The CoronaVirus Pandemic Is Not a Hoax or A Deep State Plot
The chickens have come home to roost. It would appear as though the Trump administration is facing its second big time crisis (the first being a still-devastated Puerto Rico) and they aren’t up to the task on any level.
They dodged a bullet with the destruction of Puerto Rico by hurricanes; while the disaster got plenty of coverage, the long-term lack of response didn’t. Most of the $42 billion approved for recovery purposes by Congress hasn’t been allocated, and the Trump administration has imposed ideologically-based restrictions on what money is being spent.
Perhaps this is because the territory is an island. Perhaps it’s because the people there mostly fit into the “other” category the administration uses to justify its manufactured crises.
The virus, which has now spread to 47 countries, has put pressure on businesses and supply chains around the world.
While there is no way of knowing what it’s real-world impact will be over the next few months, a lack of trust in the present administration certainly isn’t helping. A President who’s uttered over 16,000 lies or misleading statements doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.
The administration apparently thinks there is no problem that can't be solved with a tax cut.
https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1233487888274329602?s=20
The stock market --which is NOT an indicator of the health of the economy-- is tanking, but not because of what the World Health Organization has now officially declared to be a pandemic.
It’s tanking because investors know the President and his administration are not ready to properly manage a real crisis, only made up ones like the “invasion” at the southern border seemingly increasing in intensity as elections approach.
Presidential advisor Mick Mulvaney told a conservative meeting this morning that the Coronavirus was a hoax. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo refused to comment on the statement or to make any declaration under questioning before a House committee.
https://twitter.com/JamesSurowiecki/status/1233413524648550404?s=20
The CoronaVirus is a “hoax” because it doesn’t allow Dear Leader to “protect” the people from “enemies.”
As lawyer/author Teri Kanefield observed in a (much longer) thread on Twitter today:
A virus outbreak will not contain itself in poor communities.
A virus is actually more likely to strike the Mitch McConnells of the world, who are in constant contact with people, then, say, a poor person living on the edge of town.
Oops! Wrong kind of crisis!
The problem is compounded by the fact that Trump, as part of his effort to take America back to the good old days of almost unlimited personal liberty for white men, is dismantling the federal government (all of the regulatory agencies) that he hates.
In the wild west, there were no government agencies designed to protect common people, so there were no rules limiting what (white) men could do.
Tump has been killing the agencies designed to protect the health of the people.
With the outbreak of a virus, people start thinking: Maybe those regulatory agencies designed to protect our health aren’t so bad. Maybe government isn’t always evil.
My dog, JJ, does the same thing. He sits in the window and barks at skateboarders. He thinks it works. We’ve never been attacked by a skateboarder. He barks, the skateboarder goes by, and JJ saved the day!
In addition to conspiracy mongering about the deep state and the media colluding to take down Trump, the administration is doing everything it can to bungle the response.
The administration has directed all government scientists and health officials not to make public statements without going through Vice President Mike Pence, who is heading up the federal response to the virus.
“Congratulations and thank you to our great Vice President & all of the many professionals doing such a fine job at CDC & all other agencies on the Coronavirus situation,” Trump tweeted late Thursday. “Only a very small number in U.S., & China numbers look to be going down. All countries working well together!”
Secretary of Health and Human Services, (Trump nick-named) “killer” Alex Azar found out he wasn’t in charge (except that he still is, sorta) as the President was on his way to address the media on Tuesday.
The USAMRIID (United States Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Disease) at Fort Detrick, Maryland, is the sole location in the US with a Class 4 biohazard containment facility. Their job is to protect the US military from infectious diseases. They are severely constrained in their ability to function because $100 million in appropriated funds has been withheld.
The new director of the Center for Disease Control C, Dr. Robert Redfield, is on record as saying the AIDS epidemic was ‘God’s judgment’ against homosexuals.
He believes its spread through the United States in the 1980s was due to a lack of traditional family values. Remembering the President’s sharpie hurricane prediction doesn’t make me ultra confident that science will trump politics at the CDC if and when things break bad.
From CNN:
After a US patient contracted novel coronavirus and left medical authorities no clues as to where it came from, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has begun sending out new testing guidance to health care workers, the top CDC official said Thursday.
A patient in California who has cornonavirus didn't travel anywhere known to have the virus, the CDC announced Wednesday night. And the patient wasn't exposed to anyone known to be infected.
The patient is in serious condition, Rep. John Garamendi, who represents the district in California where the patient is from, told CNN's "OutFront with Erin Burnett.
"Whether this person can actually talk or not is of question. She's been intubated, and so may not be in a position to discuss it," he said.
Earlier in the outbreak, CDC guidance to doctors in the United States was that a patient had to have a travel history to China or be a close contact of someone who had been there before being tested, CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield said.
A government whistle-blower has informed lawmakers that federal health workers had contact with Americans quarantined for possible exposure to the virus, even though they weren’t given proper medical training or protective gear — then they went back into the general population.
As should be expected with this administration, the bearer of bad news will be punished. I’m sure it’s just a matter of time until some Trump sycophant decides to prove their loyalty by releasing the name and home address of the whistleblower.
From the Washington Post:
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.
The whistleblower has decades of experience in the field, received two HHS department awards from Azar last year and has received the highest performance evaluations, her lawyers said.
The complaint was filed Wednesday with the Office of the Special Counsel, an independent federal watchdog agency. The whistleblower’s lawyers provided a copy of a redacted 24-page complaint to The Washington Post. A spokesman for the Office of the Special Counsel confirmed that it has received the complaint and assigned the case.
And when in doubt, the administration’s defenders are blaming Democrats and/or impending socialism for the current crisis.
From the Washington Post:
But the “real” threat might be Bernie Sanders, the front-runner in the Democratic primary, not coronavirus, according to Fox Business host Stuart Varney.
“The real driver [of the stock markets’ 10 percent fall over the past four days] is obviously the spreading virus,” Varney said. “There’s no question about that. But politics is a factor. And if you see a Bernie Sanders presidency or a Democrat presidency looming at you, as the president says, anything can happen in an election. No matter how remote, you’re going to get worried if you’re an investor.”
Limbaugh connected the virus and Sanders, too, judging the latter to be more worrisome: “There’s no question that Bernie Sanders poses a far greater threat to this country and the Democrat party than the coronavirus — and I mean to say that,” he said Wednesday.
“The Democrat Party, as it’s currently constituted, poses a much greater threat to this country than the coronavirus does. And you can quote me on that.”
Historian John M Barry, an expert on the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic wrote in the Smithsonian Magazine 2 years ago on lessons of why that outbreak was so deadly.
His conclusion: government officials, desperate to keep morale up during WWI, didn't tell the truth. And because they lied, more people died.
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Looking for more news and information on the CoronaVirus/Covid-19? Tom Jones at the Poynter Report listed media outlets where people can get news sans the Fox News kind of spin:
The New York Times is offering constant live updates on one webpage, including a particularly useful FAQ section with questions such as “What is coronavirus?” and “How worried should I be?” The site also includes an interactive map that's tracking where the coronavirus has been confirmed and where travelers should avoid. It has dozens of well-sources stories with no political agenda or opinion —just fact-based reports.
Like the Times, The Wall Street Journal has a live coverage coronavirus page, including its possible impact on the stock market.
NPR has a guide on how to prepare your home for the coronavirus. And, of course, the Washington Post’s coverage is superb.
There are plenty of other places as well — NBC.com, CBS.com, CNN.com and the Associated Press to name a few — with coronavirus-specific pages providing constant updates. All appear to have responsible, straight-forward coverage that deals in facts.
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