#Updated 7:07 p.m. He knows that he has lost and so is declaring victory. He knows that he is a coward and could never fight in or direct a "War." He knows that he is branded a murderer who only kills the weak and vulnerable, so he is claiming he could have killed so many more. He regrets ever having involved himself in coronavirus--because it severely hurt his chance of reelection. It's the states' responsibility. He will ignore it now, blame the governors for future outbreaks, future deaths, and he will move on to his one remaining hope, the economy. And if the economy doesn't turn around he will blame that too on the governors."I don't accept responsibility at all." He desperately needs validation, which starts with self-validation and then spreads to the population. He knows that the Russians won him the presidency and so accepts their denials that they did and now desperately needs the validation of the voting public this year, even as Russia continues its aid. To lose after all of that aid is more humiliating than Herbert Hoover and Herbert Hoover is his greatest fear. Fear is the soul of Donald Trump.
As Threat of Virus Persists, Trump Administration Signals It Will Wind Down Task Force
Trump administration officials are telling staff members of the coronavirus task force that the White House plans to wind down the operation in the weeks to come despite growing evidence that the crisis is raging on...
Asked about the New York Times report, Vice President Mike Pence, who has helped oversee the task force, acknowledged that the administration was “having conversations” about winding it down.
“We’re having conversations about that, and about what the proper time is for the task force to complete its work and for the ongoing efforts to take place on an agency-by-agency level,” Mr. Pence told reporters, adding that the task force could wrap up its work by early June.
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Mr. Trump has stopped linking his virus news briefings to the task force’s meetings and no longer routinely arrays task force members around him in his public appearances.
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A senior administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal deliberations, said the task force would be winding down as the White House moved toward Phase One of Mr. Trump’s plan to “open up” the country.
* Updated 5:29 p.m.: The Trump Death numbers doom Trump. He knows that. So he is going to ignore it and concentrate on the economy: encourage threatening, armed protests to get governors to reopen and simultaneously cast doubt on the number he has killed and ultimately suppress those numbers. That is what his man in Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis, has been doing:
When the Miami Herald sought information from the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner’s Office last month about COVID-19 deaths in the epicenter of Florida’s coronavirus outbreak, attorneys for the state health department moved to block the records from becoming public.
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The Miami Herald...obtained the information Thursday after the county bucked Florida’s Department of Health. But the episode is an example of how the administration of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis often has been unwilling or unable to provide crucial information about its coronavirus response — and at times has actively tried to shield critical details about the depths of the crisis from becoming public.
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In recent weeks, Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration has refused to name the nursing homes experiencing coronavirus outbreaks, even as the number of cases in long-term care facilities has passed 1,300. The Department of Corrections had until Wednesday declined to acknowledge two inmate COVID-19 deaths at a privately run prison. And the Department of Health has been unwilling to disclose the extent of an undefined backlog of unresolved coronavirus tests at private labs.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article242050696.htm
Florida medical examiners were releasing coronavirus death data. The state made them stop.
When the medical examiners’ list was available, it showed more deaths than the state’s count.
State officials have stopped releasing the list of coronavirus deaths being compiled by Florida’s medical examiners, which has at times shown a higher death toll than the state’s published count.
The list had previously been released in real time by the state Medical Examiners Commission. But earlier this month, after the Tampa Bay Times reported that the medical examiners’ death count was 10 percent higher than the figure released by the Florida Department of Health, state officials said the list needed to be reviewed and possibly redacted.
They’ve now been withholding it for nine days, without providing any of the information or specifying what they plan to remove.
Dr. Stephen Nelson, the chairman of the state Medical Examiners Commission, said the change in policy came after the state health department intervened.
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...Hillsborough County refused for weeks to release its records, citing the same exemption as the state health department. But on Tuesday, after repeated questions from the Times, county officials released a list of people who had died from the virus.
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The Palm Beach County Medical Examiner used to provide a spreadsheet of its COVID-related deaths, but was directed last week by county attorneys to stop releasing it, that office’s operations manager, Paul Petrino, told the Times.
Petrino said he wasn’t sure what prompted the attorneys to question whether the information was public.
“I was actually taken aback when they called us,” said Petrino...
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The moves to withhold information comes at a sensitive moment for state leaders. Florida’s coronavirus death toll is continuing to rise and state officials have begun talks about when and how to start reopening.
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the state health department has kept its own count of coronavirus deaths and published it to an online dashboard. Its figure has been lower than the medical examiners’ figure.
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As the death toll has climbed in Florida, the difference between the two counts has become controversial.
