RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/04/coronavirus-pandemic-america-still-global-leader-time-crisis/

Any laxity in fighting the virus is not to be found with the U.S., but rather with its loudest and most opportunistic critics.

A current global myth alleges that America under the Trump administration is not leading the world fight against the coronavirus in its accustomed role as the post-war global leader.

Yet the U.S. was the first major nation to issue a travel ban on flights from China, with Donald Trump making that announcement on January 31. That was a bold act. It likely saved thousands endangered by Chinese perfidy and soon became a global model. None of the ban’s loud critics are today demanding it be rescinded.

In typically American fashion, as we have seen in crises from Pearl Harbor to 9/11, after initial shock and unpreparedness, the U.S. economic and scientific juggernaut is kicking into action.

Already the U.S. is transitioning from a long, disastrous reliance on Chinese medical supplies and pharmaceuticals. In ad hoc fashion, companies are gearing up massive production of masks, ventilators, and key anti-viral supplies.

The number of known deaths from the virus — for now the only reliable data available — shows a fatality rate of about 7–8 per million people in the United States. That per capita toll is analogous to Germany’s and one of the lowest in the world among larger nations.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/why-is-susan-rice-using-coronavirus-as-an-excuse-to-shill-for-china

Susan Rice just reminded Xi Jinping why he misses her presence in the president’s ear.

President Barack Obama’s former national security adviser did so with two arguments on Tuesday to MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell.

First, and admittedly at Mitchell’s pushing, Rice stated that the Trump administration’s description of the coronavirus as the “Wuhan virus” is unacceptable and undermines global cooperation. Viruses can arise anywhere, Rice said, adding that “Wuhan virus” is “race-baiting” and “shameful.”

This was news to me. I was under the impression that Wuhan is not a race, but rather a Chinese industrial city where the virus first infected humans.

But Rice wasn’t done, adding, “It doesn’t serve us well, it doesn’t serve the objective of squelching the virus globally, to brand in nationalistic, or xenophobic, or racist terms. We all have to work together…”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/got-coronavirus-antibodies-11585782003?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

One of the great uncertainties in the coronavirus pandemic is how many people have been infected without knowing it or showing symptoms. Fortunately, there are now tests for that, and broadly deploying them will be critical to saving lives and getting Americans back to work.

Dozens of commercial and public health labs around the world are rolling out antibody tests that can show if an individual was recently infected with the virus and has developed immunity. When fighting a pathogen, the immune system produces proteins known as antibodies that bind to specific molecules known as antigens on the invader’s surface like a lock and key.

Antibodies circulate in the blood for weeks and even months after infection, providing resistance to another onslaught, though the immune system remembers how to produce them on demand. Vaccines work by instructing the immune system to make antibodies to shoot down pathogens before they proliferate.

Because antibodies linger in the blood, they are especially useful for determining if someone has been infected with the coronavirus. Some experts estimate that more than half of infected individuals show mild or no symptoms, though the true figure could be higher. Around three-quarters of people infected with flu viruses show mild or no symptoms.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-new-york-neighborhoods-with-the-most-coronavirus-cases-11585781164?mod=hp_lead_pos5

The new coronavirus has struck hardest in working-class neighborhoods in New York City’s outer boroughs, city data shows, underlining how the pandemic has ravaged densely packed lower-income areas where social-distancing guidelines have proved difficult to implement.

Two areas of Queens—Corona and Elmhurst—have led the city in reported infections, with 947 and 831 as of March 31, respectively, the data show. Both neighborhoods are heavily populated by immigrants who live in close quarters, often with multiple families sharing a dwelling, said City Councilman Francisco Moya.

Many residents there don’t have the luxury to telecommute because they work in the hospitality industry, at restaurants or supermarkets, he said. “One person gets sick, it spreads around that household,” said Mr. Moya who represents Corona.

New York City has become the U.S. epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic and the Covid-19 disease that the pathogen causes. As of Wednesday morning, there were 44,915 positive cases in the city and 1,139 deaths. Queens had the most positive cases, with 14,966, and the most deaths in a borough, with 386.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamandrzejewski/2020/03/31/what-would-tom-coburn-do/#53cfcf6b759a

Last Saturday, America lost a true giant and one of the great men in our nation’s history. Dr. Tom Coburn, the legendary former U.S. Senator from Oklahoma, passed away after a seven-year battle with prostate cancer. 

The first time I met Dr. Coburn was at his Senate office on Capitol Hill in 2013. Coburn would soon be listed on the Time 100: Most Influential Persons in the World. I didn’t have a national reputation.

In fact, our organization had only a handful of employees and a small budget. Frankly, I was a little intimidated and uncharacteristically nervous. I had spoken before large groups, but I didn’t know how a national figure like Coburn would receive my ideas.

He immediately put me at ease with his no-nonsense demeanor and heartfelt enthusiasm about what our little citizen-led operation was up to.

ttps://www.nationalreview.com/2020/04/coronavirus-truth-national-security-council-pandemic-team/

If anyone is to blame for the spread of the novel coronavirus, it’s ultimately Xi Jinping’s Chinese Communist Party, thanks to its lies and obfuscations. Nonetheless, at this stage in the pandemic, President Trump is responsible for protecting Americans, working with our allies, and mitigating the effects of COVID-19.

Many are already condemning the Trump administration’s handling of the disease. It’s generally too early for that. We won’t be able to see the extent of the wisdom in most of the administration’s decisions and the timing of them until the country gets through this crisis, and we have the benefit of hindsight. Even so, the scale and scope of the domestic response would have been much better informed had we had more information sooner from the Chinese.

As for the matter of containing and mitigating the disease, Americans should have an idea about whether they can have confidence in their government. Dealing with a potentially devastating new disease to which the population has no immunity and of which there are no known vaccines is frightening enough without worrying about the government’s competence.

That’s why this charge from former Obama-administration officials — including Beth Cameron, who served as the senior director for global health security and biodefense on the National Security Council (NSC) under Obama — is so serious: that the Trump administration’s decision to “dismantle” the directorate the Obama administration created to quarterback pandemic responses is to blame for “leaving the country less prepared for pandemics like COVID-19.”

Former Trump officials, including former national-security adviser John Bolton and Tim Morrison, have disputed Cameron’s characterization.

https://www.city-journal.org/de-blasio-failed-to-equip-ny-for-coronavirus-crisis

New York City is facing a major public-health crisis. The spread of Covid-19 threatens to overwhelm the city’s hospitals, as significant numbers of those infected become severely ill, and sustaining their lives depends on access to a limited number of respiratory ventilators. But the city is short of even more basic medical supplies, including such mundane items as protective facemasks. Nurses are reportedly being advised to rinse their masks in order to reuse them, and police officers reportedly lack access to personal protective equipment. Sanitation workers and other vulnerable city employees are also being asked to work unprotected.

These shortages have led Mayor Bill de Blasio to call for help. On March 16, he asked the United States military to rescue New York, saying “we need ventilators, we need masks, face guards, right on down to more mundane things like hand sanitizer.” The next day, on CNN, he said, “The federal government—I’ve used the word mobilization, nationalization . . . has to ensure that the industries that create those vital supplies are at maximum production and then they’re distributed where they’re needed most as we do in wartime.” At a later press conference, de Blasio made a direct appeal to the public. “If you have even a single ventilator that you can get to New York City or if you have a supply . . . If you have surgical masks, if you have N95 masks, if you have face shields, gloves, gowns, anything that could help us, we need it,” he implored.

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/coronavirus/how-obamas-failure-resupply-respirators-federal-stockpile-created-2020

The Strategic National Stockpile, America’s giant medical storage closet for a terrorist or biological crisis, once boasted more than 100 million respirator masks to protect doctors, nurses and other frontline health care workers in case of a contagion.

But when the COVID-19 pandemic started a few months ago, the supply had dwindled down to just 12 million fitted masks, known as N95 respirators, and 30 million surgical masks, a supply deemed to be less than 2 percent of what the nation would need for full-blown pandemic.

The tale of how such a critical supply lapsed, leading the Trump administration to scramble for 500 million new masks in the midst of pandemic, is one of government neglect and competing priorities that began in 2009.

That’s when the Obama administration drew down nearly 97 million of the masks to deal with the H1N1 swine flu pandemic, effectively protecting frontline medical workers from a virus that infected more than 60 million Americans.

But when it was over, the administration decided not to fully restock the respirators, choosing to spend its $600 million annual budget for the stockpile on other priorities such as key drugs and vaccines to deal with smallpox, anthrax and the like, experts said.