Donald Trump and the failed response to the devastating COVID-19 pandemic

This succinct information is published by Teresa Hanafin in the Boston Globe in the Fast Forward electronic newsletter. Please tell your friends about Fast Forward! They can sign up here.

Dr. Richard Bright, an infectious disease expert, slamed the stupid Donald Trump's failed virus response effort, COVID-19, while the cases soar in Latin America and Rhode Island wants all tourists to be swabbed and tested for coronavirus...

Breaking: (AP) Nearly 3 million laid-off US workers applied for unemployment benefits in May,  -- 44,500 in Massachusetts -- bringing the national total to 36 million people who have filed for jobless aid, just in the past two months. 

As of May 14, 2020, in the United States the coronavirus data reported: Today's coronavirus / COVID-19 numbers:

Total confirmed cases: 1,400,500 (it was 1,381,696 yesterday)
Total confirmed deaths: 84,985 (it was 83,249 yesterday)
Dr. Richard Bright, the country's former vaccine chief who has a PhD in immunology, is testifying before a US House health subcommittee this morning, and he cast doubt on the notion that a coronavirus vaccine could be ready on an emergency basis within 18 months.

"A lot of optimism is swirling around a 12- to 18-month time frame, if everything goes perfectly," Bright said. "We've never seen everything go perfectly. My concern is that if we rush too quickly, and consider cutting out critical steps, we may not have a full assessment of the safety of that vaccine."

He also told the Congressional panel that America faces the "darkest winter in modern history" unless the US develops a national, comprehensive, and coordinated response to slow the spread of coronavirus infections.

"Our window of opportunity is closing," Bright said in his prepared testimony. "If we fail to develop a national coordinated response, based in science, I fear the pandemic will get far worse and be prolonged, causing unprecedented illness and fatalities."

That coordinated response, he said, involves:
-- Establishing a national testing strategy (what a concept!)
-- Launching a massive and widespread public education campaign telling people to wear masks, socially distance, and wash their hands frequently. This also should be modeled by political leaders (and not just when they personally are threatened by infection).
-- Dramatically increase the production of personal protective equipment and supplies, which still, disgracefully, are in short supply.
-- Distribute that equipment and supplies to state and hospitals fairly.

By the way, Bright is the country's former vaccine chief, because Trump (stupidly) fired him for opposing the widespread distribution of (a cornoavirus snake oil!) hydroxychloroquine, before it was properly tested, simply because Trump, for some unknown reason, became oddly (and weirdly!) obsessed with it.

Trump has (wrongly!) dismissed (the expert) Dr. Bright, as a (right minded!) disgruntled employee, (but he seems pretty - competent- gruntled to me).

The devastation the coronavirus and COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the virus, has wreaked on the US, is beyond devastating. 

But, even more, sadly, The New York Times found that the virus now is cutting a path of disease and death through Latin America, with outbreaks in some locales rivaling the worst in the world so far, and in a region of the world far less prepared, able -- and in some cases, willing -- to handle it. Tragically, Brazilian cities are resorting to mass graves to bury rows of stacked coffins. Hundreds of Ecuadoreans are still searching for the bodies of family members who went to hospitals and never returned. Deaths doubled in Lima, Peru, rivaling the worst month of the pandemic in Paris. They tripled in Manaus, a metropolis tucked deep in Brazil's Amazon — a surge similar to what London and Madrid endured.