# Trump's bungling of Covid-19 -- worse than Reagan's on AIDS? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 18, 2020, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-bungling-of-covid-19-worse-than-reagans-on-aids/849717 "2020-03-18T09:38:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-bungling-of-covid-19-worse-than-reagans-on-aids/849717/21 "2020-03-19T04:20:40Z")
Sorry, I guess I derailed my own thread with my offhand remark that I feared Covid-19 will be worse than AIDS. Forget that; we’ll all find out in the days/months to come. My main question was comparing Reagan’s actions with AIDS to Trump’s actions with Covid-19: which is worse? ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-bungling-of-covid-19-worse-than-reagans-on-aids/849717/22 "2020-03-19T06:49:17Z")
> [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](#): > > My main question was comparing Reagan’s actions with AIDS to Trump’s actions with Covid-19: which is worse? Reagan didn’t actively gut any institutions with oversight over it, did he? So on that score, Trump’s actions at the start of his term already count as worse, I think. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-bungling-of-covid-19-worse-than-reagans-on-aids/849717/23 "2020-03-19T06:54:08Z")
> [@Ike\_Witt](#): > > Assuming it doesn’t recombine with something like H5N1… You could make the same argument for some mutated resurgent HIV… > [@RickJay](#): > > Okay, so that was a conveniently round number to overstate the case, In fact, however, we do not know if it will be worse, nor not worse, than AIDS, and your certainty is completely without any basis in fact. Fair enough on the rounding, but no, my certainty does have \*some \*basis in fact - both the current spread numbers as well as the numbers from previous similar infections. And yes, I’ve read (summaries of) the London models. The “90 million dead worldwide in a year” scenario is the one\* based on no action at all\*. That’s \*already \*off the table, thankfully. ---
**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 19, 2020, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-bungling-of-covid-19-worse-than-reagans-on-aids/849717/24 "2020-03-19T07:01:19Z")
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Straight Dope, I give you an example of _Reality, Denier Of_. That would be the same type that got us the disaster of a president we have right now. Make no mistake; this is not a benign manifestation. > [@duffer](#): > > Fuck. It’s only been a few weeks and already comparing it to Aids and bringing Reagan into it to fuel your rage. Relax. I see you need to be angry about something, pick something more important. This panic has to be the most ridiculous thing I’ve seen in my 46 years. > > Can’t go to my corner bar that has at most 20 people on a busy night but if I don’t go to work with 80 other people I’m homeless. I need the bar to deal with going to work! How the fuck is this Trump’s fault? Evers, our Democrat savior in Wisconsin is who I’m pissed at. Or whom. I’ll never get that one straight. > > Take a breath, realize that new diseases crop up all the time, and understand your anxiety and anger are hurting your health much more than the risk of this bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![Billdo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/billdo/32/315_2.png) [@Billdo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Billdo)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-bungling-of-covid-19-worse-than-reagans-on-aids/849717/25 "2020-03-19T11:42:34Z")
> [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](#): > > My main question was comparing Reagan’s actions with AIDS to Trump’s actions with Covid-19: which is worse? I think a fundamental difference is that Covid-19 is a disease from a well-understood type of virus that presents reasonably promptly with expected symptoms, and for which we know the method of transmission. As to the U.S., there was clear evidence and experience in the progress of the disease from China. With AIDS, it was a mysterious disease that presented in a unique way a long time after infection, and that was at that time limited to distinct sub-groups of the population. In the beginning, nobody really knew its cause and how to limit its spread. It took a tremendous effort to find that it was caused by a virus, and identify the virus causing it. With AIDS, in hindsight there are many things that could have been done, and perhaps should have given the then-state of knowledge. But Reagan and his medical advisors were fundamentally dealing with an unknown disease that did not appear to threaten the population as a whole. COVID-19, on the other hand, was a clear and present danger to the entire U.S. (and world) population for which there were some reasonably obvious things that could have been done at much earlier times. Plainly, Trump’s denial of the seriousness of the outbreak, combined with his ongoing efforts to muzzle or fire those that didn’t go along his view of things, severely limited the ability of the Federal Government to react. I have no doubt that a substantial amount the federal government’s bungling of the Covid-19 response can be laid directly at Trump’s feet. For AIDS, the government’s underreaction was caused by multiple factors, and rather little of that was based on Reagan’s personal intervention. Trump clearly wins this bungling contest. ---
**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 19, 2020, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-bungling-of-covid-19-worse-than-reagans-on-aids/849717/26 "2020-03-19T11:50:42Z")
> [@duffer](#): > > I need the bar to deal with going to work! Say, aren’t you one of those folks who calls damlibruls\* “snowflakes”, “bedwetters”, etc? \*Is that one word or two? It’s generally pronounced as one, but I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to be two… > [@](#): > > How the fuck is this Trump’s fault? Would you like the list sorted alphabetically, chronologically, or in order of increasing culpability? ---
**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 19, 2020, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-bungling-of-covid-19-worse-than-reagans-on-aids/849717/27 "2020-03-19T11:58:38Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Ladies and Gentlemen of the Straight Dope, I give you an example of _Reality, Denier Of_. That would be the same type that got us the disaster of a president we have right now. Make no mistake; this is not a benign manifestation. I recommend strict social distancing from carriers of the MAGA-15 plague. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-bungling-of-covid-19-worse-than-reagans-on-aids/849717/28 "2020-03-19T12:59:57Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Reagan didn’t actively gut any institutions with oversight over it, did he? So on that score, Trump’s actions at the start of his term already count as worse, I think. That to my mind is clearly the difference. As much as Reagan is blamed for not addressing AIDS, at least in that case no one fully understood what the hell was going on. The equivalent would have been if Jimmy Carter had created an organization specifically designed to address STIs, and Reagan had fired everyone in 1981. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-bungling-of-covid-19-worse-than-reagans-on-aids/849717/29 "2020-03-19T13:11:22Z")
**Duffer** , go ahead a live your life the way you want. Nobody here is going to stop you, however we will try and talk you out of doing something stupid. But if you want to be this fucking ignorant and this fucking stupid because you won’t listen, go ahead. Just do me these favours- 1. Don’t bitch if/when people who do take this seriously start shunning you to keep your distance. 2. Don’t bitch if/when you or somebody you know gets sick. ---
**Author:** ![MindsEye\_Watering](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindseye_watering/32/3619_2.png) [@MindsEye\_Watering](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MindsEye_Watering)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-bungling-of-covid-19-worse-than-reagans-on-aids/849717/30 "2020-03-19T15:11:03Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#): > > I recommend strict social distancing from carriers of the MAGA-15 plague. Riffing on that: Covid-19? No, the most serious and debilitating disease is MAGA-45. That one causes impaired mental cognition, confusion between fantasy and reality, nonsensical speech, delusions of grandeur and profound stupidity. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-bungling-of-covid-19-worse-than-reagans-on-aids/849717/31 "2020-03-19T15:26:08Z")
In 2017 the World Bank estimated that only [6 countries had made plans for a global pandemic](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/31/health/global-pandemic-preparedness.html). > [@](#): > > Just three wealthy countries — Finland, Saudi Arabia and **the United States** — have gone through two external evaluations of their readiness to face pandemics, one for human diseases and one for animal outbreaks, the study found. > > As of last April, only three poor countries — Eritrea, Pakistan and Tanzania — had undergone both evaluations and had described how they planned to find the money to rectify their weaknesses. Then Trump fired the [pandemic response team](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-fire-pandemic-team/). ---
**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 19, 2020, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-bungling-of-covid-19-worse-than-reagans-on-aids/849717/32 "2020-03-19T15:39:46Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Then Trump fired the [pandemic response team](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-fire-pandemic-team/). [And made a couple other cutbacks.](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=22196875&postcount=41) ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-bungling-of-covid-19-worse-than-reagans-on-aids/849717/33 "2020-03-19T18:06:44Z")
Reagan is ‘recent’? ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-bungling-of-covid-19-worse-than-reagans-on-aids/849717/34 "2020-03-19T18:46:47Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > Reagan is ‘recent’? Kids! ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-bungling-of-covid-19-worse-than-reagans-on-aids/849717/35 "2020-03-19T19:39:18Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > Reagan is ‘recent’? Shush you, and mind yer elders, you little whippersnapper. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-bungling-of-covid-19-worse-than-reagans-on-aids/849717/36 "2020-03-20T07:39:55Z")
> [@duffer](#): > > Evers, our Democrat savior in Wisconsin is who I’m pissed at. Or whom. I’ll never get that one straight. Well, since you asked (sort of, anyway,) it’s whom. You’re mad at him, not mad at he, so Evers is whom you’re mad at. The “m"s point the way. One small ignorance fought, one giant ignorance stubbornly fighting back. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-bungling-of-covid-19-worse-than-reagans-on-aids/849717/37 "2020-03-20T09:22:13Z")
Trump’s response has been more incompetent, but Reagan’s was more malignant. Trump just doesn’t care if people die, since as far as he’s concerned only the life of one being in the universe matters: his. He wouldn’t care if a billion people died of a disease, as long as it wasn’t\* him.\* Reagan on the other hand wanted as many homosexuals as possible to die from AIDS; if he _could_ have I’m sure he’d have had every identified homosexual on the planet forcibly held down and injected with the virus and then denied medication. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-bungling-of-covid-19-worse-than-reagans-on-aids/849717/38 "2020-03-20T09:29:27Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Then Trump fired the [pandemic response team](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-fire-pandemic-team/). And when asked about it, claimed it was a “nasty question” and [he didn’t know anything about it](https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2020/03/13/trump-coronavirus-press-conference-pbs-yamiche-alcindor-question-sot-vpx.cnn). He also cut funding for the CDC. ---
**Author:** ![LAZombie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b38774/32.png) [@LAZombie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LAZombie)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-bungling-of-covid-19-worse-than-reagans-on-aids/849717/39 "2020-03-20T13:16:12Z")
Whatever happened to AIDS? I thought it was supposed to kill everyone. I don’t know a single person who ever got it. It’s a manufactured crisis like Covid 19. The Covid 19 crisis is Trump Derangement Syndrome on steroids. Every day for four years you liberal assholes were one hundred percent convinced Trump was going to destroy the world. And every day it didn’t happened. In fact, the opposite occurred and it’s driven you insane. So along comes a normal flu outbreak, and in order to validate yourselves because you all have such fragile egos, you’ve created mass hysteria and destroyed the economy. You’re like the wife who kills her children to get back at her husband whom she suspects of cheating. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-bungling-of-covid-19-worse-than-reagans-on-aids/849717/40 "2020-03-20T13:23:00Z")
> [@LAZombie](#): > > Whatever happened to AIDS? I thought it was supposed to kill everyone. I don’t know a single person who ever got it. It’s a manufactured crisis like Covid 19. > > The Covid 19 crisis is Trump Derangement Syndrome on steroids. Every day for four years you liberal assholes were one hundred percent convinced Trump was going to destroy the world. And every day it didn’t happened. In fact, the opposite occurred and it’s driven you insane. > > So along comes a normal flu outbreak, and in order to validate yourselves because you all have such fragile egos, you’ve created mass hysteria and destroyed the economy. > > You’re like the wife who kills her children to get back at her husband whom she suspects of cheating. Do you enjoy showing everybody what a loathsome fucking idiot you really are? Is this some sort of self abuse fetish you have? I mean, happy to oblige, but you make it far too easy. Maybe try harder next time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-bungling-of-covid-19-worse-than-reagans-on-aids/849717.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-bungling-of-covid-19-worse-than-reagans-on-aids/849717.md?page=3)