Tag Archives: coronavirus

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.

national news

When will Trump act like a ‘wartime president’?

Donald J. Trump calls himself a “wartime president.” He says he is fighting an “invisible enemy.” As near as I can tell, the fight has just begun.

When, I have to ask, is Donald Trump going to start acting like a “wartime president”? When will the commander in chief cease with the phony happy talk and the hollow boasts about what a “fantastic” job he and his response team are doing in fighting the coronavirus pandemic?

My guess? He won’t stop the false bravado. He won’t in effect declare a state of war against this invisible enemy. Why? Because doing so just might send a signal that he and his team haven’t done quite as good a job as Trump keeps saying they have done.

Moreover, a wartime president doesn’t pit Americans against each other. He doesn’t criticize politicians from the opposing party. A wartime president calls all political leaders — from both parties — into the same room and talks candidly to them about the challenges the nation faces.

A wartime president calls a truce with governors and mayors who are struggling with their own battles. He offers to provide unquestioned, unqualified support in their battles.

A president at war with an invisible enemy damn sure doesn’t condemn the media — print, digital or broadcast — that are doing their job in reporting the progress of the battle to the public.

Are we at war, Mr. President, with a common and deadly enemy? Or are you at war with those who merely question the manner in which you are behaving?

State news

Texas AG: Gun shops are an ‘essential’ business … yikes!

I suppose you can chalk this one up as an “only in Texas” kind of thing.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has determined that gun shops are an “essential business” and therefore can remain open while other businesses are being shuttered during the coronavirus pandemic.

There is something kind of weird about Paxton’s decision, which countermands a statement issued by the mayor of Lubbock, who determined that gun shops in the West Texas city are “non-essential” and should close during this time of crisis.

How do we define essential? The way I define the term, that would include businesses that sell food, medicine, various household cleaning supplies.

But … guns? Seriously? Ken Paxton thinks that guns count as something Texans need to purchase.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott hasn’t issued a stay-at-home order for all Texans. He has left that decision up to local governments, some of which have been proactive; others have been, well, not so much.

State Rep. Dustin Burrows, a Lubbock Republican, asked Paxton for a ruling after the mayor made his determination. I guess Burrows got what he sought.

I just find Paxton’s decision to be peculiar … although not the least bit surprising. Gotta have them guns at the ready, right? I mean, we just don’t have enough of ’em out there already.

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.

national news

Disease knows no political labels

Donald John Trump needs to understand — although it is impossible to expect that he ever will get it — that the pandemic sweeping the planet is a non-partisan “enemy” of all humankind.

Thus, when he warns our nation’s governors that they need to express appreciation for the work he says he is doing, the president is politicizing a fight that requires all elected officials at all levels to pull together.

It ain’t happenin’.

You’ve heard the slogan that “We’re in this together.” But … are we?

Governors criticize the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic as being unorganized, scatter-shot, too full of mindless happy talk. They make a valid point. The federal government, which the president was elected to lead, has been too slow to respond all along the way.

But then we hear the president blast governors for doing a “terrible job,” for failing to recognize that the “we’re doing a hell of a job” at the federal level. They need to toe the line, he tells them.

I should add here that the criticism is coming from Democratic governors. Their complaints don’t matter to the Republican president. His ignorance of the need for bipartisan cooperation was so plainly evident at the bill-signing ceremony Friday when the only individuals standing behind him were Republicans. Congressional Democrats lined up with the president to ensure enactment of the coronavirus relief bill that Trump signed into law.

I should point out, too, that they weren’t practicing the “social distancing” that medical experts implore us to practice … but I digress.

The blame game will continue. It’s unfortunate in the extreme, primarily because the individuals who are going to pay the price ultimately are Americans like you and me might need help from our government if any of us get stricken … and it won’t arrive.

Disgraceful.

national news

Trump shows his pettiness to a maximum degree

Donald Trump sickens me daily. He’s been doing so since the moment he declared his presidential candidacy.

Today provided yet another example of the president’s hideous petulance.

He said that if governors — the men and women who are fighting against the coronavirus pandemic — aren’t nice to him that he isn’t going to call them and offer words of support, encouragement or to update them on the federal response.

He mentioned Govs. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Jay Inslee of Washington. If they don’t support him, he won’t support them.

Tit for tat, right? Oh, did I mention that Whitmer and Inslee are Democrats? That they happen to speak critically of the federal government’s strategy — such as it is — in dealing with the pandemic.

This man is a profoundly incompetent boob who has no plan for anything. He cannot be trusted to tell Americans the truth about the peril they are facing with this virus. He continues to spew happy talk when he should be sounding an alarm.

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One quick personal note: I heard tonight from a dear friend who is married to a physician in West Texas. She is at the breaking point. She is the office manager for her husband’s medical practice. Her writes that her husband “puts on his full face shield respirator and I don my n95 mask to see patients that probably voted for the man that lies to everyone nonstop.” 

And this guy, the president, wants everyone to talk nicely to and about him before he’ll do the job he was elected to do.

Despicable.

State news

Lt. Gov. Patrick ought to eat those idiotic words

This editorial cartoon is one of many that have blasted to smithereens the remarks from Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who had the boorish bad taste to say that old folks ought to sacrifice themselves to the coronavirus to save the nation’s economy.

He’s taken his share of criticism. I have joined those who suggest that Dan Patrick’s butter has slipped off his noodles. He hasn’t responded to me, nor do I expect this goofball to fire back at little ol’ me.

However, I continued to be appalled that the state’s second-ranking elected official — and arguably Texas’ most powerful politician, as the presiding officer of the Texas Senate — would even think such a thing, let alone say it aloud.

Yet this clown said that elderly folks shouldn’t seek aid if the virus strikes them down. Dan Patrick’s alleged rationale? The economy needs to be Priority No. 1 over the care for aged Americans.

This guy disgusts me at virtually the same level as the president of the United States, Donald John Trump.

https://highplainsblogger.com/2020/03/not-afraid-to-die-for-the-economy/

I’m even more ashamed of Patrick now than I was when I posted this blog item.

Sickening.

local news, medical news, national news

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.