WHISTLE BLOWER BRIGHT's COMPLAINT COULD PROVE THAT TRUMP FAILED MISERABLY TO ACT ON THE CORONA VIRUS -- + opening too soon hazard!

It's long but revelatory and lives are at stake as putting people back to work too soon shows the disease increasing:
Whistle-blower ties interagency hostility to pandemic response - 

By Sheryl Gay Stolberg, Sharon LaFraniere, Michael D. Shear, and and Ben Protess, New York Times

WASHINGTON — The call in early February from the White House Situation Room came as a surprise to Rick Bright: Peter Navarro, President Trump’s trade adviser, wanted him to come present his ideas for fighting the coronavirus, alone. 

Bright, whose tiny federal research agency was pursuing a coronavirus vaccine, had long been at odds with his boss at the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert Kadlec. His White House visits, twice in a single weekend, only exacerbated those tensions. “Weekend at Peter’s,’’ Kadlec quipped in the subject line of an e-mail that expressed his displeasure. 

The hostility between these two key officials in the government’s response to a pandemic that has claimed more than 80,000 American lives and counting burst into public view  when Bright — who was abruptly dismissed last month as head of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority — filed a formal whistleblower complaint. 

The document accuses Kadlec and other top administration officials of corruption, “cronyism,’’ and putting politics ahead of science. Whether the charges are ultimately proven, the 89-page complaint along with other documents and interviews expose troubling infighting at the Health and Human Services Department, the sprawling agency that includes BARDA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, and other arms of government, as officials there struggled to combat the worst public health crisis in a century. 

“BARDA is the front edge of the global response, in terms of organizing the financing, laying down the bets on what’s coming forward as the options on vaccines and therapies,’’ said J. Stephen Morrison, a global health expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, adding that the infighting had consequences. “They need to move with incredible skill and judgment and speed.’’
The infighting extends beyond Bright and Kadlec. Fierce battles have erupted between Alex Azar, the health and human services secretary, and Seema Verma, the Medicare and Medicaid administrator. 

Azar has also clashed with a senior White House policymaker, Joe Grogan. But the consequences of such clashes were brought to life by Bright’s complaint. 

E-mail messages show that, as early as January, when Trump was saying the outbreak was “totally under control,’’ Bright was pressing for the government to stock up on masks and drugs and to commence a “Manhattan Project’’ effort to develop a vaccine. 

But Bright was largely sidelined by personal disputes with Kadlec and his aides, some of which long predated the coronavirus, the documents suggest. By the time the pandemic arrived in force, the relationship between them had become toxic, with Bright increasingly left out of key decisions. His ideas about battling the threat “were met with skepticism,’’ the complaint says, “and were clearly not welcome.’’


On Friday, lawyers for Bright said the federal watchdog agency handling his complaint, the Office of Special Counsel, had notified them that it had found “reasonable grounds’’ to believe he was retaliated against and was seeking his reinstatement while it investigated. 

Azar must now decide whether to reinstate Bright. An HHS spokeswoman, Caitlin Oakley, declined to comment on a “personnel matter.’’ But, she said, the agency “strongly disagrees with the allegations and characterizations in the complaint from Bright.’’ 

With a $1.6 billion annual budget, BARDA was created in the aftermath of the Sept, 11, 2001, attacks to partner with industry to develop drugs, vaccines, and other “medical countermeasures’’ that could be stockpiled to combat a bioterror attack or pandemic threat. Bright had been in charge for less than a year when Kadlec was confirmed by the Senate as assistant secretary for preparedness and response in 2017. 

The two men came from different worlds. Kadlec spent 20 years in the Air Force and helped write the legislation that created BARDA. He advised President George W. Bush on biodefense. Bright, who grew up poor in small-town Kansas, began his career at the CDC. An influenza expert, he considered a pandemic to be the nation’s biggest threat. 

Bright’s allies say he was viewed with suspicion in the Trump administration as an “Obama holdover.’’ One of his earliest clashes with Kadlec centered on a long-running contract BARDA had with a small biotechnology company that Bright believed was tied to Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser. 

The company, Aeolus Pharmaceuticals, was developing a drug to treat the effects of radiation from a potential nuclear attack when BARDA employees decided not to extend the contract in early 2017. John McManus, the company’s chief executive, said in an interview that the decision was based on a deeply flawed process, and appealed it directly to Bright. 

In August 2017, Bright’s complaint says, John Clerici, a consultant and Aeolus board member who is close to Kadlec, pleaded the company’s case to Bright over coffee and emphasized that McManus was “friends with Jared’’ and “has Hollywood connections.’’ 

McManus said he does not know Kushner or anyone in his family, and he disputed nearly all of Bright’s claims about Aeolus. Clerici said the “conversation never happened.’’ 

A review of corporate, political, and nonprofit records shows only a distant and indirect connection between Aeolus and the Kushner family. Some of Kushner’s relatives have donated to National Jewish Health, a hospital that co-owned several patents licensed by Aeolus, and Kushner’s father and sister sit on the hospital’s council of national trustees. Bright, though, said “the political pressure’’ from Kadlec and his underlings “became undeniable,’’ and “had no place in a system designed to award funding based on scientific merit.’’ In the end, he stood by BARDA’s decision to not extend the contact with Aeolus. The company folded within months. McManus lost his job. 

In the fall of 2019, with Aeolus bankrupt, McManus landed at Partner Therapeutics, a Massachusetts-based company represented by Clerici that also appears in Bright’s complaint.
 
Bright said that in September 2019, before McManus arrived, Kadlec handed out a $55 million, no-bid contract to the company (Partner Therapeutics) to prevent it from going out of business. Partner Therapeutics, with 200 employees, produces and sells one drug, Leukine, that can be used to treat excessive exposure to radiation. 

In 2018, the federal government decided to buy more anti-radiation drugs for the Strategic National Stockpile. Bright’s division, following the recommendation of a panel of experts, had chosen California pharmaceutical giant Amgen, which produces two similar drugs. 

Bright was so alarmed about what he claimed were “inappropriate and possibly illegal communications’’ between Clerici, Kadlec, and other HHS officials, the complaint says, that he called for an inspector general to “inspect their phone records.’’ After that, he says, he was cut out of meetings about the contract. 

There is no evidence that an inspector general investigation was ever conducted and allies of Kadlec say he did some things Bright wanted, including putting the contracting team under BARDA’s jurisdiction. But the request for the investigation added to the bitterness between them. 

Eventually, Kadlec overruled him, Bright says, and awarded the sole-source contract to Partner Therapeutics, “on the basis of industrial mobilization’’ — the interest of the federal government to keep more than one supplier of an important type of drug in business.

The consequences of a pandemic response of opening up too soon:
Meanwhile these countries either defied it or opened up too soon, causing outbreaks, and that's what could happen here. Belarus, which has not locked down despite increasing case numbers, saw tens of thousands of people turn out to mark Victory Day, the anniversary of Nazi Germany’s defeat in 1945. That was in contrast to Russia, which skipped the usual grand military parade in Red Square. Worldwide, 4 million people have been confirmed infected by the virus, and more than 275,000 have died, including over 78,000 in the United States, according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University. ...Seoul shut down nightclubs, hostess bars, and discos after dozens of infections were linked to people who went out last weekend as the country relaxed its social-distancing guidelines. Many of the infections were connected to a 29-year-old man who visited three nightclubs before testing positive. Mayor Park Won-soon said health workers were trying to contact some 1,940 people who had been at the three clubs and other places nearby. The mayor said gains made against the virus are now threatened “because of a few careless people.’’ Health officials in Germany faced outbreaks at three slaughterhouses in what was seen as a test of the government’s strategy for dealing with any resurgence of the virus during the easing of the restrictions. At one slaughterhouse, in Coesfeld, 180 workers tested positive.

Skeptical Judge Could Hold Up Trump Administration's Bid To Clear Flynn, Legal Experts Say

It is Dickensian that the so called Attorney General is in the "Justice" Department where under Barr it will do everything it can to subvert justice.   There is no justice in the Justice Department but there is crony corruption using the people's office to do Trump's personal bidding as Barr became Trump's own personal attorney.  This is a subversion of justice.

Attorney General Barr's Motion to Dismiss the case against Michael Flynn, Trump's former advisor, is one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in our 20th and 21st centuries showing there is one rule of law for the very well connected and another rule of law for the rest of us.

Freeing this lawbreaker, Flynn, who admitted twice lying to the FBI and who has, it was said by the judge, committed an act of treason giving security, aid and comfort to an adversarial power, Russia.


Let us hope our third branch of government in Judge Sullivan's court will refuse to submit to this corruption of the rule of law.

 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/judge-trum-admin-michael-flynn_n_5eb4d859c5b6a67335407525

Tara Reid, the accuser of sexual assault by Biden -- in a league of her own

Tara Read, the accuser of sexual assault by Biden, is dubious. The biggest question I have is why does she articulate a love and appreciation of Putin. Is it a connection to Trump, Republicans, Putin, and/or Russia perhaps? A true liberal would never love or even appreciate a man like Putin -- a dictator, an authoritarian, a killer and a sexist to boot. This does not compute.

Of all the skepticism I have about the veracity of her statement it is the love of Putin that gives me total pause! Oh yes, and why did she choose to be interviewed by Megyn Kelly former Fox

News commentator?

I think she is a liar in good company with Republicans and Trump and just maybe in a league of her own with them.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/tara-reade-calls-biden-be-held-accountable-exit-race-n1202426

Always Vigilent

I recently had the experience of viewing the photos at the link below taken in the 1930's of German American Bund supporters of Adolph Hitler. Never think this could not happen again as it did happen in Charlottesville, North Carolina when 100 to 200 American Nazi supporters on August 11 and 12, 2017 carrying Tiki Torches marched and yelled "Jews will not replace us." They then proceeded on to kill a counter non-violent demonstrator Heather Heyer and two others who got caught up in the mayhem of that day. 

Our not so fine president said there were "fine people on both sides" there. Sorry, Mr. Trump, try as you might to give the extremist right an air of respectability there are zero fine people among American Nazis and none in the so called Alt Right movement either. These are people who think they died and went to heaven since Trump became president and called himself a Nationalist or in their parlance a White Nationalist. Finally, the extremist right can come out of hiding, lift up their heads high and with outstretch arms in Nazi salute yell "Heil Trump" as the president reaches into his bag of tricks trying desperately not to offend these violent extremist supporters of him.

The right is mean, it is cruel, it is uber violent, would think nothing of mowing down those who oppose Trump and most all for which he advocates.Trump has cast a spell upon those who comprise the right and his base by his hateful anti-immigrant, anti black, anti Hispanic, anti gay, anti women and antiscience rhetoric and policy. He will if we let him erase all the equality and progress minorities have fought so long and so hard to achieve since the nation was born. If elected in 2020 he will swing the Supreme Court to reactionary right for a generation and maybe more. I do not want an America to look like that.

My motto as a Jewish American is "ALWAYS VIGILANT!"

https://www.theatlantic.com/…/american-nazis-in-the…/529185/

"Trump’s Nazification of the GOP is why there’s serious discussion of killing off the ‘unfit’--My Comment: What is Necropolitcs?

Necropolitics or power that is wielded and leads to the purposeful murder of many sacrificed on the alter of those the politicos deem "unfit" and by those who wield political control over them.  Trump owns, in my opinion, the dubious historical distinction of being a Nazi-like leader who is singling out for death, especially, in this pandemic but not exclusively so, those whom he and others in his noxious administration think are among the undesirables and therefore selectively "unfit" to live. This includes, of course, the purposeful killing of those who include mostly people who are black, brown, Hispanic, the nursing home aged, the sick, the disabled and selected others who oppose his polices and any whom he deems are lined up in opposition to him working for his electoral demise.

The politics that support his ruinous reign are many. They include locking up in cages Hispanics and their children separated from their parents whose only crime was to seek a better life in this once welcoming nation. In this COVID-19 pandemic he has used the Defense Authorization Act not to mandate companies make life saving devices such as PPE equipment.  Rather he is using the DAA for policies that will inure to businesses of CEO's such as meat packing companies, he deems necessary to keep the food chain from dwindling. Workers in meat packing companies work in some of the most unsanitary most egregious conditions found in this country and without any mandate for life saving implements to protect workers they die in large numbers. They are also in large part black, brown, and Hispanic people.  Trump said the CEO's cheered for his executive order commanding workers report for work irrespective of sanitary conditions or risk loosing unemployment benefits if they decide to protect their own lives and stay home. I am sure workers did not cheer because they would be cheering for their own impending deaths.

Moreover, the CDC or Center for Disease Control, a leading United States federal agency dedicated to protecting public health, issued their instructions for these companies to remain open by selectively watering down the language usually used giving certain owners flexibility as to how they can remain open.  Clearly Trump's mind was not for protecting the lives of those workers he deems less valuable but protecting the powerful business interests who either contribute to Trump's campaign and/or who care only for their bottom line.

It has been said that Trump kept a copy of Mein Kampf on his night table.  I do not know if this is true but because of his right wing extremist inability to empathize with the plight of those not born lucky like he, I suspect, perhaps, it is.  Clearly his politics have killed many and in this era of the pandemic have killed thousands and counting.  He keeps mendaciously telling us what a fine job he is doing.  The numbers prove otherwise. 1,092,815 US cases and 64,283 US deaths largely but not exclusively persons of color and Hispanics.  

If Hitler was regarded by him as a "fine person" exemplar of how to govern, the historical veracity tells the true story about the destruction of World War II.  On Hitler's march to power 50 million human beings were slaughtered, millions of disabled, the sick, the mentally ill and innocent including 6 million Jews and millions more others -- those who did not fit into his white supremacist Aryan agenda.  They were slated for death in concentration camps and elsewhere the brutality of which beggars the imagination of those we deem civilized.  The master race was Hitler's doctrine and murder was his enforcer.  Trump calls American Nazis marching to the tune of "Jews will not replace us" "very fine people."  American Nazis and the KKK who just came out in support of Trump for his reelection will never be very fine people.  Those on the right are brutal, tyrannical, violent, racist, machine gun toting threats to democracy and all for which this nation has fought, bled and died.

The Trumpian sewer in which this nation has become trapped is a threat to those humanitarian values carefully etched over centuries in this nation to make us sometimes the envy and sometimes savior of the world.  How have we fallen so far from our political ideals of fairness and justice for all?  I suspect historians will be studying that for decades and studying how Trump became an indelible stain on our national soul.  If he is accorded an unthinkable second term, it will, I fear, be the end of this nation as we know it.  Quoting the Irish poet Fintan O’Toole the "World has loved, hated and envied the United States.  Now, for the first time, we pity it."  Now for the first time so do I!

Another magnificent piece -- "Love thy Nature" -- The Road Out

This link below made me cry sometimes and sometimes filled me with just plain awe.  I urge you to watch its beauty and listen to its truth.  Truth, often, is better than any fiction one could create.  While we have time to ponder the great creation that is life both large and small I highly recommend viewing the film below entitled "Love Thy Nature."

Is there something we can learn from the ravages of COVID-19?  Perhaps, it is this: As great as man's big brain is nature in all its creation is bigger than all of us.  It presents challenges that give man pause to reflect on his own diminutive being and ask why the smallest/simplest of microscopic things unseen by the naked eye yet worldwide are bringing man to his knees.  Why does this exist in nature only to pose an existential threat to man; a good topic for research.

I too was felled by a virus and asked many times over my life what on earth could a five year old have done that would exact its pound of flesh from a young body asking me to pay its extortion over a lifetime?  The answer, I think is, there is no answer but to say it teaches us humility that this microscopic piece of RNA will have the last word until man's big brain can figure out a way within nature's laws and working in tandem with nature to halt its destruction of our species.  Another answer, of course, is that man is not the center of the universe and that other things large and small can threaten and even destroy us.

Humans must heed the warnings of science to isolate, use masks, wash our hands for a minimum of 20 seconds and do what the best scientists implore us to do because science is the best way man has of telling environmental truth no matter how difficult that truth is to hear.  Until science with man's big brain as its engine, ultimately finds a way out of this mind altering darkness go and walk humbly with nature seeing the integral part it plays in our survival.  Man works hand in hand with nature and nature, in all its glory, will be the final arbiter of all things as it presents another ever present Everest for man to climb.  Man will climb it though and should do its bidding without destroying the nature that supports us all as it teaches us to find the road out.

https://uplift.tv/2019/love-thy-nature/?utm_source=UPLIFT+TV&utm_campaign=16c7d3caed-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_04_21_11_39&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_932e12aea9-16c7d3caed-116678369&fbclid=IwAR3WTZeDP7EATLX1b38DPvxIPyoowwKS1mbvlmu5mWzPd7RViPusyND8-6w

British Writer Pens The Best Description Of Trump I’ve Read

Someone on Quora asked “Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?” Nate White, an articulate and witty writer from England wrote the following response:   

A few things spring to mind.   Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.  

Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humor is almost inhuman.   

But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.   

Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers.   And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.   

There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface.   Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul.   And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat.   He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege.  

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  And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a sniveling sidekick instead.   There are unspoken rules to this stuff – the Queensberry rules of basic decency – and he breaks them all. He punches downwards – which a gentleman should, would, could never do – and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless – and he kicks them when they are down.   

So the fact that a significant minority – perhaps a third – of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think ‘Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:

• Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are. 

• You don’t need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man. 

 

This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss. After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum. God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid.   He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws – he would make a Trump.   

And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish: ‘My God… what… have… I… created? If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set. 

Trey Hollingsworth, Indiana congressman, says he's willing to let more Americans die to save economy -- The Wizard of Oz Trump

 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/indiana-congressman-says-he-s-willing-let-more-americans-die-n1184036?fbclid=IwAR2bFDUNXXdAvdtMJNn3Jl_NRrwDh02az-kNfwAnyVDcWfBBe-YA1KZlUUc

 What if this immoral piece of sludge congressman gets the virus, suffers immeasurably and then dies leaving a family to fend for itself or his kids or wife gets too close to someone whom they do not know is COVID-19 positive and one or both of them contract it?  He does not care?  I am sure he cares about himself or his wife and children alright but rather it is the nursing home population, the elderly, the sick, the homeless and the poor whom he wants to be the sacrificial lambs since they are the ones most at risk.  However, in reality, no one is immune from this most deadly infectious virus spread by close human to human contact.  He is willing to let more Americans die as long as it is the at risk population so the economy can get going. He is an intrinsically ugly, immoral, and unethical human being -- the mirror of Trump.  He seems to be suggesting we do like the Nazis did and kill off those who are sick, the elderly in nursing homes, the homeless and the poor, that is all those who cannot work to boost the economy.  Is this the same guy that wants fetuses not to be aborted because he is so pro life.  He is a hypocrite.

The Corona virus required action when it first reared its ugly head and was botched by Trump back in January when he said only 15 have it and it will disappear miraculously.  He was being prodded then to do something but what did he do?  He threw out those many in the CDC who were Obama leftovers and were pandemic experts because Trump did not think they mattered, did not care or know anything about the issue, and after all, it was Obama's policy, of course.  He could have saved thousands if he acted sooner when he was first told by epidemiological experts this virus could be bad.  Thousands of people did not have to die while Trump played golf in Fantasy Land.

Now he will botch it again by advocating for people to go back to work too soon when we know physical distancing and other sanitary behaviors like wearing masks and washing hands frequently definitely bend the infection curve in the right direction.  Businesses can open up but only after careful scrutiny that the cases in intensive care units around the nation are lowering.  However, money trumps (pardon the pun) all in Trumpland human life be damned.  Trump, after all has an election to win.  As usual Trump thinks only of himself.  It has been said from the very beginning of the botched surge of the virus testing, testing, testing is the first important order of business. We cannot know how many have the virus and/or have antibodies to it until we test for it.

Trump lies and lies all the time.  We do NOT have the world's best testing, have NOT tested millions and everyone who wants a test canNOT get a test. If governors order a state's population free to go back to work too early many more will die, Trump will blame someone else and we will be brought back to ground zero.  I hope the governors of our 50 states make prescient choices because the allegedly all powerful wizard of Oz Trump cannot handle this pandemic, cannot lead and is in way over his head.   No matter what happens vote blue, tell everyone else you know to do so and save lives.

My letter to the Atlantic "This Is Trump’s Fault" by David Frum

This was a wonderful, precise and thorough analysis of Trump's failure to act in a timely fashion to rope and hog tie a killer virus saving thousands an untimely death.  I am sending this article to my political allies and hope they will read it (linked below) ferociously getting every nugget of truth Mr. Frum serves up.  I believe it is unnecessary to expound on the veracity of this article but I will do so anyway.  The opinion is true, 100% true every morsel of it and I thank Mr. Frum for writing it.

I hope this pandemic scourge will finally crush the Trump presidency as it has been a weighted albatross around the necks of those who loath Trump's lies but enjoy rational well thought out truth.  Trump's lies are legion and I believe are seen by the nation who will be more than happy to give him a kick with a steel tipped boot out of the oval office.  I only regret that his presidency has cost so many lives but has made Trump millions at the public trough.  Loosing an election would be too easy for Trump.  Jail, however, may be a more appropriate and just accommodation for the many illegalities he has committed. 

Trump said he could kill someone in the middle of Times Square and get away with it.  Perhaps that was so but inflicting great injury and death upon thousands of innocent souls from a pandemic by his failure to act may not provide him the same comfort. 

Excellent article, Mr. Frum and 100% correct!

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/04/americans-are-paying-the-price-for-trumps-failures/609532/

I weep -- Passover prayers

The Facebook post below written by a friend is one of the best opinions I have seen yet of Trump's contribution to the Corona pandemic this nation is suffering today. I believe the blogger is 100% correct. I am going to cut and paste his post below for my friends and allies to read. I do not know if any have seen on HBO "The Plot Against America" a work of fiction based on the Phillip Roth novel and created by David Simon and Ed Burns. It is eerie in its similarity to what Trump is.  In the film the fictional winner of the 1941 election was Charles Nazi lover Lindbergh, a true extreme right winger so called "hero" of that period who thank God in reality wanted to be president but did not run. My anger at what this misfit Trump has done to our nation knows no bounds as I sit screaming at the TV when the bastard is bloviating at his so called "press conference" or what should be called his campaign and lies rallies. Often I turn him off as I simply cannot stand the harangue and mendacity.

I am sickened by what has gone down in this nation as this unfit-for office (to say the least) president is dismantling it piece by piece. The thing, though, I am most angry and horrified at are his Nuremberg-like supporters who are blinded by the darkness he has created so they cannot see the light and the man behind the curtain who is destroying a one time powerful vibrant democracy. The Carona death wielding virus is a metaphor for the war inside our country Trump has waged tearing us apart threatening to kill us. I am in mourning for the nation I know the United States of America once was and I weep every day for it.

I have prayers this Passover that the scourge of Trump passes over our nation like the Angel of Death did in the Biblical Exodus story sparing us further destruction.  I pray Trump loses resoundingly in November, then faces jail time for the abundance of the crimes he has committed and our country returns to the free humane democracy it once was.  Send this to anyone you choose and in November (if there is an election) vote blue up and down the ticket sparing this nation the rank incompetence and death wielding policies of Trump!

The Facebook post:  " trump [sic] knew of the potential pandemic in January. He disbanded our CDC Emergency Control Center two years ago leaving us completely unprepared for this pandemic. He has refused to require manufacturers to begin to make respirators when it was in his power to do so. This has cost hundreds, if not thousands of lives going forward. Manufacturers have volunteered their services but only a handful and delayed.
Trump has expressed no remorse for the deaths he had caused by his inaction during his daily political rallies disguised as press conferences.
He is promoting a malaria drug he is financially vested as a cure, when in fact it has been proven, in many cases, ineffective and fatal.
His ineptitude is epic."

Comparing Trump’s Coronavirus Response To Herbert Hoover’s Great Depression Failure

This article linked below is a very good comparison between two failed presidents, how they are similar and how they are different.Herbert Hoover neither knew nor does Donald Trump know what to do nor how to marshal federal power. I thank god for my hero Franklin Roosevelt every day, cried at his grave site in Hyde Park and wish fervently then and now for a return of that wonderful kind of humane inspiring leadership that ushered in a new way of thinking about the federal government's power to help its people and save a nation from hard times. It is about not treating government like the enemy but treating it as the only thing of power that can save a huge nation from a humanitarian and economic disaster. Call it socialism or call it the road to communism it was neither of those dog whistles. Call it chicken soup I do not care what one calls it it was a way of saving a nation and thinking humanely about the people living in it who are suffering and in trouble. It was a way of innovating thought about a nation that is a collection of beings who need help. A nation is not a rock. It is an assembly of humanity that sometimes needs prescient leadership to come to its rescue. The Roosevelt New Deal restored our nation to economic viability and brought back a nation from Great Depression disaster. We are in those times now but are burdened with a leader who does not think of us at all, who does not care about us and who cares mostly about his polls and winning the next election damn the fact that this nation is on the edge of a pandemic abyss where death is our constant companion.

This president simply will not act as science tells him to act for the entire nation in a way to stem the greatest pandemic ever to hit the global scene in one hundred years. If he does not act it will send this nation into economic free fall. The Carona virus is a national problem. It needs a national collective solution with strong executive leadership and not a states' rights individualistic one depending on this governor or that for individual answers one state bargaining against another for PPE (personal protective equipment.)

No matter how much he bloviates and looks like a powerful Mussolini fascistic populist Trump is not a strong man but a weak one who does not know the first thing about governing a nation through the strongest storm. Neither he nor his son-in-law of zero experience, Jared Kusner, know what to do. Trump is a man who could not save from bankruptcy even his own casinos much less save a nation of 325 million people from a pandemic economic collapse. It is our bad luck to have elected a puerile know nothing narcissist driving the ship of state into ruin. Rescue it and save our nation by voting blue up and down the ticket in November.

 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-herbert-hoover_n_5e879fb4c5b6cbaf2828e7c0

Coordinate all Disaster Relief--If you want to know how to handle a pandemic listen. Magnificent instruction all should hear

I believe the link below is yesterday's show that was magnificent as only Rachel can do it. Listen and marvel at her professional analysis of how our so called "president" should be dealing with Covid-19. She compares it with Bush's handling or non handling of Katrina and how a military man General Honore managed the Katrina disaster when Bush did one right thing and appointed him. That is who should be handling this Corona pandemic--our excellent military who have disaster experience! A general who knows what he is doing should take charge!!!  It is amazing that the most inept human on earth is in the oval office.  What is more amazing than that are those who voted for him!  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjP2k3dyq48&list=PLDIVi-vBsOEyETRGoRP9y8zhyu6bHl6iK&index=2&t=0s&fbclid=IwAR0DYYAFlNxz-ddLFZ_NmX6vjoUvcQBERfRSEJgWsr_2sPbOvkcCSdaQDRk

The lesson of the coronavirus pandemic? Competence matters by Michael Cohen--My Comment LEARN WELL WHY ELECTIONS MATTER

My Comment: No, Democrats are not perfect but as one observes history, modern Republican administrations have proven murderous. See the link below. From Reagan and Gingrich's negative view of government desirous of reducing it to the "size of a postage stamp" to Bush's 9/11 horrific mistake-saturated Iraq War and the massive hurricane Katrina "heck of a job Brownie's" dastardly incompetent response the failures of Republican leadership are legion. Thousands die at the direction of inefficacious even unintelligent Republican government hating leaders.

The massive incompetence, illegalities and crimes against humanity of Trump are too voluminous to state here. Please read the link below and observe the carnage.

The difference between Republican and Democrat is the former hates government and wants to reduce it and the latter wants government to work for the governed. In times

of national catastrophe I believe government is the only answer that can work for all the people.

The summary I am left with is elections matter. I urge you to remove the criminal in the oval office and vote blue up and down the ticket if there is an election in November to be had.  Rescue our lives and that of our nation!  Pass this on to anyone you choose.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/03/28/opinion/lesson-coronavirus-pandemic-competence-matters/

OBAMA PANDEMIC PLAYBOOK REJECTED BY TRUMP WHITE HOUSE--DASTARDLY

Andrea Mitchell interviewed Christina Mulligan former Director for Preparedness and response from the Department of Justice now Managing Director for National Security and International policy of the American Enterprise Institute. She said the Trump Administration opted NOT to use a pandemic playbook created by the National Security staff which was written to help officials confront a range of biological threats.

Mitchell asked how could this have helped an early pandemic response? Mulligan said the Trump administration was given a gift by the previous administration which would have allowed them not to start from ground zero. They would have been given a head start in figuring out what the decision points were and what actions needed to be taken to get ahead of this pandemic. It is hard to tell, Mulligan said, whether they just did not realize what they had or choose to ignore it because there was a bias against everything to do with the prior administration and they would not leverage any information or expertise from it. Mulligan said she worked with Admiral Ziemer from the Global Health Initiative and said he was like a quarterback with respect to a response to Ebola and global health issues like pandemics. 

 Mulligan said there was a groundswell within the career civil servant community in 2017 and 2018 to create a national level exercise conducted every two years to build muscle memory across departments and agencies on how to respond to various types of threats and incidents including pandemics. There was a lot of arguing that the US was under prepared for a pandemic but those ideas were overruled by the White House and the global exercise never took place. -- Dastardly

The President is Trapped

An excellent article in The Atlantic: "The President is Trapped" 

"Trump is utterly unsuited to deal with this crisis, either intellectually or temperamentally." ... 

I suggest you read this wonderful article from a variety of academically excellent contributors at the link below!

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/presidents-character-unequal-task/608743/?fbclid=IwAR0gmvcBJ_b8p8k7zZBYez-pjll7Okf-JzsWW5U8PcuTXHFSDFx9JvRszn0

Science Rules

"Falwell partially reopened the school, and now nearly a dozen students reportedly have symptoms."

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jerry-falwell-jr-slammed-coronavirus_n_5e8177d2c5b6cb9dc1a2caad

My Comment: Science Rules: What a great Dickensian name in our era--Fallwell.  The name rather should be Fallsick.
Science rules and it always has despite the religious fanatics throughout history who have tried to impede its march. Science saves lives and religious fanaticism which is anti science destroys them. Millions historically have suffered and died at the alter of one religion or another that claims to know truth but only knows made up fabrications, myths, stories, and lies.

Now in our time science is bringing that true truth home to all who will listen; whether it's through the Carona virus or through climate change science shows the way. It is up to our big brained species to finally realize that and ditch fantasy religious or otherwise that steals man's brain and/or his wallet from him.  How much money did Jerry Falwell, his heirs and his cohorts rake in from their suffering faithful including from Liberty University? Probably the take is millions upon millions. Do not send your hard earned cash to them. They probably laugh all the way to the bank rejoicing because it is so easy to rope the sick, the tired of life's travails, and the frightened into believing myths that make them feel better and endure a life that is as Hobbs said nasty, brutish and short.

Tantamount to Murder

No, it is not the Carona virus but the link below (the history of vaccines) does show how difficult it was to land on an effective vaccine and how long it took to perfect it.  The disease was polio which showed up here in 1894.  Early vaccine trials did not begin until 1935. This shows one how long it took to develop the correct vaccine for a disease as it went through a number of  trials and tribulations. Polio cases surged in 1952 and early vaccine tests began then.  I remember the epidemic of 1954 and remember well iron lungs and rocking beds lined up in hospital corridors there to help those who suffered the bulbar form of polio making breathing on one's own impossible. Vaccine tests began then and the first vaccine trial emerged in 1955.  It suffered a set back, though, as some children had suffered paralysis and even died after receiving the vaccine.  In 1957 the oral polio vaccine was tested to mitigate IPV (inactive polio vaccine) transmission of the disease.   Today the CDC recommends that children get four doses of IPV polio vaccine at 2 months old, at 4 months old, 6-18 months old and at 4-6 years old.  It took many years and experience with the poliomyelitis virus to arrive at an efficacious protocol. 

The goal of eradicating polio from the face of the earth still lives as primitive fear, religious superstition, war and other social upheavals prevent the complete eradication of the disease.  Even now if there are pockets of world wide failure to vaccinate a nation's populace it will mean the virus will return.

No one should expect and Dr. Fauci has said a Carona vaccine is a year or a year and a half away from human testing.  A vaccine would not be made available to the public unless it is deemed safe through vigorous testing protocols.  The first ethical rule of medical doctors is first do no harm.  As seen with polio much can go wrong if there is further proliferation of the disease by the very vaccine that is supposed to protect against it.  In the mean time the public should follow the advice of seasoned medical experts in the field of immunology and epidemiology who have vast experience all over the world in the phenomena of viral disease transmission.  One should dismiss in no uncertain terms the advice given out by laymen, charlatans looking to make a fast illegal buck or an unethical mendacious president looking to win the next election. 

To put the American and, indeed, the world population at risk of escalating the numbers of dead into the hundreds of thousands or even millions by ordering the nation back to work too soon risking the spread of this tenacious virus even more.  The only advice the public should accept is that of Dr. Fauci and other experienced infectious disease specialists and experts.  To advocate for anything else would be unconscionable and even tantamount to murder!

ttps://www.historyofvaccines.org/timeline/polio

Unstable and No Genius--"How the Pandemic Will End" The Atlantic by Ed Young + My Comment

"In recent days,Trump has signaled that he is prepared to backtrack on social-distancing policies in a bid to protect the economy. Pundits and business leaders have used similar rhetoric, arguing that high-risk people, such as the elderly, could be protected while lower-risk people are allowed to go back to work. Such thinking is seductive, but flawed. It overestimates our ability to assess a person’s risk, and to somehow wall off the ‘high-risk’ people from the rest of society. It underestimates how badly the virus can hit ‘low-risk’ groups, and how thoroughly hospitals will be overwhelmed if even just younger demographics are falling sick.

A recent analysis from the University of Pennsylvania estimated that even if social-distancing measures can reduce infection rates by 95 percent, 960,000 Americans will still need intensive care. There are only about 180,000 ventilators in the U.S. and, more pertinently, only enough respiratory therapists and critical-care staff to safely look after 100,000 ventilated patients. Abandoning social distancing would be foolish. Abandoning it now, when tests and protective equipment are still scarce, would be catastrophic."

My Comment:  Trump is the absolute WORST president to be in office when this catastrophic pandemic event requires smart prescient leadership and advice taken from scientists. Instead we have an unstable far-from-genius president who is leading us up to and potentially over the abyss crowing that he has an instinct for what is medically right during this pandemic. He cares about two things only -- himself and his money!

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/03/how-will-coronavirus-end/608719/?utm_source=pocket-newtab

Trump Rejects New York’s Plea For Ventilators: ‘I Don’t Believe You Need’ That Many--My Comment: Unstable stupid

Trump's 'back-to-work' plan and his refusal to supply the New York epicenter of Carona virus with more ventilators it so desperately needs is murderous.  It will make things worse, experts say.   If president Unstable Stupid issues back to work orders even for just specific areas of the nation that have low viral numbers he will be responsible for the murder of thousands more because the virus does not care about state or county boundaries.  It will invade by eminent domain any human it can thereby in Darwinian fashion increasing its numbers no matter which state is back to work.  Those back to work will infect others.  Those states with low viral load will not stay that way if a back to work order is manifested.  Isolation and limiting human to human contact is still the best method that is now available to the nation and the world to lower the curve as China and S. Korea can attest.  Otherwise, the numbers of sick and dying will rise exponentially and then what?  He will ensure more will die who need not die and be responsible for untold suffering that's what. The unfit-for-the-presidency Trump needs to be removed from office and fast before he annihilates the nation with his unbridled narcissism allowing for the stupidest of his sociopathic murderous policies to prevail.  He cares about one thing -- his own survival -- while damning the nation to untold suffering and attendant death. It is ironic that a back to work order will, I surely hope, ensure his November electoral defeat.  The nation must not take any chances though.  He could unthinkably win another term.  This gargoyle must be stopped now by any legal means necessary before he condemns true Trump death panels to so many who need not die!  VOTE BLUE IN NOVEMBER AND REMOVE THIS PATHOLOGICAL SOCIOPATH AND ALL THOSE WHO ENABLE HIM FROM OFFICE. CONDEMN HIM TO THE SAME ASH BIN OF HISTORY TO WHICH THE AXIS POWERS OF WWII WERE SENT! https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/24/trump-coronavirus-economy-america-business https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-coronavirus-ventilators-new-york-state_n_5e7d651cc5b6256a7a27c911

WHAT MAKES CORONA VIRUS SO DANGEROUS

A fellow blogger sent this to me.  It is an FYI.
"This is the best description of the danger of virus mutation that I have seen lately and why this virus is so dangerous.
“Feeling confused as to why Coronavirus is a bigger deal than Seasonal flu?
Here it is in a nutshell. I hope this helps. Feel free to share this with others who don’t understand ... It has to do with RNA sequencing ... i.e. genetics."
Seasonal flu is an “all human virus”. The DNA/RNA chains that make up the virus are recognized by the human immune system. This means that your body has some immunity to it before it comes around each year. You get immunity two ways = through exposure to a virus or by getting a flu shot.
Novel viruses come from animals ... the W.H.O. tracks novel viruses in animals, (sometimes for years watching for mutations). Usually, these viruses only transfer from animal to animal (pigs in the case of H1N1 and birds in the case of the Spanish flu). But once one of these animal viruses mutates and starts to transfer from animals to humans, then it’s a problem. Why? Because we have no natural or acquired immunity … the RNA sequencing of the genes inside the virus isn’t human and the human immune system doesn’t recognize it, so we can’t fight it off.
Now ... sometimes the mutation only allows transfer from animal to human. For years it’s the only transmission -- from an infected animal to a human -- before it finally mutates so that it can now transfer human to human. Once that happens we have a new contagion phase. And depending on the fashion of this new mutation, that’s what decides how contagious or how deadly it’s gonna be. H1N1 was deadly but it did not mutate in a way that was as deadly as the Spanish flu. Its RNA was slower to mutate and it attacked its host differently, too. Fast forward …
Now, here comes this Corona virus ... it existed in animals only for nobody knows how long.
But one day at an animal market in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, it mutated and made the jump from animal to people. At first, only animals could give it to a person. But here is the scary part ... in just TWO WEEKS it mutated again and gained the ability to jump from human to human. Scientists call this quick ability “slippery”. This Coronavirus, not being in any form a “human” virus (whereas we would all have some natural or acquired immunity), took off like a rocket. And this was because Humans have no known immunity ... doctors have no known medicines for it.

And it just so happens that this particular mutated animal virus changed itself in such a way that it causes great damage to human lungs. That’s why Coronavirus is different from seasonal flu, or H1N1, or any other type of influenza ... this one is slippery as hell. And it’s a lung eater. And, it’s already mutated AGAIN, so that we now have two strains to deal with, strain S and strain L ... which makes it twice as hard to develop a vaccine.

We really have no tools in our shed with this. History has shown that fast and immediate closings of public places have helped in the past pandemics. Philadelphia and Baltimore were reluctant to close events in 1918 and they were the hardest hit in the US during the Spanish Flu.

And let me end by saying right now it’s hitting older folks harder. But this genome is so slippery -- if it mutates again … who is to say what it will do next. Be smart folks ... acting like you’re unafraid is so not sexy right now: #flattenthecurve.

Let's pray that we can develop a vaccine for the S and L strains before the virus mutates again!

Stay home folks and share this with those that just are not catching on.” 

Share as if your life depends upon it because now you can see it truly does and then vote blue up and down the ticket.  The life you save may be your own and/or that of your family!

By Any Constitutional Means Necessary

Our nation is in serious life and death jeopardy dealing with Corona virus containment. Little has been received that Trump said would be sent because he lies, as we know, all the time.  I cannot repeat all the criticism of the Cretan president I have said and printed in opinion over and over and over again. All should be held accountable for leaving this very  sick man in office. We are all at contagion risk and we do not have to be.

He will not put into play the National Defense Authorization Act he allegedly signed allowing him to harness from private enterprise all this nation so desperately needs such as hospital masks, ventilators, gloves and other personal protective equipment to name but a few things needed. Trump says it is because he does not want to nationalize business. In a pandemic he holds us hostage to ideological belief but has time to tell us how rich he is and how the presidency has cost him so much especially in legal fees?   Perhaps if he did not commit so many illegal and unconstitutional acts it would not cost him so much.  It has cost the American people, too, in millions of tax dollars used by Trump to profit off the presidency.

The president is sadly sick and we must have empathy for one who has a mental illness but no one thinks the American people signed up for a suicide pact enduring Trump's insanity which could kill us. No presidency is worth that. Surely the Congress including the Senate must see that their own lives as witnessed by Rand Paul, and three Congressional others either quarantining themselves or testing positive for the virus and it will keep spreading unless the hospitals have enough protective equipment to curtail it.

This president must be removed from office and fast by any Constitutional means necessary!

A Bed of Thorns

Trump and his dastardly minions will never admit fault as his base will gladly accept all the lies he can dish out never questioning the veracity of a thing. That is sad because the fate of all of us, including those like I, who loathe the core of this mendacious man, hangs in the balance.

Taking a cocktail of his "good feeling" drugs like chloroquine, a drug designed for use in malaria and remdesivir, he "feels" are sound even if they can initiate heart attacks and death.  Children or young adults who might take these drugs may suffer an early unpleasant death also when otherwise they may have survived the virus. 

Shame on this unethical, immoral and cruel man who thinks about his own reelection bid and not the fact that there is death all around never asking what the federal government and he can do as the world's most powerful man to ameliorate the condition of the suffering masses.  He hands what should be a unified federal response back to the 50 individual states saying the federal government is not a "shipping clerk."  Really, Trump, really? 

Telling lies about this pandemic whether it be that the duration will be short when it will not, masks are on the way when they are not, Navy medical ships are being groomed into service when they clearly are not or, in the beginning, telling the nation that there is nothing to fear as the virus will run its course and wash over us as soon as the warmer weather ensues when it will last long after is tantamount to murder since many can and will die expecting the bed of roses that Trump dishes out so his polls will go up and while we receive nothing but a bed of thorns.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/21/world/europe/italy-coronavirus-center-lessons.html?emc=edit_na_20200321&ref=headline&nl=breaking-news&campaign_id=60&instance_id=0&segment_id=22518&user_id=85a8ac1c6f518c011d82f4864472cc9b&regi_id=75028030

Pets --do NOT dump your pets -- Please read

From the animal shelter:
DO NOT DUMP YOUR PETS!!!!
You cannot, I repeat you CANNOT get Corona virus from your pets. People are dumping their animals at shelters out of ignorance and fear-please please post this on your page or send it to whomever your choose.  

It is staggering to think that some would not know your animals do not get Corona nor pass Corona on.  Then again this whole saga is staggering to think we are not living in the Twilight Zone nor have leadership that knows what it is doing.  

Get your information on this virus from reputable sources and if you watch daily leadership advice be wary of everything you hear from them as dangerous exaggerations and lies are put forth every day.   Check your questions or information out at the National Institute of Health or even a hospital like MGH or other trustworthy medical sites.  Listen to TV stations that offer academic excellence and facts checked out by experts in the field of immunology and science like MSNBC, NBC, CNN, ABC or CBS.  Do NOT NOT NOT listen to Fox!

Post this on your FB page or send it to anyone you like!

God Help Us

What is there to say about this disgusting excuse for a so called "president" as he maligns PBS journalist Yamiche Alcindor's and NBC journalist Peter Alexander both of whom lobbed rational questions for Trump to answer (see links below.)  Alexander asked about the Carona virus what do you say to the American people who are scared. Trump insulted both reporters and he insulted the American people's intelligence to see that the questions of both reporters were perfectly appropriate and he could have, if he had an intellect, answered both of them with finesse and dignity.

He handed the reporters, instead, a hammer that public opinion and the media they represent would use to make him look like the dull 3 year old that he is. What happened to this man that he finds it so difficult under the easiest circumstances to answer the easiest of questions from the press with clarity and intelligence. This "president" finds it impossible to reflect either. God help us!

The WHO test kits: This is how Trump lies and even his expert gets it wrong!

This is how Trump lies and the bobble heads so called experts try to make Trump look good by nodding and having faulty information.  Dr. Birk said the WHO test kits were not tested and reliable, did not meet the guidelines so Trump rejected them to which Trump concurred. 

FACT: Per MSNBC infectious disease expert: The WHO test kits were reliable but were given free to impoverished nations. The US not being an impoverished nation would have had to pay for them. Trump rejected that but WHO test kits were reliable. The test kits that were NOT reliable and tried at first were the ones from Trump's CDC!!!!!

One must never accept carte blanch anything Trump says.  He lies and he does so all the time.  What is dismaying are his so called expert bobble heads nodding in agreement with him apparently to give him support even when it is an untruth.  Dismaying!  Send this to anyone you choose.

Herd immunity -- my Comment

My comment:  Since the attempt of vaccinating the entire world against polio it has shown that so called "herd immunity" allows those few who have not been vaccinated to not become infected.  I attempted to research just what herd immunity is.  In essence as you can read below it seems to mean that if a large number of people are vaccinated i.e. the majority 60% against the disease in essence simply the virus will peter out and not infect the few who resist vaccination.  Vaccination still remains the gold standard to individual immunity by the body creating antibodies to the disease.  I offer the article below as a definition of herd immunity.

Better analysis of herd immunity:

The Independent
 
What is herd immunity?

When enough people in a community are vaccinated against a disease, this can make it more difficult for the disease to spread to susceptible individuals who have not yet been or cannot be vaccinated. This, the NHS outlines, is called “herd immunity”.

The Vaccine Knowledge Project at Oxford University explains in greater detail, using the analogy of a person being infected by measles.

“If someone with measles is surrounded by people who are vaccinated against measles, the disease cannot easily be passed on to anyone, and it will quickly disappear again,” the organization states.

“This is called ‘herd immunity’, ‘community immunity’ or ‘herd protection’, and it gives protection to vulnerable people such as newborn babies, elderly people and those who are too sick to be vaccinated”.

However, the organization stresses that herd immunity “only works” if the majority of a population have been vaccinated against a condition, adding that it “does not protect against all vaccine-preventable diseases”.

“Unlike vaccination, herd immunity does not give a high level of individual protection, and so it is not a good alternative to getting vaccinated,” the Vaccine Knowledge Project says.
Professor Mark Woolhouse, a professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh, tells The Independent that the concept of herd immunity is “the basis of all vaccination programs”.

However, it can also occur naturally, he explains, stating: “If you’ve been exposed to any infection, enough people have already been exposed to it, have developed antibodies and they’re immune to it, you can have natural herd immunity, and that particular virus will not be able to cause an epidemic in the population.

“It doesn’t mean it won’t be able to spread as there’ll still be some susceptible people, but it won’t take off and cause an epidemic,” he says.

THERE IS NO TEST; the life you save may be your loved one's or your own

Trump tells lies and he tells them all the time.  We know this to be true as sources, reputable ones, keep track of them.  The number of lies he has told since this mendacious man has occupied the sacred spaces of the oval office is probably nearing 10,000 or more.  Trump lied again saying that everyone who wants a test for the Corona virus can get a test.  That is a bold face lie as admitted to by numerous infectious disease experts inside and outside the administration.  If one comes down with Corona symptoms, calls their doctor and says that he/she needs a test the doctor in all probability will not be able to give them one or not even point the way in the direction for them to get tested.  The risk to our hospital system to appropriately deal with virus sufferers and normal illnesses it treats is huge.

THE FAILURE OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO DO ANYTHING IS APOCALYPTIC.  There have been no millions of tests distributed.  The question becomes why is the Republican Party so afraid to call out Trump for the lies he has promulgated which are going to mean sickness and death for ultimately millions if it keeps on going the way of Trump rosy picture painting and just plain lying?  There is zero trust in this administration for anything except surety that this malignant liar will fudge numbers and promote untrue analysis in a way that can best suit his re-election campaign and/or the stock market.  This virus is not going to peter out magically, it is not going to evaporate, it is not going to seasonally die out but it is going to infect those of us who are vulnerable to its poison irrespective of whether one is a Democrat, a Republican, an Independent or a Boy Scout.  It matters not to a biological entity who it infects as long as it does to keep itself alive. It is Darwinian survival at its finest.  Humans do not have the immune system response to this virus because no human body has encountered it before in order to develop an immune response to it.

The irony is without a test and a plan based on testing which the administration it seems deliberately has impeded so Trump will not see the higher numbers that infect the electorate making him worry first and foremost about his campaign and stock numbers, he is reinforcing that more numbers ultimately in the millions will come out to vote against him (I pray.)  Meanwhile, every day wasted without a uniform test and plan to respond to the virus throughout the nation will mean millions more ultimately will be infected and many will die who should not.

Send this to anyone you choose because we are in an emergency.  Lives are at stake and more into the millions perhaps could be infected and die especially those at risk but not limited to those at risk.  Then in November, if Trump has not been given the hook by his supporters turning against him (I can hope) VOTE BLUE UP AND DOWN THE TICKET.  The life you save may be your loved one's life or, in fact, your own!

In U.S., Cases of Coronavirus Cross 500, and Deaths Rise

Deny it if you will but science will do what science will do.  China, where the epidemic began, and  as an authoritarian nation, mandated the strictest control shutting down so many public venues and testing everyone by force if necessary has today reported cases going down.  It is the only nation to report that tells us something about effective control.  The US is NOT in that category by a long shot.  Today Republican senator Ted Cruz who attended the uber conservative CPAC Corona denial conference where one came down with the disease, is now in 14 day quarantine. There is one more Republican in the House that attended the same conference now is in quarantine. There will be more of that I am sure.

The thing that makes this different from the ordinary flu is that there is no vaccine.  It takes at least a year or more to develop one.  People here who contract the flu often have not gotten the vaccine. In 1917 the flu outbreak took world wide 100 million deaths and 675, 000 here in the US. My grandmother nearly died of it.  There was no vaccine.

The Corona virus is new so no one has immunity.  Had a discussion with a veterinarian about it.  He said at some point everyone will get it but on a genetic front it is easier to map the virus's DNA now and that is furiously being done so maybe a vaccine can expeditiously happen but we must first know who has it by testing and that here rolled out with big problems due to incompetent leadership such as the unfit for office Trump and his minions who are in denial mode so the stock market can recover and Trump be reelected. So the testing kits had to be recalled.  Now many more are going out but who and how many get tested remains a sticking point.

Best defense now is hand washing and keeping hands away from one's face, eyes, mouth, nose and even ears and stay tuned to those news outlets which do not deny anything.  Richard Engel had a documentary he reported on last night.  You can Google it if you like.  It is excellent. As one who suffered the effects of a virus it is no joke and the vaccine for polio took years to develop.  It first came out with a glitch that gave paralytic polio to people who were experimented on which is why a vaccine is so difficult to create.  It must be thoroughly tested.  Deny this new virus at your and everyone's peril.

A narcissistic imbecile and a vindictive ignoramus -- By Boston Globe Blogger John Pop

Stay away from people who wear these MAGA hats. They are being given misinformation about the coronavirus from their Dear Leader.

They could be spreading more than lies.

1. Denies WHO's coronavirus death rate based on “hunch"
2. Calls coronavirus "corona flu"
3. Suggests it's fine for people w/ Covid-19 to go to work
4. Compares coronavirus to "the regular flu," indicating he doesn't get the difference

This is what happens when you put a narcissistic imbecile in the White House.

Keep in mind that he has been schooled over and over and over again the last couple of weeks about this virus and the danger involved and he just can’t get it. All he cares about is downplaying the danger so it doesn’t affect the stock market and his re-election.
And the result is that he has failed miserably to deal with this crisis and has let it spread unabated despite having weeks of lead time to get prepared.

And he’s still doing it. Because he’s a vindictive ignoramus and will punish anyone who doesn’t lick his boots, everyone in the public health apparatus of the United States government is having to downplay the risk in ways that go beyond simply telling people not to panic. They have to say that everything’s going great and fluff the president for his “great leadership.”

Trump appears to have let the window for containing coronavirus in the U.S. close on purpose, because he thought that might buoy the stock market and thus his re-election odds. I lack the words. From an honoring-the-oath perspective, it’s probably the worst thing he’s done.

If I believed

I am so elated by what happened in the primaries last night. I love this nation. I will especially love it if the low life in chief is electorally crushed. We must as Democrats and all people of humane proclivities rally around that which is possible. Joe Biden is possible.

If I were a believer and thought providence intervened in the history of this nation to rescue those who are in trouble I would say that something divine saw the evil among us that is Donald Trump who has wrought horror and brought shame upon us, has brought the corruptness of his being, has turned his back on the poor, the sick and the dispossessed. I would see a power that came to save us. I would say, if I believed, that divine providence has brought to us this miracle of Joe Biden, a good and decent man who has suffered the harsh vicissitudes of life, losing a wife and a young son, then later losing his pride and joy Beau Biden to brain cancer. All these things have made Joe Biden who he is so that he may help us rid ourselves of the heavy albatross of destruction and hate that is Trump.

Like the GI's who liberated the concentration camps in WWII, I would say if I believed, that the man Joe Biden is here to take this awful burden of Trump off from around our necks. I would say if I believed, that things like that can happen. That is how I feel today. I have hope I did not have before. Joe Biden, make this miracle come true. Crush the evil in our midst that is Trump and make me believe. Make me believe so that we may never hear from the spiritually ugly, corrupt and profane man named Trump or anyone like him ever again.

An ode to mortality - My Comment

My Comment: The statement below is a very clever poem written by a blogger and contains, I think, some truth. It is worth reading.  

It is ironic that a microscopic entity here since life on earth began is now bringing the world to a crawl and forcing the big powerful big brained man and oftentimes ecological bully to his knees.  Will man's big brain allow him/her ultimately in Darwinian fashion to survive?  Time will tell the outcome of this nasty biological entity that holds the fate of man as yet unseen in its hands.

The Poem:

The sideswipe of disaster Was bound to come one day We thought it would be warfare

Or a strike from outer space

Instead the smallest of us Those we cannot see Know that we have done enough To bring Earth to her knees

So they’re rising up to save her (it’s their home too you see) To reassert their power And cull us with disease

They’ve been around since life began While we but late arrived They know the way survival works As we still stumble blind

They’ve decided we’re too many And numbers must reduce Our skill at procreation Must now end our lease

The microscopic creatures For whom we shed no tear Are cutting down our evil ways And reducing us to fear

Suddenly our world is slowed By unseen policing hands Our  destruction of the planet Must cease by their command

Now we dare not touch each other Or follow travel’s tide We cannot strike our enemy Only use a mask to hide

The things that made us wealthy Our ships and aeroplanes Are now being used against us To spread disease’s bane

So our commerce of pollution Must be put on hold For fear the bugs will find us And leave our bodies cold

Raising  ourselves up as gods That never was our due To take their world as property we had no right to do.