Mutant Ninja Virus: In a frightening pandemic development, scientists say they have identified a mutated strain of the coronavirus that is more contagious and has become the dominant strain of the virus.

  The mutant strain also multiplies more quickly in the body. 

  The mutant version appeared in Europe in February then quickly migrated to the East Coast of the US. Scientists involved with the study say vaccine developers must act quickly to include the new strain in their work.

The Stat Board: Another 2,144 Americans died of coronavirus in the last 24 hours as President Trump pushes states to re-open their economies. Infections have reached 1,204,475 with a total of 71,078 deaths.

  The situation has improved in New York City — only 10 deaths reported in the past day. But New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said yesterday, “I would take all of these numbers now with a grain of salt.” Cuomo said, “The at home deaths, non-hospital, non-nursing home deaths, just at home deaths, when do you actually get all the numbers on those and how do you confirm all those deaths as attributed to Coronavirus?” 

The Whistle Blows:  The director of the office developing a vaccine for the coronavirus who was removed from his job has filed a whistleblower complaint claiming that his warnings about the coming pandemic were intentionally ignored.

  Dr. Richard Bright says in his complaint that his caution about a virus treatment championed by President Trump also led to his removal. The President had pushed a malaria drug, hydrochloroquine, as a potential cure

  Bright told reporters on a conference call that “I was pressured to let politics and cronyism drive decisions over the opinions of the best scientists we have in government.”  His complaint says his concerns starting in January were met with “indifference which then developed into hostility” by leaders at the Department of Health and Human Services.

  Bright also said he was asked to steer millions of dollars in federal contracts to politically-connected vendors. 

  Asked about the complaint yesterday, President Trump said he didn’t know anything about it.

Show’s Over: Just as predictions for coronavirus deaths are becoming extremely alarming, The White House says it will be  shutting down its coronavirus task force around Memorial Day. That’s the group fronted by Vice President Mike Pence with doctors Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx providing the brains.

  The task force, whatever its value behind closed doors, is bad for Trump’s quest to re-open the country. The task force and its informed members have continually countered the President’s rosy and fictional pronouncements.

 President Trump confirmed it yesterday while visiting a Honeywell surgical mask factory in Arizona. “We will have something in a different form,” he said while touring the factory that makes N95 masks. Neither he nor anyone else in his close entourage was wearing one.

  Prior to the visit Trump had said, “I think it’s a mask facility, right? If it’s a mask facility I will, yeah. I don’t know if it’s a mask facility. We’re going to see Honeywell.”

The VIP Lounge: President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner led an effort to steer contracts for medical equipment to allies of the President, a NY Times investigation reports. The story says a team of volunteers “were told to prioritize tips from political allies and associates of President Trump, tracked on a spreadsheet called “V.I.P. Update.” The Times says that in one case Kushner’s team paid $69 million for ventilators that were never delivered.

Where’s the Beef?: The Wendy’s hamburger chain, which used to advertise with the slogan, “Where’s the beef,” has no hamburger for about one in five of its restaurants.

  With meat processing plants among the hardest hit industries in the US, meat is becoming harder to find at hamburger joints and in groceries. Prices are rising and Shake Shack said the price of its burgers is going up. In an effort to head off panic-buying shortages, Costco and Kroger said they will limit customers to four packages of fresh beef, ground beef, pork, and chicken.

The Bulletin Board: Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg checked into the hospital with gallbladder trouble. — US airlines are averaging 17 passengers per flight during the pandemic. — Shanghai Disneyland is re-opening May 11. It’s the first of Disney’s parks to get back in business.

Intellectual Degradation: Even though the US has suffered a third of the coronavirus cases in the world, and a quarter of the deaths, President Trump continues to claim success in handling the crisis and attacks his critics.

  Trump tweeted, “The Do Nothing Democrats and their leader, the Fake News Lamestream Media, are doing everything possible to hurt and disparage our Country. No matter what we do or say, no matter how big a win, they report that it was a loss, or not good enough. The Enemy of the People!” 

  The enemy of the people is ignorance.

  Columnist Paul Krugman writes in The NY Times that, “At a time of crisis, America is led by a whiny, childlike man whose ego is too fragile to let him concede ever having made any kind of error. And he has surrounded himself with people who share his lack of character.”

  Krugman says, “Trump’s narcissism and solipsism are especially blatant, even flamboyant. But he isn’t an outlier; he’s more a culmination of the American right’s long-term trend toward intellectual degradation. And that degradation, more than Trump’s character, is what is leading to vast numbers of unnecessary deaths.”

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