Greg Abbott
Governor of Texas
Speaking too soon
Well, I’ve got to tell you—remember some of the early models that predicted these dire outcomes for the state of Texas? Talking about deaths reaching like 260 per day and these skyrocketing projections—and it just never panned out. So what we look at is the real data about what’s taking place, and here’s the fact: the fact is that the growth rate of COVID-19 in the state of Texas is leveling off. The fact is that hospitalizations, for example there are 28 fewer today than there were yesterday, and yesterday they were lower than the day before. The fact of the matter is that hospitalizations in the state of Texas have stayed relatively flat during this entire time. The most important thing that you have to look at is hospitalizations. We don’t want Texas to become like New York or New Jersey. When it comes down to what really matters, which is hospitalizations, Texas has done a superior job to almost any state in the United States. Bryan-College Station, the Greater Houston area, every place I know of in the state of Texas looks great.
Then came July 2020. And Januar6 2021.
NBC DFW, 12/31/2020
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April 13 update starts here.
Vice-president Mike Pence
Rev, 4/13/2020
EMPTY TALK. But in the days ahead, what the president’s charged us to do is to work with our health experts. We’re going to bring together an extraordinary group of American business leaders to council the president. And then working with the CDC, we’re going to produce new guidelines based upon the data for every state and territory in this nation. We’re going to give them guidance and as the president’s indicated, we’ll continue to respect the leadership and partnership that we’ve forged with every governor in America, but this is an unprecedented time.
The verdict is in.
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April 11, 2020 update starts here
Admiral Brett Giroir
Trump Asst. Sec. for Health
Trump Asst. Sec. for Health
Key US government official Adm. Brett Giroir, whose responsibilities include oversight of Covid-19 testing, told Bloomberg News Saturday that coronavirus testing capacity in the US should be in the "ballpark" needed to begin reopening the country by May if the President recommends lifting some social distancing guidelines.
About a month later.
The Atlantic, 5/8/2020
The United States is mired in one of the most immiserating peacetime moments in its history. In a little more than two months, more than 70,000 Americans have died of COVID-19, a disease that did not have a name in early February. The U.S. economy, which began the year as an engine of global stability, is in shambles. The unemployment rate has surged to a level unseen since the 1930s, the Labor Department announced on Friday. Only about half of American adults have a job, the lowest share of the population employed since measurements began in 1948.
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Greg Abbott
Governor of Texas
I’m proud to say that in Texas we have 1,366 Texans who have recovered from COVID-19. But get this, of all these other states in the United States that have far more infectious rate and far more people who have tested positive for COVID-19, Texas ranks second most in the United States of America for the most people who have recovered from COVID-19. [NOTE: Texas also ranks second in population.] We continue to see hospital bed capacity to be very strong. We, as of today still have more than 20,000 actually 20,488 beds that are available state-wide and 2,248 ICU beds that are available. We have 7,834 ventilators that are available.
Texas experienced its peak of new cases in January 2021.
April 9, 2020 update starts here
Larry Kudlow
Trump Director of National Economic Council
(laughably low-caliber hire)
One viewer who owns a hair salon asked him about issues with getting employees to want to come back to work.
"If I may, it's cool to work," Kudlow said. "Working has become cool again."
If I may.....
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April 8, 2020 update starts here
Asa Hutchinson
Governor of Arkansas
Why is this man smiling?
State of the State, 4/8/2020
In Arkansas, today we have crossed the 1,000 mark for COVID-19 cases. People ask me, “When will we get through this.” As you know, no one really knows. But the University of Washington IHME is a very reliable source of one modeling projection. Their most-recent projections show Arkansas will peak on April 24.
It is interesting that 11 days ago, on March 27, the model predicted we would have 707 deaths in Arkansas. On April 6, the model was revised to reduce the predications on deaths down to 279.
Dear Asa,
It is also interesting that what goes down is likely to go up, especially during a pandemic. In fact, your state's 7-day average increased more than 1800% from the day of your 2020 State of the State to January 11, 2021 -- from 159 to 3,080.
Best, Retiring Guy
New York Times
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April 7, 2021 update starts here
The hunky-dory, Pollyanna world of
Dr. Deborah Birx
And it really shows the amazing, amazing activity of every American in those cities to really ensure that there’s social distancing and really importantly to ensure there is less socialization between households and really ensuring that the household really remains independent, protected and not really at this moment going out into the community or socializing anywhere but a virtual way on computers by Zoom, by FaceTime. And I think we can really see that in the data and its really given us great heart.
A week later.
The following weekend, protesters gathered at the State Capitol in Madison to rall7 against Gov. Evers' safer-at-home order.
Photo by Retiring Guy
Yup, Debs, "amazing activity" in these cities.
Admiral Brett Giroir
Trump Asst. Sec. for Health
Trump Asst. Sec. for Health
So I can talk a little bit more about testing later on. But as the president said, 1.79 million tests have been done, and this does not count the hundreds of thousands of tests that are done within hospitals that are now currently not reporting. So I’m sure we’re well over 2 million.
That inspector general report was done here, 23rd, 24th during our ramp up period, quite a long time ago. There was clearly, and it’s hard to interpret the report because it mixes up all kinds of things, but clearly there was complaints by some hospitals of a backlog, probably had sent out tests. And that is true. There were several days of backlog at some of the major labs that have been taken care of. We know now that the ACLA labs now have a 24 to 48 hour turnaround. They’re doing well over 100,000 tests a day. [emphasis added]
9 days later
The demand for coronavirus tests at the nation's private labs, which handle the vast majority of testing for COVID-19, has dropped so much since its peak that the labs now have "considerable" unused capacity and can test more lower-priority patients, according to the American Clinical Laboratory Association. [emphasis added]
The number of COVID-19 tests conducted daily by private labs peaked on Sunday, April 5, at 108,000. It dropped under 100,000 a day after that.
From Sunday, April 12, to Monday, April 13, the number of daily tests fell from 75,000 to 43,000.
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April 5, 2020. Trump sets a happy talk tone with a "light at the end of the tunnel" theme. In her extreme eagerness to please the boss, Dr. Birx follows suit.
Dr. Deborah Birx
White House Coronavirus Task Force Response Coordinator
Rev, 4/5/2020
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s
4/4/2020 update starts here
Kristi Noem
South Dakota governor
First of what's likely to be numerous appearances here
CNN, 4/4/2020
In explaining her rationale against issuing a stay-at-home order, Gov. Kristi Noem told reporters, "The people themselves are primarily responsible for their safety." She also pointed to the state and national constitutions that "prevent us from taking draconian measures much like the Chinese government has done."
As of result of Noem's myopic ideology, South Dakota has the 2nd highest rate of infection -- more than 13% of the population.
4/3/2020 update starts here.
Alex Azar
Trump HHS Secretary
Trump HHS Secretary
Rev, 4/3/2020
Nature, 8/4/2020
Confusion emerged in most pandemic simulations, but none explored the consequences of a White House sidelining its own public-health agency. Perhaps they should have, suggests a scientist who has worked in the US public-health system for decades and asked to remain anonymous because they did not have permission to speak to the press. “You need gas in the engine and the brakes to work, but if the driver doesn’t want to use the car, you’re not going anywhere,” the scientist says.
And as for that Pandemic Flu Preparedness document, Alex. Not a new thing.
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4/2/2020 update starts here
Mike Pence and Jared Kushner
Pence announces Trump's latest nepotism effort.
Rev, 4/2/2020 (White House press conference transcript)
And how did this Amateur Hour assignment pan out?
Washingotn Post, 5/21/2020
CIDRAP, 7/29/2020
Harvard Business Review, 9/17/2020
Not so well. (Surprise, surprise!)
______________________________________4/1/2020 update starts here
Mark Esper
Trump Secreetary of Defense
Trump Secreetary of Defense
Rev, 4/1/2020
Trump welcomes Esper to the podium for an announcement meant to distract from the issue at hand.
I appreciate the opportunity to be here today as we make this a very important announcement. At a time when the nation and the Department of Defense are focused on protecting the American people from the spread of the coronavirus, we also remain vigilant to the many other threats our country faces. Today, at the President’s direction, the Department of Defense in close cooperation with our inter-agency partners began enhanced counter-narcotics operations in Eastern Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. This initiative is part of the administration’s whole of government approach to combating the flow of illicit drugs into the United States and protecting the American people from their scourge.
What about that home-grown American scourge, courtesy of the Sackler family?
The Guardian, 12/17/2020
Related series of posts:
March 13-31, 2020.
March 13-31, 2020.
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