Tag Archives: covid

Obama Says Trump ‘Ignored’ Pandemic Playbook He Gave To Him

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Former President Barack Obama said he gave ex-President Donald Trump a pandemic playbook when Trump took office — but he disregarded it.

“He ignored it,” Obama said during a rally for Vice President Kamala Harris in Las Vegas on Saturday. “And three years later, a pandemic hits.”

He said the Covid-19 pandemic was a “generational pandemic” and that any president would have had a hard time before noting how the United States’ death rate compared to countries like Canada that responded proactively to the global outbreak.

“But if you look at a country like Canada, their per capita death rate was 40% lower than it was here in the United States. So just do the math. That’s more than 400,000 people,” Obama said. “People’s grandmothers, people’s fathers, people’s moms who would have been alive if Donald Trump had just paid attention and tried to follow the plan that we gave him.”

He continued, saying it does matter and makes a difference to have a president who is “competent,” “cares about you” and “listens to people who are experts in these areas.”

“If you hear somebody say it doesn’t matter, it does matter,” Obama added. “And at some point, it will make a difference to them.”

In early 2020, then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Republican, Kentucky) claimed that the Obama administration didn’t leave any pandemic playbook. Soon after that, Ronald Klain, the White House Ebola response coordinator from October 2014 to February 2015, posted the playbook on social media, while Nicole Lurie, an Obama administration official, confirmed its existence.

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Fresh Fury Towards Tories As Unsettling Study Uncovers Corruption ‘Red Flags’ Over Covid Contracts

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The Conservatives are facing renewed public fury after a study found some of the former government’s Covid contracts, worth more than £15 billion, raised corruption “red flags”.

The report from Transparency International UK looked into more than 5,000 contracts across 400 public bodies and discovered 135 high-risk contracts were worth investigation.

Those contracts alone were worth a collective value of £15.3bn – almost one in every three pounds spent on the pandemic – and were flagged because they raised three or more concerns over corruption.

“Most of these contracts exhibited red flags across multiple areas of risk – including those associated with the supplier profile, the procurement process and the contract outcomes – and often spanning all three. Some contracts displayed as many as eight red flags,” the researchers explained.

At least 28 of those deals – worth £4.1bn, almost a tenth of the total money spent on the pandemic response – went to firms with known connections to the Conservative party, Transparency International UK claimed.

Eight contracts allegedly went to suppliers which were had been established for no more than 100 days.

The department of health and social care also wrote off £14.9bn of public money over that two-year period, according to the report. That is the same amount as the government’s overall spend on PPE (personal protective equipment).

The government allegedly used a VIP lane to give 51 contracts priority, 24 of which were referred to by Tory politicians or their offices, too.

Transparency International UK said it is now calling for authorities to investigate the high-risk contracts.

In response to the findings, a Tory spokesperson referred to a National Audit Office report from November 2020 which found ministers had properly declared their interests.

They told the Guardian: “Government policy was in no way influenced by the donations the party received – they are entirely separate.”

The new Labour government is intending to appoint a Covid corruption commissioner to look at the £7.6bn of fraud recorded during the pandemic.

A Treasury spokesperson said this will help “get back the money that is owed to the British people”.

They added: “The commissioner will report directly to the chancellor, working with the secretary of state for health and social care, and their report will be presented to parliament for all members to see.”

The survey from Transparency International UK also sparked furious backlash across X, with users calling out the supposed corruption and “pure unadulterated greed”.

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In an international crisis with people becoming seriously ill and dying, an enormous disruption to everyone’s life in many countries, those involved in this saw an opportunity to make money. Thats what strikes me as the most appalling aspect of the corruption.

— lesleyb (@Lesley_London) September 9, 2024

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In an international crisis with people becoming seriously ill and dying, an enormous disruption to everyone’s life in many countries, those involved in this saw an opportunity to make money. Thats what strikes me as the most appalling aspect of the corruption.

— lesleyb (@Lesley_London) September 9, 2024

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That would be more than enough to keep the winter fuel payment if they could recover a fraction of it.

— Andrew Hobbs (@drewster_1965) September 9, 2024

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That would be more than enough to keep the winter fuel payment if they could recover a fraction of it.

— Andrew Hobbs (@drewster_1965) September 9, 2024