All things political. Coronavirus Edition. (1 Viewer)

[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?

 

[SamAndreas]

A man who sent death threats to Dr Anthony Fauci has been sentenced to three years in prison.

The Snowshoe, West Virginia, resident sent threatening emails to the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases(NIAID), with one stating that his family would be beaten to death and set aflame, prosecutors revealed, according to The New York Times.

In May, Thomas Patrick Connally Jr, 56, pleaded guilty to making threats against a federal official.

The US Attorney’s Office in Maryland has said that he also acknowledged sending threats to other public health leaders such as Dr Francis Collins, who led the National Institutes of Health from 2009 until December of last year.

Dr Collins is the acting science adviser to the president while Dr Fauci is the chief medical adviser.


Maryland US District Court Judge Paula Xinis sentenced the 56-year-old on Thursday to 37 months in prison and three years of supervised release.

In the plea agreement, Connally admitted to sending the emails to Dr Fauci between 28 December 2020 and 25 July last year from an anonymous and encrypted email address, according to a statement by federal prosecutors.

On 21 July last year, Connally wrote to Dr Fauci, “I will slaughter your entire family. You will pay with your children’s blood for your crimes”, according to court filings…….

Man who sent death threats to Fauci sentenced to three years in prison

‘Smart and technologically sophisticated, the defendant intended to heighten the terror he sought to instill by using a foreign encrypted email provider’, prosecutors say

www.independent.co.uk

If the facts of the case are as stated in the article, he got off light.

 

[BullSheetBuddha]

A man who sent death threats to Dr Anthony Fauci has been sentenced to three years in prison.

The Snowshoe, West Virginia, resident sent threatening emails to the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases(NIAID), with one stating that his family would be beaten to death and set aflame, prosecutors revealed, according to The New York Times.

In May, Thomas Patrick Connally Jr, 56, pleaded guilty to making threats against a federal official.

The US Attorney’s Office in Maryland has said that he also acknowledged sending threats to other public health leaders such as Dr Francis Collins, who led the National Institutes of Health from 2009 until December of last year.

Dr Collins is the acting science adviser to the president while Dr Fauci is the chief medical adviser.


Maryland US District Court Judge Paula Xinis sentenced the 56-year-old on Thursday to 37 months in prison and three years of supervised release.

In the plea agreement, Connally admitted to sending the emails to Dr Fauci between 28 December 2020 and 25 July last year from an anonymous and encrypted email address, according to a statement by federal prosecutors.

On 21 July last year, Connally wrote to Dr Fauci, “I will slaughter your entire family. You will pay with your children’s blood for your crimes”, according to court filings…….

Man who sent death threats to Fauci sentenced to three years in prison

‘Smart and technologically sophisticated, the defendant intended to heighten the terror he sought to instill by using a foreign encrypted email provider’, prosecutors say

www.independent.co.uk

"........................, Connally wrote to Dr Fauci, “I will slaughter your entire family. You will pay with your children’s blood for your crimes”,....."


smh

 

[Optimus Prime]

Victor Rohe, a longtime Republican activist and former New York City police officer who also previously worked in the financial services industry, came down with covid-19 last year but decided not to seek hospital treatment.

Online videos raised questions in his mind about patient care in Sarasota, Fla. He also regarded vaccines with skepticism. “Calling it a vaccination is a joke,” he told The Post’s Tim Craig.

“All it really is is a government-mandated shot to inoculate people to the fact that the government owns your body, and you do not.”


Mr. Rohe is part of a slate of four conservative candidates now running for seats on the nine-member board that controls Sarasota Memorial Hospital, the city’s flagship public hospital.

At least three of the candidates are skeptical of coronavirus vaccine mandates and are rallying behind a slogan of “medical freedom.”

The term, which has a long and deep resonance in U.S. history, is increasingly being used by conservatives nationwide to appeal to those who oppose vaccine mandates and who sought coronavirus miracle cures such as ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine touted by some politicians but declared useless by medical experts.


Mr. Rohe and his fellow candidates reflect a larger and quite worrisome trend. The pandemic has amplified anti-vaccine sentiment, and in some cases, it has devolved into general hostility toward science and medical expertise.

This might be the age of the mRNA vaccines that saved millions of lives, but it is also a period in which anti-vaccine campaigns cost lives.

By one account, since coronavirus vaccines became widely available in 2021, some 200,000 deaths in the United States could have been averted if patients had not gone unvaccinated…….

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/09/victor-rohe-anti-vaxxers-sarasota-hospital-board/

 

[SaintForLife]

The school closings had disastrous consequences for for the students.

 

[SaintForLife]

this explains a lot

Justice Thomas cites claim that Covid vaccines are made with cells from 'aborted children'

Thomas cited the claim in a dissent to the Supreme Court’s refusal to take up a challenge by health care workers who opposed New York's vaccine mandate on religious grounds.

www.nbcnews.com

 

[SaulGoodmanEsq]

Going to need a sexier topic to stir our outrage, SFL. Covid is yesterday's news.

 

[SaintForLife]

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) did neither control nor prevention when confronted with the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak over the past two-and-a-half years. The agency's many shortcomings began with its spectacularly botched rollout of tests for monitoring the spread of the coronavirus in early 2020. This was followed by the agency's failure for many months to recognize that the disease was chiefly spread via respiratory droplets. And let's not forget the agency's comprehensive ineptitude concerning the swift evaluation of the effectiveness of its proposed mitigation strategies such as masking, social distancing, and quarantining. In addition, the agency was dilatory in releasing relevant data concerning boosters, hospitalization trends, and wastewater detection of the virus.

Make the CDC an infectious disease epidemic fighter again

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) did neither control nor prevention when confronted with the COVID-19 outbreak.

reason.com

 

[brandon]

It's funny to watch @SaintForLife taking a COVID victory lap over precautions in 2020 when the worldwide death toll stands over 6 million.

 

[MT15]

It's funny to watch @SaintForLife taking a COVID victory lap over precautions in 2020 when the worldwide death toll stands over 6 million.

No kidding. And with absolutely zero acknowledgment that we are in a much different place with the disease now as opposed to early 2020. All of this finger wagging at the CDC is sorta gross when they are willingly doing the difficult work of looking back and analyzing errors. Easy for these internet cowboys to pile on now, isn’t it? Breaking their arms patting themselves on the back isn’t a super good look.

Not to mention the CDC was hamstrung by having a moron of a POTUS who undermined them at every turn and fired people early who spoke truthfully.

 

[zztop]

Not to mention the CDC was hamstrung by having a moron of a POTUS who undermined them at every turn and fired people early who spoke truthfully.

I remember when Obama left trump and co. a "pandemic playbook" and republicans were like "naw, we're good."

Obama team left pandemic playbook for Trump administration, officials confirm

Despite Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's claim that the Obama Administration left no game plan for a future pandemic, former Obama officials confirmed the existence of a National Security Council pandemic playbook listing types of infectious disease threats that could emerge.

www.pbs.org

 

[SystemShock]

Not exactly the same thing, is it?

 

[BullSheetBuddha]

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/18/...stagram-robert-kennedy-jr-misinformation.html

"Facebook and Instagram Remove Robert Kennedy Jr.’s Nonprofit for Misinformation

The social networking company said that Children’s Health Defense, a group led by Mr. Kennedy, an anti-vaccine activist, had “repeatedly” violated its guidelines by spreading medical misinformation."

 

[zztop]

Fauci stepping down at the end of the year. I had no idea he was 81, he looked much younger than that

Statement by Anthony S. Fauci, M.D.

Dr. Fauci announces he is stepping down.

www.nih.gov

 

[Optimus Prime]

Fauci stepping down at the end of the year. I had no idea he was 81, he looked much younger than that

Statement by Anthony S. Fauci, M.D.

Dr. Fauci announces he is stepping down.

www.nih.gov

And the energy levels of someone a third his age

I remember reading his average daily schedule during the height of the pandemic in 2020 and he was getting like 2-3 hours of sleep a day

Shame half the country hates his guts and thinks he should be in prison

 

[Optimus Prime]

When Anthony S. Fauci speaks, his voice has a hint of a rasp, a lot of Brooklyn swagger and a reassuring glimmer of optimism.

That combination has meant that throughout the coronavirus pandemic, as the renowned infectious-disease expert has offered information and advice to a jittery and beleaguered public, he’s also communicated fatigue, toughness and the fundamental belief that science will hash out a path through the darkness and toward the light.


For that well-calibrated delivery and his deeply human manner, this nation has both lionized and demonized him.

Give him a medal; throw him in prison. We are a nation of extremes. So this is what we do.


Fauci, who has been the face of the country’s pandemic response, announced that he will retire in December. He will leave his position as chief medical adviser to President Biden and he will step down from his job of the last 38 years as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. He plans, he said, to teach and write and mentor the next generation of scientists.


For the last three years, this trim, gray-haired doctor with the wire-rimmed glasses has been the vessel into which the country has poured all its fears and frustrations.

He is hero and tormentor. Truth-teller and unreliable narrator. He has borne our angst.

And through it all, he’s shown the public nothing but patience and decency — and only the occasional flares of angry exasperation mostly reserved for a senator named Rand Paul (R-Ky.) whose preferred response to the pandemic might be summed up as do-as-little-as-possible.

Fauci’s admirers greeted his retirement announcement with a flurry of adulation for his lifetime of public service and his steady hand during historically turbulent times.

Biden praised his sweeping impact not just on Americans but on people around the world. “As he leaves his position in the U.S. government, I know the American people and the entire world will continue to benefit from Dr. Fauci’s expertise in whatever he does next. Whether you’ve met him personally or not, he has touched all Americans’ lives with his work.”


And former president Barack Obama expressed thanks not only for what Fauci has done but also eager anticipation for the impact that Fauci will have in the future. “I will always be grateful that we had a once-in-a-century public health leader to guide us through a once-in-a-century pandemic. Few people have touched more lives than Dr. Fauci — and I’m glad he’s not done yet.”


But if his political critics, particularly those Republicans in Congress, have their way, Fauci will spend a significant portion of his retirement testifying before one investigative panel after another.

They blame Fauci for everything from the coronavirus itself to mascne. The disdain has brought threats. The doctor needs security…….

So many of our growing cultural bugaboos came to a head in our reckoning with Fauci.

He is an intellectual at a time when many deem book-learning dangerous and cheap. He epitomizes academic journals and peer-reviewed articles.

Meanwhile, folks are burning books they don’t like or they don’t understand or that simply make them sad.

As a scientist Fauci deals in facts, when so many barter in free-floating feelings.

He focuses on a singular truth, when so many others rhapsodize about speaking their personal truth.

We want to kill the messenger, ignore his message and bury the horse he rode in on…..

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/08/23/dr-fauci-carried-all-our-angst-anger-with-patience-decency/

 

[Optimus Prime]

Former president Donald Trump nixed a plan to receive his first dose of Covid-19 vaccinealongside three of his four living predecessors in the months following his recovery from the coronavirus, according to a new book by a pair of ex-White House employees.

Mr Trump and former first lady Melania Trump both received doses of the vaccine in January 2021, just before their time in the White House came to a close……

“One of the ideas was to have the president invite the former presidents to the White House —or to some other site — to have all of them receive the vaccine together in a show of unity,” said Mr Morganstern, who served as a deputy press secretary and deputy communications director to Mr Trump at the time.

The ex-president’s advisers believed that showing Mr Trump getting a Covid-19 shot could boost public confidence in the vaccines, so Mr Morganstern and another Trump aide attempted to convince Mr Trump of the utility of appearing alongside former presidents Bill Clinton, George W Bush and Barack Obama.

Mr Morganstern wrote that Mr Trump’s response was to contort his face in a way “that conveyed, shall we say, a healthy scepticism”……

Trump nixed plan to get vaccinated with Clinton, Bush and Obama, new book reveals

Mr Trump has been vaccinated against Covid-19 but his supporters have booed him when he has discussed it in public

www.independent.co.uk

 

[Optimus Prime]

Former first lady Melania Trump worried that her husband was "blowing" the US response to COVID, but he told her she worried too much, a forthcoming book on Donald Trump's presidency reveals.

Melania Trump was "rattled by the coronavirus and convinced that Trump was screwing up," wrote New York Times chief White House correspondent Peter Baker and New Yorker staff writer and CNN global affairs analyst Susan Glasser in their new book "The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021."

She shared her concerns with former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Trump ally, in a phone call and sought his help to persuade her husband to take it more seriously, according to CNN's reporting on the book set to publish Tuesday.

"'You're blowing this,' she recalled telling her husband," Baker and Glasser wrote, according to CNN. "'This is serious. It's going to be really bad, and you need to take it more seriously than you're taking it.' He had just dismissed her. 'You worry too much,' she remembered him saying. 'Forget it.'"............

MSN

www.msn.com

 

[Booker]

Former first lady Melania Trump worried that her husband was "blowing" the US response to COVID, but he told her she worried too much, a forthcoming book on Donald Trump's presidency reveals.

Melania Trump was "rattled by the coronavirus and convinced that Trump was screwing up," wrote New York Times chief White House correspondent Peter Baker and New Yorker staff writer and CNN global affairs analyst Susan Glasser in their new book "The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021."

She shared her concerns with former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Trump ally, in a phone call and sought his help to persuade her husband to take it more seriously, according to CNN's reporting on the book set to publish Tuesday.

"'You're blowing this,' she recalled telling her husband," Baker and Glasser wrote, according to CNN. "'This is serious. It's going to be really bad, and you need to take it more seriously than you're taking it.' He had just dismissed her. 'You worry too much,' she remembered him saying. 'Forget it.'"............

MSN

www.msn.com

Trying to "multi-task" between forums?

Popeye's Chicken Sandwich

Every time I've gotten them, they were soggy and cold. I just gave up on em.Yeah, I have this same issue with the fries. Unless you eat them right after you get them, they turn to mush. They're great fresh piping hot. But 5-10 minutes later, they're unrecognizable. Some places, fries stay...

saintsreport.com