My Kingdom for a Leader

When the first case of coronavirus was confirmed in the US Trump informed all of us that the situation was ‘totally under control.’   The president moved-on to spend almost two months reminding us at every opportunity that this was ‘fake news’. It was a ‘hoax’ cooked-up by the Democrats.  Trump apologists mobilized with the line that news about the spread of the virus was a conspiracy to harm the President.  The media was being ‘alarmist’.  Rush Limbaugh declared it was nothing more harmful than the 'common cold'.    

This persists in real time with Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease receiving beefed-up security as a consequence of threats of personal harm.  Cowardly Trump supporters have suggested that this brave individual is seeking to undermine Donald Trump.  
    

Regretably, the growing pandemic of January was observed thru the lens of how this would impact Trump’s reelection prospects.  A greater value was placed-upon not spooking the markets than on public health and the spread of pandemic.  Guess what folks – the markets are reflecting the lack of confidence there is in leadership from Team Trump.  If you want to see the markets crater – fire Falci.

Here is an updated timeline of Donald Trump's recent saga:

December 18:  House Impeaches Trump

January 8:  First CDC warning

January 9:  Trump campaign rally

January 14:  Trump campaign rally

January 16:  House sends impeachment articles to Senate

January 18:  Trump golfs

January 19:  Trump golfs

Jnuary 20:  First case of coronavirus in the US – State of Washington

January 22:  We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China. It’s going to be just fine.

January 24:  It will all work out well.

January 28:  Trump campaign rally

January 29:  Just received a briefing on the Coronavirus in China from all of our GREAT agencies, who are also working closely with China. We will continue to monitor the ongoing developments. We have the best experts anywhere in the world, and they are on top of it 24/7!

January 30:  Trump campaign rally

January 30: We think we have it very well under control. We have very little problem in this country at this moment — five. And those people are all recuperating successfully. But we’re working very closely with China and other countries, and we think it’s going to have a very good ending for it. So that I can assure you.

February 1:  Trump golfs

February 2:  We pretty much shut it down coming in from China.

After distributing defective testing kits the administration made the decision to not use reliable kits available from the World Health Organization.  The administration also blocked local governments from outsourcing testing to private labs.  

February 5:  Senate votes to acquit - takes a five-day weekend.

February 10:  Trump Campaign rally

February 10: Looks like by April, you know, in theory, when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away.

February 12:  Dow Jones closes at an all-time high of 29,551.42

No progress on widespread testing.

February 15:  Trump golfs

February 19:   Trump campaign rally

February 19:  I think the numbers are going to get progressively better as we go along.

Still no widespread testing.

February 20:  Trump campaign rally

February 21:  Trump campaign rally

February 24:  The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. . . . Stock Market starting to look very good to me.

February 26:  The number of people infected is going very substantially down, not up.  The 15 (cases) within a couple of days, is going to be down to zero.

Still no widespread testing.

February 27: It’s going to disappear one day, it’s like a miracle.

February 28:  Trump campaign rally

February 28: We're ordering a lot of supplies. We're ordering a lot of, uh, elements that frankly we wouldn't be ordering unless it was something like this. But we're ordering a lot of different elements of medical.

From mid-January until Feb. 28, fewer than 4,000 tests from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were used out of more 160,000 produced.  The cluster grows in scale.

March 2: Trump on progress towards a vaccine - I’ve heard very quick numbers, that of months.

Immunologist Anthony Fauci - the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Speaker of the Truth - has repeatedly said that a vaccine will not be available for a year or year and a half.

Still no universal testing protocol.

March 2:  You take a solid flu vaccine, you don't think that could have an impact, or much of an impact, on corona?

March 2:  A lot of things are happening, a lot of very exciting things are happening and they’re happening very rapidly.

March 4:  If we have thousands or hundreds of thousands of people that get better just by, you know, sitting around and even going to work — some of them go to work, but they get better.

March 5:  I NEVER said people that are feeling sick should go to work.

March 5:  The United States… has, as of now, only 129 cases… and 11 deaths. We are working very hard to keep these numbers as low as possible

March 6: Anybody right now, and yesterday, anybody that needs a test gets a test. They’re there.  And the tests are beautiful…. the tests are all perfect like the letter was perfect. The transcription was perfect.  Right?  This was not as perfect as that but pretty good.

Trump is lying. But what else is new.   The previous day, Vice President Mike Pence said - We don’t have enough tests today to meet what we anticipate will be the demand going forward.

March 6 continues to be a busy day for comments while an expansion of testing takes a back seat to keeping-up appearances.

March 6:  I think we’re doing a really good job in this country at keeping it down… a tremendous job at keeping it down.

March 6:  I like this stuff. I really get it. People are surprised that I understand it… Every one of these doctors said, ‘How do you know so much about this?’ Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for president.

March 6: Trump on whether or not to bring coronavirus patients on a cruise ship to shore - I like the numbers being where they are.” “I don't need to have the numbers double because of one ship that wasn't our fault.

March 6: I didn’t know people died from the flu.

March 6: Larry Kudlow - We stopped it, it was a very early shut down, I would still argue to you that this thing is contained.

The Trump administration fiddles and fumbles testing - all the while the disease spreads.

March 7:  Trump golfs

March 8:  Trump golfs

March 8: We have a perfectly coordinated and fine-tuned plan at the White House for our attack on Coronavirus.

The administration remains unable to distribute enough testing kits

March 9:  So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on. At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of Coronavirus, with 22 deaths.

March 9: This blindsided the world.

Trump continues to fritter-away valuable time that could be spent deploying tests available from the World Health Organization.

March 10:  It will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away.

March 11: If we get rid of the coronavirus problem quickly, we won’t need stimulus.

March 11:  In response to a question from CNN’s Jim Acosta asking why his statements don’t match what health experts are saying - That’s CNN. Fake news.

By March 11, there were over 1,000 confirmed cases in the United States.  Still no widespread testing.

March 12:  We have ’em very heavily tested.  If an American’s coming back, or anybody’s coming back, we’re testing.  We have a tremendous testing setup where people coming in have to be tested.  And if they are positive, and if they’re able to get through—because, frankly, if they’re not, we’re not putting them on planes, if it shows positive…

Trump is lying again – his administration’s testing protocol continues to be a massive cluster.

March 13: I don’t take responsibility at all.

March 14: We’re using the full power of the federal government to defeat the virus, and that’s what we’ve been doing.

Still no plan for ramping-up testing.

March 15: This is a very contagious virus. It’s incredible. But it’s something that we have tremendous control over.

The tune is changing but the lack of testing persists.

March 16:  If you’re talking about the virus, no, that’s not under control for any place in the world. ... I was talking about what we’re doing is under control, but I’m not talking about the virus.

March 17:  I’ve felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic.

March 18:  It’s not racist at all. No. Not at all. It comes from China. That’s why. It comes from China. I want to be accurate.

March 19:  Nobody knew there would be a pandemic or epidemic of this proportion. Nobody has ever seen anything like this.

March 23:  Dow Jones closes at 18,591.93

March 25:  3.3 million Americans file for unemployment.

March 30:  Dow Jones closes at 21,917.16

April 2:  6.6 million Americans file for unemployment.

There is some positive news on testing.  Last week Vice President Pence said more than 1.2 million tests have been performed on Americans. Given the population of the U.S. (about 327 million), that's roughly 1 in every 273 people, as of April 2.  That is a better testing per capita rate than the United Kingdom, which has tested about 1 in every 404 people. (The U.K.'s population is about 66 million, and it's tested 163,194 people.)  This is an encouraging sign of progress.
  

South Korea, with its population of 51.5 million, has performed 431,743 tests, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That's approximately 1 in every 119 people.   Germany has done even better. It has tested about 1 in 90 people — 918,460, with a population of 82.8 million. Germany also happens to have one of the lowest fatality rates from COVID-19.    

With 581,232 tests conducted, according to the Italian health ministry, and a population of roughly 60.5 million, Italy's testing per capita is on par with South Korea — about 1 in every 104. 
   

We’ve made progress but this administration needs to ramp-up its efforts on contact testing.  

When Donald Trump said this week that testing here was 'more than any other country in the world, both in terms of the raw number and also on a per capita basis.'  He was lying.

Trump continues to lie.  It is bizarre that Donald Trump is such a habitual liar that he is incapable of being honest – especially when honesty would serve his own interests. 

The missteps chronicled above went unmanaged, ignored by leaders at the highest level of government - allowing cases to go undetected and the virus to spread.  As a consequence someone has blood on their hands.

I would like to thank the Fake News - CNN, New York Times, Washington Post, WSJ, NPR and FOX - for curating this.  When you have to wade thru this much bullshit it does indeed take a village.

Stay tuned….