How did America become the coronavirus epicenter?

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How did America become the coronavirus epicenter?
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flag DoubleCrownAddict
Posted: Apr 20, 2020 at 8:24 Quote
Lack of testing and lack of leadership are the two primary factors that led to the lack of containment of the coronavirus in America.

Leadership is the most important factor that was missing, because had responsible leadership been in place there would have been much more initiative to get early testing done which would have made a huge difference in preventing new clusters from emerging in cities across America.

Because of poor leadership the NSC guidelines that should have been followed to help prepare for the pandemic were ignored. This is the primary reason there are over 50,000 deaths in America, an unprecedented percentage of the country is unemployed, and the US government will have a mind-boggling $5,000,000,000,000+ yearly ederal deficit for 2020.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.businessinsider.com/trump-admin-ignored-obama-era-nsc-pandemic-prep-document-politico-2020-3%3famp

In 2018 the Trump Administration shut down the NSC health unit responsible for leading the White House's response to global pandemics and other biological challenges and consolidated it into a separate department under the leadership of then-National Security Advisor John Bolton.

John Bolton has virtually no experience with public health and he abruptly resigned before President Trump's impeachment because he did not want to be part of the Presidents "drug deal" in seeking political favors from the President of Ukraine.

In May 2018, This situation was made even worse when Trump ordered the NSC's global-health unit to close and reassigned Rear Adm. Timothy Ziemer, who would've overseen the US response to a pandemic in that role. 

https://www.businessinsider.com/fauci-would-be-nice-trump-hadnt-scrapped-nsc-global-health-2020-3

Trump also chose to replace Bolton with Robert O'Brien, who is essentially a lawyer who also has no public health experience in his background even though Trump put him on the Coronavirus task force.

But before Bolton left he made the devastating decision to fire Tom Bossert, the White House homeland security adviser who had pushed for a robust strategy against pandemics and biological attacks.

So there was basically nobody of significance in any position inside the American government that would be in a position to recognize the dangers of the emerging pandemic and warn our top leaders to effectively prepare.

It's almost as if President Trump did everything possible beforehand to make sure America was unprepared for this type of pandemic, despite the fact that Trump claims he is a medical expert and that just last year held simulations that predicted many of the failures that have made the pandemic so much worse than it should habe been.

It is also notable that ALL of Trump’s budget proposals since he became President have called for cuts to CDC funding, but Congress has intervened each time by passing spending bills with year-over-year increases for the CDC that Trump then signed into law.

In 2019, the Trump administration held a series of training simulations on a hypothetical pandemic caused by a virus that predicted, with remarkable accuracy, many of the problems and shortfalls currently plaguing the US' response to the novel coronavirus outbreak. 

The New York Times reported that the war-game style training exercise, which was led by the Department of Health and Human Services and included multiple federal agencies, 12 states, and private stakeholders, simulated a scenario where a respiratory virus dubbed "The Crimson Contagion" originated in China and rapidly spread through the US.

The simulation documented some of the exact same scenarios appearing now in American hospitals.

These included a lack of funding and shortages of medical equipment, delays and inconsistencies at the state and local levels over school closures, and systemic problems in manufacturing more medical supplies. It also includes a mandate that most people work from home and practice social distancing."

Trump was briefed on the playbook’s existence in his first year—had he listened, the government would’ve started getting equipment to doctors and America would have been more prepared for the pandemic.

One of the primary recommendations in the NSC guidelines ignored by the Trump administration was to have one person take the lead publicly early on and engaging the public and essentially scaring them into taking precautions such as social distancing and the importance of wearing masks.

Instead at that crucial time while coronavirus was emerging in America we had President Trump completely lying to the American public and misleading them regarding the severity of the danger from it:

Jan. 10 Trump Tweet: "China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American People, I want to thank President Xi!"

It is now highly ironic that 127,000 of President Trump's own followers liked this tweet complimenting China and their transparency, and shows how clueless President Trump and his followers were concerning coronavirus.

Health & Human Serviced Secretary Alex Azar briefed President Trump on the seriousness of the virus on a January 18th phone call.

Two days later, the virus was confirmed in both the U.S. and South Korea.

That week, South Korean officials immediately drafted medical companies to develop test kits for mass production. The WHO declared a global health emergency. But Trump … did nothing.

On Jan. 22 President Trump was asked by a reporter: "Are there worries about a pandemic at this point?"

“No, not at all. We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China and we have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.”

In the same interview Trump was asked: "With President Xi, there's just some talk with China that maybe the transparency isn't everything it's going to be. Do you trust that we're going to know everything we need to know from China?

"I do, I do. I have a good relationship with President Xi."
— Trump in a CNBC interview.

The last quote is also pretty ironic in retrospect, since Trump is now cutting funding for the WHO because it has complimented China's transparency.

On Jan. 29 President Trump's trade advisor Peter Navarro wrote a shocking memo predicting the coronavirus pandemic could cause half a million deaths and trillions of dollars in economic losses. President Trump denies ever seeing it.

On Jan 30 Alex Azar warned President Trump that it could turn into a pandemic and that China should be criticized for their lack of transparency. "Stop panicking," Trump told him.

Jan. 30 President Trump: "We think we have it very well under control. We have very little problem in this country at this moment — five — and those people are all recuperating successfully. But we’re working very closely with China and other countries, and we think it’s going to have a very good ending for us … that I can assure you.” — Trump in a speech in Michigan.

On Jan 31 the travel ban on China was announced, the one step Trump can point to in defending his coronavirus response. But at that point over 400,000 people had traveled from China to U.S. since the Coronavirus had surfaced. Despite the travel ban reports have revealed that 40,000 Americans actually have come into the U.S. from China since the travel ban was announced.

Feb. 2 President Trump: "We pretty much shut it down coming in from China."

Feb. 10 President Trump "You know in April it supposedly dies with the hotter weather."!

Feb. 10 President Trump: “Now, the virus that we’re talking about having to do — you know, a lot of people think that goes away in April with the heat — as the heat comes in. Typically, that will go away in April. We’re in great shape though. We have 12 cases — 11 cases, and many of them are in good shape now.” — Trump at the White House. (See our item “Will the New Coronavirus ‘Go Away’ in April?“)

On Feb. 13 HHS Secretary Azar announced a plan to help track the virus in the general population but his plan was rejected and the cdc failed to make tests available.

Feb. 14 President Trump: “There’s a theory that, in April, when it gets warm — historically, that has been able to kill the virus.  So we don’t know yet; we’re not sure yet. But that’s around the corner.” — Trump in speaking to National Border Patrol Council members.

On Feb. 21 the White House Coronavirus task force gathers and discussed taking textbook mitigation efforts and concluded it would be necessary to take severe steps to slow the spread of the virus at some point, despite the economic costs.

Feb. 23 President Trump: “We have it very much under control in this country.” — Trump in speaking to reporters.

On Feb 24 Dr. Robert Kadlec, the top disaster response official at HHS presented a mitigation plan to President Trump and warned the President that serious steps needed to be taken. But nothing was done for several weeks, the White House instead focused on messaging and crucial weeks passed while the viris spread largely unimpeded before President Trump reluctantly accepted their views.

Feb. 24 President Trump: “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries. CDC & World Health have been working hard and very smart. Stock Market starting to look very good to me!” — Trump in a tweet.

The stock market has lost 20% of its value since President Trump's Feb. 24 recommendation to invest in it, the largest drop since the great depression. The president was obviously in deep denial about what was ahead.

Feb. 25 President Trump: "People are getting better. They're all getting better."

Feb. 26 President Trump: “So we’re at the low level. As they get better, we take them off the list, so that we’re going to be pretty soon at only five people. And we could be at just one or two people over the next short period of time. So we’ve had very good luck.” — Trump at a White House briefing.

Feb. 26: “And again, when you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that’s a pretty good job we’ve done.” — Trump at a press conference.

Feb. 26: “I think every aspect of our society should be prepared. I don’t think it’s going to come to that, especially with the fact that we’re going down, not up. We’re going very substantially down, not up.” — Trump at a press conference, when asked if “U.S. schools should be preparing for a coronavirus spreading.”

Feb. 27: “It’s going to disappear. One day — it’s like a miracle — it will disappear.” — Trump at a White House meeting with African American leaders.

Feb 28: "The coronavirus...you know that right? Coronavirus... and this is their new hoax, were 15 people in this massive country. And because of the fact that we won early, we won early, we could have had alot more than that. We're doing great. Our country is doing so great." -- Trump at his own Campaign rally.

Feb 28: "...and you'll be fine."

Feb. 29: “And I’ve gotten to know these professionals. They’re incredible. And everything is under control. I mean, they’re very, very cool. They’ve done it, and they’ve done it well. Everything is really under control.” — Trump in a speech at the CPAC conference outside Washington, D.C.

March 2 President Trump: "Now they're gonna have vaccines, I think relatively soon. "

March 3 President Trump: "Not only the vaccines but the therapies. Therapies is sort of another word for cure."

March 4 Trump:We're talking about very small numbers in the United States.

March 4: “[W]e have a very small number of people in this country [infected]. We have a big country. The biggest impact we had was when we took the 40-plus people [from a cruise ship]. … We brought them back. We immediately quarantined them. But you add that to the numbers. But if you don’t add that to the numbers, we’re talking about very small numbers in the United States.” — Trump at a White House meeting with airline CEOs.

March 4: “Well, I think the 3.4% is really a false number.” — Trump in an interview on Fox News, referring to the percentage of diagnosed COVID-19 patients worldwide who had died, as reported by the World Health Organization. (See our item “Trump and the Coronavirus Death Rate.”)

On March 5th the chief of the World Health Organization (WHO) explicitly beseeched world leaders to prepare, warning that the “epidemic can be pushed back, but only with a collective, coordinated and comprehensive approach that engages the entire machinery of government."

Armed with all of that evidence, President Donald Trump spent the next week treating COVID-19 in much the same way that he had over the previous two months: he hosted large gatherings at Mar-a-Lago, went golfing, attended fundraisers, dispensed misinformation about the virus and flouted social distancing guidelines known to stem its spread. If his behavior was meant to be a model for Americans to follow, the message was clear — life could proceed as normal.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/amp/2941076001

March 6 Trump: "Our numbers are lower than just about anybody's."

March 7: “No, I’m not concerned at all. No, we’ve done a great job with it.” — Trump, when asked by reporters if he was concerned about the arrival of the coronavirus in the Washington, D.C., area. 

March 9: “So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on. At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!” — Trump in a tweet. 295,000 of President Trump's followers "liked" that tweet by the President. No doubt that many of them ignored social distancing recommendations based upon President Trump downplaying it.

March 10 Trump: "It's really working out, and alot of great things are gonna happen."

March 10: “And we’re prepared, and we’re doing a great job with it. And it will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away.” — Trump after meeting with Republican senators.

March 11 Trump: "and were responding with great speed and professionalism."

March 12 Trump: "Its gonna go away."

March 13 Trump: "No, I don't take responsibility at all."

March 15 Trump: "It'll all be so great. We're gonna be so good."

March 16 Trump: "This came up. It all came up so suddenly."

March 17 Trump: "This is a pandemic. I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic. All you had to do was look at other countries."


President Trump's quotes reveal that he was completely out of touch and that he was likely more concerned about fears of a pandemic hurting the stock market rather more than anything else. His recommendationation to invest in the stock market in the initial stages of the pandemic tells you everything about his priorities.

President Trump is now desperately attempting to put the blame for the massive failures of his administration on the media, the states, and the WHO. President Trump is now using taxpayer money to produce completely disingenuous propaganda videos for partisan political purposes and using coronavirus task force briefings to promote the propaganda. Of course he also blames the administration of Barack Obama, who left office years ago and who also briefed the Trump administration on the importance of preparing for a pandemic.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.politico.com/amp/news/2020/03/16/trump-inauguration-warning-scenario-pandemic-132797

"But roughly two-thirds of the Trump representatives in that room are no longer serving in the administration. That extraordinary turnover in the months and years that followed is likely one reason his administration has struggled to handle the very real pandemic it faces now, former Obama administration officials said."

Trump's chaotic presidency, full of corruption, lies, and constant scandal, has created instability at the highest levels of our government which left it unresponsive to a health crisis.

Trump says repeatedly says he inherited a broken system, but if he is the health expert he claims to be then why didn't he fix in during his first three years? Why didn't he listen to the NSC recommendations earlier in the year after pandemic simulations had found serious flaws in Americas ability to respond?

This is a President who has consistently criticized, defunded, and spread distrust for American governmental agencies, science, and any media who criticizes him. This is clearly a President who prioritizes personal wealth and the economy over health and the environment, to a degree which we have never before seen in American politics. His lack of leadership on the issue is most evident in his own words, and has been the most defining factor in the failure to contain the pandemic.

America is actually going backwards on testing, not making progress. Less Americans were tested this last week than last week. Trump wants to reopen the economy but the state's aren't even close to having the necessary resources to do it responsibly.

Where is the necessary national testing program?

There was no testing program initially because the President failed to do his job. Now there is no testing program because the President has decided that it's not his job. He's decided it's not his job because if it is his job and the American people know its his job then they are fairly going to blame him for the loss of life and the economic devastation that has come with it. This leaves the President in a position where all he can do is look for other people to blame and create chaotic distractions. It also leaves the President in a position where he has abdicated his primary responsibility of protecting the American public.

America now has 20% of the world's deaths even though it only has 4% of the world's population. Now that the death count has risen dramatically President Trump's strategy is to attempt to lay blame elsewhere and create divisive chaos to distract from his failures. Blame the media even though he previously accused them of exaggerating the threat from coronavirus. Blame the Democrats even though they were not in power and many of them were taking their cues from the President since he had access to all the intelligence.
Accuse American states of exaggerating their death counts. Threaten to create a constitutional crisis by adjoining Congress. Then Trump takes the drastic step of cutting funding for the World Health Organozation during the worst pandemic of our lives for doing the exact same thing he did at least 15 times.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.politico.com/amp/news/2020/04/15/trump-china-coronavirus-188736

The inane hypocrisy of his actions show Trump is willing to destroy everything else to save himself, but destroying his own cherished economic achievements with his botched coronavirus response is obviously not going to help him get re-elected and the death toll and economic devastation now makes 9/11 seem not nearly as significant in comparison.

Trumps failure to respond to the Coronavirus was so blatant that even when he tries to use propaganda in news conferences his own evidence exposes his inaction during the crucial month of February.

https://theintercept.com/2020/04/14/trump-pr-stunt-falls-flat-white-house-video-exposes-failure-prepare-pandemic/

President Trump is now claiming that he is a war-time President with absolute authority. But it is now very clear that America lost the war against the coronavirus pandemic because of his lack of leadership that stared in February and continues to this day.
flag Matt115lamb
Posted: Apr 30, 2020 at 0:06 Quote
Can you update with the bleach bits !
I’m sorry to say this but you guys have only yourselves to blame , all of his faults and his unworthiness were giving to you and you still voted for him ! Him , banning and some others ( who I don’t know lol ) have pulled off the greatest trick ever , He flips a coin and calls heads and tails , half of you think he’s a winner and the other half thinks he’s a trickster conman !
He admires people like putin , xi Jinping , kim jong-un and other dictators so beware he likes there style !
We’ve got are boris to content with and are in the same boat . We’ll have the worst death rate bar USA and Boris tells us we’re winning the battle and he’s doing a great job !
We’re all doomed !
flag MonkeyPuzzle
Posted: May 22, 2020 at 7:51 Quote
Not sure we should be so cocky in Britain with the highest deaths in Europe despite a two week head start on prep over Italy and Spain.

US, UK, Brazil and Russia look like having the worst responses to this crisis. See any pattern in their leadership?
flag Matt115lamb
Posted: May 22, 2020 at 11:24 Quote
Are they all populist/dictators that are clueless?
flag DoubleCrownAddict
Posted: Sep 10, 2020 at 13:29 Quote
Well now that we know Trump intentionally misled the public he should be held criminally liable for the tens of thousands of lives he is responsible for ending.

In February, Trump told Woodward he knew how deadly the virus was, then in March, admitted he kept that knowledge hidden from the public.

"I wanted to always play it down," Trump told Woodward on March 19, even as he had declared a national emergency over the virus days earlier. "I still like playing it down, because I don't want to create a panic."

Is Trump going to continue to play it down or will he now be honest with the American public?

I fully expect him to continue to lie about everything and America to continue to be devastated by the virus.
flag jrocksdh
Posted: Sep 15, 2020 at 17:24 Quote
Well see how long she stays alive for...
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theaustralian.com.au/news/latest-news/chinese-defector-virologist-dr-limeng-yan-publishes-report-claiming-covid19-was-made-in-a-lab/news-story/36decb0c2bca253b696dec0cb665c970

She's done a few interviews on tv now.
flag Matt115lamb
Posted: Oct 4, 2020 at 23:47 Quote
So Trumps got it although you wouldn’t know from this site as everyone’s too scared to bring it up ! He must be ill cos his face has gone from a dark orange to grey in a few days . Hope he gets better though but loses then all can come out and he’ll be thrown in jail with the rest of his cronies !
flag jrocksdh
Posted: Oct 5, 2020 at 11:33 Quote
Matt115lamb wrote:
So Trumps got it although you wouldn’t know from this site as everyone’s too scared to bring it up ! He must be ill cos his face has gone from a dark orange to grey in a few days . Hope he gets better though but loses then all can come out and he’ll be thrown in jail with the rest of his cronies !

I doubt the anti trumpers have missed anything by now. They've thrown everything they could at him....just as the Republicans did vs Hillary/Obama for spying on trump/bengazi and on and on...
What do u believe he would go to jail for now?
flag Matt115lamb
Posted: Oct 5, 2020 at 12:35 Quote
Russian money for one !
flag jrocksdh
Posted: Oct 6, 2020 at 7:56 Quote
Matt115lamb wrote:
Russian money for one !
Not sure the Democrats would have missed that one. They spent years investigating...any ideas how trump and Russia avoided those inquiries?
flag Matt115lamb
Posted: Oct 6, 2020 at 9:23 Quote
You know as well as I do he and his son are involved in some dodgy Russian cash deals
! Business depts , loans I don’t know but it’ll all come out !
flag jrocksdh
Posted: Oct 6, 2020 at 9:46 Quote
Matt115lamb wrote:
You know as well as I do he and his son are involved in some dodgy Russian cash deals
! Business depts , loans I don’t know but it’ll all come out !
So no facts yet. thanks for wasting my time, again.
flag Matt115lamb
Posted: Oct 6, 2020 at 10:20 Quote
I do apologise lol
flag Matt115lamb
Posted: Oct 6, 2020 at 10:22 Quote
Hope I get mine when it comes out !
flag krumpdancer101
O+
Posted: Oct 8, 2020 at 10:16 Quote
Matt115lamb wrote:
Hope I get mine when it comes out !

Did you just see all the stuff about all the illegal money Biden got from China? Or did you see the documents that were hand written released by John Brennan talking about conspiring to make trumps campaign look like they were working with Russia? Documents are dropping just not the ones you think.
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