Embalming Fluid

Rainy Weekend Blues: Another exciting weekend in the days of coronavirus is behind us.  Not only were live sports off the table for those of not all that into watching the football draft, but Trump’s daily virus rallies were cancelled, put on what’s probably just a temporary Lysol hiatus.  Blaming the “lamestream” press for missing the sarcasm in his suggestion that people consider downing disinfectant cocktails, Trump decided to shorten his Friday appearance, but not before his staff unsuccessfully tried to move a CNN reporter from the network’s usual front row perch to the Siberia section of the briefing room.  Trump then stayed home over the weekend, celebrated Melania’s 50^th birthday by using it to score more donor contact information for his fund raising efforts and tweeted out hate, criticizing everyone from the Fake press to the Democrats to Sleepy Joe Biden.  As to his delusional disinfectant recommendation, the one that his newest Press Secretary insisted he didn’t say or if he did was misunderstood, the manufacturer of Lysol and a number of people around the country also missed it’s comical tone.  The Lysol folks issued a disclaimer reminding people not to ingest their products and calls were up at a number of poison control centers.  None of that seemed to overly concerned Dr Debby who appeared on almost all of the network Sunday shows to stick by her Donny, telling Fox News that the media is slicey dicey” about how they put sentences together in order to create headlines while telling other more skeptical Sunday news hosts like Jake Tapper and that other “sleepy eyed” guy Chuck Todd that the whole disinfectant thing was so over and was getting too much air time.   As to that disinfectant “thing” Speaker Pelosi put it best when she said that there is a word for drinking Lysol, it’s called embalming.  On the Debby front, Dr Birx’s once excellent reputation is circling the drain, at least in Democratic and main stream news circles, but seems to be doing just fine with the right.  Rumors emerged over the weekend that Trump was considering dumping his current Health Secretary, the sidelined Alex Azar with Debby’s name was on the list of people being considered as a possible replacement.  Trump denied that he has any plans to fire Azar and even called him to tell him so but since he never admits he’s going to fire someone until he does, who knows what’s going to happen?  It’s fair to assume that an administration that opts to sideline it’s vaccine expert during a pandemic for questioning the advocacy of unproven drugs would have no problem throwing its Health Secretary to the curb too.  Though virus guru Dr Fauci, still has his job, it’s fair to assume that he’s not on Trump’s BFF list.  Not only was he favorably portrayed by heartthrob Brad Pitt on this weekend’s not so live SNL, something that’s got to be burning a hole in Trump’s gut, but he told the National Academy of Sciences that the US needs to double its testing ASAP, because the country needs to "have enough tests to respond to the outbreaks that will inevitably occur as you try and ease your way back into the different phases."  An understatement when you consider the number of people in Georgia who got their nails done, hair dyed and  new tattoos even though that state doesn’t meet any of the government’s stated targets for reopening.  Fauci’s remarks were made as Trump continues to insist that we’re the best testers on earth and while Dr Debby told a baffled Chuck Todd that  the US needs a “breakthrough on antigen testing in order to aid in the reopening.” It’s not totally clear what she was talking about but it may have been a reference to either the shortage of testing reagents or the unreliability of the various and sundry antigen tests that have been rushed into the market without adequate FDA approval or both. As to that other type of test, the antibody one that tells you whether or not you had the virus, WHO, the organization that Trump is trying to defund but that most health professionals want us to remain in, says that it’s still not clear whether or not having antibodies makes you immune from a second virus go round.  To be clear, it might, they just don’t know and don’t want anyone to feel safe until research answers that question.  And on that research front, though Trump has cornered the hydroxychloroquine market, it’s more dangerous than helpful, preliminary results on Gilead’s anti-viral Remdesivir are still inconclusive and several reports are out that some NY hospitals are testing Pepcid as a possible treatment.  Could another shortage be on the horizon?

Et Cetera:  As the NY Post put it North Korea’s Kim Jung un is either dead, in a coma, or punking us.  Reports that he died during emergency heart surgery are either true or not.  His sister, who apparently outdoes him in deviousness, is either next in line or isn’t.  Anyway, Trump insisted that his good buddy is just fine but if the Little Rocket Man isn’t and Trump knews he wouldn’t tell us.  Democratic candidate Joe Biden is still tucked away in his basement, but at least for now his strategy or failure to make it into the news cycle appears to be working well for him.  He’s polling well in critical swing states and older white Americans have finally figured out that Trump’s presidency and inept handling of the virus catastrophe might not turn out all that well for their age cohort, again at least for now.  The Democratic VP sweepstakes is on, Georgia’s Stacey Abrams, was everywhere this weekend, making it known that she wants in, although it’s not really clear if her in your face strategy will catapult her over other candidates such as Senators Kamala Harris and Amy Klobuchar and all those other women further down everyone’s list.  As to Trump, because Russia and Vlad are always on his mind, in addition to offering up some ventilators he issued a way too coordinated statement commemorating the 75th anniversary of a meeting between American and Soviet troops at the Elbe River on April 25, 1945, particularly odd since Russian planes have been engaging in some risky hostile maneuvers against our fighter jets lately.  In other military news, Trump who is chafing at the bit about being stuck in the White House announced to the surprise of everyone at West Point that he plans to speak at this year’s graduation.  The chief problem with that is that all of those cadets have already been sent home and will now have to be called back and be placed in quarantined for fourteen days to serve as his audience, no doubt at a cost of many millions that could be applied to other things like personal protective gear or testing reagents, all to satisfy Trump’s itch, ego and campaign needs.  And remember  Captain Crozier, he’s the Naval officer who was fired for sounding the alarm about COVID 19 infections on his air force carrier,  the Navy has now recommended that he be reinstated although others at the Pentagon including Defense Secretary Esper aren’t so sure that they want him back in command maybe because who wants someone who puts his crew above all in command of anything?  For the record, 856 of the 4845 sailors on the Roosevelt have tested COVID positive.  With many of those positive sailors asymptomatic, military health authorities are now studying the ship to better understand the behavior of the virus. So is Bill Gates, the Microsoft billionaire is now redirecting all his foundation's efforts towards fighting the virus.