Louisiana Voice

“HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE AZITHROMYCIN, taken together, have a real chance to be one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine. The nice part is it’s been around for a long time, so we know that if things don’t go as planned, it’s not going to kill anybody,”

—Donald Trump, speaking to reporters on March 19 about the “benefits” of his coronavirus cure.

“Clinical trials, academic research and scientific analysis indicate that the danger of the Trump-backed drug is a significantly increased risk of death for certain patients. Evidence showing the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine in treating covid-19 has been scant.”

—Washington Post, May 15, 2020. (Emphasis added.)

“They should say, ‘We know there are harms, and until we know the benefits, let’s hold off,’”

—Joseph Ross, professor of medicine and public health at Yale University.

“It’s important to use available clinical data,” Rick Bright told lawmakers. “And if we know there are potential risks, we need to make sure that we are cognizant of those risks and make sure those drugs are used in a very safe and controlled manner.”

—Rick Bright, former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. [Bright, as we know, was demoted for disagreeing with Trump.]

So, the obvious question is: Why doesn’t our stable genius, the Tangerine Toddler, listen to those with the expertise, follow their advice and shut the hell up? If the following explanation is why, then that’s pure politics and the wrong reason and Le Grosse Orange has absolutely no business occupying the Oval Office:

“If the message were to go out with complete objectivity, it would be disastrous for Trump. So, he is doing his best to prevent experts from speaking out or using their expertise, and he’s simply trying to divert attention. It will work for some people, but he can’t get over the fact that many, many people are dying — and they’re dying on his watch. Too many people are dying, and that’s the fact that he can’t cover up however much he tries.”

—Political science professor Max Skidmore, on Donald Trump’s efforts to silence officials who disagree with him, downplay the severity of the coronavirus pandemic, and to dismiss statistics that don’t square with his demands to reopen the economy.

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The rantings of Clay Higgins and Dan Fagan about freedom to congregate and freedom to do so sans appropriate protection notwithstanding, six Louisiana cities, including the two largest, New Orleans and Baton Rouge, rank among the 50 cities in the U.S. with the highest number of COVID-19 cases on a per-capita basis, according to statistics released today by 24/7 Wall Street.

24/7 Wall Street is a financial news and opinion company which publishes about 30 articles per day on finance, consumerism, and state surveys on such topics as obesity, income, political corruption, taxes, roads, prisons, etc.

In today’s release, the survey considers the number of cases per 100,000 population in its determination of which cities had the most confirmed COVID-19 cases. The populations were not limited to the cities per se, but to the metropolitan areas of each city, which reflects hither populations than the cities themselves.

The Hammond metro area, with a population of 133,777, had 679 cases of the coronavirus as of May 12, giving it an infection rate of 520.3 per 100,000 population, severe enough for 48^th highest in the nation. Ranking immediately behind Hammond were Flagstaff, Arizona (49^th) and Barnstable, Massachusetts (50^th).

Other Louisiana cities included on the list and their rankings included:

• Monroe (44^th with 1,094 cases, a rate of infection of 534.9 per 100,000 population);
• Baton Rouge (42^nd with 4,789 cases—561.9 per 100,000);
• Shreveport (41^st with 2,312 cases—575.5 per 100,000);
• Houma-Thibodaux (39^th with 1,248 cases—592.0 per 100,000);
• New Orleans (8^th with 17346 cases—1372.7 per 100,000)

Sioux City, Iowa, with 3,521 cases, was highest with an infection rate of 2,431.3 per 100,000 population, followed by New York-Newark-Jersey City with 426,361 cases, a rate of 2,207 per 100,000 population.

The survey used COVID-19 data from state and local health departments, along with population data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

“The cities on this list tend to have at least one of several characteristics that make them particularly vulnerable,” the release said. Most on the list, for example are densely populated and others are manufacturing hubs or magnets for domestic or international tourism.

“Regardless of the contributing factors to the high concentration of COVID-19 cases…the total number of cases would likely have been much high if not for the stay-at-home orders that were implemented at the state level,” the release said.

It noted that the metro area hardest hit was in Iowa, “one of the few states not to implement a stay-at-home order.”

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“A lot of optimism is swirling around a 12- to 18-month time frame, if everything goes perfectly. We’ve never seen everything go perfectly. My concern is that if we rush too quickly and consider cutting out critical steps, we may not have a full assessment of the safety of that vaccine.”

—Rick Bright, DHHS former top U.S. vaccine official (a scientist) recently demoted by the Trump administration after filing a whistleblower complaint, testifying before, testifying before the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on health.

“I’ve watched all of this a little while ago. It seemed like everyone who was beating up on Dr. Bright was a Republican and everyone who was defending him was a Democrat. I’m a Republican, I voted for President Trump and I admire Dr. Bright. I don’t know what he did in all of the other activities, but I think what he said made a lot of sense, and I believe him. I’m a lifelong Republican, and I’m embarrassed by how that’s (America’s response to the coronavirus pandemic) been handled. Like Rick Bright said, it’s the scientists we need to be listening to, and we’re not.”

—Mike Bowen, co-owner of Prestige Ameritech, the country’s last full-line medical mask manufacturer, took his place at the witness table and recounted how he had offered to HHS to ramp up production of N95 masks in January, but his plan was cast aside.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/in-the-early-days-of-the-pandemic-the-us-government-turned-down-an-offer-to-manufacture-millions-of-n95-masks-in-america/2020/05/09/f76a821e-908a-11ea-a9c0-73b93422d691_story.html

“I don’t know the so-called whistleblower Rick Bright, never met or even heard of him, but to me, he is a disgruntled employee, not liked or respected by people I spoke to and who, with his attitude, should no longer be working for our government.”

—Donald Trump, responding as he always—ALWAYS—does to any criticism or disagreement with his half-baked theories or lies, again governing by tweet, on May 14, 2020. [No exceptions, nay, not one. Go back and review every official, former employee, or expert in their given field and read what he says upon their firing or upon their public disagreement with the Tangerine Toddler. Invariably, they’re either “losers,” “weak,” “disgruntled,” or someone he “never heard of” and “doesn’t know.”]

“Maybe the fact that you didn’t know or even hear of the person in charge of biomedical research for your Administration in the midst of a global health pandemic is part of the reason why we’re quickly approaching 100,000 deaths in this country.”

—U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy, III (D-Mass.), in a response tweet (apparently the only way to get through to Le Grosse Orange), May 14, 2020.

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“They claim pandemics only happen once every hundred years but what if that’s no longer true? We want to be early, ready for the next one, because clearly the Obama administration did not leave to this administration any kind of game plan for something like this.”

— Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), in an online discussion hosted by the Trump campaign, May 11, 2020. [Sorry, but there is no other way to say this: McConnell lied through his teeth. It was an unabashed, outright, unadulterated lie. It wasn’t just political rhetoric; it was a damn lie—and he knew it when he said it. That, folks, is deceit, pure and simple.]

“We literally left them a 69-page Pandemic Playbook…. that they ignored.” 

Ron Klain, former “Ebola czar” in the Obama administration.

“Most notably, the color-coded document lists dozens of pointed and detailed questions that top policymakers should be asking themselves if a novel virus suddenly emerges overseas. For instance:”

‘Is there sufficient personal protective equipment for healthcare workers who are providing medical care? If YES: What are the triggers to signal exhaustion of supplies? Are additional supplies available? If NO: Should the Strategic National Stockpile release PPE to states?’

“Instead, the Trump administration placed a big bet on a limited travel ban on non-U.S. citizens coming from China — and then scrambled to fill gaps in stocks of PPE when cases of covid-19 exploded after the administration failed to rapidly set up a nationwide testing regime. The document laid out a series of other steps, recommending a faster pace than the approach undertaken by the Trump White House.”

“McConnell is wrong to say the Obama administration left ‘no game plan’ to deal with a pandemic; the Obama team crafted a detailed document setting forth questions and policies that should be considered, as well as put in place programs that might have helped spur action sooner. The Trump administration ignored that document and pursued its own course.”

—The Washington Post, May 14, 2020. [Putting aside the argument of whether or not the Obama plan was sufficient, the indisputable fact remains that there was a plan….and the Trump administration ignored it.]

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“You lied to the FBI about three different topics, and you made those false statements while you were serving as the National Security Adviser — the President of the United States’ most senior national security aid. I can’t minimize that. I mean, arguably, that undermines everything this flag over here stands for. Arguably, you sold your country out.”

—U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, at Michael Flynn’s hearing, December 2018.

“You know, people sometimes plead to things — that turn out not to be crimes.”

—William Barr, in justifying the dropping of charges against Flynn by the Department of Justice.

“The judge could be concerned this is cronyism. I would predict that he holds a hearing and has the prosecutors justify the decision they made. When a defendant has gone all the way down the line to pleading guilty, the bar to dismiss has to be high,” she said.

—Former federal judge Nancy Gertner, who now teaches at Harvard Law School, on the decision by DOJ to drop charges against Flynn.

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