Tag: Trump mishandling pandemic crisis

As Trump Pushes to Reopen, Government Sees Virus Toll Nearly Doubling

New York Times logoAn internal Trump administration model projects a near-doubling of daily coronavirus deaths by June 1 as the nation begins to reopen, as well as a rapid rise in daily infections.

WASHINGTON — As President Trump presses states to reopen their economies, his administration is privately projecting a steady rise in coronavirus infections and deaths over the next several weeks, reaching about 3,000 daily deaths on June 1 — nearly double the current level.

The projections, based on data collected by various agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and laid out in an internal document obtained Monday by The New York Times, forecast about 200,000 new cases each day by the end of May, up from about 30,000 cases now. There are currently about 1,750 deaths per day, the data shows.

They are not the only ones forecasting more carnage. Another model, closely watched by the White House, raised its fatality projections on Monday to more than 134,000 American deaths from Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, by early August. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington more than doubled its previous projection of about 60,000 total deaths, an increase that it said partly reflects “changes in mobility and social distancing policies.” Continue reading.

White House prohibits coronavirus task force members from testifying before Congress in May

The Hill logoWhite House coronavirus task force members are prohibited from testifying before Congress this month under new guidance issued by the Trump administration Monday.

Task force members and key deputies have been instructed not to accept invitations to participate in congressional hearings in May, while other agencies responding to the pandemic are being advised to limit the number of hearings they attend.

Top administration officials argue the coronavirus task force and the primary agencies responding to the pandemic need to focus their attention and resources on response efforts, and that having them testify could use up critical hours. Continue reading.

Trump’s damning, deadly refusal to lead on coronavirus

The federal government is preparing to send thousands of people to their deaths, every day. According to internal government documents acquired byThe New York Times, the administration is now projecting that the country will experience more than 3,000 deaths every day as soon as June 1 due to coronavirus. Currently, that number averages around 1,750. Per the Times’s report, published Monday, the numbers are based on modeling by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But at the same time as his administration’s scientists are projecting death tolls on the order of a new 9/11 attack every single day, President Trump is urging states to reopen their economies and ease on social distancing restrictions. Desperate to turn around the grim economic trend lines that have erased all the gains the economy has made since he took office, Trump appears prepared to throw human lives into the thresher as grist for the market.

At the end of the day, coronavirus has not become less infectious. The shutdown strategy adopted across the country has helped mitigate the rate of transmission, but it has not made the virus any less infectious or deadly. But rather than show any semblance of steady leadership, Trump and his government have ricocheted from number to number, policy to policy, in search of the one that will juice his re-election chances the most at any given moment. Continue reading.

82% Approve of Governor Walz’s Handling of COVID-19

Just 34% approve of President Trump’s

SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA — According to polling released last night from KSTP, Minnesotans overwhelmingly support Governor Walz’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to KSTP’s polling, 82% Minnesotans approve of Governor Walz’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, whereas just 14% disapprove. The opposite is true of President Trump – only 34% of Minnesotans approve of his handling of COVID-19, whereas 59% disapprove.

Despite the popularity of Governor Walz’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Minnesota House Republicans are still threatening to block a job-creating bonding bill unless Minnesota’s emergency declaration and Stay at Home Order are lifted. Those threats took another blow this week when Republican Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka declined to join the House Republican efforts to block crucial investments in Minnesota’s infrastructure.

While Minnesota Republicans continue to play politics, squabble among themselves, and spread conspiracy theories, Governor Walz is leading a strong, thoughtful, and evidence-based response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Minnesotans are taking notice.

In Case You Missed It:

KSTP/SURVEYUSA: Big difference in Walz, Trump approval ratings on virus response

In our exclusive KSTP/SurveyUSA poll of 500 Minnesotans, 82 percent either “strongly” or “somewhat” approve of how Walz has responded to the coronavirus, while 14 percent either “somewhat” or “strongly” disapprove and five percent are not sure…

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“The drumbeat of negative coverage of Trump might explain, at least in part, his 34 percent coronavirus response approval rating in Minnesota. Another 59 percent disapprove and seven percent are not sure…

Trump Is Losing Badly — So Prepare For The Distractions

As you probably already knew, the next six months of 2020 presidential campaigning are going to be ugly. I do not say this happily, but I do so based upon a lifetime of watching candidates run for election and reelection. Almost invariably, politicians return to what worked successfully in previous campaigns.

Consider the most recent presidential election of 2016. When exit polls across the nation asked actual voters whether their opinion of the two candidates was favorable or unfavorable, their answers were Donald Trump 38 percent favorable and 60 percent unfavorable, and Hillary Clinton 43 percent favorable and 55 percent unfavorable.

In the same survey, just 36 percent of voters found Clinton to be “honest and trustworthy,” while 61 percent did not. For Trump, the numbers were even worse: 33 percent saw him as “honest and trustworthy,” and 64 percent did not. Continue reading.

Birx’s ‘Fox News Sunday’ interview lays bare the discord in Trump’s coronavirus response

Washington Post logoThe Washington Post published its latest in-depth investigation into the Trump administration’s uneven response to the coronavirus pandemic on Saturday night. On Sunday morning, an interview with a leading medical expert on the White House task force reinforced it.

Appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” Deborah Birx offered very different comments compared with President Trump’s on the projected coronavirus death toll and the protesters who recently stormed the Michigan State Capitol.

Birx was asked about Trump’s projections in recent weeks that there would be between 50,000 and 60,000 deaths, which he later increased to 60,000 to 70,000. We are at over 66,000 deaths, with little sign in recent weeks of any significant downturn. Continue reading.

Pelosi, McConnell decline White House offer of rapid COVID-19 tests

The Hill logoIn a rare bipartisan joint statement, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) turned down the White House’s offer of rapid COVID-19 testing kits as the Senate returns to the Capitol this week amid concerns about the continuing coronavirus pandemic.

“Congress is grateful for the Administration’s generous offer to deploy rapid COVID-19 testing capabilities to Capitol Hill, but we respectfully decline the offer at this time,” the congressional leaders said. “Our country’s testing capacities are continuing to scale up nationwide and Congress wants to keep directing resources to the front-line facilities where they can do the most good the most quickly.”

The Senate will reconvene Monday at 5 p.m. on a confirmation vote for Robert Feitel to become inspector general of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Continue reading.

Trump Is Playing A Deadly Numbers Game — And Losing

Donald Trump likes to talk about the most, the best, the thing that nobody has ever seen.

Now he is trying to make a virtue of a lower number, arguing that the efforts of his administration have warded off a far greater death toll than otherwise would have been seen.

But the reported U.S. death toll on Wednesday crept past 60,000, a figure that Trump in recent weeks had suggested might be the total death count. He had cited the estimate as a sign of relative success after the White House previously warned the U.S. could suffer 100,000 to 240,000 deaths. Continue reading.

 

Excess U.S. deaths hit estimated 37,100 in pandemic’s early days, far more than previously known

Washington Post logoThe United States recorded an estimated 37,100 excess deaths as the novel coronavirus spread across the country in March and the first two weeks of April, nearly 13,500 more than are now attributed to covid-19 for that same period, according to an analysis of federal data conducted for The Washington Post by a research team led by the Yale School of Public Health.

The Yale team’s analysis suggests that the number of excess deaths accelerated as the pandemic took hold. There were 16,600 estimated excess deaths just in the week of April 5 to April 11, compared with 20,500 over the prior five weeks.

Though the team’s estimate of the impact early in the outbreak already paints a picture of unusually high mortality, the number is certain to grow as more deaths are reported to the federal government on a rolling basis. Continue reading.

Alarm bells ring over controversial COVID testing

The Hill logoLawmakers and public health experts are raising alarms about the widespread embrace of blood tests to gauge whether somebody was previously exposed to the coronavirus.

The blood tests have been heralded by state and federal leaders who hope these so-called antibody tests can help guide decisions about when and how to reopen the country by identifying who has been exposed to the virus and may now have immunity even if they have never been diagnosed.

But in the rush to get tests to the public quickly, there are worries that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has allowed companies to market tests with little to no oversight, raising the potential for a surge in inaccurate results. Continue reading.