re: Insanity...

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Still sounds a bit short sighted to me, because even the US ones are inaccurate. Seems we could have been using the WHO supplied ones until the ones developed here could meet demand.

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The WHO never offered us test kits.

LINK

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What were they supposed to do about this over a month ago?

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Circling back to this question, the Senate Homeland Security committee had a hearing on the virus on February 12th. Guess who didn't send anyone to the hearing.

Honestly, who did take it seriously a month ago? Who is taking it seriously now? I mean, people can drive through and pickup food that has been made by someone else with who knows what going on with them, take it home and feed it to their families. Young people all around the world are saying, “screw it. We are going to party!” It is, after all, simply a different strain of the same virus that goes around every single year, and kills people every single year, mostly elderly and weak.

We see stories of quarantined cities, but millions of people are disregarding advice to stay away from groups. This is an invisible threat, in which a fraction of the population personally know someone who has died from it. Throw in the past “pandemic” nothing-burgers, and one has all of the ingredients for not taking something seriously.

Think about it this way. If you were the president and some people in the medical bureaucracy came to you with yet another plague that crops up in yet another election year and told you that under your administration the US economy would need to take a catastrophic crippling, What do you think you would do? Let’s say you immediately told people to take it very seriously. The public would hear, “panic!” The stock market would tank, retirements would be wiped out, hundreds of thousands of jobs would be lost, sporting events and travel cancelled. What would be the press and the people’s reaction to all of this if it all amounted to the common flu? On the flip side, what if it is worse than the flu? Would the small health benefits of immediately sending the economy into a free fall be worth it? Sometimes some very difficult and uncomfortable decisions have to be made.

The president was put into an incredibly difficult situation. However, he is a great strategic thinker. We have the best man for the job currently handling this matter.

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Honestly, who did take it seriously a month ago? Who is taking it seriously now?

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What does this have to do with anything? Whataboutism is not a valid argument.

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I mean, people can drive through and pickup food that has been made by someone else with who knows what going on with them, take it home and feed it to their families.

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Probably not a good idea, but food safety regulations do exist and anyone handling food is supposed to wash their hands very frequently. Personally I would only eat something not prepared by myself as a last resort right now though.

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Young people all around the world are saying, “screw it. We are going to party!” It is, after all, simply a different strain of the same virus that goes around every single year, and kills people every single year, mostly elderly and weak.

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They are stupid, and there have been numerous reports of a high number of people under 40 in ICUs who have tested positive.

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Think about it this way. If you were the president and some people in the medical bureaucracy came to you with yet another plague that crops up in yet another election year and told you that under your administration the US economy would need to take a catastrophic crippling, What do you think you would do?

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Are you suggesting that this was somehow strategically done in an election year? Don't be ridiculous.

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Let’s say you immediately told people to take it very seriously. The public would hear, “panic!” The stock market would tank, retirements would be wiped out, hundreds of thousands of jobs would be lost, sporting events and travel cancelled. What would be the press and the people’s reaction to all of this if it all amounted to the common flu?

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Well it isn't the common flu. The Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has confirmed as much and has urged people not to believe that talking point. Also, had the push to take this seriously been made a month ago rather than a week ago, perhaps all of the extreme measures being taken right now could have been undertaken on a smaller scale. The South Koreans had everything in their country reasonably under control until patient 31 escaped quarantine and created new clusters. Obviously this country full of "frick you and yours, I've got my freedumbs" assholes would have been even less likely to comply, but the South Koreans are also still in a much better position than we are right now.

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The president was put into an incredibly difficult situation.

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That's the job description. If he didn't want to deal with incredibly difficult situations then he shouldn't have sought the office.

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However, he is a great strategic thinker. We have the best man for the job currently handling this matter.

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Are you saying the president started the pandemic? Because my statement was that the pandemic brought an incredibly difficult, no-win situation TO the president, to which he had to react. Unless, you are saying that Trump started the virus in China, then I do not think you read my statements properly.

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No, I'm saying his administration's decision in 2018 to disband the pandemic response team within the NSC helped put him in the difficult situation he found himself in because it left us unprepared to face the difficult situation adequately at a time when many, many experts were sounding the alarm and the president was lying and downplaying the threat.

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The WHO never offered us test kits.

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Sure, but did we ever reach out to them about them?

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“I don’t know if WHO agreed to sell the kits to us, but it should never have been something we needed to do given our technological expertise and the fact we would have ‘taken kits from low- and middle-income countries’ that otherwise could not make or afford them,” said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, in an email.

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I mean, I can post an op-ed from the same Washington Post that says the exact opposite...

Washington Post

I can also post a link to an article from 2018 about Tim Ziemer's departure and the disbanding of the department.

Washington Post...again

There are also video clips of Trump soon after the move touting the move.

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Honestly, who did take it seriously a month ago? Who is taking it seriously now?


What does this have to do with anything? Whataboutism is not a valid argument.

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Was this "whataboutism" the crux of my argument, or was it a minor aside?

You have erected and thrashed a straw man here.

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I mean, people can drive through and pickup food that has been made by someone else with who knows what going on with them, take it home and feed it to their families.


Probably not a good idea, but food safety regulations do exist and anyone handling food is supposed to wash their hands very frequently. Personally I would only eat something not prepared by myself as a last resort right now though.

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You are probably smart, here.

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Young people all around the world are saying, “screw it. We are going to party!” It is, after all, simply a different strain of the same virus that goes around every single year, and kills people every single year, mostly elderly and weak.


They are stupid, and there have been numerous reports of a high number of people under 40 in ICUs who have tested positive.

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Have really heard about this. Glad you are keeping up.

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Think about it this way. If you were the president and some people in the medical bureaucracy came to you with yet another plague that crops up in yet another election year and told you that under your administration the US economy would need to take a catastrophic crippling, What do you think you would do?


Are you suggesting that this was somehow strategically done in an election year? Don't be ridiculous.

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No. I am saying that these things crop up every election year, and it is quite natural for people to dismiss, yet another, pandemic, claim. I also know that just because a health bureaucracy says, "Boo!" that it does not mean we have to run scared.

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Let’s say you immediately told people to take it very seriously. The public would hear, “panic!” The stock market would tank, retirements would be wiped out, hundreds of thousands of jobs would be lost, sporting events and travel cancelled. What would be the press and the people’s reaction to all of this if it all amounted to the common flu?


Well it isn't the common flu. The Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has confirmed as much and has urged people not to believe that talking point. Also, had the push to take this seriously been made a month ago rather than a week ago, perhaps all of the extreme measures being taken right now could have been undertaken on a smaller scale. The South Koreans had everything in their country reasonably under control until patient 31 escaped quarantine and created new clusters. Obviously this country full of "frick you and yours, I've got my freedumbs" assholes would have been even less likely to comply, but the South Koreans are also still in a much better position than we are right now.

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This is a strain of the COVID. It is in a way the flu. We've also been told to panic over other things like, SARs, MERs, Avian flu, Swine Flu, Mad Cow Disease and Ebola. If anything, the health organizations are as culpable for this as anyone. It's kind of like the Weather Channel constantly telling us that thousands and thousands of people are going to die from devastating hurricanes. No one believes the hype after a while. It gets even worse when U of Florida cancels football games for a hurricane that never shows.

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The president was put into an incredibly difficult situation.


That's the job description. If he didn't want to deal with incredibly difficult situations then he shouldn't have sought the office.

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No one is saying that he is not accepting responsibility or whining or what not. What is being said is that the guy was in a lose-lose situation, and it is a callous and debased individual who would use such a situation to pillory a man.

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However, he is a great strategic thinker. We have the best man for the job currently handling this matter.

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Right back at you.

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Mainstream media cannot be relied upon by citizens to report the truth

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They've been better about getting the truth out there in this situation than this administration has.