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OhioChick

(23,218 posts)
Wed Jul 15, 2020, 03:23 PM Jul 2020

White House instructing governors to send National Guard to hospitals to oversee data on COVID-19

There are a number of jobs that the National Guard has been trained to perform. Though many Americans most recently saw the guard pressed into service to confront protesters, for decades they’ve engaged in far more welcome roles, from rescuing those trapped by rising floods to delivering supplies into areas ravaged by hurricane. But if there’s one task that is not associated with the traditional role of the National Guard it might be this—emergency accountancy.

But that seems to be exactly that the White House is proposing. The right-wing media continues to spread conspiracy theories that COVID-19 deaths are being overstated. Donald Trump continues to insist that the growing surge of cases, including overrun hospitals and rising deaths, is somehow the fault of more testing. And Trump is pressing states to allow the National Guard to come into hospitals to “improve data collection.” If that sounds to you like a plan to downplay the crisis … it sounds that way to everyone.

From the beginning of the crisis in the United States, there have been numerous reports of the danger faced by healthcare workers dealing directly with COVID-19 patients, with the frustration they face in dealing with a disease where nothing seems to work, and the absolute exhaustion from day after day of overrun emergency rooms and ICUs. What there has not been is an outcry from hospitals over problems in recording data.

However, as The Washington Post reports, that’s what the White House is proposing. In a letter slated to go out this week, Trump will ask governors to “consider” sending the guard to hospitals to “help improve data collection.” As the president of the American Hospital Association states, this “makes no sense.” If the National Guard is going to take a more active role in handling the coronavirus pandemic, double-checking hospital data does not really seem like the best use of their skills and abilities.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/7/14/1960601/-White-House-instructing-governors-to-send-National-Guard-to-hospitals-to-oversee-data-on-COVID-19

WTF????

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Mike 03

(16,616 posts)
2. This is really getting dangerously crazy.
Wed Jul 15, 2020, 03:27 PM
Jul 2020

The message here seems to be: "Don't trust the hospitals, don't trust the data."

He's questioned the integrity of so many experts and institutions, nobody is left but Trump and his pathetic surrogates. Trump actually expects his base to believe nobody can be trusted but Trump, and the tragedy is they'll likely go along with this.

This is freaking dangerous.

ProfessorGAC

(64,425 posts)
4. They Still Report To The Governors
Wed Jul 15, 2020, 03:29 PM
Jul 2020

So if governor tells General So & So that their assistance is needed elsewhere, the discussion about NG record keeping evaporates.
This is bluster.

gratuitous

(82,849 posts)
5. Will they be well-supplied with magic sharpie markers?
Wed Jul 15, 2020, 03:29 PM
Jul 2020

What need have we for PPE when National Guard troops can oversee medical records and just black out inconvenient information?

niyad

(112,435 posts)
7. Soooo, earlier today, we learned that hospitals are no longer to report numbers to CDC, but to
Wed Jul 15, 2020, 03:31 PM
Jul 2020

HHS (yeah, because afar is so competent). NOW we learn that that is not good enough, the NG will be doing the counting.. . .brownshirts? SS? What the ever-f'n HELL??? N n n

sop

(9,946 posts)
9. Just like the COVID testing, if we don't count the dead, then they didn't die.
Wed Jul 15, 2020, 03:37 PM
Jul 2020

What's next, send out the NG to collect ballots at polling places and tabulate the votes?

duforsure

(11,882 posts)
10. He's using the national guard for political reasons, time for 25th?
Wed Jul 15, 2020, 03:39 PM
Jul 2020

By hiding the numbers It makes more people run away from him and republicans. Or is this a great reason to use the 25th on him and stop this disaster?

Bayard

(21,806 posts)
11. The ads just keep writing themselves
Wed Jul 15, 2020, 04:09 PM
Jul 2020

People going into hospitals do NOT want to see the National Guard. This is becoming freakily more like, "The Stand", every day.

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