There’s no reason to claim a grand conspiracy to knee-cap the initial testing response. The CDC and the FDA managed to fail out of pure incompetence and ineptitude all by themselves.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/25/trump-coronavirus-n...
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/18/politics/kfile-trump-official...
The links go on and on.
For most conservatives, I guess it's easier to blame the "deep state" or those "evil government bureaucrats" than admitting the leader they elected is incompetent.
The simple fact is non-partisan non-evil, simply incompetent bureaucrats at the State and Federal levels all failed to adequately prepare (PPE stockpiles) and had actively harmful policies set in place years ago which impeded the response or even actively worsened it, and too many remained in denial once community spread became apparent.
Everything from a stranglehold on testing (FDA) to bungling the test kits (CDC) to flimsy border checks, poor initial contact tracing, to forcing COVID positive patients to nursing homes (Cuomo), to politicizing the quarantine to the point where they lose credibility (open letter from ‘healthcare professionals’ supporting protests).
There’s nothing deep state or evil about it. It’s just the typical failure I expect from my government, blue or red, every time. Sad but true.
To be fair, this was basically America’s first brush with a serious contagion in the modern era. Other countries that did better have had more practice.
Frankly, I don’t think a full fledged multi-trillion dollar response (50-state hard quarantine) was politically possible on January 20th. Trump was acquitted on Feb 5, and Senators skipping impeachment hearings to get informed on COVID were literally being threatened that they would be dragged into the Senate to sit and listen to Ukraine testimony.
From what I can tell, no one in either party was calling for measures stringent enough and early enough to have stopped the situation we have now. Senator Cotton was one who pushed particular hard to ground planes and is credited for that.
Of course at the time the perplexing WHO guidance was against travel bans. Yes, the US certainly isn’t alone in the world in its missteps.
And even if the lockdown had been harder and more consistent, there was still the flubbed testing, the flubbed medical response (ventilators), and the flubbed patient management.
CDC initial tactical teams wanted to treat COVID patients like Ebola carriers, spending what looked like $100k per person in full isolation wards — I guess they were thinking this was going to be 10 or 20 people coming into the country. Then we end up sending sick people into common areas of nursing homes. Then they told people not to wear masks for weeks... Just totally nonsensical top to bottom.
These arguments about "let's not make this a partisan issue" completely ignores the reality. The same about how news and politics are so divisive at the moment, yes they are but let's not forget one side of politics literally said people carrying swastikas are very fine people as well.
Calling for "not politicising issues and all sides are bad" completely ignores the reality that who is in power at the moment and how exceptionally incompetent and corrupt the current administration is.
> literally said people carrying swastikas are very fine people as well.
Trump, several seconds later [0]: "And you had people -- and I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists -- because they should be condemned totally. But you had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists. Okay?"
[0] https://www.politifact.com/article/2019/apr/26/context-trump...
> yes they are but let's not forget one side of politics literally said people carrying swastikas are very fine people as well
I'll assume you're not being sarcastic, and perhaps just inadvertently making my case. What Trump said about Charlottesville was literally the opposite of what the media reported him saying. Watch the actual video of his remarks, or read the full transcript.
If you're willing to examine the actual primary source evidence in that case, perhaps it will help you take a fresh look at how COVID is reported w.r.t Trump as well.
As to your question, no I was not equating that. I am saying just one of many, many flubs was when Democrats called COVID a "manufactured crisis" in the early stages as it was unfolding during impeachment. Instead of pushing the Administration to do me, COVID response was made out to be a red herring or a con used as a distraction. Before we even knew was SARS-CoV-2 was, the response was already being irreparably politicized.
By my count he totally condemns neo-Nazi's, calls them violent, calls them bad, 5 different times before saying there were different people, people who came there to protest a statue being taken down, people who were not neo-Nazis, that were part of the "very fine people on both sides." He then follows that by saying again that he's not talking about neo-Nazi's and they should be condemned totally. He couldn't have made it more clear (over screaming reporters) but they hung him up for it anyway. Read for yourself...
Trump: "I will tell you something. I watched those very closely -- much more closely than you people watched it. And you have -- you had a group on one side that was bad, and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent. And nobody wants to say that, but I’ll say it right now. You had a group -- you had a group on the other side that came charging in, without a permit, and they were very, very violent."
Reporter: "Do you think that what you call the alt-left is the same as neo-Nazis?"
Trump: "Those people -- all of those people – excuse me, I’ve condemned neo-Nazis. I’ve condemned many different groups. But not all of those people were neo-Nazis, believe me. Not all of those people were white supremacists by any stretch. Those people were also there because they wanted to protest the taking down of a statue of Robert E. Lee."
Reporter: "Should that statue be taken down?"
Trump: "Excuse me. If you take a look at some of the groups, and you see -- and you’d know it if you were honest reporters, which in many cases you’re not -- but many of those people were there to protest the taking down of the statue of Robert E. Lee.
"So this week it’s Robert E. Lee. I noticed that Stonewall Jackson is coming down. I wonder, is it George Washington next week? And is it Thomas Jefferson the week after? You know, you really do have to ask yourself, where does it stop?
"But they were there to protest -- excuse me, if you take a look, the night before they were there to protest the taking down of the statue of Robert E. Lee. Infrastructure question. Go ahead."
Reporter: "Should the statues of Robert E. Lee stay up?"
Trump: "I would say that’s up to a local town, community, or the federal government, depending on where it is located."
Reporter: "How concerned are you about race relations in America? And do you think things have gotten worse or better since you took office?"
Trump: "I think they’ve gotten better or the same. Look, they’ve been frayed for a long time. And you can ask President Obama about that, because he’d make speeches about it. But I believe that the fact that I brought in -- it will be soon -- millions of jobs -- you see where companies are moving back into our country -- I think that’s going to have a tremendous, positive impact on race relations.
"We have companies coming back into our country. We have two car companies that just announced. We have Foxconn in Wisconsin just announced. We have many companies, I say, pouring back into the country. I think that’s going to have a huge, positive impact on race relations. You know why? It’s jobs. What people want now, they want jobs. They want great jobs with good pay, and when they have that, you watch how race relations will be.
"And I’ll tell you, we’re spending a lot of money on the inner cities. We’re fixing the inner cities. We’re doing far more than anybody has done with respect to the inner cities. It’s a priority for me, and it’s very important."
Reporter: "Mr. President, are you putting what you’re calling the alt-left and white supremacists on the same moral plane?"
Trump: "I’m not putting anybody on a moral plane. What I’m saying is this: You had a group on one side and you had a group on the other, and they came at each other with clubs -- and it was vicious and it was horrible. And it was a horrible thing to watch.
"But there is another side. There was a group on this side. You can call them the left -- you just called them the left -- that came violently attacking the other group. So you can say what you want, but that’s the way it is.
Reporter: (Inaudible) "… both sides, sir. You said there was hatred, there was violence on both sides. Are the --"
Trump: "Yes, I think there’s blame on both sides. If you look at both sides -- I think there’s blame on both sides. And I have no doubt about it, and you don’t have any doubt about it either. And if you reported it accurately, you would say."
Reporter: "The neo-Nazis started this. They showed up in Charlottesville to protest --"
Trump: "Excuse me, excuse me. They didn’t put themselves -- and you had some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides. You had people in that group. Excuse me, excuse me. I saw the same pictures as you did. You had people in that group that were there to protest the taking down of, to them, a very, very important statue and the renaming of a park from Robert E. Lee to another name."
Reporter: "George Washington and Robert E. Lee are not the same."
Trump: "George Washington was a slave owner. Was George Washington a slave owner? So will George Washington now lose his status? Are we going to take down -- excuse me, are we going to take down statues to George Washington? How about Thomas Jefferson? What do you think of Thomas Jefferson? You like him?"
Reporter: "I do love Thomas Jefferson."
Trump: "Okay, good. Are we going to take down the statue? Because he was a major slave owner. Now, are we going to take down his statue?
"So you know what, it’s fine. You’re changing history. You’re changing culture. And you had people -- and I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists -- because they should be condemned totally. But you had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists. Okay? And the press has treated them absolutely unfairly.
"Now, in the other group also, you had some fine people. But you also had troublemakers, and you see them come with the black outfits and with the helmets, and with the baseball bats. You had a lot of bad people in the other group."
Will the next administration provide a V-shaped recovery in trust? Or is it just gone forever?
The big problem is that in order to fix trust, you will need to purge a lot of the senior bureaucrats who decided that keeping their job was more important than serving the public.
If you don't do this, then you have sent the signal that being a political operator is more important than doing your actual job.
First, there will be those who are devoted to the goals of the organization. Examples are dedicated classroom teachers in an educational bureaucracy, many of the engineers and launch technicians and scientists at NASA, even some agricultural scientists and advisors in the former Soviet Union collective farming administration.
Secondly, there will be those dedicated to the organization itself. Examples are many of the administrators in the education system, many professors of education, many teachers union officials, much of the NASA headquarters staff, etc.
The Iron Law states that in every case the second group will gain and keep control of the organization. It will write the rules, and control promotions within the organization.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/05/12/fact-check-obama-left...