Please ... you have been Trump’s most vocal advocate on this forum.old salt wrote: ↑Sun Mar 15, 2020 5:50 pmI exercised no choice.DocBarrister wrote: ↑Sun Mar 15, 2020 5:44 pmThe lesson is, foolish people like you supported (and, incomprehensible as it may seem, still support) an unfit moron, Donald Trump, for president.old salt wrote: ↑Sun Mar 15, 2020 5:38 pmYou're dodging the question. Do you think Trump or Pence intervened to get the CDC to reject the WHO test & design their own test, then forbid FDA from issuing Emerg Use Auth for private & state lab developed tests ?MDLF76:Are you actually asking my opinion or is that merely rhetorical?OS :
Do you seriously think that Trump or Pence intervened at those lower levels of govt ?
Or is the delay due to systemic bureaucratic obstacles at FDA & CDC, which were reasonable safeguards in previous crises, & a failed attempt to design a better test by CDC ?
Yes, I think Trump wanted and got reduced testing because he didn't "want the numbers".
Just like he signals with all sorts of things and gets compliance, he did so with this as well.
Do I think that was entirely on him?
No, not entirely.
I think there was some arrogance throughout the upper echelons of government. "well meaning" but arrogance.
But when it became obvious that the first tests out the door were failing, it was a huge mistake not to accept the WHO tests.
But Trump at the same time was crowing about how few cases the US "had" and the great "success" of the decision to shut down (some) travel.
On your notion in another post that we shouldn't have been doing widespread testing, you are flat wrong.
And we should be doing it right now, but we don't have the tests in place to do so, so the 'triage' is indeed to only test the most severe cases...if there's ANY tests available even for them.
The testing capabilities will improve, but the virus will be quite widespread before that becomes the case.
The medical personnel are NOT yet overwhelmed and testing is definitely where effort should have been surged 8 weeks ago and thereafter. It's definitely what we should be doing heavily right now...if we had the tests.
You're obsessed with Trump's rhetoric. The prompt travel restrictions did have a + impact (compared to Italy & EU neighbors).
Sure it would have been helpful if CDC had accepted the WHO kit or if their test worked as intended.
But (imho) you overstate the value of early, widespread testing, unless you can do it sufficiently to impose travel restrictions & lock down hot spots sooner, which would be controversial & challenging in a nation of our size, dispersal, freedom & mobility.
Even if you test negative, you still need to practice social distancing & avoid the vulnerable.
Something we were all encourared to do voluntarily as soon as the first cases popped up in the US
Of 200k S Koreans tested with flu like symptoms, 96% tested negative.
They still need to take the same precautions & self-recovery measures had they not tested.
Maybe in a nation as compact, crowded & ordered as S Korea, that helped isolate hot spots & contain community spread.
I'm not convinced testing a few weeks earlier would have been equally as effective in the US.
Let's examine the lessons learned analysis as we prep for the next new pandemic, or the next wave of COVOD19.
There'll be plenty of time for post crisis analytical study, ...w/ Congressional show trials to scratch your itch.
The entire nation will suffer for your idiotic choices.
DocBarrister
I did not support or vote for candidate Trump.
I do not have the power to remove him.
If your party could nominate a moderate electable candidate,
we would not be having this discussion & you'd need a different scapegoat for this crisis.
Do you find the leaders of the EU nations more to your liking ?
How are things for their citizens ?
Now you disavow him after it becomes too obvious to ignore what a dangerous piece of sh*t he is?!?
Please ....
We could have had the immensely qualified Hillary Clinton leading us in this crisis. Anyone who didn’t vote for her has contributed to this evolving disaster.
DocBarrister