The Obama-Biden Virus Response
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Kimberly Strassel in the WSJ - link is to a non-paywall site:
https://apkmetro.com/the-obama-biden-virus-response/
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Is it affordable accountable a single politician for the unfold of a extremely infectious virus, particularly in a free nation with 50 states and 330 million folks? Joe Biden is fortunate that wasn’t the usual a decade in the past.
If the Democratic conference produced one theme it’s that Donald Trump is personally at fault for each coronavirus dying. The message is that loopy, that blunt. Kamala Harris: “Donald Trump’s failure of management has price lives.” Barack Obama: “Donald Trump hasn’t grown into the job as a result of he can’t. And the implications of that failure are extreme: 170,000 People lifeless.”
Democrats even declare Mr. Biden saved lives in 2014. Michelle Obama: “Our leaders had labored hand in hand with scientists to assist stop an Ebola outbreak from changing into a worldwide pandemic.” Ms. Harris final week: “Do not forget that pandemic? Barack Obama and Joe Biden did their job. Solely two folks died in the USA.”
Ebola is a terrifying illness, however outbreaks are likely to occur solely in very poor nations, and if caught early the virus is troublesome to transmit outdoors hospitals. Anthony Fauci mentioned in 2014 {that a} U.S. outbreak was “very, very, impossible.” Mr. Obama instructed People to sit back out: “Ebola is definitely a troublesome illness to catch. It’s not transmitted by means of the air just like the flu.”
The Ebola instance is designed to divert consideration from a extra related comparability: the H1N1 swine-flu outbreak of 2009-10. Democrats don’t like to speak about H1N1, as a result of it didn’t go nicely. If it had been as lethal as Covid-19, the toll would have been catastrophic. The historical past is a strong reminder that governments can’t cease a virus—though they’ll make epidemics worse.
H1N1 started very similar to corona, with panicked tales in late April 2009 a couple of novel “hybrid” flu pressure in Mexico that was popping up within the U.S. It was much more alarming, in that it particularly affected kids. But the brand new administration started with a muddled message. Mr. Obama inspired calm, whereas Mr. Biden rambled a warning about staying off airplanes and public transport—prompting backlash. “Biden’s flu gaffe a headache for Obama,” learn one headline.
Inside days, some 30 states had suspected circumstances, and by April 27 the U.S. had its first dying, a 23-month-old little one. Different international locations began shutting services, telling residents to remain dwelling, quarantining guests. The Obama administration nonetheless had no thought how lethal the illness was, although the World Well being Group referred to as the outbreak a menace to “all humanity,” and well being consultants predicted hospitals could be overloaded.
The administration nonetheless took a resigned strategy to its unfold. Mr. Obama didn’t shut the Mexican border, saying that might “be akin to closing the barn doorways after the horses are out.” His officers did declare a well being emergency (Mr. Obama was {golfing} that day) and distributed the nationwide stockpile (which they by no means replenished). The administration advisable faculties “take into account” closing if experiencing an outbreak, although the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention chief mentioned this won’t assist with unfold and warned about taking children out of lecture rooms. Nobody thought of a nationwide lockdown, particularly not an administration targeted on a fragile financial restoration. Mr. Obama promised to “management” the “affect” of the virus—not the virus itself. He requested Congress for all of $1.5 billion.
Authorities grew extra optimistic as H1N1 turned out to be much less lethal than had been feared, however they nonetheless confronted the danger of an uglier pressure within the fall. Staff Obama promised 100 million doses of vaccine by mid-October. (A flu vaccine is simpler to provide than a coronavirus vaccine). However authorities setbacks in manufacturing, manufacturing and dosing protocols resulted in solely 11 million doses, prompting nationwide outrage. By that time, the CDC estimated 22 million People had been contaminated, 36,000 kids hospitalized, and 540 children had died.
Earlier than Covid-19, Democrats had been keen to confess they’d dodged a bullet. Former Biden chief of workers Ron Klain mentioned at Texas A&M in 2019: “We did each potential factor fallacious. Sixty million People acquired H1N1 in that time period, and it’s simply purely a fortuity that this isn’t one of many nice mass-casualty occasions in American historical past. [It] had nothing to do with us doing something proper; simply needed to do with luck. If anybody thinks that may’t occur once more, they don’t have to return to 1918. Simply return to 2009, 2010. Think about a virus with a unique lethality, and you’ll simply do the mathematics.”
Sure, let’s do the mathematics. The U.S. has some 5 million reported circumstances of coronavirus and 170,000 deaths. A virus with the unfold of H1N1 and fatality charge of Covid-19 may produce a dying toll approaching two million. The Trump administration response has been flawed—particularly its preliminary testing delays. However let’s acknowledge (as Democrats as soon as did) that there’s solely a lot authorities can do to “management” a germ. As for distributing tools, offering antivirals and creating a vaccine, the present response has to this point met or exceeded 2009-10. Mr. Biden is free to argue he’s a greater man for the White Home; he shouldn’t get to rewrite historical past, or virology.
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I remember H1N1 well. We had the tests...regular flu screening tests worked. Then the docs ordered so many, everybody went on allocation. For 12,000 patients/month through our outpatient portals, we got 120 tests.
And FDA rules were not waived, so we had what we had.
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Wow.
How does an article get into print, when the author is obviously drunk?
I ran out of times trying to piece together syntax so sentences would make some kind of sense.When an article is presented to the public, and the article is full of slop and lack of any oversight editing, I figure the background work for the article is also slop. Sure, a slip here, maybe there,
. . . but C'mon Man! -
Yes, what happened? Those words don't make sense.
A bad translation from some other language?
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In my opinion, I do not think that the initial problems the US had with COVID-19 would not have been any different if there was a Democrat president instead of President Trump.
I question if the later response (for example - mid April onward) from the federal government would have been different?
I dont know. (Dont have any answers, just like to ask questions!!
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So who is to blame, locals or feds?
It was in tonight's local news that getting tests back is taking up to 2 weeks. According to our Governor, there is still a huge shortage of tests that have a rapid turnaround.
For Crissakes. If we ran completely out of Doritos in January, would there still be a shortage 8 months later? Yeah, not the same thing, but still. . .
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So who is to blame, locals or feds?
It was in tonight's local news that getting tests back is taking up to 2 weeks. According to our Governor, there is still a huge shortage of tests that have a rapid turnaround.
For Crissakes. If we ran completely out of Doritos in January, would there still be a shortage 8 months later? Yeah, not the same thing, but still. . .
@Rainman said in The Obama-Biden Virus Response:
So who is to blame, locals or feds?
I dont know, but I do think that there should have been a federal response. The US is too big and diverse to think that each of the states, etc. would work together.
The two countries I am most familiar with right now (Taiwan and Thailand) both have had a very strong national response. To a lesser amount, I am familiar with Republic of Korea and they also had a strong national response.
There are 22 districts in Taiwan and 76 provinces in Thailand. For both countries, the national government specified what needed to be done. The national government did not allow the individual provinces/districts to do what they wanted.
From a disease standpoint, it is obvious that it has worked. (I know people can argue about damage to the economy, but I am just referring to controlling the disease.
I dont know if this would have been possible in the US, it seems like COVID-19 is a national emergency, not a state emergency.
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From April 12, 2009 to April 10, 2010, CDC estimated there were 60.8 million cases (range: 43.3-89.3 million), 274,304 hospitalizations (range: 195,086-402,719), and 12,469 deaths (range: 8868-18,306) in the United States due to the (H1N1)pdm09 virus.
1 in 5 Americans had it. I wonder if I got it? It’s part of seasonal flu now.
IFR = 0.0002.
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I’m open to the idea that our federal response was poor. But I’m having a hard time making sense of this piece.
@jon-nyc said in The Obama-Biden Virus Response:
I’m open to the idea that our federal response was poor. But I’m having a hard time making sense of this piece.
I can tell you for certain that it wasn't written by the WSJ woman. It looks to me like her original article was translated into another language, then that translated article was poorly translated back into English using Google translator.
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Yeah that’s what I think.
But even trying to correct for that, there’s disingenuous stuff in there.
Like saying that if the death rate had been like Covid (35x higher) there would have been 2MM deaths. Well, ok, but just maybe if the death rate were 35x higher the response might have been different?
Etc
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Kind of like the attack on Pearl Harbor, in a way.
What planes could fly, the pilots had no idea what to do, where to go, etc. And, it's not like they didn't know the possibility of an attack was not imminent.
With the Covid, there were years if not decades to prepare for an attack of a novel virus. But like Pearl Harbor, it was just scrambling to do something, and then post-attack blame to go around plenty.
I would be satisfied if there was a battle plan laid out for next time, based upon what has been learned. Enough with the could-have-should-have stuff. Clear and concise, if A happens, we do B quickly at the federal level, States on down to municipalities immediately do what is known and expected.
Just like with 9/11. Now, if we are hit again, the entire country will know exactly what the response will be, everyone will be on the proverbial same page.
Simple. Won't happen.
Except next time, we'll go through the same thing = politicians looking to get reelected and make bookoo bucks along the way, everyone blaming everyone else, with emphasis on "let's at least be prepared for next time" mantra blah blah.
Snark aside, I do believe the feds will make sure to fix some of the obvious e.g., PPE stockpiled and PPE/drugs stockpiled and certain percentage made in the Good Ol' USA. At the State level, won't work. When the next catastrophe happens, Portland will be on day 12,038 nights of rioting, the governor still useless along with the PDX mayor.
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So she points out that we basically let H1N1 sweep and, had it been as deadly as Covid, there would have been 2MM deaths.
What do you want to bet she’s been poo-pooing lockdown and other Covid countermeasures for the last 5 months?
@jon-nyc said in The Obama-Biden Virus Response:
So she points out that we basically let H1N1 sweep and, had it been as deadly as Covid, there would have been 2MM deaths.
What do you want to bet she’s been poo-pooing lockdown and other Covid countermeasures for the last 5 months?
Does it matter? One issue at a time, lad...
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Another article on the Obama/Biden handling of H1N1. It reiterates a lot of what Strassel says, and adds more.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/04/joe-biden-contain-h1n1-virus-232992
“I wouldn’t go anywhere in confined places right now," Biden said. "It’s not that it’s going to Mexico, it’s that you are in a confined aircraft. When one person sneezes, it goes everywhere through the aircraft.”
Airlines angrily accused Biden of fearmongering. Media reports noted that Biden’s pessimism contrasted sharply with the reassurances President Barack Obama had given a day earlier, when he said there was no need to panic even as he declared a national health emergency. In a matter of hours, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Deputy Secretary of State Jack Lew were summoned to the White House and assigned to clean up the mess Biden made: “Nip it in the bud,” LaHood said, recalling their instructions.
By 4 p.m., the three officials were hosting a news conference and backing away from the vice president’s words.
The snafu was the first of many scrambles and setbacks by the Obama administration in its initial response to the swine flu. POLITICO interviewed almost two dozen people, including administration officials, members of Congress and outsiders who contended with the administration’s response, and they described a litany of sadly familiar obstacles: vaccine shortfalls, fights over funding and sometimes contradictory messaging.
