Tag: Trump coronavirus response
Trump’s eruption at an NBC reporter says it all about his alternate reality on coronavirus
At the daily news briefing, Trump played up the promise of a malaria drug to possibly treat the coronavirus. He was asked about its application to other similar diseases like severe acute respiratory syndrome, for which he said he thought the drug had been “fairly effective.”
But then Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s leading immunologist, stepped in to qualify things. Continue reading.
Governors Plead With Trump For Dwindling Hospital Supplies
As President Donald Trump’s administration has repeatedly botched the response to the coronavirus crisis, he has tried to avoid taking responsibility for key aspects of the emergency management and shift it to others. In particular, he has tried to encourage state governors to manage their own crises, even as they often lack the resources wielded by the federal government.
“Governors are supposed to be doing a lot of this work,” Trump said on Thursday at a White House press briefing, referring, in part, to the acquisition of hospital supplies. “The federal government is not supposed to be out there buying vast amounts of items, and then shipping. We’re not a shipping clerk. As with testing — the governors are supposed to be doing it.”
This echoed his previous remarks to governors on a conference call Monday, according to the New York Times. Continue reading.
Kushner coronavirus team sparks confusion, plaudits inside White House response efforts
Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and a senior adviser, has created his own team of government allies and private industry representatives to work alongside the administration’s official coronavirus task force, adding another layer of confusion and conflicting signals within the White House’s disjointed response to the crisis.
Kushner, who joined the administration’s coronavirus efforts last week, is primarily focused on attempting to set up drive-through testing sites with the help of technology and retail executives, as well as experts in health-care delivery. The goal, officials familiar with the work said, is to have limited testing in a handful of cities running by Friday and to expand the project from there.
But Kushner’s team is causing confusion among many officials involved in the response, who say they are unsure who is in charge given Kushner’s dual role as senior adviser and Trump family member. Some have privately dubbed his team a “shadow task force” whose requests they interpret as orders they must balance with regular response efforts.
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Economist Paul Krugman breaks down why Trump’s coronavirus response has been ‘catastrophically inadequate’
After weeks of downplaying the severity of the coronavirus pandemic and calling it a “hoax,” President Donald Trump has finally changed his tone — declaring coronavirus to be a national emergency and joining Democrats in calling for aggressive social distancing. But liberal economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman — who was warning about the dangers of coronavirus when Trump still considered it a “hoax” — is not impressed. Trump’s overall response to the pandemic, Krugman asserts in his column, has been “catastrophically adequate” from both a health standpoint and an economic standpoint. And as Krugman sees it, the real leaders in the United States this week have been House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
“At every stage,” Krugman writes, “Donald Trump minimized the threat and blocked helpful action because he wanted to look good for the next news cycle or two, ignoring and intimidating anyone who tried to give him good advice.”
But even before the Covid-19 strain of coronavirus emerged, Krugman adds, Trump did things that have made it harder for the U.S. to cope with a pandemic — most notably, Trump “disbanded the National Security Council’s pandemic response team in 2018.” And Trump, according to Krugman, has “staffed his administration with obsequious toadies who never tell him anything he doesn’t want to hear.” Continue reading.
Trump is breaking every rule in the CDC’s 450-page playbook for health crisis
The communication chaos on coronavirus is eroding the most powerful weapon we have: Public trust
Amid an outbreak where vaccines, drug treatments and even sufficient testing don’t yet exist, communication that is delivered early, accurately and credibly is the strongest medicine in the government’s arsenal.
But the Trump administration’s zigzagging, defensive, inconsistent messages about the novel coronavirus continued Friday, breaking almost every rule in the book and eroding the most powerful weapon officials possess: Public trust.
After disastrous communications during the 2001 anthrax attacks — when white powder in envelopes sparked widespread panic — the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention created a 450-page manual outlining how U.S. leaders should talk to the public during crises. Continue reading.
Trump faces toughest crisis of presidency in coronavirus
President Trump is staring down the steepest crisis of his presidency and his handling of it could define his time in office.
The coronavirus outbreak presents a test unlike any other Trump has faced thus far. Past crises — mass shootings, white nationalist riots in Charlottesville and government shutdowns — faded out of the news cycle over time or were swallowed up by political machinations.
But the virus shows no signs of abating, and Trump and his administration are under constant scrutiny for their response.
19 Times Trump Has Downplayed the Coronavirus
Why Trump’s Top Three Coronavirus Strategies Will Fail
Even as President Donald Trump continues to insist that he’s done a superb job handling the coronavirus crisis, the evidence of his extreme failures abound. In a hearing before Congress on Thursday, a top official in the administration’s response contradicted Trump about the government’s testing capabilities and acknowledged the shortfall as an important “failing.”
And the same official, Dr. Anthony Fauci, warned the previous day about the outbreak: “It’s going to get worse.”
While Fauci was speaking as an expert in infectious disease, economists — and anyone glancing at the stock market — fear that the risk of financial fallout from the pandemic is equally dim. Continue reading.
Sick People Across the U.S. Say They Are Being Denied the Coronavirus Test
In a health care system that is already difficult to navigate, some patients describe Kafkaesque quests for tests.
BOSTON — First came the tickle in the throat. Then, a hacking cough. Then, a shortness of breath she had never experienced before. Hillary King, a 32-year-old consultant in Boston who lives down the street from a hotel where dozens of Biogen executives contracted the new coronavirus, decided that she had better get tested.
But getting tested is far easier said than done, even as testing slowly ramps up nationwide. Five days after President Trump announced that anyone who wants a test can get a test, Ms. King’s experience shows how difficult it can be in the United States to find out if you have the coronavirus.
Many who fear they have the virus have faced one roadblock after another as they try to get tested, according to interviews with dozens of people across the country. Continue reading.