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‘Maybe I have a natural ability’: Trump plays medical expert on coronavirus by second-guessing the professionals

  

Category:  News & Politics

Via:  john-russell  •  4 years ago  •  10 comments

‘Maybe I have a natural ability’: Trump plays medical expert on coronavirus by second-guessing the professionals
The upshot was that the self-proclaimed medical savant came off looking less interested in his administration's unsteady efforts to mitigate the spread of the virus than he was in bolstering his own status in a campaign year. Trump repeatedly sought to judge his administration's performance by the numbers of how many have been shown to have contracted the virus and comparing it with other nations - and, in doing so, appeared to be making judgments based solely on that scorecard.

S E E D E D   C O N T E N T



President Donald Trump likes to say that he fell into politics almost by accident, and on Friday, as he sought to calm a nation gripped with fears over coronavirus, he suggested he would have thrived in another profession - medical expert.

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"I like this stuff. I really get it," Trump boasted to reporters during a tour of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, where he met with actual doctors and scientists who are feverishly scrambling to contain and combat the deadly illness. Citing a "great, super-genius uncle" who taught at MIT, Trump professed that it must run in the family genes.

"People are really surprised I understand this stuff," he said. "Every one of these doctors said, 'How do you know so much about this?' Maybe I have a natural ability."



But for members of the general public alarmed by more than 300 diagnosed cases in the United States - including at least 21 that his administration announced Friday were discovered on a cruise ship off the San Francisco coast - Trump's performance during an impromptu 45-minute news conference at CDC was not necessarily reassuring.

Sporting his trademark red 2020 campaign hat with the slogan "Keep America Great," the president repeatedly second-guessed and waved off the actual medical professionals standing next to him. He attacked his Democratic rivals - including calling Washington Gov. Jay Inslee a "snake" for criticizing his response - and chided a CNN reporter for smiling and called her network "fake news." And he described coronavirus testing kits - which his administration has been criticized for being slow to distribute - as "beautiful" and saying they were as "perfect" as his Ukraine phone call last summer that led him to be impeached.


The upshot was that the self-proclaimed medical savant came off looking less interested in his administration's unsteady efforts to mitigate the spread of the virus than he was in bolstering his own status in a campaign year. Trump repeatedly sought to judge his administration's performance by the numbers of how many have been shown to have contracted the virus and comparing it with other nations - and, in doing so, appeared to be making judgments based solely on that scorecard.

He declared he would prefer to keep the thousands of passengers and crew on the cruise ship off the California coast aboard the vessel rather than bring them ashore for quarantine, though he acknowledged that Vice President Mike Pence and other top aides were arguing for the ship to be brought to port.


"I like the numbers being where they are," Trump said. "I don't need the numbers to double because of one ship that wasn't our fault." He had been furious last month upon learning that Americans in China with coronavirus were flown back to the United States in a decision made by the State Department without consulting him.

Asked if a decision had been made about the latest ship's fate, Trump appeared uncertain. "Uh, that's a good question," he responded. He later said he authorized his aides to decide - and Pence announced at a news briefing in Washington shortly after the president concluded his remarks that the ship would, in fact, be directed to a noncommercial port where everyone on board would be tested.

For the president, the reporters' follow-up questions about the rate of coronavirus testing were a nuisance. CDC Director Robert Redfield and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar stressed that the administration had authorized tens of thousands of testing kits to be distributed. But as Azar sought to parry with a reporter by calling on Redfield to back him up, Trump, without looking at Azar, raised his right hand and waved him off.

Redfield said the agency had sent out 75,000 kits. Then Trump jumped in: "Anybody who wants a test will get a test, that's the bottom line." A few moments later, he jokingly compared the situation to his phone call last summer in which he had pressured Ukraine's president to launch an investigation into Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son.

"The tests are all perfect, like the letter was perfect, the transcription was perfect, right?" Trump said. "This was not as perfect as that, but pretty good."

Trump argued that the death rate in the United States - 15 Americans have died of the virus, though Trump said 11 - remains artificially high because many people who have the illness are not reporting to hospitals because their symptoms are minor. While experts have said that is probably true, the argument seemed to undercut Trump's efforts to minimize the scope of the crisis.

While explaining this, Trump appeared irritated by the reaction of a reporter. "You're smiling when I say that. Where are you from?" he asked. When she replied CNN, the president snapped: "I don't watch CNN. That's why I don't recognize you. I don't watch CNN because CNN is fake news."

The medical professionals around him smiled uncomfortably.

The president had a more positive reaction to Fox News. While explaining he had watched the network's coronavirus coverage aboard Air Force One en route from Nashville - where he had toured tornado damage earlier in the day - to Atlanta, Trump cut himself off.

"How was the show last night?" Trump asked a Fox reporter in the room, referring to a Fox News-produced, town-hall-style event in Scranton, Pennsylvania, that he had participated in the night before.

"Did it get good ratings?" Trump said. The reporter said he didn't know. "Oh, really?" Trump continued. "I heard it broke all ratings records. But maybe that's wrong. That's what they told me."

As his aides did their best to curry Trump's favor - they praised his leadership and sought to reinforce some of his pronouncements - the president opined on the falling stock markets, insisting he is happy that Americans are canceling travel plans abroad to "stay in the United States and spend money in the United States."

Though his CDC trip had been canceled over a coronavirus scare at the agency - before being reinstated after the employee tested negative - Trump boasted that he was taking no special precautions while touring the labs.

"Not at all," he said. "I'm not a person who has been big on handshaking. They used to make fun of me. But as a politician, you walk in and the doctors have their hands out, 'Hello, sir.' That's my business. I never thought I'd be a politician. But I feel very secure."


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JohnRussell
Professor Principal
1  seeder  JohnRussell    4 years ago

This is one of the more nauseating news articles I have read in a while. 

Trump is literally disgracing the presidency of the United States in plain sight. 

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
2  seeder  JohnRussell    4 years ago
"I like the numbers being where they are," Trump said. "I don't need the numbers to double because of one ship that wasn't our fault." He had been furious last month upon learning that Americans in China with coronavirus were flown back to the United States in a decision made by the State Department without consulting him.

He is saying, in his own words, that the "numbers" , the political implication, are most important to him. 

 
 
 
lady in black
Professor Quiet
3  lady in black    4 years ago

He has the natural ability to be a liar, crook, bully, buffoon, moron, imbecile, etc. He is the worst president this country has ever had

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
3.1  seeder  JohnRussell  replied to  lady in black @3    4 years ago
He had been furious last month upon learning that Americans in China with coronavirus were flown back to the United States in a decision made by the State Department without consulting him.

He didnt want anything making him look less than "perfect".  He is a despicable human being. 

 
 
 
igknorantzrulz
PhD Quiet
3.1.1  igknorantzrulz  replied to  JohnRussell @3.1    4 years ago

it is

ALL ABOUT HIM  and   ALWAYS WILL BE

.

Even his daily Defenders are skipping commentary on the mental midget in chiefs

Extremely excruciatingly cruel for 'normal' Americans to endure,

cause when it comes to being President,

Trump is Russian Prostitute Piss Poor ! 

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
3.1.2  seeder  JohnRussell  replied to  igknorantzrulz @3.1.1    4 years ago

Not a single Trumpster has come on this article. Obviously they are hoping it gets no comments and goes away quickly. 

There is no defense for what Trump said at the CDC yesterday. 

 
 
 
igknorantzrulz
PhD Quiet
3.1.3  igknorantzrulz  replied to  JohnRussell @3.1.2    4 years ago

There is NO DEFENCE for this attacking of the TRUTH, as his LIES will now begin to

KILL

his very own Ignorant defenders/followers.

And STILL, 

NOTHING from the GUTLESS \GOP SENATE...

they all deserve to be REMOVED

as they are fckn scum !

''they have the tests, and the tests are beautiful''

LIAR !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 
 
 
Split Personality
Professor Guide
3.1.4  Split Personality  replied to  JohnRussell @3.1    4 years ago

It ruins his contention that the Obama Administration knowingly allowed Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian,

to fly to the USA from Africa to visit his wife and their 5 children.  Upon exiting Liberia, he lied about having contact

with any Ebola patients.  He had just taken his landlady to the clinic by taxi and when they refused her,

took her home again, quit his job and went to the airport.

Upon arriving in the USA he stayed with his family but became ill and went to Texas Presbyterian where he was seen in the ER, misdiagnosed and given some flu meds and sent home, in spite of his having told them he just arrived from Liberia, Africa, the center of the Ebola crisis.

Several days later, he was admitted to the hospital by ambulance, this time for Ebola.  He died 4 days later.

THPH was sued, and wiped out the patients fees, paying the family an undisclosed sum for the misdiagnosis, mistreatment and death of the patient.

Now the Trump DHS brought back two planeloads of symptomatic people from China and Japan to Travis AFB...

But Obama.....

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
4  seeder  JohnRussell    4 years ago

Do you have a nagging medical concern? A rash that won't go away? Unexplained hearing loss? Are you currently bleeding out from a severed femoral artery?

Well, fret no more. America now has a leading medical expert — some say the best — who will dispense diagnoses and prognoses to all — for free! This bold new telemedicine initiative, "Ask Dr.   Trump ," will be offered on an unpredictable but highly frequent basis to all Americans (whether they like it or not).

Dr. Donald J.   Trump , of course, is the pioneering scientist who first determined that climate change is a hoax and, more recently, discovered that windmills cause cancer. In between, he proved that forest fires could be contained by "raking" and identified a previously unrecognized tropical cyclone pattern targeting Alabama.

Dr.   Trump   acquired what he calls "a natural instinct for science" not through formal education but because "my uncle was a great professor at MIT for many years." Sadly, the elder   Trump   didn't live to see his nephew's greatest discoveries in the medical field: The flu shot is basically "injecting bad stuff into your body" and exercise can shorten your life. Dr.   Trump   used his instinctive grasp of medicine to become "the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency" with an innate life expectancy of 200 years.

To the relief of millions, this extremely stable genius has turned to the challenge of solving the novel coronavirus, or as Dr.   Trump   spells it in the Latin, "Caronavirus." Early on in the outbreak, Dr.   Trump   was among the first to determine that the virus "miraculously goes away" in April. Dr.   Trump 's pathbreaking epidemiology enabled him to determine that the World Health Organization's report that 3.4 percent of "reported" cases of the virus have died is a "false number."   Trump 's research, based extensively on "my hunch," puts the true figure at "way under 1 percent."

Related research by Dr.   Trump   found spread of the virus is not "inevitable," that cases in the United States are "going very substantially down" — and that they "are all getting better." This informed Dr.   Trump 's reclassification of the coronavirus as a "new hoax" by Democrats — though he later clarified that the illness itself was not the hoax, only Democrats' attempts to blame him.

In fact, Dr.   Trump 's DNA research has determined that neither he nor bats nor pangolins caused the virus's spread but rather President Barack Obama. "The Obama administration made a decision on testing that turned out to be very detrimental to what we're doing,"   Trump   disclosed, a finding that eluded experts.

Given the reduced virulence that Dr.   Trump   discovered, he concluded there could be "hundreds of thousands of people that get better just by, you know, sitting around and even going to work" — though he "NEVER said people that are feeling sick should go to work." But even if they did, Dr.   Trump 's pharmaceutical advances have put us "very close to a vaccine," within "months" — about a year ahead of other experts' forecasts.

This breakthrough is possible because while other medical authorities have classified coronavirus as "novel," Dr.   Trump   has determined that "this is a flu" and he renamed it the " corona   flu." Therefore he suspects that "a solid flu vaccine" would have efficacy, and "we'll essentially have a flu shot for this."

Now that Dr.   Trump   has beaten the virus and sent the sick back to work, it would be a tragedy to waste his medical expertise. Hence, the demand for an "Ask Dr.   Trump " column, which should go something like this:

A reader asks: Dr.   Trump , the left side of my body has gone numb and immobile. What should I do?

Dr.   Trump   replies: If you are healthy, you will probably go through a process and you'll be fine.

A reader asks: Dr.   Trump , I am experiencing chest pains and shortness of breath. Should I call 911?

Dr.   Trump   replies: It's very seasonal. It's like a flu. And it is a little bit different, but in some ways it's easier and in some ways it's a little bit tougher. But we have it so well under control.

A reader asks: Dr.   Trump , my mother is in a persistent vegetative state. Should I continue life support?

Dr.   Trump   replies: That's a problem that's going to go away. People get better just by, you know, sitting around and even going to work.

A reader asks: Dr.   Trump , we've got a mass casualty situation at the ER. Can you advise us on triage?

Dr.   Trump   replies: When somebody sneezes — I mean, I try to bail out as much as possible. Hey — did you get a flu shot?
 
 
 
Larry Hampton
Professor Participates
5  Larry Hampton    4 years ago

This, coming from the same asshat who said that he heard "some soldiers had headaches" when their camp was attacked in Iran; and, over a hundred had TBIs.

 
 

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