How the Truth will Finally Catch Up to the POTUS

Re-open by Easter?

David Leonhardt, Opinion Columnist for the New York Times, made the following list of President Trump's attempts at minimizing the risk to public health posed by the Covid-19 virus.  This behavior, whether out of ignorance or for pure political gain, delayed the preparation for fighting the pandemic by several critical weeks and will undoubtedly cost thousands of American citizens their lives.  

The following is NOT Fake News, but rather the plain hard facts reported using journalist standards.  It is vital to the health of the public and your loved ones very lives in times of national crisis that our leaders be informed and disseminate the truth with transparency.  

I am very fortunate to live in Minnesota where we have a governor, Tim Walz, who understands these principles and has acted based on the best information from public health experts around the globe without regard or reference to partisan politics.  

This deadly virus does not respect party affiliation or geographic boundaries.  I just pray that it does not take daily fatality numbers like those coming out of Italy and Spain for our current POTUS to respond in a mature, responsible and honest manner.  

God bless President Trump as we are all in this together.

Leonhardt writes:

"President Trump made his first public comments about the coronavirus on Jan. 22, in a television interview from Davos with CNBC’s Joe Kernen. The first American case had been announced the day before, and Kernen asked Trump, “Are there worries about a pandemic at this point?”

The president responded: “No. Not at all. And 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.”

By this point, the seriousness of the virus was becoming clearer. It had spread from China to four other countries. China was starting to take drastic measures and was on the verge of closing off the city of Wuhan.

In the weeks that followed, Trump faced a series of choices. He could have taken aggressive measures to slow the spread of the virus. He could have insisted that the United States ramp up efforts to produce test kits. He could have emphasized the risks that the virus presented and urged Americans to take precautions if they had reason to believe they were sick. He could have used the powers of the presidency to reduce the number of people who would ultimately get sick.

He did none of those things.

I’ve reviewed all of his public statements and actions on coronavirus over the last two months, and they show a president who put almost no priority on public health. Trump’s priorities were different: Making the virus sound like a minor nuisance. Exaggerating his administration’s response. Blaming foreigners and, anachronistically, the Obama administration. Claiming incorrectly that the situation was improving. 

Trying to cheer up stock market investors. (It was fitting that his first public comments were from Davos and on CNBC.)

Now that the severity of the virus is undeniable, Trump is already trying to present an alternate history of the last two months. Below are the facts — a timeline of what the president was saying, alongside statements from public-health experts as well as data on the virus.

Late January

On the same day that Trump was dismissing the risks on CNBC, Tom Frieden, who ran the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for eight years, wrote an op-ed for the health care publication Stat. In it, Frieden warned that the virus would continue spreading. “We need to learn — and fast — about how it spreads,” he wrote.

It was one of many such warnings from prominent experts in late January. Many focused on the need to expand the capacity to test for the virus. In a Wall Street Journal article titled, “Act Now to Prevent an American Epidemic,” Luciana Borio and Scott Gottlieb — both former Trump administration officials — wrote:

If public-health authorities don’t interrupt the spread soon, the virus could infect many thousands more around the globe, disrupt air travel, overwhelm health care systems, and, worst of all, claim more lives. The good news: There’s still an opening to prevent a grim outcome. … But authorities can’t act quickly without a test that can diagnose the condition rapidly.

Trump, however, repeatedly told Americans that there was no reason to worry. On Jan. 24, he tweeted, “It will all work out well.” On Jan. 28, he retweeted a headline from One America News, an outlet with a history of spreading false conspiracy theories: “Johnson & Johnson to create coronavirus vaccine.” On Jan. 30, during a speech in Michigan, he said: “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.”

That same day, the World Health Organization declared coronavirus to be a “public-health emergency of international concern.” It announced 7,818 confirmed cases around the world.

Jan. 31

Trump took his only early, aggressive action against the virus on Jan. 31: He barred most foreigners who had recently visited China from entering the United States. It was a good move.

But it was only one modest move, not the sweeping solution that Trump portrayed it to be. It didn’t apply to Americans who had been traveling in China, for example. And while it generated some criticism from Democrats, it wasn’t nearly as unpopular as Trump has since suggested. Two days after announcing the policy, Trump went on Fox News and exaggerated the impact in an interview with Sean Hannity.

“Coronavirus,” Hannity said. “How concerned are you?”

Trump replied: “Well, we pretty much shut it down coming in from China. We have a tremendous relationship with China, which is a very positive thing. Getting along with China, getting along with Russia, getting along with these countries.”

By the time of that interview, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases around the world had surged to 14,557, a near doubling over the previous three days.

Early February

On Feb. 5, the C.D.C. began shipping coronavirus test kits to laboratories around the country. But the tests suffered from a technical flaw and didn’t produce reliable results, labs discovered.

The technical problems were understandable: Creating a new virus test is not easy. What’s less understandable, experts say, is why the Trump administration officials were so lax about finding a work-around, even as other countries were creating reliable tests.

Continue reading the main story

The Trump administration could have begun to use a functioning test from the World Health Organization, but didn’t. It could have removed regulations that prevented private hospitals and labs from quickly developing their own tests, but didn’t. The inaction meant that the United States fell behind South Korea, Singapore and China in fighting the virus. “We just twiddled our thumbs as the coronavirus waltzed in,” William Hanage, a Harvard epidemiologist, wrote.

Trump, for his part, spent these first weeks of February telling Americans that the problem was going away. On Feb. 10, he repeatedly said — in a speech to governors, at a campaign rally and in an interview with Trish Regan of Fox Business — that warm spring weather could kill the virus. “Looks like by April, you know, in theory, when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away,” he told the rally.

On Feb. 19, he told a Phoenix television station, “I think the numbers are going to get progressively better as we go along.” Four days later, he pronounced the situation “very much under control,” and added: “We had 12, at one point. And now they’ve gotten very much better. Many of them are fully recovered.”

His message was clear: Coronavirus is a small problem, and it is getting smaller. In truth, the shortage of testing meant that the country didn’t know how bad the problem was. All of the available indicators suggested it was getting worse, rapidly.

On Feb. 23, the World Health Organization announced that the virus was in 30 countries, with 78,811 confirmed cases, a more than fivefold increase over the previous three weeks.

Late February

Trump seemed largely uninterested in the global virus statistics during this period, but there were other indicators — stock-market indexes — that mattered a lot to him. And by the last week of February, those market indexes were falling.

The president reacted by adding a new element to his public remarks. He began blaming others.

He criticized CNN and MSNBC for “panicking markets.” He said at a South Carolina rally — falsely — that “the Democrat policy of open borders” had brought the virus into the country. He lashed out at “Do Nothing Democrat comrades.” He tweeted about “Cryin’ Chuck Schumer,” mocking Schumer for arguing that Trump should be more aggressive in fighting the virus. The next week, Trump would blame an Obama administration regulation for slowing the production of test kits. There was no truth to the charge.

Throughout late February, Trump also continued to claim the situation was improving. On Feb. 26, he said: “We’re going down, not up. We’re going very substantially down, not up.” On Feb. 27, he predicted: “It’s going to disappear. One day — it’s like a miracle — it will disappear.” On Feb. 29, he said a vaccine would be available “very quickly” and “very rapidly” and praised his administration’s actions as “the most aggressive taken by any country.” None of these claims were true.

By the end of February, there were 85,403 confirmed cases, in 55 countries around the world.

Early March

Almost two decades ago, during George W. Bush’s presidency, the federal government developed guidelines for communicating during a public-health crisis. Among the core principles are “be first,” “be right,” “be credible,” “show respect” and “promote action.”

But the Trump administration’s response to coronavirus, as a Washington Post news story put it, is “breaking almost every rule in the book.”

The inconsistent and sometimes outright incorrect information coming from the White House has left Americans unsure of what, if anything, to do. By early March, experts already were arguing for aggressive measures to slow the virus’s spread and avoid overwhelming the medical system. The presidential bully pulpit could have focused people on the need to change their behavior in a way that no private citizen could have. Trump could have specifically encouraged older people — at most risk from the virus — to be careful. Once again, he chose not to take action.

Instead, he suggested on multiple occasions that the virus was less serious than the flu. “We’re talking about a much smaller range” of deaths than from the flu, he said on March 2. “It’s very mild,” he told Hannity on March 4. On March 7, he said, “I’m not concerned at all.” On March 10, he promised: “It will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away.”

The first part of March was also when more people began to understand that the United States had fallen behind on testing, and Trump administration officials responded with untruths.

Alex Azar, the secretary of health and human services, told ABC, “There is no testing kit shortage, nor has there ever been.” Trump, while touring the C.D.C. on March 6, said, “Anybody that wants a test can get a test.”

That C.D.C. tour was a microcosm of Trump’s entire approach to the crisis. While speaking on camera, he made statements that were outright wrong, like the testing claim. He brought up issues that had nothing to do with the virus, like his impeachment. He made clear that he cared more about his image than about people’s well-being, by explaining that he favored leaving infected passengers on a cruise ship so they wouldn’t increase the official number of American cases. He also suggested that he knew as much as any scientist:

I like this stuff. I really get it. People are surprised that I understand it. Every one of these doctors said, ‘How do you know so much about this?’ Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for president.

On March 10, the World Health Organization reported 113,702 cases of the virus in more than 100 countries.

Mid-March and beyond

On the night of March 11, Trump gave an Oval Office address meant to convey seriousness. It included some valuable advice, like the importance of hand-washing. But it also continued many of the old patterns of self-congratulation, blame-shifting and misinformation. Afterward, Trump aides corrected three different misstatements.

This pattern has continued in the days since the Oval Office address. Trump now seems to understand that coronavirus isn’t going away anytime soon. But he also seems to view it mostly as a public-relations emergency for himself rather than a public-health emergency for the country. On Sunday, he used his Twitter feed to lash out at Schumer and Joe Biden and to praise Michael Flynn, the former Trump aide who pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I.

Around the world, the official virus count has climbed above 142,000. In the United States, scientists expect that between tens of millions and 215 million Americans will ultimately be infected, and the death toll could range from the tens of thousands to 1.7 million.

At every point, experts have emphasized that the country could reduce those terrible numbers by taking action. And at almost every point, the president has ignored their advice and insisted, “It’s going to be just fine.” 

Susan Beachy and Ian Prasad Philbrick contributed research. "

Since David Leonhardt's  above article from March 15, 2020 in the New York Times, here is what FactCheck.org has reported regarding the President's statements on the pandemic:

"Trump Misrepresents Google Coronavirus Website

March 16, 2020

President Donald Trump and other officials misleadingly suggested that tech behemoth Google was working on a screening website that large numbers of Americans could use to see if they should be tested for the new coronavirus. The website, however, is actually a project of Google’s sister company Verily and is initially limited to the San Francisco Bay Area."

"March 18, 2020

President Donald Trump said on March 17, “I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic.” While it’s not possible to know what Trump “felt,” there’s no doubt that Trump had minimized the threat of the new coronavirus for weeks in statement after statement."

"March 19, 2020

President Donald Trump left the misleading impression that two drugs were 'approved' for use in treating the new coronavirus and were available for 'immediate delivery.' "

"Contrary to Trump’s Claim, A Pandemic Was Widely Expected at Some Point

March 20, 2020

At a White House briefing March 19, President Donald Trump said, 'Nobody knew there’d be a pandemic or an epidemic of this proportion.” But that’s simply not the case."

On March 24, 2020 Robert Farley, Rem Rieder and D'Angelo Gore wrote an extensive article entitled "Correcting Trump’s Press Conference Misinformation".  Describing the information conveyed by President Trump at his recent press conferences as  rhetoric that "...has sometimes been imprecise, misleading or outright incorrect" the article went on to give detailed examples replete with direct quotes from the President followed by point by point corrections, many coming from Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the  Trump Administration’s lone truth teller during the coronavirus crisis.  Fauci said Trump went too far when he said, “I wish they (meaning China) told us three months sooner that this was a problem”.  Fauci is reported as saying that "...the president’s statement 'doesn’t comport [with the facts], because 2 or 3 months earlier would have been September.' "  The article goes on to state that nevertheless, "...the president has since repeated the claim."

In a determined attempt to rewrite history and deceive the American public concerning the penultimate issue, i.e.  when Trump first learned that the new coronavirus was going to be a problem, Trump blatantly lied and said in his March 21st press conference that it was right around the time he imposed travel restrictions on China, which were announced on Jan. 31 and went into effect two days later.  Here is the actual exchange from the press conference taken from the FactCheck.org article:

Trump, March 21: Well, you know, when I learned, I started doing the closings. So, you know, probably around that time. We didn’t learn much. I think you’re going to ask a little bit about China responsibility. I do think that — again, I have great respect for China. I like China. I think the people of China are incredible. I have a tremendous relationship with President Xi.

I wish they could have told us earlier about what was going on inside. We didn’t know about it until it started coming out publicly, but I wish they could have told us earlier about it because we could have come up with a solution.

Tony Fauci and all of the people — the talent that we have — would have loved to have had three or four months of additional time, if you knew that this was going to be happening. They didn’t have that time. They read about in the newspapers like everybody else. China was very secretive, okay? Very, very secretive. And that’s unfortunate. …

But I wish they were able to — I wish they would have told us earlier, Steve, that they were having a problem. Because they were having a big problem and they knew it, and I wish they could have given us an advanced warning. Because we could have done — we could have had a lot of things — as an example, some of the things that we’re talking about, where we order them as quickly as we can. If we had a two- or three-month difference in time, it would have been much better.

In an interview with Science magazine the following morning, Fauci said he told “the appropriate people” on the White House staff that Trump’s “three to four month” timeline was off.

Jon Cohen, Science magazine, March 22: What about the travel restrictions? Trump keeps saying that the travel ban for China, which began 2 February, had a big impact on slowing the spread of the virus to the United States and that he wishes China would have told us 3 to 4 months earlier and that they were “very secretive.” [China did not immediately reveal the discovery of a new coronavirus in late December 2019, but by 10 January, Chinese researchers made the sequence of the virus public.] It just doesn’t comport with facts.

Fauci: I know, but what do you want me to do? I mean, seriously Jon, let’s get real, what do you want me to do?

Cohen: Most everyone thinks that you’re doing a remarkable job, but you’re standing there as the representative of truth and facts, but things are being said that aren’t true and aren’t factual.

Fauci: The way it happened is that after he made that statement [suggesting China could have revealed the discovery of a new coronavirus 3 to 4 months earlier], I told the appropriate people, it doesn’t comport, because 2 or 3 months earlier would have been September. The next time they sit down with him and talk about what he’s going to say, they will say, ‘By the way, Mr. President, be careful about this and don’t say that.’ But I can’t jump in front of the microphone and push him down. OK, he said it. Let’s try and get it corrected for the next time."

But instead of correcting his lies, Trump did as Trump often does and doubled down on his false claims saying later that day “I wish they told us three months sooner that this was a problem.”

As proof,  the article goes on to give the following blow by blow descriptions of the President's false or misleading statements followed by an actual account of what really transpired:

"Trump, March 22:  I wish — again, our relationship with China is a very good relationship. I wish they told us three months sooner that this was a problem. We didn’t know about it. They knew about it and they should have told us. We could have saved a lot of lives throughout the world. If you look at what’s happening in Italy and Spain and a lot of other countries, we could have saved a lot of lives throughout the world.

So when did China know about the virus, and when did the U.S. find out? The answer to both questions is difficult to pinpoint. But let’s start with China.

According to the World Health Organization, symptoms from the first cluster of confirmed cases emerged between Dec. 8 and Jan. 2. A study on the novel coronavirus published in The Lancet reported, “The symptom onset date of the first patient identified was Dec 1, 2019.”

On Dec. 31, the Chinese informed the World Health Organization’s China office “of a pneumonia of unknown cause, detected in the city of Wuhan in Hubei province, China. According to the authorities, some patients were operating dealers or vendors in the Huanan Seafood market.”

The WHO says it then “began monitoring the situation and requested further information on the laboratory tests performed and the different diagnoses considered.”

On Feb. 1, the Washington Post, citing “official statements, leaked accounts from Chinese medical professionals, newly released scientific data and interviews with public health officials and infectious disease experts,” documented efforts by the Chinese government to tamp down information about the virus “during the critical period from mid-December to mid-January.”

According to the Post, “Medical professionals who tried to sound an alarm were seized by police. Key state media omitted mention of the outbreak for weeks. ”

By Jan. 11, the Chinese had shared the genetic sequence of the novel coronavirus, which could then be used by other countries to develop diagnostic kits. Still, the Washington Post reported, “Key information about who got sick and when was not released publicly until weeks later, scientists and researchers said.”

Trump said he didn’t learn that the virus would be a problem until “probably around” the time when he imposed travel restrictions on China. Those were announced on Jan. 31. But the government had growing concerns about the virus weeks before that.

In a press conference on March 20, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said the U.S. was alerted to the problems in China “by some discussions that Dr. [Robert] Redfield, the director of the CDC, had with Chinese colleagues on January 3rd. It’s since been known that there may have been cases in December, not that we were alerted in December.”

According to the Washington Post, “U.S. intelligence agencies were issuing ominous, classified warnings in January and February about the global danger posed by the coronavirus while President Trump and lawmakers played down the threat and failed to take action that might have slowed the spread of the pathogen, according to U.S. officials familiar with spy agency reporting.” Those agencies warned that “Chinese officials appeared to be minimizing the severity of the outbreak.”

The WHO confirmed the first case outside of China on Jan. 13 in Thailand and confirmed three days later that the virus had spread to Japan. At around that time, the WHO warned that there could be a wider outbreak and recommended “all countries to continue preparedness activities.”

In a CNBC interview on Jan. 22, Trump said of the virus, “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China. We have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.”

On Jan. 24, Trump tweeted, “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!“

On Jan. 30, the WHO declared a global public health emergency, and Trump imposed travel restrictions a day later.

But even into late February, Trump continued to downplay the potential spread of the virus.

“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 said at a White House briefing on 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.”

Asked about his Jan. 24 tweet praising China for its “efforts and transparency,” Trump on March 21 said his comments about China’s efforts were true.

“China has worked very hard,” Trump said, but he added that “they weren’t transparent.”

“They were transparent at that time, but when we saw what happened, they could have been transparent much earlier than they were,” Trump said. “I just wish they could have told us earlier. They knew they had a problem earlier. I wish they could have said that.”

Trump has a point about Chinese officials not being transparent with information about the new coronavirus. But suggesting China could have alerted the U.S. and the world three or four months earlier does not comport with the timeline of events.

The first cases were not identified until December. Although it is unclear when exactly China may have pegged the sickness to the novel coronavirus, it was a matter of weeks between when those first cases were discovered and when the world knew about the virus. Those were critical weeks, but they weren’t months."

 So in light of the above, when the President's statements are subjected to scrutiny and compared to the plain hard facts, it is abundantly clear that the President fails miserably at meeting the federal government's own guidelines, guidelines developed by a Republican Administration no less, for communicating during a public-health crisis. Those principles were to “be first,” “be right,” “be credible,” “show respect” and “promote action”.  By any reasonable assessment of the President's performance, on a scale from one to ten, the President deserves at best a 2 or 3, mainly for his one early decisive action in closing our borders and for keeping Anthony Fauci.  However, the minimal amount of constructive actions taken by Trump are more than offset by his blatant politicization of the pandemic by picking Vice President Pence to head the Corona Virus Task Force in a futile attempt at cover up his early malfeasance.