Donald Trump's serial denialism finally comes full circle with coronavirus and "the jig is up"

Finally, the pernicious "denialism" that's endemic in the fraudulent Republican party and the Trumpzi administration has come full circle when they have been forced to accept the  medical science called "virology". In other words, coronavirus is not a hoax.

An article published in The Week March 20, 2020

Caronavirus cases and deaths spike across the U.S.
What happened?
Donald Trump appeared to undermine federal efforts to contain the new coronavirus when the pandemic began, insisting that the virus will "go away", even as cases of the respiratory illness skyrocketed across the U.S., spooking markets and sparking fears of a recession.

Then, health officials had reported more than 1,000 cases of the coronavirus in 38 states and the District of Columbia and at least 30 deaths.

To stem the spread of the virus, known as Covid-19, universities across the country scrapped in person classes, major events such as the South by Southwest festival were canceled and companies began mandating that employees work from home. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered the closure of schools and gathering places in New Rochelle, a New York City suburb, that has seen dozens of cases and he sent the National Guard to sanitize a 1 mile wide "containment zone".  The Dow Jones industrial average plunged 3,000 plus points in one day, the worst daily showing since the 2008 financial crisis. Globally, officials reported more than 125,000 cases and at least 4,500 deaths.

With multiple states declaring emergencies, the Trumpzi denier tweeted that 17,000 Americans die from the flu each year and "nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on".  Influenza* typically kills 0.1 percent of the people it infects every year, the World Health Organization estimates that the Covid-19 has a mortality rate of up to 3.4 percent.  Trump dismissed the WHO's fatality figures as "a false number", and during a visit to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, he boasted about his "natural" scientific ability. He attributed this to his "super genious uncle" sho had one corked at MIT!  (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) 

Moreover, the Trumpzi administration's top public health officials were grilled in Congress over the sluggish rollout of Covid-19 testing kits. Only about 4,300 people had been tested since the start of the outbreak. However, the South Koreans had been conducting up to 10,000 tests a day.  "There's not enough equipment," CDC (Center for Disease Control) Director Robert Redfield said about public labs' capabilities.  "There's not enough people."  

Brian Monahan, Congress' in house doctor told Capitol Hill staffers in a closed door meeting that 70 million to 130 million Americans will likely contract the virus. 

What the editorials said
Trumpzi's Pollyannaish predictions and outright falsehoods "will cost lives," said The Washington Post.  To boost the stock market and his re-election chances, Donald Trump is contradicting the advice offered by his own health-care experts. They urged people to practice social distancing, but he has told them to live life as usual.  In China, a viral catastrophe ensued when the authoritarian Community Party emphasized its image at the expense of the nation's health.  Now, we're seeing the same here in the U.S. 

"So far, in this crisis, Trumpzi himself has obviously failed to rise to the challenge of leadership," said National Review. He delayed making the virus a priority for as long as possible- "refusing briefings, downplaying the problem and wasting precious time".  He failed to empower subordinates and rather than trust the information they handed him, recycled favorable figures he eard on cable T.V.  This behavior is familiar, it's how Trumpzi has handled scandals and fiascoes for three failed years. But, those were largely self created crises. The coronavirus "demands a new level of seriousness from the inept tRump".  

What the Columnists said
Trump views the coronavirus case totals as if it were an approval polls, said Dan Diamond, in Politico.com.  He left some 2,500 passengers aboard the Grand Princess cruise ship,"marooned off the coast of California, for days, even as "coronavirus infections rapidly multiplies". Why not evacuate and isolate the cruise goers?"  "I don't need to have the numbers double because of one ship that wasn't our fault," the stupid Trumpzi explained to the media.  

Trumpzi- Stupid is as Stupid Does (#SIASD)

This disaster was fast turning into "Trump's Chernobyl," said Brian Klaas in The Washington Post.  Just like Soviet authorities in the wake of the 1986, nuclear plant explosion, the #SIASD Trumpzi was trying "to construct a reality that simply did not exist. Those lies will eventually kill people." 

MaineWriter- Unfortunately, 103 passengers on the cruise ship The Grand Princess tested positive for the coronavirus and at least two of them subsequently died from the infection (reported the The Mercury News).  

But, Michael Fumento reported in The New York Post that American had succumbed to "pure hysteria".  It's possible that the coronavirus will soon peak and start to die down, just as it has in China, where new cases have dropped from 4,000 a day to 200. And, the reported mortality rate of 3.4 percent is highly misleading, given that most infected people "have symptoms so mile, if any, that they don't seek medical attention and don't get counted in the caseload".  (Maine Writer - I wonder, where did Michael Fumento buy his zeroxed public health diploma?)

This kind of uninformed opining is "wanonly irresponsible", said Yascha Mounk, in The Atlantic.com.  We know this disease spreads like lightening. Italy had 6.2 identified cases on FEbruary 22, 888 cases by Feb. 29, and 4, 636, by March 6th.  The case rate here will soar in coming days and if even the mortality rate is only 1 percent, that will mean "the soronavirus is 10 times as deadly as the flu".

China finally arrested the virus", exponential spread by canceling all public gatherings, asking most citizens to self-quarantine, and sealing off the epicenter in Wuhan province. 

The U.S., must follow that example and "cancel everything".  It's the only way to stop this killer.  

Maine Writer note - Interesting to see that on March 28, 2020, since the number of coronavirus cases in the US are now exponentially accelerating, the trending hashtag on Twitter is #Trump_genocide.

Whats next?
American's health-care system could be in for "a reckoning", said Dan Goldberg and Rachel Roubein in Politico.com.  

In other words, "the jig is up".  

So far, there's no sign of hospitals "cracking under pressure," but, the industry has undergone "long term consolidation," and "years of cutbacks" as it emphasized short-patient stays in an effort to arrest runaway health-care spending. That's left the system vulnerable and means that administrators might have to ration equipment, like ventilators, acute care beds, protective equipment (PPE) and even oxygen as patients flood into emergency rooms. "There is still a chance that state and local efforts to contain the virus can succeed," said Ross Douthat, in The New York Times, but, if the current trajectory of infection rates holds, we will see "rising death rates and overwhelmed hospitals, shuttered schools and empty stadiums."

Combine the economic consequences of such a scenario, "with the optics of the Trumpzi's blundering response, and the coronavirus seems very likely to doom Trumpzi' re-election effort, no matter where he casts the blame.

*Maine Writer note- with Influenza, there is evidence of an acquired immunity to the virus because of many years of exposures and the help of preventive annual vaccines.  Moreover, Tamilfu is a drug now available to help treat influenza.  Yet, as of now, there is no proven coronavirus vaccine and no access to drugs to combat the virus.