The Donald Trump Score Card

Jul

Maybe you should include a map showing where The Crimea is, in case your like buddies think it's in Cuba

 

Lessons from Past Outbreaks Could Help Fight the Coronavirus Pandemic
The 1918 influenza pandemic and 2002–2003 SARS outbreak suggest social distancing measures, communication and international cooperation are the most effective methods to slow COVID-19
By Sara Goudarzi
March 23, 2020

Lessons from Past Outbreaks Could Help Fight the Coronavirus Pandemic

excerpt:

"Regular flu and cold viruses have a strongly seasonal pattern of infectiousness in temperate regions such as the continental U.S. This seasonality is partly related to changing weather conditions and how easily the pathogens are transmitted, but it is also because of the number of susceptible hosts as people are made immune by past exposure. The same is not true of new viruses, such as the one that causes COVID-19, however.

“Pandemics happen out of season. And pandemic viruses have the whole world before them,” says Lipsitch, who explains that the advantage for novel viruses is that almost no one is immune to them. Seasonal viruses, on the other hand, operate on a thinner margin—meaning the majority of people have some immunity. So those pathogens are most successful when conditions for transmission are most favorable, which is usually winter. With COVID-19, Lipsitch adds, “I think [it’s] more likely seasonal changes will modestly reduce the rate of transmission and maybe slow things down—but probably not to the point of making the number of cases [decrease but rather] go up more slowly.”"

 

Trump doesn't understand and appreciate that the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus is a novel virus, which means it doesn't conform to conventional transmission behavior and the seasonal effects on transmission to the extent of a non-novel cold or flu to which people have already been exposed.

Trump's remarks about his gut feeling that the virus would magically go away as the weather warms show his misunderstandings. They were reinforced by his trusted media personalities on Fox News and Rush Limbaugh, whom Trump awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2020, who belittled the novel coronavirus as a conventional cold or flu, which it isn't.

The numerous grave misunderstandings that Trump harbors aren't offset by a proudly declared travel restriction imposed on China. Moreover, the expectation by Trump and his new press secretary, McEnany, that a travel restriction would keep the U.S. safe from the coronavirus, is itself faulty.

 

Compare: 2009 H1N1 Pandemic Versus the 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic
By Mark Terry
Published: Mar 19, 2020

Compare: 2009 H1N1 Pandemic Versus the 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic | BioSpace

excerpt:

"It may be instructional to look at the last major pandemic, the H1N1 influenza pandemic of 2009. This was caused by a virus from a different family of viruses than the current coronavirus outbreak. The coronavirus is a new, novel coronavirus that appears to have originated from bats before making the jump to humans. The “novel” part is important in that no one has been exposed to this specific virus before, meaning no one has built up immunity to it.

COVID-19 is not influenza, although it behaves in some ways like influenza. It is, instead, more accurately called a highly contagious viral pneumonia. In mild cases it results in few if any symptoms, such as cough and mild fever. In severe cases, it results in life-threatening pneumonia that can be fatal, particularly in the elderly, immunocompromised and individuals with underlying medical conditions such as heart disease, lung disease and diabetes."

 

Lessons from Past Outbreaks Could Help Fight the Coronavirus Pandemic
The 1918 influenza pandemic and 2002–2003 SARS outbreak suggest social distancing measures, communication and international cooperation are the most effective methods to slow COVID-19
By Sara Goudarzi
March 23, 2020

Lessons from Past Outbreaks Could Help Fight the Coronavirus Pandemic

excerpt:

"Although every virus and resulting disease is different, a look at epidemic dynamics of both COVID-19 and the 1918 flu points to similar successful containment procedures. In a 2007 study published in JAMA, Howard Markel of the Center for the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School and his co-authors analyzed the excess deaths from pneumonia and influenza (meaning how many more there were than usual during nonpandemic years) in 43 U.S. cities from September 8, 1918 through February 22, 1919. Despite the fact that all of the cities implemented nonpharmaceutical interventions, it was the timing of activation, the duration and the combination of measures that determined their success. The researchers found “a strong association between early, sustained, and layered application of [such] interventions and mitigating the consequences of the 1918–1919 influenza pandemic in the United States.”

The most effective class of nonpharmaceutical control measures were those related to social distancing: canceling public gatherings, closing places of worship, schools, bars and restaurants, isolating the sick and quarantining those they came in contact with. (Many cities around the world have adopted such measures in the current outbreak.) “In my opinion, that is probably the most important single class of things to do, as quickly as possible, to slow the spread” of a pandemic, Lipsitch says. “Waiting until you can see that you have a problem is waiting too long, because there’s a delay in seeing the fruits of the measures.”

By undertaking these steps early, populations can also prevent peak demands on their health care systems and flatten the pandemic curve—that is, have a gradual increase in cases over time rather than many all at once. This slowdown is especially important because it can take two or three weeks before those infected with SARS-CoV-2 are sick enough to require intensive care, so demand could spike quickly. In a 2007 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA paper, Lipsitch and two other researchers showed that during the 1918 influenza pandemic, cities that intervened early and intensively to slow transmission through social distancing, such as such as St. Louis, Mo., had slower epidemics with smaller peaks, compared with those that waited longer to act, such as Philadelphia."

 

Social distancing measures, communication, and international cooperation.

Trump has failed at all of those modalities.

He has belittled social distancing, even publicly shaking hands with CEO's on camera which sets a bad example while other politicians did an elbow bump.

He made numerous bungled communications and faulty statements about the virus that misled the public.

He has thrown a wrench in the gearbox of international cooperation by picking more fights with other countries and institutions in the midst of a pandemic, such as calling it the 'China virus' and threatening to cut off U.S. funding to the WHO which he later denied (another one of his bungled communications).


.

 

The U.S. waited too long to implement multiple modalities, in spite of imposing a travel restriction which wasn't going to be sufficient.

Refraining from the social distancing measures too early and using an aspirational, haphazard approach ("let's pack the churches on Easter") instead of a controlled and purposeful one based on virus testing of people spoils the curve-flattening gains that were made and restarts the social distancing clock.

 

Coronavirus hits poor and minority communities hard in the South
By Janet Shamlian
CBS News
Last Updated Apr 7, 2020 7:04 PM EDT

excerpt:

"There's an alarming disparity in the state: more than 70% of the coronavirus deaths are African Americans, who comprise only 32% of the population.

"It's very sad to say I'm not shocked this is happening if you have a disease that's going to kill more people with hypertension, diabetes, heart disease and you have a health disparity like this, it's not shocking," said Dr. Amy Lessen of Dillard University.

Louisiana has one of the nation's highest rates of people with pre-existing conditions.

As coronavirus rages through the South, it's hitting a vulnerable population especially hard: the poor with little access to health care — and blue-collar workers who don't have the option to work from home.

Beyond Louisiana, cases are spiking across the South including in Florida, where hundreds — who were not practicing social distancing — lined up for unemployment forms because they were unable to file online. In Georgia, a long line of cars as a new drive-through testing site opened."

 

Many of the victims of the coronavirus are the downtrodden in rural areas who were the object of Trump's 2016 campaign and who became his base. They tend to have preexisting health conditions, little or no health insurance, lower income, and limited access to good hospitals.

Their condition is expected to be at a further disadvantage after Trump, out of spite for Obama, crippled their healthcare by sabotaging the Affordable Care Act, which could have benefited the disadvantaged the most. Trump hasn't replaced it with anything meaningful. He has also refused to reopen ACA enrollment after the coronavirus pandemic and said that he would try to look at other approaches.

 

Some of Trump's own base, out of loyatly to him and spite toward others, will continue to try to downplay how his base is being hurt by the coronavirus.

 

[QUOTE="Vanilla Gorilla, post: ]So now you are making fun of poor people?[/QUOTE]
VG - post 21956 -

No. Anyone who attended public schools - which even the lower income people can attend - has the opportunity to learn. Those who choose NOT to learn, and NOT apply themselves - end up speaking like that example I posted. Lots of people from poor backgrounds do well in school and communicate well. But they chose to work hard and learn all they could - and continue to do so still. Many times the very folks complaining that OTHER people are lazy, have themselves been extremely lazy when it came to their school work. And they sound like it too.

It has nothing to do with what section of the country you come from either. Where I grew up in the Northeast, plenty of people I went to school with thought that school was a big joke, a waste of time, got burned out on drugs, and can't hold down a good job today. What jobs they've had are low-pay, unskilled, no-future jobs. And they bitch because they're getting "screwed" and have nothing. It's their own doing - laziness when it came to school and/or college.

So it's no surprise that when someone like Trump comes along and promises them a return of good-paying manufacturing jobs ( which hasn't happened - and won't ) - they suck right in and vote for him. Trump - a man who's made a fortune by screwing working people his entire life - including hiring undocumented workers in his own businesses - has many unthinking, undereducated people believing he cares about them. Satan wants to serve you ice cream and cool drinks while he supplies air conditioning too.

The point being - many people can't see the forest for the trees. Their lack of a capable, comprehensive education is their own worst enemy.

 

It's best to leave your wallet in your car. Jus sayin'

 

Egger posts 21990 and 21991 above -

That's exactly what I was referring to in my post 21992. Much of his base are the very ones who'll be hurt the most for the reasons you indicated. Much of his base is seriously undereducated and can't recognize wht's being done to them. Many of the people who rail against "welfare slugs", and "system leaches" because those types aren't contributing anything to society - raged against Obama's healthcare plan that would have forced everyone to contribute something toward health care. They bitch about "freeloaders" - but don't want an individual mandate to make them pay into the system!! So by default ……. they themselves want to keep paying for the freeloaders by paying more & more in ever-rising healthcare premiums and out-of-pocket expenses.

How in God's name can anyone bitch about "freeloaders" and then support a system that continues to allow them??? You either believe everyone should pay in ………….. or you keep paying FOR the freeloaders. But they're (much of his base) too uneducated to even see that concept.

When Mitt Romney proposed that very same concept in Massachusetts when he was Governor there - not one Republican senator, representative, at the Federal level or in other states raised a voice to say it undermined individual freedom in the U.S. by mandating everyone pay in to the healthcare system. But when Obama proposed it and got it passed - all hell broke loose. Calls of "tyrant", "dictator", "communist", etc. came from all angles of the Republican side. And many unthinking people sucked it down as a "big brother" move. Not a peep when Romney - a Republican - did it in Mass.

So Trump has undermined and gutted just about all of the ACA, with the blessing of his puppet Supreme Court - and in so doing, has kept freeloading in place for others to pay for through higher and higher premiums, increasing deductibles, and out-of-pocket expenses.

Stupidity is killing the U.S.

 

Yes his base are mostly under educated. Yes stupidity is killing the US. The danger is lots of them are in the armed forces. There are thousands of white nationalists in the Marine Corps. We need to round them up and put them in a re-education camp, so the rest of us can have a pleasant life here.

 

Coronavirus US news: New York breaks its record for largest single-day Covid-19 death toll
Cuomo says state recorded 799 deaths on Wednesday
Trump reportedly planning second taskforce on economy
US unemployment rises 6.6m in a week
Joan E Greve in Washington
Thu 9 Apr 2020 16.24 EDT

Coronavirus US news: New York breaks its record for largest single-day Covid-19 death toll

excerpt:

"Trump lashed out against the Wall Street Journal after the newspaper published a critical editorial about his daily briefings on the government’s response to coronavirus.

“The Wall Street Journal always ‘forgets’ to mention that the ratings for the White House Press Briefings are ‘through the roof,’” Trump wrote in a tweet, dismissing the newspaper as “Fake News.”

Trump’s tweet came about an hour after Fox News ran a segment on the editorial, which expressed disappointment that the daily White House briefings had become “all about the President.”

“The briefings began as a good idea to educate the public about the dangers of the virus, how Americans should change their behavior, and what the government is doing to combat it,” the Journal’s editorial board wrote.

“But sometime in the last three weeks Mr. Trump seems to have concluded that the briefings could be a showcase for him. Perhaps they substitute in his mind for the campaign rallies he can no longer hold because of the risks. Perhaps he resented the media adulation that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been receiving for his daily show. Whatever the reason, the briefings are now all about the President.”"

 

The Wall Street Journal has gone out of its way to the extreme to try to make Trump look good. It highly edited an interview it did with Trump at one of his resorts, and Trump still appeared incoherent after all the editing.

Someone leaked an unedited version of the interview and it made Trump look completely incoherent.

 

there are a lot of hispanics in the military also. Of course, the government recruits them by saying join the military, and then you can get a college education.
If they don't get killed first.

 

That's not hard to do... He is completely incoherant.

 

When Trump lashes out at the Wall Street journal as "fake news", you know how far out of whack things have gotten. Bragging about his ratings at this time is an indication of what a narcissist he is.

 

Or if they don't get deported for being a Mexican in the armed forces?

This Trump response has brought out a lot of the ugly which had resided under the American surface for some time. The ultra right wingies used to complain about Democrats throwing money at social problems. Now they do it. They used to claim they're for individual freedom, now support a national lock-down, everyone home. They used to call for a government which kept its nose out of businessmen's affairs. Now they take stimulus money from the government, just like the welfare queen. And one other thing here: The Republicans used to claim they were for free speech; but, now they throw that out the window like a pale full of piss. They don't want anyone talking about Trump or his failed response to a national crisis, or his interference in the impeachment investigation and trial. No sir. They don't want to talk about Trump's taxes or his Deutsche Bank Shenanigans. They just want to wear that red hat and glow like they just kissed that large orange ass.