Trump Has Sabotaged America’s Coronavirus Response

[Olde Europe]

Trump......"What, me worry?"

California is monitoring at least 8,400 people for the coronavirus
California is monitoring at least 8,400 people for the coronavirus

Yep, that's one - ONE - unknown suspected patient zero out there, and the first manifest sign of lack of preparation shows up in a grotesquely inadequate number of testing kits.

On other news, Pence isn't the Corona Czar, he's the message control and propaganda czar, and those who know their stuff are being muffled.

President Spectacle thinks this is a PR problem, and, just as in the case of North Korea, he issues a "no longer a threat - America can sleep soundly" message slightly prematurely.

As said before, this is the first major crisis not manufactured by President Spectacle himself, and the efforts to address it are already failing. Also, this isn't surprising, given he couldn't deal with Puerto Rico.

 

[22lcidw]

He added: “Some Republicans would like us to get four [billion] and some Democrats would like us to get eight-and-a-half. We’ll be satisfied whatever it is.”

Now that Pence has been set up as the scapegoat, Don's caviler attitude towards how much money is appropriated makes sense..........for him. And that's all that matters to the Narcissist-in-Chief.

The problem isn't whether or not he's sending Pence into the wood chipper - the problem is, he fired the folks who could advise him on the necessary next steps (steps that should have been taken weeks, if not months ago), and who might have had an inkling as to the costs. And that means it doesn't matter all that much how much Congress appropriates, at least not in the short term: Trump wouldn't know how to spend it.

Let's hope Pence, at least, listens to the folks with expertise - even while the Narcissist-in-Chief wouldn't - and also they find a way to make up for lost time. Pence, the bigoted asshole, is around the block long enough to know that he's standing at the edge, needs to get things to work, and fast, in order to avoid getting pushed over it, and hopefully hasn't forgotten that Christian bigotry alone doesn't prevent a pandemic.

Progs would have jumped on this months ago. Saul Alinsky rules you guys.

 

[Osiris-ODS]

When Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), declared the Wuhan coronavirus a public health emergency of international concern on Thursday, he praised China for taking “unprecedented” steps to control the deadly virus. “I have never seen for myself this kind of mobilization,” he noted. “China is actually setting a new standard for outbreak response.”


The epidemic control efforts unfolding today in China—including placing some 100 million citizens on lockdown, shutting down a national holiday, building enormous quarantine hospitals in days’ time, and ramping up 24-hour manufacturing of medical equipment—are indeed gargantuan. It’s impossible to watch them without wondering, “What would we do? How would my government respond if this virus spread across my country?”

For the United States, the answers are especially worrying because the government has intentionally rendered itself incapable. In 2018, the Trump administration fired the government’s entire pandemic response chain of command, including the White House management infrastructure. In numerous phone calls and emails with key agencies across the U.S. government, the only consistent response I encountered was distressed confusion. If the United States still has a clear chain of command for pandemic response, the White House urgently needs to clarify what it is, not just for the public but for the government itself, which largely finds itself in the dark.

When Ebola broke out in West Africa in 2014, President Barack Obama recognized that responding to the outbreak overseas, while also protecting Americans at home, involved multiple U.S. government departments and agencies, none of which were speaking to one another. Basically, the U.S. pandemic infrastructure was an enormous orchestra full of talented, egotistical players, each jockeying for solos and fame, refusing to rehearse, and demanding higher salaries—all without a conductor. To bring order and harmony to the chaos, rein in the agency egos, and create a coherent multiagency response overseas and on the homefront, Obama anointed a former vice presidential staffer, Ronald Klain, as a sort of “epidemic czar” inside the White House, clearly stipulated the roles and budgets of various agencies, and placed incident commanders in charge in each Ebola-hit country and inside the United States. The orchestra may have still had its off-key instruments, but it played the same tune.

Building on the Ebola experience, the Obama administration set up a permanent epidemic monitoring and command group inside the White House National Security Council (NSC) and another in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)—both of which followed the scientific and public health leads of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the diplomatic advice of the State Department.
Trump Has Sabotaged America’s Coronavirus Response
..................................................................................................................................
So, the obvious question is why? Why dismantle the government's response chain of command to a potentially devastating health risk to the nation? Because it was Obama's initiative that created it. Perhaps that is why when Capt. Incompetence is asked about our preparedness he gives the kind of ignorant, vacuous answer he gives to so many complex issues, "we've got it under control." Really?
...........................................................................................................................

The headquarters of the nation’s intelligence apparatus roiled with the ouster of the acting director Joseph Maguire and his replacement by a sharp partisan amid a dispute over Russian election interference. The Justice Department remained on edge with whispers of further resignations, including perhaps even that of Attorney General William P. Barr, after the president’s intervention in a case involving one of his friends. Witnesses from the impeachment inquiry into Mr. Trump have been summarily dismissed. Dozens of policy experts have been cleared out of the National Security Council staff as part of a restructuring that will mean fewer career professionals in range of the president. A deputy national security adviser dogged by innuendo about disloyalty was exiled to the Energy Department. A Trump appointee’s nomination for a top Treasury Department post was pulled. The No. 3 official at the Defense Department was shown the door.

And Johnny McEntee, a 29-year-old loyalist just installed to take over the Office of Presidential Personnel and reporting directly to Mr. Trump, has ordered a freeze on all political appointments across the government. He also convened a meeting to instruct departments to search for people not devoted to the president so they can be removed, according to people briefed about the session, and informed colleagues that he planned to tell cabinet secretaries that the White House would be choosing their deputies from now on.

But career professionals are not the only ones in the cross hairs. Also facing scrutiny are Republican political appointees considered insufficiently committed to the president or suspected of not aggressively advancing his agenda.
Allies of the president say he should be free to make personnel changes, even if it amounts to shedding people who are not seen as loyal to Mr. Trump.
“It is not unusual at all that these types of assessments are done and thereafter changes are made,” said Bradley A. Blakeman, a Republican strategist and former White House official under President George W. Bush.
Nonetheless, the tumult and anxiety come at a time when the Trump administration confronts enormous challenges, including the coronavirus outbreak, Iranian and North Korean nuclear development and Russian determination to play a role again in America’s next election. Democrats, for example, have expressed concerns about the administration’s ability to respond if there were a severe coronavirus outbreak in the United States, noting that a global health security expert position on the National Security Council has been left vacant for almost two years.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/22/us/politics/trump-disloyalty-turnover.html

OMG that is some grade-A satire! Thanks for posting! I started reading that in the parking garage not realizing it was tongue-in-cheek when I opened the thread, and literally spit my drink on the windshield laughing at the end of the first paragraph, almost rear ended someone. Hahaha well played my friend. I need to bookmark this website to check out in the future.

 

[berg80]

 

[Meister]

Trump......"What, me worry?"

California is monitoring at least 8,400 people for the coronavirus
California is monitoring at least 8,400 people for the coronavirus

Yep, that's one - ONE - unknown suspected patient zero out there, and the first manifest sign of lack of preparation shows up in a grotesquely inadequate number of testing kits.

On other news, Pence isn't the Corona Czar, he's the message control and propaganda czar, and those who know their stuff are being muffled.

President Spectacle thinks this is a PR problem, and, just as in the case of North Korea, he issues a "no longer a threat - America can sleep soundly" message slightly prematurely.

As said before, this is the first major crisis not manufactured by President Spectacle himself, and the efforts to address it are already failing. Also, this isn't surprising, given he couldn't deal with Puerto Rico.

You might want your country to button down it's borders, stop worrying about ours.
Seems that the EU is starting to feel the squeeze.
God Bless Donald Trump

 

[Meister]

What is the CDC not doing that you think they should be doing? Please be specific

 

[Meister]

https://www.cdc.gov/budget/documents/fy2020/cdc-overview-factsheet.pdf

It seems that the CDC has a good Budget and will be better with 4 billion add on to fight the virus.

 

[berg80]

U.S. workers without protective gear assisted coronavirus evacuees, HHS whistleblower says
https://www.washingtonpost.com/heal...-coronavirus-evacuees-hhs-whistleblower-says/

Officials at the Department of Health and Human Services sent more than a dozen workers to receive the first Americans evacuated from Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, without proper training for infection control or appropriate protective gear, according to a whistleblower complaint.

The workers did not show symptoms of infection and were not tested for the virus, according to lawyers for the whistleblower, a senior HHS official based in Washington who oversees workers at the Administration for Children and Families, a unit within HHS.

The whistleblower is seeking federal protection, alleging she was unfairly and improperly reassigned after raising concerns about the safety of these workers to HHS officials, including those within the office of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. She was told Feb. 19 that if she does not accept the new position in 15 days, which is March 5, she would be terminated.

 

[berg80]

What is the CDC not doing that you think they should be doing? Please be specific

Providing test kits for the virus that aren't defective.

A faulty CDC coronavirus test delays monitoring of disease’s spread
Experts fear the small number of U.S. covid-19 cases reflects limited testing rather than a lack of infections
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/02/25/cdc-coronavirus-test/

 

[Sun Devil 92]

There is no reason to believe he is not on top of it.

Right, except all the evidence I just showed you that the response team that would normally handle a crisis has been gutted.

What crisis ?

 

[Meister]

What is the CDC not doing that you think they should be doing? Please be specific

Providing test kits for the virus that aren't defective.

A faulty CDC coronavirus test delays monitoring of disease’s spread
Experts fear the small number of U.S. covid-19 cases reflects limited testing rather than a lack of infections
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/02/25/cdc-coronavirus-test/

That isn't even relevant regarding the CDC, there would have been a shortage regardless.
You can't even articulate why your pissed at Trump over this virus. The cutback in administration of the CDC
has not affected the actions taken by the CDC.
At the end of the day it really seems to be political with you....period

 

[skye]

stupid thread.

Try to focus. The thread documents the dismantling and under-funding of our government's ability to respond to a public health crisis. If you have any evidence to the contrary please provide it.

just in case you didn't know, berg80

 

[Olde Europe]

What is the CDC not doing that you think they should be doing? Please be specific

Providing test kits for the virus that aren't defective.

A faulty CDC coronavirus test delays monitoring of disease’s spread
Experts fear the small number of U.S. covid-19 cases reflects limited testing rather than a lack of infections
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/02/25/cdc-coronavirus-test/

Thanks for doing research, digging up pertinent facts, and answering questions.

I thought I do it, since the imbecilic lout has neither the manners, nor the stature, nor the integrity for that.

How's that for preparedness?

U.S. workers without protective gear assisted coronavirus evacuees, HHS whistleblower says

They are sending returnees into quarantine for possibly carrying a communicable disease, and they're sending workers to deal with them without protective gear. One need not be a health expert to see that doesn't add up.

Gawd...

 

[berg80]

That isn't even relevant regarding the CDC, there would have been a shortage regardless.

You don't know that. Having a lack of experts like the ones Trump fired is the kind of thing that leads to a lack of planning for the future.

 

[berg80]

The whistleblower is seeking federal protection, alleging she was unfairly and improperly reassigned after raising concerns about the safety of these workers to HHS officials, including those within the office of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. She was told Feb. 19 that if she does not accept the new position in 15 days, which is March 5, she would be terminated.

 

[berg80]

stupid thread.

Try to focus. The thread documents the dismantling and under-funding of our government's ability to respond to a public health crisis. If you have any evidence to the contrary please provide it.

just in case you didn't know, berg80

U.S. workers without protective gear assisted coronavirus evacuees, HHS whistleblower says

The complaint alleges HHS staff were “improperly deployed” and were “not properly trained or equipped to operate in a public health emergency situation.” The complaint also alleges the workers were potentially exposed to coronavirus because appropriate steps were not taken to protect them and staffers were not trained in wearing personal protective equipment, even though they had face-to-face contact with returning passengers. The workers were in contact with passengers in an airplane hangar where evacuees were received and on two other occasions: when they helped distribute keys for room assignments and hand out colored ribbons for identification purposes.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/heal...-coronavirus-evacuees-hhs-whistleblower-says/

 

[berg80]

“I soon began to field panicked calls from my leadership team and deployed staff members expressing concerns with the lack of H.H.S. communication and coordination, staff being sent into quarantined areas without personal protective equipment, training or experience in managing public health emergencies, safety protocols and the potential danger to both themselves and members of the public they come into contact with,” the whistle-blower wrote. House Democrats said on Thursday that the official who voiced concerns to superiors about the situation was subjected to professional retaliation.
U.S. Health Workers Responding to Coronavirus Lacked Training and Protective Gear, Whistle-Blower Says

 

[berg80]

You might want your country to button down it's borders, stop worrying about ours.
Seems that the EU is starting to feel the squeeze.
God Bless Donald Trump

"The complaint raised questions about whether the Trump administration had taken adequate precautions in its handling of the virus, and whether Mr. Trump’s minimization of the risks had been mirrored by other top officials when confronted with potentially disturbing developments.

The workers who were sent to the scene were not medical professionals and usually help low-income Americans returning to the United States from foreign countries during crises.

In a narrative prepared for Congress, the whistle-blower painted a grim portrait of staff members who found themselves suddenly thrust into a federal effort to confront the coronavirus in the United States. The whistle-blower said their own health concerns were dismissed by senior administration officials as detrimental to staff “morale.” They were “admonished,” the complainant said, and “accused of not being team players,” and had their “mental health and emotional stability questioned.”
U.S. Health Workers Responding to Coronavirus Lacked Training and Protective Gear, Whistle-Blower Says

 

[berg80]

Coronavirus Testing In the U.S. Is Somehow Looking Worse by the Day
Coronavirus Testing In the U.S. Is Somehow Looking Worse by the Day

All other cases that have come through the American health system center on patients who had traveled to the epicenter of the virus’s outbreak in China or had close contact with someone who had. Another group of confirmed patients were either repatriated individuals who fled the vicinity of the virus’ origin in China on State Department-chartered planes or were rescued from the disastrous Diamond Princess cruise ship outbreak.

South Korea has tested more than 35,000 people for the 2019 novel coronavirus, and in Italy, officials have carried out thousands of tests, confirming at least 650 cases by Thursday—and 17 deaths. By contrast, tests in the U.S. have encountered serious problems, which CDC officials have called “frustrating.” Roughly 500 people were known to have been tested as of Wednesday, not including those who were on the State Department flights and cruise. Outside of the CDC, only 12 states and localities can conduct their own tests, officials have said.

 

[berg80]

Coronavirus Testing In the U.S. Is Somehow Looking Worse by the Day
Coronavirus Testing In the U.S. Is Somehow Looking Worse by the Day

All other cases that have come through the American health system center on patients who had traveled to the epicenter of the virus’s outbreak in China or had close contact with someone who had. Another group of confirmed patients were either repatriated individuals who fled the vicinity of the virus’ origin in China on State Department-chartered planes or were rescued from the disastrous Diamond Princess cruise ship outbreak.

South Korea has tested more than 35,000 people for the 2019 novel coronavirus, and in Italy, officials have carried out thousands of tests, confirming at least 650 cases by Thursday—and 17 deaths. By contrast, tests in the U.S. have encountered serious problems, which CDC officials have called “frustrating.” Roughly 500 people were known to have been tested as of Wednesday, not including those who were on the State Department flights and cruise. Outside of the CDC, only 12 states and localities can conduct their own tests, officials have said.

Some public health labs have gone so far in recent days as to ask the CDC for permission to develop their own tests, Hawaiian officials asked for the OK to use Japanese tests, and at least one doctor in Boston was working on their own, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

One expert who has been sounding the alarm about the U.S.’s lackluster testing infrastructure said the dearth of diagnostic materials, which comes into sharper focus almost daily, was alarming.

“It isn’t under control,” said Irwin Redlener, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University and an expert on U.S. readiness for pandemics. “We do not have anything close to a sufficient quantity of test kits. There’s definitely a problem in the supply chain for accurate, reliable testing materials. I don’t know that we really know what’s happening in California or anywhere else right now for that matter. It’s a very, very confusing time.”