Trump is always
the last to figure it out
By
Opinion
writer
April
2, 2020 at 8:30 a.m. CDT
In one way or another,
governors are trying to expand the capacities of their health-care systems and
use social distancing to slow the progress of infection. Many are begging the
feds to be the purchaser of scarce equipment so the 50 states and the Federal
Emergency Management Agency aren’t bidding against one another.
The contrast between the governors’ level of sophistication and Trump’s
abject ignorance manages to still shock and appall us. On Wednesday, Trump explained how
his thinking on covid-19 had changed.
“The severity,” Trump said. “I think also
in looking at the way that the contagion is so contagious, nobody’s ever seen
anything like this where large groups of people all of a sudden have it just by
being in the presence of somebody who has it. The flu has never been like that.
. . . Also the violence of it if it hits the right person.” The
contagion is so contagious. That’s the president of the United States.
He was warned by experts for
weeks that this was highly contagious and that this was not the ordinary flu.
Apparently, he was either not listening or did not understand that “just by
being in the presence of somebody who has it” the contagion can, well, be
contagious. The mind reels.
Vice President Pence is only
marginally better. Asked why the administration would not reopen the Affordable
Care Act’s exchanges to allow people to get coverage in the midst of an
epidemic, he babbled on:
"I
think what we're seeing health insurance companies do today is really
inspiring" -- Pence's plan for Americans who don't have health insurance
and get sick with Covid-19 is for them to rely on the insurance companies
He simply
does not know that there are people who do not have insurance and do not
qualify for Medicaid. They are being denied the only feasible means of getting
insurance so they can receive treatment for a deadly disease.
Compare that gobbledygook
with the reaction of Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) to the administration’s
refusal to reopen the exchanges. “Frankly, this is leadership malpractice,”
Pritzker said. “Now more than ever, we need as many people as possible to have
access to health care to seek out testing, if we’re ever going to be able to
fight covid-19 and eliminate it as a major risk to our people.”
He added, “On that same note,
the Trump administration’s continued pursuit of a legal case to destroy the
Affordable Care Act, which has provided health care to tens of millions of
Americans is a special insult to the people of this nation at this moment. To
seek to kill the ACA at a time like this, not to mention ever, undermines
everything that we’re trying to do to keep people safe.”
During normal presidencies,
you expect the commander in chief to have the best data, know the most about
what is going on and have the most far-sighted vision. Instead, Trump seems to be the
least-informed adult in America.
You would think the president
and vice president’s abject ignorance would be a source of embarrassment. Nope.
They are locked in the right-wing media disinformation bubble. They find out details under
duress. Only
when things go very badly and their experts are forced to confess bad news do
they grudgingly move into the real world.
The change in “tone” that too
many gullible reporters coo about is the point at which Trump’s lies,
disinformation and self-delusion can no longer be sustained. No wonder he looks
deflated.