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White House Turned Down Emergency Medical Funding in February


BarryLaverty

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Another example of Trump making political decisions not based on good governance and foresight. Why we need a real leader in the White House...reason #34567.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/senator-says-white-house-turned-down-emergency-coronavirus-funding-in-early-february-003319950.html

Yahoo News

Senator says White House turned down emergency coronavirus funding in early February

Suzanne Smalley
Suzanne SmalleyReporter
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Trump signs emergency aid bill to fight coronavirus
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WASHINGTON — Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, says that Trump administration officials declined an offer of early congressional funding assistance that he and other senators made on Feb. 5 during a meeting to discuss the coronavirus. 

The officials, including Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, said they “didn’t need emergency funding, that they would be able to handle it within existing appropriations,” Murphy recalled in an interview with Yahoo News’ “Skullduggery” podcast

“What an awful, horrible catastrophic mistake that was,” Murphy said. 

On Feb. 5, Murphy tweeted: “Just left the Administration briefing on Coronavirus. Bottom line: they aren't taking this seriously enough. Notably, no request for ANY emergency funding, which is a big mistake. Local health systems need supplies, training, screening staff etc. And they need it now.”

 

Murphy told Yahoo News that the funding he and other congressional leaders wanted to allocate nearly two months ago would have paid for essential preventative measures, including hiring local screening and testing staff, researching a vaccine and treatments and the stockpiling of needed medical supplies. 

“The consequences of that in Connecticut is that we're going to test less people today than we tested yesterday,” Murphy told “Skullduggery” hosts Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman. “And that means that there are lots of people who are positive who are not going to know it, who are then going to be in contact with other people, who are going to spread the disease.”

Connecticut is so undersupplied that officials have had to cut back on tests administered even as suspected new infections are surging, Murphy said, calling the forced reduction in testing “an abomination.” 

Murphy said Connecticut has been particularly challenged in trying to build up its supply of re-agents, the compounds needed to run coronavirus tests. Re-agents are mostly manufactured abroad, and Murphy said “the whole world is competing” for them now. 

The senator said he spent part of Thursday on the phone with a lab official in Connecticut who said he cannot administer enough tests due to the re-agent shortage. 

“Had we appropriated money in February to start buying re-agent, we would be in a position to do many more tests today than we are,” Murphy said. ”It was just so clear to us that the administration didn't think this was going to be a problem. We begged them in that meeting to request emergency funding from the Congress and they told us ... that they had everything that they needed on hand, which was false.”

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., on Capitol Hill. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., on Capitol Hill. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)

Murphy also criticized the White House’s decision not to take coronavirus test kits offered by the World Health Organization in January, which he said was an especially devastating mistake because that test was ready to go and easily replicable. Murphy said he believes that, as a result of the administration’s testing decisions, only about 20 percent to 30 percent of people who should be tested are able to do so. 

“We didn't appropriate the dollars necessary to build out the testing infrastructure,” Murphy said.

The administration’s laissez-faire approach has also contributed to the country’s soaring infection rate, Murphy said, because Trump had resisted calls to invoke the Defense Production Act. The Defense Production Act, or DPA, allows the president to compel private companies to manufacture products deemed necessary for national security. 

 

Trump announced Friday that he was finally invoking the DPA to force General Motors to produce badly needed ventilators. But Murphy said the president had dragged his feet in using the DPA because some of his allies pressured him against invoking it. 

“The president is getting push back from right-wing ideologues, from those who believe that the private sector can fix any and all problems that confront the nation,” Murphy said. 

“The national Chamber of Commerce and other conservative, free-market ideologues inside the White House are arguing for the president to not use the DPA simply because they philosophically disagree with the idea that government should play any role in the management of supplies at a time like this.”

Sabrina Fang, a spokeswoman for the Chamber of Commerce, did not respond to Yahoo News’ requests for comment.

Calling the president’s coronavirus management strategy an “abysmal failure,” Murphy said the lack of federal leadership continues to directly correlate with cities’ and states’ inability to perform enough tests and stop the disease from spreading in the U.S. He said that supply shortages have led to a “‘Lord of the Flies’ environment in which every single state and every single hospital is left to essentially fend for themselves and try to scrounge together as much equipment as they can.”

Asked what he considers to be the most important thing Trump could do to help the country turn the corner in its effort to contain the coronavirus, Murphy said the president should rethink his recent assertion that the country might be able to return to normal by Easter, which falls this year on April 12. 

“What I’m most worried about right now is that the president is just going to get sort of tired of these emergency measures,” Murphy said, referring to the social distancing efforts most Americans are now undertaking. “The result will be that people will start coming out of their homes and we will end up with a health care system in absolute, catastrophic failure.”

Murphy also said he is now close to proposing legislation that will bolster coordination between the U.S, and other countries for pandemic preparedness and protection so that next time a virus emerges, leaders are better able to respond.

“There could be another one at our doorstep next spring at the same time that we’re responding to the current virus,” he said.

He also hailed the passage of a $2 trillion stimulus package late Wednesday. The package is meant to boost an economy staggering under the weight of the coronavirus pandemic and includes billions of dollars in tax credits for hard-hit industries and direct cash payments to individuals, among other provisions. 

But while he said he was happy the bill would help the economy recover, “until hospitals have what they need in order to continue to respond to this ... our salvation is really in all of our hands.”

“There is no danger of overreacting right now,” Murphy said. “As the number of people infected grows by leaps and bounds every single day, as more hot spots are created all across the country, we need to take drastic measures.” 

He said he is gravely worried about the administration’s “mixed messages” to the public about the duration and importance of social distancing. 

“Everything in that bill is meaningless,” Murphy said of the stimulus, “unless we are all personally very serious about engaging in the best practices necessary to repel the virus.”

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How can someone who is a fraud and never been a senator or government official know so much about this country, and know what's best for the human body etc, ignores scientists and professionals about this virus... short simple answer HE CANT, #2020 anyone with a pulse

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On February 5th there were only a few cases of the Wuhan Virus in the U.S..  Why should there have been anything done when the WHO was reporting what they were ?  As of now there are only 105,000 Americans infected, but they have put 82.25 million people out of work.  I expect the virus to slow according to many science reports, but as some doctors have warned this is a mutated virus created in Wuhan, China.  If my analysis is right, and it goes away.  What happens when it returns in the fall ?  Will we have to do this all over again.  Many are acting as if this virus is here to stay, but as with any other virus we will either develop immunity  to it or die from it.  Either way, we still need to be subject to it in able to develop our immune systems against it.  Instead we are damning up the lake with no spillway and allowing it to cover us with the algae that would grow and stagnant eventually killing us all as the fish would be in the oxygen depleted water.  I know that is impossible to do because eventually even the water would find away to escape.  As Pubililius Syrus once stated "A rolling stone gathers no moss".  We are instead allowing the moss to fester.  

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4 hours ago, BoHogg said:

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“One of the things we did right was very early cut off travel from China to the United States. Because outside of China, where it originated, the countries in the world that have it are through travel, either directly from China or indirectly from someone who went someplace and then came to that particular country.” Fauci said.

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1 hour ago, BoHogg said:

So if the state department saying don’t travel, does that not mean anything to you unless trump says it?  

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20 hours ago, DaveTV1 said:

On February 5th there were only a few cases of the Wuhan Virus in the U.S..  Why should there have been anything done when the WHO was reporting what they were ?  As of now there are only 105,000 Americans infected, but they have put 82.25 million people out of work.  I expect the virus to slow according to many science reports, but as some doctors have warned this is a mutated virus created in Wuhan, China.  If my analysis is right, and it goes away.  What happens when it returns in the fall ?  Will we have to do this all over again.  Many are acting as if this virus is here to stay, but as with any other virus we will either develop immunity  to it or die from it.  Either way, we still need to be subject to it in able to develop our immune systems against it.  Instead we are damning up the lake with no spillway and allowing it to cover us with the algae that would grow and stagnant eventually killing us all as the fish would be in the oxygen depleted water.  I know that is impossible to do because eventually even the water would find away to escape.  As Pubililius Syrus once stated "A rolling stone gathers no moss".  We are instead allowing the moss to fester.  

The overreaction to the virus will do far more harm to America than the virus itself .... tru storie  ....

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21 hours ago, BoHogg said:

Yes that was one good thing. Cutdown on increasing the number who were already here. 

The thing is it isn't going to decrease anymore, even with a curfew, quarantine for all, and shutting all businesses down.  The reason there is a crisis in hospitals is because today if someone gets the sniffles they go to the emergency room even for the common cold.  The problem is people are going to come in contact with one another regardless.  Had these people self quarantined from the start it wouldn't be as widespread, but they didn't know they had the Wuhan Virus.  They thought it was just the flu.  Then they met with friends or family members who in turn did the same.  They went to hospitals or to the doctors office, and those they came in contact with that do not practice proper hygiene spread it.  It's already out there, might as well that everyone take the bullet.  Who knows if this will ever go away.  The Spanish Influenza has come back three times in the 20th century under different names and mutations.  Governments need to stop developing these new strains, because they are becoming worse than the nuclear bomb.  Pandora's box has been opened so to speak so might as well embrace it and live with it, all we have is hope left.  

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2 hours ago, KirtFalcon said:

The overreaction to the virus will do far more harm to America than the virus itself .... tru storie  ....

Exactly the damage is going to be immeasurable.  I'm hearing that many experts say this could last for 12-18 months so no sports.  How is that going to effect all those who can't work, because of the limitations placed on people.  Today, I found out my neighbor was laid off at work, and he worked in the medical field.  I don't know what position he held, but due to everyone desiring professional medical treatment when none is really available that adds more of a burden.  

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