Saturday, May 02, 2020

Hartzler: We will bounce back from coronavirus public health crisis and economic downfall

(From Fourth District Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler)

I wanted to thank everyone for the important role you have played in coming together and persevering through these times.

Everyone has done so well in adhering to guidelines on physical distancing and limiting social interactions, and also stepping up and helping our neighbors. The hard work each one of you have put into fighting the coronavirus battle is beginning to pay off! 

The rate of new positive cases is starting to diminish thanks to the amazing work of our doctors and health care professionals, as well as our friends’ and neighbors’ embracing and following the CDC guidelines.








Our communities are going to open next week in many counties! We will bounce back from both the public health crisis posed by the coronavirus and the economic downfall in the face of this pandemic. Our focus must remain on openly safely while ensuring our small businesses and their employees can thrive while providing the needed services and products our community needs as well as supporting our farmers and ranchers who are facing massive supply chain disruptions and staggering low prices.

In the face of adversity, it is encouraging to see everyone come together. We can overcome this virus as we stay vigilant in our healthcare precautions, remain faithful in prayer, and prioritize looking after each other.

This week, I’ve held conference call meetings with emergency room doctors from around the district to discuss the current status of our hospitals and health care providers, state officials and agriculture industry leaders concerned with our meat packing plants, and Washington officials regarding the latest in pandemic response efforts. I also discussed with the Aspen Institute different approaches to open up our economy while still ensuring that the most vulnerable people are kept healthy and safe.

On the call with Governor Parson, we discussed the Show-Me Strong Recovery Plan which is Missouri’s blueprint for reopening. I am encouraged by the progress we have made as a state with hospital admissions decreasing and county officials now having the authority to reopen their counties next week. A big part of the plan is to ensure we get enough testing and personal protective equipment (PPE) to communities and to keep agriculture strong by ensuring our meat packing plants stay open and safe. These are priorities of the governor and I applaud his efforts.

As Missouri navigates this re-opening, please make sure and check out the website put up by Governor Parson’s team. It is full of information and resources regarding this forward step for Missouri: www.showmestrong.mo.gov.

This week I had two virtual meetings with meat packing plants in our district, Tyson and Cargill. It was wonderful to see and hear the proactive steps these two plants are taking to ensure their workers are kept safe during this pandemic while also providing delicious, affordable meat for American consumers.

I spoke with Alan Johnston, the Complex Manager of the Tyson plant in Sedalia, as well as other team members. Alan informed me that the plant, which is currently running at full speed, produces food for box stores like Sam’s and Costco and other food retailers. Essentially every grocery store in the nation has Sedalia products on the shelf such as their breaded chicken nuggets.








In terms of steps being taken to ensure the safety of the workers and the foodproduct, Alan informed me that they are following the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines such as checking temperatures of the workers with digital stand thermometers twice a day. 

Currently, they have roughly 1,500 people going through the plant each day in multiple shifts. Tyson has worked with FEMA and Vice President Mike Pence’s Task Force to get personal protective equipment (PPE) for plant workers. 

Before the PPE arrived from the government they reached out to the community and had 5,400 homemade masks arrive to support the workers! It’s a wonderful show of support from the community!

I also had the chance to get a virtual tour of the Cargill turkey processing plant in California, MO via a Zoom call with several folks, including members of the state and federal relations teams, the general manager, and the environmental manager.

At the Cargill plant, there are currently about 260 employees working. They go through screening before entering the plant, then takes temperatures after lunch as well. In addition to other CDC suggested guidelines, they have plexi-glass dividers to separate workers in the cafeteria from other processing floor areas throughout the plant. Cargill has adjusted shifts so that family members or members of the same household are working together and have implemented detailed contingency plans to support their workers in every way possible.

I am proud of both of these plants and the hard-working employees who come to work every day to provide much-appreciated food for family tables.








Legislative Update

Whether we’re talking about ensuring that federal grants are getting to our hospitals overwhelmed by the coronavirus or making sure that economic stimulus relief is going to individuals who need it the most, oversight and accountability are critically important in ensuring that funds authorized by Congress are spent judiciously and according to the law.

That’s why I supported the three oversight commissions created by the CARES Act to oversee the proper implementation of these funding programs. These include the Congressional Oversight Commission, the Pandemic Response Accountability Commission, and the Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery. Additionally, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) is charged with conducting an audit of the CARES Act expenditures and given $20 million to carry out the audit.

I did not, however, support Speaker Pelosi’s desire to create a ninth coronavirus oversight body. Already, Congress and the Executive branch have eight bodies with a chartered responsibility of oversight over all the elements of the CARES Act. As opposed to the equally bipartisan commissions established in the CARES Act, Speaker Pelosi’s proposal for a ninth commission would create a new, overwhelmingly Democrat-controlled commission, which politicizes this COVID-19 pandemic.

There are many Americans who are hurting deeply as we deal with this pandemic, whether they have lost a loved one or have had to face financial instability due to uncertain and difficult economic conditions. No one, especially our national leaders, should be weaponizing COVID-19.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

She is right the number of cases is coming down. The CDC just quietly changed the number of deaths from COVID19-19 from 67,000 down to 37,000 on May 1. Why don’t we hear about this in the news? https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/index.htm

Brian said...

Because they need people to panic. It's good for ratings. I've talked to several doctors who have all told me that this thing is blown way out of proportion by the media and politicians. Even if you do contract this disease, you will most likely live through it. The real death rate is something like .2% maybe less. Panic!!! Take away rights! Destroy the economy! Increase the debt exponentially! Wouldn't want people to get the sniffles.

Anonymous said...

Easy to throw out a number .2%. Can u back it up with facts or is it something you saw on Facebook?

Just because a few local doctors said “it’s blown way out of proportion” we should trust that assessment? How in the world do they know? Do they have facts to back it up? How do they have more data and knowledge than Dr. Fauci? We seek out people that tell us what we want to hear. It’s called confirmation bias.

Anonymous said...

You did vote to give Hartzler Farms a sizable stimulus check don't leave that part out Nancy. You're nothing but a shameless Grifter like your President!

Brian said...

Www.dataisbeautiful.com has it at. 9-3.4 death rate, but very likely to go down a lot once more people are tested.
Don't you think it's strange though how only 24,000 people died of seasonal flu this year compared to 80,000 last year. Could it be that hospitals inflate covid numbers to get more fed money?
Surely the news would tell us that right?
By the way, I ditched Facebook in 2011,i saw where it was headed an wanted nothing to do with it. I look at lots of different sources and think for myself. Keeps me sane.

Anonymous said...

I see the link which purports to show the CDC has reduced the Covid-19 death toll has been posted here at the Turner Report. See 8:17 PM.

Of course if one actually goes to the link and reads with more than a third grade comprehension level it soon becomes clear that the link does not support the claim posted above: "The CDC just quietly changed the number of deaths from COVID19-19 from 67,000 down to 37,000 on May 1."

At the link there is a prominent highlighted comment which states the following: Note: Provisional death counts are based on death certificate data received and coded by the National Center for Health Statistics as of May 1, 2020. Death counts are delayed and may differ from other published sources (see Technical Notes). Counts will be updated periodically. Additional information will be added to this site as available.

Additionally the table with the numbers at the link has the following footnotes:


NOTE: Number of deaths reported in this table are the total number of deaths received and coded as of the date of analysis and do not represent all deaths that occurred in that period. The United States population, based on 2018 postcensal estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, is 327,167,434.

*Data during this period are incomplete because of the lag in time between when the death occurred and when the death certificate is completed, submitted to NCHS and processed for reporting purposes. This delay can range from 1 week to 8 weeks or more, depending on the jurisdiction, age, and cause of death.

1Deaths with confirmed or presumed COVID-19, coded to ICD–10 code U07.1

2Percent of expected deaths is the number of deaths for all causes for this week in 2020 compared to the average number across the same week in 2017–2019. Previous analyses of 2015–2016 provisional data completeness have found that completeness is lower in the first few weeks following the date of death (<25%), and then increases over time such that data are generally at least 75% complete within 8 weeks of when the death occurred (8).

3Pneumonia death counts exclude pneumonia deaths involving influenza.

4Influenza death counts include deaths with pneumonia or COVID-19 also listed as a cause of death.

5Deaths with confirmed or presumed COVID-19, pneumonia, or influenza, coded to ICD–10 codes U07.1 or J09–J18.9.


The claim is unsupported.

Also those touting this nonsense fail to account for how the Trump CDC would not have reported this newly discovered error to the president who would have instantly called Fox News with proof of a deep state operation and required heads to roll for making him look worse than necessary.

Yet for some mysterious reason this has not happened yet.

As a matter of fact, on the same day the above "CDC reduces the Covid death toll by tens of thousands" nonsense (or disinformation) was circulated by fine people like pardoned by Donald Trump convicted election contribution felon Dinesh Disouza and various others the president was interviewed by Fox News at the Lincoln Memorial and the president himself said the following about the death toll from COVID-19:

However, Trump predicted that as many as 100,000 Americans could die from the coronavirus, in a significant increase from his estimate of 60,000 last month. “We’re going to lose anywhere from 75, 80 to 100,000 people,” Trump said, calling it a "horrible" situation. Without his administration's actions, Trump asserted, "the minimum we would have lost was a million two, a million four, a million five, that’s the minimum."

So either the covidiots and knuckleheads posting the above FALSE CLAIM at the Turner Report can't read and understand what they are circulating, or they can and they are doing it for other reasons.

Brian said...

Since my reply wasn't published yet here is a new study out today from Germany that has it at. 37%
https://www.uni-bonn.de/news/111-2020

Anonymous said...

Poster going by the handle Brian has already posted his crap three times here.

Supporter of Trump?

Dupe for Trump?


Virus Denier?

Anti-vaxxer?

Covidiot?

Knucklehead?

For some reason he seems to want this virus to magically go away.

Just like Trump and the rest of the Republican party.



Anonymous said...

The RWNJs are out in full force.

Brian said...

I posted my sources. If you don't want to read them and come to your own conclusions that's up to you. Keep watching the panic porn on cable news and wait for the next outrage cycle when this one is over. I'm not anti-vax or anti-science, I'm pro-data.
If you think I'm stupid because I disagree with you, there are plenty of echo chambers out there that will confirm your superiority. Doesn't make you right, it makes you anonymous.
Luckily, Randy provides a space here locally (mostly) where we can debate these things. It's up to us to do it in good faith. That's why I post under my name.