He Could Have Seen What Was Coming: Behind Trump’s Failure on the Virus

[Dashinka 24,499]

2 hours ago, Voice of Reason said:

Well, a couple of months ago, I would have agreed with him.  In fact, I am on record here as saying it's pretty much like the flu, as far as the death toll goes.  As each day goes by, that fades, obviously.  We have already doubled my guess at where the death toll was going to peak (thanks for lying, China).  No one in January or early February could have known it would get this bad.

The jury is still out on if this is worse than the seasonal flu from a mortality standpoint.  The simple fact that the deaths reported are those that died with confirmed Covid19, not necessarily because of it, and the numbers of those that have been infected with little or no issues is still a huge unknown.  It definitely could be worse than the seasonal flu, my only point is we have no idea at this point.

[Neonred 3,562]

5 hours ago, Steeleballz said:

 

   Tariffs (or other measures) to encourage items we need to have produced here are acceptable to me. I don't like to see tariffs applied unilaterally, to where they are basically becoming a use tax. I'd also rather see measures targeted more specifically against countries that have abusive trade practices and not just because something is legitimately cheaper, and especially not for political reasons. 

 

  Ultimately we still have to be willing to pay more for some of those products though.

I don't exactly see it that way.  I know that a lot of people that are opposed to tariffs are also pushing for increased US wages.  Seems to me those two things oppose each other.  As wages here rise, that causes US made good to cost more and foreign (Chinese) made goods cheaper.  I see tariffs as a way to even out the playing field and give US manufacturing a chance and incentive to make products here.

Edited April 13, 2020 by Neonred

[Voice of Reason 10,298]

5 hours ago, TBoneTX said:

Man pokes his head into a lawyer's office and asks, "How much do you charge for a consultation?"

"$900 for 3 questions," says the lawyer.

"$900?!  Isn't that a little steep?" asks the man.

"I don't think so," said the lawyer.  "And what is your third question?"

This joke stopped being funny about the 9th time you told it, over a year ago.

[Cyberfx1024 7,980]

4 minutes ago, Voice of Reason said:

This joke stopped being funny about the 9th time you told it, over a year ago.

I am just dang glad that he stopped with the Beto stuff. 

[Nature Boy 2.0 8,370]

1 minute ago, Cyberfx1024 said:

I am just dang glad that he stopped with the Beto stuff. 

I just had premonition.  You and voice , bunk mates in my old cell

[TBoneTX 45,292]

New audiences here all the time...

[Nature Boy 2.0 8,370]

2 minutes ago, TBoneTX said:

New audiences here all the time...

Whenever they hire a new guy at work. My best buddy ans I joke. Great they havent heard all out stories yet.

[OriZ 3,157]

11 hours ago, cyclone27 said:

China and WHO are who any sensible person should be focusing their anger towards.  

It's not mutually exclusive. You can blame China, WHO, as well as this administration that dragged its feet and didn't react in time(but then again, government is notorious for always being late to any party). I have seen references to the WHO initially saying it wasn't transmittable between humans. While this is true, they did change their tune lonnnnngggg before time ran out. As early as the beginning of Feb, I believe, as well as saying "time is running out" to take proper actions around mid feb. 

 

8 hours ago, Voice of Reason said:

Well, a couple of months ago, I would have agreed with him.  In fact, I am on record here as saying it's pretty much like the flu, as far as the death toll goes.  As each day goes by, that fades, obviously.  We have already doubled my guess at where the death toll was going to peak (thanks for lying, China).  No one in January or early February could have known it would get this bad.

If you're talking about very early feb, I agree, however, by mid feb at the latest, it became clear this was going to be a problem and action needs to be taken, and even the WHO(see above) was constantly talking about it. Yet, European leaders met and decided to keep all borders open, Trump administration did nothing, etc. Around that time the number of cases outside of china was rapidly approaching 1,000(South Korea and Italy being the main hotspots) and that was the time that all alarm bells should have been ringing. But it took several more weeks for any serious action to be taken.

[Voice of Reason 10,298]

1 minute ago, OriZ said:

It's not mutually exclusive. You can blame China, WHO, as well as this administration that dragged its feet and didn't react in time(but then again, government is notorious for always being late to any party). I have seen references to the WHO initially saying it wasn't transmittable between humans. While this is true, they did change their tune lonnnnngggg before time ran out. As early as the beginning of Feb, I believe, as well as saying "time is running out" to take proper actions around mid feb. 

 

If you're talking about very early feb, I agree, however, by mid feb at the latest, it became clear this was going to be a problem and action needs to be taken, and even the WHO(see above) was constantly talking about it. Yet, European leaders met and decided to keep all borders open, Trump administration did nothing, etc. Around that time the number of cases outside of china was rapidly approaching 1,000(South Korea and Italy being the main hotspots) and that was the time that all alarm bells should have been ringing. But it took several more weeks for any serious action to be taken.

Yes, but 1000 cases is nothing, really.  Nor are 50,000.  Now, 1.8 million?  That's another story altogether.  (Even if it's more like 1.6 million in reality)

[OriZ 3,157]

4 minutes ago, Voice of Reason said:

Yes, but 1000 cases is nothing, really.  Nor are 50,000.  Now, 1.8 million?  That's another story altogether.  (Even if it's more like 1.6 million in reality)

It wasn't the number of cases per se, but the fact they went from 100 to 1000 in under 3 weeks. And 5 days after 1000 we were already at 2,000, etc. It was growing exponentially and only accelerating. The WHO caught it. The governments didn't.

Edited April 13, 2020 by OriZ

[cyclone27 710]

WHO didn’t catch anything - this was around in early Nov. The Chinese refused CDC request to come to China and mid January they decided to corner the market in available PPE.

 

US will get the supply chain back to the US for reasons of nothing less than National Security concerns. 

[Dashinka 24,499]

5 hours ago, OriZ said:

It wasn't the number of cases per se, but the fact they went from 100 to 1000 in under 3 weeks. And 5 days after 1000 we were already at 2,000, etc. It was growing exponentially and only accelerating. The WHO caught it. The governments didn't.

The WHO caught it?  Was that right after they told us there was no human-to-human transmission' and China had it under control?  Taiwan, and the ROK caught it' but of course the WHO didn’t listen to them.

Edited April 13, 2020 by Dashinka

[Dashinka 24,499]

The vaunted WHO.  A good intentioned organization that has become completely politicized.  What else is new.  Note, PAHO is not much better helping out Cuba with their human trafficking.

 

Lost in Beijing: The Story of the WHO
 

By 

Lanhee J. Chen

April 8, 2020 12:58 pm ET

 

The World Health Organization isn’t just “China centric,” as President Trump called it on Tuesday. It is also broken and compromised. The WHO fell short in its dithering reaction to the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which claimed more than 11,000 lives. Now its response to the coronavirus pandemic shows it is willing to put politics ahead of public health. The way the WHO has consistently acted to placate China’s leaders makes clear the need for fundamental reform.
 

The U.S. is the biggest financial contributor to the WHO—more than $400 million in 2019, when China sent only $44 million, according to the U.S. State Department. Mr. Trump suggested that the U.S. might hold its funding while his administration takes a “good look” at what the country is getting for its money. He and Congress should go further.
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Under Mr. Tedros’s leadership, the WHO has accepted China’s falsehoods about the coronavirus and helped launder them into respectable-looking public-health assessments.

 

On Jan. 14, before an official WHO delegation had even visited China, the group parroted Beijing’s claim that there was “no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission.” Two weeks later, after China had reported more than 4,500 cases of the virus and over 70 people in other countries were sick with it, Mr. Tedros visited China and heaped praise on its leaders for their “transparency.”
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https://www.wsj.com/articles/lost-in-beijing-the-story-of-the-who-11586365090

 

 https://www.wsj.com/articles/audit-the-whos-pan-american-arm-11586717189?mod=opinion_major_pos8

Edited April 13, 2020 by Dashinka

[OriZ 3,157]

5 hours ago, Dashinka said:

The WHO caught it?  Was that right after they told us there was no human-to-human transmission' and China had it under control?  Taiwan, and the ROK caught it' but of course the WHO didn’t listen to them.

Yes, it was after, and still earlier than governments, I already explained that. As early as early Feb it was evident. I personally remember reading at the time that they were urging countries to take more measures, but nobody listened till it was too late.

Edited April 13, 2020 by OriZ

[Dashinka 24,499]

59 minutes ago, OriZ said:

Yes, it was after, and still earlier than governments, I already explained that. As early as early Feb it was evident. I personally remember reading at the time that they were urging countries to take more measures, but nobody listened till it was too late.

Who in the WHO was urging anyone or any country to do anything more than practice good hygiene back in late January, early February?  It took until March 11th before they sounded the pandemic alarm which was after travel to China was restricted of which the WHO said was unwarranted at the time.  The WHO and the UN thoroughly dropped the ball with this one which is pretty standard for a political bureaucracy.