Even Now Trump Doesn’t Get The Pandemic

President Trump still doesn’t get it.  To contain the pandemic we must be ahead of the epidemic, not behind it.

Unfortunately, from the start, Trump has been behind.  First he belittled the threat and did nothing.  During the month before he restricted travel, 380,000 Chinese entered the country with no screening, many unwittingly bringing the virus with them.

Second, we didn’t have enough tests and so we turned to lockdowns, at a huge cost to the economy and the welfare of our citizens.  

Third, we still don’t have enough tests or testing capacity or tracing capacity.  We really don’t know what the scope of infection is in the U.S.  There are critical states, like California, which have done much less testing per capita, yet looking at the volume of passengers that flew into LAX during January, it is hard to believe that the numbers aren’t much worse than they are reported.

Fourth, he continues to refuse to order a nation-wide shelter-in-place policy.  Doesn’t he understand that people travel, and when people travel so does the virus?  Remember that 25% of infected people don’t know it because they have no symptoms.  And false negative test results are a troubling 25%.

Fifth, it’s critical that everyone follow the new CDC advisory and wear a mask when out in public.  But our President says he’s not going to do it; it’s completely voluntary.  He neither has any concept of leadership nor an understanding of the danger we face.

Finally, when the numbers stabilize and talk turns to returning back to normalcy, all experts agree that can only happen if we have the testing and tracing ability to examine all new cases of virus infection.  Otherwise we risk having another explosion of cases and a return to lockdowns.  What is the plan to achieve that capacity?  There is none.  Again, Trump just doesn’t get it.