03-25

Wednesday, March 25

Mar 25: Senators unanimously approve a $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief bill. Wall Street rebounds with the Dow Jones Industrial Average surging by more than 2,000 points for its biggest daily points gain ever. Trump derails an effort by the G7 nations to issue a joint agreement on the pandemic when he insists on calling COVID the “Wuhan virus.” Due to shortage of safety gear at a Mount Sinai hospital in New York, nurses resort to wearing trash bags. Their image on Facebook goes viral. Mathematical models based on social distancing measures implemented in Wuhan, China, show keeping tighter measures in place for longer periods of time can flatten the COVID-19 curve. The WHO warns that the U.S. could become the global epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic.*

. NCHS is showing a rapid uptick in suicides since 2006.

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/images/databriefs/351-400/db362-fig1.png

Higher suicide rates among rural male populations.

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/images/databriefs/351-400/db362-fig4.png

Suicides in the US are very often as a result of having guns around.

https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/images/suicide-by-method_155161_3.png

Wu, Zunyou, and Jennifer M. McGoogan. “Characteristics of and Important Lessons From the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Outbreak in China: Summary of a Report of 72 314 Cases From the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.” JAMA 323, no. 13 (February 24, 2020): 1239.

Facebook. “Nurses Forced to Wear Trash Bags at Mt. Sinai Hospital, NYC,” March 25, 2020.

PBS NewsHour. Louisiana Governor: States Are Competing against Each Other for Ventilators, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FxjcJfdi5U.

World Health Organization (WHO). Live from WHO Headquarters – Coronavirus – COVID-19 Daily Press Briefing 25 March 2020, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4us_py7GUw.

*If the pdf thumbnails are not appearing, please reload the page.

Hedegaard, Holly, Sally C. Curtin, and Margaret Warner. “CDC: Increase in Suicide Mortality in the United States, 1999–2018 – Data Briefs – Number 361 – March 2020,” April 2020. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db362.htm.

Nilsen, Ella, and Li Zhou. “The Senate Just Passed a $2 Trillion Coronavirus Stimulus Package. Here’s What’s in It.” Vox, March 25, 2020. https://www.vox.com/2020/3/25/21192716/senate-deal-coronavirus-stimulus.

Raju, Manu, Clare Foran, Ted Barrett, and Kristin Wilson. “Senate Approves Historic $2 Trillion Stimulus Deal amid Growing Coronavirus Fears.” CNN, March 25, 2020. https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/25/politics/stimulus-senate-action-coronavirus/index.html.

Twenge, Jean M., Thomas E. Joiner, Megan L. Rogers, and Gabrielle N. Martin. “Increases in Depressive Symptoms, Suicide-Related Outcomes, and Suicide Rates Among U.S. Adolescents After 2010 and Links to Increased New Media Screen Time.” Clinical Psychological Science 6, no. 1 (November 14, 2017): 3–17. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702617723376.

Ferguson, N, D Laydon, G Nedjati Gilani, N Imai, K Ainslie, M Baguelin, S Bhatia, et al. “Report 9: Impact of Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions (NPIs) to Reduce COVID19 Mortality and Healthcare Demand.” Imperial College London, March 16, 2020. http://spiral.imperial.ac.uk/handle/10044/1/77482.

Rothfeld, Michael, Somini Sengupta, Joseph Goldstein, and Brian M. Rosenthal. “13 Deaths in a Day: An ‘Apocalyptic’ Coronavirus Surge at an N.Y.C. Hospital.” The New York Times, March 25, 2020, sec. New York. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/25/nyregion/nyc-coronavirus-hospitals.html.

Senate of the United States–116th Cong., 2nd Sess. “CARES Act, H.R. 748,” March 25, 2020.

Woodruff, Judy. “Louisiana Governor: States Are Competing against Each Other for Ventilators.” PBS NewsHour, March 25, 2020. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/louisiana-governor-states-are-competing-against-each-other-for-ventilators.

We are going to see suicide numbers start increasing. Please pay attention to your friends and family. Please reach out if you’re struggling. I get it, more than you know.#sharpeway #libertarian #suicide #mentalhealth #COVID19 #cironavirus #depression https://t.co/thC24zRuvj
— Missy Richmond (@StargardtEyes) March 27, 2020

🚨I wrote a big piece about the future of the COVID-19 pandemic: how the US got to this point; what needs to happen in the coming weeks and months; what the endgame looks like; and what the world might be like in the aftermath. https://t.co/woc4dxwT0Z
— Ed Yong (@edyong209) March 25, 2020

Timothy Wilson, right wing fanatic, dies in confrontation with FBI while en route to attack a hospital filled with Covid-19 patients in Belton, Missouri. Wilson was under FBI surveillance since last September. Unclear if he killed himself or shot to death https://t.co/ib3LJGwNRb
— Ali Winston (@awinston) March 25, 2020

PLEASE READ: Conditions on Rikers are unimaginably bad. My colleague has spoken to a few people trapped inside. What they told her is horrifying. Unless @NYGovCuomo, @NYCMayor, & all DAs do something ASAP, we're looking at mass death. What they're reporting:
— Scott Hechinger (@ScottHech) March 24, 2020

Sen. Rick Scott: "The moment we go back to work, we cannot create an incentive for people to say, 'I don't need to go back to work because I can do better someplace else.'" pic.twitter.com/VVydjN9VfN
— The Hill (@thehill) March 25, 2020

Art + Museum Transparency. “Art + Museum Transparency on Twitter: ‘This Will Be a Thread for Tracking Museum Layoff News. Not Interested in Doom-Posting, but This Info Seems Imp to Track so We Can All See Which Staff Are Hit Hardest, Which Leaders Take Pay Cuts, Who’s Being Transparent, Etc. Please Send Links / Mute If You Need. #museumlayoffs’ /.” Twitter, March 25, 2020. https://twitter.com/amtransparency/status/1242869675425443840.
Bliss, Jessica. “The Devastating Nashville Tornado Path through Tennessee in March 2020.” The Tennessean, March 25, 2020. https://www.tennessean.com/pages/interactives/news/graphics/march-2020-tornado-path-nashville-cookeville-putnam-tennessee/.
Cathey, Libby. “Fact Checking Trump’s Claim about Suicides If the Economic Shutdown Continues.” ABC News, March 25, 2020. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/fact-checking-trumps-claim-suicide-thousands-economic-shutdown/story?id=69790273.
CNN Politics. “READ: Senate Bill Containing Historic $2 Trillion Coronavirus Relief Stimulus Package.” CNN, March 25, 2020. https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/25/politics/read-senate-coronavirus-stimulus-bill/index.html.
Cuomo, Andrew. “Andrew Cuomo on Twitter: ‘Our Single Greatest Challenge Is Ventilators. We Need 30,000 Ventilators. We Have 11,000.’ / Twitter.”
Twitter, March 25, 2020. https://twitter.com/nygovcuomo/status/1242840935890857984.
Kelly, Lyn. “The Great Depression and the Real Story behind the Jumpers of 1929.” History 101 (blog), February 14, 2020. https://www.history101.com/great-depression-truth-jumpers/.
Levin, Bess. “Texas Lt. Governor: Old People Should Volunteer to Die to Save the Economy.” Vanity Fair, March 24, 2020. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/03/dan-patrick-coronavirus-grandparents.
Mazza, Ed. “‘I’d Rather Die’: Glenn Beck Urges Older Americans To Work Despite Coronavirus.” HuffPost, March 24, 2020. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/glenn-beck-coronavirus_n_5e7ab2d6c5b620022ab30851.
Olson, Tyler. “Trump Worries US Will See ‘suicides by the Thousands’ If Coronavirus Devastates Economy.” Text.Article. Fox News, March 24, 2020. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-says-u-s-will-have-suicides-by-the-thousands-if-economic-slowdown-lasts-too-long.
Pierce, Charles P. “No Thanks, I Will Not Immolate Myself on the Altar of Your Stock Portfolio.” Esquire, March 24, 2020. https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a31910755/coronavirus-republicans-sacrifice-old-people-stocks/.
Worldwide suicide. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Y-c66mSmxs.

* Timeline summaries at the top of the page come from a variety of sources:, including The American Journal of Managed Care COVID-19 Timeline (https://www.ajmc.com/view/a-timeline-of-covid19-developments-in-2020), the Just Security Group at the NYU School of Law (https://www.justsecurity.org/69650/timeline-of-the-coronavirus-pandemic-and-u-s-response/), the “10 Things,” daily entries from The Week (theweek.com), as well as a variety of newspapers and television programs.

Wednesday, March 25

© 2021 Margaret Peacock and Erik L. Peterson