Will we endure 2.2 million deaths? Or will we manage to turn things around?
More broadly, the United States must remedy its health priorities: We pour resources into clinical medicine but neglect public health. What’s the difference? If you get lung cancer, surgeons operate to save your life, but public health professionals keep you from smoking in the first place. If you get the coronavirus, a doctor will treat you; public health aims to keep the pandemic from getting near you. The United States has a decentralized and spotty public health system, and it has endured painful budget cuts, yet historically public health has saved more lives than clinical medicine.
We may dodge a bullet this time, but experts have been warning for decades that a killer pandemic will come; typically, they expected an avian flu like the 1918 pandemic rather than a coronavirus. Singapore and South Korea did well this time partly because they had been frightened by SARS and MERS and were vigilant; if we, too, can be scared enough to invest in public health and fix our health care system, then something good can come from this crisis — and in the long run, that may save lives.
The Big One is approaching, whether now or later, whether we’re prepared or not. Dr. Ferguson, the infectious disease modeler who predicted deaths in the United States might reach 2.2 million, came down with a cough and fever a few days ago. He tested positive for the coronavirus.
Opinions Trump is something the nation did not know it needed
There will be 42 more months of this president’s increasingly hilarious-beyond-satire apotheosis of himself, leavened by his incessant whining about his tribulations (“What dunce saddled me with this silly attorney general who takes my policy expostulations seriously?”).
This protracted learning experience, which the public chose to have and which should not be truncated, might whet the public’s appetite for an adult president confident enough to wince at, and disdain, the adoration of his most comically groveling hirelings.
.. Scaramucci grew up in Port Washington, the Long Island community that is East Egg in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby.” Gatsby lived in West Egg, yearning to live across the water, where shone the beckoning green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. Scaramucci’s ascent to a glory surpassing even that available in East Egg shows that the light on the lectern in the White House press room is, at last, something commensurate to his capacity for wonder.
Hillary Clinton, Free to Speak Her Mind
She seemed relaxed and comfortable, much less guarded than during the campaign.
.. “Certainly misogyny played a role” in her loss, she said. “That just has to be admitted.”
.. She noted the abundant social science research that when men are ambitious and successful, they may be perceived as more likable. In contrast, for women in traditionally male fields, it’s a trade-off: The more successful or ambitious a woman is, the less likable she becomes
.. It’s not so much that people consciously oppose powerful women; it’s an unconscious bias.
.. Clinton noted that when she stepped down as secretary of state, she had an approval rating of 64 percent and was one of the most popular public officials in America.
.. two of the most important factors were the plunder and release of her campaign emails and the last-minute announcement by the F.B.I. director, James Comey, that the investigation into her use of a private email server could be reopened.
.. She grew particularly animated in describing what she called Trump’s “targeting of women.”
.. Asked about the infamous photo of Republican men discussing women’s health, Clinton described her favorite internet meme: a group of dogs around a conference table, with the caption, “today’s meeting on feline health care.”
Byron York: 14 lessons from the GOP Obamacare debacle
1) Don’t over-promise
2) Jobs, jobs, jobs: Trump won the presidency on a pledge to create more and better-paying jobs. Taking up Obamacare as the first legislative project of his presidency was not consistent with that pledge
3) Find more votes.
4) Start with giveaways .. an infrastructure bill first, the story from Capitol Hill would have been a president and Congress giving things to the American people
5) ‘The Art of the Deal’ doesn’t work with ideologically-driven politicians
If the president wants to succeed in Washington, he’ll have to learn how to deal with people who aren’t in it just for the money.
6) Trump made a “rookie’s error” in bringing the Obamacare measure to a finale too quickly.
7) Trump and the House Republicans have different priorities and agendas.
8) John Boehner was right about the House Freedom Caucus. In an appearance last month, the former Speaker laughed at the notion that Republicans could agree on an Obamacare replacement.
9) Keep it simple. : It all got way too complicated to benefit from Trump’s talents as a simplifier and a salesman.
10) For years, House Republicans were able to pass bills like repealing Obamacare with the assurance that they didn’t really mean anything .. “We were a 10-year opposition party where being against things was the easy thing to do,” the Speaker said.
11) On big-ticket items, the president leads Congress, not the other way around.
12) while there is still intense opposition to the healthcare law inside the GOP, it has not stayed at that 2009-2010 level. In retrospect, Republicans were maddest at Obamacare before it actually went into effect
13) CBO estimates matter.