Friday March 29, 2024

An Independent Progressive Media Outlet

FacebookTwitterYoutube
Newsletter
News Feeds:
Mike Pence Brings Chaotic Coronavirus Response to Wisconsin PDF Print E-mail
Elections, Elected Officials, Political Parties
Written by WisDems Press, Philip Shulman   
Monday, 20 April 2020 10:17

trump-covid-natl-emergDonald Trump wasted months ignoring the coronavirus, and now he's sending Mike Pence here for a photo-op while health professionals and patients in Wisconsin are still scrambling to get the medical equipment they need.


MADISON, WI - Mike Pence brings the Trump administration’s chaotic, failed coronavirus response to Wisconsin tomorrow, where data indicates that the crisis is continuing to escalate. While Pence is here for a political photo-op, here are the facts that are greeting him on the ground 

From Philip Shulman, Director of Trump Rapid Response for Wisconsin Democrats: “Donald Trump and his administration wasted months ignoring the coronavirus, and now they are sending Mike Pence here for a photo-op while health professionals and patients in Wisconsin and across this country are still scrambling to get the medical equipment they need. Thanks to Trump’s erratic, chaotic response, America was unprepared for this crisis, Wisconsin’s economy has been further hurt and China rolled us at every turn -- nothing Pence says today can distract from this record of failure.” 

220 people have died in Wisconsin from coronavirus, but Trump says he’s doing a great job with the crisis.

Wisconsin State Journal: “A total of 220 people have died from the COVID-19 coronavirus in Wisconsin so far after nine more deaths were reported Sunday. The state Department of Health Services also reported 147 new confirmed cases as of Sunday, bringing the total in the state to 4,346 people who have tested positive for the new coronavirus.”

TRUMP: “It’s been an incredible period of time. We’ve done a fantastic job.” 

Frontline medical professionals in Wisconsin have raised the alarm about getting the necessary PPE to keep them safe, but the Trump administration continues to play games and force states to compete amongst themselves for this essential equipment.

Wisconsin Public Radio: “Employees in Wisconsin hospitals and nursing homes are calling for lawmakers to back policies that would provide paid sick leave, adequate personal protective equipment, full medical coverage and hazard pay for those on the front lines during the coronavirus pandemic. Nurses, paramedics, cafeteria workers and housekeepers in hospital settings described health and economic concerns they have for themselves and their families during a video conference Wednesday hosted by the labor union Service Employees International Union (SEIU).” 

Chief Physician Executive: “Our supply-chain group has worked around the clock to secure gowns, gloves, face masks, goggles, face shields, and N95 respirators. These employees have adapted to a new normal, exploring every lead, no matter how unusual. Deals, some bizarre and convoluted, and many involving large sums of money, have dissolved at the last minute when we were outbid or outmuscled, sometimes by the federal government. Then we got lucky, but getting the supplies was not easy.”

The Trump administration has failed to provide adequate coronavirus testing — but Trump continues to claim it’s “so easy to get.”

WisContext: “‘It’s fair to assume that … as high as 10 times as many people have been infected compared to what’s diagnosed,’ said Dr. Ryan Westergaard, chief medical officer and state epidemiologist for communicable diseases at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, in a media call on March 27. … This discrepancy is in part because some people have very mild infections and may not feel ill, but also because there are simply not enough resources available to test most people who are sick — in Wisconsin and across the United States.”

CNN’s Daniel Dale: “As Trump vaguely proclaims everything great on testing, the fact is that there are widespread shortages and other impediments, as confirmed by politicians of both parties, and that the US is nowhere near the level most experts say is needed for a safe lifting of restrictions.” 

Washington Post’s Juliet Eilperin: “Trump calls reagents and swabs used in covid-19 tests ‘so easy to get.’ Shortages of those two items continue to be one of the biggest impediments to expanding widespread testing in the United States.”

Over 300,000 Wisconsinites have lost their jobs in the last month, which comes at a time when the economy in Wisconsin was especially fragile, especially among farmers who were already in the midst of a bankruptcy crisis.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Schissler is among the 313,000 people in Wisconsin who have lost their jobs since mid-March, when Evers issued a public health emergency that closed restaurants, bars and scores of other businesses, shutting down large swaths of the state’s economy.”  

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Coronavirus is delivering a blow to Wisconsin agriculture at the worst possible time. … About 820 Wisconsin dairy producers called it quits in 2019 alone, a rate of more than two per day, and the trend hasn’t slowed in recent months.”

Donald Trump and the administration failed to implement a national COVID response for months, when it could have helped mitigate the spread of the virus.

New York Times: “Throughout January, as Mr. Trump repeatedly played down the seriousness of the virus and focused on other issues, an array of figures inside his government — from top White House advisers to experts deep in the cabinet departments and intelligence agencies — identified the threat, sounded alarms and made clear the need for aggressive action. The president, though, was slow to absorb the scale of the risk and to act accordingly, focusing instead on controlling the message, protecting gains in the economy and batting away warnings from senior officials. It was a problem, he said, that had come out of nowhere and could not have been foreseen.”

Washington Post: “More than a dozen U.S. researchers, physicians and public health experts, many of them from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, were working full time at the Geneva headquarters of the World Health Organization as the novel coronavirus emerged late last year and transmitted real-time information about its discovery and spread in China to the Trump administration, according to U.S. and international officials. … The presence of so many U.S. officials undercuts President Trump’s assertion that the WHO’s failure to communicate the extent of the threat, born of a desire to protect China, is largely responsible for the rapid spread of the virus in the United States.”

PBS NewsHour’s Yamiche Alcindor: “@weijia: Why didn't you warn people earlier about the virus instead holding rallies in February? Trump again talks about travel restrictions he put in place for some coming from China but doesn't answer Q. He tells her: ‘You should say thank you very much for good judgement.’”

The Trump administration once again failed to stand up to China, this time for its role in this crisis.

Politico: “Trump, however, echoed many of those same assurances regarding China and its response to the virus throughout January and February, as the unique coronavirus began to infiltrate countries around the world. Just days before the U.S. recorded its first death from Covid-19, Trump touted China’s government for its transparency and hard work to defeat the coronavirus that causes the illness.”

Last Updated on Wednesday, 22 April 2020 10:30
 
Tweet With Us:

Share

Copyright © 2024. Green Bay Progressive. Designed by Shape5.com