Over the weekend, Max Boot took some time to remind us all how great we had it under Barack Obama because rooting for widespread economic collapse is part of conserving conservatism.
As they shelter in their homes and the economy grinds to a halt, I wonder if Trump voters now realize how good they had it under Obama?
Perhaps at least they will stop bragging about Trump’s economy now that the stock market has crashed? https://t.co/lOeyGBQ6AE
— Max Boot (@MaxBoot) March 22, 2020
OMG everything was going so great under Trump until he unleashed this deadly pandemic on the whole world b/c he is absolutely THE.WORST.
If Obama was here, he’d have *known* via his Selfie Superpowers that China deceived the world for 7wks & he would have told the virus to STOP. pic.twitter.com/Gx0wH00kOZ
— Gege (@Pomquat) March 22, 2020
And the virus would’ve listened, no doubt.
Hey I heard you guys like really good threads.
Here’s a really good thread. https://t.co/vsFr4Jzl09
— Lyndsey Fifield (@lyndseyfifield) March 23, 2020
We do like good threads. And today’s a good day for a good thread, because while Democrats are out there tanking legitimate COVID19 relief efforts, media firefighters are out there spinning on those Democrats’ behalf.
Someone needs to cut through the crap once and for all. This tweeter is up to the challenge:
Holy moly-I have been receiving a ton of misinformed responses to this tweet. So, I’m putting together a thread of the most common misconceptions out there re: Trump and the Wuhan Virus. https://t.co/p7hidAzOy9
— Gege (@Pomquat) March 23, 2020
And away we go:
Claim: Trump disbanded the Pandemic team!
Fact: No, he did not.https://t.co/IyGh20e2SX pic.twitter.com/QACJjATfEG
— Gege (@Pomquat) March 23, 2020
Claim: Trump totally fired the Pandemic team!
Fact: NO. He totally did not.https://t.co/oerUW8yUu8
— Gege (@Pomquat) March 23, 2020
Claim: IF ONLY TRUMP HADN’T GOTTEN RID OF THE PANDEMIC TEAM!!
Fact: BE BETTER INFORMED. He did NOT.https://t.co/CwRHHe7QzS pic.twitter.com/0gM4RfHEtY
— Gege (@Pomquat) March 23, 2020
Nope:
“CDC did not have to cut back its work from 49 to 10 countries,” said Maureen Bartee, CDC’s associate director for Global Health Security, in a statement to FactCheck.org. “In the FY18-FY20 annual appropriations, CDC received base appropriations for global health security from Congress. This was used to continue the essential public health capacity development in the four core areas that was started in 2014 with the one-time supplemental funds.”
…
CDC operating budget plans show that its funding for global public health protection — which includes global disease detection and emergency response and global public health capacity — increased from $58 million in fiscal year 2017 to around $108 million in fiscal years 2018 and 2019. (And that does not include any remaining supplemental funds available for use.) The increases included nearly $50 million more each year for CDC’s global health security initiatives.
Those amounts went up again in fiscal year 2020, when the CDC was awarded $183 million for global public health protection, overall, and $125 million specifically for its global health security efforts. For fiscal year 2021, President Donald Trump has requested that CDC funding for global disease detection and other programs be increased further — to $225 million total, with $175 million going directly to global health security.
Claim: The lag in testing is b/c Trump didn’t accept tests from WHO!
Fact: The CDC never offered tests to the US. Also, it’s common practice for developed countries to develop their own test.https://t.co/JYxSlYmIMm pic.twitter.com/bDwRfzASVd
— Gege (@Pomquat) March 23, 2020
For the Dems in the back:
“No discussions occurred between WHO and CDC about WHO providing COVID-19 tests to the United States,” said WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris. “This is consistent with experience since the United States does not ordinarily rely on WHO for reagents or diagnostic tests because of sufficient domestic capacity.”
Claim: Yeah, but if only Trump accepted those tests from WHO, we wouldn’t have had to wait a month to get tested.
Fact: Dude. THERE WERE NO TESTS FROM THE CDC. Also, FDA dropped the ball due to so many rules/regulations. https://t.co/QA2cUlt108
— Gege (@Pomquat) March 23, 2020
Ahem:
1/ I wrote 3,000 words for The Dispatch on what exactly went wrong with coronavirus testing in the UShttps://t.co/J6jCXMqvcj
— Alec ? (@AlecStapp) March 20, 2020
2/ The first coronavirus case in the US and South Korea was detected on January 21.
South Korea quickly ramped up widespread testing.
Why did the US fail to do the same?
In short: the FDA dropped the ball. pic.twitter.com/v8dKbGzO7x
— Alec ? (@AlecStapp) March 20, 2020
3/ There have been 3 major regulatory barriers to scaling up testing
– obtaining an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA)
– being certified for high-complexity testing under CLIA
– complying with HIPAA Privacy Rule and the Common Rule related to protection of human research subjects— Alec ? (@AlecStapp) March 20, 2020
4/ HHS Secretary Alex Azar declared a public health emergency on Jan 31.
That action initiated a new requirement — labs that wanted to conduct their own coronavirus tests must first obtain an emergency use authorization (EUA) from the FDA. pic.twitter.com/PzjYwbgeVv
— Alec ? (@AlecStapp) March 20, 2020
5/ EUAs were intended to speed up the normal authorization process.
But in this case, labs that were already conducting their own tests needed to cease operations until they were granted an EUA.
By not waiving the EUA requirement, the FDA was actually slowing down testing. pic.twitter.com/ieXv0jEsp5
— Alec ? (@AlecStapp) March 20, 2020
6/ And obtaining an EUA was no easy task.
FDA required:
– validation by testing at least five known positive samples
– mailing a physical application on CD or thumb drive
– testing the protocol against MERS and SARS viruses pic.twitter.com/3PO1xPvITa— Alec ? (@AlecStapp) March 20, 2020
7/ On Feb 4, the FDA issued an EUA to the CDC for its testing protocol.
The FDA wouldn't issue another EUA to any other entity until Feb 29.
By only issuing a single EUA in the month following the emergency declaration, the FDA was putting all its eggs in one basket. pic.twitter.com/YyD2LNFkoE
— Alec ? (@AlecStapp) March 20, 2020
8/ And then they dropped the basket and all the eggs broke.
The CDC protocol failed when state and local public health labs tried to validate it.
The exact cause of failure is still under investigation, but a faulty reagent is suspected. pic.twitter.com/2DW9VMHFSX
— Alec ? (@AlecStapp) March 20, 2020
9/ On Feb 24, an association of more than a 100 state & local public health labs sent the FDA a letter begging for enforcement discretion.
The FDA said they should apply for an EUA instead.
5 days later, the FDA reversed its position & exempted advanced labs from the EUA req. pic.twitter.com/Szc0728QMm
— Alec ? (@AlecStapp) March 20, 2020
10/ But this exemption applied only to “laboratories that are certified to perform high-complexity testing consistent with requirements under CLIA.”
One researcher estimated 5,000 virology labs in the country met this standard.
Context: US has ~260,000 laboratory entities.
— Alec ? (@AlecStapp) March 20, 2020
11/ On March 16, the FDA expanded the EUA exemption to all commercial manufacturers and labs (not just those certified to perform high-complexity testing under CLIA) & devolved regulatory oversight to the states.
"The FDA sped up the process by removing itself from the process." pic.twitter.com/MZoZYOMRwF
— Alec ? (@AlecStapp) March 20, 2020
12/ The FDA did the right thing when it expanded the EUA exemption to all labs and manufacturers and devolved regulatory oversight to the states.
The Department of Health and Human Services did the right thing when it waived certain provisions of the HIPAA Privacy Rule.
— Alec ? (@AlecStapp) March 20, 2020
13/ But these actions were six weeks too late.
Speed, not perfection, must be the focus of pandemic response.
A distributed approach would be much more resilient to the inevitable mistakes and accidents inherent to crisis management.
— Alec ? (@AlecStapp) March 20, 2020
14/ Instead, in this crisis, the FDA bet big on a single testing protocol from the CDC and burned its ships.
And when the “perfect” test failed spectacularly, everyone was left wishing for a way to retreat.
— Alec ? (@AlecStapp) March 20, 2020
This is really messing with the pervasive “Trump coronavirus” narrative.
Claim: Since the FDA slowed us down, why didn’t Trump accept tests from WHO?
Fact: YOU NEED TO BE BETTER INFORMED. https://t.co/1HaC3AZDks pic.twitter.com/1FwOYpGwN2
— Gege (@Pomquat) March 23, 2020
I don’t think it was a rule so much as a norm. The CDC views the WHO as a peer (and potentially a lesser peer). So when China published the genome, CDC quickly developed its own testing protocol. The WHO test is intended for less-developed countries lacking public health capacity pic.twitter.com/w7HP4z7Bl0
— Alec ? (@AlecStapp) March 21, 2020
Oh well. At least they have Trump calling COVID19 a hoax, right?
Claim: Trump called the coronavirus virus a hoax!
Fact: No, he did not. He called the Dem’s *politicizing of the virus* a hoax. Even Snopes (!!!) understood that. pic.twitter.com/S8w6lBTloX
— Gege (@Pomquat) March 23, 2020
Claim: I HEARD TRUMP CALL THE CORONAVIRUS A HOAX!
Truth: THEN YOU NEED BETTER COMPREHENSION SKILLS. pic.twitter.com/GfVVEV1ZK7
— Gege (@Pomquat) March 23, 2020
Well, shoot.
BONUS FACT: Trump was right! The Dem’s proved today, by voting against a bipartisan Emergency Coronavirus Relief bill, that politics was their goal, and thus their “hoax.”
Not-a-Senator Pelosi’s demands showcase their total disregard for Americans; all they care abt is politics https://t.co/Fpnenb2X7N
— Gege (@Pomquat) March 23, 2020
Claim: If Trump acted in January, when we all knew there was a problem, we’d not be in this mess.
Fact: He did act in January and was roundly criticized and labeled a “racist” for shutting down travel from China.https://t.co/k5LGutAGk0 https://t.co/kN2XzCwtak
— Gege (@Pomquat) March 23, 2020
So Dems don’t actually have that to support their narrative, either. What, exactly, do they have, then?
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