“(my) authority is total”
-Trump regarding COVID-19 response (4-13-20)
Virtually all infectious disease experts have made it clear that the USA needs a comprehensive National Pandemic Plan to address COVID-19. Clearly, we haven’t had one. Despite President Trump saying he has complete authority, he has taken no responsibility. At the last debate, he once again blamed China. So, the problem was dumped in the laps of governors. Further, as opposed to what Trump said, the worst cases per capita are not in the blue states like California. They are in the states that voted for Trump. Listed by the most cases per capita this year (as of 10-25-20), these states are North Dakota, South Dakota, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Iowa, Tennessee, Arkansas, Wisconsin, South Carolina and Georgia.
Similarly, the top ten states for COVID increases in the last week are all states that voted for Trump in 2016 (https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#trends). For example, compare COVID cases per hundred thousand for 2020: 2,242 for California and 3,306 for Georgia. Plus, our current test positivity rate is 6.7% versus 2.7% for California, indicating that we will continue to have a much tougher time with COVID (https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/state-data-and-policy-actions-to-address-coronavirus/). Why? Because of how each Governor approached the pandemic crisis.
The Governor of California tries to control the spread of COVID-19 using science as his guide. Following Trump’s lead, Georgia’s Governor uses politics as his measure of success, ignoring medical guidelines.
Initially, Governor Gavin Newsom took the politically easy route, letting each of California’s 58 counties decide how they were going to employ COVID restrictions. However, this resulted in a severe escalation in cases in the spring and early summer (https:// thehill.com/policy/healthcare/522530-how-california-turned-the-corner-on-covid-19).
Therefore, in July and August, the Governor had the good sense and political courage to take charge. He closed down places where spreading obviously occurs, like bars and amusement parks. He also installed a flexible tiered system to classify counties based on how rapidly COVID-19 was spreading. He has stayed true to his plan, despite negative reaction from influential self-serving business interest groups.
Governor Brian Kemp has taken the opposite approach, hoping that the pandemic will somehow just go away (https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/ 2020/08/georgia-brian-kemp-authoritarian/615010/). Kemp failed to address the epidemic in March, when many other Governors acted. When he finally did act in April, his Executive Order on closures was weak, with no mandate on mask wearing in public. And then, ignoring national guidelines, he suddenly reopened the state in May even though the pandemic was still raging. Even Trump thought that was too early.
Businesses like gyms and restaurants were opened up, even though the virus was still spreading rapidly. He even opened the bars. And he went so far as issuing an Order prohibiting local cities and counties from enacting mask mandates, initially even suing the City of Atlanta. Kemp’s inaction caused a tremendous spike in cases.
Kemp isn’t up for election this year, like Trump. But I wish he was.
Jack Bernard was the first Director of Health Planning for Georgia and served two terms on the Jasper County Board of Health. He retired as a Senior Vice President with a national healthcare corporation. He is now a widely published, nationally known expert on healthcare reform.
Just like everyone else you complain, identify problems and point fingers. If you were Director of Health Planning for Georgia then you are part of the problem for not identifying as stratigic planning or having a pandemic plan in place from your time as the director.
Jack did have a pandemic plan in place. He has publicly endorsed Medicare for All years ago. And that policy is “socialistic” just like our fire departments, police departments, public libraries, interstate highways, public schools, military , internet etc. Socialism properly defined and not used as a fifth grade swear word, ” Socialism is when people come together in an economy to solve common problems that none of us could solve on our own. ” Sound radical ? – Robert Freeman , Common Dreams, 9/15/2009.
Example of bad socialism – Bailing out Wall Street and not Main Street. ” The Super Wealthy using the government to make themselves richer at the expense of everybody else. ”
Unvarnished Truth – Prevent Pandemics by properly funding Public Health. Global consensus is that , at a minimum, 6% of a nation’s health spending should be devoted to public health efforts. The U.S. has never spent more than half that much. – Washington Post 8/31/20 authors Chelsea Janes and William Wan. ” The nation’s public health agencies are ailing when they’re needed most. ”
Google on ” Spanish Flu 1918 ” and find that evidence indicates pandemic started on Western Kansas hog farms located near Army bases training soldiers getting shipped to Europe to fight in WW 1.
If “Medicare for all” is a pandemic plan then we are in very serious trouble. Medicare is a taxpayer funded, government supervised, rationed healthcare plan for the elderly and disabled. There are certainly some benefits but there are also serious problems with it as well. That “Medicare for all” is the panacea for what ails the American healthcare system is nothing more than socialist dogma and pure unadulterated balderdash. We need to find solutions involving both the public and private sectors and work to preserve both for the best result. Without the private sector and its financial contributions, with all of its inadequacies, the public sector would be mediocre, at best, in its ability to perform its functions. Previous administrations, and that includes the Clinton, Bush and Obama admins, had plenty of time ( 24 years between the 3 administrations ) to create a plan to protect us from the current pandemic, but, alas, they all were negligent. and did not. Should we not hold these previous political administrations responsible for our current inability to quickly and adequately respond? Does anyone really believe that if a socialist democrat had occupied the office of the presidency during this current pandemic that he/she would have done a better job responding to the pandemic? Here’s a wakeup call for any o who are suffering from that delusion, the virus had made its way to our shores long before the World Health Organization and the Chinese government admitted there was a problem and even the medical experts advising the president were not expecting the virus to hit our shores when it was first “officially “confirmed to be transmissible between humans. Shouldn’t the socialist dems , have screamed at the top of their lungs that a pandemic was upon us in 2019 if they were aware of it at that time or even in early Jan of 2020 before the WHO officially notified us and started work to combat it immediately rather than wasting time attempting a ludicrous, pointless, time-consuming and costly impeachment ? Why didn’t any of the previous administrations consider that manufacturing of PPE, medications etc.. should never have been outsourced to distant lands especially to countries who are our allies? Did any of the previous administrations ever believe that we could trust the Marxist Chinese government to be truthful and compassionate toward their neighbors? Why is our government always inefficiently reactive rather than efficiently proactive? Regarding socialism, it has been with us for centuries in one form or other. There have been numerous variations of it and Nazism and Marxism are a couple of repugnant and oppressive examples. In America today the term “progressivism” is nothing more than a euphemism for socialism. Although the term sounds appealing to the uninformed it is deceiving and unfortunately there is nothing “progressive’ about socialism. Government confiscation of most or all of private wealth production for what the socialists, and only the socialist’s, determine is beneficial for all is Marxist. Yes, the government has socialized many industries in the U.S. and some have been of unquestionable benefit but there have also been some serious problems and failures. When was the last time Medicare refused to pay for as test or medication recommended by your personal physician? Socialism is not the answer to all of our problems and it needs to be limited and be kept in check just as capitalism requires checks and balances to prevent corruption and abuse. Incidentally, if infusing more money into the public health system is the sole answer to solving our public health problems, a common socialist cry, then we can we expect the same response we have received from throwing more money at our government run public education system. The U.S. is second in. the world for spending on secondary education but somewhere around 17th for high school graduation rate. How much more money do we need to take from the working class in the form of taxes to reach first place? Is more money the answer to all of our problems or do we need to start holding individuals responsible for poor outcomes? Regarding the Spanish flu, there is good evidence that it actually began in China in 1917 and not the U.S. in 1918. However, the Chinese government propaganda machine would have the world believe otherwise, and many American socialists who are sympathetic to the Chinese Marxists are parroting this propaganda. Like all pandemics, including the current one, there will be an epicenter followed by waves of infection that spread at variable rates throughout the rest off the population. Due to influenza’s capacity to mutate during a pandemic there may also appear to be additional epicenters. when, in fact, this is not the case. In 1917, tens of thousands of Chinese workers left northern china where there was a documented respiratory flu-like epidemic, and these workers traveled to Europe and Canada to work. Doe this sound familiar? No no one knows and we may never know for certain the origin of the Spanish flu but what we do know is that year after year our current influenza vaccines are created predominantly against strains of avian influenza that originate in China.