Don't Be Afraid To Say Whose Fault This Disaster Is

Yesterday, we saw how impossible it is to not blame Trump for the botched U.S. response to the pandemic. Last week, in an OpEd for the Washington Post, Here’s how to make up for lost time on covid-19, Bill Gates did his best-- which wasn't good enough-- to not point the finger if blame directly at Señor Trumpanzee. "There’s no question the United States missed the opportunity to get ahead of the novel coronavirus," he began what he intended to be a completely positive piece. The United States missed the opportunity? That's because the United States in led by a narcissistic sociopath who is enabled by an entire political party. Nonetheless, Gates urged his readers to think about how "the window for making important decisions hasn’t closed. The choices we and our leaders make now will have an enormous impact on how soon case numbers start to go down, how long the economy remains shut down and how many Americans will have to bury a loved one because of covid-19." Knowing what Trump is, makes that sound like a dire warning if not an actual threat.

Gates offers 3 steps the country needs to take now to pull ourselves out of the hole Trump dug and shoved us into. Problem, of course, is that Trump would be involved in the solution-- something he has steadfastly rejected.

First, we need a consistent nationwide approach to shutting down. Despite urging from public health experts, some states and counties haven’t shut down completely. In some states, beaches are still open; in others, restaurants still serve sit-down meals.

This is a recipe for disaster. Because people can travel freely across state lines, so can the virus. The country’s leaders need to be clear: Shutdown anywhere means shutdown everywhere. Until the case numbers start to go down across America-- which could take 10 weeks or more-- no one can continue business as usual or relax the shutdown. Any confusion about this point will only extend the economic pain, raise the odds that the virus will return, and cause more deaths.

Second, the federal government needs to step up on testing. Far more tests should be made available. We should also aggregate the results so we can quickly identify potential volunteers for clinical trials and know with confidence when it’s time to return to normal. There are good examples to follow: New York state recently expanded its capacity to up to more than 20,000 tests per day.

...Even so, demand for tests will probably exceed the supply for some time, and right now, there’s little rhyme or reason to who gets the few that are available. As a result, we don’t have a good handle on how many cases there are or where the virus is likely headed next, and it will be hard to know if it rebounds later. And because of the backlog of samples, it can take seven days for results to arrive when we need them within 24 hours.

This is why the country needs clear priorities for who is tested. First on the list should be people in essential roles such as health-care workers and first responders, followed by highly symptomatic people who are most at risk of becoming seriously ill and those who are likely to have been exposed.

The same goes for masks and ventilators. Forcing 50 governors to compete for lifesaving equipment-- and hospitals to pay exorbitant prices for it-- only makes matters worse.

Finally, we need a data-based approach to developing treatments and a vaccine. Scientists are working full speed on both; in the meantime, leaders can help by not stoking rumors or panic buying. Long before the drug hydroxychloroquine was approved as an emergency treatment for covid-19, people started hoarding it, making it hard to find for lupus patients who need it to survive.

We should stick with the process that works: Run rapid trials involving various candidates and inform the public when the results are in. Once we have a safe and effective treatment, we’ll need to ensure that the first doses go to the people who need them most.

To bring the disease to an end, we’ll need a safe and effective vaccine. If we do everything right, we could have one in less than 18 months-- about the fastest a vaccine has ever been developed. But creating a vaccine is only half the battle. To protect Americans and people around the world, we’ll need to manufacture billions of doses. (Without a vaccine, developing countries are at even greater risk than wealthy ones, because it’s even harder for them to do physical distancing and shutdowns.)

We can start now by building the facilities where these vaccines will be made. Because many of the top candidates are made using unique equipment, we’ll have to build facilities for each of them, knowing that some won’t get used. Private companies can’t take that kind of risk, but the federal government can.

In his 2015 TED Talk on pandemics (above), Gates said the greatest risk of global catastrophe today looks not like the picture on the left, but the picture on the right:

Gates was on Fox News Sunday yesterday and said that "It is fair to say things won’t go back to truly normal until we have a vaccine that we’ve gotten out to basically the entire world." But what Bill Gates-- and almost anyone else in the ruling class-- will never say, of course, is that the greatest risk of global catastrophe looks like this:

Progressive Democrats have been connecting the dots and have started speaking out loudly-- connecting something else: Trump's gross incompetence with his congressional enablers. For example, Kathy Ellis is running for a Missouri congressional seat held by a Trump stooge, Jason Smith. "So far,"she told us this morning, "Smith's largest contribution to this pandemic has been calling for thoughts and prayers as Missouri's 8th district suffers. With five of the rural hospitals closing in the past six years, and many hospitals struggling to keep their doors open, rural residents are concerned with their ability to access testing and treatment when Coronavirus hits their communities." This week, Kathy joined 21 party leaders, candidates for office, and current elected officials in calling for support for our rural communities in the form of free testing and treatment (and eventual prevention), emergency funding to rural hospitals and community health centers, and the establishment of a health worker fund to protect our frontline workers. "Smith," she concluded, "has only offered his half-hearted concerns via taxpayer-funded political newsletters."