"I wanted to — I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down, because I don't want to create a panic," Trump says.
oh no so evil
"It's also more deadly than your — you know, your, even your strenuous flus," Trump said on Feb. 7.
“This is more deadly,” he said. “This is five per — you know, this is 5 percent versus 1 percent and less than 1 percent, you know. So, this is deadly stuff.”
Which is why he stopped travel from the origin of the outbreak right around that time... for which he was called racist and alarmist.
So to recap: Trump takes seriously early information (later proven inaccurate), taking active measures to limit the spread of the disease, and then tries to reassure the public and prevent panic, before ultimately changing his mind in light of new information and advocating for reopening the economy.
Orange Man... did what he's supposed to do based on the best information anyone had at the time and we're supposed to mad about this?
Wasn't the WHO saying that human to human transmission wasn't real until March or so? Only Taiwan was saying "well, actually"?
Trump took seriously early reports and took steps to mitigate the danger while trying to prevent a panic. Meanwhile, the media and dems were downplaying the early reports. “It’s only the flu.” “Don’t buy masks.” “Go to Chinatown.” Etc. As time passes, info begins to downplay the significance of the virus, so Trump sees this as an opportunity to quell the panic further. Being the opportunists they are, the media and dems do their best to create as much panic as possible and blame it on Trump.
There's a page I'm having trouble finding again but will link back if I can that has a set of timelines of what Trump said when about COVID. The page is anti-Trump leaning, but I think in context is actually broadly supportive of Trump.
Here's what I have said (I'll warn you, not very successfully): Trump scrambled a COVID-19 task force with daily meetings at the end of January, when the US caseload was 0-5 infections. He declared COVID an emergency on January 31. He closed the border with China. During this time, he was receiving substantial pushback from his political opponents who said that he was being racist, and not to wear masks, and everything is fine, and Trump's just trying to panic the country; and his experts, who said that the risk to the USA was still low. He was also apparently getting additional info, in the Woodward tapes, from a source that I would not entirely trust, were I in Trump's shoes: Xi.
Keep in mind that the CDC and the task force are actively monitoring and have already started work on a vaccine in January. So Trump, and the CDC and Trump's experts, are trying to keep the country steady while constantly checking up on how things are developing. Fauci was trying to minimize through March at least: go on cruises, don't worry about it if you're healthy, etc.
The WHO doesn't declare a pandemic until March 11. The WHO was also a month+? behind Taiwan saying that there was human to human transmission (end of January).
My questions at this point are usually: so what should Trump have done differently, especially without the benefit of hindsight? Should Trump have overruled his experts and told them to scare Americans more? Isn't closing the border and declaring an emergency taking it seriously, not downplaying it?
And if Woodward really thinks Trump lied to the American people about a public health crisis in February in a way that cost Americans' lives, why didn't he say something about it in February, or March, or April? He had the tapes...
I've yet to get an answer to any of that.
I don't necessarily blame his experts, by the way. Getting a pandemic right is hard. Not panicking people and overly disrupting life and minimizing risk with incomplete and bad information is hard.
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/515664-woodward-releases-tapes-of-trump-interviews
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/09/trump-coronavirus-deadly-downplayed-risk-410796
oh no so evil
Which is why he stopped travel from the origin of the outbreak right around that time... for which he was called racist and alarmist.
So to recap: Trump takes seriously early information (later proven inaccurate), taking active measures to limit the spread of the disease, and then tries to reassure the public and prevent panic, before ultimately changing his mind in light of new information and advocating for reopening the economy.
Orange Man... did what he's supposed to do based on the best information anyone had at the time and we're supposed to mad about this?
Wasn't the WHO saying that human to human transmission wasn't real until March or so? Only Taiwan was saying "well, actually"?
Yes, isn’t it funny?
Trump took seriously early reports and took steps to mitigate the danger while trying to prevent a panic. Meanwhile, the media and dems were downplaying the early reports. “It’s only the flu.” “Don’t buy masks.” “Go to Chinatown.” Etc. As time passes, info begins to downplay the significance of the virus, so Trump sees this as an opportunity to quell the panic further. Being the opportunists they are, the media and dems do their best to create as much panic as possible and blame it on Trump.
Sound about right?
What would you say to a liberal that argued that Trump downplaying the virus to the public made the public less prepared for the virus?
There's a page I'm having trouble finding again but will link back if I can that has a set of timelines of what Trump said when about COVID. The page is anti-Trump leaning, but I think in context is actually broadly supportive of Trump.
Here's what I have said (I'll warn you, not very successfully): Trump scrambled a COVID-19 task force with daily meetings at the end of January, when the US caseload was 0-5 infections. He declared COVID an emergency on January 31. He closed the border with China. During this time, he was receiving substantial pushback from his political opponents who said that he was being racist, and not to wear masks, and everything is fine, and Trump's just trying to panic the country; and his experts, who said that the risk to the USA was still low. He was also apparently getting additional info, in the Woodward tapes, from a source that I would not entirely trust, were I in Trump's shoes: Xi.
Keep in mind that the CDC and the task force are actively monitoring and have already started work on a vaccine in January. So Trump, and the CDC and Trump's experts, are trying to keep the country steady while constantly checking up on how things are developing. Fauci was trying to minimize through March at least: go on cruises, don't worry about it if you're healthy, etc.
The WHO doesn't declare a pandemic until March 11. The WHO was also a month+? behind Taiwan saying that there was human to human transmission (end of January).
My questions at this point are usually: so what should Trump have done differently, especially without the benefit of hindsight? Should Trump have overruled his experts and told them to scare Americans more? Isn't closing the border and declaring an emergency taking it seriously, not downplaying it?
And if Woodward really thinks Trump lied to the American people about a public health crisis in February in a way that cost Americans' lives, why didn't he say something about it in February, or March, or April? He had the tapes...
I've yet to get an answer to any of that.
I don't necessarily blame his experts, by the way. Getting a pandemic right is hard. Not panicking people and overly disrupting life and minimizing risk with incomplete and bad information is hard.
Good luck
.... that's it? Wake me up when trump strangles a baby.