There are two paradigms emerging from the current pandemic of COVID 19. These are epitomized by the outcomes in Singapore and Italy. In the former there were thirteen cases in January and six weeks later there were hundred and thirteen. In Italy there were three positives identified and within a few weeks it was ten thousand. In that period Singapore has had no deaths and Italy there are over a thousand.
One fact is for sure if America ends up with the Singapore model it will be in spite of Trump being Trump - Trump 1. The latter has somewhat belatedly, without batting an eyelid, declared the Democratic hoax, a National Emergency, thereby morphing into Trump 2.Then with more than more a little help from Nancy Pelosi he applied himself to the impact of the devastating medical crisis.
What precipitated this Damascus moment was the reality of the threat facing the country, and therefore his re - election chances. All sections of society were responding to the crisis in spite of his reassurance and smears of "fake news". The pandemic was no longer about to become five “cases” it was, with virtually with no testing, two thousand one hundred victims.
American society was not waiting for deluded Trump 1 to respond. Through its state and local governments, corporations, institutions and the leisure and entertainment sector it moved decisively to blunt the impact, to a Singapore scenario. As Panic spread like wildfire and the stores shelves emptied, Trump 1, with great pomp and circumstance announced a National Emergency, “Two big words”, and became Trump 2.
Within no time Italy had enough tests to identify their emergency and have ordered an almost complete shut down of the country. America had to date, with two months heads up, at most have done ten thousand tests which is less than the number they are doing in South Korea every day. Put another way for ever five tests per million population the US has effected South Korea has performed six hundred and ninety - two.
TRUMP I - THE STABLE GENIUS WITH NATURAL MEDICAL ABILITY SHOWS A DAZZLING DISPLAY OF LACK OF LEADERSHIP.
Throughout Trump 1 has played down the impending threat creating a narrative which directly contradicts his scientific experts. The latter have had uphill from the word go sometimes openly contradicting him. As the numbers were being controlled by the lack of tests he initially claimed there were only fifteen "cases" and very soon there would be five.
A persistent theme of his steady stream of consciousness was that flu was much more serious although he heard again and again that this virus was far more contagious and had at least ten times the mortality. To the angst that there was no vaccine he mislead by saying that one would be ready shortly. He nonchalantly countered as the numbers started climbing that a miracle was about to happen.
He capped it all, literally, by a madcap visit to the Center of Disease Control, (CDC), wearing a Keep America Great campaign cap. There, to the embarrassment of his own experts and the astonishment of the CDC staff, he sounded off on his screwball theories that he said were due to his natural medical ability, which had been acknowledged by experts. Trump's erratic behavior exacerbated the crisis by his own criterion as to the financial well being of the country - the stock market. He had triggered a bear market and an impending recession.
The time had come for damage control Trump needed to give an Oval Office address, which is utilized by Presidents in a crisis, to reassure and unite a terrified nation.
As Trump gave his eleven minute prepared address to the nation the Dow futures, indicating what investors were betting the stock market would open at the next morning, was prominently placed on the screen. At the joyous prospect that reassurance and an action plan would emanate from G-d’s gift to salesmanship the futures were optimistically up. Focus slowly turned from the wooden President to the elephant at the bottom of the screen as each second passed by with his excruciating collection of mixed messages and lies. The market reflected the investors' lack of trust as the futures turned massively negative heralding a further ten percent drop of the market the next day - the highest in living memory.
Of course the peak time audience viewing this were informed that this was a “foreign virus”, that he has acted with unprecedented foresight and his solution to the biological threat which has been maligned by the Democrats for political gain. For the financial disaster that might follow in its wake it was not to bail out the most vulnerable but rather he would provide assistance to employers and those that are earning a regular salary.
THE RESPONSE TO THE OVAL OFFICE SPEECH
In his anger that followed the stock market reaction the blame game began and the usual suspect, Obama's Pesidency, was the cause of the unpreparednes. Then Trump lashed out at the CDC for their failure to not have a test ready, conveniently forgetting that the day before he had broadcast that anyone that wanted a test could get one. All this in the teeth of the of the fact that he had axed the pandemic office that Obama had created to forsee and cope with such a situation.
His image could not have been helped by the fact that he had spent the weekend at his golf resort with a now diagnosed Brazilian official. His refusal to acknowledge the danger was sharply contrasted by the behavior of his traveling echo chamber, including Lindsey Graham, most of whom went into voluntary quarantine. This on top of his fourth Chief of Staff who kicked off his stint by putting himself into voluntary isolation. His daughter Ivanka what is more self quarantined after being with the Australian Minister of Home Affairs who had also been diagnosed.
In the midst of growing disquiet Trump 2 finally acknowledged two days later that this was very serious and declared a National Emergency.
HELP FROM HIS FRIENDS - FINANCIAL CRISIS (BETWEEN TRUMP 1 AND TRUMP 2)
Trump 1’s initial request for just over two billion was upped by Congress to eight billion as he was hopelessly underfunding the emergency needs. Then, finally, Nancy Pelosi won through with the package to sustain those that would be hardest hit by the crisis, with paid sick leave, an increase in food stamps and subsidies to those that pay employees. Trump 2, after lying to the media, that her Bill did not go far enough, tweeted his support.
Earlier on sustained questioning from financial commentator Jim Cramer, Secretary Mnuchin reassured that there would be open lines of credit for business. The day earlier Congresswoman Porter forced the Head of the CDC, Robert Redfield, to use his emergency powers to guarantee that everyone who needed a viral test would not have to pay for the “privilege”. Federal Chair Powell had almost unprecedentedly acted by flooding the market with liquidity and by buying bonds. (By the way Trumps 1 and 2 were not satisfied as he expected the Federal Reserve to magically rid America of the virus with fiscal irresponsibility).
To date his desire for a three trillion payroll tax cut has not happened. The Senate Republicans who had been not too happy period about the management to date have recoiled at the idea.
HELP FROM HIS FRIENDS - MANAGEMENT OF THE CORONAVIRUS THREAT (BETWEEN TRUMP 1 AND TRUMP 2)
In spite of no leadership from the top America went into top gear to try and prevent an Italian scenario. With forty nine States having reported positive cases, twenty nine of their Governors were not waiting around for Trump to act and declared an Emergency before he did. Most impressive were the leaders of the epicenters where a cluster of cases had occurred. Governor Inslee of Washington State, whom Trump 1 had called a snake, had the nightmare scenario of an outbreak in a nursing home. By the time Trump 2 emerged his state already had five hundred and thirty eight confirmed cases. He had shut the schools, got a waver to feed those who relied on school meals, to give them food at home. In addition he banned meetings with more than two hundred and fifty people. Governor Cuomo of New York where four hundred and twenty one citizens have tested positive has quarantined a one mile area where there was an epicenter of an outbreak. Massachusetts where there are a hundred and twenty five positives up from fifteen on Thursday has also instituted drastic control measures. Governor Pritzker of Illinois, wasn’t standing around Waiting for Godot with forty six diagnosed, shut the schools as well as the Casinos and like everyone else banned medium sized gatherings.
Municipalities also closed down together with their abandoned airports. Public facilities that were shut, for example in Chicago, included the Zoo, the Aquarium. the Art Institute, the Museums, Libraries, the Universties and Catholic Church Masses to mention some. Mass gatherings such as Saint Patrick Day Parades and a list of Conferences a page long, as Chicago is a convention center, were all cancelled.
Sports bodies nationally acted one after another Basketball, Ice Hockey and Soccer all called it quits and the annual College Men and Women’s Basketball championship events were likewise put to pastures. The Masters Golf tournament and Boston Marathon were postponed. Unless you live in the USA the enormity of these moves cannot be comprehended. Betting which is now legal on sports events left gamblers with their only available wager being as to who would win the Presidential elections.
Corporations also delivered on social distancing with Apple, Amazon and Google for example instructing employees to work from home. They also forbade their employees' unnecessary travel. The bastions of the Financial world the Chicago Board of Options and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange did likewise while the New York Stock Exchange made preperations. Universities across the country told their students not to return after spring break. And the list goes on and on.
Earlier in the day Roche had announced their drive by test which was already being used in the States of New York in Colorado which had been given the go ahead by the FDA.
It was in this milieu - where the public were in a panic state and pictures of empty shop shelves and long lines at the check outs flooding the internet; Pence’s one million test kits were still in the mail; two thousand one hundred positive patients recorded; the Head of the World Organization declaring a pandemic and stating inter alia that some countries weren’t doing enough; that with what tests that were available the increase of positives was on track to copy the Italian experience and where experts were screaming that the testing had been inexplicably delayed for nearly two months - Trump 2 emerged with much fanfare.
TRUMP 2 ENTERS
The miracle that the frog, Trump 1, had predicted was not that the virus had vanished. Rather it turned out to be his emergence from coronavirus denial and abracadabra he became a prince, Trump 2.
With his obsequious entourage in tow the newly retreaded Trump emerged from the WhiteHouse and announced the National Emergency which would allow him to cut red tape and move into top gear. (If that was the solution why wait till then?). He now had fifty billion dollars more to spend on the crisis, he explained. He paraded the CEO’s of Walgreens, CVS, Walmart and Target who were going to set up tents in their car parks for drive by testing. There would be various other the maneuvers to help the situation like students loan interest payments would be curtailed.
Trump 2 achieved his life time dream of the stock market numbers going up as he spoke. (He sent supporters signed copies of the share chart). In an answer to a questioner he stated that he took no responsibility for the mess and danger the country was in. The only buck that stops at Trump’s desk is one with an etching of George Washington on it with a 1 in each corner.
Trump 2 like Trump 1 believes he is omnipotent. He surrounds himself with viral positives at Mar - A - Lago. There are three reported since last weekend turning his retreat into the new epicenter. He may not go into quarantine but all his hangers on at his Southern WhiteHouse have gone into voluntary isolation. He carried on his care free attitude by shaking everyone’s hands at the WhiteHouse announcement. He needs to have someone read to him the CDC guidelines that he recommends.
AT THE END OF THE DAY
Nobody knows what happened to the Vice President’s million tests let alone the four million that were to follow. Experts on TV stated that they still had no idea when the testing will start….
It has become almost a banal wasting of time fact checking the President but his false assertion that Google had over seventeen hundred engineers working on a Coronavirus website just cannot pass unnoticed. Google denied it the next day. Who can believe anything the President says - if the societal action is anything to go by - not many.
The fact that any progress had been achieved to date is thanks to the American society who had the good sense to ignore the Commander in Chief…
Once again it has been the career professionals, who have their jobs on a line, rather than the Administration political hacks and Republican legislators, who have lead the charge to inform the public.
EVERYONE DO THEIR BIT TO KEEP HEALTHY THEREBY KEEPING THEM AND THE COMMUNITY SAFE.
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