On February 26, 2020, there were 56 cases of confirmed COVID-19 in the United States. That was the day that Donald Trump said we were “going down and not up” in cases because he was in denial. We are now over 80,000 cases as of today, and it is much, much higher than that due to a lack of testing.
The obvious reactionary comment is “there wasn’t testing.” Who was in charge of testing? What administration and agencies had taken control of building testing? Had Donald Trump taken this more seriously in January when he was briefed on it, we could have avoided quarantines. (Donald Trump famously does not read intelligence briefings.)
Sheltering in place was necessary because the FCA and CDC didn’t allow private labs to act faster. Other countries did it the right way sooner. They had a lot of tests, traced back connections with the sick and quarantined them, and masks were worn across the country. We didn’t do that. America and its government took this seriously too late. It took Tucker Carlson for Trump to take it seriously, and let’s be honest, Joe Rogan for the rest of us to care.
Conservatives and MAGA nation are the ones morphing from “it is a hoax” to “this is just hype” to “it is hurting the economy.” Don’t think the rest of us don’t notice your shifting concerns. The truth is that the buck has to stop somewhere, and Trump supporters never seem to realize their President IS the government and DOES have power and responsibility. If you’re upset that the economy has been “destroyed” by shelter-in-place, then put the blame where it belongs before giving an individual or an institution more power.
Here is my homework:
- Labs face challenges creating diagnosis testing for COVID-19 – www.modernhealthcare.com/technology/labs-face-challenges-creating-diagnosis-testing-covid-19
- U.S. coronavirus testing stalled for six weeks. A small German lab made 1.4 million tests in that time. – www.adn.com/nation-world/2020/03/17/us-coronavirus-testing-stalled-for-six-weeks-a-small-german-lab-made-14-million-tests-in-that-time/
- Analysis | South Korea’s coronavirus success story underscores how the U.S. initially failed – www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/03/17/south-koreas-coronavirus-success-story-underscores-how-us-initially-failed/
- Analysis | Was the White House office for global pandemics eliminated? – www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/03/20/was-white-house-office-global-pandemics-eliminated/
- Trump began to take coronavirus seriously after watching Tucker Carlson call it a “problem”: report – www.salon.com/2020/03/18/trump-began-to-take-coronavirus-seriously-after-watching-tucker-carlson-call-it-a-problem-report/
- A Complete List of Trump’s Attempts to Play Down Coronavirus – www.nytimes.com/2020/03/15/opinion/trump-coronavirus.html
- South Korea Preserved the Open Society and Now Infection Rates are Falling – www.aier.org/article/south-korea-preseved-open-infection-rates-are-falling
- U.S. intelligence reports from January and February warned about a likely pandemic – www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/us-intelligence-reports-from-january-and-february-warned-about-a-likely-pandemic/2020/03/20/299d8cda-6ad5-11ea-b5f1-a5a804158597_story.html
- The Lost Month: How a Failure to Test Blinded the U.S. to Covid-19 – www.nytimes.com/2020/03/28/us/testing-coronavirus-pandemic.html
- We Were Warned: When the inevitable inquiry into the government’s response to COVID-19 happens, it will conclude that signs of a coming crisis were everywhere. – www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/03/pandemic-coronavirus-united-states-trump-cdc/608215/
