Tag: Trump mishandling pandemic response

Scott Gottlieb becomes key voice warning Trump, GOP on coronavirus

The Hill logoScott Gottlieb has seen his national profile grow amid the coronavirus outbreak as the former Food and Drug Administration commissioner becomes a leading voice from outside the administration on how to tackle the worst health epidemic the country may ever have faced.

Gottlieb, a 47-year-old physician, has become a regular presence on cable news shows, and his Twitter account is widely followed by journalists, health policy experts and politicians.

He’s maintained a line to the White House throughout the pandemic, and although his early warnings went unheeded, he hasn’t bludgeoned the administration with criticism but has offered sharp words for officials and states when he has disagreed with their policies.  Continue reading.

Dr. Fauci Warned In 2017 Of ‘Surprise Outbreak’ During Trump Administration

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s top infectious disease specialist, warned in early 2017 that a “surprise outbreak” would occur during the Trump administration, and he said that more needed to be done to prepare for a pandemic.

“There is no question that there will be a challenge to the coming administration in the arena of infectious diseases,” he said in a speech titled “Pandemic Preparedness in the Next Administration” at Georgetown University Medical Center. He delivered it just days before Trump was inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2017.

Fauci, who has overseen the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) since 1984, warned that looming health challenges would involve both chronic diseases ―  ones already ongoing ― as well as “a surprise outbreak.” Continue reading.

Coronavirus death toll: Americans are almost certainly dying of covid-19 but being left out of the official count

Washington Post logoThe fast-spreading novel coronavirus is almost certainly killing Americans who are not included in the nation’s growing death toll, according to public health experts and government officials involved in the tally.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention counts only deaths in which the presence of the coronavirus is confirmed in a laboratory test. “We know that it is an underestimation,” agency spokeswoman Kristen Nordlund said.

A widespread lack of access to testing in the early weeks of the U.S. outbreak means people with respiratory illnesses died without being counted, epidemiologists say. Even now, some people who die at home or in overburdened nursing homes are not being tested, according to funeral directors, medical examiners and nursing home representatives. Continue reading.