whole time, and the only inhaler I'm not allergic to I have to get from Canada (starting to run out of it). The doctors had no info for me, and kept saying "it's just a virus but let's give you antibiotics so you don't get pneumonia" (I tend towards secondary bacterial infections). I calculated the other day that in the past 90 days I have been ill for 33 of them. This is the longest bout of illness(es) I have had since 2001.
On the one hand, I'm terrified that if I do come down with COVID-19 it might kill me because my immune system, which is sketchy under the best of circumstances, has taken a beating of late.
On the other hand I am wondering: what if many of us have already had COVID-19 but no one knew it? It wasn't on any doctors' radar til about 3 weeks ago from what I see here. It's possible that we may have caught it from family or others who were asymptomatic all the way through (or conversely, that family members may have caught it from us but remained asymptomatic).
Thoughts? Anyone else observe similar in their own community?
Let's put it this way: if I don't get sick, when all this quiets down and when it's available, I'm going to get antibody-tested for COVID-19 so I'll know going forward what happened to me.
And as for Italy (I can't comment on Iran at all) - they also get a lot of foreign visitors, especially from China, much as we do here in SoCal. It's entirely possible that some of those visitors were asymptomatic when they visited and spread disease globally without knowing it.
Posted by laura-f:
On the other hand I am wondering: what if many of us have already had COVID-19 but no one knew it? It wasn't on any doctors' radar til about 3 weeks ago from what I see here. It's possible that we may have caught it from family or others who were asymptomatic all the way through (or conversely, that family members may have caught it from us but remained asymptomatic).
YES -- I've wondered the same thing, and that thought has remained with me. I believe you and I posted about this earlier. Since early December, my husband has been sick, in varying degrees, almost identical to what you described. He's been through 3 rounds of Doxycyline, and a steroid twice. I was ill in early December with similar symptoms. I improved with rest and Z-pack. But ever since my husband's first bout of that mysterious bug in early Dec, he's had a dry cough that has lingered, and more fatigue than usual.
Our last bug, which occurred in late February, was the flu (Influenza A). Hubby had a bad bout, with a high fever and early pneumonia. I believe his immune system was taxed from being sick since early December, so he caught the flu (even though he got the shot), and passed it to me.
The other thing that struck me: the number of people I have encountered here since early December who spoke about some crazy virus they couldn't seem to get rid of -- very fatigued, coughing, etc. So if what we all had was Covid-19, perhaps it was the less virulent strain?
I live in Northern Va, right outside of DC. We haven't traveled recently, but my husband commutes by Metro to work. As you know from once living in this area, it's heavily populated with lots of foreign visitors.
I really think you're on to something, @laura-f. And I like your idea of eventually getting antibody-tested for COVID-19. We are considering that too.
Al Roker and Craig Melvin Pulled Off Air as Coronavirus Hits the ‘Today’ Show
https://www.yahoo.com/news/coronavirus-hits-30-rock-today-080800500.html
Why the sudden change in tone?!!! Now he is suddenly taking this seriously - saying it will go on until July or August, that people should homeschool, and avoid gatherings of >10? Hmmmm - what changed in one day?
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-sounds-new-grave-tone-in-somber-coronavirus-warning?ref=scroll
I think a few people in his private circle have finally gotten it through his pine-nut sized brain that this virus isn't going to stand down just because he's Mad King Donald, and he needs to pretend that he actually gives a sh#t, if only for appearances.
laura-f and deetoo,
I think the same. I distinctly remember a conversation with a cashier I chat with when she rings me up. In November, I hadn't seen her for a while, and I asked how she had been. She said had been sick but was better, but she had a dry cough she couldn't shake.
I think it's been with us longer than we realize, although why it's not outbreaking until now, I don't know.