🤮 Coronavirus (Community Thread)

dragonfly9 · May 9, 2020, 12:56am

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 lies…saying that Dr. Redfield had not signed off on it when in fact he had.

The document, titled “Guidance for Implementing the Opening Up America Again Framework,” was researched and written to help faith leaders, business owners, educators and state and local officials as they begin to reopen. It included detailed “decision trees,” 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 — a mix of advice already released along with newer information — 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 Trump’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, CDC’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, “Steps for All Americans in Every Community,” geared to advise communities as a whole on testing, contact tracing and other fundamental infection control measures.

dragonfly9 · May 9, 2020, 1:55am

It’s everywhere and close to the T’s.

MissJava · May 9, 2020, 4:43am

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.)

Pet_Proletariat · May 9, 2020, 5:15am

What?! I hate it when fake news wins.

Pet_Proletariat · May 9, 2020, 3:51pm

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 it’s paid off so far—zero cases. I hope people don’t go out there and bother them.

Windthin · May 9, 2020, 7:04pm

Oh no, I agree, I’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 I’d rather do that than leave them up when they’re not true. It’s the danger of breaking stories, sometimes you get false info no matter how well you check things.

dragonfly9 · May 9, 2020, 9:52pm

Dr. Birx and Dr. Redfield at a loggerhead over the CDC’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 system…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 administration’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 administration’s coronavirus response, and Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Birx and others were frustrated with the CDC’s antiquated system for tracking virus data, which they worried was inflating some statistics — such as mortality rate and case count — 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.

“There is nothing from the CDC that I can trust,” 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: “Mortality 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.”

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.

Pet_Proletariat · May 9, 2020, 10:30pm

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, “will be teleworking for the next two weeks,” according to a CDC spokesman. Redfield “had a low-risk exposure” on Wednesday to “a person at the White House who has covid-19.” 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.

Pet_Proletariat · May 10, 2020, 1:43am

Fact check: Trump falsely claims Obama left him ‘nothing’ in the national stockpile

"It’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 Stockpile’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 prepper’s Ikea, with row after row of containers filled with mystery medications and equipment."

It’s true that the stockpile wasn’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 stockpile’s reserves. The Washington Post reported that 85 million N95 masks that were deployed from the stockpile during the swine flu crisis weren’t replenished, for example.

But they said the Obama administration had put detailed plans and systems in place — for both refilling the stockpile and stocking up quickly in the event of a pandemic — that weren’t maintained or used by the Trump administration.

"When we left, there was a pandemic plan," Lurie said. "There was a checklist about where you’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 Bright’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 — not the only resource in an emergency.

Pet_Proletariat · May 10, 2020, 1:49am

Fauci to begin ‘modified quarantine’

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and member of the White House’s coronavirus task force, tells CNN he will begin a “modified quarantine” after making a “low risk” contact with the White House staffer who tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

The “low risk” 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.

Pet_Proletariat · May 10, 2020, 2:35am

Windthin · May 10, 2020, 2:58am

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.

dragonfly9 · May 10, 2020, 2:58am

And Dr Redfield, CDC as well…2 weeks

More comments on Dr. Fauci

dragonfly9 · May 10, 2020, 3:10am

This tweet from the article says it all…

dragonfly9 · May 10, 2020, 4:35pm

Long thread…by Andy Slavitt, worked on writing ACA, Medicare/Medicaid expert who addresses the pandemic in what the response has been, ‘what history will see it as…’ etc.

He uses the term eugenics…and I will leave that there in response to the genocide question.

Am excerpting some incisive comments…

…

And other background commentary

Pet_Proletariat · May 10, 2020, 4:43am

I’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.

dragonfly9 · May 10, 2020, 5:33am

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

How will we remember…? 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 churches…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 us…it just is astounding to think how it might end…and anticipate safety.

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

Windthin · May 10, 2020, 5:42am

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.

Whoosie · May 10, 2020, 3:19pm

A sober assessment.

dragonfly9 · May 10, 2020, 4:40pm

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