Covid-19 Discussion
08-09-2020
, 03:33 PM
How Trump fell short in containing the virus
While this is largely a retrospective, even just this about current times is WTF:
lol, just what the country needs to save it: Republican political operatives planning our COVID response, based on loyalty to Trump
wow
This is a bit outdated, actually, we peaked on testing in late July and are now performing closer to 700k tests a day, with results famously useless when you have to wait >a week to get them
While this is largely a retrospective, even just this about current times is WTF:
Quote:
As the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows is responsible for coordinating the vast executive branch, including its coronavirus response. But in closed-door meetings, he has revealed his skepticism of the two physicians guiding the anti-pandemic effort, Deborah Birx and Anthony S. Fauci, routinely questioning their expertise, according to senior administration officials and other people briefed on the internal discussions.
Meadows no longer holds a daily 8 a.m. meeting that includes health professionals to discuss the raging pandemic. Instead, aides said, he huddles in the mornings with a half-dozen politically oriented aides — and when the virus comes up, their focus is more on how to convince the public that President Trump has the crisis under control, rather than on methodically planning ways to contain it.
During coronavirus meetings, Meadows has repeatedly questioned the scientific consensus that wearing masks helps contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, officials said.
Meadows no longer holds a daily 8 a.m. meeting that includes health professionals to discuss the raging pandemic. Instead, aides said, he huddles in the mornings with a half-dozen politically oriented aides — and when the virus comes up, their focus is more on how to convince the public that President Trump has the crisis under control, rather than on methodically planning ways to contain it.
During coronavirus meetings, Meadows has repeatedly questioned the scientific consensus that wearing masks helps contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, officials said.
Quote:
The president recently hosted Andrew Whitney, a biopharmaceuticals executive on the board of a company called Phoenix, who met in the Oval Office with Trump. Whitney, who has a limited health background, pitched Trump on a botanical extract called oleandrin as a treatment for the coronavirus, according to two senior administration officials with knowledge of the discussion.
One official said Mike Lindell, a Trump booster and the chief executive of MyPillow — who stars as pitchman for his product in advertising on some of the Fox News shows Trump watches — helped arrange the meeting. Since then, Whitney has personally made overtures to senior leaders at the Food and Drug Administration, including its commissioner, Stephen Hahn, in an effort to get the agency to approve oleandrin as a treatment for the coronavirus.
One official said Mike Lindell, a Trump booster and the chief executive of MyPillow — who stars as pitchman for his product in advertising on some of the Fox News shows Trump watches — helped arrange the meeting. Since then, Whitney has personally made overtures to senior leaders at the Food and Drug Administration, including its commissioner, Stephen Hahn, in an effort to get the agency to approve oleandrin as a treatment for the coronavirus.
Quote:
The Trump administration has resisted devising a national testing program and instead ceded the task to state governments, even as cases of infection average more than 60,000 a day and some people wait 10 days or longer for test results, delays that render the results essentially useless.
State officials, leaders of the American Medical Association and other medical groups as well as some officials in the administration have pushed for a stronger federal solution to the problems of testing.
While some states have been able to largely meet the needs of their populations, the federal government is the only entity with the power to coordinate testing across state lines, push and enable manufacturers to increase production of test kits and supplies, surge those supplies as needed and ensure fair payment. Without federal coordination, states, businesses, hospitals — and soon schools and universities — find themselves competing with each other for limited supplies, often overpaying as a result.
To be sure, the government has succeeded in vastly increasing the nation’s testing capacity; there are now about 800,000 tests a day on average. But that is far short of the 5 million tests per day that experts said the country should be able to perform in the summer.
State officials, leaders of the American Medical Association and other medical groups as well as some officials in the administration have pushed for a stronger federal solution to the problems of testing.
While some states have been able to largely meet the needs of their populations, the federal government is the only entity with the power to coordinate testing across state lines, push and enable manufacturers to increase production of test kits and supplies, surge those supplies as needed and ensure fair payment. Without federal coordination, states, businesses, hospitals — and soon schools and universities — find themselves competing with each other for limited supplies, often overpaying as a result.
To be sure, the government has succeeded in vastly increasing the nation’s testing capacity; there are now about 800,000 tests a day on average. But that is far short of the 5 million tests per day that experts said the country should be able to perform in the summer.
08-09-2020
, 03:42 PM
08-09-2020
, 05:53 PM
Quote:
How Trump fell short in containing the virus
While this is largely a retrospective, even just this about current times is WTF:
lol, just what the country needs to save it: Republican political operatives planning our COVID response, based on loyalty to Trump
wow
This is a bit outdated, actually, we peaked on testing in late July and are now performing closer to 700k tests a day, with results famously useless when you have to wait >a week to get them
While this is largely a retrospective, even just this about current times is WTF:
lol, just what the country needs to save it: Republican political operatives planning our COVID response, based on loyalty to Trump
wow
This is a bit outdated, actually, we peaked on testing in late July and are now performing closer to 700k tests a day, with results famously useless when you have to wait >a week to get them
I think they now realize this is not just going to go away. They held on to that hope as long as they could but reality has kicked in.
And being the way Trump is they cannot reverse course and start doing what is needed to get this under control as it will beg the question why they did not do it earlier and thus point a finger of blame at Trump.
They would rather ride this out now and just hope it can be managed, even if at great cost.
This is where I don't want to soudn Joe6pack'ish but I think history will look poorly on good people like Fauci and the many in the Trump admin who quit and moved on, without raising alarms.
I fully get the conundrum Trump puts everyone in as they want to stay, be the adults in the room, and lead the US to better outcomes. I admire their attempts and the grief they take to do so.
But at a certain point, when you realize you cannot in fact, impact the poor decisions continually made, and that your presence is being used by him to suggest 'he is following experts', you must step down, and declare 'your guidance is incompatible with this administration and you need to move on'.
Sure Trump will then fill the roll increasingly with sycophants but that then does not allow him to escape the blame.
And yes that might cause some additional harm but it is, perhaps, the only way to get him eventually held to account.
Historians I believe, will look back at this time and more than Trumps self serving idiocy, more than the weak and enabling Senate, point fingers at the numerous advisors and experts and people in prominent roles who just stayed or left saying nothing and how that let Trump spin a veneer of following credible advice, when he was doing no such thing.
08-09-2020
, 06:03 PM
Quote:
How Trump fell short in containing the virus
While this is largely a retrospective, even just this about current times is WTF:
lol, just what the country needs to save it: Republican political operatives planning our COVID response, based on loyalty to Trump
wow
This is a bit outdated, actually, we peaked on testing in late July and are now performing closer to 700k tests a day, with results famously useless when you have to wait >a week to get them
While this is largely a retrospective, even just this about current times is WTF:
lol, just what the country needs to save it: Republican political operatives planning our COVID response, based on loyalty to Trump
wow
This is a bit outdated, actually, we peaked on testing in late July and are now performing closer to 700k tests a day, with results famously useless when you have to wait >a week to get them
08-10-2020
, 06:27 PM
08-11-2020
, 07:45 AM
08-11-2020
, 08:01 AM
08-11-2020
, 01:32 PM
Thanks trump!
08-11-2020
, 05:07 PM
New data finds Black and Hispanic Americans more likely to take precautions against coronavirus, contrary to claims of Kelhus Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC)
RIP to yet another Republican narrative pushed by Republican partisans on this forum
Quote:
In a recent telephone town hall with constituents, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said that Hispanics make up a high proportion of coronavirus cases in his state. He then attributed this disparity in cases to that group’s “less consistent adherence to social distancing and wearing a mask.”
RIP to yet another Republican narrative pushed by Republican partisans on this forum
