March 14, 2020: Trump Announces "National Emergency" in the Face of COVID

 

3/14/20: If you were thinking maybe Dr. Donald J. Trump (commonly known as “Dr. Zero”) is a quack, the evidence is now irrefutable. 

This is the same Dr. Zero who told us the COVID-19 virus was no worse than the flu. Now, Dr. Zero has had to admit we face a National Emergency, “two big words,” as he put it when making the announcement yesterday.

 

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“There are no good choices, but there are good decisions.” 

Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan

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And here, let us remember what may have been his worst prediction of all: We were sitting on 15 cases of the novel coronavirus on February 26. But thanks to him, we were headed for zero. 

There was no reason to worry whatsoever. 

(You can find that prediction in the official White House transcript, if you don’t believe me. This isn’t “Fake News.”)

 

 

As of Saturday evening, Johns Hopkins University has increased its running totals for worldwide COVID-19 cases to 156,099 (see above). The worldwide death toll now stood at 5,819, which would indicate a mortality rate of 3.7%. As for the United States approaching “zero,” we stand at 2,572 cases. Like Italy, we may be in for worse to come. Despite having shut down their entire economy, and told everyone to stay home, the Italians report 21,157 cases and 1,441 deaths. The situation in Iran is dire, with 12,729 cases and an admitted 611 dead. Iraqi citizens returning home from Iran say the situation is far worse. Iraq has sealed its border with Iran, except to its own citizens. 

The spread of the virus is so rapid that what Trump said Wednesday night, when he tried to reassure the nation, is already out of date. He said he wasn’t going to need to ban travelers from Ireland or the United Kingdom, even though the U.K. had more reported cases of COVID-19, than several countries included in the ban. The next day, Dr. Don defended his decision not to ban travel from the United Kingdom. He said the Brits were “doing a good job” of containing the virus. Less than 48-hours later, the U.K. had seen confirmed cases rise to 1,143. 

So, as of today, Dr. Trump has banned travelers from the United Kingdom, too. Same with travelers from Ireland.

 

In fact, the president has been forced to admit that this virus is not just like the flu. He recommends today that if you don’t have to travel within the United States, you should stay home. 

Meanwhile, economic damage continues to spread across the world, and hamstring large sectors of the U.S. economy. The stock market plummeted more than 2,300 points on Thursday, rebounded almost 2,000 on Friday. The Dow ended Friday at 23,186, a drop of 6,365 points in a month. Trillions in equity have been wiped from the books. Cancellations of all kinds are drying up business. The local economy of Austin, Texas, suffered a $350 million hit when the South by Southwest Festival was canceled. That was without a single confirmed case in the city. Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan may have said it best when she explained the decision to shut down city schools for six weeks: “There are no good choices, but there are good decisions.” 

Travel bans, and an expected slowdown in economic activity, caused oil prices to drop. It was good news for drivers (who have few places to go for the foreseeable future) but catastrophe for drilling companies. Benchmark U.S. crude oil fell to $31.50 per barrel on Friday.

 

Nor is there any end in sight for the spread of the virus or the spread of the damage, both to health and economy. Saturday morning, my youngest daughter, Emily, a nurse in Columbus, Ohio told us the first confirmed case in the city had been revealed, a 49-year-old man who traveled on a Carnival cruise ship, the Valor. He left the ship on March 5, and has likely been infecting others since. The state has 26 confirmed cases, seven requiring hospitalizations and all Ohio public schools will be shut down for three weeks, starting Monday. 

The coronavirus is spreading rapidly around the world. Spain saw a jump of more than 2,000 cases this weekend. It was announced that a two-week state of emergency would be implemented, basically shutting down the country. At least five flights from England were alerted to the news in midair and turned around, rather than land passengers in a two-week quarantine. France, which had only a hundred confirmed cases on March 2, now has 3,672. The government has ordered closure of all non-essential businesses, starting at midnight. Even war-torn Syria has announced the closure of schools and universities to stem the spread of disease – at least all the schools and universities that haven’t been blown to bits during the long and bloody civil war.

 

Anyone who said this was “just like the flu” was ill-informed or obtuse. Dr. Trump decided he had better get tested, after his doctor said last night there was no need. The fact that two people who visited Mar-a-Lago last weekend and tested positive apparently convinced Dr. Trump this morning he had to get checked. Attorney General Bill Barr was already in self-quarantine. So, too, were Rona McDaniel, the chairwoman for the Republican National Committee, and her family, after Ms. McDaniel began experiencing fever and other flu-like symptoms. The Pentagon has put almost all domestic travel for service members and families on hold through May 11. The Archdiocese of New York announced it was canceling masses starting today, and the Boston Marathon has been postponed till September, the first such disruption in 124 years. The Masters Tournament has been postponed. Panic shopping has begun emptying shelves in groceries across the U.S. 

Toilet paper has been a flash point. 

 

POSTSCRIPT: The State of New York has issued a “cease and desist” order to Alex Jones and Infowars. 

Officials warn Jones that he may no longer sell toothpaste, claiming that it will protect users from the COVID-19 virus. 

Also receiving a “cease and desist letter” for selling bogus products to protect against the novel coronavirus: Pastor Jim Bakker.

March 15: "Leadership: Whatever Happens, You're Responsible."

 

3/15/20: While you were snoozing safely in your bed, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in this country spiked from 2,726 yesterday evening to 3,244 this afternoon. In other words, we’re tracking like Spain and France. Both countries have basically shut down, like Italy. 

Or, to put it another way, Dr. Zero’s prediction that we were headed for zero cases has proven to be grossly misinformed.

 

 

It’s also interesting to look back at a time when Dr. Zero (a.k.a. Donald J. Trump) was just a TV-reality show schmuck running a scam university. In those days, if anything went wrong while Barack Obama was in charge, Trump was happy to attack. In 2014 he called Obama a “psycho”  when he allowed seven Americans who contracted Ebola in West Africa to return to the United States for care. Four other Americans ended up infected. One of those four died. So did one of the original seven.

That was the extent of the “outbreak,” during which Trump predicted there would be “bedlam” in the streets. 

As for Dr. Zero now, vs. Citizen Donald then, Dr. Zero takes no responsibility for the current spread of COVID-19. He says Obama is to blame, even though Mr. Obama left office 1,151 days ago. 

In happier times, when all Citizen Donald had to do was tweet-bitch about Obama and claim he could prove his predecessor was born in Kenya, or on some other planet, Citizen Don had this to say about leadership in any endeavor:

 

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“I would like to see a dramatic diminution of the personal interaction that we see in restaurants and in bars. Whatever it takes to do that, that’s what I’d like to see.” 

Dr. Anthony Fauci, Head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

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AS FOR BEING FOCUSED, Dr. Zero still seems more interested in stock market reports than numbers of sick and dying. The damage to the U.S. and world economies is going to be acute. The $160 billion sports industry in this country is paralyzed. Even the Golden Raspberries awards show has been cancelled – which means Dame Judi Dench won’t get a chance to “celebrate” a possible win in the category of “Worst Supporting Actor” in the musical mega-flop, “Cats.” The governments of Great Britain and Hong Kong have warned against travel to the United States. Lithuania has closed its borders to all foreigners. Israel has shuttered cafes, malls, movie theaters, and restaurants. Morocco has canceled all flights to and from 21 countries. Sudan has closed all schools and universities for a month. The government of Austria has shifted to emergency operating procedures, warning that freedom of movement will be “massively restricted.” The governor of Ohio warns it’s “absolutely possible” that schools could remain closed the remainder of the year. Hoboken, New Jersey has responded to the crisis by instituting a 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew, except for essential workers. We know the virus can spread quickly, with 27 residents and 25 healthcare workers at one nursing home in Kirkland, Washington infected. Italy is reporting more than 21,000 cases. But the more ominous news is this: among those cases there have been 1,441 deaths and 1,518 patients are currently being treated in intensive care units. 

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the voice of the Trump administration on the topic of containment (until he tells too many truths), made it clear this morning. “I would like to see a dramatic diminution of the personal interaction that we see in restaurants and in bars. Whatever it takes to do that, that’s what I’d like to see.” Indeed, Dr. Fauci said on CNN’s morning program, State of the Union, that he could not rule out a temporary lock-down across the country. 

So, what will Dr. Zero do or predict next? We do know, he decided to take a “Victory Lap” on Friday, after announcing a National Emergency. 

What the perpetually-clueless Dr. Zero did was sign a chart showing how the stock market soared after his speech. Then he sent it out to all his loyal followers. 

The accompanying note read: “The President would like to share the attached image with you, and passes along the following message: ‘From opening of press conference, biggest day in stock market history!’”

 

 

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CLUELESS PEOPLE tend to bond together, which explains the link between Dr. Zero and Rep. Devin Nunes – who is definitely not a medical expert – or even a very smart member of Congress. 

On Fox News today, Rep. Nunes told host Maria Bartiromo that this was, in fact, a perfect time to get out and mingle with humanity. “There’s a lot of concerns with the economy here [in California] because people are scared to go out. But I will just say, one of the things you can do if you’re healthy, you and your family, it’s a great time to just go out, go to a local restaurant.” 

You might not stay healthy, but, hey, you don’t want the economy to stall out with Trump in the White House, right!

March 18, 2020: Trump Goes from Dr. Zero to Dr. Pandemic

 

3/18/20: Dr. Zero (a.k.a. President Trump) coughed up another colossal lie yesterday. After spending weeks insisting that the coronavirus was no big deal – and the media and the Democrats were terrible because they said it was – he changed his tune on Tuesday. He went from humming “Pop Goes the Weasel” to trying to sing opera. And he has no talent for opera.

 

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“This is a pandemic. I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic.” 

President Trump

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“This is a pandemic,” he told reporters on Tuesday. They already knew that. “I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic.” In other words, Dr. Zero was claiming he was way ahead of everyone else. 

Yet, we know, if we are not nincompoops, that it was three weeks ago that Dr. Zero earned his sobriquet. It was then he predicted that in a “couple of days,” the U.S. would see cases of the virus drop to zero. 

As of this evening, the United States has 7,769 confirmed cases. As testing finally ramps up, that number will go higher. 

Trump’s prediction of “zero” cases was wildly off target, and not the prediction a man who knew a pandemic was coming (which he now says he knew) would have made.

 

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WITH EACH PASSING MINUTE, the economic damage piles higher. The airline industry is running empty planes. Restaurants have chairs piled atop tables and closed signs on front doors. Movie theaters are dark. No popcorn is popped. No sodas are poured. No Milk Duds (Mr. Blogger’s go-to movie snack) are chewed and stuck to patrons’ teeth. ESPN is showing reruns of old college basketball games. Except for bull riding that’s about all they’ve got to offer. Schools in 39 states are closed. An estimated 41.7 million students are stuck at home, as are millions of parents who would normally be at work. On Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin warned GOP lawmakers that short of strong federal intervention, unemployment could spike to 20 percent.

March 19, 2020: President Trump Blames the Media as COVID Spreads

 

3/19/20: The coronavirus continues to spread. Italy has almost 41,000 cases and 3,400 deaths. Cases have surged in Iran (18,000), Spain (18,000), Germany (15,000) and the United States, as well as other countries. The world total stands at 243,000 and nearly 10,000 deaths. 

At 11:13 a.m. today, the U.S. had 9,415 confirmed cases, 9,400 more than Dr. Zero predicted on Feb. 26. 

But when I checked back before posting this at 9:13 p.m., that number had surged to 13,678.

Port of Los Angeles in better times.

 

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“Perhaps that’s been the story of life.” 

Dr. Zero

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If you wanted to encapsulate President Trump’s grasp of the crisis in just a couple of quotes, here would be one. When a reporter asked what he thought yesterday about reports that rich and well-connected individuals were able to get tested, when sick patients who might be infected could not, here was his answer. “You’d have to ask them [those getting tested] that question,” he said. “Perhaps that’s been the story of life. That does happen on occasion, and I’ve noticed where some people have been tested fairly quickly.” 

It was the verbal equivalent of a not-my-problem shrug. 

Then you had the typical Trumpian attempt to dodge any criticism: “You’d have to ask them.”

 

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“The only thing we weren’t prepared for was the media.” 

TODAY, DR. ZERO stepped before the press again, flanked by leaders of his coronavirus-fighting team. Since he was calling himself a “wartime president,” he was asked about shortages of safety gear in hospitals across the country. He had invoked the Defense Production Act, which allows a president to demand that manufacturers shift to meeting wartime needs. Why wasn’t he getting medical supplies to the people fighting on the front lines? 

“Governors are supposed to be doing a lot of this work,” Dr. Zero replied, dodging as much responsibility as possible, “and they are doing a lot of this work. The Federal government is not supposed to be out there buying vast amounts of items and then shipping. You know, we’re not a shipping clerk.” 

Sure. Wartime president. 

And you thought he might get ammunition to the troops!

 

Rather than focus on getting bullets to the soldiers, Trump wasted a chunk of his press conference blasting the free press, mainly because the free press fails to praise him. His irritation arose when Kristen Welker of NBC asked him why the White House was so unprepared to implement widespread testing, especially since Trump claimed recently he had known all along a pandemic was coming. 

“We were very prepared,” Trump replied. “The only thing we weren’t prepared for was the media. The media has not treated it fairly. I’ll tell you how prepared I was,” he continued. “I called for a ban from people coming in from China long before anybody thought it was” necessary. “In fact, it was your network – I believe they called me a racist because I did that. It was many of the people in the room, they called me racist and other words because I did that.” 

At that moment, only fools could fail to notice. Being called a “racist,” a “raconteur” or a “race car driver” would be irrelevant if the matter at hand was ramping up testing. You could ramp up testing in any case.

 

And Dr. Zero had failed to ramp up testing – because Dr. Zero was the greatest fool of all. As recently as February 26, he made it clear he didn’t believe testing was going to be necessary. He had closed off travel from China. That was the magic bullet to fire. We wouldn’t need testing. 

Another week went to waste. Dr. Zero was still patting himself on the back. On March 5, the president tweet-congratulated himself: “With approximately 100,000 CoronaVirus cases worldwide, and 3,280 deaths, the United States, because of quick action on closing our borders, has, as of now, only 129 cases (40 Americans brought in) and 11 deaths.” 

Finally, let’s be clear. The media couldn’t stop the government from testing more people. 

All the media did was report on the testing. 

Dr. Zero screwed the pooch, not the free press.

 

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Like a “ghost town.” 

THE ECONOMIC DAMAGE continues to come in ripples and waves. The Big Three automakers are shutting down North American production until at least March 30. The New York City Metropolitan Opera has laid off chorus, singers, and musicians. The film industry estimates 125,000 jobs will be temporarily lost. Marriott International plans to furlough tens of thousands of workers. Two other hotel chains have laid off 50% and 80% of their employees. A coffee shop company in Seattle, a Starbucks competitor, is keeping on 39 of 189 employees. The Carson’s Cookie Fix Bakery in Omaha cut a number of bakers. A Minnesota cabinet-making company threw in the hammer and saw and sent all 140 workers home. The Philadelphia International Airport plans to lay off as many as 1,000 of its 1,400 subcontractors. The Port of Los Angeles is sending 145 truck drivers home, as shipments from around the world are halted. The port, says one worker, is like a “ghost town” with almost no activity of any kind. 

Predictions for the coming months have turned grim. As many as 3,000,000 jobs could be lost by June. S&P Global warns, “While economic data for March is just starting to be released, the severity of the blow from the coronavirus leads us to believe that the U.S. is entering recession – if not already in one.” The economy could shrink by 1% in the first quarter of this year, and 6% in the second. Growth for the year had already been expected to slow. Goldman Sachs predicts a recession, but not one so pronounced as in 2008-2009. Kevin Hassert, a former Trump economic advisor, has a sunnier view of how the U.S. economy will fare, but does say, “The odds of a global recession are close to 100% right now.”

April 4, 2020: "Dr. Tuck" on Fox News Dispenses COVID-19 Health Advice

 

4/4/20: You can slice the bread any way you like it, thick or thin, or let the entire loaf turn stale, and punt it like a football. President Trump is a terrible prognosticator. 

As of Saturday afternoon, the U.S. had piled up 312,249 confirmed cases of COVID-19. 

This would be roughly 312,234 more cases than Dr. Zero (Donald J. Trump) predicted we’d have on February 26.

 

Since noon Friday, the United States has compiled almost 55,000 new cases. Worse, the number of dead jumped by more than 1,300 on Friday to 7,406, making it the deadliest day yet. This morning the death toll stands at 8,468, with another 8,206 individuals in serious or critical condition. 

On Friday, the CDC recommended we all wear cloth masks in public, where social distancing rules are hard to follow. Trump then said during his daily press conference – during which he found time to brag again about how great the economy used to be – that wearing a mask should be “voluntary.” He wasn’t ready to order a nationwide stay-at-home order. “I leave it up to the governors,” he explained testily. 

(He’s testier than ever lately.)

Wear a mask - maybe not this kind, though.

 

Dr. Anthony Fauci, a key member of the Trump administration’s coronavirus-fighting team, has said he can’t understand why governors in several states are resisting such orders. “You know, the tension between federally mandated versus states’ rights to do what they want is something I don’t want to get into,” he said during a CNN interview on Thursday. “But if you look at what’s going on in this country, I just don’t understand why we’re not doing that.”

 

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“That would be national suicide, and yet, that is what Anthony Fauci is suggesting, at least.” 

Dr. Tucker Carlson

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Of course, we couldn’t have the leading infectious disease expert in the country spouting off and maybe making Dr. Zero look indecisive. So that other right-wing medical expert, Dr. Tucker Carlson, decided it was time to offer medical diagnosis. On his Friday night show, “Dr. Tuck” first threw out the baited hook to catch unwitting Fox News viewers, calling Fauci an “impressive person.” 

Then he reeled in the dupes. “That doesn’t mean he’s never wrong. On the question of the pandemic, Fauci has been repeatedly wrong.” 

Or to put it in Foxspeak: Don’t believe Fauci. Keep believing that President Trump knows exactly what he’s doing.

 

Carlson then cited the ten million jobs already lost and probably sent his loyal viewers off to load up their guns when he added, “Imagine another year of this. That would be national suicide, and yet, that is what Anthony Fauci is suggesting, at least.” 

National suicide!!! 

At least!!!!!!! 

This was a stupid statement to make. And this blogger found himself wondering. Where did Dr. Tuck get his medical degree? Corinthian College?  

 

No one was advocating a shutdown for a year. Not Joe Biden or Nancy Pelosi or Chuck Schumer, or all three stacked atop each other. Not Dr. Fauci, surely. Not even the Easter Bunny. What experts are saying is that action now – for another month, maybe two – will keep us from having to fight an even more drawn-out, difficult, and economically devastating battle later. 

Dr. Tuck, had he wanted viewers to understand, might have explained that in South Korea, where they instituted strict quarantines of all infected individuals, and tested robustly from the start, the spread of the disease has been nearly halted. He might have talked about how Washington State, California and Ohio moved quickly to shut down non-essential businesses and schools to stop the spread. And there it’s working. He could have compared those three states with Florida, where the governor dallied, and where the numbers of confirmed cases are still ballooning. Dr. Tuck might have explained that 90% of the U.S. population was already under stay-at-home orders. He might have added that almost every child, in grades K-12, has been told to stay home as schools in all fifty states have turned out the lights. He might have explained that the only way to start getting those ten million jobs back was to stem the inexorable spread of the virus, as quickly and surely as possible.

 

Only Dr. Tuck wasn’t there to give patients good medical advice. He was there to land a cheap shot – to undercut the real expert – noting that Dr. Fauci had “bulletproof job security.” 

See what Dr. Tuck did! He intimated that Dr. Fauci wasn’t worried about anyone else because he still had a job. 

Then Dr. Tuck went for the kill, warning that if critics of the president had their way, we’d all be doomed. High unemployment rates, he said, are “a far bigger disaster than the virus itself by any measure.” 

“Our response to coronavirus could turn this into a far poorer nation,” he groaned. “Poor countries are unhealthy countries, always and everywhere. In poor countries, people die of treatable diseases. In poor countries, people are far more vulnerable to obscure viruses, like the one we are fighting now. You want to keep Americans from dying before their time? Then don’t impoverish them.” 

(But we’ve still got to deny the newly-unemployed millions any chance to sign up for healthcare under the Affordable Healthcare Act!)

 

Dr. Tuck’s solution: Take two aspirin and keep believing in Dr. Zero, the guy who said the virus would go away, like “a miracle.” Also, keep tuning into Dr. Tuck’s show nightly. 

Dr. Tuck, of course, has “bulletproof job security,” himself.

Dr. Tucks "thinking hard" face - to impress viewers.