Trump's Response to Coronavirus
Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States, Trump has consistently downplayed the severity of the virus in public. Trump’s multiple statements that the virus would go away on its own has misled the public and misdirected their response. This month, information has surfaced alleging that Trump knew about the severity of the virus the whole time. In Bob Woodward’s new book Rage, he recounts his conversations with the president in which Trump claims that he knew the coronavirus was, in fact, much worse than the flu and could be deadly for vulnerable members of the population. With these allegations now public, Americans are now left to wonder why Trump would lie about the reality of the situation.
In March of this year, Trump had another conversation with Woodward in which he claimed that he undermined the seriousness of the virus in an attempt to avoid widespread panic. Trump’s logic was that by avoiding the facts of the coronavirus pandemic, the American people would not worry as much about the virus. The Trump administration’s plan was to “show calm”, according to Trump. A study done by Columbia University suggests if the United States implemented social distancing orders just a week earlier, 36,000 lives could have been saved and around 700,000 people would not have been infected. If the United States mandated these restrictions two weeks earlier, 56,000 lives could have been saved and an estimated 1 million people would not have been infected. Our area would not have been hit as hard had Trump been honest with the public and put stay-at-home orders in place sooner.
It is clear to many that Trump’s methods of informing the public have done nothing to prevent the pandemic, if not made it worse. In a way, Trump’s policy created panic in some of the areas hardest hit by the virus during its peak. The least that Trump could have done was be honest about the severity of the virus or mandated stay-at-home orders earlier. These prevention tactics could have caused people to be more cautious and saved countless lives. Because of the Trump administration’s mistakes, there have been over 200,000 coronavirus deaths in the country and numbers are only expected to rise.
Sources:
NPR
https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/05/21/860077940/u-s-could-have-saved-36-000-lives-if-social-distancing-started-1-week-earlier-st https://www.npr.org/2020/09/09/911109247/trump-admitted-to-playing-down-the-coronaviruss-severity-per-new-book
The Atlantic
CNR
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