On 10/27/2020 at 3:49 PM, Mira said:So you admit then that Trump's conduct was in fact of influence and that deliberately lying about the threat of the virus was a decision that turned out to be bad. I'd like to remind you that Trump knew as early as February 7 that COVID is "more deadly than even your strenuous flus"; simply recommending a change in people's behaviour, like other world leaders did in the early stages of the pandemic, could have slown down the spread of the infection.
At the beginning of the outbreak there was a lot of confusion about a new disease, but the CDC came around and has recommended face masks from April 3 onward. The WHO followed suit in June after evidence in Europe pointed to the efficacy of face masks. Trump didn't personally start wearing a mask until July, and even afterwards has continued to make fun of his political opponents who wear masks and accused them of weakness and wanting to appear politically correct. He has made wearing masks a partisan issue.
In April the Justice Department threatened to take legal action against any states imposing strict anti-Covid measures, and followed up on its threat a month later by backing a lawsuit against the state of Michigan. Trump himself meanwhile didn't help matters, to put it mildly, by calling on his supporters to "liberate" Michigan and other states with similar lockdown policies, in spite of those policies being overwhelmingly supported by epidemiologists.
The first case of COVID in the United States was reported on January 20, but only in mid-March did Trump order FEMA to lead the federal government's response to the disease and begin stockpiling medical supplies. The president put his own son-in-law, a man with no experience in epidemiology or organizing government action of this magnitude, in charge of a task force that was supposed to assist FEMA in identifying reliable sources of protective equipment but made numerous blunders and prioritized political loyalty over competence. The government's chaotic response combined with Kushner's warning that "the federal stockpile is supposed to be our stockpile" and not "the states' stockpile that they then use" led to states bidding against the federal government and each other in a desperate scramble for supplies. Trump called PPE shortages "fake news" and bluntly dismissed the concerns of governors like Cuomo, whose request for a sufficient number of ventilators when his state was the epicenter of the disease during the height of the first wave fell on deaf ears, before the president eventually complied after warning the governors to be "more appreciative".
Politicization is inevitable; it's happened in pretty much every democracy that's been hit by the pandemic. However, in a healthy political environment the focus of the debate should simply be on whether the government is doing a good enough job preventing deaths and keeping infections under control, not on whether or not the disease is really as bad as all the evidence points out. In February, around 70% of both Democrats and Republicans agreed that COVID was "a real threat"; one month later, the percentage of Democrats had increased slightly while the percentage of Republicans had dropped to 40%.
It's pointless to argue. Politicians have taken on a chameleon form to reach specific demographics. Their stance on Issues that voters find most pertinent lead to rationalizing everything else.