Our Government Has Failed Us. People Are Dying. We Need Answers

By:

Dave Kingsley, PhD

System Failure In Health Care: Including Nursing Homes

 The U.S. health care system is complex and dynamic. It is now in catastrophic failure mode. The current systemic collapse of the economy and medical systems now facing us is due to an inept response to a deadly pandemic.

 The president, bureaucrats, and legislators knew this was coming but did not have the capacity to respond. A successful response to a rapidly moving scourge requires: (1) a plan, (2) a strategy, (3) adequate equipment/supplies, (4) technology (5) trained personnel, and (6) and competent, honest leadership willing to implement the plan.

 There was no plan, no strategy, adequate personal protective gear, enough ventilators, bed capacity and other equipment and supplies needed in a pandemic. The question is why? Public health and infectious disease experts have been warning for decades that pandemics would grow more severe and more frequent (see, e.g. Laurie Garrett, The Coming Plague, 1993). Indeed, since the 1980s, we have seen the HIV, H1N1, SARS, and Ebola outbreaks spread across the planet.

 Anyone even remotely aware of current affairs knew that something serious was going on in China in December of 2019. The Chinese economy was practically brought to a halt and serious isolation practices were implemented as only an authoritarian government can implement population control. The disease spread to other Asian countries. Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan implemented extensive prevention efforts. Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan had previously experience with the SARS epidemic and undertook impressive campaigns to keep the outbreak from overwhelming their medical systems. They succeeded.

 Why was the United States, as a nation, so blasé and even sanguine about a novel virus that had set in motion massive public health efforts in China and other Asian nations? Even after infestations the U.S. government remained seemingly unconcerned. Or did it?

Who Knew What & When Did They Know It?

Journalists uncovered an audio recording of Senator Richard Burr, Republican chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, telling some donors in an exclusive meeting that the coming pandemic could be as serious as the global flu pandemic of 1918. He was not at all as laid back and buoyant as he was in public at that time. The donor meeting occurred on February 27th. The audio of the Senator warning his wealthy supporters about the coming plague can be heard at https://media.crooksandliars.com/2020/03/44593.mp3_standard.mp3. 

 Senator Burr is known as a leading legislative figure in the development of a national plan to thwart pandemics. He is not a neophyte in public health policy. Furthermore, he was present at a “closed door” COVID19 briefing presented the Trump Administration National Security Council on January 24th – over a month before his dire warning to his donors. The contents of the briefing have never been disclosed to the public. In a search of the Senate Intelligence Committee website, I could find no evidence that a regarding COVID 19 was held (https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/, “HEARINGS” tab).

 Immediately following the hearing Senator Burr dumped $1.6 million worth of stock – in companies that he claimed in his talk to donors would be most likely adversely affected by a virus pandemic overwhelming the U.S. (https://www.propublica.org/article/senator-dumped-up-to-1-7-million-of-stock-after-reassuring-public-about-coronavirus-preparedness).

 Senator Diane Feinstein, also a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, dumped $6 million worth of stock. Senators James Inhofe, Ron Johnson, and Loeffler also unloaded a considerable amount of stock at the same time (https://www.propublica.org/article/senator-dumped-up-to-1-7-million-of-stock-after-reassuring-public-about-coronavirus-preparedness).

The Lack of Concern By Congress & The Trump Administration – Puzzling

Senator Burr was not expressing the same alarm in public he imparted to his close political allies. Furthermore, the President of the United States declared at a South Carolina rally on February 28th – one day after Burr’s ominous statements caught on audio – that the corona virus was a Democratic Party hoax.

Throughout February and most of the month of March, Trump and his powerful ancillary propaganda machine on the radical right consisting of Fox News, an assortment of well-funded and well-organized Christian nationalist organizations/churches, and most of the Republican Party beat the “corona virus hoax drum.” A phalanx of right-wing virus deniers, conspiracy theorists, and Fox bloviators were egged on by the president who at best was recognizing that disease did exist but that it was China’s problem and wouldn’t amount to much in the U.S.

Minimizing by The CDC, NIH, HHS, and the FDA at Senate Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions Committee Hearing

As late as March 3rd, the highest Trump Administration officials responsible for pandemic preparedness, presented their views on potential threats to public health by the COVID19 outbreak at an open hearing held by the Senate Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions Committee. I have downloaded and read the transcript of the hearing. It sounds like a fantasy and is quite disturbing. Dr. Robert Kadlec, Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, HHS had the following to say:

“The potential global public health threat posed by this virus is high, but right now, the immediate risk to most Americans is low. The greater risk is for people who have recently traveled to an affected country or been exposed to someone with COVID19.” Page 3.

Department of Health and Human Services

We Need Answers

As we organize for action in the coming months, we will be strategizing and considering ways that we will force politicians and bureaucrats to give us some answers about the tragic loss of life in nursing homes. It should not have happened. We want to know why it happened and hold the responsible people accountable.

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