Time’s up
We’re now in the “let’em die” phase of Trump’s regime.
The message from President Trump and Republicans on the novel coronavirus has gone through multiple phases, each as misleading and/or bizarre as the last. First they told us the virus would barely touch us. Then they said it was serious but Trump’s management would quickly make it disappear. Then they said it could have been worse, and anyway it isn’t Trump’s fault.
And now they’re saying “Yes yes yes many thousands will die, now get back to your job!”
“There’ll be more death” as we resume economic activity, says President Trump, but “we have to get our country back.”
You know, the one where hospitals are full and sick people are piled up in the streets and mass burials are a commonplace.
The states rushing to reopen do not meet even the modest guidelines the Trump White House issued about when it would be safe to do so. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R), who is eager to lift his state’s lockdown order, “shut down the work of academic experts predicting the peak of the state’s coronavirus outbreak was still about two weeks away.” Better just not to know how many people are going to die. The Ohio government is asking employers to report workers who refuse to return to work because of safety concerns so the state can take away their unemployment benefits. Iowa issued a similar warning to workers: Risk your life or lose your benefits… Trump signed an executive order declaring meatpacking plants “critical infrastructure” so that they stay open, even though there are now 10,000 covid-19 cases associated with such plants; workers at 170 facilities in 29 states have tested positive. But the president is getting personally involved to make sure there are enough burgers at Wendy’s.
It’ll be fine. This time people will just keep working through the virus, and if they drop dead on the job well that’s a hospital bed saved.
If we throw open the doors of every business, we’ll almost certainly see a second wave of infections — one that could be even worse than what we’re experiencing now — and then we’ll just have to close down all over again.
No we’ll work through the pain.
We’re moving toward an utterly horrifying partisan divide, in which Democrats want to contain the virus so that we’re able to get the economy back on its feet, while Republicans decide that the only brave and manly thing to do is to stop worrying about the virus and “get back to normal” immediately, no matter how many Americans it kills. In fact, we may soon reach the point where dismissing all those deaths is precisely how you show your loyalty to Trump.
In short – you think it’s bad now? You just wait.
Hard to know which thread to post this on.
Today NZ had three confirmed cases reported. This is the lowest daily tally for some days. The cases consisted of one traveller returning from overseas into mandatory Government controlled quarantine (so an imported case) and two nurses at a hospital that had been treating patients from a Rest Home cluster.
The nurses represent an interesting example. Both had been isolated in their homes because of the exposure to known patients. Neither displayed any symptoms of illness. They were tested at the end of their isolation period to ensure safe return to work. It was the clearance tests that showed they had been infected.
Given the high number of people who become infected and never display any symptoms, or whose symptoms are so slight as to be overlooked or discounted, anyone with any understanding of how transmission can occur should understand how relaxed opening and social distancing is going to be fatal to many when States reopen.
Those politicians and pundits agitating for reopening should have covid laced swabs forcibly jambed up their noses, just to even the odds of them suffering the same consequences as the overwhelmingly poor, brown, sick and old people they clearly don’t consider to have lives that matter.
Trump’s regime is at the level of some abysmal banana republic south of the border, like that archetypal banana republic of Batista in Cuba.
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https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/05/americas-racial-contract-showing/611389/
The frustrating thing is the curve is beginning to bend. It’s too early to reopen. Watch the number of cases soar in 1-2 weeks.
BTW – supposedly Trump and Pence have daily COVID19 tests. Now, putting aside the fact that one should always assume the White House is lying, does anyone really believe this is really happening? I have had the test once (negative, thankfully) and it was awful. They really do shove that thing right up your nose, you can feel a sort of pop as they penetrate so deep it almost feels like it’s going to come out your eye. I have a very sensitive gag response, so I started coughing and spluttering and for a moment thought I might throw up. And then I had to enjoy the experience all over again with the other nostril. Blood came out my nose and everything, it was a horror show.
I could not stand going through that every day. I’m not being hyperbolic. Even every week would be very difficult to put up with. I’m pretty resilient to things like vaccinations and blood draws, I sometimes have multiple vaccines and a blood draw all at the same time. No worries, needles don’t scare me. But this test? I’d rather go through breaking my foot again.
Daily swabs? I don’t believe that either. Perhaps they’re just having their temperature checked, so that those with a raised temperature can be sent for actual testing; and Trump assumes that they’re getting really tested because he’s an idiot.
Oof, Claire, that sounds grim. It makes me wonder about these home testing kits they send out. I doubt anyone is going to ram a swab so far up their nose that it hurts, so how reliable can those results really be?
@Catwhisperer No, they won’t do that. Too dangerous. The DTC kit will probably be saliva – there are some promising prototypes in development. They probably won’t be as accurate but are at least simple and easy to use by consumers.
Claire, that’s interesting. I just heard a doctor on some podcast or other – albeit a comedy one – say that swabs need to be taken from right at the back of the nasopharynx (I had to google that to check I got it right) and if people are doing it at home, they might not scrape hard enough because it’s really unpleasant. He definitely used the word “scrape”. Shudder. I do hope I’ll get away with not needing one of these.
Forgot to add, this is in the UK.
@Catwhisperer That’s stupid. Yes, the swab does need to go that far back. People could not possibly do this to themselves, it’s dangerous. You don’t need the ER full up with people who injured themselves shoving swabs up their noses, not to mention that some people just would not be able to do it to themselves. I certainly couldn’t.
However, According to United Healthcare (a US health insurance company), they are now coming around to the idea that swabbing the front of the nostrils may be enough. That would be OK for people to do themselves.