Wuhan Virus Watch: Trump Prepares Nation for Next Phase in War Against Coronavirus
Trump says, “Our country wasn’t built to be shut down.” Dr. Deborah Birx says decision to end guidelines will be data driven.
While the Democrats were extorting the American public, President Donald Trump was signaling that the next phase in the war against coronavirus was about to begin.
During the Monday press briefing, Trump said he would reconsider the nation’s social distancing policy within a matter of days.
President Trump on Monday signaled he wants the economy to be back in full swing as quickly as possible amid the ongoing coronavirus crisis. He said during a Coronavirus Task Force briefing that his administration will reevaluate the 15-day guideline the White House issued last week when that time is up and he will soon issue new guidelines on how to return to a more normalized workforce and economy.
“Our country wasn’t built to be shut down. This is not a country that was built for this. It was not built to be shut down,” Mr. Trump said in a briefing that heavily emphasized the need to reopen and boost businesses and the economy. “… We’re not gonna let the cure be worse than the problem.”
Perhaps the star of this particular briefing was Dr. Deborah Birx, a physician and the White House coronavirus response coordinator. Birx discussed the hot spot of the New York City metropolitan area, which has an infection rate close to one in 1,000.
She said roughly 28% of the specimens submitted in that region have tested positive for COVID-19, while less than 8% have tested positive for the disease in the rest of the country.
“To all of my friends and colleagues in New York, this is the group that actually needs to social distance and self-isolate,” she said. “Clearly, the virus had been there for a number of weeks.”
Trump is taking the approach that the nation can take three actions simultaneously: Get back to work and school, handle the nation’s hotspots, and reduce the spread of the virus. It is evident during the discussions that there will be a serious reevaluation of the Presidential Coronavirus Guidelines at the end of the remaining eight days in this 15-day cycle.
Of course, the press again was trying to create friction between the President and the Task Force Team members. For example, journalists pressed Birx to say if she agreed with ending the shut-downs. Birx stressed she would review the data coming in and give the President her best advice based on the data.
This upset many Trump-haters.
Sally Birx has lost every bit of the credibility that she built up over decades. Stands silently while Trump sprouts dangerous nonsense. When she speaks, largely parrots the party line. Sad.
— Norman Ornstein (@NormOrnstein) March 23, 2020
Trump and Birx had a little fun when the doctor revealed she had a low-grade fever this weekend.
WATCH: Trump jokingly moves away from Birx after she reveals she had a fever https://t.co/8qz4F7kHHL pic.twitter.com/i1vQhPKcbM
— The Hill (@thehill) March 24, 2020
Many people noted the absence of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the infectious disease expert that has not been present at the past few briefings.
The coronavirus expert admitted in an interview over the weekend that he has to tell Donald Trump facts four times to get his point across.
Since the chat with Science was published Sunday he has not been seen at the press conferences led by the president.
His absence caused concern for many Americans online, with Twitter users rushing to question where the virus expert had disappeared to.
One wrote: ‘Where the holy hell is the one person we all trust? Where is Dr. Fauci?’
Frankly, I have felt Fauci was a big distraction during the conferences because he would answer questions like a scientist…which was putting chum in the water for the media sharks. Birx is so much better.
However, he may be back.
Fauci is at the task force meeting (working) which is why he’s not at the presser. Sorry to those who assumed he’d been fired or excluded. “He’s a good man,” Trump says, who adds that the reopening timeline will be discussed with him. Calls Fauci’s opinion “very important.”
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) March 23, 2020
Attorney General Bill Barr was also present at the session today, focusing on scams and gouging.
Each of the department’s 93 U.S. Attorney’s Offices is appointing an official who’ll be charged with prosecuting hoarding or other such cases, Barr said.
The Justice Department also has said it’s targeting scammers taking advantage of the crisis, including those offering a “vaccine” for sale — as yet there is no vaccine available for the coronavirus.
Florida man with coronavirus says drug touted by Trump saved his life
A Florida man with coronavirus claims he was saved from death by the anti-malaria drug chloroquine.
Rio Giardinieri, 52, told Los Angeles’ Fox 11 that he struggled with horrendous back pain, headaches, cough and fatigue for five days after catching COVID-19, possibly at a conference in New York.
…Trump last week said he was instructing the FDA to fast-track testing of hydroxychloroquine and a related drug, chloroquine, as treatment for COVID-19.
Giardinieri said he contacted an infectious disease doctor about the drug.
“He gave me all the reasons why I would probably not want to try it because there are no trials, there’s no testing, it was not something that was approved,” said Giardinieri.
“And I said, ‘Look, I don’t know if I’m going to make it until the morning,’ because at that point I really thought I was coming to the end because I couldn’t breathe anymore,” Giardinieri continued.
Man dies after self-medicating with fish tank cleaner to treat coronavirus
Sadly, fear leads to foolish choices.
A man died after ingesting an additive used to clean fish tanks — the pharmaceutical drug version of which has been touted by President Trump as a potential coronavirus cure.
Within 30 minutes of taking chloroquine phosphate, the man in his 60s experienced “immediate effects” and had to be admitted to a nearby Banner Health hospital, the medical system in Arizona said in a press release Monday.
His wife, also in her 60s, is in critical condition after taking the additive, which is used in aquariums to kill some organisms, like algae, that may harm fish.
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Comments
I certainly hope this shut down ends soon. It is nearly impossible to work in Cuomo’s Fascist state. No one is around.
Why is it that these government people can order things be shut down, while never providing for the lost pay, while their pay checks keep flowing? It seems to me that their pay should be suspended during actions they implement just like most of the people they affect by these actions.
The widespread shutdown of restaurants will lead to shortages nationwide and rationing eventually, since half of all meals are served “outside the home”. This must be relieved soon to allow the system to restock, and to continue to support any isolated hot spots that may remain in quarantine, like New York city.
But…but Cuomo is wonderful! He’s doing such a good job handling this! His press conferences are fantastic! He’s dreamy! He’s the leader we all need! I wish he was my governor right now! He should run for president because I’d vote for him!
I wish I could slap a s tag after that paragraph, but you can read sentiments like those on blogs and message boards all over the internet.
If Fauci was confusing the media members who couldn’t remember anything they learned in high school science classes, even if they could recall being in a science class, that’s not his fault. Their ignorance and arrogance at refusing to acknowledge that ignorance is the problem.
Anybody who has been interviewed by the media knows the frustration of his statements being misquoted, taken out of context, or flat out ignored.
.
Fauci is a deep stater. He twice expressed his “love” of Hillary Clinton in professional emails. He can’t be trusted.
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2020/03/21/political-health-the-motives-of-a-very-very-political-dr-fauci/
Agreed. Dr. Fauci is an outstanding epidemiologist, but I think he has very mixed political motives.
“In September 2009, after millions had become infected with the H1N1 influenza and thousands had died, some of whom were young people and children, a relaxed and unalarmed Dr. Anthony Fauci told an interviewer that people just need “to use good judgment.”
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/03/what_did_dr_fauci_have_to_say_in_2009_about_the_deadly_h1n1_pandemic.html
The final death toll in America from H1N1 was 12,000. The Obama administration did little the first few months this death toll ticked up and up. And we still didn’t close the world; crash the stock market; hunt toilet paper into extinction; or home school our kids.
Perhaps Dr. Fauci has learned from his and Obama’s indolent response to that pandemic ten years ago. Perhaps I’m just jaded at all the backstabbing swamp creatures Trump has exposed…
“Man dies after self-medicating with fish tank cleaner to treat coronavirus”
My question is this: can you still be eligible for a Darwin Award if you are past the age of reproduction? This couple was in their 60s!
Okay, so what exactly is it that the government is not telling us about this virus?
Okay, so what exactly is it that the government is not telling us about this virus?
That the democrats, the media, the establishment GOP, and the deep state are all over-blowing this in the hope that it damages the economy enough to cause Trump to lose in November.
And that all those who for three years were calling Trump a fascist are themselves the ones who are the would-be dictators.
And that the God-less leftists fall for every doomsday cult that comes along, from the 1960s population time bomb and Rachel Carson’s Silent Sprint, global cooling in the 1970s, peak oil, Y2K, global warming, etc., and now this virus.
As this transition occurs, I expect Trump to veto the phase 3 package that the House is holding hostage.
Proclaiming the Democrats are The Party of Death.
@Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute. Sally Birx has such credibility with you that you don’t even know her name is Deborah Leah Birx.
Would you rather the President not have any advisors?
NYPost has editorial today shrieking that under no circumstances should Trump back off some from what is in place, because New York. New Yorkers see themselves as the center of the universe. If they want a hard lock down, they can have one, on their own, a cordon sanitaire, around the 5 boroughs. I get the idea the Post thinks the virus can be contained, if we only shut the economy down for a year.
We put these distancing sanctions in place to give hospitals et. al., time to gear up. No one ever thought we could contain a virus, although, apparently, they do in NY.
NY is a densely packed sardine can.
Or, just dense.
The NYC attitude was well-illustrated on a New Yorker cover a long time back. it showed NYC in some detail, then, to the west, about five landmarks, then, the Pacific Ocean.
I’ve noticed that the public buses are still running. Considering how anathema riding buses already, who would now be riding them with this virus? Why do they get a pass?
Reusable plastic grocery bags, public transit, high density urban dwelling, and open borders have all been exposed by this virus as very bad ideas. But leftists are only concerned about feelings, not facts.
Yes. They feel the rest of us should be subject to this nonsense, as they sit in their mansions, Mc or real, enjoying another glass of wine.
Key workers have to get to work somehow.
Mass transit is of course a reality in some high density areas, like NYC, but the left wants everyone on mass transit, in service of their weird climate cult. No thanks.
Trump is evaluating recommendations. The quarantining, isolation and all other measures are up to the state governor.
These dipshits are so ready for dictatorship.
The left projects all of their sins on others. They openly believe that minorities are too stupid to present an ID to vote, but they claim that the right is full of racism. They accuse the right of being science deniers, yet they claim that there’s a real risk of imminent death to all humans if CO2 levels rise from 400 ppm (a very small quantity) to 410 ppm (also a very small quantity). They call Trump a fascist for three+ years, yet now we see them going all in for dictatorship to control the virus. Same with misogyny (Weinstein, W. Clinton, Epstein, Lauer, etc.).
St Augustine said: But men are hopeless creatures, and the less they concentrate on their own sins, the more interested they become in the sins of others. They seek to criticize, not to correct. Unable to excuse themselves, they are ready to accuse others.
Kansas City straddles the state line between Kansas & Missouri. This encompasses several counties. Those counties have issue mandatory ‘stay home’ orders.
I get called everything but a child-of-G*d on social media when I question, ‘Will this be enforced at gun point? How does that work, exactly, in a nation of free citizens?’
I’m just asking questions. And then, when I read down into to stay home orders, ‘essential services’ is defined so broadly, it’s practically business as usual. Restaurants, bars, and movie houses hardest hit, but most everything else is open – grocery stores, home depot, day care (day care!), walmart, city buses, auto parts stores, etc – and teeming with people.
Weird. Serious, but not serious.
Personally, I will be glad if Fauci is gone. From bis public statements, during this problem, he has continually ginned up unease and panic. He has repeatedly suggested that young adults and children are not in any any real danger of dying from COVID then turned around and suggested that they are in grave danger from the disease. And, he has done this on several aspects of the subject, all of which served to increase panic. He begins to look more like a shill everyday.
The best way to look at the COVID-19 virus is to look at the actual numbers of those ill from the virus. When one does that, this apocalyptic disease begins to look more like a slightly more aggressive form of influenza than it does Bubonic Plague. Since the beginning of the 2019-2020 flu season, there have been fewer deaths from COVID-19, WORLDWIDE, then the death toll from seasonal flu in the US alone. And, when compared to historical US responses to similar and even more serious disease outbreaks, the COVID response is incredibly Draconian and largely unjustified. One does not burn down one’s house because of a small termite infestation.
Now we hear that NYC, and probably other large cities with a heavily concentrated population have a higher postulated infection rate than less populated areas. Surprise, surprise, surprise. This is Epidemiology 101, yet medical experts appear surprised at this. Really??? The medical profession is going to kill its credibility over this just as the media has. At best, the medical profession is looking like buffoons and, at worst, as liberal political shills.
Let’s hope the first shall be last: don’t lift the travel bans until we feel our countrymen are safe.