Let’s Revisit Coronavirus Czar Mike Pence’s History on Public Health Initiatives




Let’s Revisit Coronavirus Czar Mike Pence’s History on Public Health Initiatives

By


Shannon Palus


Feb 26, 20208:46 PM


Vice President Mike Pence

Mike Pence, he is in charge.
ERIC BARADAT/Getty Images


Mike Pence is now in charge of the United States’ response to coronavirus, Donald Trump announced at a press conference Wednesday night. Mike Pence’s qualifications, per Trump, include that he is “terrific in many ways,” “very good on health care,” and “really very expert at the field.” OK! Here are a few fast facts about Mike Pence and public health:


• When he was governor of Indiana, Mike Pence signed anti-abortion bills at a rate of two per year.




• Mike Pence has argued that sending kids to daycare stunts their emotional development, specifically their affection for their mothers.


• Mike Pence sure does not like Planned Parenthood, a health care provider.


• Mike Pence had to be told by an ER doctor at a restaurant about his own administration’s proposed cuts to Medicare.




• Mike Pence hasn’t repealed Obamacare, but not for lack of trying!


• It sure sounds like Mike Pence advocated for conversion therapy when he ran for congress in 2000. The specific language from his campaign website: federal funding for HIV patients “should be directed toward those institutions which provide assistance to those seeking to change their sexual behavior.”


• He did not mean condoms. “Frankly, condoms are a very, very poor protection against sexually transmitted diseases,” said Mike Pence in 2002.


• Researchers suggest that Mike Pence could have averted dozens of HIV infections in Indiana if he had supported basic public health measures when he took office as governor in 2013. At the very least, he could have not waited months to declare a state of emergency when it was clear there was a full-on outbreak. But he did.


• Mike Pence is not a doctor.


• Mike Pence is also not a scientist.


• “Smoking doesn’t kill.” ‑Mike Pence

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Togetherness

I managed to get to bed early last night at the first sign of being tired. I was in bed right at 1900/7pm. I slept soundly for 5 hours and woke up at nearly 0100/1am to find the following site here in my bed
Hal The Cat is on the left, looking disinterested, and Jax The Cat is posing on the right. 
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Irony

Occasionally, Snoopy and the Gang really hit the nail on the head. With all of the headlines about the corona virus, I thought that the random card flip for today was appropriate.
I wish that Happiness could be spread as easily as disease by simple human contact. The world would be a much better place if Happiness was something we could just transfer  from one person to another.
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Sinus Agony

I am barely functioning this morning. Last night as I was sneezing, I felt the unwelcome pop from my right ear. Ever since then it has been blocked and the pressure is just making me miserable. I could not sleep on my right side last night because the pressure and the weight gave me a severe headache. I flushed out my ears with the water bulb to see if anything was physically blocking that would wash out, but no luck.

This morning I am slowly making my way through the tasks I have at work and at the same time, dreading conference calls because I am not hearing well through my right ear. Thankfully, I have my regularly scheduled check-up tomorrow morning so there is no point in going to the doctor until tomorrow morning. In addition to my diabetes check-up, I am going to see what the doctor can do about this sinus problem before it gets any worse, if that is at all possible.

On the bright side, once I learned to avoid resting on my right side last night, I got some good rest and I hope to get more tonight. I plan to go to bed as early as possible and to keep the room as cool as I can because that helped me to rest last night.

Because Hal is under the weather as well, we both suspect that there is something in the air here in this apartment that is making us sick. We have about a month until we move away from here and that day cannot get here soon enough. Whenever we venture out in the afternoon we feel better almost immediately, and that just makes us more certain that there is mold or something here in this apartment building.
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