The following is a news analysis.
What a difference a year makes. Around this time last year:
- Vaccine propagandist Dr. Peter Hotez made the case against travel bans
- Dr. Anthony Fauci said there was no reason to walk around wearing masks
- New York City's Health Commissioner urged people to go to crowded places and busy restaurants
- Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) encouraged people to get out and be around others in San Francisco's Chinatown
And one year ago, the World Health Organization gave what many scientist called confusing guidance on wearing masks for Covid-19.
World Health Organization, March 19, 2020: “Wearing medical masks when not indicated may result in unnecessary costs and procurement burdens and create a false sense of security that can lead to the neglect of other essential measures, such as hand hygiene practices. Further, using a mask incorrectly may hamper its effectiveness in reducing the risk of transmission.”
It was just ten days after Dr. Anthony Fauci stated, on March 8, “there’s no reason to be walking around with a mask.”
Dr. Fauci also, notoriously, testified to Congress that coronavirus was ten times deadlier than flu about the same time he published a scientific paper that said something quite different: Covid’s lethality was akin to a bad flu season.
President Trump’s ban on travel from China had been installed January 31 when there had only been a few confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the U.S.
Here's a look back at some of the most notable statements made by public officials from January through March 31, 2020.
Some of the comments, guidance, and reflections proved accurate in the long run; some did not. Some seem to have long been forgotten or deposited down the selective memory hole.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, White House Coronavirus Task Force, Jan. 21, 2020: “This is not a major threat to the people in the United States and it is not something that the citizens of the United States right now should be worried about.”
Kaiser Health News, Jan. 24, 2020: "Something Far Deadlier Than The Wuhan Virus Lurks Near You"
William Schaffner, professor of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University, Jan. 24, 2020: "When we think about the relative danger of this new coronavirus and influenza ... coronavirus will be a blip on the horizon in comparison.”
Dr. Oxiris Barbot, New York City health commissioner, Jan. 27, 2020: People “who had recently traveled from Wuhan were not being urged to self-quarantine or avoid large public gatherings.” “There is no reason not to take the subway, not to take the bus, not to go out to your favorite restaurant, and certainly not to miss the parade next Sunday.”
and
“As we gear up to celebrate the #LunarNewYear [Chinatown parade] in NYC, I want to assure New Yorkers that there is no reason for anyone to change their holiday plans, avoid the subway, or certain parts of the city because of #coronavirus…We are here today to urge all New Yorkers to continue to live their lives as usual.”
and
“…there’s no risk at this point in time…about having it be transmitted in casual contact, right?” “The risk to New Yorkers for Coronavirus is low, and our preparedness as a city is very high.”
Wired, Robert Dingwall, Jan. 29, 2020: "We should deescalate the war on coronavirus."
NPR, Allison Aubrey, Jan 29, 2020: "Worried about catching the new coronavirus? In the U.S., the flu is a bigger threat."
Buzzfeed, Dan Vergano, Jan. 29, 2020: "Don’t worry about the coronavirus, worry about the flu."
Axios, Bob Herman, Jan. 29, 2020: "Why we panic about coronavirus but not the flu...If you’re freaking out about coronavirus but you didn’t get a flu shot, you’ve got it backwards.”
LA Times, Soumya Karlamangla, Jan. 31, 2020: For Americans, flu remains a bigger threat than coronavirus. “…unlike the coronavirus, which so far hasn’t led to any deaths in the U.S., influenza has killed approximately 10,000 Americans since October, according to federal data released Friday.” “…a much deadlier killer already stalking the United States has been largely overshadowed: the flu.”
University of California Riverside epidemiologist Brandon Brown, Jan. 31, 2020: “Here in the U.S., [flu] is what is killing us…Why should we be afraid of something that has not killed people here in this country?” “I think we need to shift our attention back to the flu.”
The Washington Post, Lenny Bernstein, Feb. 1, 2020: "Get a Grippe, America. The flu is a much bigger threat than coronavirus, for now."
Mayor of Florence Dario Nardella, Feb. 2, 2020: Suggested residents hug Chinese people to encourage them in the fight against the novel coronavirus.
The Washington Post, Wendy Parmet and Michael Sinha, Feb. 3, 2020: "Why we should be wary of the aggressive government response to coronavirus"
.
Oxiris Barbot, New York City health commissioner, Feb. 3, 2020: “We are encouraging New Yorkers to go about their everyday lives and suggest practicing everyday precautions that we do through the flu season.”
New York Times, Rosie Spinks, Feb. 5, 2020: "Who Says It’s Not Safe to Travel to China? The coronavirus travel ban is unjust and doesn’t work anyway." “The coronavirus outbreak seems defined by two opposing forces: the astonishing efficiency with which the travel industry connects the world and a political moment dominated by xenophobic rhetoric and the building of walls.”
Daily Beast, Michael Daly, Feb. 6, 2020: The virus killing kids [flu] isn’t the one dominating headlines.
The Atlantic, James Hamblin, Feb. 24, 2020: "Most cases are not life threatening."
Rep. Nancy Pelosi, House Speaker, Feb. 24, 2020: Urged people to visit San Francisco’s Chinatown. "That’s what we’re trying to do today is to say everything is fine here. Come because precautions have been taken. The city is on top of the situation."
New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio, March 2, 2020: “…I’m encouraging New Yorkers to go on with your lives + get out on the town despite Coronavirus…”
Axios, Rebecca Falconer, March 2, 2020: Cuomo: “[T]he general risk remains low in New York.”“No reason for anxiety.”
Vice President Mike Pence, March 4, 2020: “The risk to the American public of contracting the coronavirus remains low…To be clear: If you are a healthy American, the risk of contracting the coronavirus remains low.”
U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams, March 6, 2020: “What we want most of America to know is that you're not at high risk for getting coronavirus, and if you do get it you are likely to recover. Ninety-eight, 99 percent of people are going to fully recover.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, National Institutes of Health and White House Task Force, March 8, 2020: “there’s no reason to be walking around with a mask.”
Associated Press, CDC and World Health Organization (WHO), March 8, 2020: “The virus is still much less widespread than annual flu epidemics, which cause up to 5 million severe cases around the world and up to 650,000 deaths annually, according to the WHO.”
Lancet Medical Journal, March 12, 2020: Death rates lowest for those under 30… deaths at least 5x more common for people with diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure etc., median age of deaths are 70 with deficit of infections among children.
New York Times, Katie Hafner, March 14, 2020: “Amid the uncertainty swirling around the coronavirus pandemic stands one incontrovertible fact: The highest rate of fatalities is among older people, particularly those with underlying medical conditions.”
USA Today, John Bacon, March 16, 2020: "Could Coronavirus be gone by summer?"
New York Times Dr. David Katz, March 20, 2020: "Is Our Fight Against Coronavirus Worse Than the Disease?" “…as much as 99 percent of active cases in the general population are ‘mild’ and do not require specific medical treatment. The small percentage of cases that do require such services are highly concentrated among those age 60 and older, and further so the older people are.”
U.S. News and World Report, and Richardo Alonso-Zaldivar of Associated Press, March 21, 2020: “For most people, the virus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough.”
Cuomo, March 23, 2020: “Many people will get the virus, but few will be truly endangered. Hold both of those facts in your hands: Many will get it, up to 80 percent may get it, but few are truly endangered and we know who they are.”
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, March 24, 2020: “It is about the vulnerable. It's not about 95% of us. It's about a few percent who are vulnerable. That's all this is about. Bring down that anxiety, bring down that fear, bring down that paranoia.”
BBC, Robert Cuffe, March 24, 2020: “The UK government's chief medical advisor, Professor Chris Whitty, says even though the rates are higher for older people, ‘the great majority of older people will have a mild or moderate disease’.”
Dr. Fauci, in sworn testimony to Congress, March 11, 2020: ’Coronavirus ten times more lethal than flu.’
and
Dr. Fauci in the New England Journal of Medicine, March 26, 2020: “…the case fatality rate may be considerably less than 1%. This suggests that the overall clinical consequences of Covid-19 may ultimately be more akin to those of a severe seasonal influenza (which has a case fatality rate of approximately 0.1%)…”
Dr. Peter Hotez, a noted propagandist, prior to March 27, 2020: “Historically travel bans tend not to work very well, they tend to be counter productive.”
Web MD, Kathleen Doheny, March 31, 2020: The fatality rate from COVID-19 is not as high as experts have reported, according to a new analysis published Monday in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.
The New York Times, March 31, 2020: “Both the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have repeatedly said that ordinary citizens do not need to wear masks unless they are sick and coughing.”
CDC, April 5, 2020: “The immediate risk of being exposed to this virus is still low for most Americans…”
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HYPOCRITES!!
I love it when they are exposed by their own words.
My thoughts exactly! When all is said and done, Fauci is going to be viewed as he should be -- an overpaid, opportunistic snake oil salesman. The politicization of medicine at its worst.
This shows how naïve we were at the beginning. It is interesting that if I remember correctly that Trump stopping travel from China was so early he was getting criticized. This could have been much worse if we did nothing. The opposite point if we did nothing we would not have the national financial problems we have now, we would have had a much larger medical crisis and most likely lost more Americans.
So, Damned if you do, damned if you don't. No President or Governor will skate through 2020. Most will probably lose reelections. Losing votes from those out of work and lost their life savings.
...at the beginning? We still are. Amazing how many sheep are still following the politicized scientists off the cliff.
It does not "show how naive we were at the beginning". It shows how arrogance drives idiocy and ignorance. I use the term "idiocy" in it's old Greek meaning; a person only concerned with their own local, selfish, interests. Ignorance in use in the sense of willful ignorance, and also of the lazy "entitled" form of ignorance when one has the gifts from God of intelligence and education, of resources of knowledge, and one fails to use them to drive down to the truth of important matters. A plague like we ALL saw in Wuhan on 25 January 2020, the traditional New Year of the China-centric world, demands one in the role protecing the public of the nation, or the region, or the state, or the big city, drill down and find the reality: and then, by then, the reality was frightening, and demanded fast and widespread reductions, if not shutdowns, in air traffic, and the wholesale acquisiton of needed supplies of masks, masks, masks, and even, in internationalized places in the US, and other countries: a great effort at lowered mass public events, and socially distancing in mass transportation centers. I and others following news in China more closely than the normal knew of the problems earlier in January, even in December of 2019. The South Korean's did!
Intertia has many forms. Arrogance and the arrogance of entitlement are highly inertial at the intellectual and action-deciding level. Entitilement does not just mean the poshy elite, the connection-wealthy elite at the levels of WHO, of Fauci, of all so many, so staggerinly many, in the West, Europe, the US, the UK in the "deep state", the establishment, all connected to their powers of office and/or connectioins, their sinecures, their board memberships, etc. etc ... but also to the insane, and false read of all too many of what our "rights" are, of what "liberty" is. Liberty is not licenstiousness, nor the liberty to own machine guns, or go maskless in a plague stopped by masking, nor are they rights. Not even natural rights.
Liberty is the freedom to do the right thing, and includes as much as possible the freedom to do the wrong thing. But it must include the freedom to do EVERY POSSIBLE right thing, which since this is a confused creation, where right and wrong are not always so obvious, we also must allow many wrong things to be done, as a society, in our laws and enforcements of them.
A right though is different. A right is ONLY that which is the right thing to do. A wrong is never a right. You do not have the right to assault, to kidnap, to steal, to sleep with your neighbor's wife, nor to endanger others with behavior that in other times and places is perfectly fine, harmless, or at least doesn't endanger others. For example in the US we can drive on the right side of the road, but to do so in the UK is evil, a great wrong, even if by mistake. Rights are first from God's Laws, then from our understanding of the laws of nature (God made nature too, but God's Laws as we can find them, tend towards inscrutabilty at times, see major parts of the Bible) so we work too from examples in nature, in science, and in logic. The long-devleoped "common sense" learned from being a communal society for many thousands of years. Rights, In addition we follow the laws of land, of the sovereign, whether the sovereign is a king, a dictator or some legislative and judicial body and the developed understandings in such law of the land, the traditional practices: those also can suggest or entitle "rights", as long as those rights do not go against God's Laws, and God's laws as known through nature and logic.
Rights, again, are only what is good to do, and never what is wrong to do. By the end of January 2020 it was quite clear to all, or rather SHOULD have been clear to those in any authority position all over the world, that unrestricted air travel was no longer a right, nor was going maskless in public in any region that had international connections a right, nor of holding mass gatherings a right in such places.
Fauci testified the other day and was criticized for his ‘theatre’ and wearing 2-masks... when he’s been vaccinated. His motives are politically motivated and financially driven. He & Bill Gates are making millions off the vaccine.
Yup.
Double masking is kinda stupid really. At best, it's a stopgap measure, and any longer it's solving the wrong problem, or the proper problem the wrong way. The proper fix is a good mask, one that fits one's own unique face well. A mask of the efficiency and duration of wear appropriate to the mission one faces.
Doubling up a bad mask is like when a waiter gives you a free meal at a bad restaurant when you complain how bad the food was.
Go to better and pay more if you have to. Why eat bad more bad food, why breath through multiple bad masks.
But masking itself may be an attempt to address the wrong problem. They don't have to mask usually in the countries that solved the right problem. Where they got out ahead of the ball, did comprehensive infection tracking, isolation, shutting down the airports. Or in third world places where well ventilated places are the norm, as "energy efficient" skyscrapers and office parks and shopping malls are rare. And where they use Ivermectin or HCQ and such.
Remember that so called experts are often spouting what their corporate masters tell them to say! Also remember this virus was started by Xi on purpose to gain MORE marketshare of the world's markets and kill the economies of many free countries! They are evil people, never underestimate a Communist!
There is a great deal of evil at work here and you hit the nail on the head. Quite terrifying, in fact. We have more to fear from our government and the proliferation of GS-backed across the country than we do the virus.
Dr Andrew Kaufman, Dr Thomas Cowan, Dr Amandha Vollmer, and many more show that there is no deadly virus. The Contagion Myth is being used against us and has never been proven. For decades now we are being deceived as to what actually causes the diseases we know about. Science is bought and paid for by those with interests in the profits of deadly addictive drugs, and now mask and vaccine sales, of pushing society to repel against its humanity.
Vaccines have and always will be biological warfare, creating clients of the drug-pushing cult of big pharma from cradle to grave. Masks do nothing but cause the wearer's to breathe in bacteria and waste and perpetuate that we are contaminated and harbingers of death. Lies! Learn while we still can, resist the agenda.
"What Really Makes You Ill" by David Parker and Dawn Lester, "The Contagion Myth" by Dr Thomas Cowan, "Good-bye Germ Theory" by Dr Wil Trebing, and check out the doctors above on bitchute etc, where they're not being censored for speaking the truth.
1. Masks are destroying our immune systems.
2. Spreading the virus by indirect contact - touching contaminated surfaces - then touching mask. The virus can live up to 72 hrs.
3. Raising the CO2 levels, which cause HAs and other S/S like light headedness.
4. Decreasing the O2 level, which is accumulative.
5. Masks that are not fitted properly create a vacuum effect, which actually sucks in aerosolized particles.
6. The covid-19 virus is 0.125 microns. Only the N95 is capable of coming close to filtering the particle.
7. Masks are only effective in stopping large droplets from a symptomatic covid-19 infected person. THERE IS NO EVIDENCE (Peer Reviewed) that asymptomatic persons spread the virus.
8. Repeated use of a mask can cause bacterial or viral pneumonia.
9. Cases of covid-19 increased in spite of mass mask wearing.
10. Masks are perpetuating the fear of the virus.
Bacterial Pneumonia Caused Most Deaths In 1918 Influenza Pandemic -- ScienceDaily
https://www.theepochtimes.com/science-of-mask-risks_3610261.html
I really liked this analysis, nice job Sharyl.. it shows who they really are.
Just shows “expert” advice is no more valid than anyone else’s opinion when something new enters the world stage. My wife and I pray to God and listen for His advice, especially in “unprecedented times”. That leads to zero stress and being able to keep our heads while many around us are losing their’s.
It’s disturbing that all these virus specialists did not take the threat seriously. I would add 2 data points: when President Trump banned travel from China, It did not apply to US residents and family members or spouses of US residents or citizens. And, additionally, anyone who had been in China for less than 14 days was also exempt. In hindsight that restriction should have been tougher - and no one should have been swayed by name calling. Equally, the US should have also banned travel from Europe at that time. If a ban was not appropriate, then quarantines should have been required.
During this same timeframe, P Trump said that the Democrats were overreacting - I don’t know who that was or what prompted that but as it stands today, those reactions should be re-examined.
Note, the cloth mask recommendation came out April 3rd.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/4/23/a-timeline-of-the-trump-administrations-coronavirus-actions
Only one person that extensive list carries a label: “ Dr. Peter Hotez, a noted propagandist”. Is that necessary? I think if you are going to discount his opinion, which matches what others are saying, you need to explain why.
Here’s a few more data points:
Trump tweeted on Feb. 24 that the “Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA.”
During a Feb. 25 news conference in New Delhi, he said the disease “is very well under control in our country,” and that “as far as what we’re doing with the new virus, I think that we’re doing a great job.”
On Feb. 26, Trump predicted that “within a couple of days,” the number of Covid-19 infections in the U.S. “is going to be down to close to zero.”
on Feb. 28, he said “it’s going to disappear … like a miracle.”
March 9, Trump compared the country’s coronavirus deaths to the flu’s annual death toll, noting on Twitter that “nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on.”
On March 10, he urged Americans to “just stay calm” because “it will go away,”
On March 12 P Trump said “it’s going to go away.”
However, on February 7 While saying those things publicly, Trump told Woodward that the coronavirus is “more deadly than your, you know, your — even your strenuous flus.” “This is more deadly,” he said. “This is five per — you know, this is 5 percent versus 1 percent and less than 1 percent, you know. So, this is deadly stuff.”
An interesting compilation, but I have to ask what the purpose is. I struggle to see the newsworthiness of this compilation since I believe that just about everyone on this list has admitted making mistakes regarding how to respond to the virus at the beginning of the pandemic. It might have been newsworthy, for example, if Fauci had ever claimed infallibility or claimed that he was right all along. But he hasn’t. This article doesn’t tell me anything that I didn’t already know. Perhaps the purpose is to poke fun at those in the scientific community? Maybe that makes some people feel so much better about themselves by trolling the experts whose only crime was trying to do the best that they could under the circumstances. This isn’t the first time that scientists were wrong about some new phenomenon, and it won’t be the last. So I suppose that they should just ignore new evidence as it is accumulated so that they wouldn’t have to change their opinions (and appear on a list such as this). That will do wonders for the advancement of science.
There are several interesting things to me about this list. The first is that Pence is quoted. I guess that was a safe choice given that Pence is basically persona non grata in Trump circles these days. Would Pence have been quoted if this article had been published six months ago? Methinks not.
The second interesting thing has already been mentioned. Almost all of these people have admitted their mistakes. And that is certainly better than Trump has done.
And that leads to the third interesting thing. Trump has said all kinds of incorrect things about the virus from promoting quack cures, to claiming that the number of cases was going down to zero in short order, to suggesting injecting bleach as a cure, to stating that COVID-19 wasn’t any worse than the flu. At least those listed in this article were reflecting what the basic science was saying at the time. But we know without a shred of doubt that Trump lied to us in the early days. Because he told Bob Woodward that the virus was “nasty” and was “much worse than the strenuous flus”, then went out and told the American public the exact opposite. Yet somehow Trump escapes this list entirely. I wonder why that is.
I'll ignore the fact that you're obviously a troll.
But for the benefit of those who might be confused by your blather: when you hear to a person telling you what you should or should not do, what matters is his CREDIBILITY. When the person has made lots of statements which are provably false, and/or makes statements which contradict each other (so at least one of them has to be false, if not both of them), that person has no credibility.
This is why trial lawyers who seek to discredit a witness will prove, if they can, that the witness has either lied outright in the past, or made statements showing that he can't be trusted.
It's not complicated.
This is a thoughtful response - thank you!
It’s disturbing that all these virus specialists did not take the threat seriously. I would add 2 data points: when President Trump banned travel from China, It did not apply to US residents and family members or spouses of US residents or citizens. And, additionally, anyone who had been in China for less than 14 days was also exempt. In hindsight that restriction should have been tougher - and no one should have been swayed by name calling. Equally, the US should have also banned travel from Europe at that time. If a ban was not appropriate, then quarantines should have been required.
During this same timeframe, P Trump said that the Democrats were overreacting - I don’t know who that was or what prompted that but as it stands today, those reactions should be re-examined.
Note, the cloth mask recommendation came out April 3rd.
Of course scientists should be allowed to be wrong when making determinations about a certain phenomenon. But that typically happens when they are investigating/researching for a phenomenon for which they have little or no data to make a determination. In this case of COVID-19, the scientists had made decisions based on years of data, research and knowledge of viruses in general and certainly enough information about corona viruses in particular.. And their initial determinations (and public statements) about the transmission, contagiousness, and virulence of COVID-19 were on the money. However, these same experts then gave in to the pressure and panic that was stirred up in the public and punted the science away. And Dr. Fauci was the worst of the offenders in this regard. Scientists being wrong because of the date of which they have gotten hold is wrong or insufficient is one thing and understandable, Scientists who decide to ignore the established science in favor of manipulating public opinion and behavior is quite another thing altogether.
Fauci has been wrong so many times, I have lost count. He conveniently relies on the excuse of the science evolving only to be found contradicting himself over and over because he cannot keep up with his lies. But don't take my word for, Kary Mullis, the Nobel Prize winner and inventor of the PCR best described Fauci in this interview. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfhhG0DJt6M
Why, why, why do people respond as such? Why does everything have to turn into a political call-out? Just stop it!
There is so much hurt and loss in our country that there is just no more room for nastiness. Let us all belly up to moving forward and if u feel unhappy, offer to help someone.... it will make u feel better😀
To the D. Laniers (who are many in the U.S.). We are all fallible. In seats of great power and responsibility, it seems that the fallacies are remembered before the deeds. I'd like to believe I understand President Trump. In my opinion he loves his country and our way of life. In truth, much of what he did was in earnest to protect our economy. His personality got in his way, yes, and many of things he said to us (at first) were not well thought. He was not a "calming' president, but I (and I believe most Americans - regardless of party) felt much safer and had a greater sense of individual well being with president Trump. As for the COVID-19 ; infections and infection rates cannot be predicted and without absolute dominance and martial control, humans cannot be absolutely controlled, thus, infection rates become rather unpredictable. Masks? (maybe) Distancing? (possibly) Individual Hygiene and social habit (very definitely). Frankly, we don't know the numbers. The numbers of deaths for instance are overstated (such as: death from car accidents or severe chronic health reasons : but because COVID-19 was detected, deaths were counted "COVID Related". So much of what has happened in the recent 4 years has been severely mis-represented because of hatred and mis-direction by those who actually know nothing. My advice: before offering any ideas, please wait for actual facts to bear out. We're losing our country (today) because of innuendo and rumors covering a myriad of topics are spread by propaganda through our news media. And we (the American people) appear to be ignorant of facts and have forgotten how to think for ourselves, somehow. Hope we can turn that around, and soon.
It’s disturbing that all these virus specialists did not take the threat seriously. I would add 2 data points: when President Trump banned travel from China, It did not apply to US residents and family members or spouses of US residents or citizens. And, additionally, anyone who had been in China for less than 14 days was also exempt. In hindsight that restriction should have been tougher - and no one should have been swayed by name calling. Equally, the US should have also banned travel from Europe at that time. If a ban was not appropriate, then quarantines should have been required.
During this same timeframe, P Trump said that the Democrats were overreacting - I don’t know who that was or what prompted that but as it stands today, those reactions should be re-examined.
Note, the cloth mask recommendation came out April 3rd.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/4/23/a-timeline-of-the-trump-administrations-coronavirus-actions
Only one person that extensive list carries a label: “ Dr. Peter Hotez, a noted propagandist”. Is that necessary? I think if you are going to discount his opinion, which matches what others are saying, you need to explain why.
Here’s a few more data points:
Trump tweeted on Feb. 24 that the “Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA.”
During a Feb. 25 news conference in New Delhi, he said the disease “is very well under control in our country,” and that “as far as what we’re doing with the new virus, I think that we’re doing a great job.”
On Feb. 26, Trump predicted that “within a couple of days,” the number of Covid-19 infections in the U.S. “is going to be down to close to zero.”
on Feb. 28, he said “it’s going to disappear … like a miracle.”
March 9, Trump compared the country’s coronavirus deaths to the flu’s annual death toll, noting on Twitter that “nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on.”
On March 10, he urged Americans to “just stay calm” because “it will go away,”
On March 12 P Trump said “it’s going to go away.”
However, on February 7 While saying those things publicly, Trump told Woodward that the coronavirus is “more deadly than your, you know, your — even your strenuous flus.” “This is more deadly,” he said. “This is five per — you know, this is 5 percent versus 1 percent and less than 1 percent, you know. So, this is deadly stuff.”
It’s good to get responses. Allow me to respond in turn.
The major points that I was trying to make in my post were these:
1) Why did we need this article now given that all it did was to reiterate something that I would think that everyone already knew – that the scientific community and politicians, writ large, seriously missed the COVID-19 boat early on. Why bring that up now? Has something changed that I’m not aware of? Is someone now attempting to rewrite history?
2) How in the world did Trump not make the list of those making incorrect statements when he was at least as bad as all of the others, and arguably worse since he continued to spout nonsense long after the others (not named Pence) had admitted their mistakes? Since the omission was so blatant, the only reason that I could think of was that this was simply an attempt to deflect criticism from Trump.
Yet no one commented on either of these points, either because I failed to make them clearly enough or that the bias was so blindingly clear than no comment was felt to be necessary.
Several responders dumped on Fauci, a common stance among Trump supporters and one that I don’t understand. Fauci was certainly wrong at first but what has he said in the last many months that hasn’t turned out to be more or less correct? And besides, the anger directed at Fauci seems seriously misdirected given that Fauci didn’t set federal policy – Trump did. If you were going to be mad at someone, why not Trump?
One responder even claimed that Fauci was right at first but bowed to pressure to change his tune. But that charge would also have to include not only Fauci but pretty much the entire medical community. That large number makes it seem pretty unlikely to me that that theory is true.
And after reading an article about Kary Mullis and his views on HIV/AIDS and climate change, I would be reluctant to showcase him as the arbiter of all things scientifically truthful. He might be right, of course, but his views were considerably outside the scientific consensus.
One responder lamented that we have forgotten how to “think for ourselves”. I agree with that on two fronts. First, just look at the large number of people who believe in election fraud with no evidence and outlandish conspiracy theories like QAnon and the person that we see on TV is not the “real” Biden. Not a lot of thinking going on there from my perspective.
Second, not enough people realize that the ability to “think for yourself” has to be tempered with the fact that there are many areas (particularly technical ones) where most of us are simply not qualified to hold legitimate opinions. There are times when you have to admit that you simply don’t know. But too many people seem to believe that a lack of training in some area can be overcome by a passionate belief. That’s not the way science works.
And, finally this quote from one respondent: “When the person has made lots of statements which are provably false, and/or makes statements which contradict each other (so at least one of them has to be false, if not both of them), that person has no credibility.”. To which I reply – exactly.