Several months before the coronavirus pandemic began, the Trump administration eliminated a key American public health position in Beijing intended to help detect disease outbreaks in China, Reuters has learned.
The American disease expert, a medical epidemiologist embedded in China’s disease control agency, left her post in July, according to four sources with knowledge of the issue.
The first cases of the new coronavirus may have emerged as early as November, and as cases exploded, the Trump administration in February chastised China for censoring information about the outbreak and keeping U.S. experts from entering the country to help.
“It was heartbreaking to watch,” said Bao-Ping Zhu, a Chinese American who served in that role, which was funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, between 2007 and 2011. “If someone had been there, public health officials and governments across the world could have moved much faster.”
Zhu and the other sources said the American expert, Dr. Linda Quick, was a trainer of Chinese field epidemiologists who were deployed to the epicenter of outbreaks to help track, investigate and contain diseases.
As an American CDC employee, they said, Quick was in an ideal position to be the eyes and ears on the ground for the United States and other countries on the coronavirus outbreak, and might have alerted them to the growing threat weeks earlier.
“We saw Trump on TV — every channel — and all of his buddies and that this was safe,” the woman told NBC News’ Vaughn Hillyard of President Donald Trump. “Trump kept saying it was basically pretty much a cure.”
NBC News reported that the man, 68, and his wife, 61, took chloroquine to guard against the novel coronavirus, which causes a potentially fatal disease known as COVID-19. It’s not clear how much chloroquine the man ingested, and Banner Health said he and his wife ingested a version of the chemical that’s used to clean aquariums.
Both of them needed to seek medical care within half an hour; the woman is in critical condition, and the man died.
~
Chloroquine is used to treat malaria, but there is no conclusive evidence it is effective against the coronavirus, which the World Health Organization declared a pandemic earlier this month.
Trump, however, repeatedly touted the drug as a “very powerful” treatment for the disease and falsely claimed it had been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
“It’s shown very encouraging — very, very encouraging early results,” Trump said last week. "And we’re going to be able to make that drug available almost immediately.
And that’s where the FDA has been so great. They — they’ve gone through the approval process; it’s been approved. And they did it, they took it down from many, many months to immediate. So we’re going to be able to make that drug available by prescription or states."
The FDA came out with a statement after Trump’s comments saying it had not approved chloroquine for the coronavirus and that much more research had to be done.
“It’s A Bold Strategy, Cotton. Lets See If It Pays Off For Em…”
~
Texas Lt. Gov Dan Patrick said on Fox News Monday night that “lots of” grandparents would be willing to die in order in to save the economy for their grandchildren.
What they’re saying: “No one reached out to me and said, as a senior citizen, are you willing to take a chance on your survival in exchange for keeping the America that all America loves for your children and grandchildren? And if that’s the exchange, I’m all in,” Patrick said on air.
“I just think there are lots of grandparents out there in this country like me — I have six grandchildren — that’s what we all care about … And I want to live smart and see through this, but I don’t want the whole country to be sacrificed. And that’s what I see,” he added.
The big picture: Patrick’s comments come shortly after President Trump’s press briefing on Monday where he said the economy will be reactivated soon as the administration plans to ease social distancing initiatives. Public health officials have strongly urged for continuing the efforts.
The IOTUS gets a lot of airtime on Fox News. Unfortunately Fox News is not a news company. It is stated in their incorporation papers that they are an Entertainment Company. So much for fair and balanced. But he gets airtime of plenty of other stations too. Seems like all the stations are carrying the IOTUS’s noon time campaign rally speech.
The moral? Get your medical advice from actual doctors, not TV and certainly not from politicians. Hmmm, is Trump practicing medicine without a license?
Hydroxychloroquine was mentioned in the news days before Trump mentioned even to a use as prophylaxis. Like many drugs, there are uses for it outside of the original use, which was to treat malaria. It is also used to treat lupus. Optimism for the drug stems from an initial French trial. This was based on research conducted during THE 2002 SARS outbreak: “A 2005 study found that chloroquine could quell the spread of SARS-CoV when applied to infected human cells in culture. SARS-CoV is closely related to the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, and caused an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome in 2002. Chloroquine disrupts the ability of the SARS-CoV virus to enter and replicate in human cells, Live Science previously reported. The cell culture studies of SARS-CoV-2 revealed that the drug and its derivative hydroxychloroquine undermine the novel virus’ replication in a similar way. "https://www.livescience.com/coronavirus-covid-19-treatments.html For scientists, skepticism and caution are their natural states. There’s a joke: “Why don’t they allow scientists defuse bombs?” “Because the bombs always explode before the grant proposals are finished.” What many people don’t realize is that we are very close to an economic tipping point. The choice might be between largely numbers of people dying or Mad Max. I’m 70, so either way I’m boned. I’m way too old for the Thunderdome (unless they match me against a snowflake, then I’m good).
Cheapskate0 over 4 years ago
Good grief! Scott’s on a streak this week!
kaffekup over 4 years ago
Where’d she go to get a test? The Senate?
jmworacle over 4 years ago
That’s why we have Joe Biden.
Silly Season over 4 years ago
Several months before the coronavirus pandemic began, the Trump administration eliminated a key American public health position in Beijing intended to help detect disease outbreaks in China, Reuters has learned.
The American disease expert, a medical epidemiologist embedded in China’s disease control agency, left her post in July, according to four sources with knowledge of the issue.
The first cases of the new coronavirus may have emerged as early as November, and as cases exploded, the Trump administration in February chastised China for censoring information about the outbreak and keeping U.S. experts from entering the country to help.
“It was heartbreaking to watch,” said Bao-Ping Zhu, a Chinese American who served in that role, which was funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, between 2007 and 2011. “If someone had been there, public health officials and governments across the world could have moved much faster.”
Zhu and the other sources said the American expert, Dr. Linda Quick, was a trainer of Chinese field epidemiologists who were deployed to the epicenter of outbreaks to help track, investigate and contain diseases.
As an American CDC employee, they said, Quick was in an ideal position to be the eyes and ears on the ground for the United States and other countries on the coronavirus outbreak, and might have alerted them to the growing threat weeks earlier.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-china-cdc-exclusiv/exclusive-u-s-axed-cdc-expert-job-in-china-months-before-virus-outbreak-idUSKBN21910S
Silly Season over 4 years ago
Elections have consequences….
~
“We saw Trump on TV — every channel — and all of his buddies and that this was safe,” the woman told NBC News’ Vaughn Hillyard of President Donald Trump. “Trump kept saying it was basically pretty much a cure.”
NBC News reported that the man, 68, and his wife, 61, took chloroquine to guard against the novel coronavirus, which causes a potentially fatal disease known as COVID-19. It’s not clear how much chloroquine the man ingested, and Banner Health said he and his wife ingested a version of the chemical that’s used to clean aquariums.
Both of them needed to seek medical care within half an hour; the woman is in critical condition, and the man died.
~
Chloroquine is used to treat malaria, but there is no conclusive evidence it is effective against the coronavirus, which the World Health Organization declared a pandemic earlier this month.
Trump, however, repeatedly touted the drug as a “very powerful” treatment for the disease and falsely claimed it had been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
“It’s shown very encouraging — very, very encouraging early results,” Trump said last week. "And we’re going to be able to make that drug available almost immediately.
And that’s where the FDA has been so great. They — they’ve gone through the approval process; it’s been approved. And they did it, they took it down from many, many months to immediate. So we’re going to be able to make that drug available by prescription or states."
The FDA came out with a statement after Trump’s comments saying it had not approved chloroquine for the coronavirus and that much more research had to be done.
https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-woman-husband-died-chloroquine-warns-not-to-trust-trump-2020-3
Silly Season over 4 years ago
“It’s A Bold Strategy, Cotton. Lets See If It Pays Off For Em…”
~
Texas Lt. Gov Dan Patrick said on Fox News Monday night that “lots of” grandparents would be willing to die in order in to save the economy for their grandchildren.
What they’re saying: “No one reached out to me and said, as a senior citizen, are you willing to take a chance on your survival in exchange for keeping the America that all America loves for your children and grandchildren? And if that’s the exchange, I’m all in,” Patrick said on air.
“I just think there are lots of grandparents out there in this country like me — I have six grandchildren — that’s what we all care about … And I want to live smart and see through this, but I don’t want the whole country to be sacrificed. And that’s what I see,” he added.
The big picture: Patrick’s comments come shortly after President Trump’s press briefing on Monday where he said the economy will be reactivated soon as the administration plans to ease social distancing initiatives. Public health officials have strongly urged for continuing the efforts.
Watch the interview here:
https://www.axios.com/coronavirus-texas-official-grandparents-die-172ca951-891c-44e7-a9ec-77c486e0c5c3.html
Bookworm over 4 years ago
The President’s message to a frightened America. “Keep Calm and Carry On. And Die.”
nosirrom over 4 years ago
The IOTUS gets a lot of airtime on Fox News. Unfortunately Fox News is not a news company. It is stated in their incorporation papers that they are an Entertainment Company. So much for fair and balanced. But he gets airtime of plenty of other stations too. Seems like all the stations are carrying the IOTUS’s noon time campaign rally speech.
Font Lady Premium Member over 4 years ago
The moral? Get your medical advice from actual doctors, not TV and certainly not from politicians. Hmmm, is Trump practicing medicine without a license?
DanMercer over 4 years ago
Hydroxychloroquine was mentioned in the news days before Trump mentioned even to a use as prophylaxis. Like many drugs, there are uses for it outside of the original use, which was to treat malaria. It is also used to treat lupus. Optimism for the drug stems from an initial French trial. This was based on research conducted during THE 2002 SARS outbreak: “A 2005 study found that chloroquine could quell the spread of SARS-CoV when applied to infected human cells in culture. SARS-CoV is closely related to the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, and caused an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome in 2002. Chloroquine disrupts the ability of the SARS-CoV virus to enter and replicate in human cells, Live Science previously reported. The cell culture studies of SARS-CoV-2 revealed that the drug and its derivative hydroxychloroquine undermine the novel virus’ replication in a similar way. "https://www.livescience.com/coronavirus-covid-19-treatments.html For scientists, skepticism and caution are their natural states. There’s a joke: “Why don’t they allow scientists defuse bombs?” “Because the bombs always explode before the grant proposals are finished.” What many people don’t realize is that we are very close to an economic tipping point. The choice might be between largely numbers of people dying or Mad Max. I’m 70, so either way I’m boned. I’m way too old for the Thunderdome (unless they match me against a snowflake, then I’m good).
Night-Gaunt49[Bozo is Boffo] over 4 years ago
So far to the tracking curve of infection and deaths are echoing Spain.