COVID-19 – Page 6 – * Failed Pols

Donald Trump and his allies seem to know a lot about COVID-19— even more than the leading infectious disease, epidemiology, and public health experts. They purport to know so much that they can’t accept the input of an expert if it contradicts their own worldview.

During a Senate committee hearing about reopening the U.S. economy during the coronavirus pandemic, Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) even reminded Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, that he wasn’t the “end all” when it came to making decisions about public health. To be fair, Paul is himself a physician, though an ophthalmologist, not an expert in infectious disease, epidemiology, or public health.

Trump’s allies are fond of comparing COVID-19 with the seasonal flu, though evidence says otherwise. Since we first learned about COVID-19, Trump and many others have focused on early speculation that COVID-19 was just a bad flu. They continue to point to “statistics” showing that influenza causes tens of thousands of deaths every year in the U.S. In short, we should see it as just another virus— sure, they say, people die from it, but tens of thousands of people die each year from the flu.

A new paper authored by researchers from Harvard Medical School and Emory University, however, says that comparing the number of flu deaths with the number of COVID-19 deaths is like “comparing apples to oranges.” In comparing the actual number of flu deaths per week with the actual number of COVID-19 deaths per week, the authors found that the peak COVID-19 weekly death count is about 20 times higher than the average weekly peak flu death count..

Some of Trump’s allies seem confident that once you have coronavirus, you are immune, despite the fact that science does not yet have clear evidence regarding immunity. During the Senate hearings on Tuesday, May 13, Senator Rand Paul, who has had COVID-19 himself, stated, without citing any data, that he was pretty sure that he and others were immune once they had recovered from COVID-19. So, he posited, there was no reason why people like him (those who have had COVID-19) shouldn’t be able to go back to work, populate beaches, and go back to more normal interactions.

Though experts say it’s likely that there is at least some degree of immunity for people who have had the virus, there is no definitive evidence as to the degree of immunity. Making the assumption that once you’ve had COVID-19, you’ll never get it again may prove deadly, especially as the country relaxes its social distancing rules.

Chen Dong, a researcher who led a COVID-19 immunity study at the Institute for Immunology and the School of Medicine at Tsinghua University in Beijing, says, “The coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) has only been circulating in human hosts for five or six months, which means that there is simply no way to know whether immunity to the disease lasts longer than that. How long immunity lasts is a big question…

People who assume they are now immune should take note: Chen also said, “Per our findings, we can only confirm that COVID-19 patients can maintain the adaptive immunity to SARS-CoV-2 for 2 weeks post-discharge.”

Trump’s allies continue to insist that if they don’t have an underlying condition, they don’t need to worry…ignoring the proliferation of hospitalizations of people who aren’t “high risk.” At the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the common wisdom was that it was mainly the older population, people with underlying conditions such as heart disease, and immunocompromised people who had to worry about complications. Most others, we were told, would have mild or no symptoms if they contracted the virus.

We know now that anyone can suffer a severe case and/or complications of COVID-19. Take Dr. Joseph Fair, a physician and coronavirus expert who contributes to NBC News and TODAY. Fair, age 42 runs 5-10 miles a day, is clearly in good shape, and has no underlying conditions. Yet he was hospitalized with COVID-19.

“If it can take me down,” said Fair, “it can take anyone down.”

We’re discovering that COVID-19 can even take down our kids, who we’ve thought all along were virtually safe from any complications. An increasing number of children who have had a bout with COVID-19 are developing a serious and potentially deadly post-viral syndrome called multi system inflammatory syndrome. Though experts say the syndrome is not directly caused by the virus, it appears to be a result of the children’s immune response to the virus. Now that we know this, it will be interesting to see whether some of Trump’s allies who are in a rush to open schools will change their minds.

Trump and some of his allies continue to promote the drug Hydroxychloroquine as a “game changing” treatment, even though, after evidence showing cardiac risks prompted the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has now recommended against it use for treating treat COVID-19.

Incorrectly citing herd immunity, they also insist that we don’t need to be so cautious about opening back up—in fact, we may be even better off doing so.

Various Trump allies, including Rush Limbaugh, have promoted the idea of herd immunity as justification for ending measures such as lockdowns to prevent the spread of the virus.

Researchers David Dowdy and Gypsyamber D’Souza, of of the Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, write, “We have listened with concern to voices erroneously suggesting that herd immunity may ‘soon slow the spread’ of COVID-19. For example, Rush Limbaugh recently claimed that ‘herd immunity has occurred in California.’ As infectious disease epidemiologists, we wish to state clearly that herd immunity against COVID-19 will not be achieved at a population level in 2020, barring a public health catastrophe.

“Some have entertained the idea of ‘controlled voluntary infection,’ akin to the ‘chickenpox parties’ of the 1980s. However, COVID-19 is 100 times more lethal than the chickenpox. Someone who goes to a ‘coronavirus party’ to get infected would not only be substantially increasing their own chance of dying in the next month, they would also be putting their families and friends at risk.”

COVID-19 is currently killing 2,000 Americans per day. Trump and his allies pick and choose “facts,” even disproven ones, about the virus to conveniently support their worldview, frequently contradicting the data and recommendations of public health and infectious disease experts. Though Trump, his base, and many of his allies have disdain for science, they create their own “science” to support their desire to end lockdowns and protect their financial interests.

POWERFUL CONFRONTATION: Rand Paul and Anthony Fauci’s contentious Coronavirus exchange | The Hill [2020-05-12]

Fauci Clashes In Tense Moment At Senate Hearing | NBC Nightly News
[2020-05-12]

Since Donald Trump’s handling (or non-handling) of the COVID-19 threat in the U.S. has gone so terribly wrong, he would like to just make it all go away so that it doesn’t threaten his reelection. It’s not that he cares so much about making the virus itself disappear—let’s face it, he clearly doesn’t care who out here dies from it, just as long as there are still enough voters left to reelect him—it’s that he wants his bad ratings to go away.

But truth won’t cooperate with what Donald Trump needs it to be, so Trump has taken to creating his own narrative— one that depends on altering or denying facts, and on eliminating or squelching truth-tellers.

There’s Trump’s gaslighting about the facts surrounding the pandemic in the U.S. (and his “that’s not what I said” gaslighting tactics to gaslight his gaslighting, when necessary). Although Americans can easily fact-check Trump’s claims, Trump knows that his base will take as fact what comes out of his mouth, and will consider his backing by right-wing news pundits as all the “fact-checking” they need.

Trump has claimed multiple times that the U.S. has conducted more tests than “every other country combined.” Trump knows that this is a lie, but he also knows that it doesn’t matter, because, to his supporters, presenting them with his version of reality—makes it their reality.

Though by count, we’ve conducted more tests than some countries combined, we are nowhere near the number that would make us the coronavirus testing world record-holder. As of late April, statistics from several sources, including Worldometer and Our World in Data, estimate that the U.S. has conducted between 5.59 and 5.7 million tests. According to Worldometer, the number of tests run in Russia, Germany, and Italy alone totals around 6.72 million— so, more than what the U.S. has run.

And then there was the praise from Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor, Jared Kushner, about the administration’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, calling it a “great success story.” Trump himself has called it a “spectacular job.” As if simply saying it makes it so. As if repeating it erases the fact that in two months’ time, the number of coronavirus cases in the U.S. has climbed to greater than one million—more than one-third of the number of cases in the entire world; the number of U.S.deaths has reached well over 60,000; and health care providers are still waiting for needed testing, equipment, and supplies.

Since Donald Trump knows that not everyone will let him get away with gaslighting alone to change the facts, however, he has also taken to eliminating key officials who pose a problem for the Trump coronavirus narrative. Woe are science, data, and public officials when they don’t support Donald Trump’s required version of the truth.

As Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a key member of the White House Coronavirus response team has presented the reality of COVID-19 to Americans, he has appeared less and less frequently during the task force’s daily press briefings. By the end of April, Fauci, who had previously appeared and spoken daily, had only been present once out of seven briefings.

The White House has also blocked Fauci from testifying before the Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee hearing on the COVID-19 response. Though Trump had hinted via Twitter that he might fire Fauci, he hasn’t done so up to this point.

Trump has, however, fired other officials whom he has deemed disloyal to him in their response to the coronavirus pandemic.

There was Glenn Fine, who had been leading the office of the inspector general for the Pentagon. Fine was to become the chairman of a new Pandemic Response Accountability Committee set up to oversee the federal government’s spending of coronavirus relief funds (to ensure that Trump didn’t divert funds to his family or political interests). Fine, respected by his peers and known as an independent watchdog, was abruptly demoted without explanation from his Pentagon role, and this disqualified him from serving on the oversight panel.

As a result of Fine’s reassignment, no one is currently heading up the oversight of coronavirus spending, and this allows Trump greater freedom to ignore the explicit anti-corruption provisions in the spending bill.

Then there was Dr. Rick Bright, who was abruptly fired from his role as director of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA); removed as deputy secretary for preparedness and response; and given a narrower role at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

He was unequivocal about the reason for his dismissal, citing his doubts about the Trump-touted drug hydroxychloroquine as a “game changer” in treating COVID-19. Bright said that he was pressured to direct funds toward the drug, which he said was one of several “potentially dangerous drugs promoted by those with political connections.”

“I believe this transfer was in response to my insistence that the government invest the billions of dollars allocated by Congress to address the Covid-19 pandemic into safe and scientifically vetted solutions, and not in drugs, vaccines and other technologies that lack scientific merit,” said Bright. “I am speaking out because to combat this deadly virus, science — not politics or cronyism — has to lead the way.”

This past week, Health and Human Services Inspector General Christi Grimm, a career official in the Inspector General’s office since 1999, joined the list of dismissals. Trump began to deride Grimm around the time he fired Inspector General Fine, publicly attacking Grimm for publishing a report that criticized the federal response to the coronavirus.

The report was based on extensive interviews with hospitals around the U.S., and exposed the fact that facilities were facing critical shortages of supplies, and were struggling to obtain test kits, ventilators, and protective gear for staff members. Already receiving criticism for his slow response to the developing pandemic, Trump was embarrassed, and deemed Grimm’s findings “wrong.” As if that would make it so.

“Why didn’t the I.G., who spent 8 years with the Obama Administration (Did she Report on the failed H1N1 Swine Flu debacle where 17,000 people died?), want to talk to the Admirals, Generals, V.P. & others in charge, before doing her report,” Trump tweeted. “Another Fake Dossier!”

Three weeks later, after business hours on May 1, Trump announced that he would be replacing Grimm.

Washington Senator Patty Murray, ranking Democrat on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said, “We all know the President hasn’t told people the truth about this virus or his Administration’s response, and late last night, he moved to silence an independent government official who did.”

Science and sound data, if they contradict Trump’s reality, are not viewed as science and sound data, but as “disloyalty.” Telling the truth makes one a traitor.

“I cannot see how any inspector general will feel in any way safe to do a good job,” said Danielle Brian, the executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, a nonprofit group. “They are all at the mercy at what the president feels.”

In Trumpworld, loyalty is measured not by facts, but by how one ignores or twists them to support the president’s will. As Trump tells his supporters how he’s making America great again, he is dictating to them what to accept as reality, curating the “facts” he wills them to accept. How long before a six-foot portrait of Donald Trump is hung in the square?

Kushner and Trump Call Coronavirus Response “Success Story” and “Great Job”: A Closer Look | Late Night with Seth Meyers. [2020-04-30]

Rep. Says Trump Is Gaslighting The Nation Over Coronavirus | NowThis
[2020-0421]

Tag: COVID-19

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