Widespread reports now are confirming three basic and serious problems with China’s response to Coronavirus:
- Purposefully limiting testing of those with mild symptoms to limit the number of confirmed cases.
- There is a crucial 6-day window when the government knew the pandemic was a serious problem, yet leaders downplayed it to the public, causing more cases & deaths.
- The government has silenced and threatened internal whistleblowers and those who have criticized the government’s response.
These are the sort of issues that come up with authoritarian governments in any crisis or major public policy situation. Yet with so many dead and the massive economic cost, criticism of them in this situation is loud and persistent.
Now, I’d like you to try an exercise… read through everything before this sentence and replace “China” with “United States.”
It is staggering how closely China’s centralized, authoratarian Communist government’s actions have matched that of the Trump Administration:
1. Lowering the amount of testing to lower case numbers.
There have been scattered reports of the Trump Administration (which by extension includes many GOP governors that determine their actions and statements based on whatever Trump is doing and saying) purposefully limited testing when it could have been more wide-spread. But their incompetence absolutely has limited testing and lowered official numbers. We are 39th in the world in testing/1M population. We have massively under-counted cases in America despite the official number being 3 times or more any other country. Yet nearly every day, Trump touts the amazing testing being done and the fact that we’ve tested more total people than any other country.
2. Initially misleading the country when there was knowledge and both private and public knowledge of the serious threat to life and that delay would cause more to die.
There was a crucial period of anywhere from 2 weeks to a month or more when senior leadership within the Trump Administration knew and were widely circulating information about the seriousness of the threat and loss of lives if action was not taken. During this time Trump himself was very publicly claiming to “have it under control,” “cases would be zero soon,” and that the public hype about it was a “hoax” designed to personally harm him and his chances for re-election.
Strip away all else and this single example places thousands of deaths squarely on Trump’s decision to put his campaign before American lives: Dr. Nancy Messonnier, the director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases PUBLICLY stated the virus was here and spreading and an already existing plan for mitigation should be implemented immediately. When Trump heard this he was furious and instructed her to be shut down because her announcement caused the stock market to go down, harming the economy and his re-election chances.
3. The cover-up and silencing those inside the administration and other officials who criticize Trump.
Starting with Dr. Messonnier, who was immediately limited from any further public statements and her boss, HHS head Azar, who had privately warned Trump of the impending deaths weeks earlier, was removed from the response team by Pence. In the fog of thousands of deaths, Trump has fired several whistleblowers, removed health officials who give dire warnings, and has publicly threatened to withhold funds and equipment from governors who have criticized his response.
Interestingly, it is primarily conservative news and GOP leaders who have been the most vocal and persistent in complaints about China, while the leader of their party has done nearly the same exact things here, directly causing thousands of deaths. As is usual, Trump accuses another party of doing exactly what he himself has done as a way of shielding himself from criticism.
The bottom line is that if you think our American democracy isn’t at grave risk, you should look closely at just how similar Trump’s actions are to China’s. And never forget it.
Patrick On Politics 