Still asleep at the wheel and continuing to posture for the FOX news “oh it’s nothing” folks: “Despite mounting pleas from California and other states, the Trump administration isn’t allowing states to use Medicaid more freely to respond to the coronavirus crisis by expanding medical services.”
“In previous emergencies, including the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Hurricane Katrina and the H1N1 flu outbreak, both Republican and Democratic administrations loosened Medicaid rules to empower states to meet surging needs. “
“But months into the current global disease outbreak, the White House and senior federal health officials haven’t taken the necessary steps to give states simple pathways to fully leverage the mammoth safety net program to prevent a wider epidemic.”
Medicynical note: Testing still hard to find; No emergency Medicaid coverage; Epidemic spreading and deaths increasing and our guy can’t even read from a teleprompter. Amazing incompetence.
Two weeks ago Trump called the Coronavirus epidemic a hoax perpetrated by the media and Democrats. At the time he thought he was handling it perfectly and he thought there would be a miracle that would make it go away……..like magic. Now Trump lurches to the other extreme and panics. He decided the best action he can take is to essentially stop all air travel between the US and Europe. That is except from those places that host a Trump business. (I.e. the UK and Ireland). There is no mention of Turkey either, another Trump business host.
He took this action against the advice of the WHO and other reputable medical authorities. It’s a sad reality that the epidemic is already well established here and the likelihood of travelers from Europe making it worse is slim to none. His actions are political (for some reason he detests our ally the E.U.) and as meaningful as “closing the barn door after the horse is gone.”
Medicynical note: He never admits an error: whatever he does is perfect: he is a master at the nuances of ………………bankruptcy.
How do you respond to an epidemic? Thanks to our leader, the U.S. responded with delay and denial.
“As soon as the genetic sequence of the coronavirus was published in January, the CDC’s first job was to develop a diagnostic test. “That’s our prime mission,” Redfield said, “to get eyes on this thing.””
“The agency also released criteria for deciding which individuals should be tested for the virus — at first only those who had a fever and respiratory issues and had traveled from the outbreak’s origin in Wuhan, China.”
“The criteria were so strict that the sick man in the Seattle area who had visited Wuhan did not meet it. Still, worried state health officials pushed to get him checked, and the CDC agreed. Local officials sent a sample to Atlanta and the results came back positive.”
Medicynical note: Our country’s denial began two years ago when the Trump administration decapitated the NSC’s and CDC’s mechanism to recognize, track and respond to a medical threat.
“Rear Adm. Timothy Ziemer abruptly departed from his post leading the global health security team on the National Security Council in May 2018 amid a reorganization of the council by then-National Security Advisor John Bolton, and Ziemer’s team was disbanded. Tom Bossert, whom the Washington Post reported “had called for a comprehensive biodefense strategy against pandemics and biological attacks,” had been fired one month prior.
“It’s thus true that the Trump administration axed the executive branch team responsible for coordinating a response to a pandemic and did not replace it, eliminating Ziemer’s position and reassigning others, although Bolton was the executive at the top of the National Security Council chain of command at the time.”
And
“Legum stated in a follow-up tweet that “Trump also cut funding for the CDC, forcing the CDC to cancel its efforts to help countries prevent infectious-disease threats from becoming epidemics in 39 of 49 countries in 2018. Among the countries abandoned? China.” That was partly true, according to 2018 news reports stating that funding for the CDC’s global disease outbreak prevention efforts had been reduced by 80%, including funding for the agency’s efforts in China. But that was the result of the anticipated depletion of previously allotted funding, not a direct cut by the Trump administration.”
But the cuts to the CDC proceded without notice or replacement.
And now with the exquisite timing for which he is becoming known Trump has proposed a 16% cut in the CDC budget. This, just as the Coronavirus epidemic is reving up. Currently he believes everything is under control and there is nothing to worry about……..as the cases mount.
Secretary Azar on testing availability: “We had the tests right away, as soon as we got the genetic sequence from China,” he said. “There has not been an instance where a public health official needed to test somebody for the novel coronavirus where they couldn’t get tested.”
Meanwhile in the real world: “Even now, after weeks of mounting frustration toward federal agencies over flawed test kits and burdensome rules, states with growing cases such as New York and California are struggling to test widely for the coronavirus. The continued delays have made it impossible for officials to get a true picture of the scale of the growing outbreak, which has now spread to at least 36 states and Washington, D.C.
Medicynical note: maybe it’s just careful parsing of facts as he sees them but it seems to me to be an obvious lie. In fact, many patients now testing positive were denied testing because the initial CDC test was flawed and/or because of the lack of availability of tests. The political appointee Trump kowtowers in this administration have no credibility. They need to turn over the management of the epidemic to CDC and NIH careerists……..and I do mean Pence, Azar, and Redfield among others. They can’t seem to tell the truth.
“The paradox of this moment is that we’ve trained ourselves to be maximally selfish and catastrophically distrustful in the very eye of a health crisis that will be exponentially worse for all of us unless we can reinstate norms, reflexive selflessness, trust in science, and facts. This will be a strange kind of natural experiment in whether altruism and compassion are in fact irretrievably dead in America, and thus far, neither the federal government nor the right-wing media that exists to support it appears fully aware of the downsides.”
Medicynical note: Can a “leader” (sic) who never admits he’s made an error backtrack and allow those more expert to manage this growing disaster. And guess what, the primary concern at this time should be protecting citizens not bailing out the shale oil industry.
“You don’t want to go to war with a president,” he said. “But you got to walk the fine balance of making sure you continue to tell the truth.”
FoxNewsSunday
✔@FoxNewsSunday
Doctor Anthony Fauci talks about staying away from political spin when addressing the American public about the risks of the coronavirus. #FNS
Medicynical Note: What’s going on here? Think there might be a conflict between the scientists and the politican? Trump has called global warming a hoax and recently called the Coronavirus worldwide epidemic bordering on pandemic a hoax as well. Think he has your best interests in mind?
“The president touted the accuracy of the test to detect the coronavirus, which members of his administration have acknowledged is not available to all who wants it, declaring it was “perfect like the letter was perfect. The transcription was perfect. This was not as perfect as that, but pretty good.”” And “But his messaging was more haphazard at the Atlanta-based CDC. Despite calling this week for bipartisanship during the crisis, he said he told Vice President Mike Pence not to be complimentary during his Thursday meeting with Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington, where more than a dozen people have died, because “he is a snake.”” And “Trump also said he talked on the phone with California Gov. Gavin Newsom about the 3,500 people stuck on a cruise ship anchored off the coast of California. Trump, at the CDC, advocated for the passengers to remain on the ship — in part so they would not count against the total number of victims in the United States. He did say he would defer to the medical experts.” And “The president, while touring the CDC, also boasted about his ability to understand the virus, even though he has repeatedly misstated how long it would take for a vaccine to be developed and available.
“You know my Uncle was a great — he was at MIT. He taught at MIT for a record number of years. He was a great super genius, Dr. John Trump,” the president said. “I like this stuff. I really get it. People are surprised that I understand it. … Maybe I have a natural ability.”
Medicynical note: His look is that of a person on a day-pass from an institution. His rants are those of a sick unbalanced intellectually limited individual. He is a national embarrassment.
“Fighting has resumed in Afghanistan after the Taliban ended a partial truce with government troops, casting doubt on peace talks scheduled for next week.”
“Dozens of incidents in more than 16 provinces left eight militants and six civilians dead, officials said. Eight security personnel were also killed.”
“Meanwhile Donald Trump says he had a “very good talk” with a Taliban leader.” (Emphasis medicynic)
Medicynical note: like everything that Trump chooses to involve himself with, he is at best poorly informed and at worst intellectually unable to understand.
Medicynical note: Trump’s fatal delay. After decapitating the government’s epidemic response team Trump’s appointees reacted too slowly to the risk that the epidemic would spread to here. No test kits were distributed for use by the states. No early diagnoses of the infection were made and now people are dying.
Medicynic 