Category Archives: medical news

medical news, national news

Pelosi puts it out there: Trump shows weakness

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is giving Donald Trump a taste of what he has dished out to her, meaning that she has declared that the president is exhibiting signs of weakness and not strength while floundering in his response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Pelosi has delivered a blistering critique of Trump in a letter to her Democratic House colleagues. She says Americans should ignore Trump and listen exclusively to the learned scientists and physicians who have the knowledge and expertise to explain the pandemic to a worried public.

Pelosi wrote: The truth is, from this moment on, Americans must ignore lies and start to listen to scientists and other respected professionals in order to protect ourselves and our loved ones.

I will quibble with one point: The time to ignore the “lies” began long before “this moment.” Still, the speaker is spot on in her assessment of Trump’s inability or unwillingness to lead a nation in distress.

She said that Trump continues to “obfuscate” and lies openly when he says the United States is testing more than any other nation on Earth for the COVID-19 virus; the truth is that we’re testing only a tiny fraction of Americans.

Trump would have us believe the response has gone swimmingly. The reality is that our hospital workers are drowning under the weight of the pressure they are feeling, as are ambulance crews, police officers, firefighters, nursing home employees, grocery store clerks, truck drivers …  you name it. Yet they’re all answering the call with true heroism.

Trump has dished out a boatload of insults at Pelosi stemming from the House impeachment effort earlier this year. The speaker is now giving some of it back.

I believe the speaker when she says she prays for Trump. I will join her in praying for the president and I’ll save a healthy dose of good will and prayer for the speaker as well.

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Trump takes it out on WHO at worst possible moment

Donald Trump is so darn angry with the World Health Organization that he’s decided to pull back a huge amount of U.S. money … while WHO is trying to fight off the deadly coronavirus pandemic.

Is it me or does the timing of this bit of presidential pique seem cruel and dangerous?

Trump announced his decision to withhold money for WHO this week because of what he says is a mishandling of the pandemic when it began to alarm the world. He has accused WHO of being too “China centric,” even though the pandemic has its origins in China.

Meanwhile, the United Nations-based WHO is trying to gather data, trying to coordinate the international response to this pandemic, but now it must do so without a large chunk of money on which it relies to pay for its myriad functions. The United States kicks in about $400 million annually to WHO.

This is an international emergency. If there was a time for WHO to be fully funded and able to do its job, now is the time. However, we now hear from Donald Trump that he is turning off that financial spigot just as WHO needs all the support it can get.

Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates, who contributes huge sums from his enormous fortune to fight infectious disease, calls Trump’s decision “as dangerous as it gets.” Other medical officials also are worried that Trump has acted hastily.

My own view is that a suspension of money from the United States to WHO could have come after the pandemic had been brought under control. Then we could have established a firm after-action examination of where WHO fell short.

This isn’t the time to strip WHO of much of its ability to fight this deadly health crisis.

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Why isn’t there more bipartisan outrage and fear?

I usually am not inclined to ascribe partisan motives to varying responses to monumental tragedies, such as what we’re experiencing at this moment with the coronavirus pandemic.

But then there is this unmistakable trend we keep witnessing: Republican governors appear to be less inclined to invoke statewide measures to cope with the pandemic than their Democratic colleagues; a GOP congressman, Trey Hollingsworth of Indiana, has said that people dying would be preferable to allowing the U.S. economy to tank from the pandemic; Texas GOP Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick recently said old folks should sacrifice their lives if it means the economy would survive this crisis.

GOP-leaning talking heads on conservative media keep suggesting the fear is the product of the “mainstream media” overhyping the danger brought by the COVID-19 virus. Donald Trump reserves his criticism of governors to the Democrats among them; he remains silent on his fellow Republicans.

Is there a trend here? Well, it looks like it to me.

The nation’s top Republicans spent a good deal of time and effort when the pandemic first exploded downplaying its severity. His fellow Republicans appear to be following his lead. Only by mid-March did Donald Trump finally acknowledge the onset of a grim outcome caused by the pandemic.

Democratic state governors, meanwhile, are teaming up. The governors of three West Coast states — California, Oregon and Washington — have formed a coalition among them to coordinate their responses to the pandemic. The same thing is occurring in the Northeast, with New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Rhode Island governors — all Democrats — forming a similar partnership; to be fair, a GOP governor in Massachusetts has joined them … so it’s not all bleak if you’re a Republican officeholder.

What’s going on here. Has the GOP machinery become clogged up by Donald Trump’s ignorance, fecklessness and imbecilic feuds with the media and Democrats?

This is way bigger than partisan differences, folks. How about everyone pulling together? As near as I can tell, Democrats are on the right side of this fight by taking a more proactive approach to fighting this “invisible enemy.” Republican governors need to get into the game … right now!

medical news, national news

Trump uses health crisis as re-election campaign forum … disgusting

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I caught a few minutes today of one of Donald Trump’s frequent White House press briefing/campaign rallies.

As before, I came away shaking my head wondering how in the world this guy gets away with this idiotic charade.

I watched Trump chide Joe Biden over a statement that came from the former vice president, who’s become the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. I was astounded to listen to Trump actually question whether Biden wrote the statement, suggesting the text came from his campaign staff, which Trump managed to suggest comprised some “very smart” aides.

As usual, the president’s rambling was at best semi-coherent.

And this occurred before Trump opened the floor for questions from the media gathered in the White House press briefing room. I turned away from the Trump Show to take care of some household chores.

The more I see of Trump’s daily “briefings” on the coronavirus pandemic the more convinced I am that he performs not a scintilla of public service when he stands in front of the nation in this fashion.

You know what Trump needs to do … but he won’t. He needs to stand down and leave the actual information conveyance to the experts who comprise the White House pandemic response team headed by Vice President Mike Pence; for that matter, Pence should step into the shadows, too, for I am sickened by the sucking up he demonstrates whenever he talks about the “outstanding leadership” that Trump provides to deal with this crisis.

However, these so-called “briefings” become only a platform for Trump to campaign for re-election. He uses this venue to criticize the media, Democrats, previous presidents (and chiefly just his immediate predecessor) and everyone else not associated with his administration.

He keeps insisting he is unifying the nation. He accuses congressional Democrats of “politicizing” this national emergency while doing the very same thing himself. He calls out media for reporting “fake news” without ever recognizing the extreme irony that he — the “kind of fake news” — would accuse anyone else of doing the very thing he has turned into something of an art form.

Therein lies the reason I refuse to listen to what this clown has to say. I want to rely on the scientists, the doctors and assorted other emergency response experts to provide me with information I can use.

If only Donald Trump would shut his mouth.

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How will POTUS evade these questions?

Donald J. Trump’s evasive tactics have become legendary during his brief career as a politician.

The more I think about it, I am inclined to presume he honed those evasion skills back when he sought to evade military service during the Vietnam War; he found a way to forgo service by getting a doc to prescribe “bone spurs.”

But now the president of the United States is facing another set of assertions that he will have to explain … if he is unable to evade any accountability.

Advisers told him, it has been reported, as early as late 2019 about the potential for a deadly viral pandemic. He shrugged it off, The New York Times is reporting. More warnings came forward in early 2020. Trump continued to ignore them.

Then he told the nation repeatedly that the coronavirus was “under control.” He told us it would disappear “miraculously” when the temperature warmed up. Nothing to worry about … he said.

Now he is saying he called it a pandemic before anyone else knew what it was.

How does this clown get away with this lying? How do his fanatic followers continue to believe these denials, how do they reject the statements of supposedly trusted Trump advisers that the nation is facing a deadly peril?

I cannot yet grasp how this individual is able to wiggle his way out of such predicaments. To be brutally candid, it is an extraordinary trait I never have witnessed in an American politician.

The casualty count continues to mount. The doctors, scientists and even some top political advisers tell us there was much more that could have been done to avoid such carnage … and that Donald Trump failed to act.

How will this guy explain it away? More to the point, how will so many Americans continue to believe him?

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Listen to your medical team and the governors, Mr. POTUS

Donald Trump took a question this past week from a reporter about the “metrics” he would use to decide whether to “reopen” the U.S. economy that the coronavirus pandemic has slammed shut.

He pointed to his noggin and said “my metrics are right here.” He’s going to make a decision, he said, after listening to the advice he will get from his team.

If only I could believe he would listen to anyone, let alone to the experts with whom he has surrounded himself.

The docs and many of the nation’s governors are imploring the president to resist seeking to restart the economy by May 1.

Too many Americans are still being infected. Too many also are dying from the COVID-19 strain of the virus and yet Trump still keeps talking about the need to get Americans back to some sense of “normal.”

The need must be first and foremost to stem this infection and to ensure that we test sufficient numbers of Americans to determine who is infected. To date we have tested a tiny fraction of Americans; we need to get many millions more tested. Only after we do that should we “reopen the economy” and seek to return to the way it was before the pandemic swept across the world.

The medical experts and many governors are pushing back against Donald Trump’s desire to act. Is he seeking a premature restarting of the economy? A lot of the “best people” advising Trump believe he must slow it down.

Pay attention to them, Mr. President. They have the “metrics” that need to matter more than those that are knocking around inside Donald Trump’s skull.

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People are dying ‘alone’

One of the many tragedies associated with the coronavirus pandemic has been articulated by Mike Barnicle, a newspaper columnist and a cable TV talking head.

He has spoken of meeting individuals who have lost loved ones to the killer disease. One of the unique aspects of the COVID-19 virus is that those who are infected with it cannot have their loved ones nearby as their condition worsens.

Barnicle’s tale told of someone he met in Boston who watched a loved one succumb to the virus “on an I-Pad.” That’s right. The stricken individual was not allowed to die in the presence of his family. They were kept away because the doctors and nurses could not allow them to be exposed to the virus.

Therein lies arguably the singular tragedy of this pandemic, as articulated by a noted journalist.

It is such a sad aspect of this monstrous crisis.

Oh, let us hope and pray that the end of this worldwide pandemic is on its way.

medical news, national news

How can this ‘wartime president’ lead by declining to set example?

I cannot get past Donald Trump’s declaration that he would forgo a health agency’s recommendation to wear a mask while interacting with other human beings.

Think of this. Trump wants to be considered a “wartime president” as the nation fights the coronavirus pandemic. Then the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that Americans should wear masks. Trump’s response? He said the CDC recommendation is “voluntary,” so he won’t follow the agency’s advice.

If he wants us to think of him as a wartime president, shouldn’t he act like one? To my way of thinking, that would entail a president setting the example that others would follow. Yep, that means wearing a mask in public.

Think, too, of how such a gesture might play to critics such as myself. I am, as you know, an avid — and at times admittedly angry — critic of Donald Trump. The sight of Trump wearing a mask while interacting with others would send a positive message to me. It wouldn’t entice me to vote for Trump this November, but it would draw praise from this blog.

My wife and I are following the CDC advice. Given that the president works for us — and that we do not work for him — it makes sense to me that our “employee,” the president, ought to be follow the lead of his “bosses.” I trust you get my drift.

Trump made some lame and phony excuse for not wearing a mask. He said something about the “image” of a president wearing a mask in the Oval Office while greeting another head of state. Well, as former VP Joe Biden once said of the enactment of the Affordable Care Act … big fu**ing deal.

Why not make visitors to the Oval Office wear a mask, too? If Trump is going to declare himself to be a wartime president, then he ought to take charge and act like someone willing to sacrifice in a time of war. And he could demand that others make the same sacrifice.

That’s what real leaders do.

medical news, national news

Nothing from POTUS today? Ah, the silence is so golden!

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Donald Trump didn’t go on the air today to blather on about the “fantastic job” he and his team are doing in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Did you miss him? Neither did I.

The president has spent far too much time standing in front of us yapping and yammering about this and that. He has hogged the microphone away from the medical, military and logistical experts who stand with him on the White House briefing room platform.

There was that remarkable moment earlier this week when a reporter asked a question directly of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the leading infectious disease doctor in the world, and Trump wouldn’t let Fauci answer it. The president slammed the door shut on the reporter.

So it has gone, ad nauseum.

It is being said that Trump isn’t helping himself by talking too much. To be candid, I don’t give a rat’s a** about whether he helps himself by stepping away from the microphone.

What interests me more is whether this clown would turn the mic over to experts who have something relevant and important to say. I want to hear from the truth tellers, not from the Liar in Chief.

Accordingly, I don’t begrudge the silence that emanated today from the White House.

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The big takeaway from this crisis is …

Make no mistake about it, if there is a singularly positive outcome from the coronavirus pandemic, it well might be the enduring gratitude we all should feel toward those who are risking their lives in the front-line fight against this killer disease.

I refer specifically to the world’s medical personnel, the firefighters and police officers.

Doctors, nurses and various medical technicians are falling ill constantly, 24/7, as they treat patients in hospitals all over the world. Many of them die as a result. Many others are fortunate to recover from the disease. What do they do, how do they respond?

They suit up — don their masks, gloves and rubber suits — and head right back into the fight! That’s what they’re doing.

Communities are making noise already in appreciation for what they’re doing on our behalf. In New York City, the epicenter of the crisis, residents are clamoring each night at 7 to honor the men and women who are thrusting themselves into harm’s way; they stand on street corners, on balconies, in front of shuttered businesses and they bang pots and pans.

It’s the very least we can do to offer an expression of profound gratitude to these folks’ unimaginable bravery.

Let us not ever lose sight of what we are witnessing in real time as the world struggles against this pandemic.

It is awe-inspiring.