Controversial Change To COVID Testing Guidelines Came While Fauci Was In Surgery

 Asudden change to federal guidelines for Coronavirus testing this week prompted widespread concern that asymptomatic carriers of the disease would not be tested, which could lead them to unknowingly transmit the virus. Now there are more questions about the implementation of the rule which Dr. Anthony Fauci said was pushed through while he was undergoing surgery and another official says was the result of pressure from the Trump Administration.

The CDC website has advised since Monday morning, “If you have been in close contact (within 6 feet) of a person with a COVID-19 infection for at least 15 minutes but do not have symptoms, you do not necessarily need a test unless you are a vulnerable individual or your health care provider or State or local public health officials recommend you take one.”

Previously, the recommendation said, “Testing is recommended for all close contacts of persons with SARS-CoV-2 infection.” The CDC specifically cited “the potential for asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic transmission” and noted, “it is important that contacts of individuals with SARS-CoV-2 infection be quickly identified and tested.”

Health experts say that the new guideline makes no sense. Referring to people exposed to COVID-19 but not exhibiting symptoms, Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency physician and public health professor at George Washington University and who was previously Baltimore’s health commissioner, told CNN, “These are exactly the people who should be tested.”

Wen gave the example of a person who has been exposed and does not have symptoms but is concerned about spreading the virus to family and friends. The CDC previously estimated that as many as 40 percent of Coronavirus cases may be asymptomatic. These carriers do not have symptoms of the illness but can still spread the disease to more vulnerable and high-risk people. It is vital for asymptomatic carriers to know if they are COVID-positive so that they can isolate and avoid spreading the virus.

Dr. Fauci, a prominent member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, said that he was not involved in changing the recommendation and expressed concern. The Task Force meeting where the change was discussed occurred on August 20 while Fauci was undergoing vocal cord surgery.

“I was under general anesthesia in the operating room and was not part of any discussion or deliberation regarding the new testing recommendations,” Fauci told CNN.

“I am concerned about the interpretation of these recommendations and worried it will give people the incorrect assumption that asymptomatic spread is not of great concern. In fact it is,” Fauci added.

Adm. Brett Giroir, who heads up the Coronavirus testing effort, had previously said that Fauci had agreed to the changes, telling reporters on Wednesday, “Yes, all the docs signed off on this before it even got to the task force level.”

“We worked on this all together to make sure that there was absolute consensus that reflected the best possible evidence, and the best public health for the American people,” Giroir said. “I worked on them, Dr. Fauci worked on them, Dr. (Deborah) Birx worked on them. Dr. (Stephen) Hahn worked on them.”

Dr. Birx has not spoken about the new change publicly, but two weeks ago she recommended increased testing as schools and colleges reopen. On a private call with state and local leaders reported by the Center for Public Integrity, Birx recommended a testing “surge” that would include “entrance testing” for students. Birx’s comments from earlier in August seem to be at odds with the new CDC guidelines.

In a statement, Giroir said, “This Guidance has been updated to reflect current evidence and best public health practices, and to further emphasize using CDC-approved prevention strategies to protect yourself, your family, and the most vulnerable of all ages.” He did not specify what new evidence led to the change.

CDC Director Robert Redfield argued that the changes are simply a change in focus, saying in a statement, “We are placing an emphasis on testing individuals with symptomatic illness, individuals with a significant exposure, vulnerable populations including nursing homes or long term care facilities, critical infrastructure workers, healthcare workers and first responders, or those individuals who may be asymptomatic when prioritized by medical and public health officials.”

“These updated guidelines, coordinated in conjunction with the White House Coronavirus Task Force, received appropriate attention, consultation and input from task force experts,” Redfield said.

Another unnamed official also told CNN that the changes were the result of pressure from the Trump Administration, rather than sound medical advice.

“It’s coming from the top down,” the official said.

President Trump has long argued that the US is testing too much. As far back as June, the president said, “Without testing, or weak testing, we would be showing almost no cases.”

While it is true that Coronavirus statistics would show fewer cases with less testing, it is also true that those cases would still exist. The difference would be that many people would unknowingly spread the disease. As a result, total cases and deaths from the pandemic would ultimately be higher as the virus became more widespread. The new recommendations seem to be less of an attempt to fight the virus than to conceal it.

Last night at the Republican National Convention, Vice President Mike Pence told the attending crowd, “I promise you we’ll continue to put the health of America first.”

Considering the controversy and misstatements regarding the new guidelines, as well as the fact that the audience for Pence’s speech was neither social distancing nor wearing masks, I’m a bit skeptical.

Originally published on The Resurgent

COVID Rebounds in Europe

 For months, it seemed that the Coronavirus pandemic in Europe was under control, but a new round of infections has caused cases to surge across the continent. The reason for the new outbreaks may be similar to the cause of the summer surge in the US: a breakdown in social distancing among young people.

The new viral surge is affecting popular vacation spots such as Spain, Germany, Greece, France, and Italy. Many European nations had reopened after the initial wave of infections in the spring had died down.

CNN reports that, as in the US, the initial wave of COVID-19 cases hit the elderly in European nursing homes and hospitals particularly hard. This new wave seems to be concentrated in bars, restaurants, and public places and, at least initially, is primarily infecting young people. 

“There is a true resurgence in cases in several countries as a result of physical distancing measures being relaxed,” the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said in a statement.

The ECDC said that 40 percent of Coronavirus cases between January and May were in people aged 60 or older. The highest concentration of June and July infections was in 20-29-year-olds, who accounted for just under 20 percent of new cases. The median age for Coronavirus cases has fallen from 54 to 39 since January.

“The proportion of complicated cases is much lower,” French Health Minister Olivier Véran said. “Patients diagnosed with [Covid-19] now are younger, 20 to 40, and less vulnerable.”

As a result of the younger age of most patients, the rate for deaths and complications from the virus has also fallen. Younger people are at a lower-risk for serious complications, but there is a risk that if the outbreaks are not contained that they might spread to older Europeans, who are more vulnerable

In an attempt to prevent wider spread, many European nations are reinstituting mitigation strategies, but are stopping short of the strict lockdowns from last spring. Newsweek reports that Italy has closed nightclubs and is mandating masks from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. in areas near bars or public gatherings. Greece has imposed a midnight curfew for bars and restaurants in some affected areas and is requiring a negative COVID test for some international visitors. Masks are also being required in Brussels and the BBC reported that the Paris Marathon has been canceled.

The resurgence of Coronavirus in Europe underscores the difficulty of fighting a highly infectious disease. When people let their guard down and stop social distancing, the virus can quickly gain a foothold and start spreading. The pandemic won’t be over until we find a vaccine, an effective treatment, or until the disease runs its course. A vaccine will probably be quickest of those options. Seven different vaccines are currently in phase three trials, the last step before official approval.

The new European wave is also more evidence that the pandemic is not just a media construct to make President Trump look bad. It is a worldwide phenomenon and most countries in the world have had some sort of shelter policies to slow the spread. The associated economic problems are also global. The virus and the recession won’t magically disappear on November 5, no matter how much we wish they would.

Originally published on The Resurgent

Republicans Nominate 'Florida Woman'

Over the past couple of years, the hashtags #FloridaMan and #FloridaWoman have become an internet staple. The phrases are often found in bizarre news stories with titles such as “Florida woman who tried to kiss strangers calls 911 about lack of social distancing” and “Florida woman arrested after attempting to burn down former home with blow torch.” While I hate to denigrate an entire state with the Florida woman stereotype, last night Republican voters in Florida nominated a stereotypical example of a Florida woman to Congress. As Dave Barry, a Florida man himself, used to protest, I am not making this up.

Last night, the Republican voters of Florida’s 21st congressional district nominated Laura Loomer, a longtime fringe right conspiracy theorist and anti-Muslim bigot to challenge Democrat Rep. Lois Frankel. You may remember Loomer from 2019 when she handcuffed herself to the Twitter office building in New York City after being banned from the social media platform after she, in Buzzfeed’s description, “tweeted a series of anti-Muslim falsehoods about Ilhan Omar.”

President Trump praised Loomer in a tweet after her primary victory last night. She was also supported by none other than Roger Stone and alt-right idols Milo Yiannopoulos and Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes per USA Today.

Loomer has a long and disturbing record of activism and attention-seeking. In 2017, she gained notoriety after her arrest for disrupting an anti-Trump version of “Julius Caesar” in New York’s Central Park. There are indications that the incident may have been both a publicity stunt and an attempt to cash in on a “FreeLaura” website. In 2018, she came into her own as a professional provocateur after she disrupted several events including the trial of the Pulse nightclub murderer’s wife, a promotional event for James Comey’s book, and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s congressional testimony.

In 2019, Loomer jumped fences at both Nancy Pelosi’s house and the California governor’s mansion to protest immigration policy. Ironically, the activist was heard to scream that walls work after hopping Pelosi’s fence to trespass on her property in Napa. Trespassing at the governor’s mansion resulted in another arrest.

Loomer also has a history of spreading conspiracy theories. She “investigated” the Parkland shootings for Infowars, advanced conspiracy theories about the Las Vegas massacre, and claimed that the 2018 Florida pipe bombings by a Trump supporter were a “false flag.” She also tried to paint a right-wing bombmaker arrested in South Dakota in 2018 as an Antifa member.

In addition to her Twitter ban, Loomer has been kicked off of Paypal, GoFundMe, and Venmo. She was also banned from Uber and Lyft after tagging the companies in a tweetstorm in which she called for the creation of a “non Islamic” [sic] rideshare app “because I never want to support another Islamic immigrant driver.”

Loomer’s Twitter ban occurred in November 2018 after another rant in which she called Rep. Omar “anti Jewish” [sic] and described Islam as a religion in which “homosexuals are oppressed” and “women are abused” and “forced to wear the hijab.” Twitter called the comments a violation of is rules of conduct but Loomer defended her words.

“Everything I said is 100 percent true and factual. It’s not malicious, it’s not mean, it’s not hateful,” Loomer said, quoted by NBC News.

Loomer’s nomination comes on the heels of QAnon supporter Marjorie Taylor Greene’s primary win in Georgia. Greene also tweeted her congratulations to Loomer.

Unlike Greene, who faces no serious opposition from Democrats in the general election, Loomer will face a tough campaign. Democrats have represented the 21st district since 2013 and Hillary Clinton won the district by 20 points in 2016. Republicans should breathe a sigh of relief that Loomer, unlike Greene, won’t spend the next two years saying and doing embarrassing things as a Republican elected official.

Still, the now-established pattern of Republican voters nominating radical fringe activists as mainstream candidates represents a disturbing trend for a party that has become enamored with and given over to the conspiracy fringe. For the past four years, Republicans have lurched from one conspiracy to the next including the Deep State, the belief that the FBI concocted the Russia hoax, QAnon, and the belief that pandemic is an attempt to “get” Trump. But Republican conspiracies go back even further. Before Trump, there was Obama’s birth certificate and the belief that he was a closet Muslim as well as Jade Helm and the idea that RINO Republicans were a fifth column that was selling out conservatives.

It is the growing conspiracy wing of the party that propelled Donald Trump to the nomination (when traditional Republicans split the vote of the majority opposed to Trump). Trump’s increasing hold on the party and the mainstreaming of the conspiracy theories has made candidates like Loomer and Greene acceptable.

In reality, I suspect that it wasn’t despite Loomer’s history that she won her primary but because of it. As with Trump, many Republicans assume that, if the media is against them, they must be doing something right, so attempts to de-platform the nuts give them more credibility with the tinfoil hat base.

For me, a major (but not the only) stumbling block to voting Republican these days is the party’s slide into conspiracy madness. That includes a denial of the seriousness of the pandemic. Laura Loomer and Marjorie Taylor Greene are not in my district but the Republican acceptance of the pair and their far-out beliefs taints the entire party.

 Originally published on The Resurgent

Pandemic Aviation Means ATC Zero, Flights To Nowhere, And Furloughs... Lots of Furloughs

 The pandemic has wreaked havoc on economies around the world and aviation has been one of the industries that was hardest hit. Aviation is often a bellwether for economic crises and is frequently one of the last segments of the economy to recover in good times. It looks like that might be the case for the pandemic as well.

Aside from the usual problems that aviation faces in a bad economy, the pandemic introduces others as well. Demand for air travel is much lower than normal because few people want to sit in a crowded metal tube for hours on end during an infectious disease crisis. Travel restrictions especially for international flights, have further reduced demand.

As bad as things are now in the aviation world, it was worse a few months ago. In late March and April, few planes were in the air but those who did venture aloft had to consider the possibility of ATC Zero, when outbreaks at air traffic control facilities often meant that entire segments of urban airspace became uncontrolled for hours at a time until the facility could be sanitized or backup facilities could take over. There were scattered instances of ATC Zero around the US, even in New York, the busiest airspace in the country.

ATC Zero means that adjacent sectors will stop or greatly slow the flow of traffic into the affected areas. This in turn means that inbound aircraft have to enter holding patterns and possibly divert to alternate airports. This, in turn, disrupts airline schedules and inconveniences passengers.

In the US, the federal government required most airlines to keep flying during the pandemic, even if they were flying empty, but many foreign carriers simply parked their unneeded airplanes and canceled flights. One enterprising airline in Taiwan offered virtual flights during the crisis since they couldn’t fly internationally.

China Airlines, based in the Republic of China (i.e. Taiwan), offered passengers a virtual travel experience reported Forbes. Passengers could book a trip to nowhere on the company’s Airbus A330 which includes a trip to the airport with check-in, security screening, and customs checks. Passengers then boarded the plane and were treated to “in-fight” snacks, a trivia quiz, and a water cannon salute by airport fire trucks.

If getting all dressed up with no place to go sounds like a horrible experience that combines the worst of airline travel with none of the good stuff (except the water cannon salute) then Eva Air, a competitor of China Airlines, has another option. The company offered a three-hour sightseeing flight over the north coast of Taiwan and the Japanese Ryukyu Islands. The $183 coach ticket includes an in-flight meal by three-Michelin-starred chef Motokazu Nakamura.

China Airlines does offer its own airborne round-robin trip as well. A flight package aimed at children teaches kids to be cabin crewmembers. The fantasy flight includes a training course, the chance to wear airline uniforms, and a two-hour trip around Taiwan.

Other airlines are dealing with the slow period by shifting their business from hauling people to hauling boxes. There are many dedicated freight-hauling airlines but even major passenger carriers often run a side business flying cargo. Now, with few passengers to fly, some companies are converting their empty people-haulers into cargo transports.

Called the “COVID combi,” converting passenger liners to freighters made a lot of sense for companies trying to stay afloat in a worldwide shutdown. While there is little demand for passenger travel, a lot of cargo is still being moved around the world by air. Some companies went so far as to remove seats and interiors to allow large shipping containers to be secured to the floor in cabins, but Lufthansa merely belted boxes into passenger seats. Airbus created a formal process for the conversions back in March.

The COVID combis got their start with Asian airlines such as Cathay Pacific but domestic airlines adopted the strategy as well. American Airlines operated its first all-cargo flight in 25 years in March and plans to operate 1,000 cargo-only flights in September. Delta and United have ramped up their cargo operations as well.

Unfortunately, the boost from cargo has not been enough to overcome the loss of passenger revenue and demand. Airlines have been parking airplanes left and right and some entire fleets will never fly again. American Airlines accelerated the retirement of five fleets, including its Boeing 757s and 767s. British Airways and Qantas retired their 747 fleets with the last Qantas 747 drawing a kangaroo in the sky on its farewell flight. The retirement of the Airbus A380 fleet is looming after only 15 years in service as the world says goodbye to widebody jets. US airlines are expected to retire as many as 1,000 airplanes.

There is already a long list of airlines around the world that have gone out of business due to the pandemic. The list includes several US-based airlines. Miami Air International, a charter operator of Boeing 737s that depended heavily on the similarly ailing cruise industry and two regional feeder airlines, Trans States and Compass Airlines, have closed their doors permanently and left their employees jobless.

Surviving airlines are preparing to lay off employees. The Paycheck Protection Program expires in September for American companies. When it does, participating companies will be free to lay off unneeded workers. CBS News reported that US airlines are poised to furlough some 80,000 workers if Congress does not act to extend the PPP. That number includes pilots and flight attendants as well as ramp workers, baggage handlers, gate agents, and others.

The job losses will extend beyond the airlines as the world economy stagnates. Corporate airplanes are often the first thing to go when a company experience financial hard times, and, although many travelers would prefer to fly private jets than airlines during the pandemic, charter companies are finding that fewer people have the wherewithal to hire a private plane.

Aircraft manufacturing is also being hit hard. Both Airbus and Boeing are reporting numerous canceled orders from airlines that no longer need new planes. Boeing also has to contend with a flood of cancellations for its star-crossed 737 Max 8. Airbus is cutting 15,000 workers while Boeing has plans to furlough a similar number.

There is no way to know how long the aviation industry, which was booming only six months ago, will be in decline. The one thing observers agree on is that it won’t be soon. Moody’s forecasts that passenger travel might return to 2019 levels by the end of 2023, but that is contingent upon a vaccine or effective treatment for COVID-19.

One thing to take away from the upheaval in the aviation industry, which affects the entire world and not just the US, is that Coronavirus is a global crisis. It is not a fiction crafted by the media to “get” Donald Trump. It is real, it is global, and it is devastating.

Originally published on The Resurgent

Lindsey Graham Is In Trouble

 There have long been rumors of a tightening in the race for Lindsey Graham’s South Carolina Senate seat. Those rumors were confirmed in a poll earlier this month that showed the race in a tie. Now the Cook Political Report is downgrading the race from Likely Republican to Lean Republican.

There are only two recent public polls in the race. A Gravis poll from mid-July had Graham leading Democratic challenger Jaime Harrison by seven points. Mere weeks later, Quinnipiac had the race in a 44-44 tie.

The rapid swing and scarcity of polling leave questions about the true state of the race, but Cook Political‘s Jessica Taylor notes that a favorable electoral climate and strong Democratic fundraising mean that Harrison’s attempt to unseat Graham is “no longer a long-shot, though the race fundamentals still give Graham an advantage.”

Fundraising is one of the few objective measures of determining the depth and commitment of a candidate’s base before Election Day and the figures from South Carolina underscore Graham’s peril. Harrison has outraised Graham for two consecutive quarters and the total raised by the two candidates is almost equal.

Taylor also notes that the current political climate is a good one for Democrats. The Coronavirus pandemic has stoked the electorate with anger and uncertainty and the Black Lives Matter protests have invigorated black voters, who make up more than a quarter of South Carolina’s population and who are overwhelmingly Democrat.

Jaime Harrison, a graduate of Yale and Georgetown Law who grew up in Orangeburg, is also black, a fact that may also help to rally support. If Harrison wins, South Carolina, the state that fired the first shots of the Civil War, would become the first state in history to be represented by two black senators at the same time.

Taylor also points out that there is more polling support for a close race than public polling would indicate. Two internal Democratic polls since early July found a two-point and a four-point lead for Graham.

These polls indicate that Graham is weak in the areas that cost Republicans the House in 2018. The data indicated that Harrison led Graham by 19 points among college-educated women and 7 points among suburban voters. Both demographics figured heavily in the blue wave from the midterms two years ago.

One factor in Harrison’s strong polling may be the fact that he began introducing himself to the state’s voters with positive, biographical television ads in early April. Graham did not respond until late May, allowing Harrison to define himself. Now, when Graham tries to paint Harrison as a radical leftist, the attacks are failing to stick.

Another factor is that Harrison does not seem to be a radical leftist. A Republican source told Cook’s that Harrison is running “a centrist Democratic campaign focused on dinner table issues that has captured a lot of disaffected moderates.” Centrist Democrats were another strong element of the 2018 “shellacking” of the GOP.

Graham also seems to be negatively affected by his strong association with Donald Trump, who often polls worse in the Palmetto State than Graham himself. Graham was long considered a RINO and reviled by Republican pundits as “Grahamesty,” but his independent streak disappeared as he rarely challenged or criticized President Trump. The Gravis poll that showed Graham up by seven showed that a plurality of voters thought he was too close to Trump.

Graham’s words from April have also come back to haunt him as the pandemic spread. The senator vowed last spring that the $600 enhanced unemployment payment would only be extended “over our dead bodies.” With more than 170,000 Americans dead from COVID-19, that sound bite doesn’t sound the way it once did and has become the basis for Harrison’s attack ads.

It is premature to say that Lindsey Graham will be evicted from his Senate seat this November, but conditions are ripe for an upset victory by Jaime Harrison. The race is one to watch closely, especially with the control of the Senate hanging in the balance of a handful of races.

Originally published on The Resurgent

GAO Rules DHS Secretary and Deputy Are Not Valid Officeholders

 The Government Accountability Office has determined that Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf and his deputy, Ken Cuccinelli, are not legally entitled to hold their offices. Further, the previous acting DHS secretary, Kevin McAleenen, also apparently held the office illegally.

The problem is multi-tiered but stems from the Trump Administration’s habit of staffing executive branch offices with acting officials rather than having appointees go through Senate confirmation hearings. The tactic was followed to avoid the problem of having Democrats filibuster President Trump’s picks but is also due to the fact that many Trump Administration officials don’t stay in their jobs long. Under the current status of Senate rules, only judicial nominees are exempt from filibusters.

The GAO found that the problem began with the resignation of Kirstjen Nielsen, who resigned as DHS secretary in April 2019. McAleenen, then the commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, succeeded Nielsen. The problem was the McAleenen was not next in line for the job. Under the Homeland Security Act, Christopher Krebs, the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, was next in line of succession when Nielsen stepped down.

“Mr. McAleenan assumed the title of Acting Secretary upon the resignation of Secretary Nielsen, but the express terms of the existing designation required another official to assume that title,” wrote Thomas H. Armstrong, the GAO’s general counsel, in the agency’s report to Congress.

“As such, Mr. McAleenan did not have the authority to amend the Secretary’s existing designation. Accordingly, Messrs. Wolf and Cuccinelli were named to their respective positions of Acting Secretary and Senior Official Performing the Duties of Deputy Secretary by reference to an invalid order of succession,” he added.

McAleenen’s illegal promotion to head the DHS caused a cascading failure that now puts the authority of Wolf and Cuccinelli in doubt. McAleenen appointed Wolf as the Under Secretary for Strategy, Policy, and Plans and Cuccinelli as Principal Deputy Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Because McAleenen was improperly in the role of acting secretary, appointments that he made are also being questioned. Wolf’s own elevation to acting secretary is now threatened because the GAO report found him “ineligible” for the job based on his appointment by a secretary who improperly headed the agency.

The GAO findings don’t have an immediate effect but the matter is being referred to the DHS Inspector General to determine who should be heading the agency. The IG will also consider whether actions and policies implemented by McAleenen, Wolf, and Cuccinelli should be overturned.

Back in March, a federal judge ruled that Cuccinelli was illegally appointed to head the US Citizenship and Immigration Services. As part of the ruling, the judge overturned changes to the asylum process implemented by Cuccinelli on the grounds that he had no authority to do so. The new GAO determination could similarly vacate a number of decisions going back more than a year.

Reps. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), who are on the Homeland Security and Oversight committees, called upon Wolf to resign, saying in a statement, “GAO’s damning opinion paints a disturbing picture of the Trump Administration playing fast and loose by bypassing the Senate confirmation process to install ideologues.”

DHS officials told the Washington Post that the GAO report was “baseless.”

The GAO ruling raises concern about many other positions in the Trump Administration that have been filled with temporary appointments. Back in February, the Washington Post noted that 22 cabinet-level jobs had been filled with acting officials for a total of more than 2,736 days.

The revelation that DHS has been operating with an illegal command structure for more than a year underscores the fact that there are few legitimate shortcuts in the federal bureaucracy. There is a right way to do things and a wrong way. Trying to cut corners often causes more problems than following the rules, inconvenient though they may be. In this case, not following the rules may mean that a year-and-a-half of DHS decisions are walked back and that taxpayers have lost money that was paid in salaries to people who had no authority to do their jobs.

The whole matter recalls my dad’s sage advice about how to do a job: “If you don’t have time to do it right, you’ll have to find time to do it over.”

Originally published on The Resurgent