President Biden thread

4 hours ago, Tweety said:

I might agree with you if it were a time when cases were low.  I haven't worn a mask in months as our percent of positivity was 2%.  Now I expect like South Florida we'll rise to about 30%.

But it's the same in planes, you wear a mask and then everyone at once takes them off to eat.  Guess that's one reason so many airline employees are getting sick.  But we do the best we can I suppose. 

We don't have mask mandates here.

I've gone back to wearing a mask at the gym and grocery stores, and in fact wearing an N95 as experts are asking.   I'm also avoiding crowded indoor places.  I haven't been to a restaurant the last week as cases here in Florida have increased 300% but if and when I do I'll wear a mask in where it might be likely I'm close to people, and take if off to eat, and only will go to a place that isn't crowded and tables are separated or outside.   Seems like a reasonable thing to do to me.   I am concerned about my yoga class which I do maskless but are small enough that we can be spaced six feet apart.  

In a few weeks when cases drop again as a thrice vaccinated healthy person I'll ditch the mask again unless a business asks me.  My barber never dropped his mask requirement.  

Your approach is that of a reasonable person.  An unreasonable person would question why we we allow people to remove a mask in a plane. Exposure = viral load X time of exposure.  It's that simple.  We now have to adjust to living with this.  I propose that if you take alcohol and food away from passengers on a plane, even more people would become violent.  In November I was on line to board a flight while 4 officers "escorted" a violent, angry customer off the plane.  It's reassuring to know that he won't be allowed to fly anytime soon and that they got him off before the rest of us got on so that we didn't have to make an unplanned landing.  I stand by my statement that stupid people are dangerous.  They are much more likely to behave unreasonably to protect themselves and others.

4 hours ago, Tweety said:

At least they put in the part that vaccinated people should be treated differently than unvaccinated people an idea I'm sure isn't popular with their readers.  

I do think it's a fair criticism that we were caught with out pants down and were too complacent with regards with testing availability.  I know that Monday in Miami they handed out 138,000 tests and there are long lines at  testing centers.  In Orlando most drug stores have no appointments for testing and are completely booked, so at public sites people are waiting hours there as well.  Where I live the newspaper said Monday the wait was 90 minutes.  None of this really means that people who want to get tested can't.  I think asymptomatic people that went to holiday gatherings, flew on planes,  are adding to the post-Christmas demand.   But I understand there are parts of the country where they run out of tests.   

The idea that "everyone saw this coming" might not be fair, as it happened too fast and furious.   

 There isn't even a curve in the number of cases, it's vertical.  Here in Florida we went from about 2,000 cases a day to setting record highs again of over 30,000 a day, in a matter of days.  I don't think it's going to get better because are having a Christmas boom.  I went to the beach yesterday and the hotels had no vacancies, and probably restaurants and bars were crowded.  But I'm hopeful that like when Delta slammed us this Summer it will drop just as dramatically.  South Africa is already seeing a big drop.  

Biden's plan included increasing testing and sending out 500 million home kits, but I suppose playing the blame game is fair, as it didn't happen fast enough and it's too late.  

Billions of tests that people are screaming for NOW, weren't made because there was no demand and no company willing to take the project on.  People who didn't understand that testing was a major factor in controlling spread just didn't read anything about Covid.  It's just denial and stupidity.  But nature will cull them first because they don't have enough fitness to survive.  Unfotunately people with impaired immune systems get caught in their path....the very young, the very old and those that don't enjoy good health.

1 hour ago, Beerman said:

The government could have placed orders for the tests.

That's what the Trump administration did for vaccines.  They took out a big portion of the financial risk to the manufacturers.  That was one reason they were able to be developed so quickly.

Biden did this, but he admits he wishes he'd done it two months ago.  But really two months ago did we know that in a matter of weeks there would be record breaking demand and positive tests and that our stockpiles wouldn't be adequate in all places (like I said, here it isn't a problem, people that want to get tested can, it's just a bit more challenging because there are so many people sick or exposed or worried.  It's not a testing problem, it's a gridlock of demand.)

We saw the same sort of thing happen when covid first started with PPE.  The unexpected demand went through stockpiles. 

But criticism of long lines and testing availability is on his shoulders.   He could have done it sooner.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/23/biden-wishes-he-thought-about-ordering-500-million-at-home-covid-tests-2-months-ago.html

5 hours ago, Beerman said:

That's a different ballgame than blaming all the unvaccinated on Republicans, conservative radio and social media. Great... Looks like I got my point across.  And, you got your "I'm going to again tell the same small group of anonymous internet AN members how much I hate Trump" post in early.  A win/win for us both!

Now, maybe you could get back to Chare's question?

Good thing that I didn't blame all of the unvaccinated on Republicans or conservative radio and social media...that means we're in the same ball game, right? Why is it "I hate Trump" to point out and criticize his character flaws, corruption and failed governance but it's not "I hate Biden" to criticize his stutter and mentation?

Which question do you believe I haven't answered? I provided articles which outline the institutions which Trump diminished, put under the thumb of political loyalists and stole funding from.  I can't make you read them or agree.  I did find it amusing that you thought my sources were "left wing". Lots of stuff looks far to the left from the perspective of The Daily Wire, I imagine. 

5 hours ago, Beerman said:

The government could have placed orders for the tests.

That's what the Trump administration did for vaccines.  They took out a big portion of the financial risk to the manufacturers.  That was one reason they were able to be developed so quickly.

I wonder why the Trump administration didn't also do that for testing. Not ordering those tests was probably related to the 2020 federal mantra of more tests/more cases, don't you think? That mixed messaging about testing coupled with the politicization of the pandemic response created a host of unique problems for the Biden administration. 

https://www.kff.org/report-section/rapid-home-tests-for-covid-19-issues-with-availability-and-access-in-the-u-s-issue-brief/

Quote

 

The lack of up-front federal investment in testing, including advance purchasing of tests, is another factor that appears to have impacted testing availability and affordability. Whereas the federal government channeled billions of dollars into accelerating vaccine development and advance purchasing of millions of doses, which helped to mitigate manufacturer risk and allowed for vaccines to be provided at no cost to all in the United States, no similar strategy was undertaken for testing. Without such up-front investment, the risk and cost of scale up was largely placed on manufacturers, who might be reticent to do so in the face of uncertainty given their fiduciary responsibility to shareholders. As noted, this differs from the experience in the UK and Germany where governments simultaneously supported vaccination and home testing efforts.

Perhaps if there had been a cooperative and constructive transition of power some of these issues might have been identified and remedied in a way that you would find acceptable. Fighting a pandemic is not a simple matter, as is demonstrated across the globe. 

Trust in our public health messaging has been deeply damaged by reckless and nefarious language.  Too many people have been tittilated by lies and rhetoric.

41 minutes ago, Beerman said:

The past administration should have done more for testing. Of course, there has been more than ample time to correct that by now.

You can believe what you want about the reason why.  However, just as many tests were being done Dec 2020/Jan 2021 as are being done now.

Yes, it's a shame the pandemic became so political.  The blame for that falls on both parties.   I'm not sure what "unique problems" Biden inherited.   But, it is a pandemic, so I guess many of the problems could be described as unique.  We do know Biden hasn't come up with any unique solutions, don't we?

It's not simply a matter of "belief" as to whether or not the previous administration negatively impacted federal covid testing and it's not a "both sides" argument when it comes to politicization of the pandemic.  Trump was the primary pandemic propagandist in 2020. 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewsolender/2020/06/24/trump-after-slow-the-testing-down-remark-will-end-federal-funding-for-testing-sites/

You don't think that it's unique to inherit a crashed economy in the middle of a politicized pandemic while racing toward a military withdrawal that was negotiated with terrorists all after not receiving the benefit of a coordinated and cogent transition from the outgoing administration that lied about election fraud and then incited a riot at the Capitol in the last weeks of the previous administration? None of that seems unique to you? 

2 minutes ago, Beerman said:

I wonder when we can expect the current president to make headway on any of the current problems facing our country?  That would include the "unique" ones, as well as the problems purposely made by Trump just so we could all blame Biden.

You're just making noise here.