The missing 6 weeks: how Trump failed the biggest test of his life!

[eclipsenow]

Yeah, this is pretty compelling reading.

When the definitive history of the coronavirus pandemic is written, the date 20 January 2020 is certain to feature prominently. It was on that day that a 35-year-old man in Washington state, recently returned from visiting family in Wuhan in China, became the first person in the US to be diagnosed with the virus.

On the very same day, 5,000 miles away in Asia, the first confirmed case of Covid-19 was reported in South Korea. The confluence was striking, but there the similarities ended.

In the two months since that fateful day, the responses to coronavirus displayed by the US and South Korea have been polar opposites.​

The missing six weeks: how Trump failed the biggest test of his life

 

[Bobber]

Yeah, this is pretty compelling reading.

When the definitive history of the coronavirus pandemic is written, the date 20 January 2020 is certain to feature prominently. It was on that day that a 35-year-old man in Washington state, recently returned from visiting family in Wuhan in China, became the first person in the US to be diagnosed with the virus.

On the very same day, 5,000 miles away in Asia, the first confirmed case of Covid-19 was reported in South Korea. The confluence was striking, but there the similarities ended.

In the two months since that fateful day, the responses to coronavirus displayed by the US and South Korea have been polar opposites.​

The missing six weeks: how Trump failed the biggest test of his life

United States is a huge almost continent with 50 state Governors. Look at the size of South Korea.

 

[Oldmantook]

Yeah, this is pretty compelling reading.

When the definitive history of the coronavirus pandemic is written, the date 20 January 2020 is certain to feature prominently. It was on that day that a 35-year-old man in Washington state, recently returned from visiting family in Wuhan in China, became the first person in the US to be diagnosed with the virus.

On the very same day, 5,000 miles away in Asia, the first confirmed case of Covid-19 was reported in South Korea. The confluence was striking, but there the similarities ended.

In the two months since that fateful day, the responses to coronavirus displayed by the US and South Korea have been polar opposites.​

The missing six weeks: how Trump failed the biggest test of his life

Trump has his share of the blame but so does the CDC whose primary charge is protecting the health of the American public as well as the 50 Governors and their associated local health departments. Your statement is politically biased as there is more that enough blame to be shared by all involved.

 

[eclipsenow]

Trump has his share of the blame but so does the CDC whose primary charge is protecting the health of the American public as well as the 50 Governors and their associated local health departments. Your statement is politically biased as there is more that enough blame to be shared by all involved.

Um, the article gives per capita response measures, not unthinking numerical comparisons. Also, just accusing me of political bias doesn't undermine a single FACT presented in the article. Not one. Try again.

Also, don't try and separate out Trump from the CDC as it's his regime, and his chosen pandemic department. He's the one that cancelled the specialist pandemic unit in the national security council, putting all his faith in his administration's CDC. You ought to ask yourself what it's like to be the head of a federal agency going up against Trump's chosen brain-moment of the day. "It's not that serious" blah blah blah. Yeah, right. If I'm the boss of the CDC, I'm going to go up against that particular guy wearing a hamster as his hairpiece!
As the article says:-

In the absence of sufficient test kits, the US Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) initially kept a tight rein on testing, creating a bottleneck. “I believe the CDC was caught flat-footed,” was how the governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, put it on 7 March. “They’re slowing down the state.”

The CDC’s botched rollout of testing was the first indication that the Trump administration was faltering as the health emergency gathered pace. Behind the scenes, deep flaws in the way federal agencies had come to operate under Trump were being exposed.

In 2018 the pandemic unit in the national security council – which was tasked to prepare for health emergencies precisely like the current one – was disbanded. “Eliminating the office has contributed to the federal government’s sluggish domestic response,” Beth Cameron, senior director of the office at the time it was broken up, wrote in the Washington Post.​

 

[dqhall]

Yeah, this is pretty compelling reading.

When the definitive history of the coronavirus pandemic is written, the date 20 January 2020 is certain to feature prominently. It was on that day that a 35-year-old man in Washington state, recently returned from visiting family in Wuhan in China, became the first person in the US to be diagnosed with the virus.

On the very same day, 5,000 miles away in Asia, the first confirmed case of Covid-19 was reported in South Korea. The confluence was striking, but there the similarities ended.

In the two months since that fateful day, the responses to coronavirus displayed by the US and South Korea have been polar opposites.​

The missing six weeks: how Trump failed the biggest test of his life

This virus is out of control. From 1 case to over 100,000 in less than ten weeks. It is circling the globe. People who do not feel sick can spread the virus.

South Korea was ahead of the curve. Korea set up drive through testing centers. Persons testing positive for coronavirus were ordered to quarantine. Fines were collected, if sick people violated quarantine orders. Tracking apps were put on infected persons’ cell phones. Korea closed schools and kept factories open. A cherry blossom festival was canceled. Korean doctors prescribed chloroquine; a medicine shown to be effective against the SARS virus. Chloroquine is manufactured in India, China, Germany and maybe other places. India has banned the export of chloroquine as have Germany and France. Chloroquine may be risky for those with certain heart conditions. There are shortages of the drug in the US.

We were caught off guard. Trump is not the only one who did not fully prepare for a pandemic.

 

[eclipsenow]

Is Trump conflicted in his priorities? He's rich. He's got a game in the stockmarket. That seems to be his main focus!

On 24 February, Trump claimed “the coronavirus is very much under control in the USA”. The next day, Nancy Messonnier, the CDC’s top official on respiratory diseases, took the radically different approach of telling the truth, warning the American people that “disruption to everyday life might be severe”.

​

Trump was reportedly so angered by the comment and its impact on share prices that he shouted down the phone at Messonnier’s boss, the secretary of health and human services, Alex Azar.

“Messonnier was 100% right. She gave a totally honest and accurate assessment,” Konyndyk told the Guardian. And for that, Trump angrily rebuked her department. “That sent a very clear message about what is and isn’t permissible to say.”​

I have to say as an Australian looking from the outside in, our own government was a little slow to act but it soon became apparent that severe measures were called for. But Trump is even slower! I have to agree with the article:

Top of their to-do list: work with private industry to develop an “easy-to-use, rapid diagnostic test” – in other words, just what South Korea was doing.

It was not until 29 February, more than a month after the Journal article and almost six weeks after the first case of coronavirus was confirmed in the country that the Trump administration put that advice into practice. Laboratories and hospitals would finally be allowed to conduct their own Covid-19 tests to speed up the process.

Those missing four to six weeks are likely to go down in the definitive history as a cautionary tale of the potentially devastating consequences of failed political leadership. Today, 86,012 cases have been confirmed across the US, pushing the nation to the top of the world’s coronavirus league table – above even China.​

 

[iluvatar5150]

Trump has his share of the blame but so does the CDC whose primary charge is protecting the health of the American public as well as the 50 Governors and their associated local health departments. Your statement is politically biased as there is more that enough blame to be shared by all involved.

Trump appointed CDC Director Robert Redfield, a man whose career was in virology, not public health. His lack of experience was noted at the time of his nomination.

Trump’s Pick for CDC Director Is Experienced But Controversial

CSPI Urges Administration Not to Appoint Dr. Robert Redfield, with History of Scientific Misconduct, as CDC Director | Center for Science in the Public Interest

And it appears things weren’t running very smoothly over there when this outbreak got going:
Internal Emails Show How Chaos at the CDC Slowed the Early Response to Coronavirus — ProPublica

 

[Strathos]

I can't stand Trump and would vote for a ham sandwich over him, but can we please wait until this is over to focus on assigning blame, and right now work to do everything we can to bring it under control? That's much more important.

 

[eclipsenow]

I can't stand Trump and would vote for a ham sandwich over him, but can we please wait until this is over to focus on assigning blame, and right now work to do everything we can to bring it under control? That's much more important.

What Americans should immediately do if you want to save potentially hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of lives (and I'm not kidding!) is have every infected area go into FULL lockdown and mass produce test kits like it's a war time economy.

How do you do that when your president still seems to be in denial, and more worried about his own stockmarket portfolio than his own citizens? There's a good case that you'll only know what to do by comparing South Korea over the last 6 weeks and America's FAILED response. Look at the outcomes. Look at the exponential runaway effect underway right now across the US! It's not about blame, although Trump bears all that and more. But it's about real world examples of success and utter failure, competence and incompetence, saving lives and condeming thousands to drowning to death as their lungs shut down.

Every American has got to scream blue murder at the way Trump has been more focussed on his own portfolio than his citizens. Every American has got to make as much noise as you can (from isolation) by writing to your local memberts DEMANDING both EXTREME LOCKDOWN for 6 weeks, and EXTREME mass production of test kits, with EXTREME testing regimes for even a bad case of the sniffles the other side of 6 weeks full lockdown. After 6 weeks FULL EXTREME LOCKDOWN there is evidence you can open up the economy. And if Trump won't facilitate this with every constitutional responsibility and power at his disposale, impeach him!

On 24 February, Trump claimed “the coronavirus is very much under control in the USA”. The next day, Nancy Messonnier, the CDC’s top official on respiratory diseases, took the radically different approach of telling the truth, warning the American people that “disruption to everyday life might be severe”.

Trump was reportedly so angered by the comment and its impact on share prices that he shouted down the phone at Messonnier’s boss, the secretary of health and human services, Alex Azar. “Messonnier was 100% right. She gave a totally honest and accurate assessment,” Konyndyk told the Guardian. And for that, Trump angrily rebuked her department. “That sent a very clear message about what is and isn’t permissible to say.”​

 

[Albion]

Those missing four to six weeks are likely to go down in the definitive history as a cautionary tale of the potentially devastating consequences of failed political leadership. Today, 86,012 cases have been confirmed across the US, pushing the nation to the top of the world’s coronavirus league table – above even China.​

That claim is unfounded. The president was working on the problem and taking it seriously from at least January. But at that time he was also attempting to keep the public from panicking, which is something every good leader knows to do.

 

[Oldmantook]

Um, the article gives per capita response measures, not unthinking numerical comparisons. Also, just accusing me of political bias doesn't undermine a single FACT presented in the article. Not one. Try again.

Also, don't try and separate out Trump from the CDC as it's his regime, and his chosen pandemic department. He's the one that cancelled the specialist pandemic unit in the national security council, putting all his faith in his administration's CDC. You ought to ask yourself what it's like to be the head of a federal agency going up against Trump's chosen brain-moment of the day. "It's not that serious" blah blah blah. Yeah, right. If I'm the boss of the CDC, I'm going to go up against that particular guy wearing a hamster as his hairpiece!
As the article says:-

In the absence of sufficient test kits, the US Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) initially kept a tight rein on testing, creating a bottleneck. “I believe the CDC was caught flat-footed,” was how the governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, put it on 7 March. “They’re slowing down the state.”

The CDC’s botched rollout of testing was the first indication that the Trump administration was faltering as the health emergency gathered pace. Behind the scenes, deep flaws in the way federal agencies had come to operate under Trump were being exposed.

In 2018 the pandemic unit in the national security council – which was tasked to prepare for health emergencies precisely like the current one – was disbanded. “Eliminating the office has contributed to the federal government’s sluggish domestic response,” Beth Cameron, senior director of the office at the time it was broken up, wrote in the Washington Post.​

The CDC and its officials existed before Trump took office. The State Governors both Repubs and Dems existed before Trump took office. State Health Depts. existed before Trump took office. Thus you are quite biased. Surely Trump bears responsibility but so do other authorities. To blame Trump exclusively as you do - is ludicrous.

 

[TLK Valentine]

We were caught off guard. Trump is not the only one who did not fully prepare for a pandemic.

The Buck Stops Somewhere. Donald wants the glory for all the great things he does (and most of the great things other people did); he get the blame when he drops the ball... it's a package deal.

 

[eclipsenow]

That claim is unfounded. The president was working on the problem and taking it seriously from at least January. But at that time he was also attempting to keep the public from panicking, which is something every good leader knows to do.

And what was he working on during that whole 6 weeks exactly?

 

[eclipsenow]

The CDC and its officials existed before Trump took office. The State Governors both Repubs and Dems existed before Trump took office. State Health Depts. existed before Trump took office. Thus you are quite biased. Surely Trump bears responsibility but so do other authorities. To blame Trump exclusively as you do - is ludicrous.

Again:-

It was not until 29 February, more than a month after the Journal article and almost six weeks after the first case of coronavirus was confirmed in the country that the Trump administration put that advice into practice. Laboratories and hospitals would finally be allowed to conduct their own Covid-19 tests to speed up the process.
​

If it's LUDICRIOUS to blame Trump, who else is authorised to approve labs and hospitals to finally be allowed to conduct their own tests? Serious question, who's the boss in this? Who is the authority? What evidence do you have that it wasn't the Trump regime's tardiness that set you guys back 6 weeks when South Korea just went for it?

The fact that Trump disbanded the NSC's health security office was a outright disaster and warned that this administration just did not respect the potential harm from a pandemic. Science was never this guy's thing! (Climate denial, anyone?) As USA today says:

WASHINGTON—In May 2018, President Donald Trump’s biodefense preparedness adviser warned that a flu pandemic was the country’s No. 1 health security threat, and the U.S. was not prepared.

“We know that it cannot be stopped at the border,” Luciana Borio, director of medical and biodefense preparedness at the National Security Council, said at a symposium that day.

Borio left the Trump administration in 2019. Other high-level global health experts headed for the exits even earlier, after the White House dismantled the National Security Council’s global health security office.

The demise of that elite team is now under scrutiny as the Trump administration struggles to respond to the coronavirus pandemic.​

Coronavirus: Did Trump's decision to nix pandemic team hinder response

Then this poor little princess goes into sulk mode after being caught out having done it! It's not HIS fault his administration closed this vital office!
Trump Says He Had No Idea His Pandemic Response Team Was Disbanded. What If That’s True?

But vital office it was, that would have more effectively co-ordinated the huge plethora of other agencies like the Health & Human Services office, CDC, Homeland Security, NVPO, FDA, etc etc etc etc etc!
Guides: Pandemic Flu - Public Health Research Guide: Agencies Responsible for Emergency Preparedness & Responses

 

[Oldmantook]

Again:-

It was not until 29 February, more than a month after the Journal article and almost six weeks after the first case of coronavirus was confirmed in the country that the Trump administration put that advice into practice. Laboratories and hospitals would finally be allowed to conduct their own Covid-19 tests to speed up the process.
​

If it's LUDICRIOUS to blame Trump, who else is authorised to approve labs and hospitals to finally be allowed to conduct their own tests? Serious question, who's the boss in this? Who is the authority? What evidence do you have that it wasn't the Trump regime's tardiness that set you guys back 6 weeks when South Korea just went for it?

The fact that Trump disbanded the NSC's health security office was a outright disaster and warned that this administration just did not respect the potential harm from a pandemic. Science was never this guy's thing! (Climate denial, anyone?) As USA today says:

WASHINGTON—In May 2018, President Donald Trump’s biodefense preparedness adviser warned that a flu pandemic was the country’s No. 1 health security threat, and the U.S. was not prepared.

“We know that it cannot be stopped at the border,” Luciana Borio, director of medical and biodefense preparedness at the National Security Council, said at a symposium that day.

Borio left the Trump administration in 2019. Other high-level global health experts headed for the exits even earlier, after the White House dismantled the National Security Council’s global health security office.

The demise of that elite team is now under scrutiny as the Trump administration struggles to respond to the coronavirus pandemic.​

Coronavirus: Did Trump's decision to nix pandemic team hinder response

Then this poor little princess goes into sulk mode after being caught out having done it! It's not HIS fault his administration closed this vital office!
Trump Says He Had No Idea His Pandemic Response Team Was Disbanded. What If That’s True?

But vital office it was, that would have more effectively co-ordinated the huge plethora of other agencies like the Health & Human Services office, CDC, Homeland Security, NVPO, FDA, etc etc etc etc etc!
Guides: Pandemic Flu - Public Health Research Guide: Agencies Responsible for Emergency Preparedness & Responses

I don't disagree with you that Trump is to blame. I disagree with you on putting all of the blame on Trump. In effect, you give a free pass to all the other politicians and officials who screwed up. Comprende?

 

[Tom 1]

Yeah, this is pretty compelling reading.

When the definitive history of the coronavirus pandemic is written, the date 20 January 2020 is certain to feature prominently. It was on that day that a 35-year-old man in Washington state, recently returned from visiting family in Wuhan in China, became the first person in the US to be diagnosed with the virus.

On the very same day, 5,000 miles away in Asia, the first confirmed case of Covid-19 was reported in South Korea. The confluence was striking, but there the similarities ended.

In the two months since that fateful day, the responses to coronavirus displayed by the US and South Korea have been polar opposites.​

The missing six weeks: how Trump failed the biggest test of his life

If there was anything normal about the Trump presidency this might be considered the biggest test of his life, from Trump’s POV however the biggest test is maintaining his fake ‘successful businessman/stable genius’ self image, bs about his real net worth and all of that nonsense. Those are the only kinds of things Trump is concerned about, the rest of the world could burn and he’d be there warming his hands in the glow.

 

[eclipsenow]

I don't disagree with you that Trump is to blame. I disagree with you on putting all of the blame on Trump. In effect, you give a free pass to all the other politicians and officials who screwed up. Comprende?

You keep saying you disagree and keep trying to spread blame.
You don't explain with facts and figures WHY you disagree and SHOW that we can spread the blame.

Again, if it's LUDICRIOUS to blame Trump, who else is authorised to approve labs and hospitals to finally be allowed to conduct their own tests? Serious question, who's the boss in this? Who is the authority? What evidence do you have that it wasn't the Trump regime's tardiness that set you guys back 6 weeks when South Korea just went for it?

 

[Allandavid]

I don't disagree with you that Trump is to blame. I disagree with you on putting all of the blame on Trump. In effect, you give a free pass to all the other politicians and officials who screwed up. Comprende?

Now, where did that buck go.....?

 

[Tom 1]

The president was working on the problem and taking it seriously from at least January.

What’s the basis for that idea?

 

[eclipsenow]

Even Business Insider says it:
_____________________________
Trump spent the past 2 years slashing the government agencies responsible for handling the coronavirus outbreak
Fears of a pandemic come after the Trump administration spent the past several years gutting the very government programs that are tasked with combatting such a crisis.

In 2018, for instance, the CDC cut 80% of its efforts to prevent global disease outbreaks because it was running out of money. Ultimately, the department went from working in 49 countries to just 10.

Here are some other actions the Trump administration undertook to dismantle government-spending programs related to fighting the spread of global diseases, according to Foreign Policy:

• Shutting down the entire global-health-security unit of the National Security Council.
• Eliminating the US government’s $US30 million Complex Crises Fund.
• Reducing national health spending by $US15 billion.
• Consistently attacking Mark Green, the director of the US Agency for International Development.

The CDC is working on a new test to screen for the coronavirus, but according to New York magazine, problems with the test’s development resulted in only three out of 100 public-health labs being equipped to screen for the virus. Moreover, each test costs as much as $US250, and the Health and Human Services Department is already running out of money to finance an adequate response to the outbreak.

The Trump administration recently requested $US2.5 billion in emergency funds – $US1.25 billion in new funding and $US1.25 billion to be diverted from other federal programs – to aid in preparing and responding to coronavirus cases in the US.

But Democratic lawmakers and health experts skewered the administration for not going far enough to combat the crisis.

The economic consequences of an unaddressed outbreak would dwarf US spending on efforts to control it, Marc Lipsitch, an epidemiologist and the director of the Centre for Communicable Disease Dynamics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, told Insider.

“It seems quite inadequate and absurd to divert funds from one serious epidemic to another,” Lipsitch said of the emergency-funding package. “Money to control it is a very important investment.”
Trump spent the past 2 years slashing the government agencies responsible for handling the coronavirus outbreak