Donald Trump and the Coronavirus

[shunyadragon]

The pattern of the coronavirus over time is becoming clear when comparing United States, United Kingdom, Spain, and Italy. The comparison shows that Spain, and Italy developed spread of the coronavirus before the USA, and the United Kingdom follow the same pattern. Italy and Spain are beginning to peak into the hump of the bell curve, and the predicted pattern would indicate that the USA and the United Kingdom will follow in a week or so and begin to approach the peak of a natural virus bell curve.

Look for this graph in this reference:



I refer to these countries, even though the true number of deaths may not be necessarily accurate, but I believe it is reliable for comparison. The case and fatality rates for China are of course, unreliable big time, but they follow the same bell curve pattern, which is the normal pattern for all the related viruses.

I predict the total fatalities in the USA to be between 15,000 and at most 30,000. following the natural course of the coronavirus. The total will depend on the success of intervention strategies.

If this natural pattern continues, and it most likely will, Fauci's glaring incompetent prediction of 100,000 to 240,000 that would require 5,000,000 to 10,000,000 cases a cruel joke at best to make Trump look good in July for being the hero that defeated the coronavirus as bogus as China's claims.

[Mountain Man]

Again - for those interested in his entire position - I recommend you to the entire oped. The sentences taken out of context and posted here are misleading at best.

It's not misleading at all. It's a direct quote. The rest of the editorial is simply him justifying and defending his frankly horrifying premise to the point that he says he does not plan to seek life-extending healthcare after the age of 75 no matter how much it might upset his own family, and doesn't think anybody else should, either.

[simplicio]

It's not misleading at all. It's a direct quote. The rest of the editorial is simply him justifying and defending his frankly horrifying premise to the point that he says he does not plan to seek life-extending healthcare after the age of 75 no matter how much it might upset his own family, and doesn't think anybody else should, either.

It is a direct quote, but one taken out of context. The article shows that he is not advocating those things.

That does not mean i agree with all he says, nor am I receiving a paycheck from him.

[Mountain Man]

It is a direct quote, but one taken out of context. The article shows that he is not advocating those things.

That does not mean i agree with all he says, nor am I receiving a paycheck from him.

[rogue06]

U.S. manufacturers are actually selling medical equipment, urgently needed here, to foriegn countries.

Which is exactly what several Democrat lawmakers insist on when folks like AOC and Bernie Sanders declared "Pandemics know no borders" and demanded that we lift sanctions against Iran so that we can send them medical supplies: https://www.commondreams.org/news/20...ns-iran-during

[JimL]

Which is exactly what several Democrat lawmakers insist on when folks like AOC and Bernie Sanders declared "Pandemics know no borders" and demanded that we lift sanctions against Iran so that we can send them medical supplies: https://www.commondreams.org/news/20...ns-iran-during

No, not so that we can send them medical supplies, and nowhere in that article is that stated, but so that other countries, allies, including the U.S., if a surplus exists, can send them supplies. This virus has to be conquered world wide if it's going to be conquered at all and allowing the Iranian people to suffer and die because we have differences with the government is not only immoral, but sends the wrong message to the Iranian people..

[shunyadragon]

Which is exactly what several Democrat lawmakers insist on when folks like AOC and Bernie Sanders declared "Pandemics know no borders" and demanded that we lift sanctions against Iran so that we can send them medical supplies: https://www.commondreams.org/news/20...ns-iran-during

Bernie is right! The fact that 'viruses know no borders' is a fact of life and should be the standard basis for dealing with world health. From what we know of the threat of virus pandemics there is no reason we should not be prepared to provide medical equipment to everybody on the planet within reason. Unfortunately it is not just our present government that is the problem. It is world problem of neglect and insufficient medical care systems and preparation for future world medical issues.

[rogue06]

No, not so that we can send them medical supplies, and nowhere in that article is that stated, but so that other countries, allies, including the U.S., if a surplus exists, can send them supplies. This virus has to be conquered world wide if it's going to be conquered at all and allowing the Iranian people to suffer and die because we have differences with the government is not only immoral, but sends the wrong message to the Iranian people..

Our lifting the ban would mean that we can send supplies. Other countries decide for themselves whether or not to comply with it or not. Some might pass their own restrictions while others might simply ignore it.

And as the joint letter states

We also support the U.S. offer of direct aid to Iran to combat the spread of the virus

and

[shunyadragon]

They do hate Trump so much that some were trying to get folks to call the coronavirus the Trumpvirus and saying "if you're feeling awful, you know who to blame" (New York Times) and even got a hyper-partisan like Debbie Dingell (D-MI) to chastise them for taking "cheap shots" when they tried to get her to bash Trump (CNN).

It is not the Trumpvirus, but close . . .

The virus did spread in his rally.

[JimL]

Our lifting the ban would mean that we can send supplies. Other countries decide for themselves whether or not to comply with it or not. Some might pass their own restrictions while others might simply ignore it.

And as the joint letter states

We also support the U.S. offer of direct aid to Iran to combat the spread of the virus

and

It needn't be stated "only if there is a surplus," because "only if there is a surplus" is common sense.

[carpedm9587]

I just came across this quote, and it struck a chord about the response of so many on the right to Mr. Trump:



It was quoted in this article, but it originates from Aaron Sorkin's film "The American President." (1995)

The full quote is even better:

Lewis:Sheperd:

Prophetic...

[JimL]

I just came across this quote, and it struck a chord about the response of so many on the right to Mr. Trump:



It was quoted in this article, but it originates from Aaron Sorkin's film "The American President." (1995)

The full quote is even better:

Lewis:Sheperd:

Prophetic...

You'd think they'd recognize it to be sand rather than continue drinking.

[shunyadragon]

Found the issue.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/12/politics/anthony-fauci-pushback-coronavirus-measures-cnntv/index.html

Fauci admits earlier Covid-19 mitigation efforts would have saved more American lives
Devan Cole byline
By Devan Cole, CNN

Updated 2:55 PM ET, Sun April 12, 2020

Tapper asks Fauci: Do you think lives could have been saved?

Washington (CNN)Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday that calls to implement life-saving social distancing measures faced "a lot of pushback" early in the US coronavirus outbreak and that the country is now looking for ways to more effectively respond to the virus should it rebound in the fall.

"I mean, obviously, you could logically say that if you had a process that was ongoing and you started mitigation earlier, you could have saved lives," Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union" when asked if social distancing and stay-at-home measures could have prevented deaths had they been put in place in February, instead of mid-March.

"Obviously, no one is going to deny that. But what goes into those decisions is complicated," added Fauci, who is a key member of the Trump administration's coronavirus task force. "But you're right, I mean, obviously, if we had right from the very beginning shut everything down, it may have been a little bit different. But there was a lot of pushback about shutting things down back then."

Asked why the President didn't recommend social distancing guidelines until mid-March -- about three weeks after the nation's top health experts recommended they be put in place -- Fauci said, "You know, Jake, as I have said many times, we look at it from a pure health standpoint. We make a recommendation. Often, the recommendation is taken. Sometimes it's not. But we -- it is what it is. We are where we are right now."

One easy way to avoid empty aisles and practice social distancing? Using meal kit delivery services that package up everything you need and deliver straight to your door.
The comments from Fauci come a day after a report from The New York Times detailed the Trump administration's missteps in the early days of the pandemic and how President Donald Trump ignored his advisers' warnings of the potentially deadly disease.

An administration official separately confirmed to CNN that the government's top public health experts agreed in the third week of February on the need to begin moving away from a containment strategy and toward a mitigation strategy that would involve strong social distancing measures. The agreement among the health officials came after they held a tabletop exercise to game out the potential for a full-blown pandemic.

According to the Times report, Dr. Robert Kadlec, the top disaster response official at the Department of Health and Human Services, convened the White House coronavirus task force on February 21. During his meeting, the group conducted a mock-up exercise of the pandemic that predicted 110 million infections, 7.7 million hospitalizations and 586,000 deaths.

The group "concluded they would soon need to move toward aggressive social distancing, even at the risk of severe disruption to the nation's economy and the daily lives of millions of Americans," but it took more than three weeks for Trump to enact such guidelines on March 16.

Fauci told Tapper that "there is always a possibility, as we get into next fall and the beginning of early winter that we could see a rebound," in the virus, but the lessons learned from the first iteration of it should help the US better respond to a potential new wave.

"Hopefully, hopefully, what we have gone through now and the capability that we have for much, much better testing capability, much, much better surveillance capability, and the ability to respond with countermeasures, with drugs that work, that it will be an entirely different ball game," he said.
'Not going to be a light switch'

With health experts and some elected officials saying the US is starting to see the effectiveness of social distancing measures put in place last month, Americans are wondering when the country can begin to ease up on the guidance.

Fauci said Sunday that the process of returning to normal "is not going to be a light switch that we say, 'OK, it is now June, July' ... click -- the light switch goes back on."
He added: "It's going to be depending where you are in the country, the nature of the outbreak that you have already experienced and the threat of an outbreak that you may not have experienced. So it's going to have to look at the situation in different parts of the country."

Asked by Tapper when he thought that process could start, Fauci said he thinks "it could probably start at least in some ways maybe next month," but noted that it's "difficult" to make those types of predictions and officials are trying to open the country "appropriately."
Trump said Saturday night that he hopes to make a decision "fairly soon" on when to reopen the country amid the coronavirus pandemic, telling Fox News' Jeanine Pirro, "We have to bring our country back. So, I'll be making a decision reasonably soon, we're setting up a council now of some of the most distinguished leaders in virtually every field -- including politics, and business and medical -- and we'll be making that decision fairly soon."

But as Trump leans in to his desire to reopen the nation's economy by May 1, America's governors and mayors, who hold the power to enforce closures and who have often taken a far more aggressive posture on protecting public health, stand in his way. An ominous warning.

The director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation said Sunday that if the social distancing measures and closures were relaxed on May 1, the country would see a rebound of coronavirus cases.

"We don't think the capability in the states exists yet to deal with that volume of cases and so by July or August we could be back in the same situation we are in now" if there was premature opening of the country, Dr. Christopher Murray said on CBS, adding that West Coast states that are further along in the pandemic will still need "weeks of closures" beyond the peak for the opportunity to conduct proper testing and contact tracing.

Relaxing closures and social distancing measures on a rolling basis, he said, poses a new set of questions that have not been addressed.

"Of course there's a big issue of states are on different timings of their epidemics, which we know is the case. How are they going to control importation from other states into their state?" Murray said.

The inconsistent state mitigation policies have also been a problem for the modeling of the pandemic, according to Murray, who said that "incomplete implementation of social distancing closures in many states (is) adding a degree of uncertainty."

The World Health Organization special envoy, Dr. David Nabarro, went a step further in an interview with NBC on Sunday, issuing an ominous warning about coronavirus, which has already infected more than 1,827,000 people worldwide.

"We're not so sure that it will come in waves in the way that influenza does," he said. "We think it's going to be a virus that stalks the human race for quite a long time to come until we can all have a vaccine that will protect us and that there will be small outbreaks that will emerge sporadically and they will break through our defenses."
Nabarro said it will be "key" for countries to "pick up cases as soon as they appear, isolate them and stop outbreaks from developing."

There are more than 530,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the US, and more than 20,600 Americans have died, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University.
This story has been updated with additional developments Sunday.

© Copyright Original Source

[Mountain Man]

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/ellieb...-work-n2566768

[carpedm9587]

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/ellieb...-work-n2566768

This appears to be part and parcel of the ongoing theme from the right to emphasize states rights as a way to deflect blame from Mr. Trump. The battle between states rights and federal rights has been ongoing since the first Congress and will not be resolved now. The role of the federal is to deal with any multi-state issues, especially with regards to defense (though the founding fathers originally didn't even want a standing army!). So it regulates interstate commerce, builds interstate road systems (even though they pass through states), regulates radio frequencies, identifies and manages national parks, collects taxes, and provides resources to states.

Mr. Trump's failings have been in this latter area. His lack of action on the Defense Production Act has resulted in current and ongoing shortages of critically needed resources. His lack of coordination of existing resource sources has resulted in states bidding against each other and inevitable price gouging from the "free market." His lack of willingness to issue a national call to shelter-in-place has resulted in a patchwork of mitigation efforts that has created infection spikes in multiple places. His "me first" approach to everything has resulted in governors having to hold "governors only" sessions to attempt coordination. His incessant need for accolades has led to a parade of sycophants praising him at every press conference and leaders bowing and scraping because they know they will be attacked/denied if they do anything else, and (for governors) the safety of their constituents is at stake.

In short, he's an inept, vile, narcissistic man who never should have been allowed near the highest office in the land. Is every priority has been and will be about furthering himself. If the country accidentally benefits, so much the better. But if it comes to a choice between himself and the country, he will (and has) toss(ed) the country under a bus without a thought.