3/13/20: A reporter asked the president on Friday if he takes any responsibility for the slow rollout of testing
in this country.
____________________
“No, I don’t
take responsibility at all.”
President Trump
____________________
“No, I don’t
take responsibility at all,” he replied. “Because we were given a – a set of circumstances, and we
were given rules, regulations and specifications from a different time. It
wasn’t meant for this kind of – an event with the kind of numbers that we’re talking about.”
He’s only been
in charge for the last 38 months. And he had a lot of important tweeting to do.
(See: 3/15/20.)
*
DR.
ANTHONY S. FAUCI, director of the National Institute of Allergy
and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, also spoke with
reporters Saturday. He was asked if he believed we had a grip on the spread of
the coronavirus? “We have not reached our peak,” he admitted. “We will see more
suffering and death, predominantly among the vulnerables in our society.”
3/15/20: While you were snoozing safely in your bed, the number of confirmed
COVID-19 cases in this country spiked from 2,726 yesterday
evening to 3,244 this afternoon. In other words, we’re tracking like Spain and
France. Both countries have basically shut down, like Italy.
Or, to
put it another way, Dr. Zero’s prediction that we were headed for zero cases has
proven to be grossly misinformed.
It’s also
interesting to look back at a time when Dr. Zero (a.k.a. Donald J. Trump) was
just a TV-reality show schmuck running a scam university. In those days, if
anything went wrong while Barack Obama was in charge, Trump was happy to attack.
In 2014 he called Obama a “psycho”when
he allowed seven Americans who contracted Ebola in West Africa to return to the
United States for care. Four other Americans ended up infected. One of those
four died. So did one of the original seven.
That
was the extent of the “outbreak,” during which Trump predicted there would be
“bedlam” in the streets.
As for
Dr. Zero now, vs. Citizen Donald then, Dr. Zero takes no responsibility for the
current spread of COVID-19. He says Obama is to blame, even though Mr. Obama
left office 1,151 days ago.
In happier
times, when all Citizen Donald had to do was tweet-bitch about Obama and claim
he could prove his predecessor was born in Kenya, or on some other planet, Citizen
Don had this to say about leadership in any endeavor:
*
____________________
“I
would like to see a dramatic diminution of the personal interaction that we see
in restaurants and in bars. Whatever it takes to do that, that’s what I’d like
to see.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci,
Head of the National
Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
____________________
AS FOR
BEING FOCUSED, Dr. Zero still seems more interested in stock market reports
than numbers of sick and dying. The damage to the U.S. and world economies is going
to be acute. The $160 billion sports industry in this country is paralyzed. Even
the Golden Raspberries awards show has been cancelled– which means Dame Judi Dench won’t get a chance to “celebrate”
a possible win in the category of “Worst Supporting Actor” in the musical
mega-flop, “Cats.” The governments of Great Britain and Hong Kong have
warned against travel to the United States. Lithuania has closed its borders to
all foreigners. Israel has shuttered cafes, malls, movie theaters, and restaurants.
Morocco has canceled all flights to and from 21 countries. Sudan has closed all
schools and universities for a month. The government of Austria has shifted to
emergency operating procedures, warning that freedom of movement will be
“massively restricted.” The governor of Ohio warns it’s “absolutely possible”
that schools could remain closed the remainder of the
year. Hoboken, New
Jersey has responded to the crisis by instituting a 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew,
except for essential workers. We know the virus can spread quickly, with 27 residents and
25 healthcare workers at one nursing home in Kirkland, Washington infected. Italy is reporting more than 21,000 cases. But the more
ominous news is this: among those cases there have been 1,441 deaths and 1,518
patients are currently being treated in intensive care units.
Dr.
Anthony Fauci, the voice of the Trump administration on the topic of
containment (until he tells too many truths), made it clear this morning. “I would like to
see a dramatic diminution of the personal interaction that we see in
restaurants and in bars. Whatever it takes to do that, that’s what I’d like to
see.” Indeed, Dr. Fauci said on CNN’s morning program, State of the Union,
that he could not rule out a temporary lock-down across the
country.
So,
what will Dr. Zero do or predict next? We do know, he decided to take a “Victory
Lap” on Friday, after announcing a National Emergency.
What
the perpetually-clueless Dr. Zero did was sign a chart showing how the
stock market soared after his speech. Then he sent it out to all his loyal
followers.
The
accompanying note read: “The President would like to share the attached
image with you, and passes along the following message: ‘From opening of press
conference, biggest day in stock market history!’”
*
CLUELESS PEOPLE tend to bond together, which explains the
link between Dr. Zero and Rep. Devin Nunes – who is definitely not a medical
expert – or even a very smart member of Congress.
On Fox News today, Rep. Nunes told host Maria Bartiromo that
this was, in fact, a perfect time to get out and mingle with humanity. “There’s a lot of
concerns with the economy here [in California] because people are scared to go
out. But I will just say, one of the things you can do if you’re healthy, you
and your family, it’s a great time to just go out, go to a local restaurant.”
You
might not stay healthy, but, hey, you don’t want the economy to stall out with
Trump in the White House, right!
3/23/20: President Trump – and President Trump’s defenders – are flailing at this point.
True, no president in history could have handled this health crisis
perfectly. To a degree, we might cut Trump some slack, if he wasn’t such an ass.
(See, for example, Trump’s sarcastic response on hearing that Sen. Mitt Romney was self-quarantining.)
Mitt Romney, in mask, has COVID.
____________________
“Oh, hell, he’s in crazy town.”
Dr. Abby H. Viall, Centers for Disease Control, referring to
the president
____________________
First, the grim truth. As of early this morning, the U.S. had
33,276 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus. That included Sen. Rand Paul, who knew he
might be infected. Sen. Paul still decided to use the Senate gym yesterday,
just hours before his diagnosis came back.
Despite all of Dr. Zero’s recent bluster about “winning” and
what a great job he’s doing in addressing this crisis – and all his pitiful and-counterproductive predictions in weeks past – the U.S. now has more cases than all other countries, excepting only
China, where the virus erupted, and Italy. Around the world there are more than
336,000 confirmed cases and 14,641 dead…
And then…the afternoon numbers start coming in. In just a few
hours, the U.S. caseload rises to 41,511 on one website and 41,569 on the other, with 504 dead.
Using the second website, which has slightly higher numbers worldwide,
there have been 372,146 confirmed cases and 16,310 deaths. Based on that evidence,
the death rate would be 1 in every 23 patients. In the U.S., with more advanced
medical care, and 504 dead, the rate would be 1 death for every 82 patients.
Since the blogger’s oldest daughter works for the Centers for
Disease Control, he has been kept relatively well-informed. She believes the
death rate will be lower than 1 in 82 if we start identifying all mild cases.
She also believes the death rate will be several times higher than ordinary
flu.
Whereas this blogger admits having zero love for President
Trump, his daughter is not biased, as far as the blogger can tell. She assessed
Vice President Pence’s performance, so far, as good. Trump? When asked to
describe his efforts, she replied, “Oh, hell, he’s in crazy town.”
She also said she believes Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah
Brix, on the administration’s coronavirus team, are doing an excellent job.
In
any case, the following states are essentially shut down for business
for the foreseeable future:
California
Connecticut
Delaware
Illinois
Indiana
Louisiana
Massachusetts
Michigan
New
Jersey
New
York
Ohio
Oregon
West
Virginia
This
morning, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome
Adams warned,
“I want America to understand this week it’s going to get bad.”
4/4/20:
You can slice the bread any way you like it, thick or thin, or let the entire
loaf turn stale, and punt it like a football. President Trump is a terrible
prognosticator.
This would be roughly 312,234
more cases than Dr. Zero (Donald J. Trump) predicted we’d have on February 26.
Since noon Friday, the United
States has compiled almost 55,000 new cases. Worse, the number of dead jumped
by more than 1,300 on Friday to 7,406, making it the deadliest day yet. This
morning the death toll stands at 8,468, with another 8,206 individuals
in serious or critical condition.
On Friday, the CDC recommended we all wear cloth masks in
public, where social distancing rules are hard to follow. Trump then said
during his daily
press conference–during which he found time to brag again
about how great the economy used to be – that wearing a mask should be
“voluntary.” He wasn’t ready to order a nationwide stay-at-home order. “I leave
it up to the governors,” he explained testily.
(He’s
testier than ever lately.)
Wear a mask - maybe not this kind, though.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, a key member of the Trump
administration’s coronavirus-fighting team, has said he can’t understand why governors
in several states are resisting such orders. “You know, the tension
between federally mandated versus states’ rights to do what they want is
something I don’t want to get into,” he said during a CNN
interview on Thursday. “But if you look at what’s going on in this
country, I just don’t understand why we’re not doing that.”
____________________
“That
would be national suicide, and yet, that is what Anthony Fauci is suggesting,
at least.”
Dr. Tucker
Carlson
____________________
Of course, we couldn’t have the leading infectious disease
expert in the country spouting off and maybe making Dr. Zero look indecisive.
So that other right-wing medical expert, Dr. Tucker Carlson, decided it was
time to offer medical diagnosis. On his Friday night show, “Dr. Tuck” first
threw out the baited hook to catch unwitting Fox News viewers, calling Fauci an
“impressive person.”
Then he reeled in the dupes. “That doesn’t mean he’s never
wrong. On the question of the pandemic, Fauci has been repeatedly wrong.”
Or to put it in Foxspeak: Don’t believe Fauci. Keep believing
that President Trump knows exactly what he’s doing.
Carlson then cited the ten million jobs already lost and
probably sent his loyal viewers off to load up their guns when he added, “Imagine another year of this. That would be
national suicide, and yet, that is what Anthony Fauci is suggesting, at least.”
National
suicide!!!
At
least!!!!!!!
This
was a stupid statement to make. And this blogger found himself wondering. Where
did Dr. Tuck get his medical degree? Corinthian College?
No
one was advocating a shutdown for a year. Not Joe Biden or Nancy Pelosi or
Chuck Schumer, or all three stacked atop each other. Not Dr. Fauci, surely. Not
even the Easter Bunny. What experts are saying is that action now – for another month,
maybe two – will keep us from having to fight an even more drawn-out, difficult,
and economically devastating battle later.
Dr.
Tuck, had he wanted viewers to understand, might have explained that in South
Korea, where they instituted strict quarantines of all infected individuals, and
tested robustly from the start, the spread of the disease has been nearly halted.
He might have talked about how Washington State, California and Ohio moved
quickly to shut down non-essential businesses and schools to stop the spread. And
there it’s working. He could have compared those three states with Florida, where
the governor dallied, and where the numbers of confirmed cases are still
ballooning. Dr. Tuck might have explained that 90% of the U.S.
population
was already under stay-at-home orders. He might have added that almost every child, in grades K-12, has
been told to stay home as schools in all fifty states have turned out the
lights. He might have explained that the only way to start getting those ten
million jobs back was to stem the inexorable spread of the virus, as quickly
and surely as possible.
Only
Dr. Tuck wasn’t there to give patients good medical advice. He was there to land
a cheap shot – to undercut the real expert – noting that Dr.
Fauci had “bulletproof job security.”
See
what Dr. Tuck did! He intimated that Dr. Fauci wasn’t worried about
anyone else because he still had a job.
Then
Dr. Tuck went for the kill, warning that if critics of the president had their
way, we’d all be doomed. High unemployment rates, he said, are “a far
bigger disaster than the virus itself by any measure.”
“Our response to coronavirus could turn this into a far
poorer nation,” he groaned. “Poor countries are unhealthy countries, always and
everywhere. In poor countries, people die of treatable diseases. In poor
countries, people are far more vulnerable to obscure viruses, like the one we
are fighting now. You want to keep Americans from dying before their time? Then
don’t impoverish them.”
(But we’ve still got to deny the newly-unemployed millions any chance to sign up for healthcare under the Affordable
Healthcare Act!)
Dr. Tuck’s solution: Take two aspirin and keep believing in Dr.
Zero, the guy who said the virus would go away, like “a miracle.” Also, keep
tuning into Dr. Tuck’s show nightly.
Dr. Tuck, of course, has “bulletproof job security,” himself.
Dr. Tucks "thinking hard" face - to impress viewers.
4/12/20: A quiet Easter passes. Even churches
are closed until the coronavirus abates. The Pope delivers a sermon to
Catholics round the world on the “contagion of hope,” but speaks from a nearly
empty St. Peter’s Basilica. Like many good Christian leaders, Pastor Greg Ball
of Destiny Church Naples in Naples, Florida holds
a drive-in Easter service. “What we’re doing is practicing
social distancing,” he tells a reporter, “asking everyone to stay in their cars
and to separate with a good distance between them.”
Members of the congregation listened to his sermon on the radio.
Some offered praise while standing in open sunroofs. “My heart was filled with
so much joy,” Ball said afterwards. “Everyone waving to each other in the cars
and smiling.”
So that was all good.
____________________
Patriots gather to hug
and shake hands and cough in each other’s faces.
____________________
One man who insisted on exercising his right to gather people
together in clusters and scoff at the possibility of infection, was Ammon Bundy, in Idaho. This is the same Mr. Bundy who led an
armed occupation of a wildlife refuge in Oregon to protest federal overreach.
He had pledged to hold a nondenominational Easter service in a venue holding up
to 1,000 people.
Because, let’s face it, nothing says “I am exercising my
freedoms,” quite like gathering people together, where they might pass the
virus along, and go back out into the world and spread it among family, friends,
and innocent bystanders.
ACROSS THE NATION, and around the world, the toll continued to rise.
According to Johns Hopkins University, as of Sunday afternoon the U.S. had 550,016 confirmed
cases of COVID-19. Spain stood next, with
166,127. But if we adjust for population, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, and
the United Kingdom have all been harder hit, as have a number of smaller
countries.
Several states which were slow to issue stay-at-home orders were seeing
large increases. Those states included Florida (19,895 confirmed cases), Texas
(13,484) and (Georgia 12,452), now ninth, tenth and eleventh worst hit.
Washington, once the state with the most cases, has done a good
job of slowing the spread, and fell to thirteenth.
*
MEANWHILE, The New York Times published a scathing report on Saturday,
outlining President Trump’s fumbling efforts to deal with the coronavirus
threat when it first developed. By Sunday, the Narcissist-in-Chief had digested
the article, which meant he spent Sunday raging on Twitter.
If you don’t read the Times, you might not know that six
reporters worked on the piece (and updated it Monday). They talked to dozens of
sources and had access to numerous documents.
SUMMARY OF KEY
FINDINGS
In early January, the National Security Council office
responsible for tracking pandemics had already received intelligence reports “predicting
the spread of the virus to the United States.” Discussion focused on what might
have to be done to keep Americans home from work and shut down cities the size
of Chicago.
In early January, Matthew Pottinger, deputy national security
adviser, took a call from a longtime friend and Hong Kong epidemiologist. Pottinger
had worked in Hong Kong during the SARS epidemic in 2003.
As the Times explains,
Now, seventeen years later, his
friend had a blunt message: You need to be ready. The virus, he warned, which
originated in the city of Wuhan, was being transmitted by people who were
showing no symptoms – an insight that American
health officials had not yet accepted. Mr. Pottinger declined through a
spokesman to comment.
Around that same time, the State Department’s epidemiologist
warned in a report that the virus was likely to spread across the globe,
resulting in a pandemic.
Pottinger, reporters said, “began convening daily meetings
about the coronavirus. He alerted his boss, Robert C. O’Brien, the national
security adviser.”
Trump and his economic advisers continued to focus on keeping
the economy booming, and resisted pressing China for more information about the
spreading virus, rather than upend chances for a trade deal.
January 18: Secretary Azar briefed the president on the coronavirus
during a phone callto Mar-a-Lago. “Mr.
Trump,” according to the Times, “projected confidence that it would be a
passing problem.”
(The Times has also tracked Trump’s visits to golf
courses, his private resorts, and especially Mar-a-Lago. As of March 9, 2020,
he had visited Mar-a-Lago 31 times, and spent a total of 135 days there. Add 90
days spent at his private golf resort in Bedminster, N.J., 85 at Trump International Golf Club, West Palm
Beach, Fla., and 76 at Trump National Golf Club, Sterling, Va. The man
vacations a lot.)
By this time, Trump has spent 386 days as president at private clubs he owns.
Bedminster, N.J.
“I have
a great relationship with President Xi.”
Four days later, while attending the World Economic Forum in
Switzerland, Trump sat down for an interview with Joe Kernen of CNBC.
This exchange followed:
KERNEN: Before we get started – with – we’re going
talk about the economy and a lot of other things – the CDC
– has identified
a case of coronavirus – in Washington state. The
Wuhan strain of this. If you remember SARS, that affected GDP. Travel-related
effects. Do you – have you been briefed by
the CDC? And…
PRESIDENT TRUMP: I have, and…
KERNEN: …are there worries about
a pandemic at this point?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: No. Not at all.
And – we’re – we have
it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China, and we have it
under control. It’s – going to be just fine.
JOE KERNEN: Okay. And President
Xi – there’s
just some – talk in China that maybe the transparency isn’t
everything that it’s going to be. Do you trust that we’re going to know
everything we need to know from China?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: I do. I do. I
have a great relationship with President Xi [emphasis added, unless
otherwise noted]. We just signed probably the biggest deal ever made. It
certainly has the potential to be the biggest deal ever made.
So: the president isn’t worried, and President
Xi of China is his pal.
January 28: A senior medical advisor at Veteran’s Affairs warns colleagues
in an email about the new coronavirus. “Any
way you cut it,” he says, “this is going to be bad. The projected size of
the outbreak already seems hard to believe.”
Health experts are reluctant to shut down air
travel to and from China, which will cut any contacts health officials from the
two countries might have.
“It
is still possible to interrupt virus spread.”
January 30: Dr. Anthony Fauci, Dr. Redfield,
head of CDC, and others call Secretary Azar. They have changed their minds and believe
a travel ban should be put in place with China.
The World Health Organization declares
a global public health emergency. “The Committee
believes that it is still possible to interrupt virus spread,” they explain, “provided
that countries put in place strong measures to detect disease
early, isolate and treat cases, trace contacts, and promote social
distancing measures commensurate with the risk.
The Centers for Disease Control reports the first confirmed case of person-to-person transmission inside
the United States.
In a phone call to the president on January 30,
Secretary Azar warns that a pandemic is possible. Trump agrees to a travel ban,
but tells Azar to stop panicking.
January 31: The travel ban on China is issued.
Here, an aside from the blogger seems in order: Trump has insisted
he made all the right calls. He consistently cites imposition of the travel ban
as the critical decision.
Unfortunately, it would be another six weeks before he was ready
to admit publicly that the U.S. was confronting a colossal danger. It was as
if, after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Franklin D.
Roosevelt had waited until February 18 to ask Congress to declare war.
In the next six weeks the war against the coronavirus was nearly
lost. On February 5, for example, Derek Kan, a senior official from the White
House Office of Management and Budget, told a group of senators that the Trump administration
had all the money needed to combat the spread of the disease.
“Just left the Administration briefing on Coronavirus,”
Senator Christopher S. Murphy, a Democrat, wrote in a tweet shortly after. “Bottom
line: they aren’t taking this seriously enough.”
February 10: At a rally in Manchester, New Hampshire,
President Trump tells a crowd of adoring, but-science-challenged fans, he isn’t worried about the coronavirus.
And by the way, the virus, they’re
working hard, looks like by April, you know in theory when it gets a little
warmer it miraculously goes away. I hope that’s true. But we’re doing
great in our country. China, I spoke with President Xi and they’re working very,
very hard. and I think it’s going to all work out fine.”
“We were flying the
plane with no instruments.”
February 14: Secretary Azar announces the federal government
will create a “surveillance” system in five U.S. cities to, in the words of the
Times, “measure the spread of the virus and enable experts to project
the next hot spots.” The system ends up being delayed for several weeks.
That same day, Dr.
Robert Kadlec, the top disaster response official at the Health and Human
Services Department, puts out a memo. He details what drastic measures to slow
the spread of the disease might look like. Titled “U.S. Government Response to
the 2019 Novel Coronavirus,” it lists steps that might become necessary:
…significantly limiting public
gatherings and cancellation of almost all sporting events, performances, and
public and private meetings that cannot be convened by phone. Consider school
closures. Widespread “stay at home” directives from public and private
organizations with nearly 100% telework for some.
In days to follow the government botches early testing. The
first test kits sent out don’t even work.
In the words of one official, “We were flying the plane with no
instruments.”
By the third week in February, top public health experts had
decided to recommend a new approach to the growing threat. The American people,
they planned to tell the president, should be urged to observe social
distancing rules, and stay home from work.
When Dr. Kadlec, called for a meeting of the White House
coronavirus task force on February 21, “his agenda was urgent.” (The Times
had a copy of the agenda to use in writing the article). It was already clear,
Kadlec believed, that it was going to be necessary to lock down the country to
prevent the virus from spreading.
The only real question was: When?
“People
are carrying the virus everywhere.”
February 23: Dr. Kadlec learned that a 20-year-old Chinese
woman had infected five relatives even though she had never displayed symptoms.
That meant Americans who appeared healthy could be spreading the virus. “Is
this true?!” Dr. Kadlec wrote back to the researcher who had warned him. “If so
we have a huge whole [sic] on our screening and quarantine effort.”
Her response was blunt: “People are carrying the virus
everywhere.”
This isn’t “Fake News.” Reporters for the Times had
the emails.
Trump was traveling in India at the time. But on February 24,
Dr. Kadlec and a team of other experts made up their minds to present Mr. Trump
with a plan titled “Four Steps to Mitigation” when he returned.
The next day, however, Dr. Nancy Messonier, director of the
National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, publicly issued the blunt warning
they had all agreed was necessary.
The stock market started to drop. When Trump returned from
his trip, he was furious. The health experts decided to cancel the meeting.
On February 26, Trump did select Vice President Pence to head
up the White House coronavirus task force.
February 27: President Trump wasn’t exactly laser-focused on
the threat from the virus. Instead, he decided to meet with African American
leaders at the White House. That is, African American leaders like “Diamond and
Silk,” who would gladly smooch his posterior.
(You’d
almost think Mr. Blogger was making it up. But we have the video!)
With Pence and his staff in charge, the Times says, “the
focus was clear: no more alarmist messages. Statements and media appearances by
health officials like Dr. Fauci and Dr. Redfield would be coordinated through
Mr. Pence’s office.”
On March 6, Trump told reporters that the coronavirus crisis was “an
unforeseen problem.” So, you couldn’t blame him!
Five days later, the president told a group of bankers, “We’re having
to fix a problem that, four weeks ago, nobody ever thought would be a problem.”
March 10: Trump is still pushing the idea that a wall on the
border with Mexico will help stop the spread of the coronavirus. “Going up
fast,” he tweets. “We need the Wall more than ever!”
Your
house is still going to burn down.
March 11: The president
speaks to the American people in an Oval Office address. He announces a travel ban
to and from 26 countries in Europe. He does not call for school closures or
stay-at-home orders. Nor does he suggest social distancing.
Various health officials and even Trump’s former Homeland
Security Adviser Tom Bossert react to his speech in a series of emails.
They all know the virus is spreading internally – and
spreading fast. Shutting off travel from outside no longer matters. It’s as if your
house were burning down and you decided to post no trespassing signs on the corners
of your property. Your house is still going to burn down.
The Times has emails:
The president was still focused on keeping the economy going
strong. Rather than heed the health experts, he reached out to investors like
Stephen A. Schwarzman, the chief executive of Blackstone Group.
What did Schwarzman think he should do?
It required a tense Oval Office meeting a few days later to overcome
the resistance of the president and his economic advisers. The health experts
called for stern measures to stop the spread. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin balked.
The economy would tank. According to the Times, “Mr. O’Brien, the
national security adviser, who had been worried about the virus for weeks,
sounded exasperated as he told Mr. Mnuchin that the economy would be destroyed
regardless if officials did nothing.”
According to the Times, three individuals played the
biggest role in swaying a stubborn president. They were Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the
former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Deborah L. Birx,
who the president likes because he thinks she’s “elegant,” and Vice President
Pence.
March 16: President Trump announces guidelines calling for
two weeks of social distancing.
The next day, during what has since become a daily press
conference, the president made a stunning announcement. “This is a pandemic,” he said,
which wasn’t stunning at all. That was obvious. “I felt it was a pandemic long
before it was called a pandemic,” he added. That was the stunning part.
