A look at a voice of reason when it comes to health crises, after the jump …..
But first: Top Comments appears nightly, as a round-up of the best comments on Daily Kos. Surely ... you come across comments daily that are perceptive, apropos and .. well, perhaps even humorous. But they are more meaningful if they're well-known ... which is where you come in (especially in diaries/stories receiving little attention).------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Send your nominations to TopComments at gmail dot com by 9:30 PM Eastern Time nightly, or by our KosMail message board. Please indicate (a) why you liked the comment, and (b) your Dkos user name (to properly credit you) as well as a link to the comment itself.
The #1 story the past few days has been the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak — and were any of the past few administrations been in charge, we would have reason to hope we’d get through this. Alas, we have an administration that not only cut the health budgets, but also decided to do this:
And to add insult-to-injury: the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has told associates that he has received directions from the White House “not to say anything else without clearance” about the potential coronavirus pandemic. Given the fact that Steven Mnuchin and Larry Kudlow have been added to the task force (with Kudlow’s exclusive focus on trying to talk up the stock market) and we have the recipe for falsehoods on a grand scale.
That director mentioned is Dr. Anthony Fauci— and anytime in the past few decades I have seen him announced on a TV interview, I relax and always receive a lucid and informative description of a health issue. A graduate of Holy Cross and Cornell Medical School, he has been the rare public figure that unites both Democrats and Republicans. In one of the 1988 presidential debates, George Bush the Elder was asked for heroes by moderator Ann Compton and included this:
I think of Dr. Fauci. Probably never heard of him. You did, Ann heard of him. He's a very fine research, top doctor, at the National Institute of Health, working hard doing something about research on this disease of AIDS.
Anthony Fauci has led this branch of the Nat’l Institutes of Health since 1984:
NIAID conducts and supports basic and applied research to better understand, treat, and ultimately prevent infectious, immunologic, and allergic diseases. For more than 60 years, NIAID research has led to new therapies, vaccines, diagnostic tests, and other technologies that have improved the health of millions of people in the United States and around the world. NIAID is one of the 27 Institutes and Centers of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
As the former president noted, though, it was his work on AIDS that defined his place in history. In this 2015 CBS Sunday Morning profile, it was his 1984 appointment as head of his agency that led AIDS activists to target him, in an effort to loosen regulations on promising treatments for the AIDS crisis. Peter Staley (metaphorically) called for Fauci’s head on a pike, and playwright Larry Kramer flat-out called him a murderer. Yet Fauci had an uncommon reaction:
YouTube Video"I think, the smartest and best things that I've done is that, rather than run away from it, the way many scientists did -- like, 'Keep those activists away from me' -- I started to listen to what they were saying. And what they were saying was making perfect sense."
And he helped change rules to approve drugs that eventually turned AIDS from a death sentence into a manageable disease. Peter Staley now says of his target:
"I know for sure that when the history of AIDS is finally written, Anthony Fauci will be remembered as one of its heroes ... and deservedly so."
Over the years, he has been the go-to analyst on the 2003 SARS epidemic to the 2014 Ebola virus outbreak. He has been asked to be the leader of the entire National Institutes of Health apparatus, but at age seventy-nine (and working fourteen-hour days most years) believes that he is in the right place.
From 1980-2019, he ranked 8th out of more than 2.2 million authors in the field of immunology by total citation count and in 2008 received the Presidential Medal of Freedom award from George W. Bush. Looking forward, Dr. Fauci says he'd like to develop vaccines for malaria and tuberculosis. And he'd like to help discover an AIDS vaccine; that would move the disease he's fought for 30 years from manageable to preventable.
Yet if he is put-under-wraps ……
Now, on to Top Comments:
From belinda ridgewood:
In the diary by lincoln green about the first COVID-19 case in the United States that did not come from a foreign visitor or from contact with a known victim — I got to this comment thread about contaminated currency, started by Wendys Wink. It started out serious, but as it marched down the page and to the right margin, I laughed more and more. Replies, in order, by CynF, jeopardydd, kjallen, jeopardydd, CanisMaximus, jeopardydd (special award for keeping it going!), and final punchline by Sulla.
From scooba:
In the diary by Voltage Spike asking Did Trump Fire the US Pandemic Response Team— I think this comment by Hannah is an incredibly insightful series of observations: not only about Trump, but about the human condition in general.
And from Ed Tracey, your faithful correspondent this evening ........
In the diary by Benthovens5th about “spiritual” advisor Paula White - radarlady hearkens back to another false prophet.
TOP PHOTOSFebruary 26th, 2020 Next - enjoy jotter's wonderful *PictureQuilt™* below. Just click on the picture and it will magically take you to the comment that features that photo. (NOTE: Any missing images in the Quilt were removed because (a) they were from an unapproved source that somehow snuck through in the comments, or (b) it was an image from the DailyKos Image Library which didn't have permissions set to allow others to use it.) |
And lastly: yesterday's Top Mojo - mega-mojo to the intrepid mik ...... who rescued this feature from oblivion:
1) Somehow Bible belt Christians believe that God w … by mstep +150 2) Choker: “a person, usually a woman, who is extra … by VA Gal +142 3) Do you know how many people have been jailed, be … by RedDan +111 4) Glad Obama spoke up about this false anti Biden … by doroma +105 5) That’s a great endorsement. … by VClib +99 6) Ratfuckers fear Joe Biden. by shrike +97 7) For the same reason it took another 50 years bef … by RedDan +96 8) This is only the start, people. by NorthBronxDem +93 9) Any suggestion that public narratives are manipu … by RedDan +91 10) lie, lie, another lie, and yet another lie by merckx155 +89 11) Why is it so difficult for the world to accept t … by kittyweese +84 12) My fucking father got committed to a mental inst … by RedDan +81 13) Im not even sure what he said was wrong. He pret … by MrBigDaddy +78 14) Convincing yourself that you can pursue your dre … by peregrine kate +79 15) Dude I feel I do owe ya, not just for your devas … by emobile +76 16) You don’t have the time perspective or history t … by OregonOak +74 17) Yes, people of color have been especially burden … by Got a Grip +73 17) Is it too much to ask the the U.S. Director of N … by ht dave +73 19) I think this is probably really what got him sus … by DBHart +71 19) It was not another 52 years for being gay to be … by AoT +71 19) [image] by Mollytraveler +71 19) I compare this to someone who drugs a woman and … by Audri +71 19) Maybe a bit tricky to decipher: by dmhlt 66 +71 24) unfair out of context bit … by Greg Dworkin +70 25) Excellent! I just rewatched the Frontline docume … by Ellid +69 25) Sure, sure. You had one too many slices of brain … by Sarkazein +69 27) LOUD CHEERS AND GREAT REJOICING!!! And I didn’t … by loggersbrat +68 27) Oh my yes! “Let go and let God” has a very limit … by sandrad23 +68 29) Yep by jps +66 29) It is. And it is proof that the GOP will do ever … by apotropaic +66