Althouse: "During the presidency of Barack Obama, the national stockpile [of medical supplies] was seriously taxed as the administration addressed multiple crises over eight years."

April 4, 2020

"During the presidency of Barack Obama, the national stockpile [of medical supplies] was seriously taxed as the administration addressed multiple crises over eight years."

"About '75 percent of N95 respirators and 25 percent of face masks contained in the CDC's Strategic National Stockpile (∼100 million products) were deployed for use in health care settings over the course of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic response,' according to a 2017 study in the journal Health Security. Again according to NIH, the stockpile's resources were also used during hurricanes Alex, Irene, Isaac and Sandy. Flooding in 2010 in North Dakota also called for stockpile funds to be deployed. The 2014 outbreaks of the ebola virus and botulism, as well as the 2016 outbreak of the zika virus, continued to significantly tax the stockpile with no serious effort from the Obama administration to replenish the fund. During the presidency of Donald Trump, analysts have warned the United States is not prepared for a serious pandemic.... The Trump administration has not taken significant steps to replenish the Strategic National Stockpile."

From "Fact check: Did the Obama administration deplete the federal stockpile of N95 masks?" (USA Today), which rates the claim true.

Blaming Obama only goes so far. Trump had been President for 3 years by the time the coronavirus crisis got serious. Maybe Obama deserves "blame" for the depletion, but depletion sets up the need to replenish. Both Presidents are to blame for the failure to replenish. If anything, Trump is more to blame, since the depletion had already happened and Trump knew the stockpile was low.

186 comments:

exhelodrvr1 said...: This is part of the cost of the "resistance" working behind the scenes against him at every step, and the administration having to deal with the Mueller investigation and impeachment.; 4/4/20, 7:34 AM
brylun said...: Resistance in delaying critical appointments, resistance in the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax, resistance in the impeachment farce, and you don't blame the Democrats?; 4/4/20, 7:36 AM
Shouting Thomas said...: I'm fed up with this panic, Althouse.

50 years ago, you were thumping your chest and singing "I hope I die before I get old!"

Live up to it.

It's up to the kids to break out of this shit and refuse to cower so that old farts like you and me can be assured of living for 5 or 10 more years. I believe they will, too. The strong and rebellious among them are going to break on thru to the other side.; 4/4/20, 7:36 AM
RMc said...: Ah, Trump. Is there anything we can't blame him for...?; 4/4/20, 7:38 AM
Charlie Currie said...: "...and Trump knew the stockpile was low."

Are you stating a fact not yet in evidence?; 4/4/20, 7:39 AM
Balfegor said...: I don't think this is the sad soi-disant "Resistance." Rather, our pandemic specialists at the CDC seem to have been sincere in their opposition to masking up, as well as quarantines, travel restrictions and other traditional means of controlling pandemics (I'm not sure how they thought they were going to control pandemics without those tools -- magic, I suppose). This was doctrine not just in the US, but England as well apparently. Thank heaven we're tossing out all that rubbish.; 4/4/20, 7:40 AM
Oso Negro said...: As much as I detested Obama, I cannot imagine that the President of the United States is personally involved in deciding which items to stockpile in the event of emergency.; 4/4/20, 7:40 AM
Lurker21 said...: Both are responsible, but Obama would have been more likely to know that the supply was low, since he'd been president while the equipment was being used. It's possible that neither knew. This would be an interesting test case to find out just exactly what presidents are told, assuming we could ever find that out with any certainty.; 4/4/20, 7:42 AM
Jaq said...: Whatever, it does take the wind out of the sails of Biden criticism on that score.

I wonder what the Trump presidency would have been like if Democrats had let him govern, rather than spend three years demanding documents and testimony all the while trying to remove him from office. Biden has no such excuse.; 4/4/20, 7:42 AM
brylun said...: How about Valerie Jarrett making the decisions not to re-supply?; 4/4/20, 7:42 AM
Unknown said...: The rule is

Whoever uses the last one

has to refill; 4/4/20, 7:43 AM
Meade said...: "The strong and rebellious among them are going to break on thru to the other side."

Said by 20-30 SF gay bathhouse and sex establishment owners during the 1980's AIDS "panic."; 4/4/20, 7:43 AM
Bruce Brown said...: Trump knew,so he is to blame. Obama didn't know because it wasn't reported in the news.; 4/4/20, 7:44 AM
Lyle said...: Learn how to sew!; 4/4/20, 7:45 AM
Shouting Thomas said...: Said by 20-30 SF gay bathhouse and sex establishment owners during the 1980's AIDS "panic."

I was there, in SF, not the bathhouses.

A huge number of the gay guys in SF fought like hell to keep the bathhouses going, even once they knew AIDS was thriving there.

Risk is the price of freedom.

The AIDS epidemic took and continues to take a far higher toll, I'll wager, than COVID-19.; 4/4/20, 7:46 AM
Fernandinande said...: As much as I detested Obama, I cannot imagine that the President of the United States is personally involved in deciding which items to stockpile in the event of emergency.

The Federal toilet paper reserve has been completely unrolled.; 4/4/20, 7:46 AM
Laslo Spatula said...: It's like the last piece of a pizza at the office pizza party.

You take it, you take care of the box.

But no one ever eats it, because it is pineapple pizza, and the powers-that-be always order two pineapple pizzas in the mix, even though no one likes pineapple pizza, so the pineapple pizza sits there long after the pepperoni and combo pizzas are gone.

This also applies to the donut selection. No office needs four coconut-topped donuts.

I am Laslo.; 4/4/20, 7:47 AM
Shouting Thomas said...: If I were young and on the make, I'd give the old fart hippies the middle finger, get out there however the hell I could, work on the black market and advance myself.

Let the old fart hippies live up to their bravado about not wanting to befoul the world with their rotting bodies. (I'm 70.)

We're destroying the kids so that old fart hippies can live for a few more years. Shame on us.

47 deaths in Wisconsin! 47!; 4/4/20, 7:49 AM
gspencer said...: Real presidents know all the details all the time. As an example, Jimmy Carter knew what to do for a Post Office malfunctioning letter sorting machine, the Mondex 3000 (at 00:40),

And boy was he able to help Peter come down from tripping out (at 02:15),

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-68iTvhWNB0; 4/4/20, 7:52 AM
Bay Area Guy said...: N95 masks are good but insufficient. Surely, a $2 Trillion govt package could provide for 330 Million Hazmats suits for everyone 24/7 until the curve is flat. Better "safe than sorry".; 4/4/20, 7:53 AM
Jaq said...: I like how New York State spent a billion dollars on solar power near Buffalo, NY rather than 500 million on ventilators. In place of the ventilators, they put a sheet of paper with rules on how to decide who lives and who dies.

At least per the New York Post. The New York Times wouldn’t touch that story with a six foot pole.; 4/4/20, 7:54 AM
Shouting Thomas said...: First, the old fart hippies in academia dumped a shitload of debt on the kids to finance their plush jobs, benefits and retirement.

And, now, we’re undercutting the kids’ future so that we can rot for a few more years.

This is really disgusting.

When will the kids figure out that the old fart hippies are deliberately fucking them over?; 4/4/20, 7:54 AM
WisRich said...: Obama had 7 years to replenish the stockpile after H1N1 happened on his watch. Trump had three years to replenish stockpile he probably had no idea was empty and thought the previous guy replaced what he used.

I’m giving the nod to Obama being more responsible.; 4/4/20, 8:00 AM
Big Mike said...: @Althouse, “analysts have warned.” Suuuuure. Do you have some sort of proof that anyone in a position of responsibility at the CDC warned Trump that the stockpile was low prior to last February?

And then you wonder why I call you gullible.; 4/4/20, 8:01 AM
Fernandinande said...: 47 deaths in Wisconsin! 47!

Over a year that would be about .09 % more deaths than normal, or, if those 47 deaths occurred in one month, it'd be about 1% higher than normal.

Scary numbers!; 4/4/20, 8:01 AM
tim maguire said...: How hard is it to replenish 100 million masks? If not hard at all, then Trump gets 100% of the blame. If there are limitations to how many can be added each year, then Trump gets 3 years worth of blame and Obama gets some or all of the rest.; 4/4/20, 8:02 AM
Fernandinande said...: Wisconsin Death Trip!; 4/4/20, 8:03 AM
Wince said...: If anything, Trump is more to blame, since the depletion had already happened and Trump knew the stockpile was low.

By the same token, congressional Democrats, many of them in office through the entire cycle of depletion and scarcity, had three years to criticize Trump for not redressing the shortage instead accusing and criticizing him for whole host of ridiculous reasons.; 4/4/20, 8:05 AM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: If anything, Trump is more to blame, since the depletion had already happened and Trump knew the stockpile was low.

Gee Whiz... Trump was just elected President and had to immediately start dealing with Russia Russia RUSSIA, and Impeachment.... with subversive and treasonous subordinates trying to undermine him while trying to keep their own little fiefdoms safe from scrutiny.... with a multitude of agency heads and lifetime bureaucrats....oh and a few other minor things like wars in the Middle East and International Trade policy.

I bet he didn't even personally check to make sure that all the government agency bathrooms were fully stocked with two ply toilet paper. There was likely a major shortage of paperclips somewhere too. What a slacker!!!!

Seriously. The CEO of a company and the President of the United States relies on the input from the various department heads. A CEO doesn't have the time to micro-manage every freaking detail of a HUGE organization. You leave that to the Department Heads. If your department heads are incompetent (Sessions)or worse, purposely undermining you.....you can't know what you don't know.

Then when Trump tries to fire these weasels (Comey) the press gets all twisted. How DARE he fire anybody...yada yada yada

I'm sick of it. Can you tell?; 4/4/20, 8:06 AM
Jaq said...: Meanwhile, in Ecuador, ST’s dream of a pogrom against the aged is coming true

“Photographs and video footage emerging from this crisis-stricken coastal city look like images from the aftermath of a natural disaster: bodies wrapped in sheets and dumped on the roadside or outside houses; desperate families begging for help after being forced to keep their loved-ones corpses at home for days in temperatures of more than 30C.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/03/theyre-leaving-us-to-die-ecuadorians-plead-for-help-as-virus-blazes-deadly-trail; 4/4/20, 8:06 AM
madAsHell said...: I’ll bet the Clinton Foundation made a nickel on every one of those masks.; 4/4/20, 8:07 AM
rehajm said...: If that's the way you want to play it Democrats in Congress aren't entitled to after the fact bitching either- they're the ones what controlled the purse strings. They made their priorities known and replenishment wasn't one of them.; 4/4/20, 8:07 AM
Jaq said...: "Scary numbers!”

The innumerate get to speak too in a free country.; 4/4/20, 8:08 AM
tim maguire said...: Did Trump know specifically that this stockpile was low and fail to build it up? That’s an irrelevant question. Trump knows there are emergency stockpiles of all sorts of things and each has a department responsible for maintaining it. The real question is, did he let those departments know they needed to have their stockpiles up to date? That’s it. An order and periodic follow up, no specific knowledge necessary.; 4/4/20, 8:09 AM
brylun said...: First you resist and delay Trump's appointments, then you blame him for the inaction. Some faulty logic there...; 4/4/20, 8:10 AM
Jess said...: Yes, we had a crises of too many older cars. These dangerous cars, since they weren't completely up to the standards of the administration of that time, required huge expenditures of public funds to destroy. I think everyone will agree this was much more important than using the funds to prepare for any medical emergency.; 4/4/20, 8:10 AM
Jaq said...: It’s like the guy who is falling from the top of a skyscraper and somebody asks him how its going out a window and he says, “No so bad so far!"; 4/4/20, 8:10 AM
JAORE said...: Just wait until you hear how Trump has TOTALLY ignored the critical paperclip shortage in the Omaha, Nebraska office of the Farm Pond Sub-regional office. Started, of course, during Ronnie's administration.

Impeach. Impeach them ALL!

When we have massive wild fires (well until Global Warming became the only relevant topic) we'd hear about how ill prepared we were with flying tankers.

When a blizzard hits we hear (well until Global Warming became the only relevant topic) about how Mayor Blowhard should have purchased more snow plows AND more cow bell).

When the "Big One" hits and California slides into the sea we'll hear how everyone should have had a paddle board at hand, and we'll curse the California State PB Commission..

When an agency decides to have an unprecedented mass mailing the supply clerk catches holy hell for lack of foresight on paper purchasing.

In the long run, only the supply clerk will pay the price.

Thus it shall ever be.; 4/4/20, 8:11 AM
wendybar said...: We have another 5 years to blame Obama. That's how long Bush was blamed for everything while Saint Obama was the President. Obama can do no wrong in some peoples eyes, and that never changes.; 4/4/20, 8:11 AM
Fernandinande said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/4/20, 8:11 AM
Michael said...: “...Trump knew the stockpile was low”

Why, of course he did. Because the first thing a newly sworn President does is check the stockpile levels. And no newly sworn President has hoards of agencies n place responsible for anything at all. They are just waiting on instructions.; 4/4/20, 8:12 AM
alanc709 said...: Obama didn't know the stockpiles were low? Congress appropriated the funds for replenishment and the Trump administration denied the funds or refused to spend them? The management of the department asked for supplies to be replenished and was denied? That's a pretty specious claim to be making without additional proof.; 4/4/20, 8:12 AM
Jaq said...: Jess is right, it was far more important to raise the price of used cars to the poor than replace these masks.; 4/4/20, 8:12 AM
Bill, Republic of Texas said...: the CDC seem to have been sincere in their opposition to masking up, as well as quarantines, travel restrictions and other traditional means of controlling pandemics (I'm not sure how they thought they were going to control pandemics without those tools -- magic, I suppose)

Pure power. They want the power to control the entire economic life of the country. Not to shabby for some college educated idiot with a "public governance" degree.; 4/4/20, 8:14 AM
Wince said...: Isn't the polite rule the person who finishes the roll of toilet paper replaces the roll, because he or she know it was used up, and so that the next person doesn't have to walk to the closet with their pants around their ankles?; 4/4/20, 8:16 AM
The Vault Dweller said...: Yeah this is reminiscent of when 3 plus years in Obama was trying to blame Bush for economic things, saying, "We inherited the nation's worst recession." If you are the one in charge who is making decisions at some point you have to act like that is true. Which means you get credit for the good and the bad.; 4/4/20, 8:16 AM
AllenS said...: "If anything, Trump is more to blame" -- Althouse

Bullshit.; 4/4/20, 8:18 AM
R C Belaire said...: The depleted medical stockpiles are one thing, but how many other similar emergency "stockpiles of XX" are waiting to be refilled? I'll wager that number is not small and will come with a significant price.; 4/4/20, 8:18 AM
Fernandinande said...: no one likes pineapple pizza

I guess no one is me.; 4/4/20, 8:18 AM
Butkus51 said...: You mean the ex-president who orchestrated the biggest farce ever on the USA? Is that the Obama youre talking about? The stuttering clusterf*ck?; 4/4/20, 8:19 AM
Fernandinande said...: The Feds are "preppers" so you don't have to be - see how well that worked out?; 4/4/20, 8:21 AM
Temujin said...: No one knows the cupboard is bare until you open it up to look for the Frank's Hot Sauce and don't see any.; 4/4/20, 8:23 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "As much as I detested Obama, I cannot imagine that the President of the United States is personally involved in deciding which items to stockpile in the event of emergency."

He is responsible.

"The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America."

He assumed the power. He has responsibility. One and the same.; 4/4/20, 8:24 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "Are you stating a fact not yet in evidence?"

I am going by Trump's own assertions. I listen to the briefings every day.; 4/4/20, 8:25 AM
Fritz said...: People have been warning we could be hit by a serious asteroid at any time for years, but does anyone do anything about it?; 4/4/20, 8:26 AM
Ann Althouse said...: If he didn't personally know, he is still responsible. And he's trying to hold Obama responsible. That automatically states that he is responsible.

Obama may have been in office when the depletions happened, but that doesn't make him more responsible than Trump for the failure to replenish! It makes him LESS responsible, because he had less time to rebuild after the things that forced him to deplete.; 4/4/20, 8:27 AM
Fernandinande said...: Meanwhile, in Ecuador, ST’s dream of a pogrom against the aged is coming true

So you've seized on the idea that only old people are seriously threatened?

Fun Fact: The Ecuadorian national anthem sounds like the introduction to a Monty Python skit.; 4/4/20, 8:28 AM
narciso said...: The cdc was focusing on obesity and gun control, the congress apparently didnt make a stink about it, all that wasted time by mueller, by the press is what we cant get back.; 4/4/20, 8:29 AM
brylun said...: "I am going by Trump's own assertions. I listen to the briefings every day."

Did Trump say in his briefings that he knew the stockpile was depleted at the start of his administration?

Or did he say that he discovered the depletion when he looked to see what we had available to meet the pandemic?; 4/4/20, 8:29 AM
Ken B said...: I don’t buy he is more to blame. Both are. The bureaucrats are. How about voters? We need to rethink our priorities as voters. Pretending it would have been alright if only X not Y were elected doesn’t address that.; 4/4/20, 8:31 AM
narciso said...: Ecuador has been through ten years of looting at least, by the previous regime which was an appendage of maduro; 4/4/20, 8:31 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "Gee Whiz... Trump was just elected President and had to immediately start dealing with Russia Russia RUSSIA, and Impeachment.... with subversive and treasonous subordinates trying to undermine him while trying to keep their own little fiefdoms safe from scrutiny.... with a multitude of agency heads and lifetime bureaucrats....oh and a few other minor things like wars in the Middle East and International Trade policy."

Yeah, it's hard to be President. There are a lot of concerns, and you have to do them all at once. That's the job. Don't apply for it if you can't do it. Obama had the same problem of multiple obligations, and the effort to blame Obama for failure to replenish the stockpile can equally be met with a list of all the other things that demanded his attention.

Of course, I agree that anti-Trumpsters have been making his job even more difficult by attacking him relentlessly.

But that's the job. Don't offer to do it if you can't.

No President can do it perfectly. It's impossible. All I'm saying here is that the criticism of Obama only goes so far. Trump is on the same hook. Excuse either and you excuse both.; 4/4/20, 8:31 AM
brylun said...: Ann, do you at all blame Congress?

For delay in confirming crucial appointments?

For shifting the focus from governance to the Russia hoax?

For shifting the focus from governance to the Impeachment farce?

For Congress not knowing of the supply depletion and not acting?

Why don't you blame Congress?; 4/4/20, 8:32 AM
mandrewa said...: Obama, and those that voted for his party, deserve blame for centralizing all power in the CDC and the FDA.

We have transitioned from a libertarian United States where dozens if not hundreds of independent parties could have created and applied tests for a new virus to a left-wing nightmare where only the CDC can do so.

This is the single biggest point of failure in this crisis. The lack of medical masks is small potatoes in comparison.

And it's not easy to correct, because at heart it's about a state of mind.; 4/4/20, 8:32 AM
Paco Wové said...: "Rather, our pandemic specialists at the CDC seem to have been sincere in their opposition to masking up, as well as quarantines, travel restrictions and other traditional means of controlling pandemics"

I noticed this at the time of the last Ebola outbreak. It seemed like a pan-Western elite attitude – anything that limited the global movement of people was simply unthinkable and barbarian. Open borders or death! (Or both!); 4/4/20, 8:33 AM
Ken B said...: Althouse
The depletion happened in 2009. Obama had three and a half years, same as Trump.; 4/4/20, 8:34 AM
narciso said...: How about obamacare, that shining jewel, did thar make things better or worse.; 4/4/20, 8:36 AM
Temujin said...: Perhaps if Trump had not had to spend his entire days and nights wondering who was monitoring his meetings and emails, trying to figure out how many people in the White House, State Department, and National Security apparatus were trying to oust him in a 'legalized' coup, trying to bat away media attacks using leaked and, more importantly, made up stories to use against him, he'd have had more time to look at things like face masks. You cannot dismiss this stuff out of convenience to your argument. It happened and continues to happen.

Honestly- holding Trump accountable for beefing up masks and ventilators, when no one previously had done it, with all that he has had to contend with is ridiculous. Obama had a free ride. Nothing outside of natural events. The busiest days of his life were receiving honorary doctorates and Nobel Prizes for...well, just for being him. When Benghazi happened, he was unseen, no one knows where he was that night to this day. He did manage to rearrange our health care system just before and during the N1H1 hit. That worked out well. And we did have a Beer Summit in those heady days. So, no time to check stockpiles then.

Trump has been under ceaseless attack from within and without. Yet he continues to get an amazing array of things done. Without the Dems. Wihtout many Republicans. And without a fawning media praising his every breath.; 4/4/20, 8:37 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "The strong and rebellious among them are going to break on thru to the other side."

I remember when Jim Morrison broke on through to the other side... the other side of that bathtub in Paris.; 4/4/20, 8:37 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "The depletion happened in 2009. Obama had three and a half years, same as Trump."

Thanks for restating my point.; 4/4/20, 8:38 AM
Rick said...: During the presidency of Donald Trump, analysts have warned the United States is not prepared for a serious pandemic...

In Reality analysts rated the US as more prepared than any other country in the world

If anything, Trump is more to blame, since the depletion had already happened and Trump knew the stockpile was low.

This is nonsense. The person who presided over the depletion knows more about it. By the time Trump becomes president 7 years later the depleted level is the new normal.; 4/4/20, 8:39 AM
brylun said...: "Trump has been under ceaseless attack from within and without. Yet he continues to get an amazing array of things done. Without the Dems. Without many Republicans. And without a fawning media praising his every breath."

And without the support of Ann Althouse.; 4/4/20, 8:40 AM
Curious George said...: This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.; 4/4/20, 8:40 AM
brylun said...: "Are you part of the solution or part of the problem?"; 4/4/20, 8:41 AM
Gahrie said...: No President can do it perfectly. It's impossible. All I'm saying here is that the criticism of Obama only goes so far. Trump is on the same hook. Excuse either and you excuse both.

OK..but that's not what you said. You said Trump was more to blame.

If anything, Trump is more to blame, since the depletion had already happened and Trump knew the stockpile was low.

A cruelly neutral person would consider Obama to be more to blame, since he's the one who actually used up the stockpile without replenishing it.; 4/4/20, 8:42 AM
Ken B said...: “ Thanks for restating my point.”

Actually it’s my point. I argue they are equally culpable. You argued Trump is more culpable.; 4/4/20, 8:44 AM
Gahrie said...: Isn't the polite rule the person who finishes the roll of toilet paper replaces the roll, because he or she know it was used up, and so that the next person doesn't have to walk to the closet with their pants around their ankles?

Apparently not.; 4/4/20, 8:47 AM
Shouting Thomas said...: I remember when Jim Morrison broke on through to the other side... the other side of that bathtub in Paris.

And yet you keep talking about how much you admire gay men.

Every one of my gay men friends from my years in SF is dead. The entire troupe of The Ridiculous Theater is dead.

They lived the way they wanted to live and did not die as cowards.

My wife died at the age of 49. Like Morrison, she burned very very hot. She had no regrets. She lived the way she wanted to live.; 4/4/20, 8:48 AM
Gahrie said...: Trump is more responsible because he failed to fix a problem created by Obama.; 4/4/20, 8:49 AM
Captain BillieBob said...: Doesn't congress hold the purse strings?
Shouldn't they have provided the funds to replenish the necessary supplies?; 4/4/20, 8:49 AM
Rory said...: It's not out of the question that resistance bureaucrats ignored shortfalls in the stockpile as time bombs to create bad press when an emergency occurred. That's just logical thinking for anyone who thinks losing an election is an existential threat.; 4/4/20, 8:50 AM
Anonymous said...: I don’t blame either Obama or Trump. We have hundreds of career CDC bureaucrats earning 6 figure salaries whose job it is to take care of these preparations. They took $7 billion annually from the American taxpayer and pissed it away on politically motivated studies of low esteem in teenaged trannys and the public health threat from racist microaggressions against obese black lesbians.

I blame lazy incompetent overpaid bureaucrats and their far leftist political agenda.; 4/4/20, 8:50 AM
Howard said...: Now it's not the time to engage in scoring points in the blame game. Because it does not help us you know our battle against the pandemic.

hopefully the reckoning will come once we are out of the woods and the American people will decide that we need to stop electing corporate globalist Toadies who are only concerned about ass covering and protecting their pension.

Eric Weinstein and Joe Rogan cover these governmental and political incompetence issues pretty well and yesterday's podcast.; 4/4/20, 8:53 AM
Howard said...: Skookum John, the blame is owned by the American people this is the governmental leadership and bureaucracy that we have created in the freest Nation on the planet. So if you want to blame anybody just look in the mirror.; 4/4/20, 8:54 AM
Anonymous said...: @KenB: The depletion happened in 2009. Obama had three and a half years, same as Trump.

2016 - 2009 = 7; 4/4/20, 8:56 AM
Anonymous said...: @KenB: The depletion happened in 2009. Obama had three and a half years, same as Trump.

2016 - 2009 = 7; 4/4/20, 8:56 AM
Bay Area Guy said...: President Trump needs to set the country free now..

Money quote 1:

They are engaged in panic-mongering. They are encouraging the wholesale destruction of the American economy. The worst are hoping and wishing for that outcome. That is how much they are willing to sacrifice to see the president defeated.

Money quote 2:

The left though has trouble learning from their mistakes. From moment one, every calculated smear they threw at him made him more popular, not less. They time-released all the dirt they thought they had on him for maximum damage – the Billy Bush tape, emoluments, Stormy Daniels, Michael Avenatti, Michael Cohen, Russia collusion, Ukraine. And now the Wuhan flu.

Discuss.; 4/4/20, 8:57 AM
Butkus51 said...: I have learned one thing the last 3 years. How I should now if my candidate doesn't win. Do everything to take him out. Lie, cheat steal.

And if they cant handle it................; 4/4/20, 8:58 AM
narciso said...: That isnt the mistake, thats their strategy,; 4/4/20, 9:02 AM
MountainMan said...: The money was there following the H1N1 pandemic but the bureaucrats at the time chose to spend it on drugs rather than equipment, which they thought was more important.

“ According to a Center for Disease Control report published after the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, 39 million N95 masks were initially distributed from the stockpile, followed by 59.5 million more in second wave. According to Johnson, the stockpile originally was about 100 million masks.

From April 12, 2009 to April 10, 2010, there were over 60 million cases of H1N1 requiring 274,304 hospitalizations and resulting in 12,469 deaths in the United States.

After the H1N1 virus slowed down in 2010, according to Johnson, “it was important to restock.” That did not happen as the national stockpile budget focused on other priorities deemed higher.

A recent summary of how HHS planned to spend its stockpile budget shows nearly half of the annual budget was spent on antibiotics and vaccines for an anthrax outbreak, a nerve agent antidote and an antiviral medication for the flu.

Greg Burel, the official who oversaw the stockpile for years before his recent retirement, told the Washington Post recently that officials made decisions based on risk analysis that prioritized the drugs, which expire every few years, over supplies like the masks.”

Link to article; 4/4/20, 9:02 AM
Ken B said...: Skookum
Oops! Indeed. I was dreaming of President Romney there ...
Obama had more than a full term. No way is Trump *more* responsible. Even by Althouse’s own argument, when the president took office in 2013 he should have made up for the failure of the president whose term was expiring ....; 4/4/20, 9:02 AM
Jaq said...: The justification for a vote for Biden begins.; 4/4/20, 9:02 AM
Jaq said...: Since we have been invited to discuss it, I don’t think that certain people understand the meaning of “money quote.” It’s usually a statement of some salient fact, not a restatement of opinion.; 4/4/20, 9:05 AM
Ken B said...: “ The justification for a vote for Biden begins.”

Biden guilt < Obama guilt < Trump guilt; 4/4/20, 9:06 AM
Shouting Thomas said...: Nobody is to blame.

It's a very foolish idea to think that you can or should plan years advance for what is either (1) a ten year peak viral epidemic or (2) a Black Swan event.

You take care of these events as they happen.; 4/4/20, 9:07 AM
Shouting Thomas said...: This panicked "We gotta be prepared decades in advance for anything" mentality is how we ended up with a permanent war time sized military and intelligence bureaucracy that now towers over every other aspect of our government.

How long did it take us to ramp up for WWII?; 4/4/20, 9:10 AM
brylun said...: Look, it does us no good to blame folks for past actions where this pandemic was not predictable.

What does matter is what we do going forward. Let's see who resists re-supplying the medical stockpiles from today onward.; 4/4/20, 9:12 AM
Ken B said...: Unlike, it seems Althouse, I blame .... Althouse.

I blame almost all of us. Who made a fuss about preparedness? Not many. Not Althouse that I ever saw. Not me either. But we are all voters. Being a voter isn’t an easy job. If you aren’t up to the job don’t ask for it.

Let me restate my point. We as a society have under rated catastrophic risk and preparedness. We need to rethink. Just blaming presidents isn’t the point. Especially when you try to shield the ones you liked.; 4/4/20, 9:13 AM
narciso said...: But the times and the post, has just been sending mash notes to beth cameron and ron klein.; 4/4/20, 9:14 AM
narciso said...: We have stocked some supplies because of storm season, will this be a new cycle?; 4/4/20, 9:15 AM
Shouting Thomas said...: We as a society have under rated catastrophic risk and preparedness. We need to rethink.

No, we need to go on as before, and deal with these things as they arise, lest we paralyze ourselves.; 4/4/20, 9:15 AM
Francisco D said...: An Althouse said: Obama may have been in office when the depletions happened, but that doesn't make him more responsible than Trump for the failure to replenish! It makes him LESS responsible, because he had less time to rebuild after the things that forced him to deplete.

I agree. We elected Trump go fix ALL the problems created by the Obama administration.

He obviously missed ONE.; 4/4/20, 9:17 AM
narciso said...: Our enemies, iran china russia, have seen what a class jaw we have, they may have taken notes during katrina.; 4/4/20, 9:17 AM
iowan2 said...: What do we agree on?

2009 swine flue (that's speciesist)
PPE Stocks drawn down,
Obama is President, and was for 7 more years.
Obama approved the draw down.
Obama did not initiate the restock
Seven years later nothing from the administration to restock the PPE Authorized by Obama
President Trump comes into office. By mental telepathy President Trump was supposed to intuit the need to restock inventories used 7 years prior to his election.
No accustion that President Trump refused any recommendations to restock PPE reserve inventories.

IF the President is where the buck stops, fine. The Administrative State, for some reason has no accountability.

ALWAYS differ to knowledgeable people, experts in their assigned areas. Because that's how you allow reserve emergency stocks to remain static at a low level, for seven years.

Somehow a new incoming administration is supposed to ask for a federal inventory in all depts and take informed actions, that no experts have asked for.

SNAFU. A term originated in the military, to describe the natural state of Administrative paralysis, caused by innumerable processes that prevent action.

We should investigate and learn from the mistake. But what we will get is a dozen more processes, slowing and preventing much needed action, while at the same time giving "process" cover to the people in charge and shielding them from accountability.; 4/4/20, 9:18 AM
Ken B said...: “No one is to blame ... it’s foolish to think you can or should plan...”

Planning and preparedness are not the same thing.

I keep a fire extinguisher in the house. I check and rotate it twice a year. I check the smoke detectors twice a year.
It’s not planning to store masks we have needed before and were told we would need again. It’s preparedness.

And I think we can see today which choice, being prepared or not, is the foolish one.; 4/4/20, 9:20 AM
Tommy Duncan said...: Somewhere in Washington there is a lazy, overpaid supply clerk with the title "Director of Personal Protection Equipment Replenishment" who watches porn on his PC all day.

Seriously, the President (Obama or Trump) should not be tasked with doing physical inventories of PPE. One would hope the government in Washington is competent enough to maintain proper inventories of supply products like masks without Presidential intervention.

One would also hope that is true in state governments without a governor's intervention.; 4/4/20, 9:21 AM
narciso said...: I reminded my mother of the h1ni outbreak, she doesnt doubt me but she asks why there is a disparate treatment, and why its a blank space in the media.; 4/4/20, 9:23 AM
Ken B said...: Tommy Duncan
Prez: mr secretary, is everything good in your department?
Sec: I asked my subordinates to check, and they say a few things have not been done yet.
Prez: well get it fixed, and report to me next month that there has been progress.; 4/4/20, 9:25 AM
narciso said...: mentioned in passing; 4/4/20, 9:26 AM
wendybar said...: So whatever Trump does now, (or doesn't do) is the fault of the next President in 5 years??? Sounds logical.; 4/4/20, 9:27 AM
iowan2 said...: The only reason this is a news item, is because the Media/dem, seized on the shortage of PPE as a way to smear President Trump. I remember we had a commenter here stated their purpose of posting was to smear President Trump, letting the mask slip, and admitting exactly what the media/dem agenda would be. Smear the President, regardless of facts

And just like Schummers letter to the President about appointing a military person to coordinate medical supplies, blew up in his face, this smear blew up in their face when the origin of the PPE shortage came to light.; 4/4/20, 9:30 AM
Lurker21 said...: Political debate in the country is so far removed from emergency preparedness, that it may be one of the last things any new president thinks about. That shouldn't be the case, but it looks like it is. The hope is that once a president has been in office for a while, they will learn to think more about pandemic preparedness than any of us does. Even then, presidents deal with the budgets of whole agencies, not with the details.

We can expect much Scarboroughism now - people saying "They knew. We all knew. How could they not know? They should have known." On and on. Yes, they should have known. No, we didn't all know. Disaster prep isn't as big an issue most of the time as people assume it is when we are actually in a crisis. Imagine a candidate who made disaster preparedness issue one: what chance would such a candidate have of getting elected?; 4/4/20, 9:30 AM
Lurker21 said...: Note to self:

Re Equador:

Rethink retirement plan.; 4/4/20, 9:32 AM
Ken B said...: Lurker21
Exactly.; 4/4/20, 9:38 AM
ga6 said...: Durbin joined the blame chorus this AM. He Says His grandkids were sick last month. They got better. No testing. No doctors notes. They live in Brooklyn not Central Illinois from which sprang the Durbin clan. He says he angry with the administration, Trump and all you Republican voters and McConnell.

https://chicago.suntimes.com/politics/2020/4/3/21207467/sen-dick-durbin-grandchild-covid-19-mitch-mcconnell-trump-defense-pathetic; 4/4/20, 9:41 AM
narayanan said...: AA said?
If anything, Trump is more to blame, since the depletion had already happened and Trump knew the stockpile was low.
_______________
Q: whoever told Trump about it? who would it be?

is telling Trump like sticking note on refridgerator - need to buy milk!
or whoever makes note needs to go out and get some more! or ask for $$; 4/4/20, 9:47 AM
Rory said...: "Political debate in the country is so far removed from emergency preparedness, that it may be one of the last things any new president thinks about."

Yes, when we're busy contesting things like acceptance of elections, the basics government is supposed to do don't get done.; 4/4/20, 10:01 AM
RigelDog said...: Althouse says, "Obama may have been in office when the depletions happened, but that doesn't make him more responsible than Trump for the failure to replenish! It makes him LESS responsible, because he had less time to rebuild after the things that forced him to deplete."

This is a logical view, except that the linked article states that the Obama administration took no real steps to replenish during all of those years, despite getting clear notice that this was needed. I see an administration that encompased 8 years of multiple pandemics and natural disasters and thus had even more reason to consider re-stocking to be a priority. Trump's administration has also dealt with multiple problems but as it happens, none of those problems had anything to do with emergency medical supply stockpiling. Obama's administration had this issue thrust before it again and again and again, not replenishing between one disaster and the next.

And having said that, a vital rule to live by is "Fix the problem, not the blame." I didn't like Obama or his policies but I'm not hating on him now because one part of a zillion Federal responsibilities didn't receive the proper attention.; 4/4/20, 10:03 AM
narayanan said...: Even during Obama years there were budget appropriations for a number of years to fund these departments. Was replenishment low prioritized for all those years?; 4/4/20, 10:04 AM
Mark O said...: "Trump knew the stockpile was low."
Objection: Lack of foundation.; 4/4/20, 10:13 AM
RigelDog said...: "Even by Althouse’s own argument, when the president took office in 2013 he should have made up for the failure of the president whose term was expiring ...."

I read the linked article as implying that the Bush administration did nothing wrong in terms of maintaining the stockpile; if so, Obama inherited a sufficient supply. During the 8 years of the Obama administration, there were multiple natural disasters and also pandemics like H1N1 and Ebola that seriously depleted the stocks. The article states that the Obama administration did little to re-stock during the entire time.; 4/4/20, 10:15 AM
Paul Zrimsek said...: One of the things that happens when someone like Trump takes office is that a lot of people start watching the government closely who don't ordinarily do that. What they see stands in stark contrast to their romantic ideas about how the government functions when they're not watching it closely, and they assume the difference is entirely due to Trump.; 4/4/20, 10:26 AM
brylun said...: How about assessing blame on these folks:

Additional Evidence The Coronavirus Could Have Been Accidentally Released By A Chinese Lab

Supported now by David Ignatius at WaPo.; 4/4/20, 10:38 AM
Calypso Facto said...: If only there was someone who had been in a key position of authority, say head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who was present through BOTH administrations, and could carry forward the lessons of the past and prepare us for future outbreaks ....

Paging Dr. Fauci?; 4/4/20, 10:39 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: But - Obama is an all-knowing super hero - with nice sharp pants. He should have re-stocked us for his love of the American people.
why Obama? Why? don't you love us anymore?; 4/4/20, 10:40 AM
Calypso Facto said...: Fernandistein said... "Over a year [47 deaths] would be about .09 % more deaths than normal, or, if those 47 deaths occurred in one month, it'd be about 1% higher than normal."

Only if those deaths didn't replace deaths from other causes, obviously. Wisconsin typically produces a excellent weekly report on respiratory disease deaths from Influenza Like Illnesses, showing about 100 deaths a week during flu season. But unfortunately they have not produced the report since March 14th, so there is no easy way to see if COVID-19 deaths are adding to that total, or just replacing other causes...; 4/4/20, 10:45 AM
WWMartin said...: "Trump knew the stockpile was low" You are positing an incredible level of knowledge regarding details in a $4T+ governmental operation. If the replenishment cost was $40M, that would be 0.001% of the budget. If, by "Trump", you mean someone in the Trump administration, then sure, but those would be the same people who were there during the Obama administration and had already been told NO.; 4/4/20, 11:12 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: “ Additional Evidence The Coronavirus Could Have Been Accidentally Released By A Chinese Lab”

I don’t think that there is very much doubt that that is what happened.

I think when the definitive histories are written, assuming that they ever can be (given the opposition by the CCP), it will show that the Chinese were developing the strain, probably through the forced evolution of the virus probably using a host, like ferrets, that have comparable ACE2 receptors. The problem is that the virus jumped the species barrier human ACE2 receptor ready. That wouldn’t have happened if the animal host that it was mutating in had been one of the animals that have been known to host SARS-like coronaviruses (bats, civets, and pangolins). One of the arguments for forced evolution is that the mutation rate along the SARS-2 branch suggests maybe 260 years since branching from the SARS(-1) Branch, but only a couple dozen years on the SARS(-1) Branch. Which is to say that it was probably artificially evolved, and not artificially constructed, as was initially suspected, based on the HIV-1 appearance of the SARS-2 spikes. Moreover, diseases like this rarely jump the species barrier, like this on did, without leaving traces of the transmission. They don’t tend to happen all at once, but in fits and false starts. No evidence that happened.

We may never know why the Chinese were developing this virus. I think that it is somewhat unlikely that it was for military reasons, simply because many East Asians, and esp Han Chinese, appear to have more ACE2 receptors in their lungs, than the human average, making them potentially more vulnerable to it.

My guess is that it was pure negligence. Someone described the Japanese as meticulous, and the Chinese as slapdash. There are apparently two virology labs in Wuhan, China’s only BSL-4 virology lab, and a BSL-2 virology lab right next to the Wuhan Wet Market, and they were apparently doing a lot of bat related virology research at BSL-2 level, and, even then, often flaunting required safety protocols. The virus could have entered the human population at one of these two virology labs, or possibly in the wet market, possibly from discarded animal test subjects that were sold instead of being cremated, as required by BSL protocols. We may never know that either.; 4/4/20, 11:14 AM
Big Mike said...: Rather, our pandemic specialists at the CDC seem to have been sincere in their opposition to masking up

@Balfegor, unless the CDC's "sincerity" is due to the fact that they dropped the ball in not telling Trump that Obama depleted the stockpile, did not spend the money to replenish it, and they didn't inform Trump of what he needed to do.; 4/4/20, 11:14 AM
bagoh20 said...: I wouldn't blame either President unless they knew and actually decided not to replenish. I would blame bureaucrats whose actual job is to handle this stuff. All a President should need to do is say yes or no, if it even gets up that far.; 4/4/20, 11:17 AM
Openidname said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/4/20, 11:27 AM
Openidname said...: "as the administration addressed multiple crises over eight years."

Poor Obama! Not just one crisis, but multiple crises. Remember all those crises? Yeah, me, too. How could he be expected to think about such a minor issue at times like those? And of course, no other president has ever had to deal with any crisis and run the country simultaneously . . .; 4/4/20, 11:27 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: After the stockpile was created in ‘99 and expanded in 2005 why should ANY president be responsible for FEMA and DHS doing their job and refilling the stockpile? I reject the Trump blame explicitly, because a LOT of national stockpiles needed/still need refilling and he has had unprecedented resistance from the permanent employees, and many people telling him what we need. Again, once the “stockpile” is created the inventory level should be set and trigger automatic reorders. WTF dobggd idiots who work at those seven warehouse even fucking do? This is another example why I never ever want National Health Insurance. The Feds ding even know the definition of stockpile abdvsure as hell don’t know FIFO!; 4/4/20, 11:28 AM
Charlie Currie said...: Ann Althouse said: ""Are you stating a fact not yet in evidence?"

I am going by Trump's own assertions. I listen to the briefings every day"

True, he knows now, but when was he told?

Obama knew from day one - he was the guy using them. No excuses for not replenishing the stockpile. He didn't care.; 4/4/20, 11:30 AM
Molly said...: (eaglebeak)

Illogical reasoning. Obama knew better than Trump because he (Obama) was the one who did the depleting. If you finish the milk in the fridge, you know you need to replace it. If you aren't the one to finish it, it will take you awhile to discover there is no milk lurking in the back of the fridge.

Elementary, my dear ...; 4/4/20, 11:36 AM
Buckwheathikes said...: " If anything, Trump is more to blame, since the depletion had already happened and Trump knew the stockpile was low."

I see you're reading Trump's mind again, Ann. Assumes facts not in evidence.

Overruled.; 4/4/20, 11:39 AM
LA_Bob said...: Althouse said, "No President can do it perfectly. It's impossible. All I'm saying here is that the criticism of Obama only goes so far. Trump is on the same hook. Excuse either and you excuse both."

Perfectly reasonable position, in my view.

Skookup John said, "I don’t blame either Obama or Trump. We have hundreds of career CDC bureaucrats earning 6 figure salaries whose job it is to take care of these preparations."

This is also true. To me, it speaks more to the staggering size and and sclerotic nature of Big Government in a country even a fraction the size of the United States. It's overwhelming institutional incompetence, and it's unavoidable.

We elect presidents with various experiences and competencies. Within a few weeks of inauguration we expect they be expert on every facet of the Federal bureaucracy in addition to "managing the economy" and knowing the details of every burning issue of the day, all the while dealing seamlessly with Congress, the press, the Rest of the World, and those pesky people prepping to take their jobs in the next election.

There are almost certainly dozens if not hundreds or even thousands of "land mines" waiting to be tripped should the right "contingency" happen. It just happened this year the "contingency" is a nasty respiratory virus. It could as easily, if medical, have a been a recalcitrant intestinal bug which caused wasting diarrhea, and we could then complain the president failed to keep the National Pepto-Bismol Reserve fully stocked.

The blame game is neat, simple, and easy to play. Always. We can guillotine the president at the next election. But, the bureaucracy that mindlessly runs the country endures.; 4/4/20, 11:45 AM
Yancey Ward said...: This is the responsibility, primarily, of the permanent work force in these agencies. No president, vice president, or cabinet secretary is going to go find out the status of such stores. The civil service employees need to put these things into the budgets that are sent up through the executive hiarchy. Was this done and ignored? I doubt it, but even it was, it is Congress that actually produces the budgets for these things, and for the last 2 decades this generally done with a continuing resolution that just uses the last budget with an addon amount. That is what the USA Today needs to explore- what were the budgets and how were they used at the lower agency levels?

This entire article was an apologia for Obama- he didn't face any more disasters than did the Bush Jr. Administration which, apparently, left plenty of such supplies, and Obama faced fewer ones than Trump has in 3 years. However, this still isn't Obama's fault either.; 4/4/20, 11:46 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: “Someone described the Japanese as meticulous, and the Chinese as slapdash.”

What is funny there is that we all pretty much know that. Sure, if you haven’t seen that many people from those two countries, you might think that they are very much alike. They aren’t, and most here can reliably differentiate fairly accurately between the two. The Japanese really do make top quality products. I can remember when their products, including their cars, were considered junk. Not any more. In terms of quality in automobile manufacturing, I would put them almost on par with Mercedes and Porsche, but ahead of BMW and VW/Audi, of the main German car manufacturers. Close to par with the Germans in optics. Etc.

But most of us realize that Chines manufactured goods are often still junk. Or of substantially lower quality than we see in the US. We buy a lot of stuff from AliExpress, a Chinese company. Much of it runs maybe 20% that of comparable American goods. I will (or at least would, before the Wuhan pandemic) happily buy their goods, if they weren’t mission critical. Thus, I do buy gun parts and tools there, just not their Trijicon clone optics (complete with Trijicon markings and patent numbers) to put on my primary defensive firearms. Slings are fine, punches, etc. I probably run about a 10% rejection rate, and that often just means getting most of my money back. Which makes it a steal at 20% US prices. But I buy an awful lot of stuff at DollarTree too, with the same attitude.

You just expect that the Chinese will be using inferior materials to make their products. They don’t care. And for budget priced consumers, like me, neither do I for most things. I don’t know how the Chinese can screw up manufacturing surgical masks, but if any country can it, is the Chinese. And maybe the Italians (no wonder they got along so well).

So, no one should be surprised if they turn out to have negligently released the SARS-2 Coronavirus into their own population. That is trust the sort of thing that they do.; 4/4/20, 11:48 AM
DEEBEE said...: ‘ Trump knew the stockpile was low’

Your tarot card reading prowess is really growing exponentially like the China virus; 4/4/20, 11:56 AM
rcocean said...: BTW, Ohama has now declared that he is no longer responsible for the economy.; 4/4/20, 12:07 PM
rcocean said...: Fact Trump inherited a low stockpile
Fact Trump inherited a run down military.

That he didn't build up the stockpile fast enough, doesn't excuse Obama's error.; 4/4/20, 12:08 PM
Mark said...: Never mind that after Trump became president, the ENTIRE federal bureaucracy remained the same. And many of them pursued a practice of resistance to anything he said or did.; 4/4/20, 12:08 PM
rcocean said...: I'm sorry, I meant Joe Biden's error. Since he pretty much ran everything.; 4/4/20, 12:09 PM
rcocean said...: As Mark says, the Democrats in the Senate made it impossible for Trump to get his people through for even the most important positions. The Guy in charge of the stockpile is no doubt a Federal Career employee or an Obama holdover.; 4/4/20, 12:10 PM
Robert Cook said...: "Ah, Trump. Is there anything we can't blame him for...?"

Well, we really can't blame him for the Vietnam War, or our invasion of Iraq, so there's that.; 4/4/20, 12:13 PM
Robert Cook said...: I very much doubt Trump knew our store of emergency response supplies were low, but I have no doubt he wouldn't have cared in the least and wouldn't have done anything about it had he known.; 4/4/20, 12:15 PM
Francisco D said...: Bruce Hayden said: I can remember when their (Japanese) products, including their cars, were considered junk. Not any more. In terms of quality in automobile manufacturing, I would put them almost on par with Mercedes and Porsche, but ahead of BMW and VW/Audi...

If you look at car value after 5 years, you will find the German cars (BMW, Audi, Mercedes lose A LOT more value than cars built by Toyota and Honda.

I just bought a 2020 4runner which will easily go for 200K miles and then sell for a good price because it is an off-roader. My 2016 BMW X3 (only 35K miles) went to my wife because the trade in value is so low. It is a good car, but the value isn't there.; 4/4/20, 12:16 PM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: Morrr moments of ... wait for it... because raciss; 4/4/20, 12:20 PM
narciso said...: this leaves out the context; 4/4/20, 12:24 PM
n.n said...: No, we need to go on as before, and deal with these things as they arise, lest we paralyze ourselves.

Prudent and bold. Physical distancing when appropriate and possible, masks to mitigate transmission when it's appropriate and not possible, self-isolation of people with known risk factors. Control the social contagion to reduce mismanagement of resources, and better choices to reduce excess deaths... every life matters, right? That said, the virus will continue to spread until the population has sufficient innate, developed, or acquired immunity to reduce its sanctuary hosts.

[nyc.gov] COVID-19 Daily Data Summary: Deaths

1397 deaths. 1046 underlying conditions. 333 conditions pending.

635 age 75 and over

574 female sex
872 male sex

[cbc.ca] The lessons Italy has learned about its COVID-19 outbreak could help the rest of the world

"The biggest mistake we made was to admit patients infected with COVID-19 into hospitals throughout the region," said Carlo Borghetti, the vice-premier of Lombardy, an economically crucial region with a population of 10 million.; 4/4/20, 12:26 PM
n.n said...: because raciss

Diversity (i.e. color judgment) breeds adversity. Still, it must be noted that viruses are biased, even prejudiced, selecting for genomic factors and behavior (e.g. STDs, HIV/AIDS).; 4/4/20, 12:31 PM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: Personally I’m happy the Trump chose to rebuild the military and restock our ammo stockpiles, as we’ve been told. It is too bad we didn’t get around to restocking our emergency medical resources until a pandemic was threatening us. We were able under Trump's leadership to accommodate those needs so far without that stockpile because we have American ingenuity on our side. And a good leader who made hard choices early both to fix Defense and to now turn on a war footing and face this crisis. We are winning this battle. The economy is the best target for emergency assistance. Then maybe the hot war. One never knows what lurks around the corner.; 4/4/20, 12:32 PM
Josephbleau said...: As the leader Trump should take the blame due to his responsibility to the public. However the bureaucracy has a separate responsibility to the leader to fulfill the duties they have been assigned. Then, in a healthy system, the leader can go to these delegates and burn their asses and fire them to fix the problem. That is where the system fails because these people are all protected by civil service. The lesson of the Althouse theory of responsibility is that the government, as structured can’t execute their responsibilities and will commonly fail to serve.; 4/4/20, 12:33 PM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: Next target I meant. Not best target. I’m really fighting autocorrect lately but often miss These weird changes (like why is “there” capitalized?) as they are occurring. Post then proofread is lazy but hard to change.; 4/4/20, 12:36 PM
FullMoon said...: Skookup John said, "I don’t blame either Obama or Trump. We have hundreds of career CDC bureaucrats earning 6 figure salaries whose job it is to take care of these preparations."

Any of those losers get fired? Doubt it.; 4/4/20, 12:36 PM
FullMoon said...: I blame the parents.; 4/4/20, 12:36 PM
n.n said...: many of them pursued a practice of resistance to anything he said or did.

Both passive and active resistance, exemplified by the "deep state" collusion with Democrats and foreign agents. Water Closet is the novel gold standard of political corruption. Still, there is evidence that these residual strains have been reduced and replaced, and their progress has been mitigated. Time will tell if they population has been sufficiently and properly inoculated, and if people will socially distance themselves from their influence and steering regimes.; 4/4/20, 12:38 PM
FullMoon said...: In Federal warehouses , low level employees tell the next higher up, "Boss, we short on emergency supplies". Word goes up the chain of command until some person in power syas , "Yeah, don't worry about it, we are not going to buy any more". Who was the person who said "No ?" It wasn't Trump.

And seems to me, Trump claims 'previous administration", while media and lefties blame Trump personally .; 4/4/20, 1:00 PM
Bilwick said...: Red Diaper Barry . . . the gift that keeps on giving!; 4/4/20, 1:35 PM
Birkel said...: It was Obama's economy until two months ago.

But Obama's actions RE: pandemic preparedness was never his fault.

Are we fucking done pre-missing that ceckless funt yet?; 4/4/20, 1:43 PM
Francisco D said...: Cookie said: I very much doubt Trump knew our store of emergency response supplies were low, but I have no doubt he wouldn't have cared in the least and wouldn't have done anything about it had he known.

Once again, we see that the Left has the ability to read Trump's mind and has discovered that:

1. He is an uncaring sociopath;
2. He is cognitively confused;
3. He is a Russian asset;
4. He ran for POTUS in order to improve his brand and his profits

etc., etc., etc.,; 4/4/20, 1:43 PM
BUMBLE BEE said...: Democrats have exhibited the uncanny ability to help this president move this country forward.
Much like Joe The Felon Biden who agrees with the president on the contemporaneous facts of the virus, albeit several weeks later than Trump. BTW saw a group of teenagers who were maintaining a distance of about 30 inches. Among America's brightest.; 4/4/20, 1:45 PM
YoungHegelian said...: I wouldn't be surprised that when the various "stockpile shortages" are investigated after the crisis is over, that Federal procurement regulations come in for a large share of the blame.

I'm in IT, live near DC, and have seen the horrors of federal procurement up close too many times. Requests for Proposals/Quotes (RFP/RFQ) from the Feds that take years to write because the specs keep changing, Fed. regulations restricting bidders only to companies owned by minorities (so called 8a bids) that force companies to scramble for minority owned firms with which to partner, protests of contract awards that take years to work their way through the courts, and, finally, awards where either Federal or contractor incompetence keeps the contract from being successfully fulfilled (e.g. it took the FBI three tries & about $750 million to get a working case tracking system developed).

Don't be too sure that some politician or bureaucrat screwed up here. It may have very well been that everyone was following the letter of the law.; 4/4/20, 1:48 PM
Browndog said...: Blaming Obama only goes so far.

Unfucking real.

What President was it that used every aspect of his administration to bring down the next President that resulted in nothing but investigations and gridlock that lasted up until...oh, the outbreak of the corona virus?; 4/4/20, 1:51 PM
Ken B said...: YH
“ It may have very well been that everyone was following the letter of the law.”
Indeed. And if so, a law almost no one thought that important to change.; 4/4/20, 1:58 PM
Lawrence Person said...: I just assume the Obama-era funds for replenishing the supply were diverted to something deemed more important, probably involving diversity consultants...; 4/4/20, 2:33 PM
minnesota farm guy said...: Have to agree with Ann that ultimately Trump is responsible for actions or inactions of his executive branch. What we are really seeing in all this is the absolute horrendous failure to perform their duties of the bloated Federal bureaucracies under any and all administrations. Certainly part of that is failure of supervision. I believe another part is the unionization of the work force which makes enforcing standards - by firing one for the encouragement of the others - difficult.; 4/4/20, 2:40 PM
Known Unknown said...: "The AIDS epidemic took and continues to take a far higher toll, I'll wager, than COVID-19."

Probably around 35 million.; 4/4/20, 2:52 PM
iowan2 said...: minnesota farm guy said...
Have to agree with Ann that ultimately Trump is responsible for actions or inactions of his executive branch. What we are really seeing in all this is the absolute horrendous failure to perform their duties of the bloated Federal bureaucracies under any and all administrations.

There is no accountability. Not a single person will lose their position, title, or job. This is by design.
President Trump is attempting to hold people to answer for their actions. See the other post about the firing an inspector general. An IG that operated outside his defined jurisdiction. See the backlash that occurs when accountability is applied?
Now tell me how President Trump is supposed to hold the persons accountable for an emergency inventory, not maintained as required?; 4/4/20, 2:54 PM
iowan2 said...: "It happened under his watch". Great concept until we learn that the FISA proccess has been totally corrupted corrupted by President Obama.
Or the IRS targeting conservative organizations, Obama? Nope. Some grunt in Cleaveland.

Four dead in Bengahzi? Killed by Obama.

Want to keep going?

This not whataboutism. This is a cry for consistent standards.; 4/4/20, 3:04 PM
Martin said...: This is a bipartisan screw-up that goes back at least to the 2002-03 SARS coronavirus outbreak, though the risk of mutating influenza has been known for a century.

We elect the incompetents, and after they prove to be incompetent and not on our side, we re-elect them. So whose fault is it, really?; 4/4/20, 3:09 PM
Ray - SoCal said...: The Press has some responsibility...

Tom Price, Trump's first Secretary of Health and Human Services, was forced to resign in September of 2017. Azar took over in February of 2018.

Seems the press got another scalp, Trump's first director of the CDC, starting July 2017, Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald for owning Tobacco Stocks in Jan 2018:
https://www.vox.com/2018/1/31/16954882/cdc-director-brenda-fitzgerald-resignation-tobacco

With all the attacks Trump has had, the "Resistance" slow walking nominations, I am surprised Trump has gotten anything done.

And the CDC was focused on other priorities:
2014 article:
https://thefederalist.com/2014/10/03/the-cdc-doesnt-have-a-funding-problem-it-has-mission-creep-problem/

March 2020 article:
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/03/cdc-was-fighting-racism-and-obesity-instead-daniel-greenfield/
CDC researched racism, childhood obesity, gun control, climate change, etc.; 4/4/20, 3:20 PM
Robert Cook said...: "Once again, we see that the Left has the ability to read Trump's mind and has discovered that:

1. He is an uncaring sociopath;
2. He is cognitively confused;
3. He is a Russian asset;
4. He ran for POTUS in order to improve his brand and his profits"

At least one of the above is true, another probably true, and a third is iffy but possibly true.

Trump is no Russian asset, (at least, not wittingly, to quote "Jimmy the Perjurer" Clapper).; 4/4/20, 3:29 PM
narciso said...: I had forgotten about fitzgerald, just another tripwire, the dems had set to empower the virus,; 4/4/20, 3:31 PM
KJE said...: I voted for Trump the last time and intend to vote for him again.

Yes. He’s the President. Failures of the executive, by omission or commission are solely his.

As was it the responsibility of Obama to rebuild stocks after they were depleted.

If you’ve watched government since Hurricane Katrina and are any bit rational, you cannot possibly expect that the government is coming to save you in a crisis.

As the head of my household, I am responsible for my wife and children.

Do a Google search for “Graham Combat” and then switch to “images.”

You should see a cardboard cut out with some wording on it.

This is rule 1, 2, and 5 in live action.; 4/4/20, 3:32 PM
Anne in Rockwall, TX said...: "The depletion happened in 2009. Obama had three and a half years, same as Trump."

Thanks for restating my point.

What is wrong with this math? 2016-2009= 3 and a half years?; 4/4/20, 4:17 PM
stevew said...: Blaming them both is fair and appropriate. Me? This is just the latest evidence that government is inept, incompetent, and lacks foresight. The less we depend on government, especially at the Federal level, the better.; 4/4/20, 4:44 PM
Known Unknown said...: "“Photographs and video footage emerging from this crisis-stricken coastal city look like images from the aftermath of a natural disaster: bodies wrapped in sheets and dumped on the roadside or outside houses; desperate families begging for help after being forced to keep their loved-ones corpses at home for days in temperatures of more than 30C.”"

Some of the 'footage' is suspicious.; 4/4/20, 5:46 PM
walter said...: Blogger Skookum John said...
@KenB: The depletion happened in 2009. Obama had three and a half years, same as Trump.
2016 - 2009 = 7
--
"Lazy" math.; 4/4/20, 5:58 PM
Gahrie said...: Obama was a grasshopper, Trump is an ant.; 4/4/20, 6:49 PM
Big Mike said...: @stevew, you should try working with them! If you really want to get rich buy a federal bureaucrat for what they're really worth and sell them for what they think they're worth.; 4/4/20, 7:14 PM
Jake said...: Fuck all this noise.; 4/4/20, 9:27 PM
PaoloP said...: Retroactive complaints for unpredictable events are a waste of time.; 4/4/20, 11:27 PM
stevew said...: Hey Big Mike! Buy low, sell high! I like it!

Trump throws some blame at Obama because the press and Democrats (BIRM) are blaming Trump for being unprepared. Tossing around blame is, as PaoloP says, a waste of time, unproductive, and not helpful.; 4/5/20, 5:23 AM
Greg the class traitor said...: "Blaming Obama only goes so far. Trump had been President for 3 years by the time the coronavirus crisis got serious. Maybe Obama deserves "blame" for the depletion, but depletion sets up the need to replenish. Both Presidents are to blame for the failure to replenish. If anything, Trump is more to blame, since the depletion had already happened and Trump knew the stockpile was low."

Wrong

Complete utter bullshit wrong.

There is no reason in the world for President Trump to know that the Obama Admin completely depleted the medical supplies stockpile and didn't bother to fill it up.

Did you know? Want to point us to your posts on the shameful state of the US national medical equipment stockpiles? No?

It was the job of the Obama Admin to get those stockpiles refilled. If they'd started a process of refilling them, and Trump had stopped that process, then it would be Trump's failure. But expecting him to magically know about that particular Obama Admin failure? One that no one else in government was worrying about? One for which there was no public discussion?

That's lunatic.; 4/5/20, 12:59 PM