“THE cure is worse than the problem,” President Donald Trump has been echoing Fox News in his unbelievable call to scale down drastic efforts toward the containment of the coronavirus pandemic and open the U.S. for business by April 12.
This cure, prescribed by Trump, is indeed worse than the problem because he will have blood on his hands for the deaths of more Americans.
PEOPLE ARE DYING! As of press time, the coronavirus pandemic has infected more than 52,000 people and killed more than 691 in the United States. Globally, the number of people that have tested positive with the COVID-19 has topped 416,000 and the death toll is now more than 18,500.
The coronavirus pandemic is on an upward trajectory, with the rise in the number of Americans getting infected and dying more than doubling every week. Meanwhile, New York — the hotspot of the outbreak — records a doubling every three days. And this is just about to get worse, AND could be the future faced by other states.
As hospitals are getting overwhelmed by the growing cases of coronavirus infections, our doctors, nurses, and other front liners’ lives are now in danger; some have already died in the line of duty. Overworked and stretched to the limit, they have not been supplied with all the needed hospital gears to help them protect themselves and their families.
Meanwhile, many Americans are dying because testing has not been optimized on a scale required to help mitigate the spread, and the federal government has not been able to fulfill the number of ventilators urgently needed right there and then to keep patients alive.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has been calling out Trump for not acting urgently to the needs of the states given the power and resources accorded to the Office of the President and the Federal Government.
As the Hill reported: “Cuomo and other governors have pleaded with the Trump administration for more ventilators from the national stockpile of medical supplies. There are about 12,700 ventilators in that stockpile, but Cuomo said the administration has only sent 400 to New York.”
“What am I going to do with 400 ventilators when I need 30,000?” Cuomo said. “You pick the 26,000 people who are going to die because you only sent 400 ventilators.”
In several television interviews, Cuomo also urged Trump to use the Defense Production Act (DPA) to force manufacturers to make more ventilators.
Cuomo stressed that given the urgency of the need for ventilators, businesses need start-up capital and contracts with the federal government to get ventilators out to states in such a short period of time.
Yet as state governments and other countries implement more proactive and drastic measures to help slow down the pandemic and save the lives of the American people, the President of the United States has been obsessed with the numbers: falling stock market, growing unemployment rate, businesses closing because of the pandemic.
On Monday, March 23, Trump has expressed weariness about social distancing’s impact on the economy and has expressed the need to scale back on the drastic measures local governments have implemented, such as secure in place orders and lockdowns.
This move toward loosening restrictions on social distancing and similar measures go against facts and the warnings of senior U.S. health officials, including Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who have been disclosing the science-based fact that the United States has not yet felt the worst of the pandemic.
People who tuned in to Monday’s White House Press briefing were wondering why Dr. Fauci was not in the briefing, but Trump’s doubling down on lies he had been fact-checked on by Dr. Fauci and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner Stephen Hahn in the past would explain why.
During the briefing, Trump again reiterated the lie that the malaria drug chloroquine has already been approved by the FDA, and that the manufacturing and distribution of this drug will be happening quickly. This assertion is NOT true and this is dangerous! The drug has yet to be proven to be safe and truly effective to be prescribed as a treatment to COVID-19 based on scientific clinical trials done under the auspices of a protocol.
CNN reported that a man from Arizona is dead and his wife is under critical care after the two took chloroquine phosphate in an apparent attempt to self-medicate for the novel coronavirus.
NBC News spoke to the wife, who said they took the drug after they learned of chloroquine’s connection to the coronavirus during a President Donald Trump news conference.
CNN also reported that health officials in Nigeria have issued a warning over chloroquine after they said three people in the country overdosed on the drug, in the wake of Trump’s comments about using it to treat the coronavirus.
With all the mixed messages coming from Trump, Fox News, and the Republicans vs the health officials, science experts and the facts of what is going on in other countries, Trump decided to silence Dr. Fauci, who could only speak now on matters approved by the Trump Administration. VP Mike Pence would now be controlling all coronavirus messaging.
On Tuesday, the reality superstar-turned president just announced that he wants to re-open the U.S. economy by April 12, and was describing how great it would be to see people flock their churches for Easter Sunday. He said he wants the United States to open businesses, restaurants, theaters, bars, and casinos and ask “less vulnerable” people to go back to work.
WHAT IS TRUMP THINKING? April 12 is just a little more than two weeks away. Scientists and health officials say the virus is still spreading at a rapid rate by that time. What makes him think he can just do this and have our hospitals get even more overwhelmed and get more people infected and killed?
Will you allow the United States to be the next epicenter of the coronavirus in the world?
We would have not been in this desperate situation had Trump not eliminated the White House National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense, established by President Barack Obama, to prepare the United States for future pandemics like COVID-19. This is consistent with Trump’s obsession to erase Obama’s legacy in America.
We would have not been in this desperate situation had Trump not cut huge funding for health institutions like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has undermined COVID-19 containment efforts.
We wouldn’t have been in this desperate situation had Trump not covered up and undermined the threat of coronavirus despite warnings of a pandemic from the scientists and health officials because he deemed this will hurt the economic numbers he has been bragging about and therefore, could cost him his re-election.
NOW that coronavirus has escalated to be a pandemic and has killed many Americans, Trump is still denying scientific facts because he is obsessing over good economic numbers — Wall Street index, low unemployment rate and high GDP — not because he cares for you. He is putting our health and safety at risk for his political survival.
ENOUGH! Speak up and speak out! Our life depends on your voice.
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Gel Santos Relos has been in news, talk, public service and educational broadcasting since 1989 with ABS-CBN and is now serving the Filipino audience using different platforms, including digital broadcasting, and print, and is working on a new public service program for the community. You may contact her through email at [email protected], or send her a message via Facebook at Facebook.com/Gel.Santos.Relos.
