A lot would have been different if someone else, regardless of party, had been in charge.
According to Ronald Klain, who was Obama's Ebola Czar, in a twitter response to a
Fox News Interview with Mitch McConnell:
We literally left them a 69-page Pandemic Playbook.... that they ignored
And an office called the Pandemic Preparedness Office... that they abolished.
And a global monitoring system called PREDICT .. that they cut by 75%
McConnell later stated he wasn't aware info had been left, but he corrected his statement days later that pandemic preparedness was left behind. Now according to
Trump and his Press Secretary, (1 min vid at the link) they have been working off their own plan since August, something that is "much better," which means none of Obama's plan's left behind matter or should even be considered, because he is on record as stating they were scrapped.
That said, when things are declared an emergency or public health emergency or national emergency, certain processes can be activated. Obama didn't wait for the WHO to declare the swine fly a pandemic.
He declared it a public health emergency when only 20 cases were here, and six months later a national emergency.
He immediately asked for funding.
Now contrast this with the Trump administration.
According to the
Whistle Blower, in January we had CIVILIANS trying to get our government to act. You mean to tell me a civilian could read the tea leaves better than our own intelligence agencies?
From
WAPO:
Bowen’s medical supply company, Prestige Ameritech, could ramp up production to make an additional 1.7 million N95 masks a week. He viewed the shrinking domestic production of medical masks as a national security issue, though, and he wanted to give the federal government first dibs.
“We still have four like-new N95 manufacturing lines,” Bowen wrote that day in an email to top administrators in the Department of Health and Human Services. “Reactivating these machines would be very difficult and very expensive but could be achieved in a dire situation.”
But communications over several days with senior agency officials — including Robert Kadlec, the assistant secretary for preparedness and emergency response — left Bowen with the clear impression that there was little immediate interest in his offer.
“I don’t believe we as an government are anywhere near answering those questions for you yet,” Laura Wolf, director of the agency’s Division of Critical Infrastructure Protection, responded that same day.
Bowen persisted.
“We are the last major domestic mask company,” he wrote on Jan. 23. “My phones are ringing now, so I don’t ‘need’ government business. I’m just letting you know that I can help you preserve our infrastructure if things ever get really bad. I’m a patriot first, businessman second.”
In the end, the government did not take Bowen up on his offer. Even today, production lines that could be making more than 7 million masks a month sit dormant.
In February,
Chris Murphy tried to get the WH to take funding for Covid-19. He Tweeted
early February:
"Just left the Administration briefing on Coronavirus. Bottom line: they aren't taking this seriously enough. Notably, no request for ANY emergency funding, which is a big mistake. Local health systems need supplies, training, screening staff etc. And they need it now." Another administration would have listened.
When the Trump administration
finally did ask for money, the democrats tried to tell them it wasn't enough. When he set up a task force, it was Mike Pence and other non-medical professionals. IMO, they are not in place to make decisions to preserve life, they are there to preserve the pockets of their donors and the stock market at whatever risk to life is necessary. Death Panels? That is so 2009. Now Grandma and Grandpa should WANT to sacrifice themselves to the machine.
Sorry, I digress.
Instead of encouraging people to take it seriously and take precautions, Trump was telling people it was going to go away and urging folks to go out. We've all seen the mashups of his nonsense, so I won't repost that. Even now he is dithering back and forth. He likes to flex his power every chance he gets, but we couldn't get him to act on his emergency powers and federalize the supply chain. There has been no explanation given, but I believe it is because he didn't want to make business owners whom he wants favor with mad at him. I believe they also wanted people to be able to profit off supplies.
As Chris Murphy also
said, we have:
No federalization of the supply chain.
No national testing program.
No national closure and reopening standards.
No effort to lead the global response.
The problem isn’t that Trump’s COVID response has been flawed. The problem is he’s mounted NO NATIONAL RESPONSE AT ALL.
Trump told the governors that they had to do it on their own, that he wasn't a
shipping clerk. Then when they tried to get their own supplies, they confiscated them
over and
over and
over again. There is no organization or coordination.
The Trump administration said there were no masks or equipment left in our stock pile by the Obama administration, yet we had
17 tons of supplies to send to China February 7th. The official notice states they were donated supplies but who knows. (To be fair, there were some expired masks in the stockpile, that had expired before Obama's term ended.)
They are trying to
control the guidance being given by CDC. Causing confusion and distrust.
So to recap, the processes in place to monitor, identify and fight pandemics before they reached our shores were either abolished or reduced. The Trump administration failed to heed warnings from civilians, intelligence
briefings etc. They refused funding. Trump told Americans it was no big deal, that it was a simple flu that would pass and just one day disappear. He has not federalized the supply chain. (Why its not a national security issue that all our medical supplies are made outside our country is beyond me, but that didn't start with Trump.) He is exerting inappropriate influence upon CDC and other organizations that should not be politicized. Trump is undermining local states and encouraging Americans to defy the guidelines meant to keep us safe, encouraging social unrest for political gain and sometimes
resulting in violence. Presidents used to encourage us to maintain peace, calm and goodwill toward one another. Those days are over, I guess. There is also info out there that he is going to transfer the handling of pandemics to the
State Department. We'll see.
IMO, Trump would rather have the appearance of solving an issue to gain votes, over actually solving the issue to earn votes and well deserved praise. It's all showmanship but it's a waste of time because he can't wish the virus away and pretend it doesn't exist. This is not something that can be ignored. He can tell his supporters it is fake news and the media hyping things to hurt him, something that would have to have been coordinated with all the countries in the world, but sooner or later they or someone they know, will be touched by this pandemic and come to know the truth. (I wouldn't put a coordinated effort to target Trump past other governments, but I doubt seriously they would kill their own citizens and family to make it happen.)
Anyway, mark your calendars for 3 weeks from now. There was
event, after
event, after
event (YouTube news report) this weekend where people were packed one on top of another with no masks. Two
covid-19 positive hair stylists have exposed over 140 people to covid-19. Not to mention all the folks who went back to church and are having family gatherings for the holiday. We have almost 100k dead. I hope I'm wrong, but I believe that is going to be blown up over the next month.
Now is not the time to ease up on the precautions in place. Don't go out because you see everyone else out and having a good time. I hope everyone stays safe. Be blessed.
