Tag: Trump botched COVID-19 response

Two Presidents, Two Messages, One Killer Virus

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In split-screen assessments of the coronavirus pandemic, President Trump focused on the “medical miracle” of vaccines and President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. warned of a “very dark winter.”

WASHINGTON — One president all but declared victory over the pandemic, hailing new vaccines as a “medical miracle” and congratulating himself for doing what “nobody has ever seen before.” The next president declared the pandemic deadlier than ever, calling it a “mass casualty” event that is leaving “a gaping hole” in America with more misery to come.

“We’re here to discuss a monumental national achievement,” President Trump boasted on one screen. “From the instant the coronavirus invaded our shores, we raced into action.”

“We’re in a very dark winter,” President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. said minutes later in his own speech on another screen. “Things may well get worse before they get better.” Continue reading.

Trump Must Go, But He Plans To Kill Grandma First

Team Trump is trying to force our nation’s low-income elderly, blind and disabled out of their own homes and into death trap nursing homes during the coronavirus pandemic.

Joseph Hunt, who has since left the Justice Department, represented the Trump administration in a California lawsuit over Trump efforts to weaken working conditions for low-paid aides who help our nation’s elderly and disabled stay in their homes. The workers, mostly female, do chores like cooking meals, changing adult diapers and helping with baths.

Hunt asked federal Judge Vince Chhabria to throw out the lawsuit brought by California and five other states. Chhabria, an Obama appointee, heard arguments on the case in February but has not yet ruled. Continue reading.

Trump officials promise fair distribution of new covid-19 antibody drug, but limited supply and logistical problems loom

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The federal government is ready to distribute 80,000 doses this week.

Trump administration officials Tuesday promised to fairly and swiftly distribute the first covid-19 treatment that helps to protect people with mild illness from developing severe symptoms. But the drug’s extremely limited supply and logistical difficulties in administering it could restrict how many people get access to it.

The Eli Lilly & Co. drug is similar to an experimental treatment President Trump received when he was infected with the novel coronavirus. It is a laboratory-brewed antibody that imitates the immune system’s attack on the virus.

The federal government Monday granted emergency use authorization for the drug, seen as a powerful tool that could save people from developing the worst symptoms of covid-19 until a vaccine against the novel coronavirus is widely available. Continue reading.

The long-term health impact of COVID-19 is only now being understood — and it’s not pretty: study

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Doctors are discovering that the millions of Americans who managed to survive the COVID-19 pandemic are left with long-standing problems, and they have no idea just how long they will last.

The Wall Street Journal reported an August BMJ study that after nearly a year fighting off the coronavirus, they’re discovering that those who made it through the virus are still having problems with “severe fatigue, memory lapses, digestive problems, erratic heart rates, headaches, dizziness, fluctuating blood pressure, even hair loss.” For some so-called long-haulers who still have symptoms after months of having the virus, taste and smell still haven’t returned.

As the pandemic rages, the raw numbers show a picture of survivors and victims of the virus, but few explore the lasting health impact that some continue to experience. Continue reading.

A Maryland family battled covid-19 at the same time as Trump. It devastated them.

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Marine One landed on the White House lawn just before dusk. As its rotors came to a halt, the helicopter’s door swung open and out stepped Donald Trump.

The president had just spent three days in Walter Reed National Military Medical Center recovering from covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. And in a scene that would be set to dramatic music and tweeted to his 87 million followers, he climbed the steps to a White House balcony, took off his face mask and recorded a video urging the country not to fear the deadly disease.

“Don’t let it dominate you,” he said into a camera on the evening of Oct. 5. “. . . We have the best medical equipment. We have the best medicines. All developed recently. And you’re going to beat it.”

Thirty miles away, Carlton Coates Jr. sat in an Annapolis funeral home, staring at the casket that contained the body of his older sister. Continue reading.

A powerful argument for wearing a mask, in visual form

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Real-time pandemic data paints a vivid picture of the relationship between mask-wearing and the prevalence of covid-19 symptoms

Despite the clear opposition to masks within the Trump White House and among its allies, Americans of all political stripes overwhelmingly support their use as a public health measure and say they wear them whenever they’re in public.

Still, there are significant differences in mask-use rates at the state level. And data from Carnegie Mellon’s CovidCast, an academic project tracking real-time coronavirus statistics, yields a particularly vivid illustration of how mask usage influences the prevalence of covid-19 symptoms in a given area. Take a look.

Continue reading.

White House looks at cutting Covid funds, newborn screenings in ‘anarchist’ cities

Documents show funding for a host of health programs is at risk under the president’s order targeting liberal strongholds. 

The White House is considering slashing millions of dollars for coronavirus relief, HIV treatment, screenings for newborns and other programs in Democratic-led cities that President Donald Trump has deemed “anarchist jurisdictions,” according to documents obtained by POLITICO.

New York, Portland, Ore., Washington, D.C., and Seattle could lose funding for a wide swath of programs that serve their poorest, sickest residents after the president moved last month to restrict funding, escalating his political battle against liberal cities he’s sought to use as a campaign foil.

The Department of Health and Human Services has identified federal grants covering those services, which are among the nearly 200 health programs that could be in line for cuts as part of a sweeping government-wide directive the administration is advancing during the final weeks of the presidential campaign and amid an intensifying pandemic Trump has downplayed. Continue reading.

Trump ends ‘60 Minutes’ interview, attacks Lesley Stahl on Twitter

The president, reportedly frustrated by the line of questioning, said he was considering posting the interview before airtime “for the sake of accuracy in reporting.”

At the White House on Tuesday afternoon, President Donald Trump ended a fiery interview taping with CBS News’ “60 Minutes,” proceeded to launch an attack against the interviewer on Twitter for not wearing a mask, and threatened to post the interview before it aired.

The drama unfolded after Trump was frustrated with the line of questioning and how the interview was being conducted, said one person familiar with the episode, while another in the room described the president as “pissed.”

The president spent more than 40 minutes with CBS News correspondent Lesley Stahl, and did not proceed to shoot a second portion of the interview that included Vice President Mike Pence. Following a short break, the president decided he had spent enough time in the interview, one White House official said. Pence went on to spend 15 minutes with Stahl and the “60 Minutes” crew. Continue reading.

Inside the Fall of the CDC

How the world’s greatest public health organization was brought to its knees by a virus, the president and the capitulation of its own leaders, causing damage that could last much longer than the coronavirus.

At 7:47 a.m. on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, Dr. Jay Butler pounded out a grim email to colleagues at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Butler, then the head of the agency’s coronavirus response, and his team had been trying to craft guidance to help Americans return safely to worship amid worries that two of its greatest comforts — the chanting of prayers and singing of hymns — could launch a deadly virus into the air with each breath.

The week before, the CDC had published its investigation of an outbreak at an Arkansas church that had resulted in four deaths. The agency’s scientific journal recently had detailed a superspreader event in which 52 of the 61 singers at a 2½-hour choir practice developed COVID-19. Two died. Continue reading.