Pin the Tail on the Donkey! Donald J Trump who gave the US the COVID Epidemic! I fully expect MAGA Cultists to never read or respond to this epidemiologic review of the SCIENCE!
March 13, 2020, is a day to live in INFAMY
The US could have prevented the majority of Covid deaths because we had the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans as barriers to Covid. The massive Covid Epidemic was largely avoidable except for the exceptionally inane actions Trump ordered.
The disaster was set up when Donald Trump signed a proclamation on March 13, 2020 for Americans to return to the US to 13 airports. (https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/presidential-actions/proclamation-declaring-national-emergency-concerning-novel-coronavirus-disease-covid-19-outbreak/ ) This became effective for flights taking off at 11:59 PM EDT on Friday, March 13th, Americans returning from all restricted countries were required to travel through the following 13 airports:
• Boston-Logan International Airport (BOS), Massachusetts
• Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD), Illinois
• Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), Texas
• Detroit Metropolitan Airport (DTW), Michigan
• Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL), Hawaii
• Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), Georgia
• John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), New York
• Los Angeles International Airport, (LAX), California
• Miami International Airport (MIA), Florida
• Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), New Jersey
• San Francisco International Airport (SFO), California
• Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA), Washington
• Washington-Dulles International Airport (IAD), Virginia
This was an acceptable start regardless of being too late in coming to protect our nation. However ,there was no thought given to prevent a mass spread of COVID. It was already too little-too late based on severity of Covid in Europe, in particular in Italy. Earlier action could have saved our country from Covid disaster.
Trump’s initial response of quarantining Cruise ship passengers infected with Covid was correct, it should be treated as a possible devastating plague but he totally “Wimped Out” when it came to following through to prevent a catastrophic covid epidemic. He initially was worried about the “numbers” of cases and how it would look and not about the welfare of our country. Donald Trump put being “Popular” ahead of his job as President and head of the executive branch to protect the USA and all Americans.
What came next was Epidemiologically the single worst public health approach ever seen in the US.
There was no care taken to prevent a massive epidemic from the returning Americans . The following paragraph describes how the repatriation was to occur:
“Upon arrival, travelers will proceed to standard customs processing. They will then continue to enhanced entry screening where the passenger will be asked about their medical history, current condition, and asked for contact information for local health authorities. Passengers will then be given written guidance about COVID-19 and directed to proceed to their final destination, and immediately home-quarantine in accordance with CDC best practices.”
The announcement went on to say:
“While the overall risk of serious infection from the coronavirus to the general public remains low at this time, the Trump administration is taking these aggressive measures to keep the risk low, requiring all Americans returning from affected areas in Europe to be funneled through 13 airports for screening upon their return to the U.S.,” said Acting Secretary Wolf.
This is where the Donald Trump and his anti-science administration carelessly created the nightmare scenario our country lived thru that caused tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths and likely hundreds of thousands or even over one million unnecessary deaths. What follows only makes sense if you were trying to create a massive Covid Epidemic. The severity of Covid in Italy was already known to the Trump administration. This paper shows the speed of the outbreak in Italy: “The COVID-19 Infection in Italy: A Statistical Study of an Abnormally Severe Disease” and a quick glance at the graphs showing the statistics in just a few days were frightening. We should have treated this outbreak in the same manner we would an Ebola outbreak but the Trump Administration had already dismantled much of our preparedness. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7291160/
Make no mistake, the severity of Covid was already well known established before the Trump Administration ignored public health and safety. The Trump Administration ignored and eliminated the preparedness plans for epidemics that were put in place during the Obama presidency. The Heritage 2025 plans for eliminating competent civil service works with political appointees would wreak havoc on any and all future preparedness for disasters and would make the Covid debacle pale in comparison.
Each and every plane bringing Americans home were essentially Covid incubators allowing the disease to spread freely to everyone on each and every plane. This was unfortunate but necessary though it would have made far more sense to have everyone on each and every plane masked during their flight and to fly the planes half full, possibly only one quarter full.
The truly stupid part based of the repatriation occurred when the planes were deboarded and all of the passengers were crowded like sardines in 13 airport incubaters. If you wanted to guarantee we had a severe epidemic this was the correct procedure. If Donald Trump and his clueless administration wanted to keep our country safe we would have kept the planes on the tarmac for hours if necessary, unloaded them one at a time directly on to busses that would then take them into isolation centers. Just that one change would have saved tens of thousands of lives just in 2020.
What was done is they were all unloaded and then the passengers were crowded into the airports and we had thirteen massive airport incubators spreading Covid and creating a severe infection that spread across our country.
According to the Department of Homeland Security website: “President Trump determined that the potential for widespread transmission of the coronavirus by infected individuals seeking to enter the United States threatens the security of the homeland.“
The problem is that crowding thousands of Americans into 13 airports with total lack of caution imported the plague. It was the responsibility of the Trump Administration to safely bring home Americans following logical and scientifically valid protocols. The Trump Administration actually caused the severe epidemic by sheer ignorance, carelessness and lack of logical thinking.
Donald Trump and his administration is guilty of manslaughter of tens of thousands of Americans. There was no malice, the Trump administration was merely careless.
Business Insider reported on March 16, 2020 “More than 40,000 people flooded US airports in the weekend after Trump’s coronavirus travel ban, creating a host of public-health mistakes.” https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-health-errors-airports-packed-trump-travel-ban-2020-3
NIH Resource Material: The Trump Administration and the COVID‐19 crisis: Exploring the warning‐response problems and missed opportunities of a public health emergency.
This article was published April 11, 2020 by New York Times “He Could Have Seen What Was Coming: Behind Trump’s Failure on the Virus”
“An examination reveals the president was warned about the potential for a pandemic but that internal divisions, lack of planning and his faith in his own instincts led to a halting response”.
Covid Cases in MA As of March 9, 2020: 1 Confirmed Case March 15, 2020 45 confirmed cases March 20, 2020 415 confirmed cases March 31, 2020 6620 Confirmed Cases