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The president himself severely downplayed it and gave the opposite advice as his own health officials (including [paraphrasing] "it's just the flu" and "go to w

The president himself severely downplayed it and gave the opposite advice as his own health officials (including [paraphrasing] "it's just the flu" and "go to work.")

reaperducer 7y ago
You are correct. However, the point the previous commenter was making was that it wasn't being downplayed at the federal level. The president has been visibly out-of-step with the rest of the federal government messaging on this. One voice, no matter the position, doesn't evaporate what the hundreds of others have been saying.
- komali2 7y ago
  I disagree - the role of president in the USA is quickly marching towards "only voice of the government." This has been clear from many politicians acquiescing to the whims of that One Voice, sometimes to their own detriment, oftentimes to their benefit.
- Ididntdothis 7y ago
  I really don’t understand why the guy can’t keep quiet and let people who obviously know more about the topic do their job. I don’t understand what he is trying to achieve constantly contradicting experts. He should support them.
  - mikestew 7y ago
    I really don’t understand why the guy can’t keep quiet and let people who obviously know more about the topic do their job. What, and let someone else “hog” the attention and the spotlight? I’ve been reading about 45 since the 80s (most of the time, not by choice). “All eyes on me” seems to be far more important to the sitting president than “do the right thing”. I’m not saying “do <what he thinks is> the right thing” isn’t on the list, it’s just way down that list.
    - FriendlyNormie 7y ago
      I don’t understand how even the people who might agree with you aren’t bored of seeing formulaic offtopic Trump bashing that could be produced by a script polluting every discussion they view on the web.
      - mikestew 7y ago
        Assuming you were honestly looking for an explanation: not bored because they don't participate in the same discussions as you might, where the conversations turn to being "formulaic". In my world, and I assume in the world in which the OP lives, it's not immediately obvious why someone would run their mouth about things they know little about when an expert is standing right next to them.
  - reaperducer 7y ago
    I really don’t understand why the guy can’t keep quiet and let people who obviously know more about the topic do their job. Because he judges how well he does his job on the performance of the stock market. He speaks to sooth the jitters of Wall Street. It's not unique to the current administration. Most presidents have done this. It was even a recurring theme in the TV series West Wing.
    - Ididntdothis 7y ago
      ”It's not unique to the current administration. Most presidents have done this. ” I couldn’t imagine any of the presidents of the last decades to stand up and openly contradict his experts on something like this. Maybe behind the scenes but not in the open. He doesn’t seem to understand that he can only lose doing this.
      - reaperducer 7y ago
        I couldn’t imagine any of the presidents of the last decades to stand up and openly contradict his experts on something like this. Read my comment again. I didn't say that being contradictory was common. I said judging performance by the stock market is common.
  - rsynnott 7y ago
    He's a narcissist. This approach gets him far more press (very, very bad press, of course, but he seems broadly okay with that), so it's the obvious route, from that point of view.
- disease 7y ago
  A significant portion of the U.S. population not only unconditionally believes everything Donald Trump says, but will ONLY believe what he says.
- dragontamer 7y ago
  > The president has been visibly out-of-step with the rest of the federal government messaging on this. One voice, no matter the position, doesn't evaporate what the hundreds of others have been saying. The President has been accusing the "Bureaucrats" of not caring about average Americans, fear-mongering the virus, and claims the Deep State is after him. The President's followers do NOT believe the government experts. As per the sitting President's plan. The sitting President has cultivated an "Us lay people vs Them bureaucrats" atmosphere. Case in point: My own Mother believes that the Coronavirus is a Chinese conspiracy to attack the President. And nothing I say could sway her opinion. Unfortunately, the voters of the President support, and believe in him more than even family.
- JamesBarney 7y ago
  If you're paying attention you know he's wrong. But there are large swaths of people who when it comes to believing the CDC or the president choose to believe the president. Just this weekend a group of relatives was making fun of the coronavirus as a hoax.
  - dkarl 7y ago
    Even scarier, a lot of the people who believe him have been paying close attention the whole time. Trump sounds more like what they expect the truth to sound like than any competent person who is trying to do their job possibly could.
- ddoolin 7y ago
  His surgeon general has echoed his sentiment although not so tersely. Yes, they are only two people, but if you can't believe either of these two people, who can you trust, particularly when they are making exclusive claims? Besides, he has made a cult of personality around himself and many people do listen to him.
nicoburns 7y ago
The president rarely says anything that makes sense. Hopefully most people have learnt not to listen to him by now.
- lukifer 7y ago
  I think the right way to model 45's behavior is an evolutionary feedback loop, where the success condition is pushing the buttons (positive and negative) of the public, for narcissistic attention. He's a paperclip maximizer for outrage and fervor, a Facebook engagement algorithm made flesh. Because this "skill" has been honed from a lifetime of obsession with media, he's exceptionally good at bypassing anything resembling rational thought, and hitting emotional triggers, resulting in otherwise intelligent people engaging with Frankfurtian Bullshit even when they should know better (opponents and supporters alike).
- ncallaway 7y ago
  > The president rarely says anything that makes sense. Hopefully most people have learnt not to listen to him by now. Many people in this country still absolutely listen to him, and trust him more than the media when the messaging conflicts. Sadly, in this case it puts the people who put the most faith in him at even more risk.
- leesec 7y ago
  My dad parroted these exact talking points (not as bad as flu, not that many cases in USA) yesterday. People listen to him.
lukifer 7y ago
Correct; but the WHO is an international organization, and could easily have made this declaration sooner. The fact that the Trump administration was so clearly downplaying it for PR, only makes it that much more vital for health professionals to read the numbers and set appropriate expectations.

The president himself severely downplayed it and gave the opposite advice as his own health officials (including [paraphrasing] "it's just the flu" and "go to work.")

reaperducer 7y ago

You are correct. However, the point the previous commenter was making was that it wasn't being downplayed at the federal level. The president has been visibly out-of-step with the rest of the federal government messaging on this. One voice, no matter the position, doesn't evaporate what the hundreds of others have been saying.

komali2 7y ago
I disagree - the role of president in the USA is quickly marching towards "only voice of the government." This has been clear from many politicians acquiescing to the whims of that One Voice, sometimes to their own detriment, oftentimes to their benefit.
Ididntdothis 7y ago
I really don’t understand why the guy can’t keep quiet and let people who obviously know more about the topic do their job. I don’t understand what he is trying to achieve constantly contradicting experts. He should support them.
- mikestew 7y ago
  I really don’t understand why the guy can’t keep quiet and let people who obviously know more about the topic do their job. What, and let someone else “hog” the attention and the spotlight? I’ve been reading about 45 since the 80s (most of the time, not by choice). “All eyes on me” seems to be far more important to the sitting president than “do the right thing”. I’m not saying “do <what he thinks is> the right thing” isn’t on the list, it’s just way down that list.
  - FriendlyNormie 7y ago
    I don’t understand how even the people who might agree with you aren’t bored of seeing formulaic offtopic Trump bashing that could be produced by a script polluting every discussion they view on the web.
    - mikestew 7y ago
      Assuming you were honestly looking for an explanation: not bored because they don't participate in the same discussions as you might, where the conversations turn to being "formulaic". In my world, and I assume in the world in which the OP lives, it's not immediately obvious why someone would run their mouth about things they know little about when an expert is standing right next to them.
- reaperducer 7y ago
  I really don’t understand why the guy can’t keep quiet and let people who obviously know more about the topic do their job. Because he judges how well he does his job on the performance of the stock market. He speaks to sooth the jitters of Wall Street. It's not unique to the current administration. Most presidents have done this. It was even a recurring theme in the TV series West Wing.
  - Ididntdothis 7y ago
    ”It's not unique to the current administration. Most presidents have done this. ” I couldn’t imagine any of the presidents of the last decades to stand up and openly contradict his experts on something like this. Maybe behind the scenes but not in the open. He doesn’t seem to understand that he can only lose doing this.
    - reaperducer 7y ago
      I couldn’t imagine any of the presidents of the last decades to stand up and openly contradict his experts on something like this. Read my comment again. I didn't say that being contradictory was common. I said judging performance by the stock market is common.
- rsynnott 7y ago
  He's a narcissist. This approach gets him far more press (very, very bad press, of course, but he seems broadly okay with that), so it's the obvious route, from that point of view.
disease 7y ago
A significant portion of the U.S. population not only unconditionally believes everything Donald Trump says, but will ONLY believe what he says.
dragontamer 7y ago
> The president has been visibly out-of-step with the rest of the federal government messaging on this. One voice, no matter the position, doesn't evaporate what the hundreds of others have been saying. The President has been accusing the "Bureaucrats" of not caring about average Americans, fear-mongering the virus, and claims the Deep State is after him. The President's followers do NOT believe the government experts. As per the sitting President's plan. The sitting President has cultivated an "Us lay people vs Them bureaucrats" atmosphere. Case in point: My own Mother believes that the Coronavirus is a Chinese conspiracy to attack the President. And nothing I say could sway her opinion. Unfortunately, the voters of the President support, and believe in him more than even family.
JamesBarney 7y ago
If you're paying attention you know he's wrong. But there are large swaths of people who when it comes to believing the CDC or the president choose to believe the president. Just this weekend a group of relatives was making fun of the coronavirus as a hoax.
- dkarl 7y ago
  Even scarier, a lot of the people who believe him have been paying close attention the whole time. Trump sounds more like what they expect the truth to sound like than any competent person who is trying to do their job possibly could.
ddoolin 7y ago
His surgeon general has echoed his sentiment although not so tersely. Yes, they are only two people, but if you can't believe either of these two people, who can you trust, particularly when they are making exclusive claims? Besides, he has made a cult of personality around himself and many people do listen to him.

nicoburns 7y ago

The president rarely says anything that makes sense. Hopefully most people have learnt not to listen to him by now.

lukifer 7y ago
I think the right way to model 45's behavior is an evolutionary feedback loop, where the success condition is pushing the buttons (positive and negative) of the public, for narcissistic attention. He's a paperclip maximizer for outrage and fervor, a Facebook engagement algorithm made flesh. Because this "skill" has been honed from a lifetime of obsession with media, he's exceptionally good at bypassing anything resembling rational thought, and hitting emotional triggers, resulting in otherwise intelligent people engaging with Frankfurtian Bullshit even when they should know better (opponents and supporters alike).
ncallaway 7y ago
> The president rarely says anything that makes sense. Hopefully most people have learnt not to listen to him by now. Many people in this country still absolutely listen to him, and trust him more than the media when the messaging conflicts. Sadly, in this case it puts the people who put the most faith in him at even more risk.
leesec 7y ago
My dad parroted these exact talking points (not as bad as flu, not that many cases in USA) yesterday. People listen to him.

lukifer 7y ago

Correct; but the WHO is an international organization, and could easily have made this declaration sooner. The fact that the Trump administration was so clearly downplaying it for PR, only makes it that much more vital for health professionals to read the numbers and set appropriate expectations.