The Washington Post has published a harrowing account by insiders of Trump’s case of Covid19 last October that was downplayed and lied about since the day he got sick.  As we all assumed, Trump was a LOT more ill than his staff or doctors lead us to believe, and he left for the hospital only when convinced how bad it would look if he waited so long that he would be taken on a gurney rather than walking to Marine One.  The story also confirms what we all assumed, that he lived ONLY because he was president.  WH doctors poured every known treatment to him as he got more ill, including the experimental therapy, the monoclonal antibody treatment.  And then HHS secretary Alex Azar pulled strings so Trump could jump the line in front of others.  At the time Trump received the treatment, only 10 people had received it.  That treatment, and the others performed at the same time (which was unprecedented) undoubtedly saved his sorry life.

Trump’s contempt for science, human life, and common sense is well known.  He forced aides to remove their masks in his presence, even while complaining to them that WH visitors would often get too close to him during events he insisted on holding.  Covid19 outbreaks became so common that then CDC director Robert Redfield labeled 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue as “not safe”. Because of Trump’s defiant ignorance, untold numbers of staffers, their families, and visitors were exposed and fell ill.  Almost 900 Secret Service employees contracted the infection, HALF of them special agents who protected Trump, his family, and Pence.  God knows how many fell ill from exposure during Trump’s idiotic Hitleresque rallies.

The worst part of this story, though, was that the gargantuan effort to save Trump actually backfired.  Everyone had assumed that Trump having a near death experience would change him and he would reverse himself on the Coronavirus response, encouraging mitigation measures and preparing for the vaccine.  Doctors were trying to decide when they would start speaking their mind about the disease.  Staffers were preparing for a reversal of Trump idiocy.  They were all wrong.  Literally dead wrong.  Trump insisted on returning to the WH early, and when he did return he was still very ill, but even more defiant.  He insisted on climbing the stairs on the South Portico and barely made it.  He then turned to the cameras and yanked off his mask revealing his heavy orange stage makeup, turned and stalked back into the WH.  Nothing changed.

That was the day that hope died because Trump didn’t.  And that’s the truth.

Yesterday, the Trump administration announced that it would like to guarantee an Ebola outbreak in the US this year.  As we all know, Ebola is a highly contagious and deadly disease.  During the last African outbreak, the US lead the way with other OECD countries to fund prevention, treatment, and screening at the source to protect our own shores.  We only had one actual case of Ebola and a couple of American doctors treated here who had contracted the disease in Africa.

Welp, ol’ Trumpie thinks all that disease prevention stuff is a waste of money, and to make it easier for Ebola to reach our shores next time, he’s just slashed 80 PERCENT of disease outbreak prevention spending from the CDC’s budget.  Isn’t that just a fine idea?  Yeah, I think the same thing.

MAKE AMERICA SICK AGAIN!

Brenda Fitzgerald, Trump appointee to head the Center for Disease Control has abruptly resigned.  In the announcement, the administration cited her reason as “complex financial interests”.  OK, let’s translate that into English…Fitzgerald owns tobacco company stocks and other investments that conflict her with the mission of the CDC.  As we all know, fighting tobacco use and its associated diseases is one of the CDC’s flagship missions.  And, it gets better…Because of her investments, she has conflicted herself out of testifying before Congress.  Interesting strategy – “I’m so conflicted in my job that I can’t testify as to what I’m doing in my job.”  Anyhoo, she finally caved and has resigned rather than divest as required.  What better person to fight tobacco use than someone invested in tobacco, right?

Here’s the good part.  She bought the tobacco company stock…wait for it…AFTER she was appointed head of CDC and had toured the agency’s tobacco research lab.  That’s rich.