Coronavirus Outbreak

[temporal1]

Dear Ken,
it would be most appreciated if you would refrain from partisan politics on this current events topic.
no decent person, not even evil DJT, wants the world’s citizens to suffer with a pandemic.

most peoples’ nerves are on edge, including mine.
i’m unnerved with my family in the U.S. epicenter, in the epicenter of the epicenter, in King County, WA schools. where i don’t want them to be, to begin. for every reason.

certainly lib politicians are going to want to glow+bask in their effort to be shown to be “better-than” DJT as leader (of everything they can think of) but, history reflects, they aren’t better-than.
every POTUS must face whatever disaster visits during his term in office. it’s part of the job description.

i was not a fan of George W., but, he sure had more than his share of disasters during his terms.

if necessary, i can probably provide some evidence that obama’s policies led to whatever perceived awkwardness exists in responding to this current virus. many were not overly impressed with obama’s leadership regarding the Swine Flu, and Ebola, for example. i would prefer not to get into that.

this is just a personal request.
i don’t believe you’ve posted anything outside forum rules/guidelines.
you may, of course, do as you please.

[Ken]

Dear Ken,
it would be most appreciated if you would refrain from partisan politics on this current events topic.
no decent person, not even evil DJT, wants the world’s citizens to suffer with a pandemic.

most peoples’ nerves are on edge, including mine.
i’m unnerved with my family in the U.S. epicenter, in the epicenter of the epicenter, in King County, WA schools. where i don’t want them to be, to begin. for every reason.

certainly lib politicians are going to want to glow+bask in their effort to be shown to be “better-than” DJT as leader (of everything they can think of) but, history reflects, they aren’t better-than.
every POTUS must face whatever disaster visits during his term in office. it’s part of the job description.

i was not a fan of George W., but, he sure had more than his share of disasters during his terms.

if necessary, i can probably provide some evidence that obama’s policies led to whatever perceived awkwardness exists in responding to this current virus. many were not overly impressed with obama’s leadership regarding the Swine Flu, and Ebola, for example. i would prefer not to get into that.

this is just a personal request.
i don’t believe you’ve posted anything outside forum rules/guidelines.
you may, of course, do as you please.

The two most important stories in the country right now (and perhaps this decade) are:

1. The coronavirus outbreak
2. Our government's response to it.

I'm not sure how you talk about one without the other. I have been meticulously factual about everything I have posted. But if you want to take the "see no evil, hear no evil" approach that is your right. You will probably have to keep your TV and all other news sources shut off though. Do you guys live in such insulated environments that you don't hear this sort of thing being discussed elsewhere basically 24/7?

[RZehr]

I spent the morning with a business traveler from Michigan and one from Idaho. I took them out to the Pacific for the evening and went boating this morning. They’re flying out tonight. I don’t remember this coming up all morning.

Do you live in the real world, or do you just sit around all day watching the news and wringing your hands?

[violet]

I think it is okay to give Ken all the space he needs in this at this time. If I was living in the epicenter of this epidemic I would most likely be thinking of this quite often.

and having very big opinions on it as well.

[Ken]

I spent the morning with a business traveler from Michigan and one from Idaho. I took them out to the Pacific for the evening and went boating this morning. They’re flying out tonight. I don’t remember this coming up all morning.

Do you live in the real world, or do you just sit around all day watching the news and wringing you hands?

I teach at a HS and just got home from work. There are wash stations set up all over school for students to sanitize and they are going through and swabbing every keyboard and surface with disinfectant. Endless emails from administrators discussing additional steps to be taken. And meetings about how the school is going to proceed with online learning if schools close, what they will do about SAT testing scheduled this weekend and AP testing in May and how AP students will get the required materials and such to be prepared for the May tests. How to accommodate students who may not have reliable internet access at home. etc. etc. So teachers are basically working 24/7 to put together distance learning plans for all their classes.

My wife is a doctor and working from home this afternoon. When I walked in the door she showed me her clinic inbox. She has 116 coronavirus phone/email inquiries from her patients who have various symptoms and questions and want to know what they should do, if they should get tested. Answer: No testing is available for ambulatory patients here in the Vancouver area because there are no local testing operations up and running and they are out of test kits to mail back to the CDC. The precious few test kits they have are reserved for bedridden patients in intensive care. She will be at her computer until at least 10 at night answering all of them.

Yesterday my wife had a 23 year old patient call who is a tech who works for a private dialysis clinic. In other words she is in close contact with some of the most immuno-compromised patients in our population. She had a friend visiting from Seattle last weekend who was subsequently tested positive for coronavirus and wanted to know if she should get tested or go to work. Answer: No, we can't test you if you aren't symptomatic. And out of caution you shouldn't go to work. As it turns out her employer won't excuse her from work without a doctors order which my wife's clinic can't give without a positive test. So catch 22. My wife had to just send her back to work due to lack of testing ability. That's just one of thousands of real world examples of how this testing fiasco is affecting just one community.

So that's my real world. I'm happy you can go to the beach and go boating and relax.

[RZehr]

Okay so you are living in the real world. So are we. We aren’t insulated to the point we are backward and ignorant though, which is how it came across to me.

[ohio jones]

Do you live in the real world, or do you just sit around all day watching the news and wringing washing your hands?

Fixed it for you.

[Ken]

Okay so you are living in the real world. So are we. We aren’t insulated to the point we are backward and ignorant though, which is how it came across to me.

OK sorry. But the lack of testing capability may be the single biggest heath care crisis this country has faced since the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic. And it is entirely by choice, not lack of capabilities. This country has the most advanced microbiology facilities and expertise on the planet. We have state-of-the-art labs and technicians all across the country. And we have the largest biotech and pharma industry and manufacturing capacity on the planet. There are tens of thousands of medical professionals and experts across the country who want to do their job and are flying blind due to the bureaucratic fiasco in Washington DC.

You can blame the Trump Administration, you can blame bureaucracy and career bureaucrats. You can blame overly burdensome regulations. I'm sure there is plenty of blame to go around and when there is finally time to do a retrospective analysis we can get to the bottom of what went wrong and is still going wrong. But one thing is certain. There will be thousands of lives that will be unnecessarily lost due to the lack of national leadership during this crisis. Maybe firing the entire pandemic response team at the National Security Council that was set up to coordinate decision-making during this sort of crisis was a bad idea? That one is on John Bolton actually. But he no doubt had approval from above.

[RZehr]

Do you live in the real world, or do you just sit around all day watching the news and wringing washing your hands?

Fixed it for you.

Believe it or not, I thought about writing washing.

[RZehr]

Okay so you are living in the real world. So are we. We aren’t insulated to the point we are backward and ignorant though, which is how it came across to me.

OK sorry. But the lack of testing capability may be the single biggest heath care crisis this country has faced since the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic. And it is entirely by choice, not lack of capabilities. This country has the most advanced microbiology facilities and expertise on the planet. We have state-of-the-art labs and technicians all across the country. And we have the largest biotech and pharma industry and manufacturing capacity on the planet. There are tens of thousands of medical professionals and experts across the country who want to do their job and are flying blind due to the bureaucratic fiasco in Washington DC.

You can blame the Trump Administration, you can blame bureaucracy and career bureaucrats. You can blame overly burdensome regulations. I'm sure there is plenty of blame to go around and when there is finally time to do a retrospective analysis we can get to the bottom of what went wrong and is still going wrong. But one thing is certain. There will be thousands of lives that will be unnecessarily lost due to the lack of national leadership during this crisis. Maybe firing the entire pandemic response team at the National Security Council that was set up to coordinate decision-making during this sort of crisis was a bad idea? That one is on John Bolton actually. But he no doubt had approval from above.

I shouldn’t be prickly.