The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy has just issued a press release. You only have to read as far as the first highlight to earn a rueful laugh.
Trump has ended the COVID-19 pandemic? That’s not what the informed authorities are saying.
Nationally, surveillance indicators tracking levels of SARS-CoV-2 virus circulation and associated illnesses have been increasing since September, driven primarily by activity in the Southeastern and Central parts of the country. COVID-19 related hospitalization rates and pneumonia, influenza and COVID (PIC) mortality for the most recent weeks may increase as more data are received.
The Trump administration wasn’t even able to contain the outbreak in the White House.
More personally, about 10% of my cell bio class are currently under quarantine (none diagnosed with the disease fortunately).
Has anyone out there noticed that the pandemic is over? Not me.
I was laughing at
First, no. He’s done nothing to solidify that position.
Second, “the world has ever known”?
Look, if you’re the most scientifically and technologically advanced country at this moment, do you really need to check in on the accomplishments of the Byzantine empire just to see how you would have compared back then?
And if you’re not sure about that, how advanced can your knowledge really be?
Dear Leader recovered from it and no-one else matters, therefore problem solved!
And this as they fire the chief scientist for NOAA and replace him with hacks from the Cato Institute. America is now a laughing stock among the global scientific community.
It reminds me of the health letter he dictated to his personal physician Dr. Harold Bornstein during his campaign. I’m surprised the press release doesn’t say “Under Trump’s leadership, American scientists have produced only positive findings.”
Back to reality, many of the people now doing this research are likely to find somewhere else given Trump’s immigration policies and handling of the pandemic. https://apnews.com/article/race-and-ethnicity-donald-trump-technology-travel-virus-outbreak-d78eb3f2fc961a848fcbba0ae01218fa
Meanwhile in Realityland, more and more of my close friends have caught the virus.
My friend has been a long hauler since March.
An old friend from the past is now dead from Covid-19.
One was in the ICU for three weeks, never needed a ventilator but it was close.
Where I live on the coast, testing is still broken but slightly better.
Contact tracing has totally failed.
Covid-19 cases are increasing but not by huge amounts like North Dakota or Utah.
“Dear Leader implemented North Korea -level bullshit.”
Oh dear, the quantum printer is tuned to the wrong reality again. I really hate it when that happens. I’m not sure what the White House technical staff is doing but this keeps happening – it’s the only reaonable explanation for all the stuff that keeps coming out of the White House. Someone please call them and let them know the quantum string plucker needs retuning. While they’re at it maybe replace the Schroedinger unit as well. Looks like it might be dead but it’s hard to tell until someone checks it out.
The GOP Death Panels are here.
Hospitals are running out of room in several states; Utah, Wisconsin, North Dakota, etc. due to rising Covid-19 cases.
The GOP has proved that the novel Nineteen eighty-four an exceptionally good instruction manual.
Alas for their plans, Trump came along and derailed that plan.
So, he did accomplish something, he shot his own party’s foot.
I must admit I thought it was a hoax when I started reading it. The level of bombast is just incredible. Besides, what kind of a name is Kelvin Droegemeir?
Apparently he does exist and is a distinguished scientist.
We still want to keep our border closed.
@ 5 PaulBC
Unlike two older siblings who left for U.S. schools, the aspiring pediatrician is focused on Canada.
We may be able to find her a place. I have run into two very pleasant Saudi residents in the last year. The winter might be a shock but other than that….
They are ending the “pandemic” by fiat, because it’s bad for business, bad for the markets, and bad for Trumpster’s reelection prospects. So, poof! It’s all gone. He said that would happen one day, so now he’s right. Scientists say so. Those people dying of COVID-19? Fake news or just faking it.
Reality doesn’t matter to a reality TV star president. You can grab the public by the stupid. They’ll let you do it if you’re huckster.
Next we will discover that the 2020 Olympics were not cancelled but they went ahead and Trump won every event.
@12- robro
Floriduh’s Duhsantis is the perfect lapdog. He was toying with the notion of eliminating the publicly available daily state and county updates.
https://www.wesh.com/article/desantis-coronavirus-florida-website-cases/34417765
They already stopped providing day by day death counts on those because IMO inconveniently at odds with the front-end bar graphic predisposed to keep the appearance of a downward trend:
https://floridahealthcovid19.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Death-Oct-28-2020-Resized.jpg
#winning
And this:
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/coronavirus/os-ne-coronavirus-white-house-task-force-report-20201023-mpsp7pbowbdmlpgalirwjoeatu-story.html
“For nearly five months now, the task force, which was formed earlier this year and is chaired by Vice President Mike Pence, has been sending a detailed COVID-19 report to all state governors, providing county and state-level trends and a series of recommendations. But Florida is among more than a dozen states to withhold those reports from the public.
On Oct. 16, after the Orlando Sentinel asked Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office for the latest task force report, it took getting the Sentinel’s lawyers involved and five work days before the state released its Oct. 11 Task Force report on Thursday.”
#becauseflorida
@ raven, # 9: Remember when the repubs were warning us about the Obama Death Panels?
I think I see the problem. There’s a couple of typos in the last sentence where it says “the Administration has taken decisive actions to engage scientists and health professionals…”
That should be “divisive actions to enrage”.
just amazing I do not know what to say.
How is that supposed to work just saying anything?
sounds like it was written by someone who normally does add copy for desert real estate development and “luxury townhouse time shares”
what is missing is the usual free diner and cocktails offer
uncle frogy
“the Administration has taken decisive actions to enrage scientists and health professionals…”
Fixed it!
Oh never mind. You also said enrage. Duh.
More on (pun) Duhsantis’s reckless disregard for public health:
https://www.theledger.com/story/opinion/2020/10/27/editorial-florida-needs-better-leadership-covid-19/6037764002/
https://floridapolitics.com/archives/371723-gov-desantis-calls-school-reopening-opponents-the-flat-earthers-of-our-day
“ “So, now we’re at the point where the people who advocate school closures are really the flat earthers of our day,” DeSantis said. “They’re not doing it based on data. They’re not doing it based on evidence. They’re doing it based on either politics or emotion. And so, the harm of school closures, I think, is really considerable.”
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/coronavirus/os-ne-coronavirus-gov-ron-desantis-loosens-nursing-home-visits-rules-20201022-fipxmq5gkzctxerspfspztiaau-story.html
“ DeSantis claimed infection rates in the facilities have plunged 70 percent since the reopening. But recent data from the AARP, which measured a four-week period ending in late September, found Florida had one of the highest nursing home infection rates in the nation.”
And this really stuck out like a sore thumb in the eye of concerned citizens: ““Yes, we need to mitigate the effects of this disease,” he said Thursday. “But this virus is not the end of all health issues. Health is about people’s physical, mental, emotional, [and] social well-being.””
Having DeSantis as governor would already strain my mental health to the limits.
It would be safer to return to classrooms now if some states hadn’t rushed to reopen bars and restaurants during the summer. There is also a lot of education that can be done remotely, which would make it possible to carry out necessary on-site work with fewer students and more distancing. But none of this will happen if you pretend there is no pandemic.
And I really resent this being cast as “schools closed.” I have a 10th and 12th grader who have finished their first quarter over Zoom, and are learning as much as ever. Last Spring was admittedly more chaotic. It’s also true that my district is well-funded and I’m sure some students are falling through the cracks. They are having onsite education now for “at risk” students (at risk of dropping out I guess) though this must be about as appealing as summer school.
You can suppress test results all you want. Eventually, it shows up in hospital admissions, and it is expensive. Pay now or pay later. But if you pay later, the cost will be higher not only in suffering but probably in economic terms as well.
True.
The GOP lunatic fringes usually frame the issue as lockdown to save lives versus The Economy.
That is a false choice.
You can’t have a healthy economy during a raging pandemic that kills people.
Proof, even the few states that didn’t lock down still saw their economies drop about the same as the rest of the USA.
They were de facto locked down, as people’s survival instincts kicked in.
People are good at calculating their survival risks and behaving accordingly, at least most of them, most of the time.
They aren’t going to be reckless and risk death or permanent disability just because Trump/GOP says it is OK.
Re: wzrd1 @ #10…
Foot? I think he’s aimed considerably higher than that. Try, “shot his party in the head.”
Crip Dyke at 1:
Now that was a hygron burn.
(reference)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_fire
New reveals from a Bob Woodward interview with Jarhead Kushner back in April/May about the pandemic and the admin’s disdain for “the doctors”. No surprises, but the Trumpets whole strategy was to minimize political fallout from the virus, not the virus itself. Plus, some choice words about the GOP and how Pee-Paw took over. You might be amused at the arrogance for this scumbag.
@25 Nothing amuses me about Jared “Dad bought me a spot at Harvard” Kushner. All evidence suggests he thinks very highly of himself despite having no actual accomplishments and everything given to him on a silver platter. I will never get how people like that tick and never will.
That press release was written for an audience of one: Donald Trump.
No doubt it was the top page of the daily “love me” folder his lackeys have been placing on his desk every morning after filling it with any positive Trump clippings they can find, ever since he took over his father’s business.
STOP THE PRESSES!!!
I just found out the White House has a Yelp Page and only has 633 reviews (one more after mine).
https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-white-house-washington
How am I the first one to figure this out?
May I suggest everyone “review” the White House as soon as possible.
Ray, yes, you may.
Are you going to do so?
@29 already done. I wrote it as a restaurant review with terrible hamburgers and staff.
No, you asked whether you could get permission to ask others to do it, not whether you yourself could do it.
I gave you permission to ask others to do so.
Again: Are you going to do so?
@31
Again already done. I know a ton of people in the service industry and I’m currently reaching out to everyone I can think of. We’ve all had to deal with our share of Karens over the years and we’ve heard it all.
Fine. So, if you’ve asked others to do it, why ask whether you may ask others to do it?
(Note that you haven’t actually asked anyone here to do it)
@33
I tend to communicate in a passive voice. Why are you arguing with me instead of reviewing the White House? Do it, it’s fun.
John @33: Do you actually live in an English-speaking country, or are you only pretending to? I ask because this isn’t the first time you’ve seemed confused by really common idioms.
Rob, yes, I do, and no, I’m not.
(I do like how you write “seemed confused”, granting that I may not be confused, but only so appear to your perception. Well done! In actuality, I’m pricking pomposity)
You mean, like “I could care less”? ;)
—
Back to the topic, I too was amused how, just as COVID infection records are being broken in the USA and infection rates are accelerating and the worst is in red states, the claim is that COVID has been overcome is officially made. But the election deadline fast approaches, and desperate bluster is all that’s left. A message to the “true believers”, obviously.
John @36: May I suggest that pricking pomposity by being a pompous ass is not an optimal strategy?
MAGA- Make Another Grave America
As long as we’re picking on grammar, I know most people say “could care less,” but that should be “couldn’t care less.” If you could care less, you still care. (Pet peeve, thought I’d bring it up here.)
RobG@37 Doesn’t it depend on what you’re optimizing?
I took John Morales@31 as being pedantic, possibly with humorous intent, rather than a misunderstanding. But it didn’t seem significant enough to inquire further.
I was tempted to point out (in reference to Ray Ceeya@34) was not using passive voice, which could have been something like “It’s been suggested that people review the White House on yelp, and permission is requested for reviewers to be asked to do so.”
(And then the whole thing just kind of fizzled out in my brain, but here I am with a “second wind.”)
This strategy is optimal for putting off work. (OK, back to work!)
asclepias @39: John is quite aware of the grammar. I dare say that was his point.
Rob Grigjanis #37
You said,
“May I suggest that pricking pomposity by being a pompous ass is not an optimal strategy?” to John Morales
What were you thinking?
jrkrideau: in Iqaluit there was (presumably still is) a vibrant filipino community. I think Saudis will be able to handle southern Canada just fine.
Apparently, on Google Maps you can review Vladimir Putin’s private luxury dacha:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Usad'ba+Sellgrena,+Vyborg/@60.6636656,28.6803566,572m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m7!3m6!1s0x46972d917371a9ed:0x2de4781e91728db0!8m2!3d60.663562!4d28.6817569!9m1!1b1
(It’s a historical mansion near Finnish border, in an area that Finland ceded to Russia during WWII. The mansion was reportedly owned by Russian state since Soviet times until it was privatized recently.)
Replace the words ‘President Trump’ with ‘Comrade Kim’ and that sounds eerily familiar.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/29/politics/atlas-desantis-testing-covid-florida/index.html
“On the other hand, believers in a theory of “herd immunity” are less interested in universal testing. The White House and Atlas have spoken positively of the work of a group of infectious disease specialists who, in a statement called the Great Barrington Declaration, call for opening the economy and allowing rampant infection to create widespread immunity.
In September, DeSantis appeared in a virtual public conference with two key authors of the declaration group, according to multiple local news accounts. The next day, he suddenly announced the complete reopening of the state, without restrictions for businesses or schools and no mask-wearing mandates. One mayor said he was not notified in advance, nor invited to public hearings. “
Well that explains a lot right there. Let it rip. And for the victims RIP.
You misspelled “exemplifying”.
Rich Woods@45
Or “Big Brother”.
John is just outrageously pedantic. Sometimes that means he points out important distinctions, but at other times it makes me want to punch him for being deliberately obtuse.
No offense, John. Honestly.