Now that it appears that the nation has turned the corner on coronavirus, let the blame game begin. After all, isn’t everything that’s happened in the last 3.5 years the direct result of Donald Trump? Wait: I said “everything.” That can’t be right. Let’s restate that: “…isn’t everything BAD that’s happened in the last 3.5 years the direct result of Donald Trump?” There’s a BIG difference there. As a matter of fact, if you listen to anybody that even leans a bit left politically, not very much good HAS happened since 2016. Anything that happened that was good was because of the policies of Barack Obama, Democrats in Congress, and because those Democrats beat back the attempts of the GOP to hurt the American people.
It may not be quite like that. But if it’s not an actual representation of how the political ride of this administration has been, it’s awfully close.
Now, the Left has another arrow in their quiver with which to attack Donald Trump: Coronavirus.
“Tony, Boy”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, known to the world as THE infectious disease expert of all experts. He knows it all when it comes to measles, whooping cough, and pandemics. No one has more street cred on these subjects than does Dr. Fauci.
Who will ever forget that meeting in early January in which Dr. Fauci predicted the tragic results of COVID-19 we’ve seen in our country in the last few months? Indeed, that day in January will go down in history. That was the day when Dr. Fauci gave the advice to the White House to eliminate social contact between Americans as best as possible and to quickly close schools, tighten down on human connection in every other gathering, and avoid human contact altogether. I’ll never forget the doctor’s press briefing in which he told Americans there was hope, that if we did everything he said for us to do, we’d get through this with minimal losses. (I think that was in mid-January) Surely CNN and MSNBC will replay those press conferences to illustrate how the President ignored the specialist’s warnings.
Here’s the latest Dr. Tony Fauci headline: “White House coronavirus expert Dr. Tony Fauci said Sunday lives could have been saved if the US had been shut down earlier. Speaking on CNN, the immunologist said the US could start to reopen next month, but warned a second wave of the virus could still hit the country.’
Here’s the rest of Sunday’s CNN story about Dr. Fauci’s interview:
During the interview, Fauci revealed that the government had been advised to begin social distancing measures in February. President Trump announced plans to roll out “self-isolating” in mid March.
“We look at it from a pure health standpoint,” Fauci said. “We make a recommendation, often the recommendation is taken, sometimes it’s not. But it is what it is.”
Fauci was then asked if lives could have been saved if stay at home measures had started in February, rather than almost a month later. “Obviously you could logically say that if you had a process that was ongoing and you started mitigation earlier you could’ve saved lives, obviously,” he replied. “No-one is going to deny that. But there was a lot of pushback about shutting things down back then.”
“Could’ve, Should’ve, Would’ve”
Here’s a partial timeline of the U.S. governments direct actions at the beginning of Coronavirus:
Jan. 6, 2020: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns Americans to take precautions if traveling to China.
Jan. 7: The CDC’s Emergency Operations Center activates a COVID-19 Incident Management System, used to direct operations, deliver resources and share information.
Jan. 8: The CDC issues an alert about the coronavirus, saying it is “closely monitoring” the disease and that there are “no known U.S. cases.”
Jan. 14: The World Health Organization issues a statement about the first COVID-19 case outside of China, saying, “There is no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission.”
Jan. 17: The CDC holds its first COVID-19 telebriefing. Officials say that the agency will start screening passengers on direct or connecting flights from Wuhan. However, they said that they are not aware of measures regarding exit screening in Wuhan.
Jan. 21: The first case of the coronavirus in the U.S. is confirmed in a patient near Seattle.
Jan. 29: Trump announces the creation of the President’s Coronavirus Task Force to lead the “United States government response to the novel 2019 coronavirus and with keeping him apprised of developments.” The White House said the task force was being led by Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar.
Jan. 31: The Trump administration suspends entry into the United States by foreign nationals who traveled to China within the last 14 days (excluding Hong Kong and Macau). This does not apply to lawful U.S. residents and family members/ spouses of U.S. residents or citizens. Azar declares a U.S. public health emergency for COVID-19. The declaration was retroactive to Jan. 27.
Feb. 6: The first U.S. citizen diagnosed with the coronavirus dies in Wuhan, China, the U.S. Embassy in Beijing says.
Feb. 7: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announces a U.S. pledge of $100 million to help China and other countries combat the coronavirus. The pledge is also mentioned in an HHS press briefing with members of the coronavirus task force.
Feb. 18: The CDC issues an order requiring airlines to provide information about any passenger coming from China within 14 days of their entry into the U.S.
Feb. 24: The White House asks Congress for $1.25 billion in new funding to help with coronavirus response. The administration also asked to move $535 million more from an Ebola preparedness account.
Feb. 26: Trump announces that Vice President Mike Pence will head the U.S. response to the coronavirus outbreak.
Feb. 29: First U.S. death related to the coronavirus is announced after an individual in Washington state dies from the illness. That same day, Trump and Pence announce additional travel restrictions involving Iran and an advisory against traveling to certain parts of Italy and South Korea.
March 2: Trump and members of the coronavirus task force meet with pharmaceutical companies to discuss speeding up the development of a vaccine and treatments for the coronavirus. Trump claims some of the companies said that a vaccine would be ready in three to four months. The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, later clarified that a year to a year and a half would be a more accurate timetable.
Trump signs an $8.3 billion spending package to combat the coronavirus. This comes a day after the Senate approved the House-passed legislation.
Trump travels to CDC headquarters in Atlanta and at one point says he “wouldn’t generally be inclined” to cancel travel and social gatherings.
This timeline was produced by a news source that is almost exclusive anti-Trump in its stories. Therefore it comes as no surprise they did NOT mention one very important dig at the President in their timeline: Where is the day in which Dr. Fauci recommended to the President (or any other member of the task force) that we needed to begin social distancing?
In hindsight, there we probably “could’ve” had fewer U.S. cases and subsequent deaths if we had much more information. And if we had that information from the experts at the time, President Trump “would’ve” announced the necessity for social distancing. And if he had all that information along with Dr. Fauci’s recommendation and did NOT push for social distancing, he certainly “should’ve.”
With Dr. Fauci’s CNN interview comment that “we certainly could have saved lives if we began social distancing sooner” “could’ve” been true. In retrospect, that social distancing policy “should’ve” been given to the general public. We’ll never know factually, but if the social distancing policy would have been better explained along with its grave importance to the American people, it probably “would’ve” saved more of our citizens from coronavirus death.
Blame Game
Stop right now and do a Google search: “The first announcement promoting social distancing in coronavirus pandemic.”
The earliest I can find is by Dr. Fauci in a March 20th interview on PBS. In that interview, he did NOT make a demonstrative statement about social distancing or even recommending any type of strict guidelines. He was asked what was his fear about the virus and its impact on Americans and he replied, “I’m worried that too many people will not adhere to staying away from big groups, going to restaurants and bars, and putting themselves and other Americans in harms way.”
There was NOTHING in that interview nor was there ever any indication to the public by Dr. Fauci or any other member of the task force that social distancing was a necessity to stop its spread.
And then Sunday, April 12, Dr. Fauci deflected any accountability for there being NO earlier warning to “others” in government — without saying it, he meant the President.
And the Sunday news media have taken stories about that to the moon.
Experts
Remember when the President ordered the travel ban on January 31 for anyone coming to the U.S. from China? Remember what Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), both said about it? Both called it “unnecessary, political, rash, racist, xenophobic, and unconstitutional.”
“Experts” have repeatedly stated that travel ban probably saved the lives of tens of thousands of Americans who would have been exposed to additional entries from China of those carrying the virus. 400,000 travelers from China entered the U.S. in the 90-days before the travel ban!
It certainly made a difference. Yet for that sensible decision — in defiance of the World Health Organization — Mr. Trump was criticized by Democrats such as Joe Biden as xenophobic, and by China as racist.
“This is no time for Donald Trump’s record of hysteria and xenophobia — hysterical xenophobia — and fearmongering,” said Biden the day after the travel restrictions were imposed.
CNN ran a story warning that “the US coronavirus travel ban could backfire” and have the effect of “stigmatizing countries and ethnicities.”
The Chinese Communist Party’s official mouthpiece, the People’s Daily, called the ban “racist.”
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned it would increase “fear and stigma, with little public health benefit.”
What it DID do was stop thousands from being exposed.
Most Americans applaud the President’s early actions. But those early actions initiated by Mr. Trump and others in his administration are rarely mentioned in today’s media. They no longer just ignore the good things and great results and accomplishments by this administration; they make up stories that feed the narrative of a now-dwindling group of “expert” politicians and news journalists.
Has anyone thought this through?
January 15, House Democrats delivered two articles of impeachment to the United States Senate. Democrats knew the Republican-controlled Senate would not have enough votes to convict President Trump. But that didn’t deter House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) from wasting government time, resources, and attention for months in a doomed effort to remove Donald Trump from the White House. Six days later, on January 21, the first known case of novel coronavirus (COVID-19, or the Wuhan virus) was reported in the United States. There was a little matter of those impeachment articles being handed over to the Senate for an impeachment trial. Pelosi sat on them for two weeks!
How much did you hear from Democrat leaders during that time regarding their coronavirus concerns? Nothing. But we listened to a lot about impeachment: NONSTOP. Come to think of it, what have we heard from Democrat leaders when they continuously attack the President for not doing soon enough enough that the President SHOULD be doing? NOTHING.
It’s not about leadership to the Left. It’s about the politicization of what they see as one more opportunity to impeach Donald Trump, either literally or figuratively.
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