News blues…
More than 1,000 current and former officers of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention signed a letter criticizing the federal government’s response to the coronavirus crisis and demanding “our nation’s leaders to allow CDC to resume its indispensable role.”The signees were current and former members of the Epidemic Intelligence Service, sometimes known as “disease detectives.” Founded nearly 70 years ago, the EIS is a two-year postdoctoral program for epidemiologists to get hands-on experience in the field.Meanwhile, in Europe, global coronavirus cases rose by more than 400,000 for the first time, a record one-day increase even as the region enacts new restrictions to curb the outbreak.
“The absence of national leadership on COVID-19 is unprecedented and dangerous,” the letter said. “The U.S. epidemic is sustained by deadly chains of transmission that crisscross the entire country. Yet states and territories have been left to invent their own differing systems for defining, diagnosing and reporting cases of this highly contagious disease. Inconsistent contact tracing efforts are confined within each state’s borders — while coronavirus infections sadly are not. Such chaos is what CDC customarily avoided by its long history of collaboration with state and local health authorities in developing national systems for disease surveillance and coordinated control.”
The Trump administration has been criticized for sidelining the CDC. It reportedly went so far as to interfere in the agency’s reports as it has largely failed in its response to the virus’s spread.
Europe, which successfully tamped down the first surge of infections, has emerged as the new coronavirus epicentre in recent weeks and is reporting on average 140,000 cases a day over the past week.
As a region, Europe is reporting more daily cases than India, Brazil and the United States combined.
Of every 100 infections reported around the world, 34 were from European countries, according to a Reuters analysis. The region is currently reporting a million new infections about every nine days and has reported more than 6.3 million cases since the pandemic began.
***
The good news in the US? We, the People are votin’ …. Will a change in administrations make a difference? Or is it too late to divert the trajectory of this deadly pandemic? ***
The Lincoln Project Swamp (0:59 mins) Really American Blame Trump (1:08 mins)
Healthy planet, anyone?
Bee brokers broking bees. 'You never stop learning about bees, they're just incredible.'Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Temperature rose to 34 C yesterday. My physical exhaustion equaled my psychological exhaustion. I took the day off from selling and moving related action to potter around the garden and the pond. It was the right thing to do.Tomorrow = renewed efforts.
