Tag: Trump COVID-19 response

Here’s Who Got Rich From Trump’s Disastrous Response To The Pandemic

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Now that we’re all unmasking and the economy seems set to roar into the 2020s, what will we remember about how disastrously, how malignantly, the Trump administration behaved as the pandemic took hold? And will anyone be held to account for it?

The instinct to forget pandemics, as I’ve pointed out when it came to the 1918 “Spanish flu,” has historically been strong indeed. In these years, the urge to forget official malfeasance and move on has, it turns out, been at least as strong. Washington’s failure to investigate and bring to account those who led the nation and ultimately the world into the folly of the Iraq War may be the most egregious recent example of this.

In the end, that’s why I wrote my new book Virus — to memorialize a clear and accessible historical record of the deliberate and deadly decision-making that swept us all into a kind of hell. I had the urge to try to stop what happened to us from being instantly buried in the next round of daily reporting or, as appears likely now, relegated to the occasional voluminous government or foundation report on how to do things better. Continue reading.

Trump’s Operation Warp Speed promised a flood of covid vaccines. Instead, states are expecting a trickle.

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The administration pledged several hundred million doses in 2020. Companies will actually ship about 10 percent of that.

Federal officials have slashed the amount of coronavirus vaccine they plan to ship to states in December because of constraints on supply, sending local officials into a scramble to adjust vaccination plans and highlighting how early promises of a vast stockpile before the end of 2020 have fallen short.

Instead of the delivery of 300 million or so doses of vaccine immediately after emergency-use approval and before the end of 2020 as the Trump administration had originally promised, current plans call for availability of around a tenth of that, or 35 to 40 million doses.

Two vaccines, from manufacturers Pfizer and Moderna, which both use a novel form of mRNA to help trigger immune response, are on the verge of winning Food and Drug Administration clearance this month. Approval would cap an unprecedented sprint by government and drug companies to develop, test and manufacture a defense against the worst pandemic in a century — part of the Operation Warp Speed initiative that promised six companies advance purchase orders totaling $9.3 billion. Continue reading.

DFL Party Criticizes Trump & MN GOP for Infecting Minnesotans with COVID-19 at Trump Rally

SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA – Today, the Minnesota DFL Party sharply criticized the state Republican Party and Trump campaign for holding a rally that wound up infecting nine Minnesotans with COVID-19, landing two people in the hospital, and sending one individual to the I.C.U.

The DFL Party has previously criticized the Minnesota GOP for holding maskless political events. The Minnesota GOP Chairwoman, Jennifer Carnahan, responded on Twitter by bragging about not wearing masks at political events. 

DFL Party Chairman Ken Martin released the following statement:

“From the start of this pandemic, Donald Trump and Minnesota Republicans have ignored public health experts and put their re-elections ahead of the health of Minnesotans. It was only a matter of time until the dangerous, maskless campaign events staged by Donald Trump and Minnesota Republicans landed Minnesotans in the hospital. 

Continue reading “DFL Party Criticizes Trump & MN GOP for Infecting Minnesotans with COVID-19 at Trump Rally”

Trump’s narcissism has never been more glaringly apparent

When someone tells you who they are, believe them. It’s one of those mom-approved aphorisms that belies the wisdom beneath it. If someone makes clear over several decades in public life that they are image-obsessed, that they are capable of violence against others, what conclusion may we draw about them? Is it that they are a generally compassionate person capable of empathy, or that they are terminally narcissistic, if not borderline cruel?

Donald Trump told us who he was, over and over again. He told us when he painted all Mexicans as rapists in 2015, when he made misogyny a staple of his campaign in 2016, when he tried to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. in 2017, when he disparaged several African nations as “shithole countries” in 2018, when he proclaimed himself the “chosen one” in 2019, and when he let nearly 210,000 Americans (and counting) die in 2020. His ascent has never been about protecting all Americans, or even most Americans. It’s been about protecting Donald Trump, and keeping him and those like him in power.

So when the U.S. was beset by a deadly once-in-a-generation pandemic, it should’ve come as no surprise that President Trump’s first instinct was to downplay it in public, so as not to panic his voters or the precious markets. It makes sense that he turned basic public health guidelines into a partisan issue— that under his watch, care for your fellow humans became sinister virtue-signaling. And it was absolutely inevitable that just when it seemed like the narrative had run its course, that the virus was receding in America after months of agony, the president himself would contract it — and in fact be the host of one of the infamous superspreader events that give illnesses like coronavirus new life. Continue reading.

‘Confusion, Fear And Distrust’: U.S. Hospitals Slam Federal Coronavirus Response In Watchdog Report

Topline: An internal government watchdog reportreleased Monday offers the first glimpse into the Department of Health and Human Services’ response to the coronavirus outbreak, with hospitals saying conflicting guidance, along with equipment shortages, has left healthcare workers feeling their safety isn’t insured while treating COVID-19 patients.

  • The report was conducted from March 22 to March 27, with 323 hospitals surveyed.
  • The report describes severe equipment shortages, with hospitals unable to obtain the masks and protective gear required to keep workers safe.
  • Faulty or expired equipment was received by some hospitals, with one describing the elastic bands on N95 masks as having rotted, or were sized for children, instead of adults.
  • Thermometer shortages also left hospitals unable to take employees’ temperatures, the report said, leaving them unable to monitor staff for signs of the coronavirus.
  • A shortage of testing kits was also reported, with wait times for results up to one week, decreasing bed availability in hospitals and forcing workers to use up more protective gear.
  • Ventilator shortages left hospitals scrambling to repurpose anesthesia machines or double up patients on one machine, the report said, with hospitals fearing “difficult decisions about ethical allocation and liability.” Continue reading.

Trump suggests keeping coronavirus death toll to 100,000 would be sign of success

Axios logoPresident Trump told a press briefing Sunday the U.S. coronavirus death toll could have reached 2.2 million without social distancing restrictions, and it would signal “we all together have done a very good job” if the number is limited to 100,000–200,000.

Why it matters: Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN earlier Sunday that models suggest COVID-19 could kill 100,000–200,000 Americans, though he stressed the projections are a “moving target.” Trump said it’s a “horrible number,” but it could it have been worse were it not for the restrictions and the $2.2 trillion stimulus package he signed into law Friday. View the post with video here.

Illinois Governor Says Trump Aide ‘Yelled’ At Him For Complaint On Airport Chaos

Governors are “on our own” because federal officials have “fallen down” in responding to the coronavirus, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) was looking for help from the Trump administration to deal with Chicago’s dangerously crowded O’Hare Airport amid stepped-up screening for the coronavirus ― crowds that made impossible the social distancing urged by health officials.

Instead, Pritzker said an aide to President Donald Trump “yelled at me about the tweet” the governor had posted complaining about the situation.

“Here’s what I got. I got a call at about 11:00 last night after that tweet from a White House staffer who yelled at me about the tweet. That is what I got,” Pritzker said when asked on NBC’s “Meet The Press” about any “reassurance” he received from the Trump administration. Continue reading.

Hearing on coronavirus ends abruptly as White House tells experts to come to ’emergency meeting’

AlterNet logoOn Wednesday morning, medical experts, including National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Dr. Anthony Fauci and the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Robert Redfield, were testifying before the House Oversight Committee on what to expect from the coronavirus epidemic in the United States. According to Fauci, “The bottom line: It is going to get worse.” Again and again, the information provided in the hearing completely contradicted the rosy statements that have been coming from Donald Trump and other White House officials and warned of a dire situation ahead.

But before the House could learn too many details, the hearing ended in an abrupt and astounding manner, as the witnesses simply got up and left. At 11:30 ET, Oversight Committee Chair Rep. Carolyn Maloney was told that the witnesses had to depart. In an attempt to explain what was happening, Fauci said they were going to an “emergency meeting” at the White House. Then, to add extra confusion, the White House immediately claimed that the meeting was not an emergency … it was just something that Fauci and Redfield didn’t know about and that was so urgent that they had to leave in the middle of congressional testimony.

On Tuesday, Trump appeared before the nation and assured everyone, “It will go away, just stay calm.” But before his testimony was cut off, Dr. Fauci made a number of statements that were exactly counter to everything that Trump, Mike Pence, and the whole galaxy of Fox News surrogates have been trying to pass off on the nation. Continue reading.

Response to coronavirus could test limits of government powers

The Hill logoCoronavirus lockdowns abroad are raising questions about the upper limits of government power as health officials in the U.S. and around the world scramble to slow the spread of infection.

The U.S. public health toolbox contains a host of potential measures, ranging from gentle prodding over hand washing, to more severe actions like prohibitions on large gatherings and even sharp restrictions on the movement of infected individuals.

“In the U.S., quarantine is the most extreme use of government power over people who have committed no crime,” said Polly Price, a professor of law and global health at Emory University. Continue reading.