Fauci says US 'could have saved lives' with earlier action

37 minutes ago

"The US "could have saved lives" if it had introduced measures to stop Covid-19 earlier, a top health official says.

"If we had, right from the beginning, shut everything down, it may have been a little bit different," Dr Anthony Fauci told CNN. But he said making that decision was complicated.

The US has over 530,000 virus cases and 21,418 deaths, many in New York.

Dr Fauci also suggested parts of the US could begin returning to normal as early as May.

On 16 March, the Trump administration issued social distancing guidance, which has since been extended through April.

When asked about a New York Times report that Dr Fauci and other officials had suggested aggressive mitigation towards the end of February, Dr Fauci said health officials can only make recommendations from a "pure health standpoint".

"Often, the recommendation is taken. Sometimes, it's not. But it is what it is, we are where we are right now.""

moar:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52264860

Schiff: I Am ‘Diving Deeply’ into What Warnings Trump

Ignored on Coronavirus

PAM KEY

12 Apr 2020

"Sunday on MSNBC’s “AM Joy,” House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said he would investigate what warnings from the intelligence community and health organizations that President Donald Trump ignored in the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic.

On “real-time oversight,” Schiff said, “We are right now going through our intelligence holdings. What did the intelligence community make us aware of at the end of last year or earlier this year? Other committees are doing like analyses.”

He continued, “It is very important, I think, in reviewing the intelligence component to this to realize the intelligence piece is just one piece of the warnings coming to the administration. A lot of those warnings were in the public domain. They came from public health organizations, like WHO or CDC or his own National Security Council, and ignored those warnings.”

He added, “We are diving deeply into what does the intelligence community know, what resources we would bring there, and what do we need to do prospectively to better protect the country in the future. That last piece, how do we protect the country in the future, is really the mission of that independent commission we based on, we used the model the 9/11 commission.”"

moar:

https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2020/04/12/schiff-i-am-diving-deeply-into-what-warnings-trump-ignored-on-coronavirus/

I warned of Trump’s attack on science. But I never predicted

the horror that lay ahead

Sun 12 Apr 2020 13.41 EDT

Last modified on Sun 12 Apr 2020 13.44 EDT

“¡Abajo la inteligencia! ¡Viva la muerte!” Those infamous words – “Down with intelligence! Long live death!” – were pronounced in 1936 by General Millán Astray, a fascist general who was a mentor and friend of Francisco Franco, soon to be Spain’s dictator for over four decades. They were part of a ranting speech Millán delivered at the University of Salamanca celebrating the insurrection against the Spanish Republic that heralded the dark years that were on the horizon.

I recalled these barbarous words with trepidation back in October of 2017 when I began tracking down the ways in which Donald Trump, in only the first 10 endless months of what was already then his endless government, was waging a disquieting war on science and the truth. In an online essay for the New York Review of Books, I warned of the “lethal consequences” that this offensive would entail, the millions of lives that would be shortened.

At that point what worried me was his assault on environmental and labor laws, the ways in which he was draining every government department of experts, the reckless evisceration of advisory councils, the proposed budgetary cuts to scientific research, the attacks on vaccinations and the health system and medical knowhow behind it, his obtuse climate change denials."

moar:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/12/i-warned-of-trumps-attack-on-science-but-i-never-predicted-the-horror-that-lay-ahead