Sunday, July 05, 2020

FEMA Refusing To Help Phoenix & Other Cities Overwhelmed With New COVID-19 Cases


COVID-19 cases in Phoenix have - like so many places across the United States - doubled in recent weeks. On Saturday, the city set a record with 3,182 new hospitalizations and on Sunday hit a high mark of more than 3,400 cases.

Mayor Kate Gallego says that testing sites in her city and surrounding Maricopa County are completely overwhelmed. She has asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency for help. FEMA has refused.

Gallego has been desperate for more testing resources since April. She noted that FEMA has set up testing sites in Houston and Los Angeles. "We are the largest city not to have received this type of investment. And you can see it in the increasing rate of positives."

More than 20% of all tests in Arizona are coming back positive. According to public health officials, when the proper amount of testing is being done, the positive rate should be around 2%.

Mike Pence was in Phoenix last week, lying through his teeth, claiming that tests were easily available to anyone who needed one. That was nothing more than spitting in the face of extremely ill people he has knowingly abandoned.

Gallego said she would like Donald Trump to see "people fill[ing] their cars with gas so they can wait in lines for eight hours, while they're sick and it's 110 degrees outside" to get a test. "This is not just a Phoenix problem. I think many communities and people across both parties would like to see the federal government play a role."

She said the Trump administration is "declaring victory while we're in crisis mode".

The federal government has not so much declared victory and shrugged its shoulders and walked away, utterly disinterested.

But all is well in the Land of the Trump Death Cult.

No comments: