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Trump’s Initial Response to the Coronavirus
A Response to the Critics
 

By Gary F. Zeolla

      This article will look at the initial response of President Trump and his administration to the Coronavirus (CV) outbreak. It will also go back to what was happening before the outbreak began. It will show the critics of the President are in fact the source of any alleged problems in the administration’s CV response, not President Trump.

Coronavirus from Impeach Book

      This first part of this article was written in late January into early February 2020 for Volume Three of my trilogy Dems Cannot Beat Trump, So They Impeached Trump. The set overviews the impeachment proceedings in chronological order.

    As part of that chronology, I indicate other news events that were happening at the same time as an impeachment, in order to put the impeachment into its historical context. As it turned out, the CV outbreak was probably the most important event that was brewing during that time, though that was not yet realized, except by President Trump.

      The following is an excerpt from Chapter 24 titled “Team Trump Presents Their Defense.” This and the surrounding chapters address the Senate trial that was occurring at the same time as details about the CV and the Trump response began to be reported.

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      Throughout the Senate trial, worries about the Coronavirus increased. The first case was identified in China in December 2019. It was known at least by January 2, 2020 that there was human to human transmission. The first case was identified here in the US on January 21, 2020. By January 27, it was being reported:

The disease has sickened nearly 3,000 people, almost all in China. About a dozen other countries have reported cases of the infection, according to news reports. More than 100 people in the United States are being tested for the infection (Trib. Pittsburgh).

      Despite MSM (mainstream media) claims otherwise, the response of the Trump administration to this crisis has been stellar. Only a few isolated cases have been diagnosed so far here in the States, and those people were quarantined to prevent further spread of the disease. Meanwhile, the Coronavirus has infected tens of thousands and killed hundreds in China. But Dems and the MSM still found ways to criticize Trump, despite the stellar response.

      The reason the Trump administration’s response has been so stellar is Trump was on this crisis from the start, despite the ongoing distraction of the impeachment fiasco. Counselor to the President, Kellyanne Conway, reported that the first White House meeting she attended on the Coronavirus was on January 12, 2020.

      Then Trump instituted a travel ban from China on January 31, 2020. That kept infected individuals from entering our country and spreading the disease. The European Union did not do that, and they are already seeing more widespread Coronavirus infections than we are.

      However, Dems and the MSM attributed this travel ban to “racism” or “xenophobia” on the part of the President. They said it was “too early” for such a travel ban, too aggressive. That of course is part of their ongoing effort to label Trump as a racist.

      Then in that vein, they complained Trump’s Coronavirus task force was “too white.” Yes, that was their complaint when Trump released a picture of the task force. There were no “people of color” on it, so the MSM said it was another sign of Trump’s alleged racism and “lack of diversity” in his administration.

      They did not consider the qualifications of each person on the task force to deal with this potential pandemic. All they cared about was their skin shades. But they ignored that many of the members were females, as that would not fit their narrative of Trump being a misogynist.

      One member of that task force was on FNC. He responded to this complaint by going through the qualifications of each person on the task force. It was obvious by his description that each person was highly qualified and just the right person to be on such an important task force.

      It should also be noted that the likely source for the virus is the Chinese practice of eating bats. Biblically, bats are an unclean food that should not be eaten. This is just one of many examples that the Bible knows best when it comes to what to eat and not eat. I develop this theme at length in my books God-given Foods Eating Plan and Creationist Diet: Second Edition.

      But the main reason I am mentioning the Coronavirus here is worries over the impact of this virus is impacting the stock market. It has been going down ever since this potential pandemic began.

      I’ve previously said the impeachment fiasco had not impacted the stock market. That remains true. And if anyone says the downfall over this time was due to the impeachment trial, they are mistaken. It is due to this virus, as Marie Bartiromo made clear on FNC on January 27, 2020.

      Just two weeks ago, the S&P 500 had closed at an all-time high, having climbed around 13% since early October. A preliminary trade deal signed by the U.S. and China earlier in the month eased a big source of uncertainty in the markets. Volatility was running at 12-month lows and even a dust up between the U.S. and Iran didn’t rock markets.

      Then came the virus outbreak in China.

      Markets around the globe have sold off on concerns about the potential economic impact of the outbreak (Trib. Stocks).

      But even with this threat, the US economy is so strong, that stocks began to rebound amidst the potential crisis:

      U.S. equity markets opened higher on Tuesday [1/28/20], rebounding from a major selloff in the previous session, as investors looked past the continued spreading of the coronavirus outbreak in China (Fox Business).

The Impeachment Virus

      The following section was written on March 23, 2020. When I wrote it, I had forgotten about having written the preceding section for my forthcoming book. But as can been seen, I made many of the same points but expanded upon them with what was now know about the virus.

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      During the Coronavirus task force briefing on Saturday March 21, 2020 a CNN reporter asked about how “transparent” China has been about this virus. Back on January 22, the President had tweeted thanking China for being transparent about the “China virus.” But now Trump has been saying China had hid things from us. “Why the contradiction?” the CNN reporter asked. The President calmly explained that since January we have learned that the Chinese government knew about the CV earlier than we originally thought.

      Originally, it was thought that it was back in late December 2019 that the first case surfaced. But there is now evidence the virus first surfaced as early as November. But China hid it for over a month before telling anyone about it. If they had told the world sooner, China could have been cut off, help could have given to them, and this entire worldwide mess avoided.

      Do not forget what was happening back in November. All of Washington and the media were focused on the impeachment proceedings in the House. Maybe, just maybe, if had not been for that incredible distraction, someone in Washington or in the press would have noticed what was brewing in China, and again, this whole worldwide mess could have been avoided.

      Then in December, when the House was debating about the articles of impeachment, the first case was being reported in China. But still, little notice was paid to it by Congress or the news media, as they were all still focused on the impeachment proceedings.

      Many warned back then, as I will be repeating in my forthcoming books on that fiasco, that nothing was getting done in Washington because of the impeachment. But the hatred for the President burned too hot for anyone to care about anything other than trying to give him a black eye for the 2020 election, which is all that fiasco was ever about, as I will explain in my books.

      Then come January of this year (2020), while the Senate trial was occurring and all of Washington and the media were still focused on that, what was the President doing? He was monitoring the situation in China. That led to him instituting his travel ban from China on January 31, 2020, while debates were occurring in the Senate trial about new witnesses. At that time, Dems and the news media said the travel ban was racist or xenophobic. That includes Joe Biden, who specifically called the travel ban “hysterical xenophobia” and “fearmongering.”

      Then in early February, the President began putting together his Coronavirus task force, while the Senate was preparing to vote to convict or acquit the President. The media’s reaction to the task force was to call Trump a racist, as the task force was “too white” and “not diverse enough.” If Joe were President, he probably would have been more concerned about the “diversity” of the task force than each member’s qualifications as Trump was.

      To all of this, I say thank God we have a President who could ignore the incredible distraction of the impeachment fiasco and the constant lies that he is a racist or xenophobe and still focus on his job. If it were not for those two steps, the travel ban and an early jump on getting together the very best personal to deal with this crisis, we would be in a much worse place than we are today. We would be looking like Italy, with its hundreds of deaths a day and a complete countrywide shutdown.

      Do not forget all of this. The impeachment might seem like a distant memory, but its effects have not left us. We might not be in this mess today if it were not for that fiasco. There are other possible long-term negative effects of the impeachment that I will be explaining in my books. And I will be adding this CV crisis to that list.

      Also do not forget that if Joe Biden had been President, he would not have made either of these steps, and again, we would be in a much worse place today. It has been said Joe has been wrong on every policy decision he has ever made. You can add these ones to that long list.

      Bottom line is, the President was doing his job, while Dems and the media fiddled with nonsense and lies.

The CDC, The FDA, and Nonstop Distractions

      The following section was written specifically for this article, on March 27, 2020. It was updated January 21, 2022.

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      The Trump/ Russian Collusion hoax, false claims Trump has dementia and attempts to remove him via the 25th amendment, the Mueller witch hunt, the Stormy Daniels charade, the Emoluments clause schemes, the constant badgering to get Trump’s tax returns, unending lies that Trump is a racist, a sexist, a xenophobe, or some such negative labels, and the Ukraine pressure hoax/ impeachment fiasco.

      The CDC under President Trump has been criticized for not getting out widespread testing sooner than it did. It has been said that lack of testing seriously hindered our initial efforts to tackle the CV. The Trump administration has also been criticized for a supposed slow response in many other aspects of this crisis, such as not having sufficient stockpiles of personal protection equipment (PPE, masks, goggles, gowns, gloves) for a pandemic.

      Trump has responded to this criticism by saying he “inherited an obsolete system” in the CDC. It simply was not set up to deal with a major pandemic like we are experiencing. In addition, a “technical difficulty” rendered the first batch of tests unusable. There were also other inherited problems at the CDC.

      Early in 2020, the CDC was slow to send out test kits to help state labs identify the earliest coronavirus infections. The agency’s kits had a design flaw and were contaminated.

      CDC officials were initially focused on the risk of infections spreading from China and were slow to understand how much coronavirus was coming from Europe.

      The agency also was criticized for being too slow to recommend people wear masks, to recognize that the virus can spread through the air and to ramp up systematic testing to detect new variants (Trib Live/ AP. Aiming).

      Then regulatory barriers hindered a quicker establishment of private/ public partnerships to produce the tests en masse. There were also FDA regulations on medical masks and ventilators that delayed their widespread distribution.

      The critics have been saying Trump had been in office for three years before this crisis hit, so he had plenty of time to deal with these issues. That is true, but such critics seem to forget that from day one of his presidency he and his administration have had their focus divided between working on behalf of the American people and fending off one unjustified attack against the President after another.

      The above is just a short list of all Trump has had to defend himself from while he has been in office. There literally has not been a single day when one false attack or another has not been leveled against him.

      But despite this constant barrage of unjustified attacks, President Trump has garnered a long list of accomplishments for we the people. I detail these accomplishments throughout my politics website, in my book Tearing the USA Apart, and in my impeachment trilogy. It truly is amazing that Trump has accomplished so much despite the nonstop distractions.

      Included in those lists of accomplishments is the deregulation his administration has accomplished. Those deregulations fueled the incredible economy we had prior to this outbreak. And yes, it would have been nice if he had gotten to deregulating these provisions in the CDC and FDA that has slowed those agencies response to the CV outbreak.

      However, maybe Trump would have addressed those issues in the CDC and FDA prior to this outbreak, if he had been able to put his full attention on his job, rather than having to use half of his time and energy defending himself from these nonstop false allegations.

      Think about it. If you the reader were under criminal indictment for a crime you did not commit, how much would be able to focus on your job while you were defending yourself from the false allegations? Seriously think about that. Would you be able to put your full attention to your job, or would your job performance suffer, as you were dealing with the incredible distraction? I would be it would be the latter. Your job performance would suffer, until you cleared your name of the false charges. But in the case of Trump, there is no end to it. It truly has been never-ending since the day he took office.

Obama and Ebola versus Trump and the Coronavirus

      The following section was written on May 9, 2020.

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      Someone commenting on a news article on Trib Live tried to compare Obama’s response to Ebola to Trump’s response to the Coronavirus (CV). He claimed Obama acted quicker and more efficiently early on than Trump did. Below is my response:

      This long tirade misses three essential points.

      First, Obama had early and accurate information about what was happening in Africa. Trump did not have early and accurate info coming out of China.

      Second, Obama was not dealing with an impeachment when it was all beginning like Trump was. You’re forgetting that all of Washington and the press were focused on that fiasco from November 2019 to February of this year.

      Third, note your timetable. The first Ebola case was in December 2013. It did not spread out of its point of origin and Obama did not respond until July 2014. That’s seven months! The CV originated less than seven months ago, and it has already spread all over the globe. The CV is a much faster spreading organism than Ebola. If Trump had waited seven months to do anything like Obama did, we would be in much worse shape.

      You should be thankful Trump was able to ignore the incredible distraction of the impeachment and institute his China travel ban on 1/31, just weeks after it originated, not months later like Obama.

      The same Trib Live commentator also tried quoting Dr. Fauci from 4-12-2020 as saying, “Earlier action on Coronavirus would have saved lives.”

      I responded:

      This quote came from I believe a MSNBC interview. The next day, Fauci clarified this point at the daily CV task force briefing. He said it was a response to a hypothetical question. Of course, if we had more data, we could have reacted earlier. But that was not the case, so it was a meaningless hypothetical. In no way was he criticizing Trump. He then said Trump had followed his and Dr. Birx’s advice at every turn and as soon as they gave it. And he made sure the press knew that Trump did not force him to say that. But I guess the news you follow did not report this clarification. Typical.
5/9/20

Conclusion

      Trump has accomplished a massive amount on behalf of the American people since the day he took office over three years ago. He was on this potential Coronavirus pandemic from the early days, when reports of it first surfaced out of China. But the media has given him little credit for any of that.

      Instead, Trump has had to defend himself against one false allegation after another that. That has kept him from accomplishing even more on behalf of the American people. Part of what more he could have accomplishment might have been to have the country be better prepared for a pandemic.

      Consequently, don’t blame Trump if he didn’t get to every possible thing that he could have done before this current crisis hit. Blame those who have made it their lives’ mission to bring down this President with their nonstop witch hunts.

      It is all of those false allegations that took away some of Trump’s time and energy that could have been devoted to being better prepared for a crisis such as this one. And that unjustified criticism still has not stopped. Even as Trump has stepped up to address this crisis, the media is still trying to spin his every move into something negative. However, he is doing his very best despite the constant distractions to work on behalf of we the people in dealing with current crisis.

References:

      CBS News. CDC confirms first case of coronavirus in the United States.

      Federalist, The. The Real Coronavirus Chronology Shows Trump Was On Top Of It While Biden Was Mocking The Danger.

      Fox Business. Stocks bounce back, try to fight off coronavirus.

      Trib Live. Pittsburgh planning aid for sister city of Wuhan, China, stricken with coronavirus.

      Trib Live/ AP. Aiming to make CDC nimble, agency director has rankled many.

      Vox. Did China downplay the coronavirus outbreak early on?

Trump’s Initial Response to the Coronavirus: A Response to the Critics. Copyright © 2020, 2022 by Gary F. Zeolla (www.Zeolla.org).

The above article was posted on this website March 28, 2020.
The final section before the Conclusion was added May 9, 2020.
It was last updated January 21, 2022.