MESSAGE
| DATE | 2020-06-17 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [Hangout - NYLXS] Mike Pence (VP) on a COVID 2nd wave in the WSJ
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There Isn’t a Coronavirus ‘Second Wave’
With testing, treatments and vaccine trials ramping up, we are far
better off than the media report.
By Mike Pence
June 16, 2020 1:18 pm ET
Derek Washington, a nurse, stands in front of a flag outside his
hospital in Long Island, N.Y., May 12.
Photo: Newsday via Getty Images
In recent days, the media has taken to sounding the alarm bells over a
“second wave” of coronavirus infections. Such panic is overblown. Thanks
to the leadership of President Trump and the courage and compassion of
the American people, our public health system is far stronger than it
was four months ago, and we are winning the fight against the invisible
enemy.
While talk of an increase in cases dominates cable news coverage, more
than half of states are actually seeing cases decline or remain stable.
Every state, territory and major metropolitan area, with the exception
of three, have positive test rates under 10%. And in the six states that
have reached more than 1,000 new cases a day, increased testing has
allowed public health officials to identify most of the outbreaks in
particular settings—prisons, nursing homes and meatpacking
facilities—and contain them.
Lost in the coverage is the fact that today less than 6% of Americans
tested each week are found to have the virus. Cases have stabilized over
the past two weeks, with the daily average case rate across the U.S.
dropping to 20,000—down from 30,000 in April and 25,000 in May. And in
the past five days, deaths are down to fewer than 750 a day, a dramatic
decline from 2,500 a day a few weeks ago—and a far cry from the 5,000 a
day that some were predicting.
The truth is that we’ve made great progress over the past four months,
and it’s a testament to the leadership of President Trump. When the
president asked me to chair the White House Coronavirus Task Force at
the end of February, he directed us to pursue not only a
whole-of-government approach but a whole-of-America approach. The
president brought together major commercial labs to expand our testing
capacity, manufacturers to produce much-needed medical equipment, and
major pharmaceutical companies to begin research on new medicines and
vaccines. He rallied the American people to embrace social-distancing
guidelines. And the progress we’ve made is remarkable.
We’ve expanded testing across the board. At the end of February, between
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention labs and state public health
facilities, the U.S. had performed only about 8,000 coronavirus tests.
As of this week, we are performing roughly 500,000 tests a day, and more
than 23 million tests have been performed in total.
We’ve also vastly expanded our supplies of crucial medical equipment. In
March, there were genuine fears that hospitals in our hot spots would
run out of personal protective equipment like N95 masks, gloves or, even
worse, ventilators for patients battling respiratory failure. The
Strategic National Stockpile hadn’t been refilled since the H1N1
influenza outbreak in 2009, and it had only 10,000 ventilators on hand.
Since then, we’ve increased the supply of personal protective equipment
by the billions. Our administration launched Project Air Bridge—a
partnership between the federal government and private companies—that,
as of June 12, had conducted more than 200 flights from overseas to
deliver more than 143 million N95 masks, 598 million surgical and
procedural masks, 20 million eye and face shields, 265 million gowns and
coveralls, and 14 billion gloves. In addition, we’ve worked with the
private sector to ramp up ventilator production. Today, we have more
than 30,000 ventilators in the Strategic National Stockpile, and we’re
well on our way to building 100,000 ventilators in 100 days. No American
who required a ventilator was ever denied one.
We’ve also made great progress on developing therapeutics and a vaccine.
Last month, the pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences announced it
would donate about 940,000 vials of its new drug remdesivir to treat
more than 120,000 patients in the U.S. Under Operation Warp Speed, the
federal government is already funding research into multiple vaccine
candidates, and we are well on our way to having a viable vaccine by the
fall.
But our greatest strength is the resilience of the American people. From
the outset of this pandemic, the American people have stepped up and
made great personal sacrifices to protect the health and safety of our
nation. And it’s because of their embrace of social-distancing
guidelines that all 50 states have begun to reopen in a safe and
responsible manner.
The media has tried to scare the American people every step of the way,
and these grim predictions of a second wave are no different. The truth
is, whatever the media says, our whole-of-America approach has been a
success. We’ve slowed the spread, we’ve cared for the most vulnerable,
we’ve saved lives, and we’ve created a solid foundation for whatever
challenges we may face in the future. That’s a cause for celebration,
not the media’s fear mongering.
Mr. Pence is vice president of the United States.
--
So many immigrant groups have swept through our town
that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological
proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998
http://www.mrbrklyn.com
DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002
http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software
http://www.brooklyn-living.com
Being so tracked is for FARM ANIMALS and extermination camps,
but incompatible with living as a free human being. -RI Safir 2013
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