Introduction
Today I welcome guest author Patrick Cusick. Patrick has worked in public heath for 22 years with the City of Cleveland. I should probably point out that our opinions expressed here are personal and not those of the City.
Patrick’s career has been preparing for this and similar crises, and now finds himself incensed to see all this hard work compromised by Washington’s profound mishandling of the crisis under Trump.
He posted a rant on Facebook today that I felt deserves wider distribution. I cleaned it up a bit, but not much. I’ve also taken liberties to embed a few citations and add a few references you’ll see in brackets [ ].
I need to comment on one point where I respectfully disagree with Patrick. He closes saying that deaths from the virus will fall on the heads of Trump supporters. I hold his supporters in government accountable, absolutely! But the reasons for support among the public are diverse, complex and beyond the scope this post. I’m not willing to lay this on them personally.
OK! Let the rant begin…
No Patience Left: A Rant
By Patrick Cusick
Originally published on Facebook on Friday, April 3, 2020
Bulls**t.
Please read below, and realize I have no patience left for uninformed opinions that are leading to the deaths of people I care about.
Trump has totally mismanaged the response. [See Fiddling While Fever Burns – Editor]
Now that idiot Kushner has interfered in the Strategic National Stockpile program that I have personally been involved with planning and developing along with thousands of others on the local, state and federal agencies planning, exercise and response for two decades.
[See the unaltered description of the National Strategic Stockpile posted by the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO). There’s also a FactCheck addressing Trump’s assertion that the stockpile he inherited was an “empty shelf.” – Editor]
I couldn’t care less WHO the President was that is acting in this manner.
Trump is responsible for the mismanagement and the resulting damage to the economy, the failure to coordinate the response, and the growing death and disease counts. We have been, as all states have, planning to respond in a coordinated manner for 20 years!
Please do some research on the Cities Readiness Initiative that I have been involved with since the inception to deal with All Hazards and Pandemic Response.
All of the preventable deaths are on his head, and those that support him.
END of rant, but not of my diligence to keep trying to prevent worse outcomes.
Other Points
Patrick’s post inspired some discussion during which he added these points:
- “Governor Dewine and Dr. Acton have done a phenomenal job. I am hoping that the efforts have significantly decreased initial spread to buy us time.” [You’ll find all DeWine’s press briefings since March 15th at Coronavirus: Must-See Daily Briefings. – Editor]
- “Johns Hopkins website is the most accurate for verified cases. However, terrible situations like that in Guayaquil Ecuador are not in official totals as no one is able to count the hundreds of dead that aren’t in official numbers.”
Title image is a screenshot from C-SPAN.
A Request to my Facebook Friends: If you have a comment I encourage you to enter it below instead of on Facebook. This way everyone can participate in the conversation! And please — Feelings can run high on this topic. Keep the discussion civil and respectful.
