I’m A Doctor. The U.S. Response To Coronavirus Has Been Nothing Short Of Criminal.

“With every crucial delay, with every blunder and misstep, the toll is going to be measured in lives lost.”

Dipti S. Barot

I am a doctor. And I am immunocompromised. I am safe at home screening patients over the phone for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, while my colleagues are marching into war with plastic water guns and papier-mâché bombs, lambs to the COVID-19 slaughter.

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“Unconscionable” is a feather-light word to use for the response to this pandemic by those in charge. After weeks of inaction, of downplaying the pandemic, of calling it a hoax, President Donald Trump had no choice but to shift tone once this crisis was undeniable. He then stood shoulder to shoulder at press conferences, shaking hands while declaring a national emergency that his own experts said only social distancing would quell. He has failed our nation.

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Each day we get more reports of health care workers infected, hospitalized, and dying all over the world. This week we lost the brilliant Dr. Steven Schwartz to COVID-19 in Seattle. Others will follow. They will continue to die because of the inaction of their leaders. Their lives will end because factories were not taken over by their governments to manufacture test kits and personal protective equipment in time. They will die because they are putting their limp, used masks in little brown paper bags after their 12-hour shift, to be used again tomorrow; they are wiping down their lone allotted face shields with disinfectant, or wrapping them in saran wrap, and cutting plastic Coke bottles to make new ones. They will inadvertently infect their patients because they are reusing disposable gowns, and MacGyver-ing equipment to make do with what they have to serve as many they can. Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is issuing guidance about how to use bandanas and scarves to deal with the dearth.

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I want to tell you about a few people in my life, that I know or have worked with, who are forced to risk their lives because of the dysfunction of our government leaders, because of the utter failure of a health care system that is based on profit and not people. I want to plead on their behalf the way people on TV will implore the shooter brandishing a gun in their face to have mercy because they have two small children and a mom with Alzheimer’s, hoping that if the shooter sees them as a real person, maybe they’ll survive. I want you to see them not as faceless health care workers but as humans behind their reused masks. They are the ones who will pay the price of terms like “Democratic hoax.”

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Here’s What Trump’s Environmental Agencies Were Doing During The Pandemic This Week

They approved pipelines and gold mines while attacking science as the death toll rises from the novel coronavirus and mass layoffs begin.

By Alexander C. Kaufman and Chris D’Angelo

The novel coronavirus pandemic tanked the stock market and sent jobless claims soaring to unprecedented levels this week, but did little to slow the White House’s efforts to boost fossil fuel production and roll back environmental safeguards.

On Wednesday, as the U.S. death toll surpassed 100 and the virus spread to all 50 states, the Trump administration widened what critics call one of its most aggressive assaults on science, auctioned drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico and greenlit the expansion of a mine.

It started when the Environmental Protection Agency formalized its plans to expand on a controversial proposal to restrict the scientific research used to make regulations, broadening the scope to include non-regulatory divisions of the agency as well.

By the afternoon, the Interior Department wrapped up an auction to sell oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico, offering up some 78 million offshore acres ― an area roughly the size of New Mexico. It proved to be a bust, bringing in approximately $93 million for just shy of 400,000 acres, the smallest total for an offshore auction since 2016.

By the day’s end, the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management approved a nearly 500-acre expansion of a gold and silver mine on public lands near Bullhead City, Arizona.

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Kentucky's Response to COVID-19

Since the first case of novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was confirmed in Kentucky, Governor Beshear taken the following actions:

3/6/2020: Declared a State of Emergency.

3/6/2020: Activated the Emergency Management Operations Center.

3/7/2020: Activated the State Health Operations Center.

3/7/2020: Announced Kentucky's COVID-19 hotline, 1-800-722-5725.

3/7/2020: Announced Kentucky's COVID-19 informational website, kycovid19.ky.gov

3/7/2020: Issued an executive order to prohibit price gouging. Asked Attorney General Daniel Cameron to enforce the price-gouging laws. If anyone has information regarding possible price gouging, they should contact the Office of the Attorney General Consumer Protection hotline at 888-432-9257.

3/7/2020: Adjusted state government sick leave policy to ensure state employees who are sick can stay home – even for new employees who have not accrued leave time.

3/7/2020: Encouraged businesses to implement sick leave policy so sick employees, do not come to work and expose others because of financial concerns.

3/7/2020: Published the CDC guidelines with warnings for high-risk individuals. Those include:
Individuals over 60, do not go places where there are large crowds
Individuals that have heart, lung, or kidney disease, or have compromised immune systems, do not go to places where there are large crowds
For both of these vulnerable populations, do not fly, and whatever you do, do not get on a cruise ship.

3/7/2020: Recommended social distancing for those with high-risk. For a complete list of guidance on social distancing, click here.

3/9/2020: Issued an executive order to waive copays, deductibles, cost-sharing and diagnostic testing fees for private insurance and state employees. The Governor is also telling providers to expand their network to patients that may go outside their normal providers.

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3/18/2020: Announced that our food chain is safe, there is going to be enough out there for everyone

3/19/2020: Issued interim guidance for establishing partnerships between approved health care facilities and limited-duration child care programs to support child care for employees of health care entities, first responders (Law Enforcement, EMS, Fire Departments), corrections officers and Department for Community Based Services (DCBS) workers. The guidance is online at chfs.ky.gov and directly linked below.

Interim Guidance for Verification of Employment for Child Care within a Limited Duration Center
Interim Guidance for Limited Duration Child Care Programs
Requirements for Approved Child Care Programs During Emergency Period
Temporary Emergency Child Care Notification content example

3/19/2020: Announced that restaurants that have an active liquor license, that are also doing food delivery or carry out, may also deliver sealed alcoholic beverages, in their original containers to customers.

3/19/2020: Issued a formal letter banning all mass gatherings. The measure states what Gov. Beshear has previously recommended, including:

All mass gatherings are hereby prohibited.
Mass gatherings include any event or convening that brings together groups of individuals, including, but not limited to, community, civic, public, leisure, faith-based or sporting events; parades; concerts; festivals; conventions; fundraisers; and similar activities.

Twitter uses are calling out Republican senators Richard Burr (N.C.) and Kelly Loeffler (Georgia) following reports that the two dumped stocks after receiving intelligence briefings about the coronavirus threat.

Both were able to sell investments before this month’s market crash.

Neither lawmaker warned the public about the true nature of what the nation was facing; Burr even co-wrote an opinion piece for Fox News in early February crowing that the United States was “better prepared than ever before to face emerging public health threats, like the coronavirus.”

Days later, Burr ― who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee ― sold off between $628,000 and $1.72 million in stock in 33 separate transactions, according to ProPublica.

Loeffler sold off stock in dozens of transactions and also invested in a company that provides teleworking software, The Daily Beast reported on Thursday. Publicly, however, she accused Democrats of misleading the public about the threat and said Trump and his administration were “doing a great job working to keep Americans healthy & safe.”