It's Not 'Politicizing the Crisis' to Monitor How the President Is Handling a Crisis
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It's Not 'Politicizing the Crisis' to Monitor How the President Is Handling a Crisis
Photo credit: Doug Mills - Getty Images
OK first of all, it's not "politicizing the crisis" to monitor (or even criticize!) what your elected leaders are doing in a democracy. It's citizenship. It is self-government. It is your duty. It does not go on pause during a pandemic. You elected someone to represent your interests in government, and your job is to keep an eye on them and make sure they are doing so. If they are doing a bad job, or misrepresenting the situation, call it out. Your health and safety are on the line. That the situation is scary is not a reason to suddenly trust everything politicians say , especially if they have an extensive record of lying and incompetent administration.
Whew. With that out of the way, let's talk about the president's speech Thursday night. Just to reiterate, up to this point, the president's response has primarily been to suggest the virus will just go away miraculously , that people were going to work when they had the virus and it's no big deal, and that we are on the cusp of having an available vaccine . None of these ideas reflect reality. Also, he went to the CDC and made an ass of himself . He did institute a ban on travel from China which may have delayed the spread here, but we have not used the time to level-up our response capacity. We don't have enough ICU beds. We don't have enough tests. We are not prepared.
The president began well enough last night, sticking to the facts of what's actually happening, but eventually he went into his stump speech about how great the economy is and all that. Don't need it, dude. The most glaring issue, however, was that the president did not mention testing at all. The biggest problem we have is that there are not enough tests, so we don't have an accurate picture of how many people have it and where. The key to South Korea's successful response has been widespread testing . No mention of tests.
There was a ban on European travel, however, which Trump's own former homeland security adviser is on record as saying will not be effective: "There’s little value to European travel restrictions," Tom Bossert wrote on Twitter. "Poor use of time & energy. Earlier, yes. Now, travel restrictions/screening are less useful. We have nearly as much disease here in the US as the countries in Europe. We MUST focus on layered community mitigation measures-Now!"
Photo credit: JIM WATSON - Getty Images
The important thing for the president, however, was to frame this as a "foreign virus" —that is, an external threat that can be stopped with walls and travel bans. The solution to everything is pulling up the drawbridge, even when the invaders are already inside the castle. Even worse, he fucked up his announcement of the ban . The president said it applies to freight, meaning it constitutes a shutdown of a huge share of our trade with the European Union. This was false, as the White House was forced to make clear after. Dow Jones futures plummeted after the speech , hitting the eight-percent "circuit-breaker," and the market opened down 1,700 points Thursday.
It does appear that testing is finally beginning to ramp up, though it's still meager. We basically have not begun to scale up the capacity of our hospitals and other facilities which will likely see a huge influx of patients over the next week or two. This is reality. It is not some media vendetta against the president. Maybe it's time to consider that much of the other criticism he gets is not an attempt to score cheap political points, but an effort to do our duties as citizens and monitor the behavior of public servants. Maybe it's time to admit that the presidency is not an easy job that any shmuck from the teevee screen can do.
When you run for president, you're applying for a job. Part of it is crisis-management. Now there's a crisis, we ought to watch how the president manages it. We have been blessed that only a few genuine external crises have struck while this guy is in the big chair. This is the biggest test yet, except there isn't enough testing.
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He works for us. (He is supposed to work for us). Not the other way around.
Nice article. It won't penetrate Trump supporters though.
You need to quit wasting your time demeaning and demonizing Trump supporters.
You need to worry about getting your people elected to high office. Obviously, you've given up on that.
There are 1,274 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States. There are also over 94,000 ICU beds in the United States. The facts don't support the suggestion of a shortage. And the hair-on-fire implication that a COVID-19 infection will require ICU level treatment is pure political nonsense.
More testing will lower the mortality rate. Testing will identify people who are infected but exhibit mild or no symptoms. The medical experts have been telling the public that 80 pct of infections result in mild symptoms based on data from China. Based on that data there will need to be 500,000 COVID-19 cases before we approach a real crisis. At present there are 1,274 confirmed cases in the United States. The country is no where near a crisis at this point.
Ignorance of how international travel works is no excuse for dismissing travel bans. Passengers arriving from Europe did not necessarily originate in Europe. The number of confirmed cases in Europe doesn't mean anything. Europe is a stop over for Asian and Middle Eastern travelers. Passengers arriving at European airports won't be screened if they don't leave an international terminal before boarding a connecting flight to the United States. The only way to overcome that flaw in the system would be to screen every passenger as they exit every airplane. The checkpoints would need to moved to the gates.
The stock market is not an indicator of the strength or resilience of the United States economy. In case no one has noticed, gold and bonds are not tracking with the stock market. Investors are not seeking safety, they are seeking liquidity. The stock market behavior is not being caused by weakness in the banking or financial sector. The stock market behavior is not being caused by inadequate money supply, either.
Lying about the 'crisis' just to blame Trump is nothing more than dirty politics based on disinformation.
The head of the CDC testified before Congress yesterday, "COVID-19 is ten times more lethal than the seasonal flu."
You do realize that means a mortality rate of 1 pct of COVID-19 infections compared to 0.1 pct of seasonal influenza infections. But we don't know the extent of COVID-19 infections. Based on the medical reporting that 80 pct of COVID-19 infections result in mild symptoms (based on data from China) that would extrapolate to a mortality rate of 0.2 pct for COVID-19.
We know the extent of infection for seasonal flu. But we don't know the extent of COVID-19 infection since it's a new disease. If expanded testing confirms the data from China then the mortality rate will be much lower than the head of the CDC indicated.
tRump is the one lying about the crisis and providing much dis- and mis-information.
What a botched and inept and incompetent bumbling handling of a crisis.
I bet he wishes now he had never disassembled that pandemic response team because Obama now.
The United States is no where near a crisis. Medical experts are recommending quarantines, hygiene, and social distancing as effective means of controlling spread of COVID-19. (Haven't you notice how many events have been cancelled?) Medical experts are recommending avoiding travel. We are experiencing shortages because China (our supplier) has adopted quarantines and social distancing measures to avoid spread of the virus. The manufacturing sector of the United States cannot supply what is needed. The behavior of the stock market indicates that stimulating the financial sector won't help the economy.
Expecting Trump to rebuild in days what supply-side Republicans and Democrats have destroyed over decades is a demand for foo-foo dust, pixies, and angels. Trump is doing pretty well considering how little he has to work with.
Not political to point out what a FAILURE crooked donnie has been through the coronavirus crisis.
Don't forget this is the man that said, it's like the flu, you can go to work...you will get better, this will be gone when the weather gets warmer, etc.......
Crooked donnie is the WORST president in the history of the US
It's Not 'Politicizing the Crisis' to Monitor How the President Is Handling a Crisis
No, it's not. But lying about how the president is handling the virus IS politicizing a so called crisis. Liberals have "hair on fire" this virus since January, and with the exception of over 20 deaths in 1 nursing home in Washington, there have been 13 deaths nationwide, with a population of over 330 million people..
On a side note....Last night after Trump's oval office speech, CNN;s Acosta called Trump xenophobic because he referred to the virus as a "foreign" virus. Of course, he was hammered for that because CNN themselves have called the virus the "foreign", "Chinese" , and "Wuhan" virus.
As I am typing this Biden just referred to the virus as a "foreign" virus. I wonder if Acosta will jump on tv and call him xenophobic. Some how I don't think he will.
On top of this, the stock market recovered some to being down 1200 points right before Biden began talking. Since then the market tanked another 600 points.