Wondering on Wednesday 12/9/20

Ready... Set... Wonder!

What's to wonder about today? Heck, what's NOT to wonder about? 

We learned today that the president plans on "intervening" in the Texas-and-other-states lawsuit to have the election results in states that are NOT part of the lawsuit overturned by the Supreme Court. It wasn't clear whether the president himself, or his campaign, or his our Department of Justice would be doing the intervening, or what that intervention would look like; as with much of what the president says, the devil is in the details and sometimes we find out there aren't even details. 

Who knows if that's the case here, but that's not even what I'm wondering about. Nope - I'm wondering which of the definitions of 'intervene' the president plans on pursuing? My money's on #3. 

Let's see, what else do we have... Oh, how about the lawsuit filed by Citizens for Ethics in Washington (CREW), the National Security Archive, the Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations, and the American Historical Association, to ensure that the outgoing Administration appropriately accounts for, and does not destroy, official White House records?  

The issue is a White House policy allowing folks to save just screen shots of messages, such as the ones that Jared used with the Saudi Crown Prince, instead of requiring them to keep the actual message including the metadata. And this is the second time that these groups, or at least a couple of them, have sued the Trump administration for this type of thing. The earlier suit involved deletion of the president's tweets, among other things. 

So, I'm wondering where are all of the 'lock him up' cheers? I mean, if destroying documents on a private server were worthy of FBI investigations, and you know, confessed liars leading chants at conventions and what not, I'm shocked - shocked! - that the Republicans aren't making the same noise about this?  Do you think they don't care? Or maybe they're too busy trying to not get questioned about who really won the election? 

Meanwhile, around the country, coronavirus protests are getting ugly - really ugly. This Twitter thread, from a county commissioner in Ada County, Idaho shows how bad things are. It recounts the protesters at her house (she wasn't there at the time) pounding on the door, shouting and otherwise scaring her children, who were home. It says, in part.

I am sad. I am tired. I fear that, in my choosing to hold public office, my family has too-often paid the price. Though I was born and raised in Idaho, I increasingly don't recognize this place. 

There is an ugliness and cruelty in our national rhetoric that is reaching a fevered pitch here at home, and that should worry us all...

I'm calling on Republican leaders who have politicized public health, who have amplified rhetoric, capitalized on it, tacitly endorsed it while holding hands with the most extreme factions in their party: take a hard look at what you've become. It's far past time to do better.

Yes, there is. And it comes from the top of the GOP food chain, as well as from the bottom, as we've seen throughout the pandemic, and of course, before and after the election. Coming on the heels of the statement by Gabriel Sterling, the election official in Georgia, I have to wonder this: when the hell are these people going to wise up, and knock their nonsense off, and call on their constituents to do the same? 

And speaking of yelling, I'm surprised there's been so little actual yelling from the Rs on news that the Trump administration turned down opportunities to get additional doses -- lots and lots and lots of additional doses - of the Pfizer vaccine, perhaps putting us in jeopardy of not having enough doses as fast as we need them. While HHS Secretary Alex Azar says that Pfizer is "negotiating in the press" to sell more doses to the US, others aren't seeing it the same way. Including the president, who signed another (apparently) toothless Executive Order or, as the Guardian article linked above puts it,

...but as with many headline-grabbing orders issued by Trump the decree did not appear to be impactful or enforceable, analysts said.

Not only that, but Moncef Slaoui, the head of Operation Warp Speed, said "Frankly, I don't know," when asked how the new EO was supposed to work.

And what am I wondering about on this, you ask? Not much, really - I mean, it sort of speaks for itself, right? Or, maybe, how many more days of this do we have? (You can check the countdown counter at the top of the right sidebar if you ever need to know.)

And finally tonight, let's take a moment to hear from Tennessee's Lamar Alexander, who's been celebrated on the floor of the Senate by many of his colleagues. as he nears the end of his time as a legislator. In a Twitter thread, CNN's Manu Raju shared the following info, to which I've added some emphasis.

Asked if Trump should concede after Monday, he said: "I think the votes are being counted, and states are certifying them and resolving disputes. And it's apparent when electors meet on Monday, Joe Biden is very likely to be the President-elect.

"And if he is, I hope the president will put the country first, congratulate Joe Biden and take pride in his considerable accomplishments, and help him off to a good start," he added. 

Alexander said: "It's especially important that we have an orderly transition if there's going to be one, because of the pandemic and the distribution of the vaccine. We don't need to lose one hour or one day in that distribution."

Now, I know that many of the Rs in DC and elsewhere are desperately afraid of the president, or they feel exactly the same way he does on every issue to the point where they won't ever call him out for anything. Or they're just spineless generally, I guess is a third option. But what I'm wondering here is, what on earth does Alexander have to lose by ditching the wishy-washy nonsense and just say that Biden is going to be president and that we need an orderly transition? Why can't he do that? Why can't any of them stand up to him? 

Are they waiting until January 19th or something?

Sunday School 12/6/20: Extra Credit

In this week's Sunday School, we talked to Republicans about the election. For your Extra Credit, let's talk with some of the pandemic experts, starting with Dr. Deborah Birx, who visited the Meet the Press classroom.

Chuck Todd wondered what Birx would say to frustrated healthcare workers, what with the new CDC guidelines on indoor mask wearing, and at the same time we've got a boatload of parties being thrown by the president and others in the administration.

I think it's really important that every single person understands that the way this virus is spread is if you're with anyone indoors without a mask, that's a viral spreading opportunity. If you're outdoors and hugging and kissing individuals, that is a viral spreading opportunity... And we have to listen right now to what we know works, which is mask, physical distancing, washing your hands. But not gathering. You cannot gather without masks in any indoor or close outdoor situation.

And, she's frustrated, too, with people making the arguments that mask don't work, we need herd immunity, that gatherings don't turn into superspreaders, and with the many areas where leaders aren't putting in the necessary restrictions. 

... this fall/winter surge is combining everything that we saw in the spring with everything that we saw in the summer, plus the fall surge going into a winter surge. And I think that's why Dr. Redfield made this absolute appeal to the American people. This is not just the worst public health event. This is the worst event that this country will face, not just from a public health side. Yet, we know what behaviors spread the virus and we know how to change those behaviors to stop spreading the virus.

She said that all states are trying to get things under control, but they all need to do more, including "critically informing their state population that the gatherings we saw in Thanksgiving will lead to a surge" and we can't have a 'it doesn't apply to me" attitude.

... You cannot gather with your mask off. You cannot hug and kiss people outside. We won't have a vaccine for even the most vulnerable Americans -- I'm thrilled with the vaccine. But we won't have them for the most vulnerable Americans until February. So we need to do this now.

Christmas travel is dangerous "because it mixes households" and because we don't know who the asymptomatic carriers are. She said  we need to increase testing of asymptomatic people, to identify people with the virus so we can stop them from spreading it. That's a huge change from how we test now, and would antagonize the president if he were paying attention.

And, of course, everything she's saying we need to do is being ignored by the president and members of his cabinet, or contradicted by them, including HHS Secretary Alex Azar, who visited the Fox News Sunday classroom.

Wallace played a clip of CDC Director Robert Redfield saying, "The reality is December and January and February are going to be rough times. I actually believe they're going to be the most difficult time in the public health history of this nation," and asked Azar if this was the result of "a massive failure by president Trump and his administration?" 

Azar blamed the weather. Well, the weather and something else. 

It's about behavior and cold weather. People are going indoors. They're not minding the three Ws. They're not wearing their face coverings. We're engaged in indoor behaviors where we let our guard down.  We need people to renew their commitment. 

He tried to change the subject, but Wallace stayed on topic, mentioning President-elect Biden's plan to ask for a 100-day mask-wearing commitment, as opposed to  president Trump saying back in April that he wouldn't be wearing a mask, and that it was voluntary, not necessary

This is when Azar referred to 'Vice President Biden,' and where he ignored two corrections by Wallace on that point. And this is where he tried to convince us that Trump is doing enough, and that all of his top advisors tell people to wear masks. Wallace refreshed Azar on Trump's maskless behavior, including his Georgia rally just the night before.

Chris, our advice is always the same, wash your hands, watch your distance, wear face coverings when you can't watch your distance and be especially careful of those settings like overcrowded indoor bars and restaurants or multi-family household gatherings where you're going to let your guard down and take that face covering off. So, Chris, our advice is the same, regardless of the setting.

It's hopeless, trying to get these folks to admit the president is unhelpful, or doing the wrong thing, or not saying the right thing. It's hopeless.

And here's the contradiction with Birx on mitigation efforts. Wallace asked about lockdowns, which Azar said were not necessary.

Chris, our community mitigation efforts have to be based in science and evidence or we lose public support and compliance for them. We know that our workplaces, our universities, our K-12 schools, flying on airplanes are not major vectors of disease transmission. It's overcrowded indoor restaurants and bars, it is multi-household indoor gatherings where we let our guard down. These are the things we need to protect against. If we go too far - and we defer to governors on the steps they need to take. It's their call. But we -- if we go beyond science and evidence, we will undermine public support... 

We won't get a unified voice, from the president on down, from this administration, but I expect we will from the next one.. 

Finally, the head of Operation Warp Speed, Dr. Moncef Slaoui, was in the CNN SOTU classroom. Tapper asked when we might see results from the vaccine, such as improvements in our death and hospitalization numbers. 

The vaccine efficacy, as we have seen it, actually starts reasonably quickly after the first dose of vaccine, and then is further maintained with the second dose. And, therefore, I am hopeful that, by the end of the month of January, we should already see a quite a significant decrease in the mortality and severe morbidity associated in the elderly population. 

He also said we don't know whether a person who's vaccinated will still be able to spread the virus, even if they're now no longer at risk. He thinks most folks will "control the virus" and not be infectious to others.

That work, we may have a first answer to it somewhere in February/March from the trial that we have conducted already, further analysis and some analysis in blood and things like that. But there are also -- we're discussing clinical trials where we may be able to assess whether people actually, on a daily basis, shed virus or stop shedding the virus when they have been immunized and exposed to this -- to the infection. 

Similarly, we don't know for sure on how long immunity will last, or if this'll become a seasonal vaccine we need.

...based on science and experience I have, this vaccine effectiveness will be long-lasting, because one of the hallmark of our immune system is, it has memory. It remembers everything we learned. It learned. And when it sees the virus again, it responds to it much, much faster than when it sees it the first time. I think that process of memory is likely to prolong our protection for probably a few years, and maybe many, many years. 

Tapper mentioned polling showing that "less than half of black Americans say they will get a coronavirus vaccine if one were available today." Slaoui said they've been working with everyone -- "NIH leadership, with the surgeon general, with all the leaders that we could" to engage the minority population, including to get clinical trial participants. And he said

Nobody is being used as a guinea pig. Unfortunately, this virus is impacting the African-American population and the Hispanics two and four times more than it does to the Caucasian part of our country. And we have to stop that. It's really very, very important that people take the time to listen to the data, listen to the people they trust that have some expertise. Please don't make your opinion outside of having listened to the data and to experts you trust. When that happens, I feel confident you will agree to be immunized. And that can help save your life.

As they closed the interview, Slaoui said he expects the FDA advisory panel to approve the Pfizer vaccine when it meets later this week.  

Masks on, folks, and I'll see you around campus. But you won't catch me in a plane anytime soon, I can assure you.

Sunday School Extra Credit 6/28/20

In our Sunday School post yesterday, we heard from a governor (a Sonofa Gov, to be specific), the House Speaker, and the vice president.

For your Extra Credit we've got two governors - Asa Hutchinson (R-AR) and Jay Inslee (D-WA), the former head of the CDC Tom Frieden, and the HHS Secretary Alex Azar. We'll do a quick drive-by of each interview, in that order.

Governor Hutchinson talked with George on This Week; here are a few highlights.

• On my Sonofa Gov's decision (with his CT/NJ counterparts) to require 14-day quarantines for travelers from hot spots: I think he's understandable as to where he's coming from...And in fact, we had the same order in Arkansas that travelers from NY needed to quarantine... but ultimately we can't be putting restrictions on each other across the country, because we have to do two things -- both manage the virus and manage the growth of our economy...I don't think NY wants to isolate themselves from - from every region of commerce that might have a spike in cases.
• On testing: ...this is a very, very serious challenge we have right now. And let me just emphasize, we doubled the amount of our testing nationally. We've got to double it again... I really think we need to look at greater use of the Defense Production Act so that we can make sure the supply keeps up with the demand that we know is going to continue growing.
• On mask requirements and messaging: We're not going to pass a mandate that is unenforceable... It is important that there's a consistent national message to take this seriously, that we are going to wear masks, that we're going to set that example, that consistent national message supplements what we're trying to do in the state...you can have two messages at a time...let's grow our economy, but let's also have the message of social distancing protecting our self and others from the virus. 

Washington's Governor Inslee talked with John Dickerson on Face the Nation; he was not gentle when talking about president Trump or the veep.

• On messaging: ...when I hear the vice president talk about how things are just hunky dory, it's just - it's just - it's just maddening. The situation is critical in many places...all the happy talk and wishful thinking in the world is not going to wash that away. 
• On mask requirements: ...we put an order in effect, including businesses' obligation in this regard. And we sure could use some leadership from the president. It is so difficult. From day one, he has downplayed and distorted and disabled our ability to fight this war... So right now, we are in an urgent national mission - or should be - to mask up... Donald Trump is for masking up like George Wallace was for integration.
• On presidential priorities: The moment Donald Trump tweeted that he wanted to liberate Michigan from the health messages of Gov. Whitmer...all of a sudden people wearing MAGA hats decided they didn't want to help out as much. And that has been very, very damaging. We need a president who will be fully committed to a message of health, you know, and instead of tweeting the other day about the importance of masks, he tweeted about monuments. We need a president who will care more about living Americans and less about dead confederates... And if we can get everybody wearing a MAGA hat to wear a mask, we're going to tame this virus...

Dr. Tom Frieden talked with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday, giving us these matter-of-fact highlights.

• On whether we're truly making "remarkable progress" now: Well, there's no doubt we're doing more testing, our hospitals are better prepared, but there's also no doubt the virus has the upper hand. This virus is not going to go away on its own. We have to stop it and only we can do that by working together... we are all sick and tired of staying home, but you know what? The virus is not tire of making us sick. 
• On how he explains the surge in cases: We are moving too fast. If you open when cases are still increasing, as many states did, it's like leaning into a left hook. When we see Arizona, Texas, Florida, South Carolina, they are currently in a rapid upswing and sad to say, this is going to continue to get worse for weeks. Because the physical distancing that they're implementing now will only take effect -- you won't see it for another few weeks, so we are going to see a few more weeks of increases in all likelihood in several states.
• On whether case increases are tied to increased testing: As a doctor, scientist, an epidemiologist, I can tell you with 100% certainty that in most states where you're seeing an increase, it is a real increase. It is not more tests, it is more spread of the virus... you've got Arizona with nearly one out of four tests positive and at the same time you are increasing the number of tests, I can tell you with absolute certainty that's explosive spread of coronavirus.
• On getting a vaccine "very soon": There are more than 100 vaccine candidates being evaluated, some of them are looking good in some preliminary studies. It's really hard to develop a vaccine because you have to make sure it's safe. There's already too much suspicion about vaccines, we can't cut any corners. We have to make sure it's safe, it's effective, figure out the right dose, decide who's going to get it first, develop it, manufacture large quantities, get it out there, set up systems to track for bad reactions. This is not a quick fix...

And finally, HHS Secretary Alex Azar talked with Chuck Todd on MTP.

• On "why we are failing" when so many other countries are succeeding: ...we're seeing surging in cases in counties especially in the southern parts of the US... the majority of the positive cases we're seeing are age 35 and under. A large number of those are going to be asymptomatic... our fatality rates and our hospitalization rates are the lowest they've been in two months. But this is a very serious situation.
• On how we respond to the situation: This is a county by county issue...getting to the bottom of why we're seeing cases surging...in addition to the traditional contact tracing... we've got to test entire communities, find all positive cases...We've got hospital capacity in all of these areas. We have personal protective equipment... We now have treatments, we've got steroids, Remdesivir, convalescent plasma... So, we've got the tools to do this... But the window is closing. We have to act and people as individuals have to act responsibly. 
• On whether we blew it during the first shutdown: So... this isn't about reopening or not reopening. We've got many communities and states that are just as reopened as these southern states but aren't experiencing this. We've got to get to the bottom of why we're seeing these cases surge in this area...we all own, as individuals, our individual behavior to make sure that we are practicing appropriate social distancing and wearing facial covering when we're not able to. And practicing good personal hygiene. And especially protecting our most vulnerable citizens. 
• On whether he has asked the president to ask the country to wear a mask: I'm the president's secretary of health. I'm telling you, practice social distancing. Where you can't appropriately social distance, we encourage you to wear a facial covering.... But we're all saying this. The president's guidelines for reopening, the president's guidelines, his guidelines have said from day one, practice social distancing. If you can't, wear face coverings. Practice appropriate personal hygiene... Protect the most vulnerable...
• On not answering the prior question, and about large gatherings:  I'm not going to talk about politics. But we've seen mass gatherings over the last several weeks with people, rightly, expressing first amendment and political views. And this is appropriate. But my message is one of public health, which is if you're going to participate in any type of large gathering, I encourage you: consider your individual circumstance. Consider the circumstance of those you live with. And take appropriate precautions that are appropriate to yourself and your community.

Your key takeaway - cover your face, practice social distancing, and think of people other than yourself. 

But say you're worried about paying your monthly bills or having enough money in the bank to pay for home repairs or similar big-ticket items, or even if you just want to make sure you have money in your retirement accounts...what should you do?  Cover your face and practice social distancing.

If we do those things, we can reopen our economy. If we don't, we can't. It's that simple.  

Sunday School 5/17/20

Two Administration types -- Peter Navarro, the president's director of trade and manufacturing policy, and the oft-missing-in-action HHS Secretary Alex Azar - each made two classroom appearances today. I'll take one of each, and throw in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, too. 

Let's start with Margaret Brennan and her talks with Azar and the Speaker on Face the Nation (CBS). She dove right in with Azar, asking about Operation Warp Speed ("that means big and that means fast," as the president explained), and asked him "is the pledge that all 328 million Americans will be able to get a shot in the arm (a coronavirus vaccine) by the end of the year?" 

Azar said "It's a goal of what we're going to mobilize the entire US government and private sector to achieve." And he said the traditional approach is to do phase one, two, and three trials in sequence and then you go to manufacturing. 

... what we're doing is wringing the inefficiency out of the development process to make the development side faster to get to safe and effective vaccines. And at the same time, we're going to scale up commercial-sized manufacturing and produce hundreds of millions of doses at risk. They may not pan out. They might not prove to be safe and effective. But we'll have it so we can begin administration right away.

Brennan honed in on Azar's 'hundreds of millions of doses" and said that's not the same as saying hundreds of millions of vaccines ready to be administered, and reminded him he had sad "the entire American population could receive vaccines by January" and asked him to clarify. 

...We have hundreds of millions of people. So three hundred million is the goal, and by January that we would set, whether by one or multiple vaccine candidates to be able to have. Let's - let's focus our energies on actually getting those vaccines developed at this point.

Azar said that there were 100 vaccine candidates to start with, and now that's down to 14, and 

...we're going to keep narrowing that down to maybe four or five, six, that we really place the big financial bets behind and drive on. And we might actually have multiple vaccines, some appropriate for different populations and different settings as we see the data get generated here. 

She moved on,wondering what sense Azar has on whether people are getting infected where they've reopened. Azar said that would have to be studied "through our comprehensive surveillance system." And he said the reopening gets framed as an economic vs. health thing, when it's actually health vs healthy. 

We see suicidality. We see reduction in cardiac procedures, cancer screenings, pediatric vaccinations. There is a real - a very real health consequence to these shutdowns that must be balanced against as we - as we try to reopen this economy and move forward.

We'll leave it there, after duly noting the twist of trying to take the focus off human sacrifices in the name of the economy and future generations, and move on to the Speaker, who was primarily there to talk about the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act. And can I say, as an acronym maker from way back, I wish I could get the gig helping name House and Senate bills.

Pelosi said the HEROES Act is a plan to test, to diagnosis and treat and decrease the number of people dying from this. Noting that almost 90,000 Americans have died, she said

We, whatever our differences, have to join together to fight this enemy to the lives and livelihood of the American people. 90,000 people, we send our condolences and our prayers to their families. We will always carry them in our hearts. 

Brennan noted the Republicans want to wait and see how things go before dropping another package. Pelosi said that the House Dems passed their bill, just as the Rs did on past bills, and then everyone comes together to get it done - that's what she anticipates will happen here. She also said that Rs and Ds across the country "all want this bill to happen" because of the aid to state, municipal and tribal governments and provisions for testing in the bill. And she added

... setting aside how we got here, we cannot take a pause... people are hungry across America. Hunger doesn't take a pause. People are jobless across America. That doesn't take a pause. People don't know how they're going to pay their rent across the country. We have - we have to address this with humanity...

Brennan wondered if the Rs had reached out on possible negotiations; Pelosi noted the bill was just passed, but she "has confidence" that they'll come together at some point. And, she pointed out,

...I think it's important to note that everything sounds like a big number, but everything that we have in the state and local column is less than the Republicans put in their tax scam to give 83% of the benefits to the top 1%.

She also said, they "have no red lines" in terms of what they're willing to consider, including corporate liability protections. 

Let's close out today's lesson with George and Peter Navarro, who like others in the administration, sings the president's praises in practically every sentence.  Asked about President Obama's comments to graduates, Navarro was harsh.

Well, I'm glad Mr. Obama has a new job as Joe Biden's press secretary... His new normal was a flat line in terms of wage growth. And I'm happy to report that this president, Donald J. Trump, in 3 1/2 years built the most beautiful economy in modern history. And the Chinese did take that down in about 30 days.

But we are in the process right now of rebuilding that. And this president, Donald J. Trump, is the one who has the skills to do so, because you know what, George? What we're going to do is, we're going to go back to the future here, buy American, deregulate and innovate.  

Stephanopoulos asked if Navarro was saying that China "deliberately unleashed" the virus on the US, and if he had any evidence of that. Navarro said he didn't say it was deliberate but said "let's go over the facts here. Correct me if I'm wrong."

The virus was spawned in Wuhan province. Patient zero was in November. The Chinese, behind the shield of the WHO, for two months hid the virus from the world and then sent hundreds of thousands of Chinese on aircraft to Milan, New York, and around the world to seed that. They could have kept it in Wuhan. Instead it became a pandemic. So, that's why I say the Chinese did that to the Americans and they are responsible. 

And he talked about the trade deal signed back in January, with its promise that the Chinese wouldn't steal intellectual property, but now the FBI is warning that "the Chinese government is hacking the intellectual property, so that they can steal vaccines for the world."

And what would they do with it? It wouldn't be a benign experience. They would use that vaccine to profiteer and hold the world hostage.

Boy, that's dark stuff right there... They moved on to talking about Joe Biden who spoke out last week about Trump "praising the Chinese government, downplaying the threat...as (Biden) was warning the need to get the people into China to see what was actually going on."  Navarro said

Yeah, well, Joe Biden has got 40 years of sucking up to the Chinese, including the eight years as vice president. And we know about the billion dollars that his son took from the Chinese.

Stephanopoulos said that wasn't factual, but Navarro maintained the money "went into that hedge fund" and added he thinks "this election is going to be a referendum in many ways on China.

What else did they talk about? Rick Bright, the whistleblower who said he worked closely with Navarro. Rick Bright, who Navarro calls "a deserter in the war against the virus." Navarro what happened with Rick Bright is "an American tragedy."

This guy is quite talented, but he was asked to be the field commander over at NIH to storm the testing hill with a billion dollars behind him. Instead of accepting that mission, he deserted. He went into a fox hole, wrote up the complaint. And how he's part of a Capitol Hill partisan circus... And the tragedy, George, is this man has talent. He's a smart man. We could have used him on the battlefield. He's not there now. And it was because of the decisions that he made. And it is a shame, George...

Um, there's a little too much high-falutin salutin' in there for my taste,. They also talked about the economic response, the new House stimulus plan, bringing jobs back from China, rebuilding American manufacturing, the deep state, the bureaucracy... it's all there in the transcript if you want to keep up with him. I'll leave you with Navarro's closing comment, in relation to people who are not loyal to the Trump agenda.

And anybody in this bureaucracy who hates buy American, and bringing our domestic supply chains home, they don't really belong here. And I support whatever this president does in terms of his hiring and firing decisions.

I'm going to go wash my hands, for the requisite 20 seconds, and maybe sing a patriotic song as I do so. Keep doing the social distancing thing, the face-covering thing, and whatever else you can to do flatten the curve and stop the spread of 'the villain from Wuhan.'

See you around the virtual campus.

TGIF 3/6/20

If it's Friday, it's list-making day.

HHS Secretary Alex Azar is having a bad week, wouldn't you agree? Today at the White House, when the president was explaining why he wasn't going to the CDC as planned (because someone who works there might have the virus) Azar said "he's sending me instead" and Trump seemed pretty comfortable with the thought of sending Azar into a coronavirus threat, and then ignored him for the rest of his remarks.

And then, during the question time at the rescheduled CDC visit, Trump spoke of the many great experts including Mike Pence who is "working 24/7 on this" again ignoring Azar who was standing right next to him. I'm still thinking he's gonna be the fall guy, especially if those cruise ship peeps come off the boat.

Speaking of the president, he had a week. Just like he always does. From a great jobs report to not touching his face to bizarro comments at the CDC (and how all of that transpired), you'd think that was enough.

But no-o-o-o -- there's more. Because there's always more.

You'll recall I suggested not long ago - in fact, it was just last week - that Mulvaney was in trouble.

There's little about Barron in the media - by design. It's because the legitimate media know that president's kids are off limits, and because they know that the mere mention of the name Barron - nothing about the child himself, mind you, but simply using the homophones Barron and baron in a sentence - caused an uproar on the Trump News Network. Mulvaney better have his bags packed.

Little did I know that it would take so little time, and that he'd be going so far away. And I do have to laugh at the folks at The Hill, who earlier in February gave us this article, headlined

Oopsie. No word yet on who will run OMB, but I doubt even someone as fabulous as Mulvaney would have a hard time running the budget from another country.

Let's see who else is having a week? Chuck Schumer, for one.  He verbally attacked two Supremes this week, 

“I want to tell you, Gorsuch. I want to tell you, Kavanaugh. You have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions,

He said he misspoke , after being publicly whipped by Chief Justice John Roberts.

Justices know that criticism comes with the territory, but threatening statements of this sort from the highest levels of government are not only inappropriate, they are dangerous. All Members of the Court will continue to do their job, without fear or favor, from whatever quarter.

This is not the first time Schumer has shot his mouth off, and it won't be the last. I understand that, to a certain point, but the problem is he's just not good at it.

Joe Biden, we know, had a good week. That Guy From Vermont did not. Elizabeth Warren did not, and that's frustrating. Mike Bloomberg did not, but he's going to keep spending money so that either Biden or TGFV has a good November (he hopes). Tom Steyer and Amy Klobuchar didn't. Pete Buttigieg had a good week, I think, because we have definitely not heard the last from him. Steve Bullock did too, as he's decided to run for US Senate in Montana.

Andrew Yang had a good week; he's announced the formation of Humanity Forward, a new nonprofit.

Humanity Forward, which will be based in New York, will focus first on a “data dividend” project and campaign that would fight on behalf of consumers who want the rights to their personal data, Mr. Yang said. 

Separately, he said Thursday that the group had received pledges of $3 million for pilot programs that would provide people with a universal basic income payment each month.

I could keep going, but this seems like a good place to stop.

TGIF, everyone.

Sunday School Extra Credit 3/1/20

As we learn now that six Americans in Washington State have died from the coronavirus, and we have at least 100 known cases, let's take a look at what some of the Trump administration folks were saying yesterday in the classrooms. 

The numbers reflected below were what was known at the time of the interviews. 

Let's start with the vice president and Chuck Todd on Meet the Press. Pence said we still don't know the gentleman whose death was announced on Saturday contracted the virus but that state, local and federal officials were working on it. He also said the risk of infection remains low.  

And in terms of people having confidence that this is under control?

... it's important that people in this country understand that while there are 46 Americans that we brought home from China and 22 Americans, now sadly with one loss of life, that the vast majority of, of those people and the vast majority of any American that would contract a coronavirus will, will be treated, they will recover--

And, he said,

 -- let's be clear on this point. What our health experts have told me...is that, if President Trump had not made the decision to suspend all travel from China into the United States and establish a quarantine effort for people returning to the United States, we'd be in a very different place.

(Note that the China travel ban was very limited, and applied to Chinese citizens, not anyone else coming from China into the US.)

Todd asked whether folks were over-reacting, noting that some companies have limited foreign and domestic travel and cancelled public events, and some schools had closed as well. Pence noted that state and local officials would make whatever decisions they feel are necessary, and that as far as business decisions go, he 

would defer, whether it's foreign travel for those companies and their employees or gatherings in various places around this country. Look, it's a good time to use common sense this time of the year, even if the coronavirus wasn't a reality... I think the president would respect any decisions that are made at the state and local level...

Todd shifted to the 'politicization' of everything surrounding the coronavirus. And while he said that Pence himself had worked hard to stay above the fray, he provided three examples from key Administration allies:

Medal of Freedom honoree Rush Limbaugh: The coronavirus is being weaponized, as yet another element to bring down Donald Trump.

Ronna McDaniel, RNC Chair: Democrats are using this for their political gain to try and stoke fear in the American people, which is shameful, wrong, and I think un-American.

Donald Trump Jr: For them to try to take a pandemic and seemingly hope that it comes here and kills millions of people so that they could end Donald Trump's streak of winning is a new level of sickness.

Todd asked for facts that supported those comments, and said that it "seems like people are asking questions" and are concerned, but suggested implying there was "some sort of political motivation, which is kind of gross."

VP: Well, I will tell you, there's been a lot of irresponsible rhetoric among Democrats and commentators --

CT: Who? Who is this?

VP: -- on the left.

CT: Name some names, sir.

VP: Well --

CT: Because this is just -- it just feels like gas-lighting. Please name some names. I’m -- we're all big -- we're all big people here. Name some names.

VP: There was a column in the New York Times by a prominent liberal journalist that said, "We should rename it the Trump virus." --

CT: Okay, that is - does that apply, does that apply to all people -

VP: -- so that the president would be blamed. Chuck, --

CT: Does this apply --

VP: -- this virus began in China. The president took --

CH: Why take this -- here’s what I want to ask you --

VP: Chuck --

CT: This doesn't help. This does not help us no?

VP: This is decisive action to protect the American people. And when you see voices on our side pushing back on outrageous and irresponsible rhetoric on the other side, I think that's important.

CT: Do you think this rhetoric from your side helps?

VP: I, I never begrudge people responding to unwarranted, unjustified attacks. 

No, he would never do that...

I'll have a sidebar on that NY Times article Pence mentioned; if you read it, you'll see it's not doing what he suggests it is. And I don't know about you, but I think Donny Jr has issues.

Chris Wallace and HHS Secretary Alex Azar chatted in the Fox News Sunday classroom. Wallace asked about community spread of the disease and if it was concerning.

Any community transmission is concerning. That's why we've been very clear from the outset, we're going to have more cases here in the US in spite of the president's aggressive efforts at containment. We'll see some forms of community spreading. But the risk to any individual American remains low. But things can change rapidly.

Wallace asked whether there was any serious consideration to close the US/Mexican border.

Well, right now Mexico has very few cases. So that would -- that would take a real change in the epidemiological profile and the risk to the US from there.  I think (the president) is trying to say is, all things are on the table. We're not going to take anything off the table in our armamentarium of tools we have to protect the American people. 

Two final subjects in this one: the issue of the administration 'lowballing' the risk for political purposes. He quoted Trump and Dr. Robert Redfield, the CDC director, saying very different things.

Trump: Looks like by April, you know, in theory, when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away. Oh, that's true. 

Redfield: I think this virus is probably with us beyond this season or beyond - and I think eventually the virus will find a foothold and we will get community-based transmission.

Wallace asked Azar if the virus will be gone in April.

No, we don't know that. The normal coronavirus, the annual cold, and - as well as the flu and other respiratory illnesses, often do dissipate and go away in warmer seasons. The virus just doesn't survive well in the warmer climate, warmer atmosphere. But we do not know as to this novel coronavirus how it will interact.

And he asked if Azar understood how people are concerned about the mixed messaging. Azar said yes, but added

We're trying to level with the American people at all times... The president, though, is also trying to keep balance in messaging so that the American people don't engage in unwarranted panic... But we're also trying to be radically transparent with our information to make sure folks know what might be coming so they can mentally prepare, as well as engage in normal prepared effectiveness.

And finally, the conversation turned to the whistleblower who reported that some workers were sent to deal with Americans evacuated from Wuhan without proper training or protective gear. And, from the WaPo article linked above,

The whistleblower is seeking federal protection, alleging she was unfairly and improperly reassigned after raising concerns about the safety of these workers to HHS officials, including those within the office of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. She was told Feb. 19 that if she does not accept the new position in 15 days, which is March 5, she would be terminated.

Wallace asked if the woman had been reassigned, as she said in her complaint.

So, first, we -- it is vitally important that we protect our employees in any situation. It is vitally important that we follow the appropriate isolation or quarantine protocols in dealing with individuals. And it's important that no whistleblower ever be retaliated against. And we will never permit retaliation against the whistleblower. 

He also said "the facts we know so far" are that everyone involved is now beyond 14 days from having any interaction with the evacuees and "nobody is symptomatic or has the disease,"

so, there was no risk -- there's no risk to the people of HHS, no risk to the community, even if the allegations prove to be true. So that's a very important fact. We also have offered voluntary testing to our employees. It's not medically indicated because they don't have the virus - but if it comforts them, we're going to get them tested so they know

Honestly? I think that they dodged a bullet, that no one appears to have been negatively impacted by the alleged exposure. Wallace wondered again about the woman and whether she had been reassigned.

Well, I'm not going to discuss personnel matters. That wouldn't be proper for me to do. But there will be no retaliation against this individual or any other individual. We are grateful -- if our employees raise concerns about our processes, if something proves not to be right, we are grateful for that.

Wallace tried again, asking if it turns out that she was reassigned for filing the complaint, would she get her old position back? Azar said that "nobody would ever be reassigned or discriminated against or prejudiced or retaliated against because of raising concerns about the functioning of the department."

And one last time, Wallace tried, but failed.

I cannot -- I'm not going to tell you whether that happened because that's still under investigation. We are doing a comprehensive, thorough investigation. 

Let's hope that Wallace and other journalists don't let the whistleblower issue fall by the wayside.

See you around campus.