COVID-19 & US healthcare system

[hazard]

"Moreno says he acted alone, and didn't plot this out ahead of time."

You don't say.

It's now official: America's response to the coronavirus is a train wreck.

Meanwhile, in Wisconsin, citizens are ordered to shelter in place, and not go outside.  Except to the elections happening next Tuesday -- get out and vote!  Don't just stay at home, do something!  Except totally stay at home because it's dangerous outside.

Census day was April 1.  But this year they mailed people a code to do it online instead of doing a form.  Response rates have been well, somewhat abysmal, about 15% lower than a decade ago.  Apparently Trinity County, California, had about 2% of households responding to the census before the day itself.  Which means we need to send out an army of workers to visit lots of houses, or we could lose billions in funding, and representation.  Except, hey, we're not going to do that, because there's a virus out there.

I know it's the law that the census is done every decade, and I wouldn't be surprised if the law says on the decade every decade no exceptions and by this date.

But maybe either postpone the due date until after the crisis or done, or consider setting up a rolling update that tracks the registries of birth, death, marriage and residence?

Between this and pardoning convicted war criminals, morale and discipline in our military must be sky high:
Navy relieves captain who raised alarm about coronavirus outbreak on aircraft carrier

As I predicted, the captain's now out of a job. I wouldn't be surprised if the Roosevelt will be ordered to set sail again soon and that in a couple of months everybody in the administration will pretend to be very surprised about the number of corona virus cases and deaths that happened on board due to this mismanagement.

A Major Medical Staffing Company Just Slashed Benefits for Doctors and Nurses Fighting Coronavirus

The memo announced that the company would be reducing hours for clinicians, cutting pay for administrative employees by 20%, and suspending 401(k) matches, bonuses and paid time off. Holtzclaw indicated that the measures were temporary but didn’t know how long they would last.

In a follow-up memo sent to salaried physicians on Tuesday night, Alteon said it would convert them to an hourly rate, implying that they would start earning less money since the company had already said it would reduce their hours. The memo asked employees to accept the change or else contact the human resources department within five days “to discuss alternatives,” without saying what those might be. The memo said Alteon was trying to avoid laying anyone off.

According to The Hill article about same:

These companies received benefits in the $2 trillion stimulus bill passed last week, including deferring payroll taxes, suspending reimbursement cuts and receiving advance Medicare payments.

Temporary meaning here 'for as long as we can get away with it'. They sure as hell are hoping indefinitely. And of course they're trying to avoid laying anyone off, that'd look terrible in a crisis like this and they know their employees most likely would have a new job in days.

But frankly? This would be one of those times where a sensible government goes 'well, clearly you don't need our stimulus package if you can afford to let your workforce work less'.