As you recall, you had a question as to why the Dems are so concerned about the Covid-19 infection rate:
Well, one reason that has been in the back of my mind for quite some time is the fact that the Trumpenführer needs to be re-elected in order to remain immune ( no pun intended ) from all of the criminal investigations at the state level in which he is named. And, his Republican party sycophants are going to continue to use everything in their power to ensure that the President will be re-elected. This includes the Covid-19 fatality rate amongst the plethora of other means ( the gerrymander, non-working voting machines and voting apps, closing or moving polling places, stricter voter ID rules, requiring notarization of absentee ballots, discounting the voting in states, and directly appointing the delegates to the Electoral College, not to list any more ) that are being used.
Think of it. The President lost the popular vote by ~ 3,000,000 votes. So, if the Trump Administration can find a way to have 3,000,000 persons die, then the President is that much closer to being able to win the election by popular vote ( it would be the second time since 1992 that the Republicans will have won the popular vote ).
How does this work, you might ask? Appoint the Fox News Radiologist, Scott Atlas ( who had been spouting the “Herd Immunity” line for at least 4 months previous to being appointed ), as Coronavirus Task Force czar. And, preach “Herd Immunity.”
Michael Osterholm ( Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota ) has stated for a long time that around 65 - 70% of the U. S. population would need to become infected with Covid-19 to achieve “herd immunity.”
With the U. S. population of ~328,000,000 and assuming just a 1% fatality rate ( the current fatality rate is something like 2.97% ), to reach the 65% threshold would require 2,130,000 deaths while the 70% threshold would require 2,293,850 deaths.
The target the Trump administration has been aiming for is a 91.55% infection rate. This would require 3,000,025 deaths. And that is why their PanCap Adapted U. S. Government COVID-19 Response Plan, dated March 13, 2020 and marked “NOT FOR PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION OR RELEASE” ( which was released in March of this year ) suggested that the virus would last at least 18 months ( July, 2021 ).
On January 21, 2020, federal officials reported the first case of COVID-19 in the United States, to which the President responded, “It's one person, coming from China. It's going to be just fine.”
January 22, 2020 during a CNBC interview on the sidelines of the economic forum in Switzerland, “We have it totally under control.”
January 24, 2020 tweet “China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American People, I want to thank President Xi!”
January 28, 2020, from Woodward's book - during a top secret intelligence briefing, national security adviser Robert O'Brien gave Trump a “jarring” warning about the virus, telling the President it would be the “biggest national security threat” of his presidency. Trump's head “popped up,” Woodward writes. O'Brien's deputy, Matt Pottinger, concurred, telling Trump it could be as bad as the influenza pandemic of 1918, which killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide, including 675,000 Americans. Pottinger warned Trump that asymptomatic spread was occurring in China: He had been told 50% of those infected showed no symptoms. Nevertheless, Trump continued to publicly downplay the danger of the virus, often comparing it to the flu. February was a lost month ( https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2020/04/politics/trump-covid-response-annotation/ ). Woodward views this as a damning missed opportunity for Trump to reset “the leadership clock” after he was told this was a “once-in-a-lifetime health emergency.”
On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General declared that the 2019-nCoV outbreak constituted a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.
January 30, 2020, during a trade event in Michigan: “Hopefully it won't be as bad as some people think it could be. But we're working very closely with them and with a lot of other people and a lot of other countries. And we think we have it very well under control.”
On January 31, the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary declared a U. S. public health emergency in response to 2019-nCoV.
Also on January 31, the president signed a “Proclamation on Suspension of Entry as Immigrants and Nonimmigrants of Persons who Pose a Risk of Transmitting 2019 Novel Coronavirus,” which limits entry into the United States of persons who traveled to mainland China to U. S. citizens and lawful permanent residents and their families.
February 2, 2020, during a Fox News Super Bowl interview - “We pretty much shut it down coming in from China.”
February 4, 2020, during the State of the Union address ( the only reference to the virus ): “My administration will take all necessary steps to safeguard our citizens from this threat.”
When on February 5, 2020, the CDC posted the first week's Morbidity and Mortality Report ( Patel A, Jernigan DB. Initial Public Health Response and Interim Clinical Guidance for the 2019 Novel Coronavirus Outbreak - United States, December 31, 2019 - February 4, 2020. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2020:69:140-146. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm690531 ) covering what was then known of the “novel” Coronavirus outbreak in mainland China ( FN 1 ), already a total of 20,471 confirmed cases, including 2,788 with severe illness,* ( 13.6% infection rate ) and 425 deaths ( 2.1% mortality rate ) had been reported by the National Health Commission of China ( FN 2 ). Cases had also been reported in 26 locations outside of mainland China, including documentation of some person-to-person transmission and one death ( FN 2 ). And 11 cases had been reported in the United States ( 9 of the 11 exposed in Wuhan, China ).
| Characteristics of initial 2019 novel coronavirus cases (N = 11) — United States, January 21–February 4, 2020 | |||||
| Case | State | ~ Age ( yrs ) | Sex | Place of Exposure | Date Laboratory Confirmation Announced |
| 1 | Washington | 30s | M | Wuhan | 01/21/20 | 2 | Illinois | 60s | F | Wuhan | 01/26/20 |
| 2 | Illinois | 60s | F | Wuhan | 01/26/20 |
| 3 | Arizona | 20s | M | Wuhan | 01/26/20 |
| 4 | California | 30s | M | Wuhan | 01/27/20 |
| 5 | California | 50s | M | Wuhan | 01/27/20 |
| 6 | Illinois | 60s | M | Household | 01/30/20 |
| 7 | California | 40s | M | Wuhan | 01/31/20 |
| 8 | Massachusetts | 20s | M | Wuhan | 02/01/20 |
| 9 | California | 50s | F | Wuhan | 02/02/20 |
| 10 | California | 50s | M | Wuhan | 02/02/20 |
| 11 | California | 50s | F | Household | 02/02/20 |
Abbreviations: F = female; M = male.
* Includes any of the following: dyspnea, respiratory rate >30 breaths per minute, hypoxemia, or chest x-ray with multilobar infiltrates or >50% progression of pulmonary infiltration within 24–48 hours per WHO. (https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200123-sitrep-3-2019-ncov.pdf ).
FN 1: World Health Organization. Novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV). Situation report 1. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization; 2020.
FN 2: World Health Organization. Novel coronavirus(2019-nCoV). Situation report 15. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization; 2020.
The opinion of the 180 2019-nCoV CDC Response Team members was for more cases to appear in the United States.
Now how does all of this play into the revelations in Bob Woodward's new book - Rage ( New York, NY.: Simon & Shuster, September 15, 2020 [ which goes way beyond the revelations in his previous book on Trump - Fear - Trump in the White House, { New York, NY.: Simon & Shuster, 2018 } ] interspersed with a small selection of news reports beginning February 7, 2020 ):
February 7, 2020 to Woodward: “It goes through the air, Bob. That's always tougher than the touch . . . you don't have to touch things, right? But the air, you just breathe the air . . . And so that's a very tricky one. That's a very delicate one. It's also more deadly than even your strenuous flus.”
February 10, 2020, at a rally in New Hampshire: “It looks like by April. You know in theory when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away . . . . I think the virus is going to be - it's going to be fine.”
February 26, 2020, at the White House during a coronavirus task force meeting: “The 15 ( case count in the U. S. ) within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero . This is a flu. This is like a flu. There's no reason to panic because we have done so good there's no reason to be panicked about it.” Link to transcript of entire press conference https://factba.se/transcript/donald-trump-press-conference-white-house-coronavirus-february-26-2020?format=text.
Despite the warnings in that January 28th intelligence briefing ( recall note above for that date ), Trump continued to publicly downplay the danger of the virus often comparing it to the flu. February was a lost month ( https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2020/04/politics/trump-covid-response-annotation/ ). Woodward views this as a damning missed opportunity for Trump to reset “the leadership clock” after he was told this was a “once-in-a-lifetime health emergency.”
March 6, 2020, during a visit to the Atlanta, GA headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - “You have to be calm. It'll go away.”
March 7, 2020, after a working dinner with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro - “No, I'm not concerned at all. No, I'm not. No, we've done a great job.”
March 13, 2020, during a Rose Garden announcement declaring a national emergency - “We've done a great job because we acted quickly. We acted early. And there's nothing we could have done that was better than closing our borders to highly infected areas.”
March 16, 2020, during a White House briefing - “I've spoken actually with my son. He says, ‘How bad is this?’ It's bad. It's bad. But we're going to — we're going to be, hopefully, a best case, not a worst case. And that's what we're working for.”
March 19, 2020 to Woodward: “Now it's turning out it's not just old people, Bob. Just today and yesterday, some startling facts came out. It's not just old - older. Young people too, plenty of young people. I think, Bob, to really be honest with you. I want to always play it down. I still like playing it down because I don't want to creat a panic.”
March 19, 2020 at the White House: “And if people would have known about it, it could have been stopped right where it came from - China.”
March 22, 2020 tweet: “WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF.”
March 24, 2020 at the White House: “We lose thousands and thousands of people a year to flu. We don't turn the country off.”
March 30, 2020, responding to a reporter's suggestion that he offered false assurance to Americans – “I want to keep the country calm. I don't want panic in the country. I could cause panic much better than even you.”
Report from Fox News, April 5, 2020 – “Some 430,000 persons flew from China to the US after coronavirus was first detected; 40,000 after the Presidential proclamation ( cited above ).”
During Woodward's last interview in July – “The virus has nothing to do with me, it's not my fault. It's – China let the damn virus out.”
August 5, 2020, during a White House briefing on opening the schools – “If you look at children, children are almost – I would almost say definitely – but almost immune from this disease. So few – they’ve gotten stronger. Hard to believe. I don't know how you feel about it, but they have much stronger immune systems than we do, somehow, for this. And they don't have a problem. They just don't have a problem.” Meanwhile, according to an article published in the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention journal “Emerging Infectious Diseases” – “Researchers in South Korea have found that children between the ages of 10 and 19 can transmit Covid-19 within a household just as much as adults.”
On August 6, 2020, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington estimated 300,000 deaths in the United States by December 1, 2020. Will that number scale 10 times by that July, 2021 date? You do the math.
September 9, 2020, talking to reporters and dismissing Woodward's book as a “political hit job” – “I love our country and I don't want people to be frightened. I don't want to create panic, as you say. Certainly, I'm not going to drive this country or the world into a frenzy. We want to show confidence. We want to show strength.”
With all of the internal links in just these few references ( cf. for just one example the Altmetric links in that PubMed article cited up in the note for the February 5, 2020 date ), this is all of the documentation that I need because as we continue to see – while the United States “burns” ( no pun intended ), El Narcissismo Solipsismo fiddles ( euphemism for “plays golf” ). And, as Jared Kushner says of his father-in-law ( quoting the Cheshire cat in “Alice in Wonderland” ) “If you don't know where you are going, then any path will get you there.”
