Sunday School 1/2/22

Yesterday's classroom discussions focused mostly on the pandemic and the insurrection; I'll focus on the former here, and save the latter for your Extra Credit.

Dr. Anthony Fauci and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona made multiple appearances, while former FDA head Scott Gottlieb and Republican governors Larry Hogan (MD) and Asa Hutchinson (AR) were also roaming the halls. Here are some highlights.

Fauci, speaking with George Stephanopoulos on ABC's This Week, gave this as his "key message on where things stand right now." 

Well, we are definitely in the middle of a very severe surge and uptick in cases...it is actually almost a vertical increase. We're now at an average of about 400,000 cases per day. Hospitalizations are up. One of the things that we hope for, George, is that this thing will peak after a period of a few weeks and turn around. 

And, in the State of the Union classroom, here's Fauci's response to a question from Dana Bash about the driver of the CDC's new relaxed guidelines on quarantining - science or social and business pressures.

There is no doubt that you do want to get people out into the workplace if they are without symptoms. And in the second half of a 10-day period, which would normally be a 10-day isolation period, the likelihood of transmissibility is considerably lower... the CDC made the judgment that it would be relatively low-risk to get people out. You're right. People are getting concerned about, why not test people at that time? I myself feel that that's a reasonable thing to do. I believe that the CDC soon will be coming out with more clarification of that, since it obviously has generated a number of questions...

Gottlieb appears regularly on Face the Nation, and touched on a few key issues in his discussion with Margaret Brennan. For example, he said that over 600 children have died from COVID since the beginning of the pandemic, compared to three pediatric deaths from the flu in the same time period. That said, 

In terms of going back to school, I think the prerogative clearly is to try to get schools reopened. We shouldn't be doing preemptive school closures, in my opinion, but there will be situations where we have reactive school closures, when there are large outbreaks.

Antigen tests work fairly well at detecting the omicron variant, but that "serial testing over a period of time" is the best way to protect a high-risk setting like a school. 

While any individual test could miss the infection, if you're doing serial testing, you're likely to pick it up. And we need to get tests into schools. We still don't have tests widely available to the schools, so that they can use these tests for tests-to- stay policies to prevent large quarantines when are cases diagnosed in the classroom.

He said we should be focused on getting schools open, and keeping them open, pointing out "with the tools we have, with prudence, with the knowledge we have," we can do "a pretty good job" of controlling large outbreaks in schools. However, he's not a fan of mandating boosters for school-age kids. He pointed to studies showing that there was "100% protection" in the 12-16 age group, and said in that group, the vaccinated "are getting a more robust response" from vaccines than others.

For his part, Secretary Cardona did his best to explain that the Biden administration wants kids in schools, they want everyone learning the best possible way they can, they want tests to be available, they want ventilation to be effective, and so on - but that's not enough, according to both Brennan and Gallagher. 

The hosts were skeptical of the efforts that have been undertaken, and how they are being perceived, particularly by teachers. Brennan wondered about teachers in Chicago, Massachusetts and Connecticut saying "they don't feel safe" in schools. Cardona said that the administration's messaging hasn't changed since he's been in position.

We need to make sure we're following mitigation strategies, that we're supporting our educators by providing a safe learning environment, we're providing vaccination for our students as young as 5, so that the whole school community is safe, and we're providing surveillance testing to make sure that, if someone is sick, that they stay home. 

Similarly, Gallagher referenced comments from Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, expressing concern that school districts "don't have the infrastructure for testing and tests to stay. It's going to be really, really bumpy and there's going to need a lot of grace," something she said was "in short supply." 

Cardona noted "there's a level of urgency that we shouldn't lose around making sure that our children learn in person", saying "the impact of hybrid learning, the impact of remote learning, is very real" for parents as well as for the kids. He said the American Rescue Plan funding, coupled with efforts from other groups, is all geared towards keeping kids in school.

And when Gallagher asked if the road wasn't going to be as bumpy as Weingarten predicted, Cardona said

...it's really important that we continue to work together. I do think there will be bumps on the road, especially tomorrow. I mean, superintendents today are receiving calls of staff members that they were expecting to be in the classroom tomorrow who have come down with COVID. So, we're going to roll up our sleeves, all hands on deck. Let's keep our children in the classroom. That should be our default thinking, and as problems come up, we need to work together to solve them.

In both classrooms, I think his arguments fell short.

I'll close with an interesting discussion down the hall in the Fox News Sunday classroom, where Trace Gallagher talked with Gov. Hutchinson. To me, it felt like Gallagher was trying to get Hutchinson to downplay the efforts of the Biden administration on the pandemic, but the gov was surprisingly complimentary. 

For example, Hutchinson thought it "was an important step" that the CDC revised the guidelines, saying it was "a recognition that we have to be able to manage our way through" the pandemic. He applauded that "they used science, they overlaid it with practicality" but admitted there could be more consistency and simplicity for people.

While he agreed that 'pandemic politics' has played a role, and caused frustration and division, he also said "it really is refreshing that, I believe, there's a uniformity of opinion by our leaders that vaccinations are critical to get us through this. And so that unified message is absolutely essential, and we've got to -- so I complemented the president on that." 

Vaccinations have been a sore point in Arkansas; the state ranks 45th in percentage of people vaccinated, but he's not moving towards a mandate any time soon. If they ever did get to that point,

there always has to be the right exceptions for religious convictions if -- you know, if vaccines are not acceptable, and that is the current law in Arkansas, and that should continue to be the case.

Feeling better after all of that? 

See you around campus. 

Sunday School 11/15/20: Extra Credit

In this week's Sunday School, I focused on the Georgia Senate runoffs. For your Extra Credit, I wanted to spend some time with the experts and the pandemic. 

First up: Dr. Michael Osterholm, from the University of Minnesota, now a member of the Biden COVID Advisory Board. He told Chuck Todd on MTP that, at least for the next three weeks, the numbers are going to continue going way up because there are people "in the pipeline, meaning they're already infected." Still, he said, "our future's in our hands."

Right now, he said, the goal is to try and get through to summer when we'll have the vaccines and that we need to "focus on what's going to make that difference" to allow us to get there. And that's going to take a different approach - a national one, to help the state and local officials.

You see the governors struggling right now. They want help. I have actually talked to five governors in the last two days, all of whom said, "Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could all at least be on the same page? But right now, you've got -- my state is surrounded by four other states and they all have different recommendations.” That, by itself, is what we're talking about -- standardizing how we're all going to approach this. This virus doesn't care what party you are. It doesn't care where you live. We have to understand that that's what we have to work on right now.

As to how close we are to the breaking point of our health care system, he said his worst fear is we end up like other countries, 

People literally were dying in the waiting room of emergency rooms after spending ten hours just waiting to be seen. That's going to start happening. The media will start reporting it and we will see the breadth and the depth of this tragedy. That, I hope, will not be the way that we finally decide to reduce our risk, this idea of swapping air. We've got to stop doing that. And so, I think it is the health care system’s breaking, literally breaking, that will unfortunately bring us to a sense of reality of what we must do in the short term.

If we have a few more weeks of our current level of activity, that will happen here, he said.

Dr. Anthony Fauci talked with Jake Tapper on CNN's SOTU; he hoped that we would double down on wearing masks, hand washing, social distancing and avoiding crowds, knowing that we've got good news on vaccines but it will take a little time to get them. And, he agreed, it's possible we could see another 200,000 deaths in the next four months.

He also said that additional lockdowns "will likely happen" but not a national lockdown.

...I think what we are going to start seeing in the local levels, be they governors or mayors or people at the local level, will do, as you said, very surgical-type of restrictions, which are the function equivalent of a local lockdown. But we're not going to have a national lockdown. But if things really get bad, and you put your foot on the pedal, and yet still you have the surge, you may need to take the extra step that you're talking about.

Having effective vaccines on the horizon - Pfizer is likely asking the FDA for an Emergency Use Authorization, and the Moderna vaccine may be even more effective than Pfizer's - is great, but Fauci pointed out,

...we have to get people to take the vaccine. So, if we get the overwhelming majority of people taking the vaccine, and you have, on the one hand, an effective vaccine, on the other hand, a high degree of uptake of the vaccine, we could start getting things back to relative normal as we get into the second and third quarter of the year, where people can start thinking about doing things that were too dangerous just months ago.

But, he cautioned, just wishing those things were so isn't enough. We have to make it happen, and he emphasized, again, we have to do the "fundamental public health things" to get us where we want to be.  

And, on the lack of cooperation with President-elect Biden's team, Fauci was clear.

... it's very clear that that transition process that we go through, that time period of measured in several weeks to months, is really important in a smooth handing over of the information, as well as -- it's almost like passing a baton in a race -- you don't want to stop and then give it to somebody. You want to just essentially keep going. And that is what transition is. So, it certainly would make things more smoothly if we could do that.

As a public health measure, it's "obvious" that it would be better for the American people if the teams worked together. 

Martha Raddatz had Adm. Brett Giroir of the current administration's Coronavirus Task Force, and Dr. Atul Gawande of the incoming administration's Covid-19 Advisory Board in the classroom at This Week.

Giroir was first, and he too expressed optimism about the Pfizer vaccine, saying it "is a game-changer. It will bring an end game to the pandemic," but also noted cases are up, hospitalizations are up, and mortality is up.

We know what to do, he said: physically distance, wear a mask, and said

We're going to have to do things like limit attendance or close bars, close indoor restaurants, because that's very important. If we do these things, combined with the testing that we have, we can flatten the curve. If we do not do these things, the cases will continue to go up.

He also said "we could have 20 million doses" of the vaccine by the end of this month, and a similar number by the end of December.  

Raddatz asked him about getting people to do things we need to do, and he said "we all have to communicate very clearly that the science is clear, the evidence is overwhelming, whether you want to look at microbiological data or you want to look at epidemiology, city by city, state by state, country by country, that masks do work."

So, across the board, whether these are local mandates, whether these are voluntary, whether these are public service messages, we have to have the American people wear a mask when you can't physically distance. 

Raddatz noted there's one person who's not shouting that message, but Giroir wasn't concerned about that, because Pence and other Cabinet members are engaged. And on the transition, specifically on the head of Operation Warp Speed asking to be allowed to contact the Biden team, the only thing that was missing was the chicken to go with his waffles.

I can say, from my point of view, that the GSA controls the transition process. My team, all the docs that work for us, we want to be extremely transparent. We are extremely transparent with the media, with outside experts, with public health experts, some of which are actually on team Biden advisers.

Asked for a simple yes or no, "is it important to be able to talk to the Biden team at this point?"

Look. I want to be as transparent as possible with everybody. This is not a political issue. This is an issue of public health and saving American lives. And I think there's nothing more important than that. 

So, sorta kinda "yes," but definitely not, "Yes, it's critical and I'm going to press the White House to let us do exactly that."  Got it.

Moving to Dr. Gawande, Raddatz started by asking what he thought of Giroir's comments on the transition. He said he could hear in Giroir's voice that he wants to share the info.

Look, working with the (Biden) transition team, they are...ready to go, and are getting all of the information they can. But it's in the nation's interest that the Transition Team get the threat assessments that the team knows about... understand the vaccine distribution plan, need to know where the stockpiles are, what the status of masks and gloves. There's a lot of information that needs to be transmitted. It can't wait until the last minute. 

On stopping the surge, Gawande says first we need "a clear voice from the top backing the national comprehensive plan. And we've lacked that." We'll have that going forward. Second? Wear a mask. And, about the 'freedom' argument?

What I would say and I want to say to those citizens (who oppose masks) is simply that when a person goes into a store and does not wear a mask, when they go to a public gathering and they're not wearing a mask, they're hurting everyone's freedom. They are putting people in danger. Moreover, they are turning people away from shops and stores and that's hurting jobs. That is the critical mix of things. Opposing masks is like opposing washing hands, it's not political. We can pull together. We can do this.  

She asked him to clarify whether or not there'll be a nationwide lockdown (which Dr. Osterholm mentioned last week). He said they're not supportive of it and there's not a scenario that would make that necessary, "because we can get this under control."

The critical parts are understanding what we've learned since we did a nationwide lockdown in early April. And that is, that you can have targeted measures building on mask-wearing to include widespread testing, to include dialing up and dialing down capacity restrictions, and those measures need to happen on a more localized basis.

He pointed to NY's zip code-by-zip code restrictions, which is "quite effective. We do not need to go to a nationwide shelter-in-place shutdown."

So, when you hear the president say it's definitely going to happen, tell him to put it in his pipe and smoke it. And remind your friends that it was the Trump Administration that put in place the nationwide lockdown that we had earlier this year. If you do that, I'll give you even more extra credit. 

See you around campus - mask on, of course.

Wondering on Wednesday (v216)

Ready... Set... Wonder!

I don't have a theme for tonight, so let's just meander, shall we?

Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III will not be headed back to the United States Senate, having lost his primary to former football coach Tommy Tuberville. And he lost in spectacular fashion, getting not even 40% of the vote.  One could be forgiven for wondering whether Sessions might have thought about recusing himself from this race...

Peter Navarro, the president's Director of Trade and Manufacturing policy, might find himself manufacturing some sort of public mea culpa he can trade for a private pat on the back from his boss. Navarro, almost certainly doing his level best to do whatever he needs to for the team, wrote a nastygram whining about Dr. Anthony Fauci, and that got him in hot water with some folks. 

Even the president said Navarro was speaking for himself and shouldn't have written it, but I can't help wondering if Trump didn't let out a little squeal of glee when he heard about it.  Unless, of course, Navarro (a master of military language) was only following an actual directive of his commander-in-chief...

We had our first federal execution since 2003 this week, even though relatives of the three victims in the case had petitioned to not have the execution during the coronavirus pandemic, because they did not feel safe travelling to witness the execution. AG Snitty Snitty Bill Barr had said that it was the duty of the DOJ to carry out the death penalty sentences, in part to give closure to the families of victims and people in the communities where the capital crimes were committed. 

What's interesting, though, is that the family members did not want to see Daniel Lee executed; rather, they wanted to see him spend his life in prison, the same sentence given to the other person convicted in the crimes. So, I wonder: would there have been such a push to execute him, outside the presence of the victims' families, had they been supportive of the execution?  

And finally, we learned today that the 2012 Rose Bowl Parade has been cancelled because of the coronavirus.  Here's an excerpt from a statement making the announcement.

While the parade itself is more than five months from now, the preparation for such a large event typically begins in February. “In addition to the advance planning required by our band and equestrian units, the construction of our floats takes many months and typically requires thousands of volunteers to gather in ways that aren’t in compliance with safety recommendations and won’t be safe in the coming months,” said David Eads, Executive Director/CEO. “While we are extremely disappointed that we are unable to host the parade, we believe that not doing so will prevent the spread of COVID-19, as well as protect the legacy of the Rose Parade for generations to come.”

Now, what's got me wondering here?  Simply this: if it's not safe for adults to build floats and decorate them with flowers and other materials, how can it possibly be safe to send children to school?

TGIF 6/19/20

Oh, what a week it was... Here's just a slice.

Take John Bolton. Liar, or teller of the most secrety of our secrety stuff? Money-hungry man without a conscience, or money-hungry man without a conscience? A would-be do-gooder, if only there'd been a subpoena, or a man who doesn't really give a rat about our country and protecting it from the Trumpeters?

Could he be all of those rolled into one? Seems like the answer is yes, or sorta kinda maybe. Here's one take on it, from The Atlantic. The author, Thomas Wright, gives a litany of reasons (and likely not a full list, it sounds) of why he's no fan of Bolton, only to land here:

But I have to acknowledge that Bolton behaved honorably as national security adviser when he told his staff to report illegality to the White House lawyers. He also defended those who served under him against Trump loyalists. He is right to publish his book. If he gives a full accounting of what he saw as national security adviser—and from a recent article in The New York Times and an excerpt in The Wall Street Journal, it seems he might have—he deserves credit for it regardless of what he did or did not do during the impeachment hearings and trial. He will have done the nation a service.

ABC's Martha Raddatz has Bolton exclusively, Sunday night; check your local listings.

And speaking of John Bolton, Mick Mulvaney - remember him, the acting chief of staff who was exiled to Ireland to serve as chief groundskeeper or something at Trump's golf course?  Among other things, Mulvaney said something to the effect that no one else who was in The Room Where it Happened mentioned anything inappropriate. And I had to laugh at that - as if Mulvaney, Pompeo, or others still in Trump's universe would recognize anything as being in appropriate? I mean, they thought an obvious quid pro quo was nothing other than a perfect phone call, for Pete's sake.

And speaking of Pete's sake, here's the question NBC's Peter Alexander asked at the presser today.

Why does the president keep hiring people who are dumb as a rock, overrated, way over their heads, whack' and incompetent?

The answer, from Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany? Trump likes "countervailing opinions" and likes to balance his own opinion with those who disagree with him, similar to Lincoln's Team of Rivals model. Except that the words Alexander used in his question are Trump's words, used to describe former staffers - and they did actually apply to Bolton, she added.

And, McEnany went on to say that even the FAILING NEW YORK TIMES!!! which is often FAKE NEWS!!! and which NOBODY READS ANYWAY!! because they're losing subscribers left and right has criticized Bolton. Except, I have to correct the part about the Times losing subscribers left and right - because they didn't have any 'right' ones, right? I mean left? Or something?

Mulvaney, for his part, felt safe in saying that the president isn't good at hiring people.

And speaking of the president, he's having his love-fest tomorrow in Tulsa OK, against the advice of Drs. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx, according to this NBC News report. I guess the docs are part of the 'team of rivals' on the White House Coronavirus Task Force?  Anyway, a couple of days ago, Fauci said he would not ("of course not") attend any of Trump rallies, being in a high-risk category, and he added

outside is better than inside, no crowd is better than crowd, and crowd is better than big crowd.

And speaking of crowds (sheesh, this whole post reads like an ad for Segues, doesn't it?), the president had this to say about what might happen in Tulsa.

And, now we learn how it will be "a much different scene" - some 250 National Guard soldiers will be there, unarmed except for shields, batons, and pepper spray, to help keep the peace. Of course, it could have been a very much different scene entirely, but the Oklahoma Supreme Court refused to issue an injunction keeping the rally from going on as planned, saying there was no law requiring masks or physical distancing.

And speaking of the National Guard, it seems some of the folks who were called to duty helping out with coronavirus efforts will be one day short of the 90-day deployment requirement for benefit eligibility.

The issue arose after the administration decided to end federal deployment orders for National Guard members on June 24. The decision would leave some who were placed under federal orders in late March just short of reaching a 90-day threshold that would allow them to collect retirement benefits early, before turning 60. The date also would cut short access to some GI Bill benefits, though that could be earned later.

Which stinks, especially when "we love the military." I can't imagine that no one knew that picking this specific date - a seemingly random Wednesday - would ensure that so many folks who put themselves on the line when asked to, who were away from their families helping protect the country from an invisible Chinese enemy, were going to be treated this way.

I'll leave you with this closing thought. My Sonofa Gov, Andrew Cuomo, is ending his daily coronavirus briefings. No word on whether he's also ending his participation in the Cuomo Brothers show on CNN.

TGIF, everyone.

Wondering on Wednesday (v206)

Ready... Set... Wonder!

What's got me wondering tonight? Here's just a sampling.

Do you wonder if Rand Paul and Tucker Carlson got together and decided to tag-team Dr. Fauci, or was it an incredible coinkydink that they both hit out within such a short period of time? Honestly, at any moment I half expected either one of them to shout "You're not the boss of me!" in Fauci's direction, Carlson in particular. 

Now, I realize that things have changed over the course of the pandemic, and what's happening on the ground now is not the same was was happening on the ground back in January; heck, I'd have to wonder about anyone who didn't realize that. The data have changed, the projections have changed, the guidance - and guidelines - have changed, and they'll likely continue to do so. But for Carlson to say that Fauci stuff was 'buffoon-level' was, well, pretty ridiculous, even for someone on Fox. Can't wait to see how the rest of this plays out, and how the other 'buffoon-level' talking heads handle it. 

Speaking of Fox News, I see they've taken Tara Reade off their banner, after she was right there, front and center, for a long time. I wonder why they've moved on?  If you're wondering who or what replaced her, have no fear - I've got you covered.  Here's the old banner, and the new.

What else is going on? 

I wonder if the folks who have been so upset about criminals being released from prison because of the coronavirus  threat are upset about Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen, and Michael Avenatti being released for that reason? And, if there is outrage, will those three get the same share of it? 

I listened to a little bit of the Supreme Court hearing on citizen Donald Trump's taxes. I was happy that there were no random toilet-flushing noises when I was listening - and I still wonder whether the flushing that was heard  during one of the earlier virtual sessions was Brett Kavanaugh 'breaking the seal," as it were. I did get to hear Clarence Thomas ask a question, too; I wonder if he likes the cases, or if he likes the format? Thomas, you may know, once went 10 years, three years, and one year without asking any questions from the bench. 

And now, let's close it out with some good news, shall we? Here are two wonderful stories for you.

• A while back - in March, actually - a Kansas farmer sent an N-95 mask to my Sonofa Gov, Andrew Cuomo, with a note asking the gov to make sure the mask got to a doctor or nurse working to treat COVID-19 patients. Cuomo told the story at one of his daily press briefings. As often happens with stories like this, things snowballed, the farmer got some unwanted fame, and ended up having a dream of his lifetime come true. I won't spoil it for you, but it's a good one.   

• We've seen incredible pictures of how the environment is healing as people around the world shelter in place, factories stop kicking up tons of pollution, airlines limit flights, and so on. An Australian diving tour company, normally busy with tourists, has instead been busy planting coral on the Great Barrier Reef since their country shut down tourist activity. 

And let's wonder what else people will be inspired to do, to try, to give to others, as we continue down this crazy road. 

What are you wondering about?

Poll Watch: Ratings Through the Roof!

It seems it's been a while since we looked at any polling data, so I thought it was time to dive in again and share what other people are thinking.

For starters, let's look at a CNN poll from earlier this month. Here's the small print: The study was conducted for CNN via telephone by SSRS, an independent research company. Interviews were conducted from May 7-10, 2020 among a sample of 1,112 respondents. The landline total respondents were 435 and there were 677 cell phone respondents. The margin of sampling error for total respondents is +/- 3.7 at the 95% confidence level.

The survey tracks responses by gender (M/F only); race (white/non-white); age (18-34, 35-49, 50-64, 65+, under 45; 45 and up); college grad (Y/N), and whites by college grad or non-college grad. In addition, there're party affiliation breakdowns (Democrat, Independent/Other, and Republican); leaning Democrat or Republican; politics (liberal, moderate, or conservative); voter registration (Y/N), and sense of the outbreak (worst is behind us, or worst is yet to come).

We know much all politicians, but the president in particular, are driven by public opinion. I mean, who else will spend time while coping with a pandemic to talk about his Facebook ratings? I think he might not be quite happy with this survey, though.  Here are a few quick highlights:

• 45% of respondents approve of how the president's doing his job, while 51% disapprove, giving him a -6 net score. On the plus side? His approval has ticked up 1% since the April survey. Only four of the demographic cohorts show an approval rate of over 50%: non-college educated whites (57%), whites (53%), folks aged 35-49 (53%), and men (51%).
• However, only 42% approve of how he's handling the coronavirus outbreak, with 55% disapproving, for a -13 net score; the approval dropped 3% since last month. And only two cohorts, non-college educated whites (56%) and whites (51%) pass the 50% threshold here.
• And finally, he's way underwater, by -26, on whether people trust the information they get from him on the coronavirus outbreak: 62% do not trust what he says, compared to only 36% that do. 

Let's look a little deeper, starting with the 'trust' question. It's not like we don't trust anybody - although, you might think that looking at social media, where it often seems that no one trusts science, data, or facts. But, according to the survey, we do trust  what Dr. Anthony Fauci (+47), the CDC (+52), and even CNN (+15) tell us. However, as is the case with the president himself, folks don't trust Fox News (-23) when it comes to coronavirus information.

And of course, the folks at Fox News and in the GOP are ramping up their efforts to create doubt in the Fauci. trust metric. For example, yesterday during Fauci's remote appearance at a Senate hearing, Kentucky's Rand Paul said this.

As much as I respect you, Dr. Fauci, I don’t think you’re the end-all. I don’t think you’re the one person that gets to make a decision. We can listen to your advice, but there are people on the other side saying there’s not going to be a surge, that we can safely reopen the economy, and the facts will bear this out.

Fauci's response?

I have never made myself out to be the end-all and only voice in this. I’m a scientist, a physician and a public health official. I give advice according to the best scientific evidence.

And later, there was this, from Tucker Carlson, suggesting that some thought Fauci should be a dictator or something, and that he was a buffoon, and pointing out that he wasn't elected to anything. So, the one thing I can say for sure? The president has seen this survey, and has seen that he's 42 points underwater on trust compared to Fauci (62% don't trust vs 20%) - so now's a good time for the minions to attack.

One more note: demographically, Fauci kills it. Gender, age group, race, education level, income level, voter registration - he has a net positive in every single one of them. Not only that, but more than half of Republicans (61%), Independents (61%), conservatives (56%), people who think the worst is behind us (60%) and even those who think the worst is yet to come (74%) trust him.

What else does the survey show?

• Most people - 60% - don't personally know anyone who's been diagnosed with COVID-19, but the number who do is on the rise. In the survey taken April 3-7, only 22% knew someone who had been diagnosed; in the latest, it's up to 40%. 

• The percentage of folks thinking that the worst of this darn thing is behind us is moving in a positive direction. In April, only 17% thought that, while in the new survey, it's  up to 44%. But still, more than half - 52% - think the worst is yet to come. 

Respondents are not particularly happy with how the federal government is handling things.  

• In the April and May surveys, more than 50% of respondents said the feds are doing a poor job, and over the course of four surveys, the percentage of people who say a good job is being done hasn't reached 50%. 

• Most respondents are at least 'concerned' (with fewer 'afraid') about some specific issues related to the virus. Take a look.

• And, what do folks think about how the government is handling those issues? Not good, as you can see below. With one exception, more people than not think the feds aren't doing enough, and on three of the remaining four issues, more than 55% have that opinion. (Comically, it's pretty much a split decision on cleaning supplies...)

If you were the president, would you be thrilled with these numbers, or would you be trying to deflect, dissuade, and deny that any issues even exist? If you said the latter, you've hit the nail on the head.

You understand his crazy tweetstorms, and why he's talking about the Obama administration, and about the wall, and about nasty questions at press conferences, and about Mother's Day... anything to avoid addressing how unappreciated he and his team's efforts really are, at a time when all he really wants is to be appreciated.

I'll have some more polling data in the next couple of days. 

Ranting and Raving (v5): Pandemic Pandemonium

Boy, don't you love a good pandemic and the pandemonium it causes? I sure do. We've got the quote-unquote #fakenewews reporting actual data and actual news and we've got people who don't know the difference between news reporting and opinion columns conflating the two and losing their minds over the WRONG thing when the right thing is sitting right in front of them, and we've got the president reporting #fakenews and his feelings and his #stablegeniousity and the rumblings in his gut and that's what his supporters are hanging on to and EVERYTHING IS GREAT because there are FACTS when the are none and the are LIES when there is truth and those people (yes, I said 'those people') are now promoting #FireFauci on Twitter because the virus-fighting doc who has served not one, not two, not three, not four, not five but SIX six presidents (and no, the best was not saved for last), is doing doctor-talk and science-speak and truth-telling and mostly because he had the audacity to correct the #fakenewspresident, the #Trumpeters are trumpeting that THE DOC HAS TO GO and there's a chance that he will be fired because as we know, the #celebritypresident likes nothing better than bigly good numbers on social media - he's #1 on Facebook and ratings for his daily failed #socialdistancingexercises are through the ROOF! - he has to do what his Keyboard Kops tell him to do especially if #FauxNews aka #TNN (Trump News Network) picks it up and oh by the way, someone apparently told Trump if he #wenttoJared and dragged him out on the rally stage the heat would be off, which it was, and that allowed Trump cover to fire the ICIG who said that the #whistleblower was telling the truth and provided proof that it was (but I digress) so NOW, we have Pence and Jared and Navarro and Gaynor and Adams and SnittySnittyBillBarr (what the hell was HE doing up there?) and people think the GOVERNORS are being childish because they're complaining about not being able to get straight answers???? Dear Lord, this really low bar administration sure can raise the bar on chaos, can't it? (Takes breath and stiff drink) And SPEAKING of the governors, most of whom (all of the Blue State ones for sure) are doing a better job than the point people and the president, some of them (Red State ones for sure) are getting MORE supplies than they request, and they're getting more, MORE THAN ONCE and meanwhile, the governors and the county execs and town supervisors and mayors ('mares' as the president calls them - time for him to take a 'Bare' aspirin or something) are doing one helluva job trying to keep their people safe and not feeding us a boatload of BS from a rotating cast of characters on a stage where social distancing apparently doesn't apply. They tell us what we need to know, and they explain why they're making decisions and yet - AND YET - there's crap like what a semi-local radio host posted, that our Sonofa Gov Andrew Cuomo (I'm very more often not a fan of his, so don't start with me) is apparently doing everything he can to make sure that the folks who are dying from or with the #coronavirus are people who VOTED FOR HIS OPPONENT - I kid you not - because Cuomo said he was going to sign an executive order and have the National Guard take PPE, supplies and yes, probably 500 or so ventilators, maybe less, that are less likely to be needed upstate, or not needed right now, and deliver them downstate where the people are dying in numbers that are horrifying, that are are mind-numbing, that are stomach-turning and somehow we're supposed to get on board with the radiojerk's theory that he's signing our death certificates and committing EXECUTIVE HOMICIDE by working to figure out where people have things that they don't currently need (and may not need for the pandemic) and moving those to the place of greatest need IN THE ENTIRE COUNTRY -- but that's wrong? #WTF is he supposed to do, just let people downstate die? Would that make all of the haters happy? I mean, it's mostly just those immigrants (legal or otherwise) that are getting sick and dying, right? It's not like they're humans who had jobs and families and aspirations and dreams and birthdays and upcoming weddings and family reunions and what not, right? "Those people" that's who they are, right? Because here's the deal (as the radiojerk says all the time), the deal is, the morgues are full, people - FULL - and there are dozens and dozens of refrigerated trucks parked on the streets in NYC stacked high with bodies of the dead and we are anticipating that another 85 TRUCKS are going to be coming to NYC to hold more bodies of the dead and if you think that's happening here where we sit, let's put on our cloth facial coverings and go for a ride and SHOW ME THE BODIES piling up in Buffalo and Syracuse and Rochester and Watertown and Albany and Auburn and Oneonta and Penn Yan and Herkimer and Saratoga and Cortland and Webster and Henderson and Oswego and Cooperstown, show me the trucks full of bodies and convince me that the supplies are better sitting here, just in case, than they are down there where, literally (not just Joe Biden Literally) the bodies are piled high and THEN tell me that if the situation were reversed and it was up here where all those trucks were parked in neighborhoods near our hospitals and the morgues were full and every bed was full and every hallway was full of patients and the parking lots were all full of medical tents, you tell me that you wouldn't want said Homicidal Maniac Executive er, Executioner, sorry to do WHATEVER IT TAKES including sending in the National Guard to get whatever supplies we could get our hands on, for Pete's sake are you even listening to yourselves? And why is it I keep noticing that the same people spitting this stuff, include many Republican politicians,  are the ones echoing the 1,000,000,000% partisan political hack that we have as president telling us we all have to set politics aside and come together and blahdittyblahblahblah because we know he is mentally and morally incapable of doing that - and won't even try, doesn't even care enough for one Pearl Harbor Moment - but because HE says it THEY all say it and wave their flags in our faces? (Takes breath and stiff drink) Could the Sonofa Gov had done this differently? Sure, there's always a better way to do something, and he SHOULD have done it differently, but is he taking every last mask, face shield, pair of gloves and ventilator and wandering through hospitals checking voter registration data on downstate patient bracelets looking to buy one last vote and screw the Republicans who can't find a halfway decent candidate to run for anything in this state - ANYTHING - when he's not up for re-election until 2022? Stop it. Just. Stop. It. Is Cuomo the greatest thing since sliced bread? Of course not: everyone knows that Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are the greatest thing since sliced bread but oh -- by the way-- for the most part, ALL of the governors are doing the same thing, getting supplies from place A in their state and moving them to place B in their state, because what good are the supplies if they're not being used or are likely to not be needed to the same degree as they are needed NOW in other areas? And you know what else? Those other governors are SENDING SUPPLIES TO US and they're sending medical professionals to us, because THEY understand that the place of greatest need is where we need the greatest good, and because they know that New York would do the same for them, under the same circumstances, whether upstate folks like it or not, whether Republicans like it or not and honestly a Republican NY gov (yes we've had them before) would do the same thing, or he'd be called out for not doing the same thing by EXACTLY the same people who are bitching about the Sonofa Gov and you KNOW I'm right. So yes, regular readers, at this moment I'm actually siding with the politicians and yes, there's a chance that a little bit of hell might actually have just frozen over, but have no fear - there's more than enough hatred and fear and ill will to thaw it out pretty darn quickly and now I'm going out in my garden and getting the heck away from all this BS and pulling the weeds I can pull, vs. staying inside trying to pull the ones I can't control. (Takes breath and stiff drink).  Have a nice day. And don't forget to wash your hands.

TGIF 4/3/20

A little over a year ago, I joined my husband in retirement.

Before  that, I worked at home for several months, and so my husband and I have had a lot of time to get acclimated to this #AloneTogether stuff that many of my friends, and possibly many of yours, are now being forced to get used to -- and I'm glad that we didn't have to learn how to do this under the pressure of a pandemic, I've got to tell you. I hope you and yours are doing well, and hanging in.

Anyway...What a week, right?

More states have moved to mandatory statewide social distancing, but there are still eleven states where no such requirements are in place, or where only certain regions of the state is under some kind of requirement. Which is confusing to the experts on the White House Task Force, for sure, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, who thinks we should be under a national order.

The tension between federally mandated versus states' rights to do what they want is something I don't want to get into, but if you look at what's going on in this country, I just don't understand why we're not doing that — we really should be.

Now, about the argument about whether the feds or the states should be making the decisions? I stumbled upon this commentary by Stephen Moore, formerly of the Wall Street Journal and now of the Heritage Foundation. Like former House Speaker Paul Ryan, he's an Ayn Rand devotee. He notes in his commentary that, in many surveys, Rand's Atlas Shrugged "rates as the second most influential book of all time, behind the Bible." I'm not well versed enough on either book to comment, but anyway -- here's what he has to say about all of this.

We are living through the Ayn Rand dystopia right now. We have given police-state powers to the government to shut down "nonessential businesses" and tell the people whether they can play golf or go for a hike. Some of these measures may make sense based on public health, but at what point are we degrading the rights of individuals to choose risks for themselves? 

I'd say we're at the point when allowing people their selfish rights can unnecessarily endanger the rest of us, but maybe that's just me. Like I said, I'm not big on the Bible, but I know about that Golden Rule thing, and since I wouldn't ignorantly infect anyone else with the coronavirus, I don't think anyone should be selfishly giving it to me.

Meanwhile, speaking of Dr. Fauci, he's being memorialized with a bobblehead, and at the same time he's getting a security detail, due to threats from, well, from people I don't even know how to describe. The bobblehead, though? For every doll sold, $5 of the purchase price will be donated to the American Hospital Association for their efforts to obtain PPE for healthcare workers.

The pandemic is making a mess of our election processes; 15 states have postponed or changed how they're holding primaries. Not only that, but the DNC has pushed out their convention from mid-July to mid-August. The RNC is still planning on holding theirs as originally scheduled, in late August, although I supposed both of the events are still subject to change. And of course, it makes one wonder whether these are even necessary anyway?

On the Dem side, there's no official indication yet on whether That Guy From Vermont will step aside and endorse Papa Joe Biden, but there is indication that he still gets grumpy whenever people ask him about it. When Whoopi Goldberg demanded to know what his path to victory was, "because this feels a little like it did when you didn't come out when Hillary Clinton was clearly the person folks were going for," he 'sniped'

People have a right, last I heard, people in democracy have the right to vote for the agenda that they think can work for America, especially in this very, very difficult moment. We are assessing our campaign, as a matter of fact, where we want to go forward, but people in a democracy do have a right to vote. 

He also pointed out, or snapped, the article linked above says,

I'm sitting in my home right now. I'm not holding a rally in Wisconsin because of the nature of campaigns right now. 

And speaking of Wisconsin, that's the only state still holding a primary next Tuesday, out of the eleven that were scheduled. A federal judge has declined to delay the primary, but he's not really happy about it, it seems. US District Judge William Conley made clear that he disagreed with the state's decision to go forward with the election, but he explained that he was constrained to consider only the constitutional rights of voters - not public health." In his decision, he noted

Without doubt, the April 7 election day will create unprecedented burdens not just for aspiring voters, but also for poll workers, clerks and indeed the state. As much as the court would prefer that the Wisconsin Legislature and Governor consider the public health ahead of any political considerations, that does not appear in the cards. Nor is it appropriate for a federal district court to act as the state's chief health official by taking that step for them. 

On, Wisconsin, or something.

Back to the presidential race, I will echo the thoughts of many that Papa Joe is in a horrible position here. First of all, he's not good sitting in his basement trying to connect - he's old school, and does better in person. Second of all, he's not in office now, and so can't point to all of the things he's doing to make a difference, like TGFV can do. And third, and maybe most importantly, he's stuck in Delaware while the president is babbling on television for as long he wants, every day. Every. Single. Day.

TGIF, everyone. Be safe.

Sunday School Extra Credit 3/29/20

Also making classroom visits yesterday were Drs. Anthony Fauci, who chatted with Jake Tapper on CNN's State of the Union, and Deborah Birx, who talked with Chuck Todd on MTP, which is where we'll start.

Responding to Todd's question on the growth in the death rate (17 days or so to get to 100, nine more days to get to 1,000 and only 72 hours to get to 2,000) and "where this is headed in the next few weeks, Birx noted "this is the way pandemics work" and that

No state, no metro area will be spared. And the sooner we react and the sooner the states and the metro areas react and ensure that they've put in full mitigation, at the same time understanding exactly what their hospitals need, then we'll be able to move forward together and protect the most Americans.

She also referenced some new modeling that's available, which predicts how COVID-19 might spread. Todd wondered what the model showed, in particular if the plan to create the county-by-county risk map wasn't going to happen, since the models show no area is safe. She said the two pieces come together, and we need both of them.

One of them is ensuring that we have full capacity for full diagnosis...that is still going on, and we do have enough tests for that. The other piece of this is surveillance. So we're looking across the US for counties that do have lower case numbers right now to see what we can do in order to really put into place full surveillance, full contact tracing, and full diagnostic capacity to ensure cases are found and we contact trace while the metros and other areas go through clearly important mitigation efforts to spare as many American lives as possible. 

She also said that they're studying what's going on in New York "very carefully" - hospital needs, how to do testing better, how to keep less sick patients out of the hospital, and how to keep hospitals stocked with critical supplies, among other things. On that last part, she noted,

It's not enough for us to get materials to warehouses. We have to be working with the state and local governments comprehensively to ensure that equipment and supplies are getting to each hospital. Hospitals are so busy taking care of the people who are ill. They can't be spending time doing inventory. And so we need to help and support that. 

On supplies and competition between states and the feds, Todd asked if the feds were going to take over procurement and disbursement, and he also asked what role Birx plays in where supplies are going, vs. what FEMA is responsible for. She talked about all the things other people should be doing (know where the hospitals and surgical centers are, where the anesthesia ventilators are, how to move those things around, etc.). Which is what governors and local folks ARE doing, and they're running into problems, still. So Todd asked it again: "who should be trying to acquire new equipment, states or the federal government?"

Well, I think the federal government right now is working very hard on looking at where all the ventilators are and where production can be. But we need states at the same time to look where all of their ventilators are, including outpatient surgical centers, which is a really important place to be looking because you get staff plus ventilator. They also have the cardiac monitoring, they'll be able to monitor oxygen levels. All of that can come into the hospitals to care for patients. So both of those pieces need to come together. The government looking to increase procurements and states looking for every single option that they have.

They talked about the potential quarantine for the NY/NJ/CT area, and she said that when New York City started getting bad, the data showed more cases on Long Island and in Southern Florida, presumably because people were leaving NYC for safer areas. And, she added.

What we're trying to say to everyone is when this virus comes to your metro area, please stay in your metro area where your care can be provided because it's spreading virus more quickly around the United States. 

In the same vein, Todd asked about shutting down domestic air travel, noting it seems odd that NYC airports "are wide open for people to leave." Birx noted that air travel in and out of New York is down by 90% and by more than 90% in the NYC metro area.

And they talked about a possible extension of the 15-day guidelines, which we now know have been extended through the month of April. Her job, she said, was putting the data together to brief the president and VP. She wouldn't share her recommendation with Chuck first, she said. Silly boy. 

Over in the CNN classroom, Jake Tapper asked Dr. Fauci about the change from a quarantine in the NYC metro area to a requirement that folks "refrain from nonessential domestic travel from that area for 14 days, and whether it would help stop the spread of the virus. Fauci spoke of "very intensive discussions" with the president, and that

we made it clear, and he agreed, that it would be much better to do what's called a strong advisory. And the reason for that is that you don't want to get to the point where you're being - enforcing things that would create a bigger difficulty, morale and otherwise, when you could probably accomplish the same goal. 

Tapper asked if, based on the numbers (and an assumption that the numbers are correct), the US "is now the epicenter" of the outbreak. That led to some discussion on what things could look like, regardless of whether you call it the 'epicenter', or just "the focus of what's going on right now" which is what Fauci said it certainly is. He spoke of the difficulty of the problem, places like New York of course, but other cities like Detroit that are "starting to get into trouble."

It putters along a while, and then it just goes way up. And when it does that, you're really in full mitigation. It's difficult to do containment, So we want to strongly do mitigation in those areas like NYC and the surrounding metropolitan area, at the same time that we don't neglect other areas of the country where it looks like there are just relatively few infections, because we have a window of opportunity there... to get out there and test. 

He and Birx were pretty much in lockstep on that messaging, about doing contact tracing and containment to prevent the need for massive mitigation efforts. Tapper asked how many cases Fauci thought we could have, "a million cases, 10 million cases? Or are these - we - or do we not even have any idea?" Fauci was refreshingly honest.

You know, Jake, the honest - to be honest with you, we don't really have any firm idea. 

But don't worry - we've got those models that Birx mentioned, and they use assumptions, and you get a best case and a worst case scenario, and Fauci says the answer is usually somewhere in the middle. And those scenarios are only as good as the assumptions, he cautioned.

So, when you use numbers like a million, a million-and-a-half, two million, that almost certainly is off the chart. Now, it's not impossible, but very, very unlikely. So, it's difficult to present.

I mean, looking at what we're seeing now, I would say between 100,000 and 200,000 cases. But I don't want to be held to that, because it's -- excuse me -- deaths. I mean, we're going to have millions of cases.

And, he said, we don't really need to be making projections, "when it's such a moving target, that you can so easily be wrong and mislead people." 

They also talked about how much longer social distancing guidelines would remain in place, and of course we know his overarching recommendation was to let the virus tell the politicians what to do. And, he said, if you do it, you need to have tools in place to keep an eye on things, to make sure you continue testing, contact tracing, and so on, 

Because if you release the restrictions before you have a good eyeball on what's going on there, you're going to get in trouble. So, I'm not against releasing the restrictions. I'm actually for it in an appropriate place. But I don't recommend it unless we have the tools in place in real time to do the things I just said. 

Tapper asked if we have the tools, quoting the VP's figures on testing - there had been more than 600,000 tests across the country, which is certainly an improvement from where we were a month ago. But there are 330 million Americans; 660,000 or 600 -- whatever the number is -- 600,000-plus - and asked "how many tests need to have been done, need to be done before you will feel comfortable knowing where the hot spots are, so then some restrictions can be loosened in the future?"

Jake, I don't think it's the quantitatively -- how many tests you need. I mean, obviously, you want to get tests out there that one can get a test easily, in real time, with a result right away... So, right now, if you compare a couple of weeks ago to where we are right now, we have an amazingly larger number of tests than we had before.

But what I want to see and I want to be satisfied is that those tests are being implemented on the ground where we need them. That's the connection I want to make sure, not just tests out there, but are the tests being able to be implemented? If we can do that, Jake, I think we could reasonably, with the safety of the American people in mind, pull back on some of the restrictions.

But you got to have all the players and all the material in place. That's what we're trying to do.

And, he said, in some places everything is in place, but in other places, they're not.

It still is not a perfect situation, because I'm sure people will be calling up and saying, I needed to get a test, and I couldn't get it. Hopefully, that's much, much less frequently than we saw a week or two ago.

Fauci also said when we get the rapid tests, the ones that let you know if a matter of minutes whether or not someone's infected, and you can get them out of circulation, we'd be closer to being able to lift the restrictions. It's good to know that's the kind of stuff he's bringing to the task force table.

On other subjects, he said based on his experience, he tends to believe my Sonofa Gov, so when he said he needed 30,000 ventilators, again there's the potential issue of accessibility to existing ventilators, but if he says he needs more, give him more.

One way or the other, he needs the ventilators that he needs. And, hopefully, we will get him the ventilators that he needs. They may be closer to him than is realized. But if they're not, we will get them there. And if they are, we will try to help him get access to the ones that are there. 

Bottom line, he's got to have the ventilators, period.

The last question was about Trumpian rhetoric, his saying that people are not being appreciative of him, the Army Corps, FEMA, and so on, and whether the American people will get what they need from the federal government regardless of whether or not their governors are "appreciative enough of the federal help or flattering enough of the Trump Administration?

Jake, I think the reality, not the rhetoric, but the reality is that the people who need things will get what they need. There's the reality and the rhetoric. I think that -- I mean, I know the spirit of the task force, and when we talk about, when people need things, doesn't matter who they are. We try to get them what they need.

Three cheers for having an adult in the room, right? 

See you around the virtual campus.

In Case You Missed it (v29)

What was on my mind here in social-distancing land last week? Here's the week in review, in case you missed it.

My visit to the Sunday School classrooms brought us interviews  with Dr. Anthony Fauci on Face the Nation, and with New York City's Mayor Bill De Blasio, a Democrat,  and Maryland's Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, on Meet the Press.  

Chuck Todd asked them both, starting with De Blasio, what progress would look like.

Real, consistent social distancing being enforced, people living with it. And hospitals that can function. People seeing that their health care system is actually holding because we have the supplies and the personnel. And I think that's going to be a national reality, Chuck... If people see the system holding, that will be progress..

And here's Hogan's response.

...progress is going to be if we can somehow bend this curve down, wherein we can start to stop that spike that's going so we don't overload the health care system. You know, people are just going to -- look, it's very disconcerting. People's lives are disrupted. It's scary. And I understand people out there are concerned about when is it going to look better... What it takes is every one of our citizens is a part of this. And we can't stop it without them cooperating -- but it's going to be a while...

In the Sunday School Extra Credit entry, I shared part of a somewhat challenging conversation between Martha Raddatz and FEMA head Peter Gaynor on This Week with George Stephanopoulos. Raddatz had a hard time pinning him down on pretty much anything, including whether FEMA was shipping much-needed supplies from the strategic stockpile.

Again, there are still supplies in the stockpile. We are shipping all those supplies to all the demands, all the asks from all the governors every day. We are -- we're prepared to go to zero in the stockpile to meet demand. Again, this is a whole of government effort. And if could -- if I could just, you know, and this is shared responsibility. I know the president, Dr. Fauci talked about testing. You know, if you don't need a test, if you don't have symptoms, please don't get a test. Because the demand for PPE on unnecessary testing is -- is something that's working against us. So we're all in it together. Every American has a role to play. And we ask you, if you need to get a test and you have symptoms, go get it. If you just want to test to make yourself feel better, please don't do that.

To which I noted that  VP Mike Pence is just one person who had an unnecessary test, so I guess Gaynor was right - this IS "a whole of government effort."

In addition to his classroom appearance, Dr. Fauci also did a phone interview with Jon Cohen of Science magazine, which I capture in Quick Takes (v49) Fauci, Frankly. He spoke a little more freely in this one, Fauci did, out of view of the cameras, even showing a little exasperation at times. And, he gave us some insight on what it's like for the Task Force before those daily briefings we've come to love to hate.

Also interesting? The process of what happens before the daily press conferences.  Fauci said that the task force sits down for 90 minutes or so, then move to the anteroom near the Oval Office to talk about the messages that they want to emphasize. And then?

Then we go in to see the president, we present [our consensus] to him and somebody writes a speech. Then he gets up and ad libs on his speech. And then we're up there to try and answer questions.

Prompted by some memes floating around on social media, I published Quick Takes (v50): Chinese Things, addressing the issue of Trump and his minions referring to the China virus or the Chinese virus, which we know is done in a derogatory manner, no matter how hard he and they doth protest.  

One of the 'reasons' or 'excuses' given for Trump's choice of words is that in the past, we have used terms like Ebola and MERS and SARS and, of course the favorite of all, the Spanish Flu. Here's a bit of history on that.

The article also talked about the stigma of using an ethnic designation, using the 'Spanish Flu' as a parallel to Trump's 'Chinese virus.' 

This strain of flu, thought to have killed roughly 50 million people between 1918 and 1919, did not originate in Spain, and it killed more British, French, Germans, and Americans than Spaniards. However, those other countries censored coverage of the pandemic, while Spain did not, so it became known through Spanish media accounts. 

The Times of London, refusing to report the flu’s death toll among British troops, christened the illness “the Spanish flu,” and the name stuck. (Incidentally, many Spaniards dubbed it “the French flu.”) Today health authorities have recognized the misnomer and typically call it the 1918 flu pandemic. 

But hey - when we have two legitimate terms we can use, and we have experts telling us the right way to do this, we'll ignore them and go with the president. Sigh. 

My Wondering on Wednesday post was mostly full of good news stories coming out of quarantines and social distancing and ingenuity, which was fun. But there was also this passing reference to the president's need for adulation, which is not a good thing, especially during a pandemic. 

I can't help wondering what the president is really going to do if a governor "doesn't treat him well" but at the same time, comes knocking for federal help. Do you think Trump will get away with not helping? Do you think we're that partisan, or have we come together with love for each other as True Patriots and Warriors against this, horrible, SAD, invisible ENEMY? He's the guy, remember, who during that same Fox Town Hall meeting, shared a debunked conspiracy theory about my Sonofa Gov, Andrew Cuomo, and some mysterious 15,000 or 16,000 ventilators he should have bought several years ago.  I wonder, does Trump really even knows what 'nice' is?

I ended the week with a note from The Update Desk on the earlier Chinese Things post. It seems the G-7 foreign ministers had a conference call, and one of the things they wanted to do was issue a joint statement on the pandemic. The US was tasked with drafting the statement, and the whole thing fell apart because Secretary of State Mike Pompeo couldn't bring himself to use the term 'coronavirus' or 'COVID-19' - he insisted that it be referred to as the 'Wuhan virus." The six other Gs? Yeah, they were not having it.

Pompeo said in a presser later that "everyone" on the call knows that the virus came from Wuhan, as if what's the big deal?

And I'd suggest that every one of the nations that was at the meeting was "deeply aware" of other deflection going on, coming from a place other than China, would you agree?  In fact, according to the article,

Other foreign ministers were not nearly as emphatic in their own comments about the meeting, with at least one leaving open the suggestion that China is not the only country trying to use the outbreak to advance political points.

And, it seems, the French foreign minister was not shy in his own statement, in which he

underscored the need to combat any attempt to exploit the crisis for political purposes and expressed the view that the unity of all in order to effectively combat the pandemic must now take precedence over any other considerations.

Wouldn't that be interesting, if we could just fight the darn thing without the pejorative labeling?

That's it - the full and veritable pastiche for last week.  I'll be back later today with Sunday School, for sure, and who knows what else.  If you're so inclined, subscribe by dropping your email in the Instant Gratification box on the right sidebar.