Transcript: France 24: Covid-19 in Europe, Asia, Africa, Russia, and U.S. this week discussed

The Covid-19 Transcripts, Watch video here

(I keep up with international news by watching networks such as France 24 here is transcript of one of their best weekly shows from last night)

Francois Picard: Hi everybody welcome to a confined edition of The World This Week.  [discussion re prime minister of UK sick with Covid-19]

Leela Jacinto:  It was just in early March that Boris Johnson was shaking hands with people and joking about this and in a matter of weeks he's tested positive.  This really shows how infectious this disease is and how authorities should have responded quicker than they have. 

Picard:  Yeah hindsight is twenty twenty isn’t it

Christopher Dickey: Look it's not hindsight.  Boris Johnson's policy initially was one of trying to encourage something called herd immunity.  The notion that he was pressing at the beginning of this crisis was that as many people should get this.  And of course some old folks were going to die but we can handle this and it'll be better next time around with this virus maybe in the fall.

Theoretically maybe that makes some sense but finally studies done in Great Britain itself showed that the health system system would be completely overwhelmed by such a policy, by so many people falling sick, so many people dying, which is something that by the way, everybody else in the world knew except for apparently Boris Johnson and Donald Trump. 

(WORTH REPEATING: Something that everybody else in the world knew except for apparently Boris Johnson and Donald Trump.  Both Trump and Johnson were put into office by Vladimir Putin in 2016. Kay Ebeling )

So the net effect of course is that now there is a huge crisis in Great Britain, it's growing by the day.  If you look at the Johns Hopkins chart, it's no longer dot dot dot it's dot leap dot leap dot in Great Britain, just as it is in the United States now. 

At the end of the day you have to look at Boris Johnson and say he's a fool and he fooled a lot of people in his country and a lot of people will probably lose their lives as a result of that. 

The last question I would have about Boris Johnson is who the hell was he talking to and greeting and hanging out with the last few days when he was probably at maximum contagion?  We don’t know.  We know the colleagues, was he with Prince Charles?  He should be traced.

Picard:  Before we went on air we were saying, we all saw this was coming, no one more than you, Rachel Donadio, who follows things out of Italy. A gain this is such an unprecedented  situation, can you give policy makers a pass because, underestimating, "we've never seen anything like this before"?

Rachel Donadio:  I don't think you can.  I mean, I don't think there's a government on Earth that's handled this particularly well, the Chinese dissembled about it and then went into this massive authoritarian overdrive.  The Italians began in February isolating towns outside Milan, putting them on a kind of quarantine. March 8th put a large part of Lombardy on lockdown and that should have come as a massive warning to leaders around the world.

At first it seemed oh okay well that's just Lombardy but we've been saying this for weeks, that every country is on the same curve as Italy is on, which means if you don’t make people stay home, the infection rate is so high that more and more people get this.  And now more and more are sick, and that's what we're seeing in Italy now and also Spain. And now in New York it's getting really high.  Before Italy went under lockdown, it was spreading super fast. So I think we should not give policy makers a free pass, I mean it's true it's unprecedented.

I'm studying the question of what constitutes criminal negligence, because there's a lot of answering to do.  Apart from authorities that did not respond in time but there's also authorities that had the time.  There was a time lag, and how they are implementing their lockdowns, like India, they had so many weeks, but people had four hours to prepare for an absolutely draconian lockdown. [Play clip of Prime Minister of India]

Pickard:  The Prime Minister of India has taken it into overdrive.  Is he rebounding?

Jacinto: Like Rachel, we were seeing the signs.  This needs to happen in India.  The question is not whether they needed measures, it was the lack of preparedness.  This kind of lockdown has not been done anywhere else in the world, not even China has done it like that.  China isolated the provinces that were affected.  The entire nation of India is going into lockdown.  There was a lack of planning, no supply chains, no measures for public transportation. In India 90 percent are employed in what's called the "informal sector."

Law enforcement is run there by Hindu party, the police are shock troops, so the orders were implemented in this extremely harsh way, people on streets being beaten.  India doesn't have to be like this, there was no reason, the prime minister the previous weekend declared a one day curfew, people came out to clap hands and it turned into pandemonium with no isolation at all.  There was no emergency plan put into place.

Picard:  Talk about the situation here in France, where they're sort of doing it as they go along.  They're using rail to move patients from east to west side of the country, how is French health care moving with the punches?

Dickey:  well I think the health care in France were pretty badly stretched to begin with.  There's a lot of talk about how great the French health care system is but in fact it's been deteriorating over the years, they've had a lot of strikes by health care workers.  I know any number of doctors who've decided to retire early. As a result a crisis like this really puts a strain on the system.

That said, things have been well organized, the Army is now being used to help people out of most affected areas to where they can get better treatment.  The problem is not just the people who have Coronavirus serious cases where they can't breathe, it's the people who have anything else wrong with them.  What happens if you get appendicitis now, where do you go?  The French system has been doing a pretty good job dealing with all of that, the death rate here has been much lower than I expected two weeks ago, nothing like it's is in Spain.

And god help us not as high as it will be in the United States in a few days.  [Discussion that death rates rely on testing. ]

Dickey:  well the truth is you could say no numbers make sense because there's been almost no randomized testing. You get bad symptoms, then you get tested, that’s the case in France or Pennsylvania or New York City.  You have to have the disease and serious symptoms before anybody will test you, so that obviously skews the numbers.  In Italy they are beginning to do it the way it should be. 

Here in France it's only now that they're beginning to count people who are in assisted living facilities who get coronavirus and die, potentially it's a pretty significant number.

Donadio: the way the information is coming is has been different.  The death count has been low in Germany partly because they haven’t tested people post mortem.  As unfortunately the deaths go up across the world, we're going to see the statistics come in line. 

Dickey:  We have to look at countries which we know have been lying about their numbers.  Japan was desperate to hold Olympics in July so their testing has been minimal.  Now that Olympics have been postponed, suddenly they're testing lots of people.  Now government saying prepare yourself for news of major outbreaks here.  Well of course, because they're testing now.

Picard:  Here are pictures of people going to cafes in bars in Japan

Dickey:  The most egregious case is Russia where in St. Petersburg they were talking about a hundred thousand cases of suspected SARS, well coronavirus is a SARS virus but they didn't want to call it that because Putin is holding vote in April for him to become President for Life, they didn't want anything to interfere with that.  Now Mayor of Moscow saying we haven’t counted all the cases.  And even now Putin is going to the hospitals and putting on a Hazmat suit and pretending like he's leading the charge against a disease that he did his best to ignore up to a week ago. 

Picard:  the Germans seem to be testing a lot more than other Europeans, including France.

Jacinto:  Is this a question on European unity?  In the European Union health has always been a national issue.  There should have been more cooperation with the response but we have different systems. 

Donadio: There aren’t enough tests.  The companies have not been making tests quickly, one of the companies that makes the swabs is in Lombardy- and there's not enough people to administer the tests.  In France we're being told to stay home unless you can't breathe, in which case call emergency services.  But in New York you're just told, if these are your symptoms, stay home.  The tests would have been more useful when people were walking around not knowing they had it. 

Picard: Christopher, we keep hearing the tests are coming they're just not here yet, your comments?

Dickey: Already we've seen China exporting tests that are eighty percent ineffective, 80 percent wrong.  They were used in Czech Republic and Spain.  Lots of different manufactures and companies producing them, some will work some won't.

Problem in United States was originally there was an effort to control everything through the CDC and a reluctance to let individual labs and hospitals organize the tests.  Then it turned out the CDC tests were faulty, so it's been a disaster in terms of testing.

Tracing is also important, in Germany it's not that they dumped out certain things, it's that they've done much better contact tracing than most other places.  And certainly in South Korea as a program to stop the disease, contact tracing has been central to their operation.  We hear in United States it's way too late to carry out effective contact tracing.  [Atlantic article: U.S. lost three crucial weeks]

Dickey:  you could see this coming, it was like a tsunami coming across the water.  Yet people didn't prepare, forget locking down, the hardware masks ventilators, all the things that were needed, and no country more egregiously un prepared than the United States.

Donadio:  The pictures of medics at Mount Sinai in New York wearing plastic bags as protective gear, that just was stunning to me, I mean that's a very well equipped Manhattan hospital and if it doesn't have enough gear, I'm in fear of what will happen in the rural United States and the rest of the world. [Discussion of what friends in New York City are going through.  Discussion of half-truths Donald Trump says about equipment being available when it's not.]

Dickey:  I'm not sure that the French have tried to hide anything, this is not Russia or Japan and I think that Macron may have been a little bit late addressing the crisis, but when he did I think he was extremely plain, no sense he was hiding anything.  I remember him saying we'll beat this thing but the day after tomorrow is not going to be like the day before we started and that's exactly right, it's not.  We are entering a whole new world and I think the French are aware of that and the whole world had better be aware of that. 

What's so painful to watch is a politician like Trump or many in Congress who want you to believe that this is going to be just a little flash in the pan and we'll go back to a ranging stock market and be super. Maybe in a couple years but it won't be the same as before this started.  

Jacinto:  In India there are questions about whether this response was even necessary.  Are people going to die of the virus or are they going to die from hunger.  There's a public outcry against social distancing. What about public anger, public outbursts, if government is not trusted in its own country- it's proving that democracies that are open and transparent you have to put pressure on public opinion.

Picard:  The role of government, funding of health systems- the number of hospital beds, that's been glaring through all of this.

Jacinto:  look at number of beds in Africa, in South Africa they're worried about the crime rate rising.  The health capacity across the world, not just in France in several countries, not enough budget has been allocated to public health and we are absolutely seeing the effects of that now.  Africa is not going to be ready to handle a crisis of this kind. [discussion about other anecdotes in Nigeria where people think it's hot so you can't get coronavirus, which is "just not right." ]

[discussion about how people in France are living in isolation with video clips]

Picard:  We've seen the best and the worst of human nature so far.  [discussion: in Europe nationalistic groups growing, in U.S. it's each state for itself. ] But some writers claim divisive politics are irrelevant now.

Dickey:  Where are we talking about, I'm not sure I can make that case.  Divisive politics mean a hell of a lot, they affect if bills get passed to rescue corporations or people.  The United States employment rate was based on very bad jobs with very poor health care, those are the first jobs to be lost.  Six hundred dollars for a family that's out of work, that's not enough.

Picard:  In 2008 there was anger over bailouts and that anger changed into something else.

Dickey: The checks are an effort to say yeah we're helping out but they're inadqueate.  We need change to the basic government in the United States, starting with health care.  It doesn't have to be Bernie Sanders' universal health care, but it has to be something that's a hell of a lot better than it is now, and if people don’t understand that before this crisis, they certainly will after this crisis.

[Discussion about France response. ]

Jacinto:   Police without masks, people working in shops and putting lives at risk.  In the end will this be overall good or bad, worried about food stocks.  Russia is investigating its food stocks, to see what exports they can stop to keep their national stock.  Rural countries their harvests will be affected, if a nationalism goes in, countries will be trying to protect their food supplies.

Donadio:  the day I was most distraught was when European commissioner warned of borders popping up inside Europe, the delays of trucks could affect food supply in Europe, here in Western Europe, not sub-Saharan Africa. 

General Agreement: This could be the end of the European union as we know it. 
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Links in this post: 
Video of France 24: https://cityofangels25.blogspot.com/2020/03/something-everybody-else-in-world-knew.html
Covid-19 Transcripts Origin https://cityofangels25.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-covid-19-transcripts-origin.html
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NOTE:  The clips I transcribe for this project contain information that I don't think is available in print anywhere else. Please show your appreciation by clicking some cash into my PayPal account through button at top of left hand column.)
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Posted by Kay Ebeling
Producer, City of Angels Blog
the city of angels is everywhere

'Something everybody else in world knew except Boris Johnson and Donald Trump apparently.'

(Next entry in Covid-19 Transcripts is from France 24 The World This Week last night)

PREVIEW:
"Herd immunity. The notion that [UK Prime Minister] Boris Johnson was pressing at the beginning of this crisis was that as many people should get this. And of course some old folks were going to die but we can handle this and it'll be better next time around with this virus maybe in the fall.Theoretically maybe that makes some sense but finally studies done in Great Britain itself showed that the health system would be completely overwhelmed by such a policy, by so many people falling sick, so many people dying, which is something that by the way, everybody else in the world knew except for apparently Boris Johnson and Donald Trump."

WORTH REPEATING AGAIN: "something that by the way, everybody else in the world knew except for apparently Boris Johnson and Donald Trump."

Kay Ebeling Both Trump and Johnson were put into office by Vladimir Putin in 2016 elections

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4WyymRkUMM&t=2112s -ke

Transcript: Part 3 Tahoe City Council Emg Meeting March 25 re rentals and Covid-19

(The Covid-19 Transcripts) 

Part One Public Comments is here
Part Two is transcribed here  
Part Four is here

This transcript starts at 1:03:15 into video 

Mayor:  Any questions? 

Middlebrook:   the direction you're looking for from city council is an agreement with the coalition or whatever we decide today is it, how much wiggle room can we give you in terms of hours and spacing and decontamination plans once this is over with?

Stroud;  The direction from staff on this one is as to what council wants in an agreement and I hope we can come up with a simple agreement quickly and get that in place and executed.

Middlebrook:  Is the coalition able to talk about [INAUDIBLE] for the city? 

Stroud; I would include something along those lines in this agreement.

Mayor Collin:  I guess the question to the council, prior to this coming up, I had been in discussions with Barton Health and the school district re a large space available for cohabitation and quarantine of people if we do have a big spike in the number of people that test positive. In other countries when they've been able to suppress Covid-19, that's what they've done and that's what the research is showing is really the way to isaolate it and then to reduce where we're not exposing more people than

I know Barton is very interested in them, we don’t know if we will get to that point.  Barton feels that it's an important piece to have in our cue and Dr.  is open to using the middle school or high school if we need it as well, so for me, just looking at the immediate thing we need to do is help out the homeless population.  I think we need flexibility on the term and just agility that if this does spike and get out of control, that we need to be able to have facilities that are available for the greater good of the community.  Again if we do get to that point, I don't know if we will do that in this country, because it's a lot more difficult to mandate things like that.  But we do know that that's been successful in other countries.  So we actually have partners with the school district that are in favor of that, in having those gyms available if necessary.  That's okay, I just want to get other councilmembers' thoughts as well.  I think agility is going to be extremely important for the community at large.  Anyone?

Tamara Wallace;  I'm in agreement with everything you just said. [OVERLAPPING CONVERSATION]

Cody Bass;  I'm sorry but I do agree just I want to put thought to it because again, if there are people that really need to have twenty four hour care, can we not find a property that has fifteen rooms that they can be served at but we can have isolation happening instead of a major auditorium.  My other thought is I want to absolutely find a solution for the homeless here without a doubt.  The other thought is opening the rec center as soon as possible and not have a thirty to sixty day wait because if we have a wet spring- it's something that people will want to have access to.  I just want to put as much thought possible forward and I think we should be able to find a fifteen bed motel that wants to make income during this time that we could work with and we could also find other motels for people that are not under twenty four hour care.

Devin Middlebrook:  I was just going to make the point that maintaining flexibility is key.  To Cody's point about the days being lost, I like the idea of putting it in increments but also the ability to have flexilibty and if Barton becomes a larger priority or we become overwhelmed, to be able to act quickly.  I think for the purposes of today's meeting, I think directing staff towards working with the homeless coalition, they are looking at all the other possibilities.  There are different avenues being explored.  In next week if we find a better location, do it, but let's not put this on pause.

Bass:  I completely agree.

Mayor Collin:  My last thing is the ability- I think it's really important- if we hit that critical point in you community, it's important that we not be locked in for 30 or 60 days because if the health care system is being overwhelmed, we could use the high school gyms, there are other places.  But if we get to the point where we need the rec center, I'd want to be able to pivot and take action quickly. I know the goal is to keep people out of the emergency room at Barton.  We want to minimize exposure there.  We're in agreement to work with coalition for homeless and speed up with flexibility the rec center.

Brooke Laine:  I was going to put forward a motion, so Middlebrook first.

Middlebrook: I was going to ask if we could add on to engage Barton in discussions of what facilities they need and adding that flexibility

Collin:  Those are already in motion.  I don't think we have to add it to the motion.

Bass:  My thing would be to work with the Tahoe Coalition, approaching motels for these purposes so in partnership with us and I don't know if- right now talking about whether we're willing to backup the funding, because that will make hotel owners more compelled.

Collin:  the coalition has the funding, they can cover- that's not the issue.

As our city manager approaches them, to make it more compelling to the owners of the properties.

Collin:  I agree, I don't think it's necessary to bring financial backing at this point.

Kilger;  I need to raise this point.  Keeping our community safe is highest priority but we need to be prudent really financial commitments, as our city is experiencing, so is the city with drop in sales tax and TOT.  We will have to address that in meeting coming up in April.  Obviously not saying we can't but need to understand ramifications of any commitments we make.

Collin:  Thank you and to Mr. Bass, they have funds for continuous care and to get people through the end of funding and with the state of California putting a hundred million dollars towards, a chunk of that will come through El Dorado County. So additional funds will be realized soon. 

Bass; I get that and I understand that but I don't know if all property owners get that when they see the city as a partner, they understand that we do have the money, I think that would make a big difference, that's the point I want to address.

Collin:  I think there is an  emphasis for the city to help out in this situation, and find a better option if there is one for everybody.  Now Miss Laine?

Laine: I move to direct staff to meet with the homeless coalition to discuss terms and what the council discussed today. To draft a use permit and authorize the city attorney to execute the agreement.  [TWO SECONDS]

Vote:  passed unanimously. 

01:25;00

Watch Video here: https://slt.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=6&clip_id=1086
Part One Transcript: https://cityofangels25.blogspot.com/2020/03/transcript-slt-city-council-emergency.html
Part two Transcript https://cityofangels25.blogspot.com/2020/03/transcript-pt-2-city-council-emergency.html
To Be continued, there is still one more hour.
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NOTE:  The clips I transcribe for this project contain information that I don't think is available in print anywhere else. Please show your appreciation by clicking some cash into my PayPal account through button at top of left hand column.)

-ke
Posted by Kay Ebeling
Producer, City of Angels Blog
the city of angels is everywhere

Transcript: Pt. 2- City Council Emergency Meeting re short term rentals and Covid-19 March 25

(The Covid-19 Transcripts) 

Part One Public Comments is here
Part Two is transcribed here  

Part Three is herePart Four is here

(Note: Since this meeting is two hours longer, following transcript is not verbatim, but gist of what was said.)

Mayor Collin:  We'll move onto our scheduled agenda, first City Manager will give an overview, and then we'll dive in. 

Kilger: This is Brad Kilger with a very quick overview, following the orders of city and governor- information is on website which offices open and how to access-

Airport is critical infrastructure open for operation but closed public access to terminal.  Private tenants have access, closed to public.  Asking employees to work from home. Of course not first responders, they're following safety measures.

We push out information social media

With respect to VHR have drafted letters to all owners cease renting their homes.  In recognition of financial imposition on owners, extend annual renewal payment to May 31 giving more time to pay fee.

Re enforcement, these are governor and county emergency orders.  Re violations, we're informing and asking to respond.  As of yesterday none found in violations

Question from Council Member Middlebrook, re forms people have to fill out to avoid eviction, how do both commercial and residential do it, everyone is affected by Covid, what do you need to prove it?

Heather Stroud City Attorney:  Moratorium on evictions followed governor's executive order March 16, waived pre emptions as long as the inability to pay rent is because of Covid-19, we don’t have the ability to do blanket moratorium, it has to be virus related.  Documentation- to make sure people aren’t taking advantage, landlord rights have to be taken into consideration.

Mayor Collin:  And utility companies are offering some relief of payment, not forgiveness, you have to work it out with them, don’t assume you don’t have to pay.  Any other questions?  Anything to add? Okay let's go to item one, release of recreation center to Coalition for the Homeless. 

Stroud:  This item is from request from Coalition for Homeless received yesterday- have urgent need for place to house homeless at this time.  Warm room designed for 24 persons in evenings, because of shelter in place orders, they're serving 40 guests 24 hours a day in warm room, one bathroom no showers, no social distancing.  Ask to use rec center- [Not transcribing this part, a lot of historical info watch at 49:00 in this video  https://slt.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=6&clip_id=1086

Stroud: I ask council to delegate authority to execute this agreement.

Collin: Any questions?

Tamara Wallace: Mayor Pro Tem:  Should it be open ended or a given time, what is recommendation?

Stroud: I haven’t talked to coalition about how long need center, they need it within next week or two.  I don't think it's a bad idea to do incremental periods.

Brooke Laine: In terms, it there a way to ensure the building is commercially returned to sterile conditions, so it's safe for residents and staff after?

Brad Kilger: Staff have been talking about that and we will make provisions for that.  They have some outside funding so either way we would make sure that was taken care of before returned for any other uses.

Mayor: I would want that as well.  The virus only has a life span of two to three days on hard surfaces, isolating is a good safety measure but also thorough cleaning as well.

Middlebrook:  Should do same for all public buildings before moving back in.

Kilger: I concur. That is part of our protocol.

Laine: Other question- have we looked at other facilities such as Motel 6? If there is a motel that's vacant, Chevy's? other facilities that might be a better use?

Kilger:  My understanding is they are working towards that, some of that may even occur before we finalize an agreement with them, but there is outreach with local hotels, they're having issues because they're trying to respond to shelter in place, with visitors.  I do know they're reaching out to motels.

Mayor: To expand on that, I've spoken with CofoHo they have funds to put persons in hotel rooms.  A lot of hotels have stopped taking reservations, so we're putting the word out there, these are residents, they have a right to stay in this town.  Also connecting with businesses that own residential units that have been used for employee housing in the past.  I think it's really the speed at which they need this space, we can get people in rec center within a week.  I don't know about Motel 6, Chevy's isn’t an option because they don’t have showers.  It's privately owned, it's renovated for other potential uses. 

Cody Bass:  For me I think I definitely support coalition for homeless, we need to do something, but if we have homeless affected by Coronavirus, we need to be able to support those people and put them in one place.  It doesn't seem to me like the rec center would be the right place.  You can have homeless in a situation where you're spreading the virus further.  If we have that situation, we need something like motel rooms where they're actually quarantined away from other people. I think that it's unclear as to we have current homeless space with 24 beds.  We need to enhance that capacity.  And the idea that we're trying to enhance the capacity to deal with the  Coronavirus- to me it wouldn't seem that the rec center would be the right place.  We need to put up the funding and get these people into motels.  And I think the fastest thing is to partner with motels and provide the funding right away to move people into motels.  So I'm open to doing the rec center if that's best option, but I think we need to put more thought into- if we have members of homeless population showing symptoms we need to quarantine them, not put them in one big auditorium. 

Kilger:  My understanding is funding is not issue, it's more being able to access the motel rooms.

Stroud;  That's right the coalition is pursuing this at the same time they're trying to pursue agreements with hotels as well.  They do have funding and got more from the state yesterday.

Kilger: The answer to Mr. Bass's question is the primary purpose is for a 24 hour shelter basically, serving

Bass:  In the warm room now they have to leave at seven in the morning, so they would basically be staying in rec center all the time.  So to me that's the idea of, okay we're trying to- kind of the idea of quarantining them.  And my point is just that if we're really trying to quarantine them, let's not do it in an auditorium, let's do it in a motel, and basically they're moving in that direction.  Now as the city, should we not get behind the effort and work with the owners of motels to get them to lease and maybe even back up the homeless coalition, we will disinfect and provide funding needed so they feel more comfortable.  I think the city should walk in and say we back this up one hundred percent for the business.  I just think that we have a ton of motel rooms and it would be a better more viable option in my mind.

Mayor Collin:  I do know we've discussed that with community partners.  The list that would not take them at this time I was surprised as many are SRO hotels used for longer term residence and they have vacancies, I'm not sure what the issues are.  One said they have forty people at the warm room now and they want to get it down to about fifteen so they can social distance- the rec center is not quarantine, it's to get them out of elements and to have space between one another.  But if there is someone sick, that poses greater threat, something we have to consider working with local hotels have to make sure we don’t cause a transmission that they would not otherwise have.

Stroud: Per coalition, even with motel rooms, many are frail and need 24 hour support, and rec center would be better with separate isolation bays for social distancing.  They're plan is to move 30 into motel rooms but there are about 24 that need 24 hour support.
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(End of Part Two, we are now into second hour of meeting. Part Three will be posted shortly.)
*
NOTE:  The clips I transcribe for this project contain information that I don't think is available in print anywhere else. Please show your appreciation by clicking some cash into my PayPal account through button at top of left hand column.)
* 
The meeting is 2.5 hours long this is just first 60 minutes, but I WILL get the rest of the meeting transcribed, loosely, next few days.
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Links in this post 
The Covid-19 Transcripts https://cityofangels25.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-covid-19-transcripts-origin.html
South Lake Tahoe City Emergency Council Meeting on Video: https://slt.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=6&clip_id=1086

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Posted by Kay Ebeling
Producer, City of Angels Blog
the city of angels is everywhere

Transcript: Adam Schiff: People in homes have to step up and take leadership roles, as we can't count on Donald Trump: March 26 Stephanie Miller Show interview

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(The Covid-19 Transcripts) 

SM: Today we have a hero on the program, good morning, Congressman Adam Schiff.

AS:  Good morning it's good to be with you.

SM:  You've heard all the Mr. Smith Goes to Washington references about your speeches.

AS:  I've heard some of them, I'm still chuckling over Smooth Jazz Congressman though, that's stalked me for years now.

SM:  Chairman, thanks so much for doing this and by the way you're doing another town hall tonight. 

AS:  Yes, I am tonight at seven o'clock, people can call in, we'll have a couple of health experts on from UCLA to answer people's questions. At a time when there's a lot of bad information out there, we're trying to push out some good information about what to do to be safe but also what's in this economic relief package. 

SM:  Chairman, let's talk about this bill.  I love this, "Republicans are now holding up the relief package because the unemployment benefits are too generous" this notion that people are going to love this, they're going to just take the money and not want to work if we take too good of care of the regular worker.  It's so absurd.

AS:  It is and frankly what I would love to see happen, and I was pushing as much as I could in this direction, is to have the government to guarantee payroll, a certain percentage of payroll, and that way you avoid layoffs, people  furloughed if they're not able to work, even from home.  But the advantage of keeping people on payroll, it's much less disruptive when you get past this virus.  People don’t have to go out and job search because they already have a job.

But as you say, people want to work.  They don’t want to be laid off but they also need to keep a roof over their heads.

This same crowd that is complaining about unemployment compensation was the same crowd that gave a two trillion dollar a tax cut to corporations.  This disaster relief, and I really think that's what this package is, is a disaster relief package is about two trillion.  If we had the two trillion that we wasted on those corporate buybacks and giveaways of that last tax cut, we would be in much better financial position right now to be helping people who are going to desperately need it.

The Senate bill, the original Mitch McConnell Donald Trump Bill had that five billion dollar fund but basically no strings attached.  And when the President was asked, where is the oversight, his answer was, I will be the oversight. 

SM:  No one better than you understands how calming that is.

AS:  Uh, [LAUGHS] yes exactly. Well that was obviously going to be a complete no deal.  So there are a number of changes in the bill, most of us in Congress are frankly still looking at those accountability protections and oversight. To make sure simply that Steve Mnuchin and Donald Trump can't use that fund to reward friends and punish enemies.

We do want to keep the workers afloat in those large industries and we want to make sure those industries don’t go away, but you're absolutely right.  We've had such a bad experience in the past with relief, where they essentially used it for the advantage of the corporate executives and to the detriment of their employees.  Had they made more sensible investment of the relief they got before, they'd not be in quite as dire a situation.  We're going to have to make sure that there is a very careful eye on anything that's given to industry.

SM:  You made a speech two months about that you can't trust this president in a crisis, you said it better say it again.

AS:  That's actually right.  This is a bad President to have when things are going well and up until this pandemic all the crises were essentially crises of the President's own making, but now that we're in a bona fide disaster, a natural disaster, pandemic, that we could have taken very strong steps early on to severely mitigate. 

I suspect he disbanded the pandemic office because it was part of the Obama administration.  Anything his predecessor had to be bad- the result is tragic in that we lost valuable time, we didn't get testing, the President kept happy talking this.  Those weeks were critical and we lost them and we won't get them back and now you see the President already dithering, already going week in the knees in terms of maintaining the precautions that health experts and epidemiologists tell us that we must do if we're going to hope to avoid the worst besiegement of our health care facilities, our hospitals our clinics. 

He's been so focused on the stock market, on this artificial deadline of Easter because it's politically beneficial to him, that we don’t have the confidence that he's going to maintain the confidence of experts like Anthony Fauci.

SM:  It's what you said about him and Ukraine, it's not about the country it's about what's good for himself.  Once again he did not listen to our intelligence officials that told him back in January, he listened to a dictator again, President Xi.  And the fact that he was deliberately holding down the testing to help his re-election, it's Ukraine all over again, just a different version. 

AS:  Well it's certainly similar.  We need a president to rise to the occasion but failing that, we in Congress and people in their homes are going to have to step up and take leadership roles right now, because I don't think we can count on that from Donald Trump.

SM:  You were just about to paraphrase, I'm glad I stopped you because as you know, that is illegal. [LAUGHTER] as the President has tried to warn you.

AS:  [LAUGHING] yes that's right.  He does not like to be mocked, I think I found that out.

SM:  Weird being able to see you on camera via Skype for interview, you seem not at all shifty to me.

AS:  How does my neck look today?  [LAUGHTER]  

SM:  Less like a pencil than anything I've ever seen.  You tweeted, the same guy who said I alone can fix it has now said I don't take any responsibility.  So here we are, we know what to do we've seen it in other countries.  The other thing- medical equipment market descends into chaos as Trump insists it's not his problem and refuses to use the Defense Production Act to provide medical equipment that's badly needed. 

 States are competing with each other in a mass scramble for masks and ventilators, they're asking nail salons and construction companies for equipment.  Third world countries are better equipped than we are in Seattle.  This is where his leadership has brought us, right. 

AS:  Unfortunately that's exactly right, there is an agency in the government that's very good at logistics, the Defense Logistics Agency.  Part of the Defense Department, they could be brought in to manage the logistics here. 

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 The clips I transcribe for this project contain information that I don't think is available  in print anywhere else. Please show your appreciation by clicking some cash into my PayPal account through button at top of left hand column.)  https://cityofangels25.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-covid-19-transcripts-origin.html 

Watch this Adam Schiff interview 1.5 hours into this morning's Stephanie Miller show https://www.stephaniemiller.com/

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(At this point the transcriber ran out of steam.  Watch this website for more transcripts in the days to come. ) 

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Posted by Kay Ebeling
Producer, City of Angels Blog
the city of angels is everywhere

Transcript: SLT City Council Emergency Meeting re short term rentals and Covid-19 March 25 (Part One Public Comments)

(The Covid-19 Transcripts)  

Part Two is transcribed here 
Part Three is here
Part Four is here

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Mayor Collin:  We will take public comments at this time for items that are on the (for this emergency meeting:

(Comments were sent in and read out loud by City Clerk Sue Blankenship, the one woman in the room while council membersattended the meeting by voice only.)

First comment is Ed M: New business:  Great idea to avoid a  catastrophe situation, provided that volunteers and staff don’t contract the virus, don’t believe I have to elaborate here.  Item 3: You do need to issue a ban on the rental of VHR's shared rentals, etcetera for short term rentals.  The risk of being infected is much greater outside the Tahoe Basin. People will want to come here because it is safe here.  We won't be able to quarantine them. They pose a risk and voluntary compliance has never worked in any manner within the short term rental industry here.  I suggest only those working in medical and public safety fields be allowed.

Next Comment is from James A.  Please close down VHR's, all short term rentals and hotels motels during this trying time.  Let's look after our own community and welcome back visitors when it is safe to do so.

Next comment comes from PHRM.  Hello.  I would strongly ask that you ban vacation rentals to stop visitors from bringing in the virus to our community.  My wife is bravely on the front lines at Raley's grocery story and we need to protect these workers and all of our families here in town.  We can do this by not providing opportunity for sickness to be transferred. 

Next Comment from Alisa T.  We would like to be assured that the county is included with this.  We live in Tahoma and have seen much activity at legal and not legal rentals over the past week.   This should be applied to all rentals, penalties should include loss of their rental license.  This has to have teeth for people to adhere to it. 

Next comment comes from Theresa F.  Hello.  I'm a full time Tahoe Keys resident and homeowner.  Not only were the Keys infested with VHR's but many families having second homes came here.  I personally know four families from Stockton and other parts of the Bay Area.  I'm certain what happened in the Keys happened in other SLT neighborhoods.  It is sad that the ignorance of others has put our safety at risk.  Lastly our hospital has sixty three beds.  That should be all you need to make your decision to take action and shut down VHRs. 

Next comment from Peggy B.  In an effort to relieve some of the challenges of trying to produce a remote council meeting, the Tahoe Neighborhoods Group is submitting this email.  We have been monitoring the city' and county's efforts to advise the public to shelter in their permanent place of residence and not over burden resort communities.  We have found several online listings of vacation home rentals available in this city on different platforms.  Members report to us that there are houses all over town that had visitors over the weekend and many of them are currently occupied.  One Tahoe VHR operator was on KCRA stating she would not displace her tenants.  Time is of the essence so waiting a few weeks to determine if the travel and lodging advisory is being taken seriously may not be an option.  Without almost universal compliance, the notion of ending the spread of the virus while preserving medical resources in South Lake Tahoe is unrealistic.  We note that other jurisdictions have taken a much stronger position to gain compliance. 

Next comment is from Lydia B.  Thank you for the recent update.  All of my current reservations were canceled by my guests.  From my perspective, people are taking the stay at home order seriously. I, for one, am grateful to see strangers take such quick action. I read a lot of the negative assumptions on social media.  Before the order was issued, we packed up and went to stay at our family cabin, home away from home, in same county as South Lake Tahoe.  Besides my neighbors, I saw a lot of people just walking, driving by just glaring at us with assumptions.  I received a cold shoulder.  People concluded we were renting a VHR but that was not the case.  They still went to Facebook to bash everyone.   Maybe some of these folk came up before the order was issued like we did.  Everyone is now aware of the current situation in California.  We're healthy and have been in place shelter since March 13th. 

As a responsible homeowner, I personally am sick and tired of all these locals projecting their misguided ideas into what I should and should not do with my own home. If I or my own healthy family want to stay in our own cabin, we will continue to do so and shelter in place at our cabin or in South Lake Tahoe. We now have people driving around looking for cars at unknown VHRs in the neighborhood taking pictures so they can spew their hate on social media. 

I know I'm not the only one using our home. As I read about another lady who with her elderly mother in the Bay Area packed up and are staying in their second home by the lake because they're scared like the rest of us.  Clearly they didn't come up because they're ill, they came up to feel safe.  When I mentioned her situation on South Lake Tahoe's Facebook page her situation was belittled in many different ways.  It's awful.  There's no decency in this town by the locals and you're playing right into their hate.  Maybe the VHR is not rented out to strangers but it's easy for strangers to come to this ridiculous assumption.

Just because dates are still available on websites-… 3 minutes up.

Next email from Rick D.  Please shut down short term rentals.  Visitors from outside the local by definition are exposed to the virus and probably carry it.  They are violating the shelter at home edict and are spreading the virus.  If we prohibit short term rentals, we can minimize the traffic in Tahoe from areas where the infection is ongoing. 

Next comment from Claire S.  I am homeless with three underlying health conditions with a HUD VA voucher for South Lake Tahoe that may never be used.  I am not and cannot stay at the shelter because of the risks involved.  I need to be in isolation rather than merely social distanced at motels to prevent infection.  Have any VHR owners been approached and or encouraged to accept a housing choice voucher?  If not why? Would they rather generate zero dollars or more than a thousand a month for their indefinitely unoccupied rentals?

Next email comes from Todd W.  Thank you so much for the hard work you are doing for our community it is greatly appreciated.  The El Dorado County Republican party wants to thank you for the proclamation that you passed on Friday.  We particularly believe the following section is particularly beneficial to your constituents.  A moratorium on residential evictions due to layoffs or reduced work or expenses caused by Covid-19- we also support item two re evictions. 

Next comment from Marci N.  My lungs are compromised, I already take inhalers twice a day.  If I get the virus, I likely won't survive it, please.  Stop the spread of the virus.  I went to the Grocery Outlet and twenty somethings are congregating, clogging the aisles, and acting like it's their new hangout spot since coffee shops are closed.  Regarding VHRs can you fine owners with hefty fines or suspend licenses of those that don’t meet the governor's mandate? I'm literally afraid for my life. Thank you for all you are doing.

Next comment is from Evan G.  I'm a vacation home owner and I support the city's need to support health and safety above tourism.  Whatever the city thinks must be done to ensure medical and supply needs are focused on local residents.  The health of our community is more important than our tourist dollars during this time.  My only ask would be that, one, you provide some clarity or accommodation for any valid uses of short term rentals.  Is it okay to host medical professionals? I've hosted traveling nurses before, should there be an exception for that?  Number two, clarity on the end date for this order would be extremely helpful.  It's difficult to predict what things will look like a month from now but knowing what rules will be imposed for May or June would be helpful.  Perhaps this is a good time to speed up building remodeling permits to encourage VHR owners to close to do remodels they've been waiting to do. 

Next comment comes from Patrick R:  According to what we've seen from the State, overnight lodging is allowed.  The rooms we seem to be getting appear to be business travel- Barton people and a few others. Does the county or the city have the authority to change what the State has enacted?  If they do, the new rules are enacted, what are we supposed to do and for how long?

Next comment comes from Jessica B.  I own two small businesses Omni and Champagne Productions in the city of South Lake Tahoe. I'm writing today to voice my support for item two on today's agenda, moratorium on evictions.  During this unstable time, we are occupied with staying healthy. Last thing we need is to worry about rent payments on businesses like mine that have been shut down by government order or can no longer operate.  My small business is simply not prepared for the impact of this pandemic and if my landlord were to evict me, recovery would be impossible for my business.  My only hope is to have a business to return to when this passes.  This moratorium assures my landlord can work with me.   That said, the resolution could contain some elements that are overly burdensome, for example a requirement that each tenant document their inability to pay rent is due to Covid-19.   This requirement could create a way for landlord to continue to pursue evictions at this time.  It should be assumed that every small business that would need these protections is in this situation because of Covid-19. 

Next comment from Bill M, South Tahoe Family Resource Center.  The entire Lake Tahoe community is suffering during this unprecedented pandemic.  Our undocumented community is also adversely impacted.  The normal fears associated with daily life are exacerbated by the isolation linked with Covid-19. Our underserved and low income community is feeling extra pressure due to lack of hours available to work.  This health crisis and economic downturn will disproportionately impact the most vulnerable among us, our immigrant and low income communities.  (Discontinued reading due to not topics that are on agenda)

Next is from Kathy C.  I own Verde Mexican Restaurante, a small business in the city of South Lake Tahoe.  I'm writing to support the moratorium on commercial evictions due to Covid-19.  During this unprecedented time, the last thing we need to worry about are rent payments 

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Additional comment from Linda W Lake Valley Resident:  Notice in an online posting is not proper notice to all the concerned citizenry.  Do you not see the tragic irony in wanting visitors to stay home and people from gathering and spending money to recreate?  And the taking of our recreation center to become a Petri Dish of public nuisance attraction and contagion.  Who signed up for this among us? This is a terrible proposal, there are countless buildings with no people like government offices or org offices that have no gathering orders.  Take the children and teachers building, take the mental health offices.  Take away a source of recreation for the community even for two months is unacceptable because it is and will be needed by the community that built and paid for it.  Stop the public contagion attraction in South Lake Tahoe period.

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Gary J.  Please consider exemptions, exterior door hotels to be exempt.  We have social distancing already in place.  L.A. County and Arizona already have exemptions for exterior door hotels. We need to define exempt travels, for example visiting loved ones, the elderly etcetera, guests unable to make it home, people without a home.

Next comment Gary J for rec center.  Please reconsider this, our children need the rec center. It has been taxpayer paid and built.  I can think of two buildings off the top of my head that would be better suited for homeless needs.  One the old Chevy's restaurant building, it has commercial bathrooms and possible kitchen.  Number two Motel Six restaurant, commercial bathrooms and kitchen.  There is a better alternative than our rec center.

Next comment by Natalie Y:  I appreciate the Covid-19 memo on the city's website to encourage the city to provide more information and buillet points on the website regarding short term rentals.  There is some confusion between the executive orders by the governor, county, and city policy and police powers.  Clear communication is a key at this time and I appreciate the city's response and efforts. 

One more written public comment, from Jessie G.  Please do not allow VHR's to continue to rent to out of town people, one, Barton cannot handle an outbreak, two the grocery stores still have empty shelves and products not available for local residents and most restaurants are closed. Three out of town visitors will bring Coronavirus to Tahoe whether they know they're infected or not and spread it to Tahoe.  Number Four, Governor Newsom has told everyone to stay home, not to travel and spread the virus.  Please stay home and stay safe, don’t come to Tahoe and cause people to become sick or die, thank you. 

One more written public comment, from Jessie G.  Please do not allow VHR's to continue to rent to out of town people, one, Barton cannot handle an outbreak, two the grocery stores still have empty shelves and products not available for local residents and most restaurants are closed. Three out of town visitors will bring Coronavirus to Tahoe whether they know they're infected or not and spread it to Tahoe.  Number Four, Governor Newsome has told everyone to stay home, not to travel and spread the virus.  Please stay home and stay safe, don’t come to Tahoe and cause people to become sick or die, thank you.

SB: That is all of the written public comment and if we could now move onto public telephone comment, I have two requests for phone calls.  First is a phone call to Bruce G, bear with me I'll get Mr. G on the line. 

Bruce G:  I appreciate the need to combat the Coronavirus.  Everything seems so uncertain today except for one certainty, that government is closing down businesses in our community.  I'm very concerned about-  [TECHNICAL] Government is damaging the marketplace causing serious unemployment in many industries and risking a serious downturn.  It kind of reminds me of a surgeon leaving an operating room and declaring the operation was a success but the patient died.  You need to keep this battle with the virus balanced and a proportional response, stop closing down businesses.  As to closing the South Lake Tahoe recreation center, I would urge you to put a time certain subject to renewal by council.  To leave it open ended until this challenge ends is so indefinite.  Evaluate it every thirty days I think that makes more sense.

SB:  And we have one more request and then we will open up the lines for people who want to call in.  I'm going to contact Matt D. 

Matt D:  Thank you for having me. I just want to give a little glimpse of the life of a restaurant owner, I'm not too sure how many people have spoken.  To make it fair for both sides, I know the landlords have bills to pay as well and morgages, I think [INAUDIBLE] the rent would be over a certain amount of time, that people could potentially pay, because it's getting hard to go back in and expect a lot of people to come back in and eat because it's not going to be reality.  I compare it to when we had Nine-Eleven, no one went out after that for a long time.  This being a health issue, I don't see people going out to restaurants right away, it's going to take people a little bit of time to get comfortable to go out again. restaurants will never be cleaner but that's just how it is from our perspective.  We'll have to deal with those situations but to charge people rent would be- too hard for people to survive.  I pay a lot of rent at my two locations in town and employees who are struggling, I'm trying to take care of their hours too. Just for cleaning and stuff but there's only so much I can do. So that'd be my recommendation and all my other landlords have worked with me in other cities that I have restaurants in I hope you can do the same here.  That's my two cents. 

That's all so far: 

Mayor:  We are still getting emails from people who say we're not doing enough getting the word out there, if you have a suggestion as to how we can do that, please give it to us.  We're a small team trying to get the word out as best we can on many-many fronts.  But I'm getting a lot of emails and we are trying to get as much information out there as we can.  If you have a suggestion, we'd love to have it alongside your concerns.  Now we'll move onto our regular agenda. 

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(Continued in Part Two) https://cityofangels25.blogspot.com/2020/03/transcript-pt-2-city-council-emergency.html 

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NOTE:  The clips I transcribe for this project contain information that I don't think is available in print anywhere else. Please show your appreciation by clicking some cash into my PayPal account through button at top of left hand column.)
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The meeting is 2.5 hours long this is just first 20 minutes, but I WILL get the rest of the meeting transcribed, loosely, next few days.
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Links in this post 
The Covid-19 Transcripts https://cityofangels25.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-covid-19-transcripts-origin.html
South Lake Tahoe City Council Meeting on Video: https://slt.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=6&clip_id=1086

Part Two is here: https://cityofangels25.blogspot.com/2020/03/transcript-pt-2-city-council-emergency.html )

(Part Three is here: https://cityofangels25.blogspot.com/2020/03/transcript-part-3-tahoe-city-council.html )

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Posted by Kay Ebeling
Producer, City of Angels Blog
the city of angels is everywhere