covid politics

[hodad]

So it turns out I was wrong in judging Trump--he's not as utterly stupid as he acts on tv. 

But is that better?  Is it better that he at least somewhat understood the threat of COVID and continued on the path he did?  Is it better that he intentionally misled the American public and in so doing cost thousands of lives?  Is it better that he turned public health & safety into a divisive political issue when he knew full well what this would cost? 

 

[iturnknobs]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/09/donald-trump-bob-woodward-covid-19-lies/amp

I wish I were surprised at the Covid lies that came(comes) out of Trump's blow-hole. The head dummy lead all the other dummies right off the cliff and practically all the collateral damage was endured by others.

I am not an anti-vaxxer, but there is NO WAY that I will be taking a vaccine pushed by Trump. Liar-in-Chief. MURDERER-IN-CHIEF.

How's that hoax now? Maybe somebody will try to redefine the word hoax again...

 

[JohnRoberts]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/09/donald-trump-bob-woodward-covid-19-lies/amp

I wish I were surprised at the Covid lies that came(comes) out of Trump's blow-hole. The head dummy lead all the other dummies right off the cliff and practically all the collateral damage was endured by others.

I am not an anti-vaxxer, but there is NO WAY that I will be taking a vaccine pushed by Trump. Liar-in-Chief. MURDERER-IN-CHIEF.

How's that hoax now? Maybe somebody will try to redefine the word hoax again...

There will be many more such manufactured political bomb shells between now and the election from both sides. Try not to be too shocked.

Downplaying the severity of the virus to avoid panic seems pretty sensible.

I remain suspicious that a lot of the early advice regarding wearing masks was understated because of limited supply, so health professionals could still get PPE for themselves. (Proper n95 masks are still not widely available to consumers at pre-Covid prices). 

===

Speaking about bad advice, top democrats advising against taking a covid vaccine could actually harm public health, but they will probably flip-flop and reverse themselves on that policy position too by the time a vaccine is available (possible before the end of this year).

JR

PS: I am guessing you guys are not celebrating his nomination for a Nobel Peace Prize (2021).

 

[iturnknobs]

There will be many more such manufactured political bomb shells between now and the election from both sides. Try not to be too shocked.

This is not a manufactured political bombshell. It is proof that Trump lied to the country he is to serve and got caught by not being smart enough to keep his mouth shut in the presence of a recording device.

I remain suspicious that a lot of the early advice regarding wearing masks was understated because of limited supply, so health professionals could still get PPE for themselves.

I believe that to be true and was probably necessary to not deplete the previous supply.

Downplaying the severity of the virus to avoid panic seems pretty sensible.

...or the panic would have caused all the right-wingers who wanted to "celebrate Easter in packed churches" to stay home. The "Liberate" campaign wasn't helpful either.  Instead of preventing panic, division was sown while more were infected while(now we know) TRUMP KNEW(and privately admitted) that the virus was airborne, hyper-contagious and deadly.

PS: I am guessing you guys are not celebrating his nomination for a Nobel Peace Prize (2021).

I can only hope that is an attempt at humor, but I fear it is not.
https://groupdiy.com/index.php?topic=75918.0

 

[L´Andratté]

Downplaying the severity of the virus to avoid panic seems pretty sensible.

" What doesn't fit is made to fit. "

PS: I am guessing you guys are not celebrating his nomination for a Nobel Peace Prize (2021).

"war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength"

 

[crazydoc]

Just further evidence that those who believe anything Potus Pants-on-fire has ever said  should have a mandatory "S" tattooed on their foreheads, so stupid people can be identified and avoided without having to waste the time to talk to them.

The thought of him being re-elected, or imposing martial law because he loses, is what panics me.

 

[JohnRoberts]

Just further evidence that those who believe anything Potus Pants-on-fire has ever said  should have a mandatory "S" tattooed on their foreheads, so stupid people can be identified and avoided without having to waste the time to talk to them.

The thought of him being re-elected, or imposing martial law because he loses, is what panics me.

Do not panic.

JR

 

[analag]

Blah ol farts worry about everything. As far as I can see I have out lived a lot of young people so what the funk

 

[crazydoc]

"The thought of him being re-elected, or imposing martial law because he loses, is what panics me."

Do not panic.

JR

I'll take that to mean you do not expect either of those sequelae. I am reassured.

 

[Winston OBoogie]

If anything, Covid has revealed that populist 3 or 4 word slogans do not a leader make.

The US and the UK death toll figures are testament, and should remain stark reminders, of that.

 

[hodad]

Downplaying the severity of the virus to avoid panic seems pretty sensible.

At a point, it might be sensible.  Eventually it becomes criminal.  If you compare US response to Asian or western European countries, it's apparent that whatever Trump was doing wasn't the answer.  By comparison to pretty much every other country in the developed world, the US has been consistently awful in its response, and that starts with the lies Dear Leader told us. 

If you went back through these COVID threads, you'd find me & others practically begging Trump to WEAR A DAMN MASK!!!
Yes, masks were in short supply for a while (and a good bit of that was due to Trumpian incompetence, but that's another story), and making sure medical folks got theirs first might have necessitated the underplaying of the value of masks.  For a little while.
But Trump didn't stop with the lies when masks became more plentiful and evidence began to mount that mask use is extremely helpful in limiting the spread of the disease.  No, he continued with his mask resistance, and he allowed or even encouraged mask non-use to become a political issue rather than a public health one. 

IANAMR (you figure it out), but I think Trump's "panic" line, while there may have been validity to it early on, is just a lie he tells himself (and Bob Woodward) to hide his unwillingness to get his hands dirty doing the hard business of governing.  Facing down a pandemic is a difficult task, and it's truly beyond Trump's skill set. 

 

[iturnknobs]

Do not panic.

JR

Would have been helpful earlier and it would have saved tens of thousands of lives, actually. Maybe history is trying to teach us a lesson that humans cyclically ignore.

 

[living sounds]

Downplaying the severity of the virus to avoid panic seems pretty sensible.

Yep, especially from the guy who is otherwise instigating panic all day long (BURNING CITIES, SOCIALISM, THE CARAVAN, MS-13, MUSLIM TERRORISTS, AMERICAN CARNAGE,...).

 

[Matador]

Actually, if you slightly reinterpret Trump's phrase slightly differently then all of his subsequent behavior falls perfectly into line:

"I didn't want people who are invested in the stock market to panic."

 

[crazydoc]

If anything, Covid has revealed that populist 3 or 4 word slogans do not a leader make.

The US and the UK death toll figures are testament, and should remain stark reminders, of that.

I think "Trump will lie: people will die," would be a great slogan for the upcoming election.

 

[cyrano]

Actually, if you slightly reinterpret Trump's phrase slightly differently then all of his subsequent behavior falls perfectly into line:

"I didn't want people who are invested in the stock market to panic."

Bingo!

 

[hodad]

In case anyone wants to defend Trump's record with COVID, here's a nice comparison with various world leaders.  Adjusts case & fatality rates in various countries to compare to the US.  If you want Trump to look better, you could compare him to Bolsonaro instead.

 

[scott2000]

Here's another site posted earlier that gets into some of this....
This chart,like many of the others,  lets you add or subtract countries...


https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&year=latest&time=2020-03-14..latest&country=USA~BRA~DEU~AUS~GRC~NZL~KOR~NOR&region=World&cfrMetric=true&interval=total&aligned=true&hideControls=true&smoothing=0&pickerMetric=location&pickerSort=asc

 

[iturnknobs]

Give me a break. The dems and media are absolutely politicizing the crisis.

It would appear that Trump was lying the whole time. He didn't convey the severity of the situation and split the country right down the middle while causing more people to get sick and die. 5 months later, it is clear who was politicizing the crisis. Crystal clear... or was it the MSM? HA!

 

[iturnknobs]

We have a president that was publicly calling the coronavirus a hoax when this information was available. Fact, not a judgement.

Another of those false facts....

PROVEN FACT RIGHT OUT OF THE HORSE'S MOUTH ON TAPE.
It would appear blind allegiance is a bigger problem than the MSM.