Tag: coronavirus pandemic

Gov. Cuomo hits back with condescending mockery after Trump’s attack

AlterNet logoNew York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been enjoying a great deal of praise from Democrats — as well from some Never Trump conservatives — for the leadership he has shown during the coronavirus pandemic. On Friday, however, President Donald Trump accused Cuomo of being a complainer rather than a leader, and Cuomo responded with biting commentary of his own.

New York City has been hit especially hard by the pandemic in recent weeks. Researchers at John Hopkins University in Baltimore were reporting, on Friday afternoon, that more than 11,400 people had died from coronavirus in the region. And Cuomo has been stressing that NYC’s hospitals are absolutely overwhelmed.

Friday on Twitter, Trump posted, “Governor Cuomo should spend more time ‘doing’ and less time ‘complaining.’ Get out there and get the job done. Stop talking! We built you thousands of hospital beds that you didn’t need or use, gave large numbers of Ventilators that you should have had, and helped you with testing that you should be doing. We have given New York far more money, help and equipment than any other state, by far, & these great men & women who did the job never hear you say thanks. Your numbers are not good. Less talk and more action!” Continue reading.

Trump sparks debate over merits of voting by mail

The Hill logoPresident Trump is taking a hard stand against expanding alternatives to in-person voting amid the coronavirus pandemic, arguing that mail-in voting risks “tremendous potential for fraud” and hands an advantage to Democrats.

While voting rights and elections experts say there may be some truth to Trump’s claim that mail-in voting is more susceptible to fraud, they note that electoral fraud of any form is exceedingly rare. And they say there are security measures that can mitigate those risks.

At the same time, experts argued that policymakers should be wary of restricting an already-existing alternative to in-person voting that has the potential to expand the electorate and limit the spread of the coronavirus. Continue reading.

Trump is spreading false hope for a virus cure — and that’s not the only damage

Washington Post logoDURING THE first two weeks of March, 20 patients suffering from the new coronavirus at a hospital in Marseille, France, participated in a preliminary study to see if the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine had any effect on the disease, in some cases combined with an antibiotic, azithromycin. Sixteen people who didn’t get the drugs were enlisted as controls. After six days, the study found that 57.1 percent of patients who got hydroxychloroquine were cured, and 100 percent of those who got both drugs were cleared of the virus — compared to only 12.5 percent of the control group. Soon after it was published, this result was advertised by President Trump as “a real chance to be one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine.”

Not so fast. Such success does not usually occur overnight. Widespread testing for drug safety and efficacy is essential. The French result does not mean this drug is ready for use against the coronavirus, nor should a world ridden with anxiety about pandemic illness and death rest its hopes on this unproven possibility. There may be a “wonder” drug at the end of the rainbow, but we are not there yet.

The French results, reported by Dr. Didier Raoult and colleagues in the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents on March 20, were from a tiny group of people. Normally in the United States, a set of controlled clinical trials would be required before a drug is approved by the Food and Drug Administration: Phase 1 to determine overall safety and dosage; Phase 2 (about 100 people) to see if effective and safe compared with other compounds; Phase 3 (a large group) to test efficacy and side effects. Continue reading.