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Government Response to Coronavirus 3: Locked Down


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From Mr. Kellyanne.  A thing of beauty that sums things up very well.  George, call your wife, please. 

Quote

For Trump supporters, let me make one thing VERY clear!

For the record NO ONE is blaming the President for the virus. Let me repeat. Coronavirus is not Trump’s fault.
Here’s a detailed list of what we are blaming him for:

* Trump declined to use the World Health Organization’s test like other nations. Back in January, over a month before the first Covid19 case, the Chinese posted a new mysterious virus and within a week, Berlin virologists had produced the first diagnostic test. By the end of February, the WHO had shipped out tests to 60 countries. Oh, but not our government. We declined the test even as a temporary bridge until the CDC could create its own test. The question is why? We don’t know but what to look for is which pharmaceutical company eventually manufactures the test and who owns the stock. Keep tuned.

* In 2018 Trump fired Homeland Security Advisor Tom Bossart, whose job was to coordinate a response to global pandemics. He was not replaced.

* In 2018 Dr. Luciana Borio, the NSC director for medical and bio-defense preparedness left the job. Trump did not replace Dr. Borio.

* In 2019 the NSC’s Senior Director for Global Health Security and bio-defense, Tim Ziemer, left the position and Trump did not replace the Rear Admiral.

* Trump shut down the entire Global Health Security and Bio-defense agency. Yes, he did.

* Amid the explosive worldwide outbreak of the virus Trump proposed a 19% cut to the budget of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention plus a 10% cut to Public Health Services and a 7% cut to Global Health Services. Those happen to be the organizations that respond to public health threats.

* In 2018, at Trump’s direction, the CDC stopped funding epidemic prevention activities in 39 out of 49 countries including China.

* Trump didn’t appoint a doctor to oversee the US response to the pandemic. He appointed Mike Pence.

* Trump has on multiple occasions sowed doubt about the severity of the virus even using the word hoax at events and rallies. He even did it at an event where the virus was being spread. Trump has put out zero useful information concerning the health risks of the virus.

* Trump pretended the virus had been contained.

* Trump left a cruise ship at sea for days, denying them proper hospital care, rather than increase his numbers in America.

Repeat. We do not blame Trump for the virus. We blame him for gutting the nation’s preparations to deal with it. We blame him for bungling testing and allowing it to spread uninhibited. We blame him for wasting taxpayer money on applause lines at his rallies (like The Wall). We blame him for putting his own political life over American human life. I hope this clears things up."

 

Edited by JenniferJuniper
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Watching the presser now, if I never hear the words "great call" ever again it will be too soon.

Also, in case you were wondering, the president has a laser eyed focus on national security.  Because that's believable.

He's glowing because he's number one on FaceBook...and that's really nice because he says that means he represents something.

And...I am out.

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10 hours ago, AuntK said:

Many are taking advantage of the time off to go the beach, the parks, believing that being outside is somehow "healthy," despite the virus outbreak. There are people everywhere. 

Yeah we had that here too, although closing the beaches to swimming and the playgrounds helped a bit. Probably not as much as the weather turning though.

8 hours ago, JMarie said:

I'm an RN

I hope you get the results soon . 

6 hours ago, JenniferJuniper said:

Interesting.  My sister is an RN and she says the hospital is refusing to test personnel because they are afraid those who test positive will use it as an "excuse" not to come to work.  

That is incredibly poor practice, and liable to contribute to the virus spreading. Not saying medical staff aren't careful - but accidents happen, particularly when people are rushed or tired.

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59 minutes ago, Ozlsn said:

Yeah we had that here too, although closing the beaches to swimming and the playgrounds helped a bit. Probably not as much as the weather turning though.

I hope you get the results soon . 

That is incredibly poor practice, and liable to contribute to the virus spreading. Not saying medical staff aren't careful - but accidents happen, particularly when people are rushed or tired.

It came back negative.  I was kinda hoping I had it, and I could get it over with.

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This ticks me off to no end. The one person speaking the truth and he gets threatened: "Anthony Fauci’s security is stepped up as doctor and face of U.S. coronavirus response receives threatsv"

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Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-diseases expert and the face of the U.S. response to the novel coronavirus pandemic, is facing growing threats to his personal safety, prompting the government to step up his security, according to people familiar with the matter.

The concerns include threats as well as unwelcome communications from fervent admirers, according to people with knowledge of deliberations inside the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice.

Fauci, 79, is the most outspoken member of the administration in favor of sweeping public health guidelines and is among the few officials willing to correct President Trump’s misstatements. Along with Deborah Birx, the coordinator for the White House’s task force, Fauci has encouraged the president to extend the timeline for social-distancing guidelines, presenting him with grim models about the possible toll of the pandemic.

“Now is the time, whenever you’re having an effect, not to take your foot off the accelerator and on the brake, but to just press it down on the accelerator,” he said Tuesday as the White House’s task force made some of those models public, warning of 100,000 to 240,000 deaths in the United States.

The exact nature of the threats against him was not clear. Greater exposure has led to more praise for the doctor but also more criticism.

Fauci has become a public target for some right-wing commentators and bloggers, who exercise influence over parts of the president’s base. As they press for the president to ease restrictions to reinvigorate economic activity, some of these figures have assailed Fauci and questioned his expertise.

Last month, an article depicting him as an agent of the “deep state” gained nearly 25,000 interactions on Facebook — meaning likes, comments and shares — as it was posted to large pro-Trump groups with titles such as “Trump Strong” and “Tampa Bay Trump Club.”

Alex Azar, the HHS secretary, recently grew concerned about Fauci’s safety as his profile rose and he endured more vitriolic criticism online, according to people familiar with the situation. In recent weeks, admirers have also approached Fauci, asking to him sign baseballs, along with other acts of adulation. It was determined that Fauci should have a security detail. Azar also has a security detail because he is in the presidential line of succession.

Asked Wednesday whether he was receiving security protection, Fauci told reporters, “I would have to refer you to HHS [inspector general] on that. I wouldn’t comment.”

The president interjected, saying, “He doesn’t need security. Everybody loves him.”

HHS asked the U.S. Marshals Service to deputize a group of agents in the office of the HHS inspector general to provide protective services for the doctor, according to an official with knowledge of the request.

The U.S. Marshals Service conveyed the request to the deputy attorney general, who has authority over deputations for the purpose of providing protective services, with the recommendation that it be approved, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to reveal sensitive plans that the person was not authorized to discuss.

A Justice Department official signed paperwork Tuesday authorizing HHS to provide its own security detail to Fauci, according to an administration official.

An HHS spokesperson declined to discuss details of the doctor’s security but said: “Dr. Fauci is an integral part of the U.S. Government’s response against covid-19. Among other efforts, he is leading the development of a covid-19 vaccine and he regularly appears at White House press briefings and media interviews.”

At the briefings, Fauci, who has advised presidents of both parties as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has spoken authoritatively about the spread of the coronavirus and the sacrifices involved in mitigating its effects.

He has at times corrected the president, in particular when prompted by reporters. After Trump said a covid-19 vaccine would be available in a couple of months, Fauci said it would in fact be available in about a year to a year and a half, at best.

His role has turned him into a hero for some. When he was absent from a briefing last month, followers who had grown accustomed to his frank assessments of the outbreak were alarmed that he might have been sidelined for his forthrightness. Many took to Twitter to ask, “Where is Dr. Fauci?” causing the question to trend on the platform.

He gained viral attention two days later when he placed his hand in front of his face in a gesture of apparent disbelief as Trump referred to the State Department as the “deep state department” from the White House briefing room.

Fauci has also given several interviews in which he has tempered praise for the president with doubts about his pronouncements, including about the viability of anti-malarial drugs as a treatment for the novel coronavirus. Most notably, he told the journal Science that he attempts to guide Trump’s statements but “can’t jump in front of the microphone and push him down.”

These moves have inspired fandom. But they have also drawn scorn from some of the president’s most vocal supporters, even as both men have sought to tamp down the appearance of tension.

“The president was right, and frankly Fauci was wrong,” Lou Dobbs said last week on his show on the Fox Business Network, referring to the use of experimental medicine.

Right-wing news and opinion sites have gone further, launching baseless smears against the doctor that have gained significant traction within pro-Trump communities online.

Outlets such as the Gateway Pundit and American Thinker seized on a 2013 email — released by WikiLeaks as part of a cache of communications hacked by Russian operatives — in which Fauci praised Hillary Clinton’s “stamina and capability” during her testimony as secretary of state before the congressional committee investigating the attacks in Benghazi, Libya.

The headline in the American Thinker referred to Fauci as a “Deep-State ­Hillary Clinton-loving stooge.” The author, Peter Barry Chowka, didn’t respond to requests for comment. When asked about the relevance of Fauci’s emails to his role in advising the White House’s coronavirus response, Jim Hoft, the editor of the Gateway Pundit, said, “I don’t have a problem with more information being shared about the doctor.”

The outlet has continued to criticize Fauci in recent days, saying that by offering new predictions about the possible death toll, Fauci and others were “going to destroy the U.S. economy based on total guesses and hysterical predictions.”

Several senior administration officials said that Trump respects Fauci and that the two generally have a good working relationship. Trump heeded the guidance of Fauci and Birx this week when he announced his administration would extend social-distancing guidelines for another 30 days. Last week, many health officials and experts grew worried when Trump said he hoped to reopen the country by Easter, even as coronavirus cases in the United States continue to rapidly climb.

The immunologist, who graduated first in his class from Cornell’s medical school, has been the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984. Between 1983 and 2002, he was the 13th-most-cited scientist among the 2.5 million to 3 million authors worldwide and across all disciplines publishing in scientific journals, according to the Institute for Scientific Information.

 

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3 hours ago, clueliss said:

So, how's your school doing with all of this.

 

For secondary education, my district wants engaging enrichment activities that are related to the subject we teach. One of the subjects I teach is geometry. I won't be teaching theorems. I will probably be assigning projects that are real life applications of geometry. I am supposed to give them weekly activities that are not too time consuming. We understand that many are likely struggling. Parents losing jobs in an already stressful home environment is not conducive to home learning. Some might be watching younger siblings while the parents are working.

The state of Michigan put out a statement about the 1/3 of the public school population that does not have access to internet/technology in the home. They do not want these kids punished, so districts are offering enrichment activities. I will not be grading any of the work submitted by students. I will just be recording that the completed the assignment.

I am also supposed to do weekly wellness checks for students in one of my periods.

The type of students I teach are likely going to ignore the enrichment activities. I doubt many have access to the internet other than their phones. Honestly, I am more concerned with making sure I hear back from certain students I was already concerned about their mental health before this mess started.

My elementary aged child has no idea that the daily work is optional. It is not much more than reading, writing, and math practice. I pick my battles and figure as long as she is learning something it is good for this period of time. 

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Update from Europe and around the world -- and a little America this time too.

  • Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission has officially condemned the measures Hungary has taken, giving Viktor Orbán unlimited power. According to the European Commission, this measure is not proportional to the need. They are deliberating which measures The Commission will take against Hungary.
  • 2500 refugees in the Greek refugee camp in Ritsona have to go into quarantine for two weeks, after a woman who had just given birth in a hospital turned out to have the virus. Research in the camp found that at least 20 people have been contaminated. 
    Around 50 people have died in Greece because of the virus.
  • The TU Delft (Dutch equivalent of MIT) has developed a method of sterilising face masks so they can be re-used up to five times. The cost of sterilisation is about a tenth of the cost of new masks. The methodology has been shared with hospitals and other public care facilities on the site ProjectMask.
  • The Ministry of Education has made 2,5 million euro available for the acquisition of laptops, and so far 6800 of them have been given to children in primary, middle and high schools so they can study at home.
  • Russia is deliberating postponing or even cancelling their grand WWII Victory parade on May 9. As this was to be the 75th anniversary of the victory, it had been planned to have 15.00 people and 375 military vehicles take part in the parade this year.
  • The Pentagon has been asked to deliver 100.000 body bags; reportedly it has 50.000 bodybags in storage. 
    Heartbreakingly, a six week old baby has died from the virus in Connecticut. It was brought to the hospital seriously ill last week and died shortly afterwards. 
  • There were 183 reported deaths in 24 hrs in Belgium, bringing the total up to 1011 deaths. There are 5376 people hospitalised with the virus, 584 in the last 24 hrs, with 1384 new confirmed cases. 1144 patients are in the ICU, taking up about half of the 2293 capacity they have.
  • The death toll in Spain has risen above 10.000, 950 of which died in the last 24 hrs. There are now more than 110.000 confirmed cases, of which 27.000 have recovered.
    Due to the impact the virus has on the Spanish economy 843.000 jobs have been lost
  • The WHO is reconsidering their advice on wearing face masks only if you are ill or work in healthcare now there are new insights into the virus. Research in Hong Kong has found that face masks can indeed reduce the spread of the virus. A second, American research has found that the six feet social distancing rule may be insufficient in keeping you safe from infection by coughs or sneezes. By examining extremely slowed down footage of people sneezing and coughing they discovered that the effects of a sneeze can reach a distance of 8 meters (!). Using the right type of face mask can reduce the risk of infection, but not eliminate it altogether, as 'thin' face masks don't filter and there still is a chance of breathing in the tiniest particles.
  • Australia's Scott Morrison is releasing a 890 million euro aid package to finance children's day-care facilities so they can offer it for free.
  • In all probability, there is going to be a shortage of medication for years as a result of the pandemic. About 80% of all medication in the Netherlands is made in China and India, where production has stalled because of the corona crisis.
  • The Dutch Cabinet is deliberating creating a one billion euro emergency fund meant for European countries that have been hit the hardest by the corona virus.
  • Israel has mandated wearing face masks for anyone going outside. They have about 6000 confirmed cases, and 25 corona related deaths.
  • China is deliberately lying about the actual number of cases and deaths, according to a leaked secret American intelligence report.
    The city of Shenzhen, which has a population of 13 million people, has issued a ban on eating dogs and cats; they are the first city in the world to do so as a direct consequence of the pandemic.
  • Good news about the one-year old baby girl who was hospitalised with the virus in the Netherlands: after 10 days she has recovered enough to leave the hospital. She will recuperate further in quarantine with her parents and sister at home.

Personally:

The RIVM is not reporting the total number of confirmed cases per county any longer. They are now reporting the number of hospitalised cases instead. There are 19 hospitalised cases where I live, 6 where my parents live and 15 where son and DIL live. 

After FaceTiming with our grandson, my son sent a video of him eagerly asking his parents to "go gran in car", which melts my heart, but also makes me feel sad at the same time...
 

 

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1 hour ago, fraurosena said:

After FaceTiming with our grandson, my son sent a video of him eagerly asking his parents to "go gran in car", which melts my heart, but also makes me feel sad at the same time...

Same here. Talked with my granddaughter on FB Kids Messenger last night. Miss my two grandkids a lot.

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This chaps my hide. I guess the Tangerine Toddler is getting bored, so in the middle of a pandemic, we get to pay for more golf trips: "Secret Service signs contract this week to rent golf carts in town of Trump club"

Spoiler

The Secret Service this week signed a $45,000 contract to rent a fleet of golf carts in Northern Virginia, saying it needed them quickly to protect a “dignitary” in the town of Sterling, home to one of President Trump’s golf clubs, according to federal contracting data.

The contract was signed Monday and took effect Wednesday, records show. The Secret Service paid a West Virginia-registered company, Capitol Golf Cars and Utility Vehicles, to rent 30 carts until the end of September.

The new contract, which the Secret Service described as an “emergency order,” does not mention Trump or the golf club by name. But it closely mirrors past contracts signed by the Secret Service, for agents accompanying Trump to his golf clubs in New Jersey and Florida.

The White House declined to comment Wednesday. Trump’s company, the Trump Organization, did not respond to questions.

Secret Service spokeswoman Cathy Milhoan said in a statement that she could not comment about Trump’s schedule or travel. She said the “emergency” referred to in the document was not a security emergency: “Rather, the term was used to signal a need for expedited handling of the procurement due to deadlines within the agency’s business processes.”

As the coronavirus pandemic has grown — becoming a crisis that has killed thousands of Americans, crushed the U.S. economy and consumed Trump’s presidency — Trump has not played golf. His last known presence on a golf course was March 8, at his club in West Palm Beach, Fla.

Since then, however, the coronavirus and related stay-at-home directives have reshaped American life — and forced the closure of many Trump properties. Among the clubs that have closed were the two golf courses Trump has visited the most: the West Palm Beach club and the club in Bedminster, N.J., where the president typically spends stretches of the summer.

But Trump’s Virginia club — which he visits for day-trip golf outings, starting in the spring — remains open.

All of Virginia is under a stay-at-home order from Gov. Ralph Northam (D), lasting until June 10. But that order allows golf courses to remain open, as long as golfers stay six feet apart.

At Trump’s Virginia club, located along the Potomac River 30 miles west of Washington, members have been instructed not to share golf carts, and not to touch the flag stick or sand-trap rakes, according to emails sent by club management. The club even added foam pieces in the holes themselves, so the ball doesn’t fall all the way down — and require golfers to reach in.

“Do not gather in groups around the Clubhouse,” the club’s general manager, Kevin Morris, wrote to members Monday in an email obtained by The Post. He added: “Golf is an excellent avenue for exercise, camaraderie and provides a much-needed distraction.”

Trump has visited the Virginia golf club 76 times as president, according to data compiled by The Post. His last visit was in late October.

The company that received the new contract, Capitol Golf Cars, was registered in October in West Virginia, according to state records. This appears to be its first federal contract.

The company lists offices in McLean, Va., and Frederick, Md. Company executives did not respond to messages left by The Post on Wednesday.

In federal spending data, the Secret Service said it had sought bids from two other companies before choosing Capitol.

The federal contract for the carts was identified by American Bridge, a super PAC that supports Democrats.

Trump has visited his own properties on more than 350 days of his presidency. Those trips have resulted in more than $620,000 in payments to Trump’s own companies, as the Trump Organization charged the Secret Service for hotel rooms, a cottage and — in at least one case — golf carts.

But the Secret Service has rented the bulk of its golf carts from other vendors, federal records show. The bill for those rentals has been more than $420,000 so far.

 

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26 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

This chaps my hide. I guess the Tangerine Toddler is getting bored, so in the middle of a pandemic, we get to pay for more golf trips: "Secret Service signs contract this week to rent golf carts in town of Trump club"

  Hide contents

The Secret Service this week signed a $45,000 contract to rent a fleet of golf carts in Northern Virginia, saying it needed them quickly to protect a “dignitary” in the town of Sterling, home to one of President Trump’s golf clubs, according to federal contracting data.

The contract was signed Monday and took effect Wednesday, records show. The Secret Service paid a West Virginia-registered company, Capitol Golf Cars and Utility Vehicles, to rent 30 carts until the end of September.

The new contract, which the Secret Service described as an “emergency order,” does not mention Trump or the golf club by name. But it closely mirrors past contracts signed by the Secret Service, for agents accompanying Trump to his golf clubs in New Jersey and Florida.

The White House declined to comment Wednesday. Trump’s company, the Trump Organization, did not respond to questions.

Secret Service spokeswoman Cathy Milhoan said in a statement that she could not comment about Trump’s schedule or travel. She said the “emergency” referred to in the document was not a security emergency: “Rather, the term was used to signal a need for expedited handling of the procurement due to deadlines within the agency’s business processes.”

As the coronavirus pandemic has grown — becoming a crisis that has killed thousands of Americans, crushed the U.S. economy and consumed Trump’s presidency — Trump has not played golf. His last known presence on a golf course was March 8, at his club in West Palm Beach, Fla.

Since then, however, the coronavirus and related stay-at-home directives have reshaped American life — and forced the closure of many Trump properties. Among the clubs that have closed were the two golf courses Trump has visited the most: the West Palm Beach club and the club in Bedminster, N.J., where the president typically spends stretches of the summer.

But Trump’s Virginia club — which he visits for day-trip golf outings, starting in the spring — remains open.

All of Virginia is under a stay-at-home order from Gov. Ralph Northam (D), lasting until June 10. But that order allows golf courses to remain open, as long as golfers stay six feet apart.

At Trump’s Virginia club, located along the Potomac River 30 miles west of Washington, members have been instructed not to share golf carts, and not to touch the flag stick or sand-trap rakes, according to emails sent by club management. The club even added foam pieces in the holes themselves, so the ball doesn’t fall all the way down — and require golfers to reach in.

“Do not gather in groups around the Clubhouse,” the club’s general manager, Kevin Morris, wrote to members Monday in an email obtained by The Post. He added: “Golf is an excellent avenue for exercise, camaraderie and provides a much-needed distraction.”

Trump has visited the Virginia golf club 76 times as president, according to data compiled by The Post. His last visit was in late October.

The company that received the new contract, Capitol Golf Cars, was registered in October in West Virginia, according to state records. This appears to be its first federal contract.

The company lists offices in McLean, Va., and Frederick, Md. Company executives did not respond to messages left by The Post on Wednesday.

In federal spending data, the Secret Service said it had sought bids from two other companies before choosing Capitol.

The federal contract for the carts was identified by American Bridge, a super PAC that supports Democrats.

Trump has visited his own properties on more than 350 days of his presidency. Those trips have resulted in more than $620,000 in payments to Trump’s own companies, as the Trump Organization charged the Secret Service for hotel rooms, a cottage and — in at least one case — golf carts.

But the Secret Service has rented the bulk of its golf carts from other vendors, federal records show. The bill for those rentals has been more than $420,000 so far.

 

Reading this, I wonder how the Secret Service can even do their jobs properly when Trump goes out and about, and also keep to the social distancing norms. Treason Barbie should point out to Trump that he should not go anywhere that necessitates any bodyguards getting near him, and thus endangering them, and himself. Not that he cares about others mind you, but the possible danger to himself might work on his narcissistic self-preservation instincts.

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We're doomed: "Behind the scenes, Kushner takes charge of coronavirus response"

Spoiler

Dozens of Trump administration officials have trooped to the White House podium over the last two months to brief the public on their effort to combat coronavirus, but one person who hasn't -- Jared Kushner -- has emerged as perhaps the most pivotal figure in the national fight against the fast-growing pandemic.

What started two-and-a-half weeks ago as an effort to utilize the private sector to fix early testing failures has become an all-encompassing portfolio for Kushner, who, alongside a kitchen cabinet of outside experts including his former roommate and a suite of McKinsey consultants, has taken charge of the most important challenges facing the federal government: Expanding test access, ramping up industry production of needed medical supplies, and figuring out how to get those supplies to key locations.

Kushner has even obtained a new center of power at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the crisis-response organization that's taken over coronavirus strategy and planning -- and where Kushner and his deputies ride herd on the health agencies that had been criticized for their slow responses to the pandemic earlier this year.

Kushner’s group, which some have characterized as an “all-of-private-sector” operation in contrast to Vice President Mike Pence’s “all-of-government” task force, has had its successes – including airlifting emergency medical supplies to the United States, crowdsourcing mask and glove donations, and rapidly devising a last-ditch plan for hospitals to maximize ventilators.

But the behind-the-scenes working group has also duplicated existing federal teams and operations, and its focus on rapid, short-term decisions has created concern among some health-agency officials, according to interviews with 11 people involved in Kushner’s effort, including senior government officials, outside advisers and volunteers on the projects, as well as other health department and White House officials.

Federal decision-making is complicated by the fact that Kushner has the full confidence of President Donald Trump, with whom he confers multiple times a day, while Trump has expressed frustration with some of the leaders of health agencies.

“You can’t have enough good smart people working on a problem of this scale,” said Andy Slavitt, who helped lead the Obama administration’s 2013-2014 HealthCare.gov repair effort and is now advising on Kushner's coronavirus response. “But they have to be organized with a clear chain of command.”

The crisis response team built by the president’s son-in-law is distinct from the White House task force led by Pence, and has adopted an all-out, ad-hoc attitude toward beating back the coronavirus pandemic, heedless of normal government boundaries and, to some extent, conflicts of interest.

"It's a little crazy," said one of the outside advisers brought in to aid government officials on the effort. "It's all hands on deck -- it's literally, who's got the technology and data? Who can help us?"

Kushner has relied on select officials, including his one-time former roommate and current U.S. foreign investment czar Adam Boehler, and Brad Smith, the head of Medicare's innovation center, to organize and manage key projects -- bypassing the bureaucratic structures and internal rivalries that slowed progress in the response's early months.

A group of outside experts is also pitching in daily, working alongside government officials from FEMA, HHS and USAID to solve a range of logistical and technical challenges, often by tapping into their own extensive networks. That faction includes Flatiron Health's Nat Turner, private equity executive Dave Caluori, and other private sector contacts who volunteered to aid the effort.

Yet the co-mingling of administration aides and private-sector executives has led to new quandaries, according to health officials and even some of the outside advisers working with Kushner. Projects are so decentralized that one team often has little idea what others are doing — outside of that they all report up to Kushner. People around Kushner are fielding all manner of outside pitches, making it difficult for the group to stay focused.

And there is limited vetting of private companies' and executives' financial interests, raising questions about the motivations and potential conflicts inherent in an operation that relies on an ill-defined and ever-expanding group of outside contributors.

Officials working on the effort insist they are taking ethical precautions.

"There have been two rules: People signed voluntary service agreements that were vetted by career legal professionals — and that there is no one doing procurement, outside of government officials," said one senior administration official directly involved in the effort.

Nonetheless, the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which has already warned that Kushner's operation could violate federal recordkeeping laws, blasted the White House for its extensive reliance on the private sector and lack of transparency.

"They're not necessarily doing something nefarious, but if they were, this is what they would do to hide it," CREW spokesperson Jordan Libowitz said.

Kushner’s effort to find work-arounds to government bureaucracy, officials said, was initially spurred by Trump’s frustration with health officials over the slow pace of testing. It has since expanded into nearly every major problem area facing the administration – a power shift that’s coincided with Trump’s realization of the gravity of the situation after two months where he’d often played it down or mismanaged the coronavirus threat.

Kushner and Pence’s teams also have taken pains to closely coordinate, several officials said, and a White House spokesperson said that Pence remains in charge of the administration's coronavirus response.

But the effort’s makeshift nature has unnerved even some recruited to aid Kushner's team, who described it as a process unlike any other traditional disaster response. Kushner’s team has stepped in to coordinate decision-making at agencies including the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the scope of his authority now exceeds that of Health Secretary Alex Azar, the one-time leader of Trump’s coronavirus response.

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"I don't know how our government operates anymore," said one Republican close to the administration, lamenting that the sudden authority granted to non-governmental actors had left them with their "eyebrow raised unbelievably high."

The White House did not respond to questions about Kushner's work or how it's vetting private-sector partners, but said that the White House and HHS are "working hand-in-hand" to combat the virus — a message echoed by an HHS spokesperson, who said “we’re all working together.” Attempts to reach Kushner were unsuccessful.

But defenders within the administration say Kushner has stabilized what they acknowledge had been a faltering response. For example, the Kushner team quickly assembled experts from around the nation to develop the health department’s new guidance on ventilators that was issued on Tuesday, which allows desperate hospitals to split ventilators in a bid to protect patients amid shortages.

Kushner’s team is helping speed crucial supplies like ventilators and masks to the front lines, while working to support the “Project N95” clearinghouse for personal protective equipment and ventilators. The team also set up the “Project Airbridge” supply-flights that are rapidly bringing tens of millions of medical supplies from overseas into the United States, rather than waiting for them to be shipped by sea.

"Jared is definitely plugging gaps. No question about it," a senior administration official said. "He's been a voice of reason in pulling all the disparate work streams together."

In recent weeks, Kushner’s team enlisted a series of health tech companies to work toward a new goal: Creating technology that can give the White House a real-time accounting of hospital bed capacity and medical equipment availability nationwide.

Kushner was initially tapped to join the coronavirus response by Trump on March 12, when he moved quickly to address the testing shortfalls and pulled in allies with a track record of launching health care companies. The effort has been co-led by Boehler, an old friend of Kushner's who started three companies and led Medicare’s innovation center before Trump picked him to run the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation last year. Another key player is Smith, the current head of the Medicare innovation center and co-founder of Aspire Health, who’s managing key swaths of the response.

The out-of-government team now includes Turner, an entrepreneur and investor who co-founded New York City-based Flatiron Health, as well as Caluori, a partner at private equity firm Welsh Carson Anderson & Stowe, who is voluntarily aiding the effort with the help of a couple other Welsh Carson associates, a person familiar with the team dynamics said.

Slavitt, meanwhile, has provided guidance from the outside and connected Kushner’s group with private-sector teams and technologists to help spin up projects. Slavitt, who served as President Barack Obama’s acting Medicare chief and also has a history of launching health care startups, has been a noted critic of Trump’s health policies but has offered up his support to the White House.

The team has since helped roll out dozens of local testing sites, an achievement that falls well short of the president’s initial promise to set up a nationwide network of drive-through test centers and that Google would help manage the process through a website. Trump has faced criticism for overselling the initiative, one of several high-profile pledges on testing that’s fallen short.

"We stood up a full business in days," countered a senior official. "The goal on the retail side was get them in and get them prototyped."

Yet Kushner’s role in that episode has come under increasing scrutiny, most recently following an Atlantic report that Oscar Health – a health insurer co-founded by Kushner’s brother, Josh – was asked to develop the website that would direct people to the testing sites. Kushner himself also once partially owned or controlled the company. The project, which could have violated federal ethics laws, was ultimately scrapped, and an Oscar spokesperson said the company donated the work for free.

Kushner’s defenders say that his methods achieved what the health agencies working alone did not – gin up the private sector. Options like Abbott’s rapid point-of-care testing are coming online, and retailers like CVS and Walgreens are set to offer more testing soon, officials said.

CVS was cagier about its next steps, with a spokesperson acknowledging the “potential” to open additional testing sites. Walgreens did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Kushner’s defenders also note that in the three weeks since Trump tapped Kushner to get involved, the U.S. response has surged from a few thousand coronavirus tests per day to more than 100,000 tests per day. The White House has been especially worried about the public perception of coronavirus testing after weeks of testing-access failures that are still ongoing, said four individuals with knowledge of White House strategy.

Other projects have not gone smoothly. Kushner’s team was involved in difficult negotiations with General Motors and ventilator company Ventec over expediting ventilator production, and when the deal initially fell through, Trump lashed out at GM on Twitter. Other corporate executives were dissuaded from participating in the coronavirus response after seeing Trump’s angry reaction, The New York Times reported.

Efforts elsewhere have progressed in fits and starts, with those involved describing early struggles to coordinate work and avoid overlapping efforts across agencies. One adviser involved in the Kushner-led effort to build out the administration's tracking of hospital capacity and medical resources expressed shock at the government’s lack of preparedness for such a pandemic, and the inherent inter-agency obstacles slowing the effort.

“The trick has been just trying to cut through it all, because you’ve got all these camps,” the adviser said.

However, an HHS official involved in the coronavirus response warned that the outside teams have only added to the bureaucracy, duplicating some internal work. "It's not great to have people coming in and replacing people who are working on this," the official said, noting that Kushner’s team had rendered some health department data teams redundant.

Another adviser aiding the response, meanwhile, voiced concerns that the effort had begun to attract companies seeking to entrench themselves in hopes of winning lucrative government contracts down the line.

"Plenty of private companies have been trying to profiteer and fence their wares," that adviser said, adding that administration officials have worked to head off potential bad actors.

In addition, the use of so many private sector work-arounds means much of the government’s response to coronavirus is being conducted on unsecured personal cell phones and emails. Officials involved with Kushner’s team bristled at questions about the appropriateness of using personal emails, saying the scrutiny could scare away high-powered executives, analysts and other fixers trying to help the response.

"It's a catch-22,” argued one senior official. “Let’s bring in the best of the private sector — but then don't bring in the best of the private sector and let them use their personal email.”

 

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I like this suggestion 

Yep, that fucker should have every property he still owns seized and turned in to cemetery space. 

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3 hours ago, fraurosena said:

 

After FaceTiming with our grandson, my son sent a video of him eagerly asking his parents to "go gran in car", which melts my heart, but also makes me feel sad at the same time...
 

 

Due to Corona   I am not allowed to visit my son, who  lives in a grouphome. Facetiming is not an option. When  he sees me on the screen,  he is wants to go home and spend the day with me. So no contact to keep him calm. But it hurts .

I feel awful for  the elderly people, but a lot of them understand the importance of social distancing. The mentally disabled or the elderly with dementia are clueless. And that is heartbreaking 

 

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7 minutes ago, Workingmom said:

Due to Corona   I am not allowed to visit my son, who  lives in a grouphome. Facetiming is not an option. When  he sees me on the screen,  he is wants to go home and spend the day with me. So no contact to keep him calm. But it hurts .

I feel awful for  the elderly people, but a lot of them understand the importance of social distancing. The mentally disabled or the elderly with dementia are clueless. And that is heartbreaking 

 

I'm so sorry, I can't imagine how hard this must be for you.  You're a wonderful mom for doing what's best for your son even when it hurts.

 

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I wish someone would break Twitler's tweeting fingers.

 

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42 minutes ago, Workingmom said:

Due to Corona   I am not allowed to visit my son, who  lives in a grouphome. Facetiming is not an option. When  he sees me on the screen,  he is wants to go home and spend the day with me. So no contact to keep him calm. But it hurts .

I feel awful for  the elderly people, but a lot of them understand the importance of social distancing. The mentally disabled or the elderly with dementia are clueless. And that is heartbreaking 

 

Oh Rufus, how hard that must be for you! Would there be any way for the care staff to film your son and send the video to you? That way you can still see him, without him getting upset. I realise that it's hardly the same as actually communicating with him, but maybe it would help you cope a little better if you could see him once in a while.

 

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The epidemic in France started in a mega church meeting.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/how-a-prayer-meeting-at-a-french-megachurch-may-have-led-to-scores-of-coronavirus-deaths/2020/04/01/fe478ca0-7396-11ea-ad9b-254ec99993bc_story.html
 

Spoiler

 

How a prayer meeting at a French megachurch may have led to scores of coronavirus deaths

By

James McAuley 

April 2, 2020 at 12:47 a.m. GMT+3

PARIS — The prayer meeting at an evangelical church in Mulhouse, a small city in eastern France near the border with Germany, was just the latest in a series of such annual gatherings going back a generation.

But this year’s meeting — in the words of a regional health official — was “a kind of atomic bomb that went off in the town in late February that we didn’t see.” Someone in the crowd of 2,500 had the novel coronavirus, kicking off what soon became one of Europe’s largest regional clusters of infections, which then quickly spread across the country and eventually overseas.

As of Wednesday, France reported 56,989 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, and the country’s death toll is the fourth highest in the world at 4,032, including 509 within the last day. And the actual number of fatalities may be higher, because public health authorities were initially not including deaths that occurred outside hospitals in the tally.

As the government desperately tries to contain further spread of the virus with an extended nationwide lockdown and expanded testing, many are asking how France — a country with one of the most vaunted and well-funded public health systems in the world — got to this point.

For weeks, the coronavirus pandemic has shaken the French health system, although the system so far remains largely intact. Certain patients in critical condition are being transferred via medically equipped high-speed TGV trains from areas with overburdened ICU units to lesser-affected regions with greater capacity. On Wednesday, for instance, the first medical transfers from the Paris region left for Brittany in western France, carrying 36 patients.

But as public health officials scramble to accommodate rising numbers of patients, details have been emerging about how the Mulhouse prayer meeting had seeded the country’s epidemic, sparking community transmission of the virus that went on for weeks before gaining notice. This, at least, is the opinion of France’s health minister, Olivier Véran.

“The tipping point was the evangelical gathering in Mulhouse,” Véran told France’s Journal du Dimanche newspaper. “The epidemic spread across the country from the gathering.”

Since the beginning of the pandemic, churches and other houses of worship have been linked to the transmission of the coronavirus around the world, in places such as South Korea, India and the United States. France appears to be no exception.

When the five-day prayer meeting at the evangelical church — known as Christian Open Door — began Feb. 17, France only had 12 confirmed cases of covid-19, with none of those in Alsace, the region where Mulhouse is located.

There was at the time little public anxiety over the virus, which was then still largely seen as a Chinese problem. Even in Italy, the first signs of the outbreak that would soon devastate much of the Lombardy and Veneto regions had yet to be detected. So local authorities in Alsace didn’t pay much attention to the fact that hundreds of people developed mild, flu-like symptoms in the days after the prayer meeting.

The first confirmed case of covid-19 in Alsace wasn’t diagnosed until Feb. 29, according to Christophe Lannelongue, head of the Regional Health Agency in France’s Grand Est administrative region. The patient was a woman whose children had been at the church with their grandparents, though she did not attend it herself.

Lannelongue’s office did not realize what had happened — or the scale of the potential outbreak — until two days later, he told Radio France, which traced the connections from the Mulhouse church across the country.

On March 2, a man tested positive for covid-19 in Nîmes, a city 388 miles south of Mulhouse, not far from France’s Mediterranean coast. When local authorities asked about his movements, he revealed that he had attended the prayer meeting in Mulhouse days before.

That realization, Lannelongue said, was his “eureka” moment. “It was the gathering at the Christian Open Door in Mulhouse!” he told Radio France.

By the time authorities had a clearer picture of the extent of the transmission, containment was no longer possible. The Christian Open Door became a case study in how quickly the coronavirus can spread in an interconnected world.

Church representatives say they resent being blamed for the outbreak, given that the government had not yet recommended any health protocols at the time of the prayer meeting. “Contrary to what certain political leaders have said, we didn’t ignore basic rules of security, because at the time there were none yet,” said Nathalie Schnoebelen, a church spokesperson, in a statement to the French press.

Cases linked to the Mulhouse church were identified in previously untouched regions across France — in Orléans, Dijon, Besançon, Mâcon and others.

A Strasbourg-based nurse who was in the audience was identified as the source of an outbreak among fellow nurses in local hospitals, infecting approximately 250 people, according to Lannelongue.

Three retirees from Corsica flew home after the gathering and contributed to an outbreak on the island. As of the latest count, authorities have confirmed 263 cases in Corsica and 21 deaths.

Mamadou Karambiri, a well-known pastor from Burkina Faso, was also at the Mulhouse gathering. When he and his wife flew home afterward, they became Burkina Faso’s first two confirmed cases. The West African nation has now reported 261 cases and 14 deaths.

With France now under a lockdown, which prohibits all but essential travel outside the home, a repeat of the Mulhouse scenario is unlikely. But on Wednesday, the French government repeated its message about the necessity of staying put in advance of upcoming religious holidays in April — Easter, Passover and Ramadan.

Sibeth Ndiaye, a government spokeswoman, urged the public not to change the place of their confinement during the holidays. “Obviously, when you move across the country, without knowing it, you can be a carrier of the virus and bring it to places that until now have been spared,” she said.

 

 

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@fraurosena, the staff isn't allowed to film due to privacy. AVG is a little bit over the top in the Netherlands.   

But thank you very much for your kind words.  I miss him a lot,  but i know he is very well  cared for. Those caregivers are heroes too  

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3 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

 

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Trump has visited his own properties on more than 350 days of his presidency. 

 

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but don't I remember Trump whining that he should get at least an extra year because of all the time he spent under investigation? As far as I'm concerned, he's had his "extra year" in golf outings. (Not that I think he should have an extra year at all. I think by the end of his term, he will have been president 3 years + 366 days too many.)

 

1 hour ago, 47of74 said:

I like this suggestion 

Yep, that fucker should have every property he still owns seized and turned in to cemetery space. 

That's how we got Arlington national cemetery, which was the lands that belong to Robert E Lee, the Civil war general.

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Husband is at home with a sore throat and the daughter coughs. Me and son are fine and the others may have symptoms that can be covid 19 but they are more or less fine too. My son got sent home from preschool today because he either got something in his eyes and just kept touching them until they got all red or he had a mild allergic reaction to something. We will see what he is like tomorrow or maybe i will then have the whole family at home with me while I am working. My husband has been grumpy all day driving me nuts. Whatever he has it is not fucking ebola and he is not feeling too bad other than a sore throat. 

Our numbers are going up, 282 dead and around 5400 known cases. There are many known cases in nursing homes now sadly especially in Stockholm but also in my old hometown. I have two relatives in nursing homes there but as far as I know they are not currently infected. 

The primeminister spoke to the people today reminding us to be persistent and remember that this will not be over right away and we need to keep doing our bit and not go out if we are sick, protect the elderly, listen to the recommendations given, not travel unless absolutely necessary and work together for the sake of the country and each other. I don't think it was the best speech in the world but I am glad to have heard it, I have been feeling very defeated these last couple of days. I don't do well working from home, I am quite extroverted and in need of company but I am doing my best. Some of my coworkers and I do virtual coffee breaks and others keep in contact over facebook but I long for them already. I might go in on Monday when I have a meeting with the boss but if I too get a sore throat I guess I am stuck in the apartment. 

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1 hour ago, Workingmom said:

AVG is a little bit over the top in the Netherlands.

Tell me about it! I used to work at a day care centre for autistic children and the AGV rules were insane. We actually had to blur pictures of the children in photo's that were taken on day trips if we didn't have express permission to use them from the individual parents. And the images were only being used as an illustration in the in-company newsletter... as if those very same kids weren't seen in the flesh every day.  :pb_rollseyes:

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Wow. Just wow.

 

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Good that you are finally catching on, but why did it take you three months to find out what the rest of the world already knows? 

 

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