He’s only making the crisis worse
We are facing a pandemic about which US President Donald Trump appears incapable of telling the truth — assuming he even knows it — and without quick action, a lot of people are going to get sick. Some of them will die. The president’s incoherence has reached a level that is a hazard to public health. The best thing Trump can do for the country, to speed its response to the novel coronavirus, is resign and let someone capable take over.
Is that Mike Pence? At this point, I’m willing to find out.
Trump won’t, of course. But as the markets plunge and people become increasingly frightened, there is a helpful course of action he could take immediately: stop talking. Trump should not open his mouth — he makes things worse every time he does it.
Here’s where we’re at, as of yesterday: the president accidentally started a trade war with Europe during a televised address about the novel coronavirus pandemic, which was then walked back with a tweet. He was trying to announce a travel ban.
“These prohibitions will not only apply to the tremendous amount of trade and cargo,” he said in his speech. An hour later, he tweeted: “Very important for all countries & businesses to know that trade will in no way be affected by the 30-day restriction on travel from Europe. The restriction stops people not goods.”
Also in his speech yesterday, Trump told the nation that all insurers “have agreed to waive all copayments for coronavirus treatments.” This is also, apparently, not true. “For testing. Not for treatment,” a spokesperson for the insurers’ lobby, America’s Health Insurance Plans, told Sarah Owermohle, a reporter for Politico. During no part of the speech were ventilators, hospital beds, or other preparedness measures discussed.
Nor were people who didn’t have insurance discussed, a significant hazard. People who are likely to get stuck with bills from coronavirus testing or treatment may be less likely to seek care. This is to say nothing of workers who cannot afford to stay home because they do not have sick leave. Lots of Americans are frightened and want to know that our government will care for them and their loved ones. Does the president know or care about this? It doesn’t seem like it.“BOTTOM LINE, IT’S GOING TO GET WORSE.”
Currently, there are more than 1,000 people in the US who have confirmed cases of the illness COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, and 28 people are known to have died from it. “Bottom line, it’s going to get worse,” Anthony Fauci, who has been the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, told members of the House of Representatives yesterday.