Tag: Trump mishandled pandemic response

Ford and GM are undertaking a warlike effort to produce ventilators. It may fall short and come too late.

Washington Post logoPresident Trump is firing the intelligence community inspector general whose insistence on telling lawmakers about a whistle-blower complaint about his dealings with Ukraine triggered impeachment proceedings last fall, the president told lawmakers in a letter late Friday.

The move came as Mr. Trump announced his intent to name a White House aide as the independent watchdog for $500 billion in corporate pandemic aid and notified Congress of other nominees to inspector general positions, including one that would effectively oust the newly named chairman of a panel to oversee how the government spends $2 trillion in coronavirus relief.

The slew of late-night announcements, coming as the world’s attention is gripped by the coronavirus pandemic, raised the specter of a White House power play over the community of inspectors general, independent officials whose mission is to root out waste, fraud and abuse within the government. Continue reading.

Trump administration ended pandemic early-warning program to detect coronaviruses

Two months before the novel coronavirus is thought to have begun its deadly advance in Wuhan, China, the Trump administration ended a $200-million pandemic early-warning program aimed at training scientists in China and other countries to detect and respond to such a threat.

The project, launched by the U.S. Agency for International Development in 2009, identified 1,200 different viruses that had the potential to erupt into pandemics, including more than 160 novel coronaviruses. The initiative, called PREDICT, also trained and supported staff in 60 foreign laboratories — including the Wuhan lab that identified SARS-CoV-2, the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

Field work ceased when the funding ran out in September, and organizations that worked on the PREDICT program laid off dozens of scientists and analysts, said Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance, a key player in the program. Continue reading.

Commander of confusion: Trump sows uncertainty and seeks to cast blame in coronavirus crisis

Washington Post logoIn the three weeks since declaring the novel coronavirus outbreak a national emergency, President Trump has delivered a dizzying array of rhetorical contortions, sowed confusion and repeatedly sought to cast blame on others.

History has never known a crisis response as strong as his own, Trump says — yet the self-described wartime presidentclaims he is merely backup. He has faulted governors for acting too slowly and, as he did Thursday, has accused overwhelmed state and hospital officials of complaining too much and of hoarding supplies.

America is winning its war with the coronavirus, the president says — yet the death toll rises still, and in the best-case scenario more Americans will die than in the wars in Vietnam, Korea, Afghanistan and Iraq combined. Continue reading.

Howard Stern: ‘My buddy’ Donald Trump ‘thinks he’s the best president there ever was’ — but he ‘doesn’t give one sh*t about public service’

AlterNet logoHoward Stern had Donald Trump on his radio show numerous times before Trump decided to intrude on our lives like a painful rash that won’t go away — and he allowed the future IMPOTUS to embarrass himself over and over again.

So Stern knows Trump pretty well, and he also knows that Trump is a grade A narcissist and a phony.

But the veteran shock jock still seemed taken aback by Trump’s recent boasting about his coronavirus carnival ratings: Continue reading.

White House expected to urge Americans to wear face coverings in public to slow spread of coronavirus

Washington Post logo Free article The White House is poised to urge Americans to wear cloth masks or face coverings in public to help prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, in a reversal of earlier advice.

President Trump said Thursday at a coronavirus task force briefing that “a recommendation is coming out,” but “I don’t think it will be mandatory. If people want to wear them, they can.” Vice President Pence, who heads the task force, confirmed new guidance would be released in “coming days.”

Later, however, a White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to relate internal discussions, said that the guidance being considered is “narrowly targeted to areas with high community transmission” and that the matter remains under discussion. Continue reading. 

Here are the 4 most stunning revelations about Jared Kushner’s ever-growing role in Trump’s coronavirus response

AlterNet logoAs the worldwide death toll from the coronavirus pandemic surges past 48,500 (according to figures reported by John Hopkins University in Baltimore early Thursday morning, April 2) and the United States becomes #3 in deaths from COVID-19 (behind only Italy and Spain), President Donald Trump is trying to give the impression that he is being as proactive as possible. Gone are the days when Trump irresponsibly described the pandemic as a “hoax” and made the ludicrous claim that Democrats and Never Trump conservatives were exaggerating its dangers. And Trump’s efforts to appear proactive are asserting themselves not only with his coronavirus task force (which includes medical experts Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx), but also, with a separate coronavirus team led by White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner (the president’s son-in-law).

Kushner’s activities during the pandemic are the focus of an in-depth articlewritten by journalists Adam Cancryn and Dan Diamond and published in Politico this week. According to Cancryn and Diamond, “What started two-and-a-half weeks ago as an effort to utilize the private sector to fix early testing failures has become an all-encompassing portfolio for Kushner, who…. has taken charge of the most important challenges facing the federal government: expanding test access, ramping up industry production of needed medical supplies, and figuring out how to get those supplies to key locations.”

Here are some of the most important points from Politico and other media outlets about Kushner’s role in the Trump Administration’s response to coronavirus: Continue reading.

 

Dire projections put new focus on Trump coronavirus response

The Hill logoDire projections of U.S. deaths from the coronavirus are placing new scrutiny on the Trump administration’s initial response while prompting questions about whether faster action could have lowered the death toll.

The White House presented sobering numbers on Tuesday that the best-case scenario with full mitigation measures in place is between 100,000 and 240,000 deaths in the United States. Those figures would exceed the U.S. death toll from the Vietnam War and Korean War combined.

The numbers have raised questions specifically about why the U.S. was slow to roll out tests to identify the virus, while bringing new criticism on President Trump for downplaying the virus’s threat earlier this year. Continue reading.

Pelosi should ‘stand down’ on passing another rescue bill in House, McConnell says

Washington Post logoOne week after the Senate unanimously passed a $2 trillion emergency relief bill aimed at limiting the financial trauma from the coronavirus pandemic, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said he would move slowly on considering any follow-up legislation and would ignore the latest efforts by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to jump-start talks.

McConnell’s sweeping dismissal of Pelosi’s urgent call for action underscored the uncertainty and fierce political warfare in Congress as the coronavirus outbreak shuts down much of the nation and throttles the economy, with little consensus on what should follow the biggest rescue package in U.S. history and lingering tensions from those negotiations between McConnell and Pelosi.

“She needs to stand down on the notion that we’re going to go along with taking advantage of the crisis to do things that are unrelated to the crisis,” McConnell said in an interview with The Washington Post, calling the speaker’s recent comments about a fourth round of virus-related legislation “premature.”  Continue reading.

Fauci given security detail after receiving threats

The Hill logoDr. Anthony Fauci, one of the most visible figures on the White House coronavirus task force, has been given a security detail after receiving threats, a person familiar with the matter confirmed to The Hill.

Fauci did not directly answer when asked by The Hill at Wednesday’s press briefing if he’d been given additional protection, deferring the question to the Department of Health and Human Services inspector general.

A second person familiar with the situation said the additional security was under discussion last month and was likely implemented in recent days. Continue reading.