Posted in Uncategorized on March 24, 2020| 18 Comments »
“You wasted precious months when you could’ve taken action to protect Americans & Illinoisans. You should be leading a national response instead of throwing tantrums from the back seat.
“Where were the tests when we needed them? Where’s the PPE? Get off Twitter & do your job.”
—Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, in his own Twitter message to Donald Trump critical of the federal government’s slow response to COVID-19.
Posted in DHH, Governor's Office, Health Care, Uncategorized on March 23, 2020| 12 Comments »
The coronavirus timeline for Louisiana is rather intriguing, to say the least.
Then, the next fateful day, on Feb. 25, nearly half-a-million people were allowed to crowd into the New Orleans French Quarter to celebrate Mardi Gras despite more than a month of clear signals that the threat was spreading and that the virus had already invaded the U.S.
Within two weeks, Louisiana would have its first case of COVID-19. The next day, two more were reported. All were in the immediate New Orleans area.
President Donald Trump has been on the receiving end of considerable criticism—and justifiably so—for his general lack of a cohesive plan to fight COVID-19 and for his delay in taking any action, choosing instead to call the threat a “hoax” designed to harm his presidency, making everything about him—as usual.
But officials in Louisiana could have been more proactive had there been trained, qualified leadership at the helm of the Louisiana Department of Hospitals.
Instead, LDH has been rudderless since former Secretary DR. REBEKAH GEE resigned, effective on Jan. 31. DR. COURTNEY PHILLIPS has been named as her successor, but isn’t scheduled to assume her new duties until next month. In the interim, the state’s largest agency is being run by LDH executive legal counsel STEPHEN RUSSO.
A lawyer, not a doctor.
Russo’s lack of qualifications to address a major health crisis aside, he brought considerable BAGGAGE with him when he was appointed to fill in until Phillips’s arrival.
Accordingly, Russo must be asked about the threat of COVID-19: what did you know and when did you know it? (with apologies to former U.S. Sen. Howard Baker of the Watergate hearings fame).
In Louisiana’s case, the health of its citizens was placed in the care of one who lacked the professional knowledge of how to deal with an epidemic, much less a pandemic. Simply put, he was ill-equipped by training to properly read the tea leaves. Did he even know enough to seek the counsel of those who could?
So, even as the virus spread from China to Korea to Iran to France and inevitably, to America, with indications it wasn’t about to slow down, New Orleans was allowed to proceed with an influx of nearly half-a-million people, rubbing elbows (and more), eating, drinking and living in proximity—even as the clouds were gathering.
Look at how the corona virus spread in Louisiana. It started in Jefferson and Orleans parishes, soon became an ominous blob on the COVID-19 MAP, a blob centered at first in New Orleans.
Then, it began moving north and west. It soon reached St. James, Ascension, East and West Baton Rouge and as of today (March 23), exactly two weeks after the first, lone case was revealed, there are 1,172 cases in Louisiana—concentrated in the New Orleans-Baton Rouge area.
As of today, there have been 34 deaths in the state, third highest total in the nation, behind only New York’s 123 and Washington’s 98.
Hindsight, of course, is always 20/20.
But the signs were there and one must wonder if a qualified health professional had been leading LDH at this critical time, might Gov. Edwards have been given a heads-up to call off the Mardi Gras celebration?
Sure, it would have been a blow to the gut of the New Orleans tourist industry in the short term but no less of a blow to the entire state’s economy that has now transpired for the long term.
Had there been someone in charge who could look at the evolving timeline as events unfolded and hoisted the warning flags, there’s a chance we would not have the third highest death total in the nation.
There’s also the chance that Louisiana would not be the only state in the Deep South subjected to the necessity of a lockdown.
Cabinet members, after all, are appointed not only to administer individual agencies, but also to give advice and counsel to governors—and presidents—on actions that need to be taken in a timely manner.
Posted in Uncategorized on March 23, 2020| 5 Comments »
“What they do right now is keep receiving their paychecks.”
—Donald Trump, responding to reporter’s question of what people should do if they have lost their jobs.
Posted in Uncategorized on March 22, 2020| 16 Comments »
I just finished reading an interesting book. The title is A Warning, written by “Anonymous.”
[S]he is anonymous because [s]he is a high-level appointee of Donald Trump’s administration and the book consists of 259 pages of harsh criticism of Trump’s character, honesty, courage and leadership.
But that’s not what this is about.
As alarming as the book’s contents are, it was three pages of the epilogue that really drove home the point that we lost something in this country for a while that we may regain from shared hardship.
The epilogue began with the account of Todd Beamer whose final words on united Flight 93 on Sept. 11, 2001, were, “Let’s roll.”
You know the story. Beamer had connected with Lisa Jefferson, a call representative for the in-flight phone company after the plane was hijacked and the pilot, co-pilot and a passenger were killed. As he and a few fellow passengers conspired to storm the cockpit, Beamer told Jefferson if he did not survive to give his wife a message: “Tell her I love her and the boys.” Beamer never learned that his wife was pregnant with a baby girl.
After reciting the Lord’s Prayer and the 23rd Psalm, they fought with the hijackers and the plane crashed into a Pennsylvania field—less than a half-hour from Washington, D.C.
“Let’s roll” would become a rallying cry for Americans who came together in a show of unity less than a year after the nation had been split by a sharply disputed presidential election that, in the end, had to be settled by the U.S. Supreme Court. In the interim between the election and the court’s decision, political discord permeated the very soul of the country.
The image of the second World Trade Center tower coming down in real time is still seared into my brain. Late into the night I sat riveted to my television. I heard Larry King interviewing a New York City firefighter who had lost members of his unit. King asked him why they didn’t leave the building sooner. “That’s not what we do, Mr. King,” the fireman replied softly but firmly. “We go in, not out.”
Now, we are again facing a national crisis, one that has us forced to remain in our homes. We cannot congregate in theaters, restaurants, churches, classrooms, or stadiums. Sporting events—entire seasons in some cases—have been canceled as have festivals like JazzFest and the Louisiana Strawberry Festival. But those things now seem unimportant as our new priority has become prowling stores in quests of toilet paper and hand sanitizer.
Suddenly, we are gripped with fear for our health care workers who are finding protective masks, gowns, gloves, and face shields in short supply. Ventilators and beds for those suffering from COVID-19 are scarce and those whose jobs are to protect us from this disease suddenly realize with growing horror their limitations to do just that.
Our federal government, reluctant to recognize and/or acknowledge the threat, has been slow to react and Congress seems paralyzed, unable to hammer out an adequate response to help businesses hard hit by closures and employees thrown out of work.
One proposal called for stipends of $1,000 or $2,000 for each member of every family in America. That’s insane. Those who have not lost their jobs or those like myself, who are retired and face no interruption of their income stream, have no need of a government handout. Funny thing is that payout is being proposed by some Republicans who profess to be opposed to socialism.
But I digress. The point I’m trying to make here is it is possible for us to overcome our political differences and pull together in one direction.
We’d better.
There’s a lot to criticize about Donald Trump’s overall approach to this crisis. His incoherent press briefings, punctuated by outbursts at reporters who ask legitimate questions, is but one complaint that I have. But that’s an issue for another day.
And unlike Rep. Clay Higgins, we cannot afford to grandstand on the false issue of freedom of assembly or freedom of worship when Gov. Edwards calls for restricting the size of gatherings to 50 or fewer—later revised to 10 or fewer—for our own well-being.
Higgins, one of the biggest clowns in the circus we know as Washington, leaped to the defense of the church in Central that defied the governor’s directive. If that preacher really cared for his congregation, instead of passing out anointed prayer cloths and opening the doors to his church, he would have cautioned members to stay home, be safe, be well, and pray for each other.
This pandemic is bigger than any preacher. It’s bigger than Clay Higgins and it’s bigger than Donald Trump. It’s bigger than any individual or group of individuals.
We have no way of knowing how, when or where this will end. We don’t know if we will lose loved ones or not. We don’t know what it will ultimately do to our economy or if people will lose their jobs permanently or even their homes.
Everything about COVID-19 is an unknown. There hasn’t been anything like it since the Spanish Flu pandemic of a century ago.
So, it is imperative that we do more than just wash our hands. We must tune out Trump’s unintelligible political blathering and listen to our health care providers and heed their advice. The bottom line is they are the only ones who actually know what they’re talking about.
As Americans, Louisianans, and as neighbors, we must maintain social distancing literally and come together figuratively for the common good.
“Let’s roll.”
Posted in Uncategorized on March 22, 2020| 17 Comments »
“The President hears a hundred voices telling him that he is the greatest man in the world. He must listen carefully indeed to hear the one voice that tells him he is not.”
—Harry Truman.
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