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Title: NEWT GINGRICH: I AM IN ITALY AMID THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS. AMERICA MUST ACT NOW—AND ACT BIG
Source:
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URL Source: https://www.newsweek.com/newt-gingr ... ct-now-act-big-opinion-1492270
Published: Mar 15, 2020
Author: Newt Gingrich
Post Date: 2020-03-15 15:19:55 by A K A Stone
Keywords: None
Views: 3668
Comments: 18
The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic poses two threats: public health and economic. I am living in Italy, where my wife, Callista, is the ambassador to the Holy See. I have watched first-hand as the Italian government has worked hard to contain the coronavirus by imposing strong public health measures to try to get the epidemic under control. These measures will lead to significant economic challenges. As I write: All schools are closed in all of Italy. All churches are closed (including St. Peter's Basilica). All weddings and funerals are postponed. All restaurants are closed. In fact, all stores except grocery stores and pharmacies are closed. People are urged to work from home unless they work in special designated factories Ads by scrollerads.com The streets are almost empty. These steps are not an overreaction. The coronavirus is out of control of in Northern Italy. As of 6 p.m. local/1 p.m. EST on March 10, there were 15,113 total cases in Italy, with 12,839 active cases, 1,016 deaths and 1,258 recoveries. And there were 162 total cases here in Rome. The hardest-hit region around Milan has had to improvise as its health system has been deeply stressed by the sheer number of patients. In Milan and Brescia, field hospitals have been set up in the fairgrounds as the local hospitals have been drowned in patients. Because the demand for respirators and intensive care has been beyond any previous planning, doctors have been forced into the kind of triage thinking developed for intense battlefield casualty situations. There are reports that emergency room doctors are allotting respirators to those with higher life expectancy due to the limited equipment in the hardest hit areas of the province. If you are older or have other illnesses, you may simply not be eligible for treatment. The impact of restricting travel is clear and continuing. The No. 2 airports in Milan and Rome are being closed. The main airports in Italy's two largest cities have radically decreased flights—and many of them are almost empty. Yesterday, 158 passengers arrived in Rome on direct flights from the United States. Italy depends for 14 percent of its total economy on tourism. Last year, Rome attracted 15.2 million tourists. The Colosseum alone attracted an average of 21,000 tourists a day. Now, the Colosseum is closed. There are some significant lessons from Italy for Americans who want to get through this pandemic with minimum loss of life and economic damage. President Donald Trump was right to cut off travel from China as soon as it was clear how big the pandemic was going to be. He saved American lives and bought time for America to be more prepared as the pandemic developed. When you realize that the current 1,016 deaths in Italy with a population of 60 million would be the equivalent of 5,400 deaths in the United States instead of the 41 deaths we have had so far, you can see what milder, slower and less aggressive responses might have cost in lives. Then we would have needed to move to truly draconian measures of isolation and shutdowns. By the same standard, Trump was exactly right to ban travel from Europe. In fact, he was following the advice of his best medical experts. As ABC News reported: "Dr. Anthony Fauci, the widely-respected director the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield, appeared before the House Oversight Committee for a second day of questioning Thursday and backed President Trump's travel ban from much of Europe. "'The real risk in general right now, and this is why the president took the action he did last night, within the world now over 70 percent of the new cases are linked to Europe,' Redfield said. 'Europe is the new China, and that's why the president made those statements.'" ABC continued: "California Democratic Rep. Jimmy Gomez raises Trump's various travel restrictions, asking if the European travel ban will have a significant impact on reducing the spread of community cases, Fauci said, 'A firm yes.' "'Because if you look at the numbers, it's very clear that 70 percent of new infections in world are coming from that region, from Europe,' Fauci said. 'Of the 35 or more states that have infections, 30 of them now, most recently, have gotten them from a travel-related case from that region.' "'It was pretty compelling that we needed to turn off the source from that region,' Fauci said." While these have been the right steps, and while the Coronavirus Task Force led by Vice President Pence has been making progress, there are some big things that need to be done on both the public health and the economic fronts. Faced with a pandemic threat, history teaches us it is far better to be over prepared than underprepared. As I indicated earlier, if America begins to have the Italian scale of deaths, we would be losing 5,000, 10,000 or 15,000 Americans. If it really got out of control, the rates could go higher. Italy has a unique vulnerability to coronavirus, because it has the second oldest-aged population in the world (only Japan has older citizens on average). This virus especially hits the elderly, and in Italy the average age of death is 81. The tragic experience of the Washington state nursing home simply reinforced the sense of vulnerability of older people. However, America has a uniquely vulnerable population, too. There are tens of thousands of homeless people in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland and Seattle. If the coronavirus ever began spreading among those folks, who already suffer from malnutrition and other health problems, the losses could be catastrophic. While Trump's decisive actions have bought us time, it is important to recognize that we must use that time to think through the health threat in every component and react accordingly. We should be planning for a worst-case pandemic and using the kind of intensity of implementation which served us so well in World War II. Getting enough ventilators, masks, intensive care units, treatment medications and aggressive community-wide testing are the minimum steps to saving lives and stopping the pandemic. The Pence-led Coronavirus Task Force has begun to pull things together, but it should have a planning group that creates a worst-case projection and then devises the steps necessary to smother the pandemic and minimize its impact. At the same time, we are solving the public health crisis we also must solve the economic challenge. Italy has a worrisome economic problem, because it was already sliding into a recession and the necessary steps to isolate the disease will also crush the economy. There is a real danger that the Italian banks will fail and will pull the European banks down with them.
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#1. To: A K A Stone (#0)
MEK terrorist Newt Breathe deeply Mr. Newt.
Thanks China.
Liberals are like Slinkys. They're good for nothing, but somehow they bring a smile to your face as you shove them down the stairs.
Just STFU already Newt. Your 15 minutes are over. We should be planning for a worst-case pandemic and using the kind of intensity of implementation which served us so well in World War II. Getting enough ventilators, masks, intensive care units, treatment medications and aggressive community-wide testing are the minimum steps to saving lives and stopping the pandemic. This so-called pandemic is no worse than the swine flu scare or even the common cold or flu. We are being set up for martial law.
Government is in the last resort the employment of armed men, of policemen, gendarmes, soldiers, prison guards, and hangmen. I don't know about the martial law...most of this has been voluntary self- restrictions. While I agree that America is being goaded into a vast overreaction, this has been about the LEAST tyrannical way to go about it.
"Devolve Power Outta the Federal Leviathan!!"
Yep...I hope this leads to the diversification of our supply chains for everything from pharmaceuticals to parts used to complete products here in the States. Not saying China is eliminated as a primary supplier, but developing reliable sources in Africa, South America and yes, here in the States has got to be a priority over time...MUD
"Devolve Power Outta the Federal Leviathan!!"
When I was just a lad of ten, after WWII, there was very little Americans used that wasn't made here in the good old USA! Our autos wee the hallmark of the motoring world. There wasn't a country on earth that didn't have American made cars on their roadways. Around 1947 the Japanese began shipping Christmas tree ornaments and I recall my father referring to 'damned Japanese junk.' How things changed in the years following the 1940's as smaller companies making things as mundane as cough drops, peanut butter, patent medicines etc. were gobbled up by the conglomerates. Then they had to beat their profits year after year and then moved their facilities oveseas where they could hire children and adults for peanuts and keep that bottom line rising. I decided to call this 'pandemic' what it truly is: The Chinese Disease.
Liberals are like Slinkys. They're good for nothing, but somehow they bring a smile to your face as you shove them down the stairs.
Last year alone 50,000 Americans died of the flu! Could this 'pandemic' be a fiasco hatched by the Chinese to defeat Donald Trump? If so the entire world is inow enmeshed in this Chinese manufactured disease and it would seem that they would feel much safer with a half-witted old winbag leading America over the road to ruin.
Liberals are like Slinkys. They're good for nothing, but somehow they bring a smile to your face as you shove them down the stairs.
No need for paranoia. Epidemics happen once a while for thousands and millions of years. It is a natural thing. What is surprising that in the globalized world with countless millions of travelers, it did not happen earlier.
Sorta rolls off the tongue, doesn't it? Problem is it's still too early to go scaring the snowflakes and naming it the Wuhan flu sounds less-intimidating to those who are inclined to freak out over life's daily travails. Now, when we are on the other side of the upcoming increase in infections here in the States, permanently remembering it as the Chinese Disease sounds quite apropos...MUD
"Devolve Power Outta the Federal Leviathan!!"
Newt's wife is "the ambassador to the Holy See" (the Pope). The Pope worships his god in a building shaped like a snake head. The snake is obviously Satan, the Serpent, the father of lies. Newt and his wife don't seem to have a problem with that. Martial law at the very least...a NWO more likely. San Franfecalsidewalk is already under soft martial law...shelter in place.
Phony pope and a new phony religion.
Liberals are like Slinkys. They're good for nothing, but somehow they bring a smile to your face as you shove them down the stairs.
Hoax.
Liberals are like Slinkys. They're good for nothing, but somehow they bring a smile to your face as you shove them down the stairs.
The Bible (Revelation 17) predicts a new phony religion referred to as Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots, that sits on seven hills (Rome?). Are we seeing the precursor?
Catholicism itself the new false religion? I am more inclined to see radical environmental activism as the new Big Evil amongst True Believers...MUD
"Devolve Power Outta the Federal Leviathan!!"
The Pope is openly calling for world government. Thankfully, many traditional Catholics seem to be rejecting this Pope, as he is in fact, leading them toward a NWO. In Rev. 17, the scarlet woman (the church of the NWO) is depicted as riding the beast (the anti-christ NWO), as if she directs the beast. But after she has done the bidding of the beast, the beast will turn on her and kill her. Since you mentioned it...the word "pale" from the Pale Horse of Revelation comes from the word "chloris" (green, sickly green). A few Bible expositors have sought to draw some parallels between the pale (green) horse and the environmental movement. Tentative, at best...but interesting. World leaders, including the Pope, are using environmentalism (save the planet!) as an excuse to form a world government.
Very interesting insight...thanks. I knew I didn't like this Pope and you just buttressed my reasons why...MUD
"Devolve Power Outta the Federal Leviathan!!"
And I absolutely agree with your concluding paragraph...MUD
"Devolve Power Outta the Federal Leviathan!!"
As a Traditional Catholic I think that's exactly what we're seeing.
Liberals are like Slinkys. They're good for nothing, but somehow they bring a smile to your face as you shove them down the stairs.
Ron Paul - Lake Jackson Texas Values
#2. To: A K A Stone (#0)
#3. To: Hondo68 (#1)
Breathe deeply Mr. Newt.
The essential feature of government is the enforcement of its decrees by beating, killing, and imprisoning.
Those who are asking for more government interference are asking ultimately for more compulsion and less freedom.
#4. To: Deckard (#3)
#5. To: IbJensen (#2)
"Thanks China."
#6. To: Mudboy Slim (#5)
#7. To: Deckard (#3)
This so-called pandemic is no worse than the swine flu scare or even the common cold or flu.
#8. To: IbJensen (#7)
"enmeshed in this Chinese manufactured disease"
#9. To: IbJensen (#6)
"The Chinese Disease"
#10. To: Deckard (#3)
Just STFU already Newt.
This so-called pandemic is no worse than the swine flu scare or even the common cold or flu.
We are being set up for martial law.
#11. To: watchman (#10)
#12. To: A Pole (#8)
#13. To: IbJensen (#11)
a new phony religion
#14. To: watchman (#13)
#15. To: Mudboy Slim (#14)
Catholicism itself the new false religion?
I am more inclined to see radical environmental activism as the new Big Evil amongst True Believers.
#16. To: watchman (#15)
#17. To: watchman (#15)
#18. To: watchman (#13)
Are we seeing the precursor?
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