May 5, 2020

"President Trump said on Tuesday that the White House’s coronavirus task force would be shut down and replaced with 'something in a different form'..."

"... as the country moved into what he called Phase 2 of a response to a pandemic that has killed nearly 70,000 Americans. 'We will have something in a different form,' Mr. Trump told reporters as he toured a Honeywell mask manufacturing plant in Arizona, where he wore safety goggles but no mask... 'I think we are looking at Phase 2, and we’re looking at other phases,' Mr. Trump said after he was asked whether it was a good idea to shut down the task force while the virus was still spreading through the country. He said that Dr. Deborah L. Birx, the virus response coordinator for the task force, and other top public officials would still be involved in the efforts to address the pandemic after the task force disbanded. 'They will be, and so will other doctors, and so will other experts in the field,' he said, adding, 'We are bringing our country back.'... The task force’s demise would only intensify questions about whether the administration is adequately organized to address the complex, life-or-death decisions related to the virus and give adequate voice to scientists and public health experts in making policy.... It was not clear exactly what might replace the task force. A group led by Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, has been functioning as something of a shadow task force. That group is likely to continue working..."

The NYT reports.

50 comments:

Narayanan said...

so NYT is going with the larger number rather than the more specific virus caused deaths which is about half as much.

Mark said...

Trump's coronavirus task force is a dangerous fraud whose very existence is harming and killing Americans.

Mark said...

Trump abolishing the coronavirus task force is a reckless and dangerous act that will harm and kill Americans.

rhhardin said...

Good. Otherwise they'll all settle in to their own bureaucracy with their own incentives replacing the right ones.

The nice thing about optimal decisions is that the peak of the payoff curve is broad. Getting anywhere near the right choice does about as well as getting it on the nose.

Assuming that the optimum isn't at one extreme or the other.

Richard Dolan said...

"only intensify questions"

Of course, they will intensify only certain questions.

rhhardin said...

Call it the coronavirus platoon, not task force. Send it out on missions and replace it if it's wiped out.

Nonapod said...

Pence said around Memorial day is when they'll shut it down.

h said...

I've been following the data from the CDC https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/cases-in-us.html

I know there are so many other data sources, that people will be inclined to object to this. But using this measure yesterday was the first day in which "new covid deaths" fell below 1000. Deaths on May 4: 67456; Deaths on May 5 68279. Daily change 823.

First time below 1000 since April 9 according to my records. Peaking at over 4000 on April 17 and 18 (though those days may have included the weird re-definition of covid deaths in NY I'm not sure.)

I will watch with interest to see if the washington post makes a story of this landmark.

Nonapod said...

the more specific virus caused deaths which is about half as much.

I wasn't aware such a number existed. Where can I find that?

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

I am concerned that public opinion has been irredeemably poisoned regarding cv. If you want any part of your life back you are guilty of killing grandma. People are stupid. So, so stupid. They believe all the hysterical bullshit they scroll through while sitting on the crapper.

I’m not sure how President Trump is going to deal with the fact that so many people think that cv is Captain Tripps.

Roost on the Moon said...

so NYT is going with the larger number rather than the more specific virus caused deaths which is about half as much.

The real number is going to be seen by history by looking at the spike in all-cause mortality during this period. It's obviously going to dwarf anything being currently reported, and will include health failures due to undiagnosed coronavirus, supply and PPE shortages, etc. It will be an interesting footnote that both the administration and its partisans seemed to care more about the reported number than the actual one.

Marcus Bressler said...

PDJT, being a businessman, knows that when a "committee's" work is nearly done, start to phase it out or it will, bu virtue of being a "government" entity, will go on forever and ever, getting larger and eating more tax dollars.

THEOLDMAN

Free our Beaches!

rhhardin said...

I interacted with a garbage man yesterday, social unisolating. I've always gotten along great with garbage men.

One day years ago I spotted my garbage truck broken down on a hill in rural country, on my way bicycling back from the store. It was hundred degree hot, and he was apparently waiting for a repair truck. I offered the guy one of my iced teas from the grocery load, not cold but wet; he declined - he had his own thermos of whatever. But for a year or so after that my garbage can was the only one set neatly upright with the top on after being emptied by the truck.

I think he spotted my very distinctive bike in the garage. Big slow moving vehicle triangle on the back.

Michael K said...

The NIH is on the case and will be Diversity high school students to ruin the investigation.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) are not taking the coronavirus epidemic seriously, to judge from their funding priorities. On April 20, those two agencies announced the availability of grants to increase the “diversity” of biomedical research labs. Academic virologists working on respiratory failure, say, could receive hundreds of thousands more taxpayer dollars if they could find a “diverse” student to add to the project. No scientific justification for the new diversity hire is needed; indeed, high school students are eligible, despite the virtual certainty that they will contribute nothing of value. To the contrary, such new hires will be a drag on any medical advance, since the scientists must pledge to mentor the students, taking time and attention away from their scientific research. Those mentees will be chosen not because of their science skills—they need present none—but because of their group’s underrepresentation in STEM.

The premier federal funders of biomedical research, in other words, apparently believe that a pandemic is the perfect moment to focus further on identity politics. If diversity trumps scientific merit in biomedical research, including in immunology and virology, then those research efforts cannot be particularly important, despite the experts’ economy-crushing shutdown mandates.


That should wind up the problem right away,

Michael K said...

Sorry, that was "run" the investigation but the original sounds better.

rhhardin said...

It would be nice if people kept wearing masks. You don't have to go for zero, just any reduction at all. It reduces the average number of people that an infected person infects, and if it ever goes below 1.0, the disease dies out, vaccine or no vaccine.

That reduces total deaths absolutely, not just delaying them.

Yancey Ward said...

Trump will be fine as long as the reopening continues through the Summer. If he fails on this, then he will lose reelection. It is that simple. You can count on the Democrats with power to keep everything closed as long as they feel they won't be hauled out onto the grounds of their governor's mansions and strung up. You will see one panicky story after another in the next 4 weeks claiming all sorts of nonsense about more dangerous mutations, reinfections, coronavirus induced genital warts, birth defects caused by coronavirus, etc. It will be like living in a comic book world.

Michael K said...

It will be an interesting footnote that both the administration and its partisans seemed to care more about the reported number than the actual one.

You seem to assume that the "spike" will be significant. I doubt it. Maybe you refer to Cuomo. If so I apologize.

narciso said...

How they use pillows

https://mobile.twitter.com/AlexBerenson/status/1257794199522607107

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

It will be like living in a comic book world.

And lots of people believe it. What's the solution to that?

Yancey Ward said...

Let's say that 125,000 do die from COVID-19, spread out over 4 months, this won't be a spike in total mortality- it will be broad hump with a peak in mid April, and there is a good chance that 25-50% of the deaths are just accelerated from the 2nd half of the year. Remember, 3,000,000 Americans would have died anyway- about 250,000/month and 55,000-60,000/week- all happening without COVID-19. If this had occurred during the flu season, you would not even see it in the Z-score against previous years- it would be lost in the noise.

narciso said...

Actual numbers or the massaged ones

jaydub said...

Blogger Mark said...

"Trump's coronavirus task force is a dangerous fraud whose very existence is harming and killing Americans."

Mark also said:

"Trump abolishing the coronavirus task force is a reckless and dangerous act that will harm and kill Americans."

Question: Is Mark being facetious or auditioning for a job at CNN?

Shouting Thomas said...

I think the Wisconsin Supreme Court decision will reverberate throughout the country.

A decision that the shutdown is unconstitutional will begin to break the back of the Democrat’s obvious psy-ops campaign to beat down the economy in an effort to defeat Trump in the general election.

Yancey Ward said...

Yeah, it was hard to believe those two comments, written so close together, could have been written by the same person, but they were. Amazing- I bet he didn't even realize the contradicted each other even though they were written 1 minute apart.

Mark said...

You're sharper than that Yancey.

OF COURSE it was intentional.

Trump is NOT ALLOWED to win. EVER.

Trump is ALWAYS an evil threat to the existence of mankind in the eyes of the MSM/Dems/left, etc.

Mark said...

We have always been at war with Eastasia.

Michael K said...

Blogger Mark said...

"Trump's coronavirus task force is a dangerous fraud whose very existence is harming and killing Americans."

Mark also said:

"Trump abolishing the coronavirus task force is a reckless and dangerous act that will harm and kill Americans."

Question: Is Mark being facetious or auditioning for a job at CNN?


My impression is that there are two Marks posting here, or possibly we have a Mark with a split personality al a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Mark said...

On the sixth day of Hate Week, as crowds gathered to denounce Eurasia, the Party switched enemies to Eastasia. In a particularly rousing speech against their enemy, the speaker was handed a slip of paper, and in mid-sentence, without pause, without change in content or tone, he changed the name of the enemy he was speaking against to Eastasia. Eurasia was now their dearest friends. Those holding banners denouncing their enemy were suddenly embarrassed to discover they had unaccountably written the wrong name, and quickly trampled and destroyed them.

Michael The Magnificent said...

Question: Is Mark being facetious or auditioning for a job at CNN?

There are two Marks.

n.n said...

a pandemic that has killed nearly 70,000 Americans

A pandemic that has aborted nearly 35,000 Americans, perhaps more, once conflation of causes, and inferential diagnoses, are removed from the count. #GaiasChoice

n.n said...

so NYT is going with the larger number rather than the more specific virus caused deaths

It's either NYT liberal license or dark optimism.

Ray - SoCal said...

Yancy shared this link for R factors:
https://rt.live/

Mark said...

Will someone explain it to these people?

Because I have tried.

DavidD said...

Mark,

Some of us get it.

Others must be tired....

Rosa Marie Yoder said...

Mark, I get it, too. The others are just being obtuse, I suspect.

Tomcc said...

Mark, it was pretty subtle. (I thought it might have been anti-Mark)

Known Unknown said...

CV-only (no other comorbidities) is around 38k. Total (people who may have died of other causes like cancer, old age, etc.) is 70k.

Howard said...

Blogger rhhardin said...

It would be nice if people kept wearing masks. You don't have to go for zero, just any reduction at all. It reduces the average number of people that an infected person infects, and if it ever goes below 1.0, the disease dies out, vaccine or no vaccine.

That reduces total deaths absolutely, not just delaying them.


Masks are uncomfortable, hot, they make you look funny, they make it harder to suck wind, people are suffering enough, they need to just go shopping like before. Besides, math is hard. The real problem with masks is they only help everyone else, not me, me, me, me. The media globalist elite just want to suppress the Trump chloro-cure and humiliate Americans. Mask wearing is just their first step to mandatory hijabs for men and women to submit to islam and erase the gender divide in one fell swoop. Be afraid, be very afraid... but take no common sense actions because then the ChiComs win. Masks are the ultimate slippery slope.

Original Mike said...

"There are two Marks."

There are five lights…

The Godfather said...

While the shut-down of our economy has been in effect, around 70,000 Americans have died because (supposedly) of the Coronavirus. That's not what I would call a great success. It only looks like a success because "they" (the wise people we are supposed to listen to) told us it would be 2,000,000 deaths if we didn't do what they told us to. But there was never any evidence of that threat except what "they" told us.

But we know -- we really do know -- that shutting down most of our economy has caused the greatest economic disaster since the Great Depression. If we start to reopen the economy, I predict that AS A CERTAINTY people will die. Will more people die than would die if we kept the quarantines in effect for another month, or six months, or a year? Nobody knows. Why? Because none of us can predict the future. That's not a legitimate reason to continue commiting economic (and actual) suicide.

chuckR said...

Michael K @ 7:22

Obama's zampolits still appear to be in charge. They need to be rooted out.

Yancey Ward said...

Well, Mark, it was a brilliant parody. Well done, you fooled me, but then I have actual experience with the other Mark, and he is dumb enough to have written those comments with serious intent.

Mark said...

"There are two Marks."

There are five lights…


By far, the best of the TNG episodes. Top five of all Trek episodes.

Matt Sablan said...

"The real number is going to be seen by history by looking at the spike in all-cause mortality during this period. It's obviously going to dwarf anything being currently reported, and will include health failures due to undiagnosed coronavirus, supply and PPE shortages, etc."

-- It also won't be anywhere near the over one million deaths we warned about in February that we were told would happen by April, where dying people would be turned away from hospitals to die in the streets. So, an honest history will say the administration's response, while criticized, also managed to reduce the total number of expected deaths by more than 75%, and should be considered a resounding success, even if it was possible a better solution may have been available.

Gusty Winds said...

He's gotta get Fauci sidelined. That dude is evil.

gadfly said...

There is now only six months to go before the frightening Trump train smashes into the end-of-tracks (and tricks) barrier. So the Stable Genius turns to Billy Barr and the Russians to save or pardon fellow gangsters Mike Flynn and Roger Stone while aomehow making voters forget about our great viral epidemic now expected to double YTD deaths. After all, the devil, disguised as Barack Obama, made him sit on his ass - determined only to suck great gobs of cash from the American money machine.

JAORE said...

The premier federal funders of biomedical research, in other words, apparently believe that a pandemic is the perfect moment to focus further on identity politics.

Remember in the distant past (why it must have been WEEKS ago) when the Task Force was first announced. There was a cry of outrage at the lack of diversity on that task force.

Because science.

Brian said...

He's gotta get Fauci sidelined. That dude is evil.

Sure seems like it. Wait until he files a whistleblower complaint and demands to testify in the House.

Nichevo said...

Howard said...

The real problem with masks is they only help everyone else, not me, me, me, me.

Funny, isnt it odd how everyone isn't confident that you, you, you, Howard, are looking out for us, us, us. Also funny, that for six weeks they were telling us don't wear masks. Also funny, there is no way offered by you, you, you, for us to help us, us, us, and that we, we, we, apparently aren't supposed to have masks that protect us, us, us. But someone, someone, someone else, is.


The media globalist elite just want to suppress the Trump chloro-cure

There's many a true word said in jest. HCQ+ is very likely the 90% answer. Why else would you deny it but out of malice?