Pandemic

[Paul_Chance]

You're veeeery generous with your absolution of Trump's culpability in exacerbating the impact of Covid, from early warning failures, to national messaging and policy.

The CDC's messaging was a direct result of them contorting their advisement to fit Trump's narrative. If you think they were speaking freely then I have a bridge I'd like to sell you. Ask Rick Bright what happened when officials tried to tell the public the truth about Covid back in March and April.

Trump's attacks on the ACA and eliminating the individual mandate led many people to go uninsured; I don't think that made the country more resilient in the face of a pandemic.

SAD!!! is not how I feel. It is a play on Trump's own word to describe his epic failure.

I am generous with other people and try not to begin from the point of a negative assumption as to motive, nor to assign to them things that are a result of stereotypes or malformed opinions/conclusions. Many years ago I had a professor in college (Go St. Cloud State Spartans!) teach us a little phrase to help us reason through things. "It is an excellent practice to approach the things you believe in with the same skeptical rigor as you do things you don't believe in." I've certainly found it useful over the years in getting down to actuals.


Bright's case is potentially interesting. He resigned from HHS today I saw. after initially pushing to be reinstated to his former position as director of BARDA. He demonstrated one behavior that always makes me apply that critical scrutiny - he filed his Whistleblower complaint after he was reassigned.

Unfortunately, that raises in me the question - if the behavior he alleged to have occurred was ongoing and he felt compelled to file a whistleblower complaint - why did it happen just after he was reassigned? When that happens there is often two things going on - first, the employee is trying to stop the personnel action by sliding under whistleblower protections (which prevent retaliation) and second, it becomes questionable as a "get even" move.

As for impact on the actual pandemic response you once again have the problem - the Director of BARDA does not direct the US pandemic response - BARDA is focused on research and development and information development. Their main product is white papers. The pandemic response is handled by ASPR (the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response). BARDA is just one of the departments under the ASPR umbrella. BARDA is to ASPR like DARPA is the Department of Defense. Yeah, a bunch of very bright people, but DARPA doesn't tell the Secretary of Defense what to do.

This is just a curious question - if you think Trump is a poor role model, why mimic his speech patterns?

 

[Dribble]

The New England Journal of Medicine....the best of the best. Respected by the World.

And Scientific American for the first time in their 175 year history has endorsed a candidate for president

https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/07/health/nejm-editorial-political-leadership-bn/index.html

How much clearer can it be?

 

[DeluxAuto]

The New England Journal of Medicine....the best of the best. Respected by the World.

And Scientific American for the first time in their 175 year history has endorsed a candidate for president

https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/07/health/nejm-editorial-political-leadership-bn/index.html

How much clearer can it be?

CNN = FAKE NEWS YOU FUCKING IDIOT!!!!!!!!!!!!1111111111111

 

[Dribble]

More people tested positive in the White House last week than in the ENTIRE COUNTRY of Taiwan.

 

[Lazaran]

I am generous with other people and try not to begin from the point of a negative assumption as to motive, nor to assign to them things that are a result of stereotypes or malformed opinions/conclusions. Many years ago I had a professor in college (Go St. Cloud State Spartans!) teach us a little phrase to help us reason through things. "It is an excellent practice to approach the things you believe in with the same skeptical rigor as you do things you don't believe in." I've certainly found it useful over the years in getting down to actuals.


Bright's case is potentially interesting. He resigned from HHS today I saw. after initially pushing to be reinstated to his former position as director of BARDA. He demonstrated one behavior that always makes me apply that critical scrutiny - he filed his Whistleblower complaint after he was reassigned.

Unfortunately, that raises in me the question - if the behavior he alleged to have occurred was ongoing and he felt compelled to file a whistleblower complaint - why did it happen just after he was reassigned? When that happens there is often two things going on - first, the employee is trying to stop the personnel action by sliding under whistleblower protections (which prevent retaliation) and second, it becomes questionable as a "get even" move.

As for impact on the actual pandemic response you once again have the problem - the Director of BARDA does not direct the US pandemic response - BARDA is focused on research and development and information development. Their main product is white papers. The pandemic response is handled by ASPR (the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response). BARDA is just one of the departments under the ASPR umbrella. BARDA is to ASPR like DARPA is the Department of Defense. Yeah, a bunch of very bright people, but DARPA doesn't tell the Secretary of Defense what to do.

This is just a curious question - if you think Trump is a poor role model, why mimic his speech patterns?

So there's this really nice bridge I just so happen to have for sale, and I can offer it to you at a bargain price.

Your skepticism borders on willful ignorance. Your condescending lecturing about being skeptical is pure bullshit, considering all the testimony and interviews with former administration officials about Trump's incompetence and criminal behavior in other scandals. The Covid crisis didn't happen in a vacuum. There is a long evidentiary trail that has led to skeptics like myself accepting that Trump is unfit for office, and his handling of the Covid crisis is just another piece of evidence. Prior events do serve to inform my decision making process on who and what to believe about Trumps handling of the Covid crisis.

As far as Rick Bright's ability to influence decision making; I never said he could. I just used him as an example of what happens to people who speak up in the Trump administration. I also used him to point out how Trump has been shaping the CDC's messaging from the outset of the pandemic. Coincidentally, there was a report out today about former CDC director William Foege sending a letter to the current CDC director Robert Redfield condemning Trump's influence on the messaging from the CDC and encouraging Redfield to denounce Trump's interference and incompetence, which would force Trump to fire him.

You can hem and haw all you want about the facts in evidence. My mind is made up.

 

[NG1274]

^
Thinks because others won't play his game and spoon feed him readily available information it validates an unsubstantiated point he is trying to make.

SAD!!

*chuckles*

Thanks for proving my point.