Category Archives: medical news

medical news

Tell the truth, already!

(Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The dissembling, prevarication, obfuscation and outright lying just doesn’t stop within the White House even when it involves the health of the president of the United States.

Donald Trump’s recovery from the COVID-19 virus is being turned into a carnival of half-truths and outright fiction. Holy crap, man! We’re dealing here with the head of state, our commander in chief, the guy with the nuclear launch codes.

It’s bad enough that all of that happens to reside in the body of Donald John Trump. Now, though, we are faced with not knowing whether the president is truly on the road back to recovery or whether he could take a turn for the worse.

This back/forth about whether Trump received oxygen upon being admitted to Walter Reed Medical Center is a case in point. I get that hooking a 74-year-old male hospital patient up to an oxygen tank is a fairly normal procedure. Why not just say so? Why dance around the issue as if reporters are asking the docs to give us a live-or-die prognosis?

I probably shouldn’t be surprised at any of this. Donald Trump long ago assumed the title of Liar in Chief, even though he is a terrible liar. The lack of truth-telling has filtered through the ranks, even through the medical staff that should be immune (no pun intended) from such an affliction.

I want the president and first lady to recover from this illness. In the meantime, I also want to know the full truth in real time about what is happening to the leader of our country.

Tell us the truth!

medical news

Chaos reigns in COVID response

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

If there is an issue that demands continuity in a government response it must include the health and well-being of our head of state and commander in chief.

Are we getting now from the White House as Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, battle the coronavirus? Hardly.

We are getting more of the chaotic mixed messaging that has afflicted the White House since, oh, when Trump became president.

Donald Trump is a patient at Walter Reed Medical Center. The doctors tell us that Trump’s condition is progressing; then we hear from others close to the situation that Trump’s vital signs are “worrisome” and that the next 48 hours will be critical.

Which is it?

Americans cannot get a clear reading of whether the doctors administered oxygen to Trump. White House doctors tell us that he doesn’t have oxygen “right now,” or “today.” No mention of whether he ever has received it.

We don’t know when Trump might have tested positive for the virus and whether he continued his activities for another full day after getting the diagnosis.

So many questions. The White House seems unable or unwilling to deliver a clear, unambiguous message. What’s at stake? The health of the president. Not only that, we have our national security apparatus in potential jeopardy when the public does not have a clear understanding of the president’s health.

Donald Trump, lest we forget, happens to be part of a major at-risk group: elderly, overweight males are among those most vulnerable to serious symptoms if they test positive for the COVID-19 virus.

Therefore, we need a crystal clear message that tells us the whole truth about the physical condition of president.

Stop the chaos!

medical news, national news

Here’s your COVID outbreak

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Having wished Donald and Melania Trump a speedy recovery from the coronavirus, I now wish to slap the sh** out of The Donald for what he has produced.

He has delivered us an actual “outbreak” of infections caused by his refusal to wear a mask with others around him or to demand that everyone in his presence exercise social distancing in the wake of the pandemic that continues to kill too many Americans every single day.

Several people who were hobnobbing with Trump prior to his diagnosis now have tested positive for the virus. Let’s see:

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, U.S. Sens. Mike Lee of Utah, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, former White House senior policy adviser Kellyanne Conway, White House aide Hope Hicks, at least three White House beat reporters, and perhaps a host of others all have the disease. Have I missed anyone?

Yep, I would call that an “outbreak.”

Donald Trump insisted on staging those rallies. Crowds showed up sans masks. They were crowded together. They were cheering, laughing, carrying on as if they didn’t have a care in the world … all the while transmitting COVID germs among themselves.

There was the POTUS, taking it all in.

He didn’t give a rip about the safety of those who adore his presence as president of the United States.

Now he is paying the price. So are those who were careless and thoughtless enough to forgo the safety procedures preached to them by the doctors and assorted scientific experts.

Whatever happened to leading by example? Donald Trump is leading by setting the wrong example at every possible turn.

I still wish everyone a speedy recovery. I also still wish them all to be tossed out of public office as soon as is humanly possible.

medical news

‘Hoax’ snags POTUS

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

If there is a silver lining behind the news that Donald and Melania Trump have tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, it is that we no longer will hear (I hope) Donald Trump refer to the coronavirus as a “hoax.”

He had better take it seriously from this moment forward. He should set the example he should have set from Day One. Trump needs to understand as well that the administration has nothing “under control” and that the pandemic is still raging at full force.

The diagnosis is concerning in the extreme. The nation’s executive branch needs to function fully and it cannot when the individual at the top of the chain of command is recovering from a virus that could potentially do serious harm to him.

The “hoax” nonsense has now been relegated to being a thing of the past. It’s real and Donald Trump no longer can dismiss it publicly as something akin to the flu.

medical news

How to react if POTUS get sick?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I am going to acknowledge something that makes me terribly uncomfortable, so bear with me.

Hope Hicks, who is Donald Trump’s closest non-family adviser inside the White House, has tested positive for the COVID-19 virus.

Thus, the quandary. I truly am wrestling with how I should react if Donald Trump becomes infected with the virus. Do I shudder in fear for the immediate future of our government? Must I offer “thoughts and prayers” for Trump and his family?

Donald Trump mocked Joe Biden the other night because the Democratic presidential nominee wears a mask when he’s out and about; Trump forgoes a mask. Trump stages indoor rallies in front of large crowds comprising Trumpkins who also do not wear masks. The president violates the guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

So, back to the question: How do I respond to knowledge that Donald Trump himself might become infected with the coronavirus?

Medical experts say that anyone who is close to those who test positive for the virus should quarantine themselves for two weeks. Does that include the president of the United States and the first lady and the couple’s teenage son?

If the president is going to be reckless in his behavior about the pandemic, how is it that I should somehow be compelled to feel badly if he gets sick?

I think I have just talked myself out of feeling any concern about an individual who has lied about the severity of the pandemic and has denigrated the scientists who warn us to wear masks and to maintain “social distance” to keep ourselves and others safe from a potentially killer virus.

medical news

COVID ‘under control’? Hah!

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

How do you define “success” in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic?

Donald Trump says he and his administration are doing a “great job.” He gives himself an A+ grade in the response to the pandemic.

Hmm. Let’s look at a couple of numbers.

The worldwide death count has just surpassed 1 million human beings. Of that total, more than 200,000 of them died in the United States of America.

The United States comprises about 5 percent of the world population. The U.S. portion of the worldwide coronavirus death toll is, um, 20 percent. 

Five percent vs. 20 percent. That’s a successful strategy?

I do not believe that is the case.

medical news

Mr. POTUS … shut up!

(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I am running out of ways to say with any degree of decorum what needs to be said out loud and with all due vigor.

Mr. President: Shut the fu** up!

He has contradicted medical experts all along during this fight against the coronavirus pandemic. Drs. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx have sought to offer expert analysis of how to protect us against the killer, only to have Donald Trump slap them down. How in the name of medical expertise they can continue to work for this guy is beyond me.

Now comes the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, another pretty renowned physician named Robert Redfield.

Dr. Redfield told a congressional hearing this week that a vaccine being developed to prevent the coronavirus won’t be available until second or third quarter of 2021. Trump, though, keeps yapping about it being available by late this year.

What does Trump know that the head of the CDC not know? Not a damn thing! Indeed, Dr. Redfield seems quite certain in his prediction of when a vaccine would be available for general distribution, yet Trump said that Redfield is “confused” and that he “didn’t understand the question.”

Good grief. I heard the question. I watched Redfield’s response. He was bright-eyed and alert and answered it firmly.

So we’re supposed to ignore the analysis of a highly trained medical professional and heed the word of a liar/political hack?

No thanks. I’ll pass on that one.

I just want the president to shut his mouth. I want him to stop talking to me. He has nothing to say that I want to hear.

This individual is putting millions of Americans in dire jeopardy if they choose to heed his word over the word of an individual trained specifically to tell us the truth … even when it doesn’t fit a particular political narrative.

medical news

By all means, HHS flack … hit the road

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Michael Caputo, an embattled communications chief for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has issued an apology and says he is considering taking medical leave.

Good idea, dude. Make it a permanent leave.

Caputo apologized for bringing negative publicity onto HHS for remarks he made accusing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of conspiring to concoct bad news to undermine Donald J. Trump.

Of course, Caputo had no evidence to back it up. He just blurted it out. I also should point out that Caputo has zero public health experience and was put in his job as HHS flack as a political payoff from the Trump campaign.

The CDC is working overtime trying to find a way out of the pandemic crisis. To my way of thinking, the pros at the CDC have little time to conspire. They have their hands quite full trying to prevent more deaths and illness from the COVID-19 virus.

What we are witnessing is continued chaos among those in the Trump administration who supposedly are charged with delivering cogent messages on the nation’s ongoing fight against the coronavirus.

Instead we get nutty conspiracy theories by a top-level administration who doesn’t belong in the job he occupies.

Take your leave, Michael Caputo. Do not come back.

medical news

WHO did what?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I have lamented how social media can corrupt our thinking while dictating the course of public debate.

Then again, it provides a laugh … even at issues that aren’t haw-haw funny. Such as this Twitter item that found its way onto my Facebook feed today.

Donald Trump got angry with the World Health Organization because it supposedly gave the COVID/coronavirus pandemic the short shrift. He wants to pull the United States out of the WHO.

But wait! Now we hear from none other than the iconic journalist Bob Woodward that Donald Trump did the very same thing. Wow, man! Who knew?

We have Trump’s voice recorded forever telling Woodward that the president didn’t want to “panic” Americans. So he lied to us. He told us the pandemic was like the flu. He said the nation’s doctors had it all “under control” and that the coronavirus would disappear … like a miracle!

That’s what Trump said. Woodward’s got it on audio recording.

So, does this mean Trump will set aside his anger with WHO, return the nation he governs to the health agency and rejoin the international fight to find a vaccine for the killer virus?

No. It doesn’t mean that at all.  Because Donald Trump doesn’t acknowledge when he’s wrong. He doesn’t admit to being a fallible human being.

The Donald’s only instinct is to lie. Then he expects us to believe the lies he blurts out.

medical news

Trump lives in parallel universe

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald J. Trump’s existence in a parallel universe simply is something to behold.

Here’s the latest. Trump said the United States has “turned the corner” on the coronavirus pandemic and is hurtling toward something resembling a normal life prior to the pandemic’s arrival.

Not so fast, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert and a key member of the White House coronavirus pandemic response team. We haven’t turned anything like a corner, Fauci said. He explained that the infection and death rates continue on their upward trajectory.

“I have to disagree with that,” Fauci said of Trump’s assessment.

This is precisely what many of us have been saying about Trump’s inability to speak the truth about matters that demand only the truth. Accordingly, Trump the politician cannot be trusted to tell us the truth when he is in the midst of a political campaign in which he is fighting desperately to keep his job.

It is no great scoop to realize that Trump thinks first of his political fortunes. The rest of us? Hah! Trump will continue to soft-pedal the consequences of the pandemic for as long as he continues to run for re-election.

Here, though, is the real rub: Trump’s base of supporters will believe the self-serving politician before they trust the learned opinion of a man who has spent his entire adult life waging war against infection diseases. They will forgo masks in large gatherings of fellow Trumpkins. They won’t heed the advice of Dr. Fauci and other medical experts who warn them of what can happen to them if they fail to follow proper preventative measures.

Trump will continue to lie about “turning the corner.” Medical experts such as Dr. Fauci will seek to correct him. Trump won’t care what the experts say. The experts will continue issue warnings.

Parallel universes remain impenetrable. In this instance they also are profoundly dangerous.