Mexicans queue for hours for oxygen for sick relatives Pride and caution in Wuhan on lockdown anniversary
With hospitals in the Mexican capital overwhelmed by soaring coronavirus infections, relatives are queuing for hours to buy oxygen for the growing number of people fighting the virus at home.
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Eduardo Martinez was waiting in line in a street in Mexico City on Friday to fill a tank for his 55-year-old mother who is sick with Covid-19.
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Fearing a worsening of the pandemic, the 33-year-old biochemist bought a cylinder in advance and saved his Christmas bonus, which he used to pay for a coronavirus test for his mother.
Despite a partial lockdown in Mexico City, two of Martinez’s neighbors recently died.
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“Where we live, people are very reckless and stupid, they don’t wear masks,” he said.
Some families have to return repeatedly, around the clock, for more oxygen.
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“These little tanks aren’t enough, so we have to fill them four to five times a day and night,” said Viridiana Valencia, a 31-year-old psychotherapist.
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“Here is the only place that is open 24 hours a day. It’s very difficult.”
The city of nine million people has been in a state of maximum alert since mid-December, with more than 90 percent of hospital beds full due to soaring infections.
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Non-essential activities have been suspended in the capital, which has officially registered more than 26,000 Covid-19 deaths, out of nearly 147,000 nationwide.
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“Alert, alert, we are in an emergency for Covid!” a warning blared through the loudspeaker of a passing police patrol.
Ileana Ruiz was waiting to buy oxygen for her uncle to breathe while he is transferred from a public hospital to a private clinic where he hopes to receive better treatment.
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They plan to move him by private car because “there are no ambulances,” she said.
The 23-year-old medical student has been unable to attend her virtual classes for four days because she has been looking for medicines and oxygen.
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“We estimate that it will last an hour, enough for the transfer,” said Ruiz, who faces a bill of 200 pesos ($10) to fill a small tank.
Demand for oxygen has leapt eightfold in the past month, Jesus Montano, from Mexico’s Office of the Federal Prosecutor for the Consumer, told AFP.
Although the government offers free refills at some locations, “the big problem is the lack of tanks,” he said.
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For people like Valencia with sick relatives at home, it is an anxious wait in the queue.
“The lines are very long, the minutes count on and she can’t be without her oxygen at any time,” she said.
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From the upcoming impeachment trial of Donald Trump to the massive coronavirus stimulus package, a power-sharing impasse and a brewing showdown over the filibuster, Chuck Schumer faces the challenge of his political career as US Senate majority leader.
The 70-year-old Democrat and Brooklyn son of an exterminator delivered his maiden speech in a powerful new role Wednesday, telling rival Republicans that he is willing to work with them “when and where we can,” while also promising that the Democratic-led Senate “will be active, responsive, energetic and bold.”
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By Friday, two days after Trump fled Washington in disgrace, and with the Senate now comprised of 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans with Vice President Kamala Harris as the tiebreaker, the limits of that power were coming into focus.
While new President Joe Biden is desperate to get his cabinet in place and nudge a $1.9 trillion rescue plan through Congress, Senate action has slowed to a crawl as Schumer and his Republican opposite, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, haggle over adopting basic rules for the chamber.
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Senate Republicans have thrown up early road blocks to some key Biden nominations, and they are exhibiting unease with massive spending soon after Congress passed a $900 billion package to bolster the shaky US economy.
And getting at least 17 Republicans to vote for conviction of Trump will be a heavy lift, even as Biden pleads for national unity.
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While juggling it all, Schumer is tasked with keeping together a Democratic coalition which consists of leftwing Senator Bernie Sanders, centrist Senator Joe Manchin and everyone in between.
“I think it will be a challenging time,” said Senator Susan Collins, a Republican moderate and one of several senators from both parties who told AFP on Friday that Schumer has a tough road ahead.
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“With the Senate so evenly divided, the majority leader is going to have to make an effort to build bipartisan coalitions, something that he’s not known for doing.”
An early test was to come Monday, when the House transmits its article of impeachment to the Senate, triggering Trump’s trial.
But with Biden stressing he wants the Senate to juggle the impeachment trial concurrently with business like cabinet confirmations, Schumer did manage to strike a deal with McConnell Friday on the format of the trial proceedings.
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After the article of impeachment is read out to the Senate Monday, there will be a two-week interim to allow for cabinet confirmations.
“Healing and unity will only come if there is truth and accountability, and that is what this trial will provide,” Schumer said on the floor.
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- ‘Limited running room’ -
He and McConnell remain at odds, though, over the larger power-sharing agreement, which is needed in order to determine how nominations and legislation might advance through committees that are split 50–50.
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McConnell is seeking to disarm the majority from the start, apparently refusing to agree to a pact until Schumer vows to preserve the filibuster, the Senate’s de facto 60-vote requirement on major legislation.
Schumer would like to maintain that key source of leverage, though, as a way to bring about compromise by reluctant Republicans. But even some Democrats, Manchin in particular, oppose nuking the filibuster.
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Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican who has been a loyal ally to Trump in Congress, does not envy Schumer’s trial by fire.
“He has limited running room,” Graham said.
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Republicans are unlikely to buy into a massive stimulus, “but I think there is a package we can do,” he added.
And while a large-scale immigration overhaul is out of the question for his party, Graham said, he envisions smaller-scale action on DACA, the policy that allows immigrants who arrived in the US as minors to legally stay.
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He also pointed to 2022, when Democrats will have to defend their narrowest of majorities in the House and Senate.
Biden, Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will “have to convince the left to stand down on some of these things, and that’s no easy task,” Graham said.
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As a chaotic and historic January — the insurrection at the US Capitol by a pro-Trump mob, then impeachment, then inauguration — runs its course, Schumer may be tempted to exact revenge on Republicans.
He could set his sights on McConnell, the brilliant tactician who blocked Barack Obama’s final Supreme Court nominee, only to turn around and guide three of Trump’s picks onto the high court, including one just weeks before the November election.
But veteran Senate Democrat Robert Menendez said Schumer was unlikely to seek payback.
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“No no,” Menendez insisted, “it’s time to make hay.”
Camped out in bare offices, President Joe Biden’s new White House team has spent its first three days scrambling for things like binder clips and IT support — oh, and trying to save the country from multiple crises.
They took over leadership of the world’s most powerful, wealthy and innovative nation on Wednesday. But after a nasty transition period from the Donald Trump administration, incoming staff face some of the problems an ordinary renter might face in a new apartment.
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The entire premises got a deep cleaning job that CNN reported cost $500,000 and the Oval Office has been revamped.
But rows of empty shelves and walls stripped of decoration make a less than homely atmosphere in the warren of offices occupied by Press Secretary Jen Psaki and her media operation.
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On her first full day, Meghan Hays, director of message planning, had to write on her cellphone because the computer didn’t work. Another staffer asked if anyone had seen binder clips, before rummaging unsuccessfully through an assortment of office supplies in a big cardboard box.
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Yet even if Biden’s crew haven’t had time to hang pictures, they’ve already transformed the White House.
- Masked up -
Visually, the most obvious difference is that everyone now wears masks against Covid-19. A picture of Biden at the Resolute Desk on his first day, sporting a black mask, defined the new era.
Trump almost never wore a mask in public, fearing it would send a message of weakness. He certainly never wore one publicly in the Oval Office, wondering aloud what “presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens” would think of such a thing.
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Covid screening has also been toughened, another dramatic shift at a building which became a viral hotspot under Trump.
The number of journalists allowed in, for example, has been reduced to a strict 80 people a day and they must not only wear masks, but undergo a rapid test.
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The clampdown reflects Biden’s number one priority — defeating a pandemic that has already killed 400,000 Americans and hobbled entire sectors of the economy.
To assist him, he has brought back the renowned infectious diseases specialist Dr Anthony Fauci who was essentially banished under Trump for speaking plainly.
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Gone are the days when the president might come to the briefing room podium and suggest that people inject bleach to counter the coronavirus, as Trump did during a wild press conference last April.
Gone too are the days when the president loomed behind the experts, frequently interrupting or simply overriding what they were trying to say.
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Recalling those moments on Thursday, Fauci said they were “uncomfortable because they were not based on scientific fact.”
To be back in the briefing room and “let the science speak — it is somewhat of a liberating feeling,” mused the veteran scientist.
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Along with a promise of openness, the Biden administration is telling Americans to expect a quieter, calmer mood.
No more tweet storms, no more insulting journalists on national television, no more insults full stop.
“If you’re ever working with me and I hear you treat another colleague with disrespect, talk down to someone, I promise you I will fire you on the spot,” Biden told staff on the first day.
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Psaki is channeling that vibe with a resurrection of the daily press briefing.
For years, this was an integral part of the White House messaging system, an almost hallowed ritual.
But under Trump, the sessions largely died out, replaced by the boss’s preference for endless tweets and hour-long interviews with friendly hosts on Fox News and right-wing radio.
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When the briefings did happen, particularly under Kayleigh McEnany, they became less briefings than sarcasm-filled monologues against the media.
In the first three days, at least, Psaki has turned back the clock.
The change of tone under Biden points to deeper goals, said Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond’s School of Law.
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“It goes beyond style but style is also important,” he said. “I think they’ve been very clear that they want to dramatically change the way the fed government works.”
