Trump’s lethal failure to face the COVID pandemic. Part 4: Reopen the states, however many it kills
On 9 April, 100 days after the WHO was first notified of COVID-19, millions of Americans had lost their jobs and the U.S. federal stockpile of medical protective gear was almost empty. The administration diverted 5 million masks intended for the VA to the national stockpile. The Fed reacted by buying junk bonds and lending to states and Trump blamed Democrats for blocking funding. He also said that employers need not record coronavirus cases among workers.
Continuing his display of scientific ignorance he claimed “the germ has gotten so brilliant that the antibiotic can’t keep up with it.” He estimated the death toll in US should be substantially under 100,000 (it was 400,000 when he left office). He suggested injecting disinfectant or using strong light. People died as a result. He removed Dr. Rick Bright, who questioned his promotion of hydroxychloroquine, which the FDA warned came with a risk of death. Trump revealed he’d been taking hydroxychloroquine — if so, another sign that he has a charmed life.
Trump toyed with firing Fauci after Fauci said that if they had started mitigation earlier, they could have saved lives. Somehow Fauci survived and outlasted Trump. Trump also claimed the ultimate authority to reopen: “When somebody is the president of the United States, the authority is total, and that’s the way it’s gonna be,” though that is not true.
On a more positive note, the IRS reported that the first wave of coronavirus stimulus payments had been deposited, but Native American tribes had to sue to get assistance.
Reopen the states, however many it kills
By now Trump was gung ho on reopening the economy, aided and abetted by big business, crying “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!” and other states, despite admitting privately to Bob Woodward that “This rips you apart.” Trump announced his “Guidelines for Opening Up American Again.” The states began coordinating their own plans for reopening. Encouraged, Republicans rallied to open their states. Trump encouraged them, as did Freedomworks. Trump called the armed protesters at the Michigan Capitol “very good people.” He seemed to think the governor should deal with them — ignoring the fact that Coronavirus does not make deals. He said the US would be reopening, ‘vaccine or no vaccine’.
On the one hand the Trump administration awarded funds to Moderna to accelerate vaccine development, on the other hand it cut funding for another coronavirus researcher. America did not join the United Nations global drive to develop coronavirus vaccine. Trump cut U.S. research on bat-human virus transmission. On 15 May 2020 the Trump Administration axed coronavirus research. Even The Lancet had had enough. He wrote a letter to the WHO threatening to permanently pull U.S. funds, which The Lancet had to correct. On 22 July the U.S. announced a nearly $2 billion contract with Pfizer/BioNTech for 600 million doses of a coronavirus vaccine.
Trump promised more than once that the vaccine rollout, by the military, would be a very rapid process all over the country. It’s a pity he didn’t ask the military to do it. That’s normally the CDC’s role. Trump’s Vaccine Chief chose to order vaccines from his former employer, a company in which he still held millions worth of stock. A good deal? Trump thought the US might see a vaccine before 2020 election, and for once he was not so far out.
Trump signed an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States, saying it was to protect jobs. He signed another which led to the safety of meat and poultry workers being neglected. Labor and OSHA said they might defend the employers of affected workers. The order led to an increase in cases. A third Executive Order was intended to ensure that essential medicines, medical countermeasures, and critical inputs were made in the United States.The White House buried a CDC Report on how to reopen safely during COVID-19. Trump’s Labor Dept. even pushed states to help employers report workers who stay home.
“It’s going to go away”
After Dr Fauci said “we will have coronavirus in the fall. I am convinced of that”, Trump contradicted him: “I think what happens is it’s going to go away.” The White House Council of Economic Advisers agreed. The US had just hit 1 million cases. The WHO said ‘This virus may never go away’ and that it could take up to 5 years before the coronavirus pandemic is under control.
The vast majority of frontline nurses said they did not have enough PPE. Trump called this ‘fake news’ and replaced the HHS watchdog who found ‘severe shortages’.
By now Trump was turning his attention more to testing. He announced a testing plan which bore no resemblance to that of Jared Kushner’s team, which was abandoned when it became known that black citizens, and therefore blue states, were more severely affected. This plan left it up to the states. He claimed that America had carried out more tests than every country in the world, combined, and that “We have the best testing in the world,” but this was not true.The following statement showed what he (mis)understood about testing: “If we did very little testing, [America] wouldn’t have the most cases. So, in a way, by doing all of this testing, we make ourselves look bad.”
He promised that very soon Americans would be able to get tested every day as they went back to work. He even asked his people to slow testing down. According to Democrats, the Trump administration sat on more than $14 billion Congress allocated to boost testing and tracing capacity. On 24 June the Trump administration announced an end to funding for 13 drive-thru COVID-19 testing sites. On 18 July the Trump administration was pushing to block new money for testing, tracing and CDC in upcoming coronavirus relief bill. In late August the CDC quietly changed coronavirus testing guidelines to say some people without symptoms but who have been in close contact with someone with COVID-19 may not need to get screened for the virus, apparently under pressure from above.
Trump questioned the accuracy of the virus death toll, saying falsely that America had a very low mortality rate
A global alliance of World Leaders Pledged $8 Billion To Fight COVID-19, but the U.S. was not among them.
On 15 May 2020 Trump unveiled ‘Operation Warp Speed.’ The House passed $3 trillion a coronavirus relief bill — the HEROES Act. It had not been voted on by the Senate over 8 months later when Trump left office.
By this time several people around Trump and in the White House had tested positive for COVID-19 — Brazil President Bolsonaro and several others at Mar-a-Lago, a staff member in Vice President Mike Pence’s office (Katie Miller, wife of Stephen Miller) and one of his personal valets. His friend Stanley Chera died from coronavirus complications. But he told Bob Woodward that he was not worried about getting it.
Donald Trump, superspreader
On 21 May 2020 Trump toured a Michigan Ford plant without a mask. On the 25th he visited Baltimore, despite the mayor’s concerns. Yet he required a waiver of COVID-19 liability from those wishing to attend his Tulsa rally, and he went ahead with it even though 6 Trump campaign staffers tested positive before it. One person who attended, caught COVID, and died, was Herman Cain. Trump also hosted a 4 July event at Mount Rushmore despite virus concerns.
Trump held further rallies in Phoenix, AZ, Mankato, MN, Oshkosh, WI, Yuma, AZ, Old Forge, PA, Londonderry, NH, Lake Charles, La.
The White House claimed that Trump did not have to go into quarantine after traveling because ‘he isn’t a civilian’.
Many Trump supporters attended the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally starting 8 August, another potential ‘super spreader’ event. Multiple states reported COVID-19 cases linked to Sturgis rally- at least 260 coronavirus cases in 12 states. Trump called on colleges to allow football.
Many of Trump’s people argued for opening schools, either arguing it was better for kids to be in school than not, ignoring the science, or coming up with their own pseudo-science, and they often had to be corrected (not that they paid much attention). Education Secretary Betsy DeVos even claimed falsely that ‘kids are actually stoppers of the disease’. Science adviser Paul Alexander wanted children to ‘infect themselves, spread it around, develop immunity, and help stop the spread.’
Trump said children are ‘virtually immune.’ At this point even Facebook and Twitter had had enough and deleted his post. He said that the CDC would help schools reopen safely — this was news to the CDC. Trump threatened to ‘cut off funding’ for schools that didn’t reopen. His administration declared teachers essential workers and said they could stay in class if exposed to Covid-19.
By 30 July Trump had started seizing on the States’ changes to voting rules (in particular the switch to absentee voting) because of COVID as an excuse to claim the election was rigged against him. With the election in mind, he carried on with his superspreading rallies and telling positive lies about the pandemic. Nevertheless, things were about to get worse, not better as America headed into fall with its flu season, new school term and the election.
To see far more instances of Trump downplaying the virus, blaming others and falsely boasting about how well he is doing and how everything is under control, as well as what others are saying and doing, please click here.