
I swear that headline sounds like the scariest opening to a new Stephen King novel ever.
Courtesy of NYT:
The White House moved on Thursday to tighten control of coronavirus messaging by government health officials and scientists, directing them to coordinate all statements and public appearances with the office of Vice President Mike Pence, according to several officials familiar with the new approach.
But on a day that the White House sought to display a more disciplined strategy to the administration’s communications about the virus, Mr. Trump used an evening event honoring African-American History Month to rail against the news media, claiming it is overstating the threat, and to congratulate himself for keeping the number of cases low.
“I think it’s an incredible achievement what our country’s done,” Mr. Trump said, noting that he had moved quickly to ban travel from China after the emergence of the virus. Even though a total of 60 people infected with the coronavirus are in the United States, he ignored all but the 15 who did not initially contract it overseas.
“Fifteen people is almost, I would say, a miracle,” the president bragged.
The comments came just a few hours after Mr. Pence convened a meeting of the coronavirus task force composed of some of the nation’s top public health officials. The vice president made it clear that they would report to him.
“I’m leading the task force,” Mr. Pence told reporters at the Department of Health and Human Services, even as he promised to rely on the guidance of experts.
It is crystal clear that the main focus for Mike Pence and his boss is to keep information away from the American people that might affect the economy or Trump’s chances of winning reelection.
They are not interested in keeping us safe, they just want to keep us in the dark.
As for how well they are keeping us safe, just take a look at this story from WaPo:
Officials at the Department of Health and Human Services sent more than a dozen workers to receive the first Americans evacuated from Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, without proper training for infection control or appropriate protective gear, according to a whistleblower complaint.
The workers did not show symptoms of infection and were not tested for the virus, according to lawyers for the whistleblower, a senior HHS official based in Washington who oversees workers at the Administration for Children and Families, a unit within HHS.
The whistleblower is seeking federal protection, alleging she was unfairly and improperly reassigned after raising concerns about the safety of these workers to HHS officials, including those within the office of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. She was told Feb. 19 that if she does not accept the new position in 15 days, which is March 5, she would be terminated.
The whistleblower has decades of experience in the field, received two HHS department awards from Azar last year and has received the highest performance evaluations, her lawyers said.
Trump himself has also been going after news outlets for trying to keep people accurately informed.
“Diagnosis positive: @CNN is infected with Trump Derangement Syndrome. I’m calling out CNN for irresponsibly politicizing what should be a unifying battle against a virus that doesn’t choose sides.” @trish_regan @FoxNews Like I say, they are Fake News!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 28, 2020
So the approach of the Trump Administration is to punish or ridicule those trying to raise the alarm about careless responses to this virus?
Yep, we are several shades of fucked.
Read a book about how viruses would take us out due to our ignorance, beliefs, and red tape. Obama administration handled the Ebola crisis nicely while Trump and company seem to be encouraging it. Needless to sat, Trumps base would be in jeapardy should this virus take hold.
Oh Great !!! Dumb and dumber at the helm and gonna save us. Thanks again trump sucking rethugs. I am getting a bit exhausted with all this ongoing “winning”? The con is wearing mighty thin.We are not amused by th
the continual ineptness and inbreeding practices of the trump cult.
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/02/covid-vaccine/607000/
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/02/trump-settled-on-pence-to-lead-coronavirus-response-because-he-didnt-have-anything-else-to-do-report/
“I said, quote, ‘that’s genius,’”
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/02/gasps-of-horror-greet-larry-kudlows-placement-on-coronavirus-team-might-as-well-inject-the-virus-into-our-veins/
Don’t forget Treasury Secretary Mnuchin – he’s on the task force also. Shows where the administration’s concerns are. Only the money & the markets.
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/02/larry-kudlows-attempt-to-prevent-coronavirus-panic-backfires-like-asking-an-arsonist-to-put-out-a-fire/
Larry Kudlow is still talking about the upsides of a potental pandemic: “Stocks looks pretty cheap to me”
https://www.politicususa.com/2020/02/27/rachel-maddow-destroys-trumps-coronavirus-lies-in-90-seconds.html
“The president has said that in the last two days that the coronavirus is less lethal, has a lower fatality rate than the common flu. That is quite dramatically, mathematically incorrect. ”
” he is burying his head in the sand hoping that made-for-TV press conferences will paper over his disastrous response to a looming global pandemic.”
https://www.politicususa.com/2020/02/27/trump-and-pence-launch-propaganda-war-to-muzzle-health-officials-on-coronavirus.html
“Trump requires all health officials to get approval from Mike Pence on ANY statements about the coronavirus.”
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/hhs-whistleblower-coronavirus_n_5e584414c5b6450a30bc2cd3
“the complaint alleges that HHS employees were “improperly deployed” and “not properly trained or equipped to operate in a public health emergency situation.””
fb>””[Trump] could personally suck the virus out of every one of the 60,000 people in the world, suck it out of their lungs, swim to the bottom of the ocean and spit it out, and he would be accused of pollution for messing up the ocean.”
— Mike Huckabee, this morning on Fox News
Folks, I know this is an uncomfortable subject, but it’s time we talked about putting Grandpa Mike in a nice managed care facility.”
”
Population: This thing concerns us.
Leader: Your concerns are valid. Here’s what we’re doing to protect you. This is where you can get verified information. This is how you can help.
Population: This thing concerns us.
Trump: YOU’RE MAKING ME LOOK BAD! FAKE NEWS! WHAT ABOUT THE MONEY? DID YOU EVEN THINK ABOUT THE MONEY?!”<Jim Wright
https://www.politicususa.com/2020/02/27/disaster-for-trump-fox-news-finds-only-32-percent-will-commit-to-voting-for-him.html
Dotard Don’s Dow Down another -564.o+
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-coronavirus-stock-market-rollercoaster-isnt-stopping-anytime-soon?ref=home
“Ultimately, COVID-19 is a virus that has sickened tens of thousands of people in dozens of countries. Many of those people do not own stocks. But even a best-case scenario here likely means the road to “back to normal” takes a while, even with better-than-expected jobs reports. Other indicators worth paying attention to include the 48 states that saw their real median household income growth decline in Trump’s first two years in office (after signs the middle class might actually be doing better), a prediction from Goldman Sachs that US companies would see zero earnings growth this year, and the Dow Jones recording its worst four-day stretch since the 2008 financial crisis.”
https://www.npr.org/2020/02/28/810295350/financial-markets-shudder-around-the-world-as-coronavirus-tightens-its-grip?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&fbclid=IwAR2gTjGbbm9f6wylnd9oiebBTbERfc92V97te3gf2SY53Nc_r3GbYXQ8qo4
https://www.politicususa.com/2020/02/28/trump-now-has-the-8-largest-dow-drops-in-us-history.html
“Trump has managed to inflate the stock market with speculation and opinions often on Twitter. The coronavirus is a governing crisis. Trump can’t say everything is fine”
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/02/trumps-favorite-pollster-says-his-approval-rating-crashed-just-one-day-after-coronavirus-press-conference/
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/trump-approval-rating-catches-the-flu-crashes-overnight
-900.o+
Dow Closed @ -357.28
S&P 500 -24.54
https://www.politicususa.com/2020/02/28/trump-daily-dow-drops.html
rump has staked his entire reelection campaign on taking credit for Wall Street and the economy, but Trump now has the 8 biggest Dow drops in US history.
Here is Trump’s record:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/new-yorker-cover-donald-trump-coronavirus_n_5e58c048c5b6beedb4e93e1a
https://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2020/02/27/tom-frieden-cdc-coronavirus-pandemic-trump-health-america-aman.cnn
Former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Tom Frieden tells Amanpour why a coronavirus pandemic is likely inevitable.
Tom Frieden was director of the Centers for Disease Control during the Ebola crisis, and joins the show to explain the severity of the crisis and how the U.S. should respond.
“But for them to try to take a pandemic and seemingly hope that it comes here, and kills millions of people so that they could end Donald Trump’s streak of winning, is a new level of sickness. You know, I don’t know if this is coronavirus or Trump derangement syndrome, but these people are infected badly.”
“What Trump Jr. is doing here then is using rhetorical hyperbole for the political benefit of his father. It’s a tactic he got from his dad, after all. The President has repeatedly referred to Democrats as “really evil people” and “horrible.””
https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/28/politics/donald-trump-jr-coronavirus-democrats/index.html
https://www.thedailybeast.com/rep-john-garamendi-threatens-to-beat-up-donald-trump-jr-for-claiming-democrats-want-coronavirus-pandemic?ref=home
“For them to try to take a pandemic and seemingly hope that it comes here and kills millions of people so that they can end Donald Trump’s streak of winning is a new level of sickness,”
“There would be a serious altercation,” the California Democrat replied. “That is just totally outrageous. I can assure you that there’s not a Democrat or Republican in Congress that wants anybody to be sick.”
What winning streak?
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/02/trumps-lies-and-deception-are-catching-up-to-all-of-us-as-the-stock-market-posts-worst-point-drop-ever-on-record/
in an attempt to stave off three days of market near-collapse. He lied. He twisted the truth. He displayed little grasp of basic facts. He didn’t let the experts run the show…
The Trump administration has known about coronavirus since at least December 1, 2019. It did nothing until January 29, when the White House posted a memo announcing President Trump’s Coronavirus Task Force. The task force did not even include the surgeon general…
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/02/mick-mulvaney-goes-nuts-at-cpac-and-accuses-media-of-hyping-coronavirus-to-bring-down-trump/
“They think this will bring down the president,” Mulvaney said. “That’s what it’s all about.” “Get over it”
https://www.politicususa.com/2020/02/28/mick-mulvaney-calls-the-coronavirus-a-hoax-to-bring-down-trump.html
Trump’s chief of staff also told people to turn off their TVs for 24 hours, because the coverage is media panic.
https://www.businessinsider.com/wuhan-coronavirus-risk-of-reinfection-2020-2?utm_source=yahoo.com&utm_medium=referral
” in the case of the new coronavirus, according to Zhan, doctors don’t think the antibodies patients develop are strong or long-lasting enough to keep them from contracting the disease again.
“Once you have the infection, it could remain dormant and with minimal symptoms, and then you can get an exacerbation if it finds its way into the lungs,” Philip Tierno, a professor at the NYU School of Medicine, told Reuters.”
https://www.businessinsider.com/wuhan-coronavirus-risk-of-reinfection-2020-2?utm_source=yahoo.com&utm_medium=referral
https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-anthony-fauci-trump-admin-stops-discussion-2020-2?utm_campaign=sf-insider-main&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&fbclid=IwAR0P7mdPwORnHLr6ZasnkbFnoKJkrcib38JSxQkkvZs9hfHDpLiFAxu-qFU&r=US&IR=T
https://www.politicususa.com/2020/02/27/trump-throwing-a-fit-because-nobody-took-his-coronavirus-press-conference-seriously.html
“It would be really nice if we could be recognized by the press fairly,” Trump whined. “I gave a press conference yesterday that was really a very good press conference, and some people thought it was great.”
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-fire-pandemic-team/?fbclid=IwAR344nJWTUx1vOMqmS9Lvd8vnxuDEJaTaRNM1MkgeS10ah97bkydCcxSUhE
https://www.salon.com/2020/02/28/trump-goes-full-racist-of-course-to-cover-up-coronavirus-lies-and-incompetence/
Trump reacted in a way that’s sadly unsurprising: He amped up his racism, grasping desperately for nonwhite people to blame, rather than admitting he’s not up to the task of handling this crisis.
So, Trump’s plan is to fight the coronavirus with Twitter?
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/02/a-losers-idea-of-what-winning-looks-like-trump-ripped-for-bragging-about-coronavirus-response/
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/02/republicans-storm-out-of-coronavirus-briefing-after-house-dem-slams-trump-administrations-response/
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/02/trump-nominates-texas-republican-and-man-of-great-talent-to-be-director-of-national-intelligence/
“For someone who talks about the border endlessly, you’d think you’d know how to spell it by now”
Winter Is Coming.
This is scary when they seek to forbid experts to speak or report in order to control the message. However they are not shutting down Limbaugh from spewing his conspiracy theories. When Ebola was a threat President Obama was not tweeting or giving press conferences contradicting government experts. These are crazy times to experience a POTUS spinning twisted tales about a virus and then his political aides defend his nonsense by accusing others who report medical expert opinions Nd cautions to be prepared.
https://www.politicususa.com/2020/02/28/trump-wants-to-use-a-tax-cut-to-fight-coronavirus.html
They have also discussed whether the White House should lean even harder on the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates, though the central bank on Friday afternoon said it would step in if necessary…
https://www.politicususa.com/2020/02/28/federal-reserve-defies-trump-and-says-coronavirus-poses-economic-risk.html
the coronavirus poses an evolving economic risk…
What really got me, was trump at the end of his “press conference” stating.. believe me, trust me.LOL
why should we believe him when everything that comes out of his mouth is a LIE
And Mother Karen is in charge of blowing the man in charge of all coronavirus messaging from health officials.