For the last week, Nancy Pelosi has been running from show to show to denounce the President for not acting soon enough on the corona virus. As Pelosi puts it, "he fiddled and people died." This line of attack against Trump has been repeated now over and over again on Democrat National TV (MSNBC) and the other mainstream media outlets.
The sad thing, though, is that this is total BS. The truth is something quite different.
Here are a few facts:
1. As of January 15, the World Health Organization was announcing that there was no evidence that the corona virus could be transmitted from person to person through the air. The outbreak was hidden by China at least until that time.
2. On January 20, the first case of corona virus infection in the USA was confirmed in Washington state in a man who had returned from China a few days earlier.
3. Over the next week, it became apparent that the outbreak in China was severe and that there obviously was human to human transmission through the air. At that point, President Trump established the Corona Virus Task Force headed by Vice President Pence to coordinate the US response. Within a week of the realization that this could be a true emergency, Trump set up the system to make sure that the federal government did as much as possible to fight the virus.
4. By January 31, on the recommendation of the Task Force, Trump declared a national public health emergency and instituted a ban on travel into the USA from China except for US citizens returning home. This kept thousands each day of Chinese and others who may have been carrying the virus from entering the USA. This was the first major corona virus travel ban in the world. It was issued on the recommendation of the public health officials and over the opposition of the economic and diplomatic officials and many other people.
3. Democrats like Joe Biden denounced Trump's ban on China as racist an unnecessary. Pelosi also called the ban racist. Many Democrats and much of the media denounced the ban as nothing more than the President trying to take attention away from the impeachment trial that was then underway in Washington. While Trump was working on dealing with the virus, the Dems were busy wasting time on their silly impeachment charade.
4. As the end of January, the view of the public health officials was that the corona virus was much less of a problem than the seasonal flu. Dr. Fauci went on TV and said just that. The President echoed the sentiments of the public health officials in his statements of the time. In other words, Trump listened to his scientific/medial advisors and repeated the advice they were giving him.
5. By early February, members of Congress received briefings regarding the potential impact of the corona virus. Much has been made of the sale by senator Burr of North Carolina of a big chunk of his stock holdings. Others also sold including Nancy Pelosi. Despite acting on this news, Pelosi went ahead and encouraged people to come to the big Chinese New Year celebration in her district. That parade/celebration was extremely crowded and it included people from China who had come to the USA just prior to the imposition of the travel ban. Similar advice was given in New York City by both Mayor DeBlasio and the City Health Commission.
6. By the end of February, the public realized just how serious the virus pandemic could be. After that, it was clearly all hands on deck to fight the virus. Even so, when it came time to pass the stimulus package to try to keep people getting their pay checks while social distancing, the Democrats blocked passage of that bill on three separate occasions. Meanwhile, Pelosi was busy proposing an alternative package that dealt with climate change, voting rights, composition of corporate boards, support for union leaders and a barrel so filled with pork that pigs everywhere would become and endangered species were it to pass. Finally, the Dems relented and the bill was passed unanimously.
Putting all this together, we have a picture of President Trump acting to fight the virus when the threat emerged while Democrats and the media criticized his actions as either racist or designed to take attention from the impeachment nonsense. Then the Dems proceeded to slow and even undermine the American response to the virus. Simply put, the Dems latest attack on the President is totally untrue.
So how do the Dems respond to this? Almost in unison, they and their media allies say, "But, but, but.... what about the slow increase in testing? If Trump had gotten the testing in place immediately, we wouldn't have had this problem." So let's take a look at the testing. Here are those facts:
1. The tests that were used in China and South Korea early in the pandemic were not very reliable. Estimates from WHO are that there were as many as 20% false positives and negatives. That means that one person in five who was tested got the wrong results. For the Chinese, it didn't matter that much since they put entire cities on strict lock down, a quarantine much more severe than those we currently have in the USA. By the time South Korea got underway with their testing program, the tests were slightly better but still had big problems. The Koreans however used a different methodology in which they tested everyone who had symptoms and everyone who had been in contact with those who were infected. All of these people were then locked down.
2. In the USA, our testing procedures had been designed for the sort of outbreak we had seen with SARS and MERS. Tests were taken but processing was done by the CDC or state labs. The processing procedures were so cumbersome that we could only process hundreds of tests while in South Korea, for example, they could process tens of thousands of tests per day. It was quickly clear that new testing procedures and new tests were needed immediately.
3. Trump made the decision to junk the old test and the cumbersome processing method that had been put in place by the Obama administration. Instead, he brought in private companies, particularly labs like Quest and Labcorp to be involved in processing the tests across the country. Very quickly new tests were developed and that work continues even until today. Right now, the USA can process about 125,000 tests per day. That figure should increase substantially over the next few weeks as the new 15 minute point of treatment tests ramp up. Once they are widespread, testing capacity should rise to 500,000 per day (although hopefully, that will not be needed.)
4. There is no question that the USA was not ready for testing when the pandemic hit. As is often the case in war, the generals were prepared to once again fight the last war. Here, the public health officials were prepared to test as was needed to fight SARS and MERS. Sadly, the corona virus was quite different from those two earlier viruses. What is important though is that Trump had the testing issue being handled by the task force in late January at a time when Democrats like Pelosi, DeBlasio, Biden and Cuomo were downplaying the threat from the virus. Trump was not out warning of a potential disaster, but behind the scenes, he was preparing for one, just in case it materialized.
The bottom line regarding testing is that the President and his task force started moving immediately to get the problem solved. Just imagine what would have happened on that front if Hillary or Joe Biden had been president instead.
The sad thing, though, is that this is total BS. The truth is something quite different.
Here are a few facts:
1. As of January 15, the World Health Organization was announcing that there was no evidence that the corona virus could be transmitted from person to person through the air. The outbreak was hidden by China at least until that time.
2. On January 20, the first case of corona virus infection in the USA was confirmed in Washington state in a man who had returned from China a few days earlier.
3. Over the next week, it became apparent that the outbreak in China was severe and that there obviously was human to human transmission through the air. At that point, President Trump established the Corona Virus Task Force headed by Vice President Pence to coordinate the US response. Within a week of the realization that this could be a true emergency, Trump set up the system to make sure that the federal government did as much as possible to fight the virus.
4. By January 31, on the recommendation of the Task Force, Trump declared a national public health emergency and instituted a ban on travel into the USA from China except for US citizens returning home. This kept thousands each day of Chinese and others who may have been carrying the virus from entering the USA. This was the first major corona virus travel ban in the world. It was issued on the recommendation of the public health officials and over the opposition of the economic and diplomatic officials and many other people.
3. Democrats like Joe Biden denounced Trump's ban on China as racist an unnecessary. Pelosi also called the ban racist. Many Democrats and much of the media denounced the ban as nothing more than the President trying to take attention away from the impeachment trial that was then underway in Washington. While Trump was working on dealing with the virus, the Dems were busy wasting time on their silly impeachment charade.
4. As the end of January, the view of the public health officials was that the corona virus was much less of a problem than the seasonal flu. Dr. Fauci went on TV and said just that. The President echoed the sentiments of the public health officials in his statements of the time. In other words, Trump listened to his scientific/medial advisors and repeated the advice they were giving him.
5. By early February, members of Congress received briefings regarding the potential impact of the corona virus. Much has been made of the sale by senator Burr of North Carolina of a big chunk of his stock holdings. Others also sold including Nancy Pelosi. Despite acting on this news, Pelosi went ahead and encouraged people to come to the big Chinese New Year celebration in her district. That parade/celebration was extremely crowded and it included people from China who had come to the USA just prior to the imposition of the travel ban. Similar advice was given in New York City by both Mayor DeBlasio and the City Health Commission.
6. By the end of February, the public realized just how serious the virus pandemic could be. After that, it was clearly all hands on deck to fight the virus. Even so, when it came time to pass the stimulus package to try to keep people getting their pay checks while social distancing, the Democrats blocked passage of that bill on three separate occasions. Meanwhile, Pelosi was busy proposing an alternative package that dealt with climate change, voting rights, composition of corporate boards, support for union leaders and a barrel so filled with pork that pigs everywhere would become and endangered species were it to pass. Finally, the Dems relented and the bill was passed unanimously.
Putting all this together, we have a picture of President Trump acting to fight the virus when the threat emerged while Democrats and the media criticized his actions as either racist or designed to take attention from the impeachment nonsense. Then the Dems proceeded to slow and even undermine the American response to the virus. Simply put, the Dems latest attack on the President is totally untrue.
So how do the Dems respond to this? Almost in unison, they and their media allies say, "But, but, but.... what about the slow increase in testing? If Trump had gotten the testing in place immediately, we wouldn't have had this problem." So let's take a look at the testing. Here are those facts:
1. The tests that were used in China and South Korea early in the pandemic were not very reliable. Estimates from WHO are that there were as many as 20% false positives and negatives. That means that one person in five who was tested got the wrong results. For the Chinese, it didn't matter that much since they put entire cities on strict lock down, a quarantine much more severe than those we currently have in the USA. By the time South Korea got underway with their testing program, the tests were slightly better but still had big problems. The Koreans however used a different methodology in which they tested everyone who had symptoms and everyone who had been in contact with those who were infected. All of these people were then locked down.
2. In the USA, our testing procedures had been designed for the sort of outbreak we had seen with SARS and MERS. Tests were taken but processing was done by the CDC or state labs. The processing procedures were so cumbersome that we could only process hundreds of tests while in South Korea, for example, they could process tens of thousands of tests per day. It was quickly clear that new testing procedures and new tests were needed immediately.
3. Trump made the decision to junk the old test and the cumbersome processing method that had been put in place by the Obama administration. Instead, he brought in private companies, particularly labs like Quest and Labcorp to be involved in processing the tests across the country. Very quickly new tests were developed and that work continues even until today. Right now, the USA can process about 125,000 tests per day. That figure should increase substantially over the next few weeks as the new 15 minute point of treatment tests ramp up. Once they are widespread, testing capacity should rise to 500,000 per day (although hopefully, that will not be needed.)
4. There is no question that the USA was not ready for testing when the pandemic hit. As is often the case in war, the generals were prepared to once again fight the last war. Here, the public health officials were prepared to test as was needed to fight SARS and MERS. Sadly, the corona virus was quite different from those two earlier viruses. What is important though is that Trump had the testing issue being handled by the task force in late January at a time when Democrats like Pelosi, DeBlasio, Biden and Cuomo were downplaying the threat from the virus. Trump was not out warning of a potential disaster, but behind the scenes, he was preparing for one, just in case it materialized.
The bottom line regarding testing is that the President and his task force started moving immediately to get the problem solved. Just imagine what would have happened on that front if Hillary or Joe Biden had been president instead.
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