Trump’s choice to lead the Centers for Disease Control disagreed with Trump’s absurd claim that building the wall at the Mexican border will slow the spread of the coronavirus.
Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Tuesday he was unaware of any indication from his agency that physical barriers along America’s borders would help halt the spread of the coronavirus in the U.S. — contradicting an assertion President Donald Trump made earlier in the day.
Appearing before House lawmakers to testify about the public health crisis and the White House’s budget request for his agency, Redfield was asked by Rep. Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) whether the CDC’s recommendations for combating the coronavirus addressed whether “structural barriers” at the borders “would be of any use in mitigating” the growing outbreak.
“Not that I’ve seen,” Redfield replied.
As the federal government has struggled to mount a cohesive response to the coronavirus threat over the past few weeks, Trump has repeatedly promoted the administration’s move in late January to bar entry from foreign nationals who had recently been in China and institute a mandatory two-week quarantine for U.S. citizens returning from the epicenter of the outbreak.
On Tuesday morning, Trump claimed his campaign trail pledge to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border would also aid in containing the coronavirus, tweeting the structure is “Going up fast” and “We need the Wall more than ever!”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Trump is wacko. It’s about who gets the money. Where’s the straight jacket?
Redfield is such a hack. Watching his face as Trump was talking at the CDC while Redfield looked on in awe. If you watch that video, there is a single man in the group whose face reflects what anyone with an ounce of integrity was thinking while listening to Trump. That we are in real trouble with Trump in charge. Redfield is a Trump sycophant with enough self-preservation to know how idiotic he would be not to blatantly lie under oath.
As each day goes by, it is clear that the Chinese cover up and censoring the whistle blower doctor pales compared with how miserably this president has handled the US response. And, he knows it.
So what’s a self-absorbed, ignorant buck-stops-here president to do – of course, pass the buck , blame and scapegoat – go all Pavlovian on the base – and break out the Greatest Hits Album.
This virus is a bad actor. Build the wall. Woo woo!
The doctors are exaggerating. Lock her up. Woo woo!
His response was incompetent and incoherent. It’s Obama’s regulations. Woo woo!
Just wait – Pence will be escorted out next.
And today’s strategy? So what he’s been doing is what he did for years – blame someone and borrow billions to buy his way out of bankruptcy and failing hotels – only this time it’s a bail out and soon to be broken promises of tax relief (just like bump stocks that got “walked back” to keep the base and billionaires happy).
How predictable – and tiresome.
This is even worse. This criminal administration ordered all posters warning about the Coronavirus taken down in immigration courts. They want to pitch this, when the virus spreads, as due to immigration, in order to further their White Supremacist agenda. But this order is criminal. It could lead to the deaths of immigrants who aren’t informed about the virus.
This is murderous behavior, and I am not exaggerating.
https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/judges-were-told-to-remove-cdc-coronavirus-warning-posters-from-immigration-courts/?fbclid=IwAR1AHbLGJ8FaxRzH0Ab-VWcm_rBFrhhghdbcXuYQt-B9-3Jo3rrfgFWmerA
Utterly shocking.
Trump has a problem. Everyone knows that he initially said that the virus was no big deal. He’s learned better. So now, it seems, he wants to keep immigrants ignorant of this so that when some of them get the virus, as they inevitably will, he can use this to blame the spread on immigrants. Why else would he order judges to remove information about the disease from immigration courts?
This may be the most horrific thing I’ve read in the news ever.
There was an NPR piece on this yesterday. Seems the posters went back up after some different order came down. I got the impression that some other department wanted the credit for putting them up..
There was a lot of backlash, so the Justice Department reversed itself. The posters are going back up.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/3/10/1926119/-Immigration-court-staffers-were-ordered-to-take-down-bilingual-CDC-issued-COVID-19-posters
Dr. Redfield scares me. Standing behind Trump at the CDC, he had such a fawning, obsequious look on his face. He smirked and smiled at Trump’s absurd rant. He reminded me of Mike Pence. I’m wary of the trustworthiness of both of them.
This is a Facebook post by an Italian doctor, Daniele Macchini, about what he’s facing right now.
In one of the constant emails that I receive from my health department on a more than daily basis now these days, there was also a paragraph entitled “doing social responsibly”, with some recommendations that can only be supported.
After thinking for a long time if and what to write about what is happening to us, I felt that the silence was not at all responsible. So I will try to convey to people “not involved in the work” and further away from our reality, what we are experiencing in Bergamo during these pandemic days from Covid-19.
I understand the need not to create panic, but when the message of the danger of what is happening does not reach people and I still feel who cares about the recommendations and people who gather together complaining that they cannot go to the gym or be able to do soccer tournaments I shudder.
I also understand the economic damage and I am also worried about that. After the epidemic, the tragedy will start again. However, apart from the fact that we are literally also devastating our NHS from an economic point of view, I allow myself to raise the importance of the health damage that is likely throughout the country and I find it nothing short of “chilling” for example that a red zone already requested by the region has not yet been established for the municipalities of Alzano Lombardo and Nembro (I would like to clarify that this is pure personal opinion).
I myself looked with some amazement at the reorganizations of the entire hospital in the previous week, when our current enemy was still in the shadows: the wards slowly “emptied”, the elective activities interrupted, the intensive therapies freed to create as many beds as possible. Containers arriving in front of the emergency room to create diversified routes and avoid any infections. All this rapid transformation brought in the corridors of the hospital an atmosphere of surreal silence and emptiness that we still did not understand, waiting for a war that was yet to begin and that many (including me) were not so sure would never come with such ferocity .
(I open a parenthesis: all this in silence and without publicity, while several newspapers had the courage to say that private health care was not doing anything).
I still remember my night guard a week ago passed unnecessarily without turning a blind eye, waiting for a call from the microbiology of the Sack. I was waiting for the outcome of a swab on the first suspected patient in our hospital, thinking about what consequences it would have for us and the clinic. If I think about it, my agitation for one possible case seems almost ridiculous and unjustified, now that I have seen what is happening.
Well, the situation is now nothing short of dramatic. No other words come to mind.
The war has literally exploded and the battles are uninterrupted day and night.
One after the other, the unfortunate poor come to the emergency room. They have anything but the complications of a flu. Let’s stop saying it’s a bad flu. In these 2 years I have learned that the people of Bergamo do not come to the emergency room at all. They did well this time too. They followed all the indications given: a week or ten days at home with a fever without going out and risking contagion, but now they can’t take it anymore. They don’t breathe enough, they need oxygen.
Drug therapies for this virus are few. The course mainly depends on our organism. We can only support it when it can’t take it anymore. It is mainly hoped that our body will eradicate the virus on its own, let’s face it. Antiviral therapies are experimental on this virus and we learn its behavior day after day. Staying at home until the symptoms worsen does not change the prognosis of the disease.
Now, however, that need for beds in all its drama has arrived. One after the other, the departments that had been emptied are filling up at an impressive rate. The display boards with the names of the sick, of different colors depending on the operating unit they belong to, are now all red and instead of the surgical operation there is the diagnosis, which is always the same cursed: bilateral interstitial pneumonia.
Now, tell me which flu virus causes such a rapid tragedy. Because that’s the difference (now I’m going down a bit in the technical field): in classical flu, apart from infecting much less population over several months, cases can be complicated less frequently, only when the VIRUS destroying the protective barriers of the Our respiratory tract allows BACTERIA normally resident in the upper tract to invade the bronchi and lungs, causing more serious cases. Covid 19 causes a banal influence in many young people, but in many elderly people (and not only) a real SARS because it arrives directly in the alveoli of the lungs and infects them making them unable to perform their function. The resulting respiratory insufficiency is often serious and after a few days of hospitalization, the simple oxygen that can be administered in a ward may not be enough.
Sorry, but to me as a doctor it doesn’t reassure you that the most serious are mainly elderly people with other pathologies. The elderly population is the most represented in our country and it is difficult to find someone who, above 65 years of age, does not take at least the tablet for pressure or diabetes. I also assure you that when you see young people who end up in intubated intensive care, pronated or worse in ECMO (a machine for the worst cases, which extracts the blood, re-oxygenates it and returns it to the body, waiting for the organism, hopefully, heal your lungs), all this tranquility for your young age passes.
And while there are still people on social networks who pride themselves on not being afraid by ignoring the indications, protesting because their normal lifestyle habits are “temporarily” in crisis, the epidemiological disaster is taking place.
And there are no more surgeons, urologists, orthopedists, we are only doctors who suddenly become part of a single team to face this tsunami that has overwhelmed us. The cases multiply, we arrive at the rate of 15-20 hospitalizations a day all for the same reason. The results of the swabs now come one after the other: positive, positive, positive. Suddenly the emergency room is collapsing. Emergency provisions are issued: help is needed in the emergency room. A quick meeting to learn how the first aid management software works and a few minutes later they are already downstairs, next to the warriors on the war front. The screen of the PC with the reasons for the access is always the same: fever and respiratory difficulty, fever and cough, respiratory insufficiency etc … Exams, radiology always with the same sentence: bilateral interstitial pneumonia, bilateral interstitial pneumonia, bilateral interstitial pneumonia. All to be hospitalized. Someone already to intubate and go to intensive care. For others it is late …
Intensive care becomes saturated, and where intensive care ends, more are created. Each fan becomes like gold: those of the operating rooms that have now suspended their non-urgent activity become places for intensive care that did not exist before.
I found it incredible, or at least I can speak for the HUMANITAS Gavazzeni (where I work) how it was possible to implement in such a short time a deployment and a reorganization of resources so finely designed to prepare for a disaster of this magnitude. And every reorganization of beds, wards, staff, work shifts and tasks is constantly reviewed day after day to try to give everything and even more.
Those wards that previously looked like ghosts are now saturated, ready to try to give their best for the sick, but exhausted. The staff is exhausted. I saw fatigue on faces that didn’t know what it was despite the already grueling workloads they had. I have seen people still stop beyond the times they used to stop already, for overtime that was now habitual. I saw solidarity from all of us, who never failed to go to our internist colleagues to ask “what can I do for you now?” or “leave that hospitalization alone.” Doctors who move beds and transfer patients, who administer therapies instead of nurses. Nurses with tears in their eyes because we are unable to save everyone and the vital signs of several patients at the same time reveal a fate that has already been marked.
There are no more shifts, schedules. Social life is suspended for us.
I have been separated for a few months, and I assure you that I have always done everything possible to constantly see my son even on the days of taking the night off, without sleeping and postponing sleep until when I am without him, but for almost 2 weeks I have not voluntarily I see neither my son nor my family members for fear of infecting them and in turn infecting an elderly grandmother or relatives with other health problems. I am satisfied with some photos of my son that I regard between tears and a few video calls.
So be patient too, you can’t go to the theater, museums or gym. Try to have mercy on that myriad of older people you could exterminate. It is not your fault, I know, but of those who put it in your head that you are exaggerating and even this testimony may seem just an exaggeration for those who are far from the epidemic, but please, listen to us, try to leave the house only to indispensable things. Do not go en masse to stock up in supermarkets: it is the worst thing because you concentrate and the risk of contacts with infected people who do not know they are. You can go there as you usually do. Maybe if you have a normal mask (even those that are used to do certain manual work) put it on. Don’t look for ffp2 or ffp3. Those should serve us and we are beginning to struggle to find them. By now we have had to optimize their use only in certain circumstances, as the WHO recently suggested in view of their almost ubiquitous impoverishment.
Oh yes, thanks to the shortage of certain devices, I and many other colleagues are certainly exposed despite all the means of protection we have. Some of us have already become infected despite the protocols. Some infected colleagues also have infected relatives and some of their family members are already struggling between life and death.
We are where your fears could make you stay away. Try to make sure you stay away. Tell your family members who are elderly or with other illnesses to stay indoors. Bring him the groceries please.
We have no alternative. It is our job. Indeed what I do these days is not really the job I’m used to, but I do it anyway and I will like it as long as it responds to the same principles: try to make some sick people feel better and heal, or even just alleviate the suffering and the pain to those who unfortunately cannot heal.
On the other hand, I don’t spend many words about the people who define us heroes these days and who until yesterday were ready to insult and report us. Both will return to insult and report as soon as everything is over. People forget everything quickly.
“Going up fast” and “We need the Wall more than ever!”
Trump is proving to the whole world that he is a racist, bigoted, ignorant waste of a man. Trying to put the blame on coronavirus on immigrants is about as low as any human can get. These people are already starving and most now can’t even apply for amnesty since the only way to currently get amnesty is to wait in a country such as Guatemala that is extremely violent. Nothing like waiting to be killed while starving to find out after a year or more that you have been denied amnesty.
Trump is a vile, mean, nasty, ignorant, viciously inarticulate vision of a poor man with no comprehension that extends beyond his own welfare.
Here’s hoping he gets coronavirus and stays inside for weeks. Unfortunately, he will get the best heal care that this country can provide. The immigrants no longer can get the health care that they might need because they have the misfortune to be brown rapists, drug dealers and criminals. Poor people deserve nothing but contempt from the Orange Moron.
Isn’t this a president that we can all respect? Blame immigrants and work to reassure Americans that there is nothing to be concerned about. It is absolutely freaky that this ignoramus might be re-elected. Fox is successfully doing its job of indoctrinating the populace. “The chosen one’ speaks and we are supposed to bow.
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
The Fake News Media and their partner, the Democrat
Party, is doing everything within its semi-considerable
power (it used to be greater!) to inflame the CoronaVirus
situation, far beyond what the facts would warrant.
Surgeon General, “The risk is low to the average
American.”
March 9, 2020
Trump is suing the NYT. AND, let’s remember that the NYT is pure ‘fake’ news. Dr. Trump has proven that the doctors at CDC all looked at him in wonder because of his great knowledge.
………………………….
‘It’s Just Everywhere Already’: How Delays in Testing Set Back the U.S. Coronavirus Response
A series of missed chances by the federal government to ensure more widespread testing came during the early days of the outbreak, when containment would have been easier.
Dr. Helen Y. Chu, an infectious disease expert in Seattle, knew that the United States did not have much time.
In late January, the first confirmed American case of the coronavirus had landed in her area. Critical questions needed answers: Had the man infected anyone else? Was the deadly virus already lurking in other communities and spreading?
As luck would have it, Dr. Chu had a way to monitor the region. For months, as part of a research project into the flu, she and a team of researchers had been collecting nasal swabs from residents experiencing symptoms throughout the Puget Sound region.
To repurpose the tests for monitoring the coronavirus, they would need the support of state and federal officials. But nearly everywhere Dr. Chu turned, officials repeatedly rejected the idea, interviews and emails show, even as weeks crawled by and outbreaks emerged in countries outside of China, where the infection began.
By Feb. 25, Dr. Chu and her colleagues could not bear to wait any longer. They began performing coronavirus tests, without government approval….While acknowledging the ethical questions, Dr. Chu and others argued there should be more flexibility in an emergency during which so many lives could be lost. On Monday night, state regulators told them to stop testing altogether.
The failure to tap into the flu study, detailed here for the first time, was just one in a series of missed chances by the federal government to ensure more widespread testing during the early days of the outbreak, when containment would have been easier. Instead, local officials across the country were left to work in the dark as the crisis grew undetected and exponentially.
Even now, after weeks of mounting frustration toward federal agencies over flawed test kits and burdensome rules, states with growing cases such as New York and California are struggling to test widely for the coronavirus. The continued delays have made it impossible for officials to get a true picture of the scale of the growing outbreak, which has now spread to at least 36 states and Washington, D.C.
Dr. Robert R. Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in an interview on Friday that acting quickly was critical for combating an outbreak. “Time matters,” he said…
And as late as last week, after expanding authorizations for commercial and academic institutions to make tests, administration officials provided conflicting accounts of when a significant increase in tests would be available…
But it remains unclear how many Americans have been tested for the coronavirus. The C.D.C. says approximately 8,500 specimens or nose swabs have been taken since the beginning of the outbreak — a figure that is almost certainly larger than the number of people tested since one person can have multiple swabs. By comparison, South Korea, which discovered its first case around the same time as the United States, has reported having the capacity to test roughly 10,000 people a day since late February…
We need more people like Dr. Chu. Good for her re: defying “outright stupidity.’
I wonder who are those who are and will profit off of this health crisis, because of corruption in the White House?
That dump is the existential risk to America and our Constitution. He works for Putin.
Every single person in the drumph administration should be in jail facing their heinous crimes against humanity.
And, the truth is: dump is a murderer; he is a sadist. He’s so sick.
Lunacy! Do viruses get to an international border and say. “Oh, there’s a wall here. I guess we can’t travel any further.
This is what happens when people who don’t believe in science make pronouncements on health and disease.
Do viruses get to an international border and say. “Oh, there’s a wall here. I guess we can’t travel any further.”
Yes. Yes they do.
Viruses are a law abiding lot to a fault. Which is why you don’t really even need a wall or even a border checkpoint.
You could just put up a sign saying “It is illegal for viruses to enter the United States” and they would all turn back at the border, with not a challenge or question asked.
Excellent suggestion!
I feel like Pampinea in The Decameron! Just wanting to go off into the countryside. Or stay home and read books!
So this whole presidency is what happens when “the meek shall inherit the earth?”
I’m pleased Robert Redfield told the truth, which is certainly new and different for this crowd, but is it necessary for the Trump people to fawn all over Donald Trump at these staged events?
It’s disturbing and alarming to watch- like watching a press conference out of North Korea.
Why don’t they have any self respect? Are they ordered to grovel like this? It makes me cringe on their behalf.
Chiara: What makes me cringe is the number of people who believe everything that Trump says. It is unbelievable that so many are rabidly following a liar and a con man. He probably will get re-elected because the front runner is Biden who doesn’t offer much except for name recognition. Hope I’m wrong.
Carol, I think you are wrong. If Biden or Sanders is the nominee, either will beat Trump.
Diane, I hope you’re right. Those who support Trump are a cult who believe he is definitely doing all that he can to make America work for them. BS.
I will vote for Biden if he is the Democratic nominee. I’m just very saddened that people don’t understand what Bernie is proposing… or that they think Biden is more to their liking because of name recognition. People don’t think very deeply on subjects that matter. Bernie has actual plans that would help the poor and middle class. It is also why I supported Warren.
I know that Fox repeats many times that, “We can’t afford Medicare for All”. Trump never does anything wrong and all the fake media are just worthless scum to want to bring down ‘the chosen one’.
Carol,
Trump’s cult is a hardcore 35%, maybe 40%. He has never broken over 50% approval in the ratings. If Biden is the candidate, and if he has the resources to fight back against the Trump onslaught of dirty and malicious ads, the American people will vote for a decent man vs an indecent liar.
Groveling before the Maximum
Leader is a job requirement.
Imagine how far this virus has spread if these numbers are what is known. Dr. Trump has to be fuming because he worked SO hard to make sure it never came here.
………………….
Novel Coronavirus Cases Top 1,000 in the U.S. IT’S EVERYWHERE
Barbie Latza Nadeau
Correspondent-At-Large
Published Mar. 11, 2020 5:20AM ET
Eduardo Munoz/Reuters
As expected, the number of novel coronavirus cases is growing across the United States, surpassing the 1,000 mark overnight with new cases and deaths in South Dakota, and growing clusters in Massachusetts, where a state of emergency has been called, and in New York, where the entire community of New Rochelle has been deemed a containment area, now patrolled by the National Guard. The first U.S. case was reported in Washington State on Jan. 21. Since then, the virus has spread to nearly every state and contributed to the death of at least 31 people.
Read it at The New York Times
Just wanted to give a shout out of encouragement to all the public schools who are dealing with this crisis without any help or assistance from the political leaders we all pay to do a job, or any assistance from the thousands of paid “ed reformers” who supposedly work full time in education advocacy – as usual they refuse to offer any practical assistance of any kind to existing public schools, because they are ideologically opposed to the existence of public schools.
As usual, our political leaders and the ed reform echo chamber dumped a national crisis on public schools and offer nothing but bashing and criticism.
Oh, well. Hopefully they’ll at least stay out of the way and let public schools handle yet another crisis with no support. I guess “first do no harm” is now our national motto.
Anyone know where Betsy DeVos is? Probably out on another multi-million dollar “public schools suck!” tour, right?
I just read that Betsy DeVos many have been exposed to coronavirus. If it affects her personally perhaps she will think about answering the Senator’s questions. [Don’t really think this will happen.] Notice that it is Democratic senators who are interested in finding out how she will respond.
……………………..
Senators press Betsy DeVos on Education Department’s coronavirus response
March 10, 2020
A group of Democratic senators are pressing Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to answer some key questions about her agency’s response to the spread of the novel coronavirus across the country, especially about how it plans to help vulnerable students.
More than 20 senators sent a letter late Tuesday urging answers from the secretary about what the department is doing to help students affected by the outbreak of the virus. They asked 14 questions, to be answered by March 24, including about how the department plans to ensure that all students who are asked to study at home because they are sick or their schools have closed have the resources they need to continue learning.
On March 5, DeVos testified before senators to defend the Trump administration’s 2021 budget proposal for the Education Department, and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) asked her what the department was doing to help students and schools deal with the crisis around the virus. At that time, Murray said the administration’s response to the coronavirus outbreak “hasn’t inspired confidence.”…
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/03/10/senators-press-betsy-devos-education-departments-coronavirus-response/
Diane,
Reuters had the following : HEALTH NEWS
MARCH 10, 2019 / 8:11 AM / A YEAR AGO
Mumps, other outbreaks force U.S. detention centers to quarantine over 2,000 migrants—
The number of people amassed i by n immigration detention under the Trump administration has reached record highs, raising concerns among migrant advocates about disease outbreaks and resulting quarantines that limit access to legal services.
As of March 6, more than 50,000 migrants were in detention, according to ICE data.
Internal emails reviewed by Reuters reveal the complications of managing outbreaks like the one at Pine Prairie, since immigrant detainees often are transferred around the country and infected people do not necessarily show symptoms of viral diseases even when they are contagious.
…ICE health officials have been notified of 236 confirmed or probable cases of mumps among detainees in 51 facilities in the past 12 months, compared to no cases detected between January 2016 and February 2018. Last year, 423 detainees were determined to have influenza and 461 to have chicken pox. Al…
To me porous borders with illegal alien entries plus diseases not vaccinated for are a call For that “stupid border wall”
Now I know Coronavirus is not mentioned but I am glad the wall has slowed illegals and that the border patrol is prrpared and quarantine measure are deployed.
Reasonable prevention?
Scheidell,
News flash!
COVID-19 originated in Wuhan, China. There have been major occurrences in Italy and Iran. There have been few cases reported in Mexico, Latin America or South America.
Robert Redfield will soon be fired by Trump since he is not a Yes Man. The WH said he is not loyal to Trump.
It sounds to me like Hannity was getting Dr. Fauci to agree to the wonderful things that trump has done to prevent coronavirus from coming to the States. This is Hannity on Fox ‘news’. It is much more lethal than the flu but Trump’s move save thousands of lives. I don’t think Dr. Fauci set Hannity straight on anything.
……………………
Mar. 11, 2020
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top expert on infectious diseases and a member of the White House coronavirus task force, set Fox News host Sean Hannity straight Tuesday night on the dangers the novel coronavirus outbreak presented to the United States, pointedly telling him that the virus is much more lethal than the seasonal flu.
Hannity, who is sometimes referred to as the White House shadow chief of staff, spent the majority of the interview praising President Donald Trump’s coronavirus response and setting up Fauci to do the same.
“But even if it’s one, it’s ten times more lethal than the seasonal flu. You gotta make sure that people understand that!” the top infectious disease expert said.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/dr-anthony-fauci-schools-sean-hannity-on-dangers-of-coronavirus?via=newsletter&source=Politics&jwsource=em
What Rico Trump said yesterday, above, at 9:26 AM. Disagree publicly w/IQ45 & you’re gone!
That having been said, let’s replace him w/Robert Redford. Anyone would be better than an IQ45 appointment!
(Redford could play a doctor better than either Redfield or Ben Carson actually being one.)