Tag: Trump putting his re-election over American lives

Antimalarial drug touted by President Trump is linked to increased risk of death in coronavirus patients, study says

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Washington Post logoAn analysis of 96,000 patients shows those treated with hydroxychloroquine were also more likely to suffer irregular heart rhythms

A study of 96,000 hospitalized coronavirus patients on six continents found that those who received an antimalarial drug promoted by President Trump as a “game changer” in the fight against the virus had a significantly higher risk of death compared with those who did not.

People treated with hydroxychloroquine, or the closely related drug chloroquine, were also more likely to develop a type of irregular heart rhythm, or arrhythmia, that can lead to sudden cardiac death, it concluded.

The study, published Friday in the medical journal Lancet is the largest analysis to date of the risks and benefits of treating covid-19 patients with antimalarial drugs. Like earlier smaller studies, it delivered disappointing news to a world eager for promising treatments for the novel coronavirus as the global death toll grows to more than 300,000. While doctors have refined how they treat the disease, they have yet to discover a magic bullet against a pathogen for which humans have no known immunity. Continue reading.

Trump says US won’t close over second COVID-19 wave

The Hill logoPresident Trump said Thursday the United States would not shut down in the case of a second coronavirus wave.

“People say that’s a very distinct possibility. It’s standard. And we’re going to put out the fires. We’re not going to close the country. We’re going to put out the fires,” Trump told reporters during a tour of a Ford manufacturing plant in Ypsilanti, Mich., when asked if he was concerned about a second wave of COVID-19.

Trump expressed confidence in the country’s ability to contain future outbreaks, referring to them as “embers.” Continue reading.

Trump won’t stop encouraging radical mobs — because they like him

‘People can’t get enough of this. Great people!’

Donald Trump praised angry mobs protesting against pandemic safety measures and harassing a local journalist in a Saturday tweet, calling them “Great people!”

Kevin Vesey, a local TV reporter in Long Island, New York, was coveringa protest by a group of Trump supporters who oppose social distancing on Thursday. Attendees held signs containing messages including “Hang Fauci, Hang Gates, Open up all our states” and “Fake news destroys lives.”

“I’ll probably never forget what happened today. I was insulted. I was berated. I was practically chased by people who refused to wear masks in the middle of a pandemic,” he tweeted, as shared his report on their event. Continue reading.

Dr. Fauci is pushed into the background as Trump barrels forward with ‘reopening’

AlterNet logoYou may have noticed, of late, a distinct change in the Trump White House pandemic strategy. Out are the pandemic briefings because somebody finally convinced Trump they were making him look bad; in are Trump economic advisers making implausible claims on the Sunday shows. Out are the government medical experts, the ones who kept making news by not entirely agreeing with Trump’s every bizarre new medical invention. (Take malaria medication! Drink bleach!) In is the newest White House press secretary putting on surly Fox & Friends-styled briefings declaring President Awesomedude to have done 12 brilliant things while nobody was looking, all wedged invisibly between the day’s angry tweets.

This leads to the inevitable question: Are the government’s pandemic experts even doing anything at this point, or has Trump’s government simply bailed outright on the premise that they will be doing even a single damn thing to get the pandemic under control?

The last substantive public appearance from top government infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci (that is, one in which he was allowed to speak) appears to have been on May 4, over two weeks ago—an absence interrupted this week only by a video appearance with actress Julia Roberts. Continue reading.

Add to list Trump describes medical researchers as enemies because he doesn’t like their results

Washington Post logoThe team that studied the coronavirus in veterans found no positive effect from hydroxychloroquine

There was a specific reason for President Trump’s sudden announcement on Monday that he was taking the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine. His goal was to undermine a whistleblower who had raised questions about the administration’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, a whistleblower who claimed that it was his skepticism about the utility of the drug that led to his firing. How could hydroxychloroquine be as dangerous as former top vaccine official Rick Bright suggested, Trump offered, given that he himself was using it?

The revelation quickly prompted reporters to ask what evidence Trump had that the drug was at all efficacious in addressing the virus and disease it causes, covid-19. Simple, Trump replied: Lots of people called him and said it worked.

“The only negative I’ve heard was the study where they gave it — was it the VA?” Trump said, referring to the Department of Veterans Affairs. “With, you know, people that aren’t big Trump fans gave it.” He then went on to express surprise at this perceived disloyalty from VA, given the legislation he had signed to support it. (The legislation he mentioned was in fact first signed by President Barack Obama.) Continue reading.

CDC guidelines, released at last, offer low-key guide to reopening

Washington Post logoThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week laid out its detailed, delayed road map for reopening schools, child-care facilities, restaurants and mass transit, weeks after covid-weary states began opening on their own terms.

The CDC cautioned that some institutions should stay closed for now and said reopening should be guided by coronavirus transmission rates.

For schools, the CDC recommended a raft of social distancing policies: desks at least six feet apart and facing the same direction, lunch in classrooms, staggered arrival times, cloth masks for staff and daily temperature screenings for everyone. Continue reading.

Add to list Asian American doctors and nurses are fighting racism and the coronavirus

Washington Post logoAcross the country, Asian Americans have reported a sharp increase in verbal abuse and physical attacks

Lucy Li tries not to let fear dictate her interactions with patients as she makes the rounds in the covid-19 intensive care unit. But the anesthesiology resident at Massachusetts General Hospital cannot erase the memory of what happened after work at the start of the pandemic.

A man followed the Chinese American doctor from the Boston hospital, spewing a profanity-laced racist tirade as she walked to the subway. “Why are you Chinese people killing everyone?” Li recalled the man shouting. “What is wrong with you? Why the f— are you killing us?”

Stunned at first, then relieved she was not physically attacked, Li is now saddened and angered by the irony that she spends her days and nights helping save lives. Her work inserting tubes in patients’ airways has grown riskier since the coronavirus emerged — each procedure releasing droplets and secretions that could carry viral particles. Continue reading.

Leaked Pentagon memo warns of ‘real possibility’ of COVID-19 resurgence, vaccine not coming until summer 2021

The Defense Department should prepare to operate in a “globally-persistent” novel coronavirus (COVID-19) environment without an effective vaccine until “at least the summer of 2021,” according to a draft Pentagon memo obtained by Task & Purpose.

“We have a long path ahead, with the real possibility of a resurgence of COVID-19,” reads the memo, authored for Secretary of Defense Mark Esper but not yet bearing his signature.

“Therefore, we must now re-focus our attention on resuming critical missions, increasing levels of activity, and making necessary preparations should a significant resurgence of COVID-19 occur later this year.” Continue reading.

President Trump’s senior advisers now predict swift economic recovery, despite warnings that major problems could persist

Washington Post logoWhite House officials are optimistic the economy will come roaring back this year, but Fed officials have said the unemployment rate could soon jump beyond 20 percent

White House officials are increasingly predicting a swift economic recovery as they break off talks with Congress on additional federal stimulus, expressing optimism that the “reopening” of states will reverse the economic damage caused by the novel coronavirus.

President Trump and his senior advisers, encouraged by the relative strength of the stock market and some indicators like credit card receipts, have in recent days expressed confidence that the U.S. economy will roar back to life in the second half of this year despite staggering increases in unemployment and small-business closures.

“It almost feels like today is the first day,” Trump said during a White House meeting on Monday. “People are starting to go out. They’re opening. They get it.” Continue reading.

Mnuchin defends White House push to reopen economy as Democrats voice growing concerns

Washington Post logoOne Democrat alleged Mnuchin was putting workers’ lives at risk by moving too quickly

President Trump’s drive to swiftly reopen the economy came under fire Tuesday from Democratic senators who pointedly questioned the administration’s strategy, forcing Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to insist the White House would not sacrifice workers’ lives for economic gain.

But the growing insistence by Trump and Republican lawmakers to push for reopening while halting any new talks about aid has created a stark divide in the government’s approach. As Trump has largely shut down negotiations for more emergency assistance, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell warned Tuesday that much more may be needed.

>“We may need to do more, and Congress may, as well,” Powell told lawmakers Tuesday. Continue reading.