Happy Memorial Day! Below is a weekly roundup of CTP’s many local and national media hits, advocacy actions, and compelling social media content. We appreciate the help of the many physicians and partner organizations who have worked tirelessly this week to advocate for expanded healthcare and a coordinated response to this pandemic.
– CTP Team
The data, provided to the Guardian by the progressive campaign group the Committee to Protect Medicare, raises the prospect that the protests will play a role in spreading the coronavirus epidemic to areas which have, so far, experienced relatively few infections.
The anonymized location data was captured from opt-in cellphone apps, and data scientists at the firm VoteMap used it to determine the movements of devices present at protests in late April and early May in five states: Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Colorado and Florida.
Dr. Rob Davidson and Ron Klain talk with Lawrence O’Donnell about Trump’s visit to Michigan
5-20-2020
Trump declines to publicly don mask during tour of Michigan Ford plant
Mlive; Malachi Barrett; 5/21/2020
Dr. Rob Davidson, an emergency care physician and executive director for the Committee to Protect Medicare, said wearing a mask sets a strong example for the rest of the country. “People in Michigan are watching, millions of people are watching him every time he’s in public and having these quasi-rallies,” Davidson said. “Really for the casual passerby who happens to look up at their TV set and are watching a Trump event and see the president without a mask, that just plants the seed in their head that says ‘people are telling me to do this but I don’t really think it’s that important because the president doesn’t think it’s important.”
Michigan health care workers: Trump wants economy to reopen — but we’re not ready
Detroit Free Press; Kristen Jordan Shamus; 5/21/2020
While Trump pushes for reopening businesses and restarting the economy, Rob Davidson, executive director of the Committee to Protect Medicare, said large-scale re-opening would be dangerous because there still isn’t enough COVID-19 testing or supplies of personal protective equipment, such as medical masks, gowns and gloves to keep health care workers and patients safe.
Hammoud, Protect Our Care blast Trump on COVID-19 policy ahead of visit to Michigan
Dearborn Press & Guide; David Herndon; 5/21/2020
Ahead of President Donald Trump’s visit to Michigan on Thursday afternoon, state Rep. Abdullah Hammoud (D-Dearborn), along with the group Protect Our Care and Dr. Rob Davidson, held a press conference to discuss what they called “failures” from the federal government.
The group said failures from Trump’s administration put the health and safety of Michigan residents on the line.
Progressive group used phone data to track protesters at anti-lockdown rallies
New York Post; Mark Moore; 5/20/2020
A progressive health care advocacy group used cellphone data to track the movements of demonstrators at lockdown protests in five states, according to a report. The Committee to Protect Medicare collected the anonymized location data from opt-in cellphone apps and data scientists at the firm VoteMap used it to determine the movements of the devices at protests in April and May in Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Colorado and Florida, the Guardian reported Monday.
Cell data reveals how right-wing lockdown protesters may be spreading COVID-19
Salon; Jake Johnson; 5/20/2020
Cellphone data provided to The Guardian by advocacy group Committee to Protect Medicare shows that the right-wing anti-lockdown protests encouraged by President Donald Trump may have resulted in the spread of coronavirus across the country as some demonstrators traveled to the events from out of state, flouted social distancing guidelines, and then returned to their home communities.
Are Anti-Lockdown Protesters Spreading Covid?
Free Speech; 5/20/2020
Sonali Kolhatkar speaks with Dr. Rob Davidson. Anonymized location data from cell phone apps has revealed that anti-lockdown protesters in states like Michigan may have spread the Covid-19 virus far and wide. The Committee to Protect Medicare found that the Trump-supporting anti-lockdown protesters may be spreading the dreaded disease as they congregate with one another in the hundreds and then return to their communities in different regions.
Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners chairman asks President Trump to cancel visit
Mlive; Steve Marowski; 5/20/2020
The chairman of Washtenaw County’s Board of Commissioners has sent a letter to President Donald Trump asking him to cancel his Thursday visit to the county. In his letter, Jason Morgan said he’s concerned Trump’s May 20 visit will put Washtenaw County residents at risk for further exposure to COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus.
Dr. Rob Davidson discusses Trump’s public health mixed messages and refusal to wear a mask
5-20-2020
Doctors warn against following Trump’s lead as president claims he’s taking hydroxychloroquine
Good; Jake Johnson; 5/19/2020
If everything else we know about President Trump hasn’t proven to you that he does not understand medicine or healthcare, and certainly doesn’t have your best interests at heart, this statement and the fact that he’s taking this drug should be everything you need to know,” Dr. Rob Davidson, an emergency care physician and executive director of the Committee to Protect Medicare, said in a video posted to Twitter following Trump’s remarks.
Rob Davidson: Public health always a top priority
Holland Sentinel; Rob Davidson; 5/19/2020
As an ER doctor in 2020, I can’t write a column without discussing the COVID-19 pandemic. Never in my lifetime has a topic so dominated our lives, our airwaves and our social and political conversation. This public health crisis is spawning a recession, the likes of which has likely not occurred in many decades. There are myriad angles to the story that can be and have been explored in these pages, in my writings elsewhere, and in the writings of so many others on so many platforms.
El Espectador; Redacción Vivir; 5/19/2020
El grupo Committee to Protect Medicare recopiló los datos de ubicación de los teléfonos celulares y los proporcionó a The Guardian. Según informaron, los datos muestran un aumento en la posibilidad de que las protestas desempeñen un papel importante en la propagación de la epidemia de conoravirus a áreas en las que, hasta entonces, se habían experimentado relativamente pocas infecciones.
Lockdown Protesters Are the New Plague Rats
Jezebel; Emily Alford; 5/19/2020
Anonymous cell phone data, released to the Guardian by the Committee to Protect Medicare and obtained from opt-in apps downloaded by protesters, shows they “are often traveling hundreds of miles to events, returning to all parts of their states, and even crossing into neighboring ones.” According to data scientists at a firm called VoteMap and anyone else familiar with how contagious illnesses are spread, these protesters are probably introducing the virus as they move to and from protests:
Protestos anti-lockdown ajudaram a espalhar coronavírus nos EUA, dizem dados de celulares
Rolling Stone; 5/19/2020
O material, fornecido pelo Committee to Protect Medicare ao jornal The Guardian, levantaram que os protestos têm disseminado a pandemia para áreas que, por enquanto, apresentam poucos casos de COVID-19.
COVID-19: How Rich Were Able to Stay Safer Than Poor in Colorado
Westword; Michael Roberts; 5/19/2020
Wealthier Coloradans were better able to follow the recently concluded stay-at-home order than those with far fewer resources. As a result, richer residents stayed safer from the brutal first wave of the coronavirus pandemic than did poorer ones.
Dr. Rob Davidson talks flattening the curve and #TestTraceIsolate
5-17-2020
Dr. Rob Davidson Clears Up Misinformation Around Trump’s Hydroxychloroquine
Yahoo News; 5/18/2020
We spoke with Dr. Rob Davidson about President Trump’s dubious medical qualifications, the hydroxychloroquine risks, hydroxychloroquine dangers, whether it can really help fight COVID-19, and the controversy behind the drug’s rise to prominence. While the drug has a big backer in President Trump, hydroxychloroquine side effects means that hydroxychloroquine use could do more harm than good.
Are Anti-Lockdown Protesters Spreading Covid?
Rising Up with Sonali; 5/18/2020
Anonymized location data from cell phone apps has revealed that anti-lockdown protesters in states like Michigan may have spread the Covid-19 virus far and wide. The Committee to Protect Medicare found that Trump-supporting anti-lockdown protesters may be spreading the dreaded disease as they congregate with one another in the hundreds and then return to their communities in different regions.
Cell phone data reveals lockdown protesters may be spreading the Coronavirus
Good; Jake Johnson; 5/18/2020
Cellphone data provided to The Guardian by advocacy group Committee to Protect Medicare shows that the right-wing anti-lockdown protests encouraged by President Donald Trump may have resulted in the spread of coronavirus across the country as some demonstrators traveled to the events from out of state, flouted social distancing guidelines, and then returned to their home communities.
Trump’s claim he takes hydroxychloroquine prompts warnings from health experts
Fox News; Bradford Betz; 5/18/2020
Dr. Rob Davidson, the executive director of the Committee to Protect Medicare, advised his followers to ignore the president. “There is no evidence of benefit and there is evidence of harm,” Davidson tweeted. “Trump is responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands. Let’s not add to that number.”
The Hill’s Campaign Report: DOJ, intel to be major issues in 2020
The Hill; JONATHAN EASLEY, JULIA MANCHESTER AND MAX GREENWOOD; 5/18/2020
The Committee to Protect Medicare is pumping six figures into a new digital ad running in Florida, Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin attacking Trump for talking about winding down his coronavirus task force. “If Donald Trump wants to retire from coronavirus duty, we can retire him for good this November,” the ad states. After initially saying he would bring the task force to an end, Trump backtracked and has since added several new members to the team. Democrats view Florida, Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin as battleground states that Trump won in 2016 that Biden is positioned to win back in 2020.
Politico; Gary Gineout & Matt Dixon; 5/18/2020
The election is less than six months out and as the state reopens, so does the flow of campaign ads. More got launched this week. The Committee to Protect Medicare has launched a digital ad in Florida going after Trump on his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. The group behind it says it is spending more than $100,000 on the ad that will run between now and the end of May including targeting voters that backed Barack Obama in 2012 but then supported Trump in 2016. MoveOn also launched its own digital ad on Facebook and Hulu aimed at suburban female voters in Florida that also blasts the president over his response to the pandemic. The ad is scheduled to run until June 15.
Dr. Rob Davidson demands DPA to test, trace, and isolate COVID-19
5-15-2020
To view this week’s press releases, CLICK HERE
Since we launched our $1 million early ad buy in March, we have been spending aggressively holding Trump accountable and getting the best possible ad prices. Relatively to other organizations holding Trump accountable we are booking ad buys at a nearly 50% lower cost than other allies.
This has allowed us to deliver just over 55,000,000 ad views/impressions to millions of swing voters in Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Florida. And over 29,000,000 impressions in just the past two weeks to over 6,000,000 key swing voters.
While we have a number of audiences, we continue to direct our resources toward 3 key target groups:
- 2012 Obama/2016 Trump voters
- 2016 3rd party voters
- 2012 Obama/2016 Nonvoters
Our polling shows that driving up numbers in these groups creates a path to victory. We are using iterative testing strategies to ensure that our creative moves voters and – most importantly – avoids backlash that helps Trump!
View examples of our ads by clicking the images below:
@CmteetoProtect tweeted a thread with data visualizations representing the movement of anti-science protesters following mass gatherings. The data gained national and statewide attention.
Dr. Sue Bonadonna from the Bronx shared her thoughts on the state of US health care during a pandemic:
@CmteetoProtect commissioned a billboard to drive around the Rawsonville Ford Manufacturing Plant during Trump’s visit on Thursday, 5/21. Thanks to our grassroots supporters chipping in, this same billboard will be circling the capital.
On a press call, Dr. Rob Davidson and Dr. Farhan Bhatti were joined by Trece Andrews, a nursing home worker with inadequate PPE to discuss President Trump’s visit to Michigan.
WHO reports most coronavirus cases in one day as total nears 5 million
NBC News; Henry Austin and Will Clark; 5/20/2020
More than 100,000 coronavirus cases were reported to the World Health Organization in the previous 24 hours, “the most in a single day since the outbreak began,” Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday.
Trump’s Vaccine Chief Has Vast Ties to Drug Industry, Posing Possible Conflicts
NYT; Sheila Kaplan, Matthew Goldstein and Alexandra Stevenson; 5/20/2020
Just days into his job, the extent of Dr. Slaoui’s financial interests in drug companies has begun to emerge: The value of his stock holdings in Moderna jumped nearly $2.4 million, to $12.4 million when the company released preliminary, partial data from an early phase of its candidate vaccine trial that helped send the markets soaring on Monday.
Lockdown Delays Led to at Least 36,000 More Deaths, Models Find
NYT; 5/20/2020
All 50 states have begun to reopen to some degree, but rules vary. Scientists say they see progress on the path to developing a vaccine by next year.
C.D.C. releases guidance that the White House had rejected.
NYT; 5/20/2020
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention quietly released more detailed guidance for schools, businesses, transit systems and other industries hoping to reopen safely amid the coronavirus pandemic after fear that the White House had shelved the guidelines.
Trump threatens to permanently pull funding from WHO and ‘reconsider’ US membership
CNN; Paul LeBlanc; 5/19/2020
President Donald Trump is escalating his threats against the World Health Organization, telling the agency he will permanently pull US funding if it does not “commit to major substantive improvements in the next 30 days.” Trump’s letter — in which he included a false description of when information about the virus was published in The Lancet, prompting the prestigious medical journal to publicly dispute his claims on Tuesday — is the latest action he’s taken against the WHO following his decision last month to temporarily halt US funding to the group. The agency has at times been criticized for its response to the coronavirus outbreak, though it remains the world’s preeminent global health organization at a time when a fast-moving pandemic has claimed more than 319,000 lives worldwide and largely shut down the global economy amid a search for a vaccine.
‘Crazy thing to do’: Health experts alarmed by Trump’s use of unproven drug
Politico; David Lim and Zachary Brennan; 5/18/2020
The treatment has been shown in observational studies to have limited or no proven benefits for coronavirus patients, and could even be harmful when used in certain combinations. But data from more extensive studies are still forthcoming. Public health experts expressed concern that Trump’s continued advocacy of the drug could cause another run on supplies, with serious consequences for patients with lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases for which it is an approved treatment.
Stay-at-home orders saved hundreds of thousands, report finds
The Hill; Reid Wilson; 5/18/2020
A new analysis says nearly 250,000 people in the nation’s 30 largest cities are alive today because of strict stay-at-home orders issued by local and state governments. The report, from the Urban Health Collaborative at the Dornsife School of Public Health at Drexel University, found the stay-at-home orders likely reduced the number of coronavirus deaths by 232,878 and prevented 2.1 million people from requiring hospitalization.
Coronavirus Vaccine Trial by Moderna Shows Promising Early Results
NYT; Denise Grady; 5/18/2020
The first coronavirus vaccine to be tested in people appears to be safe and able to stimulate an immune response against the virus, its manufacturer, Moderna announced on Monday. The findings are based on results from the first eight people who each received two doses of the vaccine, starting in March.
China Defends Coronavirus Action at W.H.O. Meeting: Live Coverage
NYT; 5/18/2020
The United States and other nations might use Monday’s W.H.O. meeting to place blame on China. But President Xi Jinping praised China’s efforts in an address to the group.
Attorney General Shapiro Files Amicus Brief Defending Affordable Care Act for Pennsylvanians
Ches Co; MyChesCo; 5/17/2020
Attorney General Shapiro recently filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court defending the Affordable Care Act from Republican efforts to end the Obama health care law. The Trump Administration and a group of states led by Texas are continuing a legal push started by Republicans to repeal the entire ACA without a replacement during the current health crisis. In 2018, a District Court Judge in Texas attempted to strike down the entire law, and now the case is before the Supreme Court.
Trump Promises ‘Warp Speed’ Coronavirus Vaccine Effort With New Program
NPR; Alana Wise; 5/15/2020
President Trump on Friday unveiled more details of “Operation Warp Speed” – an effort to accelerate the development of a vaccine and medical treatments for the coronavirus by January. “We’re looking to get it by the end of the year if we can, maybe before,” Trump said as top medical, military and Cabinet officials, many of them wearing face masks, joined him in the Rose Garden.
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