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> On January 31st. 2020, Trump announces travel restrictions from China. On February 2nd (and for about a month after that) various officials from New York as w

> On January 31st. 2020, Trump announces travel restrictions from China. On February 2nd (and for about a month after that) various officials from New York as well as Nancy Pelosi are on video telling the public that there is nothing to this virus, that they should continue life as normal, get on the subway, buses, trains, go to work, restaurants, festivals and entertainment venues. You can find the governor, mayor and director of health of New York making these statements as well as saying and implying that Trump was something between crazy, racist and hateful for sounding the alarm. Facts matter indeed! Please do a google search as it sounds like you were completely checked out from news in the USA during February 2020 and have got your impression from politicized propaganda later on. Trump downplayed the coronavirus that entire month and the democrats, while mildly sounding the alarm, followed his lead and repeated his theories that people shouldn’t take action. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/timeline-president-donald-trump-changing-statements-on-coronavirus/#app https://www.cbsnews.com/news/timeline-president-donald-trump... * Trump Jan 30, 2020 “ "We think 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. But we're working very closely with China and other countries, and we think it's going to have a very good ending for us … that I can assure you," * Trump February 10 “ I had a long talk with President Xi — for the people in this room — two nights ago, and he feels very confident. He feels very confident. And he feels that, again, as I mentioned, by April or during the month of April, the heat, generally speaking, kills this kind of virus," * February 24 “ The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries. CDC & World Health have been working hard and very smart. Stock Market starting to look very good to me!" * February 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," The Nancy pelosi in Chinatown comment you reference took place on February 24, the same day Trump said there was nothing to worry about and Covid was completely under control. They were actually in sync! https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/nancy-pelosi-visits-san-franciscos-chinatown/2240247/ https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/nancy-pelosi-visits-sa...

robomartin 5y ago
You have to make a distinction between what they say in public and what is going on behind the scenes. For me, at least, when the travel restrictions went up on January 31st, this represented a very serious indicator that something was seriously wrong. This was a move three standard deviations away from the mean, if not more. As I said in a prior comment, the very next day I checked our supplies and placed online order for a six month lockdown, including N95 masks. I also told friends and family. Everyone who paid attention to my warning did very well and navigated 2020 with very little to worry about other than staying safe. My point is that politicians have a back channel for communications that they should use during these kinds of events. If I had been in politics at the time this started to develop I would ask myself a very serious question: Why did the US president just shut down travel from China? I would not have pulled the answer out of CNN. I would have reached out to the administration and had a serious conversation, regardless of being a member of the opposing political party. I certainly wouldn't have gone on TV to tell people to get on the subway, buses, trains and go to festivals without first understanding something three standard deviations away from the historical mean. Trump was an idiot in public. Not so behind closed doors. The travel restrictions imposed on China on January 31st. carried gravity lots of people, news outlets and politicians chose to ignore, and this cost lives. To beat this one to death: No, the US president --no politician really-- could not go out there and say "we are all going to die". The masses can't handle stuff like that. What the masses want to hear is "we are going to be OK". However, the masses also need to be told how not to kill themselves. We likely would have saved tens if not hundreds of thousands of lives had we come out with a unified message asking people to not participate in high density activities (subway, etc.) because this new virus spread quickly. It would have been just fine to come out and say "we need a few weeks to asses the situation, until then, we ask that you do these five things...". Instead they came out and effectively said "Trump is racist. Ignore him.". And the rest is history. Ironic, when you consider that their "racist" likely saved their lives and that of hundreds of millions by mounting and effectively executing the fastest and most effective vaccine development program in human history. Go figure. It's OK to be politically partisan, but sometimes one has to also be willing to be honest. The man inspired projectile vomiting every time he spoke, and yet the things he did were pretty much always on point. Today we are seeing almost exactly the opposite: Someone who speaks well and is a complete disaster at almost every level. I can't even imagine what reality would look like today if Trump hadn't gotten vaccines done by November of his last year. It's probably fair so say millions would have died in the US. Biden/Harris would have been running around like chickens with their heads cut off.

robomartin 5y ago

You have to make a distinction between what they say in public and what is going on behind the scenes. For me, at least, when the travel restrictions went up on January 31st, this represented a very serious indicator that something was seriously wrong. This was a move three standard deviations away from the mean, if not more. As I said in a prior comment, the very next day I checked our supplies and placed online order for a six month lockdown, including N95 masks. I also told friends and family. Everyone who paid attention to my warning did very well and navigated 2020 with very little to worry about other than staying safe. My point is that politicians have a back channel for communications that they should use during these kinds of events. If I had been in politics at the time this started to develop I would ask myself a very serious question: Why did the US president just shut down travel from China? I would not have pulled the answer out of CNN. I would have reached out to the administration and had a serious conversation, regardless of being a member of the opposing political party. I certainly wouldn't have gone on TV to tell people to get on the subway, buses, trains and go to festivals without first understanding something three standard deviations away from the historical mean. Trump was an idiot in public. Not so behind closed doors. The travel restrictions imposed on China on January 31st. carried gravity lots of people, news outlets and politicians chose to ignore, and this cost lives. To beat this one to death: No, the US president --no politician really-- could not go out there and say "we are all going to die". The masses can't handle stuff like that. What the masses want to hear is "we are going to be OK". However, the masses also need to be told how not to kill themselves. We likely would have saved tens if not hundreds of thousands of lives had we come out with a unified message asking people to not participate in high density activities (subway, etc.) because this new virus spread quickly. It would have been just fine to come out and say "we need a few weeks to asses the situation, until then, we ask that you do these five things...". Instead they came out and effectively said "Trump is racist. Ignore him.". And the rest is history. Ironic, when you consider that their "racist" likely saved their lives and that of hundreds of millions by mounting and effectively executing the fastest and most effective vaccine development program in human history. Go figure. It's OK to be politically partisan, but sometimes one has to also be willing to be honest. The man inspired projectile vomiting every time he spoke, and yet the things he did were pretty much always on point. Today we are seeing almost exactly the opposite: Someone who speaks well and is a complete disaster at almost every level. I can't even imagine what reality would look like today if Trump hadn't gotten vaccines done by November of his last year. It's probably fair so say millions would have died in the US. Biden/Harris would have been running around like chickens with their heads cut off.