'Breathtaking' interviews show Trump was 'impervious' to pleas to take pandemic seriously: NYT's Haberman https://www.rawstory.com/cnn-special/ New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman on Monday described recent CNN interviews with former Trump public health officials as "breathtaking," and said it showed how many of them were frustrated by their inability to get former President Donald Trump to take the coronavirus pandemic seriously. While appearing on CNN, Haberman said that Dr. Deborah Birx and other former Trump health officials were now speaking freely after being muzzled for much of the past year. "I think they wanted to peel off the muzzle," she said. "I think it spoke to their frustration about what happened, spoke to their feelings on their own part, could they have done more, was there something else that could have been done... It's breathtaking how quickly this happened." Haberman was asked why Birx stayed on the job if she felt she wasn't being listened to about a deadly pandemic that has killed more than half a million Americans in the last year. "She believed she could make a difference, that's why she went to the White House," Haberman explained. "I think they all learned, one after the other, that none of them was going to change former President Trump. And I think that because they had never met him previously... they underestimated how impervious he is to efforts to change him."
Trump attacked Fauci and Birx using 'the language of a grade-school boy': CNN's Harwood https://www.rawstory.com/trump-fauci-2651253938/ CNN's John Harwood on Tuesday mocked former President Donald Trump for putting out a rambling and incoherent statement attacking his own administration's public health officials. While discussing Trump's statement, in which he attacked Drs. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx in the wake of their damning accounts of his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, Harwood noted how childish the former president seemed. "It was written in the language of a grade-school boy on the playground, which is pretty sad when you think about that for a former president," Harwood remarked. CNN host Alisyn Camerota said it was striking that Trump bragged about not listening to the advice of his health officials given that he landed himself in the hospital after getting infected with the novel coronavirus last October. "I don't know that he was accepting responsibility so much as proudly announcing that he ignored the doctors and the science whenever he could," she said. "I mean, again, this from a former president who went with his gut and got sick, got very sick, sicker than we knew with coronavirus. His family got sick and the White House became a super spreader hotspot on his watch, not to mention the death toll, obviously, of Americans."
They may have put a muffle on her but something not discussed... She's soon to retire and had personal reasons to protect that pending fat pension plan. Regardless, I'm glad she's not on the Biden / Harris Covid Team...something just doesn't sit right about her. Simply, I don't think Biden / Harris trust her because she didn't fight Trump harder. wrbtrader
Trump has a lot supporters who believe he(And them) got screwed in the elections by a political entity they deeply mistrust. These are facts that should be considered every time Trump’s name is brought up. The optics of going continuing to go after Trump when he is no longer responsible for policy on the issue your guy is experiencing a setback (Covid surge) in spite of multiple vaccines being available and the fact the flu season is behind us looks bad. Real bad. Personally, I will not use Covid to define Joe Biden’s Presidency, even if Covid infection surges follow the seasonal pattern of the flu for the rest of his term(s). At this point, the cure (Extended lockdowns) would be worse for us as a whole than the disease. This brings up a general menu of policy options when dealing with an emerging virus we know little about, like what was experienced by the Trump Administration. The three general policy choices for dealing with a new infectious disease are: 1. Lockdown until virus extinction in an attempt to prevent a particularly dangerous pathogen from becoming endemic and a threat to the majority of the population. A military grade bioweapon release or a virus like smallpox where 90 to 95% of those infected die or become disabled would certainly justify shutting down the economy for self preservation. Lockdown to flatten the curve may be optimal in situations where a virus of concern, such as Covid, has the potential to overwhelm the healthcare system, potentially causing additional deaths and disability that could have been otherwise avoided. This is one of the options the Trump Administration chose. It was an expensive choice economically, but at the time, there were uncertainties how serious Covid was. 2. Address vulnerable populations through education, preferential distribution of PPE, vaccines, etc., along with exclusive shopping hours and workplace accommodations. This general policy was also seen during the Trump Administration. The obvious benefits to this policy are less impact to our economy, but at the cost of risking a virus of concern becoming endemic. 3. Take no major official action. Common viruses such as the flu, while costing our economy billions in lost productivity and causes some deaths and long term disability does not justify taking action that could cause more overall harm than the virus itself could do. Besides, colds and flus may have a long term benefit of helping keep our immune systems active and strong. Sure, we can come up with some sub-permutations of policy, but the three general categories listed up are fundamental choices. Also consider the element of time when when an infectious disease is running rampant as any policy, if not optimal, can have a profound effect on the eventual outcome. Trump’s handling of the pandemic was right on from a general policy perspective. As far as Trump’s clumsy sideshow stuff, it was a detraction for some, but overall, we did what we needed to do given the relative serious of Covid and the need for us to keep our economy going. Unfortunately, Covid policy on Joe’s term will likely become a distraction for political purposes by the other side should Covid cases continue to mount. Hopefully, there will be enough people aware enough to see things for the way they are: Politicizing a tragedy that was not caused by the policy makers.
I feel improperly conducted polls by discredited organizations, asking irrelevant questions to propagandized and uninformed people, has no value-add to this discussion.
Imma gonna leave this right here. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/08/cov...le-hospitalized-were-overweight-or-obese.html
To your first point, what Trump supporters believe about the election isn’t true and no adult should entertain it. We don’t send the fbi to the North Pole because millions of nine year olds think a fat guy in a suit snuck into their house down the chimney. See? Trump failed in leading the country to take appropriate mitigation efforts against Covid. His policies were failures too but just the basics would have worked instead of fighting with doctors and scientists but that goes back to him being a moron who thinks he smarter than doctors scientists military generals, everyone. He’s too dumb to know he’s dumb. Policy wise: We know mitigation works. So called lock downs do flatten transmission but the actual strategy that works is social distancing and mask wearing. You don’t need to go too much further than countries in Asia to understand that. Most never even locked down because they had a high rate of compliance with common sense stuff. Low rates of cases, hospitalizations and deaths. The proof is in the pudding. As far as Biden, it’s night and day in America. The whole mood of the nation is better and he has broad support on his Covid response because people are not stupid and they can see the difference.
Yeah... Scott Adams is a cartoonist who creates Dilbert. He is also a big Trumper... and nearly nothing he has posted about COVID has been factual.
Yes but I don’t know if his point is completely wrong either. He is simplifying it but as I stated above basic compliance with social distancing and mask wearing would have avoided major economic damage and massive loss of life. We should have never had a fight over mask wearing and social distancing to begin with.