Putting a new spin on the practice of throwing oneself into the grave with your beloved departed...

Interestingly, in Pakistan they are having the same problem with crowds at funerals...

FINALLY, two reporters working on wassup with the seizures of PPE:

News short @ Bloomberg News, April 5. He noticed:

The new coronavirus funding battle over the November election.  A vote-by-mail push by Democrats sets up new clash over coronavirus relief.

By Marianne Levine & Burgess Everett @ Politico.com, April 5

Consensus is growing that Democrats and Republicans will soon hash out a new coronavirus emergency package in the coming weeks. But a major obstacle is emerging: the November election.

Democrats are making a push to expand funding for vote-by-mail efforts in a fourth emergency rescue package, citing the need to help states prepare to hold elections during the coronavirus pandemic. It’s a public health issue, Democrats argue: That elections carried out as usual could spread the virus this fall [....]

A huge federal disaster response, new urgency around health care and a debate over social distancing have muddled the nation’s ideological debate. NOTE BIDEN ADVISER QUOTE

By Jim Rutenberg @ NYTimes.com, April 5

The 2020 edition of the Conservative Political Action Conference in Oxon Hill, Md., in February offered a theme-park version of what was to be President Trump’s re-election message: Under the banner of “America vs. Socialism,” the convention featured [....]

And the CPAC message seemed a relic from a distant time.

 Such is life for the political warriors of the Covid-19 campaign, where, in this pre-peak stage of the crisis, the national political debate is inside out and upside down, sending both sides of the national divide scurrying to figure out where the new political and ideological lines will settle come the fall [....]

“We don’t know what it’s going to look like on the other side of this in terms of people’s attitudes — whether it’s going to have short-term effects or long-term effects,” said Anita Dunn, a senior adviser to former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., the likely Democratic presidential nominee [....]

Beyond the back and forth is the question that has rested at the heart of American politics since the New Deal: What is the federal government’s appropriate place in managing public welfare and private behavior? [....]

By Matthew Mark @ ABCNews.com, April 5

A book about the 1918 flu pandemic spurred the government to action.

found via Senator Brian Schatz's twitter feed: