Tag: Trump botched COVID-19 response

Long waits for test results spark new COVID-19 fears

The Hill logoA dramatic slowdown in testing turnaround times is undermining the U.S. response to the coronavirus, rendering tools like contact tracing almost useless in some instances.

Quest Diagnostics, one of the main companies doing coronavirus testing, said Monday that “soaring demand” due to the surge in cases across the South and Southwest had pushed back their average turnaround time for getting results of a coronavirus test to at least seven days for all but the highest priority patients.

LabCorp, another major testing company, said last week that its turnaround times were only slightly better, at four to six days, because of “significant increases in testing demand and constraints in the availability of supplies and equipment.” Continue reading.

Trump gave up on fighting the virus. Now we’re paying for his laziness.

Washington Post logoThe federal government never did the work needed to prepare for safe reopening

As daily rates of new coronavirus infections surpass 60,000 across the United States, repeatedly shattering single-day records, the Trump administration’s narrative about the virus has shifted. What began as overconfidence intended to downplay epidemiologic datahas now turned into fatalism, best captured in the recent Washington Post report that White House officials hope “Americans will grow numb to the escalating death toll and learn to accept tens of thousands of new cases a day.” But what remains consistent is a failure by this administration to do the hard work needed to coordinate and orchestrate a federal response, to provide clear risk communication to the public — including, for example, the importance of mask-wearing — and to use emergency powers and flexible resources to support the necessary response to surging case counts. For a pandemic that spreads exponentially, a let-it-play-out approach that accepts mass deaths as inevitable is a disaster for this country and the world.

What is going on? Part of it is a preoccupation with President Trump’s ratings ahead of the November election. Public health experts, for instance, have raised alarm about political interference that removed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from leadership in providing clear guidance for reopening and recovery based on data and evidence. Last week, the president tweeted that the CDC’s guidelines for school reopening were “very tough and expensive.” This assessment was followed by confusion: Vice President Pence said revised guidelines would be issued, and a day later, the CDC director, Robert Redfield, backtracked, saying they would remain the same with additional guidance provided.

And as infection rates continue to rise, so has the White House’s search for scapegoats. Managing the administration’s public image appears to be the top priority, never mind that the virus is indifferent to these maneuvers. Trump’s decision to direct full blame at China and the World Health Organization and withdraw from the WHO in the midst of a global pandemic is particularly worrisome. Reports that the administration is deliberating on restructuring the CDC and directing more blame for the crisis there are also troubling at a time when public health officials across the country are being threatened. And the further confirmation that National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease Director Anthony S. Fauci’s input is unwanted, as the White House shares with reporters a lengthy list of “mistakes” made in his comments early in the outbreak, adds to a pattern of blaming and redirecting responsibility for the failed response. Continue reading.

Fauci Back at the White House, a Day After Trump Aides Tried to Undermine Him

New York Times logoThe visit underscored a reality for both the president and his most prominent coronavirus adviser: They are stuck with each other.

WASHINGTON — A day after President Trump’s press office tried to undermine the reputation of the nation’s top infectious disease expert with an anonymously attributed list of what it said were his misjudgments in the early days of the coronavirus, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci returned to the White House on Monday.

The visit underscored a reality for both men: They are stuck with each other.

Dr. Fauci — who has not had direct contact with the president in more than five weeks even as the number of Americans with Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, has risen sharply in the Southwest — slipped back into the West Wing to meet with Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, while his allies denounced what they called a meanspirited and misguided effort by the White House to smear him. Continue reading.

Mulvaney calls U.S. coronavirus testing abilities ‘inexcusable,’ breaking from Trump

‘I know it isn’t popular to talk about in some Republican circles,’ Trump’s former chief of staff says.

Former White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney on Monday criticized the U.S. coronavirus testing process, calling his family’s difficulties in obtaining tests and delays in the results “inexcusable” in the seventh month of the pandemic, splitting from his former boss’ repeated boasts about testing.

“I know it isn’t popular to talk about in some Republican circles, but we still have a testing problem in this country,” Mulvaney wrote in an op-ed for CNBC.

Mulvaney, who served in Congress before leading the White House budget office and becoming chief of staff, said his son had recently been tested for the virus and had to wait up to a week for the results, and that his daughter was turned away from getting a test before she went to visit her grandparents. Continue reading.

Live updates: California, Oregon roll back reopenings as new coronavirus cases surge

NOTE:  This article is being provided free of charge by The Washington Post.

Washington Post logoThe country’s most populous state took steps Monday to roll back efforts to reopen its economy amid a surge in new coronavirus cases.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) ordered the statewide closure of all bars and halted the indoor operations of restaurants, wineries, theaters and a handful of other venues. The move comes as a number of governors elsewhere are also announcing new mandates and pausing reopenings, with Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) banning private indoor gatherings of more than 10 people and requiring face coverings outside.

The fresh round of restrictions echoes the early days of the pandemic, when states shuttered businesses in an attempt to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Here are some significant developments: Continue reading.

Bottleneck for U.S. Coronavirus Response: The Fax Machine

New York Times logoBefore public health officials can manage the pandemic, they must deal with a broken data system that sends incomplete results in formats they can’t easily use.

Public health officials in Houston are struggling to keep up with one of the nation’s largest coronavirus outbreaks. They are desperate to trace cases and quarantine patients before they spread the virus to others. But first, they must negotiate with the office fax machine.

The machine at the Harris County Public Health department in Houston recently became overwhelmed when one laboratory sent a large batch of test results, spraying hundreds of pages all over the floor.

“Picture the image of hundreds of faxes coming through, and the machine just shooting out paper,” said Dr. Umair Shah, executive director of the department. The county has so far recorded more than 40,000 coronavirus cases. Continue reading.

This damning supercut shows how Trump has been ‘wrong about every aspect of the pandemic’

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump’s allies have been circulating an opposition research file on Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, for getting some things wrong in the past when talking about the novel coronavirus.

However, the president has gotten vastly more wrong about the pandemic — and CNN on Monday showed the receipts.

CNN’s Alisyn Camerota showed viewers a supercut video of Trump’s statements about the disease that she said show he’s been “wrong about every aspect of the pandemic.” Continue reading.

Trump accused of suppressing CDC warning that full school reopenings pose ‘highest risk’ of COVID-19 Spread

AlterNet logoThe leader of one of the largest teachers’ unions in the U.S. accused President Donald Trump over the weekend of “trying to bury” federal guidelines warning that fully reopening schools and universities in the fall poses a high risk of spreading Covid-19 and endangering the health of students, faculty, and parents.

A 69-page packet (pdf) of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention materials obtained by the New York Times and labeled “For Internal Use Only” cautions that the “more people a student or staff member interacts with, and the longer that interaction, the higher the risk of Covid-19 spread.”

Last week, Trump complained on Twitter that non-binding school reopening guidelines offered by the CDC—which recommends that students maintain six feet of distance from each other and wear face coverings—are “very tough” and “expensive.” Continue reading.

Pro-Trump Republican who voted against mask wearing measure hospitalized with COVID-19: report

AlterNet logoRefusing to wear a face mask or take the threat of COVID-19 seriously is a badge of honor among some far-right Republicans, but that outlook can have tragic consequences. In Florida, St. Johns County Commissioner Paul Waldron — a Republican supporter of President Donald Trump — is now hospitalized with COVID-19 after voting against a county measure that called for mandatory mask wearing.

The Florida Politics website reports that according to his daughter, Ashley Waldron Zapata, Waldron is “still sedated and in critical condition…. The hospital is working hard to keep him comfortable and continuously monitoring him.”

Waldron, according to Zapata, “went into septic shock” and was in the “most critical of conditions.” However, she indicated that his condition is improving. Continue reading.

Yale Economists: Defeating Virus Is The Only Way To Restore Prosperity

Many far-right allies of President Donald Trump, from Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana to Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick to radio host Glenn Beck, have railed against Democratic stay-at-home orders and argued that too much social distancing is strangling the U.S. economy. But economists Steven Berry and Zack Cooper, in a Politico op-ed, argue that the only way to “restore” the U.S. economy is to seriously slow down the spread of coronavirus — and doing so is going to require aggressively funding anti-coronavirus measures.

“Unfortunately, Congress and the (Trump) Administration seem poised to return to a tired playbook which isn’t working: ramping up government spending as if we are stuck in a pure financial crisis,” explain Berry and Cooper, both of whom teach economics at Yale University. “Financial aid, while vitally important for reducing the economic pain caused by COVID-19, will not hasten the end of the pandemic.”

Congress, according to Berry and Cooper, needs to fund “solutions that would shorten or mitigate the virus itself” — for example, “measures like increasing the supply of PPE, expanding testing, developing treatments, standing up contact tracing, or developing a vaccine.” Continue reading.