boomboomsroom

How bad was the administrations response to the Coronavirus outbreak? In a word, miserable.

The administration’s approach from the onset has been containment. That only works when the virus is not already here and spreading. They were so concerned with the number of cases they failed to use that time to prepare instead pointing to the media and Dems as the cause for panic and to discredit Trump. When finally it became indisputable that an outbreak was underway the administration was slow to catch up. There were not enough testing kits, hotlines overwhelmed and hospitals and publish health departments hobbled by a lack of reliable statistics. This has left us months behind schedule. As one health expert said “we were flying dark for six weeks, time that should have been used collecting data from the hundreds of more cases that are already here.” Why were we so slow for testing you might ask? Great question, let’s bring in our first guest, the man whose title qualifies him for running an outbreak task force despite no knowledge, Mr. Vice President Mike Pence. Mr. Vice President do we have enough tests to meet the demand? “We don’t have enough tests today to meet what we anticipate the demand going forward.” Umm that doesn’t sound good Mr. Vice President, why is that…..”Soon we will be able to test 10,000 people a day.” That wasn’t my question, but the answer is because we botched it from the start. Pence made the decision to forgo the WHO test which had been distributed to over sixty countries worldwide, and instead begin a protracted process of producing and American Test. This test was delayed by manufacturing problems, lab contamination and logistical delays. Thank you for the time Mr. Vice President Cough, Cough.

Our next guest, White House economic adviser Mr. Larry Kudlow from Feb 24th. Mr. Kudlow what’s the current situation look like? “We have contained this, I won’t say airtight but pretty close to airtight.” Wrong answer Larry, now go sit in the corner on time out.

Finally, our last guest, Mr. President himself from Feb 25th, who tweeted (because that makes sense when reassuring the American public on an outbreak) the virus was “very much under control” from a man who very much likes being in control, then double downed when asked about the number of cases and stated they “are going down not up.” and that “The 15 (cases) within a couple days is going to be down close to zero” Or increased to 500 with 22 deaths as of today with hundreds more not detected because of the testing kits debacle. Cough, Cough.

It’s not even that the administration should have been caught by surprise with the outbreak. Since Jan, epidemiologists, former US public health officials and experts have been warning both publicly and privately that the administrations insistence was and should be the primary wat to confront the disease was a grave mistake. Cough, Cough, Cough. Enjoy the week in containment. Make America Healthy Again.