President Joe Biden last week ordered flags flown at half-staff at the White House and all public buildings and grounds until sunset Monday, imploring Americans to “not grow numb to the sorrow.” or 1 million deaths from Covid. This didn’t have to happen and those responsible need to be held accountable.
The US has the world’s highest recorded death toll from the virus and it got there at devastating speed, just 27 months after the first case was confirmed in the USon January 20, 2020. The current 1 million toll is equivalent to the entire state of Delaware or the population of San Jose, California, the 10th largest city in the nation.
“History should judge us harshly on the number of people that we could have prevented from getting infected, and from hospitalization and even dying”.
Syra Madad, DHSc, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
So who is to blame?
1ne: Donald Trump
May 2018
The Trump Administration disbands the White House pandemic response team.
July 2019
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) epidemiologist embedded in China’s disease control agency left the post, and the Trump Administration eliminated the role.
Oct. 2019
“Currently, there are insufficient funding sources designated for the federal government to use in response to a severe influenza pandemic.”
Jan. 22, 2020
“We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China. It’s going to be just fine.”
Jan. 24, 2020
Trump praises China’s handling of the coronavirus: “China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American People, I want to thank President Xi!”
Jan. 28, 2020
“This will be the biggest national security threat you face in your presidency…This is going to be the toughest thing you face” Trump’s National Security Advisor to Trump
Jan. 30, 2020
“The lack of immune protection or an existing cure or vaccine would leave Americans defenseless in the case of a full-blown coronavirus outbreak on US soil,…This lack of protection elevates the risk of the coronavirus evolving into a full-blown pandemic, imperiling the lives of millions of Americans.” [Memo from Trump Trade Advisor Peter Navarro]
Feb. 2, 2020
“We pretty much shut it down coming in from China.”
Feb. 7, 2020
“It’s also more deadly than even your strenuous flu… This is deadly stuff” [Trump in a private interview with Bob Woodward from The Washington Post made public on Sept. 9, 2020]
Feb. 10, 2020
“I think the virus is going to be—it’s going to be fine.”
Feb. 10, 2020
“Looks like by April, you know in theory when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away.”
Feb. 24, 2020
“The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA… the Stock Market starting to look very good to me!”
Feb. 25, 2020
“CDC and my Administration are doing a GREAT job of handling Coronavirus.”
Feb. 25, 2020
“I think that’s a problem that’s going to go away… They have studied it. They know very much. In fact, we’re very close to a vaccine.”
Feb. 26, 2020
“The 15 (cases in the US) within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero.”
Feb. 26, 2020
“We’re going very substantially down, not up.”
Feb. 26, 2020
“Well, we’re testing everybody that we need to test. And we’re finding very little problem. Very little problem.”
Feb. 26, 2020
“This is the flu. This is like the flu.”
Feb. 27, 2020
“It’s going to disappear. One day, it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.”
Feb. 27, 2020
“The ineptness with which the Trump Administration approached this problem is not only serious, it can be deadly if not changed in the approach.” – Rep. Lloyd Doggett [During a hearing, Rep. Doggett questions HHS Sec. Azar on Trump’s refusal to take this virus seriously, warning about mask and test shortages]
March 6, 2020
“I think we’re doing a really good job in this country at keeping it down… a tremendous job at keeping it down.”
March 6, 2020
“You have to be calm. It’ll go away.”
March 6, 2020
“Anybody right now, and yesterday, anybody that needs a test gets a test. They’re there. And the tests are beautiful…. the tests are all perfect like the letter was perfect. The transcription was perfect. Right? This was not as perfect as that but pretty good.”
2wo Republican Governors
Republican politics have become oppositional politics: Deny the science, demean the media, own the libs. Conservatives are less defined by what they are for than by what they are against. A perfect example is DeSantis in Florida.
Perhaps no politician has taken the reins from Trump with more vigor — and disastrous effects — than Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, a man who thinks he could be the next Republican president. But to supplant the last leader of his party, he has to out-Trump Trump.
As the Delta variant became more of a threat and people like DeSantis became more entrenched, waging war against mask mandates in their states.
As The Times reported: “More people in Florida are catching the coronavirus, being hospitalized and dying of Covid-19 now than at any previous point in the pandemic.” The Times continued, “This week, 227 virus deaths were being reported each day in Florida, on average, as of Tuesday, a record for the state and by far the most in the United States right now.”
The citizens of Florida do not even support DeSantis’s politically calculated pandemic positions. A Quinnipiac University poll released last week found that “six in 10 Floridians support requiring masks in schools,” and “61 percent say recent rise in Covid-19 cases in Florida was preventable.”
DeSantis said in early August, “We can either have a free society, or we can have a biomedical security state.” He continued, “And I can tell you: Florida, we’re a free state. People are going to be free to choose to make their own decisions.”
In Florida, DeSantis is allowing you to choose death so that he can have a greater political life.
3hree: Social Media
Amid debates about the role social media has played in the spread of misinformation related to COVID-19 vaccines, roughly half of Americans say that they have been getting some (30%) or a lot (18%) of news and information about these vaccines on social media. The other half (51%) say they have been getting not much news or none at all this way, according to a new Pew Research Center survey conducted July 26-Aug. 8, 2021.
Americans are endangered by misinformation about the covid-19 pandemic and the promotion of false treatments on social media, with platforms not doing enough to control falsehoods, the chair of a US representatives committee has warned. Researchers found a direct correlation between locations where Twitter misinformation originated and subsequent spikes in COVID-19 infections and deaths in those areas weeks later.
Social media platforms have not done enough to stop the spread of misinformation. Americans have wasted millions of dollars on fake and hazardous treatments, false vaccination cards, and false religious or medical exemptions from vaccination. By feeding the American public falsehoods about the virus, vaccines, and treatments, these bad actors on social media make it harder to distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate sources of health information—and harder to know how to protect ourselves and our loved ones.