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You are here: Home / Past Elections / 2020 Elections / The COVID 19 Coronavirus and the President’s Remarks

The COVID 19 Coronavirus and the President’s Remarks

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Here’s the live feed for the President’s scheduled 6:30 PM EST address this evening on the COVID 19 coronavirus.

I honesty don’t know what to expect from him tonight. Apparently the President is very angry with Dr. Nancy Messonnier, who is the career, professional infectious disease specialist leading the CDC’s response.

It doesn’t help that Dr. Messonnier is former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s sister, which has set Rush Limbaugh and other supporters and surrogates of the President off on a variety of related conspiracy theories about how COVID19 is somehow a deep state conspiracy against the President. Which I’m sure makes all of seriously ill and dead people in dozens of countries feel much better.

I’m sure someone has recommended that the President be put on a script loaded into the teleprompter, kept as calm as possible, told to just go out and do the “just the facts ma’am” address about what is going on, and then turn it over to the medical professionals from the CDC and the NIH. But as is always the case with the President, there is no way to know whether we’re going to get a very subdued President who makes his way through a statement he clearly doesn’t want to make and then quickly leaves without taking questions or whether we’re going to get an unleashed President who doesn’t stay on script, opens up for questions, and then answers them however he feels like doing so. The former would be okay, the latter would create a whole series of new problems given the President’s and his administration’s well documented history of lying, presenting factually inaccurate information, and promoting conspiracy theories.

There are, however, a number of good quality sources for accurate information. Anne Laurie has been bringing us all an early morning round up of a lot of those sources – most of whom are medical professionals and researchers working on these issues. Here is the link to the CDC’s recommended guidance. And here is the link to the CDC’s updates on the COVID 19 coronavirus. Here’s one from The Washington Post that Cheryl sent me, as well as an excellent article from Foreign Policy she passed on as well. You should also give this article that Cheryl highlighted in a tweet yesterday a read too.

A lot of the recommendations are the common sense ones that we all use for cold and flu seasons: wash your hands regularly, don’t touch your face, eyes, nose, mouth unless you’ve washed or sanitized your hands, if you’re feeling ill stay home if possible and contact your physician for guidance, cough and sneeze into a disposable tissue or the inside of your elbow (vampire sneeze or cough), if you are experiencing respiratory difficulties, seek medical assistances as soon as you can. And, of course, get a flu shot or the nasal mist. It won’t help with COVID 19, but it will provide some protection against the seasonal flu and potentially remove that as a potential medical issue for you. And, of course, the normal emergency preparations that we’ve posted about in regard to natural disasters apply: have a week to two week’s worth of non-perishable food, make sure your prescription and over the counter medicines are filled, make sure your home first aid kit is properly stocked, get plenty of rest, check reliable news sources, the usual.

Unfortunately, in terms of the official US response, we are in something of uncharted waters with the COVID 19 virus. The President is a known conspiracy monger who lies frequently and who has been more than happy to politicize public health and other potential national security issues for his own advantage. We all remember his helpful and thoughtful contributions to the US government’s response to ebola in 2014. It also doesn’t help that the President has overseen the degradation of the US’s ability to respond to a public health emergency by firing the National Security Staff members on the National Security Council who coordinate public health emergency and pandemic response, as well as cutting the CDC response teams and efforts by 80%. The President has also reduced US national health spending by $15 billion and eliminating the $30 million complex crisis fund, which would ordinarily be tapped to respond to something like the COVID 19 outbreak. Just as personnel is policy, so too is budgeting. What the President is and is not willing to fund is as much a determinant to what the official policy of the US is as who is hired to oversee and implement it and how it is officially delineated. It won’t matter a bit if the President delineates a strategy tonight to respond to the COVID 19 outbreak because the personnel and budgeting that the President have put forward would be trying to ask of that strategy that which no strategy could provide: ways and means that do not exist.

The President has repeatedly demonstrated that he doesn’t value intelligence. By this I’m referring to the product produced by the US intelligence community (IC), as well as other information coming from professional sources intended to enhance decision making. The purpose of intelligence is to provide timely, useful, and accurate information in a digestible format so that senior leaders and decision makers can make appropriate assessments of threats, challenges, and opportunities and the best decisions possible to deal with them. It is the role of senior advisors to provide the President what he needs to know, not what he wants to hear, based on the most timely and accurate information and analyses possible. And the President has also, repeatedly, indicated he doesn’t value this either. The firing of Vice Admiral Maguire as Acting DNI ten days ago is just the most recent example of this unfortunate reality.

If the President can be convinced to get out of the way and let the professionals at the CDC and the NIH and what is left of the US’s national public health officers corps do their jobs, let Congress quickly ramp up funding to allow these agencies to rapidly expand their personnel and operation, we might be okay. But if he cannot control his impulses, things are likely to be far rougher than they would need to be going forward. And even if he can contain himself, he can’t and won’t stop his surrogates and supporters spreading conspiracy theories that will make it much harder for the Federal, state, and local governments to respond.

We are off the looking glass and through the map.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

209Comments

  1. 1.

    Elizabelle

    You could not pay me to watch Trump.  It would be bad for my health.  With or without a mask and clean hands.

  2. 2.

    Major Major Major Major

    Given Limbaugh’s age and respiratory health status, and the high likelihood we all may have of catching COVID19… well, he stands a decent chance of dying from this thing, and I think I hope it gets him before the cancer gets a chance to.

  3. 3.

    Betty Cracker

    If Trump had a brain rattling around in that empty melon atop his neck (spoiler alert: he does not), he’d give Rosenstein a Medal of Freedom. Rosenstein swept the muck under the rug as best he could with zero help from Trump.

  6. 6.

    Brachiator

    I honesty don’t know what to expect from him tonight. Apparently the President is very angry with Dr. Nancy Messonnier, who is the career, professional infectious disease specialist leading the CDC’s response.

    If he has his sharpie with him, we’re all in trouble.

     

    More seriously, his decisions and actions here could end up having a tremendous impact on the country, and his presidency.

  7. 7.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Betty Cracker: That’s not how he, his surrogates, and his supporters see it. They think that Rosenstein tried to destroy his presidency and is part of the coup against him.

  10. 10.

    Adam L Silverman

    We have over 50 cases of people with COVID 19 in the US. The President keeps saying we have 15 cases.

  13. 13.

    trollhattan

    Am hoping we can make it to the end of school before it hits, because that seems to be a major contributor to how quickly bugs get spread about (e.g., every office I’ve ever worked in has a major cold uptick as soon as fall semester begins). It could help slow transmission over the summer and add valuable time developing a vaccine. Does anybody know if Tamaflu has an effect?

    They’re toying with cancelling the Olympics, if you can believe that.

  14. 14.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    It doesn’t help that Dr. Messonnier is former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s sister, which has set Rush Limbaugh and other supporters and surrogates of the President off on a variety of related conspiracy theories about how COVID19 is somehow a deep state conspiracy against the President. Which I’m sure makes all of seriously ill and dead people in dozens of countries feel much better.

    Somebody should ask these stupid fucks if Italy, ROK, Japan, and several other countries in Europe and all over the world are also in on it

  15. 15.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    Q: Which morons on CNN will say he was “presidential” because he didn’t drool or blame Comey for the Kennedy assassination?

    A: All of them, Katie

  20. 20.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Adam L Silverman:

    We did. A few weeks ago. Trump keeps repeatedly trying to downplay this serious outbreak. He doesn’t want this to affect his reelection chances/stock portfolio. The top leadership across the government, particularly the appointees, are clueless fools

    I can’t decide who I hate more: Trump himself or the morons who voted him into office and still support/defend him even now

    Nothing is ever his fault. He always the victim and he has no agency of his own, except when he does, because something is going right for him once in a blue moon

  22. 22.

    mad citizen

    I saw how trumpov is going to speak about the COVID 19 emergency, and realized I am still at an emergency level regarding the continuing WH occupation of the orange one.

  26. 26.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Adam L Silverman: don’t some folks like to use a number that doesn’t include the cruise ship people? Still isn’t 15 I don’t think but I’ve definitely seen two numbers with that calculation.

    Thanks for the nice links, btw, like the first one a lot. ETA I guess that thank-you should go to Cheryl, thanks Cheryl!

  28. 28.

    Cermet

    @trollhattan: Good question that google might answer – but don’t expect any clear answers … lol. That this isn’t the flu and that this virus is in the SARs family so attacks cells completely different – would appear to reduce the odds.

  37. 37.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Major Major Major Major: Interestingly the CDC is reported 14 on their site:

    https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-in-us.html

    But, two days ago 53 reported/confirmed cases were being attributed to them:

    https://www.marketwatch.com/story/cdc-there-are-now-53-covid-19-cases-in-us-as-more-diamond-princess-passengers-test-positive-2020-02-24

    There are now 53 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. as more people who returned from the Diamond Princess cruise ship tested positive for the virus, according to a new update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s a total of 39 U.S. nationals who had been on the Diamond Princess who have been infected by the virus.

  39. 39.

    Adam L Silverman

    Ahh, Secretary Azar has explained the numbers: 14 confirmed in the US from the US, 2 from people now in the US who were in Wuhan, and 34 or so who were on the cruise ship and are now in the US.

  40. 40.

    Shrillhouse

    Trump’s remarks are simultaneously hilarious and terrifying.

    “We have great quarantine facilities…”

    Oh, good.

  43. 43.

    Ryan

    Mobbed up!  Ready to go!  Seriously, Pence’s newfound faith in the competence and effectiveness of the federal government is, situational.

  44. 44.

    Major Major Major Major

    I managed to find some n95 masks at the hardware store on Monday. Didn’t want to pay the price-gougers online so lucky me. I also ordered a laptop I was planning to get in a couple months, just in case the electronics supply chain goes super pear-shaped.

    I’m mostly worried about my parents, though. Mom has to do a lot of work travel and dad volunteers at the museum, and they aren’t inclined to stop. I’m in a 0.2% mortality age band; they are not.

  46. 46.

    Aleta

     

    “I could not be more delighted”  that the guy who’s hoping for plague to confirm the 2nd Coming is now in charge,  says the Sec of HHS.

  49. 49.

    JPL

    A few years ago someone who works at the CDC mentioned that they are very careful not to upset the president because their funding could be cut.

  50. 50.

    Shalimar

    @Betty Cracker: Trump really looks horrible.  His face is orange but apparently he puts it on himself because there is a white circle around each eye.  How has he appeared on television for decades and not have a makeup person?

  53. 53.

    Nicole

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): NYC always has a decent number of people wearing face masks in the winter, so no, I haven’t seen anything unusual here.

    (I know you asked Major, but as I’m on the subway every day, I figured I’d chime in)

  54. 54.

    cain

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    The whole world is in on it – how strange no cases in Russia, eh? But funny how they are all in on spreading the disinformation and causing fear and panic, but don’t worry, Russia is going to get their own COVID 19 spreading too – maybe with Russia going full COVID 19 they’ll stop interfering in our elections if we end up having one.

    See: https://www.rferl.org/a/u-s-officials-link-covid-19-disinformation-campaign-to-russian-proxy-accounts/30448927.html

  56. 56.

    Cermet

    Don’t worry about this virus; as the country with the best health care system and enough hospitals, we’ll be fine. Besides, if China can build a 1000 bed hospital in under two weeks we can do … wait. Our medical system is solely profit driven and there is no profit in that. If this virus sweeps the country and even has just a  5% rate of developing into serious illness, we’ve really, really screwed.

    Naming pence is proof the orange fart cloud is a coward. Make the most powerless person in charge of the response – that way, when it fails,  the orange fart can claim its the vp’s fault. The leader and person with the most power refuses to take charge – utter coward.

  58. 58.

    chopper

    I’m told the president’s anger about the CDC briefing yesterday is focused on Dr. Nancy Messonnier, who said it’s not whether, it’s when the virus will hit the US. “She never should have said that,” a senior administration official told me. “it’s bad.”

    so basically when coronavirus starts to spread here it’s gonna be all her fault for saying it.

  61. 61.

    Amir Khalid

    So Trump is angry with an expert for telling him an unpleasant truth. I don’t know if her being Rod Rosenstein’s sister has anything to do with it (I guess we’ll know that for sure if someone brings it up) but isn’t that pretty much normal for him?

  62. 62.

    chopper

    Anne Laurie has been bringing us all an early morning round up of a lot of those sources – most of whom are medical professionals and researchers working on these issues.

    that’s putting it mildly. she’s been the only FPer talking much about it. by a country mile.

  63. 63.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I managed to find some n95 masks at the hardware store on Monday. Didn’t want to pay the price-gougers online so lucky me.

    I wasn’t so lucky. I managed to get a 10 pack of Milwaukee Multi-Purpose Professional N95 valved respirators on Amazon for like 40 bucks on Monday and they arrived this afternoon. 3 each for me and my parents. I also bought swim goggles because the virus can enter through the eyes in aerosol form. They’ll do for having to leave the house to get supplies. According to the CDC, these can be safely reused with care

    I’m mostly worried about my parents, though. Mom has to do a lot of work travel and dad volunteers at the museum, and they aren’t inclined to stop. I’m in a 0.2% mortality age band; they are not.

    I’m in the same boat as you. My parents are both in their late 50s. My grandmother is 85 but lives by herself. I’m going to have to talk to other family about precautions, such as wearing surgical masks when visiting her. But here’s some possible good news: those mortality numbers are mostly from China where the air quality is terrible and many people smoke. Did your parents ever smoke cigarettes?

  66. 66.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Shalimar: I think this is in line with how Azar explained the numbers. Apparently the President has decided that the repatriated cases don’t count as cases in the US because the people contracted it outside the US.

  71. 71.

    oatler.

    And now the punchline.  Trump said the market my have tanked because of the people on the Democratic debate stage.

  73. 73.

    Adam L Silverman

  74. 74.

    cain

    @Adam L Silverman:

    If I recall, he was quite upset that they ended up in the U.S. to begin with. I believe he is a big germ phobe too.. he’s going to be going a little crazy from that as well.

  77. 77.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    So the Twaffel in Chief in going to politicize a disease. Only a conservative boomer.

  79. 79.

    Kent

    @The Dangerman: This.

    They know this is going to be bad and they need a fall guy to deflect blame off the 2020 Trump Campaign.   Pence is a two-fer.  I expect the loyal MAGA junta has been looking for an excuse to defenestrate Pence and put someone more exiting in the VP slot.

    As Winston Churchill famously said.   “Never let a good crisis go to waste”

  81. 81.

    Citizen Scientist

    Cheese and crackers, Trump makes Pence sound presidential.  And you can tell Trump does not care about any victims of the CV, just its effects on the stock markets.

  82. 82.

    cain

    @Adam L Silverman:

    haha, we are so fucked. We are going to see true incompetence that cannot be hidden. These republicans are going to be really shitting themselves.

    (and us along with them)

    #MAGA

  83. 83.

    dmsilev

    @oatler.: I know “logic” and “consistency” and “merest glimmerings of sanity” are not Trump’s strong suits, but why would the market tank both before and after this particular Democratic debate and not any of the 342 prior ones?

  86. 86.

    Gvg

    You know, i’ve said before, Trump has been unusually lucky in not having any real crisises till now, except the ones he caused.  We’ve all known he would be a disaster when something happened, and something always happens. My theory is the world knows how precarious things are and the normal bad actors have been laying low till Trump is gone. But natural disaster don’t have agency so here we are. I was expecting him to screw up a Hurricane response (again). This is worse. Election season is probably strategically good but it’s not in anybody’s control.

    i do suspect we’ll have an outbreak of stupid country against country attacks right after we get a sane President back in office.  There is only so long that can hold off.

  88. 88.

    trollhattan

    O/T

    Producer, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter David Roback, best-known for co-founding Mazzy Star alongside vocalist Hope Sandoval, has died, a rep for the band announced late Tuesday. Roback was 61 years old.

    Makes me sad. Loved their small, trippy set of records and did not know too much about them past Hope Sandoval’s dreamy voice.

  90. 90.

    J R in WV

    So we are all saved from certain death from covid-19 Plague by VP Mike Pence!

    Huzzah !! Hurray !!

    We are so screwed, Pence is barely able to keep breathing on schedule, let alone think about science on his own!

  91. 91.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Gvg: Deity forbid this gets bad, but if it does, this won’t be like the mess he made of the Puerto Rico hurricane response because unlike Puerto Rico, all the newspapers and TV and cable news folks live in the continental US.

  92. 92.

    Kent

    @cain:Surprised that he’s not worried about the lack of people coming to his hotels.

    He’ll probably turn the Trump Doral into a quarantine center and bill the federal government about $10,000/day per person for the service to the country.  Win-win since his Plan-A of having the G7 meet there got torpedoed.

  93. 93.

    Adam L Silverman

    I need to clarify and correct something the President just said. Once the government lets personnel go, whether they’re civil servants or contractors and shutters the programs they are working on, it is VERY, VERY, VERY difficult to get that capability and those personnel back. Even in an emergency.

  94. 94.

    Elizabelle

    @Gvg:   That’s an interesting theory.

    It would seem Trump has been unusually lucky in no really terrible external events on his watch that would affect the continental US.

    Puerto Rico:  sucks to be you.

  95. 95.

    Patricia Kayden

    My dad (a doctor) had signs in every bathroom in our house that said, “Handwashing prevents infection!” with a teddy bear and a heart. I wouldn’t mind seeing those signs everywhere now. More effective than Pence.— Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) February 27, 2020

  96. 96.

    hitchhiker

    I watched this with the sound off and closed caption running. Does trump know any words besides “very”?

    Seriously, he uses it in every sentence and sometimes more than once. It’s so embarrassing to watch him hold up his little map and claim that we’re the best. It’s so embarrassing to watch him share that he just now learned that many thousands of people die of the flu every year. It’s so embarrassing to watch him squinting meaningfully at reporters.

    God, it’s all so damned embarrassing. And the answer to a potential pandemic is Mike fucking Pence.

  97. 97.

    germy

    Mike Pence, Virus Czar: Guy who doesn't believe in evolution, right? In charge of the response to a rapidly evolving global pandemic.

    Just … let that sink if for a few minutes.

    — Stonekettle (@Stonekettle) February 27, 2020

  102. 102.

    Aziz, light!

    Adam, I understand your preference for using the man’s title rather than his name, but the grammatical convention when identifying an officeholder is to lowercase the title unless it is followed by his name. He is the president, not the President. There is no need to give this title any more dignity than it deserves.

  103. 103.

    ant

    How many people in the USA are being tested for the virus?

     

    Do we have test kits? How much do they cost? Who pays?

     

    Are these questions being asked?

  105. 105.

    germy

    ‼️

    Azar refuses to promise a coronavirus vaccine will be affordable for anyone:

    “We would want to ensure that we work to make it affordable, but we can’t control that price, because we need the private sector to invest.. Price controls won’t get us there.”

    — Michael McAuliff (@mmcauliff) February 26, 2020

    “We need the private sector to invest” — Christ! They sluiced billions in tax cuts to the rich, but won’t pay a dime to stop a pandemic if their donors can still squeeze us for a buck.

    These people have got to go. https://t.co/GTOpqLZAnv

    — Roy Edroso (@edroso) February 26, 2020

  107. 107.

    germy

    Rush wants to have some fun with the rubes before he checks out for good:

    Here is Rush Limbaugh — who says coronavirus is no big deal — telling his millions of listeners to IGNORE THE WARNINGS OF A TOP CDC OFFICIAL because she is Rod Rosenstein's sister and probably part of a plot to take down Trump.

    This kind of BS puts people's lives at risk pic.twitter.com/yFxQlwZfOU

    — Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) February 26, 2020

  111. 111.

    danielx

    So was the presser as big a shitshow as Charles Pierce expected? Leaving aside the fact that with Mike Pence (R-bobblehead) in charge of the government response, we are clearly doomed.

  112. 112.

    Adam L Silverman

    @ant: They’ve tested around 445 people so far (as of yesterday’s report by the CDC). There are problems with the CDC’s test kits that they are trying to fix as quickly as possible. And no, they weren’t being asked.

  117. 117.

    Elizabelle

    @germy:   Putting dittoheads’ lives at risk?   Maybe Rush can do some good on his way out, after all.

    Better off without him and the majority of them.

  119. 119.

    Kent

    @ant:

    How many people in the USA are being tested for the virus?

    Do we have test kits? How much do they cost? Who pays?

    Are these questions being asked?

    Yes, we have the answer.  Under our current mess of a health care system it works like this: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/coronavirus-test-medical-bill-china-us-miami-osmel-martinez-azcue-a9358146.html

    A Miami man has received a nearly $3,500 medical bill after getting coronavirus tests following his trip to China.

    Osmel Martinez Azcue returned from a work trip last month to China and discovered he was feeling flu-like symptoms. Worried about the coronavirus, the man decided to go to a Florida hospital to get tested, according to the Miami Herald.

    Testing revealed Mr Azcue had the flu, not the coronavirus. But his limited health insurance left him with a bill of $3,270 two weeks after his test. He will be responsible for $1,400 of that bill.

    “How can they expect normal citizens to contribute to eliminating the potential risk of person-to-person spread if hospitals are waiting to charge us $3,270 for a simple blood test and a nasal swab?” Mr Azcue told the newspaper.

    Mr Azcue previously had insurance through the Affordable Care Act. He picked that insurance as he makes $55,000 through his job at a medical-device company, and it does not provide a health insurance plan.

    Once he first purchased the plan, he was paying $278 per month. These premiums then shot up to $400 once his full salary kicked in, forcing the man to cancel the coverage and pay $180 per month for a limited plan through National General Insurance.

    This decision comes as the Trump administration rolled back the Affordable Care Act regulations in 2018 and allowed “junk plans” on the market.

    These junk plans offer short-term, low-benefit coverage for people, but they also are not required to meet the law’s standards for health coverage, meaning the plans could avoid covering pre-existing conditions or offering protections from large out-of-pocket expenses.

    One problem people run into when shopping for insurance plans is the way these junk plans are advertised. Someone might think they have coverage for certain expenses only to discover later they don’t.

    Mr Azcue discovered that not only does he owe $1,400 out of pocket, but he also needs to provide his insurer with three years of medical records to prove that the flu he got didn’t relate to a pre-existing condition. If for some reason the flu related to a pre-existing condition, then the insurer would no longer pay a portion of the man’s bill.

    Jackson Memorial Hospital, where Mr Azcue received his tests, told the Miami Herald more bills are on its way to the man. It is not clear what else he will have to pay for after getting tested for the coronavirus.

  124. 124.

    Jeffro

    @cain: I’m already laughing, picturing the poor trumpov staffer who knows they’d better STIFLE THAT SNEEZE THEY FEEL COMIN’! or else they’ll be out on their butts as part of the Deep State conspiracy to spread COVID-19 in the White House argle bargle gargle…

  125. 125.

    Mnemosyne

    @Annamal:

    Non-expert me says there’s  about a 100 percent chance. It seems to be something that flies under the radar as “normal” flu until someone has the really bad reaction and stops breathing.

  127. 127.

    Mnemosyne

    @Kent:

    This decision comes as the Trump administration rolled back the Affordable Care Act regulations in 2018 and allowed “junk plans” on the market.

    I’m guessing that this will be transformed into yet another Obama failed us and the PPACA sucks! moment in the minds of the Berniebros.

  129. 129.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Annamal:

    100% chance!

  130. 130.

    Marcopolo

    @Annamal: Serious answer.  Since it appeared COVID-19 is infectious prior to symptoms manifesting you should assume it is spreading under the radar.

    Lol, or see what AS just posted above this.

  131. 131.

    Another Scott

    Thanks for this.  I noticed he was yammering on the radio on the drive home, but I refused to listen.

    Along the lines of Cheryl’s links, GovExec – You’re likely to get coronavirus:

    By JAMES HAMBLIN – THE ATLANTIC

    […]

    Coronaviruses are similar to influenza viruses in that they are both single strands of RNA. Four coronaviruses commonly infect humans, causing colds. These are believed to have evolved in humans to maximize their own spread—which means sickening, but not killing, people. By contrast, the two prior novel coronavirus outbreaks—SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome, named for where the first outbreak occurred)—were picked up from animals, as was H5N1. These diseases were highly fatal to humans. If there were mild or asymptomatic cases, they were extremely few. Had there been more of them, the disease would have spread widely. Ultimately, SARS and MERS each killed fewer than 1,000 people.

    COVID-19 is already reported to have killed more than twice that number. With its potent mix of characteristics, this virus is unlike most that capture popular attention: It is deadly, but not too deadly. It makes people sick, but not in predictable, uniquely identifiable ways. Last week, 14 Americans tested positive on a cruise ship in Japan despite feeling fine—the new virus may be most dangerous because, it seems, it may sometimes cause no symptoms at all.

    The world has responded with unprecedented speed and mobilization of resources. The new virus was identified extremely quickly. Its genome was sequenced by Chinese scientists and shared around the world within weeks. The global scientific community has shared genomic and clinical data at unprecedented rates. Work on a vaccine is well under way. The Chinese government enacted dramatic containment measures, and the World Health Organization declared an emergency of international concern. All of this happened in a fraction of the time it took to even identify H5N1 in 1997. And yet the outbreak continues to spread.

    The Harvard epidemiology professor Marc Lipsitch is exacting in his diction, even for an epidemiologist. Twice in our conversation he started to say something, then paused and said, “Actually, let me start again.” So it’s striking when one of the points he wanted to get exactly right was this: “I think the likely outcome is that it will ultimately not be containable.”

    […]

    But, but, the BBC News chyron says that Donnie said that the USA is #1 in preparedness. USA!! USA!!

    :-/

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  134. 134.

    Redshift

    Sadly, Pence probably is the least unqualified qualified person they could have picked (since it was going to be from the shallow pool of people Trump knows to be loyal.) From what I’ve read, you want an administrator, not a medical expert, and Pence is one of their few remaining people with that experience.

    He also has the experience of having caused an AIDS outbreak in his state through his misguided policies, but he still may be the least bad choice.

  138. 138.

    Marcopolo

    “He’s got a certain talent for this,” Trump says of Pence, who was just named to lead the government’s coronavirus approach. As Indiana governor Pence allowed an HIV outbreak in Scott County to spread to epidemic proportions because he slow-walked approval for needle exchanges.— Katie Rogers (@katierogers) February 26, 2020

  141. 141.

    Mike in Pasadena

    @oatler.: I was driving and listening on the radio when that puke came over the air.  Monday’s crash was the day before the debate.  Tuesday’s continuation of the crash was also before the debate started.  Yet, the market crashed because of things the debaters said.  That was a lot like what the Republicans were saying about the 2007/2008 crash: “…the stock market tanked in anticipation that Obama was going to win.”  Gag.  I turned the radio off and somehow managed to avoid crashing into something.

  143. 143.

    Marcopolo

    I’ve been thinking if Trump continues to hold massive campaign rallies there might be an opportunity for an enterprising person who would like to explore getting infected and then introduce chaos into the MAGA ecosphere.

    /s (but you know there are seriously unhinged folks out there thinking about doing this to groups they hate—who needs guns?)

  144. 144.

    cckids

    @hitchhiker: God, it’s all so damned embarrassing.

    This.  I swear, every time I think about future textbooks, and that this assclown will forever be recognized as a US President, I just despair.

  145. 145.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Marcopolo: I had a discussion about this with the Navy admiral who specialized in infectious diseases back in 2002 or 2003. That if I really wanted to do some damage as a terrorist, I’d send a number of people into hot zones for highly infectious and highly deadly diseases that would be likely to create mass panic if their was an outbreak. Specifically ebola and marburg. Get my operatives infected and then have them travel through multiple countries and multiple airports to try to cause the most widely dispersed infection pattern as possible. I’m a doctor, but not his type of doctor, and was thinking it through from my area of expertise and he basically told me he didn’t think this would work very well.

  146. 146.

    Jeffro

    Did not realize Azar was a former pharma exec…it all makes sense now…

    Hey Dems, don’t hold back here.  It’s important that all Americans know who’s fighting for them, and who’s fighting for pharma profits in the middle of a crisis.  Like, REALLY important.

  147. 147.

    RaflW

    I listened to the whole prepared part of the event. Trump really can’t hold a continuous thought for more than about five words. He also seems to have at most a couple hundred word vocabulary. It’s bizarre.

    The non-Pence, non-Trump portion seemed not awful, but also a bit Pollyanna.

    Trump saying when he resumed the mic that the US is very, very prepared struck me as reckless. Though Pence will take the fall for that.

  148. 148.

    Marcopolo

    Let me tell you, at least for me not touching my face is gonna take a lot of work. Started this morning & it is much more difficult than I thought it would be.

    I also purchased some extra non-perishable foods at the grocery store today. I’ll be doing this every few days going forward until I have enough put aside for a couple weeks.

    Better safe than sorry.

  149. 149.

    Martin

    I’m trying to get our institutional plans ramped up. My tactic is to lay out the numbers. Assuming a 2% mortality rate, which is the best info we have right now, a university with 30,000 students and 15,000 employees is looking at potentially 600 student fatalities and 300 staff. Unlikely with a bunch of 20 year old students, but staff tend to be fairly broad age range.

    I’m very skeptical of our larger governmental plans, but institutions like universities and companies can move fairly rapidly and I think will be expected to.

    I’ve been talking to colleagues in China and it’s really apparent how poorly positioned we are. They shut entire universities down and shifted instruction online. Faculty/staff are required to take their temperature twice a day. It is both amazingly draconian and seemingly quite practical at the same time, and it’s backed by a Berlin Airlift scale operation to keep cities functioning, which we obviously used to be able to do, but I’m not convinced we can do any longer given how it took 3 days to deliver water to the Superdome.

  150. 150.

    Kent

    @RaflW: Trump saying when he resumed the mic that the US is very, very prepared struck me as reckless. Though Pence will take the fall for that.

    Don’t you know?  Trump can never fail.  He can only be failed.

  151. 151.

    Jeffro

    @Adam L Silverman: “ebola runners”…told by their handler that they’d receive the ‘vaccine’ once they had gone through their eight (or whatever) assigned airports/urban grocery stores/bars/subways/etc…and of course collapsing at the end in major metro hospitals when the ‘vaccine’ meet-up never happens…

    I’ll just stop now and save it for my post-apocalyptic novel that I’m going to write in the post-apocalypse…

  154. 154.

    Jeffro

    @Martin: the mortality rate is one thing…how this will clog up pharmacies, doctor’s offices, ERs, etc is another.

    I’ve been trying to tell friends and relatives to focus on stocking up on their prescriptions and then work down the priority list.  Those supply-chain issues alone are going to really test the public.

  155. 155.

    Martin

    @Adam L Silverman: Right after 9/11 my dad and I over beers made a laundry list of ways to terrorize the nation. It was pretty easy to come up with stuff. Dozens of things. Some would work much better than others, of course, but they were also really cheap and almost trivial to implement.

    It made us feel better to realize how vulnerable we are and yet how few people are actually looking to exploit those vulnerabilities. We’re easy to terrorize, and yet almost nobody actually terrorizes us.

  156. 156.

    Marcopolo

    @Adam L Silverman: If I recall this has been a plot device in a few stories—like 12 Monkeys.

    If anyone want a fun read, there is a book called Feed where the concept is two teams of scientists independently come up with cures for the common cold & cancer which work, but which also somehow cause people who have both cures in their body when they die to turn into zombies.  Unanticipated consequences!  There are three books in the series and it is fun escapist (well mostly) reading. Here’s a link:

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feed_(Grant_novel)

  157. 157.

    mad citizen

    @cckids: You have captured my overriding thoughts over these last 3-4 years.  I was just thinking, he is barely running the executive branch of government–has done and is doing the absolute minimum amount of “work”.

    Trollhattan, nice of you to mention the passing of David Roback.  I really liked his work, Mazzy Star, Opal, etc.  An easy statement would be he was really underrated in the music world.

  159. 159.

    Marcopolo

    @Jeffro: And yet we have a drug system in place where insurance companies limit the number of pills for your prescriptions you can get down to the exact day & you cannot get 2 months. I go through this with my 87 yr old mom every couple of months when she’s down to two days worth of some prescription yet the insurer won’t pay for the new ones until the very last minute.

    Anyways, we’ve discussed stocking up on her meds the past few days but see no way to do it atm.

  160. 160.

    Martin

    @Jeffro: Yeah, calamity is one of those rare times when a centrally managed economy can be beneficial. Of course, it’s a complete crap-shoot if the execution will work (usually it doesn’t) but at least the potential is there.

    To freeze the ground, all the liquid nitrogen in the western Soviet Union was sent to Chernobyl: when it didn’t arrive quickly enough, director Brukhanov received a late-night telephone call from the minister in charge of the operation. ‘Find the nitrogen,’ he was told, ‘or you’ll be shot.’

    Capitalism is quite good at solving broad decentralized supply/demand problems, but it’s equally poor at solving collective action problems. So, a vaccine is developed. Who has the patent, who manufactures it, how much can they charge for it, who will pay for it? Can you force someone to pay out of pocket for the vaccine? How do you distribute it?

    Lots of this stuff will do great. Lots of it won’t. We have no way of determining which thing will fall in which category until shit goes badly.

  162. 162.

    Marcopolo

    @Mnemosyne: Well there is something to be said for self-reliance. I think Ralph Waldo Emerson had something to say about it.  Now when we all show up on his doorstep that’ll teach him a different lesson :).

  163. 163.

    Obvious Russian Troll

    @mad citizen: I am also sad to hear about his death. I was a fan of his since Rain Parade, and of course he was only a few years older than I am.

  164. 164.

    Brachiator

    @Martin:

    I’m trying to get our institutional plans ramped up. My tactic is to lay out the numbers. Assuming a 2% mortality rate, which is the best info we have right now…

    We are still learning a lot, and things may change as the disease spreads.  For example:

    But Iran’s reported mortality rate — about 14 percent — surpasses the rate for other countries by a dramatic margin. At the center of the outbreak in Hubei province in China, the reported mortality rate is estimated at 2 percent. In South Korea, 11 patients have died out of 1,146 cases, for a reported mortality rate of slightly less than 1 percent. A U.S. soldier is among those infected in South Korea….

    Still, some of the evidence suggests that all people are not equally at risk.

    The sample’s overall case-fatality rate was 2.3%, higher than World Health Organization official 0.7% rate. No deaths occurred in those aged 9 years and younger, but cases in those aged 70 to 79 years had an 8% fatality rate and those aged 80 years and older had a fatality rate of 14.8%.

    No deaths were reported among mild and severe cases. The fatality rate was 49% among critical cases, and elevated among those with preexisting conditions: 10.5% for people with cardiovascular disease, 7.3% for diabetes, 6.3% for chronic respiratory disease, 6% for hypertension, and 5.6% for cancer.

    Gender and health habit issues:

    The latest China-based study, which was not peer-reviewed by U.S. scientists, found that men had a fatality rate of 2.8% versus 1.7% for women. Some doctors have said that women may have a stronger immune system as a genetic advantage to help babies during pregnancy.

    The Chinese study is likely not representative of what might happen if the global spread of the virus worsens. In China, nearly half of men smoke cigarettes compared to roughly 2% of women, which could be one reason for the higher death rate among males.

    The cigarette smoking thing and possible links is very interesting.  In the US and other countries, cigarette smoking is down. But vaping….

  165. 165.

    Mike in NC

    Fat Bastard will tell the marks at his next campaign rally that he knows more about infectious diseases than all of the losers and eggheads at CDC and NIH combined, and they’ll wave their MAGA hats and cheer.

  166. 166.

    Mnemosyne

    @Marcopolo:

    Crazy thought — could you call her doctor(s) and see if they have any of her meds in sample form? Those usually cover about 2 weeks.

  167. 167.

    Marcopolo

    @Jeffro: Haven’t seen anyone mention this but prior to the press conference Azar testified before the House.  Among other things he said this:

    ‼️Azar refuses to promise a coronavirus vaccine will be affordable for anyone:"We would want to ensure that we work to make it affordable, but we can't control that price, because we need the private sector to invest.. Price controls won't get us there."— Michael McAuliff (@mmcauliff) February 26, 2020

  168. 168.

    Ksmiami

    @Adam L Silverman: those are blood borne diseases like HIV so ppl just running through airports wouldn’t necessarily spread the disease effectively- close direct contact with fluids wouldn’t really happen in this scenario

  171. 171.

    Marcopolo

    @Brachiator: If you have read how COVID-19 affects the body (the virus attacks your lungs at the same time it is provoking bodily responses that cause a higher rate of mucous production in the lungs), having lung tissue that is already damaged by smoking or vaping would definitely lead to a higher mortality rate.

  173. 173.

    Marcopolo

    @ant: In response to your question about testing, there are under two dozen labs in the entire country that are currently equipped to do testing (most in big blue states—NY & CA for example).  So there have not been that many tests in the US. And then there was this report (tweet links to an article about how testing kits the CDC were unusable due to a flawed component).

    I can’t see how officials can claim to have any kind of handle on how many cases there are in the US when they have done so few effective tests. https://t.co/zlBt4gTVTX— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) February 27, 2020

  174. 174.

    Jeffro

    @Marcopolo: yes…not sure if others mentioned it above (I think they did) and I know I put it out on FB and Twitter…

    These guys are almost literally going to hang themselves come November if they keep this up.

    Although I trust the Dems to keep it close ;)

  175. 175.

    Martin

    @Brachiator: Right. In our case we have a LOT of low income students, a constantly shocking discovery of how many homeless students. We run the only public hospital in a county with 3 million people – and a lot of those employees work there and are likely to be completely overrun by cases.

    Certainly we’re optimistic that our students and staff are healthy and have good health care, and all will be fine, but shit, we don’t really know until it hits.

  176. 176.

    patrick II

    @Shalimar:

    He doesn’t like to admit he needs makeup. He pretends things are different than they are if it makes him feel better. About 40% of Americans have joined him in his magical thinking, most with more dire consequences than looking silly on TV.

  177. 177.

    Martin

    @Marcopolo: And related the vaccine comment above, how many testing kits can the nation produce? How many can be evaluated (anyone take comfort by how badly handled the rape kit situation in this country is?)? Again, how does distribution get handled to care providers, by care providers to the public, etc?

    I know we have the capacity to do these things, but they require levels of coordination that I doubt we can pull off. Plus, other problems – the anti-vaxxers are going to lose their shit over this. They were just today fighting a vaccine bill in CT.

  179. 179.

    Eolirin

    @Martin: I wouldn’t draw any comparisons with the rape kit situation. That’s more to do with decades of law enforcement priorities than anything to do with the medical servicing side of things.

    But I do agree that we’re going to have a hard time coordinating things. Trump broke our ability to do that pretty good.

  183. 183.

    karensky

    Little late but I am waiting for the president* to call the new virus “My Sharona Virus.”  That’s all.

  185. 185.

    mad citizen

    @karensky: You are brilliant, and that song was pretty much a virus back in the day.  The hooks are undeniable.  If people still listened to rock music, Weird Al doing “My Corona” should be hitting in 3, 2, …

  187. 187.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    You all know that if the Coronvirus is spread at one of Dmuf’s endless rallies by some idiot who just had to go with a fever the Red Hats would instantly blame the Left no matter what the truth. The correlation to Trump can not fail, only be failed is the Right is always the victim.

    What we really never with the god damn Chines virus is MORE COWBELLS!

  188. 188.

    catclub

    @cain: If I recall, he was quite upset that they ended up in the U.S. to begin with.

     

    This sounds the one where the CDC said do not bring them on the plane, and the State department overruled their recommendation.

  191. 191.

    catclub

    @Martin: We’re easy to terrorize, and yet almost nobody actually terrorizes us.

     

    9-11 was an amazing one-off and al Qaeda had no idea how to take advantage of that. They had no understanding of our society.

    see Boyd and Malvo – less than $10k, two guys and beater car,

    and a rifle.

  193. 193.

    Chris Johnson

    I have a feeling that, to Trump, all this is about throwing Pence under the bus.

    Pence, there to replace Trump as the appointed Russian pawn. Pence, selected by a Russian agent, working so hard to be bland all this time, to not get thrown off the bus just in case God speaks to him and says ‘the orange asshole is dead, and you are President’.

    Trump will be trying to have him shot for failing to contain the coronavirus. To Trump, it’s the perfect crime: make Pence be responsible for this thing that is going to go horribly wrong and look bad, and then Pence will look bad not him!

    Because Trump is demented and had brain worms BEFORE he even was demented.

    This is a pretty fucked-up moment to use a crisis to enact a petty vengeance. But that’s Trump for ya. The ONLY thing he’s caring about is ‘can I blame and get rid of Pence?’. I wonder to what extent that part of it will work, and to what extent he’s pissing off Putin by constantly ruining everything.

  198. 198.

    lgerard

    Paula White is standing by, ready to wave her arms and shout some Jesus words to cure those afflicted.

  199. 199.

    Jeffro

    @Chris T.: it should actually mean worse than a traitor…a stupid, narcissistic, self-interested for no noble cause at all traitor.  Just a jackass braying about itself, all the time, because it’s the world’s awesomest jackass and also according to the daddy voices in its head all the other jackasses are out to rip it off so it’d better rip them off first.

    Sorry if that’s a little specific.

  201. 201.

    Jeffro

    @catclub: truth.  it’s shocking that A-Q and subsequent terrorist groups didn’t realize just how much they could shut down with a few similar pairs or groups.

  202. 202.

    ziggy

    I watched almost all the news conference, and I hate to say it, but Trump looked as good as he has in quite a while. Actually jovial at times. Maybe 100,000 indians chanting “Namaste Trump” soothed his ego for a while. Or maybe they have a new med regime that is working better. Surprising after such a long trip.

  204. 204.

    Aziz, light!

    @Chris Johnson: You are overthinking this. Pence got the gig because it was Trump’s easiest move. Hand a job that he doesn’t give a shit about and that can’t be spun to his benefit to the nearest loyal lapdog.

  208. 208.

    EthylEster

    Why is Melania in the picture?

    I can’t recall any other president having his wife at events like these.

    Does she have (other) bullies to encourage to “be best”?

  209. 209.

    J R in WV

    @Marcopolo:

    … say she’s going out of town for a long enough time to get 2 months of each prescription.

    You will have to claim she will be out of country, or in an area with no drug stores, like Navajo Nation, which gets medications from the Indian Health Service. If you are just in some other city, you can get a refill there. Been there, tried that.

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