WSJ: How South Korea Successfully Managed Coronavirus (9/25/20)

[Jeffrey Brown + 208]

WSJ:  How South Korea Successfully Managed Coronavirus (9/25/20)

https://www.wsj.com/articles/lessons-from-south-korea-on-how-to-manage-covid-11601044329

Excerpt:

South Korea appears to have cracked the code for managing the coronavirus. Its solution is straightforward, flexible and relatively easy to replicate. . . .As a result, South Korea never had to mandate a lockdown, so restaurants and business were able to stay open, cushioning the blow to the economy.

End Excerpt.

My comments;

Let's assume that the Trump Administration chose to emulate South Korea's approach to the virus, and let's assume that they were successful in this regard.  In round numbers, and extrapolating current data and adjusting for population differences,  this would probably imply that we would have seen a total cumulative US COVID-19 death count of about 5,000 or so, by February 1, 2021, 10 days after Trump leaves office. 

A recent study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), which so far appears to be approximately accurate, suggests (as of 12/19/20) a most likely US total COVID-19 death count of about 460,000, as of 2/1/21:

https://covid19.healthdata.org/united-states-of-america?view=total-deaths&tab=trend

Based on the following Wikipedia entry, the total number of US combat deaths to date, since the Civil War (post-1865), is about 435,000:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_casualties_of_war

The gap between the 2/1/21 projection and the "What could have been" South Korea scenario, is about 455,000.  

In other words, Trump’s decision not to follow the lead of countries like South Korea arguably may have caused the unnecessary deaths of Americans, about 455,000,  just through the end of his presidency, that exceeds the total number of American combat deaths in all conflicts since the Civil War, about 435,000.

Note that recently more than 1,000 current and former CDC officers signed an open letter expressing dismay at the nation’s public-health response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

And given Trump’s position and access to data, one could plausibly make a case that he is probably guilty of depraved indifference.

More Than 1,000 Current and Former CDC Officers Criticize U.S. Covid-19 Response

https://www.wsj.com/articles/more-than-1-000-current-and-former-cdc-officers-condemn-u-s-covid-19-response-11602884265

Excerpt:

More than 1,000 current and former officers of an elite disease-fighting program at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have signed an open letter expressing dismay at the nation’s public-health response to the Covid-19 pandemic and calling for the federal agency to play a more central role.

“The absence of national leadership on Covid-19 is unprecedented and dangerous,” said the letter, signed by current and former officers of the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service of outbreak investigators. “CDC should be at the forefront of a successful response to this global public health emergency.”

Signers included two former CDC directors: Jeffrey Koplan, who led the agency under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, and Tom Frieden, who served under President Barack Obama.

All of the signatories were writing to “express our concern about the ominous politicization and silencing of the nation’s health protection agency” during the current pandemic, said their letter, which was published Friday in the Epidemiology Monitor, a newsletter for epidemiologists.

End Excerpt.

Depraved Indifference Law and Legal Definition

https://definitions.uslegal.com/d/depraved-indifference/

Excerpt:

“The crime (depraved indifference) differs from intentional murder in that it results not from a specific, conscious intent to cause death, but from an indifference to or disregard of the risks attending defendant’s conduct.”

End Excerpt.

 

Edited December 20, 2020 by Jeffrey Brown

[Jeffrey Brown + 208]

The inside story of how Trump’s denial,
mismanagement and magical thinking
led to the pandemic’s dark winter

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/politics/trump-covid-pandemic-dark-winter/?itid=hp-top-table-main

Excerpt:

After their warnings had gone largely unheeded for months in the dormant West Wing, Deborah Birx, Anthony S. Fauci, Stephen Hahn and Robert Redfield together sounded new alarms, cautioning of a dark winter to come without dramatic action to slow community spread.

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, among the many Trump aides who were infected with the virus this fall, was taken aback, according to three senior administration officials with knowledge of the discussions. He told the doctors he did not believe their troubling data assessment. And he accused them of outlining problems without prescribing solutions.

The doctors explained that the solutions were simple and had long been clear — among them, to leverage the power of the presidential bully pulpit to persuade all Americans to wear masks, especially the legions of Trump supporters refusing to do so, and to dramatically expand testing.

“It was something that we were almost repetitively saying whenever we would get into the Situation Room,” said Fauci, who directs the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “Whenever we got the opportunity to say, ‘This is really going to be a problem because the baseline of infections was really quite high to begin with, so you had a lot of community spread.’ ”

On Nov. 19, hours after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised against Thanksgiving travel, Vice President Pence, who chairs the coronavirus task force, agreed to hold a full news conference with some of the doctors — something they had not done since the summer. But much to the doctors’ dismay, Pence did not forcefully implore people to wear masks, nor did the administration take meaningful action on testing.

As for the president, he did not appear at all.

Trump went days without mentioning the pandemic other than to celebrate progress on vaccines. The president by then had abdicated his responsibility to manage the public health crisis and instead used his megaphone almost exclusively to spread misinformation in a failed attempt to overturn the results of the election he lost to President-elect Joe Biden.

“I think he’s just done with covid,” said one of Trump’s closest advisers who, like many others interviewed for this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly discuss internal deliberations and operations. “I think he put it on a timetable and he’s done with covid. . . . It just exceeded the amount of time he gave it.”

Now, a month later, the number of coronavirus cases in the United States is reaching records daily. The nation’s death count is rising steadily as well, this past week surpassing 300,000 — a total that had seemed unfathomable earlier this year. The dark winter is here, hospitalizations risk breaching capacities, and health professionals predict it will get worse before it gets better.

[Gerry Maddoux + 3,627]

Try not to pervert the timeline, or the culprits. 

1. Dr. Fauci was the one to warn us of pandemics. He did not. He was to one to ready us for a pandemic. He did not. In fact, he came out immediately and implicitly instructed us not to wear masks. He has admitted that he did that because he was aware there weren't enough masks for medical personnel. The pandemic began in Wuhan. He had plenty of time to study it. If he was in charge of this sort of thing, why didn't he lay back supplies, and then warn us to wear masks? 

2. Mr. Trump stopped incoming flights from mainland China on January 10. When he did that, he was roundly criticized by Mr. Biden and many others for being "xenophobic." Mr. Xi was well aware of person to person contact but did not close the Wuhan airport until after the Chinese New Year. 

3. On the very day that Dr. Fauci advised us not to wear masks, the first known person to person transmission occurred in the U.S. What, you'd like to blame that on Trump too?

4. Bottom line: No president could have managed this pandemic much better than Mr. Trump, given his exceptionally weak leaders at the NIH and the CDC. He could have been a better role model. And that's about all. South Korea is not the sprawling United States. Massachusetts passed the 5,000 mark in early May.  

5. The medical profession has more or less turned against Trump because he accused many of them of putting down "Covid" as the cause of death, when the victim was actually 88 years of age, had heart disease and Alzheimer's and so on and so forth. If an indigent person presents with many problems and dies, the hospital gets nothing. If the swab is pos for covid, they get $13,000 (for in many cases a ten-minute stay). If that patient is placed on a ventilator, the hospital gets $39,000, even if that patient died ten minutes after being placed on the ventilator. Most of these people are ethical; some are not; almost no hospital is ethical; they're focused on the bottom line.

6. On this forum, before you cut loose, you'd be well advised to have your facts in hand. I understand that most everyone wants to paint a face on this virus. Mr. Trump has often been a pain in the ass, but he stopped travel from China to the U.S. very early, saving hundreds of thousands of lives, and he immediately put together a commission under Operation Warp Speed to create a vaccine, opening the purse of the government in order to ensure it was done. Mr. Trump was not/is not a doctor: he had no way of instructing us what to do. I have no idea where you are from or what your political views are, but I can tell you unequivocally that no president could have done better, given the very weak people he had in charge. The title of your excerpt is offensive and the context is incorrect. 

[Jeffrey Brown + 208]

Re:  "I can tell you unequivocally that no president could have done better, given the very weak people he had in charge. The title of your excerpt is offensive and the context is incorrect."

In regard to the title of the excerpt, it’s literally the WSJ headline about South Korea’s response to the pandemic, and this is a direct quote from the article, "South Korea appears to have cracked the code for managing the coronavirus. Its solution is straightforward, flexible and relatively easy to replicate."  

Trump is on tape admitting to Woodward that the virus would be deadly and that he was deliberately downplaying the effects of the virus.  In fact, in doing so, a former federal prosecutor argued that Trump effectively confessed to second degree (depraved indifference) murder.

Based on the facts, I think that we can unequivocally say that almost any president would have done far better, given that the facts indicate that Trump is arguably responsible for the unnecessary deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans.

Former federal prosecutor: Trump admitted to '2nd degree murder' in Woodward interview (September, 2020)

https://news.yahoo.com/former-federal-prosecutor-trump-admitted-190200145.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=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&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAMdckgbmlYsXWHn-gmhjHbdB7WTOmF1itUapXFSdQCBg5kZUZxeKuDs0kZ8tsyx0347-ToN_oJ0lxY0gGTvzc1zvm1MogNOX-RTuNPxGJNWKVFhJYNyl3Y_f_uF95Dv7fLjM2MAnbl9x6TR71xLDjYUi1r9RfVgijAWDn-t6rRBv

Excerpt:

"There are only two elements for second-degree murder. The first is you caused the death of another," Kirschner said Thursday. That factor was fulfilled because Trump "was lying to the American people about the danger this virus posed," and now 190,000 people are dead, Kirschner said. "The second element is the intent element," which would "get tricky if we didn't have Trump's incriminating admissions," he continued. But "in my opinion as a career prosecutor," Trump admitted to "conscious disregard" of the risk his coronavirus downplay created, thus admitting to "second-degree murder" that he "must be held accountable" for, Kirschner finished.

 

 

 

Edited December 20, 2020 by Jeffrey Brown

[Jeffrey Brown + 208]

'Not able to do the job that we were sent there for' because of politics: Full CDC whistleblowers interview

https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/video/-not-able-to-do-the-job-that-we-were-sent-there-for-because-of-politics-full-cdc-whistleblowers-interview-98115141611

In an exclusive interview with Meet the Press, Kyle McGowan, former Chief of Staff, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Amanda Campbell, former Deputy Chief of Staff, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, talk to Chuck Todd about the political influence that was brought to bear on their agency.

Edited December 20, 2020 by Jeffrey Brown

[Eyes Wide Open + 3,554]

17 hours ago, Gerry Maddoux said:

Try not to pervert the timeline, or the culprits. 

1. Dr. Fauci was the one to warn us of pandemics. He did not. He was to one to ready us for a pandemic. He did not. In fact, he came out immediately and implicitly instructed us not to wear masks. He has admitted that he did that because he was aware there weren't enough masks for medical personnel. The pandemic began in Wuhan. He had plenty of time to study it. If he was in charge of this sort of thing, why didn't he lay back supplies, and then warn us to wear masks? 

2. Mr. Trump stopped incoming flights from mainland China on January 10. When he did that, he was roundly criticized by Mr. Biden and many others for being "xenophobic." Mr. Xi was well aware of person to person contact but did not close the Wuhan airport until after the Chinese New Year. 

3. On the very day that Dr. Fauci advised us not to wear masks, the first known person to person transmission occurred in the U.S. What, you'd like to blame that on Trump too?

4. Bottom line: No president could have managed this pandemic much better than Mr. Trump, given his exceptionally weak leaders at the NIH and the CDC. He could have been a better role model. And that's about all. South Korea is not the sprawling United States. Massachusetts passed the 5,000 mark in early May.  

5. The medical profession has more or less turned against Trump because he accused many of them of putting down "Covid" as the cause of death, when the victim was actually 88 years of age, had heart disease and Alzheimer's and so on and so forth. If an indigent person presents with many problems and dies, the hospital gets nothing. If the swab is pos for covid, they get $13,000 (for in many cases a ten-minute stay). If that patient is placed on a ventilator, the hospital gets $39,000, even if that patient died ten minutes after being placed on the ventilator. Most of these people are ethical; some are not; almost no hospital is ethical; they're focused on the bottom line.

6. On this forum, before you cut loose, you'd be well advised to have your facts in hand. I understand that most everyone wants to paint a face on this virus. Mr. Trump has often been a pain in the ass, but he stopped travel from China to the U.S. very early, saving hundreds of thousands of lives, and he immediately put together a commission under Operation Warp Speed to create a vaccine, opening the purse of the government in order to ensure it was done. Mr. Trump was not/is not a doctor: he had no way of instructing us what to do. I have no idea where you are from or what your political views are, but I can tell you unequivocally that no president could have done better, given the very weak people he had in charge. The title of your excerpt is offensive and the context is incorrect. 

Quite well articulated Mr Maddoux..very well said.

[Jeffrey Brown + 208]

On 12/20/2020 at 3:40 PM, Eyes Wide Open said:

Quite well articulated Mr Maddoux..very well said.

Well, I for one am Shocked! Shocked! that two delusional Trump supporters agree with each other.