All things political. Coronavirus Edition. (3 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?

 

[DaveXA]

Interesting comments from Christie. He's definitely changed his tune.

 

[Neworleansfan]

Interesting comments from Christie. He's definitely changed his tune.

Herman Cain says “No shirt!”

 

[JRad]

Interesting comments from Christie. He's definitely changed his tune.

Welcome to RINO, Christie.

Seriously though, I hope this reaches literally anyone.

 

[Lapaz]

Interesting comments from Christie. He's definitely changed his tune.

I think this is typical of right-wingers. They lack empathy until it happens to them. They have to have a homosexual kid. They have to experience bigotry. They have to experience poverty. They have to get COVID. Pitiful.

 

[MT15]

Here’s a comparison of deaths here versus deaths in countries who handled it better than Trump did



This is what happened because people in this administration were advocating for “herd immunity” far earlier than we knew.

‘We want them infected’: Trump appointee demanded ‘herd immunity’ strategy, emails reveal

Then-HHS science adviser Paul Alexander called for millions of Americans to be infected as means of fighting Covid-19.

www.politico.com

When Trump quit caring about mitigating the pandemic, it was thought he just lost interest, or he didn’t care once it was clear that more people of color were dying, or he was desperate to prop up the economy, or he was too stupid to understand the public health policies. I would say all of those played into his inaction.

But he was also being advised by people who didn’t know jack bleep about epidemiology, and since their advice propped up his own ignorant tendencies, we have a nearly unbearable death toll. Including a very nice 75 year old retired elementary school principal who lived two doors down from me.

Fork Donald Trump. I hope he dies in prison.

 

[wardorican]

Are we sure about that? If true, then boy does that suck.. i wasnt working for most of the time from Aug-Nov, just recently started back- and was really thinking that whenever a deal was reached, it would be retroactive and help people like me recoup money from when i was furloughed and had to run up credit cards, etc... Also, you think a one-time $600 stimulus will help make up for that??

Help recoup and make up for that are different criteria.

In order to "make whole" it depends on how many weeks and how many members of your family are in the household.

$300/ week and 4 people = $2400

2400/300 is 8 weeks worth.

I think I was on the STC program for 9 weeks without the federal boost (which was $600 then).

 

[superchuck500]

I think this is typical of right-wingers. They lack empathy until it happens to them. They have to have a homosexual kid. They have to experience bigotry. They have to experience poverty. They have to get COVID. Pitiful.

I think this certainly appears true for many 'right-wingers' but I wonder how much of it is so deeply engrained that it is subconscious, part of the deep programming that begins at birth. Very interesting psychology question.

(And in fairness, the 'no empathy until you experience it' isn't exclusive to them, it's human nature to some degree. But they do seem to be more rigid about it).

 

[Complex Kid]

I think this is typical of right-wingers. They lack empathy until it happens to them. They have to have a homosexual kid. They have to experience bigotry. They have to experience poverty. They have to get COVID. Pitiful.

And even then it only works on about 15% of them maybe. I mean look at Scalise. He gets gunned down and comes back even worse than before.

Other than Christie I don't remember seeing any other republican that got Covid come back afterwards and say this is a big deal we need to get a handle on it.

 

[insidejob]

Here’s a comparison of deaths here versus deaths in countries who handled it better than Trump did



This is what happened because people in this administration were advocating for “herd immunity” far earlier than we knew.

‘We want them infected’: Trump appointee demanded ‘herd immunity’ strategy, emails reveal

Then-HHS science adviser Paul Alexander called for millions of Americans to be infected as means of fighting Covid-19.

www.politico.com

When Trump quit caring about mitigating the pandemic, it was thought he just lost interest, or he didn’t care once it was clear that more people of color were dying, or he was desperate to prop up the economy, or he was too stupid to understand the public health policies. I would say all of those played into his inaction.

But he was also being advised by people who didn’t know jack bleep about epidemiology, and since their advice propped up his own ignorant tendencies, we have a nearly unbearable death toll. Including a very nice 75 year old retired elementary school principal who lived two doors down from me.

Fork Donald Trump. I hope he dies in prison.

I don't think he ever actually cared about mitigating the pandemic. Bob Woodward pretty much proved that to all of us when he got Trump on record as early as January (I'm not 100% certain it was January, but I know it was well before he even started lying about it just being the flu) saying that this was going to be a huge disaster. The way he handled this publicly from day one shows that he never cared at all about anything but the political implications of COVID and he seriously screwed that up too. I remember it being reported that Trump was going to try to basically weaponize the virus to make it look like only states with Democrat governors (or what he considered to be "blue states") were being affected the most.

He could have prevented so much suffering just by being competent. If he was there's a pretty good chance that he'd have won re-election. I'd have been willing to endure another 4 years of him in office to not have 310,000 dead Americans. We're on pace to have another 200,000 dead Americans over the next 60 days if nothing changes. I wish that I could see that not happening but what has been done to slow it down? Everyone who believes in science, not even just doctors, was saying that the winter was going to be a "second wave" of misery at the beginning of the pandemic.

Oh yeah. Another thing this stupid virus has caused: The poverty level in the US is now at 11%. We always talk about the unemployment rate and kinda gloss over the poverty rate. I know they go hand in hand but I thought I'd mention that statistic.

USA! USA! USA!

 

[BayouSAINTJoe]

And even then it only works on about 15% of them maybe. I mean look at Scalise. He gets gunned down and comes back even worse than before.

Other than Christie I don't remember seeing any other republican that got Covid come back afterwards and say this is a big deal we need to get a handle on it.

Not only that, my dude got shot with an assault rifle, got saved by a black lesbian capitol police officer (or something) and didn't even change his stance on guns, gay marriage and is still anti BLM. You can't make this stuff up.

 

[JRad]

If he was there's a pretty good chance that he'd have won re-election.

I have no doubt he would have waltzed back into office.

 

[Lapaz]

I think this certainly appears true for many 'right-wingers' but I wonder how much of it is so deeply engrained that it is subconscious, part of the deep programming that begins at birth. Very interesting psychology question.

(And in fairness, the 'no empathy until you experience it' isn't exclusive to them, it's human nature to some degree. But they do seem to be more rigid about it).

I don’t know why, but I think it is part of being conservative. You don’t want to change because you don’t sense a problem. The lack of empathy leads to that lack of sense. It is certainly true in everyone to some extent, but it is far more prevalent among people who don’t think outside the box. Liberals are outside the box thinkers by definition. It doesn’t mean liberals are better, because the grass is not always greener outside the box, but you have to have empathy for those that live outside the box, before you advocate for them. The psychology of nature vs nurture would be fascinating. I would love to see studies of empathy among identical twins. Of course we would need to agree on how to measure empathy. This could hijack the thread, so it should have its own thread. Let’s get back to Covid.

We just had over 3500 deaths! I see people everywhere wearing masks and social distancing. We desperately needed better tests. It’s a moot point now since vaccinations have started, but this may become seasonal, so we better get those tests ready for the next outbreak.

 

[insidejob]

Jesus H. Christmas! So check out this "memo" Clyburn sent to the Members of the Select Subcommittee about the political interference by senior Trump Administration appointees at the CDC. The first link is to the rest of this really long "memo." The second link is to the actual emails that Dr. Paul Alexander - who isn't an MD, just a PhD by the way (oh the hypocrisy) - sent to others in the administration and the CDC to shape the narrative being pushed by the administration in the summer of 2020 trying to discredit Dr. Fauci (who is an MD!!!) and the scientific community who were doing their best to tell people the truth so they could protect themselves from coronavirus. I'm even more disgusted by this. Shows they were trying to push herd immunity even before that genius Dr. (who should have his license stripped) Scott Atlas got involved. I'm kind of disappointed that this didn't even make the national news yesterday and I still haven't heard anything about it today. (Well, I take that back. Kristen Welker just reported on it for MSNBC and Andrea Mitchell has guests on talking about it as we speak.)

Washington, D.C. (December 16, 2020) — Today, Rep. James E. Clyburn, Chairman of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, sent a memo to Members of the Select Subcommittee citing new documents obtained in the Subcommittee’s investigation of political interference by senior Trump Administration appointees in the work of career officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The documents show that officials at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) repeatedly discussed pursuing a “herd immunity” strategy and were aware that Administration policies were causing an increase in virus cases—but tried to hide the true danger of the virus and blame career scientists for the Administration’s failures.



“I am deeply troubled that, instead of promoting the best available science needed to keep Americans safe, the Trump Administration has played politics with a pandemic that has claimed the lives of more than 300,000 of our fellow Americans,” the Chairman stated. “The documents obtained by the Select Subcommittee show a pernicious pattern of political interference by Administration officials. As the virus spread through the country, these officials callously wrote, ‘who cares’ and ‘we want them infected.’ They privately admitted they ‘always knew’ the President’s policies would cause a ‘rise’ in cases, and they plotted to blame the spread of the virus on career scientists.”



“The documents released today reinforce the need for HHS to end its obstruction of the Select Subcommittee’s investigation into the political meddling that has hindered the nation’s response to this deadly virus. HHS must produce the critical documents and witnesses it is withholding, and CDC Director Robert Redfield must appear for an interview regarding evidence that he ordered CDC staff to delete a key email. Unless the Administration abandons this flagrant obstruction, I will be forced to start issuing subpoenas,” added the Chair.



HHS Official Promoted Spreading the Virus to Americans to Achieve Herd Immunity.

• HHS Senior Advisor Paul Alexander strategized with other top officials from HHS, CDC, and FDA about pursuing a herd immunity strategy in response to the coronavirus pandemic. For example, on July 3, 2020, Dr. Alexander wrote: “So the bottom line is if it is more infectiouness [sic] now, the issue is who cares? If it is causing more cases in young, my word is who cares…as long as we make sensible decisions, and protect the elderely [sic] and nursing homes, we must go on with life….who cares if we test more and get more positive tests…”

• On July 4, 2020, Dr. Alexander wrote: “There is no other way, we need to establish herd, and it only comes about allowing the non-high risk groups expose themselves to the virus. PERIOD.”

• Also on July 4, 2020, Dr. Alexander stated: “Infants, kids, teens, young people, young adults, middle aged with no conditions etc. have zero to little risk….so we use them to develop herd…we want them infected…”

• On July 24, 2020, Dr. Alexander wrote to FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn and HHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Michael Caputo: “it may be that it will be best if we open up and flood the zone and let the kids and young folk get infected” as a strategy to get “natural immunity…natural exposure.”

Chairman Clyburn Releases Memo With New Evidence of Political Interference in Pandemic Response | House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis

12-16-2020-Release-All-Files.pdf (house.gov)

And here's the tweet that caused me to find the documentation in the first place. "We want them infected" is a quote I didn't find and I'm not going to try to get to the end of that link because it's 70 pages long and I'm burnt out after reading the first 29 pages.

 

[MT15]

They should have to look at pictures and read the life stories of young people and children who died. Like for the rest of their days on earth.

 

[cuddlemonkey]

Jesus H. Christmas! So check out this "memo" Clyburn sent to the Members of the Select Subcommittee about the political interference by senior Trump Administration appointees at the CDC. The first link is to the rest of this really long "memo." The second link is to the actual emails that Dr. Paul Alexander - who isn't an MD, just a PhD by the way (oh the hypocrisy) - sent to others in the administration and the CDC to shape the narrative being pushed by the administration in the summer of 2020 trying to discredit Dr. Fauci (who is an MD!!!) and the scientific community who were doing their best to tell people the truth so they could protect themselves from coronavirus. I'm even more disgusted by this. Shows they were trying to push herd immunity even before that genius Dr. (who should have his license stripped) Scott Atlas got involved. I'm kind of disappointed that this didn't even make the national news yesterday and I still haven't heard anything about it today. (Well, I take that back. Kristen Welker just reported on it for MSNBC and Andrea Mitchell has guests on talking about it as we speak.)

Chairman Clyburn Releases Memo With New Evidence of Political Interference in Pandemic Response | House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis

12-16-2020-Release-All-Files.pdf (house.gov)

And here's the tweet that caused me to find the documentation in the first place. "We want them infected" is a quote I didn't find and I'm not going to try to get to the end of that link because it's 70 pages long and I'm burnt out after reading the first 29 pages.

Page 34/35.

 

[Saint by the Bay]

Jesus H. Christmas! So check out this "memo" Clyburn sent to the Members of the Select Subcommittee about the political interference by senior Trump Administration appointees at the CDC. The first link is to the rest of this really long "memo." The second link is to the actual emails that Dr. Paul Alexander - who isn't an MD, just a PhD by the way (oh the hypocrisy) - sent to others in the administration and the CDC to shape the narrative being pushed by the administration in the summer of 2020 trying to discredit Dr. Fauci (who is an MD!!!) and the scientific community who were doing their best to tell people the truth so they could protect themselves from coronavirus. I'm even more disgusted by this. Shows they were trying to push herd immunity even before that genius Dr. (who should have his license stripped) Scott Atlas got involved. I'm kind of disappointed that this didn't even make the national news yesterday and I still haven't heard anything about it today. (Well, I take that back. Kristen Welker just reported on it for MSNBC and Andrea Mitchell has guests on talking about it as we speak.)

Chairman Clyburn Releases Memo With New Evidence of Political Interference in Pandemic Response | House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis

12-16-2020-Release-All-Files.pdf (house.gov)

And here's the tweet that caused me to find the documentation in the first place. "We want them infected" is a quote I didn't find and I'm not going to try to get to the end of that link because it's 70 pages long and I'm burnt out after reading the first 29 pages.

I remember someone asking what specific policies the President could have done to slow the spread of COVID.

Well...

 

[superchuck500]

Jesus H. Christmas! So check out this "memo" Clyburn sent to the Members of the Select Subcommittee about the political interference by senior Trump Administration appointees at the CDC. The first link is to the rest of this really long "memo." The second link is to the actual emails that Dr. Paul Alexander - who isn't an MD, just a PhD by the way (oh the hypocrisy) - sent to others in the administration and the CDC to shape the narrative being pushed by the administration in the summer of 2020 trying to discredit Dr. Fauci (who is an MD!!!) and the scientific community who were doing their best to tell people the truth so they could protect themselves from coronavirus. I'm even more disgusted by this. Shows they were trying to push herd immunity even before that genius Dr. (who should have his license stripped) Scott Atlas got involved. I'm kind of disappointed that this didn't even make the national news yesterday and I still haven't heard anything about it today. (Well, I take that back. Kristen Welker just reported on it for MSNBC and Andrea Mitchell has guests on talking about it as we speak.)

Chairman Clyburn Releases Memo With New Evidence of Political Interference in Pandemic Response | House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis

12-16-2020-Release-All-Files.pdf (house.gov)

And here's the tweet that caused me to find the documentation in the first place. "We want them infected" is a quote I didn't find and I'm not going to try to get to the end of that link because it's 70 pages long and I'm burnt out after reading the first 29 pages.

I think Atlas was brought on specifically because he advocated for herd immunity (on Fox News of course, where all the best Trump admin hires come from).

 

[superchuck500]

Good lord these people are stupid.