COVID-19 is a worldwide pandemic scourge that we did not even know existed until less than four months ago.
And, as I’m sure you know there are people who cannot find very much that President Trump has done correctly in dealing with it, who do little but criticize his performance. (Maybe you’re one of them).
With the above in mind, here is my question: how many heads of state can you name who are handling this worldwide pandemic scourge more effectively than President Trump?
Specifics, please: i.e. how many of them have gotten more companies to produce goods – i.e. masks, ventilators, etc. – that address COVID-19? How many have created or assisted their states/provinces in creating, more ad hoc hospital space to accommodate sufferers? How many of them have put in place more testing for COVID-19? You know, that kind of stuff.
I’ll wait for the list. And it is going to be one bodaciously long wait.
Is this to say that President Trump has not made mistakes? That there have not been mis-assessments by Trump and the people around him throughout these months? No, of course not. There have been plenty of them. This is a new, unique virus, and Trump – along with everyone else – is working with inherently minimal information.
The point is that, under these conditions/with these limitations, he is doing at least as well as any other head of state. Maybe better. Maybe a lot better.
That’s something worth thinking about.
Ken, I think you said it best when you wrote.
If an “expert” on health issues who has been wrong over and over again* in his assessments of the COVID-19 virus is able to explain his errors away by pointing out that COVID-19 is a new virus and we’re learning as we go…
…why is a President of the United States, who has never claimed to be an expert on health issues but relies, among other people, on the guy explaining his errors away, expected to be perfect – and is then attacked for not being perfect, while the “expert” is revered as if he were the Oracle of Delphi?
By Ken Berwitz