U.S. faces 'darkest winter' if pandemic planning falters - whistleblower

[webfact]

U.S. faces 'darkest winter' if pandemic planning falters - whistleblower

By Jan Wolfe and Makini Brice

 

Dr. Richard Bright, former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, testifies during a House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health hearing to discuss protecting scientific integrity in response to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., May 14, 2020. Shawn Thew/Pool via REUTERS

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A whistleblower who says he was removed from his government post for raising concerns about coronavirus preparedness told a congressional hearing on Thursday that the United States could face "the darkest winter" of recent times if it does not improve its response to the pandemic.

 

Hours after President Donald Trump railed against him on Twitter, whistleblower Rick Bright testified to a U.S. House of Representatives panel about readiness for the outbreak.

 

Bright was removed last month as director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA, a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services responsible for developing drugs to fight the coronavirus.

 

"What we do must be done carefully with guidance from the best scientific minds. Our window of opportunity is closing. If we fail to improve our response now, based on science, I fear the pandemic will get worse and be prolonged," Bright said during his testimony.

 

The pandemic has infected nearly 1.4 million people in the United States, gutted the economy and killed more than 82,000.

 

Bright testified to the subcommittee on health that he would "never forget" an e-mail he got in January from a U.S. supplier of medical-grade face masks warning of a dire shortage.

 

"He said 'we are in deep shit. The world is. We need to act,'" Bright said. "And I pushed that forward to the highest level that I could of HHS and got no response."

 

Bright testified that the U.S. still lacked a comprehensive plan for ensuring a supply of basic supplies like swabs needed to administer coronavirus tests.

 

Trump, who has been pushing for the U.S. economy to reopen quickly, dismissed Bright as a "disgruntled employee" on Twitter on Thursday morning before the hearing begun.

 

Later on Thursday, Trump told reporters at the White House that he had watched some of Bright’s hearing.

 

"To me he's nothing more than a really disgruntled, unhappy person," Trump said, adding that he did not know Bright.

 

"Everything he's complaining about was achieved," HHS Secretary Alex Azar told reporters.

 

Earlier this week, leading U.S. infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci warned a Senate committee that a premature lifting of lockdowns could lead to additional outbreaks of the deadly coronavirus. Trump on Wednesday described Fauci's warning as not acceptable.

 

In a whistleblower complaint filed with a government watchdog last week, Bright said that he warned about the virus in January and was met with hostility from HHS leaders.

 

Bright, who was reassigned to a new government job last month, said he was ousted from BARDA because he resisted efforts to push the drugs hydroxychloroquine and the related chloroquine as cures for COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus.

 

Bright said in the statement last month that the U.S. government has promoted the medicines as a "panacea" even though they "clearly lack scientific merit."

 

HHS spokeswoman Caitlin Oakley has disputed Bright's account, saying in a statement on Tuesday that he was transferred to a job where he was entrusted to spend around $1 billion to develop diagnostic testing.

 

"We are deeply disappointed that he has not shown up to work on behalf of the American people and lead on this critical endeavour," Oakley said.

 

Bright testified that he has not started his new government job because he has hypertension and took a medical leave.

 

The House subcommittee was also hearing on Thursday from Mike Bowen, co-owner of Prestige Ameritech, the largest U.S. surgical mask producer.

 

It was Bowen who sent Bright an email in January warning that the United States would run out of medical-grade face masks if it did not ramp up production, according to documents included in Bright's whistleblower complaint.

 

(Reporting by Jan Wolfe and Makini Brice; Additional reporting by Jeff Mason and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Scott Malone, Cynthia Osterman and Alistair Bell)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-05-15

 

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[rabas]

Millions of people around the world realized in early January that the world was in deep shlt. Governments every where faltered and failed. Now is not a good time for politics as usual.

 

The open up or close issue is one of dammed if you do and dammed if you don't. Both sides are right and wrong. I hope that our skills at divisiveness will prevail and guide us down a best middle path.

 

May divided America stand tall.

[PatOngo]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

"He said 'we are in deep <deleted>. The world is. We need to act,'"

Damn it! Wherrrre's ma gun?

[pegman]

43 minutes ago, rabas said:

Millions of people around the world realized in early January that the world was in deep shlt. Governments every where faltered and failed. Now is not a good time for politics as usual.

 

The open up or close issue is one of dammed if you do and dammed if you don't. Both sides are right and wrong. I hope that our skills at divisiveness will prevail and guide us down a best middle path.

 

May divided America stand tall.

I think it is more dead if you do (open up prematurely) and alive if you don't. The virus sets out to kill not look for some middle ground.

[Tug]

Well we better prepare for a very dark winter to many people ignore safe practices lousy leadership on the federal level spotty at best testing contact tracing yea rite we are in the do do big time imo

[robblok]

34 minutes ago, pegman said:

I think it is more dead if you do (open up prematurely) and alive if you don't. The virus sets out to kill not look for some middle ground.

Question is more are lives worth a running economy. I don't know I do know that like the poster you quoted both sides are right and wrong. There is no perfect solution. From a health perspective easing lockdown too early is bad. From an economical perspective running your economy in the ground is bad too. 

[cornishcarlos]

41 minutes ago, pegman said:

The virus sets out to kill not look for some middle ground.

 

I don't think the virus sets out to do anything, it's just a virus. People who are vulnerable in some form or another can die from it. That's all... 

[cmarshall]

8 minutes ago, robblok said:

Question is more are lives worth a running economy. I don't know I do know that like the poster you quoted both sides are right and wrong. There is no perfect solution. From a health perspective easing lockdown too early is bad. From an economical perspective running your economy in the ground is bad too. 

But the either/or perspective is certainly wrong.  The govt can remove the health restrictions, but that doesn't mean that people will resume their usual activity such as going to restaurants and football games.  The economy will not revive until the health risk is substantially reduced.  Sweden shows that.  The Swedish economy is not doing substantially better than that of their Scandinavian neighbors for this very reason.

 

S. Korea had its first case at the same time as the US.  The Koreans have had fewer than 300 deaths while the US has had more than 85,000.  Nearly all of those 85,000 people in the US could be alive today if the Trump administration had been competent at protecting them, by following the anti-pandemic procedures laid out by the Bush and Obama administrations, for example.  But they weren't, so now their only option is to try to con the American public into believing night is day.

[lannarebirth]

27 minutes ago, Tug said:

Well we better prepare for a very dark winter to many people ignore safe practices lousy leadership on the federal level spotty at best testing contact tracing yea rite we are in the do do big time imo

 

It's going to be a Depression either way.

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/terinaallen/2020/05/10/3-bitter-truths-about-the-coronavirus-job-losses-and-the-economy/#b39520d67f92

 

I've always maintained that the only thing that will ever drive the US back into a position of resiliance, greater equality and regained respectability is to stare into the abyss first.

[Chomper Higgot]

1 hour ago, rabas said:

Millions of people around the world realized in early January that the world was in deep shlt. Governments every where faltered and failed. Now is not a good time for politics as usual.

 

The open up or close issue is one of dammed if you do and dammed if you don't. Both sides are right and wrong. I hope that our skills at divisiveness will prevail and guide us down a best middle path.

 

May divided America stand tall.

“Governments every where faltered and failed.”

 

That’s not correct, and the Government in question is that of the US under President Trump.

 

“In a whistleblower complaint filed with a government watchdog last week, Bright said that he warned about the virus in January and was met with hostility from HHS leaders.”

 

Pop goes the ‘we were not warned’ argument.

 

 

[Mama Noodle]

10 minutes ago, cmarshall said:

Nearly all of those 85,000 people in the US could be alive today if the Trump administration had been competent at protecting them, by following the anti-pandemic procedures laid out by the Bush and Obama administrations, for example.

 

Ive seen this stated often as the new talking point but nobody can show how we didn't follow it. For all Trumps bluster, hes followed the advice of Fauci and the taskforce, Fauci attesting to that fact. 

 

And for the billionth time, a significant amount of those deaths are due to some Democrat states direct mismanagement and executive orders in the early stages of the pandemic, killing thousands of elderly Americans in nursing homes. How that is not a scandal to anyone on here is beyond me. 

[Chomper Higgot]

14 minutes ago, lannarebirth said:

 

It's going to be a Depression either way.

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/terinaallen/2020/05/10/3-bitter-truths-about-the-coronavirus-job-losses-and-the-economy/#b39520d67f92

 

I've always maintained that the only thing that will ever drive the US back into a position of resiliance, greater equality and regained respectability is to stare into the abyss first.

It wasn’t exactly a healthy economy before the lockdown.

 

Stock prices rigged with tax handouts and ‘buy backs’ while 60% of Americans living pay check to pay check.

 

The middle class joining the working class on the treadmill of poverty while the hyper wealthy get richer.

 

It wasn’t going to last, nor should it.

Edited May 15, 2020 by Chomper Higgot

[Mama Noodle]

5 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

“In a whistleblower complaint filed with a government watchdog last week, Bright said that he warned about the virus in January and was met with hostility from HHS leaders.”

 

Yeah and in January the Administration declared a Public Health Emergency, Banned the Chinese, Released funds to the CDC, and increased screening in airports. 

 

6 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Pop goes the ‘we were not warned’ argument.

 

Pop goes the 'trump didn't do anything' argument. 

[OneMoreFarang]

Reading is good, watching is better. And don't say nobody told you.

 

[lannarebirth]

5 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

It wasn’t exactly a healthy economy before the lockdown.

 

Stock prices rigged with tax handouts and ‘buy backs’ while 60% of Americans living pay check to pay check.

 

The middle class joining the working class on the treadmill of poverty while the hyper wealthy get richer.

 

It wasn’t going to last, nor should it.

 

No question. It was an illusion, prompted mostly by tax cuts and low labor participation rates.

 

This phenomenon precedes CV19, which will only accelerate it:

 

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/deaths-of-despair-why-this-group-of-americans-has-higher-mortality-rates-130633528.html

 

The truth is, America never really came back from the 2008 GFC. Many many Americans got hung out to dry.

Edited May 15, 2020 by lannarebirth

[OneMoreFarang]

1 hour ago, rabas said:

Millions of people around the world realized in early January that the world was in deep shlt. Governments every where faltered and failed. Now is not a good time for politics as usual.

 

The open up or close issue is one of dammed if you do and dammed if you don't. Both sides are right and wrong. I hope that our skills at divisiveness will prevail and guide us down a best middle path.

 

May divided America stand tall.

How about telling the people the truth?

How about looking at reality and trying to make the best out of a bad situation?

 

I think few people expect from politicians to do everything right. But people expect that they do their best. And people expect that they admit when they made mistakes and then do their best to solve the problem.

Now Trump and his fox channel talk all the time about Obamagate - whatever that's supposed to be. Why don't they concentrate on the biggest problem in American history for the last 100 years or so?

[bodga]

1 hour ago, pegman said:

The virus sets out to kill not look for some middle ground.

that's  not  true  at  all, in  killing it  will  have  no  host.

[Mansell]

43 minutes ago, cornishcarlos said:

 

I don't think the virus sets out to do anything, it's just a virus. People who are vulnerable in some form or another can die from it. That's all... 

you are wrong.....this is a very smart virus and selective who it kills. Virologists claim they have no real understanding of it and are learning new things every day. It has the ability to just damage organs in the body, especially in children, which will mean long term issues. It doesn’t kill everybody because it would be killing itself. New viruses are evolving into something we don’t understand. This virus is highly contagious and we must all be very careful. And as for your comment People who are Vulnerable in some form....that is not completely the case. Many people have died from this virus with no underlying health conditions. Before you come on here and make a blanket statement you should read more of what the top medical people are saying.

[riclag]

I disagree

28 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

How about telling the people the truth?

How about looking at reality and trying to make the best out of a bad situation?

 

I think few people expect from politicians to do everything right. But people expect that they do their best. And people expect that they admit when they made mistakes and then do their best to solve the problem.

Now Trump and his fox channel talk all the time about Obamagate - whatever that's supposed to be. Why don't they concentrate on the biggest problem in American history for the last 100 years or so?

Disagree Americans can, as the old saying goes,walk and chew gum at the same time, multi task! Don't you want to know everything!

[stephenterry]

19 minutes ago, Mansell said:

you are wrong.....this is a very smart virus and selective who it kills. Virologists claim they have no real understanding of it and are learning new things every day. It has the ability to just damage organs in the body, especially in children, which will mean long term issues. It doesn’t kill everybody because it would be killing itself. New viruses are evolving into something we don’t understand. This virus is highly contagious and we must all be very careful. And as for your comment People who are Vulnerable in some form....that is not completely the case. Many people have died from this virus with no underlying health conditions. Before you come on here and make a blanket statement you should read more of what the top medical people are saying.

Agree with your post, and I would point out, IMO, that the highlighted sentence is probably incorrect in that it should read no identified underlying health reasons - which only an autopsy would reveal.

It's a truism that most of the population of the USA consumes an obese causing SAD diet which is probably the unhealthiest on the planet. Scientific fact. The risk of mortality from heart attacks, stroke and cancers are extremely high, but only are identified when the sufferer experiences illness. That could take decades - and such people are therefore more vulnerable to the Covid19 virus. 

 

And a message to Trump - listen to the proven science behind the healthiest diet on the planet, i.e. a plant based whole food nutrition regime, if you want to save American lives. 

 

 

[Chomper Higgot]

1 hour ago, lannarebirth said:

 

No question. It was an illusion, prompted mostly by tax cuts and low labor participation rates.

 

This phenomenon precedes CV19, which will only accelerate it:

 

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/deaths-of-despair-why-this-group-of-americans-has-higher-mortality-rates-130633528.html

 

The truth is, America never really came back from the 2008 GFC. Many many Americans got hung out to dry.

And will be hung out to dry again.

 

Corporate management has just been handed a ‘slash the workforce’ opportunity.

 

 

Edited May 15, 2020 by Chomper Higgot

[Traubert]

Planning? First time I've heard that in the same sentence as USA.

 

 

[lannarebirth]

6 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

And will be hung out to stay again.

 

Corporate management has just been handed a ‘slash the workforce’ opportunity.

 

 

The 30% workforce reduction that McKinnsey  had prophesised would come over the next 10 years due to automation, has come in 10 weeks. If 70% of your economy is based on consumerism, you'd think that number of would be consumers lost will send many ripples through the economy for months and years to come. They can throw their stimulus money at it, but if that doesn't create demand it's not going to do much good and deflationary pressures are going to stick. A UBI would work in a "trickle up" fashion, but I don't see any desire for that from any of those currently in power.

[Chomper Higgot]

24 minutes ago, lannarebirth said:

The 30% workforce reduction that McKinnsey  had prophesised would come over the next 10 years due to automation, has come in 10 weeks. If 70% of your economy is based on consumerism, you'd think that number of would be consumers lost will send many ripples through the economy for months and years to come. They can throw their stimulus money at it, but if that doesn't create demand it's not going to do much good and deflationary pressures are going to stick. A UBI would work in a "trickle up" fashion, but I don't see any desire for that from any of those currently in power.

Twice in a day we are in full agreement.

 

The working class and middle class have been stripped of their wealth, they are not going to feed profits through consumption.

 

The response of corporate boardrooms is to cut to further the ‘take’ of their employees, cutting workplace benefits, and cutting staff numbers to hike the profitability.

Automation, which has already lead to job losses, is going to accelerate that process.

 

Ford’s lesson that workers must be paid enough to buy Ford’s cars has been forgotten.

[candide]

4 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

How about telling the people the truth?

How about looking at reality and trying to make the best out of a bad situation?

 

I think few people expect from politicians to do everything right. But people expect that they do their best. And people expect that they admit when they made mistakes and then do their best to solve the problem.

Now Trump and his fox channel talk all the time about Obamagate - whatever that's supposed to be. Why don't they concentrate on the biggest problem in American history for the last 100 years or so?

Exactly. That's probably why Cuomo gets so good ratings, despite a high number of infections.

[candide]

2 hours ago, lannarebirth said:

The 30% workforce reduction that McKinnsey  had prophesised would come over the next 10 years due to automation, has come in 10 weeks. If 70% of your economy is based on consumerism, you'd think that number of would be consumers lost will send many ripples through the economy for months and years to come. They can throw their stimulus money at it, but if that doesn't create demand it's not going to do much good and deflationary pressures are going to stick. A UBI would work in a "trickle up" fashion, but I don't see any desire for that from any of those currently in power.

Thinking to it, a long-lasting epidemic situation is likely to accelerate automation. Machines and robots don't stop working when they are sick, they don't need expensive distancing, they don't propagate viruses in the air, and can be easily cleaned with disinfectants as Trump suggests.

 

There will be just a small problem: one cannot replace broke customers with affluent robots.

[Proboscis]

5 hours ago, cornishcarlos said:

 

I don't think the virus sets out to do anything, it's just a virus. People who are vulnerable in some form or another can die from it. That's all... 

How many are you prepared to accept dying in the USA? With no intervention such as social distancing, you can expect at least 3 million persons dead and a completely swamped hospital system. It would be New York everywhere but worse. And with a swamped hospital system, the mortality rate could be much higher as health care would have to be rationed. There would have to be found some emergency way of getting rid of dead bodies - possibly mass graves or some other "solution."

 

Of course, you would also have at least that number again suffering from some sort of morbidity. Could be any form of organ damage (Covid-19 attacks the organs, including the brain).

 

With the rise in mortality to that level, you will find that the population will become extremely scared. That would mean that even when the population would have reached herd immunity, the population would never believe it. You would therefore be looking at a serious depression as people would go into personal lockdown.

 

To quote that well-known saying from the movies - "Do you feel lucky?"

[Monomial]

3 hours ago, stephenterry said:

Agree with your post, and I would point out, IMO, that the highlighted sentence is probably incorrect in that it should read no identified underlying health reasons - which only an autopsy would reveal.

It's a truism that most of the population of the USA consumes an obese causing SAD diet which is probably the unhealthiest on the planet. Scientific fact. The risk of mortality from heart attacks, stroke and cancers are extremely high, but only are identified when the sufferer experiences illness. That could take decades - and such people are therefore more vulnerable to the Covid19 virus.

 

Can we please not go back into rehashing this argument, which has been done to death and achieves nothing?  At this point, there are 2 groups of people.

 

The realists: accept that the virus is simply a new part of the landscape of the Earth. There is nothing we can do about its existence. We can not change a force of nature. We can only live with it and accept that it will eventually go away on its own or mutate. Either way, the only variable we can control that makes any difference to the ultimate death toll is whether or not we have adequate health resources to handle the sick and dying. The vast majority will contract it and either recover or die. Everyone hopes to be the former, and each individual is free to choose the level of protection he wishes to apply in his own life.

 

The denialists: still believe it is possible to rein in this virus. That by destroying the economy and what makes us human through lockdowns and contact tracing we can stop the virus artificially. Like the 5 stages of grief, they don't yet accept the nature of Covid as an inescapable reality upon the fabric of our lives.

 

Depending on which group you belong to, you are going to selectively listen to information and statistics which support your belief. So further discussion on statistics of vulnerability is essentially pointless. If you are a realist you have already accepted everyone will get the virus, percentages are irrelevant. When you do get it, you are the only data point that matters. As long as there are medical resources available for you (and everyone else), then the optimum has been achieved.

 

For the denialist, he still wants to pull others to his world view. He wants to quote the worst numbers he can find to scare others into accepting his beliefs about this virus. He doesn't accept that nature already defeated us and that artificial containment has failed. He needs continuing social proof that there is hope, and tries to frame this fight as a moral imperative.

 

Your discussion of diet is an argument that exists completely orthogonal to all of this nonsense.  People in both categories above can accept that the diet we have right now is not particularly healthy. But it doesn't add anything useful to the discussion of the virus.

 

We don't need a plan for this pandemic. The pandemic arrived all on its own. We need a plan for maintaining our humanity.

 

[BritManToo]

Just now, Monomial said:

For the denialist, he still wants to pull others to his world view. He wants to quote the worst numbers he can find to scare others into accepting his beliefs about this virus.

The worst numbers are a 0.01% death rate, not very scary I'm afraid.

If I knew five people who had caught and died from it, I might be a little scared ....... but none so far.

Falling in the shower much more scary, I know two people who have done that and died in Chiang Mai.

Edited May 15, 2020 by BritManToo

[stephenterry]

21 minutes ago, Monomial said:

Your discussion of diet is an argument that exists completely orthogonal to all of this nonsense.  People in both categories above can accept that the diet we have right now is not particularly healthy. But it doesn't add anything useful to the discussion of the virus.

Actually, it does. A WFPB dietary regime followed would lead to a lower death rate from the virus as the immune system would be able to resist it in most people. 

 

And I have no time for humanity who have destroyed the planet. Roll on Extinction Rebellion.