Category Archives: medical news

media news, medical news, national news

Trump exhibits monumental leadership void

The reporting of Donald John Trump’s daily briefings dealing with the coronavirus pandemic depresses me terribly. It tells me plenty about the president’s inability or unwillingness to lead a nation in distress.

More than 150,000 Americans have been stricken by the virus; nearly 3,000 Americans have died. The death toll is approaching the number of those killed on 9/11.

Donald Trump’s response at the Q&A sessions that commence during these briefings? He has attacked the media for asking him “nasty” questions. Trump told a respected PBS reporter that she needs to be “nice” to him, wondering why Yamiche Alcindor was no longer working for the New York Times.

This is not how a leader of a nation in distressed is supposed to comport himself.

President Bush led the nation in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attack. He didn’t lash out at the media. He didn’t criticize his political foes. Bush talked candidly to us about the challenges that confronted us. The president reminded us that we weren’t at war with “Islam,” but were going to do battle with those who perverted that religion and brought destruction to our shores.

This president cannot rise to the level of a leader at war. He did call himself a “wartime president,” but has yet to demonstrate a single trait associated with that label. He exhibits pettiness, petulance, partisan pandering.

He attacks Democrats and the media. He denigrates governors who are on the front lines in the fight against the coronavirus.

This is not how a president who seeks to lead and unify a nation under siege is supposed to act.

It doesn’t matter to this president. He cannot lead. This individual who brought not a single moment of public service experience to the only political office he ever sought is demonstrating what many of us feared all along … that he isn’t up to the job.

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You tell ’em, Gov. Cuomo

If there is a national hero emerging from the coronavirus pandemic, it might be in the form of one of our nation’s governors, Democrat Andrew Cuomo of New York.

I’ll include Dr. Anthony Fauci as a hero, too. For this blog, though, I want to extol briefly the contribution coming from Gov. Cuomo.

He is giving daily briefings about the status of the plague in the state he governs. Cuomo said plainly today that he doesn’t play politics at times such as these. This is “no time for politics,” he said.

Yes! Andrew Cuomo is trying to manage the crisis’ impact on New York. He seeks to bring some sanity to the madness that has enveloped the nation. New York hospitals are being overwhelmed by the number of confirmed cases of the deadly virus. Cuomo is seeking federal help that so far hasn’t yet arrived in a way that will help stem the flow of infection in New York.

He is not alone, of course, in facing down the coronavirus.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump continues to criticize Cuomo while praising him at the same time. The president accuses some unknown person or group of stealing hospital masks; he wonders why hospitals need so many ventilators. Then he wonders whether Cuomo would fare better against him than Joe Biden, the nearly presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

That is where Cuomo slammed the door shut on politics.

He is right to insist that we need national unity now. There aren’t “red states” or “blue states,” Cuomo said. “We’re all red, white and blue states,” he said, declaring the need for all of us to pull together to fight the pandemic.

If only the president of the United States could adopt that posture.

medical news

A Person of the Year nominee? Consider this

Time magazine each year selects a Person of the Year. This being an election year, tradition dictates that the individual chosen usually is the winner of the U.S. presidential election.

Here’s a thought for the Time editors to ponder: Toss that tradition into the crapper.

Whoever the magazine honors must be someone — indeed, the many individuals — associated with responding to the coronavirus pandemic.

To say that the worldwide crisis has dominated Earth’s attention is to commit the most egregious understatement in human history. I will venture to guess that the pandemic will remain front and center for the remainder of 2020 and perhaps well beyond.

Americans and others around the world are paying tribute 24/7 to health care workers, to police and firefighters, to their neighbors and family members, and even to total strangers who are delivering unsolicited random acts of kindness.

Millions of human beings are going to be stricken by the virus before we turn the tide.

I don’t know how the Time editors might categorize the winner of the Person of the Year honor. That’s their call. It’s why they make the big bucks … you know?

Whatever they decide or however they label the human(s) they honor, my strong sense is that Time should look exclusively at the millions of people who are stepping up to offer aid, comfort, relief and support to an entire planet of inhabitants who at this moment are frightened for their lives and for the lives of their loved ones.

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C’mon, Mr. POTUS, show us the proof of what you’re implying

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For crying out loud, Mr. President, what in the world are you trying to do?

You consider yourself a wartime president, that you’re the commander in chief of a nation at war with an “invisible enemy,” the coronavirus pandemic that is sweeping the globe.

When you are going to start acting like a wartime president? Ever?

You’re implication today that New York hospitals are peddling hospital masks “out the door” is despicable. You made that statement without an ounce, a scintilla, a shred of evidence. It’s yet another disgraceful bit of rumor-mongering for which you are becoming infamous.

I want to remind you of what you said: “How do you go from 10 to 20 to 300,000? 10 to 20,000 masks to 300,000. Even though this is different. Something’s going on. And you ought to look into it as reporters. Where are the masks going? So somebody should probably look into that.”

What do you mean “something’s going on”?

Wartime presidents don’t hurl accusations at first responders, at health care providers, at politicians from opposing parties. They open their arms and tell all Americans that it’s time to join the battle together, to fight the enemy on a united front.

Your remarkable accusation — and that’s how many of us are reading it, as an accusation — flies directly in the face of the things that a wartime president must do.

What’s more, this implication that someone is stealing the masks demands that you provide some sort of evidence of its veracity. Oh, and your suggestion that hospitals are “hoarding” ventilators? That is equally despicable. Good grief, man!

I’d say “Shame on you,” Mr. President … except that you have no shame.

I’ll say it once again. You, sir, make me sick.

medical news

Fauci: U.S. pandemic death toll could hit 200K

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Dr. Anthony Fauci is speaking — and please pardon my paraphrasing a well-worn cliché — truth to ignorance.

The nation’s top infectious disease doc has declared that the worldwide coronavirus pandemic could kill as many as 200,000 Americans and could infect millions more of us before it is finally brought, um, “under control.”

I fear the doctor is right. I also fear the man for whom he works — Donald Trump — is dead wrong when he keeps up the happy talk about what a “fantastic job” everyone is doing to stem the killer tide.

The U.S. death count has surpassed 2,000. It is climbing rapidly. The worst still hasn’t yet arrived. I am among millions of Americans who are waiting anxiously for the worst to get here. I’ll say to the worst: You may leave now.

It doesn’t matter one little bit to me that a 200,000-person casualty count isn’t the worst such incident to afflict the United States. The Centers for Disease Control said the 1918-19 flu pandemic killed more than 650,000 Americans; what’s more considering that our population then was far smaller than it is today, that death count becomes even more staggering.

Still, we are facing a potentially terrible time of it as the COVID-19 strain of the coronavirus does it filthy work around the world.

I no longer want the president of the United States to boast about what a great job he is doing. I want him to speak the truth.

medical news

Dr. Anthony Fauci: cult hero

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Dr. Anthony Stephen Fauci might be the nerdiest cult hero in American history.

He has become the de facto voice of reason within the Donald Trump administration, which is led by a pathological liar who also happens to be an ignoramus. Fauci has been the primo truth-teller among the men and women who’ve been briefing us daily about the progress of the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on the United States.

He will turn 80 years of age next Christmas Eve. Fauci runs the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. He is a giant among the physicians and scientists who work with the National Institute of Health.

Fauci has been charged with helping craft the nation’s response to the pandemic as it has circled the globe, killing thousands of human beings. It has claimed more than 1,000 Americans and the United States is now the world’s most infected nation, with more than 120,000 Americans infected by the unique coronavirus known as COVID-19.

Dr. Fauci, though, is facing a monumental task while reporting to pandemic task force chairman Vice President Mike Pence, who in turn reports to Donald J. Trump. You see, Pence is the nation’s No. 1 suck-up to Trump and Trump is the nation’s No. 1 purveyor of fake news.

So, when Fauci contradicts the crap that flies out of Trump’s mouth,  he runs the risk of angering the Top Liar, who has demonstrated a propensity for removing those who fail to fall in line with whatever falsehood he is peddling.

Trump tries to persuade us that we’ve got this pandemic “under control.” We don’t have it under control. The cases of infection are increasing daily and they are threatening the economic health — not to mention the physical health — of the nation.

Meanwhile, we have Dr. Fauci trying to tell us the truth. A social media Fauci Fan Club has emerged. I’m grappling with whether I should join. I likely won’t do it, but it surely is tempting.

However, I remain wedded to my belief that the nation needs this wise and learned man more than ever as an antidote to the imbecile to whom he must answer.

medical news

Trump’s push to ‘re-open’ country could bring even more heartache

Donald Trump’s desire to restart the nation’s economy is presenting some truly dangerous potential consequences. If only the Idiot in Chief could understand what’s at stake.

He wants to reopen businesses by Easter. Trump seems to believe that the coronavirus is going to heed his demand and magically disappear, as if his presidential fiat will make it happen.

That ain’t how it works. I believe Dr. Anthony Fauci, the epidemiologist who works on the presidential pandemic response team, laid it out there: Illness and disease do not respect timetables.

That doesn’t matter to Donald Trump.

His fixation with the nation’s economic health has little if anything to do with concern over businessmen and women’s future, or their livelihood. It has everything to do with his re-election chances.

Except that reopening the doors to business around the country could expose millions of Americans to disease, which could inflict far more pain than even this presidential ignoramus can anticipate.

Donald Trump is likely not going to be persuaded by anyone’s expert opinion on matters that do not register in what passes for the president’s brain. He is focused only on himself and what’s good for his political future.

The irony, though, is that a premature reopening of business in America well could doom that future to monumental failure, not to mention doom millions of Americans to an even more grim fate.

As Osita Nwanevu writes in the New Republic: The choice the country now faces isn’t between public health and economic stability. We are choosing which public health and economic catastrophe we would like to see unfold. And one is clearly preferable.

Sickening.

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How will this crisis change our beloved country?

The bad news is obvious: Too many Americans are suffering from the coronavirus pandemic, as are too many of our fellow human travelers around the world.

The good news is a bit harder to find, but it’s there: We will emerge from this crisis in due course. It likely won’t be as soon as Donald Trump keeps saying it will occur, but we’ll get through this.

Now for some  uncertain news: How will this crisis and our national reaction to it change this country we all love beyond measure?

My strong sense is that when we emerge on the other side that we won’t be quite the same as we were prior to the first death was recorded what seems to long ago.

Maybe we should adopt tighter personal hygiene habits. We should wash our hands more frequently than we did prior to the pandemic. Perhaps we should adopt some modified form of “social distancing.”

To be clear, I am a hugger. I tend to embrace good friends I haven’t seen in some time. That might change, particularly if my friends wave me off, suggesting I should keep my distance. I guess I’ll take on a case-by-case basis.

On a government level, we most certainly should reintroduce the pandemic watchdog element to our National Security Council. Donald Trump eliminated that arm of the NSC not long after he took office as president of the United States. We are paying for that inattention now. Each of our state governments perhaps ought to find the will and the wherewithal to establish pandemic-oriented agencies as well.

The change in our national psyche also is likely to linger long after the disease runs its course. I hope with all my strength for a vaccine, much like we developed in the 1950s with polio. Many other diseases have emerged since then, but we haven’t found cures for them; I think of HIV/AIDS in particular.

Our daily lives are likely to see changes. What they turn out to be remains one of the great unknowns, one of the uncertain elements that awaits us.

Until the end of this crisis arrives, I’ll concentrate on hoping for the best news … that it’s over. Then we can start planning for the uncertain future that lies ahead.

medical news, national news

Why not invite Democrats to that bill-signing, Mr. President?

Donald John “The So-Called Unifier in Chief” Trump signed an important bill into law today.

It was the coronavirus pandemic emergency response bill approved by overwhelming bipartisan majorities in both chambers of Congress. The Senate approved it 96-0; the House approved it by a voice vote, thanks to some procedural maneuvering orchestrated by Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

But …

Pelosi or other Democrats were nowhere to be found in the Oval Office today as Trump signed the bill into law.

Hasn’t he promised to unify the country? Hasn’t he pledged to work with Democrats as well as Republicans to “make America great again”? I believe the fate of this bill, which Trump supported after at first opposing it (while blaming Democrats, naturally, for wanting to load it up with unnecessary provisions) depended on Democrats as well as Republicans.

Oh, but of course Trump is still enraged at Pelosi because the House speaker engineered the impeachment of the president. That’s his rationale, although he hasn’t said it directly.

This individual’s petulance makes me sick.

medical news, national news

Let us give thanks to medical first responders

For many years I have been offering unsolicited thanks to firefighters and police officers when I see them out and about. It’s the least I can do to let those who take an oath to “protect and serve” the rest of us.

I don’t go to hospitals much these days, which quite obviously is a good thing. Thus, it is hard for me to thank doctors, nurses, various medical technicians and others who toil in our hospitals.

These are dangerous times. Our nation is battling a coronavirus pandemic. The United States is now the world’s leading country afflicted by the virus; we have surpassed China, where the pandemic began, and Italy, which is suffering grievously as a result the illness that has felled so many Italians.

I want to use this forum to offer a brief, but supremely heartfelt, thank you to those who are struggling to tend to those stricken by the virus. It might sound cliché, but these individuals have been thrust into harm’s way in a manner that is every bit as dangerous as the men and women who fight for us on battlefields around the world.

Bullets aren’t flying in our hospitals, emergency room clinics, nursing homes or convalescent centers. The enemy there is that damn virus. It’s invisible, to be sure, but it is dangerous in the extreme.

If I encounter medical personnel at the grocery store, my intention will mirror my actions when I see firefighters and cops. Until then, I will rely on this forum to offer only this: Thank you.