President Trump and the administration are trying to compensate for their failure to appreciate the seriousness of the Covid 19 pandemic when it first started and began to spread. No preparation was made to have adequate testing available, enough ICU hospital beds, and ventilators. There was not and still is not enough protection for hospital personnel with deficiencies in masks, gowns and gloves. How could the administration been so blind and deaf to what was coming to our shores like a tsunami. Trump initially called the pandemic a hoax.
First of all, there were cuts in personnel and money to the NIH, CDC and infectious disease sections when Trump came into office. The group handling pandemics left in 2018 and were not replaced. Trump claimed that they were not needed and if an epidemic occurred, the necessary people could be mobilized again. Though Trump tried to cut CDC funding in important categories, Congress restored the money. The National Security section that was supposed to deal with pandemics in the White House was disbanded by Trump.
For the first two months when it was obvious that America was at risk from the Corona virus, Trump and his administration did not prepare for the invasion. The president kept saying that it was nothing for the country to worry about and that the nations was ready for anything that happened. Trump compared the Covid 19 virus to the flu or a bad cold. It was only in the last week that Trump realized how serious the problem could be. But he seemed to be more worried about how it would affect his chances of re-election and the economic toll it would take instead of the toll in human lives from the illness. He wanted to continue to hold his rallies until his campaign manager told him that would present poor optics.
As this terrible pandemic has gradually attacked our nation, Trump’s main interest has been in how he would be impacted rather than the nation that he is supposed to be leading. His approach has been too little and too late and now he is trying to make up for that. A leopard doesn’t change its spots.
Resurrecting Democracy
robertlevinebooks.com
Political junkie, Vietnam vet, neurologist- three books on aging and dementia. Book on health care reform in 2009- Shock Therapy for the American Health Care System. Book on the need for a centrist third party- Resurrecting Democracy- A Citizen’s Call for a Centrist Third Party published in 2011. Aging Wisely, published in August 2014 by Rowman and Littlefield. Latest book- The Uninformed Voter published May 2020