Tag Archives: Covid

Corona Jan 2020

Originally posted on June 18, 2020

After China told the world about the new virus in December 2019 many governments started to take actions that would help prevent illness and deaths. Unfortunately, the U.S. wasn’t one of them. The one constant theme through this entire situation is that Trump’s main concern was his re-election in November, not the welfare of the citizens. Here’s a timeline for January.

Early January. The emergence of the coronavirus starts to get mentioned in Trump’s daily briefing. By some reports, at least on 12 separate occasions.

January 18. While golfing at Mar-a-Lago Trump is given his first detailed briefing about the virus.

January 20. The CDC confirms the first case of the virus in the U.S.

January 22. Trump’s first public mention of the virus. Asked if he was concerned he replied: “No, we’re not at all. And we have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China.”

January 23. China locks down Wuhan.

January 24. Trump tweets: “China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus.” The CDC announces it has developed a test, different from the one published b the WHO.

January 28. Trump holds a rally in New Jersey, not mentioning the virus.

January 29. Trump announces the coronavirus task force. A memo from trade advisor Navarro warns that immediate action is needed to prevent a pandemic that could kill between 1 and 2 million U.S. citizens.

January 30. The WHO declares the virus is a “public health emergency of international concern”. The word “pandemic” is not used.

January 31. Fauci says there’s no doubt that asymptomatic transmission is occurring.

By this time any competent and caring leader would have at least started not just planning – that should have started years ago – but getting policies and procurements in place to make sure we were as prepared as we could be. At this point Trump shows no sign that he cares one bit about the virus.

Tulsa

Originally posted on June 17, 2020

What sort of leader would ask his followers to risk their health and even lives just so he can feed his insatiable need for adulation? We all know the answer, don’t we? Since the coronavirus onset all public political campaign events have been cancelled or postponed. And let’s face it, Trump absolutely needs to feed off of the roaring crowds.

This Saturday, June 20, 2020, Trump is scheduled to conduct a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It will be in a 19,000 seat indoor arena – the riskiest environment according to his own CDC. To make matters worse he is insisting that the social separation guidelines published by his own CDC will not be followed. At least temperatures will be taken and masks made available, but I’m betting that not many of his supporters will be wearing them.

The rally is dangerous enough that Trump is requiring all attendees sign a legal waiver absolving him of any blame for them coming down with the virus. Looking at the New York Times covid map and Tulsa County, you can see why they might be eager to shift the liability to others. The map below shows the increase in each county over the last two weeks ending June 16th. Tulsa County is orange, indicating the number of new cases is increasing rapidly, in its case from 21 to 60 cases/day/100,000 people.

The local authorities are clearly not in favor of having this rally. Neither are the more knowledgeable national ones.

Does Trump care? I think we all know the answer to that one. Too bad his rabid followers don’t seem to care either.

Update, June 20. New covid-19 cases yesterday (Friday) in Tulsa – 225, a new record. And, Trump just can’t help himself. Here’s his latest tweet. Threatening violence against people who don’t bow down to him continues.

Failures at the C.D.C.

Originally posted on June 3, 2020

There was an article today (June 3, 2020) in the NYT that detailed some of the failings of the CDC. The gist of the article was that the CDC, which had previously been widely considered as the premier health agency in the world, had largely bungled its response to the coronavirus pandemic. The failures surrounding our ability to accurately test for the virus were truly catastrophic. As I read the article two aspects relate pretty directly to Trump and his incompetence.

The first of these is the leadership that Trump put in place. Trump is so difficult to work with that he has trouble hiring and then keeping truly competent and non-corrupt people. The CDC is currently directed by Dr. Robert Redfield. He had NO experience leading a government agency and was somewhat controversial. The CDC’s earlier director, Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald, resigned over conflicts of interest. Their current boss, the secretary of Health and Human Services, Alex Azar, was also a recent replacement. Azar did have previous experience as a government manager, but most recently had worked for Eli Lilly – the fox is now guarding the henhouse, eh? In turn, Azar had replaced Tom Price, who resigned after the HHS IG discovered he had been traveling on government money. This constant turnover no doubt affected the CDC’s ability to better control the pandemic.

But even if the CDC had been run competently the director, whoever he/she was, would have had to contend with Trump. From the NYT article:

Even as the virus tested the C.D.C.’s capacity to respond, the agency and its director, Dr. Robert R. Redfield, faced unprecedented challenges from President Trump, who repeatedly wished away the pandemic. His efforts to seize the spotlight from the public health agency reflected the broader patterns of his erratic presidency: public condemnations on Twitter, a tendency to dismiss findings from scientists, inconsistent policy or decision-making and a suspicion that the “deep state” inside the government is working to force him out of office.

Corona Virus – Pre 2020

Originally posted on May 31, 2020

The threat of a truly dangerous new virus arising out of China or Africa has been well-recognized by any number of people, including Obama way back in 2014 (and even back in 2005). Trump has tried to claim nobody could have foreseen this, but that is just another feeble attempt to justify his own incompetence. Later, he tried to shift the blame for the U.S.’s poor response to others (of course including Obama). As of this writing, the U.S. has far more deaths than any other country, and Trump’s laser-like focus on his re-election is the primary reason for this.

Any reasonably competent leader would have known that pandemics are a significant threat and would have done something to prepare. Why did Trump fail so miserably? Doesn’t read? Doesn’t think? Doesn’t listen? Doesn’t care? All of the above? Regardless of why, this crises shows just how incompetent he really is. Below is a brief timeline.

From 2017 to 2020, Trump proposes cutting the CDC’s annual budgets for emerging and zoonotic infectious diseases by anywhere from $61m to $114m. Luckily Congress didn’t go along, and Trump does sign the increased spending.

Jan 15, 2017: Trump’s incoming administration is given a briefing on the threat of an emerging pandemic. As part of this they are given a 69-page “Pandemic Playbook” prepared by the outgoing Obama administration. Due to the chaotic nature of Trump’s administration most of the attendees are no longer in government service.

Feb.1, 2018: A story appears in WaPo about the CDC cutting its budget to prevent a global disease outbreak by 80%, including cutting our eyes in China. This was quite the change from 2014 when Obama announced our assistance in fighting West Africa’s Ebola outbreak.

May, 2018. The “Pandemic Team” was part of the National Security Council, headed by John Bolton at that time. During a re-org of the NSC that team was disbanded, with a number of its members leaving government service.

Dec. 31: China confirms existence of a new virus.