Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Trumps can't dump hotel

COVID-19 latest from CDC



The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is now publishing daily updates on the status of the coronavirus pandemic. It will be updated daily at noon, Monday through Friday, and I will publish it for you as soon as it becomes available. 

Here are Monday's results. ...

Total cases: 163,539 (Includes cases under investigation-159,578)

Total deaths: 2,860

Jurisdictions reporting cases: 53 (49 states, District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and US Virgin Islands)

We are neglecting doctors and nurses on frontlines of COVID-19


What would we do if health care workers just decided not to come to work?

Doctors in Emilia Romagna
Will we lose them?
As we used to say when I worked in television in the earlier days when everything was live, 'Go to black." That means fade out of whatever image you are on to no picture, which was black. That was easy, cause at least it gave you a few moments to decide what to do. We can't do that today, because this 'fading to black' means, well, more disaster in that moment when you try to regroup. It's like a vicious circle and the healthcare industry is caught in the middle.

Thomas Kirsch, an emergency physician in Washington, D.C., is unloading on us the facts of how his peers feel about the situation they find themselves in today. It's crucial, and to say the least, they, and all health care, are on the edge. Dr. Kirsch worked in Liberia at the height of the Ebola epidemic, in the fall of 2014, so he knows what a pandemic is like and how everyone reacts to it. It was so bad there the healthcare system collapsed.

Image result for sars in liberia
SARS in Toronto
Not saying this country is as desperate as Liberia was then, but with the incompetence of Donald Trump running our show, and if he continues his miscalculations, the same could happen here. Dr. Kirsch speaks of other pandemics like SARS where, 44 percent of all infections were in health-care providers. We must figure out how to protect the healthcare providers, and provide them with the best supplies and equipment to help us and them.

Here is a terrifying question from Kirsch: "How many of us will die before we start to walk away from our jobs?" The question is not rhetorical and the doc goes on to talk about an incident in Arkansas where, due to COVID-19, two doctors are in ICU. Yes, this is unacceptable,but without the proper direction from the CDC, it is bound to happen. The CDC has what looks like adequate advice available to clinicians, but the question is do they have the supplies and equipment necessary to do their jobs safely? Here's what Dr. Kirsch says...
"The United States needs its health-care workers to see it through this crisis. But there are no replacements on the shelf. They can’t be built, trained, or repurposed from other jobs. Unless the country does dramatically more to provide them with the equipment they need to do their job safely, to assure them they will be cared for if they fall ill, and to provide their family with a measure of security, it risks losing them. What happens when they need to be quarantined? When they start to die? Or don’t come to work?"
Image result for us disastersHe adds: "It’s hard to plan after that happens.' It's not hard, it's impossible! And from another angle, for those in an emergency "No one is so fearless or stupid as to discount all risks." In other words, they can take just so much. Dr. Kirsch has more comparisons...
"Physicians fled epidemics in ancient Greece, the black death in Europe, and the great influenza pandemic of 1918. In Vietnam, when SARS cases showed up in one hospital, most of the staff left, leaving only a few to risk their life providing care. During the West African Ebola epidemic of 2014 and ’15, at least 837 health-care workers were infected, and 490 died. The infection also spread to at least three health-care workers caring for patients with Ebola in the United States and Europe. Providers were up to 32 times more likely to be infected with Ebola than the general population."
This has not happened yet in the U.S., but the implication is that it could, and real quick if Donald Trump doesn't start doing the right thing. The first thing he must do is to listen to his experts, Dr. Fauci, and others at the CDC and other agencies in the healthcare industry. Number two, take their advice and quit playing doctor and scientist like a moron. And pandemics are different than other disaster scenarios like earthquakes, floods, and even war....
"One study in 2010 found that 28 percent of the hospital staff said that they would be unlikely to respond to an influenza pandemic if asked, but not required. In a German study, 36 percent of health-care workers said they would not come to work during an influenza pandemic. For some job categories, fewer than 50 percent of workers said they would report to duty. What made workers more likely to say they would show up? Confidence that they were safe at work and getting to work, that their family was safe and cared for, and knowing their colleagues would also respond."
And these are likely the conditions many U.S. healthcare workers feel they are trapped in with Donald Trump in control. There is much more and I urge you to read this article to understand what your healthcare providers are going through with the COVID-19 pandemic. It's going to get worse before it gets better, and even with T-rump predicting a peak in deaths in two weeks, there is another side to that curve. And besides, no one believes his predictions anyway. Stay safe!

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Monday, March 30, 2020

The insanity of Trump Sunday evening Rose Garden briefing


Another off the wall Donald Trump press conference...

Image result for trump press conference yesterday


CNN's Chris Cillizza called it "mind-boggling," and after reading all 37 of his points, I agree, but have to add, if this isn't the ramblings of a totally deranged person, I don't know what it is. Here's an example as he takes out his wrath again against New York's Governor, Andrew Cuomo...
#5. "Even though this is different, something is going on, and you ought to look into it as reporters. Where are the masks going? Are they going out the back door? How do you go from 10,000 to 300,000?"
Cillizilla: In which the President of the United States suggests, with zero evidence, that hospitals in New York are somehow stealing masks or purposely asking for too many from the federal government. This is a truly outrageous charge. And deeply disrespectful of the medical professionals on the front lines fighting this virus.

 The number of irrational comments is thirty-seven, not a couple here and a couple there, thirty-seven in one press briefing lasting for over an hour of disjointed rhetoric you would expect from a five-year-old. It's not hard to see the frustration from the media, we all are in perpetual wonderment over how this can be allowed to continue. And this idiot looks like he could be reelected. God help this country.

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Donald Trump is new "Teflon Don"


Many Americans, along with the media, are asking, if Donald Trump is as bad as he appears in public, why are his favorability ratings still escalating?

President Trump.

Good question, deserves a good answer. But right now there isn't one. Except, for some reason he is untouchable, kinda like John Gotti was...for a while, called the "Teflon Don." He was also known as "Dapper Don" because he was a smart dresser. Gotti served time for truck hijacking and cargo theft in 1968, and manslaughter in 1974, but later after beating several charges, "became known as the “Teflon Don” (because criminal charges against him never stuck)"

And here's how Gotti finally went down...
"By 1990, however, the FBI had collected damaging evidence against Gotti through an extensive eavesdropping operation. In 1992, after a lengthy and widely publicized trial in which Gravano, in violation of a fundamental rule of Mafia behaviour, testified against him, Gotti was convicted on 13 criminal counts, including the murder of Castellano and others, racketeering, and obstruction of justice, and was sentenced to life in prison."
Finally...
"In 1998 he was diagnosed with throat cancer. He died in 2002 at the U.S. Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri."
Gotti, John
The "Teflon Don"
Well, I don't wish throat cancer on anyone, even Donald Trump, but I do hope he goes to jail for all he has done to destroy this country while in the White House and, frankly, don't care what happens to him after that. Damon Linker in The Week says, "My estimation of President Trump has never been lower than it is right now. And his approval rating has never been higher." He explains journalists have approached it like this...
"Unwaveringly convinced that the president and his party are inept, corrupt, ignorant, and brutally callous, they have written and published article after article under headlines like, 'This is the end of the Trump presidency.'" 
 Like John Gotti beating prosecution after prosecution until...the end. But it looks as if Trump, the "Don" has a double coat of Teflon, and no evidence yet that it is wearing thin. The problem here is that we assume...
"that most people will recoil from outright lies, deception, malice, injustice, sleaze, and thuggish imbecility when it is exposed and demonstrated to them."
Great video where Stephen Colbert compares Trump with John Gotti...


But they haven't with the Oval Office lunatic. Damon makes another comment on why we're not seeing "the end of the Trump presidency" that is very unnerving: "Maybe enough Americans in enough states just don't care." I have a name for those people who share this attitude...'apathetics." They usually are spineless, non-voters from both parties who are the first to bitch and moan over what's going on in the country, and also the first to do nothing.

The Week article goes on to marvel over the fact that regardless of what this White House maniac has done, the Republicans favor it because they benefit from it. This is evaluated by the author...
"Now let me be clear: This is bad. Very bad. It means that a large and politically potent segment of the American public is both actively contemptuous of expertise, specialized knowledge, and the effort to combat political corruption when it benefits them, and beyond the reach of being persuaded otherwise.
"It will of course be even worse if they happen to get their president re-elected."
God help us! With the coronavirus pandemic causing the turmoil it is, there is no certainty there will even be an election in November. And even if there is, how will Donald Trump screw with it so that he is assured of being reelected? But as it stands today, the COVID-19 dilemma could strike a blow against Trump that he cannot withstand. With the recent accolades of New York's Governor Andrew Cuomo's handling of the crisis, he looks like a new challenging contender.

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Sunday, March 29, 2020

California sent 170 ventilators by Trump that DID NOT WORK


Only Donald Trump, in a crisis like this could come up with severely needed medical equipment that doesn't work. HEADLINE: "California governor: 170 ventilators sent from Trump administration were 'not working.'" READ MORE...




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More Trump BS...His favorability poll based partially on non-voters


That figures,,,the idiots who don't go to the polls would vote for an idiot. Pathetic. READ MORE...

Duh!



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You're on the FAST TRACK FOR coronavirus news


Keeping up with the COVID-19 pandemic...

CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta projects the need for number one priority, ventilators. READ MORE...

White House response coordinator for the US Coronavirus Task Force, Dr. Deborah Birx borders on the idiocy of Betsy DeVoss, Education Sec., another of Donald Trump's minions. READ MORE...

One of Donald Trump's white supremacists tried to bomb Missouri hospital during coronavirus pandemic. READ MORE...

Many medical experts are chastising Trump for "carelessly promoting ‘sloppy science’ and ‘dangerous public policy’ during the coronavirus pandemic." 

The medical community is reporting "More People Are Dying Of COVID-19 In The US Than We Know." READ MORE...

Sika deer cross a road in Nara, Japan. The animals have been wandering through city streets and subway stations.On the lighter side, Emboldened wild animals venture into locked-down cities worldwide. READ MORE...

During this COVID-19 pandemic, doctors are screaming for shortages of supplies and equipment. READ MORE...

Yesterday's headline: "Essential frontline workers in open revolt over unsafe conditions." READ MORE...

How Donald Trump's month of denial crippled coronavirus testing. 

Cases            136,785
Deaths              2,412
Recovered        4,430

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Saturday, March 28, 2020

HEADLINE: Coronavirus map of the US: latest cases state by state


Here's the very latest on the coronavirus epidemic provided by the Guardian...

How the US compares to other countries
Number of cases since the day of the 100th case (log scale)
051015202530354045505560651001,00010,000100,000IranItalyJapanS. KoreaSingaporeSpainUSCanadaChinaUKIranItalyJapanS. KoreaSingaporeSpainUSCanadaChinaUK
Source: Johns Hopkins CSSE Note: The CSSE states that its numbers rely upon publicly available data from multiple sources, which do not always agree

In the 80% of patients experiencing a mild form of the illness, which can include a fever and pneumonia, many of these cases require little to no medical intervention." But you mustn't ignore the symptoms and should contact your primary care physician for advice. Most of the time it is in-home quarantine but let them make that decision. However...
"elderly people and those with underlying conditions such as diabetes or heart and lung issues are the most vulnerable."
The death rate for the elderly in China was 14.8%, so take notice.

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Friday, March 27, 2020

GM deal to buy ventilators sounds fishy


Not exactly a lie but a case of cover-up or just more incompetence...


This is Rawstory's headline: "Trump blames General Motors for botched ventilator manufacturing deal: ‘They want top dollar!’" That may be true, but all the White House maniac just invoked the Defense Production Act, requiring GM to produce the ventilators. My research provided that the Act also has price controls, thus he could set a reasonable price...
The Act authorizes the President to requisition property, force industry to expand production and the supply of basic resources, impose wage and price controls, settle labor disputes, control consumer and real estate credit, establish contractual priorities, and allocate raw materials towards national defense.Here are Trump's actual words...
Trump orders GM with DPA...


Trump's actual words...
“As usual with ‘this’ General Motors, things just never seem to work out,” the president wrote. “They said they were going to give us 40,000 much needed Ventilators, ‘very quickly’. Now they are saying it will only be 6000, in late April, and they want top dollar. Always a mess.”
GM is charging more than $1 billion, but I don't know whether that relates to 40,000 quantity or 6,000. With the larger number $12,500 per would seem reasonable. It was just a short time ago that T-rump was admonishing hospitals for why they needed so many ventilators. The ventilators have been ordered using the DPA, but the quantity still uncertain Go figure.

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Here's the latest...U.S. surpasses all other countries as leader in COVID-19 cases


How could this happen in the United States where we supposedly have the best of everything, including healthcare?...

See the source image

The blame all rests on the shoulders of the guy in the White House who last January was "touting his health care record as a key reason voters should grant him another term." His record then was trying to get rid of Obamacare, which he failed at, and it has gotten progressively worse as the U.S. now leads the world in coronavirus cases: 81,321 as of Thursday with 1,000 deaths. But it gets worse...
"A cadre of right-wing news sites pulled from the fringes in recent years through repeated mention by President Trump is now taking aim at Anthony S. Fauci, the ­nation’s top infectious diseases ­expert, who has given interviews in which he has tempered praise for the president with doubts about his pronouncements."
Not only have we failed miserably at coronavirus testing, headed up originally by number two, Mike Pence, and now son-in-law screw-up Jared Kushner, but now the Oval Office lunatic wants to fire all the experts to just listen to those who will say what he wants to hear. And he is more concerned with a faltering U.S. economy that could hurt his November chances in the election than help the Americans he was elected to serve.

NY Gov. Cuomo needs ventilators, pleads with Trump to use Defense Production Act...


His running war with New York's Governor Andrew Cuomo has no doubt attributed to that state, and the city of New York, becoming the epicenter of the U.S. COVID-19 epicenter, where there are 74,000 cases. A dedicated New York city nurse, Kious Jordan Kelly, 48, assistant nursing manager at Mount Sinai Hospital, has died of the virus in New York's escalating crisis. Kelly also suffered from severe asthma The NY crisis was caused by...
"surging numbers of coronavirus patients and shortages of crucial medical equipment and protective gear for staffers."
The New York Times reports...
"Scientists warned that the United States someday would become the country hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic. That moment arrived on Thursday."
The Times is compiling data throughout the U.S. showing a comprehensive picture of the COVID-19 pandemic and I will bring that to you as available. Any delays, the paper says, are due to the fact...
"Trump has sent mixed messages about the scale of the danger and how to fight it, ensuring there was no coherent, unified response to a grave public health threat.
 "A series of missteps and lost opportunities dogged the nation’s response."
 Image result for trump failed to take coronavirus pandemic seriously

In hindsight, T-rump's failed to take the pandemic seriously...
"even as it engulfed China, a deeply flawed effort to provide broad testing for the virus that left the country blind to the extent of the crisis, and a dire shortage of masks and protective gear to protect doctors and nurses on the front lines, as well as ventilators to keep the critically ill alive."
China took a slow start on attacking the disease, but then...
"China’s autocratic government acted with ferocious intensity after the belated start, eventually shutting down swaths of the country. Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan quickly began preparing for the worst."
We already have the autocracy in Donald Trump, but the idiot didn't have the brains to implement the necessary measures to prevent the predicament we are now in. That is the difference between the intelligence of China's president, Xi Jinping and Donald Trump. In this case, Jinping worked for the good of his people. Trump worked for the good of his reelection and approval rating. We may never recover from what this moron has done to the United States.

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Donald Trump Says He Will Be Indicted On Tuesday

  THAT'S TODAY... Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has brought the case to this point, now looking at a possible indictment. Trum...