Originally Posted By: Matter-eater Man
Dr. Fauci in January
 Quote:
One prominent article at RealClearPolitics argues that in January, Fauci told the public not to worry about the novel coronavirus and that “the administration’s initial reassurances were largely aligned with the assessments of the medical community,” specifically Fauci.

This is not true, and the contention rests on misrepresenting Fauci’s comments.

“On Jan. 21,” writes Kalev Leetaru, Fauci "emphasized that it was unclear whether the virus could spread from person to person.” This is the opposite of what Fauci said, according to the article linked. “While it's clear this new virus can be spread from person to person,” the piece paraphrases Fauci, “it's unclear how easily that spread can happen.”


 Quote:
Compare Fauci’s warnings and his uncertainty to what the administration was saying. Asked on CNBC on Jan. 22 whether there were "worries about a pandemic at this point,” President Trump responded, “No. Not at all. And we have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.”

Four days later, after his prudent (but clearly insufficient) China travel ban, Trump went on TV with Sean Hannity. Hannity asked Trump about coronavirus, “How concerned are you?”

Trump’s answer: “Well, we pretty much shut it down coming in from China.” This was false.

Throughout February, Trump would state confidently that things were getting better. “We’re going down, not up. We’re going very substantially down, not up.”

Or: “Looks like by April, you know, in theory, when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away.”

Fauci consistently had a very different tone. “The ultimate scope and effect of this outbreak is unclear at present as the situation is rapidly evolving,” he wrote in that late-January journal article.


I’m not being a jerk, I’m just not buying bs spin and revisionism that Trump and his supporters are employing. It’s not okay that Trump downplayed this threat when he knew better. Because of what he did and didn’t do lead to our nation being even more unprepared for this threat. As I’ve said before people at work echoed what he said. Your very own governor cited Trump’s changed demeanor about coronavirus to issue a shelter in place order.




< Sigh >... the Trump-hate is strong in this one.


No, M E M, you *are* being a partisan jerk, and desperately clinging to any narrative that hopes to undermine Trump. There is no evidence, NONE that anything Trump has said, even if a mis-statement, has negatively impacted the country. You are just lyingly selling that false narrative to the hilt, beyond any rational basis or reason.

AGAIN: Trump has clearly 1) done far more than any other president to secure the border, 2) stopped foreign travel from infected regions, and 3) preceded the crisis with a year of U.S./China trade war that vastly diminished our dependence on China for vital supplies.

Your side has even initiated a negative campaign against Dr Fauci and Deborah Birx as "Trump stooges", and Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough (WITH NO EVIDENCE OF ANYTHING) launched a wild conspiracy that Trump was promoting Hydroxychloroquine as a potential cure because he was getting some kind of financial kickback from the drug producers!
"Just follow the money", Mika vomits out.
WHAT money?!?
Just a wild conspiracy theory, not a shred of factual basis. If any Fox news host floated a similar wild accusation, they'd be taken off the air and likely fired.
(By the way hydroxychloroquine has existed since 1944, FDA-approved since 1955, and costs less than 20 dollars a patient to prescribe. Where are the enormous profits to be made? There is currently already a nationwide inventory for 29 million prescriptions on the shelves, ready to use. I've seen arguments that the medical community resists using it because there is no money to be made in prescribing it. It is so easy to manufacture that some hospitals are now making it themselves. )

As I said, and you can plainly see in any number of videos, Dr Fauci of NIH said the exact same things as Trump in January, that people shouldn't worry, that Covid-19 is not a threat to the U.S., that the seasonal flu is way more of a threat and kills way more people annually. That the summer heat could (not guaranteed) make it go away when summer comes.
*AND* the New York Times.
*AND* the Washington Post.
*AND* CNN.
*AND* MSNBC.

 Originally Posted By: M E M
It’s not okay that Trump downplayed this threat when he knew better. Because of what he did and didn’t do lead to our nation being even more unprepared for this threat.


You apparently only hold Trump to that standard, but none of the many others who said the exact same things, including the medical officials who were advising Trump, and were the source of his rhetoric! That certainly fits the criteria for being a lying partisan jerk.



I actually think Florida governor Ron Desantis was pressured by businesses to keep the state open, and it was only pressure from Trump and his Coronavirus team that made him finally issue a shelter-at-home order (11 days late by my account, and I made several heated phone calls to his office making a case for closure myself.)

The spread in Florida largely came from 1) travel arrivals of the already-infected from the New York area, and 2) the mass crowds of spring breakers who came in the first two weeks of March, before any shelter-at-home was issued in any state, begun in the first states on March 21st. By the time Desantis finally issued a shelter-at-home order, the hardest-hit regions were already largely closed down, and gradually retail stores, beaches, even golf courses added to the shutddown. Many cities, such as my Boca Raton, were in shelter-at-home before the governor finally ordered it. So while I would have preferred an earlier uniform lockdown of the state, a more localized lockdown was already in effect for all the high-incidence regions.

But regardless, I don't see where Trump's rhetoric was any more "irresponsible" than that of his critics in the Democrat leadership and the media. Or that Democrats in power would have done more to protect the country. As they protested everything Trump did as "over-reaction" and "racist", the evidence is they would have done far less, and we'd be seeing deaths in the millions, and not the thosands.