Muh Muh Muh My Corona (virus)

It'll soon be down to zero
It won't go beyond 60,000
It could have been 212 million (spikes football)

 

OK. Let's stick to messaging. We can argue solutions and strategies another time.

Let's not ding Trump for making the same mistakes or miscalculations in January or February made by other Western leaders. (Although I think it's fair to do so, but that's another debate.)

So let's start holding him accountable for the things he says no later than mid-March or so. Because we were already well along by then.

The "press conferences" are performed in the manner of Trump rallies. For which he has two settings:

Take credit.

Lay blame.

Neither of which make much sense in a time of national disaster.

So I'd join you in suggesting they be scuttled.

I'd have a five-day per week press conference at the CDC with the medical folks only, including all the science and medical reporters the building will hold - and then a weekly Friday fireside thing with them and the president.

Absent that, let Fauci and Birx have the floor for a national Q and A every day with updates on case numbers and medical news. Advances, failures, possible treatments, vaccine programs, etc. Let the president be the moderator for that, if he must, rather than the primary presenter. And allow science reporters in to ask better questions. The White House press corps is of little use in a disaster.

I'd ask any leader, including Trump, for an effort at empathy ("I understand how hard this is for every American)", for an attempt at inspiration ("We'll get through this in the way Americans have always gotten through hard times ", etc., ad inf.) and for calming people's fears ("Having explained what the virus might do, I'll ask Dr. Fauci to tell us what it cannot do.") I'd expect a president to ask for patience and unity in a time of national anxiety, and to outline and detail and ask for us to buy in to the national plan going forward.

And, knowing that any national plan must change as the disease and our response to it changes, to keep people updated on the progress of the disease and the progress of our efforts against it. And to keep them pointed in the same direction to the degree possible.

And to do all these things without whipsawing contradiction, or thinking-out-loud speculation, without reference to conspiracy theories or unproven treatments, and without personal insult to congress or fifty governors or 100 mayors.

I expect him to read his briefings. I expect him to arrive at the podium prepared. I expect him to understand what's at stake, both medically and economically, because those two things are inextricable. I expect him to keep calm, and to calm us.

I expect him to help.

All of which is to ask him to be someone else.

 

I think it's possible he (er, his administration) has performed better than is generally thought. I personally don't think that's true, but in retrospect we might someday say, hmmmm, that was only a 10-car pileup rather than the 50-car-one we always thought.

But I have no quibbles with what you just wrote. I doubt @Alma does either.

 

Thanks. Stay well.

 

Bte’s original post that I questioned said nothing about “per million”. It just gave state rankings with no other details.
This was bte: “ Iowa's population ranks 32nd
Iowa's death total ranks 32nd

Statistically right where it should be.“
There really were not any statistics or numbers of cases or population or ratios in his post, rankings. That’s what I objected to. If it had said “per million” I wouldn’t have quarreled with it.

 

No, not really, no quibbles. The science/medical reporters thing, meh. I think the WH press corps can ask good questions, but they're hung up more on trying to get out of Trump something he won't/can't give, and less on trying to parse science.

 

tEh MeEdeYa

 

The pictures of that guy dressed as the Grim Reaper sitting in a lifeguard chair overlooking the beach are priceless.