Trump repeatedly misunderstands health officials advising him about coronavirus
Category: News & Politics
Via: tessylo • 4 years ago • 70 commentsBy: John T Bennett, The Independent
Trump repeatedly misunderstands health officials advising him about coronavirus
Donald Trump contended on Monday that a vaccine to prevent coronavirus cases could be ready in three months, only to be corrected by one of his top public health officials after he repeatedly appeared to misunderstand drug company executives' statements about their plans to test possible vaccines.
The president, during a Cabinet Room meeting with top pharmaceutical industry executives, said he has heard a vaccine could be ready in just three or four months. But Anthony Fauci , National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director, later clarified the remark, telling reporters getting a vaccine properly tested, cleared and distributed likely would take one year.
It was merely the latest time Mr Trump and his top health officials have contradicted one another since the coronavirus outbreak hit US soil. They also have issued different messages about the potential severity of the flu-like ailment and the likelihood that a significant number of cases is inevitable in the United States.
Mr Trump made the forecast even after being told by one industry bigwig that it would take "a year" for his company just to get a potential vaccine into clinics. Repeatedly during the confusing session, Mr Trump latched onto executives' mentions of moving into new phases of testing in the next few months. But Mr Fauci at one point broke in to try and explain to the president that required testing would not allow the drugs to actually reach Americans by summer.
Meantime, another top Trump administration official said the president is pressing drug manufacturers to shed their usually methodical development process to find a coronavirus vaccine and rush it to market.
During the same meeting that featured the president, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Mr Trump pressed the industry officials to "challenge some of those normal Pharma timelines that can be a little slow and bureaucratic." Other Trump administration officials spoke vaguely of possibly getting "new countermeasures" available quickly without offering specifics.
Those remarks came a few hours after the president told reporters his team and drug makers are "talking about a vaccine, maybe a cure, it's possible".
donald-trump-mike-pence-coronavirus-pharmaceutical-meeting.jpg
"We'll see about that," he said of a drug to cure coronavirus victims, something Mr Azar and other Trump health officials have not said is possible. They have focused instead on a vaccine to prevent people from contracting the virus.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explains the difference between a cure and a vaccine this way on its website: "Unlike most medicines, which treat or cure diseases, vaccines prevent them."
Executives for several major drug manufacturers were in the Oval Office for the meeting, including GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer Inc and Sanofi.
As the two sides met, US markets were closing up for the first time in a few days – and following a coronavirus-triggered slide. The S&P 500 rose 4.6 per cent on Monday, as markets around the world added value ahead of a G7 ministers conference call on Tuesday that fed hopes the central banks of the globe's biggest economies might slash interest rates together as a hedge against the virus's economic impacts.
But congressional Democrats continued to criticise the president.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer accused him of "downplaying" the threat from the mysterious virus.
"Even now, President Trump seems to be spending more of his time blaming the media, blaming the Democrats than being constructive," the New York Democrat said on the Senate floor. "He is downplaying the threat of coronavirus to a dangerous degree."
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The president, during a Cabinet Room meeting with top pharmaceutical industry executives, said he has heard a vaccine could be ready in just three or four months. But Anthony Fauci , National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director, later clarified the remark, telling reporters getting a vaccine properly tested, cleared and distributed likely would take one year.
It was merely the latest time Mr Trump and his top health officials have contradicted one another since the coronavirus outbreak hit US soil. They also have issued different messages about the potential severity of the flu-like ailment and the likelihood that a significant number of cases is inevitable in the United States.
Mr Trump made the forecast even after being told by one industry bigwig that it would take "a year" for his company just to get a potential vaccine into clinics. Repeatedly during the confusing session, Mr Trump latched onto executives' mentions of moving into new phases of testing in the next few months. But Mr Fauci at one point broke in to try and explain to the president that required testing would not allow the drugs to actually reach Americans by summer.
He'll probably start firing people for telling the truth.
Lies and misinformation added greatly to the death toll of the Spanish Influenza ... but Trump doesn't like facts to get in the way of his bragging, so we can't expect him to do the right thing here.
"probably start firing people for telling the truth." ? ?
Uh, no offense, but the Trump has done that from the moment he slid down the escalator with wife number three. And actually, has done that his entire adult life.
too bad there wasn't a razor sharp handrail
Well, that's true. I should have said "he'll fire MORE people for telling the truth."
What a despicable snowflake. He'd rather let people die than let his ego suffer.
Uh, there was----he hasn't figured it out yet.
The man does not care. His complete being is a pretention. I believe he only cares about Ivanka and I also wonder how deep that caring would be if push came to shove.
By the way: Where is Ivanka?
She just came out claiming she is now a "Proud Trumpian Republican" She is most likely not in the US but somewhere either stealing fashion designs or trying to unload all of her overpriced crap that major retailers refuse to sell.
"A proud Trumpian republican." ? ? Damn.
The President just donated this quarter’s Presidential salary to fight Coronavirus
So what?
He should divert the billions from his 'wall' to the corona virus fight instead.
Divert money from border security? Why?
How much actual 'wall' has been built?
Wha?
LOL
If he just cut back on playing golf, the millions that it is costing us could go to this.
His attention span (equal to a goldfish's) does not allow him to actually "listen" to what is being said.
He just sits there thinking of Big Macs and Ivanka, catching only a passing phrase or 2. When the briefing is done, he only remembers a slight fraction of what he was told, and makes up the rest.
his hand keeps getting stuck in the aquarium where the treasure chest keeps emitting oxygen mistaken gastric release bubbles that he is required to breath in order to deceive,
he then looks through the aquarium and sees the box of Goldfish he flushes down the crapper to excuse the Orange stain
he Mcbecain
long before attacking our John
It sounds like he's blocking most officials from talking, just him and prick Pence.
That's the exact reason Pence was put in charge. It definitely wasn't for his medical experience.
Kind of like the lawyer in charge of the Ebola program? Or how about the VPOTUS heading cancer research? That kind of medical experience?
Having a hard time staying on topic again???
You brought up the non-pro in charge. He just pointed out the precedent - not that hard to follow.
There is NO precedent for putting a gag order on the CDC and the NIH.
there is as long asz Trump can reach the Sharpie for the dull minded,
Not at all. You brought up medical experience. I simply pointed out that it is, according to a former genius, not necessarily a pre cursor to being a lead in medical situations.
We're discussing Corona, you're the one trying to turn it into a "but but but Obama" conversation.
Anything to prevent them from admitting that their orange idol and his anti-science toadie are too stupid to be in charge of something like this.
Where did I type Obama?
And Biden it the right guy to lead the cancer fight? hahaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Thanks for the unnecessary definition.
I'm sure you think you made some kind of point.
You didn't.
Glad to have allayed your confusion.
When did you ever do that?
Kind of an easy deduction when there has only been one Ebola incident in US history and the only Ebola Czar was lawyer Ron Klain from 2014 to 2016.
Butttt Obama....
I'm not confused at all about the irrelevance of your comments.
Trump suggests using flu vaccine on coronavirus and is instantly corrected by health experts: ‘No’
Donald Trump asked medical experts if coronavirus could be treated with a flu vaccine that already exists at a meeting with pharmaceutical executives on Monday.
The Trump administration called the meeting to discuss early work for developing a vaccine for the virus, which has killed more the 3,000 people and infected nearly 90,000 worldwide.
However, the president appeared to not understand basic information about how a vaccine is tested or produced and had to be repeatedly corrected by public health officials.
When Leonard Schleifer, the CEO of biotechnology company Regeneron, noted that millions of people are vaccinated for the flu, Mr Trump interrupted and asked if the same vaccine could be used for coronavirus.
“You take a solid flu vaccine, you don't think that would have an impact, or much of an impact, on corona?” he said.
“No… probably none,” Mr Schleifer replied.
There is currently no vaccine for the new strain of coronavirus, officially known as Covid-2019, which was first identified in China in December.
Although multiple organisations are working on developing vaccines for the virus, health officials have said it will take at least one year to develop an effective treatment.
"In order to get a [coronavirus] vaccine that is practically deployable for people to use, it's going to be at least a year to a year and a half at best,” Dr Anthony Fauci , the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said last week.
There are currently 16 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 27 “presumptive positive” cases awaiting confirmation in the US, according to the Centre for Disease Control (CDC).
Officials announced yesterday that six people in the US have died from the virus so far.
Later on Monday at a rally in North Carolina , Mr Trump also expressed his surprise at the fact that thousands of people die from flu every year in the US.
“Three or four weeks ago, I was sitting there and I said ‘what do we lose with the regular flu?’, they [health officials] said ‘about 27,000 minimum', it goes up to 70, sometimes even 80, one year it went up to 100,000 people,” Mr Trump told his supporters, as he recounted one of his meetings with health experts.
“I said ‘nobody told me that, nobody knows that.’
“So I actually told the pharmaceutical companies that they have to do a better job on that vaccine."
Recent estimates by the CDC have shown between 12,000 - 61,000 deaths annually from influenza since 2010.
Chuck Schumer , the Democrat Senate minority leader, accused Mr Trump on Monday of “downplaying” the threat posed by the coronavirus outbreak.
“Even now, President Trump seems to be spending more of his time blaming the media, and blaming the Democrats, than being constructive. In fact, he blames everyone not named Donald Trump,” Mr Schumer said.
“We know the history of how these viruses spread and work. When you deny them, when you don’t let people know what’s happening and what to do about it, things get worse."
It's astonishing how little the Idiot In Chief knows.
Could it possibly be that the Trump somehow conceives that the term 'nobody' is an affirmation of his reality that only he exists and everything else's purpose is only as a supporting periphery?
supporting periphery
.
like his base, supporting the suppository in all his inserted glory
whole heartedly
Uh, 'hole heartedly' would be more apt.
The 31 wildest lines from Donald Trump's self-congratulatory coronavirus press conference
Updated 2:09 PM ET, Thu February 27, 2020
In each episode of his weekly YouTube show, Chris Cillizza will delve a little deeper into the surreal world of politics. Click to subscribe!
I'm so glad he cleared all of that up. /s
COOL BAND NAME
#8 sounds like he thought it was time he could possibly tell the truth, then .. nah.
There's a reason Big Pharma is slow to get drugs and vaccines on the market. Sometimes the "cure" is worse than the disease. There are testing protocols that must be adhered to, Mr President. Why not ask your Director of the FDA about testing protocols?
If I were POTUS, I would be constantly picking the brains of the Biggest Brains in the medical and pharmaceutical industry, which he won't do because he already knows everything.
The saddest thing about the Trump is the simple fact that not only does he not know, he also does not know that he does not know. And this is why 'The Stormy Who' worked so well for him and his sycophants.
See, Dunning–Kruger effect .
Picture L.....trying to pass a turd.
Picture R....mission accomplished.
I wonder if he is thinking about fast-tracking approval.
Right, because the fast tracking of the CDC test worked so well. /s
I'm surprised the turd in chief hasn't gone on a twitter rampage raging against Dr. Fauci and others who corrected him. He was like a petulant child.
Trump went from being told unequivocally that it would take much more time, to telling his minions at a rally that a vaccine would be ready in months. Of course, they swilled the pabulum and cheered as if Trump was personally doing the research between rounds of golf.
It will be hilarious if he has to stop playing golf to avoid getting sick. Can you imagine the whining!
Except that gives him more time to watch right wing fake news and tweet ... so maybe not.
When isn't he a petulant child?
I am no expert in body language, but Pence looks totally pissed off about something in that picture.