Trump’s lethal failure to face the COVID pandemic. Part 2: He downplayed the situation
I first published a series of articles about Trump's COVID failures in January 2021. I'm reposting it now as a reminder, before the election in November, that the USA would not be safe in his hands.
By New Year’s Day 2020 those around the world whose charge it was to keep their countries safe — health and intelligence professionals and leaders — were waking up to the possibility that they might have a serious pandemic on their hands. Trump was not one of them, he apparently blotted it out of his mind. Not much was known about the virus yet, but its similarity to SARS was of considerable concern.
There were 41 confirmed hospital cases in China. A possible case of human to human transmission had been identified. China closed Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market and detained 8 for spreading rumors of a SARS-like illness and their punishment was aired on TV — Trump was not the only one who lost precious time in denial and cover-up. Trump was at the golf course despite having had plenty of warning, as laid out in my previous article. The warnings continued for months afterwards.
On 3 January CDC director Dr. Redfield had heard about it from Chinese colleagues and passed the warning on to HHS Secretary Alex Azar (c. 1:02:50). China warned whistleblower Li Wenliang and announced that it had ruled out "influenza, avian influenza, adenovirus infection and other common respiratory diseases” and had briefed the US as early as 4 January.
On 6 January the CDC issued a travel notice for travelers to Wuhan and CDC director Dr. Redfield offered help to China and then established a 2019-nCoV Incident Management Structure and alerted clinicians to be on the look-out for patients with respiratory symptoms and a history of travel to Wuhan, China.
Around 10 January the First death from COVID-19 was reported, in Wuhan. China announced that they had sequenced the gene. The WHO announced a National capacities review tool for a novel coronavirus. A day or so later Chinese scientists posted the gene sequencing data. Berlin Biotech Company TIB immediately started work on a Coronavirus test and the National Institutes of Health started working on a vaccine. Trump and Pence attended a Toledo, Ohio rally.
Trump and Chinese authorities continued to act as if nothing was wrong, but COVID_19 had begun to spread outside China, to Thailand, Japan and Washington. There had been some human-to-human transmission according to the WHO and Taiwan and top Chinese officials secretly determined they likely were facing a pandemic. They still denied infection among medical staff, despite whistleblower Li Wenliang having caught it from a patient.
The World Health Organization announced, "W.H.O. needs the support of its international members to accomplish anything — it has no authority over any territory, it cannot go anywhere uninvited, and it relies on member countries for its funding. All it can offer is expertise and coordination.” Trump was later to halt funding to it.
Not everyone in the Trump administration was ignoring the pandemic-to-be. By mid-January, HHS’s Robert Kadlec had instructed subordinates to draw up contingency plans for enforcing the Defense Production Act. But it was a long time before Trump authorized its use for COVID-19, and even longer before he actually used it. in the third week of January, U.S. diplomats in Wuhan were being brought home on chartered planes.
In public, China said the risk of sustained human-to-human transmission is low, but privately the Chinese CDC initiated the highest-level emergency response. German researchers developed first diagnostic test and the WHO published technical guidelines for it. The US screened for symptoms at airports in San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles. Meanwhile, Articles of impeachment were sent to the Senate, initiating trial. So perhaps it is understandable that Trump was distracted at this point. But when Alex Azar was first able to speak to Trump, who was at Mar-a-Lago, Trump was more interested in talking about vaping.
On 20 January both the USA and South Korea confirmed their first cases. Yet South Korea handled coronavirus far better, with the loss of far fewer lives. Chinese President Xi Jinping commented publicly for the first time on the virus. The C.D.C. developed its own test, which was later found to have problems which caused delays. A passenger embarked on the Diamond Princess who was later diagnosed with COVID. 567 out of 2,666 passengers and 145 out of 1,045 crew became infected and 14 passengers died.
"We have it totally under control"
On 22 January Trump, at Davos, made his first public remarks about COVID-19. With what was to become his trademark downplaying of the risks (in public, at least) and totally unrealistic estimate of how he was doing, he said, "We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It’s going to be just fine. He also said he trusted China. Wuhan closed airport and train stations for departures.
The following day the WHO decided it was not yet a public health emergency of international concern, but called the risk in China very high and globally high and estimated R0 at 1.4 to 2.5.
The day after that, the first cases in Europe, in France, were confirmed, as well as the second US infection, in Chicago and the fact that people with COVID can be asymptomatic and therefore unknowingly spread the disease. Trump tweeted about COVID for the first time: "It will all work out well,” despite advisors telling him otherwise. An article in the Lancet warned that COVID_19 may be more deadly than Spanish Flu.
On January 29 Trump announced the formation of the President’s Coronavirus Task Force. The US State Department had raised the travel advisory for China to Level 3 — Avoid All Nonessential Travel. By then, 110 people in 26 states were ‘under investigation’ for COVID_19 and 5 U.S. cases had been confirmed. Trump tweeted that he had just been briefed and the experts were on top of it.
Peter Navarro wrote a memo, which Trump denied seeing, which said, "The lack of immune protection or an existing cure or vaccine would leave Americans defenseless in the case of a full-blown coronavirus outbreak on U.S. soil… This lack of protection elevates the risk of the coronavirus evolving into a full-blown pandemic, imperiling the lives of millions of Americans.” The following day, the first US confirmed case of person-to-person transmission was confirmed. The US State Department raised its travel advisory to "Level 4: Do Not Travel to China.”
Trump tweeted, "Working closely with China and others on Coronavirus outbreak. Only 5 people in U.S., all in good recovery.” He also said, "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.” This despite the fact that HHS secretary, Alex Azar had directly warned him of the possibility of a pandemic — he called the warning ‘alarmist.’ It was at this point that asymptomatic transmission was confirmed by scientists.
On 31 January Trump denied entry to foreign nationals who have traveled in China in the last 14 days, ignoring the fact that COVID-19 could infect Americans just as easily, and that the virus had already spread to other countries. That and a quarantine of U.S. citizens returning from Hubei province in China was to begin on February 2. And on 2 February Trump said, "We pretty much shut it down coming in from China. It’s going to be fine.” He was to boast about his (leaky) early shutdown for weeks and months to come. This was the day that China finished building its first emergency hospital and a new mask factory started production. The Washington Post warned that the virus threatened U.S. companies’ supply of Chinese-made parts and materials.
Despite the travel ban, tens of thousands entered the United States.
In his State of the Union address, Trump said, "My Administration will take all necessary steps to safeguard our citizens from this threat.”
On 5 February 2020, the Senate acquitted Trump, leaving him free to focus on COVID-19 if he so chose. Azar requested a supplemental of over $4bn, but the Administration briefing on Coronavirus did not request ANY emergency funding. The CDC began shipping test kits, but they were tainted.
The next day saw the first death in America, in California.
Trump then began playing scientist, saying "he [Xi] will be successful, especially as the weather starts to warm & the virus hopefully becomes weaker, and then gone.” His fake science was to become more dangerous to the American people as time went on.
On 7 February the WHO warned of a global shortage of face masks and protective suits and Dr. Rick Bright, program leader at BARDA, insisted that the federal government increase N95 production, but HHS responded that there is "no indication of supply chain shortage or of issues with masks.” Indeed, the State Department announced that nearly 17.8 tons of donated medical supplies had been shipped to the Chinese people, including masks, gowns, gauze, respirators, and other vital materials, the U.S. announced aid for China and other countries.
"This is deadly stuff” v. "It miraculously goes away”
While Trump was downplaying the seriousness of the virus in public and showing little sign that he understood it, in private, unbeknownst to the American public, he told Bob Woodward, "It goes through air, Bob. That’s always tougher than the touch. You know, the touch, you don’t have to touch things. Right? But the air, you just breathe the air and that’s how it’s passed. And so, that’s a very tricky one. That’s a very delicate one. It’s also more deadly than your — you know, your, even your strenuous flus. You know, people don’t realize, we lose 25,000, 30,000 people a year here. Who would ever think that, right? … This is deadly stuff.” A couple of days later he said, "Looks like by April, you know, in theory, when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away” and he proposed a 16% cut to the CDC. He was to repeat the warmer in April theory many times after that.
Trump was highly critical of Joe Biden’s response to swine flu, calling his own response to COVID-19 one of the best, and said, "we’re in very good shape.” While the CDC test was floundering, the WHO started dispatching kits to 56 countries.
On 24 February Trump tweeted, "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!” But U.S. Stocks Plunged. Throughout the emergency he was to show that he was more concerned about the stock market than the American people.
The White House unveiled a $2.5B emergency coronavirus plan, of which half was new money. The following day Trump opined, "So I think that’s a problem that’s going to go away. But we lost almost 1,000 points yesterday on the market, and that’s something. You know, things like that happen where — and you have it in your business all the time — it had nothing to do with you; it’s an outside source that nobody would have ever predicted. If you go back six months or three months ago, nobody would have ever predicted.’… Now they have studied it, they know very much… In fact, we are very close to a vaccine.” But they had been predicting a pandemic for years, and while vaccines for COVID-19 were developed at record speed using as yet unproven technology, they weren’t imminent and their success was not guaranteed. He was to repeat these claims many times. Trump also boasted, "You may ask about the coronavirus, which is very well under control in our country… I think that we’re doing a great job.”
Soon afterwards Trump replaced Azar with Pence in charge of handling the virus. At this stage he was predicting the number of cases would soon be close to zero and he said it over and over again, ignoring the warnings and advice of CDC’s Dr. Nancy Messonnier. Trump later complained that Messonnier was scaring the stock markets and Trump threatened to fire her. He said, "This is a flu. This is like a flu” but it was a lot worse. Trump also repeatedly blamed news outlets and Democrats for making it sound worse than it was, later calling it their new hoax.
By the end of February South Korea, which had its first case the same day as the U.S., began drive-through testing.
When asked about his consistent calls for enormous cuts to the CDC, the NIH, and the WHO, Trump replied that a lot of the people weren’t used, and he could always hire more if and when they were needed. He was still downplaying the danger, claiming, "It’s going to disappear. One day — it’s like a miracle — it will disappear. And from our shores, we — you know, it could get worse before it gets better. It could maybe go away. We’ll see what happens. Nobody really knows.” The next day the Dow had its biggest fall ever — 1,191 points.
On 28 February Trump finally addressed the issue of supplies: "We’re ordering a lot of supplies. We’re ordering a lot of — a lot of elements that, frankly, we wouldn’t be ordering unless it was something like this. But we’re ordering a lot of different elements of medical.” But Johns Hopkins University reported "No country is fully prepared for epidemics or pandemics, and every country has important gaps to address.”, the United States also ranked 19th in overall risk environment and vulnerability to biological threats. The first US death occurred the following day.
By the end of the month the CDC brought in private labs for testing, having opted not to use the WHO’s Covid-19 diagnostic test, and the Pentagon was taking precautions. The virus had reached New York from Europe
So, two months after COVID-19 was announced, and longer than that since intelligence about it had started reaching the United States, America had failed to adequately close the borders to try and nip the problem in the bud. It was woefully behind in testing and acquiring PPE and all the other materials it needed, and had a president who publicly downplayed the risks so the populace was not prepared to take necessary precautions to save lives. What more could possibly go wrong?