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June 16, 2020 01:39 PM UTC

Mike Pence Says Stop Worrying About COVID (So Worry)

  • 18 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols
Masks are for wussies.

The Hill’s Brett Samuels reports that Vice President Mike Pence is done with all this Debbie Downer talk about a second wave of that silly old news people call the COVID-19 global pandemic:

Vice President Pence on Tuesday blamed the media for stoking concerns of a “second wave” of coronavirus in the United States, insisting in an op-ed that the Trump administration’s response has been successful even as infections are climbing in several states.

The vice president, who leads the White House coronavirus task force, wrote in The Wall Street Journal that panic over a rebound in coronavirus cases is “overblown” while touting the administration’s handling of the pandemic.

“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,” Pence wrote.

As readers know, every time the Trump administration has declared that this pandemic is overblown or past tense, they’ve been totally right! Although in this case, talk of a “second wave” may itself be a little off base since:

Experts have disputed that the country is facing a second wave, instead expressing concern that the country never fully got past the first wave of infections. [Pols emphasis] There have been more than 2.1 million cases in the U.S., according to Johns Hopkins University data, and more than 116,000 people in the country have died from the virus.

CNN reports that in the process of declaring COVID a done deal, Pence is getting the most basic of facts backwards:

During a White House roundtable Monday, Vice President Mike Pence claimed that Oklahoma – where President Donald Trump is scheduled to hold a campaign rally Saturday – has seen a decline in the number of coronavirus cases.

“In a very real sense they’ve flattened the curve,” Pence said of Oklahoma. “The number of cases in Oklahoma has declined precipitously.”

Facts First: Oklahoma’s number of newly reported positive cases has been increasing since late May, not steeply declining. A record 225 new cases were reported in Oklahoma on Saturday… [Pols emphasis]

Although COVID-19 cases are in decline in almost two dozen states including Colorado, cases are growing rapidly in some of our neighboring states as well as California–which as Sen. Jim Smallwood can tell you is “droplet-bonded” with the rest of the West. Meanwhile, the latest prediction from the often-cited Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington has revised the estimate upward to 200,000 Americans dead by October 1–a number approaching the worst-case range of predictions from late March.

By this point, a majority of Americans understand that when the Trump administration tells you not to panic, it’s time to…well, not panic, because that’s never the right response.

But it means the news is bad.

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18 thoughts on “Mike Pence Says Stop Worrying About COVID (So Worry)”

  1. “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.” –  President Trump, January 22, 2020

    “We have contained this. I won’t say [it’s] airtight, but it’s pretty close to airtight,” – Larry Kudlow, January 25, 2020

    When have they ever steered us wrong ?

    1. Pence: Coronavirus Task Force Could Dissolve Within Weeks, Cites ‘Tremendous Progress’ 

      (UPDATE: In Reversal, Trump Says Coronavirus Task Force ‘Will Continue On Indefinitely) Vice President Mike Pence confirmed Tuesday that the coronavirus task force could wind down within weeks, but it’s unclear if the task force will be replaced, potentially leaving a vacuum in a centralized, national response to COVID-19 even as the country faces increasing numbers of fatalities due to the disease.

      1. What “vacuum”???   As if we’d ever yet attempted even ten seconds of a “centralized, national response” . . .

        Definitely “indefinite.”

        When I use a word,’ [Lumpty Ttumpty] said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’

        ’The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’

        ’The question is,’ said [Lumpty Ttumpy], ‘which is to be master — that’s all.

         

    1. Pence is Chip (“Thankyou sir, may I have another?”) Diller in Animal House, yelling inanely to the ignoring crowd, “Remain calm. All is well!”

  3. 65% of the American population will become infected = 213,000,000

    15% will have serious infections = 32,000,000.  (Note that many will have long-term health effects after recovery.)

    1% will die = 2,130,000.  (In CO, 54% of deaths are aged >80 .  So, not counting that cohort — we all have to die of something — that leaves about 1,000,000 “premature’ deaths.)

    Better hope an effective vaccine is found fast.

    1. The pandemic is already awful, and we lead the world (as far as we know) in consequences. It seems likely the disease will continue to be awful, sickening people broadly, creating severe illness in a substantial minority of them, and leaving swathes of lingering impacts and deaths as a "final" outcome.

      No matter what the percentages turn out to be or what the timeline may be to reach some sort of new normal, it will be awful.  It will be worse because of the inept response of Trump's government, enabled by many serving in Congress.  It will be inconsistent due to the abdication of federal officials and variations in Governors and legislatures, county commissioners and city councils.

      Inoculation, better treatment protocols, better testing and tracing to interrupt chains of transmission, and enhanced commitment to safer practices can work to make things slightly better.  But it will still be awful.

    2. It grieves me that we may lose much of the Navaho nation, one of the First Peoples of the Americas..  A week ago, 6,000 of the nation of 175,000 were infected, and ~250  have died (that’s sourced from a friend who is working with one of the organizations providing relief. ) The Navajo nation has one of the highest per capita  rates of infection in the United States.

      Whole families are infected. Doctors Without Borders is working to provide medical services. If you want to help, donate to DwB.

       

       

      1. One tracking source I go look at has the Navajo Nation [on the Rez] pulled out as a separate community.  [side comment — every other one I look at doesn't]

        • pop. 174,000  (2010 census estimate)
        • tests   11,627
        • pos.     6,633 [57% — adequate testing would less than 10% pos]
        • deaths    311 [which is 1.79 per 1,000 — Colorado's rate is 0.28]

        1. Itldusu is using Trump math.  A 65 pct infection rate does indeed mean about 213 million.  But the death rate so far is 5 pct, not 1 pct.  5 pct of 213 million is about 10 million.

          Even not counting geezers leaves 5 million deaths.

          Time to mix the bleach with the fracking fluid and drink up!

      1. They gots to address the bigger issues:
        – kneeling athletes
        – car races without flags
        – military bases and place names that honor patriots not traitors
        – slippery ramps
        – liability waivers for rally goers
        – national security advisors getting sentenced or sued

         

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