PUBLISHED TO
With Donald Trump continuing to undercut efforts to accurately inform
the public about the threat posed by the 2019 novel coronavirus
pandemic, it’s not surprising that the best description of circumstances
in the United States is simply chaotic.
It’s not just the stock market that is making its largest swings in history; it’s also the public impression of how prepared the government is to tackle this growing threat.
Tragically, this White House seems intent on attempting to deal with a global crisis in the same way it has dealt with every other issue—by spewing confusion coated with self-serving bullshit. And that’s going to get Americans killed.
Around the world, COVID-19 has become pandemic. But the responses of individual nations have generated very different outcomes. In some countries, the appearance of a handful of cases was rapidly followed by an explosion into hundreds or thousands. In others, swift action isolated and all but eliminated the disease before it could gain a foothold. In the United States, it’s too late to see COVID-19 not have a major health impact. But prompt government action can still constrain the outbreak short of an unbridled epidemic … if we can locate a government capable of taking effective actions.
Right now, America is a land of incredibly mixed messages. Seattle-based companies Amazon and Facebook have joined follow tech giant Twitter in asking all their employees to work from home. But at the same time, the organizers of the Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle were still intent on holding their convention in the city next week—even though many of the 100,000 expected attendees have already declared their fear of coming to the beloved event. Basketball teams are refusing to travel for games in the area near America’s largest current hot spot, while sci-fi fans are being encouraged to show up and put on those costumes, even though most of the media guests that are a big part of what makes Comic Cons so popular have already pulled out.
America is simultaneously a country that is fast running out of hand sanitizer and one in which people are still crowding together in theaters and at sporting events and concerts. Some large conferences are being cancelled. Others aren’t.
Some employees are being sent home. Others are still being forced to travel for business.
It’s generating a kind of societal bipolar disorder that could be addressed if there was a central authority to provide consistent, reasonable advice and instructions. But there’s not.
Instead, not only has the CDC removed the number of people who have been tested from the information available on its website, but it’s also impossible to get a straight answer on the availability of testing materials. Just two days ago, the Mike Pence-led coronavirus task force promised “a million tests” by the end of the week. That’s not going to happen. Instead, a number “way smaller that that” will literally be “in the mail” by the end of the week.
Neither Trump nor any other member of the White House team has even come close to admitting something as simple as the number of cases that have been confirmed within the United States. Thanks to state health departments, a fairly accurate number is available—164 at the time of this writing—but nothing even close to that number has been uttered by Trump, or Pence, or anyone else they’ve allowed in front of a microphone.
It’s almost as if, having spent not just the Trump years, but many years before that, working to destroy the credibility of major media sources, scientists, and experts of every stripe, Republicans have discovered that when push comes to shove, there is no one at all they can point to as a reliable authority. It’s almost like that … because it’s exactly like that. Republicans have systematically undercut every source of information not named Donald Trump. And now there is a significant portion of the population who understands there is no one to turn to except a man who can’t stop patting himself on the back for how well he’s captaining the Titanic.
A perfect trip. Everyone says so.
This is the kind of situation that demands a president step forward and address the nation—not as part of a press stunt, but to provide reassurance and instructions. It demands that someone:
It’s not just the stock market that is making its largest swings in history; it’s also the public impression of how prepared the government is to tackle this growing threat.
Tragically, this White House seems intent on attempting to deal with a global crisis in the same way it has dealt with every other issue—by spewing confusion coated with self-serving bullshit. And that’s going to get Americans killed.
Around the world, COVID-19 has become pandemic. But the responses of individual nations have generated very different outcomes. In some countries, the appearance of a handful of cases was rapidly followed by an explosion into hundreds or thousands. In others, swift action isolated and all but eliminated the disease before it could gain a foothold. In the United States, it’s too late to see COVID-19 not have a major health impact. But prompt government action can still constrain the outbreak short of an unbridled epidemic … if we can locate a government capable of taking effective actions.
Right now, America is a land of incredibly mixed messages. Seattle-based companies Amazon and Facebook have joined follow tech giant Twitter in asking all their employees to work from home. But at the same time, the organizers of the Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle were still intent on holding their convention in the city next week—even though many of the 100,000 expected attendees have already declared their fear of coming to the beloved event. Basketball teams are refusing to travel for games in the area near America’s largest current hot spot, while sci-fi fans are being encouraged to show up and put on those costumes, even though most of the media guests that are a big part of what makes Comic Cons so popular have already pulled out.
America is simultaneously a country that is fast running out of hand sanitizer and one in which people are still crowding together in theaters and at sporting events and concerts. Some large conferences are being cancelled. Others aren’t.
Some employees are being sent home. Others are still being forced to travel for business.
It’s generating a kind of societal bipolar disorder that could be addressed if there was a central authority to provide consistent, reasonable advice and instructions. But there’s not.
Instead, not only has the CDC removed the number of people who have been tested from the information available on its website, but it’s also impossible to get a straight answer on the availability of testing materials. Just two days ago, the Mike Pence-led coronavirus task force promised “a million tests” by the end of the week. That’s not going to happen. Instead, a number “way smaller that that” will literally be “in the mail” by the end of the week.
Neither Trump nor any other member of the White House team has even come close to admitting something as simple as the number of cases that have been confirmed within the United States. Thanks to state health departments, a fairly accurate number is available—164 at the time of this writing—but nothing even close to that number has been uttered by Trump, or Pence, or anyone else they’ve allowed in front of a microphone.
It’s almost as if, having spent not just the Trump years, but many years before that, working to destroy the credibility of major media sources, scientists, and experts of every stripe, Republicans have discovered that when push comes to shove, there is no one at all they can point to as a reliable authority. It’s almost like that … because it’s exactly like that. Republicans have systematically undercut every source of information not named Donald Trump. And now there is a significant portion of the population who understands there is no one to turn to except a man who can’t stop patting himself on the back for how well he’s captaining the Titanic.
A perfect trip. Everyone says so.
This is the kind of situation that demands a president step forward and address the nation—not as part of a press stunt, but to provide reassurance and instructions. It demands that someone:
- Explain to the public just what precautions they should be taking. Not in a “Wash your hands” sense, but in the sense of, Should I travel? Should I go to the office? What should I do about my mother who is in a nursing facility? Is it still safe to send my children to school?
- Address the nation’s critical lack of hospital beds by announcing how that shortage will be abated before the crunch becomes deadly—perhaps by taking over hotels and convention centers to convert them into the necessary facilities now. As in … today.
- Address the critical need for respirators and oxygen by announcing partnerships with manufacturers to increase output, stockpile supplies at critical locations, and prepare teams to move these and other supplies into place.
- Work with the National Guard across the country to be sure that it has the resources necessary to act as backup in transporting health care supplies, erecting temporary structures, and preparing health care sites without placing members of the Guard at undue risk.
- Announce not only relaxed regulations for testing, but also a systematic national campaign to test travelers, those known to be exposed to confirmed cases, those suffering from pneumonia, and a percentage of the general population in order to determine the real extent of the spread of coronavirus.
- Announce the standards by which the government will decide to suspend schools. This cannot be left to every school district in the country. And it should come with dollars to support workers forced to remain home with their kids by offsetting the costs of either missing work or finding safe care. If farmers can get billions to keep them in Trump’s camp over his trade war with China, American parents can get some help in dealing with a genuine crisis.
- Explain how the hell everything will be paid for. On Wednesday, Mike Pence fled the room rather than answer whether or not uninsured patients would even be able to get testing. Make it clear now that the government will cover all costs associated with testing. For everyone. And stop pushing nonsense about “essential health benefits” that do not exist. Covering Americans in this crisis is going to take direct government expenditure. Do it.
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