[Genuine Realist]

Well, what else was happening during Jan and early Feb? Where was the press on this?  Why wasnt the Dem leadership screaming about this?  Maybe a bit preoccupied?


Trump will face and get his share of the blame.  As he should.  But as with most things like this there is plenty to go around. New York didn’t handle it well to begin with either. Look at the nursing homes debacle, DiBlasio originally telling people in essence to continue partying.

They were busy selling their stocks?
And the Dem leadership was screaming about it.



By Feb 4, half(!) of all congressional Democrats had tweeted about COVID-19 at least once.  So much so that Trump accused them of making coronavirus their new hoax.

The criticism against Cuomo and especially DiBlasio is absolutely on point.  I have made that criticism myself.  Incompetence in the response is not necessarily a partisan issue.  Cuomo and DiBlasio blew it (as have Republican governors of Georgia, Florida, and Texas).  Cuomo and DeBlasio are up for re-election in 2022; I probably wouldn't vote for them if I were a NY resident.

On the flip side, Mike DeWine's response in Ohio was generally very competent, as was Inslee's and Newsome's (at least until late; I think the failure to get contact tracing up and running will be his undoing).

BC

---

https://www.murphy.senate.gov/newsroom/p...s-response

U.S. Senators Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) on Wednesday along with 23 of their Democratic Senate colleagues, sent a letter to Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Alex Azar and Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Mick Mulvaney expressing their concern over the Trump Administration’s failure so far to outline what additional resources it needs to respond to the rapidly developing coronavirus outbreak. The letter comes after the Trump Administration released its new budget proposal, which suggested cutting public health and preparedness programs that help protect against global health threats.

This was February 19.

BC

This gets very old. Terry misses the point. 

Whatever you think of the United States response, the German was identical. HERE is the timeline for Germany - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_p...in_Germany- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_p...in_Germany

Take a look at section 4. The basic social action in January and February is identical for all practical purposes with the US (and with nearly every other Western nation) - nonchalance in January, rising concern in February, real panic in late February, drastic shutdown about March 10th. I don't know what timeline Farm83 looked at, but it wasn't this one.

The intelligence on the disease was available to all - it's not like military intelligence. So it is no surprising that the institutional response in the fist nine weeks of 2020 was virtually identical everywhere.

I don't know how often I've written this sentence, but the gating factor appears to be the clinical disaster in Italy, that made everyone sit up and take notice.

You'd think from the tenor of these posts that there were ice warnings everywhere, that other nations took prompt and proper action, and that the US sailed blithely ahead. That is simply not true. In fact, Trump's border closings on January 30th were well ahead of the curve = and roundly criticized by the New York Times, Joe Biden, and others, as xenophobic. I don't know what the Democrats were tweeting, but few (if any) of them were introducing legislation in the House. The Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, famously urged everyone to go out and socialize on Chinese New Year in the third week of February.

Social measures introduced in March have indeed done better in other countries than the US since then. But they have in common that they are homogenous ethnically, and without anything like the pluralistic diversity of the US, which in normal times is a gigantic plus. Those of you who want to re-create the social discipline of South Korea or Taiwan are in my opinion culturally myopic. No, thank you.

And as far as the discipline of the German people? It works out wonderfully well with pandemics, but not nearly so well in other historical contexts, a proposition with which you'll agree unless you have an extremely short memory. That's a bigotry to which I'll cheerfully confess. A German Chancellor will lecture an American President on human rights and freedom maybe 500 years from now, if that soon. 

Will you guys please give it up? You are not going to find the Western nation that foresaw the looming threat and reacted ahead of the curve. None did. We're in this mess because of the dynamics of the virus, not because someone missed a chance to fire a silver bullet.

---

Well, what else was happening during Jan and early Feb? Where was the press on this?  Why wasnt the Dem leadership screaming about this?  Maybe a bit preoccupied?


Trump will face and get his share of the blame.  As he should.  But as with most things like this there is plenty to go around. New York didn’t handle it well to begin with either. Look at the nursing homes debacle, DiBlasio originally telling people in essence to continue partying.

They were busy selling their stocks?
And the Dem leadership was screaming about it.



By Feb 4, half(!) of all congressional Democrats had tweeted about COVID-19 at least once.  So much so that Trump accused them of making coronavirus their new hoax.

The criticism against Cuomo and especially DiBlasio is absolutely on point.  I have made that criticism myself.  Incompetence in the response is not necessarily a partisan issue.  Cuomo and DiBlasio blew it (as have Republican governors of Georgia, Florida, and Texas).  Cuomo and DeBlasio are up for re-election in 2022; I probably wouldn't vote for them if I were a NY resident.

On the flip side, Mike DeWine's response in Ohio was generally very competent, as was Inslee's and Newsome's (at least until late; I think the failure to get contact tracing up and running will be his undoing).

BC

---

https://www.murphy.senate.gov/newsroom/p...s-response

U.S. Senators Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) on Wednesday along with 23 of their Democratic Senate colleagues, sent a letter to Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Alex Azar and Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Mick Mulvaney expressing their concern over the Trump Administration’s failure so far to outline what additional resources it needs to respond to the rapidly developing coronavirus outbreak. The letter comes after the Trump Administration released its new budget proposal, which suggested cutting public health and preparedness programs that help protect against global health threats.

This was February 19.

BC

The Senate letter is exactly the sort of indication of riding concern that began to appear in the second half of February. It's not an immediate call to action.

The Democrats in general were sharply critical of the measures Trump did take at the end of January. 

There are no heroes here.

[Genuine Realist]

Well, what else was happening during Jan and early Feb? Where was the press on this?  Why wasnt the Dem leadership screaming about this?  Maybe a bit preoccupied?


Trump will face and get his share of the blame.  As he should.  But as with most things like this there is plenty to go around. New York didn’t handle it well to begin with either. Look at the nursing homes debacle, DiBlasio originally telling people in essence to continue partying.

They were busy selling their stocks?
And the Dem leadership was screaming about it.



By Feb 4, half(!) of all congressional Democrats had tweeted about COVID-19 at least once.  So much so that Trump accused them of making coronavirus their new hoax.

The criticism against Cuomo and especially DiBlasio is absolutely on point.  I have made that criticism myself.  Incompetence in the response is not necessarily a partisan issue.  Cuomo and DiBlasio blew it (as have Republican governors of Georgia, Florida, and Texas).  Cuomo and DeBlasio are up for re-election in 2022; I probably wouldn't vote for them if I were a NY resident.

On the flip side, Mike DeWine's response in Ohio was generally very competent, as was Inslee's and Newsome's (at least until late; I think the failure to get contact tracing up and running will be his undoing).

BC

---

https://www.murphy.senate.gov/newsroom/p...s-response

U.S. Senators Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) on Wednesday along with 23 of their Democratic Senate colleagues, sent a letter to Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Alex Azar and Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Mick Mulvaney expressing their concern over the Trump Administration’s failure so far to outline what additional resources it needs to respond to the rapidly developing coronavirus outbreak. The letter comes after the Trump Administration released its new budget proposal, which suggested cutting public health and preparedness programs that help protect against global health threats.

This was February 19.

BC

This gets very old. Terry misses the point. 

Whatever you think of the United States response, the German was identical. HERE is the timeline for Germany - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_p...in_Germany- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_p...in_Germany

Take a look at section 4. The basic social action in January and February is identical for all practical purposes with the US (and with nearly every other Western nation) - nonchalance in January, rising concern in February, real panic in late February, drastic shutdown about March 10th. I don't know what timeline Farm83 looked at, but it wasn't this one.

The intelligence on the disease was available to all - it's not like military intelligence. So it is no surprising that the institutional response in the fist nine weeks of 2020 was virtually identical everywhere.

I don't know how often I've written this sentence, but the gating factor appears to be the clinical disaster in Italy, that made everyone sit up and take notice.

You'd think from the tenor of these posts that there were ice warnings everywhere, that other nations took prompt and proper action, and that the US sailed blithely ahead. That is simply not true. In fact, Trump's border closings on January 30th were well ahead of the curve = and roundly criticized by the New York Times, Joe Biden, and others, as xenophobic. I don't know what the Democrats were tweeting, but few (if any) of them were introducing legislation in the House. The Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, famously urged everyone to go out and socialize on Chinese New Year in the third week of February.

Social measures introduced in March have indeed done better in other countries than the US since then. But they have in common that they are homogenous ethnically, and without anything like the pluralistic diversity of the US, which in normal times is a gigantic plus. Those of you who want to re-create the social discipline of South Korea or Taiwan are in my opinion culturally myopic. No, thank you.

And as far as the discipline of the German people? It works out wonderfully well with pandemics, but not nearly so well in other historical contexts, a proposition with which you'll agree unless you have an extremely short memory. That's a bigotry to which I'll cheerfully confess. A German Chancellor will lecture an American President on human rights and freedom maybe 500 years from now, if that soon. 

Will you guys please give it up? You are not going to find the Western nation that foresaw the looming threat and reacted ahead of the curve. None did. We're in this mess because of the dynamics of the virus, not because someone missed a chance to fire a silver bullet.

---

Well, what else was happening during Jan and early Feb? Where was the press on this?  Why wasnt the Dem leadership screaming about this?  Maybe a bit preoccupied?


Trump will face and get his share of the blame.  As he should.  But as with most things like this there is plenty to go around. New York didn’t handle it well to begin with either. Look at the nursing homes debacle, DiBlasio originally telling people in essence to continue partying.

They were busy selling their stocks?
And the Dem leadership was screaming about it.



By Feb 4, half(!) of all congressional Democrats had tweeted about COVID-19 at least once.  So much so that Trump accused them of making coronavirus their new hoax.

The criticism against Cuomo and especially DiBlasio is absolutely on point.  I have made that criticism myself.  Incompetence in the response is not necessarily a partisan issue.  Cuomo and DiBlasio blew it (as have Republican governors of Georgia, Florida, and Texas).  Cuomo and DeBlasio are up for re-election in 2022; I probably wouldn't vote for them if I were a NY resident.

On the flip side, Mike DeWine's response in Ohio was generally very competent, as was Inslee's and Newsome's (at least until late; I think the failure to get contact tracing up and running will be his undoing).

BC

---

https://www.murphy.senate.gov/newsroom/p...s-response

U.S. Senators Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) on Wednesday along with 23 of their Democratic Senate colleagues, sent a letter to Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Alex Azar and Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Mick Mulvaney expressing their concern over the Trump Administration’s failure so far to outline what additional resources it needs to respond to the rapidly developing coronavirus outbreak. The letter comes after the Trump Administration released its new budget proposal, which suggested cutting public health and preparedness programs that help protect against global health threats.

This was February 19.

BC

The Senate letter is exactly the sort of indication of riding concern that began to appear in the second half of February. It's not an immediate call to action.

The Democrats in general were sharply critical of the measures Trump did take at the end of January. 

There are no heroes here.