# Trump VS the covid 19 Coronavirus **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 17, 2020, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-vs-the-covid-19-coronavirus/849622 "2020-03-17T02:06:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2020, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-vs-the-covid-19-coronavirus/849622/21 "2020-03-18T05:43:14Z")
Holy shit. This used to be a relatively thoughtful and sane board. Yes, Left leaning but still kinda sane. Compare this to numbers for H1N1 people. I don’t remember seeing Obama blamed for it. Criticized by some yes, but not this vitriol. Not blamed personally. And I really really no longer give a shit about either side. Been on both and learned they don’t care about you personally. Get off the high horse. This is all on us. In general I mean. Media, whispers between “knowledgeable” friends, tendency to talk about it with people who share the same fears. STOP! Holy shit on a shingle, there are currently 67 cases out of about 5 million people here, AND THE BARS IN WISCONSIN ARE CLOSED! I repeat, in Wisconsin, known for our vast bar culture, they’re closed! If you made it this far, and especially if you hate Trump and want to just spew, please explain this. Tony Evers, a Democrat, has banned any gathering of more than 10 people. Trump haters, justify this. I work with a lot more than 10 people. I’m one of 17 skilled workers, we have I think 15 in office /administrative positions and the other 2 dozen or so are temps in operations. They come in from Milwaukee on a bus (nothing wrong with that, they’re making an honest living) but turnover is high. High enough that in a month you’ll see mostly new people. I’d say in a month I encounter at least 100 people, every day, 9 hours a day. That apparently is fine. But I can’t go to my local watering hole where I’ve known almost everyone for a long time because the government wants to protect me. In a small town. Small corner bar. Social connection. Friends. Fine, how about I invite 10 people over for darts and cribbage? Am I breaking the law gathering more than 10 people? I can only imagine, BTW, how this will affect people in therapy encouraged to go out and socialize. So yes, Trump is evil. Blame him for everything. The democrats are doing the same. Mass hysteria. Carry on and wipe well. 🙄 ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2020, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-vs-the-covid-19-coronavirus/849622/22 "2020-03-18T05:47:15Z")
> [@duffer](#): > > Holy shit. This used to be a relatively thoughtful and sane board. Yes, Left leaning but still kinda sane. Compare this to numbers for H1N1 people. I don’t remember seeing Obama blamed for it. Criticized by some yes, but not this vitriol. Not blamed personally. And I really really no longer give a shit about either side. Been on both and learned they don’t care about you personally. Get off the high horse. Get off your “I want to show all that I did not read before replying” act. From my last post: > [@](#): > > A crucial federal program tracking dangerous diseases is shutting down > > Predict, **a pandemic preparedness program, thrived under Bush and Obama**. Now it’s canceled. Learn to accept that ignorance has been not only tolerated, but weaponized by the current administration. Ignorance that even had a hand in the current lack of testing crisis. > **[The Infuriating Story of How the Government Stalled Coronavirus Testing](https://www.gq.com/story/inside-americas-coronavirus-testing-crisis?utm_source=pocket-newtab)** > > How one young doctor at a Seattle lab tried to get out in front of the coronavirus crisis by inventing his own test. And why the absurdity of his struggle should make us all afraid. > [@](#): > > How did the U.S. fumble its response to the coronavirus so colossally, even with so much lead time? Why, with the number of diagnosed COVID cases in the U.S. climbing toward 4,000, do we still not have nearly enough tests? > > A large part of the blame lies with President Trump, who has not wanted widespread testing, apparently out of an obsession with keeping the number of confirmed COVID cases low. It’s why he waffled so long on whether to let the Grand Princess cruise liner, where COVID infections were spreading rapidly, dock in the United States. “I would rather have them stay on [the ship], personally,” Trump said earlier this month. “I don’t need to have the numbers double because of one ship that wasn’t our fault.” His administration turned down tests provided by the World Health Organization and instead wasted precious time having the Centers for Disease Control create its own test. While that was underway, the president denounced the spread of the disease as a Democratic hoax, giving the public a dangerously false sense of complacency just as a pandemic was getting underway. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2020, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-vs-the-covid-19-coronavirus/849622/23 "2020-03-18T05:56:35Z")
> [@duffer](#): > > Holy shit on a shingle, there are currently 67 cases out of about 5 million people here, AND THE BARS IN WISCONSIN ARE CLOSED! > > I repeat, in Wisconsin, known for our vast bar culture, they’re closed! If you made it this far, and especially if you hate Trump and want to just spew, please explain this. > > Tony Evers, a Democrat, has banned any gathering of more than 10 people. Trump haters, justify this. Reposting from a now-locked thread: > [@me](#): > > Are you aware that in countries where swift action has not been taken the number infected roughly doubles every week? Are you likewise aware that up to 20% of people who contract this disease may require hospitalization and are at significant risk of death without it? Did you know that the death rate for this disease is approx. ten times the rate for seasonal flu? Are you aware that we have spare capacity for maybe 200,000 additional hospital patients at the moment? Can you understand that if indeed the number infected doubles each week, we will overwhelm that spare capacity in about six weeks? Would an excess number of deaths in which this disease is a contributing factor of somewhere between half a million and several million, in less than a year, concern you at all? None of the above requires hating Trump. That’s just a bonus 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2020, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-vs-the-covid-19-coronavirus/849622/24 "2020-03-18T06:00:31Z")
> [@duffer](#): > > Holy shit. This used to be a relatively thoughtful and sane board. Yes, Left leaning but still kinda sane. Compare this to numbers for H1N1 people. I don’t remember seeing Obama blamed for it. Criticized by some yes, but not this vitriol. Not blamed personally. And I really really no longer give a shit about either side. Been on both and learned they don’t care about you personally. Get off the high horse. The problem with bullshit is that eventually reality hits it. And then the bullshit splatters and leaves nothing but a mess. And that’s what’s happening right now with Donald Trump’s presidency. It’s been built on a pile of bullshit and now we’re watching it turn into shitstains. We’ve been saying this was going to happen for three years. We told you that Trump was incompetent and couldn’t handle the job. We said he’d collapse as soon as he faced a serious crisis. And that’s what we’re now seeing. Don’t compare Obama to Trump. Obama did his job. He didn’t fold up like Trump is doing. I love this country. And Donald Trump is hurting America. If you supported Donald Trump at any point, the only thing you should be saying right now is that you were wrong and you are sorry. ---
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2020, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-vs-the-covid-19-coronavirus/849622/25 "2020-03-18T06:19:28Z")
You saw Covid 19 3 years ago? Ok. My industry is thriving under Trump. And I filled the tank today at under 2 bucks a gallon. YMMV ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2020, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-vs-the-covid-19-coronavirus/849622/26 "2020-03-18T06:31:14Z")
> [@duffer](#): > > Holy shit on a shingle, there are currently 67 cases out of about 5 million people here, AND THE BARS IN WISCONSIN ARE CLOSED! 90 cases now according to the Johns Hopkins website. Lock it down now boomer or your hospitals shut down in about a week. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2020, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-vs-the-covid-19-coronavirus/849622/27 "2020-03-18T06:38:41Z")
> [@duffer](#): > > You saw Covid 19 3 years ago? Ok. My industry is thriving under Trump. And I filled the tank today at under 2 bucks a gallon. YMMV Well, thanks for showing all that you do like to remain in ignorance. More than 3 years ago: > **[The most predictable disaster in the history of the human race](https://www.vox.com/2015/5/27/8660249/bill-gates-spanish-flu-pandemic)** > > This is what Bill Gates is afraid of. > [@](#): > > The most predictable disaster in the history of the human race > > This is what Bill Gates is afraid of. [QUOTE] What’s likeliest to kill more than 10 million human beings in the next 20 years? It’s probably not what you’d think. [/QUOTE] > [@](#): > > There’s something out there that’s as bad as war, something that kills as many people as war, and Bill Gates doesn’t think we’re ready for it. > > “Look at the death chart of the 20th century,” he says, because he’s the kind of guy that looks at death charts. “I think everybody would say there must be a spike for World War I. Sure enough, there it is, like 25 million. And there must be a big spike for World War II, and there it is, it’s like 65 million. But then you’ll see this other spike that is as large as World War II right after World War I, and most people, would say, ‘What was that?’” > > “Well, that was the Spanish flu.” > [@](#): > > This is the greatest risk to have a huge tragedy. This is the most likely thing by far to kill over 10 million excess people in a year. We don’t need to invest nearly what we do in military preparedness. > > This is something where less than a billion a year on R&D, medical surveillance, on standby personnel, cross-training the military, so they can play a role in terms of all the logistics here. This can be done, and we may not get many more warnings like this to say: okay. it’s a pretty modest investment to avoid something like that; really, in terms of the human condition, it would be a gigantic setback. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2020, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-vs-the-covid-19-coronavirus/849622/28 "2020-03-18T06:41:24Z")
> [@duffer](#): > > You saw Covid 19 3 years ago? Ok. My industry is thriving under Trump. And I filled the tank today at under 2 bucks a gallon. YMMV I imagine funeral homes and makers of headstones did real well out of the 1918 pandemic. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2020, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-vs-the-covid-19-coronavirus/849622/29 "2020-03-18T06:43:37Z")
> [@duffer](#): > > You saw Covid 19 3 years ago? Ok. My industry is thriving under Trump. And I filled the tank today at under 2 bucks a gallon. YMMV So you thrive from fear and misery? Yet you are saying all this is a bad thing…? ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2020, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-vs-the-covid-19-coronavirus/849622/30 "2020-03-18T06:48:58Z")
> [@China\_Guy](#): > > 90 cases now according to the Johns Hopkins website. > > Lock it down now boomer or your hospitals shut down in about a week. It is even sadder when one realizes that in Singapore, where they tested a lot, people are beginning to go out like before, because they know that the sick were promptly quarantined and helped properly. With no testing then we do not know where the sick people are. So it leads to the solutions that guys like **duffer** hate to see now. As even an old GI Joe cartoon advised, **knowing is half the battle**. Trump did choose the advice of Cobra Commander… 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2020, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-vs-the-covid-19-coronavirus/849622/31 "2020-03-18T06:59:34Z")
> [@duffer](#): > > You saw Covid 19 3 years ago? That is not what he said. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2020, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-vs-the-covid-19-coronavirus/849622/32 "2020-03-18T07:24:43Z")
In December, before COVID19 AKA Captain Trumps, I was in the Robert Wood Johnson ER because of an asthma exacerbation (that’s a potentially life ending asthma attack). RWJ is one of the three Level I Trauma Centers in New Jersey. I’ll assume you all know what a Level I Trauma Center is and how important keeping a L1’s patient population in check is. I spent my entire visit in the ER sitting on a gurney . . . in the hallway. There were no available ER rooms because there were no empty beds in the hospital. But I’m sure RWJ will find a way to take care of a couple hundred extra patients should it come to that. But, hey, there’s nothing we can do to stop this, duffer’s need to go to his favorite watering hole trumps (hehe) all! I mean, don’t let my 56 asthmatic, immune system suppressed, diabetic ass stop you from getting your drink on. Have an extra one for me, 'cause if I get Captain Trumps I’m probably dead. CMC fnord! BTW My pulmonologist called yesterday and postponed my next appointment because of this outbreak. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2020, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-vs-the-covid-19-coronavirus/849622/33 "2020-03-18T07:24:53Z")
Just as there remain significant stretches of the country who stubbornly insist that the South was the nobler side of the Civil War and continue to wave its flag and sing its praises, there will remain devout Trumpers forever who will claim to their dying breaths that he always told it like it is. It’s like flat-earth beliefs - they have nothing to do with reality, just a childish attempt at saying “screw you” to the world as if that represented true independence. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2020, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-vs-the-covid-19-coronavirus/849622/34 "2020-03-18T08:56:36Z")
> [@dolphinboy](#): > > This combination of arrogance, ignorance, and incompetence is rare in one person, let alone a president. No, unfortunately not rare in a person. I know a few. I’m thinking of one in particular who lost a child to social services, and had another, which she is currently “home-schooling” (yeah, right) despite several people calling CPS. But yeah, rare in a high office. > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Once you hit the presidential level, you have a place in history. But the price you pay is that you will be defined by your presidency. > > Hoover, by almost all accounts, was a very talented and successful man for most of his life. But he failed as President and that’s what people remember him for. > > People will still know Donald Trump’s name in two hundred years; and they’ll remember him as a failure. Jimmy Carter is also one of the most decent people whoever lived-- the anti-Trump; but yeah, not a great president. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2020, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-vs-the-covid-19-coronavirus/849622/35 "2020-03-18T10:28:50Z")
> [@bump](#): > > even if he was to find Jesus after office and go the Jimmy Carter humanitarian route. By helping to [make hand sanitizer](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/09/nyregion/coronavirus-newyork-sanitizer.html), perhaps… ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2020, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-vs-the-covid-19-coronavirus/849622/36 "2020-03-18T10:37:18Z")
> [@duffer](#): > > I don’t remember seeing Obama blamed for it. And _I_ don’t remember Obama saying that it was a hoax or that it would just magically go away by itself. With the memory issues we’re both haivng, it’s a pity that [the Master’s final words to us](https://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/10111/do-brain-supplements-do-anything/) were “don’t believe those Prevagen commercials”. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2020, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-vs-the-covid-19-coronavirus/849622/37 "2020-03-18T10:59:19Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Just as there remain significant stretches of the country who stubbornly insist that the South was the nobler side of the Civil War and continue to wave its flag and sing its praises, there will remain devout Trumpers forever who will claim to their dying breaths that he always told it like it is. Drawing those two groups in a Venn Diagram and all I see of late is just one circle. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2020, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-vs-the-covid-19-coronavirus/849622/38 "2020-03-18T13:35:33Z")
> [@crowmanyclouds](#): > > But, hey, there’s nothing we can do to stop this, duffer’s need to go to his favorite watering hole trumps (hehe) all! This is the underlying reason for why so many Republicans and Trumpists (but I repeat myself) refuse to take the emergency seriously – they are the party of toddlers who refuse to eat their cauliflower because freedumb. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2020, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-vs-the-covid-19-coronavirus/849622/39 "2020-03-18T15:06:42Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Hoover, by almost all accounts, was a very talented and successful man for most of his life… Hoover was a talented geologist, financier, and businessman. At the outset of the Great War, he was instrumental in the organization of the repatriation of U.S. citizens stranded in war zones. Later, he was an important figure in the shipping of tons of food to needy European civilians. In 1922, the Belgian people thanked him by sending him an enormous, grotesque bronze statue of Isis. God knows why they thought that was appropriate; maybe it was just sitting around the government building and they wanted to get rid of it. Anyway, he got it and you can still visit it today, if you find yourself in rural Iowa. > **[Creepy Goddess of Life: Gift for Herbert Hoover, West Branch, Iowa](https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/31346)** > > A bronze statue of the goddess Isis, blackened with age, was a gift from the Belgians to Herbert Hoover and his wife in 1922. It looks like a cemetery monument from a bad horror movie. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2020, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-vs-the-covid-19-coronavirus/849622/40 "2020-03-18T15:26:44Z")
> [@duffer](#): > > You saw Covid 19 3 years ago? [Before Trump’s inauguration, a warning: ‘The worst influenza pandemic since 1918’ In a tabletop exercise days before an untested new president took power, officials briefed the incoming administration on a scenario remarkably like the one he faces now.](https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/16/trump-inauguration-warning-scenario-pandemic-132797) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-vs-the-covid-19-coronavirus/849622.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-vs-the-covid-19-coronavirus/849622.md?page=3)