This. The guys happy with their private platinum insurance and against social medicine never appreciate that the people making and handling their food, and cleaning their houses and offices need healthcare too if they want to avoid epidemics. Also, anyone undocumented who is exposed may have reason to be afraid of BP or ICE at hospitals.
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“How not to do this” for $400, Alex
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President Trump on Tuesday played down concerns about the coronavirus in the U.S., saying the situation was “under control” and was a “problem that’s going to go away.”
“We have very few people with it,” Trump told reporters at a news conference in New Delhi, adding that he was not totally caught up on the latest details because of his trip to India but that “the people are getting better, they’re all getting better,” referring to patients in the U.S.
What a fucking ass.
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Immediately upon ascending to office the Trump administration slashed the Centers for Disease Control budget by 20 percent. By that December the White House had issued a guideline to the CDC prohibiting it from using certain terms, including “evidence-based” and “science-based,” which is like telling NASCAR officials they can no longer use the word “engine” or “Earnhardt.”
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Also they used “dollhouse-size rooms,” i.e. small boxes rather than actual rooms, so it seems like the UV exposure was closer to outdoor areas rather than indoor areas.
I think even wintertime UV exposure is enough to have a significant virucidal effect - but it’s still not impacting viral particles in interior spaces or on all the vectors that people touch daily - e.g. money, food, etc. It has zero impact on exposure from viral shedding from sick people. So there’s limited impact. (Even with the Spanish Flu, which has very limited survival outside the body, the infections were happening in the summer and fall, for example.)
Also, UV itself can have an Immunosuppressive effect, apparently, which worsens viral infection outcomes. (Though there’s also the role in vitamin-D production, which helps immune responses, too.)
Yet. Yet. Give him time. Trump will happily adopt a contrary position to one of his previous ones if he thinks it benefits him. And if (when) the US has any sort of outbreak, thanks to his total incompetence, he’ll be looking for scapegoats and then all the blame shifting and conspiracy theories will run rampant.
Yeah, just that fact that Rush has now said this makes it likely Trump will start repeating elements of it (and other conspiracy nonsense), because even in the absence for a need for a scapegoat, he’ll see it as benefiting him politically with the election.
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Someone tell Trump his Big Mac supply is threatened.
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Good luck with that!
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No such thing as luck.
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Maybe that’s why he pardoned Blagojevich - it’s the Chicago Way!
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I can tell this is parody because there isn’t enough covfefe.
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I mean, the Trump administration at least is making that pretty much impossible now, as everyone who opens their mouth on the subject has begun with the wildly dangerous misinformation intended to make Trump look good. E.g. denying that the coronavirus is even a problem - claiming it isn’t in the US, or that the death rate is the same as the seasonal flu, etc., despite the CDC stating the opposite.
Yet again, Trump administration incompetence and authoritarian toadying is going to get people killed.
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Rather has not changed his politics from the centre-right they used to be. Instead, things have shifted so much that he seems to have moved left.
That, and he really does not like Trump.
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Maybe this is the alt-right end game; they’ll move so far to the right that “Hitler was a Socialist” will start to make sense.
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File under “unintended consequences,” and under “authoritarian regimes can’t deal with pandemics.” There are lessons for the US here, but I fear it will be seen as more of a “How To” manual rather than a cautionary tale.
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Pence, ugh… Robert Reich notes:
As governor of Indiana, Mike Pence enabled the worst HIV outbreak in his state’s history and actively blocked a policy that would have contained the crisis. He slashed public health funding, which forced HIV testing centers to close, and then took nearly three months to allow a temporary needle exchange to stem the crisis. And now this man is in charge of handling an outbreak of global proportions.
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I was about to opine that “This time is will be different, because there are “Christian” lives in danger”; but then I had a reality check, they would probably need to be some very specific sect for Pence to care about, and, even then, he’d probably assume that they were being rightfully punished by GOD for some secret sin.
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Thing is, I don’t think his mandate is to control the spread of the virus, it is to control the spread of information about the virus. The new rules are that CDC has to clear all statement through his office prior to release. It’s almost like the politics are more important than the lives of actual people! Whoda thunk it? 
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