[oregontim]

I don't care about what various motivations were.  I care about what what actually happened.  The bottom line is that this situation called for leadership from the administration, and for whatever reason, we didn't get it.  It called for an aggressive response to the epidemic, and instead we got denial and minimization.  It called for leadership, and instead we got blame-shifting.

BC

Well said. And I keep coming back to this: once China quarantined 60 million people on Jan. 22, the cat was out of the bag regardless of what the CCP was or was not saying. At that time, it was unprecedented in size and scope in modern human history. That only happens when it's really bad, and really contagious.

And as I said earlier, what kills me is that many civilians got the message without access to the high-level intelligence that our federal leaders had. Enough New Yorkers recognized the threat to buy out all surgical masks at Walgreens by Jan. 26, and enough Americans got the message to buy out all surgical masks on Amazon by Jan. 27. And on my Feb. 4 flight from NYC to SF, about 1/3 of the plane was wearing masks. Plenty of people had already recognized the threat and started responding to it.

Thoroughly agree with both BC and 2006 alum on the above. And also with the M T comment ...

(P.S. Isn't it ironic that this thread is named "The Blame Game MUST stop!" but the blame is running rampant.)

Absolutely true, the irony of the title of this thread. However, in the middle of a severe crisis like we are in, is it appropriate to dismiss analysis and criticism of our own public officials as merely "the blame game?" During this crisis we need to look hard and clearly at what's happened and what ought to happen next. No, we can't do anything about China, but as citizens of the USA, we ought to be able to look well and hard at what has happened here. Redefining criticism as merely "the blame game" is all too often a deflection tactic of those being criticized.

[oregontim]

I don't care about what various motivations were.  I care about what what actually happened.  The bottom line is that this situation called for leadership from the administration, and for whatever reason, we didn't get it.  It called for an aggressive response to the epidemic, and instead we got denial and minimization.  It called for leadership, and instead we got blame-shifting.

BC

Well said. And I keep coming back to this: once China quarantined 60 million people on Jan. 22, the cat was out of the bag regardless of what the CCP was or was not saying. At that time, it was unprecedented in size and scope in modern human history. That only happens when it's really bad, and really contagious.

And as I said earlier, what kills me is that many civilians got the message without access to the high-level intelligence that our federal leaders had. Enough New Yorkers recognized the threat to buy out all surgical masks at Walgreens by Jan. 26, and enough Americans got the message to buy out all surgical masks on Amazon by Jan. 27. And on my Feb. 4 flight from NYC to SF, about 1/3 of the plane was wearing masks. Plenty of people had already recognized the threat and started responding to it.

Thoroughly agree with both BC and 2006 alum on the above. And also with the M T comment ...

(P.S. Isn't it ironic that this thread is named "The Blame Game MUST stop!" but the blame is running rampant.)

Absolutely true, the irony of the title of this thread. However, in the middle of a severe crisis like we are in, is it appropriate to dismiss analysis and criticism of our own public officials as merely "the blame game?" During this crisis we need to look hard and clearly at what's happened and what ought to happen next. No, we can't do anything about China, but as citizens of the USA, we ought to be able to look well and hard at what has happened here. Redefining criticism as merely "the blame game" is all too often a deflection tactic of those being criticized.