The Source of Simple Things to Know
Claudewell S. Thomas, MD, MPH, DLFAPA, is an established psychiatrist who is currently retired ,, He received his medical degree in 1956 at SUNY Downstate College of Medicine and specializes in social psychiatry, public health psychiatry, and forensic psychiatry. Dr. Thomas was board certified by the American Board of Psychiatry... more
Secretary of HUD, Ben Carson, a formerly renowned (pediatric?) neurosurgeon irritably shared with George Stephanopolous of ABC news his dissatisfaction with Americans failing to understand some simple things about viruses and dealing with them. I am grateful for Dr. Ben's concerns and for his taking time out from contemplating expensive office furniture, but his concerns should center on the housing conditions in urban (and rural) settings which foster proliferation of disease. He is only a peripheral member of the President's coronavirus task force. I have been asked in the last few days whether or not Clorox wipes to the face was a good idea and whether 3 feet distance was sustainable in lining up for truck food. No, Clorox to the face or body is a bad idea and truck food is probably best avoided for all sorts of reasons.
The larger issue is the availability of information that can be relied upon and the lack thereof is the responsibility of government. The Presidential task force has reluctantly unmuzzled its' public health experts who have been able to substantiate the seriousness of the situation. Fox News has shared the expert stage with Dr. Oz who contradicts Dr. Drew Pinsky in cruise ship advisability and plane and railroad travel for those over 60 and those with underlying conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, cirrhosis, pneumonia, etc.
POTUS now has imposed travel restrictions on Europeans except inexplicably on the U.K which has 600 active Covid-19 cases, has exempted goods and prearranged imports of a certain date and plunged the world's markets including our own DJI into precipitous decline. This may have something to do with the assignment of son in law Jared Kushner to the coronavirus task, who has solved the middle east problems by putting dollar signs over ethnic loyalties is now putting dollar signs over epidemic and now officially by WHO definition, pandemic problems. What seems even worse is there appears to be no effort at coordinating with a rumbling stumbling Pence committee which no longer has agencies (abolished by President Trump) cooperating with WHO.
The NBA has canceled its season. March madness now is without audiences, college campuses are shutting down, and studies are now moving online. Abroad campuses are closing and students are being returned into quarantine environments or worse yet bypassing Covid-19 restrictions. Local governments are taking charge by mobilizing the national guard but orchestration at the Federal level is lacking and world cooperation which is how you minimize damage Dr. Ben, is impossible in a me-first environment.
