The Trump Presidency

[MBDK]

Well, The WHO has officially labeled the coronavirus as pandemic.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/who-declares-the-coronavirus-outbreak-a-pandemic/

And gillianren, I'm not sure what a pandemic response team would do differently from current actions, but I must say they could only make the situation better.  I still feel safe, myself, as I have spent my career containing and chasing after invisible (to the naked eye) particles, and know how to prevent cross-contamination.  I do, however, worry about some of my older friends, and hope they and all your dear ones weather this storm safely.  That goes for every member here.  Wishing you all the best of health.

[gillianren]

Seattle public schools are closed for two weeks at least.  In Seattle, all events larger than 250 people have been cancelled.  Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson have tested positive, and because of current CDC problems (in part stemming from not having a pandemic response team), they wouldn't have gotten tested at all if they'd been in the US.  (And, sure, we care because they're celebrities, but the fact remains that he's a diabetic in his 60s and not guaranteed a positive outcome, even with doctors on top of the situation.)  And we have a man in charge right now who didn't understand why getting a flu shot wouldn't protect you from coronavirus.

[MBDK]

we have a man in charge right now who didn't understand why getting a flu shot wouldn't protect you from coronavirus.

Now, that DOES scare me...

[jfb]

Great points made in the Twitterverse comparing this to the Y2K bug - people think it was overhyped because in the end nothing really bad happened, but the only reason nothing really bad happened is because thousands of people spent millions of man-hours scrubbing and patching legacy COBOL code before it became a problem, and they still didn't catch everything. 

It's the same thing with FEMA, it's the same thing with this - you always keep supplies and manpower in reserve so it can be mobilized and directed quickly as soon as a problem is detected.  In this particular case, gathering data, performing tests, etc.  You don't want to wait until you get to the exponential growth stage before you figure out how to test for it. 

[Peter B]

Then there's the way he mangled his address to the nation: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-13/how-will-coronavirus-impact-the-us-presidential-election/12051232

Without warning and with next to no consultation with foreign allies and even key members of his own administration, Mr Trump announced a travel ban...

...his statement didn't clearly state that the travel ban only applies to foreign citizens. Nor did his speech indicate what countries in Europe would be included.

"These prohibitions will not only apply to the tremendous amount of trade and cargo, but various other things as we get approval," Trump said. He was wrong. It seems Trump had inadvertently added one hugely consequential word: "only".

...he also wrongly claimed health insurance companies would "waive all co-payments for coronavirus treatments". But all they'd agreed to was testing.

And Trump claimed his administration is "making antiviral treatments available in record time," when there are as yet no approved antiviral treatments for COVID-19.

All in one speech.

[gillianren]

Olympia schools close as of Monday, except for the one that's closed today because someone connected with someone who works there has an unofficially confirmed case.  Meanwhile, the Senate--for which of course read Republicans--has blocked a bill that would guarantee sick leave for people who have to quarantine, thereby guaranteeing that people can't afford to quarantine.

[LunarOrbit]

What exactly is causing the hold up with the testing in the US? Is it an actual shortage of something (test kits, or people able to do the test), or is there some kind of political road block (ie. the government is not willing to pay for the tests, or does not see the need for them)?

I'm not sure how easy it would be for me to get tested here in Canada, but it sounds to me like it is more of a "don't overburden the hospitals by getting tested unnecessarily" concern, not a matter of patients not being able to be tested even if the doctors wanted to.

All publicly funded schools in Ontario will be closed starting Monday (which would have been the start of March Break anyway) until at least April 5th. And Prime Minister Trudeau is in isolation because his wife has tested positive for the corona virus. Meanwhile, our Ontario Premier (and Donald Trump wannabe) Doug Ford has said people should have fun and continue travelling for March Break.

[Zakalwe]

What exactly is causing the hold up with the testing in the US? Is it an actual shortage of something (test kits, or people able to do the test), or is there some kind of political road block (ie. the government is not willing to pay for the tests, or does not see the need for them)?

"This may have delayed the response to the epidemic. Further, instead of using the World Health Organization’s tests for coronavirus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) — for reasons best known to itself — chose to create its own test. Unfortunately, a part of the test kits was contaminated. The US Food and Drug Administration only gave states permission to create their own tests on February 29th."

From here:
https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/12/21176170/coronavirus-response-donald-trump-resign-crisis-pandemic-response

[Zakalwe]

I have no evidence, but I would not be surprised if the WH is leaning heavily on the CDC. The last thing that Captain Bonespurs wants is lots of testing and lots of people being declared infected.

Read this:https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/02/united-states-badly-bungled-coronavirus-testing-things-may-soon-improve

And then this: https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-act-today-or-people-will-die-f4d3d9cd99ca

[LunarOrbit]

I have no evidence, but I would not be surprised if the WH is leaning heavily on the CDC. The last thing that Captain Bonespurs wants is lots of testing and lots of people being declared infected.

Yes, that is more or less what I suspected too. It certainly seems like Trump is more interested keeping the numbers artificially low (by keeping infected cruise ship passengers aboard the ship, for example).

[jfb]

Then there's the way he mangled his address to the nation: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-13/how-will-coronavirus-impact-the-us-presidential-election/12051232

Without warning and with next to no consultation with foreign allies and even key members of his own administration, Mr Trump announced a travel ban...

...his statement didn't clearly state that the travel ban only applies to foreign citizens. Nor did his speech indicate what countries in Europe would be included.

"These prohibitions will not only apply to the tremendous amount of trade and cargo, but various other things as we get approval," Trump said. He was wrong. It seems Trump had inadvertently added one hugely consequential word: "only".

...he also wrongly claimed health insurance companies would "waive all co-payments for coronavirus treatments". But all they'd agreed to was testing.

And Trump claimed his administration is "making antiviral treatments available in record time," when there are as yet no approved antiviral treatments for COVID-19.

All in one speech.

We did our apocalypse shopping last weekend.  Hand sanitizer was long gone, but pretty much everything else was well-stocked.

Last night I had to pick up a couple last-minute items, and people were in full panic-buying mode.  Rice, beans, dried spaghetti, canned soup and some canned vegetables, instant ramen, paper towels, and toilet paper were gone.  Evil factory-farm eggs were almost gone.  That unbelievable train wreck of an address spooked the holy crap out of a lot of people. 

Fortunately there was plenty of booze, so I got a couple of extra bottles of wine and beer so we don't have to go out for anything in the next couple of weeks. 

Cases have been confirmed in Austin, so everything is shutting down.  We haven't been ordered to work from home yet, but I imagine that will change in next week or so. 

[LunarOrbit]

We did our apocalypse shopping last weekend.  Hand sanitizer was long gone, but pretty much everything else was well-stocked.

I've been buying extras of things I would normally buy anyway. I want to be able to go a couple of weeks without going to the grocery store. I'm not a full on prepper yet, and my off grid cabin in the woods is still a pipe dream.

Cases have been confirmed in Austin, so everything is shutting down.  We haven't been ordered to work from home yet, but I imagine that will change in next week or so.

My job just recently switched me to working from home full time in November. I haven't had so much as a runny nose all winter. I highly recommend working from home to anyone who can. Not everyone can handle the isolation I guess, but I was born for it. 

[gillianren]

I have a friend who was supposed to be a critic at SXSW this year for the first time.  That got canceled.  My faire boss is having a lot of events canceled, which is really going to hurt his pocket.  (LO, can I link his site?  He's even got some fun space-themed pins.)  Yesterday, $1.5 trillion dollars was dumped into the stock market, which boosted it . . . for half an hour.  And Trump hasn't been tested yet despite having contact with a known patient.

[LunarOrbit]

My faire boss is having a lot of events canceled, which is really going to hurt his pocket.  (LO, can I link his site?  He's even got some fun space-themed pins.)

Sure, no problem. You've actually just got me thinking about something... tell me what you think. Maybe there could be a section of the forum where members can share their websites, info about their businesses, job opportunities, or even just their fun side projects. Sort of like the classifieds section of a newspaper. It wouldn't necessarily need be space related either, but I'd have to be careful because it could easily be abused. I might be able to set it up so I have to approve posts in that section.

Yesterday, $1.5 trillion dollars was dumped into the stock market, which boosted it . . . for half an hour.

Yikes. I definitely think it's the stock market investors, not the people stocking up on groceries, that are overreacting and need to chill.

And Trump hasn't been tested yet despite having contact with a known patient.

He's probably afraid of what the test will say.

[Ranb]

An old fat man like Trump who is exposed to infected people and refusing to be tested (or has he been tested secretly?) is a recipe for the VP taking over soon.   

Ranb