Tag Archives: pandemic

medical news

What took so long, Mr. POTUS?

Donald J. Trump finally saw fit to wear a mask in public, to do the very thing his team of infectious disease experts has been imploring the public to do while the nation fights a so-far losing battle against the coronavirus pandemic.

He donned the mask while touring Walter Reed Medical Center.

If only Donald Trump had decided, oh, about three months ago to do the right thing. What might have been the result? Here’s a thought: Given the cult of personality that has developed around this clown, there well might have been less political resistance from the Trumpkin Corps against wearing the mask. As a result, there could have been thousands fewer infections and thousands fewer deaths as a result.

But oh, no! Trump wasn’t going to wear a mask. It didn’t look, um, “presidential,” or so he inferred. I guess he’s changed his mind? Is that possible? Who the hell knows?

The surgeon general pleads with us to wear a mask in public; so does the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; same for the secretary of health and human services; the top medical experts on the White House pandemic response team say the same thing.

Closer to home, we’re hearing from governors, county officials, mayors, school leaders, hospital officials, emergency responders, firefighters and cops to do the same thing.

The president? Until just this weekend he has thought differently and has brought that vocal but shrinking base of supporters along with him.

Donald Trump should be ashamed. So should those who resist the mask-wearing and the mandates to take other precautions to avoid getting swept up in the pandemic crisis.

D’oh! I almost forgot! Donald Trump has no shame.

medical news

Lo and behold, Trump dons a mask!

Well now, that wasn’t so bad, was it Mr. President?

Donald Trump had infamously avoided wearing a surgical mask in public, despite pleas from his coronavirus pandemic response team that masks are an essential preventive measure against the killer virus.

Trump said he thought the masks looked bad for the president of the United States. How utterly, completely ridiculous!

He went to Walter Reed National Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., today to visit with some of our wounded warriors. He wore the mask and allowed pictures of him to be snapped and distributed around the world.

Did anyone on Earth laugh out loud at the sight of Donald Trump wearing a mask? I don’t think so, even though there might have been some giggling at the idiocy expressed by Trump about his reluctance to wear a mask.

Masks serve a dual purpose. They protect the health of those who wear them. They also protect those who stand near the person wearing the mask.

So, it’s not about whether someone looks good wearing a mask. It’s about protecting people’s health and possibly saving their lives.

The president needs to lead in that effort and ditch that moronic notion that we have this virus “under control.” We don’t. Donald Trump needs to wear a mask whenever he ventures into public view.

education news, local news, medical news, national news

Knock off threats to schools, Mr. POTUS

Donald J. Trump is now putting heat on governors to reopen public school systems, much like he tried to browbeat houses of worship leaders into packing pews in time for Easter and threatened governors to reopen their states … or else.

There is no “or else” for the president, given that he has no singular authority to tell governors how to run their states as they cope with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now he’s going after them on school reopening.

I found this quote from a former member of Congress, a guy I know, but who I haven’t spoken to in more than two decades. Former Rep. Nick Lampson writes: School re-openings must be based on science not the ineptitude of Donald Trump. We have a collective responsibility to protect the interests of America’s youth. Expecting kids to spend 8 hours a day in close quarters during a pandemic and threatening to defund public schools like some sort of authoritarian is not the sort of leadership we need in the White House.

Here in Texas, and specifically in Collin County, our school leaders are giving parents the option of sending their children back to the classroom or keep them at home in a sort of hybrid learning environment. Texas’s infection rate is soaring. We do not want our children exposed needlessly just because Donald Trump wants schools to reopen their classrooms.

While I am on the subject, Donald and Melania Trump have a son in school. Are they sending Barron back to class? I am not going to make the youngster an issue; I merely am asking the question to ascertain what kind of parental decisions the first couple are making with regard to their own son.

As for the rest of us, Donald Trump ought to let governors and the public educators who deserve praise and not threats decide how to handle their unique situations.

medical news

Dr. Fauci offers grim prognosis

“I don’t think you can say we’re doing great. We’re just not.”

That clearly is not the view expressed repeatedly by Donald John “Prevaricator in Chief” Trump. It is instead an opinion offered by the nation’s — if not the world’s — leading infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Dr. Fauci is seriously concerned about the terrible spike in infection, hospitalization and death caused by the worldwide coronavirus pandemic.

The doc is contradicting directly the man for whom he works, the president of the United States. I am going to stand with the doctor’s view on where we stand in this fight against the pandemic.

Trump, meanwhile, is fighting for his political life and the pandemic — namely the federal response to it — isn’t providing Trump much ammo to use in his re-election campaign. Indeed, Donald Trump’s arsenal is spent; he is out of ammunition.

How in the world does the nation fight its way back from the medical brink? There is increasing talk about states returning to their shelter in place policies, shutting down businesses they had reopened, ordering Americans to do certain things to prevent the spread of the virus.

In Texas, where officials sought to restart the economy, GOP Gov. Greg Abbott has issued a mandatory mask-wearing order, told businesses to scale back their service to 50 percent of capacity. Yes, he has drawn fire for his order, namely from Republicans — if you can fathom that — who continue to insist that we reopen the business community despite the threat to people’s health and their very lives.

As for Dr. Fauci, he well might be writing his exit from the White House pandemic response team, where he has played a once-significant role that has been diminished of late because of Fauci’s disagreement with Donald Trump. Indeed, Trump has been critical openly of the good doctor, saying he has committed many “mistakes.” I haven’t heard a single example of what Trump considers to be a Fauci mistake.

Still, I am going to listen to the doctor. I am going to ignore the blathering of the politicians … especially the nation’s top pol, the guy who couldn’t tell us the unvarnished truth if his political career depended on it.

Oh, wait … !

medical news

Time is ticking away for Dr. Fauci

3 Comments

I want to offer a suggestion: Sit in as quiet a room as you can find and you might start hearing the tick-tock sound of a clock.

That well might be the sound of Dr. Anthony Fauci’s time as part of Donald Trump’s coronavirus response team winding down. You see, Fauci had the temerity to publicly and quit forthrightly contradict Donald Trump’s happy talk about the status of the global pandemic that has killed more than 130,000 Americans.

Trump says it’s under control. Dr. Fauci says we’re nowhere close to getting it under control.

Trump now says Fauci “made a lot of mistakes.” Fauci says he hasn’t briefed Trump in more than two months.

The end of Fauci’s time at the right hand of Donald Trump might be coming. If so, the nation will lose the up-close insight of its leading infectious disease expert, a man who’s worked side by side with medical geniuses in seven presidential administrations, dating back to Ronald Reagan’s time in the White House.

That’s all part of the bad news that well might be coming. There is some good news to report about all of this.

Anthony Fauci will remain a top-flight infectious disease expert, even if he’s no longer “advising” Donald Trump; I use the word “advising” with caution because Trump doesn’t appear to take the advice of the “best people” with whom he surrounded himself during this pandemic.

As for his status as a member of the White House coronavirus response team, a part of me actually hopes Trump cuts Dr. Fauci loose.

Moreover, I hope Dr. Fauci refuses to sign a “no disparagement” document if he is let go. Why? Because then he could tell the world that Donald Trump has been leading a clusterfu** response effort that has resulted in untold — and more than likely unnecessary — death and misery in this country.

medical news

Doubt creeps into thinking about resumption of sporting events

Oh, I do hate being a Negative Ned … but plenty of doubt is creeping into my noggin about whether we ought to resume sporting activities that occur in front of crowds.

Let’s consider a couple of things.

First, Tulsa, Okla., has reported a significant spike in the cases of COVID-19 after a political rally attended by about 6,500 spectators. Donald Trump went to Tulsa to restart his re-election campaign and now we hear about a surge in infection in that city and surrounding area.

Second, the Ivy League has just announced it is canceling all fall sports. No intercollegiate sports will occur in that conference. Why? Sports and school officials are concerned about infection coming from the pandemic.

The Texas State Fair canceled its 2020 event. The Big 12, though, plans to play the Texas-Oklahoma college football game anyway. They won’t pack the Cotton Bowl, but still the place will have plenty of fans.

Major League Baseball is going to restart its season soon, along with the NBA, the NHL and the pro football will start training camps soon. Some players are boycotting the season out of fear of getting sick. Others might follow.

I am just at the point now of worrying whether the risk is worth the reward.

We are hearing too many reports of “hot spots” springing up all over the country. Arizona is the latest place to receive the dubious designation of “epicenter” of the pandemic. Texas isn’t that far behind.

I express these doubts and concerns as someone who wants a return to collegiate football. My beloved Oregon Ducks are supposed to play a big non-conference game in Eugene on Sept. 12 against Ohio State. There is no way they can pack Autzen Stadium full of fans to cheer on the Ducks. I now am doubting whether it’s wise to even play the game.

I am now officially beginning to wonder whether the Ivy League has blazed a trail down which other athletic conferences should travel.

national news

Would POTUS hide a positive result from us?

1 Comment

It is fair to ask, given Donald Trump’s penchant for prevarication, to wonder how he might handle a positive test result on the COVID-19 virus.

My wandering mind asks: Is it at all possible that Donald Trump would seek to hide from the public a test — on himself — that came up positive?

I ask only because I distrust Trump’s ability or willingness to divulge the full truth were it to become necessary to tell us grim news about his own health. I don’t want to think he would hide that information from us, but I am pulled in that direction only because of his long-standing record of lying, of evasion, of deflection.

He does this at every turn, takes every opportunity to lie when all he has to do is tell us the truth. Trump has told us about his astonishing good health. I am forced to believe that anything that tells us something different wouldn’t be true to his own constant boasting.

I don’t want Donald Trump to fall ill. I also do not want him to hide it from us if he tests positive for a virus that poses a serious threat to the president’s very life. His record as a liar makes me wonder.

State news

Texas GOP cancels in-person convention!

With apologies to Walter Winchell: Flash out there to Mr. and Mrs. North and South America and all the ships at sea!

The Texas Republican Party, apparently heeding the threat by the Democratic mayor of Houston, has canceled its in-person convention set for next week in Texas’s largest city.

Mayor Sylvester Turner had sought to quash the convention, fearing the spread of the COVID-19 virus. The state GOP pushed back. Well, I guess the party thought differently.

There might be a “virtual” convention. I’m OK with that.

A gathering that would have brought thousands of attendees to the George Brown Convention Center — in this tenuous time — clearly was a non-starter.

local news

No, Mr. POTUS … not ‘everyone’ behind a rush back to classroom

Donald Trump is getting way ahead of himself again. Imagine that, if you can.

Now he says “everyone” wants children to return to the classroom this fall. The “Educator in Chief,” though, is speaking way out of school, if you’ll pardon the pun. I am among the “everyone” to whom he refers and I am not yet ready to push our children back into classrooms.

Medical experts, including those who are “advising” him on the pandemic response, say something different. They caution against rushing to reopen public school classrooms. Donald Trump won’t be dissuaded from pursuing this latest form of political idiocy.

I no longer have kids in school. I do have a couple of grandkids, though, who finished the 2019-20 academic year at home. Their schools in Collin County, Texas, might decide to reopen their classrooms, or they might decide to keep the students at home, providing them with online study materials. Last time I looked, Texas’s rate of COVID-19 infection was soaring into the sky.

This gets directly to one of the points I want to make. Which is that these decisions will occur at the state level in conjunction with what local school officials recommend. The president of the United States has no authority to dictate what schools systems should do, just as he didn’t have any authority to order states to reopen their business communities.

Oh, but Trump now says he might withhold federal money to those states that do not order their schools to reopen their classrooms.

This is nothing but political bullying.

Do I want my grandkids back in class? Sure … but only if their schools can assure us they will be safe, that they will return to a learning environment that protects them from needless exposure to potential harm from a dangerous virus.

If they can’t provide that assurance, then students should stay home … and Donald Trump needs to keep his trap shut!

medical news

Drop out of WHO? In the midst of a global pandemic?

Let me see if I have this straight.

Donald Trump has decided to initiate the withdrawal from the World Health Organization in the midst of a global pandemic that is killing thousands of human beings every hour.

He’s mad at WHO because of its initial response to the pandemic, which Trump says began in China and which the WHO was too slow to call the People’s Republic of China to task for withholding valuable information from the worldwide public.

Instead of staying with the WHO where the United States could bring its influence to bear to enact reform and, by the way, reap the benefit of WHO’s medical expertise, Donald Trump wants to pull the United States out of the organization altogether.

I do not get the “logic” here.

I now am willing to suggest — which I shall do at this very moment — that we have yet another reason to elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. as our next president.

You see, Joe Biden can stop this continuing self-isolation by Donald Trump that puts even more Americans in jeopardy if we no longer can can rely on the World Health Organization for expertise on how to deal with — and eradicate — this killer virus.