Tag: Trump mishandling pandemic crisis

Reviving the US CDC

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to worsen in the USA with 1·3 million cases and an estimated death toll of 80 684 as of May 12. States that were initially the hardest hit, such as New York and New Jersey, have decelerated the rate of infections and deaths after the implementation of 2 months of lockdown. However, the emergence of new outbreaks in Minnesota, where the stay-at-home order is set to lift in mid-May, and Iowa, which did not enact any restrictions on movement or commerce, has prompted pointed new questions about the inconsistent and incoherent national response to the COVID-19 crisis.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the flagship agency for the nation’s public health, has seen its role minimised and become an ineffective and nominal adviser in the response to contain the spread of the virus. The strained relationship between the CDC and the federal government was further laid bare when, according to The Washington Post, Deborah Birx, the head of the US COVID-19 Task Force and a former director of the CDC’s Global HIV/AIDS Division, cast doubt on the CDC’s COVID-19 mortality and case data by reportedly saying: “There is nothing from the CDC that I can trust”. This is an unhelpful statement, but also a shocking indictment of an agency that was once regarded as the gold standard for global disease detection and control. How did an agency that was the first point of contact for many national health authorities facing a public health threat become so ill-prepared to protect the public’s health?

In the decades following its founding in 1946, the CDC became a national pillar of public health and globally respected. It trained cadres of applied epidemiologists to be deployed in the USA and abroad. CDC scientists have helped to discover new viruses and develop accurate tests for them. CDC support was instrumental in helping WHO to eradicate smallpox. However, funding to the CDC for a long time has been subject to conservative politics that have increasingly eroded the agency’s ability to mount effective, evidence-based public health responses. In the 1980s, the Reagan administration resisted providing the sufficient budget that the CDC needed to fight the HIV/AIDS crisis. The George W Bush administration put restrictions on global and domestic HIV prevention and reproductive health programming.

Trump touts accelerated push on coronavirus vaccines

The Hill logoPresident Trump on Friday unveiled the team leading a federal effort that he hopes will produce a coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year, an accelerated timeline that has been met with skepticism from health experts.

“When I say quickly, we’re looking to get it by the end of the year if we can, maybe before,” Trump said in remarks from the White House Rose Garden, officially laying out the objectives of “Operation Warp Speed,” a public-private partnership to accelerate the development of a vaccine for the novel coronavirus.

Trump described the project as “a massive scientific industrial and logistical endeavor unlike anything our country has seen since the Manhattan Project.” He said the project would begin to manufacture vaccines as they go through trials so that a proven vaccine would be ready to distribute once trials are completed. Continue reading.

Trump’s failure to grapple with the COVID-19 problem is rooted in the hollow gospel of ‘individualism’

AlterNet logoDuring Donald Trump’s daily press conference (and, wait — wasn’t he going to quit those?) on Wednesday, the president was unable to hide his irritation at coronavirus task force member Dr. Anthony Fauci, and pooh-poohed the latter’s concerns about re-opening schools and universities.

Fauci had testified in front of the Senate on Tuesday and was asked about the possibility of educational institutions opening in the fall. He did not actually weigh in on this policy issue, but just observed, “Even at the top speed we’re going, we don’t see a vaccine playing in the ability of individuals to get to school this term.” Without rigorous testing, he said, there’s “a real risk that you will trigger an outbreak that you might not be able to control.”

Trump, who’s always furious at any hint that he actually be working at his job, and is overtly hostile to the concept of expanded testing, became visibly angry about Fauci’s comments. Continue reading.

Whut? Trump Says If We Didn’t Test, We’d Have ‘Very Few’ Covid-19 Cases

President Donald Trump’s remarks at an Allentown medical supply facility are being pointed to as proof he not only opposes testing for coronavirus but doesn’t understand why Americans need to be tested.

And he’s getting royally rousted for them.

On Thursday Trump visited an Owens & Minor distribution plant, telling employees in a speech that testing is overrated. Continue reading.

Changing Subject Amid a Pandemic, Trump Turns to an Old Ploy: Blame Obama

New York Times logoAfter pressure from the president, Senator Lindsey Graham agreed to hold a hearing, but he rebuffed Mr. Trump’s suggestion that his predecessor be called to testify.

WASHINGTON — President Trump has embarked on an aggressive new drive to rewrite the narrative of the Russia investigation by making dark and unsubstantiated accusations that former President Barack Obama masterminded a sinister plot to bring him down.

On Twitter, on television, in the Rose Garden and even on an official White House social media page, Mr. Trump in recent days has taken aim at his most recent predecessor in a way that no sitting president has in modern times, accusing Mr. Obama of undefined and unspecified crimes under the vague but politically charged catchphrase “Obamagate.”

The president went even further on Thursday by demanding that Mr. Obama be hauled before the Senate “to testify about the biggest political crime and scandal in the history of the USA,” a scenario that itself has no precise precedent in American history. Within hours, Mr. Trump’s most faithful Republican ally in the Senate promptly announced that he would indeed investigate, although he would probably not summon Mr. Obama. Continue reading.

The Memo: Gulf grows between Trump and scientists

The Hill logoThe distance between President Trump and the nation’s top scientists is growing wider by the day.

On Thursday, Rick Bright, the whistleblower who says he was unjustly ousted from his position leading a biodefense unit within the Department of Health and Human Services, told Congress that “lives were lost” because of the administration’s failures.

Bright also lamented what he sees as the lack of a comprehensive strategy to meet the once-in-a-lifetime threat.  Continue reading.

A metrics-obsessed White House struggles to define success on coronavirus

Even beyond the death count, there’s widespread reluctance to articulate what a positive outcome would be.

President Donald Trump stepped into the Rose Garden for a news conference Monday and stood between two enormous signs that graced the West Wing colonnade.

“AMERICA LEADS THE WORLD IN TESTING,” the signs read.

While that’s not accurate — on a per capita basis, the United States ranks 26th in testing — the public relations push on coronavirus testing highlights one of the White House’s greatest vulnerabilities: a president who is obsessed with metrics and numerical indications of success has few good numbers to point to. Continue reading.

Yale epidemiologist: Premature reopening will bring ‘needless suffering and death’ from coronavirus

AlterNet logoIn the United States, the coronavirus pandemic is not only a health and safety issue — it has also become a political issue, with prominent Democrats like New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer asserting that businesses and schools shouldn’t reopen until it is safe to do so and President Donald Trump arguing that the U.S. should reopen sooner rather than later. Gregg Gonsalves, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Yale University’s School of Public Health, discusses Trump’s push to reopen the country prematurely in an article for The Nation — and warns that doing so will result in countless deaths that could have been prevented.

The epidemiologist explains, “The president of the United States has made a decision — sort of — that despite the lack of sufficient testing, resources to embark upon the tracing of the contacts of all people testing positive for COVID-19, and the ability to humanely isolate those infected, we are nevertheless reopening as a country….  His message is clear: ‘we have met the moment, and we have prevailed,’ he announces — declaring victory over the pandemic,  at least in his own rear view mirror.”

But in fact, Gonsalves warns, the U.S. hasn’t triumphed over COVID-19. Continue reading.

5 takeaways from coronavirus whistleblower Rick Bright’s testimony

Washington Post logoA Trump administration vaccine expert who says he was removed from a key role for raising concerns about the federal government’s coronavirus response — and its promotion of unproven drugs to treat the virus — testified Thursday before Congress.

Rick Bright became a whistleblower after being removed from his post as director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), which falls under the Department of Health and Human Services.

Here are some takeaways from Bright’s testimony. Continue reading.

Someone at the CDC Leaked Another Pandemic Plan the White House Doesn’t Want You to See

The guide was leaked by an anonymous source, who the AP said was “not authorised to share the document with the press”.

The White House is dealing with a second major leak from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in less than a week, which again shows the agency offering more detailed and restrictive guidance on reopening the country.

Last month, the CDC developed a 63-page guide called the “Guidance for Opening Up America Again Framework” for stopping the spread of the coronavirus. The plan offers more details than both the previously leaked CDC guide, and the plan released by the White House in April, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday.

The guide was leaked by an anonymous source, who the AP said was “not authorized to share the document with the press.” Continue reading.