This column, from the weekly opinion piece MATTER OF FACT, first appeared on BrooklynReporter.com, the Home Reporter and Spectator dated March 19, 2020
Last week, I wrote about pedestrian deaths in this column. I said I was sick and tired of writing that particular column because it has been the topic I have covered more than any other the past year.
Each of the two previous weeks, I focused on the coronavirus and see that this will become the topic I cover more than any other because it will be with all of us for quite some time, affecting almost every aspect of all our lives.
Politics should not be part of this and I’m proud of all my neighbors for how they have metaphorically pulled together, while physically social distancing, to help us all get through this. But I am also angry for every one of us, regardless of political affiliation, because the inept response to this at every step along the way has exponentially exacerbated how dire our predicament is.
But don’t take my word for it, take the president’s.
On January 22, when the United States confirmed its first case of COVID-19, President Trump said, “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China. It’s going to be just fine.” For comparison, within one month of the first US diagnosed case of the H1N1 virus, the Obama administration tested over 1 million people. Within one month of the first confirmed case of the coronavirus here in the states, the current administration had tested just 2,600.
On February 25, Trump said, “I think that’s a problem that’s going to go away… They have studied it. They know very much. In fact, we’re very close to a vaccine.” The next day, after he repeated the claim that a working vaccine was close to being ready, Coronavirus Taskforce member, Dr. Anthony Fauci, clarified that it is expected to be a year to a year-and-a-half before it is available.
At that same February 26 news conference, Trump said of the current cases at that time, “The 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero” and, “We’re going very substantially down, not up.” The following day he said, “One day it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.” At the time he was saying this, there were 60 confirmed cases, not 15, as he was stating. Within eight days, there were five times as many.
“Blindly following or sheepishly excusing his ignorance, ineptitude and egotism will not inoculate anyone from the threat he has failed to protect the American people from with any forethought, competence or selflessness. “
On March 4, Trump said, “If we have thousands or hundreds of thousands of people that get better just by, you know, sitting around and even going to work — some of them go to work, but they get better.” He was telling people that if they had coronavirus they could go to work and get better. Think about that, given where we are today.
On March 5, he defiantly stated, “I never said people that are feeling sick should go to work,” despite having said that exact thing in front of television cameras just the day prior. He then added, “as of now, only 129 cases,” even though there were 221 at the time.
On March 6, Trump said, “Anybody that needs a test gets a test. They’re there. And the tests are beautiful…. the tests are all perfect like the letter was perfect. The transcription was perfect. Right? This was not as perfect as that but pretty good.” This was completely untrue.
That same day, asked about whether he’d let a cruise ship with confirmed COVID-19 cases dock in California, he said, “I don’t need to have the numbers double because of one ship that wasn’t our fault.” Thousands of passengers were on that ship, most of them Americans.
None of this is new. He lies. He’s uninformed. He’s arrogant. He’s certain that he knows more than the experts. He’s only concerned about how he appears.
It’s all rather meaningless when it has to do with his crowd size or his height and weight, but in this case, it will cost many American lives. Blindly following or sheepishly excusing his ignorance, ineptitude and egotism will not inoculate anyone from the threat he has failed to protect the American people from with any forethought, competence or selflessness.
