Pence postpones Florida, Arizona campaign events amid increase in coronavirus cases there Events in crucial states on the campaign trail have been postponed due to coronavirus case surges https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pe...rizona-events-amid-increase-coronavirus-cases Vice President Mike Pence has postponed his “Faith in America” tour events in Florida and Arizona amid rapidly rising coronavirus cases in both states. “Vice President Pence will no longer participate in campaign events in Arizona and Florida this week,” a spokesman close to Pence told Fox News Saturday. “This is related to coronavirus numbers increasing in those states.” Pence will still be traveling to Florida, Arizona and Texas next week Fox News confirmed, to meet with governors and evaluate the situation on the ground in those states seeing spikes in coronavirus cases. Pence’s decision comes just hours after Florida reported a record new high in daily coronavirus cases -- marking it the third time this week a new record was broken. (More at above url) Maybe Pence should just go hide in the basement at 1 Observatory Circle.
Yup Chumpie read him the riot act. Went to a Maga ummm I mean MegaChurch lol where else is he going to find a fully "compliant" adoring audience? He pledged the resources Texas will need to fight the virus. Did he make a visit and same pledge with any blue state? Crickets, crickets.
Texas had to beg for it's federally funded COVID testing sites back after the Trump administration shut them down recently. Remember Trump said if you do not testing the you find no cases. He cut all the federally funded testing sites to support his agenda.
If these people died , they would go to Heaven . . . . . right ? Right-wing churches have become super-spreaders of COVID-19 President Donald Trump is stuck in a no-win situation. As November approaches, he desperately needs evangelical and right-wing churches to mobilize and get him reelected. However, these churches have also become hotbeds for coronavirus outbreaks. Politico wrote Sunday that when Trump ordered all churches reopen because they are “essential,” he made them into super-spreaders of the COVID-19. “Clusters of Covid-19 cases are surfacing in counties across the U.S. where in-person religious services have resumed, triggering questions about whether his administration should reassess its campaign to treat houses of worship the same as other essential businesses, or leave them alone and risk additional transmission of the deadly coronavirus — including in communities that are largely supportive of the president,” said Politico. There was an outbreak at a Pentecostal church in Oregon where members came back to worship over Memorial Day weekend. A whopping 258 cases of COVID-19 can now be traced back to the church. Trump-loving pastor Robert Jeffress even published a pamphlet asking whether the coronavirus could be “a judgment from God” and mocked stay-at-home orders so that he could hold a big visit he was planning to sell his book at a Dallas megachurch. Now Jeffress is watching more parishioners contract the virus and urging people to wear masks in houses of worship. Trump still refused to do it while at a megachurch in Arizona this week. He even went so far as to promise the crowd that the U.S. was getting close to “the end of the pandemic.”
Damn. Look at the choir. I'm surprised Pence didn't need sun glasses. Its whiter than Ayn Rand's ass.
Pence actually traveled to a church in Texas. Let's see how this will turn out. The Coronavirus Spread In A Dallas Megachurch’s Choir And Orchestra. Then It Hosted Mike Pence. A group of First Baptist Dallas choir and orchestra members contracted COVID-19 in the lead-up to Vice President Mike Pence’s visit on Sunday. An infectious disease expert called it “appalling.” https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rosalindadams/mike-pence-dallas-megachurch-coronavirus At least five members of the choir and orchestra at the Dallas megachurch visited by Vice President Mike Pence this weekend tested positive for the coronavirus in June, according to Facebook posts and internal church emails reviewed by BuzzFeed News. An additional orchestra member had symptoms several days after being exposed and was awaiting a test result in mid-June, according to a call for prayers sent to the church’s musicians. None of those six people were at the First Baptist church in Dallas during Pence’s hour-and-a-half-hour visit on Sunday, but it's unclear how many of the musicians who performed for Pence may have been exposed during previous practices and performances with those who were infected. Public health experts have expressed particular concerns about the dangers of indoor singing and wind instruments in large groups, which can readily spread the respiratory virus. The choir and orchestra performed for Pence without masks, according to a video of the event reviewed by BuzzFeed News. One of the church’s music directors — who himself has been quarantined after testing positive for the virus — wrote an email informing the church’s musicians that choir members would not wear masks while singing. “Some of you may know but I’ve been in quarantine since June 14 after several exposures. I was tested and it came back positive for the virus,” a music director and the associate minister of worship, Jarrod Blackstock, wrote in a private Facebook group for the choir and orchestra on June 30. Blackstock also plays first trumpet in the orchestra. “I thought Freedom Sunday was a great day. Everyone who participated did an excellent job! I’m sorry that I wasn’t there and hated to miss it,” he added. Blackstock also said he would be back in church this coming Sunday. He did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The “Freedom Sunday” service at First Baptist — billed as part religious gathering, part political rally — was led by Pastor Robert Jeffress, a Fox News contributor and member of the White House Faith Initiative, created via an executive order by President Donald Trump in 2018. The event came just one day before the Texas Department of State Health Services reported more than 5,900 COVID-19 hospitalizations, an all-time high for the state, and as Dallas reported a record-high day for cases. Gov. Greg Abbott, who aggressively pushed to reopen the state in May but rolled back his plan last week after cases surged, sat alongside Pence in the church’s pews. “With this governor and this president, we’ll bring Texas and America back bigger and better than ever before,” said Pence in his remarks. The congregants, some in masks, waved American flags while the choir and orchestra pumped out rapturous versions of “America the Beautiful” and “The Star-Spangled Banner” on a glowing purple stage. “Working with your governor, we will put the health of the people of the Lone Star State first,” Pence said. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson also touted the administration’s successes under Trump and praised Pence for his work on the White House coronavirus task force, which he is also a member of. “We must learn to dominate the virus and not let the virus dominate us,” Carson said. In response to a detailed list of questions about the cluster of coronavirus cases in the megachurch’s choir and orchestra, Abigail Miller, the director of communications for First Baptist Dallas, said, “We have taken steps to ensure that no one who has been knowingly exposed to anyone with COVID-19, demonstrated any symptoms, or tested positive has participated in our choir or orchestra until medically cleared to do so.” She added, “We have been very strategic and prudent in our approach and have followed established guidelines and recommendations.” Miller did not answer questions about whether Pence’s team was notified of the illnesses prior to attending the service. A White House official also did not clarify whether Pence’s team was informed of the cases but said that the vice president wore a mask and maintained social distancing during the event. Philip Huang, Dallas County’s Health and Human Services director, declined to confirm or comment on the cluster of cases at First Baptist. When asked whether COVID-19 cases within a choir were dangerous, he said, “any medical expert would tell you that is not a good situation.” “Appalling,” said infectious disease expert Lisa Maragakis of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. As soon as the first infections appeared among the choir and orchestra, she added, both groups should have been quarantined instead of practicing and performing together the rest of the month. “This is a disease that kills people, it kills people of all ages,” Maragakis said. “It is a major threat to people’s lives.” When the pandemic hit, the choir and orchestra first maintained its rehearsal schedule over Zoom. But, under Abbott, Texas was one of the earliest states to push reopening; by May 18, retail stores, movie theaters, and restaurants were back in business. On June 3, Abbott ordered that religious services could resume with no limits on occupancy as long as “good faith” efforts were made toward safety. The megachurch resumed in-person rehearsals for the choir and orchestra on June 10, emails show. “We are back!” an email announced. Members were allowed to attend as long as they could confirm that neither they nor their family members had a fever of over 100 degrees, that they were not showing flulike symptoms, and that they had not had prolonged contact with someone who had tested positive for the coronavirus in the last two weeks. Masks were encouraged on the church campus but only required in the backstage hallway, according to the email. Singers were positioned apart from each other — but, according to the church’s reopening plan, once the state had moved to phase three, church members did not have to stay the CDC-recommended 6 feet apart. The orchestra rehearsed in a separate part of the church. Temperature checks were also done before performances. Still, those precautions may not have been sufficient. Only around 45% of confirmed coronavirus cases report fevers early in an infection, and many cases are spread by people without symptoms, making temperature checks a half measure at best to monitor for signs of the illness. “While singing, we will not wear masks,” Blackstock wrote in an email to the church’s musicians the morning of the June 10 rehearsal. That night, a percussionist started experiencing symptoms of COVID-19. His fever spiked for several days, and he felt fatigue along with a persistent loss of taste and smell, he wrote in a Facebook post on June 14. Friends wished him well on his Facebook page and checked in on him. “We are all praying and rooting for you!” one wrote. The same day as his Facebook post, members of the choir and orchestra performed together at two Sunday services. Within a week, three more musicians would test positive. On June 18, the music director informed the choir and orchestra that a soprano had tested positive for COVID-19, according to an email sent to the musicians. The following day the director reported that two other people had tested positive: another soprano in the choir, who had close contact with the singer, and a bassist in the orchestra. “We are praying for a quick and easy recovery,” the music director wrote in the June 18 email. All three emails called on the congregation to keep the musicians in their prayers. Public health officials have long cautioned that singing could be an efficient way for the coronavirus to spread. In March, a 61-person choir practice in Washington state led to an outbreak of 53 illnesses and two deaths. Still, after pressure from the White House, in late May the CDC removed guidance for churches to limit choir practices during the pandemic from its official recommendations, the Washington Post reported. “In general, choirs are a higher-risk activity because of the droplets they spread; they have to be approached in a more cautious manner,” Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease expert with the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told BuzzFeed News. (More at above url)