Author: William

Yesterday, President Trump declared the Corona virus a national emergency. Now, Mr. Hannity you may properly compare Obama waiting six months from the time he declared a public health emergency on H1N1 to the time he declared a national emergency (April 26, 2009 and October 26, 2009 respectively) versus Trump doing it about six week later (January 31, 2020 to March 13, 200 respectively).

Folks, what’s bothered me is why did Trump do it? After consulting with my wife, I decided that its because Trump wants to solve this, get it behind us, and move on. He doesn’t want to leave this lingering but has chosen what basketball calls a “full court press.”

Knowing that I keep calling Corona “just the flu” (which it is) and saying I think these precautions are overblown, my liberal buddy wanted to know if I thought the declaration for a national emergency was right or wrong. My answer, in his eyes, was evasive. I said, some decisions are clearly right or wrong and sometimes we need some time to lapse to know if it was the right call. I said in this case, I think the decision is in the latter category. Trump made the call and that’s why he gets the big bucks. Let’s just wait and see.

A Whole New World

What I marvel at is the widespread shutdown of our way of life because of this virus. As I keep saying, its not Ebola. We have cancelled more air travel than during the 9/11 attacks. Stopped cruise ships, shutdown churches, concerts, baseball, football, soccer, basketball, hockey, golf, conventions, movie theaters, schools, etc. This decision has impacted a huge number of businesses and people’s lives. Those parts of society that have not shutdown have changed how they do business. We look with suspicion on strangers and are prone to avoid interacting with people.

If Trump had declared Martial Law and suspended, elections, Congress, and the Courts, would it look much different? Yet he not only has the support of Congress but the Courts and all 50 States. How did we get here? What really bothers me is how easy and willing we were to allow all this. Trading freedom for perceived safety is the stock and trade of Liberals.

The great irony in this disruption is that Trump is being praised by the very Democrats that have been fearmongering that he would suspend liberties and become the ultimate ruler, dictator, monarch, etc. In the last few days, Trump has been praised in glowing terms by California Governor Garvin Newsom and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Heretofore, both men have been adversaries of the Trump Administration on almost every issue.

So too, local and State governments and their agencies are looking eagerly to the Federal government for aid and leadership. They have set aside partisanship and are praising the federal response.

I guess when the niceties are over, you know that the crisis has passed.

Vaccine News

Meanwhile, yesterday Johnnie Does sent me word that one company says they have a vaccine for Corona ready to start testing.

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ +1.3%) unit Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies is collaborating with Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center on the development of a preventative vaccine against COVID-19.

Preclinical testing is underway. The parties expect to identify a candidate by month-end and commence a Phase 1 study by year-end.

The vaccine will be based on Janssen’s AdVac and PER.C6 technologies.

J&J launches COVID-19 vaccine program

In addition, another company has announced a possible vaccine.

March 12, 2020 /CNW/ – Medicago, a biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Quebec City , announced today that they have successfully produced a Virus-Like Particle (VLP) of the coronavirus just 20 days after obtaining the SARS-CoV-2 (virus causing the COVID-19 disease) gene. Production of the VLP is the first step in developing a vaccine for COVID-19 which will now undergo preclinical testing for safety and efficacy. Once this is completed, Medicago expects to discuss with the appropriate health agencies to initiate human trials of the vaccine by summer (July/August) 2020.

Medicago announces production of a viable vaccine candidate for COVID-19

Even more Test Kits on the way

Also, yesterday, Chinese billionaire Jack Ma said he is donating 500,000 Corona test kits and 1,000,000 face masks to the United States.

Chinese billionaire and Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma said he will donate 500,000 coronavirus testing kits and 1 million masks to the United States and urged international cooperation to fight the health crisis.

Jack Ma to donate test kits, masks to U.S. in fight against coronavirus

In addition, Ma has made an even larger donation to the EU.

Testing… Testing… 1… 2… 3…

Lastly, I’m wondering what effect the declaration of a national emergency is having on FDA protocols and vaccine approval. One of the dumber things that our civilized nations do is not recognize each other’s testing methods of drugs and medical procedures. Here in the US, our FDA will not respect any testing done by the EU nations and vice versa. Ditto for other nations. I think that we need an international body, treaty, something, that allows a testing regime that is respected by everyone. It would also need some sort of patent and liability protection too. Curing people should not be so dependent on which country that you live in.

Also, it is clear that too many of our pharmaceutical eggs are in the Chinese basket and the Corona crisis is another opportunity to illustrate this.

Eighty percent of active ingredients in America’s pharmaceutical and OTC drugs — you know, the stuff that actually makes your medicine work — come from China and India, according to Rosemary Gibson and Janardan Prasad Singh, authors of the new book China RX: Exposing the Risks of America’s Dependence on China for Medicine.

China is Quietly Becoming the World’s Pharmacy — and There Are Big Risks

Many of the drugs that Americans depend upon, including birth control pills, antibiotics like penicillin, vitamin C and even cancer drugs, are made in China with little regulation.

… Gary Cohn, then chief economic advisor to President Trump, argued against a trade war with China by invoking a Department of Commerce study that found that 97 percent of all antibiotics in the United States came from China.

U.S. Dependence on Pharmaceutical Products From China

While the Department of Defense only purchases a small quantity of finished pharmaceuticals from China, about 80 percent of the active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) used to make drugs in the United States are said to come from China and other countries like India.

In order to address the growing security and safety concerns about Chinese-made pharmaceuticals, some suggest that the United States switch to India as an alternative API supplier. However, doing so would be no different from rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. It is true that many Indian pharmaceutical firms are leading API manufacturers but India depends on China for sourcing nearly three quarters of APIs in generic drug formulations. The disruption in the supply chain notwithstanding, switching to India for the supply of APIs would only make the drugs sold in the United States more expensive: APIs and chemical intermediates from China are 35 to 40 percent cheaper than Indian ones.

Final Thoughts

Besides Disney which owns ESPN, theme parks, and 40 percent of Hollywood movies, the person getting most hurt by the Corona crisis is Bernie Sanders. States are moving or considering cancelling primary elections and cancelling further debates with he and Joe Biden. Bernie just can’t catch a break.

The biggest winner in all this besides the President is the Babylon Bee. They have done parodies of banning all travel to California and what will parents do if the government won’t raise their kids for them. Both of which are legit news stories this week. Is it any wonder that Snopes gets mad when people think their stuff is real news?

Fake news is now real news Example #1

Nation To Use Coronavirus As Convenient Excuse To Quarantine California

President Trump is not ruling out the possibility of travel restrictions to California.

According to the New York Times, the president said he could restrict travel to hard-hit states including California and Washington.

Pres. Trump Could Ban Travel To California, Washington To Slow The Spread Of Coronavirus

Fake news is now real news Example #2

Parents Worried They’ll Have To Raise Their Own Children As Government Schools Shut Down

Schools are closing their doors across the area sending a seismic shockwave for parents scrambling to find child care for the next few weeks.

Sacramento County public schools have a quarter-million students and 400 schools. Even if only half of those parents would have to stay home, you could see how it would impact our economy.

Coronavirus School Closures Leave Parents Scrambling To Find Child Care

Fake news on November Surprise?

Trump Cancels 2020 Election Over Coronavirus Concerns

Fake news that’s totally right on

Devout Atheist Playing ‘Minecraft’ Patiently Waits For Complex Structures To Build Themselves

Enjoy your weekend.

Radio talk show host, Rush Limbaugh, has repeatedly said that the Corona virus making its way around the planet is nothing more than a bad cold.

This coronavirus? All of this panic is just not warranted.

I’m telling you, when I’ve told you that this virus is the common cold? When I said that, it was based on the number of cases. It’s also based on the kind of virus this is. Why do you think this is COVID-19? This is the 19th coronavirus! They’re not uncommon. Coronaviruses are respiratory cold and flu viruses. There is nothing about this except where it came from and the itinerant media panic.

A Biothreat from China Is Accomplishing All the Goals of Trump’s Enemies

This of course has drawn the ire of folks predisposed to hate the most popular talk show host in America. My question today is to look at the science and see if Rush is right.

Cold or Flu

Silly me. I actually thought there was a difference between cold and flu but that difference is arbitrary. You really can’t tell. I took a look at the highly partisan website for the Center for Disease Control (sarcasm intended) that describes both.

Because colds and flu share many symptoms, it can be difficult (or even impossible) to tell the difference between them based on symptoms alone. Special tests that usually must be done within the first few days of illness can tell if a person has the flu.

Cold Versus Flu

Flu and the common cold are both respiratory illnesses but they are caused by different viruses. Because these two types of illnesses have similar symptoms, it can be difficult to tell the difference between them based on symptoms alone. In general, flu is worse than the common cold, and symptoms are more intense.

Testing for Flu

A number of flu tests are available to detect influenza viruses in respiratory specimens. The most common are called “rapid influenza diagnostic tests (RIDTs).” RIDTs work by detecting the parts of the virus (antigens) that stimulate an immune response. These tests can provide results within approximately 10-15 minutes, but are not as accurate as other flu tests. Therefore, you could still have the flu, even though your rapid test result is negative. Other flu tests are called “rapid molecular assays” that detect genetic material of the virus. Rapid molecular assays produce results in 15-20 minutes and are more accurate than RIDTs. In addition, there are several more-accurate and sensitive flu tests available that must be performed in specialized laboratories, such as those found in hospitals or state public health laboratories. All of these tests require that a health care provider swipe the inside of your nose or the back of your throat with a swab and then send the swab for testing. Results may take one hour or several hours.

As I mentioned yesterday, they are working on a rapid test for Corona but it is still being developed.

Not everyone that is sick will be tested.

Not necessarily. Most people with flu symptoms are not tested because the test results usually do not change how you are treated.

Your health care provider may diagnose you with flu based on your symptoms and their clinical judgment or they may choose to use an influenza diagnostic test. During an outbreak of respiratory illness, testing for flu can help determine if flu viruses are the cause of the outbreak. Flu testing can also be helpful for some people with suspected flu who are pregnant or have a weakened immune system, and for whom a diagnosis of flu can help their doctor make decisions about their care.

Here is CDC criteria for testing and unless you are in high risk group or hospitalized, chances are you will not be tested.

What is Corona?

Coronaviruses are a group of related viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans, coronaviruses cause respiratory tract infections that are typically mild, such as some cases of the common cold (among other possible causes, predominantly rhinoviruses), though rarer forms can be lethal, such as SARS, MERS, and COVID-19.

Coronaviruses constitute the subfamily Orthocoronavirinae, in the family Coronaviridae, order Nidovirales, and realm Riboviria.[5][6] They are enveloped viruses with a positive-sense single-stranded RNA genome and a nucleocapsid of helical symmetry. The genome size of coronaviruses ranges from approximately 27 to 34 kilobases, the largest among known RNA viruses.[7] The name coronavirus is derived from the Latin corona, meaning “crown” or “halo”, which refers to the characteristic appearance reminiscent of a crown or a solar corona around the virions (virus particles) when viewed under two-dimensional transmission electron microscopy, due to the surface covering in club-shaped protein spikes.

Coronavirus

Common human coronaviruses, including types 229E, NL63, OC43, and HKU1, usually cause mild to moderate upper-respiratory tract illnesses, like the common cold. Most people get infected with one or more of these viruses at some point in their lives.

Common Human Coronaviruses

Symptoms of COVID-19

Reported illnesses have ranged from mild symptoms to severe illness and death for confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases.
The following symptoms may appear 2-14 days after exposure.*
* Fever
* Cough
* Shortness of breath

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

The CDC calling the spread of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 across the United States “inevitable” has understandably triggered a decent amount of anxiety. While COVID-19—which is thought to have originated in Wuhan, China back in December after jumping from an as-yet-unconfirmed animal host—has a troubling fatality rate of around 2 percent (based on current estimates), the vast majority of people who contract the virus experience only mild, cold-like symptoms. In fact, it’s quite possible that the disease’s fatality rate is artificially inflated; with so many confirmed cases featuring mild symptoms, it’s likely that there are many COVID-19 cases going totally unnoticed.

If you get COVID-19, you’re unlikely to get seriously sick and even less likely to die, especially if you are otherwise healthy. But that raises a troubling question that’s difficult to answer: How do you know if your seasonal sniffles might actually be COVID-19? Here’s a handy guide.

How to tell if a cold is COVID-19

If you have no reason to think you’ve been in close contact with someone who is infected with COVID-19, you should proceed as if you have a cold or the flu. You are unlikely to actually have COVID-19 and, if you do, you are unlikely to get particularly sick.

“Although the focus right now is on COVID-19, seasonal flu remains much more common,” says Preeti Malani, the Chief Health Officer and a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Michigan. “In general, all of us should make an effort to stay home and rest while ill. Everyday respiratory viruses spread easily. Wash your hands, cover your cough. If you haven’t done so, it’s not too late to get a flu shot.”

Lastly, Popular Science says stay out of the emergency room.

If you have symptoms of a cold and have traveled to China, South Korea, Japan, or Italy within the last couple of weeks, you should call your doctor or a hospital and ask how to proceed. You should not go to a doctor’s office or emergency room without calling ahead, as this risks exposing vulnerable people while you sit in the waiting room and interact with doctors and nurses.

How bad is COVID-19

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told lawmakers during a House Oversight Committee hearing Wednesday that COVID-19 — the disease caused by the novel coronavirus — is probably about 10 times more lethal than the seasonal flu.

Coronavirus is 10 times more lethal than the seasonal flu, Trump’s task force immunologist says

(Fauci) did clarify that 10 times figure actually brings the new coronavirus’ fatality rate lower than official estimates, which hover around 3 percent. The flu has a mortality rate of about 0.1 percent, so, when considering the likelihood that there are many asymptomatic or very mild cases that have gone undiagnosed, Fauci places the new coronavirus’ lethality rate at somewhere around 1 percent.

Conclusion

Unless you’re a powerful person—financial or political— a member of an at risk group, or a healthcare worker, you will probably never know if the illness that you had was a cold, flu, or COVID-19 because you won’t have the lab work to check.

As we learn more about this illness, the fatality rate is dropping. More milder cases are being diagnosed and our healthcare system is better than many other countries which means more people will recover. The fatality rate is now down to one percent and I think that it will continue to decline.

Also, I wouldn’t be surprised if a year from now we discover that many people had COVID-19 and never knew it.

President Trump has often compared COVID-19 to the flu…

Give the above, whether you want to call it a cold or flu, Rush Limbaugh was correct. “Coronaviruses are respiratory cold and flu viruses.” Thus, COVID-19 is a really bad cold.

Folks, like everything else related to reporting this story, you have heard many contradictory claims made about the ability to test for the Corona virus. President Trump and Vice-President Pence are assuring us that the testing bottleneck has been removed while most media reports claim there is a severe shortage of test kits. Why can’t we even agree about this seemingly nonpartisan issue? Today, I’m going to take a look at this question.

How to Test

The best explanation of the test for Corona can be found in the article
How do we test for coronavirus, anyway?

But if you’re not familiar with the tools of molecular biology, the CDC’s testing procedure might as well be written in another language. What follows is a description of how to go from an unknown virus to a diagnostic test in less than a month.

Because we know what the average coronavirus looks like, we have been able to identify areas that don’t change much over the evolution of new members of this family of viruses. And that allows us to obtain sequences of its genome without first isolating the virus.

The first challenge of sequencing a coronavirus genome is that it’s made of RNA rather than DNA. Most of our tools for working with nucleic acids are specific to DNA. Fortunately, we’ve discovered an enzyme called “reverse transcriptase” that takes RNA and makes a DNA copy of it—transcription is the copying of DNA into RNA; this enzyme does the opposite, hence the name. (Reverse transcriptase was first identified in other RNA viruses that need to be copied into DNA as part of infection.) Using reverse transcriptase, researchers were able to make DNA copies of parts of 2019-nCoV as a first step to studying its genome.

But reverse transcription of samples from infected individuals would simply create a mess of DNA fragments from everything present: the patient’s own cells, harmless bacteria, and so on. Fortunately, DNA sequencing and analysis techniques have become so advanced that it’s now possible to just sequence the whole mess, irrelevant stuff and all, and let computers sort out what’s present. Software is able to take what we know about the average coronavirus genome and identify all of the fragments of sequence that look like they came from a coronavirus.

Other software can determine how all these fragments overlap and then stitch them together, producing a near-complete coronavirus genome.

To make a diagnostic test specific to 2019-nCoV, researchers had to look for areas of its genome that don’t change rapidly over coronavirus evolution but have changed enough in this branch of the family that they can be viewed as its distinctive signature. Those sequences can be used to design a means of amplifying a piece of the 2019-nCoV genome using a technique called the polymerase chain reaction, or PCR.

Test Kits

Below is a quote from Politico which is typical of media reports:

A looming shortage in lab materials is threatening to delay coronavirus test results and cause officials to undercount the number of Americans with the virus.

The slow pace of coronavirus testing has created a major gap in the U.S. public health response. The latest problem involves an inability to prepare samples for testing, creating uncertainties in how long it will take to get results.

Exclusive: U.S. coronavirus testing threatened by shortage of critical lab materials

Fox News is piling on too.

America needs to distribute hundreds of millions of test kits to identify people infected with the coronavirus now spreading around the world – a massive amount that far exceeds the number of test kits now available.

Vice President Mike Pence and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Tuesday that over 1.1 million coronavirus test kits have been distributed across the U.S. and over 4 million more will be distributed by the end of the week. Unfortunately, that number is woefully inadequate for the task at hand.

Dr. Robert Siegel: Coronavirus response requires several hundred million test kits – a massive increase

Then you see a report like this about two test kits. Yep, two kits for the whole State of Ohio.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Two new coronavirus testing kits arrived in Ohio on Wednesday afternoon, which will allow the state to test 800 to 1,000 more people, Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Amy Acton said after a Wednesday COVID-19 briefing.

Nationwide, there’s been a shortage of testing kits.

Two new coronavirus testing kits arrive in Ohio — state can test 800-1,000 more people

Pence is talking millions of tests and then two days ago, I read that only 5,000 people have been tested. WTF?

Public health labs across the U.S. have tested more than 5,000 people, according to the Trump administration. HHS Secretary Alex Azar told lawmakers on Tuesday that U.S. labs’ capacity could grow to 10,000-20,000 people per day by the end of the week.

“Increased demand for testing has the potential to exhaust supplies needed to perform the test itself,” said Robin Patel, president of the American Society for Microbiology. That would limit the testing capacity of public health, hospital and commercial labs alike, she added.

Exclusive: U.S. coronavirus testing threatened by shortage of critical lab materials

This sounds kind of dire but as I’m reading articles like this, I’m also hearing ads on the radio by private labs offering to do Corona tests. So is there a shortage or not?

The same article that says there is a shortage in government labs, says that the private sector has no such problems.

Commercial labs, which have recently started running coronavirus tests, have not experienced any supply shortages, according to a spokesperson for the American Clinical Laboratory Association.

Exclusive: U.S. coronavirus testing threatened by shortage of critical lab materials

So there you have it. Virtually simultaneously we have reports of 5,000 to 1.1 millions people tested depending on the source.

To further complicate the question is test methodology.

Complicating the situation, most labs have been running at least two tests per patient — although that could soon change. The CDC issued interim guidelines on Monday that minimize the number of tests required for a diagnosis. The agency says labs can combine a patient’s nose and throat samples into one test, a move experts say will cut in half the amount of supplies used to test each person.

Exclusive: U.S. coronavirus testing threatened by shortage of critical lab materials

Testing and test kits are often discussed as if they represent a single entity. However, there are a multitude of ways to test for the coronavirus. Different types of tests provide important tools in the battle against this serious infection and contribute in unique ways to our understanding of this virus.

Dr. Robert Siegel: Coronavirus response requires several hundred million test kits – a massive increase

In Ohio, only the highest-risk cases get tested at the state lab — in which patients are elderly, have health conditions or compromised immune systems or are health workers.

Lower-risk cases are being tested by private labs — specifically LabCorp and Quest Diagnostic, as well as at some hospitals, although which hospitals were not specified.

For lower-risk cases, a test cannot happen until there’s an order from a doctor, nurse practitioner or physician’s assistant. And it cannot be ordered until the flu and other respiratory illnesses are eliminated as possibilities.

Two new coronavirus testing kits arrive in Ohio — state can test 800-1,000 more people

CDC Test Kits are for governments only not hospitals

CDC’s test kit is intended for use by laboratories designated by CDC as qualified, and in the United States, certified under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) to perform high complexity tests. The test kits also will be shipped to qualified international laboratories, such as World Health Organization (WHO) Global Influenza Surveillance Response System (GISRS) laboratories. The test will not be available in U.S. hospitals or other primary care settings. The kits will be distributed through the International Reagent Resource

CDC Tests for COVID-19

Corona test kits were requiring two samples per person (upper and lower respiratory) but the government has reduced the number of samples to one.

That kit was originally going to allow for 300 to 400 people to get tested. Then the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed how specimens could be tested so that two swabs or sputum from a person could be run together, using less chemicals and allowing more people to be tested.

Two new coronavirus testing kits arrive in Ohio — state can test 800-1,000 more people

I have quoted extensively the above to show that there is a shortage of CDC testing kits but that other tests are available. Thus the low number reported by many media outlets is strictly the number of CDC tests while the Trump Administration is counting testing at all levels, public and private.

Please note that if you dig into it, the CDC test kit is exclusive to one vendor. Yep, one company is contracted with the government to supply all test kits for the country. Since they can’t keep up with the demand, the CDC has authorized a competing vendor to supply tests also; however, this requires labs using the alternative method to conduct training and retooling before testing can commence.

Qiagen, a major supplier of the kits, confirmed that its product is backordered due to “the extraordinary pace” at which the world has increased coronavirus testing over the last few weeks.

Exclusive: U.S. coronavirus testing threatened by shortage of critical lab materials

The FDA has also approved a change to the CDC diagnostic test that allows labs to switch from Qiagen’s RNA extraction method to another manufactured by Roche, says Denny Russell, who leads the coronavirus response at Washington state’s public health lab. But getting his lab ready to use the Roche method could take a week in part because technicians will need training to use it.

In the meantime, Qiagen has told customers that it may not be able to fill large standing orders, because it is trying to provide smaller numbers of kits to as many labs as possible, said spokesperson Robert Reitze. The company is ramping up production of RNA extraction kits at manufacturing sites in Hilden, Germany; Barcelona, Spain; and Germantown, Md.

The other issue related to testing is a controversy about whether Trump set aside an Obama regulation to streamline testing.

“The Obama administration made a decision on testing that turned out to be very detrimental to what we’re doing. And we undid that decision a few days ago so that the testing can take place in a much more accurate and rapid fashion. That was a decision we disagreed with. I don’t think we would have made it, but for some reason it was made. But we’ve undone that decision.”
— President Trump, remarks at a roundtable with airline executives, March 4

“This was a very big move. It was something that we had to do and we did it very quickly. And now we have tremendous flexibility. Many, many more sites. Many, many more people. And you couldn’t have had that under the Obama rule, and we ended that rule very quickly.”
— Trump, additional remarks at the same meeting

Trump’s bogus effort to blame Obama for sluggish coronavirus testing

The Liberal fact check websites say this claim is false; however, nobody has ever asked Trump what the regulation was, they just assert he was wrong. Folks, being that there is no shortage of Federal Regulations, I think there is not enough information on the public record to say if Trump is wrong or if the media is erecting a strawman argument to beat-up on Trump just because he dared to attack Obama. Does it really matter or are people just playing gotcha because…?

What I do know, is that since Trump’s comment, things are changing to speed up testing as I’ve shown above. Also, the White House has persuaded insurers to waive any copays for Corona testing.

Closing Comments

Besides the tests discussed above, many people are working now on antibody test kits. These would be a simpler test than converting RNA to DNA and so forth; methods mentioned previously. I think the goal is to have a “quick and dirty” test and then if that’s positive, you would then get a more thorough test.

I think that Corona infections will decrease as we leave cold and flu season but it may be back next fall just in time for a possible vaccine. However, if there is a vaccine, I certainly won’t be first in line, talk about being a guinea pig.

Next up, is Corona a bad Cold?

Due to the disruption caused to our daily lives by people that should know better, I’m starting a series on Corona Virus. I’m trying to separate, myth, fact, and propaganda. I personally have no fear of getting this virus, but many people seem really freaked-out about it.

I have rarely, if ever mentioned Sean Hannity on this blog. Why should I? I’m a cable cutter and don’t get Fox News, ESPN, and a host of other media. Frankly, I think my life is better without constant exposure to the 24/7 news cycle. (It’s not too later to give up cable news for Lent. Just sayin’.) Anyway, I occasionally listened to his radio show; especially, since impeachment and now the Corona Virus.

Last week Hannity said something so damning about Barack Obama that I thought maybe this was the silver bullet to get thru to my Liberal buddy at work. Before deploying it though, I wanted to get it in writing from a solid Liberal source so he couldn’t easily discount the information. I began to investigate the claim that Hannity made on both his radio and television shows on March 2, 2020. Here are transcripts complete with audio and video respectively. Hannity has also repeated it on his radio broadcasts since that date.

Audio Transcript 02/20/2020
SEAN HANNITY (HOST): Now if you want to compare it, let’s go back to the Biden-Obama administration. It was April of 2009 when H1N1 became a pandemic. It wasn’t until six months later — now, I’ll concede, 11 days after that, the Health and Human Services of their administration said it was an emergency — but it wasn’t until six months later when Obama declared a public health emergency. But at that point, it was already a pandemic. By the time Obama-Biden did it, we literally had millions of Americans infected, and over a thousand people had died inside the U.S.

Video Transcript 02/20/2020
Now we need to put that in perspective. Let us compare this to H1N1. Swine Flu Virus as it’s known. Now, this hit the U.S. in April of 2009. It wasn’t until six months later, in October of 2009 — after more than 20,000 Americans were hospitalized, more than a thousand of our fellow citizens died — only then did President Obama and, yeah, quid pro quo Joe declare a national emergency.

Original Source

So where did Hannity get this claim that President Obama waited six months–until 20,000 were infected and over 1,000 had died–before declaring a public health emergency? The only source is a single article from P.J. Media posted on February 28, 2020 by Victoria Taft. Her post then reverberated thru various conservative websites where it was eventually picked-up by Hannity.

While American health officials declared a public health emergency on April 26, 2009, then-Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano downplayed the announcement, calling it “standard operating procedure,” adding that she would rather refer to it as a “declaration of emergency preparedness.” It wasn’t until four months later in October, that then-President Obama himself declared an H1N1 national emergency.

Fact-Check: Obama Waited Until ‘Millions’ Infected and 1000 Dead in U.S. Before Declaring H1N1 National Emergency

Timeline: H1N1 v Corona

Folks, this claim by Victoria Taft and by extension, Sean Hannity, is really bad for Obama and good for Trump. Below is the timeline for N1H1 and Corona from first US victim (Day 1) until President declared a public health emergency.

Oops, Obama declared a public health emergency on H1N1 eleven days after the first US case while Trump did so after ten days.

Here are timelines of both virus outbreaks

CDC Timeline H1N1

April 15, 2009 First infection in US

April 26, 2009 The United States Government declared 2009 H1N1 a Public Health Emergency of International Concern

2009 H1N1 Pandemic Timeline

October 26, 2009

Washington (CNN) — President Obama has declared a national emergency to deal with the “rapid increase in illness” from the H1N1 influenza virus.

“The 2009 H1N1 pandemic continues to evolve. The rates of illness continue to rise rapidly within many communities across the nation, and the potential exists for the pandemic to overburden health care resources in some localities,” Obama said in a statement.

Obama declares H1N1 emergency

Text of Obama declaration October 24, 2009

DECLARATION OF A NATIONAL EMERGENCY WITH RESPECT TO THE 2009 H1N1 INFLUENZA PANDEMIC

Corona Timeline

December 31, 2019 The World Health Organization (WHO) is alerted by the Chinese authorities of a string of pneumonia-like cases in Wuhan, a city of 11 million people.

January 17, 2020 the CDC announces that it will begin screening passengers arriving from Wuhan at three airports: San Francisco, New York’s JFK and Los Angeles.

January 21, 2020 first US case in Washington State.

Coronavirus timeline: from Wuhan to Washington state

January 30, 2020 First case of transmission in US

January 31, 2020 President Donald Trump issued a proclamation prohibiting non-citizens from entering the United States if they were in China within 14 days of their arrival and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar declared a public health emergency.

Latest on Coronavirus: Timeline of Events Since the Start of the Outbreak in China

So, both Presidents (or Administration health officials under them) declared an emergency within about ten days.

Two Types of Declaration

Folks, various declarations by the President trigger different laws and regulations to make resources available to various states and people in need. While Obama declared a national emergency six months after declaring a public health emergency, Trump has thus far not declared a national emergency for Corona. If you doubt me, search for yourself. The only national emergency declared by Trump is related to the border wall.

Here’s the video of Obama in April of 2009 declaring a public health emergency.

The posts are conflating two types of emergency declarations a president can make.

On Obama’s response to H1N1:

Obama declared a public health emergency on April 26, 2009 — before a single swine flu death in the U.S. was reported. Such a declaration allows the government to unlock money for antiviral drugs and other medical preparedness measures.

It was in October, after 1,000 U.S. deaths, that Obama made another declaration related to the flu strain, this time a national emergency. That national emergency allowed the U.S. to activate operational plans, such as moving emergency rooms offsite to keep those infected with the virus away from other emergency room patients.

Conclusion

Folks, I’ve dug into this issue with much zeal in hopes of defending Sean Hannity’s claim about Obama’s declaration. However, it is my sad duty to report that Sean Hannity is totally wrong on this aspect of comparing the Obama response on H1N1 and the Trump response to Corona.

The issue where things diverge on the declarations of emergency is the management style employed by each man. Obama, as best as I can research it, was a very hands-off President and let the professionals handle the issue whereas Trump is right in the middle of Corona.

Obama initially authorized $1.5 billion to fight H1N1, whereas, Trump initially asked for $2.5 billion while diverting other money to the fight, pending Congressional action.

Also, Democrats are using Corona as a political weapon against Trump’s reelection; something Republicans did not do to Obama on H1N1. The media is trying to use Corona as a club to beat up Trump like they did G.W. Bush with Hurricane Katrina. In fact CNN has even called Corona, Trump’s Katrina.

Coronavirus as Katrina?: What sunk President George W. Bush and Republicans in his second term wasn’t the war in Iraq. It was his administration’s mishandling of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Whispers have begun that President Donald Trump’s handling (or mishandling) of the ongoing coronavirus epidemic has the potential to have political consequences just as devastating for the GOP.

Is coronavirus Donald Trump’s Katrina?

Next up, Corona testing.