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Am I wrong or Trump was the one who initiated the first shutdowns. Trump was the one who said we'll have a vaccine quickly, etc. What should he have done that

by aprilthird2021 9mo ago

Am I wrong or Trump was the one who initiated the first shutdowns. Trump was the one who said we'll have a vaccine quickly, etc. What should he have done that he didn't do, in your opinion? Fwiw, it was the economic shock from COVID that caused this situation where he's come back to ruin our lives again. Any further disruption to the economy during COVID would have exacerbated that

LargeWu 9mo ago
It's less what should he have done, than what shouldn't he have done. Specifically, he pushed conspiracy theories, demonized his health experts, and touted ineffective cures, and ultimately cast doubt on the safety of the vaccines. All to pander to his base. He had a remarkable chance to build trust in government via a truly extraordinary vaccine rollout, to a crowd which is historically distrustful. Instead he squandered that goodwill on petty fights and self aggrandizement.
TimorousBestie 9mo ago
> What should he have done that he didn't do, in your opinion? I’ll just run down the record and stop at the first obvious error. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._federal_government_response_to_the_COVID-19_pandemic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._federal_government_respon... > One month after [March 16, 2020, when the administration first recommended social distancing], epidemiologists Britta Jewell and Nicholas Jewell estimated that, had social distancing policies been implemented just two weeks earlier, U.S. deaths due to COVID-19 might have been reduced by 90%. So there’s a concrete thing he could have done differently. > Any further disruption to the economy during COVID would have exacerbated that More stringent restrictions done earlier may have shortened the duration of the economic impact, who knows, we can’t exactly observe those alternate timelines directly. The administration had zero discipline on messaging and so nothing was done with any consistency. As you say, he was initially positive that a vaccine would arrive quickly; when it was available, he flipped and endorsed alternative treatments of all kinds, many of them harmful. Formerly a champion of Dr. Fauci, then later his worst detractor and chief prosecutor in the court of public opinion.
- pstuart 9mo ago
  And shut down the early warning system months before the outbreak, purely out of spite that it was supported by his predecessor: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/03/trump-scrapped-pandemic-early-warning-program-system-before-coronavirus https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/03/trump-scrapped...
- ndjeosibfb 9mo ago
  so what you’re saying is we needed just 2 more weeks to flatten the curve
FridayoLeary 9mo ago
And it was the scientists and doctors of the WHO, who denied the existence of Covid until after every country in the world had shut down. I thought covid denial was a bad thing, but you're still getting downvoted... In response to your last question i've got no idea. I don't have any confidence the vaunted scientists got it right back then either. Just look at the disasters inflicted on countries and states that imposed heavy handed and IMO largely unnecessary covid measures.
- TimorousBestie 9mo ago
  > And it was the scientists and doctors of the WHO, who denied the existence of Covid until after every country in the world had shut down. Doesn’t line up with WHO’s record of events. https://www.who.int/news/item/29-06-2020-covidtimeline https://www.who.int/news/item/29-06-2020-covidtimeline
- aprilthird2021 9mo ago
  It's easy to say COVID measures were unnecessary when you live in a timeline where you were spared from the worst case scenario of an immediate global pandemic. The economic harm was huge, but we don't know what it would have been if we had not taken any protective measures and we didn't know back then either how dangerous the disease could be

LargeWu 9mo ago

It's less what should he have done, than what shouldn't he have done. Specifically, he pushed conspiracy theories, demonized his health experts, and touted ineffective cures, and ultimately cast doubt on the safety of the vaccines. All to pander to his base. He had a remarkable chance to build trust in government via a truly extraordinary vaccine rollout, to a crowd which is historically distrustful. Instead he squandered that goodwill on petty fights and self aggrandizement.

TimorousBestie 9mo ago

> What should he have done that he didn't do, in your opinion? I’ll just run down the record and stop at the first obvious error. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._federal_government_response_to_the_COVID-19_pandemic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._federal_government_respon... > One month after [March 16, 2020, when the administration first recommended social distancing], epidemiologists Britta Jewell and Nicholas Jewell estimated that, had social distancing policies been implemented just two weeks earlier, U.S. deaths due to COVID-19 might have been reduced by 90%. So there’s a concrete thing he could have done differently. > Any further disruption to the economy during COVID would have exacerbated that More stringent restrictions done earlier may have shortened the duration of the economic impact, who knows, we can’t exactly observe those alternate timelines directly. The administration had zero discipline on messaging and so nothing was done with any consistency. As you say, he was initially positive that a vaccine would arrive quickly; when it was available, he flipped and endorsed alternative treatments of all kinds, many of them harmful. Formerly a champion of Dr. Fauci, then later his worst detractor and chief prosecutor in the court of public opinion.

pstuart 9mo ago
And shut down the early warning system months before the outbreak, purely out of spite that it was supported by his predecessor: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/03/trump-scrapped-pandemic-early-warning-program-system-before-coronavirus https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/03/trump-scrapped...
ndjeosibfb 9mo ago
so what you’re saying is we needed just 2 more weeks to flatten the curve

FridayoLeary 9mo ago

And it was the scientists and doctors of the WHO, who denied the existence of Covid until after every country in the world had shut down. I thought covid denial was a bad thing, but you're still getting downvoted... In response to your last question i've got no idea. I don't have any confidence the vaunted scientists got it right back then either. Just look at the disasters inflicted on countries and states that imposed heavy handed and IMO largely unnecessary covid measures.

TimorousBestie 9mo ago
> And it was the scientists and doctors of the WHO, who denied the existence of Covid until after every country in the world had shut down. Doesn’t line up with WHO’s record of events. https://www.who.int/news/item/29-06-2020-covidtimeline https://www.who.int/news/item/29-06-2020-covidtimeline
aprilthird2021 9mo ago
It's easy to say COVID measures were unnecessary when you live in a timeline where you were spared from the worst case scenario of an immediate global pandemic. The economic harm was huge, but we don't know what it would have been if we had not taken any protective measures and we didn't know back then either how dangerous the disease could be