What’s Newt Reading; April 1, 2020

As the president's approval rating increases, the media looks to stop airing his daily press conference, even though they include the critical updates from medical experts. - Newt As Trump’s Poll Numbers Rise, Media Begin Censoring Press Conferences By Mollie Hemingway The Federalist When polls showed that President Trump was receiving high ratings for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, the political media blamed his press conferences. The media seemed to believe that the more Americans saw the president, the more they liked him. So, reporters disparaged the briefings, which feature some of the country’s top medical professionals. “After spending months demanding that the White House reinstate press conferences,” journalists are now demanding President Trump “shut them down as his performance is going better than theirs.” The media, which should simply show and report the news, is realizing that it has lost control over filtering news with its owns spin. The media is hurting its own reputation, but now, with its response to the coronavirus, it is also hurting public health. Liz Peek writes how the left-wing media is yet again against the president even as he is trying to uplift the country in our war on the coronavirus. – Newt Media vs. Trump, Coronavirus — Here's What They Hate the Most By Liz Peek Fox News The media was hoping that the coronavirus pandemic would trigger an economic downturn that, in turn, would derail President Trump. The media got half of its wish. The economy is hurting, but President Trump actually looks stronger as the weeks go by. Indeed, recent polling shows that, while most Americans disapprove of the media’s coverage, they approve of the president’s handling of the crisis. “That the liberal media hates President Trump is nothing new. But that their venom would so taint their coverage of a national emergency is stunning.” The press also hates that President Trump is an optimist, but his positivity drives him to win and will, eventually, conquer this virus. The United States should take a selective approach to combating the COVID-19 virus — different solutions for different states. – Newt A Gradual, Selective Approach to Opening Up the US Economy By Grace-Marie Turner Galen Institute Top American health officials — such as Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House’s coronavirus response coordinator — have signaling an approach to the pandemic that would involve a more targeted strategy of social isolation in areas where the problem is most acute. Such an approach could entail loosening restrictions at the county level in areas with few reported infections. It isn’t feasible to shut down the American economy for months, so we will probably need to keep older people and those with underlying medical conditions, who are more likely to get very sick, isolated for longer. Meanwhile, the economy can begin to open, progressively, by state or county. Testing is key to isolate people who are infected. The US will need flexibility to combat the virus, with states acting differently depending on how badly they are hit. Hydroxychloroquine, as President Trump suggested, is an important development in treating patients with the coronavirus. – Newt US Allows Emergency Use of Drug Trump Backed Against Virus By John Lauerman Bloomberg The Food and Drug Administration gave an emergency-use designation to hydroxychloroquine, a drug that President Trump backed as a possible “game changer” in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. The federal agency “can authorize emergency use when there are no available alternatives and the ‘known and potential’ benefits of the product outweigh the risks,” according to a statement. Meanwhile, the Department of Health and Human Services accepted 30 million doses of the drug from a private pharmaceutical company. Hydroxychloroquine, which is normally used to treat malaria, has shown promising but inconclusive results in trials. President Trump said Sunday that 1,100 patients in New York City are getting treatment using hydroxychloroquine. ““Let’s see how it works,” he added. “It may, it may not.” Back in 2015, I called on doubling the budget for the nation's health systems (https://tinyurl.com/wxjoq3m), but the Obama/Biden administration was always looking to cut or flatten CDC/NIH spending. – Newt Obama Admin Repeatedly Sought Millions in CDC Funding Cuts, Despite Biden's Attacks on Trump Preparedness By Gregg Re Fox News While campaigning for president, Joe Biden has repeatedly attacked President Trump for being unprepared to fight the coronavirus. He and other Democrats have also falsely claimed that President Trump slashed the budget for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It turns out that the Obama administration, in which Biden served as vice president, repeatedly sought to cut hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to the CDC. Yearly budget requests show that President Trump’s predecessor tried, year after year, to pare the CDC’s budget, including the center’s preparedness initiatives.