Please Listen to the Experts

Wearing a mask and socially distancing will save lives and the economy.  The U.S. suffered over 1,000 deaths per day several times this past week. America also passed 151,000 deaths from Covid-19. After years of declining enrollment, the number of people on Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) rose by 1.2 million between December 2019 and April 2020. The numbers may double before the end of the year without a plan to contain the Trump Virus. An increase in enrollment of 800,000 people since March alone, according to a new KFF analysis. A sign of the alarming spike in COVID-19 cases across the country. Please listen to the experts.

Experts know that masks prevent people from spreading germs to others. But now experts are pointing to evidence suggesting that masks also protect the people wearing them. Different kinds of masks “block virus to a different degree, but they all block the virus from getting in,” said Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease physician at the University of California, San Francisco. They lessen the severity of symptoms. They stave off infection better.  If any virus particles do breach these barriers, she said, the disease might still be milder.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said that social distancing and mask usage would eliminate resuming shutdowns. “If we wear our masks we can avoid further shutdowns but if we don’t that will be the consequence,” Azar said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House’s coronavirus response coordinator, said she thought everyone in the state should be required to wear a mask. “We need 100 percent of the counties, including the rural counties, to have these mandates,” Birx told reporters. Dr. Birx recommends wearing masks, closing bars, and limiting public seating every time she speaks.

Former CDC Director Tom Frieden said the U.S. had been a “laggard” in addressing the pandemic because of the lack of centralized information. “I’ll be frank, we are a laggard,” Frieden said on “Fox News Sunday.” “We are one of the top in the world in terms of the cumulative death rate unlike many other countries that have high death rates, ours is continuing to increase.”

Health experts warn that we are unprepared to manufacture and distribute hundreds of millions of Covid-19 vaccine doses when one becomes available. Experts recommend that we step up preparedness efforts and spend $40 billion to increase manufacturing and distribution capacity.

White House counselor to Trump Kellyanne Conway has been calling Trump “the health care president”.  Not ironically apparently. Most experts and health officials want leadership with a coordinated national emergency response. Trump blames his response on governors and mayors.

Support for President Trump’s handling of the pandemic reached a new low today. His approval ratings are low because the country continues to experience a surge in infections and record deaths. Joe Biden recently offered a plan focused on caregivers — whether for children, elderly or people with disabilities. He describes it as “easing the squeeze on working families who are raising their kids and caring for aging loved ones at the same time.”