Archive for the ‘Donald Trump’ Category

Donald Trumps Magical Thinking About The Coronavirus – WBUR

It brings me no joy to say this butof course,the president has coronavirus.

Virtually every decision that Donald Trump has made since the severity of this crisis became undeniable has rendered this moment all but inevitable.

When you believe that the virus is just a bad flu and will disappear; when you believe that masks are not necessary; when you believe that the unvetted half-baked notions from mooches and sycophants carry more weight than science you may easily come to believe, and come to behave, as though your own choices do not matter.

Magical thinking may comfort you from reality but, in the end, cannot change it.

Magical thinking may occupy a news cycle, but it cannot impede the following one.

Magical thinking is not charming.

It is lazy.

Today is Day Zero. Let us reset.

If the presidents diagnosis and alarming clinical course over the past several days havenot silenced any remaining doubters about theseverity of COVID-19, we must simply brush their views aside as kooky and irrelevant and begin anew without their participation. We must develop an actual plan that will carry us through the fall and winter months and beyond if necessary.

Today is Day Zero.

Let us reset.

Let us commit to truly doing something to stop the spread of this horrific disease while vaccine trials are completed.

Starting today, the full resources of the United States government should --at long last --be mobilized to ensure that there are enough affordable tests, masks, treatment and eventually, vaccines, for every American. Our own leaders are responsible for the state of affairs. Therefore, all of this must be free or affordable foreveryone.

We have to modify our behaviors and do so in ways that do not further magnify the disproportionate suffering already visited upon Black, Latino and Native American people. We need to provide isolation for those who need it, especially those who live with at-risk persons.

After basic infrastructure and the health and medical sectors, we must prioritize schools as the single most essential business. Until case counts are low enough that all education can safely be conducted in-person, there should be no indoor restaurant dining and no medium-sized or large gatherings in communities with meaningful numbers of active cases. We need to produce scores of tents and heat lamps that will allow some activities that would normally take place indoors and move them outdoors. We need to invest in air filters and modernize our buildings for better circulation.

But before any of that, we need mask mandates for indoor activities and we need Congress to provide relief to Americans whose work cannot continue while we get things under control.

Meanwhile, we need to organize our research efforts. While the for-profit pharmaceutical industry has a role to play, experts at the National Institutes of Health must standardize research objectives and the desired outcomes of interest which has been done in the United Kingdom so that researchers with conflicts of interest do not game the system and mold their data to paint a rosy, but ultimately less useful, picture of their proposed therapeutics. We must spurn science by press release and we must demand transparency during the approval process, especially at the Food and Drug Administration, where politics has run amok.

Finally, we need to have confidence in our public health agencies and our leaders. Two steps would be helpful. First, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention should be given the resources to collect and report all of the relevant information that the public and health officials need, without competing with other less prepared agencies, and without political interference. We need live data on case counts, hospitalization, mortality and more. We need demographic breakdowns for every iota of data so that we can monitor in as close to realtime as possible the effect that the virus is having in our most at-risk communities.

Second, the teams at the White House (and, at the moment, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center) must commit to transparency and integrity. The presidents team cannot be permitted to change its story from day-to-day for the purposes of optics. They must provide the American public with accurate information, or plainly state that they are not able to provide any information at all.

On Sunday, the president said he had learned a lot about coronavirus during his hospitalization. Obviously, he had notlearned nearly enoughfrom the deaths of over 200,000 Americans ...

We are now in our 10th month of this crisis. We have more than enough knowledge to guide our efforts to control this virus and do so in ways that will propel our economic recovery, not hinder it.

On Sunday, the president said he had learned a lot about coronavirus during his hospitalization. Obviously, he had notlearned nearly enoughfrom the deaths of over 200,000 Americans, including some of his own friends and colleagues.If only he had truly listened to the stories that my fellow physicians on the frontlines have been telling for months and months.

Regardless, Im glad he is catching up. But I remain unsure whether he and his supporters realize that letting the disease run its course the herd immunity strategy is a fundamentally flawed strategy that is doomed to fail. It costs lives and does nothing to reassure the public so that they can go about business as usual. For too long, many have been left to wonder whether our efforts to control this disease might somehow be worse than the virus itself. It is my hope that in his recovery, President Trump finally realizes that this disease truly is far, far worse than the cure.

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Donald Trumps Magical Thinking About The Coronavirus - WBUR

Donald Trump hospitalized at Walter Reed after positive COVID-19 test – The Texas Tribune

President Donald Trump was taken Friday evening to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, hours after testing positive for the coronavirus.

President Trump remains in good spirts, has mild symptoms, and has been working throughout the day, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a statement. Out of an abundance of caution, and at the recommendation of his physician and medical experts, the President will be working from the presidential offices at Walter Reed for the next few days.

In a short video posted to his Twitter account shortly after 5:30 p.m., Trump said, "I think I'm doing very well, but we're going to make sure that things work out."

Late Friday night, McEnany released a statement from the president's physician that said the president was "doing very well," did not need supplemental oxygen and was starting remdesivir therapy.

"He has completed his first dose and is resting comfortably," Sean P. Conley, Trump's physician, wrote in the statement.

Earlier Friday afternoon, Conley had disclosed the president was receiving an experimental antibody treatment. Trump remains fatigued but in good spirits, Conley wrote in a memo at the time.

A tweet from the presidents account late Friday said things were going well:

Trump was hospitalized less than 24 hours after announcing that he and the first lady, Melania Trump, had tested positive for the virus. That revelation, late Thursday, came hours after news reports surfaced that one of the presidents closest aides, Hope Hicks, had become infected.

News of Trump's illness shook Washington and drew widespread expressions of concern from across the political spectrum on Friday.

"This cannot be a partisan moment," wrote Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee for president, on Twitter. "It must be an American moment. We have to come together as a nation."

Friday featured a steady flow of notifications from people close to Trump testing positive for COVID-19. Most had attended a ceremony last Saturday at the White House Rose Garden, where Trump officially nominated Judge Amy Coney Barrett as Supreme Court justice.

Footage of the event circulated widely on social media Friday showing guests talking, hugging and even fist bumping in close proximity without masks.

By Friday night, at least seven people who had attended the Rose Garden event announced they tested positive for COVID-19: the president and first lady, Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, University of Notre Dame President Rev. John Jenkins, former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway and an unnamed journalist.

The White House Correspondents Association also said that two other journalists working at the White House, including Michael D. Shear of The New York Times, had tested positive. Neither journalist had attended the Rose Garden event.

The president's illness led to the postponement of a Trump campaign event in Texas that would have featured the president's son. Trumps campaign manager Bill Stepien has also tested positive for the virus, according to reports by Politico and The New York Times.

Donald Trump Jr. had been scheduled to appear in McAllen for a get-out-the-vote lunch event Friday, alongside Trump adviser Kimberly Guilfoyle. But local GOP officials said the event would be moved back to a later date "out of an abundance of caution."

"As many of you know, President Trump has tested for COVID19 and both Kimberly and Donald Trump Jr have been in close proximity to President Trump, our First Lady, Ivanka Trump, and Hope Hicks," the Hidalgo County GOP wrote on Facebook on Friday. "Kimberly Guilfoyle and Donald Trump Jr. will be in quarantine for the next couple of days until they test negative for COVID."

The party said the event will be rescheduled.

"The great news is, the event is not cancelled. It is postponed. We will see Donald Trump Jr. in Hidalgo County before Election Day," the party said.

Meanwhile, Gov. Greg Abbott said he was "lifting up prayers" for the president and first lady on Twitter at about 1 a.m. Friday, about an hour after the president announced the news.

"May Gods healing powers touch them, strengthen them, and raise them up," he said.

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, also said he was praying for the president and first lady. That sentiment was echoed by much of the Texas delegation in the U.S. House, with multiple members from both parties urging Texans to take the virus seriously.

"This virus should be taken very seriously - wishing them a full and speedy recovery," said U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Dallas.

U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Tyler, seemed to suggest on Twitter that Trump use the unproven drug hydroxychloroquine for treatment, even though in July the Food and Drug Administration revoked its emergency use authorization to treat COVID-19. The FDA found that the drug had no benefit for decreasing the likelihood of death or seeing recovery, but did provide a risk for heart rhythm problems. Gohmert tested positive for the virus in late July and has since recovered.

U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, also responded and asked that other members of Congress who were in close quarters with the president not show up for work Friday.

"Thats why we put in place proxy voting during this pandemic," Castro said. "Sincerely, A Co-worker."

Aliyya Swaby contributed to this story.

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Donald Trump hospitalized at Walter Reed after positive COVID-19 test - The Texas Tribune

Donald Trump Burns the First Debate Down – The New York Times

The last four years, you have promised to repeal and replace Obamacare, but you have never in these four years come up with a plan, a comprehensive plan Yes, I have. to replace Obamacare. Of course I have. Well, Ill give you We got rid of the individual mandate. Im going to give you an opportunity Excuse me. I got rid of the individual mandate. Im not here to call out his lies everybody knows hes a liar. But you agreed Joe, youre the liar. I want to make sure You graduated last in your class, not first in your class. I [laughs] God. I want to make sure Mr. President, could you let him finish, sir? The question is, the question is A lot of new Supreme Court justices, radical left Will you shut up, man? One of the big debates we had with 23 of my colleagues trying to win the nomination that I won were saying that Biden wanted to allow people to have private insurance still. They can, they do, they will, under my proposal. Thats not what youve said, and its not what your party has said. That is simply a lie. Your party doesnt say it your party wants to go socialist medicine. My party is me. Right now, I am the Democratic Party. And theyre going to dominate you, Joe, you know that. I am the Democratic Party right now. The platform of the Democratic Party Not according to Harris. is what I, in fact, approved of. Is it true that you paid $750 in federal income taxes each of those two years? Ive paid millions of dollars in taxes, millions of dollars of income tax. Let me just say something, that it was the tax laws. I dont want to pay tax. Before I came here, I was a private developer, I was a private business people. Like every other private person, unless theyre stupid, they go through the laws, and thats what it is. Im going to eliminate the Trump tax cuts. Good. And were going to, Im going to eliminate those tax cuts OK. and make sure that we invest in the people who in fact need the help. People out there need help. But why didnt you do it over 20, the last 25 years? Because you werent because you werent president screwing things up. You were a senator Youre the worst president America has ever had. Come on. You have repeatedly criticized the vice president for not specifically calling out antifa and other left-wing Thats right. extremist groups. But are you willing tonight to condemn white supremacists and militia groups Sure. and to say that they need to stand down and not add to the violence in a number of these cities, as we saw in Kenosha and as weve seen in Portland. Sure, Im willing to do that, but Then do it. Go ahead, sir. I would say, I would say almost everything I see is from the left wing, not from the right wing. So what are you, what are you saying Im willing to do anything I want to see peace. Well, then do it, sir. Say it. Do it. Say it. You want to call them what do you want to call them? Give me a name, give me a name. White supremacists and Go ahead, who would you like me to condemn? Proud Boys. Who? White supremacists and right-wing militia. Proud Boys, stand back and stand by. But Ill tell you what, Ill tell you what. Somebodys got to do something about antifa and the left, because this is not a right-wing problem, this is a left-wing His own F.B.I. director said the threat is Are you questioning No, I think masks are OK. You have to understand, if you look, I mean, I have a mask right here. I put a mask on, you know, when I think I need it. Tonight as an example, everybodys had a test, and youve had social distancing and all of the things that you have to but I wear masks when needed. When needed, I wear masks. OK, let me ask I dont wear masks like him every time you see him, hes got a mask. He could be speaking 200 feet away from he shows up with the biggest mask Ive ever seen. Masks make a big difference. His own head of the C.D.C. said if we just wore masks between now if everybody wore masks in social distance between now and January, wed probably save up to 100,000 lives. It matters. And theyve also said the opposite. Theyve also said No serious person said the opposite. The fact is that there are going to be millions of people because of Covid that are going to be voting by mail-in ballots, like he does by the way. And this is all about trying to dissuade people from voting, because hes trying to scare people into thinking that its not going to be legitimate. As far as the ballots are concerned, its a disaster. A solicited ballot, OK? Solicited is OK. Youre soliciting, youre asking. They send it back. You send it back. I did that. This is going to be a fraud like youve never seen. The other thing: Its nice, on Nov. 3, youre watching and you see who won the election. And I think were going to do well, because people are really happy with the job weve done. But you know what? We wont know, we might not know for months because these ballots are going to be all over. Now that millions of mail-in ballots have gone out, what are you going to do about it? And are you counting on the Supreme Court, including a Justice Barrett, to settle any dispute? Yeah, I think Im counting on them to look at the ballots, definitely. I dont think well I hope we dont need them in terms of the election itself, but for the ballots, I think so. I am urging my supporters to go into the polls and watch very carefully because thats what has to happen. I am urging them to do it. I am urging my people I hope its going to be a fair election. If its a fair election Youre urging them what? I am 100 percent on board. But if I see tens of thousands of ballots being manipulated, I cant go along with that. Heres the deal: They count the ballots. As youve pointed out, some of these ballots in some states cant even be opened until Election Day. And if theres thousands of ballots, its going to take time to do it. No one has established at all that there is fraud related to mail-in ballots, that somehow its a fraudulent process. Its already been established. He has no idea what hes talking about. Heres the deal. The fact is, I will accept it, and he will too. You know why? Because once the winner is declared, after all the ballots are counted, all the votes are counted, that will be the end of it.

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Donald Trump Burns the First Debate Down - The New York Times

Donald Trump Has The Virus. What Will He Do With It? – WBUR

Like a lot of Americans, I expected to feel some sense of vindication when Donald Trump announced via Twitter, naturally that he and the First Lady had tested positive for the coronavirus. At long last, the virus had infected the man whos spent months lying about its severity, undermining public health officials, peddling quack cures, and urging his armed followers to liberate themselves from the horrors of wearing masks in public.

But what I actually felt was a hollow dread, one that quickly gave way to mistrust. Unable to resist my own Trumpian impulses, I sent a pair of tweets, which read as follows:

He tells the world he has COVID, owns the libs by beating it "very strongly," then returns to the campaign trail in triumph. Very Reality TV. I'm not joking. Given this regime's record of shameless lying, journalists should demand independent verification before reporting as fact anything this White House says. It may be true. Maybe his arrogant negligence caught up with him. But he also knew he was losing and needed to shake up the race. This makes him a victim/survivor who can minimize the plague he unleashed.

The point here isnt that Trump has created his very own little COVID hoax. Its not even whether Trump would or could do such a thing. The point is that he has done so much to undermine public faith that its impossible to outright dismiss such a sociopathic ploy.

As veterans of autocratic nations have long observed, Trump hasnt just waged a war against vulnerable groups or democratic norms. He has waged a war against truth. More precisely, the very idea that Americans can be united in a shared set of truths.

Trump hasnt just waged a war against vulnerable groups or democratic norms. He has waged a war against truth.

COVID is just the most obvious example. Through a combination of willful ignorance, gullibility, and subterfuge, Trump has signaled to millions of Americans that the coronavirus pandemic is a hoax, or a fleeting threat, or merely an obstacle to be pushed out of view so that the stock market can again rev up the American engines of greed. Hes become the patient zero of COVID misinformation, a one-man super-spreader of the disease.

You can hear this in the way he talks about COVID-19. He doesnt address the virus as a biological reality that kills human beings and leaves behind grief-stricken survivors. He speaks of a China virus he can render as an invader, or as set of case numbers and statistics to be manipulated, lest they cause people to view him as a loser.

For Trump, the coronavirus is never something thats happening to other people. He doesnt care that more than 200,000 Americans are dead. He doesnt care that tens of millions are unemployed. He doesnt care that our kids can no longer go to school, or hug their friends. He doesnt even care about the super fans who pack his rallies, or the donors who mingled with him in the hours after his closest advisor tested positive. Even his own nomination ceremony of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court in the White House Rose Garden is being viewed now as a potential superspreader event. (Already, attendees Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, who was maskless, and the president of Notre Dame, Rev. John I. Jenkins, have tested positive.)

Trump will not accept his own illness as proof that COVID is truly lethal. Nor will it inspire him to be honest with his supporters, and work to develop a national strategy to combat the virus, as Boris Johnson did after he was rushed to the hospital with the virus in April.

That would require of him something he cannot give: humility. Trumps sole focus will be whether contracting the coronavirus can help him cling to power.

Think about how he reacted to the terrorist attacks of September 11. As first responders were sifting through the wreckage for bones, he bragged that one of his buildings was now the tallest in Manhattan. Thats just who he is: a malignant abuser, a moral blackhole.

In the days and weeks to come, our free press must resist the urge to get distracted by the latest twist in this demented reality TV presidency. Journalists of good faith should keep the focus on the issues that now puts our democracy at risk: voter suppression, racial incitement, the ravages of a resurgent plague.

Trump was merely a virus who came along and exploited our worst impulses.

As citizens of good faith, we would like to believe that there will be a reckoning for this president, that the virus he ignored for so long will, at last, hold him accountable, even if his enablers wont.

Thats not whats going to happen. Trumps only thought is likely to be: how can I exploit this to my own benefit? How can I use my condition to further divide us, to erode our sense of shared struggle?

Americans can overcome this pandemic. We can also restore some semblance of justice and mercy to our democracy. But there wont be a true reckoning in this country until we accept the destructive power of our grievance and scorn and nihilism. In this sense, Trump was merely a virus who came along and exploited our worst impulses.

We can recover from him, too. The only known cure, in fact, is the one he fears most: a free and fair election.

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Donald Trump Has The Virus. What Will He Do With It? - WBUR

Do you know why Donald Trump was treated with Remdesivir? – Thehour.com

Do you know why Donald Trump was treated with Remdesivir?

US President Donald Trump began treatment with the drug remdesivir last Friday, said Sean Conley, a White House physician.

Trump finished his first dose and will receive the drug for five days, added Dr. Brian Garibaldi. The use of this drug was approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration on May 1, after an investigation showed positive effects from its use, which ones?

A study by Gilead Sciences, the maker of remdesivir, indicated that the mortality rate for patients treated with the drug was 7.6% on day 14 of treatment compared to 12.5% among patients who did not receive it, noted El Financial.

That analysis also showed that 74.4% of remdesivir-treated patients recovered by day 14, compared to 59% of patients receiving standard-of-care treatment alone.

Depositphotos.com

Remdesivir blocks the SARS-CoV-2 virus RNA polymerase, one of the key enzymes the pathogen needs to replicate its genetic material (RNA) and proliferate in the bodies of infected people.

The drug has already been tested in Mexico as part of clinical trials and with positive results.

Related:Sabes por qu Donald Trump fue atendido con Remdesivir?Do you know why Donald Trump was treated with Remdesivir?Donald Trump and Melania Have Tested Positive for Covid-19

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Do you know why Donald Trump was treated with Remdesivir? - Thehour.com