All things political. Coronavirus Edition. (4 Viewers)

[Maxp]

I fear we are really going to be in a bad place due to the obvious cuts to the federal agencies that deal with infectious disease, but also the negative effect the Affordable Care act has had on non urban hospitals. Our front line defenses are ineffectual and our ability to treat the populous is probably at an all time low. Factor in the cost of healthcare and I can see our system crashing. What do you think about the politics of this virus?

 

[bdb13]

This is what he's talking about:

And I'll add that unless I'm missing something (like the W.H.O. knowing that China was falsely reporting what's in that tweet), which is possible, the W.H.O. is really moreso guilty of repeating Chinese propaganda and giving it a larger platform than they are of lying.

 

[Dadsdream]

Laughable response...maybe that is what you were going for....

I'm a 20-year federal service military retiree, currently supplementing my retirement income by working as contracted service provider to a federal agency to pay for my wife's hobbies (horses, dogs, cats, geese, ducks, chickens).
I thought perhaps your long association with Treasury would allow us to share some common ground and perhaps a bit of humor.
Seems it was a misplaced notion on my part.

 

[Beach Friends]

2

What do you mean no human to human contact? Once it jumped to humans, how else would it spread? Maybe mosquitoes?

Before you blow a gasket for no reason, look up "zoonotic" and "zoonosis."

 

[Dadsdream]

And I'll add that unless I'm missing something (like the W.H.O. knowing that China was falsely reporting what's in that tweet), which is possible, the W.H.O. is really moreso guilty of repeating Chinese propoganda and giving it a larger platform than they are of lying.

And, as repeatedly pointed out in press conferences yesterday, we donate 10 times as much to WHO as China does, so you think we'd get a little more respect?

 

[SFIDC3]

I thought perhaps your long association with Treasury would allow us to share some common ground and perhaps a bit of humor.
Seems it was a misplaced notion on my part.

Ok. Fair enough....it was laughable....

 

[bdb13]

And, as repeatedly pointed out in press conferences yesterday, we donate 10 times as much to WHO as China does, so you think we'd get a little more respect?

I'd like to know why that Tweet went out, for sure.

 

[Beach Friends]

And I'll add that unless I'm missing something (like the W.H.O. knowing that China was falsely reporting what's in that tweet), which is possible, the W.H.O. is really moreso guilty of repeating Chinese propoganda and giving it a larger platform than they are of lying.

Taiwan warned the WHO back in December, but because the WHO follows China's dictate that Taiwan not be treated as an independent state, they ignored the warning.

I have also heard that WHO internal experts took the position that the virus was being transmitted between humans, but the administration ignored them as well. If I find more info on that I will post it.

Either way, some people at the WHO need to go.

 

[Lapaz]

This is what he's talking about:

So how is the WHO lying when the report is reporting what preliminary investigations from Chinese officials reported? If the Chinese report something, and then the WHO says they didn't report it, then that would be a lie. Supposedly the first infection came from a bat in that Chinese market in December, so the Chinese were reporting that a re-transmission from human to human had not yet been identified. That may have been a lie, but the WHO reported what it had been told. This may indicate that the WHO needs more funding to put people in the hot areas to investigate first hand.

 

[bdb13]

Taiwan warned the WHO back in December, but because the WHO follows China's dictate that Taiwan not be treated as an independent state, they ignored the warning.

I have also heard that WHO internal experts took the position that the virus was being transmitted between humans, but the administration ignored them as well. If I find more info on that I will post it.

Either way, some people at the WHO need to go.

Similar-ish to what it seems like we had occur domestically.

Hell, sounds like you could already be halfway there to dumping Trump!
/

 

[bdb13]

So how is the WHO lying when the report is reporting what preliminary investigations from Chinese officials reported? If the Chinese report something, and then the WHO says they didn't report it, then that would be a lie. Supposedly the first infection came from a bat in that Chinese market in December, so the Chinese were reporting that a re-transmission from human to human had not yet been identified. That may have been a lie, but the WHO reported what it had been told. This may indicate that the WHO needs more funding to put people in the hot areas to investigate first hand.

That, or that they're hopelessly corrupt... or you know, something in between.

 

[Lapaz]

Taiwan warned the WHO back in December, but because the WHO follows China's dictate that Taiwan not be treated as an independent state, they ignored the warning.

I have also heard that WHO internal experts took the position that the virus was being transmitted between humans, but the administration ignored them as well. If I find more info on that I will post it.

Either way, some people at the WHO need to go.

Ah politics and economic considerations influenced how the WHO acted. Sounds familiar to Trump, except the WHO has been way ahead of Trump, even with its mistakes.

Perhaps the WHO needs to fix some problems and eliminate people that are not doing their jobs effectively, just like the Trump administration needs to be eliminated, but this is not the time to halt their funding, just like this would not be a good time to impeach Trump. After this pandemic is controlled, then it will be time to revisit eliminating some personnel or reforming WHO. The focus needs to remain on controlling the pandemic, and the WHO is working throughout the world on that task. Cutting or halting their funds now creates much more dangers to America than the petty mistakes they may have made. They still warned us early enough to act, had we had a leader willing to listen to scientists.

 

[JRad]

And I'll add that unless I'm missing something (like the W.H.O. knowing that China was falsely reporting what's in that tweet), which is possible, the W.H.O. is really moreso guilty of repeating Chinese propaganda and giving it a larger platform than they are of lying.

The WHO can't exactly roll into China to verify, so they're kind of at the mercy of what China tells them at that point. I'm not sure I'd fault them for that.

Regardless, it's petty to pull that funding during a pandemic.

 

[zztop]

The WHO can't exactly roll into China to verify, so they're kind of at the mercy of what China tells them at that point. I'm not sure I'd fault them for that.

Regardless, it's petty to pull that funding during a pandemic.

Exactly. Lets "consider the source". I mean china silenced the doctor that was trying to warn them early, swept it under the rug, then everything blew up and spun out of control and spread like wildfire. That poor doctor ended up contracting it himself and dying from it.

 

[Beach Friends]

Ah politics and economic considerations influenced how the WHO acted. Sounds familiar to Trump, except the WHO has been way ahead of Trump, even with its mistakes.

Perhaps the WHO needs to fix some problems and eliminate people that are not doing their jobs effectively, just like the Trump administration needs to be eliminated, but this is not the time to halt their funding, just like this would not be a good time to impeach Trump. After this pandemic is controlled, then it will be time to revisit eliminating some personnel or reforming WHO. The focus needs to remain on controlling the pandemic, and the WHO is working throughout the world on that task. Cutting or halting their funds now creates much more dangers to America than the petty mistakes they may have made. They still warned us early enough to act, had we had a leader willing to listen to scientists.

Do you think you have gotten in your daily quota of whataboutisms yet?

 

[UncleTrvlingJim]

Similar-ish to what it seems like we had occur domestically.

Hell, sounds like you could already be halfway there to dumping Trump!
/

I was going to say something similar. If the WHO needs to fire people because they backed China's line, do we need to do the same to people in our administration who praised China for their help and transparency?

 

[samiam5211]

Trump was defending China at the same time the WHO was repeating their talking points.

Maybe a president who wasn’t trying to be BFF’s with the head of the Chinese Communist Party would have pressured the WHO to verify the Chinese claims, or at least given them the cover to question China.

Yes, I’m saying the WHO is Trumps fault too.

 

[Nebaghead]

In the world of "NO MATTER WHAT HE DOES, HE'S WRONG AND I HATE HIM" it's understandable that people would continue to find fault even as the direct deposits hit the banks today.

Bloomberg says the IRS can process five million paper checks a week. At that rate, it'll take months.

I guess with all your expertise in IT and the requirement to add additional text/graphics to the check file it won’t take any extra time. If there is someone you can believe it’s the spokesperson from the IRS.
Why aren’t the checks going out now? seems in a world where this is so easy, they could have started printing the checks the same time the direct deposits occurred.

 

[bdb13]

The WHO can't exactly roll into China to verify, so they're kind of at the mercy of what China tells them at that point. I'm not sure I'd fault them for that.

Regardless, it's petty to pull that funding during a pandemic.

From doing a little bit of research It seems like by January 14 there was already worry outside of China that they were lying about human-to-human transmission. Here the W.H.O. aided in spreading and promoting Chinese propaganda and I'm curious as to why they felt compelled to Tweet that out at that point in time. Seems a bit weird with the doubt that was apparently out there and certainly a bad thing to have allowed themselves to be used by China when the world needed better from the W.H.O.