Decision Point Failures - COVID-19
Statistically speaking, even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while, but in regards to how THIS Administration has handled this crisis is a wonderful example of screwing up by the numbers… so lets take a walk down memory lane shall we and marvel at this unfortunately lethal decision tree of choices.
1) disband the pandemic team - Hey Obama did it, so naturally that means it has to be shit-canned by the 45 Admin
2) misrepresent the IC reports on the virus - we know that 45 got hints that something was going on in China by December of 2019, but instead of moving quietly to prepare the nation, he did nada to warn the CDC or do anything of note to cover the nation’s ass.
3) ship off the PPE reserves - when things started going sideways with the situation in China, Trump did the one halfway decent thing, he helped the Chinese by shipping our strategic reserve of PPE to them… unsure if China paid for it or not though… so my guess is this was done to help smooth something else over (say secret Chinese bank accounts)
4) don’t replace them - at the point that they shipped off the strategic reserve Trump made no effort to ramp up efforts at producing more, at least not anything marked for public consumption
5) no executive order to ramp up to deal with the virus - no quiet words to people in the know who swim in the public sector. Nothing to the airlines and customs folks, nothing to TSA, nothing to the governors about what was taking place outside of the national news. If something had been said, Trump would have taken credit for it, since he’s not claimed that, I think its safe to say he did bupkis.
6) shut down the WHO testing model - once we had a few cases, there existed a WHO model testing protocol. He shut down the federal acceptance of that and then mad no further decision. Testing models came from CDC lookalikes and tests developed by other non-governmental agencies, like the University of Washington, which had to deal with what was developing real time.
7) hamstring the CDC - by not allowing a consensus response, everyone looked to the CDC for guidance, which wasn’t in Trumps best interest, so we had a month of muddled messaging that’s its just a different type of flu.
8) lie about all of the above - it’s just the flu, kids won’t get it, it’ll go away when it’s warm and we have it under control, and its a Democrat Hoax.
9) half ass the travel ban - people can come home, but we’re not gonna keep track of where they’ve been or even ask them if they were sick… brilliant
10) pit the states against each other for PPE - now that its here, we don’t have much in the strategic reserve, so buy it yourselves, but if we find out about it, we may confiscate it if we don’t like you….
11) lie more about how lethal it is - only old people or sick people get it, it’s a Hoax, it will go away and we’re already turning the corner…..
12) inform the states that there will be no federal response - since its going away, we won’t have to worry about it….
13) fuck with those states that are trying to deal - if you’re overwhelmed by the crisis it must be your own fault and if you need help from our Military, well that won’t happen
14) nepotism the shit out of the response - You want a Federal response, here… I’ll put Jared in charge, happy now? Oh you’re a “Blue state?” well fuck you. Our numbers show it kills more POC than white people, please proceed Coronavirus…
15) lie about the numbers some more - We have it under control, it’s only Blue cities that are having a problem, blame their mayors and governors and Vote Trump!
16) offer bullshit cures in the public discussion - If you take the bleach or the Lupus meds it goes away, those things kill germs, the virus is germs, you see?
17) undercut the federal response - Now that we’ve peddled you this bullshit med, we’re gonna buy it all up so the people that really need it, now can’t get it….
18) move reporting from the CDC to HHS - the CDC keeps posting numbers about how many are sick and how many have died and how many are being tested and its making me look bad, so lets bring that in-house to allow us to publish the numbers we think matter.
19) stop reporting numbers - the HHS has no mandate to share the testing numbers with you….
20) lie about how awesome the federal response was - the 45 Administration thinks we’ve done great, just look at the numbers that show us in first!
21) still no federal mandate to address PPE production and ventilators - STILL, still not enough ventilators, N95 masks, testing kits, instrument reagents, contract tracing,….. STILL. Still the response is with the states, and even down to the cities, some open, some not, some masking, some not… STILL.
22) bullshit about vaccines - They’ll be ready right after I show you my health Care Plan after you’ve re-elected me…..
23) spread the virus himself - he’s actively right now hosting super-spreader events across the nation
It’s almost statistically impossible to make this many crappy decisions in a row, but with Trump, well he’s a statistical anomaly with a true gift …..