Monday, April 06, 2020

US Death Toll Is Likely Much Higher Than "Official" Count Of 10,000+

More than 10,000 Americans have now died from the coronavirus, but the actual death toll is likely much higher. The Washington Post reports that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is counting only deaths in which the presence of the coronavirus is confirmed in a laboratory test.

Postmortem testing varies widely across the country and some officials say testing the dead is a misuse of scarce resources. Also, some people who have the virus test negative.

The Trump administration's refusal to act in any way in the first weeks of the outbreak meant there were virtually no tests available as the virus spread out of control. People who died of respiratory illnesses were not counted, and people who died at home or in overburdened nursing homes may not have been tested. "We know that it [the official death toll] is an underestimation," CDC spokeswoman Kristen Nordlund said.

Are you curious what did Donald Trump do last week? The Washington Post will tell you:
President Trump began the seven-day stretch threatening — and then reneging on — a quarantine of the New York region. He ended it by announcing recommendations for everyone to wear face masks but stressed he would opt against sporting one himself.

In the days in between, Trump announced a 30-day extension of stringent social distancing guidelines (March 29), called into a freewheeling "Fox & Friends" gripe-a-thon (Monday), presented a dire assessment of how many Americans are expected to die of the coronavirus (Tuesday), launched a military operation against drug cartels (Wednesday) and stoked a feud with a senior senator from hard-hit New York (Thursday). ...

[I]n Trump's White House, certain symptoms remain: a president who governs as if producing and starring in a reality television show, with each day a new episode and each news cycle his own creation, a successive installment to be conquered.

Facing a global pandemic, Trump still seems to lurch from moment to moment, with his methods and messages each day disconnected from — and in some cases contradictory to — the ones just prior. ...

Trump has focused on his self-image — claiming credit wherever he believes it is owed, attempting to project strength and decisiveness, settling scores with critics, boasting about the ratings of his televised news conferences and striving to win the cable news and social media wars.
It's bizarro Groundhog Day. Every day is brand new to Trump. He wakes with no memory of what happened yesterday and he cannot think or plan more than five minutes into the future. He is incapable of learning or evolving.

And while he spends a few hours each day lying about every aspect of the situation and insulting reporters for having the audacity to question his wisdom, the rest of his regime is busy destroying every fucking thing in sight.

The AP published a report, showing that the US wasted months before doing anything about the pandemic: "A review of federal purchasing contracts by The Associated Press shows federal agencies largely waited until mid-March to begin placing bulk orders of N95 respirator masks, mechanical ventilators and other equipment needed by front-line health care workers."

Months were lost while Trump remained in denial, to the point where testing became almost irrelevant, since the virus had spread so far and wide that the only recourse was to lock down most of society and keep our fingers crossed.

The entire administration remained weeks behind the curve in reacting to the spreading virus, spending precious time infighting, jumping from one decision to the next, and trying to tackle problems that were already hopelessly out of control.

The government is planning on purchasing and distributing coronavirus testing machines, but not nearly enough. A spreadsheet circulated at FEMA and the Department of Health and Human Services shows that each state would receive only 10-15 machines and about 100 virus tests. The total number of test for the entire country: 5,500.

At the state level: Jared Moskowitz, Florida's top emergency management official called the N95 private market "a Ponzi scheme".
All day long we try to find these masks. We're talking to brokers. We're talking to distributors. We're talking to medical salespeople. We're chasing down warehouses only to get there to find out that they're empty. ... We're constantly engaging in bidding wars, being asked to wire money to accounts that were set up that very same day with email addresses that were created only a couple of days ago.
Getting supplies is an utter shit show, according to the Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services. Hospitals are reduced to combing through nail salons and art supply stores for supplies.

As thousands of people are dying from a serious respiratory illness, Trump has weakened fuel efficiency rules for automobiles, creating about a billion more tons of heat-trapping carbon dioxide — equivalent to roughly a fifth of current annual US emissions. This is so retrograde that the auto industry opposes it.

The US has decided to withdraw from the "Open Skies" treaty with Russia, which was intended to reduce the risk of an accidental war. Literally none of the US's allies supports this decision.

ProPublica reported that the Trump administration has instituted new rules allowing the Border Patrol to seize any asylum seeker and quickly send them back over the border without due process.

Capt. Brett Crozier, the commanding officer of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, feared his crew was in danger from the pandemic. And so, because Trump was unhappy about Crozier's complaining, Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly fired Crozier. When Moldy announced to the crew that Crozier was "too naive or too stupid to command a ship", numerous sailors yell: "What the fuck?!?" (It's almost impossible to believe this was actually broadcast to the crew. He mentions Joe Biden and China. It's like Trump dictated part of it.)

Last weekend, Trump fired Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson and publicly admitted it was in retaliation for Atkinson obeying the law and forwarding the Ukraine whistleblower complaint to Congress. Trump is planning on firing more inspectors general in the government, because various conservatives have told him that these IGs are trying to undermine him.

Doctor Trump continues to push the unapproved, unproven, and unsafe hydroxychloroquine as a cure for the virus. Trump began touting this brand of snake oil after seeing a segment on Fox News. Dr. Do-little is now claiming the drug will also act as a vaccine, based only on political propaganda spouted by ignorant quacks on what serves as his personal TV station.

Can anyone say this is not a cult?
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