Government Response to Coronavirus 2: It's Not A Hoax

[Ozlsn]

6 hours ago, Xan said:

There are two hypotheses:  1) Children get a lot of colds and lesser adenoviruses and coronaviruses.  They might have better immune responses.  2) Their lungs --being newer -- have less inflammation and they think inflamed lungs are more susceptible to coronavirus attachments.  

There is a lot of stress in the premature baby groups over this - nearly all early prem and some medium-late prem babies have some degree of lung inflammation due to the oxygen therapy at birth. (Most grow out of it by about 2 as their lungs grow, some take longer, some develop asthma or other lung related conditions). Everyone practices (or tries to practice) social distancing, but the usual questions people come up against like "do I keep my older children out of school" and "do I avoid seeing family and friends" are more urgent than usual. I wish there was clearer information, but obviously it will take time. At the moment everything from "Oh it's fine, premature babies don't get it" to "don't leave the house unless it's burning down until this is over" is being confidently asserted.

11 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Because he's too bigly to follow rules: "Trump is breaking every rule in the CDC’s 450-page playbook for health crisis"

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Amid an outbreak where vaccines, drug treatments and even sufficient testing don’t yet exist, communication that is delivered early, accurately and credibly is the strongest medicine in the government’s arsenal.

But the Trump administration’s zigzagging, defensive, inconsistent messages about the novel coronavirus continued Friday, breaking almost every rule in the book and eroding the most powerful weapon officials possess: Public trust.

After disastrous communications during the 2001 anthrax attacks — when white powder in envelopes sparked widespread panic — the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention created a 450-page manual outlining how U.S. leaders should talk to the public during crises.

Protecting vulnerable people from a virus that, according to some projections, could infect millions and kill hundreds of thousands, depends on U.S. leaders issuing clear public health instructions and the public’s trust to follow directions that could save their lives.

“Sometimes it seems like they have literally thrown out the book,” said Joshua Sharfstein, a former top FDA official and Johns Hopkins University professor who is using the CDC manual to teach a crisis communication class. “We’re studying what to do — and at times seeing what not to do — on the same day.”

Two weeks ago, Trump said the country would soon have zero cases. This week, there were more than 2,200 and 49 deaths. When asked at a news conference Friday why he disbanded the White House’s pandemic office, Trump denied doing so, saying, “I didn’t do it … I don’t know anything about it.” When asked if he bore any responsibility for disastrous delays in testing, Trump said no, blaming instead “circumstances” and “regulations” created by others. When asked if Americans should believe Trump or his top health official, Anthony S. Fauci — whom Trump has contradicted repeatedly — Trump sidestepped the question.

“For those of us in this field, this is profoundly and deeply distressing,” said Matthew Seeger, a risk communication expert at Wayne State University who developed the CDC guidebook alongside many top doctors, public health researchers, scientists, consultants and behavioral psychologists.

“It’s creating higher levels of anxiety, higher levels of uncertainty and higher levels of social disruption. … We spent decades training people and investing in developing this competency. We know how to do this.”

For three years, the Trump administration has often taken a hostile stance to science and its practitioners, but health crisis experts say it’s not too late and the fruits of their research — like the CDC’s 450-page manual — are waiting, untapped, to serve as a road map to help leaders navigate the growing pandemic.

Breaking every rule

The fundamental principles behind good public health communication are almost stunningly simple: Be consistent. Be accurate. Don’t withhold vital information, the CDC manual says. And above all, don’t let anyone onto the podium without the preparation, knowledge and discipline to deliver vital health messages.

Experts say that means not having multiple messengers jockeying for attention with completely different information. It means not overly reassuring people in the face of a threat that is likely to sicken many and kill some. It also means expressing empathy while also delivering information that may be scary. Tell people what they can and should do at an individual level to help those who are at greatest risk.

“It’s in the nature of leaders sometimes to want to tell everybody we have everything under control,” said Michael Palenchar, a crisis communications expert at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. “We know overwhelmingly that research suggests that’s detrimental to health and safety.”

Palenchar was one of more than 180 who contributed to the CDC manual, including experts from the CDC, American Red Cross, FBI and EPA as well as federal and state health departments.

They compiled a list of pitfalls to avoid — a list that has begun to look a lot like the administration’s playbook.

Nearly every day since the coronavirus landed in America, the White House has issued “mixed and conflicting messages from multiple sources,” the first guideline in the manual’s list of potentially harmful practices. “Overly reassuring and unrealistic communication” has come from the highest levels of government. The “perception that certain groups are gaining preferential treatment” has become a problem with health care workers complaining they can’t get tested while two asymptomatic Trump allies in Congress, Celine Dion and the members of the Utah Jazz basketball team were able to access tests.

Crucial messaging also appears to be failing to reach or convince many in America. Nearly 50 million in the country are 65 or older — the most vulnerable age group for severe symptoms and death. But many are shrugging off pleas for them to practice social distancing. At The Villages, a sprawling Florida retirement community, many seniors said the crisis is being overblown and talked of continuing their normal lives.

The Right Spokesperson

The CDC manual devotes an entire chapter to “choosing the right spokesperson,” someone who gives the government and its message “a human form.” But the government’s leading health experts have had to repeatedly cede the microphone to politicians — with the nation’s top health officials repeatedly canceling news conferences to make room for Vice President Pence or Trump or to avoid upstaging other White House announcements.

Last week, instead of holding CDC’s news conference focused on coronavirus, Trump toured the CDC in front of cameras, telling the public, “Anybody right now and yesterday, anybody that needs a test gets a test. And the tests are beautiful.” This Friday, CDC’s press call was canceled again so that Trump could hold his Rose Garden news conference.

In recent days, rather than having one voice, the spokesperson role has ping ponged among Pence, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, Fauci and Trump. Trump in particular checks off many of attributes the manual specifically warns against. The spokesperson must be “familiar with the subject matter” and have the “ability to talk about it clearly and with confidence.”

Since taking office, Trump has ousted scientists, muzzled researchers and suppressed basic information on climate change. Public health officials worry that his erosion of public trust of science, coupled with the ongoing conflicting messaging between experts and politicians, is making it unclear whom the public should listen to.

“I’m fearful we’ve continued to undermine our belief that subject matter experts are people we should listen to,” said Seeger, the Wayne State professor. “We’ve done a good job over the last couple decades of undermining science and telling people scientists aren’t to be believed.”

Class in Session

All semester long, Johns Hopkins professor Sharfstein has been drilling the principles of the CDC manual into the class he teaches at Johns Hopkins. On Thursday, as the White house issued more contradictory statement, his students — a mix of undergrad and graduate students — debated the Trump administration’s response, which has served as a real-time master class for what not to do in a crisis.

They compared it to historical blunders in health communications: the 2009 H1N1 swine flu pandemic, when officials gave overly optimistic timetables on vaccines, and bungled messaging by British leaders on mad cow disease in the 1990s, which led to millions in economic damage to the country’s beef industry.

Similarly, several students noted, the messaging disasters in recent weeks have muddled and overshadowed lifesaving health advice to the public.

Many of his students were especially puzzled by the Trump administration’s reluctance to admit fault on its dire problems in testing for the coronavirus.

“They have so much less credibility because of that,” said one student, noting how questions of what went wrong keep dominating congressional hearings and news conferences — making it hard to get instructions to the public on how to prepare and suppress the spreading virus.

Another empathized with Trump officials: “It’s a fine line between apologizing and putting yourself out there for attacks.”

Sharfstein — who served as Maryland’s health secretary and a top FDA official in the Obama administration — asked his students whether they thought the Trump administration would be willing to make a partial admission: “Obviously something has gone wrong. There will be time to assess what went wrong, but right now here’s what I’m focused on to fix the problem.”

Students began workshopping what the White House could do to right the ship:

— Tell Americans, “We made mistakes. Here’s how we’re going to fix them.”

— Stop pretending testing is fine. Explain what solutions are underway

— One student simply cited the cover of the CDC manual: “Be first. Be right. Be credible.”

 

Unsurprisingly when you have a terrible leader disaster follows. Not sure what the step below terrible is, but I think Trump is several rungs lower.

[GreyhoundFan]

"The debacle over Trump’s coronavirus test"

Spoiler

President Trump announced Saturday, after days of questions about whether he should get a coronavirus test, that he took a test Friday night and is awaiting results.

If the episode says anything at all about the broader handling of the crisis, that would be very disconcerting.

Questions about whether Trump should take the test began after an attendee of the Conservative Political Action Conference last month tested positive. High-ranking Republicans who interacted with the person chose to self-quarantine. Trump interacted with a number of those who self-quarantined, including Rep. Douglas A. Collins (R-Ga.), Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and American Conservative Union head Matt Schlapp.

Trump also hosted an event at Mar-a-Lago recently where he was pictured with a Brazilian official who we later learned had coronavirus. Two others who were at Mar-a-Lago have also been diagnosed, including a Brazilian who sat at Trump’s table.

Trump’s potential exposure has been established for more than a week. Yet, he shrugged off questions about whether he would take a test.

The situation came to a head at Friday’s news conference, where Trump downplayed the need for him to get tested but said he would “most likely” get tested anyway. He clarified that it was not because of his potential exposure.

The White House then on Friday night released a letter in which Trump’s in-house doctor, Sean Conley, explained Trump did not need to get tested because he was not showing any symptoms. Conley said Trump’s interactions qualified as “LOW risk” and said “testing for Covid-19 is not currently indicated.” Conley issued the letter even though Anthony S. Fauci, who leads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said previously people who come into contact with those who have coronavirus should get tested and self-quarantine.

Trump now says he was tested after all — around the same time that letter was released, no less.

One big question, assuming Trump is telling the truth, is why in the world the letter was released. It did not technically say Trump wouldn’t be tested, but it did give a rationale for such a decision. If Trump was being tested anyway, why even offer such a rationale?

Perhaps the letter was meant to downplay the risk Trump actually faced, which would be in line with Trump’s rhetoric. It would hardly be the first time one of Trump’s doctors did something strange that seemed to align with Trump’s wishes. We should really be asking — yet again — whether Trump is impacting the medical decisions of his doctor, especially given the fact that Fauci has said people who fit the description of Trump’s potential exposure should get tested.

The second major point is the handling of this is a debacle. The administration is trying to tell people how to handle their own potential testing and how to practice precautionary measures like social distancing, and yet the president himself has not abided by those recommendations. He was shaking hands and touching the microphone at Friday’s event, for example, and he put off testing for days when there were legitimate fears he might have been exposed.

Put more plainly: If the White House cannot prevail upon Trump to follow all these recommendations and take such precautions, why would people who are watching all of this play out from afar take this seriously? If they cannot handle this, how are they handling everything else?

There is, as with many things involving Trump, the possibility that all of this is part of a show. Trump loves to troll and offer sideshows, and this is certainly something of a sideshow in the broader fight against coronavirus. But there has also been a nonzero chance that he has been carrying the virus, and if he has been, he has been exposing the very people who are in charge of combating coronavirus. If they got sick, it would not be good. An earlier test would have, at the very least, calmed fears about such a situation.

If this is a deliberate sideshow, that is perhaps a bigger indictment of Trump. This is a time for calming fears and making the American people believe the administration has a steady hand. Whether this is because of incompetence or because Trump likes to needle, neither reflects well upon his handling of this pandemic.

 

[JMarie]

Stupid question: how easy would it be for someone to fly from a European country to Canada (or other non-European country), then on to the U. S.? Because Pence thinks Europeans are stupid enough to think the only way to the U. S. is a direct flight.

[Dandruff]

My county declared a state of emergency and public schools are closed until mid-April, at a minimum.  Most local events/meetings have been cancelled or postponed.  It's about time.  Hopefully this will be enough (if people use their heads and at least try to be responsible) to prevent a lot of suffering.

My allergies have been kicking up with mild asthma symptoms.  Nothing new, especially with Spring essentially here, but it's an extra reminder - as if I needed one - to protect myself from the virus.

I had a dream this morning that I was drinking a Corona beer.  I don't drink beer.  I took a sip of it, and found it warm and vile, so I put the cap back on and dropped it in the garbage.  Interesting what the mind does during sleep.

 

[clueliss]

The Israelis banned meetings and gatherings of over 10.  
 

Mercy in St Louis is now doing drive through testing if you meet certain criteria.  I’m bracing for a potential uptick in cases in the state as a result.

and I read something about a child in Rhode Island testing positive, he had gotten an autograph from a Utah Jazz player.

[fraurosena]

1 hour ago, GreyhoundFan said:

"The debacle over Trump’s coronavirus test"

  Hide contents

President Trump announced Saturday, after days of questions about whether he should get a coronavirus test, that he took a test Friday night and is awaiting results.

If the episode says anything at all about the broader handling of the crisis, that would be very disconcerting.

Questions about whether Trump should take the test began after an attendee of the Conservative Political Action Conference last month tested positive. High-ranking Republicans who interacted with the person chose to self-quarantine. Trump interacted with a number of those who self-quarantined, including Rep. Douglas A. Collins (R-Ga.), Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and American Conservative Union head Matt Schlapp.

Trump also hosted an event at Mar-a-Lago recently where he was pictured with a Brazilian official who we later learned had coronavirus. Two others who were at Mar-a-Lago have also been diagnosed, including a Brazilian who sat at Trump’s table.

Trump’s potential exposure has been established for more than a week. Yet, he shrugged off questions about whether he would take a test.

The situation came to a head at Friday’s news conference, where Trump downplayed the need for him to get tested but said he would “most likely” get tested anyway. He clarified that it was not because of his potential exposure.

The White House then on Friday night released a letter in which Trump’s in-house doctor, Sean Conley, explained Trump did not need to get tested because he was not showing any symptoms. Conley said Trump’s interactions qualified as “LOW risk” and said “testing for Covid-19 is not currently indicated.” Conley issued the letter even though Anthony S. Fauci, who leads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said previously people who come into contact with those who have coronavirus should get tested and self-quarantine.

Trump now says he was tested after all — around the same time that letter was released, no less.

One big question, assuming Trump is telling the truth, is why in the world the letter was released. It did not technically say Trump wouldn’t be tested, but it did give a rationale for such a decision. If Trump was being tested anyway, why even offer such a rationale?

Perhaps the letter was meant to downplay the risk Trump actually faced, which would be in line with Trump’s rhetoric. It would hardly be the first time one of Trump’s doctors did something strange that seemed to align with Trump’s wishes. We should really be asking — yet again — whether Trump is impacting the medical decisions of his doctor, especially given the fact that Fauci has said people who fit the description of Trump’s potential exposure should get tested.

The second major point is the handling of this is a debacle. The administration is trying to tell people how to handle their own potential testing and how to practice precautionary measures like social distancing, and yet the president himself has not abided by those recommendations. He was shaking hands and touching the microphone at Friday’s event, for example, and he put off testing for days when there were legitimate fears he might have been exposed.

Put more plainly: If the White House cannot prevail upon Trump to follow all these recommendations and take such precautions, why would people who are watching all of this play out from afar take this seriously? If they cannot handle this, how are they handling everything else?

There is, as with many things involving Trump, the possibility that all of this is part of a show. Trump loves to troll and offer sideshows, and this is certainly something of a sideshow in the broader fight against coronavirus. But there has also been a nonzero chance that he has been carrying the virus, and if he has been, he has been exposing the very people who are in charge of combating coronavirus. If they got sick, it would not be good. An earlier test would have, at the very least, calmed fears about such a situation.

If this is a deliberate sideshow, that is perhaps a bigger indictment of Trump. This is a time for calming fears and making the American people believe the administration has a steady hand. Whether this is because of incompetence or because Trump likes to needle, neither reflects well upon his handling of this pandemic.

 

Still begs the question why he isn't in isolation. 

[Smee]

My sister lives in Sydney, in one of the suburbs where there have been several confirmed cases. She just messaged me to say her apartment, as well as several other large apartment blocks on her street, has been without power since Thursday evening (it’s Sunday morning now). Everything in the fridge and freezer is gone, they have no means to cook pantry stuff, so they have to go out to get food etc. She ordinarily catches the train to work but had been told to work from home - not possible without power of course. I did my usual shop yesterday and the store was completely empty of frozen vegetables, as well as self-raising flour. We haven’t been able to get toilet paper for weeks.

Australia is cancelling events left, right and centre, a lot of universities are making individual decisions to move to online but schools are still open. While I appreciate that our case number is fairly low relative to the size of our country, I don’t know that waiting for it to get “bad enough” to close schools is a good idea.

New Zealand is requiring ANYONE who comes into the country from ANYWHERE to self-isolate for 14 days.

[clueliss]

And weight watchers (WW) is going virtual beginning Thursday-and will have a break beginning 3/16 to acclimate staff to the change.  Looks like I’ll be using zoom and not have a meeting on Wednesday this week.  Attendance was off this week at my meeting. 
 

and in a stunning move in my personal world my sister actually emailed me to let me know she's not sick.  

[Audrey2]

2 hours ago, Ozlsn said:

I just put 11 books on hold in the somewhat forlorn hope that I'll be able to collect at least one before the libraries close here (reading 2 popular series, usually put holds on the next 3 or so as I finish one, might have accidentally discovered my library's hold limit).

PSA for anyone else who has been furloughed for a while... Many libraries have online resources that you can borrow. I have the Libby app on my phone, and then connected my library card to Libby so I can get on my library card catalog and check out their electronic resources. I've got a pretty good size stock checked out right now and 20 more items on hold (maxed out). I realize this might not work for everyone, but I'm sure I'm not the only one here who has a milk instead of a Kindle so doesn't participate in Amazon's one rate for multiple downloads each month. overdrive is another app that a lot of libraries use to check out their materials.

[clueliss]

@Audrey2 mine has Kanopy - movies you can check out, I believe 6 per month.  And Hoopla a mix of ebooks, audiobooks and movies at 10 per month.  As well as other digital offerings.  

[clueliss]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/world/corona-simulator/
interesting simulator that shows different social distancing effects

[EmmieJ]

49 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

Still begs the question why he isn't in isolation. 

I wonder how Trump would handle isolation.  Would he lose what little is left of his mind?  He needs the adulation of others.  Without it, the screaming emptiness inside is impossible to ignore.

[Ali]

17 minutes ago, clueliss said:

@Audrey2 mine has Kanopy - movies you can check out, I believe 6 per month.  And Hoopla a mix of ebooks, audiobooks and movies at 10 per month.  As well as other digital offerings.  

For those of you trying to keep occupied using Hoopla, or keep children that are bouncing off the walls occupied, it counts each episode of a season as one checkout. My local library limits Hoopla checkouts to 4 per month. You can add Hoopla on streaming devises such as Roku and check out free movies or episodes of tv shows. 

The libby app works great on my android phone for ebooks. 

[fraurosena]

2 minutes ago, EmmieJ said:

I wonder how Trump would handle isolation.  Would he lose what little is left of his mind?  He needs the adulation of others.  Without it, the screaming emptiness inside is impossible to ignore.

Meh. They'll just have to extend his executive time a little.

[formergothardite]

NC has closed all schools and is banning gatherings over 100 people. I'm wondering if churches will actually follow this and close their doors. 

[Ali]

6 minutes ago, formergothardite said:

NC has closed all schools and is banning gatherings over 100 people. I'm wondering if churches will actually follow this and close their doors. 

Michigan banned gatherings over 250. A church I used to attend claims they are still having church because their average weekly attendance is under 250. Either their numbers went down after I left or they are fudging the numbers.

I read Facebook comments on a local church that closed. One person suggested that Christians should gather together anyways and show the evil Democratic emotionally unbalanced woman governor that Christians are not afraid of this virus. I was tempted to copy and paste Romans 13, but decided to not bother.

Edited March 15, 2020 by Ali

[JMarie]

1 hour ago, EmmieJ said:

I wonder how Trump would handle isolation.  Would he lose what little is left of his mind?  He needs the adulation of others.  Without it, the screaming emptiness inside is impossible to ignore.

He'd still be tweeting

[GreyhoundFan]

1 minute ago, JMarie said:

He'd still be tweeting

We need Faux to have an alert that using your phone while in quarantine will kill you.

[GreyhoundFan]

"Older Americans are more worried about coronavirus — unless they’re Republican"

Spoiler

Seventy-year-old Sal Gentile, writing in response to a question from The Washington Post, suggested that he wasn’t particularly worried about the coronavirus outbreak.

“Yep, I have a pacemaker and recent fusion,” he wrote; “however my love for quality of life is more important to me than being rattled by a TV station.”

Gentile is one of the Americans most at risk from the virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned those 60 and older and those with medical conditions to be particularly wary of its spread, given the higher mortality rates associated with those factors. Gentile would seem to fit into both categories, but, like many other residents of the Florida retirement community The Villages who were profiled by The Post this week, he doesn’t seem particularly worried.

The Villages has become something of a benchmark for older America, surging in size as the number of older Americans has steadily increased. A visit to the community earlier this week found that residents were continuing their social activities as they normally would, most as unrattled as Gentile. For some readers it spurred nothing short of bafflement: young people are forgoing social activities to halt the spread of a disease that isn’t particularly dangerous for them but those most at risk are living life as normal?

Part of the issue may be that The Villages isn’t necessarily as representative of America’s older population as it may seem.

Earlier this week, Quinnipiac University released polling showing that older Americans are, in fact, more likely to express concern about they or someone they know being infected with the virus. Sixty-two percent of those age 65 and older expressed at least come concern about that happening compared to only 47 percent of those under age 35. Older respondents were also about nine points more likely to express concern about their daily lives being disrupted.

Why might The Villages be an outlier? Because it’s more heavily Republican.

Republicans outnumber Democrats by a 2-to-1 margin in that community, a much more conservative composition than older Americans in general. According to Pew Research Center, baby boomers are about evenly split between the parties. Those born during World War II or before lean Republican by about nine points — not a 2-to-1 split.

Digging into the Quinnipiac data a little further, we see that this makes a difference. Republicans are broadly less likely to express concern about being infected with coronavirus. But while older Democrats are far more concerned about it than younger Democrats, older Republicans are about as blasé about the prospect as are younger Republicans.

Younger Democrats are in fact more worried about the virus than older Republicans.

The same pattern holds for concern about disruptions. Older Republicans are much less concerned about their lives being disrupted than older Americans from other political groups. (Younger Republicans are the least likely to be concerned about such disruptions.)

Part of that is likely because older Republicans join younger Republicans in having broad confidence in both the government’s ability to deal with the coronavirus (about 4-in-5 member of each group express such confidence) and in approving of how President Trump has handled the situation. (The Quinnipiac poll was conducted from March 5 to March 8.)

It’s worth noting a significant part of Sal Gentile’s expressed lack of concern about the virus: his pointed mention about what “TV stations” were advocating.

Pew data indicate that about 3-in-10 members of both political parties identify cable news as their most common platform for political news. But the preferred cable news station varies widely depending on a viewer’s politics. Almost no Democrats of retirement age identify Fox News as their main source of political or election news. Fully half of Republicans did.

Fox News, of course, is home to a number of hosts who’ve dismissed the threat posed by the coronavirus, framing the sense of urgency conveyed on other networks as being about Trump’s presidency rather than the public health. If that is the message that half of older Republicans are hearing, it’s not really a surprise that they are less concerned about the virus.

Hopefully, the events of the last few days are shifting any lackadaisical attitudes of older Americans. After all, health experts aren’t advising retirees to curtail their social activity to save the lives of younger people. They’re offering that advice so that older Americans don’t put their own lives at risk.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Yeah, it's as bad as expected: "Infighting, missteps and a son-in-law hungry for results: Inside the Trump administration’s troubled coronavirus response"

Spoiler

The economy was grinding to a halt. Stocks were in free fall. Schools were closing. Public events were being canceled. New cases of the novel coronavirus were popping up across the country.

And then, on Wednesday, the day the World Health Organization designated the coronavirus a pandemic, Jared Kushner joined the tumult.

President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser — who has zero expertise in infectious diseases and little experience marshaling the full bureaucracy behind a cause — saw the administration floundering and inserted himself at the helm, believing he could break the logjam of internal dysfunction.

Kushner rushed to help write Trump’s widely panned Oval Office address to the nation. His supermodel sister-in-law’s father, Kurt Kloss, an emergency room doctor, crowdsourced suggestions from his Facebook network to pass along to Kushner. And Kushner pressed tech executives to help build a testing website and retail executives to help create mobile testing sites — but the projects were only half-baked when Trump revealed them Friday in the White House Rose Garden.

Kushner entered into a crisis management process that, despite the triumphant and self-congratulatory tone of public briefings, was as haphazard and helter-skelter as the chaotic early days of Trump’s presidency — turning into something of a family-and-friends pandemic response operation.

The administration’s struggle to mitigate the coronavirus outbreak has been marked by infighting and blame-shifting, misinformation and missteps, and a slow recognition of the danger. Warring factions have wrestled for control internally and for approval from a president who has been preoccupied with the beating his image is taking.

The scramble for solutions is occurring in an overriding atmosphere of trepidation of saying something that Trump might perceive as disloyal and of fear that their fumbles could cost the president his reelection in November.

“The problem is no one is sure who is in charge,” a senior administration official said. “Unless someone comes to you and says, ‘I was with the president five minutes ago,’ and you know they’re telling the truth, getting irreversible direction is a little difficult.”

This portrait of Trump and his administration’s management of a pandemic that in a few short days has completely altered American life is based on interviews with 19 senior administration officials and other people briefed on the internal deliberations, many of whom spoke anonymously to share candid assessments.

Oversold and inflated

In a bid to produce swift action, Kushner helped orchestrate a Rose Garden event Friday that he hoped would rally Wall Street at the close of a brutal week of trading, but the administration’s marquee announcements were not fully formed.

The news conference had the intended immediate effect, fueling a rise in the stock markets before they closed at 4 p.m. But things unraveled from there once it became clear the picture of progress that Trump presented to the public was, at best, considerably inflated.

Trump announced that Google was developing a website — “It’s going to be very quickly done, unlike websites of the past,” he said — where Americans can input their symptoms, find out if a test is necessary and then be directed to a testing site near their homes.

“We have many, many locations behind us, by the way,” the president said.

But Google clarified the president’s broad proclamation with a statement narrowing the scope of its project, explaining that its sister company Verily was only “in the early stages of development,” with a planned roll out first in the San Francisco Bay area, but “with the hope of expanding more broadly over time.”

There is some confusion inside the administration about how quickly the Bay Area pilot could be ready and anxiety that the president might under deliver on his promises. One White House official said they are optimistic they can begin scaling up in hard-hit states quickly.

This was not the only plan Trump oversold. His vow that Americans could go to testing sites in places like their local Walmart parking lots was premature. Several key participants said the plans were overstated, including the timetable and number of sites.

Some state and federal health workers — who would be responsible for performing the tests — were caught by surprise, although a White House aide said administration officials were on the phone throughout Friday with some state and local officials in virus hot spots to discuss plans for new testing locations.

In addition, representatives from CVS, Target, Walgreens, Walmart and other retailers said after Trump’s announcement that they still did not yet know exactly how the tests would be administered or other basic details, including when or where they would begin.

Trump, habitually in salesman mode, has long had a tendency to overpromise and overhype deals he is announcing, whether for a new condo development or bilateral trade.

Nonetheless, some White House officials still remained optimistic that by Sunday night, they would have a clearer plan to present to the public. Still others griped that the president and his team had yet again gotten ahead of themselves, bungling a potentially positive development.

“Neither one of the announcements were ready for prime time,” said another senior administration official. “People wanted news to announce.”

Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) said Friday’s announcement was a positive, if tentative, step, noting that Kushner told him he had “cold called” some of these companies to solicit help.

“Jared has the confidence of the president,” Graham said. “He’s the right arm of the president in terms of reporting to the president and keeping the system moving.”

Graham said that after speaking Friday night with Trump and Kushner, as well as first lady Melania Trump, the president had gotten past some of his frustrations with news coverage of the coronavirus and was “all in” on developing mitigation plans. Still, Graham said, “There’s a long way to go, and it’s going to get worse before it gets better.”

'An ad hoc free-for-all'

The severity of the crisis came into sobering relief for administration officials late in the week when Deborah Birx, a physician and ambassador who is serving as the White House’s coronavirus response coordinator, presented a statistical model predicting a large uptick in cases in the United States over the subsequent five to seven days. The model showed that the coronavirus likely would continue to infect many Americans for at least two months.

Birx joined the West Wing two weeks ago as an adviser to Vice President Pence, who leads the coronavirus task force. Each day — including some weekends — Pence convenes an afternoon meeting of roughly 20 officials in the White House Situation Room, and about 10 more in an overflow room.

The task force meetings often last about 2 ½ hours. At best, they have been forums to suggest and debate a broad range of ideas, from disease mitigation to public communications. At worst, they have been dens of discord, with officials with varying portfolios feuding over policy or even simply power and position. The mood has turned especially tense over frustrations with testing delays.

Few decisions are made in these meetings, however. Trump has only occasionally attended, usually when Pence requests his time. Neither Kushner nor his wife, Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and also a senior White House adviser, has attended — though Kushner’s focus is now on the coronavirus and he has assembled many of his allies in the government to assist.

The West Wing these past few weeks has felt like the early days — brimming with chaos, beset by backbiting, and now populated by return characters. Hope Hicks, the former communications director and Trump confidante, is back, this time as a top aide to Kushner. Hicks has been involved in the coronavirus response, as have Kushner deputy Avi Berkowitz and Adam Boehler, another Kushner ally who is chief executive of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation.

Trump is between chiefs of staff — acting chief Mick Mulvaney is transitioning out while Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) prepares to replace him — and the lack of a forceful gatekeeper has led to the president conducting decision-making as he prefers: With upward of a half-dozen aides and advisers in the Oval Office, all scrambling to perform for him as they await his decisions, which sometimes depend on his mood.

“People just show up in the Oval and spout off ideas,” said a former senior administration official briefed on the coronavirus discussions. “He’ll either shoot down ideas or embrace ideas quickly. It’s an ad hoc free-for-all with different advisers just spitballing.”

One White House official defended this practice, arguing that it was an example of the president being decisive in a moment of crisis.

But Leon Panetta, who has served as White House chief of staff, defense secretary and CIA director for past Democratic presidents, said this was the opposite of the kind of steady, methodical and fact-based process necessary to successfully manage crises.

“It’s a game of ambivalence at a time of great uncertainty, and the last thing you need is this kind of ambivalence,” Panetta said. “It really is a very convoluted process because this president is not somebody who wants it to be organized or requires the best information possible.”

'I don't take responsibility at all'

Although Trump is the final decision-maker, as his aides are quick to remind people, a number of principals — including Pence, Kushner, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow, Domestic Policy Council Director Joe Grogan and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield — operate as power centers with their own fiefdoms. They compete with one another over ideas, often developed by their own staffs, and at times move to undercut rivals in meetings.

Grogan, for instance, has privately been agitating to try to expedite testing and warning about both the health and political ramifications of the outbreak.

There also have been tensions between the White House press and communications staff and Pence’s team, which has been overseeing most of the administration’s public messaging on the coronavirus. Stephanie Grisham, who holds three titles — White House press secretary, White House communications director and communications director to the first lady — has played a secondary role during the biggest crisis of Trump’s presidency, in part because of a directive that everything be routed through the vice president’s office.

Some White House communications and press aides — some of whom already were sensitive because Trump recruited a pair of outsiders, Tony Sayegh and Pam Bondi, to help manage the communications strategy on impeachment — largely refused to help the vice president’s overwhelmed staff, at least initially.

Senior officials and members of the task force also said they have to spend significant chunks of their day dealing with leaks, especially as officials try to escape blame for the testing issues that have plagued the administration’s response for weeks.

Among those seeking to avoid such blame is the president himself. Asked at Friday’s news conference whether he accepts responsibility for the continued shortage of test kits, Trump said, “No, I don’t take responsibility at all.”

“The whole country is shutting down,” Panetta said. But Trump, he added, “tries to feel his way through these crises and it’s almost a political approach, or better yet a reality TV approach, which is, ‘How is this crisis damaging my image?’ ‘How bad is it going to get?’ ‘Can I talk my way out of it?’ And, ‘Can I avoid having to take responsibility?’ ”

Friday morning, Adm. Brett Giroir, a doctor and assistant health secretary, was announced as a testing czar, serving as a point person on virus testing, and coordinating among the CDC, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and private companies and labs. His appointment underscored various communication breakdowns among the various agencies.

There is a fixation both inside the administration and in the media on testing numbers — how many tests are available, how many people have been tested, how many individuals have the virus — and Giroir will work to streamline which numbers are used and ensure that they’re accurate.

'We'll practice that'

Kushner was enlisted partly at the request of Pence’s chief of staff, Marc Short, who went to his office at the beginning of the week to ask for help wrangling the entire White House staff to prioritize the coronavirus response.

To that end, Chris Liddell — who works closely with Kushner and is the White House deputy chief of staff for policy coordination — has begun organizing various meetings and working groups. He is expected to sometimes lead a premeeting before the full task force meeting each afternoon, which one White House official said would hopefully help streamline the process.

And for all the problems with his Rose Garden news conference, Trump did manage to achieve one of his key goals: to halt the plunge in the stock markets. The Dow Jones industrial average shot up sharply near the end of the trading day as Trump declared a national emergency and turned his lectern over to a parade of industry chief executives to offer reassuring statements.

Trump’s remarks grew more freewheeling just after the markets closed, when he took questions from reporters — including dismissing one by PBS’s Yamiche Alcindor as “nasty.”

Birx also figured prominently at the news conference, where she held up a large poster explaining how the new testing website would theoretically work. Pence and Kushner personally worked with digital staffers to design the graphic elements of the poster.

The optics of the news conference conveyed mixed messages. While Trump sought to show command, he became a public example for poor practices. After being exposed to people who have tested positive for the coronavirus, Trump all week refused to get tested himself, but announced Saturday he had been tested overnight Friday and was awaiting the results.

Instead of displaying social distancing, he closely surrounded himself on the Rose Garden platform with other people, shared a lone microphone with them, and shook hands with an array of executives.

Only one industry leader — Bruce Greenstein, a home health care services executive — tried to demonstrate the behavior advised by public health experts; when Trump leaned in for a handshake, he instead offered an elbow bump.

The president obliged, but seemed slightly taken aback. “Oh, we’ll practice that,” Greenstein quipped.

 

[clueliss]

The screening inbound passengers is apparently a giant cluster

https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/coronavirus-outbreak-2-03-15-20-intl-hnk/h_c934bf6c534a95fddb769a709704ec30

And now we have an issue with the Golden Princess in New Zealand https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/coronavirus-outbreak-2-03-15-20-intl-hnk/h_439981c422b66586d12ff94d57382c4b

 

[47of74]

Before everyone starts looking down their noses at people who have to be out working....

When Coronavirus Quarantine Is Class Warfare

Quote

And my lifestyle is a luxury. I’m incredibly fortunate to have an employer that allows remote work and to have access to the sometimes expensive tools that help me get my job (and even mental health treatment) done. The same goes for the disposable income that allows for the bike and Amazon Prime. I don’t use Instacart or DoorDash for delivery (mostly on principle after pieces like this from my Times colleagues) or need a service like Wag for an on-demand dog walker, but those services are accessible to me, should I want them. Partly because Silicon Valley has been building them for someone just like me for the last decade.

That pleasantness is heavily underwritten by a “vast digital underclass.” Many services that allow you to stay at home work only when others have to be out in the world on your behalf. Worried the grocery store is a petri dish? A contract Instacart grocery shopper will go in your place. That overpriced Purell you panic purchased today from Amazon will show up at your door tomorrow thanks to a small army of humans who showed up at work because they can’t afford not to. Same goes for the instructor leading the on-demand high intensity interval training spin class that saved you from dealing with that guy who won’t stop coughing by the free weights at the gym. He may not be a gig worker, but he can’t lead your class from his home.

This is by no means exclusive to tech. Turns out, a pandemic offers a great way to examine American class inequities. There’s something especially clarifying as it pertains to the gig economy. Silicon Valley has long faced criticism for building products for itself, which is to say, products aimed at solving problems of upper middle class men who spend far too much time working and crave microefficiencies and greater convenience. Much has been reported on how that convenience has created a precarious under-economy of contract workers, dangerous working conditions and same-day delivery environmental concerns.

Should Covid-19 usher in a newfound work-from-home movement, it could intensify these inequities. Working from home is a privilege afforded almost exclusively to knowledge workers. More flexible work could take the burden of some families with regard to child care and make part-time careers or balancing work and family life easier. But scaling back on physical workplaces could also mean fewer stable building facilities jobs. Those employees could then be forced into a gig economy with few labor protections that expands to fill the needs of an increasingly homebound work force.

 

[Ozlsn]

I'm finding the restricted gathering numbers to be fascinating - I have no idea how people are coming up with their numbers but there is no consistency. I would love to know the reasoning behind the figures, but I'm fairly sure some are just pulled from the air.

[clueliss]

YouTube channel for free art classes.  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2nzX48Ucr1MIEpg0fCOJ6A
 

Re the work from home, go work from home stuff.  Someone explain to some of my dimwit friends that you cannot do heavy manufacturing from your dining room table..  (I did try to make this point to a Facebook friend earlier this week.  And failed).  The plant I work at punches, cuts, welds, galvanizes, assembles and ships.  And some of the stuff we make helps keep your lights on (so you can work from home)

 

1 hour ago, Ozlsn said:

I'm finding the restricted gathering numbers to be fascinating - I have no idea how people are coming up with their numbers but there is no consistency. I would love to know the reasoning behind the figures, but I'm fairly sure some are just pulled from the air.

Some of those are coming from local health departments and I personally wonder if they are aiming for the numbers that will get schools and churches etc to close.  
 

The small town I work in has around 4K people.  But I’ve seen notices of churches not meeting this week and other events cancelled out of precaution.  K-12 Schools are still in here this week.  But we continue to have no local cases.  And my suspicion is that the larger ones want Monday to attempt to prep students for a switch and they have this week in and next week is spring break.  (A few have also been trying to work off snow days over their allowed max) 

[formergothardite]

10 hours ago, Ali said:

Michigan banned gatherings over 250. A church I used to attend claims they are still having church because their average weekly attendance is under 250. Either their numbers went down after I left or they are fudging the numbers.

I just found out my mom and dad's church which I know has more than 100 people is refusing to close. The pastor said something about how he feels like people need to come to church especially during these times.   They are even bringing all children and babies into the sanctuary instead of having them in a nursery for reasons that I fail to grasp. Luckily my parents live with one of my brothers and he has told them he will take their keys before he lets them drive to church, my mom has been struggling to recover from bronchitis and they are both high risk for having complications 

Until we actually start getting tests and people can see how many Americans are sick, I suspect a lot of folks will keep blowing this off like it isn't a big deal. Of course, I wonder if we will ever get enough tests to really see how many are sick. Trump is invested in keeping the numbers of people infected low.