COVID-19 News

[Gene Steinberg]

And, today, the dunce-in-chief announced that it's not really that important to have more tests, that if fewer people were tested, fewer people would be reported as infected.

Don't know how that's supposed to impact the number of people who will die if their deaths are reported or not.

But that's our "Commander in Chief."

His latest awesome vaccine project is just smoke and mirrors. It won't speed up the ability of scientists to test and perfect a vaccine and get it available.

 

[Randall]

Sorry, Randall. But I saw the exchange. She set him up for nothing. Trump picked on her because she is a Chinese-American woman, who emigrated here when she was 3 and is a US citizen. He used her heritage as an excuse to rant about China. The problem is that you can't ask real questions of Trump before he freaks out, and he is especially nasty towards women of color. Check the archives.

Sorry you don't see it when it's entirely obvious to me. Trump didn't "pick on" her at all in this clip. She set him up with baited question ( which is low ), and then when Trump says to ask China ( which although a deflection, is also entirely reasonable ), she pulled the racism card and starts arguing, which he tried to avoid by moving on to another reporter, who was waiting in the wings to take over the ambush. So he simply shut down the interview. So now anybody who wants to blame China is racist? That's BS.

It looks to me like the people who hate Trump will take any opportunity they can to spin his answer into some sort of racist or misogynistic outburst. Mind you, Trump's history makes him an easy target. But look again and try to set your anti Trump bias aside for 2 minutes. The reporter does more freaking out than Trump, and with the specific intent to imply that his answer is racist because she's asian. Look how she moves her face mask out of the way and sticks her face out to emphasize she's asian while focusing the attention on her specifically.

There was no relevant question from her about the pandemic. The questioning was entirely political and designed to smear Trump right from the start, and he took the bait. It was a total setup. If you can't see that then you need to reset your objectivity.

 

[Gene Steinberg]

There was no ambush. I saw the entire season and what she asked was based on what he said.

More to the point, making racist comments against people of color is part and parcel of Trump's playback. Many of his followers adore that approach. Blaming China is legitimate, baiting a Chinese-American woman isn't.

 

[Gene Steinberg]

This is an older story, which describes the same behavior:

Trump draws rebukes for scolding female reporters of color

"I watch you a lot, you ask a lot of stupid questions," Trump told CNN reporter Abby Phillip, who is black.

www.politico.com

If the woman is female, particularly Asian or African-American, Trump will single them out for asking what he calls "nasty" questions even though most if not all of these questions are perfectly reasonable. If they were white men, would he react the same way?

 

[Gene Steinberg]

And one more thing:

The reason to be upset about Trump's performance during the virus is that he has routinely denied reality, and, worse, the number of infections and deaths in the U.S. is far greater than any other country.

United States has more coronavirus deaths than any other country

The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus briefly overtook Italy’s for the highest in the world Saturday, according to the running tally kept by Johns Hopkins University.

www.wrdw.com

Who is in charge? Where does the buck stop?

 

[Ezechiel]

And one more thing:
The reason to be upset about Trump's performance during the virus is that he has routinely denied reality, and, worse, the number of infections and deaths in the U.S. is far greater than any other country.

United States has more coronavirus deaths than any other country

The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus briefly overtook Italy’s for the highest in the world Saturday, according to the running tally kept by Johns Hopkins University.

www.wrdw.com

Who is in charge? Where does the buck stop?

As a blunt thought. Imagine you're a racist, maybe even part of the KKK.... or even better the son of a racist.

An Oral History of Trump’s Bigotry

His racism and intolerance have always been in evidence; only slowly did he begin to understand how to use them to his advantage.

www.theatlantic.com

And then you see the following statistics for the states that elected you (except Illinois of course). What's your call going to be ? Open up or shut down ?

COVID-19 Is Having A Devastating Impact On African Americans [Infographic]

Statistics from Chicago show that African Americans have accounted for 69% of all COVID-19-related deaths in the city despite comprising 30% of its population.

www.forbes.com

 

[Randall]

And then you see the following statistics for the states that elected you (except Illinois of course). What's your call going to be ? Open up or shut down

I think that's going too far because I can't imagine anyone ( even Trump ) being so completely evil. What I can imagine is that the reason probably has a close correlation to poverty and educational statistics, which often translates to higher density living conditions. If combined with a distrust of white authority leading to ignoring the warnings, you can see why the stats would be higher.

The questions then are more about poverty, education, and distrust of government than racism. Living in Canada I rarely experience racism here. In fact, I've experienced it more against me as a single white male than anything else. I also imagine there are places where no white person would want to be caught walking alone at night. White people certainly don't hold a monopoly on racism.

 

[Randall]

There was no ambush. I saw the entire season and what she asked was based on what he said.

I think you probably meant "session" than "season", but either way it makes no difference. The reporter clearly formulated her question in a way that smeared Trump rather than asking something relevant about the pandemic itself, and then when Trump attempted to move on, the next reporter clearly tried to stand-in to continue the attack.

You'd also have to be completely naive to think that the reporter's question wasn't formulated before she asked it, or that her reaction wasn't an obvious accusation of racism. I don't see that as responsible journalism. It was cheap-shot grandstanding to get a reaction, and it worked. I don't like Trump any more than you do, but I wouldn't give that reporter the time of day either.

 

[Randall]

Possible Cure For Covid-19 Found - New Item - May 17, 2020

Bangladesh doctors claim to have found effective drug combination to cure COVID-19 patients

A Bangladeshi medical team has claimed their research on the combination of two widely used drugs has yielded "astounding" results in curing the patients with acute symptoms of the novel coronavirus. The global pandemic has claimed the lives of over 3,12,000 people across the world. The claim...

www.wionews.com

This is really interesting to me because I recently finished a round of Doxycycline for a dental infection and noticed online that it is one of the antibiotics used for Ebola. I wondered if it might be effective against COVID-19 too. It is cheap and widely available with very minimal side effects.

 

[Gene Steinberg]

It has been mentioned. They are trying lots of stuff, but I hope they've given up on that anti-malaria medicine that has the potential for heart-related side effects.

 

[Gene Steinberg]

You'd also have to be completely naive to think that the reporter's question wasn't formulated before she asked it, or that her reaction wasn't an obvious accusation of racism. I don't see that as responsible journalism. It was cheap-shot grandstanding to get a reaction, and it worked. I don't like Trump any more than you do, but I wouldn't give that reporter the time of day either.

You've got to understand context in these questions. If you listen to the crap Trump has been spouting for months, you'd see every single question he has been asked is quite softball. There were no hit jobs. And his response is typical. Evade the question and, where appropriate, attack the reporter. If the reporter is a woman, she is "nasty." This is particularly true for a woman of color.

 

[Randall]

You've got to understand context in these questions. If you listen to the crap Trump has been spouting for months, you'd see every single question he has been asked is quite softball. There were no hit jobs. And his response is typical. Evade the question and, where appropriate, attack the reporter. If the reporter is a woman, she is "nasty." This is particularly true for a woman of color.

The context you're talking about is the bias. Try taking the exact same dialogue in that scene and replace it with an imaginary president you know nothing about. Without any context to color your reaction, you'll see what I'm saying. Being objective with Trump isn't easy, but I find that little trick works well for me. I'm not invested in spinning anything and everything Trump does into a slam on his personality.

There's no question that the reporter took the opportunity to attack Trump personally rather than ask pertinent questions about the pandemic. The fallout resulted in other news stations doing the same thing. So his comment about China, which is what people should be paying attention to, is ignored or dismissed as a deflection of his responsibility. Or worse yet, called racist. I'm sure that puts a smile on the faces of the CCP.

The lack of objectivity that the Americans have for Trump has emotionally compromised their judgement, and therefore, regardless of any other reasons there may be, he cannot effectively lead your country. You guys need someone new, but no matter who it is, some of Trump's tar will stick to them just because they came immediately after him and have to takeover his legacy.

 

[Gene Steinberg]

He can’t effectively lead because he is not qualified. And thousands of people have died under his watch because of it.

 

[Randall]

He can’t effectively lead because he is not qualified. And thousands of people have died under his watch because of it.

Even if Trump was a qualified PhD virologist, he still couldn't lead because all the personal biases about him are blinding everyone to the fact that China knowingly let loose a virus. That's why people died, and we don't know enough about all the details to be sure that simply having another name in office would have resulted in more or less deaths down there.

Perhaps an entirely different approach than anyone has suggested might have been better for the country over the long-term. We just don't know. The focus now should be to keep it from happening again, and unless somebody pays attention to what your President is trying to tell you about China instead of writing it off as a racist remark, it probably will happen again.

 

[Gene Steinberg]

We DO know that, if Trump did his job, and stopped talking about magical facts, fewer people would have died. Compare the US to every other country in the world.

 

[Gene Steinberg]

The stats in the following article explain where the U.S. really stands in the world:

How the US stacks up to other countries in confirmed coronavirus cases

The United States has about a third of the world’s coronavirus cases.

www.vox.com

 

[Gene Steinberg]

And as for China, they are upping the PR war, so they can appear as heroes in combating the pandemic.

Obviously they don't want people to know why it took weeks before China took the wraps off the full story. It may not have stopped the virus — and Trump has no excuse for weeks of inaction — but you are going to see more favorable press about China. To Trump's detriment.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/chinas-xi-backs-who-led-review-of-covid-19-outbreak-proposes-aid-for-developing-world/2020/05/18/911a1544-98df-11ea-ad79-eef7cd734641_story.html

 

[Randall]

The stats in the following article explain where the U.S. really stands in the world:

That fits with the claim by exiled billionaire Guo Wengui who that the CCP's aim is to destabilize the West. The counterpoint to that is that the West is a major trading partner with China and they'd only be doing themselves a disservice. The counterpoint to that is that the CCP elite are fine either way and they have a horrid human rights record, so compromising some of their own people for the "greater good" wouldn't be seen as a problem.

We DO know that, if Trump did his job, and stopped talking about magical facts, fewer people would have died. Compare the US to every other country in the world.

If the only variable you change is what Trump said and did or didn't do, then there's a convincing case that better things could have been said and done, but I seriously doubt the difference in outcomes would be as massive as the Trump haters would contend. Much of what he said could be attributed to avoiding mass panic when there were only a few confirmed cases.

At that time, nobody could have been entirely sure how it would play out. For all we know, putting the nation on lockdown sooner might have had even worse longer-term consequences. We don't know for sure. The whole thing is a mass experiment, and Americans fighting Americans over their polarized opinions about your President is playing right into the destabilization.

Regardless of what people think of Trump, unity against the common threat would be smarter, but there are forces at work ( including the the CCP's PR department ) making sure that doesn't happen. You're in a war with them right now and most Americans are oblivious to it or think it's a crazy conspiracy theory. It's not. It's as real as the Cold War with the Soviet Union , but more complex.

 

[Gene Steinberg]

The biggest issues were the refusal to recognize the threat, to ramp up testing, and to put in social distancing and other protective measures in a timely fashion.

Remember that the U.S. has, by far, the largest number of infections and deaths, despite having 4.25% of the world's population.

Trump's response has been to blame everyone else rather than do his job. He's even blaming Obama, which is preposterous.

Trump's crew of incompetents do not have any excuse for why things are so much worse in this country. How'd they manage that?

China? Right now, they will win the PR war worldwide because they are trying to move past the early failure to release the details of the infection.

Rather than demonize people, if Trump took a proactive attitude and played the role of empathic world leader guiding us on the path to a proper solution, he'd win lots of hearts and minds — even from his opposition.

 

[Randall]

The biggest issues were the refusal to recognize the threat, to ramp up testing, and to put in social distancing and other protective measures in a timely fashion.

Remember that the U.S. has, by far, the largest number of infections and deaths, despite having 4.25% of the world's population.

Trump's response has been to blame everyone else rather than do his job. He's even blaming Obama, which is preposterous.

Trump's crew of incompetents do not have any excuse for why things are so much worse in this country. How'd they manage that?

China? Right now, they will win the PR war worldwide because they are trying to move past the early failure to release the details of the infection.

Rather than demonize people, if Trump took a proactive attitude and played the role of empathic world leader guiding us on the path to a proper solution, he'd win lots of hearts and minds — even from his opposition.

It's not that I'm saying Americans don't have a right to be displeased with Trump. Personally, I don't like his style. It's obvious to me that he is his own worst enemy. His gigantic ego, and lack of emotional and political intelligence make him an easy target to manipulate. It also causes blind spots where decision making is concerned. He needs serious help. I imagine people have tried to get through to him, but have found it impossible.

Still, that doesn't justify blaming everything about the pandemic on him or twisting everything he says into a smear against him. There are many more variables than Trump. He's a small part of a much bigger picture. Basically, it's not that I think what you're saying is wrong. I just don't think that cherry picking your President's most stupid remarks to persecute him and divide your country during a time of crisis is the smartest approach to take.