How did American Presidents handle SARS, MERS and Covid19?

April 4, 2003 WebMD - SARS had a death rate around 10% after killing about 80 of the infected. President Bush didn't quarantine Americans who had it until the number rose to 115 and had spread to 29 states by April 2003. No Americans died. Also "China apologized today [April 4, 2003] for not doing a better job of informing the public and international health organizations about the SARS epidemic and pledged full cooperation with the World Health Organization's team currently investigating the outbreak in Guangdong, China."

May 13, 2014, Reuters -"President Barack Obama has been briefed by his advisors on the two confirmed U.S. cases of the deadly virus known as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS, White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Tuesday."

MERS, a corona virus, (MERS-CoV) had a 35% death rate. Why didn't Obama close travel and at least quarantine returning doctors from the affected area in Muslim countries?

January 30, 2020, The New York Times - President Trump closed travel from China and restricted foreign travelers who had been to China the previous 14 days before there was a single U.S. death from SARS-CoV 2 (Wuhan Virus, Covid-19) or known spread.

President Donald Trump responded to his health advisors faster than either Bush or Obama did to theirs.

The hoax that Democrats are spreading with help of the media is that by doing something different, Trump could have prevented 200,000 deaths. This is all in retaliation for winning the election in 2016.

Not only are Democrats better at lying, the Republicans are spineless wimps for playing by their rules.

Fourteen years later the OSU fire is still a cold case

I was looking through some old letters to my family and noticed this one, April 19, 2003, and I wondered what had happened with the investigation into this tragedy: 

 "I don't think our latest tragedy here would have made your news, but 5 students died in a house fire on the campus early last Sunday (13th) a.m. Actually, only 2 were OSU, the other 3 were Ohio University (Athens, OH). Many still hospitalized. An old house with 12 bedrooms that the kids just love to rent, close to campus. Celebrating one of the guys’ 21st birthday, so everyone had been drinking. Happened about 3 or 4 a.m. Now they've decided it was arson, so people are really upset. Will be a big murder investigation--maybe the biggest Columbus has had. All the bios in the paper indicated they were all really good kids, but if you combine the gases and smoke inhalation with the fact that they may have not been as alert as possible, it was lethal. One young OU girl was from Dublin, north of here, and 1200 people came to her funeral yesterday.  The smoke was so dense the firemen had trouble finding them.  One girl was rescued unconscious by the fireman lying on top of her to protect her and scooting her by looping his arms under her.  But he didn’t know there was another student also in the room--and had barely found her."

Then it was 5 years. http://www.10tv.com/article/victims-legacies-live

The Dispatch caught up with the survivors 10 years later. http://www.dispatch.com/article/20130413/NEWS/304139720

Now it's fourteen and it's a cold case.  Families of the deceased still stay in touch and try to make life good in memory of their loved ones.
http://nbc4i.com/2017/04/13/still-no-answers-14-years-after-ohio-state-university-fatal-fire/

Monday Memories--September 2003

Winds of war.  I think I know how this current situation in Syria will play out.  Big stories about WMD. Photographs of the horror.  A Republican president responds initially with support of both parties.  After action is taken, Democrats will decide to back off and stab the president in the back demoralizing the troops and giving comfort to the enemy.

I came across a letter from September 2003 while cleaning out my paper files.  I noticed this comment--not mine--about the media, especially the Washington Post, which I think has really become a useless source of information since Bezos (Amazon) bought it and even some thoughts on North Korea.  It seems things weren't much different almost 14 years ago.

"The Post bashes Bush every chance they can, though they were behind him on the war.  Their feature political cartoon is hilarious, and never flattering to the President.  He is always pictured with huge ears.  I have never noticed his ears--they must be somewhat large?  All these hearings, and everything else connected with the war makes me feel like "haven't we been there, done this before?" . . . Wonder if any of the boys on the Hill are thinking creatively about finances, or will we, as taxpayers, continue to pay the tab.  WWII has been over a long time, and all we need is one hit from N. Korea and it would take out a lot of our guys with little warning.  We just don't have the manpower to have troops stationed all over the world trying to keep a lid on things."

Not remembering that the Post had ever supported Bush, I attempted to track down what the Washington Post editorial board had said about the war in February 2003, and found another source that quoted it asking how anyone could doubt the seriousness of the WMD charges. The actual link didn't connect because later WaPo became very critical of Bush so I think the link was disabled at their end. These days, WaPo might as well be a mouth piece from a foreign, hostile government.

The news is on in the background as I draft this.  It really does sound like nothing has changed.

Happy Blogiversary to me

This is my 7th blogiversary. Yes, been blogging for 7 years. Began October 3, 2003, then back filled to October 1, because it just didn't look tidy.  Do you realize how hard it is to find an image of a blogiversary cake with a candle shaped like a 7?  I guess not very many people make it this far--especially not if they have 12 blog.

Now that I've changed my template, all the colors are wrong for the headings, links and side-bars. Sighs. Too bad. Why should my blog be better coordinated than my closet?

Obama and infanticide

All Democrats at the federal level said induced labor abortions which resulted in later killing the born alive aborted babies was wrong (Born alive infants protection act). Only one elected man in our government, in the Illinois legislature at the time, believes in infanticide. Barack Obama.

Friday Family Photo

This photo of my brother was taken just about four years ago, June 2003, in our cottage at Lakeside, OH. The photo has been scanned from an album, so is a bit fuzzy. I wasn't blogging then (started in October 2003), but I did write letters, otherwise I probably wouldn't remember the details of his visit.

He is a stockbroker and lives in Florida, but has many clients in the midwest, and at that time, one was in Columbus. He needed to visit her and had planned to come alone, but his wife's father was in the hospital in Detroit, so they decided to come together (driving) and she would fly back to Florida from there as he continued on to Illinois to visit other family and clients. When they got to Columbus on Friday, my husband had already left for the lake on Wednesday. I broiled steaks, fixed corn on the cob (which my husband hates), salad and fruit and we had a lovely dinner on the deck--one of the prettiest evenings of the year. He met with his client that evening and on Saturday morning we all started out for Lakeside. The trip took longer than usual because I was navigating, and we were chatting, so we missed the turn on Rt. 4. Instead of 2.5 hours, it took almost 4. We walked around the town, went out to eat at Abigail's, and then my husband rented a golf cart and we drove around looking at the different homes and remodeled cottages he had designed or worked on. We actually have a map and a "tour" t-shirt of my husband's projects.

At Lakeside, which is a Chautuaqua community, the "week" starts on Saturday afternoon, so the big program is Saturday evening. The program that Saturday night at the auditorium was Red Hot and Blue, a group of three men and three women from Branson, Missouri singing and dancing to the songs of the 1930s-1960s. Very high energy and nice costumes. On Sunday morning we had breaksfast at the Patio, after which they continued on to Detroit to visit my SIL's dad.

It was a very nice visit, and if he's reading this, "Hope you'll come back soon, little brother!"

170 End of the Year Wrap-Up, December 31, 2003

I made a note in April: "Mice who lived in enriched cages with toys and wheels had far more neurons in a key part of the brain than mice in bare cages." So the one with the most toys really does win?

I made a note in August: "Free lance photographers earn 35% less than 18 years ago."

I'm still wondering about Richard Grasso. How many people would refuse a pay package for more than they are worth? He was fired for accepting his $140 million package--it appears.

I made this note in April: In my father's lifetime--there were 12 democracies when he was born and 121 when he died.

I must be ambitious in the morning when I take these notes because these are the books I noted and thought I would read, but haven't:
"Sudden Sea: The great Hurricane of 1938" by RA Scotti
"The five people you meet in heaven" by Mitch Albom.
"Betting on myself" by Steven Crist.
"Dogs never lie about love" by Jeffery Masson
"The Stones of Summer" by Dow Mossman
"Shelby Foote" by C. Stuart Chapman
"Doing our own thing" by John McWhorter
"An unfinished life" by Robert Dallek
"Escape from slavery" by Francis Bok
"Storyteller's Daughter" by Saira Shah
"The mind and the brain" by Begley and Schwartz
"The retirement savings time bomb" by Ed Slott
"Beyond the river" by Ann Hagedorn

Websites noted during the year, but still not checked:
nccam.nih.gov
www.ftc.gov
www.issg.org/database
www.dnr.state.oh.us/dnap/invasive/
FoodTV.com
Homemadesimple.com
www.u.sit4less.com
www.nhtsa.dot.gov

Recipes copied and not tried:
Crab cakes
Spinach bacon deviled eggs
Creamsicle Cake
Rice pudding
Hot chicken salad
Crustless pumpkin pie
German apple cake