An End to The Party
April 20, 2020
“And I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, ‘If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.”
“I am a humanist, which means, in part, that I have tried to behave decently without expectations of rewards or punishments after I am dead.”
― Kurt Vonnegut Jr
“The Party Don’t Start Till I Walk In.” – Covid-19
Carnival cruise ships are a floating testament to the viciousness of Covid-19, as facilitated by corporate negligence. Company executives were told January 25 there was a new virus going around; six days later the US declared a public health emergency and restricted travel to China. But instead of taking preventative action and alerting passengers and crew, the company continued to launch cruises and encourage partying until mid March.
President and CEO Arnold Donald was told about the magnitude of the problem after Carnival’s chief innovation officer learned about it from a supplier in Wuhan. The company cancelled cruises set to embark from mainland Chinese ports, but nothing changed for the ships already at sea, making stops around Hong Kong and elsewhere in Asia. Carnival ships continued to embark on voyages throughout February into March.
The Diamond Princess was one of those ships skimming around Asia on a multi-week cruise. Its chief administrative officer was alerted February 1 that a passenger was being treated for Covid-19, and to “inform the ship related parties” and “do the necessary disinfection.” Hong Kong health officials put out a press release that day announcing the Covid-19 case. February 2 the company’s chief medical officer appeared to confirm a coronavirus case, while Princess passengers were still being urged to “keep the party going.” A shipwide quarantine wasn’t imposed until February 5.
The Princess soon accounted for more confirmed infections than any nation except China. In early March the virus hit the Grand Princess; at least seven more of the company’s ships at sea have become virus hot spots, resulting in over 1,500 positive infections and at least 39 deaths. Donald defends his company’s actions as “reasonable under the circumstances.”
- Daily Pnut Tim: a good part of the law school experience can be summarized as one giant open ended question of what exactly is “reasonable”.
- Plato’s ship of fools: “Why does democracy involve a neglect of statecraft? Plato argues that in a system where political power (‘cratos’) lies in the hands of the people (‘demos’) it is not guaranteed, in fact is unlikely, that those best equipped to rule will get a chance to manage public affairs. Instead the loudest voices will dominate, irrational, ill-motivated decisions will be made and the complex arena of politics which is in need of careful ordering and management will turn into a crazy circus.”
- Additional art: The Raft of the Medusa by Théodore Géricault and Watson and the Shark by John Singleton Copley. We’ve always felt that the former inspired the latter. We are closet lovers of art-painting. In future Daily Pnuts we will try to continue sharing some of our favorite pieces of art.
Sean Gardner via Getty Images
“Dear Future Generations: Please Accept Our Apologies. We Were Rolling Drunk on Petroleum.” ― Kurt Vonnegut Jr
- In 2010 BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded 200 miles north of Mexican territory. The offshore rig sank, and over 87 days released some 5 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Oil plumes coated hundreds of miles of shoreline, causing catastrophic damage to marine life, coral reefs and birds. 11 crew members were killed and 17 others injured.
- Public and political outrage in the US drove BP to take full responsibility for the worst oil spill of the 20th century. The company paid out $69 billion, including more than $10 billion to affected fishermen and businesses. But BP has always denied its oil reached Mexico, claiming the ocean current propelled the huge spill in the opposite direction.
- Mexican scientists and fishermen in communities along the coastline know different. Before the disaster the fishing industry was booming and supported tens of thousands of families across the Gulf of Mexico. A decade later these Mexican communities have received nothing in compensation, and their young people are forced to migrate to faraway cities to find factory work. (Guardian)
- Culture – Why does cinema ignore climate change? (BBC)
- Additional movie trailer (with oil as a major theme in the movie): Giant
Additional World News
- Planned obsolescence: the outrage of our electronic waste mountain (Guardian)
- China Limited the Mekong’s Flow. Other Countries Suffered a Drought. (NYT, $)
- US and Russia blocking UN plans for a global ceasefire amid crisis (Guardian)
- US and UK condemn arrest of Hong Kong democracy activists (Guardian)
- China’s Aggressive Diplomacy Weakens Xi Jinping’s Global Standing (NYT)
- Canada shooting: gunman kills 16 people after rampage in Nova Scotia (Guardian)
Covid-19
- It’s the End of the World Economy as We Know It (NYT)
- How Bad Is the Coronavirus Outbreak? Here’s a Key Number. (Atlantic)
- India’s Coronavirus Lockdown Is Zealously Observed (NYT)
- Coronavirus cases in Asia: Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore’s second wave (Vox)
- The Mafia is poised to exploit coronavirus, and not just in Italy (CNN)
- No matter how you crunch the numbers, this pandemic is only just getting started (Guardian)
- WHO Warned Trump About Coronavirus Early and Often (NYT)
- With Broad, Random Tests for Antibodies, Germany Seeks Path Out of Lockdown (NYT)
- Boris Johnson and coronavirus: the inside story of his illness (Guardian)
- Antibody study suggests coronavirus is far more widespread than previously thought (Guardian)
- Recovered coronavirus patients are testing positive again. Can you get reinfected? (CNN)
- Why Epidemiologists Still Don’t Know the Death Rate for Covid-19 (NYT)
- U.S. sent millions of face masks to China early this year, ignoring pandemic warning signs (WaPo, $)
- What history can teach us about building a fairer society after coronavirus (Guardian)
- 10 African Countries Have No Ventilators. That’s Only Part of the Problem. (NYT)
- In Denmark, the Rarest of Sights: Classrooms Full of Students (NYT)
Covid-19 & Business
- Bets Against the Stock Market Rise to Highest Level in Years (WSJ, $)
- Fear of an Impending Car-Price Collapse Grips Auto Industry (Bloomberg, $)
- As Amazon Rises, So Does the Opposition (NYT, $)
- Coronavirus has destroyed the myth of the deficit (Guardian)
- Uber and Lyft Are Searching for Lifelines (NYT, $)
Wealth vs Health
- Last Friday morning President Trump sent out three tweets, calling for the “liberation” of Michigan and Virginia, and to “save your great second Amendment. It is under siege.” The tweets were clearly aimed at ginning up more protests against governors who have imposed quarantines to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
- The tweets came after some small protests by Trump supporters broke out in several states. Trump wants the economy opened back up again, regardless of what the consequences are for a democracy still in the grips of a pandemic. (NBC)
- Trump Encourages Protest Against Governors Who Have Imposed Virus Restrictions (NYT)
- Protesters Want States To Reopen The Economy Ending Anti-Coronavirus Closures (NPR)
- Hundreds flock to Florida’s reopened beaches as state death toll hits 726 (Guardian)
- Nothing about New York City’s outbreak was inevitable. (Slate)
- The US is not overreacting to the coronavirus pandemic, despite Trump’s eagerness to end lockdowns (Vox)
- Operation reopen America: are we about to witness a second historic failure of leadership from Trump? (Guardian)
Ed Wray via Getty Images
Slaughterhouse-19
- Slaughterhouses have been honed over decades for maximum efficiency and profit; many are giant, sleek, refrigerated assembly lines staffed mostly unionized workers who perform the grueling and sometimes dangerous tasks of slicing, deboning and “gut snatching” hog and beef carcasses.
- Pork and beef producers often boast that their facilities have some of the most sanitized work spaces of any industry. But meat plants have become major hot spots for coronavirus, with some reporting widespread illnesses among their workers. The health crisis is revealing how these plants are becoming the weakest link in the nation’s food supply chain, posing a serious challenge to meat production.
- In the cattle industry for instance, just over 50 plants account for as much as 98 percent of slaughtering and processing beef in the US. Shutting down one plant, even for a short time, is like closing an airport hub. It backs up hog and beef production across the country, eventually leading to months of meat shortages.
- A supply chain expert said: “Slaughterhouses are a critical bottleneck in the system. When they go down, we are in trouble.” (NYT)
- Additional book: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
Additional USA News
- My Wild, Totally Surreal Experience Covering a Trump Coronavirus Briefing (Politico)
- Bill Gates, at Odds With Trump on Virus, Becomes a Right-Wing Target (NYT)
- America’s Biggest Cities Were Already Losing Their Allure. What Happens Next? (NYT, $) & The Coronavirus’s Effect on Big Cities and Rural Areas (Atlantic)
- How Millions of Women Became the Most Essential Workers in America (NYT)
- C.D.C. Labs Were Contaminated, Delaying Coronavirus Testing, Officials Say (NYT)
- Trump Campaign Secretly Paying $180,000 A Year To His Sons’ Significant Others (HuffPost)
- How Facebook’s Ad Technology Helps Trump Win (Atlantic, $)
- As U.S. discouraged mask use for public, White House team raced to secure face coverings from Taiwan for senior staff (WaPo, $)
A New Way of Life
- Many people are fearful about tracking coronavirus into their homes on their clothes, their shoes, the mail, even the newspaper.
- Here’s some good news from infectious disease experts, aerosol scientists, and microbiologists. For most people practicing social distancing and making only occasional trips out to the grocery store or pharmacy, it’s not necessary to change clothes or take a shower when returning home. The same is true if you’re worried about viral contamination of your hair or beard. Hand washing is still a requirement, tho, when you get home. Of course, if you’re out shopping and somebody sneezes on you, do go home, change clothes, and shower.
- For laundry, washing clothes in detergent followed by a stint in the dryer is more than enough to remove the virus, assuming it was ever there. The exception is if you’re in close contact with a sick person. Then you should wear gloves and take care not to shake laundry and bedding. Use the warmest setting possible and dry completely. You can wash laundry from a sick person with the rest of the household laundry, or you can just leave it to sit for a while. The virus will dry out and decay.
- Experts say the virus tends to decay faster on fabric than hard solid surfaces like steel or plastic. There’s no evidence that handling mail or packages can contaminate you. However, after opening mail or packages or reading the newspaper, dispose of the packaging and wash your hands. You can also just let mail and packages sit for 24 hours before handling them. (NYT)
- How coronavirus could change your office space and remote work from home (Vox)
Pnut Positive Reviews
Last week we mentioned we really enjoyed watching Kingdom on Netflix despite not being fans of the zombie genre. We were then told that if we liked Kingdom, then we would also enjoy the movie Train to Busan (trailer and available on Netflix). We watched Train to Busan this weekend and thoroughly enjoyed it (we give it a 79 out of 100, we have high standards here). We have a newfound appreciation of South Korean movies. When it comes to creating great cinema around trains (like Snowpiercer which we would rank a 91 out of 100) or zombies we think South Koreans have very few if any international peers.