[pefloresjr]

You don't think it helps to look for domestic villains but you are singularly focused on finding foreign villains, namely the CCP and WHO.  You repeatedly insist that they retarded our response by 6 weeks.  The travel restrictions were very limited, issued too late, and had inexplicable exceptions that pretty much assured they would fail.  The White House didn't issue its guidelines regarding social distancing until March 16th with the idea that they would be very temporary and only last two weeks.  Those guidelines have been repeatedly extended due to the pressure of reality.  From the time they were issued until now, the president has repeatedly minimized the seriousness of the pandemic and undermined the need for the stay at home measures.  Within the last week, he had his AG threaten to sue states that didn't open up on the president's timeline.  He also incited people to ignore the social distancing measures in political swing states.  All of this happened AFTER the 6 week delay that you assert CCP and WHO caused.  

I think CCP and WHO had some failings and some terrible bad acting that delayed the sharing of some important information.  However, a great deal of information was available by March and many people and countries acted on it.  I am not moved by the poor reaction of many Western nations, because in the USA there were many who saw the information and acted on it.  We had every opportunity to act.  The problem with your position is that the president has not acted with deliberation and strong leadership since the information became unquestionably known to all in the world.  The idea that the president would have acted any differently 6 weeks earlier if he had more information is laughable.  He didn't act after the information was known.  

I am sure you have at least some exposure to the concept of comparative fault.  In my view, you are correct that CCP mostly (WHO to a much lesser extent) bear some responsibility for not meeting their workplace responsibilities and moral duties to share information with the world in a more timely manner.  However, even after the information was out, our President only acted on that information in the most limited way with utmost recalcitrance.  The only thing that seems to be having an impact on this president is the growing number of deaths.  (About to pass 50,000 at this moment.)  In most states, the president would be deemed to be more at fault than the CCP/WHO because he mostly failed to act once he did get the information.  As a result he would be barred from any damages due to their behavior.  

To use an analogy, it would be like a situation where a meth cooker's house caught on fire but he didn't call the fire department because he was afraid he would be exposed and arrested.  The fire then spreads to a bunch of neighborhoods including our president's house a few blocks away, but he refuses to call the fire department despite the fact that all the other people whose houses on other blocks quickly started calling.  Our president however is afraid that the fire will be bad for property values and hurt his chances to get re-elected to the HOA board because he has promised everyone that their development is exceptional and the fire would probably just go away and we were doing a great job fighting the fire without the fire department.  Then, even after calling, he kept calling back and saying the fire department wasn't really needed and the fire is really very small.  After the president's house burns to the ground, would a jury award him any damages?  I sure as heck wouldn't.  That is the reason your focus on the failures of the CCP/WHO carry very little weight with me.  

Cheers,
Pete F.

[pefloresjr]

You don't think it helps to look for domestic villains but you are singularly focused on finding foreign villains, namely the CCP and WHO.  You repeatedly insist that they retarded our response by 6 weeks.  The travel restrictions were very limited, issued too late, and had inexplicable exceptions that pretty much assured they would fail.  The White House didn't issue its guidelines regarding social distancing until March 16th with the idea that they would be very temporary and only last two weeks.  Those guidelines have been repeatedly extended due to the pressure of reality.  From the time they were issued until now, the president has repeatedly minimized the seriousness of the pandemic and undermined the need for the stay at home measures.  Within the last week, he had his AG threaten to sue states that didn't open up on the president's timeline.  He also incited people to ignore the social distancing measures in political swing states.  All of this happened AFTER the 6 week delay that you assert CCP and WHO caused.  

I think CCP and WHO had some failings and some terrible bad acting that delayed the sharing of some important information.  However, a great deal of information was available by March and many people and countries acted on it.  I am not moved by the poor reaction of many Western nations, because in the USA there were many who saw the information and acted on it.  We had every opportunity to act.  The problem with your position is that the president has not acted with deliberation and strong leadership since the information became unquestionably known to all in the world.  The idea that the president would have acted any differently 6 weeks earlier if he had more information is laughable.  He didn't act after the information was known.  

I am sure you have at least some exposure to the concept of comparative fault.  In my view, you are correct that CCP mostly (WHO to a much lesser extent) bear some responsibility for not meeting their workplace responsibilities and moral duties to share information with the world in a more timely manner.  However, even after the information was out, our President only acted on that information in the most limited way with utmost recalcitrance.  The only thing that seems to be having an impact on this president is the growing number of deaths.  (About to pass 50,000 at this moment.)  In most states, the president would be deemed to be more at fault than the CCP/WHO because he mostly failed to act once he did get the information.  As a result he would be barred from any damages due to their behavior.  

To use an analogy, it would be like a situation where a meth cooker's house caught on fire but he didn't call the fire department because he was afraid he would be exposed and arrested.  The fire then spreads to a bunch of neighborhoods including our president's house a few blocks away, but he refuses to call the fire department despite the fact that all the other people whose houses on other blocks quickly started calling.  Our president however is afraid that the fire will be bad for property values and hurt his chances to get re-elected to the HOA board because he has promised everyone that their development is exceptional and the fire would probably just go away and we were doing a great job fighting the fire without the fire department.  Then, even after calling, he kept calling back and saying the fire department wasn't really needed and the fire is really very small.  After the president's house burns to the ground, would a jury award him any damages?  I sure as heck wouldn't.  That is the reason your focus on the failures of the CCP/WHO carry very little weight with me.  

Cheers,
Pete F.