Could President Trump Have Really Have Done Anything About the Coronavirus?

I'm not talking about three years ago when it was claimed that President Trump got rid of two of the people who were experts on pandemics. It is very easy to say a president should've done something years ago about a problem today.

I'm talking about back I January when the virus first began to emerge in the U.S. I say that President Trump could've done...nothing.

Why?

1) President Trump was just emerging from the impeachment battle and was very weak politically weak. You can't convince me that the Democratic house would've flocked to a Trumpian banner to fight COVID-19. In all likelihood they would've proclaimed he was merely trying to "Wag the Dog" (I hate that term and the movie it is based on) just as they did with the U.S. killing of the Iranian generaly.

2) President Trump does not have the dictatorial powers of the Chinese government. Thus there is no way he could've locked down portions of the U.S. like the Chinese did with the entire province where the virus emerged from.

3) Likewise the U.S. doesn't have the level of social trust that the South Koreans have. So if President Trump ask for voluntary action on the part of the American people to fight the virus two months ago, it is very unlikely he would've gotten it.

4) No mater what President Trump did or attempted to do back in January regarding the Corona virus, in all likelihood many Americans (probably thousands) would've died.

Why is that so hard to understand?

 

There's nothing any political figure could have done to stop this. But Trump has done an amazing job focusing on the stock market and the economy to prevent an economic collapse from weeks of people not working. We should aspire to get back to work and get churches packed.

 

Nope nothing he could have done.

Well thats not true, he could have isolated us from China back in November.

No travel to or from no goods to or from.

Essentially had we isolated ourselves on day one he could have stopped it............. for now...

So no not really anything he could have done.

 

Could President Trump have gotten the political support for that? I don't think so.

 

Nope he couldn't have.. i just threw that out because technically it could have been done.. maybe not legally and certainly not without destroying his campaign and the country. But technology he could have.

 

Could Trump have continued to fund the department created out of Ebola? Yes. That was several years ago. That could have been kept. Could he have politically made the move to order a response to the pandemic? Probably not as likely due to the lack of political capital yes. Though at that point in time I would say that's not because of Trump in particular, but a long standing issue with politics.

 

You can't discount how big getting rid of that department was. It left Trump without leaders to manage the virus. This is really dangerous with Trump because then he becomes the "expert."
With good leadership the pandemic plan would have been implemented much earlier.
By contrast, during the swine flu epidemic there were 5,000 tests in the first month.
Bringing back all the US people from China and Europe without a plan to test and quarantine them was I'm sure was a Trump knee jerk. Playing down the seriousness of it led to mass confusion amongst the states.

 

except we didn't find out until January.

 

Trump destroyed our economy by not reacting months ago and putting in place the infrastructure to fight the Virus

Thank God our Governors are real Leaders !

 

Trump Again Bashes Governors Of Washington And Michigan Over Coronavirus
“I say, ‘Mike, don’t call the governor of Washington; you’re wasting your time with him. Don’t call the woman in Michigan. It doesn’t make any difference what happens.’”
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trum...ington-coronavirus_n_5e7e8fa4c5b6256a7a2ad1c4
Trump should be brought up on charges, class action lawsuit by those folks.


Donald Trump demands his own signature be on coronavirus stimulus checks to every American: report
This is a Trump Idea how to fight the coronavirus.

 

Try to unite the country and not divide.
Tell us the truth instead of misleading us.

 

Well, lets work on that.
What then SHOULD any political figure do next time, or have the power to do?

I can tell what was the wrong thing to do..Be Trump in this situation, but well its too late for that now isnt it, and we can only blame our selves.

 

Next year we'll be arguing about how Trump over-reacted because our successful mitigation strategy pushed death tolls well below projections.

Everything is a tragedy, even success. People are silly that way.

 

Why the hell NOT?? Because it's inconvenient for you?

How about taking it seriously and getting prepared for what his experts were telling him was going to happen...

Exactly

 

Quoted by Robert E. Allen; Trump could have isolated us from China back in November

Back in November, absolutely NOT!

The first warning of human to human transfer was posted by Dr. Li Wenliang on Dec 30th. On his online chat group, he warned fellow doctors to protect themselves.

Now, despite the denials, dismissals, cover-ups, and contradictions, 12 days later, (Jan 11th), the Chinese authorities shared the genetic sequence of the novel coronavirus.

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Moderna Inc.

Timeline;

• On January 11, 2020, the Chinese authorities shared the genetic sequence of the novel coronavirus.
• On January 13, 2020, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Moderna’s infectious disease research team finalized the sequence for mRNA-1273, the Company’s vaccine against the novel coronavirus. At that time, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of NIH, disclosed their intent to run a Phase 1 study using the mRNA-1273 vaccine in response to the coronavirus threat and Moderna mobilized toward clinical manufacture. Manufacture of this batch was funded by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).
• On February 7, 2020, the first clinical batch, including fill and finishing of vials, was completed, a total of 25 days from sequence selection to vaccine manufacture. The batch then proceeded to analytical testing for release.
• On February 24, 2020, the clinical batch was shipped from Moderna to the NIH for use in their Phase 1 clinical study

Source; https://www.modernatx.com/modernas-work-potential-vaccine-against-covid-19

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Question: On Jan 11, 2020, who knew Covid19 was a serious threat?

Answer; Well obviously, the NIH!

 

So pretty much we needed a leader but we had Trump instead?

 

Pretty much

 

One indisputable fact; Back on Jan 11th, Moderna Inc. collaborated with the NIH to develop a vaccine candidate.

And for anyone's info, Moderna Inc's main partner; Bill Gates foundation.

 

Moderna was responding to a CfP from CEPI. Should smart world leaders react the same way to all CEPI CfPs?

 

yeah but by then how many were already spreading the virus..

my point is there is really nothing Trump could have done. blaming any of this on him or any other single person for that matter is just wrong and not in any way intellectual.. in fact it's stupid.

 

Trump's failure wasn't in how he dealt with the virus - Trump's failure has been how he has dealt with people in the government, governors, the medical community, the scientific community and the American people. And that's been building for years.

You don't stand up on your podium as Trump has done since taking office, and preach distrust of government, distrust
of the medical and scientific community, and distrust of governors and fellow Americans - and then expect the average American not to panic and start standing in line for toilet paper and guns at the first sight of a medical crisis.

How do we know this is true? Because Obama actually dealt with a more deadly virus in the H1N1 during his tenure - but people didn't line up for toilet paper, the stock market didn't crash and citizens didn't panic, because we didn't have someone in the WH who spent his days stirring distrust or the government agencies handling the crisis.

It's a exercise in management styles ... and we have direct evidence in the outcome of one crisis vs. the other to prove which style was better for dealing with a crisis. Trump's style sucks.

 

Right!! Trump is not a leader. He is a do-nothing hater and and self-absorbed bloviator. His inaction ALONE is responsible for the fct that we now have the highest number of cases of the Trump Virus in the friggin world!

 

At this point, what does it matter anyway?

 

Because this is not the the last medical crisis we will see, and we now know that Trump's management style sucks.

 

Trump's well-documented lies, distortions, minimizations, and fake claims regarding the pandemic cannot now be blithely dismissed by hyper-partisan apologists.

The timely and competent response of President Moon's administration in South Korea, a nation that identified its first case on the same day as the U.S., and the vastly superior results that nation has achieved stark in stark contrast.

Trump's inability to honestly confront the urgency and seriousness of the imminent crisis has made the U.S. the pandemic epicenter of the world.

Pretending that distinction was unavoidable is irrational. The proclamation of impotence in whining "There's nothing we could do!", is anti-American.

It's "under control" and was a "problem that's going to go away," he falsely claimed on February 25. "We have very few people with it," and "the people are getting better, they're all getting better!", he claimed, even as epidemiologists and the CDC were making the ominous prognosis and recommending sensible preventative measures.