Medicynic

It’s fascinating that in it’s rush to blame China for not being forthcoming as the pandemic started, the Trump administration calls attention it’s own rather obvious faults.

Medicynical Note:  Indeed the Chinese were at least unhelpful.  But we should remember that Trump did away with the U.S. government’s ability to track and respond to epidemics overseas by cutting funding to the NSC’s office dedicated to that task; by cutting funding to the CDC’s epidemic tracking teams; and by cutting funding of CDC epidemiologists assigned to the CDC in China.  That organization FYI was one of the first responders to the epidemic outbreak in Wuhan.  Trump in his wisdom (sic) crippled the U.S. capacity to participate in the early tracking and anticipate the spread to the U.S.

He always makes a big deal about stopping the flights from China an thinks, without any supporting data, that he saved thousands.  But it should be pointed out that he neglected to screen  U.S. citizens for the virus infection on their return on the last flights from China and thereby allowed entry of the virus.  He further slowed the U.S. response by publicly stating that the epidemic was a media hoax; by having the flight of fancy that it would disappear spontaneously “like a miracle.”  He did this while criminally neglecting to ready the U.S. health care system for the widely predicted onslaught of the virus. 

So while the Chinese were not forthcoming and/or totally honest our fearless leader literally fiddled around while the epidemic was building.  If he wishes to place blame he certainly should include his actions and in-actions as part of the equation. 

To my mind, our lack of preparation make it the Trump Virus.

Returning to work in two weeks will need careful planning. It not as simple as a Trumpian decree, or “hunch.” It will take careful consideration and planning and two weeks is likely way too early.

“David L. Katz of the Yale School of Medicine has a plan for when and how we should return to work. This plan has been championed by Tom Friedman and many other pundits. In essence, we should sustain the lockdown for a brief period to reduce the risk of overwhelming the health care system with severe COVID-19 cases. However, we would not stay in lockdown until the prevalence of the virus gets so low that people can congregate with minimal fear of transmission. That would cause too much economic harm. Katz argues, therefore, that only the young and healthy would return to work.* Some returned workers would become infected with the still-prevalent coronavirus. This is acceptable, on Katz’s view, because the young and healthy have only a small risk of dying from COVID-19. Conversely, the chronically ill and the elderly are at substantially higher mortality risk. Therefore, when the young and healthy return to work, we should make special provisions to protect the elderly and chronically ill. If we succeed in protecting the vulnerable from becoming infected, we will greatly reduce the morbidity and mortality of the disease. This would give us a better tradeoff, and allow us to return to work earlier and restart the economy faster at a lower cost in lives.”

“Friedman quotes Katz as foreseeing only two more weeks of social distancing. Few epidemiologists regard that as sufficient. However, whether Katz is right about when to return to work is to some degree beside the point. The proposal to allow the less vulnerable young to return to work early while protecting the vulnerable is a superb idea. If it works.”

“It won’t work if the protections that we plan are ineffective or if we do not implement then in an adequate way. And if the protections fail while the virus is still prevalent, many elderly Americans will die.” (Emphasis Medicynic)

Medicynical note: as we learned in Vietnam and now in Afghanistan declaring victory prematurely without understanding the consequences leads to chaos and ultimately defeat. In Vietnam we needed helicopters to evacuate embassy staff. We are likely learning the same lesson in Afghanistan.

With the Covid-19 epidemic, prematurely abandoning the isolation strategy will expose the vulnerable in our society to life threatening risk for an indefinite time period. Two weeks to “victory” is likely way too early. But our President has the attention span of a gnat and lacks the intellectual capability to understand any data except the daily ups and downs of the DOW.

Jonathan Swift 1729 A Modest Proposal
“I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricasee, or a ragoust. “
“I do therefore humbly offer it to publick consideration, that of the hundred and twenty thousand children, already computed, twenty thousand may be reserved for breed, whereof only one fourth part to be males; which is more than we allow to sheep, black cattle, or swine, and my reason is, that these children are seldom the fruits of marriage, a circumstance not much regarded by our savages, therefore, one male will be sufficient to serve four females. That the remaining hundred thousand may, at a year old, be offered in sale to the persons of quality and fortune, through the kingdom, always advising the mother to let them suck plentifully in the last month, so as to render them plump, and fat for a good table. A child will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends, and when the family dines alone, the fore or hind quarter will make a reasonable dish, and seasoned with a little pepper or salt, will be very good boiled on the fourth day, especially in winter.”

Glenn Beck’s Modest Proposal (from the Dally Beast) [2020]
“Telling listeners of his radio show on Tuesday that he wanted to have “frank conversation” with them, Beck openly acknowledged that such action could end up killing millions of Americans, especially older ones like him.”

And

“I would rather have my children stay home and all of us who are over 50 go in and keep this economy going and working,” Beck added. “Even if we all get sick, I would rather die than kill the country. Because it’s not the economy that’s dying, it’s the country.”

Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick [2020]
“Patrick, the Texas chairman of the president’s campaign, appeared on Fox News on Monday and said that he was not only ready for the country and the economy to get moving again amid the coronavirus pandemic, but also that he and other grandparents might be willing to die for that to happen.”

“My message is that let’s get back to work,” Patrick, 69, said on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” “Let’s get back to living. Let’s be smart about it, and those of us who are 70-plus, we’ll take care of ourselves, but don’t sacrifice the country.”

Medicynical Note: The modern Modest Proposal from Patrick, Beck and from our feckless President refers to sacrificing lives in order to save………the stock market (a stand-in) for the economy. Their proposal as far as I can tell is a “serious” recommendation.

Swift’s modest proposal also aimed at correcting economic problems but in Ireland in the early 18th century. “A Modest Proposal, is a Juvenalian satirical essay written and published anonymously by Jonathan Swift in 1729. The essay suggests that the impoverished Irish might ease their economic troubles by selling their children as food to rich gentlemen and ladies. This satirical hyperbole mocked heartless attitudes towards the poor, as well as British policy toward the Irish in general. “ (Wikipedia)

The difference between Swift and Beck, Patrick and yes Trump is that Swift’s was satire.

Asleep at the wheel, playing ignorant hunches and expecting miracles, the president and his band of incompetents ignored their experts and were unprepared for the epidemic.

Medicynical note: And now our leader wants to call off the community distancing/ isolation strategy after 15 days and return America to work. Such experts as a demented Texan, a two bit second rate church affiliated private college owner and Glenn Beck think it fine to kill off the vulnerable in our society in the name of stock market prices. Now I’m not a believer but I do wonder whether the any religion’s deity or belief system would condone the notion of money having precedence over human lives. Just wondering if sacrificing the most vulnerable in our society is part the “theological” values we hear so much about? Just wondering.

I should hasten to note that I believe the people I know would not ascribe to this amoral principles

“”The administration has repeatedly and systematically corroded critical parts of the CDC,” Sellers said. “This was just begging for an epidemic to hit us. It was a perfect storm of lack of preparation.””

“Sellers added: “It’s kind of incredible they are now trying to rewrite history to say we have plenty of resources when they’ve systematically targeted them. They should be held responsible by the American people as it is outrageous.””

“Donald Trump initially reacted to the onward march of coronavirus by calling it a “hoax” before then, also inaccurately, claiming that the US had completely contained the disease.”

“The president has since declared a national state of emergency but the federal response has been dogged by a severe lack of testing, a dearth of crucial medical supplies such as ventilators and false and misleading statements by Trump over the need to avoid large gatherings of people.”

Medicynical note: Sadly, this is what happens when you elect an incompetent sociopath as your leader. Yes it’s bad luck that covid-19 emerged but maybe in the end if Trump is force out of office……one way or another…..there will be a greater good. He is a cancer.

I’m not particularly enthused by the other septuagenarian candidates but I guess beggars can’t be choosers and defeating Trump is the first priority.

“In his White House coronavirus briefing, Donald Trump made clear that he wanted to lift restrictive public health measures as soon as possible, and that his major concern was the state of the US economy. He would re-open America for business in “weeks,” not months, Trump pledged, and refused to say whether he would simply ignore public health experts if they advised that restrictive measures to stop the spread of the virus needed to stay in place longer.”

Medicynical note: After 8 days of following the social distancing strategy it is apparent that the epidemic in the United States is accelerating. Deaths are doubling every 2 1/2 days. More than 100 people died today.

Yet this is the day, just one week in, that Trump showed his profound ignorance and seemed to buy into a FOX news pundit’s conclusion that the cure for the epidemic (in terms of the stock market and recession) was worse than the disease, which is in the process of killing hundreds of our citizens each day. Hundreds (over two hundred people died today)

It’s clear that Trump puts more value on stock prices than human lives……….is this an evangelical Christian value? And American value? Or simply the value of a sociopath without an ounce of empathy. He’s lost.

Donald doesn’t want the cure to be worse than the problem. To Trump the problem is the steep stock-market decline brought about by his late acceptance of the existence of a pandemic. He was slow to react and inadequately prepared the country for it. To M.D.s the problem is the thousands of people with the infection, caring for those needing hospitalization and prevention of further spread.

Donald’s cure is for the stock market, not the pandemic. He has a hunch and because he is a very very smart and it appears that he plans to over-rule his medical experts. That’s a big mistake.

Medicynical note: The man is a supreme egotist who has taken corporations into bankruptcy 5 times and in his first term in office during his self-proclaimed best economy ever, he doubled the governments budget deficit to the highest ever (in good times). He knows nothing of infectious diseases and can’t understand the difference between .1% and 1%. He has no judgment. The best advice for him is to follow his medical advisors suggestions rather than his own “hunches.”

“On Sunday, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York made a public appeal for the federal government to take over the distribution of critical goods, arguing that Mr. Trump’s insistence last week that states should find the medical equipment for themselves was turning into a senseless free-for-all.”

“Yet, in declining to actually make use of the Korean War-era production act that he invoked last week, Mr. Trump is also avoiding taking personal responsibility for how fast the acute shortages of personal protective gear and lifesaving equipment are addressed.”

“”Don’t get into this mad bidding war,” Mr. Cuomo said, noting that the federal reticence was resulting in huge price surges, hoarding and shortages in some of the hardest-hit locales, including New York City.”

Medicynical note: Having 50 states compete with each other for rare resources is an invitation to disaster. Trump accepts responsibility for ……..NOTHING.

He fired his epidemic response teams in the NSC and CDC two years ago; cut funding and removed a CDC person from the Chinese equivalent of the CDC in 2019, thereby losing the early warning of the epidemic in China; ignored the epidemic as it evolved because of a uninformed hunch; refuses to centralize the nation’s response to a nationwide disaster. He’s literally killing us.

The airline industry is trying to hold up the federal government for $29 billion in grants and another $29 billion in loans. They threaten that if they don’t get the grants they will lay off employees, and that if they don’t get the loans they will use their remaining cash on dividends and stock buybacks.

Medicynical note: In the Trumpian dysfunctional world you waste and overspend during good times……….so that you can claim poverty when the economy changes. In Trum world you bankrupt your company and then move on to another scam. In the airlines case, they seek a bailout after spending their last ten years profits trying to increase shareholders wealth…….and executives own paychecks which are based on the enhanced stock price.

And I’m willing to bet these airlines pay little or nothing in income taxes. So, if you will, they want the government to bail them out with tax money to which they didn’t contribute. And as a bonus because of Citizens United they can buy votes in our congress with unlimited campaign contributions.

Only in America.

It’s quite evident that the U.S. is woefully unprepared for the covid-19 epidemic. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why:

“People say Contagion is prescient. We just saw the science. The whole epidemiological community has been warning everybody for the past 10 or 15 years that it wasn’t a question of whether we were going to have a pandemic like this. It was simply when. It’s really hard to get people to listen. I mean, Trump pushed out the admiral on the National Security Council, who was the only person at that level who’s responsible for pandemic defense. With him went his entire downline of employees and staff and relationships. And then Trump removed the [early warning] funding for countries around the world.” (Emphasis medicynic)

Medicynical note: our lack of preparation is obvious. We are reacting not anticipating and are so far behind that the epidemic is unlikely to be easily stopped. We are on the same disastrous fatal path as Italy.

Our leadership, a motley crew of deniers and inexperienced administrators under the thrall of the denier – in – chief, seem unable to act, mobilize and anticipate. To do so would, of course, would contradict our ignorant president who had a hunch that it would just go away…….like a miracle. People who contradicted his uninformed beliefs simply disappeared from view.