Thomas Frieden, CDC Director from 2009 to 2017: “The CDC got this right with H1N1 and Zika, and produced huge quantities of test kits that went around the country. I don’t know what went wrong this time.”
Without the economy, Trump’s got nothing.
JoinLarry Kudlow, top Trump economic advisor and member of the COVID-19 task force was on CNBC this morning telling investors to buy on the dip and that COVID-19 is “contained”, “relatively contained”. (Needless to say, all evidence suggests that is not true.)
Kudlow: Buy on the dip, on COVID-19 "this is contained", "relatively contained." pic.twitter.com/iF4Nheem4i
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) March 6, 2020
TPM Reader PH gives us a wild, bracing, sobering view from China. This is a must-read …
I’ve been following the COVID-19 cataclysm, as I believe it is, very closely. One reason is that I had the fortunate timing of moving to Beijing from San Francisco in January 2020. I’m far from any kind of expert on China or epidemiology, but as a longtime TPM reader and Prime AF member, I thought I’d share some experiences and thoughts.
Here’s a very interesting report from TPM Reader TR in Singapore. Singapore has been in this for weeks. They have what seems to be a semi-contained outbreak – 117 cases as of today but no dramatic growth in the last week or so. TR describes a period of pretty intense public panic followed by a new equilibrium of acceptance of on-going risk but people returning to something like normal, along with all of the social distancing procedures we’re hearing about.
Two things I’ve picked up in conversations with readers over the last couple days, both of which point to real world impacts of the White House’s either lackadaisical or disinformational messaging on the Coronavirus. One is elderly relatives resisting basic social distancing precautions because they’re hearing on Fox News that a lot of Coronavirus is just hype for politically interested reasons. Another is cases where medical professionals in red states are assuming or inferring that the Coronavirus isn’t as serious as the outbreaks of H1N1 or Ebola in recent years because the preparation they’re seeing locally isn’t as extensive or urgent. These are anecdotal examples. We can’t read too much into them. But they do point to real world impacts of the President’s nonchalance or claims that concerns about Coronavirus are being hyped for political purposes.
I took a deep dive into the Trump administration’s failure to bring any new Voting Rights Act cases in the first three years of his term. This dry spell of new public VRA enforcement is unprecedented, and it sets Trump’s DOJ apart from that of previous administrations, Democratic and Republican alike.
JoinFrom TPM Reader PL from the epicenter …
Since you mention reading emails from your readers reflecting local events in response to the virus, I figured I’d chime in. I live pretty much at ground zero – the hospital where most of the Washington state COVID-19 deaths have occurred is our local hospital, 4 miles down the road. The LifeCare nursing home is another 2 miles further out from there.
You do get the feeling we’re on our own at the federal level, but I’ve been impressed on how much Inslee, the governor, and Dow Constantine, the King County Executive, have tried to get ahead of events. Constantine today called for telecommuting, and to avoid creating large gatherings (more than about 10 people). And that’s actually seeming to happen, very quickly. Apparently Microsoft (my pre-retirement employer) said everyone should count on working from home for the next 3 weeks. Good!
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) probably should’ve known what his remarks on the steps of the Supreme Court would spark among feverish Republicans desperate for a distraction from coverage of the Trump administration’s abysmal response to the coronavirus.
But this is petty, even for Trump’s most loyal congressional bulldogs.
JoinFrom TPM Reader and traveler GK …
I just got back from an international business trip. In the last two weeks my travels had me visiting Milan, Italy, Singapore, and Malaysia before ending in Dubai, from which I was banned to travel to either Bahrain or Saudi Arabia because of my recent travel history.
In each of those stops, except Dubai, I had my temperature screened before entering. I was explicitly asked whether I had been to China. The disease’s presence went from background to foreground as it ended up cutting my trip short when KSA and Bahrain denied entry.