Now I have to admit that intuitively everyone should suspect that a rise in mobility would lead to a rise in cases and even deaths. But the fact remains that this particular assumption (as logical as it might seem) has not really materialized. More to the point, there is no empirical data driven evidence to show that the harsher lock downs have been more effective in driving down the numbers.
So the question becomes, at what point in time do we start to make decisions based on the hard evidence as it exists and simply toss aside assumptions?
What I can tell you is that in the modern political world of the world wide web and social media that people are not only going to hang on to assumption as long as they can, but they will continue to shoot any and all messengers that attempts to undercut their reality.
This particular phenomenon is exasperated by a hatred of Donald Trump and the fact that Trump has rooted against the virus, has been upbeat about the possibility of moving past the virus, and has advocated reopening the economy. By knee jerk reaction, there are going to be liberals who simply root for the disease, be downcast about our possibilities, and demand that the economy cannot be reopened. It's called Trump derangement syndrome.
Unfortunately, this is too serious to be bogged down in petty political issues. The fact of the matter is that the same people screaming about following science are quite literally refusing to accept it (much less follow it). In the case of our Governor, he has outsourced his science to a local epidemiologist who quite literally built a model that was wrong by a large margin projecting what was happening at the very the time it was released.
I begs the question: how can you release a model with a straight face that has already predicted the previous week and the current week wrong, and say you are putting your response together based on these projections. It seems more than just a little desperate to hang on to a strongly held belief that is probably just dead wrong. More to the point, relying on obviously wrong data (just because it is in lines with your politics) is no way to make decisions that has pronounced impact on people's lives.
78 comments:
CHTruth:
More to the point, relying on obviously wrong data (just because it is in lines[sic] with your politics) is no way to make decisions that has[sic] pronounced impact on people's lives.
JAMES: I guess I could respect your opinion more if you had not stood by some of Trump's most outrageous false claims.
James, did I miss your answer to the following.
When you learned of Roger being homeless and suicidal, what help did you provide him?
I would like to ask the Reverend a serious question.. but I doubt he will answer it honestly, if at all.
Why is it, Reverend, that you associate literally EVERYTHING that happens with Trump?
Whether or not lock downs help or hurt has quite literally NOTHING at all with Trump. Trump is a complete and total non-factor to the statistics, empirical data, science, etc...
This issue should stand completely 100% on it's own... and have NOTHING to do with Trump or whether someone is a Republican or Democrat.
But why is it with you... that it always does have to do with Trump or being a Republican or Democrat?
Why can't you just accept the data as the data as the data as the data?
Why does it always require you to temper it based on which side it apparently backs up?
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CRIME
Home › Crime
Man ‘Killed By Minneapolis Police’ Is Identified As Civil Rights Attorney Ben Crump Steps In
George Floyd was ignored by officers who he repeatedly told, "I cannot breathe."
Bruce C.T. Wright
Written By Bruce C.T. Wright
Posted 2 hours ago
The unarmed Black man who died Monday in Minnesota police custody after cops tried to arrest him under the auspices of “forgery” has been identified. George Floyd is the name of the handcuffed man who was shown on viral video being pinned to the ground by a Minneapolis Police Department officer who appeared to be steadily applying pressure. Floyd could be heard on the video repeating, “I can’t breathe.”
Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump tweeted Floyd’s name Tuesday morning as outcry over what witnesses called “murder” was growing.
Crump announced later on Tuesday that he was representing Floyd’s family and called the deadly police response “abusive, excessive and inhumane.”
Crump made a plea via social media earlier in the day for people to help him identify Floyd or his family.
The Minneapolis Poice Department was quick to announce that no weapons were involved in the man’s death it downplayed as a “medical incident,” but the video prompted speculation on social media that he was killed as a result of police brutality. That sentiment was echoed by Crump, who tweeted that Floyd was “killed by Minneapolis police. Crump rightfully added in the tweet that forgery, the reported suspicion under which cops approached Floyd, is not a crime punishable by death.
The Minneapolis Police Department’s issued a press release about the incident that made no mention of the still-unidentified officer kneeling on Floyd’s neck. Instead, the department chose to classify the death as a “medical incident.”
However, Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo announced during a press conference Tuesday morning that both of the officers involved in Floyd’s death were on “relieved of duty status,” which reportedly differs from the standard protocol of placing cops on administrative leave following the death of a suspect.
A public information officer for the Minneapolis Police Department had previously said that Floyd “appeared to be under the influence.” When reporters asked whether that was a reference to drugs or alcohol or something else, Arradondo said the matter was under investigation. The case was swiftly referred to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension before it was announced Tuesday morning that the FBI would also be joining the investigation.
During the same press conference, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey spoke in no uncertain terms about how unacceptable Floyd’s death is and called it “wrong on every level.” He said Floyd’s life “mattered.”
Roger, how suicidal are you feeling these day.
Washington State Counting Gunshot Victims Among Its Coronavirus Deaths
Twitter issued a public apology to the family of a woman whom Donald Trump has repeatedly insinuated in tweets may have been murdered by MSNBC host Joe Scarborough.
But for now, the social network isn’t taking any actions against Trump’s account or the offending tweets on the subject.
The company’s statement comes after Timothy Klausutis, the husband of Lori Klausutis — who worked for Scarborough when he was a U.S. congressman — sent a letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey last week requesting that Twitter delete Trump’s tweets alluding to a years-old debunked conspiracy theory, as reported by the New York Times. Lori Klausutis died in 2001.
“We are deeply sorry about the pain these statements, and the attention they are drawing, are causing the family,”
But for now, the social network isn’t taking any actions against Trump’s account or the offending tweets on the subject.
That would be called censorship. The only thing I will say about those tweets is that I never knew the name of the victim until the family made that letter to @Jack public.
Scarborough's no saint but Trump should let this go.
The general election scenario that Democrats are dreading
"We are about to see the best economic data we’ve seen in the history of this country," says a top former economic adviser to Obama.
And we have hit the 100,000 mark. 100,000 families who were unable to comfort their loved ones as they laid dying. Countless children who lost a parent, parents who lost a child, siblings that lost their sibling. The worst part is that these losses could have been mitigated if Trump had taken the threat seriously in December, these numbers would be significantly lower. His conspiracy theories and failure to acknowledge he has no idea what he's talking about directly led to this
Yer an idiot, Roger
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=3687225191294421&id=100000209289936&sfnsn=mo
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/man-dies-after-pleading-i-can-t-breathe-during-arrest-n1214586
Yeah Roger, liberals kill.
Maybe Roger will tell us what info the world...and Trump...was getting from China and the WHO back in December. We'll wait.
alky,
andrew cuomo has more covid blood directly on his hands than trump ever could.
cuomo basically panicked, incorrectly projecting that he was going to need tens of thousands of hospital beds and tens of thousands of ventilators.
we sailed mercy ships to NYS and built a makeshift hospital at the javits center.
all for nothing.
all because cuomo went apeshit in his preening for the cameras every single day. the dumb fuck believed his own press clippings.
don't try to pin this on trump.
Cmon it’s Trump’s fault China can say and do nothing for weeks, months. Vast quantities of PPE can be clandestinely purchased in advance of a full outbreak. Outside inspectors and researchers can be prohibited from visiting Wuhan and learning more. A vast disinformation campaign can be quickly assembled to blame animals, Gaia, and westerners.
Piss off Roger
NOC Stock pays a smaller Dividend then The Home Depot.
🤣@DumbassDenny
Call, we are all trying to be nicer to Ole Suicidal Roger.
He has realized that his dream car (a 2020 Audi A8 , cost $85k) is a bridge too far.
China Blamed the US Military.
Myballs said...
Maybe Roger will tell us what info the world...and Trump...was getting from China and the WHO back in December. We'll wait.
And don't forget the 2 biggest things that Congress concentrated on in the last 6 months are a Ukrainian/Trump phone call that Trump released the transcript of and the House's essential vacations (at least 3 of those 6 months)
And Congress is STILL looking for "impeachable" offences. Other than spending trillions they haven't done much on the virus at all.
They should look at their witnesses from the last impeachment try. Schiff's star witnesses have now been shown to have lied under oath. How is that not a crime ?
4 Minneapolis police officers fired following death of George Floyd in police custody
Need to fire the mayor.
Blogger Roger Amick said...
4 Minneapolis police officers fired following death of George Floyd in police custody
so how does it tie back to trump, alky?
we all know that's the only reason you posted it.
The only tie to Trump I can see is the FBI investigation.
Roger, doesn't have any fight in him. he is a shell of his former self.
His 2nd ex kicking his ass out penniless and no family rallied in support. Homeless. I am Curious Roger, where oh where did those vast stock holding you bragged about since yahoo Soars Boards go?
I will say things like this happen when Cops are forced to enforce unconstitutional executive orders in the name of "public health" but that is on Minnesota's Democrat governor.
Without exception the most tyrannical, draconian, and prolonged restrictions were implemented by blue state Democrats.
And with the Political story about Democrats fear of the economy rebounding too quickly, it's obvious why they put these draconian rules into effect and it has nothing to do with science. (unless it's political science you're talking about).
Just think CS all these blue states still in complete shutdown and FL is launching Americans into space tomorrow, for the first time in a LLLOOONNGG time
Roger -
Did you notice the post about Eli Blake?
Just think CS all these blue states still in complete shutdown and FL is launching Americans into space tomorrow, for the first time in a LLLOOONNGG time
A lot of people on Coco Beach will be watching. The only downer, it's going to be cloudy with some showers.
Yes, he has liver cancer.
He's not a candidate for a liver transplant. Sad story.
Sad indeed.
How do the hateful things KD says about others fit in with the teachings of Jesus?
The Price of a Virus Lockdown: Economic ‘Free Fall’ in California
And now you care about Ca.....that is hysterical even for a loser like you!!!!! BWAAAAAAAAA!!!!
The things I say about Roger are stories he hold us in Yahoo, here and Facebook.
I assume he was telling his real life story.
FL is launching Americans into space tomorrow, for the first time in a LLLOOONNGG time
BWAAAAAAAA!!!!! Elon Musk from Ca and his rocket are launching not floriduh you dumb fuck...Only a couple hundred were involved here with mission control and manufacturing out of Hawthorne Ca!!!! Nice try you dumb ass!!!!!
Elon Musk from Ca and his rocket are launching not floriduh you dumb fuck
Someone needs to let fatty know Cape Canaveral is in FL.
Stoopid
In early April, Jason Furman, a top economist in the Obama administration and now a professor at Harvard, was speaking via Zoom to a large bipartisan group of top officials from both parties. The economy had just been shut down, unemployment was spiking and some policymakers were predicting an era worse than the Great Depression. The economic carnage seemed likely to doom President Donald Trump’s chances at reelection.
Furman, tapped to give the opening presentation, looked into his screen of poorly lit boxes of frightened wonks and made a startling claim.
“We are about to see the best economic data we’ve seen in the history of this country,” he said.
The former Cabinet secretaries and Federal Reserve chairs in the Zoom boxes were confused, though some of the Republicans may have been newly relieved and some of the Democrats suddenly concerned.
“Everyone looked puzzled and thought I had misspoken,” Furman said in an interview. Instead of forecasting a prolonged Depression-level economic catastrophe, Furman laid out a detailed case for why the months preceding the November election could offer Trump the chance to brag — truthfully — about the most explosive monthly employment numbers and gross domestic product growth ever.
Since the Zoom call, Furman has been making the same case to anyone who will listen, especially the close-knit network of Democratic wonks who have traversed the Clinton and Obama administrations together, including top members of the Biden campaign.
Furman’s counterintuitive pitch has caused some Democrats, especially Obama alumni, around Washington to panic. “This is my big worry,” said a former Obama White House official who is still close to the former president. Asked about the level of concern among top party officials, he said, “It’s high — high, high, high, high.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/26/2020-election-democrats-281470
The Trump administration recently started the process of planning for a transition of power if Biden wins, creating a transition planning group to prepare for the possibility.
But Trump has rarely been encumbered by fidelity to tradition. And Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen once predicted in congressional testimony that there “will never be a peaceful transition of power” if Trump loses.
“Would I be surprised if he gets beat in November and makes noises about not going out the door? No, and then what kind of constitutional crisis would that create, and then what would you do?” said Mark Longabaugh, a senior adviser to Bernie Sanders during his 2016 campaign.
He likened the prospect facing Democrats to that of the 2000 presidential election, in which the Supreme Court prohibited further recounts of the Florida vote, awarding the presidency to George W. Bush over Democrat Al Gore.
“If it’s narrow, that’s when Trump can really create a constitutional crisis,” Longabaugh said. “Think about the 2000 election, and if that was the election, what would Trump do? And you know, what would Trump do if the Supreme Court went against him? Would he do what Al Gore did and put the interests of the country above his own interests whether or not the Supreme Court was correct in its behavior or not? That’s where you get into, I think, scary territory.”
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At a minimum, Democratic doubts about Trump's willingness to accept the November results have increased the imperative to win by indisputable margins — a heavy lift in an election that is widely expected to be close.
"My job is to make sure he loses Wisconsin so badly that he doesn’t have an argument for sticking around that passes the smell test,” said Ben Wikler, chairman of the state Democratic Party in Wisconsin, a state that is critical to Trump’s path to reelection.
Noting that Trump has "filed a lot of lawsuits" in the past, he said, “The bigger the margin, the safer democracy becomes.”
But outside of a court challenge, Trump’s options to disregard the election’s outcome are extremely limited.
“There’s a lot of people that need to do something to hold and implement the results of an election,” said David A. Super, a professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center who has analyzed scenarios in which Trump could attempt to hold on to power. “None of them is named Donald J. Trump. … There’s absolutely no authority for canceling or overriding an election in the Constitution or in the statutes. And it would require the president to get multiple people to fairly blatantly disregard their oaths to uphold the Constitution.”
The concerns about Trump’s intentions are reminiscent to some Democrats of the anxiety they felt in the 1970s, when the net was closing around Richard Nixon and some feared he may not go easily.
The difference, said Les Francis, a former deputy White House chief of staff in the Carter administration, is that Nixon made an “institutional decision” to resign, while “one thing we know about Trump, for sure, is he’s not an institutionalist by any stretch of the imagination.”
“I don’t think there’s any depth to which he will not go,” Francis said. “I don’t think there are any rules that he thinks apply to him. As his behavior grows worse, I think people become more alarmed at the possibilities.”
"The historic importance of Demo-2 is drawing a wide audience, from Wall Street to Silicon Valley to the nation's capital. VIPs scheduled to attend at NASA's Kennedy Space Center include President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. SpaceX founder and CEO Musk plans to watch from within the mission control room just a few miles from the launch site."
Dopie wins again.
The BULLSHIT OF TRUMP is getting rather deep......It's in your waders UGA loser....apparently you enjoy wallowing in shit with your constant love affair with donnie and his bulbous fat white ass!!!!! Why is that????? BWAAAAAAA!!!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/05/26/twitter-msnbcs-scarborough-scramble-respond-insane-trump-conspiracy-theory/
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Twitter, MSNBC’s Scarborough scramble to respond to insane Trump conspiracy theory
Joe Scarborough, the co-host of MSNBC's "Morning Joe," in Cambridge, Mass., in October 2017.
Joe Scarborough, the co-host of MSNBC's "Morning Joe," in Cambridge, Mass., in October 2017. (Steven Senne/AP)
Image without a caption
By
Erik Wemple
Media critic
May 26, 2020 at 4:20 p.m. EDT
While other Americans were adapting their Memorial Day rituals to the coronavirus age, President Trump spent part of his holiday weekend tweeting about MSBNC “Morning Joe” co-host (and Post Opinions contributor) Joe Scarborough:
On Saturday, there was this:
And so on:
Trump’s reckless tweet addressed a circumstance that needn’t invade contemporary American life: In 2001, Lori Klausutis, a 28-year-old aide working in the Fort Walton Beach, Fla., office of then-Republican congressman Joe Scarborough, died while at work. Foul play wasn’t alleged at the time: “An autopsy revealed that Klausutis had an undiagnosed heart condition and a coroner concluded she passed out and hit her head as she fell,” notes a fact-check from the Associated Press. “The coroner said the head injury caused the death, but she wasn’t struck by another person.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/25/donald-trump-rigged-election-talk-fears-274477
"The historic importance of Demo-2 is drawing a wide audience, from Wall Street to Silicon Valley to the nation's capital. VIPs scheduled to attend at NASA's Kennedy Space Center include President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. SpaceX founder and CEO Musk plans to watch from within the mission control room just a few miles from the launch site."
Dopie wins again.
Don’t forget Musk is threatening the former Mr Kimberly Guilfoyle that he is ready to leave California for friendlier environs, because of prissy’s continued shutdown in California
And that was it from James.
He signed in to take a shot at me. too Funny.
Yet, James, in Rogers low time of homelessness, dispare and suicidal thoughts, you helped him how?.
needs to let fatty know Cape Canaveral is in F
YOU DUMB FUCKING IDIOT.....YOUR POST "shutdown and FL is launching American" You want to try writing that again or do you want to go thru life as a stupid fuck from Ga??????? BWAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!
Are they being launched at Cape Canaveral or no, fatman?
Are you this fucking stupid? Don’t answer we all already know.
Don’t forget Musk is threatening the former Mr Kimberly G
And don't forget I caught your old white ass again....and elon will never leave Ca!!!!!!! BWAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!
You didn’t catch anything dumbass, the launch is tomorrow from Florida. Duh
Are you that obstinate or lazy....You posted Fl is launching......they are not....elon musk is launching with nasa!!!!!!! Floriduh other than the cape has nothing to do with it!!!!!
Dopie is as confused as Biden.
KEEP DIGGING YOU DUMB FUCK!!!! Your words you dumb salesman!!!!!! Fl is not launching anyone but your idiocy !!!!!
President Donald Trump has repeatedly blamed former President Barack Obama for his own administration’s mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic.
“The last administration left us nothing,” Trump said last month.
But the St. Louis Post-Dispatch found that Trump’s own budget documents show the opposite ― exposing what it called “a lie of colossal Trumpian proportions.”
The newspaper’s editorial board said the Trump administration told Congress that the Obama administration left it with everything needed for a pandemic ― and sought big budget cuts from the programs as a result.
Trump’s 2020 budget asked Congress to cut the pandemic preparedness budget by $102.9 million, part of $595.5 million in requested cuts to public health preparedness and response outlay.
“Obama left office with an unblemished record of building up the nation’s pandemic preparedness,” the newspaper said. “Trump systematically sought to dismantle it.”
Trump has since blamed his predecessor for lack of personal protective equipment and testing supplies, saying “our cupboards were bare. We had very little in our stockpile.”
But the newspaper said a chart provided by the Trump administration with the budget shows that by 2016 ― Obama’s final year in office ― the nation’s public health emergency preparedness was at least 98% on every key measure.
“That’s by the Trump administration’s own assessment,” the Post-Dispatch said. “If the cupboard was bare, it’s because Trump swept it clean.”
Everything has to be explained to fatty in monosyllabic terms. It’s not about NASA or Musk, it’s the fact that while CA and the Acela corridor are in lockdown, 1000s upon 1000s will be on hand to watch a space launch of Americans, for the 1st time since 2011 from our soil, tomorrow In FLORIDA.
god damn you are stupid
And the old cuntish goat fucker adds his worthless 2 cents and now sucking a salesman little dick!!!!!! BWAAAAAAAAA!!!!
on 1000s will be on hand to watch a space launch of Americans,
Really you dumb fuck....the Cape is closed to visitors......beaches and jetty park have limited access......however, my front yard is available to any one who wants.....BWAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!
Presidential Race Still Leans to Biden
Stuart Rothenberg:
“Despite all these developments, I see little reason to change my assessment of the presidential race. The country is as polarized as it was two months ago, and the trajectory of the contest is essentially unchanged, with Biden holding a comfortable lead in national polling and having multiple paths to 270 electoral votes.
“While daily developments give the cable television networks something to chatter about, today’s big story will be replaced by a new one tomorrow, and another one the day after that. But the fundamentals of the race remain unchanged.”
“That doesn’t mean the outcome is inevitable. A dramatic development could change things. But for now, Trump’s options are narrowing as Election Day approaches. The White House will need to do something dramatic to alter the trajectory of the race.”
"RALEIGH, N.C. — Coronavirus outbreaks at meat processing plants are forcing North Carolina farmers to euthanize 1.5 million chickens, according to a state official.
Assistant Agriculture Commissioner Joe Reardon told The News & Observer that this is the first time during the pandemic that farmers in the state have had to euthanize their animals.
Roughly a third of the 1.5 million chickens already had been killed, Reardon said."
Warned you all 2 months ago as this continues today.
James, I will take you off the hook.
I could see the shuttle launches from Savannah fatman.
There will be 1000s lining A1A tomorrow, idiot
On a good day a launch from Cape Canaveral can be seen from most of Florida, South Georgia and South Carolina.
Tomorrow, maybe no further than Orlando to the west, Jupiter to the south and Jacksonville to the north.
But don't worry, the beaches will still be filled.
Oh my goodness even the local police are in agreement with me over the the double naught secret accountant
Police Prep for Heavy Crowds, Traffic for Historic Crewed SpaceX Launch
Yeah, they're will be more taking off than a Space-X rocket.
Funny that the UGA loser raised his white flag finally and still tried to be a tough guy!!!!!! BWAAAAAAAA!!!
Prep for Heavy Crowds, Traffic for Historic Crewed SpaceX Launch
Week old news asshole....did you actually read it or was that too difficult for your genius???? BWAAAAAAAAA!!!!! Titus ville is a small town you fucking asshole......
Fatty you’re a simpleton.
Oh and I WIN AGAIN
It’s the 26th the byline on the article is the 24th, that’s not a week stupid
God I’m good but fatty continue to quiver in place, the rest of us younger and healthier will live our lives
COCOA BEACH, Fla. – Brevard County government officials expects roads, parking lots and beaches to be packed on May 27 when NASA and SpaceX plan to launch two astronauts on Florida’s first human spaceflight mission in nine years.
"Knowing it's a historic event, we realize there's going to be a lot of folks coming here," Brevard County Communications Director Don Walker said.
For those concerned about gathering for a major rocket launch during a pandemic, the county said do not expect visitors to get in trouble if they're too close to one another.
“There are no social distancing police out there,” Walker said. “Law enforcement will be out and about and if they do see people who aren’t practicing social distancing, they’ll remind them but there’s really nothing you can do that’s going to force people to practice social distancing.”
The Cocoa Beach Pier will limit how many people will be on its boardwalk.
Presidential Race Still Leans to Biden
Stuart Rothenberg:
I wonder how much Rothenberg has put down on this race?
He can get good odds to take Dementia Joe right now!
Maybe he can recoup his losses from 2016 when he projected a Clinton landslide!
the first time prompted readers to check the facts in tweets sent by U.S. President Donald Trump, warning readers his claims about mail-in ballots were false and had been debunked by fact checkers.
The blue exclamation mark notification prompted readers to "get the facts about mail-in ballots" and directed them to a page with news articles and information from fact-checkers about the claims.
"Trump makes unsubstantiated claim that mail-in ballots will lead to voter fraud," a headline at the top of the page said.
Trump had claimed in tweets earlier in the day that mail-in ballots would be "substantially fraudulent" and result in a "rigged election." He also singled out the governor of California over the issue, although the state is not the only one to use mail-in ballots.
Twitter confirmed this was the first time it had applied a label to a tweet by the president under its new "misleading information" policy, introduced earlier in the month.
Twitter on Tuesday for the first time prompted readers to check the facts in tweets sent by U.S. President Donald Trump, warning readers his claims about mail-in ballots were false and had been debunked by fact checkers.
And immediately they were proven wrong by an article by the New York Times.
Funny thing about twitter fact checkers. The never admit they are wrong and they never retract a fact check.
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
@Twitter is now interfering in the 2020 Presidential Election. They are saying my statement on Mail-In Ballots, which will lead to massive corruption and fraud, is incorrect, based on fact-checking by Fake News CNN and the Amazon Washington Post....
....Twitter is completely stifling FREE SPEECH, and I, as President, will not allow it to happen!
CNN and the Wahington Post as "Fact Checkers" ROFLMFAO !!!
Youtube apologized today for a "mistake" of automatically taking down all comments critical of China's Communist Party. And Twitter has no problems censoring/removing the right also. Google search results are blatantly returning "progressive" favoring results.
But somehow all the Russian collusion HOAX posts are/were OK ??? And all the W.H.O. false postings... guess it's "who" you are on the political spectrum.
Something else that needs fixing. Big Tech is out of control, I think the president is pushing their buttons at just the right time.
Open Letter from Local Public Health Professionals on Los Angeles Pandemic:
Failing to Protect the Most Vulnerable
While the firestorm of the Pandemic in Los Angeles County continues in our nursing homes and accounts for at least half of all COVID-19 deaths in the county, we need to step back and ask, “Who led us into this mess and why have the most vulnerable populations been needlessly exposed to this virus?” Most heads will turn towards Barbara Ferrer, PhD in social welfare, the current Director of the Department of Public Health (DPH). Initial reports to staff touted her as having come from the Kellogg Foundation and, before that, the Boston Health Department as a commissioner there. But, in truth, none of her experience qualified her for the job here in Los Angeles where over the years we have faced and effectively managed serious communicable disease health crises.
As Ms. Ferrer stepped into the role of Director, she replaced a career employee in the Department, Cynthia Harding, who has a very strong epidemiology background, and who had ably done the job as “acting” director for over two years with Dr. Jeffrey Gunzenhauzer as Acting Health Officer for the same time period, following the retirement of Dr. Jonathan Fielding. During Ms. Harding’s tenure she consistently deferred to the Health Officer as the face and lead medical decision maker for communicable disease outbreaks in our communities, utilizing some the of country’s top epidemiology and infectious disease physicians in DPH as well as very experienced field Public Health Nurses. Dr. Fielding’s legacy of open and active participation of experienced staff and managers during public health threats, while also intervening to alleviate health disparities in disadvantaged and high-risk populations, is no longer the case in DPH under the current leadership. Communicable disease control is no longer a departmental priority.
Once Ms. Ferrer was appointed as Director, one of her first moves was to notify all department program directors that she was to be the ONLY voice and contact with the Board offices. This broke down a chain of communication in place for many years that allowed local public health managers to assist constituents that contacted their local Board offices about a variety of health issues and act quickly on public health threats. Ms. Ferrer is the ONLY control point for Board questions and communication in the department. Even now, many managers complain that they don’t know what’s going on and are not being well utilized for the pandemic. Her only communication with them are occasional “chips and salsa” sessions or virtual town halls.
Perhaps these questions need further investigation once the pandemic has quieted:
Why did Barbara Ferrer leave the Boston public health department and why did she leave the Kellogg Foundation, where she indicated she was sidelined for months prior to getting the job in LA?
Why were lead departmental managers stripped of direct reporting employees while she hired friends from Boston who knew little of LA and its complex of communities?
Why, during the meningococcal outbreak in 2017-18, did Barbara Ferrer refuse to vaccinate paramedics, fire and police until a police union official called her out on it at a public Board meeting?
Why have a series of highly experienced managers been transferred, mysteriously loaned out of DPH to other departments, or retired?
Did Barbara Ferrer mandate a large budget cut to the Communicable Disease Control unit in the months just prior to the pandemic?
But here are the most important questions NOW as we are in the middle of this mess here in LA:
Why did Barbara Ferrer ignore early warnings from infectious disease physicians within the department and broader public health community?
Why was the LA Marathon allowed to take place?
Why isn’t County Health Officer Muntu Davis, MD, in charge of the public health response?
Why is Barbara Ferrer the “Incident Commander” for the Pandemic as well as the chief spokesperson?
Why weren’t the nursing homes an early point of control for the spread of SARS-CoV-2, particularly after seeing the reports of what happened in the nursing home in Washington state?
Why were nursing home employees allowed to work at multiple nursing home facilities at the same time even before any testing was available and continue to do so even now?
Why did DPH direct nursing home operators to accept COVID-19 patients rather than utilize the reactivated St. Vincent’s hospital?
Why were nursing home staff who were asymptomatic but tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 allegedly allowed to remain at work?
Why did DPH give the Mayor a recommendation to house homeless in city rec centers against CDC recommendations?
Why didn’t Ms. Ferrer request National Guard medical corps from the Governor to assist in disease control in these nursing homes?
Why did she hire an outside firm to process the data she uses rather than rely on highly experienced internal epidemiology staff?
Why don’t we have sufficient data on nursing home deaths, including at the state level?
Why did the County extend a contract to an outside MD to manage testing rather than rely on staff with successful community organizing for mass vaccination and community outreach efforts?
We have a public health department leader that expects a relatively small cadre of physicians and public health staff to control well over 400 nursing home outbreaks involving thousands of nursing home patients, and outbreaks in shelters serving nearly 60,000 homeless in our county. Current staff engaged in these outbreaks are exhausted and carry on valiantly without consistent department-level leadership, instead relying on what they understand as good public health practice, working long hours and making headway in this effort. They deserve our support and thanks.
Anyone with a depth of public health experience in dealing with outbreaks will tell you that controlling hot spots such as nursing homes would have been first on the list of community controls to stop the spread of COVID 19, instead of making such pronouncements as “you can walk on the wet sand, but not the dry sand at the beach.”
Deeply concerned,
Local Public Health Professionals
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