Tag Archives: CDC

medical news

It’s official: Pence has flown off the rails

Man, I long thought of Vice President Mike Pence as a serious public official. After all, he served in Congress and as governor of Indiana.

Then he took on a job that requires him to slobber all over the guy who selected him. He is now vice president of the United States in a government led by Donald John “Loyalty Demander in Chief” Trump.

So, what did Pence say that persuades me that he has flown off the rails, has become certifiably loony, has swilled one or two too many helpings of the Kool-Aid that Trump dispenses within the White House?

Pence said we should ignore the guidelines established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that suggest how schools could reopen their classrooms to students and teachers.

Yep, the VP said it. In public. In front of reporters. For all the world to hear. Goodness, I think the man has gone bonkers.

The CDC is trying desperately to inform the public about how to respond to the pandemic that continues to strangle the nation. It also continues to sicken and kill Americans. Donald Trump wants schools to reopen as if everything’s OK. Now he has the VP joining in that amen chorus of foolishness.

I swear that the cult of personality that has overwhelmed parts of our federal government is going to be the death of many Americans … and I mean that in the distressingly literal sense.

medical news

This isn’t ‘success’ in COVID fight

Donald Trump keeps yapping about the “fantastic” job he and his administration have done and are doing to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

Hmm. I looked at some numbers compiled by the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As of this very day:

  • The world has logged 7.3 million confirmed cases of COVID-19. The United States reports 2.04 cases. The United States comprises about 5 percent of the world population, but we have reported nearly 30 percent of the world total of infection.
  • Earth reports 413,854 deaths from the killer virus. The U.S. total is 114,452. That’s 27 percent of the world total, again in a country that comprises about 5 percent of the world population.

That’s success? That is a “fantastic” job?

No. Neither is true. What is true is that Donald Trump’s pledge to protect Americans against all our adversaries, even those we cannot see, has gone unfulfilled.

Yet the Imbecile in Chief keeps insisting he is doing so well that we simply must send him back to the presidency for another four years.

Aye, caramba! Perish the thought.

Those numbers all by themselves tell me he is failing the fundamental test of presidential leadership. I will concede there might be a discrepancy in the reporting of illness in some of places on Earth. Indeed, I am willing to argue that even in the United States — the most advanced nation on the planet — infection and death rates likely are underreported, too.

We are failing — not succeeding — in the fight against COVID-19.

national news

What happens if the unthinkable happens?

Donald John Trump is tempting fate … bigly!

The president of the United States continues to forgo donning a mask while key aides are coming down with COVID-19. The coronavirus has invaded the West Wing of the White House, where they make key decisions affecting all manner of U.S. foreign and domestic policy.

So, it’s fair to ask: What happens if Donald Trump tests positive for the virus? Hey, what happens also if Vice President Pence tests positive for it? I mean, his press secretary has come down with it.

Trump, Pence and other key aides are rubbing shoulders in the West Wing. Led by the president who says he would look “ridiculous” wearing a mask, many of them are ignoring guidelines established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; they include wearing a mask and keeping an appropriate “social distance” among themselves.

Let me be clear: I do not want the president to get sick. Nor the vice president. I have stated my indifference to Trump’s well-being, but that doesn’t mean I wish him ill.

It’s just that the Egomaniac in Chief has staked out a dangerous position with regard to self-protection during this time of extreme peril. No president, not even this one, should expose himself to the dangers of a potentially fatal disease. In this case, that disease has crept into the White House’s inner sanctum.

If the doctors order Trump to isolate himself, they will be acting to protect the integrity of our democratic republic. Let’s be mindful that Donald Trump is not a young man. I understand that some physicians have declared him, in effect, to be the strongest human being ever elected president. OK, I exaggerate, but you get my drift.

This clown needs to lose the “look ridiculous” argument and start demonstrating that he’s taking this matter as seriously as most of the rest of us.

I am a critic of the president. I won’t ever apologize for that. I also do not want to see my government, the one that gets my money, weakened at the center of its executive power because the chief exec doesn’t take this danger seriously.

Stand by, Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

medical news

Trump keeps inflicting grievous damage

Donald Trump’s daily White House press room rant was an abbreviated affair today. He and Vice President Mike Pence spoke for about 20 minutes and then — poof! — they were gone.

No answers to questions from reporters. No scolding the media for doing their job. No attempts to happy talk his way past the misery and tragedy caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

No sweat. I didn’t need to hear any more from the Moron in Chief. I have heard enough.

What I do need to say without any equivocation is that Donald Trump continues to inflict grievous damage on the country he was elected govern.

The abbreviated rant today does not dismiss the idiocy that poured out of Trump’s pie hole Thursday, when he mused aloud about whether ingesting bleach or other disinfectants might kill the coronavirus inside the body of the individual who ingests it. Is there anything you’ve heard come from the president of the United States that is more certifiably insane than that? I didn’t think so. This one tops the charts, man!

So now we hear that Trump might start reducing his TV exposure at these daily rants. He might not appear each day. Trump might have gotten the message — finally! — that he is doing himself more harm than good by blathering dangerous rhetoric.

I quit long ago taking a single thing that comes from Donald Trump with any semblance of seriousness. He is a serial liar who now has entered a dangerous new zone of danger: His absolute and astonishing ignorance is now threatening the lives of Trump adherents who might actually take this man seriously.

In spite of my obvious dismay and disgust over Trump’s latest disastrous rhetorical rant, I am even more dismayed by the medical experts’ surrounding him. They should be resigning en masse and they should condemn the moronic suggestion that swallowing, injecting or snorting poison might serve as a cure for a deadly viral infection.

Drs. Deborah Birx, Robert Redfield and Anthony Fauci are brilliant infectious disease experts. They are a key part of the White House pandemic response team. Why in the world can they stand by while Donald Trump throws out such idiocy?

I am shaking my head. I am slapping my forehead. I am beyond flabbergasted at the moronic blathering that keeps pouring out of Donald Trump’s yapper. What in the world is it going to take before we as a nation decide we have had enough of this imminently dangerous imbecile?

medical news

Trump now fighting openly with CDC boss

Welcome to the fray, Dr. Robert Redfield.

The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on one day that the coronavirus pandemic could spring up again this fall and/or winter and it could be worse than what we’ve experienced already.

Then the nation’s top politician, Donald John Trump, sought to dispute the newspaper report that quoted Dr. Redfield.

Oh, but then Dr. Redfield said the Washington Post quoted him correctly, that, yep, he made that statement about a possible return of the viral infection that’s already killed nearly 50,000 Americans.

I am going to side with the doctor. The politician is looking only after his own political future. The CDC boss is motivated more by caring for the rest of us.

Donald Trump — as I have stated already many times in this blog — needs to keep his mouth shut. He is putting us in danger. This is a dangerous individual.

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

Baffled by POTUS’s refusal to follow CDC guideline

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Donald John Trump can do damn near whatever he wants to do … or decline to do the same.

However, the president’s declaration that he won’t follow face-mask guidelines set forth by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention baffles me.

CDC recommends that we all wear face masks when interacting with other human beings while we wage “war” with the invisible enemy, the coronavirus pandemic. It’s a voluntary measure.

Trump, the head of the executive branch of our government, undercut the CDC on Friday by stating he won’t wear the mask. The reason why is laughable, except that it ain’t funny.

He said he cannot meet with foreign dignitaries while sitting behind the “Resolute Desk” in the Oval Office as he wears a mask. The mask, he implied, would be, um, less than dignified. The president of the United States cannot wear a mask, or worse, be seen by the public wearing a mask.

Huh? As if that matters? As if anyone should care whether the POTUS is wearing a mask?

I would applaud Donald Trump for adhering to the CDC guideline. He would send a message to all Americans that the guidelines are to be taken seriously enough that even the president of the United States is following them!

What we’re getting instead from Donald Trump is just another example of a failure of presidential leadership in a time of crisis.

medical news

Leadership is MIA in the White House

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has done it. It says Americans should wear cloth masks when they venture outside and are forced to mingle with others.

It’s not a directive. It’s a guideline, but CDC sounded as if it is recommending strongly that we follow its advice.

What, then, did Donald Trump do today during his daily clown show/briefing? He undercut CDC’s  recommendation. Way to go, Mr. President … you ignoramus.

I took a break from boycotting these presidential riffs. I watched a good bit of what Trump said. He was, typically, hideous.

He said the CDC guidelines are “voluntary.” Then he said, “I’m choosing not to do it. It’s voluntary.”

Why in the name of absent leadership does Donald Trump open his yapper on matters such as this? The CDC isn’t dictating that we must wear the masks; it is offering only what it considers to be a strong recommendation.

Then the president — in effect — says the CDC’s recommendation isn’t to be taken seriously.

Sigh …

Donald Trump’s daily monologues have become counterproductive in the extreme. This individual simply is ill-equipped to lead a nation that is distressed beyond measure. The coronavirus pandemic has frightened us. It is causing many of us to worry ourselves sick about the direction our economy is taking. We are worried about catching the virus, or our loved ones becoming ill from it.

The CDC is offering a recommendation that medical experts suggest could prevent the spread of this deadly virus. Dr. Anthony Fauci said today that anyone who can wear a cloth mask per the CDC recommendation should do so.

Then the president tells us he won’t bother?

This nitwit in chief is not leading us.

national news

Trump’s unfitness for office on full display

I am not usually one to say “I told you so,” but I want to make an exception right here and now.

I told you that Donald J. Trump’s entire adult life was geared toward one selfish end: to further his own ambition. That history in my view disqualified him from seeking — let alone achieving — election as president of the United States.

He took an oath more than three years ago to protect Americans, to defend the Constitution and to provide for the general welfare of the nation he was elected to govern.

He has failed! Miserably, I should.

The coronavirus is just one more despicable example of this man’s unfitness for public office.

His hideous tap-dance messaging on the coronavirus outbreak illustrates that this individual’s primary objective is not to protect Americans against potentially fatal illness. It is to further his re-election effort.

He didn’t want that cruise ship to dock in Oakland, Calif., because he was afraid it would boost the number of Americans infected by the Covid-19 strain of the virus. He has sought to downplay the danger. He has contradicted the medical experts almost daily. He has boasted (falsely) about his “knowledge” of medical issues, while wearing a Keep America Great campaign gimme cap at the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention office in Atlanta.

Jennifer Senior, writing an essay in the New York Times, summed up nicely why that CDC press conference was so damning: That news conference was … the most frightening moment of the Trump presidency. His preening narcissism, his compulsive lying, his vindictiveness, his terror of germs and his terrifying inability to grasp basic science — all of it eclipsed his primary responsibilities to us as Americans, which was to provide urgent care, namely in the form of leadership.

Donald Trump cannot lead a nation of frightened citizens. He is incapable of exhibiting an ounce of the qualities we seek in our president at times like these.

Many of us saw it coming the moment he rode down that escalator in that shiny skyscraper to announce he would seek the presidency of the United States.

I told you so.

International news, medical news, national news

It ain’t the flu; let’s treat this outbreak with seriousness

(Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

Donald J. Trump keeps downplaying the severity of the health crisis that threatens to turn into a global pandemic.

He keeps telling us the flu kills thousands of Americans annually and that the Covid-19 virus has taken only a fraction of that amount.

What’s the problem? he wonders.

Here is the problem as I see it, Mr. President: The strain of coronavirus that is causing near panic in many countries has the potential of being far worse than influenza. It is being transmitted by casual contact, what medical/science experts refer to as “community transmission.”

We need to treat this matter with all due seriousness, not pass it off as some sort of “Democrat hoax,” which Trump has called it. We have to establish clear, concise and coherent lines of communication; the White House cannot tolerate any more contradictions from the president of the medical experts who keep telling us the truth about the threat we face.

I continue to believe Wall Street’s reaction to this crisis is partly a result of the clumsy, stumblebum response we keep hearing from the White House and from the president. Yes, there’s also that oil-price fight being waged by Saudi Arabia and Russia, which has sent the price of petroleum plummeting; it’s good for you and me at the fuel pump, but it’s playing hell with the fossil fuel industry, which — for better or worse — still is a key economic driver in this country.

So, let’s stop with the flu comparisons, shall we? The Covid-19 outbreak has turned into a crisis that needs to be treated as a matter that well could put billions of human beings in dire peril.