It’s clear that we need a concise specific system, to rate Trump, to prevent things getting vague.
Here’s a 10 ITEM QUIZ for Presidential COVID response, where Trump gets only 2 out of 10 right. Provided that a President intends to protect the entire country, ahead of his own agenda:
1. Play it safe with the early Warnings, even if unsure. 😢FAIL
2. As info comes in, make actual fact-finding based on SCIENCE imperative, over personal spin, for the safety of the public. 😢FAIL and FAIL and FAIL
3. Keep the issue non-political in a nation-wide crisis, stressing unity regardless of party.😢FAIL
starting in February, with his accusation that Virus alarm was a Democrat Hoax (see the rally tapes!) , he continued to depict Democrats as too alarmist and support Republicans who minimized the threat and shunned restrictions. All political, all the time.
4. Jump on necessary Travel restrictions.✔
he did not do this consistently, but we’ll give him credit anyway for his recognizing the need to restrict travel from China and then Europe. No he did not save hundreds of thousands of lives doing this; because to do that you needed to be doing the other items here.
5. Support development of medicines and vaccines. ✔
(note: we won’t count his misinformation on hydroxycloroquine, after it was discounted by the FDA. We’ll at least give him credit for supporting Vaccine development. Still we may have to FAIL him soon for promoting a premature vaccine release for political purposes. )
6. Pressing for Safety and Protections even while you promote economic stimulus and relief. 😢FAIL
to often, he has emphasized only : open the damn economy or else, open the damn schools or else, while minimizing safety and saying: don’t worry , it’s going away.
7. Make PPE, medical supplies readily available based on need. 😢 FAIL
no, he dragged feet with too much delay, too much focus on “Thanking me”, “Appreciating me” while he played stockroom clerk with “his” supplies that were paid for by taxpayers. Too often, he played “favorite” and “non favorite” states. He should get a spanking for this.
8. Modeling safe behavior yourself. 😢 BIG FAIL.
Inconsistent, refusal to wear masks, holding rallies and large meetings (still!) in violation of recommended restrictions. Even as he made masks available, still not vocally encouraging rally goers to play safe and make sure they are distanced and masked.
9. Consistent emphasis on Testing and making tests available. 😢FAIL
do we really have to spell out how often he impeded this? How often he complained we did too many tests, that tests were not all that essential, etc…
10. General responsible stance, admitting improvements and mistakes. FAIL😢
From NYTIMES August 6 2020 article:
“In no other high-income country — and in only a few countries, period — have political leaders departed from expert advice as frequently and significantly as the Trump administration. President Trump has said the virus was not serious; predicted it would disappear; spent weeks questioning the need for masks; encouraged states to reopen even with large and growing caseloads; and promoted medical disinformation.
In recent days, Mr. Trump has continued the theme, offering a torrent of misleading statistics in his public appearances that make the situation sound less dire than it is.
Some Republican governors have followed his lead and also played down the virus, while others have largely followed the science. Democratic governors have more reliably heeded scientific advice, but their performance in containing the virus has been uneven.
“In many of the countries that have been very successful they had a much crisper strategic direction and really had a vision,” said Caitlin Rivers, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, who wrote a guide to reopening safely for the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative research group. “I’m not sure we ever really had a plan or a strategy — or at least it wasn’t public.”
Together, the national skepticism toward collective action and the Trump administration’s scattered response to the virus have contributed to several specific failures and missed opportunities, Times reporting shows:
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a lack of effective travel restrictions;
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repeated breakdowns in testing;
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confusing advice about masks;
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a misunderstanding of the relationship between the virus and the economy;
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and inconsistent messages from public officials.“