Representing the other side, from the heavily-Left-leaning Vox:
TRUMP'S 7 WORST STATEMENTS ON CORONAVIRUSYou can feel the Trump-hate from the opening paragraphs.
While a number of these are spun as deliberately misleading when the actual facts were unknown at the time, or spun to be misleading beyond what Trump actually said, the article at least clarifies deeper in what the true facts are.
Taking the points one at a time:
1) That U.S. citizens could still return to the U.S. (once tested) is something anyone could clarify with the U.S. embassy in any nation or U.S. officials. There's a limit to how much information Trump could provide in a brief 10-minute Oval Office address to the nation.
I would check the details of what Trump said, or any president, in the print media over the 24 hours after such an address, to clarify the details of that brief overview. It's unrealistic to expect every nuance explained in a 10-minute speech.
2) Trump's explanation of the death rate being far lower is pretty much the same as I've seen from Dr. Anthony Fauci, or Dr. Marc Siegel or others. It's presented here as Trump being absolultely wrong, downplaying, and deliberately mistating the facts, but I've seen that same opinion of what is characterized as Trump's "hunch" by many interviewed medical experts.
3) Trump saying that the Coronavirus will die down once summer hits is also not wrong, every previous major coronavirus strain and major outbreak of the last 20 years has followed a siimilar sharp decline, so again Trump is not lying or deliberately misleading.
While the article clarifies that it's possible it won't decline, Trump is not wrong in saying it's a good possibility. I wish he'd emphasized that's a possibility and not an absolute that it will sharply decline come summer, and press the public that it's still very contagious and to act with an abundance of caution to prevent its spread.
4) The lack of ready widespread test kits is the biggest failure, yes. But again, this is not Trump's
personal fault, it was an error by the medical staff at CDC in selecting a kit that didn't work, and then had to scramble for a replacement when it didn't.
So Trump, like Pence and Dr. Fauci have all given assurances that the tests would be available, based on what they were told by others in CDC.
Trump made an obvious gaffe beyond that of Pence and Fauci when he said they were already distributed and anyone could get a test immediately, and not expected in days. But certainly, no one who watches the news doesn't know that they are still laboring to distribute test kits nationwide, despite kits not being ready when the CDC themselves were promised they would be.
5) Regarding "the flu is worse", it's a fact that previous outbreaks have all been surpassed by flu deaths. As I cited above, the 2009-2010 previous coronavirus "Swine Flu/H1N1" infected 57 million people and killed 12,000. And that the flu in that same year killed far more. And that the flu in most years kills "between 27,000 and 77,000".
While it is spun as a Trump lie, it is absolutely true that numerically the annual flu kills more than this and previous coronavirus strains.
Currently Wuhan virus has killed about 4,900 and infected 137,000
worldwide.
As compared to (in the U.S. alone) 35 million infected by regular flu, and 30,000 deaths in 2018, the most recent statistical year.
While Wuhan flu is believed to have a higher death rate of roughly 1 or possibly 2% death rate, vs. 0.1% for regular flu, the finer details in even this article explain there are possibly hundreds of thousands of mild unreported Wuhan cases that would vastly lower the Wuhan virus death ratio if counted.
6) regarding "a vaccine is coming soon", anyone who watches the news knows that most medical experts anticipate a vaccine is about 12 to 18 months away, and not an option for this season. Even vaccine corporation owners who say they are fast-tracking a vaccine say if it were ready in a month, an unprecedentedly fast vaccine to produce and distribute would be at least 6 months away.
One I saw said they have a much faster track because they have already developed vaccine for similar strains of Coronavirus, that will vastly speed up a Wuhan virus vaccine.
So again, Trump is not necessarily wrong.
7) The Trump administration had
proposed cuts to CDC and NIH pandemic preparation, but in few cases had anything been implemented. Trump has across the board looked for fiscal cuts to every area of the Federal budget. Like every part of the budget, Trump wants to eliminate waste and duplication in CDC. I've seen this fronted by Democrats over the last few weeks, despite that Trump had not cut anything vital. More money doesn't necessarily mean better spent money.
An OMB spokesman said that the CDC cuts in the budget request did not affect infectious disease, and said Trump's request included a total of $4.3 billion in funds for Infectious Diseases and Preparedness, in funds that deal with the flu, opioids, and global health security.
“The $4.3 billion funds all of the CDC programs that focus on infectious disease and emergency preparedness activities," they said.
"This figure reflects that the Administration is prioritizing funding for infectious disease and emergency preparedness efforts at CDC, compared to non-infectious activities, like studying the health and safety risks of infrequent bathroom breaks for taxi drivers,"
Democrats and the liberal media mislead to allege Trump proposed slashing pandemic response and preparation. Trump's OMB defends the cuts as not coming from outbreak prevention.
Heavy in my mind through all this is how the media has jumped on every scandal unleashed on Trump for 4 years now, and how the media has visibly gotten it wrong over and over and over in their vindictive zeal to bring down Trump. And coverage of the outbreak is just the latest extenson of that.
While Trump has made errors, certainly in this crisis as well, he is held to a standard that no other president of my lifetime is held to. Except for W. Bush, there has been no comparative open bias and hatred of a president by the media.
The similar errors by Obama got a complete free pass by the same media.
I think this is the treatment any future Republican president can expect from the media. This is not unique to Trump, but to any Republican who dares to be elected going forward. The same poisonous attacks of "racism" or "stole the election" are now extended to more local elections like Tracy Abrams or Andrew Gillum, or last night Alexanda Ocasio-Cortez (interviewed for the first time on Fox) alleging that Bernie Sanders lost in Michigan because of election fraud. Despite that all the elected officials controlling in Michigan are Democrats.
