Pandemic

"Truly dystopian": Experts worry Trump's school vaccine plan will spark "public health catastrophe" (3/4/2024)

Trump Covid Record
Trump managed to screw up this crisis in at least six catastrophic ways. He failed to take the Covid threat seriously. He presided over a fumbling bureaucratic response. He embarrassed himself in his press conferences. He tried to throw money at the problem without effectively administering the funds. He demonstrated near-zero empathy with the victims of the disease or their families. And he never really articulated a sensible alternative to the lockdown strategy. Donald Trump, Unmasked
In the context of the coronavirus response, the degradation of expertise in the Trump administration has been catastrophic. It has been difficult to watch CDC director Robert Redfield pander to the commander in chief day-after-day as this crisis unfolds. There are experts who are surely ready to do the right thing—many of the career civil servants in Atlanta are superb public health physicians, scientists, and practitioners—but the administration’s course on coronavirus seems to be more responsive to a president worried about reelection and about bad news that might derail his chances in November than the virus in their midst. In fact, most of the appointed health officials in the administration, from Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar to Surgeon General Jerome Adams, have emerged as cheerleaders and sycophants, aiding and abetting the disinformation coming out of the White House by their refusal to correct the president’s errors in real time. Alone Against the Virus: Amy Kapczynski, Gregg Gonsalves
The top White House official responsible for leading the U.S. response in the event of a deadly pandemic has left the administration, and the global health security team he oversaw has been disbanded under a reorganization by national security adviser John Bolton. The abrupt departure of Rear Adm. Timothy Ziemer from the National Security Council means no senior administration official is now focused solely on global health security. Ziemer’s departure, along with the breakup of his team, comes at a time when many experts say the country is already underprepared for the increasing risks of a pandemic or bioterrorism attack. Washington Post (5/11/2018)
We have ... watched American hospitals, long understaffed and undersupplied, buckling under waves of coronavirus patients. The federal government made matters worse through willful ignorance, misinformation, and profiteering. Our system of commercial medicine failed the ultimate test, and thousands of Americans died. see Timothy Snyder's book Our Malady

Public policy and health in the Trump era (2/10/2021) Lancet

Coronavirus Resource Center

Banyan

COVID-19 Data Explorer

Watchdogging Covid19

Covid Action Platform

...the previous administration engaged in an unprecedented campaign of political interference in the federal government’s pandemic response, which undermined public health to benefit the former president’s political goals. ... President Trump and his top aides repeatedly attacked CDC scientists, compromised the agency’s public health guidance, and suppressed scientific reports in an effort to downplay the seriousness of the coronavirus. This prioritization of politics, contempt for science, and refusal to follow the advice of public health experts harmed the nation’s ability to respond effectively to the coronavirus crisis and put Americans at risk. As we continue to recover from the coronavirus crisis, we must also continue to work to safeguard scientific integrity and restore the American people’s trust in our public health institutions.” Trump Administration’s Assault on CDC and Politicization of Public Health During the Coronavirus Crisis (10/17/2022)
Republicans, fed a steady diet of misinformation by partisan media — did I mention that Fox News has required its employees to disclose their vaccination status since last summer? — are four times as likely as Democrats to be unvaccinated, and far less likely to wear masks when grocery shopping. So America’s bad pandemic largely reflects a bet on the part of right-wing politicians and opinion leaders that they can reap benefits by making basic public health precautions part of the culture war. What to Do With Our Pandemic Anger by Paul Krugman (2/7/2022) NYT
What seems to be happening instead goes beyond cold calculation. As I’ve pointed out in the past, Republican politicians now act like apparatchiks in an authoritarian regime, competing to take ever more extreme positions as a way to demonstrate their loyalty to the cause — and to The Leader. Catering to anti-vaccine hysteria, doing all they can to keep the pandemic going, has become something Republicans do to remain in good standing within the party. How Saboteurs Took Over the G.O.P. (12/3/2021) Paul Krugman, NYT
Misinformation has existed on the internet for as long as the internet has existed, of course, and the anti-vaccine movement preceded the internet. It’s been around since the development of vaccines in Europe, in the mid-1700s. Although anti-vaccine narratives may not have changed much since then, one thing that’s different now is the way we distribute information. The internet democratized flows of information, making it possible for anyone with a point of view to reach vast numbers of people relatively easily. Anti-vax narratives perform particularly well on social media, where algorithms reward emotionally-engaging personal anecdotes and sensational content — not dry scientific facts. OF VIRALITY AND VIRUSES: THE ANTI-VACCINE MOVEMENT AND SOCIAL MEDIA", Renée DiResta, NAPSNet Special Reports (11/08/2018)
it’s becoming increasingly clear that Americans suffering from the economic consequences of Covid-19 will get far less help than they should. Having already condemned tens of thousands to unnecessary death, Trump and his allies are in the process of condemning tens of millions to unnecessary hardship. Paul Krugman (NYT 5/7/2020)

Bill Gates: ‘I Worry We’re Making the Same Mistakes Again’ (3/19/2023) NYT

Trump Administration’s Assault on CDC and Politicization of Public Health During the Coronavirus Crisis (10/17/2022)

Republican US counties saw more COVID-19 deaths (6/6/2022)

The Viral Lies That Keep Killing Us (1/3/2022) Paul Krugman NYT

COVID Kills Three to Six Times More Republicans According to NPR Study (12/14/2021)

Coronavirus in the U.S.: Latest Map and Case Count Updated Dec. 11, 2021 (NYT)

House committee releases new evidence from investigation into Trump administration interference with CDC during Covid-19 pandemic (11/12/2021)

Chris Wallace’s grilling of a GOP governor exposes a much bigger scam (9/13/2021)

Biden’s Vaccine Push: What You Need to Know (9/9/2021) NYT

Demand Surges for Deworming Drug for Covid, Despite Scant Evidence It Works (8/30/2021)

Right-Wing Media and GOP Have Blood on Their Hands for Covid-19 Misinformation (7/16/2021)

Antivaxxer Problem Solver

The pandemic was a stress test that exposed weaknesses in US healthcare, anemic public health infrastructure, and inept US government under Trump’s right-wing leadership. States and counties that voted for Trump are experiencing the worst of the pandemic.

Public health, probably on account of Republican cuts, has been starved for a long time. Laurie Garrett’s excellent books elaborate. Trump fired the pandemic response team that was supposed to be the watchdog for impending threats.

The Trump government response to Covid dismissed experts, denied the threat, and spread misinformation using right-wing media like Fox News. Hundreds of thousands of deaths were unnecessary.

Countries or States that listened to experts, took their advice, prepared, provided honest information,let people know the danger, tested, did contact tracing, responded correctly and had low death rates. Trump didn't do that. He held large rallies and White-house parties that were superspreaders and told people not to worry about it. So we are number 1...in pandemic deaths.

Since healthcare is often an employee benefit, no one should be surprised that in an economic downturn, laid-off employees lose access to healthcare. COBRA was supposed to pick up coverage, but it is unaffordable and unforgiving of any missteps.

Healthcare that covers everyone makes sense. Anyone left out in a pandemic becomes a threat to everyone. Even before the pandemic, Republican States that refused Medicaid lost many thousands of lives unnecessarily.

Because US healthcare is a corporate feeding frenzy, universal coverage is estimated would save lives and be much less expensive.

The right has made defiance of basic public health measures part of their culture war, made new variants more likely, endangered the entire population, and led to unnecessary deaths, especially for their own followers. They are sometimes violent about it.

But that's just the pandemic response. Aside from that, Republicans are very bad at government. Democracy is much better than dictatorship.

Right-wing countries and States failed the test.

... we probably would still have polio in this country if we had the kind of false information that's being spread now. If we had that back decades ago, I would be certain that we would still have polio in this country. Dr Fauci talking with Jim Acosta on CNN (7/17/2021)

The larger political story of the 2020 coronavirus crisis, in other words, may well prove to be a powerful case study in the way that governments controlled by leaders prone to unilateral decision-making, and the top-down information regimes they rely on to perpetuate their rule, are all but guaranteed to create maximum conditions of public health breakdown. How Trump and Xi set the stage for the coronavirus pandemic By Laurie Garrett April 2, 2020
“If there is one country in the world that still has the coronavirus, the whole world has it.” – Vera Songwe, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa

‘Freedom,’ Florida and the Delta Variant Disaster (8/2/2021)

It is Time to Call Republican Rejection of Vaccines and Masks what it is: Selfish (7/29/2021)

American Dysfunction Is the Biggest Barrier to Fighting Covid (7/24/2021)

Reliving a Year of Death, as Havoc Reigned in the White House (6/23/2021)

Republicans "forget" that Trump fired embedded CDC observer in China months before the outbreak (6/6/2021)

The Snake-Oil Salesmen of the Senate (11/24/2020)

The Rise (and Fall?) of Trump's Viral Death Cult (11/22/2020)

Trump Tells Coronavirus, ‘I Surrender’ (10/26/2020)

Inside the fall of the CDC (10/18/2020)

20 Pictures That Show How Differently Americans Are Dealing With Coronavirus Compared To The Rest Of The World (3/16/2020)

Summary of Global SARS-CoV-2 Wastewater Monitoring Efforts by UC Merced

If you don’t stop the virus, it will eventually spread to virtually the entire population. People think that 70, 80% of people will get infected. The disease has something like a 0.5 to 1% fatality rate. When you do the math, you are talking about millions of people, in the United States alone, dying from the coronavirus. That is the implication of a strategy that does not try to stop the virus. And I think we’ve never had an actual conversation about whether a seven-figure death toll is something that we’re willing to accept or not. Fair (7/1/2020)

Trump’s Coronavirus Response Was Beyond Incompetent (9/10/2020)

Intentional Disregard: Trump’s Authoritarianism During the COVID-19 Pandemic (8/5/2020)

How the Pandemic Defeated America (The Atlantic 9/2020)

Noam Chomsky: Decades of “the Neoliberal Plague” Left U.S. Unprepared for COVID-19 Outbreak (7/30/2020)

Shut it down, start over, do it right (7/25/2020)

What You Don’t Know Can’t Hurt Trump (7/20/2020)

How America Lost the War on Covid-19 (7/6/2020)

America Is Too Broken to Fight the Coronavirus (6/22/2020)

The Ostrich Policy: Trump ready to Kill Hundreds of Thousands to avoid bad Coronavirus Optics for Election (6/16/2020)

Trump moves to pull US out of World Health Organization (7/7/2020)

Don’t Leave the W.H.O. Strengthen It. (6/13/2020)

Where the Virus Is Growing Most: Countries With ‘Illiberal Populist’ Leaders (6/2/2020)

Why Is Trump Gutting Regulations That Save Lives? (4/17/2020)

The Trump Virus (3/27/2020)

The Religious Right’s Hostility to Science Is Crippling Our Coronavirus Response (3/27/2020)

Much worse than Italy: In the US, an absolute disaster is brewing (3/23/2020)

The top White House official responsible for leading the U.S. response in the event of a deadly pandemic has left the administration, and the global health security team he oversaw has been disbanded under a reorganization by national security adviser John Bolton. The abrupt departure of Rear Adm. Timothy Ziemer from the National Security Council means no senior administration official is now focused solely on global health security. Ziemer’s departure, along with the breakup of his team, comes at a time when many experts say the country is already underprepared for the increasing risks of a pandemic or bioterrorism attack. Washington Post (5/11/2018)
Despite Hype, Sweden’s Pandemic Deaths of 3,175 Are Three Times the Combined Fatalities of Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland, Who Have 70% More Population Webster Tarpley (5/11/2020)

On the Economics of Not Dying (5/28/2020)

The Pandemic Is Shaking the Dollar’s Supremacy (5/18/2020)

The Complete Guide to How Trump Lied, Bungled, and Screwed America into the COVID-19 Crisis

Disease experts declare it’s time to join forces for multiple COVID-19 vaccines (5/11/2020)

How to Create a Pandemic Depression (5/11/2020)

Trump administration buries detailed CDC advice on reopening (5/7/2020)

Coronavirus Live Updates: Trump Administration Models Predict Near Doubling of Daily Death Toll by June

How Trump and Xi Set the Stage for the coronavirus epidemic

Laurie Garrett, the prophet of this pandemic, expects years of death and “collective rage.” (5/3/2020)

Links

Adult ICU bed utilization by state

Center For Systems Science

Pandemic Map

Bibliography

If It Sounds Like a Quack…: A Journey to the Fringes of American Medicine by Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling (youtube)

Breathless: The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus by David Quammen

The Viral Underclass: The Human Toll When Inequality and Disease Collide by Steven Thrasher

The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity by Toby Ord

Between Hope and Fear, A History of Vaccines and Human Immunity by Michael Kinch

OF VIRALITY AND VIRUSES: THE ANTI-VACCINE MOVEMENT AND SOCIAL MEDIA", Renée DiResta, NAPSNet Special Reports (11/08/2018)

Preventable, The Inside Story of How Leadership Failures, Politics, and Selfishness Doomed the U.S. Coronavirus Response, by Andy Slavitt

Uncontrolled Spread, Why Covid-19 Defeated us and how we can beat the Nest Pandemic by Scott Gottlieb, MD (former FDA Commissioner)

Nightmare Scenario, Inside the Trump Administration’s Response to the Pandemic That Changed History By Yasmeen Abutaleb and Damian Palett

The Premonition, a Pandemic Story by Michael Lewis

Betrayal of Trust by Laurie Garrett

The Coming Plague by Laurie Garrett