Category: Current Events

“The Pentagon was aware of the likelihood of a pandemic brought on by a novel coronavirus years ago, predicting with startling accuracy shortages of masks, hospital beds and ventilators that could occur in an outbreak, according to a 2017 internal document reported by The Nation.”

“…cites a novel respiratory illness as the “most likely and significant threat” in a pandemic situation.”

“…warns that shortages of masks and ventilators would have a “significant impact on the availability of the global workforce.”

“And while President Trump has said the current COVID-19 pandemic “came out of nowhere,” Klippenstein says it is “inconceivable that the White House did not receive this.”

“The threat of a highly transmissible pathogenic virus that targets the respiratory system, this was appreciated for at least the last 10 years.”

(https://www.npr.org/2020/04/05/827692672/report-pentagon-aware-of-possible-coronavirus-threat-for-years)

“Trump himself has a small personal financial interest in Sanofi, the French drugmaker that makes Plaquenil, the brand-name version of hydroxychloroquine.”

(https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/06/us/politics/coronavirus-trump-malaria-drug.html)

President Trump again touted a potential coronavirus drug on Saturday, saying he would try it—despite not having coronavirus, and despite the drug not being approved for widespread use. The FDA has approved the emergency use of hydroxychloroquine, a malaria and lupus drug, to treat COVID-19 symptoms. It’s still undergoing clinical trials to determine if widespread use is safe and effective, but that hasn’t stopped Trump from repeatedly calling it a “game changer.” Trump has tested negative twice for coronavirus but on Saturday he said: “I may take it. I have to ask my doctors about that.” He said 29 million doses of the drug were now available for doctors to use on COVID-19 patients, and it had great potential. “I hope they use hydroxychloroquine,” he said. “What do you have to lose?” He also mentioned unspecified reports that people taking the drug weren’t getting coronavirus. “Maybe that’s correct, maybe that’s false, you’ll have to check it out.”

(https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-says-he-would-try-hydroxychloroquine-an-unproven-coronavirus-drug-but-wont-wear-face-mask)

“There were five mass shootings this weekend. On Friday night, four people were shot in Louisville, Kentucky. On Saturday, four people were wounded in a domestic shooting at a home in Vidor, Texas, and two people were killed and two others were injured in an apartment in Lubbock, Texas. Also on Saturday, a man in Hialeah, Florida, shot his ex-girlfriend, her new boyfriend, her adult daughter, and a police officer before being killed by police. And on Sunday, four men were wounded in a shooting in an apartment in Brooklyn, New York.”

(https://www.thetrace.org/rounds/daily-bulletin-mass-shootings-coronavirus-covid-19-guns-price-gouging/)

“Trump notified Congress late Friday evening that he intended to fire Michael Atkinson, a pivotal figure in his impeachment last year, because he had lost confidence in him. On Saturday, Trump made it clear that the move had been retaliatory, telling reporters that Atkinson was a “disgrace” and had done “a terrible job” because he had provided an anonymous whistleblower complaint to Congress — a move that was required by law.”

“Atkinson said in the statement, sent to reporters late Sunday, that “it is hard not to think that the president’s loss of confidence in me derives from my having faithfully discharged my legal obligations as an independent and impartial inspector general, and from my commitment to continue to do so.”

“Atkinson was required by law to notify Congress of the complaint, which was written by an anonymous intelligence official and detailed Trump’s pressure on Ukraine to investigate Democrats. The inspector general had deemed it urgent and credible, meaning that he was required to share it with the House and Senate intelligence committees. But the acting director of national intelligence at the time, Joseph Maguire, overruled him for several weeks.”

(https://apnews.com/d195d521d3fc20ae4a5920641e8a20d3)

“…[former Acting Navy secretary Thomas] Modly said he fired [former USS Theodore Roosevelt Captain Brett] Crozier [without an investigation] so as not to get into a situation where Trump would think that he needed to intervene.”

“Modly said he was aware that his predecessor [Richard Spencer] lost his job because the Navy “got crossways with the president,” and “I didn’t want that to happen again.”

(https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/navy-officials-fiery-speech-plunges-service-into-political-crisis-to-pair-with-a-warship-crippled-by-coronavirus/2020/04/06/9cbc3180-7836-11ea-8cec-530b4044a458_story.html)

For context, Spencer was fired in November 2019 by Secretary of Defense Mark Esper after Spencer tried to encourage Trump to not interfere in military justice proceedings against disgraced and convicted Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher.

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_V._Spencer)

“As the first alarms sounded in early January that an outbreak of a novel coronavirus in China might ignite a global pandemic, the Trump administration squandered nearly two months that could have been used to bolster the federal stockpile of critically needed medical supplies and equipment.”

(https://apnews.com/090600c299a8cf07f5b44d92534856bc)

As with any other poison, viruses are usually more dangerous in larger amounts. Small initial exposures tend to lead to mild or asymptomatic infections, while larger doses can be lethal.

Despite the evidence for the importance of viral dose, many of the epidemiological models being used to inform policy during this pandemic ignore it. This is a mistake.

People should take particular care against high-dose exposures, which are most likely to occur in close in-person interactions — such as coffee meetings, crowded bars and quiet time in a room with Grandma — and from touching our faces after getting substantial amounts of virus on our hands. In-person interactions are more dangerous in enclosed spaces and at short distances, with dose escalating with exposure time. For transient interactions that violate the rule of maintaining six feet between you and others, such as paying a cashier at the grocery store, keep them brief — aim for “within six feet, only six seconds.”

(https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/01/opinion/coronavirus-viral-dose.html)

“While Indian Country was responding to the growing number of coronavirus cases in its communities late Friday, the Trump administration was busy revoking the reservation status of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe in Massachusetts. By taking their 321 acres of land out of federal trust, the Interior Department’s order also removes the tribe’s ability to govern on its land. This process has been done only one other time since the Termination Policy in the 1950s.”

“On its reservation land, Mashpee Wampanoag was developing a casino that was opposed by allies of Trump who were lobbying for nearby casinos in Rhode Island.”

(https://www.vox.com/identities/2020/4/2/21204113/mashpee-wampanoag-tribe-trump-reservation-native-land)

“Automatic payments are guaranteed only to those whose information is already in the computers at the Internal Revenue Service or the Social Security Administration. Everyone else must follow instructions posted by the I.R.S., which says many low-income people and others who aren’t usually required to file tax returns will need to do so if they want their payments.

“Until an abrupt reversal on Wednesday night, the guidance also applied to Social Security recipients who did not submit tax returns. That had been a surprise to policy experts and advocates for seniors, because the legislation signed by President Trump gave the Treasury explicit permission to use Social Security databases — and the payment information they contain — to push payments to people automatically, without their needing to do anything else.

“The Treasury Department backtracked on Wednesday and said Social Security beneficiaries who did not typically file returns would receive their payments automatically after all.”

(https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/01/business/coronavirus-stimulus-social-security.html)