More Trump bafflegab this morning as Individual-1 spins another false narrative of disinformation to distract from his incompetence. Trump is never to blame, don't cha know!
…. Their response to H1N1 Swine Flu was a full scale disaster, with thousands dying, and nothing meaningful done to fix the testing problem, until now. The changes have been made and testing will soon happen on a very large scale basis. All Red Tape has been cut, ready to go!
VIDEO: The fear of terror attacks or coronavirus did little to deter thousands from packing a Kabul stadium to watch horsemen play polo with a goat carcass at Afghanistan's first buzkashi league pic.twitter.com/gojbtUrxWC
Steve Mnuchin this week tried to assuage Americans who have watched their retirement savings sink by saying that this crisis is likely to have an end in sight, unlike the financial crisis. Larry Kudlow has suggested that it may be a good time to buy stocks on the cheap.
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Trump’s push for a payroll tax cut was met with a lack of enthusiasm even by many Republicans and White House aides, who were either unsure it was needed or weren’t convinced that it was the best way to address the crisis, according to administration officials who were not authorized to publicly discuss the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity. The president wants the yet-to-be-detailed tax cut to run through the end of the year, ensuring that workers would benefit from it through his reelection effort.
Republicans say Trump’s chances at getting a deal ultimately come down to what Mnuchin can work out with Pelosi. The speaker, who spent time with Mnuchin on Tuesday and Wednesday, described her relationship with the treasury secretary as “professional.”
NEW: A majority of Americans, 54%, disapprove of Pres. Trump’s handling of the response to the coronavirus, while 43% approve, per new @ABC News/Ipsos poll. https://t.co/MgtJF4Euv3pic.twitter.com/cO3WzJW8yN
It turns out it has serious consequences when, in the middle of a severe public health emergency, the president just lies about it over and over and over again. pic.twitter.com/5y3Puvs3A6
Sick people across the country say they have been denied coronavirus test, despite doctor's advice and Trump’s assurance that “anybody†can get a test https://t.co/S6NhZqGYsq
Four years after the United States pledged to help the worldfight infectious-disease epidemics such as Ebola, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is dramatically downsizing its epidemic prevention activities in 39 out of 49 countries because money is running out, U.S. government officials said.
The CDC programs, part of a global health security initiative, train front-line workers in outbreak detection and work to strengthen laboratory and emergency response systems in countries where disease risks are greatest. The goal is to stop future outbreaks at their source.
Most of the funding comes from a one-time, five-year emergency package thatCongress approvedto respond to the 2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa. About $600 million was awarded to the CDC to help countries prevent infectious-disease threats from becoming epidemics. That money is slated to run out by September 2019. Despite statements from President Trump and senior administration officials affirming the importance of controlling outbreaks, officials and global infectious-disease experts are not anticipating that the administration will budget additional resources.
Two weeks ago, the CDC began notifying staffers and officials abroad about its plan to downsize these activities, because officials assume there will be “no new resources,” said a senior government officialspeaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss budget matters. Notice is being given now to CDC country directors “as the very first phase of a transition,” the official said. There is a need for “forward planning,” the official said, to accommodate longer advance notice for staffers and for leases and property agreements. The downsizing decision was first reported by theWall Street Journal.
The CDC plans to narrow its focus to 10 “priority countries,” starting in October 2019, the official said. They are India, Thailand and Vietnam in Asia; Jordan in the Middle East; Kenya, Uganda, Liberia, Nigeria and Senegal in Africa; and Guatemala in Central America.
Countries where the CDC is planning to scale back include some of the world’s hot spots for emerging infectious disease, such as China, Pakistan, Haiti, Rwanda and Congo. Last year, when Congo experienced a potentially deadlyEbola outbreakin a remote, forested area, CDC-trained disease detectives and rapid responders helped contain it quickly.
