COVID-19 UPDATE: A Second Shutdown Coming Very Soon

While many have been paying attention to the news and other major stories. The emphasis is returning to the fact that the government including President Trump bungled the epidemic from the start and may be forced to endure a second shutdown.

If this happens it will mean that we wasted the months and trillion dollars of spending for nothing.

Along those lines I’m looking now at a press release for a Meet the Press interview this morning with Admiral Brett Giroir, a key Trump administration pandemic official. Asked about calls for another shutdown Giroir says: “I don’t think we need to shut down, at least in most places around the country.”

This is obviously meant to push back on the idea. But it is quite revealing that one of the few Trump administration officials the White House still allows to go on TV is himself conceding that it may be necessary in significant portions of the country.

We’re learning more and more about what really drives COVID spread. The problem is that once you have exponential growth in a region you often need to take short-term, drastic action to get the situation under control. Then you can do what he says and be okay: Tight limits on in-door congregation, universal masking, social distancing, much tighter filtration in in-door air ventilation, hand hygiene. The problem is that what can keep spread in check can’t necessarily get it under control when it’s in growing exponentially – or at least not nearly quick enough.

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This is the tragedy of our catastrophically bungled national response. We were supposed to use the lockdown, achieved at such immense sacrifice, to make all this possible. We didn’t. Not in most of the country.

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WHO updates on the Coronavirus

Many places continue to see coronavirus cases rising as states acted to quickly reopening their businesses.

The WHO recently had a press conference regarding the Coronavirus, giving their account as to what they think is going to happen with regards to the near term future and what nations around the world need to do to fight the Coronavirus among the long term future.

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The WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, whom six months ago called the situation in Wuhan, a “once-in-a-Century” pandemic, has stated that the pandemic is accelerating. More than 12 million worldwide have been infected and over 500k have died, noting that half of those cases have been in the Americas.

Tedros has directed the WHO to create the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and response to analyze how countries and even the WHO are doing with regards to the pandemic. According to CNBC, it will be co-chaired by former prime minister of New Zealand Helen Clark and former president of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

Tedros reminds us that while the pandemic may be contained in some parts of the world, it is not contained in other. He also urges nations to look elsewhere to try to figure out best practices, there may be some lessons to be learned. These statements by the WHO come after Trump’s threat to leave the WHO and his many statements denying their credibility.

“I cannot imagine two more strong-minded, independent leaders to help guide us through this critical learning process,”

It is important to remind people that while they have a position of authority, in May they told people that they didn’t need to wear masks only if they are a health care worker, contradicting the guidance of the CDC and that, combined with their odd comments showing support for China has led Trump to announce what some see as his abrupt withdrawal of funding and of support.

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Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO’s emergencies program recent weeks, shouldn’t ‘be a surprise’ stated that while the number of deaths have fallen from the peak in April, the number of Coronavirus has been rising rapidly.

He said he would not be surprised if there were more deaths given that there usually is a “lag” for them. Ryan said that Latin America “doesn’t look good” and that he was “concerned” about North America. He also acknowledged that testing has given rise to better treatment like dexamethasone_, which the WHO seems to acknowledge as one of the treatments for the Coronavirus that has an impact in mortality rates. In Europe they have gotten the coronavirus under control while in North America, they are still struggling with it. Some countries have outbreaks in nursing homes and may need to update their death count.

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FDA Head Stephen Hahn Refuses To Reject Trump’s Claim that 99% of COVID Cases are Harmless

FDA Chief Stephen Hahn flipflops and refuses to reject claims that 99% of COVID cases are actually harmless and has no clear date when a vaccine will arrive.

President Trump is back at it again, this time he publicly said that 99% of COVID-19 cases are harmless. Well Mr. President if they are, then why even shutdown all the states and destroy this economy. He made the statement during a Fourth of July event at the White House South Lawn.

Trump said that without evidence and because of testing 40 million people for the virus, “we show cases, 99% of which are totally harmless.” Luckily we have people who are ready to refute those claims. FDA Chief Stephen Hahn appeared on CNN and refused to speculate what the causation is there.

Hahn said the only way out of this, is if Americans follow the CDC guidelines. CNN’s Dana Bash went back to questioning Hahn about how he feels about Trump’s claims. He said he’s not going to get into who is right and who is wrong.

“I’m not going to get into who is right and who is wrong,” adding: “We have seen the surge in cases. We must do something to stem the tide.”

The long-term health effects of coronavirus are still unknown and mortality rates continue to fluctuate for reasons unknown. Currently there are over 2.8 million diagnosed cases in the U.S. and over 129,000 deaths. There have been more than 4 million tests over the last week, but they are seeing record-breaking infections across the country, especially in Arizona, Florida and Texas.

“I’m not going to get into who’s right and who is wrong,” FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn says when pressed about the misleading claim President Trump made — that 99% of coronavirus cases in America are "totally harmless" https://t.co/P3rgUzC3Fq #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/m9jU8QKYQ3

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) July 5, 2020

Trump claimed on Saturday that we will have a vaccine by the end of 2020. However, Hahn said it’s unclear when a vaccine will be available. Hahn said: “Our solemn promise to the American people is that we will make a decision based upon the data and science on a vaccine with respect to the safety and effectiveness of that vaccine.” “While the FDA is committed to expediting this work, we will not cut corners in our decisions and are making clear through this guidance what data should be submitted to meet our regulatory standards,” Hahn said in a statement.

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Trump Again Blames Tests for Showing Rise In COVID Cases

President Donald Trump on Saturday bemoaned the rising number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States — and falsely blamed the mammoth uptick on testing itself.

“If we didn’t test so much and so successfully, we would have very few cases,” Trump said, adding that the United States’ “success” in testing “gives the Fake News Media all they want, CASES.”

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This is hardly the first time Trump has blamed COVID-19 testing itself for the increasing numbers of confirmed infections. But it’s a junk talking point.

In addition to the case count increasing to record daily highs, the percentage of positive test results has also increased since mid-June.

When Trump attempted on Thursday to make the same point about test capacity being responsible for the swelling case numbers, reporters pointed to his own “testing czar,” Brett Giroir.

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Giroir testified Thursday that while more testing leads generally to more discovered cases, “we do believe this is a real increase in cases, because the percent positives are going up.”

Also on Thursday, Trump said “the crisis is being handled.”

But for three days in a row, starting on July 1, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has counted at least 50,000 new confirmed COVID-19 cases daily, a grim record in the United States.

The President did not mention the pandemic in a speech Friday night in front of Mount Rushmore. Instead, he bashed what he called “far-left fascism” and made an appeal to aggrieved white people.

Trump is set for another massive Independence Day event in Washington, D.C. on Saturday — the city’s mayor, Muriel Bowser, has encouraged city residents not to attend due to the risk of spreading COVID-19. But she can’t cancel Trump’s expansive plans: The party will be held on the National Mall, which is federal property.

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Fauci Warns That US Could See 100K Covid Cases Daily

Some parts of the country are currently seeing alarming spikes in COVID-19 cases as the chickens come home to roost from states’ reopening efforts.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, gave a sobering prediction of daily American COVID-19 cases when pressed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) on Tuesday.

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“We are now having 40-plus-thousand cases a day,” he said during a televised Senate hearing. “I would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 cases a day if this does not turn around.”

Some parts of the country are currently seeing alarming spikes in COVID-19 cases as the chickens come home to roost from states’ reopening efforts. Fauci said about half of the new nationwide COVID-19 cases are coming from four states: California, Texas, Florida and Arizona.

Florida, in particular, reported 9,585 cases on Saturday — a single-day record since the pandemic began.

Fauci made the prediction in response to questioning from Warren about the direction the country has taken and how many total number of cases and deaths the country could see by the pandemic’s end.

Though he said he couldn’t make an exact prediction without worrying that the totals would later be seen as either overblowing or lowballing it, he said that it’ll be “very disturbing, I can guarantee you that.”

“I think the numbers speak for themselves,” Fauci said. “I’m very concerned and I’m not satisfied with what’s going on because we’re going in the wrong direction if you look at the curves of the new cases, so we really have got to do something about that and we need to do it quickly.”

Fauci also said that states that haven’t been seeing the same spikes as places like Florida could still be “vulnerable,” as those hot spots put “the entire country at risk.”

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He attributed the surges to some states possibly “skipping” the checkpoints they should’ve met to reopen slowly and more safely.

The Trump administration published guidelines with suggestions on how to open safely — including, for example, waiting for two straight weeks of decline in daily cases — but meeting the checkpoints was not mandatory.

Coronavirus cases continue to rise across the country

Now, as some states see the number of cases tick up dramatically, political leaders are actually reversing some of those original reopenings. Last week, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) shut bars back down and limited allowable restaurant capacity as the situation quickly worsened.

Even in states whose leadership was more cautious, Fauci said, there have still been examples of large groups congregating and disregarding critical public health measures.

“We saw visually in clips and in photographs of individuals in the community doing an all or none phenomenon, which is dangerous,” he said.

He also took aim at those “pushing back on scientific data,” calling the attitude “very concerning.”

Though he didn’t name names, some in the Republican contingent, President Donald Trump among them, have been downplaying the severity of the pandemic and accusing those businesses and political leaders who enforce precautions like mask-wearing to be infringing on their freedoms.

Indeed, earlier in Tuesday’s hearing, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) warned listeners not to put too much stock in the opinion of government health experts who “we, like sheep, blindly follow.”

“It’s important to realize that if society meekly submits to an expert and that expert is wrong, a great deal of harm may occur,” he said.

He later implored Fauci for a change in tone: “We need more optimism.”

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