Handling the coronavirus crisis

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Russ Vought, the acting director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, on Tuesday doubled down on proposed cuts to health services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), despite the coronavirus outbreak. Vought came under intense questioning from Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-Pa.) at a hearing about President Trump’s 2021 budget request. It proposed cutting Health and Human Services funding by $9.5 billion, including a 15 percent cut of $1.2 billion to the CDC and a $35 million decrease to the Infectious Diseases Rapid Response Reserve Fund's annual contribution.

Trump budget chief holds firm on CDC cuts amid virus outbreak | TheHill

On March 13, President Donald Trump promised Americans they would soon be able to access a new website that would ask them about their symptoms and direct them to nearby coronavirus testing sites. He said Google was helping. That wasn’t true. But in the following days, Oscar Health—a health-insurance company closely connected to Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner—developed a government website with the features the president had described. A team of Oscar engineers, project managers, and executives spent about five days building a stand-alone website at the government’s request, an Oscar spokesperson told The Atlantic. The company even dispatched two employees from New York to meet in person with federal officials in Washington, D.C., the spokesperson said. Then the website was suddenly and mysteriously scrapped.

The site would not have helped many Americans even if it had launched. Today, more than two weeks after the president promised a national network of drive-through test sites, only a handful of such sites have opened, and fewer than 1 million Americans have been tested. The full extent of Oscar’s work on the project has not been previously reported. The partnership between the administration and the firm suggests that Kushner may have mingled his family’s business interests with his political interests and his role in the administration’s coronavirus response. Kushner’s younger brother Joshua is a co-founder and major investor in Oscar, and Jared Kushner partially owned or controlled Oscar before he joined the White House. The company’s work on the coronavirus website could violate federal ethics laws, several experts said.

Kushner Firm Built Coronavirus Website Trump Promised - The Atlantic

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Twenty-eight Texas spring breakers who recently vacationed in Cabo have tested positive for the coronavirus, tweeted Tony Plohetski of local station KVUE-TV. They chartered a plane with 70 people to get to Cabo, he said.

28 Texas spring breakers who just returned from Cabo have tested positive for the coronavirus

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Vice President Mike Pence said something truly unbelievable in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Wednesday. "I don't believe the President has ever belittled the threat of the coronavirus," the vice president told Wolf. Which, even by Pence standards -- the VP is an unstinting, 100% supporter of President Donald Trump -- is pretty bad. So, as a public service, here are 11 times where Trump "belittled" or otherwise downplayed the threat posed by coronavirus.

1. "We have it totally under control. It's one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It's going to be just fine." (January 22)
2. "We pretty much shut it down coming in from China." (February 2)
3. "The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries. CDC & World Health have been working hard and very smart. Stock Market starting to look very good to me!" (February 22)
4. "We're going very substantially down, not up. ... We have it so well under control. I mean, we really have done a very good job." (February 26)
5. "This is a flu. This is like a flu. ... It's a little like the regular flu that we have flu shots for. And we'll essentially have a flu shot for this in a fairly quick manner." (February 26)
6. "It's going to disappear. One day —it's like a miracle — it will disappear. And from our shores, we — you know, it could get worse before it gets better. It could maybe go away. We'll see what happens. Nobody really knows." (February 27)
7. "No, I'm not concerned at all. No, I'm not. No, we've done a great job." (March 8)
8. "So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on. At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 death. Think about that!" (March 9)
9. "This is a very contagious virus. It's incredible. But it's something we have tremendous control of." (March 15)
10. "I don't believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators. You know, you're going to major hospitals sometimes, they'll have two ventilators. And now, all of a sudden, they're saying, can we order 30,000 ventilators?" (March 27)
11. "You call it germ, you can call it a flu. You can call it a virus. You can call it many different names. I'm not sure anybody knows what it is." (March 27)

11 times Donald Trump has 'belittled' coronavirus - CNNPolitics

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For weeks, state legislators and health care providers across the country have called on the Trump administration to help with the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) available to fight the coronavirus pandemic. The Trump administration has meanwhile argued it is the states’ responsibility to procure PPE, a stance that has led states to compete with one another for supplies — and that has led to confusion on the part of suppliers... 

A number of governors — including Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker — have said they’ve seen orders for masks and other needed equipment canceled because the federal government outbid them. This has led to some finding creative ways to disguise their orders to mask them from the Trump administration.

Trump administration policy has left other states having to make similar extraordinary efforts to obtain PPE — for example, Illinois legislators rushed to deliver a $3.4 million check to a middleman at a McDonald’s parking lot so that the supplier he represented wouldn’t cancel the deal in favor of other, potentially more lucrative offers. They successfully handed off the check, and secured a shipment of 1.5 million N95 respirators from China.

How the Trump administration has stood in the way of PPE distribution - Vox

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Here’s a brief look at Trump’s pro-contagion activities that leave Americans defenseless in the face of the virus, implemented by his crazed and cruel appointees.

1. Trump is pushing hard to weaken safety regulations for nursing homes. Weakening these regulations leaves elderly residents vulnerable to infectious diseases, meaning more people will get sick and die.
   
2. Trump is fanatically trying to end Obamacare in court cases. Twenty million people, at least, will lose health insurance. He has no replacement. As a Yale University study just demonstrated, 65,000 to over 100,000 Americans die every year because they do not have health insurance (see the Yale study here). Trump apparently is okay with many more people losing their lives to further entrench his cruel, corporatist ideology. Many more people will stay sick because they are uninsured and therefore cannot afford diagnosis and treatment.
   
3. Trump is lying about his concern for American workers. Why is OSHA weakening workplace safety protections that keep workers safer? The answer: Trump is a crazed and cruel corporatist.
   
4. Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) henchmen are racing to weaken, revoke, or not enforce environmental safeguards for the air you breathe, the water you drink, and the food you eat. Certain scientifically condemned pesticides, for example, are in your food, but Trump and his EPA lackeys don’t care. These cruel minions are also taking advantage of the coronavirus crisis by signaling to polluters they can open up emission pipes and that the EPA will look the other way. Trump’s EPA is taking actions that mean more people will get sick and more people will die.
   
5. Last month, Food and Drug Agency (FDA) announced that it is suspending inspections of foreign manufacturers importing food, drugs and medical devices into the U.S. through April. This decision is madness! FDA will even suspend inspections of Chinese labs producing large amounts of imported drugs for American patients.This is like telling corporate criminals that the panicked U.S. is unguarded without federal cops on the beat. More unprotected Americans will be at immediate risk of death and disease.
   
6. Just last week, against the advice of even some major auto manufacturers, clenched- jaw Donald rolled back automobile mileage and pollution standards (See here the New York Times op-ed by Daniel F. Becker and James Gerstenzang on August 2, 2018). Trump’s mania knows no bounds! Trump’s compulsive crazy desire to repeal all Obama’s achievements means he is willing to move us backwards, making the future more dangerous and uncertain. The result is more life-destroying pollutants in your lungs, more consumer dollars spent on gasoline for less mileage per gallon, more climate crisis-exacerbating gases.
   
7. Trump faces enormous opposition, from medical experts, consumer groups, environmental groups, civil rights groups, anti-poverty organizations, and even conservatives that will take him to court. What does he care?
   
8. Stubborn Trump’s embargo of Iran and other severe sanctions on nations wanting to sell medicines and equipment to virus-plagued poorer locations disrupts international efforts to contain the deadly virus.
   

Almost no reporters are asking Trump about his reckless, anti-safety policies in the midst of a pandemic that is especially dangerous for victims with pre-existing ailments and sicknesses.

Here are 8 coronavirus failures that prove Trump is a clear and present danger to the United States: Ralph Nader – Alternet.org

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The Trump administration has quietly issued new guidance that will exempt many small businesses from having to provide some workers with paid leave during the coronavirus pandemic. The Department of Labor issued a temporary rule Wednesday that effectively exempted businesses with fewer than 50 workers from being required to provide 12 weeks of paid leave for workers whose children are suddenly at home from school or child care under the coronavirus stimulus package signed by President Donald Trump.

Trump administration quietly guts COVID-19 paid leave provision that already excluded 75 percent of workers – Alternet.org

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In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden has called on state Attorneys General, President Trump, and Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves to drop a lawsuit to dismantle the Affordable Care Act.  “At a time of national emergency, which is laying bare the existing vulnerabilities in our public health infrastructure,” the former VP wrote in a letter, “it is unconscionable that you are continuing to pursue a lawsuit designed to strip millions of Americans of their health insurance and protections under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), including the ban on insurers denying coverage or raising premiums due to pre-existing conditions.”

The lawsuit to dismantle Obamacare, as it came to be known, hinges on the individual mandate, a tax levied on people who choose to forego health insurance altogether. The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act changed the penalty to $0, which paved the way for Attorney General Ken Paxton (R-TX) to sue, on the grounds that the healthcare bill is unconstitutional.  In brief, the argument is that if the mandate doesn’t have a penalty, it is no longer a tax, and without a tax, it is unconstitutional. If the individual mandate falls, they argue, the rest of the Affordable Care Act must fall with it.

Republican Attorneys General push forward with lawsuit to dismantle Obamacare despite coronavirus

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Trump effectively turned this weekend’s coronavirus press briefings into infomercials for the merits of hydroxychloroquine. He repeatedly recommended the drug as a COVID-19 treatment, telling reporters that he saw “very strong, powerful signs” of its potential and even saying he might take it himself, even though he has repeatedly tested negative for the virus. Over the past few weeks, the president has defied his public health advisers by serving as a pitchman for the anti-malarial drugs, talking up their use as COVID-19 cures in briefings, interviews, and on Twitter. By contrast, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during a Sunday morning interview that there is no definitive evidence pointing to the medicine’s use in treating the virus. When a reporter tried to ask Fauci about the drug during that evening’s press briefing, Trump prevented him from answering.

How Fox News convinced Trump that it found a miracle cure for coronavirus | Media Matters for America

Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, reportedly clashed recently with White House trade official Peter Navarro over the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine and its use as a possible treatment for COVID-19. During a meeting Saturday first reported by Axios, Navarro reportedly accused Fauci of opposing the administration's temporary ban on travel from China after Fauci cautioned against the administration promoting the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat the coronavirus. "You were the one who early on objected to the travel restrictions with China," Navarro reportedly said to Fauci. ADVERTISEMENT There's no evidence Fauci has ever publicly criticized the administration's approach to travel from China amid the outbreak, and on March 12, Fauci praised such a policy during a press briefing.

Fauci, Navarro got into heated argument over unproven COVID-19 treatment: report | TheHill

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro had a heated exchange with CNN anchor John Berman on Monday after Navarro argued that his training in statistical studies as an economist made him qualified to disagree with health experts on the use of the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine to treat the novel coronavirus. "Doctors disagree about things all the time. My qualifications in terms of looking at the science is that I'm a social scientist," Navarro told "New Day" anchor Berman. "I have a Ph.D. And I understand how to read statistical studies, whether it's in medicine, the law, economics or whatever." Toward the end of his interview, Berman said “we all want the same thing, which is people to get better.” ADVERTISEMENT “I’m not sure we do sometimes,” Navarro replied.

CNN's Berman, Peter Navarro in heated exchange over hydroxychloroquine: 'Don't you dare' | TheHill

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Sargent compiled a timeline that chronicles public statements by Biden and Trump throughout the early days of the crisis, starting out with Trump’s January 22nd claim that “we have it totally under control,” contrasted with a top Biden adviser co-writing an op-ed calling Trump’s dismissals of the virus’ threat “a cause for great concern.” Sargent cites other examples of Trump spreading the message that the virus was under control, such as a rally in Michigan on January 30. The very next day, Biden told reporters in Iowa that “science” must “lead the way,” adding: “We have, right now, a crisis with the coronavirus.” Then there were Trump’s February 10 comments where he predicted the virus would dissipate in the summer and the U.S. was in “great shape.” The next day, Biden went on MSNBC’s Morning Joe and slammed Trump for claiming the coronavirus will disappear in the warm weather. “You couldn’t make it up,” Biden said.

This ‘utterly damning’ coronavirus timeline lays bare Trump’s total lack of leadership – Alternet.org

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Despite President Trump’s repeated assertions that the Covid-19 epidemic was “unforeseen” and “came out of nowhere,” the Pentagon was well aware of not just the threat of a novel influenza, but even anticipated the consequent scarcity of ventilators, face masks, and hospital beds, according to a 2017 Pentagon plan obtained by The Nation.

“The most likely and significant threat is a novel respiratory disease, particularly a novel influenza disease,” the military plan states. Covid-19 is a respiratory disease caused by the novel (meaning new to humans) coronavirus. The document specifically references coronavirus on several occasions, in one instance saying, “Coronavirus infections [are] common around the world.””

Exclusive: The Military Knew Years Ago That a Coronavirus Was Coming | The Nation