Biden's CDC Director: If You're Not Scared Shitless About COVID-19, You Should Be

[babylonsister]

Levin Report
Biden’s CDC Director: If You’re Not Scared Shitless About COVID-19, You Should Be
Dr. Rochelle Walensky warned Monday of “impending doom.”
By Bess Levin
March 29, 2021


With more and more of the country opening up a year into the pandemic, it might seem as though life is returning to normal, and that COVID-19 will soon be in the rearview. Obviously, that would be a welcome development after 12-plus months of lockdowns and death. Yet according to Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. is rapidly moving in the wrong direction on COVID-19 and, in her professional opinion, people should be shitting themselves in fear over what will come next if the country doesn’t get a handle on cases.

During a press briefing on Monday, Walensky told reporters: “When I first started at CDC about two months ago I made a promise to you: I would tell you the truth even if it was not the news we wanted to hear. Now is one of those times when I have to share the truth, and I have to hope and trust you will listen.” Warning of what she sees happening down the line based on the surge in new coronavirus cases, a visibly shaken Walensky said, “I’m going to pause here, I’m going to lose the script, and I’m going to reflect on the recurring feeling I have of impending doom. We have so much to look forward to, so much promise and potential of where we are and so much reason for hope, but right now I’m scared. I know what it’s like as a physician to stand in that patient room, gowned, gloved, masked, shielded, and to be the last person to touch someone else’s loved one because their loved one couldn’t be there. I know what it’s like when you’re the physician, when you’re the health care provider, and you’re worried that you don’t have the resources to take care of that patient in front of you. I know that feeling of nausea when you read the crisis standards of care and you wonder whether there are going to be enough ventilators and who’s going to make that choice. And I know what it’s like to pull up to your hospital every day and see the extra morgue sitting outside.”

Link to tweet

The U.S. is currently recording a weekly average of 63,239 new coronavirus cases per day, a 16% increase from a week ago, according a CNBC analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University, while the U.S. is seeing a 4.2% increase from last week in hospitalizations, up to a seven-day average of 4,816 coronavirus admissions as of Friday. Per CNBC:

Leading public health experts have warned since late February that infections could pick back up again amid the rise of virus variants threatening to sweep across the U.S. much like they did in Europe. One of those variants first identified in the U.K., known as B.1.1.7, has now been detected in every state except Oklahoma, according to the CDC’s most recent data. The agency is also carefully watching another variant found in New York City, known as B.1.526, which is also thought to be more transmissible compared with previous strains, Walensky said last week.

The White House’s chief medical advisor, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said Sunday, however, that the troublesome virus mutations aren’t the only reason cases are on the rise. More Americans, tired of pandemic restrictions and reassured by the lifesaving vaccines, are traveling for spring break. Some state leaders are pulling back on restrictions, including mask mandates, intended to slow the virus’s spread. “Variants we take seriously and are concerned, but it is not only the variants that are doing that,” Fauci told CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday.

more...

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/03/rochelle-walensky-covid-19-warning

[James48]

1. Yup. Michigan up big

Last edited Tue Mar 30, 2021, 01:17 AM - Edit history (1)

Lots of it is because the Governor lowered the lockdowns a month ago, and many responded as if the mask orders disappeared. I seriously went from seeing 98% masked, to about 65-70% masked in the last three weeks in Northern Michigan (red country) , and cases have doubled or tripled in three weeks.

These idiots are driving me nuts. They are ignorant, and stupid at the same time. Thank GOD I have had my two Pfizer vaccine doses and I hope I don’t die from these maskless idiots running around as if it is over.

[regnaD kciN]

10. Michigan is bad. but the entire northern tier has seen cases climbing for the past few weeks...

It wasn't so noticeable because that wasn't the worst-affected part of the country, but there's been a slow growth that people have only begun to notice. Sadly, even some good Democratic governors (such as Inslee up here) seem oblivious to the growing risk this time around -- we just opened up further, even as Washington state went from "medium" to "high" risk. Having just relaxed restrictions, it's going to be all-the-harder to reverse course and start locking down again.

[mvd]

12. PA is also up

I think Governor Wolf has done a lot and has gotten tired - especially with the wacko Repuke Legislature - but we need to keep being strong. I was happy that Philly didn’t further lower restrictions to match the state. Some fans are allowed and keep that number for now.

[jimfields33]

11. I had my first Pfizer shot today at 3pm

I slept from 4 pm to 10:30 pm. Not sure if normal but except knowing my arm had the shot, that was my only symptom. Drowsiness. I don’t mind but hope I can sleep tonight. I woke up as if it was morning 45 minutes ago.

[captain queeg]

2. It'll have to get much worse to get the average American's attention

I doubt it’ll ever get back to the levels we saw at its peak but people have decided it’s all ok now. Obviously not everyone but lots of them.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

3. Did she have any recommendations?

[babylonsister]

4. Nothing new, just to hold on a while longer...

In her briefing, Walensky pleaded with Americans to not only get vaccinated when they are eligible but to continue to follow guidelines on masks and social distancing. “I’m speaking today not necessarily as your CDC director and not only as your CDC director, but as a wife, as a mother, as a daughter, to ask you to just please hold on a little while longer,” she said, adding: “When we see that uptick in cases, what we have seen before is that things really have a tendency to surge, and surge big.”

[WhiskeyGrinder]

9. Honestly, I don't find much of that helpful.

[bdamomma]

8. Get

the vaccine too.

[intrepidity]

5. The longer this virus gets to circulate in human hosts,

the more chance there is for a vaccine-resistant variant to arise.

That's the simple, awful truth.

[OhioChick]

6. This is my concern, as well n/t

[progree]

7. And we're not an island. Globally daily new cases are up 56% since February 19, and 30% in the

last 2 weeks (7 day moving averages)
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/world/coronavirus-maps.html

[WHITT]

13. Nine Days Ago

I posted that cases were rising in 15 states. Today, cases are rising in 31 states. That's more than a doubling in less than 10 days. This is a wave you do not want to catch.

If I were a public health official, I'd be scared too.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

14. K&R

[ecstatic]

15. How can we get anymore scared than we were a year ago?

That ship has sailed. It's impossible to get even more scared.