REPORT: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Office of Inspector General
Hospital Experiences Responding to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Results of a National Pulse Survey March 23ā27, 2020
When it comes to trumpās medical recommendations (aka āhunchesā) just follow the money: (from āDonald Trumpās hydroxychloroquine scandal just got even uglier for himā
Bill Palmer | 12:01 pm EDT April 7, 2020
āLast night the New York Times reported that all three of Donald Trumpās family trusts have money invested in Sanofi, a major brand name manufacturer of hydroxychloroquine. In addition, one of Sanofiās largest shareholders is a major Trump donor named Ken Fisher. Oops.ā
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Other nations like Italy, France, and Spain have had similar issues. Our sheer lack of testing is surely a partial cause of this uncertainty.
Staggering Surge Of NYers Dying In Their Homes Suggests City Is Undercounting Coronavirus Fatalities
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Comments from Tās Presser
Goldman Sachs, B of A. JP Morgan, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Visa, Mastercard, Grand Rapids State Banks ā¦to name a few.
Additional comments
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Pointing to the sheer mark ups on PPE materials needed to keep Hospital Staff safe.
Outrage.
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A Virginia pastor who criticized the āmass hysteriaā surrounding the coronavirus pandemic has died of the illness, according to new reports.
Landon Spradlin, of Gretna ā a small town halfway between Lynchburg and Danville ā started to feel sick while in New Orleans, where he went to preach to the crowds gathered for Mardi Gras celebrations, according to the BBC.
A month later, Spradlin ā who was also a seasoned musician inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2016 ā died.
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REPORT: The Trump Admin. and Medical Supply Exports
From the offices of Rep. Katie Porter
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Trump Team Preps Plans to Reopen Economy That Depend on Testing
Um yeah, no duh, guys. Democrats having been yelling about the availability of rapid tests for what seems like months now.
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And finally former Sec of Defense Mattis does get vocal about the removal of the IG Glenn Fineā¦seeing that the checks and balances of our democracy is being chipped away for purely partisan reasons and Tās desire to keep away from oversight.
https://news.yahoo.com/trump-declares-war-on-inspectors-general-201355376.html
Former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis issued a rare public rebuke of President Trump Tuesday over his decision to fire Glenn Fine, the Pentagon inspector general charged with overseeing implementation of the $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package.
āMr. Fine is a public servant in the finest tradition of honest, competent governance,ā Mattis told Yahoo News in an email. āIn my years of extensive engagement with him as our Department of Defenseās acting Inspector General, he proved to be a leader whose personal and managerial integrity were always of the highest order.ā
The Department of Defense announced Trumpās latest salvo in an ongoing bid to reshape government oversight of his administration on Tuesday, saying that the president had removed Fine from the acting inspector general role he had held at the Pentagon for more than four years.
āMr. Fine is no longer on the pandemic response accountability committee,ā Department of Defense spokeswoman Dwrena Allen said in a written statement.
Prior to his role at the Pentagon, Fine served for 11 years as inspector general at the Justice Department. Allen said he would be replaced by Sean OāDonnell, who currently serves as inspector general at the Environmental Protection Agency.
āTrump has woken up to the fact that IGs pose a threat to him,ā said Michael Bromwich, a former Justice Department inspector general who originally hired Fine and praised him as a hard-working and popular inspector general who had engendered strong loyalty within his office at the Pentagon. He noted that until now, inspectors general have largely felt protected to conduct independent oversight of government wrongdoing ā unless there was some evidence they engaged in misconduct.
āThis president has now changed the game,ā Bromwich added. āIt puts a huge cloud over IGs. ā¦ This is a president that resists any form of oversight.ā
The move, coming on top of Trumpās firing on Friday of intelligence community inspector general Michael Atkinson, puts the spotlight on Michael Horowitz, the Justice Department IG. Horowitz, as chair of a federal council of inspectors general, had just last week selected Fine to chair the newly created Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC), a key office set up by Congress to monitor spending under the coronavirus recovery legislation.
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Pelosi Statement on Sudden Removal of Head of CARES Act Oversight
April 7, 2020
Press Release
San Francisco ā Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued this statement on the abrupt demotion of Acting Defense Department Inspector General Glenn Fine and removal from his position as head of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee created in the CARES Act, less than a week after his appointment:
āThe sudden removal and replacement of Acting Inspector General Fine is part of a disturbing pattern of retaliation by the President against independent overseers fulfilling their statutory and patriotic duties to conduct oversight on behalf of the American people.
āSince Day One, the President has tried to marginalize and exercise ultimate control over independent Inspectors General. Yet again, he is doubling down on his signing statement promise to disregard critical oversight provisions that hold the Administration accountable to the law. The removal of Acting Inspector General Fine takes place just days after his shameful late-night firing of Intelligence Community Inspector General Atkinson and his nomination of one of his own lawyers to oversee the Treasury Departmentās implementation of the CARES Act.
āThe Presidentās violation of oversight appears to be a reaction to Congressional Democrats transforming the CARES Act from corporations-focused to workers-first, requiring that taxpayer dollars given to industry go to workersā paychecks and benefits, not be used for CEO bonuses, stock buybacks or dividends. We will continue to exercise our oversight to ensure that this historic investment of taxpayer dollars is being used wisely and efficiently to help workers and families.ā
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This one. Given the fear the GOP stokes in their base toward any global organization, this is probably an easy sell for them.
Trump Attacks W.H.O. Over Criticisms of U.S. Approach to Coronavirus
In effect, the president sought to blame the group for the very missteps and failures that have been leveled at him and his administration.
In other news:
The Coronavirus Has Not Halted Trumpās Power Grab
Both the president and his party are committed to a long-term project of impunity from both the law and the electorate.
Republican Wisconsin assembly speaker wears protective gear while telling voters they are āincredibly safe to go outā
734 Henry Ford workers test positive for COVID-19; Beaumont has 1,500 ill employees
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Disapproval ratings go higher on Tās handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
(CNN)A majority of Americans ā 55% ā now say the federal government has done a poor job preventing the spread of coronavirus in the United States, up eight points in about a week, according to a new [CNN poll
Eighty percent feel the worst of the outbreak is yet to come, most (55%) feel President Donald Trump could be doing more to fight the outbreak, and 37% say they have grown more concerned about coronavirus in the last few days, far outpacing the 5% who say their fears have eased recently
ā¦
Rating the government
A majority, 52%, say they disapprove of the way Trump is handling the coronavirus outbreak, and 45% approve. Both figures have risen since early March, when 41% approved, 48% disapproved and 11% werenāt sure how they felt about the Presidentās handling of the viral outbreak.
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Press Release: New Document Shows Inadequate Distribution of Personal Protective Equipment and Critical Medical Supplies to States
Apr 8, 2020
Press Release
Officials Confirm PPE Stockpile for States is Now Depleted, States Must Rely on Private Sector
Washington, D.C. (Apr. 8, 2020)āToday, Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, the Chairwoman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, released a new document from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) detailing the Administrationās insufficient distribution of personal protective equipment and critical medical supplies to states from the Strategic National Stockpile. Chairwoman Maloney issued the following statement:
āThe document the Oversight Committee is releasing today shows that the federal government has distributed just a fraction of the personal protective equipment and critical medical supplies that our hospitals and medical first responders urgently need.
āNow that the national stockpile has been depleted of critical equipment, it appears that the Administration is leaving states to fend for themselves, to scour the open market for these scarce supplies, and to compete with each other and federal agencies in a chaotic, free-for-all bidding war.
āThe President failed to bring in FEMA early on, failed to name a national commander for this crisis, and failed to fully utilize the authorities Congress gave him under the Defense Production Act to procure and manage the distribution of critical supplies. He must take action now to address these deficiencies.ā
The new document shows personal protective equipment, ventilators, and other critical medical supplies dispersed as of Monday from the Strategic National Stockpile to the 50 states, the District of Columbia, territories, metropolitan areas, and one tribal government. The document shows:
Only 11.7 million N95 respirator masks have been distributed nationwideāless than 1% of the 3.5 billion masks that the Trump Administration estimated would be necessary in the event of a severe pandemic.
Only 7,920 ventilators have been distributed from the stockpile, even though a recent survey of 213 mayorsāwhich did not include New York City, Chicago, or Seattleāidentified a total estimated need of 139,000 ventilators.
In addition, staff from HHS and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provided additional information to Committee staff during a phone call on April 7, 2020:
- Stockpile for States is Depleted.
HHS staff stated that the Trump Administration has made its final shipments of personal protective equipment to states from the Strategic National Stockpile, accounting for 90% of the stockpileās inventory of N95 respirators, surgical and face masks, face shields, gowns, and gloves. The remaining 10% of personal protective equipment in the stockpile is reserved for federal workers and will not be distributed to states.
- Personal Protective Equipment Not Distributed Based on Statesā Requests.
The new HHS document shows that states received at least three shipments of personal protective equipment and supplies, and a few states received an additional shipment. According to HHS staff, most of these shipments were not based on statesā requests. The first two shipments were allocated pro rata based on 2010 Census population data. The third shipmentālabeled the āfinal pushāādoes not appear to be based on population. With respect to N95 respirator masks, the document shows that states received either 64,450 or 120,900 respirators in this āfinal push.ā For example, both Vermont and Texas received 120,900 respirators. Based on 2010 Census data, that is equivalent to roughly 193 respirators for every 1,000 residents in Vermont, but fewer than 5 respirators per 1,000 residents in Texas.
- Private Sector Determining Allocation of Critical Supplies.
Administration staff confirmed that the federal government is not taking control of the supplies flown into the United States in āProject Airbridgeā or directing private sector suppliers to send supplies to particular hospitals with urgent needs. Instead, suppliers are required only to agree to sell half of their shipments to customers in āhotspotsā such as New York, New Jersey, New Orleans, Detroit, and Chicago. Suppliers are not required to reimburse the federal government for the cost of air shipment.
On March 20, 2020, FEMA Administrator Peter Gaynor briefed Oversight Committee Members and cautioned that FEMA had only been āat this for 48 hours.ā During that briefing, another FEMA official stated that Administrator Gaynor had not been invited to the join the White House coronavirus task force until earlier that week, and Administrator Gaynor stated that FEMA did not host its first āinteragency synchronization callā until earlier that day.
When invited to testify at a hearing on the coronavirus response in early March, FEMA declined to participate, asserting that āthe Agency does not feel as if there is much that we would be able to testify to.ā The hearing was held on March 11-12, 2020, and President Trump declared a national emergency the following day.
Last week, the Committee released FEMA documents showing that the Administration has provided states in FEMA Region III only a small fraction of what they have requested from the Strategic National Stockpile.
Click here to read the full document.
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## Trump continues touting unproven drugs
The President continued his weeks-long embrace of two anti-malaria drugs as a potential treatment for Covid-19, even though there isnāt conclusive scientific proof that they are safe and effective.
ā¦
āYou are not going to die from this pill,ā Trump said, before acknowledging that he isnāt a doctor but has reviewed some of the medical studies, adding, āI really think itās a great thing to try.ā
Facts First: There is no conclusive scientific evidence to support what Trump is saying. Clinical trials are underway, but the FDA and top public health officials have not endorsed Trumpās view that the drugs are already known to be effective against Covid-19 and can be taken safely.
Doctors have contradicted Trumpās specific comment that āyou are not going to dieā from these drugs. Dr. Patrice Harris, president of the American Medical Association, recently told CNN āyou could lose your lifeā from this unproven treatment, echoing warnings from other experts.
And more fact checks onā¦
Did T just call Coronavirus the Flu? or Just the flu Yes
Did T close down all of āEruropeā to travel to US? No
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Trump plans on throwing Dr Faucci Under The Bud.
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Trip to Guam at center of top Navy officialās resignation cost taxpayers over $243,000
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New Zealand isnāt just flattening the curve. Itās squashing it.
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Hereās Barr defending his presidentā¦
And comments from Michael Steele ( former GOP part leader)
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We are very fortunate here in NZ. Not only do we have a responsible government, but being an island nation our borders are relatively easy to close. Now only NZ citizens abroad and specialists with expertise needed for essential services are allowed into the country. The tracking of all cases of CV19 reveals that the majority of cases have been brought into the country by returning travellers and that they have passed the infection on to those around them. In almost every case as far as the Ministry of Health is aware the incidence of infection from an unknown origin (community transmission) is around 2% ie approximately 20 cases. Jacinda moved the country in level 4 lock down very early on. It wasnāt possible to do that immediately as people needed to be prepared and arrangements for the economy and ensuring people had sufficient finances to cope with the loss of jobs etc, needed to be in place. The small size of our population is also an added advantage in this regard as well. Nevertheless comparing the response to countries of a similar size and demographic NZs response has been good. The testing regime has been consistently ramped up and extended so that on a per capita basis there have been 11,000 per 1 million population and there is ample capacity to test more which the Ministry is now planning to do to ensure that they have an even clearer picture of the distribution of infection throughout the country. The result of this sharp (2 week so far) intervention has seen the number of cases reach a peak and now a continuing decline in new cases each day for the past 4 days (despite increasing testing) and the number of people recovering from the infection now outnumbering new cases. So we are hopefully optimistic that we can beat this thing - but as Jacinda said today its still too early to be lifting our foot of the pedal. They will be looking at the data on the 20th April and making a decision then whether to extend the current lockdown or to move to a slightly lower level of restrictions in some areas. (Currently travel around the country is limited strictly to essential services. There are road blocks in places tonight and over the Easter weekend to stop anyone thinking they might travel off to their beach holiday home for or to head off to do a little fishing etc.) Fortunately I was able to mow the lawns at my bach (holiday home) just days before the lock down. 
. They will be waiting for me when itās all over and cotton tail the resident bunny will be keeping an eye on them Iām sure.
This latest graph of modelling shows just what we have avoided:
The latest number of cases today was just 29.
The country now has a high chance of eliminating the virus, the research says - but only if the level 4 restrictions are extended.
Te PÅ«naha Matatini, a cluster of researchers from Landcare Research and the Universities of Auckland and Canterbury, has been working for more than a month on modelling the spread of the virus here.
The total number of active Covid-19 cases in New Zealand has stalled over the past four days, hovering between 920 and 930 cases.
Additionally, the Ministry of Health reported 29 new cases of Covid-19 today - the lowest number of new cases over a 24-hour period in a fortnight.
The paper published by Te PÅ«naha Matatini today showed that had the government not gone into a level four lockdown, the number of new cases each day would exceed 150 by now, rising to 350 a day by the middle of next week.
Of course there is a cost and like everywhere else many people are anxious as to what the future holds. A large part of our economy has been tourism. The hospitality industry is effectively shut down. Many supporting industries reliant on cash flow are wondering if they will be able to survive. People are having to make adjustments moving from one type of employment to something entirely different. For instance the logging industry has stopped as China shut its ports, many of those workers are now picking fruit. Fruit picking has been done by seasonal workers coming in from the pacific islands (they have gone home) and backpackers mostly from Europe who use the money earned to help finance their trip and extended stay of around 6 - 9 months. They are now being repatriated home on mercy flights.
However if the country can be made CV19 free in the near future (all incoming people are to move straight into 14 days supervised isolation, or if showing symptoms tested and quarantined) then a large part of the economy will be able to return pretty much to normal. The Government is also moving to bring forward a large (for NZ) investment in renewing and developing infrastructure, so that will help to soak up a good proportion of the unemployed. Even so I do not see life returning to the way it was before CV19 any time soon and overseas travel is being placed on hold for at least a couple of years.
The end can only be seen in the development of an effective vaccine, and even with the world wide collaboration of all pharmaceutical companies that will be at least 12 months, if not more, before it is ready. The production, and distribution of the vaccine across the world will also take time.
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Whaaaat? Are they TRYING to kill more people? What the hell!??
Federal Support Ends For Coronavirus Testing Sites As Pandemic Peak Nears
While some sites will transition to being state-managed, others will close as a result. This as criticism continues that not enough testing is available.
Video in tweet:
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