TRUMP’S LACK OF ATTENTION

Today is a continuation of yesterday’s daily missive.  I had found that in early January, Trump received a memo outlining the potential spread of the pandemic (the Azar memo).  Trump stated he did not read it, but if he did, he did nothing about it.  The fact the memo painted such dire consequences, makes it unlikely he did not read it.  If he truly did not read it, or he read and ignored it, makes him either incompetent or illiterate.  Early divisions and interpretations of data provided to the President weighed against the impact to the economy.  Trump wanted to control the message, as he knew of the economic impacts.  The stable genius won out over the following institutions that all had warnings of the up and coming national disaster:

1. HHS
2. NIH
3. CDC
4. FDA
5. State Department
6. Intel Community
7. Defense department
8. Internal communications
9. Senators
10. Presidents daily brief
11. Joe Biden (Jan 27, 2020 op. ed.)

Instead of taking the threat seriously, Trump waited, from January to mid-March, before he appeared to take the threat seriously.  Even now he continues to rely on his gut instincts (or as I call it horse sense) in lieu of any of the medical professionals.  I guess he absorbed through osmosis his medical knowledge from his uncle that taught at MIT.  After all, he once asked Bill Gates if he knew the difference between HPV and HIV.  One of his prostitutes must have asked if he had been tested?  Trump, after more then 3 years in office, lacks any planning for this pandemic.  In 2 months, he could have saved lives.  The deaths are caused by the lack of preparedness and essential PPE and ventilators that could have been expedited early.

As far as testing goes, the CDC developed a test, and after 2 weeks of implementation of only 85 tests and an additional week to find results, it was found to have false positives and was discarded. Trump promised “everyone that wanted a test could get a test” (empty promise).  Trump then announced he wanted the states and any other labs to develop tests and promised swift approval. 

The states and other institutions, developed and approved 70 tests.  Of these tests, only 35 were effective. The other half, provided both false positives and false negatives, clearly junk tests.  The 35 junk tests were scraped, wasting valuable time, after confusing experts and the public and allowing the virus to spread further.

Trump made the states responsible for shutting down, social distancing and shelter in place orders.  These orders were not popular.  Trump now wants to be the hero and is pushing to reopen the economy.  Will he take the responsibility of a resurgence of the pandemic?