Even Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal can no longer hide the multiple abject failures of the Trump regime on COVID-19, as the atrocities are documented. Remember the $250 million CDC advertising plan to "instill hope in America" on the virus, which was widely panned as a quarter-billion dollar slush fund for the government to campaign for Trump? It failed even worse that we could have imagined, turns out...
A federal health agency halted a public-service coronavirus advertising campaign funded by $250 million in taxpayer money after it offered a special vaccine deal to an unusual set of essential workers: Santa Claus performers.
As part of the plan, a top Trump administration official wanted the Santa performers to promote the benefits of a Covid-19 vaccination and, in exchange, offered them early vaccine access ahead of the general public, according to audio recordings. Those who perform as Mrs. Claus and elves also would have been included.
The Department of Health and Human Services said Friday the Santa plan would be scrapped. The deal was the brainchild of the official, Michael Caputo, an HHS assistant secretary, who took a 60-day medical leave last month. The rest of the campaign now is under an HHS review.
The Santa “collaboration will not be happening,” and HHS Secretary Alex Azar had no knowledge of Mr. Caputo’s outreach discussions, an HHS spokesman said. Mr. Caputo didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Ric Erwin, chairman of the Fraternal Order of Real Bearded Santas, called the news “extremely disappointing,” adding: “This was our greatest hope for Christmas 2020, and now it looks like it won’t happen.”
In fact, the White House has now completely given up on containing the pandemic, and wants all of America to know that you're all on your own, and whatever happens, it's not Donald Trump's fault, so deal with it.
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows conceded that the Trump administration had given up in containing the coronavirus crisis that has killed over 225,000 Americans, admitting on Sunday morning that the White House is “not going to control the pandemic” and instead going to just hold out hope for a vaccine.
Amid another COVID-19 outbreak at the White House, this time in Vice President Mike Pence’s office, Meadows appeared on CNN’s State of the Union, and anchor Jape Tapper immediately pressed the chief of staff on reports that he tried to keep news of the positive coronavirus tests from going public.
“Why would you do that? Is it because it’s another sign the way the White House has failed to contain the virus?” Tapper wondered aloud, prompting Meadows to falsely claim that wasn’t reported.
“That was in the New York Times story,” Tapper shot back.
Meadows, meanwhile, justified the attempt to keep the outbreak under wraps by saying that “sharing personal information is something we should do” before claiming that the White House also has an “obligation to let people know to contact trace” when there is a positive case.
Tapper reminded the chief of staff that the administration didn’t do that during the previous outbreak that resulted in President Donald Trump’s hospitalization, noting that Chris Christie said he was never contacted despite his own battle with the virus.
The CNN anchor went on to press Meadows on Vice President Chief of Staff Marc Short’s diagnosis, asking why Pence isn’t quarantining and out on the campaign trail considering his close contact with Short in recent days. Meadows dismissed the need for Pence to follow CDC guidelines, saying Pence is an essential worker and “he’s not just campaigning, he’s working.”
After asserting that Pence is wearing masks in public and socially distancing when possible, Meadows then expressed doubt that large gatherings cause the spread of the virus, citing recent reports that small groups and family events are leading to an increase in infections. Tapper pointed out that the virus is coming from many different places because the pandemic is out of control.
“Here is what we have to do,” Meadows declared. “We are not going to control the pandemic. We are going to control the fact that we get vaccines, therapeutics, and other mitigation areas.”
Tapper, for his part, pressed Meadows on why we couldn’t get control of the pandemic, prompting the chief of staff to respond that it was due to it being a “contagious virus just like the flu.”
“Why not make efforts to contain it?” Tapper retorted.
“Well, we are making efforts to contain it,” Meadows insisted.
“By running all over the country and not wearing a mask? That’s what the vice president is doing,” the CNN anchor shot back.
Got that? Containment and mitigation are no longer options. Millions, perhaps tens of millions will get sick and hundreds of thousands will die, but as soon as the Trump regime gets that vaccine, everything will be fine.
Also, the Trump regime has no real vaccine plan either. They were going to use mall Santas to demonstrate the vaccine if they had it in time, which of course was never going to happen.
Most likely it will be another six months before a viable, effective vaccine is ready, and thanks to the Trump regime, half of America will refuse to take it anyway and scream about MAH FREEDUMBS.
The larger, more immediate problem is the White House Chief of Staff just went on live TV a week before Election Day and admitted there's no regime plan to contain a pandemic that has already sickened millions and has killed 230,000 Americans, and that they just do not care.
They never cared about America, they never cared about you or your family, they never cared about anyone or anything except grifting as much money from the gig as they could and helping the rest of the GOP burn down the country.
And the country is burning already. El Paso is in lockdown for two weeks. Utah is now moving to triage, like Arizona did in the first few months of the pandemic.
With new coronavirus cases shattering records on a daily basis, Utah’s hospitals are expected to begin rationing care in a week or two.
That’s the prediction of Greg Bell, president of the Utah Hospital Association, who said administrators of the state’s hospitals confronted Gov. Gary Herbert on Thursday with a grim list: Criteria they propose doctors should use if they are forced to decide which patients can stay in overcrowded intensive care units.
Under the criteria, which would require Herbert’s approval, patients who are getting worse despite receiving intensive care would be moved out first. In the event that two patients' conditions are equal, the young get priority over the old, since older patients are more likely to die.
‘We told him, ‘It looks like we’re going to have to request those be activated if this trend continues,’" Bell recounted, “'and we see no reason why it won’t.'"
Hospitalizations normally rise after the number of new cases increases, and Utah repeatedly set new records for daily case totals last week. At least two Utah hospitals have opened overflow ICUs this month.
The state’s hospitals can shift patients around to free up bed space, Bell said, and the state has long planned to open a field hospital at the Mountain America Expo Center in Sandy if necessary.
But one of the defining features of intensive care is access to doctors and nurses with specialty training — and opening new beds does not mean those health care workers can staff them.
Bell said it’s now all but inevitable that hospitals will need to enact their triage protocols, known as “crisis standards of care.”
“I haven’t said, ‘It’s gonna happen’ — until [Thursday] night,” Bell said. “I told the governor, ‘It’s gonna happen. We’re going to be back here asking for crisis standards.’ ”
Expect more cities to go into lockdown and more states to follow hospital crisis triage protocols in November after the election.
If Donald Trump wins, we will have COVID-19 with us for every day of his second term.
And millions of us, maybe tens of millions, won't make it through to the end.
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