FEMA guidelines stipulate that states are to be the first line of defense in emergencies and are expected to respond accordingly:
Local governments are the first line of defense against emergencies and disasters and are primarily responsible for managing the response to and recovery from those events. At the local government level, the primary responsibility for protecting citizens belongs to local elected officials such as mayors, city councils, and boards of commissioners. When a local government receives warning that an emergency could be imminent, its first priority is to alert and warn citizens and take whatever actions are needed to minimize damage and protect life and property. If necessary, it may order an evacuation.
When an emergency or disaster does occur, fire and police units, emergency medical personnel, and rescue workers rush to damaged areas to provide aid. After this initial response, the local government must work to ensure public order and security. Vital services such as water, power, communications, transportation, shelter, and medical care must be provided, and debris removal must begin. Public and private utility company crews, along with other emergency teams, must be on the job to restore essential services. The local government coordinates its efforts with voluntary agencies who assist individuals and families in need.
Of course, the Federal government must act in concert when appropriate.
New York City- the current epicenter of COVID 19- proved itself far short of the goal in action and all too successful in the finger pointing exercise- a hapless Governor and a feckless Mayor.
A 2015 Task Force found that New York would be woefully unprepared in terms of ventilators should a Spanish flu type of pandemic strike. Cuomo did not choose to purchase more respirators and instead accepted a triage plan.
That task force came up with rules that will be imposed when ventilators run short. Patients assigned a red code will have the highest access, and other patients will be assigned green, yellow or blue (the worst) depending on a “triage officer’s” decision. In truth, a death officer. Let’s not sugarcoat it. It won’t be up to your own doctor.
Cuomo’s defense was “no else did either.”
“There’s no state in the United States that bought ventilators for the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. The federal government did not buy ventilators for the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. Nobody in the world bought ventilators in preparation for a 1918 Spanish flu pandemic.”
That’s true, but then blaming Trump is also wrong. Prior to the current crisis a Johns Hopkins study reported that New York did not have the average per capita number of ventilators available. Cuomo is demanding 30,000 ventilators and as of March 21 New York had 7,000 on hand.
This week the Trump administration shipped out 4000 more ventilators to New York. Other steps have been taken, including using one ventilator for two patients.
Right this very moment Cuomo is explaining why he believes he needs 30,000 ventilators and it is dependent on the worst case scenario. Dr. Deborah Brix, on the White House Corona Virus task force, says that number may not be necessary and is not necessary at the moment. The Huffington Post writes
Birx also said there were “over 1,000 to 2,000” available ventilators in the city, though she did not provide details on how and when hospitals were getting access to them.
As of yesterday, after dismissing Trump’s assertion that New York had many more ventilators than is currently needed, Cuomo had 12,000 ventilators on hand.
Watch Cuomo lie through his teeth here
Both Trump and Cuomo are realistically trying to the best they can, Cuomo could do with less posturing, less accusation and less lying. Trump and Cuomo have a relationship based on conflict with both ups and downs. At the moment Trump is moving heaven and earth for New York.
On the other hand, there is Mayor Feckless DeBlasio. I cannot understand how a quasi-intelligent person could vote for this moron. New York has absolutely failed its citizens miserably.
The clown Mayor of NY on March 2:
Since I’m encouraging New Yorkers to go on with your lives + get out on the town despite Coronavirus, I thought I would offer some suggestions. Here’s the first: thru Thurs 3/5 go see “The Traitor” @FilmLinc. If “The Wire” was a true story + set in Italy, it would be this film.
— Bill de Blasio (@BilldeBlasio) March 3, 2020
The NYC Health Commissioner on Feb. 2:
“The risk to New Yorkers from coronavirus is low and … our preparedness as a city is very high,” Barbot said at a Feb. 2 press conference supporting the Chinatown Lunar New Year Parade and Festival. “There is no reason not to take the subway, not to take a bus, not to go out to your favorite restaurant and certainly not to miss the parade next Sunday [Feb. 9].”
This is the NYC Health Commissioner on Feb. 7
NYC “Health Commissioner” Oxiris Barbot on Feb. 7th: “We’re telling New Yorkers, go about your lives, take the subway, go out, enjoy life” pic.twitter.com/28mhwdBCK4
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) March 27, 2020
Then within four days DeBlasio began screaming about Trump ignoring New York and he finally ordered some COVID supplies on March 6.
Mayor Bill de Blasio has blamed President Trump for the city’s severe shortage of COVID-19 supplies even though City Hall didn’t secure its first order for emergency protective gear until March 6, The Post has learned.
Officials with the city’s Office of Emergency Management tried to purchase nearly 200,000 n95 masks on Feb. 7, but weeks later they learned the vendors had already run out.
It was not until March 6 and March 10 — over two months after the coronavirus outbreak first hit China — that they finally secured the first emergency procurements of masks and hand sanitizer, according to the city comptroller’s office.
Feb. 10
De Blasio on Feb 10th: “We want to encourage” NYers going out. "If you’re under 50 & you’re healthy, which is most NYers, there’s very little threat here. This disease, even if you were to get it, basically acts like a common cold or flu. And transmission is not that easy." pic.twitter.com/CeGMKbnFtz
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) March 27, 2020
Lest you still doubt what an idiot DeBlasio is- this from March 17:
De Blasio, a failed 2020 presidential candidate, announced that the city would be shutting down restaurants, bars, and gyms on Monday and urged people not to go to those public spaces to combat potential exposure, but that did not stop him from going to the YMCA that morning for one last workout. A number of people expressed their frustration with the mayor, seeing his actions as an implicit double standard.
And this from Ben Domenech on Twitter
New York City continues to allow the COVID infection to spread. If you examine the lines of infection in the greater New York City region it becomes clear that it is spreading along commuter lines into Connecticut and into Eastern Long Island and is exploding in the city.
It’s all about mass transit.
Neither Cuomo nor DeBlasio has even broached the possibility of doing something with mass transit and that is why the Chinese Wuhan virus continues to rage in the NYC area. There are steps that must be taken to control the virus spread. Donald Trump hinted at the possibility of quarantining the tri-state area and Cuomo went ballistic.
Cuomo, in an interview with CNN, said that preventing people from moving in and out of the tri-state would amount to a federally imposed lockdown, which he believes is illegal.
“A lockdown is what they did in Wuhan, China,” Cuomo said. “We’re not in China, and we’re not in Wuhan. I don’t believe it would be legal. I believe it would be illegal.“
Great, but instead of staying home as recommended, New Yorkers are fleeing the city and smearing infection everywhere they go- Connecticut, Rhode Island and Florida. And that’s not all- they’re having Corona parties:
While most New Yorkers are hunkering in place, others are popping corks and staging parties that defy occupancy and social-distancing edicts.
Lucian Wintrich, a former White House reporter and advertisement hand, is one of them. The 31-year-old contrarian recently hosted a “corona potluck” at his small but chic East Village apartment.
“They can’t diagnose us all,” reads the invite Wintrich sent to a select group for the March 14 gathering. “Don’t wash your hands. … Bring your fav dish!” The tongue-in-cheek advert also included an image of a boy covered in chicken pox and a fork digging into a coronavirus spore.
“The majority of folks I invited, if they got it, would recover fairly quickly and build up an immunity to the present form of COVID19,” he said unapologetically. “It was relatively inspired by the chickenpox parties that were all the rage in the 90s.”
The problem is nothing Cuomo or DeBlasio is doing now is working. They are being entirely reactive and not proactive.
This is what I would do
1. Make everyone wear a mask. There are easily enough once a union admitted it was hoarding 39 million N95 masks coincidentally after AG Bill Barr said he would prosecute hoarders. If it can’t be N95 masks then any mask will do. Anyone not wearing one should be detained and quarantined. Put police in masks and face shields and allow them to hand the masks out.
2. Expand mass transit services – buses, trains and subways- such that social distancing can be observed. Disinfect them repeatedly. Hand out disinfectant wipes on each one.
Shutting down mass transit is the real answer but it could mortally wound the city. Cuomo might want to stop whining and stop ignoring the fact that New Yorkers are ignoring him.
Unless he simply wants to allow the disease to run its course.
And don’t tell me Trump’s the problem.
DrJohn has been a health care professional for more than 30 years. In addition to clinical practice he has done extensive research and has published widely with over 70 original articles and abstracts in the peer-reviewed literature. DrJohn is well known in his field and has lectured on every continent except for Antarctica. He has been married to the same wonderful lady for over 30 years and has three kids- two sons, both of whom are attorneys and one daughter on her way into the field of education.
DrJohn was brought up with the concept that one can do well if one is prepared to work hard but nothing in life is guaranteed.
Except for liberals being foolish.
Seeing how a pandemic of this magnitude has never before hit, it should come as no surprise that State, Local AND Federal disaster relief agencies are ALL overwhelmed. As this pandemic exceeds the tragedy of any other event in our experience, why WOULD FEMA or any other agency be prepared for such an unparalleled catastrophe.
Why are political factions fighting over this? COVID-19 isn’t Trump’s fault, neither is it Cuomo’s Fault or anyone else’s. Nobody was prepared for this, and nobody is. Thus far, COVID-19 continues to spread unchecked. Its numbers are on an exponential trajectory, with no end in sight. The hoped for “herd immunity” will require a good hundred million Americans to be infected before its effects become significant, a target that linear extrapolation indicates won’t be reached until sometime in July. By then, the healthcare infrastructure of the United States will have collapsed. All this UNLESS science has COVID-19 dead wrong.
Good GOD I hope it does.
the total population of NY state is 19,540,000(census 2018), the population of nyc census 2018 is 8,398,746; thus, nyc has 42.98% of the entire state’s population. cuomo or deblasio and the city elites have screwed this up so bad via long term corruption and self-serving politics. cuomo could not even dance around his insane ventilator excuse. he was lying like a true democrap let nyc rot. recall when slut hillary did to the state a senator; she killed nyc in taxes and special group interests.
@George Wells:
I agree but I would think you realize this is a highly partisan site with the sole purpose of deflecting blame from 1 side while using or creating any opportunity to blame the other side.
COVID-19 isn’t Trump’s fault. And while it really isn’t, or shouldn’t be the time to criticize the President, it doesn’t help when Trump uses every opportunity to gain a political edge while both down playing and blatantly lying about the situation. It doesn’t help that he rejects science and facts and relies on what appears to be his gut feelings. So while it isn’t the time to bash Trump, he makes that challenging on a daily basis of his handling of it.
Even with as much disdain as I have of Trump, I actually hope I’m wrong on how he’s dealing with this, that maybe he has some grasp and actually listening to knowledgeable professionals and that perhaps chaos, divisiveness, finger-pointing and deflecting blame is all he knows, just his way of dealing with anything. There’s just no realistic reason to believe that’s the case and until something points otherwise, he needs to be held accountable and loudly reprimanded by both parties as well as the media.
COVID-19 isn’t Trump’s fault. But it’s a time to either lead or get out of the way rather than being consumed about states in need being nice to him or how much of the $500 billion package he can successfully tuck away and hide.
It’s like Nancy Pelosi said today: “his denial at the beginning was deadly” and that as he now “fiddles, people are dying.” The denial from the beginning can be argued at another time. His fiddling at the moment needs to be addressed.
This is the liberal mindset: act irresponsibly and then expect the government to take care of you when your behavior catches up with you.
Nebriated Nancy held up the relief package for a week in order to sprinkle vote-buying pork around HER constituents (helping working people and saving jobs doesn’t impress those who support Nancy). The Kennedy Center took its $25,000,000 and ran, apparently.
https://dailycaller.com/2020/03/28/coronavirus-kennedy-center-musicians-bailout/?fbclid=IwAR1pR5TsSx8xhcZYspLiRVaAcIXyMBZcr9qiT7ZwYX2M-0HrIU9qQsVhYo4
But make sure you worry about how the money to protect workers, secure jobs and make sure the economy is ready to go when the quarantines are lifted is being spent; this is the kind of stuff liberals simply don’t understand.
@Ronald J. Ward:
Aside from your lie about Trump lying and down playing (see the quotes and actions of your beloved liberals above) you ARE capable of understanding that if Trump does a good job of facing this dual crisis (which he is) it helps his reelection? So, are you suggesting that, to give the idiot Biden advantage, he should do a BAD job or, at least, just throw his hands up, step away and go golfing like Obama did? I’m SURE you liberal crybabies wouldn’t find anything to criticize with that approach, would you?
You should have figured out by now that many are not as ignorant as you are.
@George Wells:
That has to be one of the dumbest statements you have ever made. It is estimated that the U.S. death toll from the 1918 Spanish flue is upwards of 675,000. That pandemic is still studied by the CDC in how pandemics spread.
@Ronald J. Ward:
Both Dr. Fauci and Dr. Brix has said, on multiple occasions, that President Trump is very receptive to their opinions and willing to do the things they advise. Continuing to parrott the lies of the left wing media, and Malig-Nancy Pelosi, is dishonesty in its purest form.
How so? New York has received 4,000 ventilators for a virus that Comrade De Blasio (Warren Wilhelm, Jr.) claimed was no threat to New Yorkers. Go about your business, ride the transit system, go to movies, etc. Considering that the State of New York has almost half the Chi-Com virus cases in the U.S., guess the Democrats that lead that state were the ones guilty of “fiddling.”
@Deplorable Me:
Of course, Malig-Nancy made sure that the study of sun screen was in the CARE Act. And that the National Endowment for the Arts got a bunch of money. I’m sure that really has a lot to do with Chi-Com virus treatment.
Cuomo is a perfect example of why Democrats should not be elected to run a Nation of a State or even a City their behavior is otaly idiotic and typical of a the Globalist plans force up to all stay home and open our Nations Borders
@retire05: Trump is accused of ignoring science yet the left claims, without any supporting data and ignoring what experts say, that Trump is going to get millions killed. Cuomo denies how the virus is spread, opposing quarantines on New Yorker’s that escape his state and the quarantine measures there. At least two Democrat governors forbid doctors from using what is proving to be an effective COVID-19 treatment to save lives.
But Trump denies science. Just keep repeating that until the proper level of hatred is built up.
[DELETED COMMENT FROM OUR RESIDENT SOCK PUPPET GARY MILLER]
@Nate Branch: Funny thing is, on much of the successful tactics, they agree with Trump. Of course, liberals have the luxury of being able to fall back on their propaganda arm known as “the media” to cover for their failures, helping to blame others for exactly what THEY do.
@Ronald J. Ward:
That’s all partisan, garbage rhetoric…and not remotely accurate. The impeachment distracted our government, the Dems held up aid for political agendas, and now they DARE to say cite the silly little Nero diddy? They are guilty of using the crisis to their advantage, and the Dem governors apparently don’t understand what it means to lead, if they are so quick to blame others.
Planting the false disinformation seed that Trump is “fiddling” is what you and your party are trying to do, but it’s not working.
Then stop f*cking doing it, you little piece of trash. You’re here because you think showing us how stupid you are is somehow furthering your party’s agenda. It’s not. There are numerous far-Left news sites that are the top results being given to eunuchs like you. It’s not enlightened, and it’s not even “thinking”. It’s indoctrination.
Your entire mind has been given to you by “highly partisan” sites, with the sole purpose of blaming, or hurting Trump politically.
You see the hopelessness of your cause, and how the public isn’t buying it…thus the ramp up of more blathering posts. Trump has you idiots beat, and you know it.
America burned while the Dems and their media played the fiddle.
See how easy that game is?
@Ronald J. Ward:
Yeah, I noticed that insulting the opposing side is priority #1 here, and I find that disappointing. Seeing how there aren’t more than a dozen or so contributing voices, and considering how surprisingly consistent they’ve stayed over the years I’ve watched, I wonder if I’m not just talking to one cluster of conservative patients who have access to one shared computer in one wing of one nursing home.
Some years ago I stumbled onto this site on the fourth page of a Google search of “gay marriage,” there being a few F.A. threads running on that subject at that time. I stayed for a while, thinking that the different sides of that DEBATE held potential interest, but left after it became clear that insults were really what everyone here specialized in.
As for finding fault with anyone’s response to COVID-19in as compared with the Spanish flu OF 100 YEARS AGO (!) REALLY!?!
Lovely. Should have said “How THAT pandemic spread.” Vectors differ. Some bugs ride rats… or the fleas that they carry (Plague), some blow in on fecal dust (Ebola), some are transmitted by mosquito (malaria), some via shared bodily fluids (AIDS), etc.. Given the variety of potential vectors, there would be no way to effectively prepare for all possible contingencies, no matter how thoroughly the Spanish Flu/Swine Flu was studied. Each such bridge must be dealt with when come upon.
Every loss of life implies some sort of tragedy, but at the same time, all life does require death. In addition to the fact that we each owe a life (quote “The Green Mile”) there is also the requirement that each living thing consume other living things to self-sustain. Then there is the perspective that none of us live in a vacuum, that we are intimately inter-related and that our every action causes consequences. In this sense, every person, politician or not, is in some way complicit in every other person’s life drama. We HELP feed (even when we do not grow or raise food) and we HELP kill (even when we have no gun). Certainly, the politicians doing their best to mitigate the current crisis are making life-and-death decisions daily, and in this respect they are saving some lives and costing others. If you wanted to be really cynical, you could CALCULATE the respective dollar values each politician places on each life he or she holds in the balance. I’m not sure that such calculation would be either fair or productive, but it might be interesting…
Give them 30K and they can sit until dry rot sets in. Not fill the need but the greed.
The fellow citizens that live under these failures are not to blame, get to them what they need I hope they learn. Trump s team got them ventilators before they were needed.
@George Wells:
Yet you respond to the #1 offender, AJ/Ward.
Why? Are you saying that the spread of Spanish flue in 1918 should be studied as independent from other viruses? Yes, each virus had its own identity, but the spread is social, and because of that, the study of each pandemic spread is valuable so………. THAT pandemic is still studied ALONG with all the other pandemics to hit the U.S. Does that satisfy you, arrogant know-it-all ass? (yes, I am deliberately insulting you)
I’m not sure my hip boots are high enough to walk through the bullshit that’s been piling up lately. Blame the media! Blame the Democrats! Blame China! Blame New York! Most definitely attack anyone who appears to have risen to the challenge more effectively than Donald Trump, and then cite Trump’s rising poll numbers!
There’s a point at which the nonsense becomes too obvious to go unnoticed. If you’re not careful, America is going to suddenly wake up.
March 29, 2020 – Fauci predicts up to 200,000 U.S. deaths as Trump weighs adjusting coronavirus guidelines. Here is what you should know.
@Greg:
Then stop piling it up.
Of course, you will defend the legacy media that is doing everything it can to make matters worse, even going so far as to misquote President Trump to make it sound like he doesn’t care about the American people.
Perhaps you should look at the time line:
January 20, 2020 – the first case of Chi-Com virus is reported in the U.S.
January 31, 2020 – Trump shuts down travel from China
February 24, 2020 – Pelosi visits Chinatown and tells everyone to come visit and shop
“SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KRON) – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was in San Francisco on Monday spending several hours visiting Chinatown to encourage people to visit the shops and restaurants there amid fears of the coronavirus. ”
https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/nancy-pelosi-visits-san-franciscos-chinatown-to-encourage-people-amid-fears-of-coronavirus/
The first case in China apparently was November 17, 2019. China kept that information under lock and seal and when it became apparent there was a real problem, told the WHO the virus was NOT transferable between humans. Of course, you would defend the Chinese Communist government, Comrade Greggie.
March 13, 2020 – Comrade De Blasio tells New Yorkers there really isn’t anything to fear. Go to the movies, ride the subway, etc.
And just who would that be, Comrade Greggie?
@retire05:
Not every pandemic spreads socially.
Bubonic and septicemic plague are only rarely spread from person to person; transmission occurs when fleas feed on infected rodents and then bite people. Look it up, if you care to. The Black Death was Bubonic, spread by fleas, and was the mother of all pandemics. The uninformed social reaction to it shows that people THOUGHT that it was spread socially, but that was not the case.
And I’m not sure how insulting me when you are wrong makes any sense.
@retire05, #16:
That’s a lie. The media has been doing no such thing. Attacks on the media, of course, have been standard Trump fare long before now. This is a central part of his political modus operandi. He has to discredit any source of information which might discredit him—which over time has turned out to be just about any reliable source of truthful information.
Every state governor, local official, and medical expert who has been a source of truthful information rather than optimistic twaddle, disinformation, and outright denial, who has attempted to take meaningful and appropriate action ahead of the Trump administration.
I trust Andrew Cuomo more than I trust Donald Trump. I trust him to tell the truth, be the news good or bad. I trust the Governor of Michigan. The other side of the coin? The Governor of Mississippi and Governor DeSantis of Florida would be good examples of worse than useless, and way to slow on the uptake.
@Greg: Why question a wish or hope? The federal response has been good, the states needed to learn faster how to coordinate with the feds to maximize results. I am betting when Florida hits its peak because they already have worked close with FEMA due to hurricanes we wont hear the same type of blame game.
@Greg:
Oh, really? Like saying that President Trump told governors that they were on their own? Nothing like taking words out of context or misquote to create a lie, Comrade Greggie, something you are quite adapt at.
You mean like how governors, local officials are initially responsible for any crisis in their cities, counties and states BEFORE the federal government gets involved? Of course, you don’t name them.
As to trust, you would trust Pol Pot before you trusted President Trump. That’s just how you Communists roll.
You remain an idiot.
Here’s what else Dr. Fauci said regarding the number of U.S. deaths due to Chi-Com virus:
Fauci also cautioned against the reliability of fatality estimates.
“We don’t have any firm idea,” he said.
“I just don’t think that we really need to make a projection when it’s such a moving target that you could so easily be wrong and mislead people.”
@George Wells:
Yeah, be nice to George!
Thanks for the insight, as usual. I’m sure we’re going to get through this.
Admittedly, the majority of “other opinions” we get here are solely from Greg and Ron/AJ, who simply come in, guns blazing, as they have zero capacity to discuss anything (both are most likely paid trolls…at least greg is).
You offer the most cogent responses, and honesty George, I listen at much as I can. Rich Wheeler is cool, too…even though I agree with him less than you.
Sorry you get insulted here. I hope the others see that you are a legit citizen who is just trying to live life, like the rest of us.
Thanks again for the response on the other thread.
I’m married to someone in healthcare, and I have to keep her safe by really, really not moving around. Likewise to keep others safe. I’m settling into a long quarantine, and can’t be bothered with the usual poisonous “discussions” from the trolls here, or anywhere.
I also suggest you and everyone check out cidrap.umn.edu. It’s run by Dr. Michael Osterholm, who was on Joe Rogan over two weeks ago. That guy knows as much as anyone, and his predictions have been pretty spot on, thus far.
Cheers!
@Greg: Wow. Looks like SOMEONE is getting tired of watching Trump handle this with skill and effectiveness, seeing everything liberal just fall on its face. Ouch.
I am a physician, and have literally been working every day for the last 24 days. I have been paying attention to the Wuhan virus (which is what normal new pandemic naming convention would and should call this despite what the dishonest ChiComms have pushed the WHO to name it) since December, when word in the medical community started spreading.
Yes, this is a new strain of coronavirus.
Yes, it is more dangerous for those over 60, those who have diabetes, and the immunocompromised.
Yes, both the ChiComms and their mouthpiece, the WHO, made the ridoculously false claim in mid/late Jan 2020 that there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission of Wuhan virus, despite knowing full well that there are multiple strains of the coronavirus that have human-to-human transmission.
The fact that the world is not losing it’s mind over the annual influenza wave, which per the weekly CDC bulletin has killed more US citizens than the Wuhan virus so far this year, yet we are running around hoarding toilet paper and shutting down our economy and the media continues to foment hysteria the likes of which we have never seen, is a testament to irrationality.
Consider:
1. In what way are liquor stores and pot shops “essential” businesses?
2. In 2005 the CDC published a paper that not only stated chloroquine killed the 2003-2004 conoronavirus that came out of China that year, it actually explained the 2 separate mechanisms by which the anti-malarial drug did so. Specifically by binding to the cellular recepter used by coronavirus to invade human cells (thus preventing the virus from injecting intself into the cell) and by neutralising the normal acidity of cellular microsomes the coronovirus used to eat away at the host cell membrane which is how new copies of the virus are released. So why is the CDC not ensuring physicians are aware of their own scientific paper? Despite the 2 French medical papers which have reported amazing success using the combination of hydroxychloriquine and azithromycin (most recently curing 78 out of 80 Wuhan virus patients in France, with only 1 death, and the other still in the ICU recovering), why does the media continue pushing the panic? Why have at least 2 governers made it a crime for physicians to prescribe these drugs?
I keep hearing leftists sneering that Trump is lying, but somehow these “lies” are never defined. And based on actual medical journal papers going back to 2005 to just this past week, Trump seems to have been correct regarding chloroquine, and hydroxychloroquine-azithromycin. And based on the actions of our Preseident and his medical advisors, the US has a per capita fatality rate that is second only to Germany, and we are roughly 1 death per million behind Germany.
Yes…wash your hands, don’t smoke, and don’t let people sneeze or cough on you. Physicians should be allowed to treat the ill based on scientifically sound evidence, not politicians trying to garner atyention to themselves.
This chicken little hysteria has got to stop. It is ridiculous.
@retire05, #20:
You’re funny. DeSantis, who allowed the Spring Break Petri Dish partying to go on uninterrupted, is now freaking out about anyone flying in from New York. Tate Reeves of Mississippi has been responsible for a state-level fluster cluck, inspiring confusion and panic. There should have been clear, unambiguous messaging about the criticality of the situation from the White House from the start. That’s not what we got, and you don’t have to take anything “out of context” to demonstrate this. The false optimism accomplished nothing. The markets still nosedived, because people soon figured out what was happening in spite of it. And appropriate reaction from official sources came slower because of it.
@retire05, #21:
Dr. Fauci’s best guess is from 100,000 to 200,000 American deaths. He doesn’t have a crystal ball, but he’s not exaggerating when he says what he thinks might happen. I suppose you can take whatever you wish out of context. I’m considering his entire statement. It’s all there on the video.
March 29, 2020 – Fauci predicts over 100,000 Covid-19 deaths in the United States
@Greg:
You’re pathetic.
Meanwhile, Governor Gina Riomondo of Rhode Island has positioned R.I. police and State Guard at the entrances of R.I. having them inform anyone from New York that there will be an automatic 14 day quarantine for the New Yorkers. She said ““Right now we have a pinpointed risk. That risk is called New York City. “Yesterday I announced and today I reiterated: Anyone coming to Rhode Island in any way from New York must be quarantined, By order. Will be enforced. Enforceable by law.”
via Bloomberg
Texas National Guard are going door to door asking people in Dallas (the big hot spot in Texas) if they have had contact with anyone who has fallen ill due to Chi-Com virus.
Almost 1/2 of all New York cases are in New York City. Guess you think Comrade De Blasio has also done a wonderful job. Meanwhile, you totally ignore what else Dr. Fauci said since just quoting part of his statement gives you ammunition to fuel your agenda.
@Nathan Blue:
Thanks for your up-beat perspective!
Now watch this:
Donald Trump just wrapped up tonight’s COVID-19 get-together, and here is what I saw:
#1. Liberal media seeming desperate to trip Trump up over unimportant details, at times embarrassingly so. There is no excuse for bad manners, even if your “opponent” has a bad case of them.
#2. Trump pushed back the “relaxation” to the end of April, even though HE thinks COVID-19 will peak within a few days, or at least by Easter. GOOD and thank you very much! Thinking out loud isn’t the same as setting policy, whether it’s a quarantine or a deadline.
#3. In spite of having some decidedly uninformed “instincts,” Trump is now doing the right things. Maybe some of his state-by-state decisions lean political, but hey! That’s… politics!
And on a related note, there is now out a really comprehensive blueprint for the economic recovery of the USA, state-by-state.
Report
National coronavirus response: A road map to reopening
American Enterprise Institute
Health Policy
March 29, 2020
Just read it, and was thrilled by the depth and thoroughness of the analysis. If Trump actually follows that plan (or something close to it) I might actually vote for him in November because, as much as I despise him personally, he is managing to do what it takes to get us through this unusually trying time, and regardless of whether each good idea is his or not, he will have earned the job that the voters DIDN’T elect him for.
One New York hospital went from getting 20,000 masks per week to getting 300,000.
Somehow, supposedly, all of the masks were either used or disappeared.
A hospital that is already a 24/7 place cannot absorb that many more masks by using them.
There must be graft, corruption and selling at a mark-up off the back of a truck.
No other hospitals have been able to absorb so many masks in a week.
But Atty Gen Barr is looking for just such crimes in these times of emergency and desperation.
Smarmy Cuomo needs to have a few local creeps bring him down a few notches.
He’s already being anointed as the Dems presidential nominee over both Biden and Bernie!
@George Wells:
https://covid19.healthdata.org/projections
Notice when the peak is.
Seems he was right about hydroxychloroquine and z-pac drugs. Trump is more informed than the left gives him credit for.
BTW, my 70 year old diabetic just built a 1,000 sq. ft. barn with 16 foot high walls (to accommodate the lofts) complete with cupola ALL BY HIMSELF. Guess that is the difference between city and country people.
@retire05:
I was not aware that hydroxychloroquine has been approved for COVID-19 treatment. If it has, that’s VERY good news, for both Trump AND the country.
As of the date of Trump’s initial claim, there had been no reliable, authoritative determination of the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine re. COVID-19. If it DEVELOPS that the drug does work against COVID-19, it WOULD BE more a matter of luck than of Trump being well-informed.
No, it is confirmation that all men are not created equal.
After working harder than I was built for, my discs are now toast, but with the help of a year-round back brace, I soldier on. However, manually digging up a small field would be imprudent…
@George Wells:
I don’t believe it has yet to be approved by the CDC but doctors are using it, with a combination of other drugs, quite successfully. But there’s this:
It is this kind of crap you write that forces me to lose all respect for you. Donald Trump is not a stupid man. Everyone that works with him, especially Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx both say that he is an intelligent listener who, in this pandemic, gives heavy weight to those who specialize in infectious diseases. But noooooo, you think he is too stupid to read what medical providers are doing.
I’m done with you. Hopefully, you will take another (very long) hiatus from FA.
Believe me, that’s an empty promise.
@Greg:
Buzz off, Comrade Greggie. You said you were not going to respond to me again and that lasted less than an hour. Maybe you could better spend your time sharing face time with your CPUSA friends.
I believe is was you who said that, and on more than one occasion.
@Greg:
As usual, you would be wrong.
Now, buzz off, gnat.
March 29, 2020 – Trump concedes US coronavirus death toll could be 100,000 or more
@Greg: Could be 5000 could be a million go hide. 2 days into the official trials of the medication that came to the attention of the President. Like the moon shot many things discovered can be utilized for other diseases.
It was the doctor that said it was possible to reach 100000, I watched todays presser it is based on models that at one time showed 1/2 of the US infected with 2.2 million deaths. Go stream it he isnt going to argue with his team. Perhaps in a week they will update data in the models and find out we are all gonna die.
@Greg:
All you can do is post negative crap from CNN and other left wing haters. We’ve all already read the news and saw the President’s presser. We know how bad it is. So while you deal in only the grim, I say “Screw you, Comrade Greggie.”
Far all those who love this nation and are willing to pull together, showing our true American spirit, and for all the FAers who are doing their absolute best in horrible times, I reprint this which was on Facebook:
Truckers are saying “fuck the log rules, I’m hauling” and they’re getting supplies to the stores. People are stocking the shelves all night and letting old people shop first. Folks are buying meals for truckers, who (obviously) can’t go through the drive-ups. Asking ’em what they want, then buying it for them.
Carnival Cruise Line has told Trump “We can match those big Navy Hospital ships with some fully staffed cruise ships”.
GM and Ford have said “hold our cars and watch this — we can make ventilators where we were just making car parts, starting next week” — by re-engineering seat ventilators which their engineers hacked together for a new purpose. In under a week.
In a project with which I’m loosely associated, a very-effective agricultural disease-control agent was re-purposed and re-labeled specifically for Corona-virus control by the FDA and EPA in under ten days, from initial request to distribution.
Restaurants and schools have said, “we’ve got kitchens and staff; we can feed the poor kids who used have school lunch.”
NBA basketball players have said, “Hold our basketballs while we write checks to pay the arena staff.”
Construction companies are saying, “Here are some high-end masks for medical staff and doctors”.
Distilleries are making sanitizer out of distilling “heads and tails” which are normally discarded. Nasty shit to drink, but effective sanitizer.
People are tipping grocery check-out clerks and thanking them for taking the risk.
Local, state, and county governments are taking control of everything the feds cannot do. Some are doing it wrong, but for the first time in decades … they’re doing it. Federalism is re-emerging, and the smallest unit of government is the individual and the family. This, too, is re-emerging after decades of dormancy.
As Japanese Admiral Isokuru Yamamoto said, after Pearl Harbor … “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”
I sense this has just happened. We have a wonderful country, the greatest single force for good in all human history. We have closed our borders, with good reason, yet we have top medical people now assisting North Korea in their response to the virus.
Many things have been re-set, and will never be the same.
By microbiological accident, we are living in profoundly transformative historical times.
Some of us will get the Chi-Com virus and some of us will die. But we will survive and like after World War II, we will come out victorious. WE WILL WIN OVER THIS CHINESE SCOURGE.
@Greg:
Yeah, promises, promises.
As the evidence that the hydroxychloroquine cocktail is effective against COVID-19 mounts, so equally does hope that this scourge will soon abate.
The process of vetting drugs for human use is usually painfully slow, including the required accumulation of extensive data more or less conclusively proving not only the drug’s efficacy but its absence of counterweighing side-effects (the benefits to the body have to outweigh the costs to the body). Fortunately, consideration is given to risk-reward calculations that occasionally allow streamlining the process, and considerable latitude is given when patient morbidity is an issue, as it is with COVID-19. The CDC also gives doctors the discretion to use already approved drugs for alternative purposes as it has done here, the results of which will quickly accumulate, effectively constituting the equivalent of a very large if not scientifically designed clinical trial. (Experimental design is a fascinating subject that can verge on the unbelievable to those who do not appreciate its statistical significance.)
Just as an aside, I recommend watching carefully as the results of these early hydroxychloroquine trials start coming in, because if the cocktail truly proves effective, the stock market will take the news and soar. You might not be happy that Trump’s reelection would then be assured, but at least you could make a boat-load on money on the way to Biden’s political funeral.
And Morning update: The FDA widens its emergency approval of hydroxychloroquine use against COVID-19. As it should. Fauci advised against it, as HE should, as he represents the conventional scientific wisdom that is but one leg of this beast. Remember that he is constrained by what are essentially “best practices” in the scientific community. Certainty is determined by science as a statistical consideration of the propagation of error. ( Don’t trust me, look it up.) But the VALUE of certainty is NOT determined by scientists. It is determined by government, in this case guided by Trump’s team of science, economic and political advisors and ultimately decided by him. As IT should be.
@Pete: Thanks for what you’re doing; we all appreciate it.
@George Wells: Effective treatment plus rapid testing methods.Saving the drugs for those that have underlying health conditions quarantining those that are likely to beat it on their own the country could begin to return to normal, at least in areas not so heavily infected.
@kitt:
Watch out for those “not so heavily infected places.” As more and more people congregate en-mass for Sunday worship against the advice of the health profession, you will see more and more “hot-spots” popping up in those “not-so-heavily infected places.” This cavalier disregard of competent guidance has the potential to undo the progress that is otherwise being made toward containing COVID-19. GOD will not protect these people from the virus.
@George Wells: The Catholic churches are closed yup no baptisms, confirmations, marriages, school or Mass. I dont know about the other faiths there is only 1 case in mums county she also was sent a letter. 6 cases in this county it has a much higher density than moms. The Protestants will have to weigh in as to their situation.
As they are not gathering now I am sure they will wait for direction from the diocese.
Read carefully if there is a treatment.
Please dont tell me what God will or willnot do.
Who else heard Gov Cuomo admit that he’s HOARDING equipment in New Jersey rather than use it if he needs it in state?
It was in his answer to the very 1st question at his daily media availability time.
After his lengthy soliloquy, naturally.
Anyway, why should we bend over backward speeding more & more equipment to his state when he’s STOCKPILING all of it?
And his beg for nurses and doctors from around the country to drop helping fly-over folks and come work in NY…..why?
A Long Beach doctor admitted he had no intention to “be a martyr” for the public when his hospital is dangerously overcrowded with Covid-19 sufferers.
So, he’s planning on staying home when the going gets tough.
And Gov Cuomo is expecting boobs from fly-over country to sacrifice themselves so his hospitals can be fully staffed by outsiders.
Makes me glad he said he has no intention of becoming the Dem nominee.
He’s anti-American to his bones.
@kitt:
I don’t speak for HIM. What I WILL do is tell you some of what He’s NOT been up to lately, and one of those things is protecting HIS flocks from evil the likes of religiously motivated mass-murderers. HIS congregations are sitting ducks. The more in the shooting gallery the merrier. Viruses are no different. We see it here in Virginia Beach frequently enough – one week someone shows up for Sunday worship with a “problem” and by the next week her friends are all out with the same symptoms. You can get back to me with your righteous indignation in two weeks, after results of some of these mass-worship/mass-infection field experiments start piling up.
And congrats, by the way, for your Catholic friends. After a thousand years of repeatedly getting their noses rubbed in their denials of science, they are understandably gun-shy. Not fully lesson-learned converts they, but wary. The Vatican employs a team of believers in both the Divinity AND science, and when they are not busy trying to scientifically prove details of the Scriptures, they investigate what they don’t already know to avoid making embarrassing mistakes in the future. It’s a thin needle to thread, but somebody’s got to do it.
@George Wells:You are an idiot and a know nothing,. The church has the most hospitals. It has been a while since they burnt anyone at the stake for heresy.
Im sorry if your chosen lifestyle has made you such a closed minded bigot.
@kitt, #37:
The most accurate and widely accepted model has always told us that we would. We just don’t like to being rushed.
There’s not much excuse for our failure to meet the sudden demand for personal protective gear. This stuff is cheap and has a long shelf life. It should have been stockpiled and ready for rapid distribution all along. We’ve spent trillions preparing for the threat of wars. Not so much for the predictable pandemic.
@kitt:
Play nice.
@Greg: Science isnt done by models or consensus votes. Models as proven with climate are not perfect predictors.
You are correct about the predictable pandemic, but but solar panels not disposable gowns and masks, 2015 NY, dismantle What did California do with its mobile hospital units, 2011?
Notice Florida got everything it ordered, seems my prediction about dealing with FEMA was true.
Wash your hands you filthy animal 😉
@Greg:
At least we’re in the same boat as everybody else. We get what we deserve.