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A new book by Bob Woodward contains transcripts of interviews with the President discussing the novel Coronavirus revealing that in February 2020, the President was aware that the virus was airborne, highly contagious and could potentially kill more people than the various strains of the flu virus. Photo by Pkwzimm |
He said that he publicly downplayed the virus’s potential to kill because he did not want to panic the public. Currently, over 195,000 Americans are dead from the Coronavirus. America has the most cases and the most deaths of the industrialized countries.
What about preparing the public? The hospitals were not prepared, the doctors, nurses and their assistants were not prepared. They were panicking. Some of them literally crying as they struggled to save lives without the required personal protective equipment needed in a pandemic. Some medical professionals took their own lives due to the frustration of trying to save so many lives without adequate resources. The hospitals were at capacity, the morgues were at capacity. There was not a sufficient supply of ventilators to take care of the extremely sick patients. There was panic because of the lack of testing. You do not know who was and who was not sick. You could not easily get tested and if you did you had to wait long periods before you knew the result of the test, meanwhile, if you were not in quarantine, you were a potential spreader. There was panic caused by people losing income because their place of work had to close to help slow the spread of the highly contagious and deadly virus. No work, no money, but people still must pay for shelter, food, medicine, and health care. People panicked because they could see what was happening in the cities and hoped that it would stay there, but it did not.
People panicked because the information coming from the doctors and scientists was being eroded by the White House. The President suggested that the virus might be killed by ingesting disinfectants or finding a way to expose the inside of the body to ultraviolet light. The drug Hydroxychloroquine was recommended as a preventative measure for the virus, even though it had not been proven to be effective by scientists. To not panic people, the White House said that the virus would be gone by fall. The doctors say that it will most likely make a resurgence in fall. We were told that businesses could reopen in April with few guidelines from the White House as to how to do so safely. There was a resurgence of cases in May. The doctors recommended wearing masks and social distancing to help slow the spread. The President would not wear a mask and would at times mock those who did while holding rallies with thousands of people not socially distanced or wearing face coverings.
The virus may have been unintended but lying about its potential to kill was intentional and we are paying the price for that lie. There is no doubt in my mind that the final nail has gone into the coffin.