Get over your hate for the Left, and start hating the REAL enemy of the people… Trump.
Failure to use federal authority and budget to supply PPE, as well as Trumps firing of the Pandemic Response Team led to significant mortality rates in the US.
Eight months into the pandemic, over 80% of U.S. nurses reported that they are still reusing at least one type of single-use PPE, said a survey by National Nurses United, the country’s largest registered nurses’ labor union. From the pandemic’s beginning, the Harvard study finds, “supplying PPE was delegated to a variety of actors: state and city governments, large hospital chains, and in some cases small networks of clinics.” Washington could have used its spending power and its authority under the Defense Production Act to secure adequate supplies, if not immediately, then certainly by now.
Trump also failed by:
Not requiring mandatory universal paid sick leave for those unable to work due to COVID-19
His failure to not implement standards for occupational exposures
His early failure to not restrict travel until it was too late. The U.S. imposed restrictions on travel from Europe in mid-March, but by then it was too late. The virus had already spread so widely in the U.S. that when it arrived in a new state or region, it most likely came from elsewhere in the country. “This shows that any action to prevent introductions would need to be at the national level,” the study finds, “and while the window for effective action was brief, it was missed.”
His slow start was also damning to our Nations health, causing the virus to gain an early foothold. Throughout the first two months of the year, Trump ignored warnings from administration intelligence and health experts, dismissing initial signs of the pandemic as transient. Some critics believe he relied too heavily on Chinese reassurances because of his eagerness for a big trade deal. The early delay contributed to later testing shortages.
Mixed signals. Even after Trump declared an emergency and ordered a national lockdown in mid-March, he repeatedly sent false signals creating doubts he favored the actions he proposed. When a shortage of COVID-19 tests hampered the response, he said, “I don’t take responsibility at all.” Instead of creating a unified national response to what became the country’s greatest health crisis, he declared action was up to the states and bashed governors seeking more federal help. Within weeks, he prematurely sought to end his own restrictions, pushing to restart economic activity lest a prolonged recession derail his reelection hopes.
Premature reopening. Even before his own April 30 deadline, Trump was urging states to resume economic activity, successfully persuading Republican-led states like Texas, Arizona and Florida to act even though they failed to meet federal guidelines. In a symbolic but significant move, Trump undercut his own administration’s enforcement regimen by refusing to wear the protective mask that scientific advisers like Fauci repeatedly called the best way to curb the virus.
Ignoring reality. As the number of infections plateaued, then resumed to rise, Trump declared victory and switched his focus to economic revival and street protests on police crimes and broader racial issues. When his anti-pandemic task force held its first briefing in two months last Friday, Trump was absent. Vice President Mike Pence presented so optimistic a report that CNN’s Dana Bash likened it to the infamous “five o’clock follies” where military briefers gave misleading accounts of alleged progress in the Vietnam War.
Sadly, Trumps COVID response will go down as the single greatest failure of the federal government in the history of the republic. Even if you don’t have friends or relatives among the over 279,000 dead Americans, the adverse impact on your children’s education and the overall disruption of your lives is substantially worse than it needed to be. Overwhelmingly, that is because of the inadequate leadership of the Executive Branch.
America will take years to recover from Trumps failures, and we can never get back those he killed due to his faulty leadership. But it's not just Trump who is to blame… His supporters, the GOP, and his administration will also shoulder the responsibility for all the needless deaths when history is written.
So STOP trying to blame Dems for your failures!
Semper Fi