Coronavirus in the United States - news and thoughts

Scary if true. Governor just over-rode local authorities here in Ga to re-open all beaches. Seems ignorant but he also said he just found out the virus could be transmitted by asymptomatic people.
Man, if only we had something like the CDC in this state.

 

As Trump administration debated travel restrictions, thousands streamed in from China

But Reuters has found that the administration took a month from the time it learned of the outbreak in late December to impose the initial travel restrictions amid furious infighting.

During that time, the National Security Council staff, the state department and other federal agencies argued about everything from how best to screen for sick travelers to the economic impact of any restrictions, according to two government officials familiar with the deliberations.

The NSC staff ultimately proposed aggressive travel restrictions to high-level administration officials - but it took at least a week more for the president to adopt them, one of the government officials said.

In meetings, Matthew Pottinger, deputy national security adviser and a China expert, met opposition from Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and National Economic Council director Larry Kudlow, said two former NSC officials and one of the government officials involved in the deliberations. The two top aides were concerned about economic fallout from barring travelers from China, the sources said.

Each day that the administration debated the travel measures, roughly 14,000 travelers arrived in the United States from China, according to figures cited by the Trump administration. Among them was a traveler who came from Wuhan to Seattle in mid-January, who turned out to be the first confirmed case in the United States.

 

Don't forget that it wasn't until the second half of January that China even admitted that coronavirus could be transmitted from person to person. And it was another month before scientists realized that there were a lot of asymptomatic people walking around with the virus. Those are two key pieces of information that should be remembered when thinking about the timeline of this pandemic. It is fairly easy to say four months later what a brilliant move it would have been to ban travelers from China back in early January (although the determined ones would have flown through Europe), or ban people with a Chinese passport from entering the U.S. (talk about stirring up a hornet's nest!), but that's just bad Monday-morning quarterbacking.

What would Trump's critics say if he had shut down travel to and from China about a virus that people knew little about that turned out to be nothing? Tens of thousands of Americans would have been stranded overseas, the economy would have been damaged, and confidence in the U.S. would have eroded.

Repeat after me: "China lied, people died."

 

This Brooklyn Landlord Just Canceled Rent for Hundreds of Tenants

 

A little snippet in the backstory to the Patriot's plane being used to fly masks from China to Massachusetts led me to this.

In state’s intense chase for protective equipment, coronavirus isn’t the only rival — the feds are, too - The Boston Globe

 

Because COVID-19 leads to organ failure. So if your intestines collapse or or you have a heart attack or your liver fails, they may cause death. But that failure was caused by the virus. The Western Journal again reaches a false conclusion because of its intent to mislead its readers with conspiracy theories.

 

Tom Dempsey died from COVID19. Rest In Peace.
Ex-Saints kicker Dempsey dies from coronavirus

 

The World Health Organization was on the ground from the start. If it took time to characterize this disease, so be it. In realtime we heard of Chinese doctors dying, emergency hospitals being built, travel restricted and entire cities put into lockdown. To say we didn't know it was serious is sadly revisionist.

I guess blaming China is going to the defense de jour now. I was wondering what deflection of accountability was going to stick. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.

 

China has always lied and we’ve known that for decades. So why would you listen to Xi like Trump did when our own intelligence provided reports that this was going to become a pandemic in January? It’s just one more case of Trump listening to foreign governments over our own and this time it directly resulted in additional American deaths.

 

Georgia...if it weren't for Atlanta then the state would be known as Alabama east.

 

I would think “Trump lied, people died” would be a viable campaign slogan.
And although it doesn’t rhyme, “Fox lied, sheeple believed them” is also accurate.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/loca...9b1fae-7527-11ea-85cb-8670579b863d_story.html

Hogan’s latest siren, based on the projections of epidemiologists advising him, is that the capital region will be the nation’s next hot spot, potentially crippling the federal government’s ability to respond.

On conference calls, he has confronted the president about a lack of testing but been generally genial, people familiar with the exchanges say. After Trump said testing was no longer an issue, Hogan responded flatly in a radio interview: “That’s just not true.”

“There is continuing friction, because they say we have things available, but things are not available,” Hogan told The Washington Post. “They say ‘get on the phone, governors can get all these things.’ I just got off the phone, no governors have these things.”

 

Repeat after Trump - The US appreciates China’s transparency. There was nothing in the history of China that suggests we should have been thanking them for transparency. There is Trump tweet for almost everything. Repeat that...


Trump Tweet

“China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American People, I want to thank President Xi!”

 

Implicit is his disregard for the intelligence he received. And information available through the WHO. A complete failure.

 

Which is hardly surprising, considering the disdain with which he treats the US Intelligence apparatus that he ignores and dismisses regularly, because he knows everything already and they are just part of his deep state committed to his failure.

And if this situation weren’t so incredibly tragic, the irony would be exceedingly rich.

 

Things were moving so fast the impeachedpotus could hardly get rid of all his responsibility. Times are tough.

 

I’m not going to argue with this opinion.

Trump 'severely mentally troubled' and must resign from coronavirus response, mental health group warns

Donald Trump is "so severely mentally troubled that he is a great danger to our nation" and must be removed from office, according to a group of international mental health professionals calling for the president to resign or for the "complete removal" of his decision-making powers leading the White House response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The World Mental Health Coalition has issued a "prescription for survival" that urges several calls to action, including the invocation of the 25th amendment of the US Constitution, which would relinquish the president from office once the chief executive is determined unfit.

The president also must undergo a court-ordered mental health evaluation and establish a Coronavirus Crisis Department within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which would lead the US response to Covid-19, the group says.

White House briefings, which have devolved into platforms for misinformation and false claims about the US response to combat the outbreak, should also be suspended, and briefings must only be delivered through the CDC, according to the group.

 

594 deaths in New York at their early update. 719 deaths already with no figures from Louisiana, New Jersey, or Michigan yet. Weekends usually see a bit of a dip in reporting due to issues of getting data over the weekend.

 

Only a 1/3 of new cases but over 1/2 new deaths from yesterday. and its only 1 pm.

 

It’s almost like the numbers are growing larger exponentially. If only there were a phrase to explain that...