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Trump Is Asking Us to Play Russian Roulette With Our Lives - Are we really going to bet that we can go back to life as normal without proper coronavirus tracking in place?

By Thomas L. Friedman
Opinion Columnist April 18, 2020

“LIBERATE MINNESOTA!” “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!” “LIBERATE VIRGINIA.”

With these three short tweets last week, President Trump attempted to kick off the post-lockdown phase of America’s coronavirus crisis. It should be called: “American Russian roulette: The Covid-19 version.’’

What Trump was saying with those tweets was: Everybody just go back to work. From now on, each of us individually, and our society collectively, is going to play Russian roulette. We’re going to bet that we can spin through our daily lives — work, shopping, school, travel — without the coronavirus landing on us. And if it does, we’ll also bet that it won’t kill us.

More specifically: As a society, we will be betting that as large numbers of people stop sheltering in place, the number of people who will still get infected with Covid-19 and require hospitalization will be less than the number of hospital beds, intensive care units, respirators, doctors, nurses and protective gear needed to take care of them.

Because it is clear that millions of Americans are going to stop sheltering in place — their own President is now urging them to liberate themselves — before we have a proper testing, tracking and tracing system set up. Until we have a vaccine, that kind of system is the only path to dramatically lowering the risk of infection while partially opening society — while also protecting the elderly and infirm — as Germany has demonstrated.

And as individuals, every person will be playing Russian roulette every minute of every day: Do I get on this crowded bus to go to work or not? What if I get on the subway and the person next to me is not wearing gloves and a mask? What if they sneeze? Do I get in the elevator at the office if there is another person on it? Do I go into the office lunchroom or not? Do I stop for a drink at this bar, where the stools are six feet apart, or that crowded one my friends chose? Do I use this toilet or that drinking fountain? Do I send my kid back to school or not? Do I stay in a hotel? Ride an airplane? Let the plumber in? Do I go to the doctor to check that strange lump or not?

What will be so cruel about this American version of Russian roulette is how unfair it will be. Some people will have no choice but to take the subway or the bus to work. Some people will have to send their kids back to school because they can’t afford to stay home from work. Some bosses will demand that their employees show up to reopen their workplace, but some of those employees may be afraid to come back. Do you fire them? Do they bring a lawsuit against you if you do, or do they go on Twitter and post a picture of how closely together you forced them to work — six inches apart, not six feet?

This is the state of play when you have a president who one minute is responsibly issuing sober guidelines for when and how people should go back to work, and the next minute is telling states that they are responsible for getting the testing, tracking and tracing units that we need in place and then, in the third minute, is inciting people on Twitter to “liberate” their workplaces, cities and beaches — even though none of the conditions are in place to do so safely.

“Liberate”? Think about the use of that word. We were not in jail! We were not doing something wrong! We were doing what our president, governor, mayor, and national epidemic experts told us to do: behave responsibly and shelter in place to break the transmission of this virus.

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all of this....it is so crazy...first of all I have had a pregnant daughter in law 5 months along having to work in a hospital in California...I mean come on now....early twenties and being pregnant and forced to work...had to give two weeks notice...finally that is done...also I have a son 4th year in med school working in the hospital in the college town till they ran out of protective gear for him....a temporary respite...things are so crazy to put a medical student and students to assist in this disaster...of course I asked my son what does he think of people who think this is all a hoax or a theory...he replied to me that yes people are dying and that it is disrespectful to think that people are not dying and quite a few thankfully not the numbers they were flippantly throwing out...who can foresee that?

"If I were a rich man, bida, biddy, bida, bida, bida, biddy I'm a BUM!" Clearing the way for creepy, sniffy, disoriented/cognitively challenged Joe Biden. Which way? For him to be summarily thrown under the bus at the brokered convention, where three time criminal losers are born. Will only take a brief neurological examination, for justification. Hilary, and Bubba Cigar in 2020. The dems' shameless plan all along. First cut Bernie's throat, for Hilary, again. Then really have the party jump from frying pan into the flames, again. Can't make this stuff up folks.

Within hours of President Trump's decision to restrict travel from China on Jan. 31, top Democrats and media figures immediately derided the move as unnecessary and xenophobic -- and they are now beating a hasty retreat from that position as the coronavirus continues to ravage the economy and cause scores of deaths.

Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden led the way, quickly attacking what he called Trump's "record of hysteria, xenophobia and fear-mongering" after the travel restrictions were announced, and arguing that Trump "is the worst possible person to lead our country through a global health emergency." Biden, on Wednesday, didn't criticize the travel ban in any way, and instead accused Trump of "downplaying" the virus early on in remarks to Fox News.

"I had Biden calling me xenophobic," Trump told Fox News' "Hannity" on March 26. "He called me a racist, because of the fact that he felt it was a racist thing to stop people from China coming in."

In March, another Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., conspicuously insisted at a Fox News town hall that he wouldn't consider closing the U.S. border to prevent the spread of coronavirus, before condemning what he called the president's xenophobia. The Vermont senator has since taken to promoting "Medicare-for-All" and workers' rights amid the outbreak, while deferring to health experts on border closings.

For many news outlets, the about-face has been stark. A Jan. 31 article in The New York Times quoted epidemiologist Dr. Michael Osterholm as saying that Trump's decision to restrict travel from China was "more of an emotional or political reaction."

Weeks later, though, the paper reported that dozens of "nations across the world have imposed travel restrictions to curb the spread of the coronavirus," and did not criticize any of them for the move.

The Washington Post ran a story quoting a Chinese official asking for "empathy" and slamming the White House for acting "in disregard of WHO [World Health Organization] recommendation against travel restrictions."

In March, The Post finally acknowledged that critics accused China and WHO of "covering up or downplaying the severity of an infectious disease outbreak."

A week earlier, Vox confidently declared that "The evidence on travel bans for diseases like coronavirus is clear: They don’t work." The article originally referred to the "Wuhan coronavirus" in its headline, before left-wing journalists and Democrats argued that terminology was racist.

Vox also tweeted on Jan. 31: "Is this going to be a deadly pandemic? No." On Mar. 24, Vox deleted that tweet, writing that it "no longer reflects the current reality of the coronavirus story."

The Heritage Foundation's Lyndsey Fifield identified numerous other instances of prominent media outlets criticizing the travel ban, in many cases without issuing any kind of correction. For example, The Verge cautioned that Trump's policies "contradict advice from the World Health Organization (WHO), which said yesterday that countries should not restrict travel or trade in their response to the new virus."

BuzzFeed News asserted that "barring foreign travelers from China, along with making U.S. citizens self-quarantine at home ... likely violated civil rights laws, without leading to any real lowered risk of a U.S. outbreak," citing "global health law expert" Lawrence Gostin of Georgetown University.

STAT, a health and medicine news site, reported that the travel ban was similar to calls from "conservative lawmakers and far-right supporters of the president," even as "public health experts ... warn that the move could do more harm than good."

On Jan. 15, when the first American with coronavirus returned from China, House Democrats were ceremoniously carrying their articles of impeachment against Trump to the Senate. (The president was acquitted overwhelmingly on each article of impeachment.)

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...Yes. Well, anyone who's (or whose, for certain females) caught my act here knows what a homophobic, xenophobic, transgenderophobic, misogenist, racist, sexist, etc. old wanker I am. And I know how smug the feelings of moral superiority grow, when some use these terms. Images of the fat little landlord, cigar in cake hole, on the way to collect exorbitant rents, fine threads and top hat going, kicking the many poor little urchins out of the way as I go, counting the cash and mumbling. But unlike the other side, who'd rather die than admit any good on the right side of politics, I'm critical of my hero President Trump at times, and have praise for the benefits of progressive policies. Incidentally, their behavior is a major feature of Trump Derangement-Hilary Deficit Syndromes. Now I do digress, but I ask, can one get any more left than Castro's slave state of Cuba?`They fight free market think still, and broadcast propaganda on the short wave frequencies, while China and Russia have long abandoned the workers' paradise corrupt policies, that planned production and one political party bring. Well, having worked in the neighborhood, it's a place I know a thing or two about, especially their health system. Just the facts, ma'am. As soon as Fidel banished CIA puppet Batista, he saw the many needs of his people, not least of which were poor nutrition, illiteracy, and almost no functioning health system, unless one was rich. Between summary executions of rivals, and banging every skirt in Havana, he acted. So a system was created, de novo, based on broad principles of public health. Their medical schools cost next to nothing to attend, and lead to the MD after six years of study, which involves lots of time in rural clinics, in and out of country. They do have technology, but still place great emphasis on physical diagnosis, long poopooed in many other undergraduate medical schools. But there are two other remarkable little know things. Each year, a gaggle of USA students are accepted to train there, at no cost, and must only agree to work after graduating in places of great need. Pretty slick, since the training is good enough for US licensure, and subsequent US residency training. But here's the kicker. Cuba's top biomedical scientists were sent for training to the world's top centers for molecular biology and genetics, returning to start value oriented focused research programs. There have been striking discoveries, especially regarding the crab. For instance, one novel vaccine based treatment, for some advanced stage lung cancer patients, has turned a death sentence into a long standing chronic illness. Slick. So much so, that one of our premier cancer research centers, Roswell Park Institute in upstate New York, (a tiny spinoff of the famous Vierk Institutes), has gotten approval from the Trump Menstruation, to build a new research facility near Havana. For those who like apples, how's them for hate filled apples?

When I was a kid growing up in Detroit I remember GM, Ford and Chrysler all closing down for the summer to retool their factories for the autumn new car runs. Leading into the retool, designers, engineers and planners like my father and vendors spent months going over blueprints and cost sheets, getting ready for the changeover.

But Trump, our most stable genius, knows better. He needs but to issue a tweet order and GM will there the next day shipping ventilators to hospitals in overnight express.

Get real, Donald. GM is working on it -working on it day and night. Just because you screwed up, doesn't mean GM will.

Trump Extends Social Distancing Guidelines Through End of April
The president, facing grim figures from his health advisers, starkly reversed an earlier upbeat assessment that the country could relax the guidelines by Easter.
By Michael D. Shear March 29, 2020

WASHINGTON — President Trump retreated Sunday from his desire to relax coronavirus guidelines by Easter, announcing instead that all Americans must continue to avoid nonessential travel, going to work, eating at bars and restaurants, or gathering in groups of more than 10 for at least another month and perhaps until June.

The grim recommendation, which the president made in the White House Rose Garden, came just a day before the end of a two-week period in which the world’s largest economy has largely shut down with staggering consequences: businesses shuttered, schools and colleges emptied, and social life all but suspended.

Mr. Trump said repeatedly last week that he wanted to reverse such drastic measures soon, perhaps by Easter, on April 12, in the hopes of restarting the economy. But public health experts — including the president’s own advisers — had warned that trying to return to normal life too quickly risked allowing the virus to rage, increasing the likelihood of more infections and raising the number of deaths.

The president finally appeared on Sunday to acknowledge the possibility of deaths on a large scale and back down from weeks of insisting that the threat from the virus might be overblown. In the past month, Mr. Trump has vacillated between accepting the need for aggressive action to limit the pandemic and complaining that such moves will harm the economy.

But on Sunday, his mood seemed somber as he conceded the need for another month of collective pain. Citing figures from his advisers that showed that as many as 200,000 people could die from the virus even if the country took aggressive action to slow its spread, Mr. Trump said the restrictions must continue, even if it meant more sacrifice in the days ahead.

“During this period, it’s very important that everyone strongly follow the guidelines. Have to follow the guidelines,” Mr. Trump told reporters, with members of the government’s coronavirus task force nearby. “Therefore, we will be extending our guidelines to April 30 to slow the spread.”

“We can expect that by June 1, we will be well on our way to recovery,” Mr. Trump said. “We think by June 1. A lot of great things will be happening.”

Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, said he and other public health officials had urged Mr. Trump not to relax the guidelines too soon. Dr. Fauci — who in television appearances earlier in the day had offered the estimate of 200,000 dead — said Mr. Trump was affected by those predictions.

“The idea that we may have these many cases played a role in our decision in trying to make sure that we don’t do something prematurely and pull back when we should be pushing,” Dr. Fauci said. He said extending the guidelines until April 30 was a “wise and prudent decision” that Mr. Trump reached after discussions over several days with Dr. Deborah L. Birx, the coordinator of the effort to fight the virus, and other health officials.

“Dr. Birx and I spent a considerable amount of time going over all the data, why we felt this was a best choice for us, and the president accepted it,” Dr. Fauci said.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — In a bold, emergency action to support the economy during the coronavirus pandemic, the Federal Reserve on Sunday announced it would cut its target interest rate near zero.

The swifter-than-expected rate cut is designed to prevent the kind of credit crunch and financial market disruptions that occurred the last time the Fed had to cut rates all the way to the bottom: The Fed last cut rates to zero during the global financial crisis just over a decade ago.

In addition to rate cuts, the Fed also said it would purchase another $700 billion worth of Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities. It also struck a deal with five other foreign central banks, the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank and the Swiss National Bank, to lower their rates on currency swaps to keep the financial markets functioning normally.

The Fed last lowered currency swaps during the European debt crisis in 2011. The move makes borrowing US dollars cheaper for banks around the world. Swapping currencies, particularly dollars, is a staple of global financial transactions.

The coordinated move will lower the cost of short-term borrowing for banks around the globe, and it could also keep the global economy clear of an all-out credit crunch similar to the one the world’s economies encountered a decade ago.

The bond and mortgage security purchases are tools the Fed previously used during the most recent recession. They helped to shore up housing and US government debt — two crucial markets that keep the gears of the American financial system turning.

Although the underlying US economy has remained on solid ground — unemployment is at a historic low and consumer confidence has stood near all-time highs — the Fed said the coronavirus outbreak has significantly hurt the global financial conditions.

The Fed could, in theory, take rates negative, as some other central banks have, but Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has resisted that idea. The Fed said Sunday it would hold rates steady near zero until it is confident that the US economy pulls out of the coronavirus-fueled economic quagmire.

Several White House officials have accused House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of trying to slip in an exception for the Hyde Amendment into a coronavirus stimulus bill.

The officials said Thursday that Pelosi tried to negotiate a provision that would have created a "slush fund" with access for groups previously banned from receiving funds under the Hyde Amendment, according to the Daily Caller.

"A new mandatory funding stream that does not have Hyde protections would be unprecedented," one of the officials said. "Under the guise of protecting people, Speaker Pelosi is working to make sure taxpayer dollars are spent covering abortion, which is not only backwards but goes against historical norms."

Another official asked, "What do the Hyde Amendment and abortion have to do with protecting Americans from coronavirus?"

Pelosi said that Democrats agreed to "most" changes that Republicans had asked for in the House bill.

"We are responding to their concerns. We don't want them moving the goal posts, and that's it," the California Democrat said.

The Hyde Amendment bans federal funds from being used to fund abortions. Many Democrats, including presidential primary front-runner Joe Biden, have called for a repeal of the provision.