Stark Reality of Ineptitude of Trump's Covid-19 Response

[_I have a question]

I'm not keen on defending Trump as an individual. But the comparison of Covid statistics at the moment is a misleading activity. In the UK it looks like the government has handled the pandemic badly as it has now incurred more deaths than any other country (excluding the USA which, to be fair, should be considered a continent for this exercise). However, that is only a judgement based on the assumption that all reporting is equal - that countries are monitoring and recording Covid statistics in the same way, with the same criteria and to the same levels of accuracy and honesty. Which is unlikely to be the case.

As a scientist recently said, the fairest assessment of how countries have handled this pandemic will be when you take the average total number of deaths per country for the last 10 years over the specific months in question and compare those rates to those for 2020. The variance will be (to within a fine tolerance) the Covid factor.

(For the record, I think Trump will come out badly on this no matter what. His comments initially about it being a hoax, and then suggesting scientists explore the option of injecting people with disinfectant may be enough on their own. But when his advisors and people around him start breaking cover, his idiocy will be laid bare for all to see)

[_Gunnar]

It's quite telling that, so far, not one of the Trump supporters here has even tried to explain away the damning evidence given in my OP of how terribly Trump has handled the corona virus pandemic. They obviously know they will only succeed in embarrassing and disgracing themselves by even trying.

What could anyone say to defend his response without lying or sounding like a moron?

Exactly!

Honestly, I don't think Trump supporters have really internalized his response. If they thought about it too much, they'd have to admit what a damn up he is.

Which is obviously anathema to them.

Everyone saw how he downplayed it for weeks before having to admit it was a pandemic.

Undeniably true for anyone both honest and rational.

If you still trust him now, after all of this, you're just a brainless follower with no will, backbone or intellectual life of your own.

Even if that was ever in dispute, it certainly is no longer!

[Guest]

(For the record, I think Trump will come out badly on this no matter what. His comments initially about it being a hoax, and then suggesting scientists explore the option of injecting people with disinfectant may be enough on their own. But when his advisors and people around him start breaking cover, his idiocy will be laid bare for all to see)

It appears to me that even Trump himself is beginning to realize the truth of that, which is probably why he seems to be becoming increasingly unhinged in his remarks and behavior. A less self-absorbed and narcissistic individual than Trump would probably, by now, be seriously considering the possibility that the best way of minimizing further embarrassment would be to resign and let someone else take over.

[_Some Schmo]

If you still trust him now, after all of this, you're just a brainless follower with no will, backbone or intellectual life of your own.

Even if that was ever in dispute, it certainly is no longer! (my bold)

Yeah, you know, I remember the day after the election. I had a dentist's appointment that day and I was sitting in the waiting room, not really thinking about the dentist. I was thinking some version of Holy crap what the “F” is going to happen to this country now?

Another dude was in the waiting room, an older guy, and he says to me (striking up a conversation), "Quite the election last night, huh?"

I said, "Yeah, I've never been so terrified in my life." I don't think he liked that answer.

We'd actually gotten somewhat lucky before the pandemic. Other than some hurricane disasters, nothing catastrophic that the current infrastructure couldn't handle (for the most part) had happened. We didn't have to rely too much on the President handling things properly.

Then a pandemic happened. Now the party of responsibility has no relationship to responsibility. This asshole screwed us, because he's clearly an incompetent. I knew that the day I sat in my dentist's office 3 and a half years ago. That this would happen was essentially inevitable.

People who still support Trump proved long ago they were a bunch of nobodys without their idiotic tribe. Hollow, obedient robots, programmed to think nothing outside their own limited self-interests, and damned them up anyway.

[_Some Schmo]

We'd actually gotten somewhat lucky before the pandemic. Other than some hurricane disasters, nothing catastrophic that the current infrastructure couldn't handle (for the most part) had happened. We didn't have to rely too much on the President handling things properly.

I want to revise this because it paints way too rosy a picture.

We had gotten lucky (for the most part) in terms of outside environmental factors that could cause grave harm, the kinds of which you really want a strong, smart leader to handle. Of course it's true that Trump has essentially made everything he's touched worse, but he inherited a functioning thing (mostly), and it carried him for a while.

It's just our luck that a 100 year pandemic happened to coincide with having the absolute worst President in history in office at the time.

Nothing makes me laugh ironically these days like the phrase greatest country in the world. Maybe in some parallel universe...

[_Gunnar]

It's just our luck that a 100 year pandemic happened to coincide with having the absolute worst President in history in office at the time.

Nothing makes me laugh ironically these days like the phrase greatest country in the world. Maybe in some parallel universe...

As I said in my OP, even as prominent a Republican as former GOP strategist, Steve Schmidt, blasted Trump for the most inept response to "any crisis in history!"

[_Gunnar]

What makes this even sadder, our country has often been a world leader in solving previous crises, including scientific problems and threats. For example: Under the leadership of President Obama, American doctors and scientists played a significant role in defusing the potential Ebola crisis, in the process establishing a robust pandemic response team to handle and mitigate precisely the kind of crisis we are suffering from now. Trump stupidly dismantled that team in 2018 and gave away or sold its material resources to China, using the excuse that no such team was needed when there was no actual crisis occurring. The real reason, of course, was Trump's vindictive determination to do away with anything, whether good (especially if it was good) or bad, that Obama had anything to do with. He couldn't stand the idea of leaving anything in place for which Obama could rightly take credit. See also: Trump team failed to follow NSC’s pandemic playbook

The 69-page document, finished in 2016, provided a step by step list of priorities – which were then ignored by the administration.

Now USA "leadership" is widely seen as ineffective or a joke by even some of America's closest friends and allies -- Thanks to our dear President Trump!

ETA: Need anyone point out that Trump's excuse for dismantling the Pandemic Crisis Team in 2018 is every bit as stupid as arguing that there is no need for fire insurance as long as your house is not burning?

[_Gunnar]

Another question for you Trump supporters: Have any of you changed your mind about supporting Trump because of his egregiously inept handling of the pandemic?

[_moksha]

Should California go with its proposed lottery for the 100-200 doses of the Covid-19 drug Remdesivir, or should it use the Republican plan of selling the medicine to the highest bidder?

[_Jersey Girl]

Should California go with its proposed lottery for the 100-200 doses of the Covid-19 drug Remdesivir, or should it use the Republican plan of selling the medicine to the highest bidder?

We have 100 doses in a population of over 5.7 million people. Yeah good luck with that.