Shams: The season is suspended / Coronavirus Thread

[JF5]

sorry but if him putting his name on check makes you all this upset...i have 1 word..pathetic

Joe you're not getting it... He's making decisions for the country through a narrow personal view of how he feels rather than objective fact based outliers. Like yesterday he defunded WHO for the reason the organization made him look bad.

Even if you add the supposed political jargon that "China has them in their pocket". You're stopping funding for a group that it's main purpose is to help in the fight of the virus NOW. Also in future instances try to help in fights for other potential severe illnesses that might surface around the world.

If he wants to defund the group do it AFTER this thing blows over. Then, put more focus on the programs that he previously defunded or start a new world health organization. But seeing how he doesn't have hindsight or the ability to think into the future it's unlikely he'll do either of those.

and while this opinion may not be popular here, i'm not extremely mad with Trump's decision on WHO. I think we should eventually resume funding, but we also do not need to be paying the largest share by far. We have plenty of issues in our own country, we give so much money to the world, we need to shrink them up some and other countries need to step up. Also, WHO needs a shakeup, there has been controversy with the current leader for years. Every country and medical organization right now is working on Covid-19, so i would need to know what the real impact of this move is. our national debt in the trillions, we cannot continue to keep funding every program around the world for everyone.

I'm not going to disagree completely because WHO did screw up. But in a all hands on deck situation this is clearly not the time to make such a decision. Plus what we fund them yearly is not serious enough to stop funding them anyway. Which is why I believe this is a ridiculous move in the first place considering what is going on.

[spinedoc]

sorry but if him putting his name on check makes you all this upset...i have 1 word..pathetic

Joe you're not getting it... He's making decisions for the country through a narrow personal view of how he feels rather than objective fact based outliers. Like yesterday he defunded WHO for the reason the organization made him look bad.

Even if you add the supposed political jargon that "China has them in their pocket". You're stopping funding for a group that it's main purpose is to help in the fight of the virus NOW. Also in future instances try to help in fights for other potential severe illnesses that might surface around the world.

If he wants to defund the group do it AFTER this thing blows over. Then, put more focus on the programs that he previously defunded or start a new world health organization. But seeing how he doesn't have hindsight or the ability to think into the future it's unlikely he'll do either of those.

and while this opinion may not be popular here, i'm not extremely mad with Trump's decision on WHO. I think we should eventually resume funding, but we also do not need to be paying the largest share by far. We have plenty of issues in our own country, we give so much money to the world, we need to shrink them up some and other countries need to step up. Also, WHO needs a shakeup, there has been controversy with the current leader for years. Every country and medical organization right now is working on Covid-19, so i would need to know what the real impact of this move is. our national debt in the trillions, we cannot continue to keep funding every program around the world for everyone.

Tide, its like NATO. There would be a need to create it if it didn't already exist. It doesn't make it perfect, but it is still very much needed. WHO did drop the ball somewhat, but Trump also echoed those same sentiments to China and Xi. We have his twitter feed as proof. We are the biggest economy in the world with the biggest GDP of any other country. I don't mind that we pay the most, but we should do what Reagan used to say, "trust but verify". It wasn't WHO that is at the center of blame here. The fact that this originated from a country that is autocratic and has trust issues is a big part of that. It doesn't mean everything that now comes out of China can be discarded either, but it should cause changes of how we deal with countries like that going forward. There is a lot of things that need to be looked at when all of this is over. It doesn't take away from the fact that what Trump is doing now is finding a foil. The same goes with his deferment to the governors, but tough talk about how he really has control over them. Its passive aggressive behavior that will allow him to lay blame to others if we allow it. That is what he is doing here, Trump doesn't give a blip about the internal workings of WHO. He's even gone beyond what is known and has accused them of illegal behavior. Don't fall for the typical trap of this guy. We've seen this movie before and we know how it ends, if we let it.

[spinedoc]

you see it as he did it because they made him look bad...its how trump rolls its called leverage its how he gets things done sometimes you have to do it ..i see it that they did not do job ,covering for china...the w.h.o. have a big hand in letting the spread of the virus killing thousands and maybe destroy global economy for yrs...but hey blame trump if it makes you feel better...they should have shut down travel world wide since jan 1st..they knew

Do you really think that WHO has a better intelligence agency than the U.S.? We knew more than they did before all of this, but because Trump doesn't follow the advice of the "deep state", he wouldn't listen to anyone other than his own gut. This is not a job where intuition, or hope will get you by. His usual way of belittling or mocking others won't work, not with a virus. This is his first crisis in office, and the response needs to be fact based. Its why Trump is struggling so much to control the information, and why you are having so much difficulty in defending him. You can't change the facts of a virus, and because of that, it is winning right now. No nasty nickname is going to do the trick here. You mention silly things like the suicide rate to deflect the blame. Those of us who can see through that very easily know your level of willful ignorance. It lacks logic. When in fact, if Trump would have imposed restrictions just two weeks earlier, it would have brought the death rate closer to 6,000. That's the exponential element to an infectious disease. The hope is one day you will be fact based, and analyze the data like you would anything else. I believe I would be just as critical of a Democrat during this time of known facts. Watching people like you put themselves in a pretzel is what has been pathetic. You got the right word, but assigned it incorrectly. I'm still waiting for a clear and coherent argument in defense of Trump and his actions. I don't look down on all conservative or Republicans, many of them get what I'm talking about actually. Like, the Lincoln Project. Its the Trump follower that is too close to the matrix to see it for what it is. Here is their website. Have you ever seen a group of Democrats support a Republican like this in history? If we have an election in November, lol, it is going to be a bloodbath.
https://lincolnproject.us/

if he shut it down march 1st you and dems would have gone crazy...its easy to look back...did not see you or anyone calling for it...but if it makes you feel better and helps with your stress ..to blame him ...i guess i have to be ok with that

Nope, this isn't a retrospective because he's doing the same things now that he did back then. The problem was the lack of national strategy on top of the fact that he distrusts his own government. We shouldn't allow anyone who has this much distaste for government run it. Would you allow someone who hates kids watch your children? The premise of the guy was flawed from the start, so the reaction should have been predictable. He shouldn't get a pass for that. And, it certainly doesn't make me feel better. I'm at the mercy of this know nothing president who has been faking it all of his life. The most troubling part of it is his supporters who tell me the opposite of what I already know to be true. The fact that it takes this much evidence, and still no conciliatory behavior by his supporters. How long can you argue that the sky is blue to someone that is color blind? That's been the roughest and most insulting part of this.

[JF5]

you see it as he did it because they made him look bad...its how trump rolls its called leverage its how he gets things done sometimes you have to do it ..i see it that they did not do job ,covering for china...the w.h.o. have a big hand in letting the spread of the virus killing thousands and maybe destroy global economy for yrs...but hey blame trump if it makes you feel better...they should have shut down travel world wide since jan 1st..they knew

Do you really think that WHO has a better intelligence agency than the U.S.? We knew more than they did before all of this, but because Trump doesn't follow the advice of the "deep state", he wouldn't listen to anyone other than his own gut. This is not a job where intuition, or hope will get you by. His usual way of belittling or mocking others won't work, not with a virus. This is his first crisis in office, and the response needs to be fact based. Its why Trump is struggling so much to control the information, and why you are having so much difficulty in defending him. You can't change the facts of a virus, and because of that, it is winning right now. No nasty nickname is going to do the trick here. You mention silly things like the suicide rate to deflect the blame. Those of us who can see through that very easily know your level of willful ignorance. It lacks logic. When in fact, if Trump would have imposed restrictions just two weeks earlier, it would have brought the death rate closer to 6,000. That's the exponential element to an infectious disease. The hope is one day you will be fact based, and analyze the data like you would anything else. I believe I would be just as critical of a Democrat during this time of known facts. Watching people like you put themselves in a pretzel is what has been pathetic. You got the right word, but assigned it incorrectly. I'm still waiting for a clear and coherent argument in defense of Trump and his actions. I don't look down on all conservative or Republicans, many of them get what I'm talking about actually. Like, the Lincoln Project. Its the Trump follower that is too close to the matrix to see it for what it is. Here is their website. Have you ever seen a group of Democrats support a Republican like this in history? If we have an election in November, lol, it is going to be a bloodbath.
https://lincolnproject.us/

if he shut it down march 1st you and dems would have gone crazy...its easy to look back...did not see you or anyone calling for it...but if it makes you feel better and helps with your stress ..to blame him ...i guess i have to be ok with that

Seeing how everything is shaking out around the world. I'm doubting everyone would be that upset. Even in a hypothetical scenario in hindsight it would've been the right decision.

When you have the ability to save lives you have to make the tough decisions. Also, states were already placing in stay at home orders prior to the national recommendation of a shutdown. It wasn't a stretch for him to do it earlier.

[tiderulz]

Joe you're not getting it... He's making decisions for the country through a narrow personal view of how he feels rather than objective fact based outliers. Like yesterday he defunded WHO for the reason the organization made him look bad.

Even if you add the supposed political jargon that "China has them in their pocket". You're stopping funding for a group that it's main purpose is to help in the fight of the virus NOW. Also in future instances try to help in fights for other potential severe illnesses that might surface around the world.

If he wants to defund the group do it AFTER this thing blows over. Then, put more focus on the programs that he previously defunded or start a new world health organization. But seeing how he doesn't have hindsight or the ability to think into the future it's unlikely he'll do either of those.

and while this opinion may not be popular here, i'm not extremely mad with Trump's decision on WHO. I think we should eventually resume funding, but we also do not need to be paying the largest share by far. We have plenty of issues in our own country, we give so much money to the world, we need to shrink them up some and other countries need to step up. Also, WHO needs a shakeup, there has been controversy with the current leader for years. Every country and medical organization right now is working on Covid-19, so i would need to know what the real impact of this move is. our national debt in the trillions, we cannot continue to keep funding every program around the world for everyone.

I'm not going to disagree completely because WHO did screw up. But in a all hands on deck situation this is clearly not the time to make such a decision. Plus what we fund them yearly is not serious enough to stop funding them anyway. Which is why I believe this is a ridiculous move in the first place considering what is going on.

against the big picture, maybe not. but for 2018-2019, the US gave/pledged $893 million ($237m assessed, $656 mil voluntary). Compare that to China, one of the worlds biggest populations and markets ($75million assessed, almost zero voluntary). $656 million could help our vets, help child hunger, help a lot of things even if it is small against the giant budget picture. only 2 countries gave over $200mil in that same time, Germany and the UK.

[JF5]

and while this opinion may not be popular here, i'm not extremely mad with Trump's decision on WHO. I think we should eventually resume funding, but we also do not need to be paying the largest share by far. We have plenty of issues in our own country, we give so much money to the world, we need to shrink them up some and other countries need to step up. Also, WHO needs a shakeup, there has been controversy with the current leader for years. Every country and medical organization right now is working on Covid-19, so i would need to know what the real impact of this move is. our national debt in the trillions, we cannot continue to keep funding every program around the world for everyone.

I'm not going to disagree completely because WHO did screw up. But in a all hands on deck situation this is clearly not the time to make such a decision. Plus what we fund them yearly is not serious enough to stop funding them anyway. Which is why I believe this is a ridiculous move in the first place considering what is going on.

against the big picture, maybe not. but for 2018-2019, the US gave/pledged $893 million ($237m assessed, $656 mil voluntary). Compare that to China, one of the worlds biggest populations and markets ($75million assessed, almost zero voluntary). $656 million could help our vets, help child hunger, help a lot of things even if it is small against the giant budget picture. only 2 countries gave over $200mil in that same time, Germany and the UK.

I'm not going to lose sleep on a literal US penny funding WHO. Especially when the WHO's job is to provide recommendations and assistance to stop pandemics/deadly illnesses that can cause trillions of dollars of loss economically and millions of losses in lives.

[tiderulz]

Joe you're not getting it... He's making decisions for the country through a narrow personal view of how he feels rather than objective fact based outliers. Like yesterday he defunded WHO for the reason the organization made him look bad.

Even if you add the supposed political jargon that "China has them in their pocket". You're stopping funding for a group that it's main purpose is to help in the fight of the virus NOW. Also in future instances try to help in fights for other potential severe illnesses that might surface around the world.

If he wants to defund the group do it AFTER this thing blows over. Then, put more focus on the programs that he previously defunded or start a new world health organization. But seeing how he doesn't have hindsight or the ability to think into the future it's unlikely he'll do either of those.

and while this opinion may not be popular here, i'm not extremely mad with Trump's decision on WHO. I think we should eventually resume funding, but we also do not need to be paying the largest share by far. We have plenty of issues in our own country, we give so much money to the world, we need to shrink them up some and other countries need to step up. Also, WHO needs a shakeup, there has been controversy with the current leader for years. Every country and medical organization right now is working on Covid-19, so i would need to know what the real impact of this move is. our national debt in the trillions, we cannot continue to keep funding every program around the world for everyone.

Tide, its like NATO. There would be a need to create it if it didn't already exist. It doesn't make it perfect, but it is still very much needed. WHO did drop the ball somewhat, but Trump also echoed those same sentiments to China and Xi. We have his twitter feed as proof. We are the biggest economy in the world with the biggest GDP of any other country. I don't mind that we pay the most, but we should do what Reagan used to say, "trust but verify". It wasn't WHO that is at the center of blame here. The fact that this originated from a country that is autocratic and has trust issues is a big part of that. It doesn't mean everything that now comes out of China can be discarded either, but it should cause changes of how we deal with countries like that going forward. There is a lot of things that need to be looked at when all of this is over. It doesn't take away from the fact that what Trump is doing now is finding a foil. The same goes with his deferment to the governors, but tough talk about how he really has control over them. Its passive aggressive behavior that will allow him to lay blame to others if we allow it. That is what he is doing here, Trump doesn't give a blip about the internal workings of WHO. He's even gone beyond what is known and has accused them of illegal behavior. Don't fall for the typical trap of this guy. We've seen this movie before and we know how it ends, if we let it.

I do, when its program after program after program when we have vets that cant get to doctors, child hunger, education issues. And we have allies and enemies that sit back, contribute very little and reap the rewards. And WHO may not be the center, but they have had problems for YEARS. just look at the Ebola issues 6 years ago under the same WHO leader. as for illegal behavior, that is quite likely true

The AP obtained documents showing that WHO “routinely has spent about $200 million a year on travel expenses, more than what it doles out to fight some of the biggest problems in public health, including AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined.”

Ian Smith, executive director of the director general’s office, reportedly said that the agency often did little to prevent abuses. Moreover, the $803 million WHO has paid for travel since 2013 doesn’t include costs often covered by host countries seeking to curry favor, which are off WHO’s books.

Whistleblowers have also alleged that staff misused money intended to fight the Ebola outbreaks in west Africa that began in 2013, as well as an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The author of one email wrote that “corruption stories about logisticians and procurement in WHO [health emergencies department] are legendary”.

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus came under fire in 2017 over his handling of cholera epidemics in Ethiopia and Sudan. Physicians and health professionals at the time accused him of failing to properly classify outbreaks of the disease in order to avoid embarrassing the two African regimes.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/politics-corruption-who/5702045
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/jan/18/senior-world-health-organization-official-accused-of-using-ebola-cash-to-pay-for-girlfriends-flight-corruption-racism-sexism
https://www.nationalreview.com/2017/06/world-health-organization-corrupt-wasteful/

[spinedoc]

and while this opinion may not be popular here, i'm not extremely mad with Trump's decision on WHO. I think we should eventually resume funding, but we also do not need to be paying the largest share by far. We have plenty of issues in our own country, we give so much money to the world, we need to shrink them up some and other countries need to step up. Also, WHO needs a shakeup, there has been controversy with the current leader for years. Every country and medical organization right now is working on Covid-19, so i would need to know what the real impact of this move is. our national debt in the trillions, we cannot continue to keep funding every program around the world for everyone.

Tide, its like NATO. There would be a need to create it if it didn't already exist. It doesn't make it perfect, but it is still very much needed. WHO did drop the ball somewhat, but Trump also echoed those same sentiments to China and Xi. We have his twitter feed as proof. We are the biggest economy in the world with the biggest GDP of any other country. I don't mind that we pay the most, but we should do what Reagan used to say, "trust but verify". It wasn't WHO that is at the center of blame here. The fact that this originated from a country that is autocratic and has trust issues is a big part of that. It doesn't mean everything that now comes out of China can be discarded either, but it should cause changes of how we deal with countries like that going forward. There is a lot of things that need to be looked at when all of this is over. It doesn't take away from the fact that what Trump is doing now is finding a foil. The same goes with his deferment to the governors, but tough talk about how he really has control over them. Its passive aggressive behavior that will allow him to lay blame to others if we allow it. That is what he is doing here, Trump doesn't give a blip about the internal workings of WHO. He's even gone beyond what is known and has accused them of illegal behavior. Don't fall for the typical trap of this guy. We've seen this movie before and we know how it ends, if we let it.

I do, when its program after program after program when we have vets that cant get to doctors, child hunger, education issues. And we have allies and enemies that sit back, contribute very little and reap the rewards. And WHO may not be the center, but they have had problems for YEARS. just look at the Ebola issues 6 years ago under the same WHO leader. as for illegal behavior, that is quite likely true

The AP obtained documents showing that WHO “routinely has spent about $200 million a year on travel expenses, more than what it doles out to fight some of the biggest problems in public health, including AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined.”

Ian Smith, executive director of the director general’s office, reportedly said that the agency often did little to prevent abuses. Moreover, the $803 million WHO has paid for travel since 2013 doesn’t include costs often covered by host countries seeking to curry favor, which are off WHO’s books.

Whistleblowers have also alleged that staff misused money intended to fight the Ebola outbreaks in west Africa that began in 2013, as well as an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The author of one email wrote that “corruption stories about logisticians and procurement in WHO [health emergencies department] are legendary”.

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus came under fire in 2017 over his handling of cholera epidemics in Ethiopia and Sudan. Physicians and health professionals at the time accused him of failing to properly classify outbreaks of the disease in order to avoid embarrassing the two African regimes.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/politics-corruption-who/5702045
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/jan/18/senior-world-health-organization-official-accused-of-using-ebola-cash-to-pay-for-girlfriends-flight-corruption-racism-sexism
https://www.nationalreview.com/2017/06/world-health-organization-corrupt-wasteful/

Good research, I'm not going to argue against that. We have issues like that with our own politicians abusing the system like that, especially with air travel. There is a sense of entitlement that happens when people are in power, and yes we need to safeguard against that. Its not a good reason to throw the baby out with the bath water however. There are other ways to exert leverage and get your point across. De-funding the organization in the middle of the crisis just looks like a child throwing a fit. Hey, if I were king there are a lot of things I would change, lol. I feel you regarding all those needed programs, but its not fair to contrast those with this instance, not now. The same could be said for a trillion dollar tax cut that went to the wealthy, that ended up doing a stock buy back program instead, or funding for a medieval wall on our southern border. This isn't the time to focus on WHO like that. They also were able and willing to give us the test needed which would have made a tremendous difference in our plight as well. Nothing is perfect, but recognize this for what it is.....a distraction to lay blame at the feet of others.

[nymets1]

https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20200407/parasite-drug-shows-early-promise-against-covid-19

This drug called ivermectin is showing promise. Actually there's a bunch of links that pop up when I typed in google- ivermectin treats the coronavirus.

[tiderulz]

Tide, its like NATO. There would be a need to create it if it didn't already exist. It doesn't make it perfect, but it is still very much needed. WHO did drop the ball somewhat, but Trump also echoed those same sentiments to China and Xi. We have his twitter feed as proof. We are the biggest economy in the world with the biggest GDP of any other country. I don't mind that we pay the most, but we should do what Reagan used to say, "trust but verify". It wasn't WHO that is at the center of blame here. The fact that this originated from a country that is autocratic and has trust issues is a big part of that. It doesn't mean everything that now comes out of China can be discarded either, but it should cause changes of how we deal with countries like that going forward. There is a lot of things that need to be looked at when all of this is over. It doesn't take away from the fact that what Trump is doing now is finding a foil. The same goes with his deferment to the governors, but tough talk about how he really has control over them. Its passive aggressive behavior that will allow him to lay blame to others if we allow it. That is what he is doing here, Trump doesn't give a blip about the internal workings of WHO. He's even gone beyond what is known and has accused them of illegal behavior. Don't fall for the typical trap of this guy. We've seen this movie before and we know how it ends, if we let it.

I do, when its program after program after program when we have vets that cant get to doctors, child hunger, education issues. And we have allies and enemies that sit back, contribute very little and reap the rewards. And WHO may not be the center, but they have had problems for YEARS. just look at the Ebola issues 6 years ago under the same WHO leader. as for illegal behavior, that is quite likely true

The AP obtained documents showing that WHO “routinely has spent about $200 million a year on travel expenses, more than what it doles out to fight some of the biggest problems in public health, including AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined.”

Ian Smith, executive director of the director general’s office, reportedly said that the agency often did little to prevent abuses. Moreover, the $803 million WHO has paid for travel since 2013 doesn’t include costs often covered by host countries seeking to curry favor, which are off WHO’s books.

Whistleblowers have also alleged that staff misused money intended to fight the Ebola outbreaks in west Africa that began in 2013, as well as an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The author of one email wrote that “corruption stories about logisticians and procurement in WHO [health emergencies department] are legendary”.

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus came under fire in 2017 over his handling of cholera epidemics in Ethiopia and Sudan. Physicians and health professionals at the time accused him of failing to properly classify outbreaks of the disease in order to avoid embarrassing the two African regimes.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/politics-corruption-who/5702045
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/jan/18/senior-world-health-organization-official-accused-of-using-ebola-cash-to-pay-for-girlfriends-flight-corruption-racism-sexism
https://www.nationalreview.com/2017/06/world-health-organization-corrupt-wasteful/

Good research, I'm not going to argue against that. We have issues like that with our own politicians abusing the system like that, especially with air travel. There is a sense of entitlement that happens when people are in power, and yes we need to safeguard against that. Its not a good reason to throw the baby out with the bath water however. There are other ways to exert leverage and get your point across. De-funding the organization in the middle of the crisis just looks like a child throwing a fit. Hey, if I were king there are a lot of things I would change, lol. I feel you regarding all those needed programs, but its not fair to contrast those with this instance, not now. The same could be said for a trillion dollar tax cut that went to the wealthy, that ended up doing a stock buy back program instead, or funding for a medieval wall on our southern border. This isn't the time to focus on WHO like that. They also were able and willing to give us the test needed which would have made a tremendous difference in our plight as well. Nothing is perfect, but recognize this for what it is.....a distraction to lay blame at the feet of others.

yeah, i looked into it when I heard about Trump's decision. I had heard a little about this for awhile, but did not realize the amount of issues and how long it has been going on. and while i can agree on other tax issues and other stuff, that is at least benefiting our country (though mostly the rich of our country). And WHO is still getting a lot of money, putting current funding on hold will maybe at least make them start being more accountable. and listen to your statement, "they were willing to give us the test we needed", where did you see this. by all accounts, this was never discussed.

As the United States struggled to launch testing for the novel coronavirus using kits developed by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization shipped hundreds of thousands of tests to countries around the world.

No discussions occurred between WHO and the CDC about providing tests to the United States, WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic told CNN on Tuesday, and WHO did not offer coronavirus tests to the CDC.

[spinedoc]

I do, when its program after program after program when we have vets that cant get to doctors, child hunger, education issues. And we have allies and enemies that sit back, contribute very little and reap the rewards. And WHO may not be the center, but they have had problems for YEARS. just look at the Ebola issues 6 years ago under the same WHO leader. as for illegal behavior, that is quite likely true





https://www.globalresearch.ca/politics-corruption-who/5702045
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/jan/18/senior-world-health-organization-official-accused-of-using-ebola-cash-to-pay-for-girlfriends-flight-corruption-racism-sexism
https://www.nationalreview.com/2017/06/world-health-organization-corrupt-wasteful/

Good research, I'm not going to argue against that. We have issues like that with our own politicians abusing the system like that, especially with air travel. There is a sense of entitlement that happens when people are in power, and yes we need to safeguard against that. Its not a good reason to throw the baby out with the bath water however. There are other ways to exert leverage and get your point across. De-funding the organization in the middle of the crisis just looks like a child throwing a fit. Hey, if I were king there are a lot of things I would change, lol. I feel you regarding all those needed programs, but its not fair to contrast those with this instance, not now. The same could be said for a trillion dollar tax cut that went to the wealthy, that ended up doing a stock buy back program instead, or funding for a medieval wall on our southern border. This isn't the time to focus on WHO like that. They also were able and willing to give us the test needed which would have made a tremendous difference in our plight as well. Nothing is perfect, but recognize this for what it is.....a distraction to lay blame at the feet of others.

yeah, i looked into it when I heard about Trump's decision. I had heard a little about this for awhile, but did not realize the amount of issues and how long it has been going on. and while i can agree on other tax issues and other stuff, that is at least benefiting our country (though mostly the rich of our country). And WHO is still getting a lot of money, putting current funding on hold will maybe at least make them start being more accountable. and listen to your statement, "they were willing to give us the test we needed", where did you see this. by all accounts, this was never discussed.

As the United States struggled to launch testing for the novel coronavirus using kits developed by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization shipped hundreds of thousands of tests to countries around the world.

No discussions occurred between WHO and the CDC about providing tests to the United States, WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic told CNN on Tuesday, and WHO did not offer coronavirus tests to the CDC.

From my understanding it is the same test that the rest of the world used. I believe it was developed by a German lab, not that WHO made or invented it. We didn't want it because we wanted the CDC to come up with their own. The test turned out to be flawed, and it really set us back in the beginning. So much so, that we have now taken this weird stance like testing isn't important now. We actually went down 30% in testing recently, and only have done 1% total now.

[tiderulz]

Good research, I'm not going to argue against that. We have issues like that with our own politicians abusing the system like that, especially with air travel. There is a sense of entitlement that happens when people are in power, and yes we need to safeguard against that. Its not a good reason to throw the baby out with the bath water however. There are other ways to exert leverage and get your point across. De-funding the organization in the middle of the crisis just looks like a child throwing a fit. Hey, if I were king there are a lot of things I would change, lol. I feel you regarding all those needed programs, but its not fair to contrast those with this instance, not now. The same could be said for a trillion dollar tax cut that went to the wealthy, that ended up doing a stock buy back program instead, or funding for a medieval wall on our southern border. This isn't the time to focus on WHO like that. They also were able and willing to give us the test needed which would have made a tremendous difference in our plight as well. Nothing is perfect, but recognize this for what it is.....a distraction to lay blame at the feet of others.

yeah, i looked into it when I heard about Trump's decision. I had heard a little about this for awhile, but did not realize the amount of issues and how long it has been going on. and while i can agree on other tax issues and other stuff, that is at least benefiting our country (though mostly the rich of our country). And WHO is still getting a lot of money, putting current funding on hold will maybe at least make them start being more accountable. and listen to your statement, "they were willing to give us the test we needed", where did you see this. by all accounts, this was never discussed.

As the United States struggled to launch testing for the novel coronavirus using kits developed by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization shipped hundreds of thousands of tests to countries around the world.

No discussions occurred between WHO and the CDC about providing tests to the United States, WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic told CNN on Tuesday, and WHO did not offer coronavirus tests to the CDC.

From my understanding it is the same test that the rest of the world used. I believe it was developed by a German lab, not that WHO made or invented it. We didn't want it because we wanted the CDC to come up with their own. The test turned out to be flawed, and it really set us back in the beginning. So much so, that we have now taken this weird stance like testing isn't important now. We actually went down 30% in testing recently, and only have done 1% total now.

yeah, from the German lab, they didnt offer the test but offered the testing protocols. but that statement of they were willing to give us a test, not quite correct.

On January 17, WHO published a protocol from German researchers with the instructions necessary for any country to manufacture coronavirus tests.

and we did want to make our own, but because we have a long track record of doing that, even Fauci agreed.

Fauci, director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease and a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. "But what the CDC has done over many, many years when we have things like this is to develop their own test, which is always really a good test, and to roll it out in a way ... where they give it to departments of public health."

[spinedoc]

yeah, i looked into it when I heard about Trump's decision. I had heard a little about this for awhile, but did not realize the amount of issues and how long it has been going on. and while i can agree on other tax issues and other stuff, that is at least benefiting our country (though mostly the rich of our country). And WHO is still getting a lot of money, putting current funding on hold will maybe at least make them start being more accountable. and listen to your statement, "they were willing to give us the test we needed", where did you see this. by all accounts, this was never discussed.

From my understanding it is the same test that the rest of the world used. I believe it was developed by a German lab, not that WHO made or invented it. We didn't want it because we wanted the CDC to come up with their own. The test turned out to be flawed, and it really set us back in the beginning. So much so, that we have now taken this weird stance like testing isn't important now. We actually went down 30% in testing recently, and only have done 1% total now.

yeah, from the German lab, they didnt offer the test but offered the testing protocols. but that statement of they were willing to give us a test, not quite correct.

On January 17, WHO published a protocol from German researchers with the instructions necessary for any country to manufacture coronavirus tests.

and we did want to make our own, but because we have a long track record of doing that, even Fauci agreed.

Fauci, director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease and a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. "But what the CDC has done over many, many years when we have things like this is to develop their own test, which is always really a good test, and to roll it out in a way ... where they give it to departments of public health."

Okay, but WHO is the point of contact for that. Countries weren't calling Germany for the test, it was offered by WHO. Protocols, the test itself, or the formula. However you want to describe it, it doesn't make too much of a difference to me. The CDC should have taken the test, performed their analysis, and replicated it themselves rather than start from scratch. South Korea and others knew the importance of timing, we should have too. I think we agree more than disagree though. I'm not happy with a lot of things, China, WHO, Trump, congress, private sector allowing a bidding war, etc. This whole thing was upside down. I personally would like to see the playbook that the Obama administration had in place. I'd like to know more about how much we knew, what was our intelligence agencies saying late last year. That's the other thing about criticism, its always there no matter what. But if you have information that they don't, then in the end you will be perceived to have done the right thing. If of course, the motives reflect the actions. I want accountability across the board, that includes outlets like Fox news who deliberately mislead as well. Most of that retribution has to come from us though. The system isn't able to deal with it, so we have to.

[tiderulz]

From my understanding it is the same test that the rest of the world used. I believe it was developed by a German lab, not that WHO made or invented it. We didn't want it because we wanted the CDC to come up with their own. The test turned out to be flawed, and it really set us back in the beginning. So much so, that we have now taken this weird stance like testing isn't important now. We actually went down 30% in testing recently, and only have done 1% total now.

yeah, from the German lab, they didnt offer the test but offered the testing protocols. but that statement of they were willing to give us a test, not quite correct.

On January 17, WHO published a protocol from German researchers with the instructions necessary for any country to manufacture coronavirus tests.

and we did want to make our own, but because we have a long track record of doing that, even Fauci agreed.

Fauci, director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease and a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. "But what the CDC has done over many, many years when we have things like this is to develop their own test, which is always really a good test, and to roll it out in a way ... where they give it to departments of public health."

Okay, but WHO is the point of contact for that. Countries weren't calling Germany for the test, it was offered by WHO. Protocols, the test itself, or the formula. However you want to describe it, it doesn't make too much of a difference to me. The CDC should have taken the test, performed their analysis, and replicated it themselves rather than start from scratch. South Korea and others knew the importance of timing, we should have too. I think we agree more than disagree though. I'm not happy with a lot of things, China, WHO, Trump, congress, private sector allowing a bidding war, etc. This whole thing was upside down. I personally would like to see the playbook that the Obama administration had in place. I'd like to know more about how much we knew, what was our intelligence agencies saying late last year. That's the other thing about criticism, its always there no matter what. But if you have information that they don't, then in the end you will be perceived to have done the right thing. If of course, the motives reflect the actions. I want accountability across the board, that includes outlets like Fox news who deliberately mislead as well. Most of that retribution has to come from us though. The system isn't able to deal with it, so we have to.

we can agree its been a $%@$ show. i am just not losing sleep over the WHO decision right now

[orlando_joe]

From my understanding it is the same test that the rest of the world used. I believe it was developed by a German lab, not that WHO made or invented it. We didn't want it because we wanted the CDC to come up with their own. The test turned out to be flawed, and it really set us back in the beginning. So much so, that we have now taken this weird stance like testing isn't important now. We actually went down 30% in testing recently, and only have done 1% total now.

yeah, from the German lab, they didnt offer the test but offered the testing protocols. but that statement of they were willing to give us a test, not quite correct.

On January 17, WHO published a protocol from German researchers with the instructions necessary for any country to manufacture coronavirus tests.

and we did want to make our own, but because we have a long track record of doing that, even Fauci agreed.

Fauci, director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease and a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. "But what the CDC has done over many, many years when we have things like this is to develop their own test, which is always really a good test, and to roll it out in a way ... where they give it to departments of public health."

Okay, but WHO is the point of contact for that. Countries weren't calling Germany for the test, it was offered by WHO. Protocols, the test itself, or the formula. However you want to describe it, it doesn't make too much of a difference to me. The CDC should have taken the test, performed their analysis, and replicated it themselves rather than start from scratch. South Korea and others knew the importance of timing, we should have too. I think we agree more than disagree though. I'm not happy with a lot of things, China, WHO, Trump, congress, private sector allowing a bidding war, etc. This whole thing was upside down. I personally would like to see the playbook that the Obama administration had in place. I'd like to know more about how much we knew, what was our intelligence agencies saying late last year. That's the other thing about criticism, its always there no matter what. But if you have information that they don't, then in the end you will be perceived to have done the right thing. If of course, the motives reflect the actions. I want accountability across the board, that includes outlets like Fox news who deliberately mislead as well. Most of that retribution has to come from us though. The system isn't able to deal with it, so we have to.

your fox and tds is funny..but like i said if it makes you feel better obama...wow...china flights would still be on...might have got that 2mill deaths ...then dems would have what they want ...total gov takeover..they would act and so would media like they saved us...and you would believe it

[Driguez]

yeah, from the German lab, they didnt offer the test but offered the testing protocols. but that statement of they were willing to give us a test, not quite correct.



and we did want to make our own, but because we have a long track record of doing that, even Fauci agreed.

Okay, but WHO is the point of contact for that. Countries weren't calling Germany for the test, it was offered by WHO. Protocols, the test itself, or the formula. However you want to describe it, it doesn't make too much of a difference to me. The CDC should have taken the test, performed their analysis, and replicated it themselves rather than start from scratch. South Korea and others knew the importance of timing, we should have too. I think we agree more than disagree though. I'm not happy with a lot of things, China, WHO, Trump, congress, private sector allowing a bidding war, etc. This whole thing was upside down. I personally would like to see the playbook that the Obama administration had in place. I'd like to know more about how much we knew, what was our intelligence agencies saying late last year. That's the other thing about criticism, its always there no matter what. But if you have information that they don't, then in the end you will be perceived to have done the right thing. If of course, the motives reflect the actions. I want accountability across the board, that includes outlets like Fox news who deliberately mislead as well. Most of that retribution has to come from us though. The system isn't able to deal with it, so we have to.

your fox and tds is funny..but like i said if it makes you feel better obama...wow...china flights would still be on...might have got that 2mill deaths ...then dems would have what they want ...total gov takeover..they would act and so would media like they saved us...and you would believe it

Just, don't.

[nymets1]

Social distancing and stay at home orders is not going to make the virus totally go away but it can help contain it. This virus is only going to go away if it dies everywhere in the Summer and than it will comeback in the fall or winter. Unless the whole USA caught the virus and became immune. I'm still thinking between 25 to 50 million people in the USA have had the virus that are unconformed cases.

When these antibodies test start, I think healthcare workers, first responders automatically get the tests first and than I guess everyone else has to try to get the test on their own? I wish our company could provide us the antibody test.

[MagicFan101]

Schools are a very appetizing opportunity. I just saw a nice piece in The Lancet arguing the opening of schools may only cost us 2 to 3%, in terms of total mortality. Any, you know, any life is a life lost, but ... that might be a tradeoff some folks would consider. - “Dr” Oz

Above is part of a quote from Oz on Hannity. Now, I understand the point he was trying to make but aren’t these supposed to be the pro-life people? I guess not when it interferes directly with their bank account ...

[zuppafly]

Political stuff aside, it's refreshing to go through tiderulz, and spinedoc go through a significant conversation with somewhat different views and explaining them, arguing soundly. I was curious about the US vs. WHO situation, and I'm always aware that Trump's statements are inflated in a way that distracts from the reasons his office and staff used as a group to achieve those conclusions. I also had some idea about the WHO alleged corruption but was not aware of how deep that runs in the organization.
So, thanks to both of you for a very civilized discussion.


Here in Portugal, things are controlled if there's any way to say this and not sound strange due to the entire world situation at the moment. We're being pointed as good examples of proactive measures, as we took 0 days to react to most signals that the pandemic was going to hit us. The curve has flattened for a few days now, we're in the 600 to 700 new cases per day "only" and about 30 further daily deaths, almost entirely elderly people with other complications. For reference, we're a 10 Million population country with our only land neighbor/border being Spain.


Our confinement started very early, around the 12th of March (IIRC), and the entire country has been in a declared emergency state since then. The population is respecting it religiously, and last weekend, Easter, we deployed all our police force on the streets to prevent holidays movement. The news on those days was incredible to watch as our entire police force was absolutely delighted and praising the population because the roads were absolutely empty across the country. Easter is an exceptional season for us, where families unite for a celebration weekend.


It's kind of strange to see what is going on in this country. Our main political parties are the Socialists and the Social Democrats. They've been exchanging the power between them for over 40 years in the country, and to position them in the US quadrants, imagine them as the more progressive and the more conservative sides of your democratic party. Still very "lefty" for what you're used to in the US, I believe, but both parties have taken a sincere agreement on the path forward.

Even our Communist party and our "Left Block" which is an even leftier party, usually more confrontational, have had a very mature and apolitical position about the whole thing.

Cooperation on the "health first, politics later" approach is the new norm. Our Prime Minister (socialist) and the Republic President (Social Democrat) have worked in tandem with swift measures in synch.

There has been a ton of negative on this whole deal, but you can also see good trees in the forest.


As a single father with two small kids, having home school through remote meetings and me trying to work-from-home... well, that's just been chaos.

[Ducklett]

sorry but if him putting his name on check makes you all this upset...i have 1 word..pathetic

Joe you're not getting it... He's making decisions for the country through a narrow personal view of how he feels rather than objective fact based outliers. Like yesterday he defunded WHO for the reason the organization made him look bad.

Even if you add the supposed political jargon that "China has them in their pocket". You're stopping funding for a group that it's main purpose is to help in the fight of the virus NOW. Also in future instances try to help in fights for other potential severe illnesses that might surface around the world.

If he wants to defund the group do it AFTER this thing blows over. Then, put more focus on the programs that he previously defunded or start a new world health organization. But seeing how he doesn't have hindsight or the ability to think into the future it's unlikely he'll do either of those.

this right here is Trump in a nutshell. he wants the applause and adoration

Are you suggesting no other presidents take pictures with happy/clapping people when signing something?