argh! said:
looks like you have trump demagogue syndrome, because only someone in the trump cult would think that any president's administration would not have done just as much as trump's. indeed, you sound like trump, practically proclaiming he made the vaccines himself. he didn't create any vaccine, it was done mostly by private companies, one working with oxford university (astra zeneca), johnson and johnson's (old school vaccine, one shot), and moderna, working with the nih, who's budget trump worked hard to cut. sinovac and sputnik 5 from china and russia, respectively, have also been developed and used, although they have not been openly and rigorously studied in the manner required by the fda. as for distribution, trump turned down the opportunity to buy 100 million more doses from pfizer, so they sold them to other countries, slowing the u.s. vaccine program.
trump basically left the states to fend for themselves, so we haven't had any sort of coordinated response, and haven't done stuff like freeze travel to and from hot-spot areas. trump also downplayed the virus, created the mask 'controversy', and had large, mostly maskless gatherings of the type where the virus is spread inspiring millions of idiots to not wear them. i'd give him a d+ or a c- on his administration's handling of the issue. the key word in the last sentence is "administration" - it isn't a one person job to handle this stuff, and a president is a figurehead, not the guy doing the actual work. this particular figurehead is apparently going to hold a large, undoubtedly mostly maskless rally on january 6th, to get his supporters frothing at the mouth about the election, claiming the dems stole the election, which trump lost by 7 million votes. probably lots of virus spread there.
to conclude, you make a straw-man argument by saying trump did a great job dealing with the virus, as compared to your fantasy of how biden's administration would handle it. as usual, you present your fantasy analysis as fact.
What, specifically, would have saved lives had Trump taken other action?'
Trump closed most travel from China fairly early, and was criticized by Biden and Dems for that. That was a big deal.
Trump declared a national emergency fairly early.
The CDC goofed up testing in Feb. and cost a few weeks. On Trump's watch, but not sure you can blame Trump.
Trump cut off European travel fairly early. Don't recall any Dem or Biden calling for that earlier. There was more covid in Europe and from Europe than the US or anyone knew.
Trump actually listened to Fauci and Birx several times, an d called for shut downs fairly early and before people like Cuomo and de Blassio called for and took similar action. And I think before WHO declared a pandemic.
The WHO, CDC, Fauci and others were not calling for masks earlier on. I know you were. One of the problems was that most of the world hadn't recognized the thread from a- and pre-symptomatic people before and droplets.
In the US, we have a federal-state system. Repubs are generally states rights. Trump couldn't have ordered shutdowns. That's a state right, not federal. When Trump said he was going to do that, the press and Dems complained, and he backed off.
While Trump generally encouraged opening of the economy, many states opened without complying with the CDC guidelines.
There was a lot of complaining in the press about lack of PPE, ventilators and beds, I think the feds responded fairly well, and I don't think there was ever much shortage that caused a bunch of deaths. Feel free to site some articles to the contrary. We ended up with way too many beds and ventilators in NYC and elsewhere in the March/April/May/June and summer timeframe.
Yes, Trump's and some others' messaging were weak/bad/wrong. But, were Dems, Blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans, people in elder care homes, etc. really listening to Trump and doing what he suggested? I can't imagine many were. Yes, bad messaging on mask-wearing, but there were-are scientists also questioning the benefits of masks. Also, first, there was don't need them, then they are good for stopping droplets from a spreader, then maybe they work for the recipients too. Talk about bad messaging.
Don't think Trump ordered elder care homes to accept covid-positive patients like multiple governors did.
Three is no doubt that Warp Speed was a huge help for helping drug companies speed up drug company vaccine research, trials and get early approval, along with awesome action by the drug companies and developers. And many vaccines were pre-ordered. Perhaps Dems would have done the same thing with Warp Speed. I doubt it.
The feds and Mnuchin did a very good job early on. The delay for the second round is too bad, but Pelosi and Dems were a large part of that problem. 50% or more of the problem, in my view. Edit: The US economy didn't go down as much as some other countries, and has come back to some extent. Same with unemployment. Stock market dropped alot but has come back and even gone up to set records. The stimulus and vaccines are helping.
I didn't follow the tracing thing. Seems like that's something more for states and counties, not feds, but I suppose it would be some sort of cooperation.
Every state has had huge problems at some time or another, or a few times. I just don't see how recent ;problems in NY and CA and other states can be blamed on Trump.
Almost 40% of deaths were in elder care homes and almost 40% of the deaths were People of Color. Very unfortunate, but were they listening to Trump and what did Trum;p do or not do to let them die (compared to what Biden would have done)? Obviously, the two 40% numbers have some overlap.
Edit: Trump has been silent on the virus, as opposed to the vaccines, since the election. Suppose he could have exercised more leadership. Don't know who would have listened to him. Maybe his own people. Don't know how many Trump base people are getting covid and dying. I think he should continued to address the virus.
Happy to see your views, and see some citations.
