Fauci warned Trump, the CDC prepared a report on how states might open safely, Trump withheld the report, states opened, and a new report makes vividly clear how easy it is to get Covid in a half-empty restaurant.
Today, we introduce the new Trump Death Clock, a billboard placed in New York’s Times Square that depicts the number of deaths directly attributable to Trump indecision. We then turn to how Dr. Fauci and the CDC have tried to advise the President to delay re-opening America and how unreleased administration documents now indicate that Covid is exploding across the Nation, exactly as predicted by those fearful of not implementing social distancing practices. Lastly we examine a new report that describes how easy it is to contract Covid in a variety of social-business settings. It is an eye-opening report and could help each of you decide how best to manage the next phase of this pandemic.
Trump Death Clock Depicts Number of U.S. Deaths DIRECTLY Attributable to Trump Inaction
Stupidity, arrogance, and disregard for science have consequences. With the climate crisis, the most dire of those consequences will come in the future, but Covid consequences erupt quickly. Filmmaker Eugene Jarecki installed A “Trump Death Clock” on the roof of a Times Square building empty due to the pandemic. The clock does not reflect the total number of US deaths, but rather focuses on how many Americans will die due to one of many, many Trump mistakes, e.g., delaying mandatory social distancing and school closures by a week, initiating distancing on March 16 instead of March 9. The following 6-minute Democracy Now! interview with Jarecki outlines how he has used science, data, and current research to offer the most conservative estimate of just how much blood Trump has on his hands.
Fauci & CDC Told Us It Was Too Early to Open
Last Monday, President Trump used his press conference/political rally to announce that numbers were going down throughout America. As usual, Trump manipulated the data to project a false impression. Numbers were going down because of two factors:
- For some time, Fauci has stated that our testing system is inadequate, that we really had no idea the extent to which Covid has spread in vast parts of America and so we should not open for business; and
- NY and California, where the vast majority of cases were identified, were experiencing a reduction in case numbers, a reduction that caused the national total to remain flat.
The reality is, new cases across the rest of the country are continuing to rise. As the chart above clearly depicts, this is a nuance that any college statistics student could have gleaned.
Last week, our post “American Individualism, A Most Dangerous Myth” used two charts to depict the vast number of preventable deaths that would result from opening too early. It is worth revisiting those charts as they illustrate precisely what is now happening across America.
Recognizing that the President would not long adhere to a science and data-based strategy that did not comport with his political priorities, the CDC published a set of specific criteria for when it would be safe for states to open. With Trump’s constant hunch-based encouragement, many states never practiced shelter-in-place and social distancing with any consistency. And despite New York and California being the only states to have met the criteria, much of America is in some form of “open” right now. I think you can see where this is headed.
The CDC also prepared a 29-page report outlining how states might best slowly open. Trump has prohibited the CDC from releasing the report, depriving states of an invaluable tool for guiding their reopening by the best science available. We should not be surprised by this. From the start, Trump has largely left it to individuals to fend for themselves while providing immense relief to the corporate community.
He is also forcing states to fend for themselves. From the start of the pandemic, he refused to develop a national testing strategy or to use US buying power to consolidate purchase and distribution of PPE. Now he is withholding an invaluable aid to help states open more safely. In essence, Trump has refused to allow America to work together during the most urgent crisis we have faced since WW II.
So, while Trump continued to crow about how numbers were going down quickly across America, last week’s Tuesday blog projected what the CDC said would happen if we ignored social distancing guidelines. In too many places in America, that advice has also been ignored and now, a new report — also being withheld by the President– describes how Covid is exploding throughout the heartland of America. NBC obtained a copy of this report:
“The 10 top areas recorded surges of 72.4 percent or greater over a seven-day period compared to the previous week, according to a set of tables produced for the task force by its data and analytics unit. They include Nashville, Tennessee; Des Moines, Iowa; Amarillo, Texas; and — atop the list, with a 650 percent increase — Central City, Kentucky.”
NBC News: “Unreleased White House report shows coronavirus rates spiking in heartland communities”
NBC went on to identify a second cohort of communities that, together with the top ten areas, reflect the reality that Covid has now spread from coast to coast, despite that being inconvenient for our President. And just as in NY and CA, the increases in hospitalizations and deaths follow a week of reports of increased positive tests. So now we can expect a vast spike in Americans dying across the US. NBC identified the second cohort and it is the GOP heartland.
“On a separate list of “locations to watch,” which didn’t meet the precise criteria for the first set: Charlotte, North Carolina; Kansas City, Missouri; Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska; Minneapolis; Montgomery, Alabama; Columbus, Ohio; and Phoenix. The rates of new cases in Charlotte and Kansas City represented increases of more than 200 percent over the previous week, and other tables included in the data show clusters in neighboring counties that don’t form geographic areas on their own, such as Wisconsin’s Kenosha and Racine counties, which neighbor each other between Chicago and Milwaukee.”
NBC News: “Unreleased White House report shows coronavirus rates spiking in heartland communities”
Recall Trump’s response to a press question about what metrics he will use to determine when America goes back to work. He pointed to his brain and said: “This is the metrics. This is the only metrics I need.” And so from the very beginning, despite having some of the world’s most respected experts, Trump has continued to use his own demented metrics to reassure and guide the nation. At the bottom of this post we rerun a video from Monday’s post, with Trump making one statement after another going back to January, and the US and World death total projected on the right of the screen. Viewing this video will reaffirm how Jarecki’s “Trump Death Clock” estimates are conservative in attributing Trump’s responsibility for the US experiencing the worst of the pandemic of any nation on earth.
Click here to read the full NBC News report.
Even “Safely” Opening America Exposes Us To Great Risk of Covid
Santa Fe activist Jade Gordon sent me an outstanding article by Erin Bromage, a Darthmouth University immunologist, who uses science and data to clearly depict just how easy or difficult it is to get Covid in a wide variety of social contexts. The good news is that strict social distancing is very effective. The bad news is that even opening slowly and with restrictions on the numbers of people in stores and restaurants, this virus spreads very easily and exponentially.
This article is very worth reading and sharing, as it presents the current situation very clearly. Just to illustrate the point, Bromage takes one scenario in a typical restaurant with one asymptomatic patron (A1) joined by 9 friends for a 90-minute dinner. The analysis shows that not only did four of his guests become sickened with Covid, but individuals at surrounding tables did as well.
The article goes into depth about many such situations from shopping, to dinner with friends, parties, and large meetings, weddings, and church services. Click here to read the full article.
In closing, as this post and the video below depict, Trump and his “metrics” are risking tens of thousands of lives. To date, the vast majority of those deaths have occurred in Democratic stronghold states. That is about to change and change dramatically. The Trump Death Clock will continue inexorably. Trump will, no doubt, find others to pillory for what is about to transpire, just as he has for what has already occurred. We all must do whatever we can to share posts like this. Fox News won’t tell our GOP friends, so we must.
In solidarity,
Paul & Roxanne
Categories: Uncategorized
Chicken Little was right. The sky is falling!
I Practice Physical Spacing. I Reject Social Distancing! Please remember we are human and stop pretending to be a parrot. By using the phrase “Social Distancing” we are unconsciously endorsing isolation and totalitarian policies. We say it enough it becomes a habit. Habits are things we do without thinking (consciously). The phrase “Social Distancing” is cognitive dissonance being woven into our culture’s fabric.
I am a physician. The data from the NM Dept of Heath website shows a normal pattern of ILI (Influenza-Like Illness) for the past 8 years with NO REAL CHANGE this year. For NM and the whole U.S. The patterns are the same, if anyone would bother to check the facts. I personally know there are people dying from this flu, but not a pattern that is more than usual for the flu season. IF the corporate media had not eliminated real journalism, we would all likely know this.
Quarantining healthy people is not medicine. It is not science. Physical Spacing protects your Immune System by minimizing exposure. That is science. Social Distancing is by design Mind Control. To be 6 feet from humans (isolation) will weaken your immune system. Check the research yourself. You do not need to be distant. That is a mental construct, conditioning. You can still talk to them. You can still look at them. You can still be human. You do not need to be conditioned to accept isolation. Once being distant is accepted, and your voice silenced behind a mask, isolation is next. Classic Neuroconditioning. Viruses do not fly, unless you consider being sprayed into the upper atmosphere as “flying”. Viruses do fall, but they don’t fly. We cannot kill all the viruses in the world. We must remember how to live in harmony with nature, not kill everything that is inconvenient for our hypermasculine lifestyle.
When we use their phrasing without thinking, the corporate cabal has already colonized our minds. Viruses are not alive – they are code – code that is used to program computers. The virus is their software. Our DNA is our hardware. You may be on the left side of the box – but you are still in their box. It is their Matrix, not ours.
I guess we will all Retake THEIR Matrix after we Retake THEIR Democracy. How is that working out for us?
UMass Dartmouth
Thank you for the article on Trumps Death Clock. I feel an escalating threat to our Nation. The increased tension among peoples and entities is palpable. Your voice is important .
Trump is a symptom, nothing more. It is the symptom of a rapidly declining empire and of a broken down Republic.
Chris Hedge’s quote below explains many things about the Democratic party, not just about the ‘old guard’ but about 90% of them, old and young. Including most young candidates endorsed by ‘progressives’ here in NM.
I have been reading his articles, on and off, for about 20 years. I stopped a few years ago because I noticed that his writings can be depressing. I am not the only one feeling that way about his articles. This feeling show to me that he rarely avoids the truths found when one connects the facts within the historical process. For example, if we look into the Actions taken by the Dems during the past 20-30 years, we will connect dots that clearly agree with his statement below.
I want to read his new book because is about the now and the future (of my children and grandchildren). But I am wondering if I can read it without feeling hopeless and depressed by facts facts he presents in it.
Below there is a Review of Chris Hedges’ latest book and another link to an article he wrote for Truthdig.
https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/america-farewell-tour
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-coming-collapse/
“The Democratic Party, which helped build our system of inverted totalitarianism, is once again held up by many on the left as the savior. Yet the party steadfastly refuses to address the social inequality that led to the election of Trump and the insurgency by Bernie Sanders. It is deaf, dumb and blind to the very real economic suffering that plagues over half the country. It will not fight to pay workers a living wage. It will not defy the pharmaceutical and insurance industries to provide Medicare for all. It will not curb the voracious appetite of the military that is disemboweling the country and promoting the prosecution of futile and costly foreign wars. It will not restore our lost civil liberties, including the right to privacy, freedom from government surveillance, and due process. It will not get corporate and dark money out of politics. It will not demilitarize our police and reform a prison system that has 25 percent of the world’s prisoners although the United States has only 5 percent of the world’s population. It plays to the margins, especially in election seasons, refusing to address substantive political and social problems and instead focusing on narrow cultural issues like gay rights, abortion and gun control in our peculiar species of anti-politics.”
thanks for all the posts,
eduardo
I recommend anything written by Chris Hedges, but I’d caution against hoping it will cure your depression, Eduardo. He is about as optimistic as Dahr Jamail.
The surge is in Trump states – GREAT. Give them light bulbs, Clorox and hydrocloaquin. These states take more than they contribute. GOOD RIDDANCE TO TRUMPIES.