COVID Latest: Senator Apologises For 'Knee On The Throat' Claims Just Weeks After George Floyd's Death
Tuesday: 8 million cases worldwide; public transport capacity doubled
Morning! It’s Tuesday, June 16. Here is today’s ‘5+5: coronavirus edition’ — 5 things to know about COVID-19 today, + 5 non-corona things as well.
Latest AU stats: as of 9pm Monday, Australia has 7335 reported cases of COVID-19 (that’s +15 since the day before), with 6851 reported as ‘recovered’, and 102 deaths, according to the latest federal Department of Health stats. More stats below.
5 CORONAVIRUS THINGS
Senator apologises for ‘knee on the throat’ comments
LNP senator Amanda Stoker has come under fire for claiming QLD’s coronavirus border restrictions were a “knee on the throat” of the state’s economy “stopping them from breathing”. Stoker, a conservative from QLD, made the comments last week in a Sky News interview, but they came to light after Labor senator Murray Watt tweeted a clip on Monday, calling it “a new low”, considering the proximity to the death of Minnesota man George Floyd, who repeatedly yelled “I can’t breathe” as a police officer held him down on the street with a knee on his neck.
Another Labor senator, Malarndirri McCarthy, called the comments “abhorrent, insensitive and inappropriate”. In addressing the Senate on Monday, after the controversy erupted, Stoker apologised to anyone who was offended but claimed it was not a premeditated or intentional turn of phrase. In another short interview on Tuesday, she again claimed businesses were being “choked”, and that while she didn’t intentionally invoke Floyd’s death, that “because there’d been so much discussion around that subject I suspect it was just front of mind”.
“It was just language that was sort of floating around at the time and it’s what came out,” she continued.
Public transport limits to double
Even more things are going back to normal-ish from July, with NSW announcing capacity restrictions on trains and buses will be relaxed again (link). Public transport limits will be about half their normal pre-COVID numbers, and while people are still being urged to avoid travelling in peak times if possible, the state government thinks they can keep people safe while commuting.
Currently, buses and trains have special stickers telling people where to sit to ensure social distancing, and passengers are being kept further back from drivers than normal. The new numbers come in from July 1, which is also when cinemas, theatres, theme parks, strip clubs and community sport is allowed to resume (link).
Pipeline from Instagram fitness gurus to cooked conspiracy theories
The ABC’s Ariel Bogle has another great story here on wellness bloggers being a “gateway drug” into some of the wilder COVID conspiracies being shared by the likes of Pete Evans. It’s the latest instalment in what has been a growing amount of attention in Australia on how fitness influencers and natural therapy types have been slowly transitioning into some of the more hardcore conspiracy stuff like Bill Gates fake news and New World Order claims, via the (sadly) more mainstream-ish anti-5G and anti-vaxxer content on social media.
It’s a good read, especially if you or someone you know has been getting attracted or exposed to some of the more kooky stuff via your favourite influencer (link).
Trump criticises U.S. testing rates, says numbers are unfair, is holding huge rally
Donald Trump claims America’s mind-boggling COVID numbers are only happening because the country is doing so much testing, and complained aloud that if they did fewer tests, the numbers would look better (link). The U.S. has more than 2.11 million COVID diagnoses (2.5x the next country, Brazil) and 116,000 deaths, nearly triple Brazil.
"If we stop testing right now, we’d have very few cases, if any,” Trump said today. Which, I mean, yeah it makes sense on one level — but only on that level where you’d think that doing fewer roadside breath tests means you have fewer drunk drivers.
“Testing is a double edged sword - Makes us look bad, but good to have!” he tweeted later.
Trump has been falsely claiming for some time that the U.S. has the biggest testing regime in the world, but it’s not true. Last month, CNN reported there were at least 30 countries doing more testing per capita than America (link).
Anyway, despite all ~this~ [gestures to everything], you’ll be pleased to know Trump’s famous campaign rallies are BACK ON and nobody has to do social distancing or wear masks (link). Yes that’s right, Trump’s team says a rally at an arena in Oklahoma — a state where virus rates have spiked in recent weeks — “will be packed”, meaning there will not be appropriate social distancing, and people will not be required to wear a mask (although free masks and hand sanitiser will be provided). But don’t worry! People attending have to sign a waiver that they won’t sue if they get sick or die from corona after the rally… (link)
Today’s stats:
The latest stats from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering (as of 9.30 am AEST Tuesday) report 8,005,294 confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide. There have been 435,662 deaths.
The United States has 2,111,622 confirmed cases; Brazil is next on 888,271, then Russia (536,484). The U.S. has the most deaths (116,114), then Brazil (43,959) and the United Kingdom third on 41,821.
In Australia, the latest federal stats (as of 9pm Monday) show 7335 cases, 6851 people recovered, and 102 deaths.
The latest Australian graph:
5 NON-CORONAVIRUS THINGS
Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack is under fire after The Guardian reported he used an RAAF private jet to fly to Victoria to re-announce a pledge to build a sports facility which had been announced years earlier, then attend the Melbourne Cup (link). Come for the scandal over use of taxpayer money and political entitlements, stay for a local councillor complaining “what is the real purpose of this media event... what is the rationale behind this repeat announcement?”
The Age’s investigation into Victorian state MP Adem Somyurek and alleged branch-stacking has now claimed three ministerial scalps — Somyurek himself, Robin Scott, and Marlene Kairouz, who resigned this morning (link).
The U.S. Supreme Court has made a landmark ruling that employers cannot fire LGBTIQ+ employees on the basis of their sexuality, which is being called the biggest judgement for equality since same-sex marriage in 2015 (link). It comes after a number of decisions from the Trump administration to wind back rights and protections for LGBTIQ+ Americans, such as a ban on transgender people serving in the military.
Aussie comedian Josh Thomas has apologised after footage of him speaking at an event about representation of diverse actors on screen (link). In part of the clip from 2016, Thomas said “The other thing I didn’t know about making a TV show that I found quite confronting is you have to pick every person. ‘Josh, what do you want the 7-11 worker to look like?’ Do you make them Indian, or is that offensive? Or if you make them white, is it a bit like you’re lying, really? What do you do?”
Some alleged details of the new iPhone 12 have surfaced — and the thing might now have FOUR bloody cameras (link).
IMPORTANT EVERY DAY
Be hygienic; wash your hands properly, at least 30 seconds with soap and water, multiple times a day (here’s how you need to do it, plus a handy Dr Karl video tutorial); sneeze and cough into your elbows.
Listen to only official information from the World Health Organisation and legitimate health bodies — Don’t share dodgy stuff on Facebook. If it looks too good (or bad) to be true, it often is.
World Health Organisation latest statistics here; Australian government latest statistics here.
If you haven’t already, please sign up above to get this every day in your emails (and tell your friends + share on social).
Email me at joshbutler.journalist@protonmail.com for tips, ideas or just to chat. You can also find me on Twitter at @joshbutler; on Facebook; and Instagram.
Signing off — stay safe, be healthy, look after yourself and others.
Josh