https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXvOlX1zTdo
Wednesday, September 2, 2020
'White House Cover-Up': Covid-19 Task Force Reports Withheld From Public Reveal Trump Knew of Threats as He Spread Lies
"Rather than being straight with the American people and creating a national plan to fix the problem, the president and his enablers kept these alarming reports private while publicly downplaying the threat to millions of Americans."
by
Jake Johnson, staff writer
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/08/31/white-house-cover-covid-19-task-force-reports-withheld-public-reveal-trump-knew
As President Donald Trump and administration officials have been publicly downplaying the Covid-19 crisis and even predicting its imminent disappearance over the past several months, the White House task force formed to coordinate the federal pandemic response has simultaneously been issuing dire assessments of the nation's fight against the pandemic behind the scenes.
Those assessments were kept secret from the public until Monday, when the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis released a trove of task force reports dated between June 23 and August 9 that highlight the extent to which Trump's public proclamations about the Covid-19 crisis have diverged from the findings of experts operating in the White House.
"Rather than being straight with the American people and creating a national plan to fix the problem," Clyburn continued, "the president and his enablers kept these alarming reports private while publicly downplaying the threat to millions of Americans.""The task force reports released today show the White House has known since June that coronavirus cases were surging across the country and many states were becoming dangerous 'red zones' where the virus was spreading fast," said Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), chairman of the subcommittee.
Each of the eight task force reports released by the subcommittee on Monday contain analyses and conclusions that run counter to the recent public statements of Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, the chair of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. The White House sent its reports privately to states but never made them available to the public until the subcommittee requested (pdf) that Pence and task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx turn them over late last month.
In a report (pdf) dated July 19—the same day Trump confidently predicted that the coronavirus is "going to disappear" even as cases surged across the country—the White House task force estimated that 20 states were in the "red zone," meaning more than 10% of new Covid-19 tests were positive.
On June 29, just days after Pence declared that "all 50 states are opening up safely and responsibly," the task force issued a private assessement (pdf) warning that "Mississippi reported an 117% increase in new cases in the week ending June 26, resulting from increased community transmission in multiple counties attributed to reduced social distancing."
Chuck Idelson, communications senior strategist for National Nurses United, tweeted that the newly released task force reports are evidence of a "White House cover-up" and yet "another indication of how Donald Trump could care less how many people die due to his malfeasance on protecting lives from the Covid-19 pandemic."
In a press release, the House coronavirus subcommittee listed several other examples of the internal reports contradicting Trump's public pronouncements on the Covid-19 pandemic, which has infected more than six million people in the U.S. and killed at least 183,000:
June 23 Report. On June 16, Vice President Pence claimed in an op-ed that "panic" over a resurgence of coronavirus infections was "overblown." But on June 23, the White House task force concluded that seven states were in the "red zone," indicating the highest risk of coronavirus spread. The task force found new cases were up 70 percent in Arizona, 72 percent in Texas, 87 percent in Florida, 93 percent in Oklahoma, and 134 percent in Idaho.
July 14 Report. On July 14, President Trump stated, "No other country tests like us. In fact, I could say it's working too much. It's working too well. We're doing testing and we’re finding thousands and thousands of cases." The same day, the task force concluded 19 states were in the "red zone" and recommended they increase testing. The report noted, “Disease trends are moving in the wrong direction in Georgia with record numbers of new cases occurring in urban, suburban, and rural areas. Testing positivity continues to increase. The number of tests has increased, but more testing is needed."
July 26 Report. On July 21, President Trump tweeted: "You will never hear this on the Fake News concerning the China Virus, but by comparison to most other countries, who are suffering greatly, we are doing very well—and we have done things that few other countries could have done!" On July 26, the task force reported 22 states were in the "red zone," and stated: "Georgia is experiencing widespread community spread without evidence of improvement. Improvement will require much more aggressive mitigation efforts to change the trajectory of the pandemic in Georgia."
August 2 Report. In a July 28 interview, President Trump stated: "They are dying, that's true. And you have—it is what it is. But that doesn't mean we aren't doing everything we can. It's under control as much as you can control it." On August 2, the task force concluded 23 states were in the "red zone." The report noted, "Widespread transmission continues to occur from rural to urban areas" in Louisiana; "Aggressive continuation of mitigation efforts will be required" in South Carolina due to "widespread community spread throughout the state in urban, periurban, and rural areas"; and, "The virus is spreading deeper into the rural areas" of Oklahoma.
August 9 Report. On August 3, President Trump tweeted: "Cases up because of BIG Testing! Much of our Country is doing very well. Open the Schools!" On August 9, the task force reported that 48 states and the District of Columbia were in either red or yellow zones. In Indiana, the Task Force warned: "Cases continue at a high plateau in Indianapolis and mitigation efforts, testing, and contact tracing need to be aggressively implemented. Covid-19 is widespread throughout the state and mitigation efforts should be statewide."
The subcommittee went on to warn that despite the continued spread of Covid-19 around the U.S., the Trump administration has refused to support private task force recommendations aimed at stemming the pandemic.
"The task force reports released today recommend that state and local governments implement heightened public health measures to combat the spread of the virus—including requiring face masks in public, closing bars and gyms, and strictly limiting gatherings on a statewide basis in certain states," the subcommittee said. "Yet the Trump administration has failed to publicly support most of the task force's recommendations. For example, President Trump has refused to call for a nationwide mask mandate."
In a statement, Clyburn said that "as a result of the president's failures, more than 58,000 additional Americans have died since the task force first started issuing private warnings."
"It is long past time that the administration finally implement a national plan to contain this crisis, which is still killing hundreds of Americans each day," Clyburn added.
Health Experts Horrified as New Trump Covid-19 Adviser Pushes 'Herd Immunity' Strategy That Could Kill 2 Million Americans
"It's not edgy, contrarian," one public health expert said of the "herd immunity" approach. "It's dangerous and terrifying."
by
Jake Johnson, staff writer
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/08/31/health-experts-horrified-new-trump-covid-19-adviser-pushes-herd-immunity-strategy
A top White House coronavirus adviser brought on earlier this month despite his lack of expertise in infectious diseases or epidemiology is reportedly pushing the Trump administration to adopt a so-called "herd immunity" strategy to the pandemic that public health experts warn could kill millions of Americans and infect hundreds of millions more.
Atlas—who one commentator described as the "anti-Fauci," referring to National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Dr. Anthony Fauci—has "advocated that the United States adopt the model Sweden has used to respond to the virus outbreak... which relies on lifting restrictions so the healthy can build up immunity to the disease rather than limiting social and business interactions to prevent the virus from spreading," according to the Post.The Washington Post reported Monday that Scott Atlas, a neuroradiologist from the right-wing Hoover Institution, caught President Donald Trump's attention "with a spate of Fox News appearances in recent months" in which he downplayed the severity of Covid-19 and questioned the need for lockdowns and social distancing measures.
Sweden's decision to forego strict lockdowns in favor of more relaxed social distancing guidelines has been criticized by public health experts as a reckless approach to the pandemic that contributed to the country's high death rate compared to other European nations. Pursuing a similar strategy in the U.S., a country with a population of 328 million, would be catastrophic, experts warned.
Jonathan Reiner, a cardiologist and professor at George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, tweeted Monday that to achieve "herd immunity" without a vaccine, "about 250 million Americans would contract the virus and 1.5-2 million would die."
A Post analysis found that 2.13 million deaths may be required to "reach a 65 percent threshold of herd immunity, assuming the virus has a one percent fatality rate."
Yale University epidemiologist Gregg Gonsalves said "no one in public health" thinks highly of Atlas' approach to the Covid-19 pandemic, which has infected more than six million people in the U.S. and killed at least 182,000—the highest death toll in the world.
"It's not edgy, contrarian," Gonsalves said of Atlas' thinking. "It's dangerous and terrifying."
Senior Trump administration officials told the Post that despite warnings from medical experts, the White House has already moved to implement "some policies" in line with Atlas' proposed strategy, "particularly with regard to testing."
"The Department of Health and Human Services, for instance, invoked the Defense Production Act earlier this month to expedite the shipment of tests to nursing homes—but the administration has not significantly ramped up spending on testing elsewhere, despite persistent shortages," the Post reported. "Trump and top White House aides, including Atlas, have also repeatedly pushed to reopen schools and lift lockdown orders, despite outbreaks in several schools that attempted to resume in-person classes."
Last week, as Common Dreams reported, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention abruptly issued new guidance that no longer recommends Covid-19 tests for everyone who has been potentially been exposed to the virus—a change that was reportedly directed by the highest levels of the Trump administration.
Fauci, who said he was in surgery and under general anesthesia when the new CDC guidance was discussed, warned the latest recommendations "will give people the incorrect assumption that asymptomatic spread is not of great concern."
"In fact," said Fauci, "it is."
Eric Topol, a cardiologist and head of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in San Diego, told the Post that he believes Atlas "was basically recruited to crowd out Tony Fauci and the voice of reason."
"Not only do we not embrace the science, but we repudiate the science by our president, and that has extended by bringing in another unreliable misinformation vector," said Topol.
Trump endorses right-wing violence in Kenosha & Portland
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/09/01/trum-s01.html
By Patrick Martin
1 September 2020
At a press conference late Monday afternoon, President Donald Trump defended the right-wing gunman who shot to death two protesters against police violence in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last week. Trump spoke on the eve of a scheduled appearance Tuesday in the impoverished “rust belt” city—an intervention that has the character of a political provocation, coming barely a week after the police shooting of Jacob Blake and requests from state and local officials that he stay away.
Trump was asked by one reporter whether he would condemn the actions of Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old former police cadet who opened fire with an assault rifle last Tuesday night, killing two unarmed men who were protesting against police violence.
Trump claimed the right-wing vigilante acted in self-defense, saying, “He was trying to get away from them and he fell and then they very violently attacked him… I guess he was in very big trouble. He probably would have been killed.”
This account is a deliberate whitewash. Rittenhouse was a police enthusiast who had traveled to a Trump campaign rally in Iowa last January, where videos show him sitting in the front row. He tried to enlist in the Marine Corps but was turned down. On August 25, he left his home in northern Illinois and drove with his AR-15 across the state line to Kenosha, where he joined with dozens of other right-wing gunmen whose activities were coordinated and condoned by the police.
Rittenhouse shot to death two men who were peacefully protesting the police shooting of 29-year-old Jacob Blake, left paralyzed with seven bullets in his back. He shot and wounded a third protester as well.
After the killings, the gunman was allowed to pass through police lines carrying an assault rifle, without being arrested or even stopped for questioning. He was subsequently arrested at his home in Illinois and charged with first degree homicide.
Trump also praised his supporters in Portland, Oregon, who invaded the city in a convoy of cars and pickup trucks and attacked demonstrators against police violence, firing paint-ball weapons, pepper spray and other toxins. A melee broke out in which one of the right-wing provocateurs was shot and killed, under circumstances that remain unclear. But Trump declared that the provocateurs in Portland “were supporters [of his] but that was a peaceful protest. Paint is not bullets.”
This defense of right-wing violence came at the end of a 30-minute fascistic diatribe in which he referred dozens of times to the “far left,” “left-wing radicals” and “Antifa” (which does not actually exist as an organized group, but has become the main bogeyman of the fascist right).
Trump repeatedly made an amalgam of “left-wing radicals,” Democratic Party mayors and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, claiming, as he did at last week’s Republican National Convention, that a Biden victory in the November 3 election would mean the collapse of American society.
As he usually does, Trump began the press briefing by praising the performance of the stock market, the sole measure of human progress as far as he is concerned, hailing “the best stock market Dow in 36 years.”
He then claimed a 38 percent decline in new coronavirus cases, a figure that—if not simply made up for the purposes of the briefing—largely reflects a substantial decline in testing. In reality, coronavirus is sweeping almost unchecked through factories, meatpacking plants, college campuses and public schools, and the toll in both infections and deaths is likely to rise exponentially in the coming months.
He then proceeded to his main purpose, to “update the news on the violence in Democrat-run cities.” Trump claimed that federal authorities had arrested more than 200 people for various offenses and announced a joint investigation by the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice into what he called “the violent left-wing civil unrest that began in Portland.”
The rest of his statement consisted of a largely incoherent mélange of praise for the police (“There is a war on law enforcement in this country. Without law enforcement, there is chaos.”) and vilification of Biden and the Democrats as the enablers and supporters of left-wing terrorists.
He claimed that in order to “teach our children that America is a free and just nation” it was necessary to “jail lawbreakers and defeat their hateful ideology.” He seemed to be echoing the extraordinary statement made by Newt Gingrich earlier in the day on Trump’s favorite cable television show, “Fox and Friends,” where the former House speaker said that the only way to “break the fever” of violence in the streets was to “keep arresting people until there’s no one left.”
Trump combined praise for the police and denunciations of the Democrats with an invocation of nationalism that would not have been out of place in a speech by Mussolini. “The only path to unity is to rebuild a shared national identity and focus on common American values and virtues, of which we have plenty,” he said. “This includes our nation’s schools.”
Trump seemed to be particularly disturbed by an incident Thursday night after the final session of the Republican National Convention, when Senator Rand Paul and others were accosted by anti-Trump protesters outside the White House. This incident has been portrayed by the right-wing media and the Republican Party as an example of left-wing “mob violence,” an indication of the extreme fear of popular opposition that characterized the convention throughout.
The driving force behind Trump’s increasingly unhinged and incoherent denunciations is the initial stirring of working class resistance to the policies of his government, particularly its homicidal effort to force workers back to their jobs and teachers and students back to school, regardless of the dangers from the coronavirus.
The Democratic Party shares Trump’s fear of the developing movement of tens of millions of working people, which will threaten the profit system that both capitalist parties defend. They warn that Trump, by his criminal negligence in relation to the coronavirus pandemic and his transparent indifference to anything but the fortunes of billionaires like himself, is provoking an uncontrollable upheaval from below.
This was the meaning of the speech delivered by Biden earlier Monday in Pittsburgh, his first public appearance since the Democratic National Convention and his first major speech setting out the themes for the final two months of his election campaign.
It was obvious that the primary purpose of the speech, announced on short notice, was to counter Trump’s law-and-order and anti-communist demagogy with a clear statement on the part of the Democratic ticket in support of law and order and the suppression of “violence.” There is growing nervousness in Democratic Party circles over indications that Biden’s lead in opinion polls is shrinking in the aftermath of the Republican convention.
Declaring that “we have to stand against violence in every form it takes,” Biden drew an equivalency between the violence of killer cops and fascistic vigilantes and that of “extremists and opportunists” among the protesters. He declared, “I want to make it absolutely clear… Looting is not protesting. Setting fires is not protesting. None of this is protesting. It’s lawlessness, plain and simple. And those who do it should be prosecuted.”
His basic line of attack against Trump was that he, not the Democrats, was responsible for the “violence” and “chaos” in “our cities.” Middle-class suburbanites who felt unsafe in “Trump’s America” would be safer in Biden’s, because he would more effectively work with the police and their critics to contain social opposition.
This was, of course, combined with well-practiced sympathy for the families of Jacob Blake, George Floyd, Brionna Taylor and other African American victims of police violence, references to the enormous death toll from the coronavirus and Trump’s incompetent response to the pandemic, some perfunctory remarks on the economic collapse triggered by COVID-19, and a warning of Trump’s scheme to bankrupt Social Security. But he did not propose a single practical measure to deal with any of these social evils, except to replace Donald Trump with Joe Biden.
He issued a direct disavowal of any sympathy for socialism, saying: “Ask yourself, do I look like a radical socialist with a soft spot for rioters?” And he pointed to the record of the Obama-Biden administration in protecting federal property, stating: “When President Obama and I were in the White House, we had to defend federal property. We did it… You didn’t see us whipping up fears around the deployment of secret federal troops. We just did our job…”
Most dangerously, he embraced the anti-Russia demagogy that has been the staple of the Democratic Party since Trump entered the White House. He repeated the bogus “Afghan bounties” story invented by the New York Times, which claims, without a shred of evidence, that the Kremlin was paying the Taliban to kill American soldiers. And he denounced Trump for allegedly playing “a subservient role to a Russian leader,” President Vladimir Putin, claiming this is “not only dangerous. It is humiliating for the rest of the world to see.”
Here, then, is the choice offered to the American people by the capitalist two-party system: the ultra-right ravings of the Republican Trump, who seeks to create a police state, or the “reasonable” alternative offered by the Democrat Biden, who demands more aggressive preparations for war against nuclear-armed Russia.
1 September 2020
At a press conference late Monday afternoon, President Donald Trump defended the right-wing gunman who shot to death two protesters against police violence in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last week. Trump spoke on the eve of a scheduled appearance Tuesday in the impoverished “rust belt” city—an intervention that has the character of a political provocation, coming barely a week after the police shooting of Jacob Blake and requests from state and local officials that he stay away.
Trump was asked by one reporter whether he would condemn the actions of Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old former police cadet who opened fire with an assault rifle last Tuesday night, killing two unarmed men who were protesting against police violence.
Trump claimed the right-wing vigilante acted in self-defense, saying, “He was trying to get away from them and he fell and then they very violently attacked him… I guess he was in very big trouble. He probably would have been killed.”
This account is a deliberate whitewash. Rittenhouse was a police enthusiast who had traveled to a Trump campaign rally in Iowa last January, where videos show him sitting in the front row. He tried to enlist in the Marine Corps but was turned down. On August 25, he left his home in northern Illinois and drove with his AR-15 across the state line to Kenosha, where he joined with dozens of other right-wing gunmen whose activities were coordinated and condoned by the police.
Rittenhouse shot to death two men who were peacefully protesting the police shooting of 29-year-old Jacob Blake, left paralyzed with seven bullets in his back. He shot and wounded a third protester as well.
After the killings, the gunman was allowed to pass through police lines carrying an assault rifle, without being arrested or even stopped for questioning. He was subsequently arrested at his home in Illinois and charged with first degree homicide.
Trump also praised his supporters in Portland, Oregon, who invaded the city in a convoy of cars and pickup trucks and attacked demonstrators against police violence, firing paint-ball weapons, pepper spray and other toxins. A melee broke out in which one of the right-wing provocateurs was shot and killed, under circumstances that remain unclear. But Trump declared that the provocateurs in Portland “were supporters [of his] but that was a peaceful protest. Paint is not bullets.”
This defense of right-wing violence came at the end of a 30-minute fascistic diatribe in which he referred dozens of times to the “far left,” “left-wing radicals” and “Antifa” (which does not actually exist as an organized group, but has become the main bogeyman of the fascist right).
Trump repeatedly made an amalgam of “left-wing radicals,” Democratic Party mayors and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, claiming, as he did at last week’s Republican National Convention, that a Biden victory in the November 3 election would mean the collapse of American society.
As he usually does, Trump began the press briefing by praising the performance of the stock market, the sole measure of human progress as far as he is concerned, hailing “the best stock market Dow in 36 years.”
He then claimed a 38 percent decline in new coronavirus cases, a figure that—if not simply made up for the purposes of the briefing—largely reflects a substantial decline in testing. In reality, coronavirus is sweeping almost unchecked through factories, meatpacking plants, college campuses and public schools, and the toll in both infections and deaths is likely to rise exponentially in the coming months.
He then proceeded to his main purpose, to “update the news on the violence in Democrat-run cities.” Trump claimed that federal authorities had arrested more than 200 people for various offenses and announced a joint investigation by the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice into what he called “the violent left-wing civil unrest that began in Portland.”
The rest of his statement consisted of a largely incoherent mélange of praise for the police (“There is a war on law enforcement in this country. Without law enforcement, there is chaos.”) and vilification of Biden and the Democrats as the enablers and supporters of left-wing terrorists.
He claimed that in order to “teach our children that America is a free and just nation” it was necessary to “jail lawbreakers and defeat their hateful ideology.” He seemed to be echoing the extraordinary statement made by Newt Gingrich earlier in the day on Trump’s favorite cable television show, “Fox and Friends,” where the former House speaker said that the only way to “break the fever” of violence in the streets was to “keep arresting people until there’s no one left.”
Trump combined praise for the police and denunciations of the Democrats with an invocation of nationalism that would not have been out of place in a speech by Mussolini. “The only path to unity is to rebuild a shared national identity and focus on common American values and virtues, of which we have plenty,” he said. “This includes our nation’s schools.”
Trump seemed to be particularly disturbed by an incident Thursday night after the final session of the Republican National Convention, when Senator Rand Paul and others were accosted by anti-Trump protesters outside the White House. This incident has been portrayed by the right-wing media and the Republican Party as an example of left-wing “mob violence,” an indication of the extreme fear of popular opposition that characterized the convention throughout.
The driving force behind Trump’s increasingly unhinged and incoherent denunciations is the initial stirring of working class resistance to the policies of his government, particularly its homicidal effort to force workers back to their jobs and teachers and students back to school, regardless of the dangers from the coronavirus.
The Democratic Party shares Trump’s fear of the developing movement of tens of millions of working people, which will threaten the profit system that both capitalist parties defend. They warn that Trump, by his criminal negligence in relation to the coronavirus pandemic and his transparent indifference to anything but the fortunes of billionaires like himself, is provoking an uncontrollable upheaval from below.
This was the meaning of the speech delivered by Biden earlier Monday in Pittsburgh, his first public appearance since the Democratic National Convention and his first major speech setting out the themes for the final two months of his election campaign.
It was obvious that the primary purpose of the speech, announced on short notice, was to counter Trump’s law-and-order and anti-communist demagogy with a clear statement on the part of the Democratic ticket in support of law and order and the suppression of “violence.” There is growing nervousness in Democratic Party circles over indications that Biden’s lead in opinion polls is shrinking in the aftermath of the Republican convention.
Declaring that “we have to stand against violence in every form it takes,” Biden drew an equivalency between the violence of killer cops and fascistic vigilantes and that of “extremists and opportunists” among the protesters. He declared, “I want to make it absolutely clear… Looting is not protesting. Setting fires is not protesting. None of this is protesting. It’s lawlessness, plain and simple. And those who do it should be prosecuted.”
His basic line of attack against Trump was that he, not the Democrats, was responsible for the “violence” and “chaos” in “our cities.” Middle-class suburbanites who felt unsafe in “Trump’s America” would be safer in Biden’s, because he would more effectively work with the police and their critics to contain social opposition.
This was, of course, combined with well-practiced sympathy for the families of Jacob Blake, George Floyd, Brionna Taylor and other African American victims of police violence, references to the enormous death toll from the coronavirus and Trump’s incompetent response to the pandemic, some perfunctory remarks on the economic collapse triggered by COVID-19, and a warning of Trump’s scheme to bankrupt Social Security. But he did not propose a single practical measure to deal with any of these social evils, except to replace Donald Trump with Joe Biden.
He issued a direct disavowal of any sympathy for socialism, saying: “Ask yourself, do I look like a radical socialist with a soft spot for rioters?” And he pointed to the record of the Obama-Biden administration in protecting federal property, stating: “When President Obama and I were in the White House, we had to defend federal property. We did it… You didn’t see us whipping up fears around the deployment of secret federal troops. We just did our job…”
Most dangerously, he embraced the anti-Russia demagogy that has been the staple of the Democratic Party since Trump entered the White House. He repeated the bogus “Afghan bounties” story invented by the New York Times, which claims, without a shred of evidence, that the Kremlin was paying the Taliban to kill American soldiers. And he denounced Trump for allegedly playing “a subservient role to a Russian leader,” President Vladimir Putin, claiming this is “not only dangerous. It is humiliating for the rest of the world to see.”
Here, then, is the choice offered to the American people by the capitalist two-party system: the ultra-right ravings of the Republican Trump, who seeks to create a police state, or the “reasonable” alternative offered by the Democrat Biden, who demands more aggressive preparations for war against nuclear-armed Russia.
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