The US Surgeon General, Vice Admiral Jerome Adams, made dual appearances on NBC's "Meet The Press" and "Fox News Sunday" to inform the American people of the newest recommendations from the CDC.
On "Meet The Press":
ADAMS: Here's what's changed. We now know that about 25%, in some studies even more, of COVID-19 is transmitted when you are asymptomatic or presymptomatic. And so the CDC has now recommended that people wear cloth face coverings when they're going to be out in public and they can't be more than six feet away from each other.
Chuck Todd then asked whether the instruction to build homemade cloth masks was driven by shortages of medical supplies which Adams clarified:
ADAMS: Well, the reason why we're saying, "Make a homemade one," is because that's effective in protecting you from me. Remember, I'm wearing a mask to protect you, Chuck, and you're a wearing a mask to protect me. That is what you need. We want to make sure we're saving the medical masks for the health care workers, and we still wouldn't recommend that people wear an N95 even if we had enough.
Oh ok, I get it! The wearer of the mask does it to protect others, in case they are asymptomatic to COVID-19, rather than to protect themselves. Well, as long as WE ALL take part everything is gonna be...
We're fucked. Not just from the incompetence of leadership from the top, but the sycophants of this idiotic narcissist who will follow his lead. Currently there are nine states STILL refusing to issue "stay-at-home" orders and they all have a common theme: They all have Republican governors. So while we all need to do our Rosie The Riveter part, as Vice Admiral Adams has said, the failure of Trump to put out a national order puts us ALL at risk.
Adams recognizes this and made a plea to said governors (and our tv watching obsessed "president") to do their part:
ADAMS: Well, I would advise them to follow our '30 days to slow the spread' guidelines. I ran a state department of health. I've talked to many of these governors, and here's what I say to them — here's what I would say to them right now.
An understandable plea that was then followed up by the worst analogy of all time.
ADAMS: The next week is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment. It's going to be our 9/11 moment. It's going to be the hardest moment for many Americans in their entire lives.
The ridiculousness of this analogy was not lost to people.
It’s worse than Chernobyl because the trump administration wasted 70 days before taking it seriously and then Trump… https: //t.co/cKkcJAcoJt
— Molly Jong-Fast🏡 (@Molly Jong-Fast🏡) 1586123201.0
Todd, near end of the interview, then had this exchange:
TODD: I want to put up a quote from Amy Acton. She is the director of public health in Ohio. She said this on March 13th. And Admiral, it has been haunting me ever since. And this is what she said. "On the front end of a pandemic, you look a little bit like an alarmist. You look a little bit like a Chicken Little. 'The sky is falling.' And on the back end of a pandemic, you didn't do enough." Are those words that we should all be living by, which is you may be hesitant right now if you're a leader about debating health versus the economy, hindsight you're going to wish you had done more?
ADAMS: Twenty years in public health, and I know Director Acton, those words can't be truer. We are always telling people we would rather prevent disease than treat disease. I tell people we aren't going to treat or supply our way out of this problem. There is no magic bullet or magic cure.
youtu.be https: //wonkette.substack.com/p/2645646294#
Surgeon General Adams is correct! This is why we should always listen to experts like himself who warned us from the beginning of the real dangers of COVID-19...
That didn't age well.
But if you think Adams only has bad takes in hindsight, over on "Fox News Sunday" he proved he has bad takes that can't last past a question. Like when Chris Wallace asked why not issue a national stay-at-home order and Adams compared how states are treating COVID-19 to tobacco or opiooids:
ADAMS: […] when it comes to opioids, states have different rules and regulations and laws regarding treatment, regarding syringe service programs, as you and I have talked about. I actually put out a report on tobacco cessation earlier this year. And we know that states have different laws there. And more people will die, even in the worst projections, from cigarette smoking in this country than are going to die from coronavirus this year. […]
WALLACE: But, Doctor -- but, Dr. Adams, there's a big difference between opioids and cigarettes, which are something that people decide to use or not to use, and the coronavirus, which people catch. It's not an individual choice.
Wallace then brought up Trump's hollow declaration he's "fighting a war" to ask an obvious question.
WALLACE: President Trump says that he's a wartime president. During World War II, FDR didn't say, "Well, it's up to each state to decide what to do." He mobilized the nation. Again, why not a national stay-at-home order? The coronavirus doesn't recognize states' rights, so does the federal analogy really work here?
ADAMS: Well, Chris, I know we could go forever in coronavirus time, but I would remind people that it was just a week ago when the idea of a federal quarantine for the New York City area was being floated, and Governor Cuomo said that would be like declaring war on the state.
Right ... because Trump wanted to ONLY issue a federal quarantine on New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey! The question being asked is about EVERYONE sacrificing, not just the states Trump wants to punish for not kissing his ass enough or politically helping him.
youtu.be Wallace then asked about Trump's continued insistence on recommending hydroxychloroquine as a possible treatment for people with the coronavirus. While Adams refused to give a hard answer on why people shouldn't experiment with untested drugs by the FDA, he refused to condemn the advice. Why? Well we only have to look into earlier Sunday programming on Fox News to see why:
Rudy Giuliani advocates for Hydroxychloroquine https: //t.co/fUZPJ2rGja
— Acyn (@Acyn) 1586101910.0
Yep, it's former New York mayor and Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani! Looking worse for wear, the lopsided haircut Nosferatu was on "Sunday Morning Futures" peddling this. Which becomes scary when Trump puts major stock in what he says, as Trump's impeachment taught us. We wasted crucial months to mitigate this because of Trump getting this "intelligence":
We don't need "coronavirus time" to see how fucking stupidity will be the death of us. While we all get ready to go "masks on," the GOP death cult has finally taken their "masks" off.
Have a week!
Wonkette is entirely funded by YOU. Help us keep keeping on, if you are able!
Do your Amazon shopping through this link, because reasons .
Calvinball has been suspended
Why does Dr. Adams sound like a trump backing hack? Perhaps it's because he really, really needs that 4th star on his shoulder. Vice Admiral is just the punch line to a joke.