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Wuhan Virus Watch: President Trump Orders Meat Processing Plants to Remain Open

Wuhan Virus Watch: President Trump Orders Meat Processing Plants to Remain Open

Some Waffle Houses are reopening. The death of man who ingested fish tank cleaner now being investigated by Homicide detectives. Wuhan lab ‘most likely’ coronavirus source. Pfizer says vaccine could be ready by fall.

https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/status/1247657257082462208

Today’s update will start with some food-related items.

This past Sunday, Tyson Foods ran a full-page advertisement in the New York Times and other newspapers describing the challenges of producing meat while keeping more than 100,000 workers safe and shutting some plants.

Meat isn’t going to disappear from supermarkets because of outbreaks of the coronavirus among workers at U.S. slaughterhouses, but as the meat plants struggle to remain open, consumers could face less selection and slightly higher prices.

Industry leaders acknowledge that the U.S. food chain has rarely been so stressed and that no one is sure about the future, even as they try to dispel concerns about shortages.

Now, President Donald Trump has taken executive action under the Defense Production Act and ordered meat processing plants to remain open.

The order uses the Defense Production Act to classify meat processing as critical infrastructure to try to prevent a shortage of chicken, pork and other meat on supermarket shelves…

…A senior White House official said the administration was trying to prevent a situation in which a “vast majority” of the nation’s meat processing plants might have temporarily closed operations, reducing the availability of meat in supermarkets by as much as 80%.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the order before its release, said the White House was also working with the Labor Department to provide enhanced safety guidance for meatpacking workers. That will include trying to minimize the risk to workers who may be prone to serious complications from the virus, including strongly recommending those over the age of 65 and with preexisting conditions stay home.

The order, which was developed in consultation with industry leaders including Tyson and Smithfield, is designed, in part, to provide companies with additional liability protections in case workers get sick.

Some Waffle Houses are reopening for dine-in

There is an adage that the nation’s Waffle Houses are the last businesses to close during natural disasters. So it seems like a good sign that the “Summer of Recovery” is poised to begin, as the restaurants are reopening for dine-in patrons.

The Georgia-based diner chain resumed dine-in service at many of its 400 restaurants in the state on Monday. A spokesperson for Waffle House, Njeri Boss, told The Associated Press that 330 of the restaurant locations across Georgia had remained open for takeout during the lockdown.

As part of the loosening restrictions on non-essential businesses, restaurants must abide by a 39-requirement list issued by Georgia Governor Brian Kemp. Among them, employees are required to wear masks and customers must be limited to 10 people per 500 square feet, to ensure social distancing.

Police Investigating Death of Arizona Man From Fish Tank Cleaner

Legal Insurrection readers will recall that about a month ago, an Arizona couple ingested fish tank cleaner. After the husband died, the wife claimed they were inspired to take it based on President Trump’s comments related to chloroquine treatment for coronavirus.

Now the man’s death is being investigated by the Homicide Divisioninvestigated by the Homicide Division.

The Mesa City Police Department’s homicide division is investigating the death of Gary Lenius, the Arizona man whose wife served him soda mixed with fish tank cleaner in what she claimed was a bid to fend off the coronavirus. A detective handling the case confirmed the investigation to the Washington Free Beacon on Tuesday after requesting a recording of the Free Beacon’s interviews with Lenius’s wife, Wanda.

…Detective Teresa Van Galder, the homicide detective handling the case for the Mesa City Police Department, confirmed that the investigation is ongoing but declined to provide additional details.

“As this is an active investigation, I cannot go into any details at this time regarding the case,” Van Galder said.

Wuhan lab ‘most likely’ coronavirus source, U.S. government analysis finds

The more China tries to hide, the more evident it is that the nation has something quite disturbing to hide.

A Wuhan laboratory is the “most likely” source of the COVID-19 outbreak now ravaging the globe, according to a U.S. government analysis that catalogs the evidence and concludes that other explanations for the origin of the coronavirus are less credible.

The document, compiled from open sources and not a finished product, says there is no smoking gun to blame the virus on either the Wuhan Institute of Virology or the Wuhan branch of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, both located in the city where the first outbreaks were reported.

But “there is circumstantial evidence to suggest such may be the case,” the paper says.

“All other possible places of the virus’s origin have been proven to be highly unlikely,” the document concludes. A copy of the report, compiled this month, was obtained by The Washington Times.

Pfizer Says Coronavirus Vaccine Could Be Ready by Fall

As many public health experts are worried about a return of significant numbers of Wuhan Coronavirus infections in the fall, Pfizer’s new vaccine could be a critical component of the response.

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer said Tuesday that it will begin testing its coronavirus vaccine in the United States as soon as next week, The Wall Street Journal reports. With testing already started in Germany, the company predicts it may produce a viable drug for emergency use by the fall of 2020.

Research into a COVID-19 preventive drug, which many experts originally predicted would last well into next year, has sped up in recent weeks, with Oxford researchers making similar claims to Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson expecting human testing by September, and biotechnology firm Moderna entering the second phase of human testing of its vaccine.

North Carolina pug becomes first US dog to test positive for coronavirus

The good news: The dog is fine!

A North Carolina pug became the first dog in the country to test positive for the coronavirus, a report said on Monday.

Winston, who belongs to a family in Chapel Hill, was tested as part of a study at Duke University after his caretakers fell ill with the virus, according to North Carolina’s WRAL-TV.

Dr. Chris Woods, the head of the Duke study, told the outlet he believes it’s the first known positive canine case in the country.

The owner of the dog, Heather McLean, said Winston was coughing and sneezing — and one day didn’t even want to eat breakfast.

“And if you know pugs you know they love to eat,” she said. “So that seemed very unusual.”

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Comments

First thing I said to my wife when I heard the aquarium cleaner thing was, “she killed him.” Damn, I’ve become a cynically suspicious SOB

If the Oreo and M&M factories close down I shudder to think of the ensuing havoc.

So…. we’re going to subsidize all of those Chinese-owned pork processing companies?

Has anybody realized that the Cloward-Piven scam has finally been realized via the COVID virus scam?

AMERICANS MUST NOW ACCEPT THE HARD, COLD REALITY THAT THE CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK IS INTENTIONALLY BEING USED TO COLLAPSE THE U.S. ECONOMY:
https://gospelnewsnetwork.org/2020/04/03/americans-must-now-accept-the-hard-cold-reality-that-the-coronavirus-outbreak-is-intentionally-being-used-to-collapse-the-u-s-economy/

And CA’s Governor says CoronaVirus will be billed to an employer’s workers comp insurance.

So if you reopen, and an employee gets CoronaVirus, it’s assumed they got it at work.

And there is talk of a 25% rent haircut in CA, which would destroy most landlords.

Here is the link to the Executive Order

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-delegating-authority-dpa-respect-food-supply-chain-resources-national-emergency-caused-outbreak-covid-19/

And here is an interesting thread from a law professor about the EO

https://twitter.com/steve_vladeck/status/1255313647284424706

Key points:
– “Nothing in the text of the Order claims any power to force plants to “stay open,” and nothing in the statutory sections on which the Order purports to rely delegates such authority.”

– “The Order’s big move is to designate meat and poultry as “strategic materials” under the Defense Production Act. Fair enough. But all it *authorizes* is for the Secretary of Agriculture to use his authority under DPA § 101.

But DPA § 101 says nothing about forced openings…”

– “Instead, DPA § 101 (50 U.S.C. § 4511) is just about allocation of federal resources and priority for federal contracts. There’s no authority under this provision to *force* private businesses to do anything other than prioritize federal contracts. ”

– “To be sure, the Order also delegates to the Secretary the authority to implement the more coercive provisions in Chapter III of the DPA (50 U.S.C. §§ 4554–60), but the Order does not *direct* the Secretary to do so—and none of *those* provisions include compelled openings either.”

Bad, bad headline here. Trump DID NOT ORDER meat packing plants to remain open. In fact, the order expressly says that he did not so order.

Meat packers are not closing down because their workers are out sick with COVID. They are shutting down for two reasons. this is all to offset the losses that they are suffering now that half of their market [restaurants, hotels, entertainment and sports venues] have been shut down and to forestall litigation against them for COVID infections. Attorneys across the country are already typing up future lawsuits. Why do you think that the Congress is talking about passing liability limiting legislation?

So, we have seen the media, the political class, the medical industry and now the food industry knife the people in the back. I wonder which industry will be next? This COVID crisis is turning out to be Murder On The Orient Express.

I can’t help but wonder if some of these corporations like Tyson are creating the “shortage” so they can drive up demand and prices. I wouldn’t put it past some of the scumbags that are in upper management. After living for so many years and seeing what happens in life I have little doubt that, just as there are ethical people running large businesses, there are also ruthless scumbags.

    cktheman in reply to WestRock. | April 29, 2020 at 2:53 pm

    Fortunately, there’s a lot of competition in that space which should keep it in check.

    Mac45 in reply to WestRock. | April 29, 2020 at 2:53 pm

    This is not simply creating a shortfall to drive up prices. The livestock breeders are doing that. packers like Tyson are caught in the middle. They are having to pay higher prices for meat products, because the breeders are destroying the excess supply of livestock and they have lost half of their customer base for the last three months. They, like the rest of the business community, have bills to pay. They have to reduce overhead to meet those bills. So, they close plants. Add to that the very real threat of litigation by employees and customers, as well as increased costs of operation to deal with the stupid virus restrictions and these businesses simply cut back their operations. Surprise, surprise, surprise.

      Barry in reply to Mac45. | April 29, 2020 at 6:51 pm

      “Surprise, surprise, surprise.”

      LOL, ain’t it though.

      If I didn’t know better I’d guess all of this was part of a plan…

Then: “WHY DOESN’T TRUMP USE THE DEFENSE PRODUCTION ACT FOR ESSENTIAL BUSINESSES”?

Now: “TRUMP IS USING THE DEFENSE PRODUCTION ACT FOR ESSENTIAL BUSINESSES!!!”

Same people.

notamemberofanyorganizedpolicital | April 29, 2020 at 5:16 pm

FYI

https://youtu.be/3JhKt3jX8yk

Dr. Drew – SHUT UP THE PANIC PORN MEDIA

when workers don’t show up, either because they have been scared by the media, or because they are paid more to stay home, will trump then send military to force them to work?
this sounds good, but will it actually result in the plants producing anything?

notamemberofanyorganizedpolicital | April 29, 2020 at 11:43 pm

This is for Leslie and the poster who researching this a couple of days back.

Former AIDS Scientist Exposes Dr. Fauci’s Medical Corruption

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=emb_rel_pause&v=kgnBldI7KPY