Courtesy of the Bastrop Advertiser
April 9, 2020
By Bill McCann
I got a postcard recently with advice on ways to keep safe from the coronavirus that causes the COVID-19 disease. The card said in boldface: “PRESIDENT TRUMP’S CORONAVIRUS GUIDELINES FOR AMERICA.” It looked like a political campaign handout, but it had some practical advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
I knew it wasn’t really from Trump – the spelling and grammar were correct. Also, Trump has ignored some of the postcard’s advice, like avoiding gatherings, including coronavirus press briefings where he and his supporting cast have stood close together.
He continues to ignore good advice. Last week Trump announced a new CDC recommendation that people wear cloth face coverings in public to slow the virus spread. Trump immediately undercut the recommendation by saying he wouldn’t wear one, thus confirming that America should practice safe distancing from Trump, who denied, lied and failed to lead as the virus outbreak became a pandemic.
With his political rallies on hold, Trump has turned the press briefings, which are supposed to keep the public updated on the virus, into his megaphone to deflect and defend himself from criticism. He has attacked China, the Obama administration, journalists and state governors who have been justifiably critical of the administration’s initial bumbling efforts to provide medical supplies and tests for the virus. As with his rallies, Trump also has used the briefings to brag about himself (“I’m No. 1 on Facebook.”) and listen to his appointees stroke his giant ego.
Initially, Trump called it the “Chinese Virus” to deflect blame from his early failures to take it seriously, despite repeated warnings from intelligence experts. Trump backers, like Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, got the message and berated China too. McCaul accused China of misleading the world about the spread of the virus but didn’t fault Trump for misleading the American public for six weeks.
Remember what Trump said:
• Jan. 22: “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China.”
• Feb. 26: “We’re going very substantially down, not up (on coronavirus cases).”
Meanwhile last week, heroic health care workers in New York and other areas begged for federal help to get badly needed supplies like surgical face masks, gowns and ventilator equipment to save patients’ and their own lives. But Trump continued to argue it was the states’ job to get supplies, with the federal government as a back-up. At one point, he suggested, without evidence, that hospital workers may have swiped some materials. Did he forget he declared a national emergency to fight the virus?
The coronavirus is not Trump’s fault. But news accounts from the Washington Post and others have documented how Trump and his dysfunctional administration failed miserably early and often to respond to the crisis. It appears the federal government finally is getting its act together, despite Trump, but it has taken way too long considering how quickly the virus can and has spread.
We need to make sure it doesn’t happen again. One way would be to create an independent national commission. Another is to remember in November.
