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Sunday, June 28, 2020

2020.0628.0008...

Click on headline to read entire, somewhat long, article.


Admittedly, you might notice that I cherry-pick the text that makes this administration and its lying, fat-ass loser, fearless leader look bad...


With Trump leading the way, America’s coronavirus failures exposed by record surge in new infections


Five months after the novel coronavirus was first detected in the United States, a record surge in new cases is the clearest sign yet of the country’s historic failure to control the virus — exposing a crisis in governance extending from the Oval Office to state capitals to city councils.

President Trump — who has repeatedly downplayed the virus, sidelined experts and misled Americans about its dangers and potential cures — now finds his presidency wracked by an inability to shepherd the country through its worst public health calamity in a century. The dysfunction that has long characterized Trump’s White House has been particularly ill-suited for a viral outbreak that requires precision, focus and steady leadership, according to public health experts, administration officials and lawmakers from both parties.

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“They’re creating a cognitive dissonance in the country,” one former senior administration official said. “It’s more than them being asleep at the wheel. They’re confusing people at this point when we need to be united.”

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Some states are still struggling to procure testing kits and supplies for the kits, including swabs, and have pleaded for the federal government to play a larger role in coordinating purchases, resolving supply shortages and distributing the tests. Doctors and health-care facilities are still grappling with shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE), including private doctors’ offices that cannot perform routine procedures safely because they do not have the necessary equipment, according to the American Medical Association.

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The White House has played a central role in undermining the kind of clear and consistent messaging experts say is necessary to mount a successful public health response to a viral outbreak, current and former administration officials said.

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Others without a background in public health, including Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, have played an outsized role in guiding the federal response. Just last month, Kushner told others involved in the response that the virus was essentially under control and that there would be no second wave, a former administration official said.

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Publicly, GOP lawmakers remain largely supportive of Trump’s handling of the pandemic, declining to put any blame on him or the federal response for the upward trend in infections. They generally say the decision-making responsibility now lies with state governments, and that individual citizens bear the onus for responsible behavior to hold down infections.

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Thomas Dobbs, Mississippi’s top health officer, told residents recently to be prepared for a lack of a hospital bed if they crash their cars or a lack of ventilators if they suffer a heart attack.

“If we’re not careful,” he said, “Mississippi will look like New York.”



Click on headline to read entire article...


In a week that saw the worst day on record for new cases, Trump shrugs as experts warn Americans not to follow his lead

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Unbelievable accurately describes America today. The country is on the brink of a huge surge of Covid-19, as the virus tears through the heartlands while the president praises himself for having done “a great job” and blithely predicts the scourge will “fade away”.

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“It’s getting worse, not better,” said Frieden, who now heads the global health initiative Resolve to Save Lives. “The contrast with other countries is striking. South Korea had 30 cases a day and they flipped out. The US now has 30,000 cases a day and there are people shrugging and saying ‘It’s no big deal’.”


Trump is shrugger-in-chief. When the president lured thousands of non-mask wearing supporters to a viral incubation party – he called it a rally – in Tulsa, Oklahoma, last Saturday, he told them that in his view testing for coronavirus was a “double-edged sword… When you do testing you are going to find more cases. So I told my people, slow the testing down.”

Despite White House efforts to pass the comment off as a joke, it encapsulates the Trump administration’s approach towards this devastating crisis. Early on, Trump failed to marshal the full weight of the most powerful government on Earth against the virus. He lost six critical weeks.

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The most worrying aspect of the tone being set by Trump is that it is starting to shift the mindset of ordinary Americans. Everywhere you look there are anecdotal signs of people falling in line with the president – shrugging and saying it’s no big deal.

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On social media, people rant about masks as “muzzles” and “badges of submission”. “People get really angry about it, resisting even their doctors asking them to wear it,” Harper said. “They don’t see a protective device, as something that can save the people around you, they see it as an instrument of control.”

All across the country, similar acts of personal rebellion are playing out. Residents of Palm Beach, Florida, erupted in anger against a mandatory mask order, calling it the “devil’s law” and an affront to “God’s breathing system”.

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The good news is that scientists are very clear about what needs to be done. Frieden calls it the three Ws –

Wear a mask, Wash your hands, Watch your distance

– combined with aggressive testing, contact tracing and isolation of the sick.


If such measures can be introduced concertedly and quickly, both at federal and state level, public health experts are confident that all is not lost. The contagion could be contained and the economy slowly and relatively safely rebooted.

But time is running out for America.

“This is a long war and we are losing a lot of battles right now, because we are not fighting them,” Frieden said. “We are going to be paying for the mistakes we make today for months, or even years, to come.”

8 comments:

  1. Hi....
    Here in the UK, I have observed with great fear what has been happening in the US, we here have not got everything right in dealing with terrible virus, our government coming in for much flack over the way it has been handling the crisis. However, I don't believe it could have done anything further, save for perhaps placing us into 'lockdown' a bit sooner and perhaps 'releasing the brake' a bit slower. We have had 80 days so far of restrictions, earlier in a 'Stay Home' save for essential journeys, now less stringent and soon to be much looser. Many deaths attributed to Covid and it's connected effects, perhaps localised lockdowns required should 'hotspots' occur? The UK has paid up to 80% of 'furloughed' workers wages from March if required until September probably? We will be paying for this for decades, but this has probably saved 10's of 1,000's of lives in the process of not letting the virus 'rip' through the country, something sadly I think we are seeing in your dear country? We are not out of danger by any means either here in the UK or anywhere in the world, and the future remains unsure. Hope for the best, plan for the worst but, Stay Safe everyone!

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  2. Nicely put together. Here, in Minnesota, we are fortunately seeing a down tick. Also, because Gov. Walz acted quickly, we have been able to keep our numbers relatively low. Now people are blaming Walz for businesses that failed during the shutdown, demanding he resign. Well, I am thinking those businesses probably suffered from poor management of funds, if they couldn't weather something as brief as our period of closure. I don't understand the resistance to life saving measures - practices that are truly simply common sense. But people hate being told what to do. That's human nature I guess. Remember when libs were referred to as clucks? Yeah, that mentality. It's the mindset that put Trump in the White House to begin with. I don't want to see anyone die unnecessarily, but... if you are going to behave stupidly? Survival of the fittest. And smart wins every time.

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  3. We too have been socially distancing from each other (6 feet basically) since March, infection rates have reduced sufficiently to reduce this to 3 feet soon, where possible with mitigating effects in place, testing in force if you exhibit symptoms and self isolate for 14 days also. We are relaxing most rules from 4th July, a little concerned that common sense will go out the window from then on?

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  4. bobbert & uptonking - Thank you for these insightful comments! It's very unnerving to see what's going on in our government. They obviously have very little common sense and only their political futures at heart.

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  5. Sadly Rick....it seems in many other ways too, it's all about 're-election'...?
    Our Prime Minister Boris has had first hand experience of what it is contract this virus, nearly losing his life to it...in many ways simple and thorough hand washing, keeping a safe distance, being courteous when one coughs or sneezes (hopefully into a tissue which is then binned or at last resort use the crook of your elbow) and simply being aware of crowded, indoor cool environments, loud voices and just plain common sense, can mitigate but never eliminate the risks. We'll have to ride this virus out until hopefully, but I fear it may never emerge a vaccine is developed, or the 'herd immunity' flattens the infection rates sufficient. Sadly how many will have to suffer from the latter will not be insignificant I feel? Stay safe my dear friends.

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  6. bobbert - You stay safe as well!

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  7. All I can say for those numbnuts who go to his rallies and refuse to wear masks: I hope they all get sick and die.
    Not very kind of me, I know. But it's the way I feel about them. 'Cause they certainly don't care about US.

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  8. whkattk - Them, and their fearless leader as well. And his ass-licking VP. And Mitchie, too.

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Nice you must be or delete your ass I will.