DID TRUMP SCREW UP THE CORONA VIRUS RESPONSE PART II: ANOTHER RESPONSE TO MY FRIEND BJORN JÜRGEN FLÜRGEN

Trump, Trump, Trump. Trumptrumptrumptrumptrump. Stop obsessing and you will be happier.



I don’t want to defend Trump; I want to defend the truth, which is simply that he’s not as bad as he’s portrayed. It’s not a sexy argument, I know. Trump is one man, an abrasive one at that, but the media and Trump-hating elites is a whole class of people. Their hate, corruption and dishonesty is far more damaging to the country than Trump. IMHO.



Here is a lesson we should learn: The President matters less than he (or she or ze or zir) seems. Presidents oversee a vast bureaucracy. It is a fact that the president rarely has a clue what the bureaucrats are doing. It’s why Trump refers to the Deep State constantly. You argued Trump is responsible for all the death because he’s the leader and the buck stops with him. That’s a nice sentiment and a useful one to guard against leaders being unaccountable. In reality, it’s ludicrous. Human beings control what they can control. Leaders set tone, enforce standards, choose goals, and create organizational culture, but they don’t have mind control over their subordinates.  Trump dismantled the NSA pandemic team and turned down WHO testing kits in favor of our own that didn’t work as well? Well, for one, conservatives are always trying to reduce the size of government. If 90% of the time, it’s a good idea, the 10% of the time it backfires, people like you scream about blood on our hands. Bigger government fixes problems? Ok. If you want to have this debate, I can bring my 237 volume “Encyclopedia of Government Waste and Idiocy” as exhibit A. And I’m certain somebody somewhere has quantified how many deaths have been the direct cause of bureaucratic ineptitude.



You suggested Trump’s travel ban was porous, more a press release than lock down. Fine. But what you are arguing is that this “racist” and “reactionary” travel ban, which came only one day after W.H.O. declared the international crisis and with only six Covid cases in the, should have been tougher and earlier. Should Trump have stranded Americans overseas? Can you imagine the weeping and gnashing of teeth?



People like you and I, sitting in our living rooms imbibing propaganda formerly known as news, simply cannot know whether Trump’s handling has been incompetent. We are not privy to the myriad of meetings and advice he gets. After this mess is over, when Dr. Fauci and the rest retire and write their books and when the responses to those books come out, then we will know. What we do know is that he has supposedly followed most of the scientific advice he’s gotten. Trump holds daily briefings and, right beside him are the government’s top scientists who sometimes correct his verbal bumbling, artfully, in real time. Are those the actions of a Macchiavellian tyrant?



Hatred has discombobulated the Trump haters so much that none can treat him or, more importantly, the truth, fairly. Greg Gutfield said the other day that if Trump cured cancer, the headline would be “Trump Cures Cancer, a Common Affliction of White Supremacists.” And yes, in some circles, the headline would be “Trump Cures Cancer: Is he God?” Sadly, the response to Covid-19 is politicized to the point of endangering society. Protecting the narrative is everything. My point is not to defend Trump, but to argue that the truth has been bashed to the point of unrecognizability. You want this to be about science only? Fine. A few questions for you:



Was it science that…

1.       Closed beaches and isolated horse trails when 90% or so of infections come from a person’s home and not outdoors?

2.       Shut down rural counties with few infections, treating them the same as extremely dense population centers?

3.       Caused police to issue fines for people sitting in their cars listening to church services on their radios?

4.       Caused American doctors to use Hydroxychloroquine at far lower rates than international doctors, who said it was the most effective drug?  Or was it because dirtbag partisans called it “snake oil”? Science now says it helps people in early stages and not in late stages.

5.       Caused W.H.O. to say Covid-19 could not be transmitted human to human as late as January 14th or did they blindly promote Chinese propaganda?

6.       Caused W.H.O. to not publicize Taiwan’s warnings on 12/31/19 that the virus spread from human to humans?

7.       Caused W.H.O. and CDC to tell us wearing masks was pointless? “Seriously people- STOP BUYING MASKS!” Surgeon General Adams wrote on Twitter. “They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching #Coronavirus…” That was all a lie.

8.       Causes the W.H.O. to now say that Sweden’s strategy of not shutting down whole economies is a potential model for the rest of the world? Maybe. If so, why such certainty about the opposite before?

9.       That caused New York state to order care facilities to take back Covid patients when possibly 50% of all Covid deaths are in nursing homes or long-term care facilities?

·   25% of NY state deaths were in nursing homes/LCF’s.

·   70% of PA deaths are in nursing homes/LCF’s.

10.   That caused governors to shut down schools when there have been a grand total of 3 Covid deaths of children in the country?

11.   That caused the whole country to shut down when…

·         Almost ¾ of the deaths are people over 65 and 95% over 45.

·         75% of total deaths had or possibly had underlying conditions.

·         80% of total deaths were over 65 AND had or possibly had underlying conditions.

Wouldn’t it be better to just quarantine those over 60? Why aren’t states sending inspectors to nursing homes daily? Why are they forcing nursing homes to take back Corona patients? Why isn’t literally every nursing home employee and patient tested?


Age of Coronavirus Deaths

Data by New York City Health as of April 14:

AGE	Number of Deaths	Share of deaths	With underlying conditions	Without underlying conditions	Unknown if with underlying cond.	Share of deaths of unknown + w/o cond.
0 - 17 years old	3	0.04%	3	0	0	0%
18 - 44 years old	309	4.5%	244	25	40	1.0%
45 - 64 years old	1,581	23.1%	1,343	59	179	3.5%
65 - 74 years old	1,683	24.6%	1,272	26	385	6.0%
75+ years old	3,263	47.7%	2,289	27	947	14.2%
TOTAL	6,839	100%	5,151	137	1,551	24.68%

YAY SCIENCE!

I’ve already discussed that scientists’ opinions are as valuable as my belly button lint.  But even with actual science, 50% of all peer-reviewed science articles can’t be replicated. 70% of all scientists have tried to replicate experiments and failed. “Many scholars agree that the main reason for the spread of fake news in scientific journals is the tremendous pressure in the academic system to publish in high-impact journals.” “14% of scientists claim to know a scientist who has fabricated entire datasets, and 72% say they know one who has indulged in other questionable research practices such as dropping selected data points to sharpen their results.” We all love science with its antibiotics and internet and stuff, but maybe science lovers should have SOME GOD DANG HUMILITY!



As of 4/21/20, Trump did the following:

1.       Instituted travel ban.

2.       Temporarily shut down some forms of immigration.

3.       Modified many federal regulations to speed up delivery/manufacture of PPE.

4.        Distributed 57.4 million N95 masks, 85.3 million surgical masks, 6.4 million face shields, 12.3 million surgical gowns, 638 million gloves, and 10,998 ventilators.

5.       Ordered American company 3M to sell masks to Americans rather than foreign nations.

6.       Ordered GM to manufacture ventilators through the Defense Production Act.

7.       America has tested 4.3 million samples, more than all other countries combined.

8.       Deployed 5,528 military personnel to hospitals and other facilities.

9.        Called, 28,700 National Guard to duty.

10.   Established “Project Airbridge”, a public/private partnership to pick up and deliver crucial supplies.

Could Trump have done better? Maybe. But clearly he did some stuff. Could he have been less of a clown? Unquestionably. Yet, those who are saying ridiculous things like he has blood on his hands are not looking for the truth. For the haters, I think Trump’s greatest crime is that he embarrasses us. Yet, idiot or not, he usually listens to his people and he’s been rather successful overall. And that is good leadership. You surround yourself with people smarter than you, with contrary opinions, and you make choices unapologetically. And that is largely what he has done.