“Seriously people- STOP BUYING MASKS!”, shouted the The US Surgeon General, in an exasperated Saturday tweet.
“They are NOT effective in preventing [the] general public from catching coronavirus, but if healthcare providers can’t get them to care for sick patients, it puts them and our communities at risk!”, the verified account went on to exclaim.
Suffice to say anyone inclined to stockpile masks (or canned goods or drinking water or gold) isn’t listening.
To be sure, the headlines out of Washington State (where the first US death from COVID-19 was confirmed on Saturday) aren’t exactly doing anything to calm frayed nerves. The state is also dealing with a possible outbreak at a nursing home. That investigation is in its early stages.
“[She was] a wonderful woman”, Donald Trump said of the deceased, during a press conference at the White House Saturday.
(Actually, “she” was a man.)
At the same Saturday briefing, Mike Pence announced the State department has raised the travel advisory to “Level 4: Do Not Travel” for areas in Italy and South Korea where the infection is prevalent.
Additionally, the US is banning entry to non-US citizens who have been to Iran in the last 14 days. That is, of course, on top of the myriad pre-existing travel bans applicable to the country.
Trump later spoke at CPAC (where he delivered one of the wildest tirades of his presidency last year), noting that the US would, in fact, do anything in its power to assist Iran with its outbreak, which has now started to work its way through the country’s political ranks.
“If we can help the Iranians, we have the greatest health care professionals in the world”, the president declared. “We would love to be able to help them. All they have to do is ask”.
The US will work with the Italians and the South Koreans “to coordinate medical screening in their countries of any individuals that are coming to the United States”, Pence said, adding that “the average American does not need to go out and buy a mask”.
Trump also suggested he could seal off the border with Mexico, a threat he’s made before in connection with illegal immigrants who, ironically, Trump has long insisted carry deadly diseases.
“Yes, we are thinking about the southern border”, he mused, before walking it back later, perhaps realizing his comments had the potential to exacerbate market concerns about the economic impact of the disease. “We have to think about that border, but this is not a border that seems to be much of a problem right now. We hope we won’t have to do that”.
That won’t convince anyone. If ever there were a man looking for an excuse to close the southern border, it’s Donald Trump, and he’s got some political cover this time around. As Reuters recounts, “a group of 11 Republicans in the US House… sent a letter on Friday to top administration officials that pressed for details on the plan to contain the coronavirus at the border with Mexico”.
Mexico reported its fourth case of the virus (a 20-year old woman who recently returned from Italy), on Saturday afternoon. Mexico’s foreign ministry said they weren’t aware of any plans to close the border.
As far as public angst is concerned, Trump implored “the media and politicians and everybody else involved not do anything to incite a panic, because there’s no reason to panic at all”.
“Additional cases in the United States are likely, but healthy individuals should be able to fully recover and we think that will be a statement we can make with great surety now that we’ve gotten familiar with this problem”, Trump said.
He also took the opportunity to reiterate that he was not referring to the actual virus when he mentioned COVID-19 in the context of Democratic “hoaxes” at a rally on Friday. “[I was] certainly not referring to this. How could anybody refer to this? This is very serious”.
And you can tell it’s serious. Because stories about the virus are actually more prevalent than stories about Trump himself these days. Have a look:
(BBG, h/t Eric Balchunas)
Trump now has the motivation he needs to take this epidemic seriously. The federal government will surely spare no expense to get this under control. That chart simply cannot stand.
Elaborating further on Saturday, Trump had a message for anyone who’s currently healthy. “So healthy people, if you’re healthy”, the president stammered.
“You will probably go through a process and you’ll be fine”.
There you have it. No big deal. Nothing to worry about. And stop selling stocks. Trump would greatly appreciate it if you’d cease and desist from selling your damn stocks.
H-Man, Trump has no idea what he is dealing with and the “team”, he has assembled at the top (Spence/Kudlow) to combat the virus, couldn’t track an elephant in the snow.
The opposite of happy hour is amateur hour, and we are now in it, 24-7.
The virus is first and foremost a political problem for Trump, so the politicians will run the response and provide (or not) all the information.
Speaking as someone in the 60+ and prexisting group who would likely win the Covid “20% serious or worse” sweepstakes, I’m sensing that the Trump admin has made the political calculus that they would prefer to let 100,000 old folks die (at 3% mortality and a mere 1% of the population tagged) rather than face the economic and political inconvenience of responding effectively as the Chinese have. There is zero effort here to plan for major quarantines. How many articles have you read about national guard preparations to truck in supplies to locked down towns and cities? Covid will dance circles around locals belatedly closing a few schools and nursing homes and the US infection rate will wind up much higher than China’s as a result.
A year from now, who will have the moral high-ground? China will say “we had to torch our economy to do it, but only 3000 dead in 1.3 billion citizens.” The US will say “the money kept flowing, Trump got reelected, and the 100K dead were, gosh, unavoidable”
Totally agree. Plus, old people who die cannot sell their stocks.