Trump And His Pet Governors Oversee The Spread Of A Disastrous Second Spike

The Second Spike by Nancy Ohanian

West Virginia appears to have had a relatively mild pandemic-- just 2,694 confirmed cases and 92 deaths. Their 1,503 cases per million is better than every other state except Hawaii, Montana and Alaska. And just a little below average among states for their rate of testing. But... was the state sending fake statistics, the way China and Florida do, covering up reality for political expedience? On Wednesday, the state's crackpot governor said there is "every reason to believe" the number of active COVID-19 cases in the state are less than what was previously reported due to recovered cases not being removed from the active case count," before firing the state's well-respected chief health officer, Cathy Slemp. The Associated Press took a little look.

Trumpist Governor Jim Justice has adamantly refused to strengthen West Virginia’s weak and unenforced virus restrictions in response to recent spikes. "He has," reported the AP, "repeatedly balked on mandating face masks in public spaces, as other governments have done, saying such an order would be politically divisive. Instead, he has stressed that people should follow existing safety rules, encouraging people to get tested for the virus and to wear face masks. Justice has also asked that people avoid traveling to Myrtle Beach, which has seen cases rise in recent weeks, rather than ordering quarantines as people return from the popular resort city... [A]t least 72 cases in 11 counties have been linked to tourism travel to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and about 70 cases have been linked to church services in three counties.

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice forced out the commissioner of his public health bureau on Wednesday, hours after he publicly questioned the accuracy of the state’s coronavirus data and detailed growing outbreaks in about a dozen counties.

The abrupt resignation of Cathy Slemp, who was also a state health officer, came after the Republican governor vented during a news conference that West Virginia’s active virus caseload may have been overstated.

“If we were on our game here, in DHHR (Department of Health and Human Resources) and Dr. Slemp’s office, if we’re on our game and you’re listening to the governor say that there’s six active cases at Huttonsville and you’re looking at the reports that you’re putting together and sending them to me on active cases and your looking at Randolph County and they’re reporting a hundred-and-some-odd cases then you’re not doing your job,” Justice told reporters, without additional explanation.

In a statement Wednesday afternoon, the governor’s office said Justice had expressed his “lack of confidence” in Slemp to Bill Crouch, secretary of the state health department, who then asked for Slemp’s resignation. She resigned immediately, the statement said. In a separate statement, a spokeswoman for the health department said there were discrepancies related to virus caseload data at the Huttonsville Correctional Center in Randolph County.

Slemp, who was a regular feature of the governor’s daily virus news conferences, has decades of public health experience. She was previously the acting state health officer and was the founding director of the state’s public health emergency preparedness and response programs, according to a biography on the state health department website. Slemp is also on the board of scientific counselors at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Justice, a billionaire coal businessman without previous political experience, had showered Slemp with praise as he hosted press conferences about the virus during the outbreak, often stressing that his aggressive plan to lift virus restrictions was guided by his health experts. Slemp did not appear at Wednesday’s news briefing.

In her resignation letter Slemp wrote "COVID-19 is a crisis unlike any most of us have ever seen. I encourage all to stay true to the science, to further work to engage and empower communities to address such an unprecedented situation collectively, to meet people where they are and to move forward together."

West Virginia isn't unique in experiencing an uptick in cases in recent days. As Sam Baker and Andrew Witherspoon noted for Axios Thursday morning, The coronavirus surge is real, and it's everywhere. They wrote that the "pandemic is getting dramatically worse in almost every corner of the U.S. [and] getting closer to the worst-case scenario envisioned in the spring-- a nationwide crisis, made worse by a vacuum of political leadership, threatening to overwhelm hospitals and spread out of control. Nationwide, cases are up 30% compared to the beginning of this month, and dramatically worsening outbreaks in several states are beginning to strain hospital capacity-- the same concern that prompted the nationwide lockdown in the first place... Over half the country-- 26 states-- have seen their coronavirus caseloads increase over the past week. New cases are up 77% in Arizona, 75% in Michigan, 70% in Texas and 66% in Florida. California, which has seen steady increases for weeks, recorded a 47% jump in new infections over the past week. These steep increases come after weeks of steadily climbing cases or back-and-forth results across the South, Midwest and West Coast. Only the New York region and parts of New England-- the earliest hotspots-- have consistently managed to get their caseloads down throughout May and June."

And despite shrieks of protest from Death Cult leaders Trump and Pence, "Increased testing does not explain away these numbers. Other data points make clear that we’re seeing a worsening outbreak, not simply getting better data. Seven states, including Arizona, have set records for the number of people hospitalized with coronavirus, and the percentage of all tests that come back positive is also increasing. The whole point of the national lockdown was to buy time to improve testing and give infection levels a chance to level off without overwhelming hospitals. That worked in New York, but as other parts of the country begin to see their outbreaks intensify later, the same risks are back at the forefront."

In its exhaustive pandemic report yesterday, How The Virus Won, the NY Times noted that "Invisible outbreaks sprang up everywhere. The United States ignored the warning signs... At every crucial moment, American officials were weeks or months behind the reality of the outbreak. Those delays likely cost tens of thousands of lives."

Top federal health experts concluded by late February that the virus was likely to spread widely within the United States and that government officials would soon need to urge the public to embrace social distancing measures, such as avoiding crowds and staying home.

But Mr. Trump wanted to avoid disrupting the economy. So some of his health advisers, at Mr. Trump’s urging, told Americans at the end of February to continue to travel domestically and go on with their normal lives.

...By the time President Trump blocked travel from Europe on March 13, the restrictions were essentially pointless.

The outbreak had already been spreading widely in most states for weeks.

...Faced with an outbreak that had grown beyond their ability to test or trace, American officials had no option but to ask the public to stay home.

On March 16, weeks after health officials privately concluded a more active response would be needed, President Trump asked Americans to limit travel, avoid groups and stay home from work and school if they felt sick. One by one, states issued stay-at-home orders and closed businesses.

...By March 24, much of the country had followed. Within weeks, those shutdowns stopped exponential growth of the virus from overwhelming many parts of the country.

But every day mattered to halt the virus in New York City, where political leaders waited crucial days to close schools and impose a stay-at-home order as the virus spun out of control... [I]n New York City, the response was too late, said Lauren Ancel Meyers, an epidemiologist at the University of Texas at Austin. Other factors, such as the city’s density and its rate of international travel, also may have played a role, Dr. Meyers said. More than 22,000 deaths in the New York City area could have been avoided if the country had started social distancing just one week earlier, Columbia University researchers estimate. About 36,000 deaths nationwide could have been avoided by early May had social distancing begun earlier, the estimates say.

Even now, America remains in the dark.

Most infected people are never tested. There is little capacity to trace and isolate the contacts to those who do test positive. After the lockdowns expired, new cases spiked once again.

These 10 states had especially dangerous increases in their one day loads of new cases, from Wednesday to Thursday to Friday:

• Texas +6,177 ---> +5,960 ---> 5,614
• Florida +5,511 ---> +5,004 ---> 8,942
• California +4,966 ---> +5,540 ---> 5,619
• Arizona +1,795 ---> +3,056 ---> 3,428
• Georgia +1,703 ---> 1,714 ---> 1,900
• North Carolina +1,667 ---> +1,147 ---> 1,695
• South Carolina +1,284 ---> 1,125 ---> 1,313
• Mississippi +526 ---> 1,092 ---> 550
• Alabama +967 ---> +1,142 ---> 977
• Tennessee +932 ---> 799 ---> 1,410