Background Briefing: March 29, 2020
The Pandemic Worsens With the First Peak in New York in 2 to 3 Weeks
We begin as the COVID-19 pandemic worsens in the U.S. which now has the highest number of cases in the world with the peak of infections expected in the next 2 to 3 weeks in New York then followed around the country in population centers in New Jersey, Louisiana, Illinois, Michigan and Georgia etc. Meanwhile the erratic Reality TV pitchman in the White House has revealed his childish spitefulness by insisting that governors show him appreciation otherwise, as is the case with Michigan, he will withhold vital medical supplies. With Speaker Pelosi charging that Trump is fiddling while Americans die, we will get an assessment of what conditions are like on the ground for medical workers, nurses and doctors and whether there is a difference between the community infection spreading silently and invisibly and the infections that show up in increasing numbers at hospitals which appear to be much more virulent. Joining us is Dr. Kavita Patel, a Nonresident Fellow at the Brookings Institution who is a practicing primary care physician in Washington DC and was previously Director of Policy for the White House under President Obama where she played a critical role in health reform and pandemic preparedness. She joins us to discuss the concerns among healthcare professionals because of the lack of preparation by the Trump administration which sat on its hands for all of January and February while the crisis worsened at home and abroad. With States now bidding against each other for critically-needed ventilators, driving the price up from $25,000 to $50,000 per unit, the need for national leadership to control the market is stark and urgent. But as Trump goes up in the polls while Biden is missing in action because Sanders has not conceded and is not working with him to present and alternative narrative to the dangerous nonsense spewing forth from the White House, many are turning to former Presidents George W. Bush and Obama in the hope they will step forward to save us from a pathetic presidential fraud who only cares about his legal jeopardy and political future, not the fate and fortune of the American people.
Gagging Heath Care Workers to Avoid Trump’s Vindictiveness
Then we examine how the American Hospital Association is trying to gag hospital employees, nurses and doctors from speaking out about the crisis and the lack of supplies and preparedness threatening the lives of their patients. Dr. Michael Carome, Director of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group, an internationally recognized expert on issues of drug and medical device safety, FDA oversight and healthcare policy, who served as an associate director of regulatory affairs in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, joins us. We discuss how Trump is forcing the healthcare industry into complying with the “greatness” of his fictional leadership in order not to provoke his vindictiveness.