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šŸ¤® Coronavirus (Community Thread)

General Discussion
#864

Always confounding why the WH tailors its every move with shaving off the most recommended scientific steps needed to re-open. And Kayleigh McEnany (new spox) speaks out of both sides of her mouth with liesā€¦saying that Dr. Redfield had not signed off on it when in fact he had.

The document, titled ā€œGuidance for Implementing the Opening Up America Again Framework,ā€ was researched and written to help faith leaders, business owners, educators and state and local officials as they begin to reopen. It included detailed ā€œdecision trees,ā€ or flow charts aimed at helping local leaders navigate the difficult decision of whether to reopen or remain closed.

White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany said Friday that the documents had not been approved by CDC Director Robert Redfield. The new emails, however, show that Redfield cleared the guidance.

This new CDC guidance ā€” a mix of advice already released along with newer information ā€” had been approved and promoted by the highest levels of its leadership, including Redfield. Despite this, the administration shelved it on April 30.

As early as April 10, Redfield, who is also a member of the White House coronavirus task force, shared via email the guidance and decision trees with President Donald Trumpā€™s inner circle, including his son-in-law Jared Kushner, top adviser Kellyanne Conway and Joseph Grogan, assistant to the president for domestic policy. Also included were Dr. Deborah Birx, Dr. Anthony Fauci and other task force members.

Three days later, CDCā€™s upper management sent the more than 60-page report with attached flow charts to the White House Office of Management and Budget, a step usually taken only when agencies are seeking final White House approval for documents they have already cleared.

The 17-page version later released by The AP and other news outlets was only part of the actual document submitted by the CDC, and targeted specific facilities like bars and restaurants. The AP obtained a copy Friday of the full document. That version is a more universal series of phased guidelines, ā€œSteps for All Americans in Every Community,ā€ geared to advise communities as a whole on testing, contact tracing and other fundamental infection control measures.

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#865

Itā€™s everywhere and close to the Tā€™s. :eyes:

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#866

I am absolutely infuriated that I an having to defend the Indiana Ignoramus, but apparently the video of him carrying empty boxes was selectively edited:

Good to have the fake news debunkers team at Buzzfeed.

(calling out Kimmel, not you @Windthin, I fuckin believed it too ffs.)

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#867

What?! I hate it when fake news wins. :face_with_monocle:

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#868

This radio story has stuck with me. Neah bay, crescent lake and cape Flattery have to be, in my opinion, some of the the most beautiful places on the planet. This will be difficult as the the weather improves. What an incredible lengths, to protect their people and itā€™s paid off so farā€”zero cases. I hope people donā€™t go out there and bother them.

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#869

Oh no, I agree, Iā€™d rather know if something I posted turns out to be false. I hate that.

I had to dig through my timeline on twitter and find and un-like and un-retweet the posts, but Iā€™d rather do that than leave them up when theyā€™re not true. Itā€™s the danger of breaking stories, sometimes you get false info no matter how well you check things.

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#870

Dr. Birx and Dr. Redfield at a loggerhead over the CDCā€™s mortality numbers - contesting the guestimates of the CDC, claiming that the projections were too high.

Such is the way the Administration fumbles with even the reporting of it. Maybe the CDC is a bit rusty with an antiquated digital systemā€¦where is the czar fixing it?

Inside the administration last week, there were roiling disputes over the data used by the government to track the virus as well as over possible therapeutics. The debates underscored the administrationā€™s chronic challenges in managing the crisis, even as Trump pushes to reopen the economy.

During a task force meeting Wednesday, a heated discussion broke out between Deborah Birx, the physician who oversees the administrationā€™s coronavirus response, and Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Birx and others were frustrated with the CDCā€™s antiquated system for tracking virus data, which they worried was inflating some statistics ā€” such as mortality rate and case count ā€” by as much as 25 percent, according to four people present for the discussion or later briefed on it. Two senior administration officials said the discussion was not heated.

ā€œThere is nothing from the CDC that I can trust,ā€ Birx said, according to two of the people.

The flare-up came two days after it was reported that an internal government model, based on data from the CDC and other agencies, projected the daily death count would rise to 3,000 by June 1.

Redfield defended his agency, but there was general agreement that the CDC is in need of a digital upgrade.

Birx said in a statement: ā€œMortality is slowly declining each day. To keep with this trend, it is essential that seniors and those with comorbidities shelter in place and that we continue to protect vulnerable communities.ā€

That assertion is contrary to Johns Hopkins data, which shows U.S. daily deaths hovering close to 2,000 most days for several weeks now, and climbing higher some days last week.

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#871

Live updates: CDC director, FDA commissioner to quarantine after exposure to people who tested positive for coronavirus

Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ā€œwill be teleworking for the next two weeks,ā€ according to a CDC spokesman. Redfield ā€œhad a low-risk exposureā€ on Wednesday to ā€œa person at the White House who has covid-19.ā€ Meanwhile, Stephen Hahn, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, began to self-quarantine for two weeks after being exposed to an individual who tested positive for the coronavirus, the FDA said late Friday.

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#872

Fact check: Trump falsely claims Obama left him ā€˜nothingā€™ in the national stockpile

"Itā€™s not accurate to say the shelves were empty," said Dr. Nicole Lurie, who was assistant secretary of health and human services for preparedness and response under Obama.

NPR toured one of the Strategic National Stockpileā€™s warehouses in June 2016, describing a massive warehouse with rows of supplies, including ventilators; it noted a locked section for addictive medicines and a freezer full of temperature-controlled supplies. According to the report, an official valued the stockpile at $7 billion.

Vice toured the same year, reporting that the warehouse it visited "looked like a prepperā€™s Ikea, with row after row of containers filled with mystery medications and equipment."

Itā€™s true that the stockpile wasnā€™t as full as officials might have liked.

Lurie and Craig Fugate, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency under Obama, both acknowledged that congressionally ordered budget cuts had depleted the stockpileā€™s reserves. The Washington Post reported that 85 million N95 masks that were deployed from the stockpile during the swine flu crisis werenā€™t replenished, for example.

But they said the Obama administration had put detailed plans and systems in place ā€” for both refilling the stockpile and stocking up quickly in the event of a pandemic ā€” that werenā€™t maintained or used by the Trump administration.

"When we left, there was a pandemic plan," Lurie said. "There was a checklist about where youā€™re supposed to do when. All of that stuff was in place, and it was quite comprehensive. That plan should have been activated that first week in January, and if you look at Rick Brightā€™s whistleblower complaint, you see multiple attempts to do that."

She said that the Obama administration had left a crucial contract in place to speed the production of masks but that the contract was dropped after Trump took office in 2017. Another plan created under the Obama administration that would have developed reusable masks was deployed too late to boost current efforts, she said.

Fugate said the stockpile was supposed to be the first line of defense ā€” not the only resource in an emergency.

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#873

Fauci to begin ā€˜modified quarantineā€™

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and member of the White Houseā€™s coronavirus task force, tells CNN he will begin a ā€œmodified quarantineā€ after making a ā€œlow riskā€ contact with the White House staffer who tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

The ā€œlow riskā€ assessment means he was not in close proximity to the person who tested positive during the time when that person was known to be positive for the virus.

He is not doing a full quarantine like Dr. Stephen Hahn, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. Hahn came into contact with an individual who tested positive for coronavirus, an FDA official confirmed to CNN on Friday.

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#874
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#875

In the early days of the pandemic, the U.S. government turned down an offer to manufacture millions of N95 masks in America


January 22nd they made that offer.

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#876

And Dr Redfield, CDC as wellā€¦2 weeks

More comments on Dr. Fauci

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#877

This tweet from the article says it allā€¦

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#878

Long threadā€¦by Andy Slavitt, worked on writing ACA, Medicare/Medicaid expert who addresses the pandemic in what the response has been, ā€˜what history will see it asā€¦ā€™ etc.

He uses the term eugenicsā€¦and I will leave that there in response to the genocide question.

Am excerpting some incisive commentsā€¦

ā€¦

ā€¦

ā€¦

And other background commentary

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#879

Iā€™m worried that people only look at the numbers and not see the lives. My family is still grieving from a loss as all this began and I imagine the grief that must be weighing heavily on many other families in isolation. They should not be forgotten.

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#880

All of us are stunned, shocked and grieving at the profound amount of loss. I see remembrances at the end of news reports, newspapersā€¦and the surreal truth is that it is beyond imagination how many dead there are. More that 4 US warsā€¦certainly more than 911, Katrina etcā€¦and on an unimaginable scale snd mounting.

How will we rememberā€¦? I went to the 911 memorial and have been to the holocaust Museum of Tolerance, remember seeing names of victims of the Titanic and wars in churchesā€¦but you wonder in all the isolation what will be the best way to commemorate lives lost in a shuttered world.

We are a nation that is fearful, saddened and yet some groups are unabashedly provoked to defy the imminent dangers. It is a massive loss with massive failures to protect usā€¦it just is astounding to think how it might endā€¦and anticipate safety.

Right now, we are in a lot of pain witnessing it. :pray:

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#881

My wife lost her grandmother earlier this year, supposedly to the flu. We sort of wonder now, We may never know. None of us may ever know what the real death toll is.

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#882

A sober assessment.

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#883

This development is even scarier than we could have anticipatedā€¦ More innocents lost from an unpredictable virus and very concerning to schools, children and families, or just about everyone.

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