Tag Archives: coronavirus

medical news

Trump 24, Biden 0

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I cannot get past a sobering statistic.

Donald Trump’s senior team of policy advisers and campaign operatives is dropping like flies to the COVID-19 virus.

To date, 24 of them have tested positive for the killer bug. They include none other than Donald Trump his own self.

How come? Because Trump doesn’t listen to the advice he gets from the experts with whom he has surrounded himself. He doesn’t like masks; he won’t maintain social distance; his policy gurus follow the Old Man’s lead.

Over on Biden’s side, the infection count among senior Biden policy aides and campaign staffers is, um … zero!

No one has been publicly identified as testing positive for the virus. Hmm. Why is that? Oh, wait! It’s because Joe Biden does follow the advice of medical experts. He wears a mask. He practices social distancing. He forgoes big campaign rallies with thousands of cheering Bidenistas.

Trump 24, Biden 0.

national news

Mr. VPOTUS? Answer this one

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Vice-presidential political debates always should be deemed critical to a campaign, given that the principals involved are vying to be next in line to the presidency of the United States.

Tonight’s encounter with Sen. Kamala Harris and Vice President Mike Pence has taken on new urgency. I’ll state the obvious reason first: the age of the president and his Democratic Party challenger.

Donald Trump is 74; former VP Joe Biden is 77. I am not being ghoulish in determining that the age of the presidential candidates is a critical part of the VP debate. We need to assess whether either Sen. Harris or VP Pence is ready to become president at a moment’s notice.

We also have this COVID-19 matter. Perhaps you’ve heard, but Donald Trump is infected with a potentially fatal virus. He spent three days in the hospital. He returned to the White House and is continuing to pose an immediate threat to those around him by, um, refusing to wear a mask or observe “social distancing.”

This brings me to an essential question that Harris — or perhaps moderator Susan Page — needs to pose to Pence.

The VP heads the White House coronavirus response task force. Pence needs to answer this question: If you are seeking to stay in office, how is it that you not only have failed to protect Americans — more than 200,000 of whom have died from this disease — but you also failed to protect the president of the United States? 

A host of related questions can arise from that. Why haven’t you insisted at Donald Trump observe medical experts’ warnings? Are you leading by example? Is the task force performing a worthwhile function if POTUS is ignoring your advice? How can you defend the president’s conduct when he jeopardizes the health of those around him?

I believe Pence’s record as head of the response task force needs careful examination in tonight’s encounter.

medical news, national news

Quite the scene, Mr. POTUS

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Well now, that was quite the entrance that Donald J. Trump made last night as he strolled off Marine One and walked into the White House.

He had just been discharged from Walter Reed Medical Center where he had been treated for the COVID-19 virus. He walked into “my house,” came back to the flag-draped balcony and then — against the advice of the docs who treated him for the potentially killer virus — removed his mask and walked back into the White House to mingle with employees and assorted presidential supporters.

Words escape me at this moment.

We witnessed an astonishing display of arrogance from the man who then told us to “not let the virus dominate you.” What the f***?

A nation that has said farewell to more than 210,000 of its residents is now advised to avoid letting the virus get us down? The president needs to have his elaborately coiffed skull examined.

He wants to get back on the campaign trail. He wants to tangle with Democratic nominee Joe Biden in a race he is losing bigly. 

Trump said he gets it, He said he understands how the coronavirus must be treated. Really? Then someone needs to explain why he went through that disgraceful exhibition on the White House balcony.

I will be candid: He doesn’t get sh** about this virus and the danger it poses to Americans or about the grief it has brought to hundreds of thousands of families and friends of its victims.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden continues to observe all the advice handed out by the medical experts. And is it not lost on anyone that Biden’s team of advisers and policy aides has reported zero cases of COVID-19 infection — to date — while Trump’s team is dropping like flies?

I am astounded beyond measure that the president of the United States would care so little about those around him — not to mention the security of our nation — that he would flout the advice given him to stay safe against a disease that could kill him … along with those around him.

national news

Don’t sweat the COVID virus? Huh?

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald J. Trump is back in the White House after spending about 70 hours at Walter Reed Medical Center.

He is infected with the coronavirus, the one that’s killing Americans every single day.

His response to the virus? Don’t worry about it, he said upon departing the hospital for the residence at the White House. Don’t worry? Is this man nuts? Don’t answer that. I know what you would say … and I would agree.

Donald Trump will never get it. That much is now as clear as it gets.

He doesn’t harbor an ounce of empathy for those who have lost loved ones to the dreaded virus. Trump doesn’t understand what it means to suffer such grievous loss, which is a tough thing to say about a man whose brother died of alcohol abuse. Still, he says things about not worrying about the coronavirus without grasping how those words fall on the ears of those who are mourning the loss of a loved one who has died from it.

I have said before and I’ll say it again that I am hoping that Trump recovers fully from the disease. I want him to stand for re-election on Nov. 3. I also want him to lose bigly. I want Joe Biden to be elected president.

Why? Donald Trump’s behavior while being holed up at Walter Reed and his comments upon leaving it tell me he cannot lead the nation in this dark pandemic era.

What’s more, I haven’t even mentioned until right now how he shucked the mask upon entering the White House.

Donald Trump needs to go.

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

‘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.

national news

Mr. POTUS, you have failed this test

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The juxtaposition of two events is startling to behold.

Donald Trump told Fox News that he gives himself an A+ grade in his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

He said that on the day the U.S. death count from the virus surpassed 200,000 people. Their lives have ended and the lives of their loved ones have been changed forever.

Outside the White House, a reporter asked Trump how he responds to the death count. His answer? He turned to another reporter and asked, “Next question?”

The commander in chief cannot speak to the death count, he won’t answer for it, he won’t hold himself accountable at any level for the misery that has occurred on his watch.

Yet he grades himself with an A+?

Is this guy serious? Of course he thinks of himself in the most glowing, glorious and gleeful terms.

The rest of us know better.

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.

national news

Trump tries rhetorical magic tricks

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(Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Wow! I couldn’t believe my ears.

A young woman asked Donald Trump at an ABC News town hall meeting why he lied about the seriousness of the pandemic that was bearing down on the nation.

Trump’s answer was astonishing. He said he didn’t “downplay” it, but “up-played” the seriousness of it by acting immediately to shut down travel from China, where the virus supposedly originated. His quick action at the front end of the pandemic saved “millions of lives,” he told her.

Well … what do you know about that?

We happen to have his own voice recorded. It’s on the record forever and ever telling legendary reporter Bob Woodward that he did “downplay” the pandemic. “I still prefer” to downplay it, he told Woodward. Why? He said he didn’t want to “cause a panic” among Americans.

Holy crap, Mr. President!

What in the name of rhetorical flim-flammery is this guy trying to pull on us?

He lied to us. He stood there and told Woodward that the virus was a “killer” that would be worse than the most “strenuous flus,” and then told the public two weeks after revealing that information that the disease was “under control” and that it would be just like the flu.

That’s what I call “downplaying” the severity of a killer virus.

And so … Donald Trump lied once more to a young voter in front of millions of Americans.

Mr. President, we aren’t the rubes you seem to think we are.