Tag: Trump pandemic response

Dr. Anthony Fauci reveals his ongoing battle to reason with Trump in surprisingly candid interview: ‘You have to say things 1, 2, 3, 4 times’

AlterNet logoDuring an interview with Dr. Anthony Fauci — director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) — for Science Magazine, writer Jon Cohen asked the well-known immunologist a blunt question: how has he managed to avoid getting fired from President Donald Trump’s coronavirus task force? Fauci responded that despite disagreements “on some things,” Trump “does listen to what I say.” But Fauci, during the interview, went on to say that he has to repeat himself a lot with Trump — and some pundits are saying Fauci probably wouldhave been fired by now were he not so widely respected.

Fauci told Cohen, “When you’re dealing with the White House, sometimes you have to say things one, two, three, four times — and then, it happens. So, I’m going to keep pushing.”

When the Washington Post’s Jenna Johnson tweeted the interview and highlighted the “one, two, three, four times” quote, Twitter user Josh Jordan responded, “This quote is really stunning, and if Fauci wasn’t so well respected by both sides right now, Trump would’ve fired him this morning.” Continue reading.

AP reporter accuses Trump of treating coronavirus like bad news in a tabloid column

AlterNet logoWhite House correspondent Jonathan Lemire unloaded on President Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus crisis.

The Associated Press reporter usually remains reserved on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” even when offering criticism of the president, but Lemire blasted Trump’s leadership during the COVID-19 outbreak.

“It’s caused great frustration from those at the front lines, the mayors and governors across the nation,” Lemire said, addressing the lack of specifics regarding personal protective equipment for medical workers. “Yesterday, as I said, the FEMA head couldn’t say how many masks are being shipped.” Continue reading.

As coronavirus spreads, so do doubts about America’s ability to meet the moment

Washington Post logoAs the novel coronavirus spreads through communities across the country, it poses a critical question: Can America’s people, institutions and government collectively rise to the occasion to defeat a once-in-a-generation crisis?

With a global pandemic testing the country’s political, financial, social and moral fabric, there are growing signs that answering in the affirmative has become increasingly difficult.

Bureaucratic missteps have led to a shortfall in tests needed to determine the true scope of the virus. Hospitals are pleading for more medical equipment as doctors resort to using homemade masks. Financial markets have lost a third of their value in less than a month. Reveling spring breakers have hit the beaches in defiance of a nationwide social distancing campaign. Continue reading.

‘A weak man with delusions of competence’: Trump buried for lying his way through the daily pandemic press conferences

AlterNet logoIn a brutally blunt piece for the New York Times, columnist Jennifer Senior went scorched earth on Donald Trump for his lie-filled performances in the now daily press briefings on the coronavirus pandemic — suggesting the media call them what they are: presidential “propaganda.”

Following a day when the combative Trump attacked NBC reporter Peter Alexander for merely asking what he could say to the public that is living in fear of the pandemic, Senior said enough is enough.

“In a time of global emergency, we need calm, directness and, above all, hard facts. Only the opposite is on offer from the Trump White House. It is therefore time to call the president’s news conferences for what they are: propaganda,” she wrote. “We may as well be watching newsreels approved by the Soviet Politburo. We’re witnessing the falsification of history in real time. When Donald Trump, under the guise of social distancing, told the White House press corps on Thursday that he ought to get rid of 75 to 80 percent of them — reserving the privilege only for those he liked — it may have been chilling, but it wasn’t surprising. He wants to thin out their ranks until there’s only Pravda in the room.” Continue reading.

In hard-hit areas, testing restricted to health care workers, hospital patients

Washington Post logoOfficials direct scarce resources where they are needed most to save people’s lives.

Health officials in New York, California and other hard-hit parts of the country are restricting coronavirus testing to health care workers and the severely ill, saying the battle to contain the virus is lost and the country is moving into a new phase of the pandemic response.

As cases spike sharply in those places, they are bracing for an onslaught and directing scarce resources where they are needed most to save people’s lives. Instead of encouraging broad testing of the public, they’re focused on conserving masks, ventilators and intensive care beds — and on getting still-limited tests to health-care workers and the most vulnerable. The shift is further evidence that rising levels of infection and illness have begun to overwhelm the health care system.

A similar message was hammered Saturday by members of the White House coronavirus task force, who said it was urgent to conserve scarce supplies and offered guidelines about who should get tested. Top priority, they said, should go to those who are hospitalized, along with health-care workers, symptomatic residents of long-term care facilities and people over 65 — especially those with heart and lung disease, which place them at higher risk. Continue reading. Free article.

CNN’s John King drops a swear word on air after Trump’s galling ‘attack’ on a journalist

AlterNet logoAttacking members of the mainstream media is nothing new for President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly described journalists as “the enemy of the people” and providers of “fake news.” This week, one of Trump’s targets was NBC News’ Peter Alexander, who CNN’s John King is vigorously defending.

During a press conference on the coronavirus crisis, Alexander asked Trump, “What do you say to Americans who are watching you right now who are scared?” And Trump angrily responded, “I say that you’re a terrible reporter. That’s what I say. I think it’s a very nasty question. And I think it’s a very bad signal that you’re putting out to the American people. The American people are looking for answers, and they’re looking for hope — and you’re doing sensationalism.”

In response, King gave Trump a vehement tongue-lashing on CNN, telling his colleague, Kaitlan Collins, that there was no justification whatsoever for the president’s “bullshit attack” on an NBC News reporter. Continue reading.

NBC’s Peter Alexander asked Trump to reassure Americans about coronavirus. Trump berated him instead.

Washington Post logoIt was the journalistic equivalent of a layup, an opportunity for President Trump to utter a sound bite to soothe an anxious nation’s fears and concerns amid a pandemic.

Instead, Trump turned an exchange at a news conference into something very different — a jarring attack on the news media in general and the reporter who asked the question in particular.

NBC News correspondent Peter Alexander started the exchange by asking Trump whether he “may be giving Americas a false sense of hope” by touting drug therapies that health-care experts have said are unproved as treatments for the coronavirus. Continue reading.

‘I’ve never seen anything like it’: Sanjay Gupta stunned after Dr. Fauci is forced to fact-check Trump

AlterNet logoCNN’s Sanjay Gupta found himself shocked after watching President Donald Trump try to correct Dr. Anthony Fauci about potential coronavirus treatments.

Shortly after the president’s press conference ended, CNN host John King highlighted Fauci shooting down the idea of using an antimalarial drug to treat the virus.

The information that you’re referring to [regarding the drug] is anecdotal,” Fauci said. “It was not done in a controlled clinical trial, so you really can’t make any definitive statement about it.” Continue reading.

We face a wartime supply shortage. Where is Trump’s wartime response?

Washington Post logoA TROUBLESOME bottleneck threatens to undermine all the hard work of health-care workers and others to respond to the novel coronavirus pandemic. Reports from across the country reveal dire shortages of personal protective equipment, including masks, chemical reagents needed for testing and other supplies essential to coping with an expected onslaught of illness. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been reduced to suggesting scarves and bandannas where masks are unavailable.

The dimensions of the supply problem approach wartime in size and scope. No one was prepared for a pandemic; now everyone must shoulder extra effort. The government has estimated that if the pandemic lasts a year, 3.5 billion respirator masks may be necessary to protect health-care workers and patients. The United States has about 12 million N95 respirators and 30 million surgical masks, with an additional 5 million N95 respirators that may be expired. This is not enough. Already, at major hospitals in Seattle and the District, mask shortages have become so acute that doctors and patients are being asked to reuse them, not dispose of them as previous guidance from the CDC recommended.

At a Los Angeles emergency room, doctors were given a box of expired masks and when they tried to put them on, the elastic bands snapped, the New York Times reports. At Memorial Sloan Kettering in Manhattan, doctors were informed they were down to one week’s supply of respirator masks. Continue reading.

Online videos ‘predicted’ details of deadly outbreak, but Trump called coronavirus ‘unforeseen problem’

Two years ago, during a simulated meeting of the nation’s top officials, a former senator acting as the U.S. defense secretary offered a chilling assessment of a “new” deadly disease spreading across America: “We’re going to have a lot of casualties in this war against this epidemic.”

One of the simulation’s organizers, acting as a National Security Council official, warned that if a vaccine – which takes more than a year to develop – isn’t deployed “soon,” the U.S. death toll could be “catastrophic.”

Those in the room were then briefed on the latest situation on the ground: “Telework and social distancing measures are being encouraged by the CDC. Schools across the country are closed, and many public gatherings have been canceled. Continue reading.