What are your thoughts on how government is handling COVID-19

[AGBF]

The government can coordinate through its multiple departments. It was your use of the word Trump can "order" manufacturers to make things that I was referring to. I don't want the POTUS "ordering" the private sector to do anything. That would be for any POTUS. The country is an entirely different place than we were during WWII.

I understand your point now, but I still have a problem with who is going to lead this mobilization to produce and then to distribute quickly.. If not the president, then whom? Someone has to take charge. Someone has to be "Tom Brady" as Governor Inslee said. If you don't like "ordering", fine. But something big has to be done and fast! Maybe the president can inspire or delegate...but he has to be able to do it if he doesn't order because letting people die is simply unacceptable.

 

[yssie]

Because cheap.

And because no regard for welfare or Human Rights!

Yep. And everyone is addicted to cheap crap. It is hard to try to buy things not from China.

This. Just this.

The race to the bottom (of labour pricing) began with us outsourcing to Mexico.
Then Mexicans decided quality of life was important, so we had to find a new source for Cheap.
Now China and India are beginning to rebel against our model of making the rest of the world suffer for our wants... Oh, the ignominy!
Africa's next.

 

[yssie]

I lived in Hong Kong.

CV isn't a "Chinese disease". I'm sorry for anyone who's had to deal with the consequences of that unjust label.

It is a "wet market disease" - and the world has dealt with other "wet market diseases" before. It is my firm opinion that these wet markets - in all countries and cultures that espouse them - are inherently deadly practices that should all be outlawed for global health and welfare. No exceptions. No tradition is worth the price humanity pays.

 

[soxfan]

And..... I'm done. Multiple people in Govt testing positive right now. Does this look like 6 feet? F-ing MORON.

 

[Karl_K]

GM we can make respirators, Trump ok kewl, that will be a $1 billion up front, Trump not on my watch, here is your defense production act order.
As much as I hate the government telling a company what they have to produce, I back this 100%.

 

[redwood66]

GM we can make respirators, Trump ok kewl, that will be a $1 billion up front, Trump not on my watch, here is your defense production act order.
As much as I hate the government telling a company what they have to produce, I back this 100%.

And I hate hate hate that it had to come to this. Did I say I hate it?

 

[Karl_K]

And I hate hate hate that it had to come to this. Did I say I hate it?

Me 2, but I support doing it.

 

[redwood66]

Me 2, but I support doing it.

Me too. He did call their bluff and as far as I'm concerned they've received enough taxpayer funds from the last bailout.

 

[Karl_K]

On the good news front.
The FDA finally officially approved industrial m95 masks for medical use.
The have been using them anyway but it opens up federal funds to buy them and gives the government more power to go after price gougers on industrial masks.
3m has its factories ramped up to as fast as they can for both industrial and medical masks(there are separate lines in the plants for medical masks due to fda rules)

 

[Dancing Fire]

Seriously Americans think this idiot is doing a good job???? WTF!!!!

Gallup: 60 percent of Americans approve of President Trump’s response to coronavirus

President Trump is as popular as he’s ever been right now

www.wfla.com

 

[arkieb1]

Gallup: 60 percent of Americans approve of President Trump’s response to coronavirus

President Trump is as popular as he’s ever been right now

www.wfla.com

I wonder if he is paying the people that do these polls to say these things because it's obvious to someone outside of the US he is doing a very average to bad job handling this, particularly in the early stages of it and as an Aussie I can sit back and compare his responses to other world leaders.

And this isn't about conservative bashing, we have a conservative government currently in Australia they have done so far, a better job than many other places of preparing for and handling the disease. The state I live in has a left government controlling what happens locally and I think they have done a fairly average job so far.

And on a really local level they have local council elections this weekend that should have been cancelled and shut down that were not. We elected to postal vote but they are idiots for forcing people to go to that (it's compulsory to vote here or you get hefty fines) ie people have to line up and vote in confined spaces where lots of people will go and touch the same things at booths over and over.

 

[Calliecake]

Trump should have been doing this 2 months ago. There is no excuse for how unprepared we are in fighting this. We knew about this virus in January. This president has failed miserably.

 

[Dancing Fire]

Trump should have been doing this 2 months ago. There is no excuse for how unprepared we are in fighting this. We knew about this virus in January. This president has failed miserably.

That is when he started to ban Chinese flights from coming into the US. China knew about this virus well ahead of any other country but they chose to cover it up for at least one month before it gotten out of control...

 

[jaaron]

I wonder if he is paying the people that do these polls to say these things because it's obvious to someone outside of the US he is doing a very average to bad job handling this, particularly in the early stages of it and as an Aussie I can sit back and compare his responses to other world leaders.

I suspect it's because people are busy, stressed, afraid, suddenly worried about the economy, their jobs, friends and family. Best case scenario, they're having to restructure their lives and childcare to work from home, and many live in areas that have not yet been hard hit. So they're seeing a minute or two of a news conference between trying to handle this enormous and sudden life change, and have no idea what an absolute disaster he's making of this. Unfortunately, no place is going to be immune, and I suspect the truth will become apparent. Plus, all presidents get a bump in a crisis-- I saw something the other day the showed Carter even got one during the Iran hostage crisis--but they don't tend to last.

 

[Calliecake]

That is when he started to ban Chinese flights from coming into the US. China knew about this virus well ahead of any other country but they chose to cover it up for at least one month before it gotten out of control...

Why didn’t our country ramp up production of masks, PPE and ventilators when we found out what was happening in China back in January? As a result our doctors, nurses and first responders don’t have the supplies they need to protect themselves and help save others. The position we have put our doctors, nurses and first responders in is shameful. This is a failure on our government

Stopping flights from China wasn’t doing enough and we knew this months ago. How quickly you forget that this administration didn’t listen to the warnings from scientists that have been reported the past two months.

 

[jaaron]

That is when he started to ban Chinese flights from coming into the US. China knew about this virus well ahead of any other country but they chose to cover it up for at least one month before it gotten out of control...

I know you won't read this, DF, since it's not a Fox News bite, but they had ample opportunity to do so much more. Not only were American citizens not banned from coming from China, crucially, they weren't tested or checked for fever. There's absolutely no reason to have assumed they weren't carriers. Additionally, as Smitcompton pointed out, the outgoing Obama team literally left pandemic plan infrastructure in place for the the Trump transition team. Lisa Monaco is very interesting on that topic.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/us-intelligence-reports-from-january-and-february-warned-about-a-likely-pandemic/2020/03/20/299d8cda-6ad5-11ea-b5f1-a5a804158597_story.html

 

[jaaron]

Perhaps the US government should spend less across the board instead of devising ways to take more of taxpayer wealth.

If that's in response to my post, the point I was trying to make wasn't about how much the government spends or doesn't spend. It was that if we make personal wealth above and beyond a certain level pointless, we lose the impetus for people to outsource jobs and manufacture cheap products under questionable circumstances.

 

[redwood66]

Why didn’t our country ramp up production of masks, PPE and ventilators when we found out what was happening in China back in January? As a result our doctors, nurses and first responders don’t have the supplies they need to protect themselves and help save others. The position we have put our doctors, nurses and first responders in is shameful. This is a failure on our government

Stopping flights from China wasn’t doing enough and we knew this months ago. How quickly you forget that this administration didn’t listen to the warnings from scientists that have been reported the past two months.

There are plenty of articles stating that over half of the world's supply of these things are produced by China and they stopped shipping them out to other countries.

 

[jaaron]

@jaaron while I concur on other things you mentioned on your post, I'm skeptical truly progressive taxation on personal wealth would solve the problem. Those people could simply emigrate to another country (like how so many companies are now "based" in Ireland) where they could continue carrying on same as before.

Yes, I agree. You would need a degree of international cooperation that's probably impossible. But I'm also not talking about corporation tax, I'm talking taxes on personal wealth above and beyond a certain level. As long as you're a US citizen, you're paying those no matter where you live in the world. Granted the superrich generally find ways to dodge, but we could certainly make that harder if we wanted.

 

[redwood66]

If that's in response to my post, the point I was trying to make wasn't about how much the government spends or doesn't spend. It was that if we make personal wealth above and beyond a certain level pointless, we lose the impetus for people to outsource jobs and manufacture cheap products under questionable circumstances.

Personal wealth is not property of anyone but the owner and it certainly doesn't belong to the government. It is always my opinion that the government should spend less before taking more.

 

[Calliecake]

There are plenty of articles stating that over half of the world's supply of these things are produced by China and they stopped shipping them out to other countries.

And the richest county in the world can’t figure out a way to get them made quickly here in our country??? PLEASE! We have a defense production act specifically for emergencies like this.

ETA, @redwood, I apologize if this came off sounding angry at you. I’m just frustrated at what is happening in the country.

 

[redwood66]

And the richest county in the world can’t figure out a way to get them made quickly here in our country??? PLEASE! We have a defense production act specifically for emergencies like this.

Companies have been making them and/or donating them.

 

[Calliecake]

My point is this should have been happening two months ago. Our government should have been coordinating these efforts as soon as they found out there was a problem and helping states get what was needed. It’s their job.

 

[arkieb1]

My point is this should have been happening two months ago. Our government should have been coordinating these efforts as soon as they found out there was a problem and helping states get what was needed. It’s their job.

Yes that is exactly my point too. In Australia we had samples of the virus in our labs and were trying to find cures for it the beginning of this year, our Government saw there were no masks available in China and realised well over a month or more ago we would not be able to get any so they put in place plans of action to manufacture more here sending army staff to help. They instructed various companies to stop manufacturing specific products and to turn their facilities into making supplied and things needed to combat this disease instead. Even then we still have shortfalls of everything.

The US did and is doing all of those things, but for an advance nation you did them much much more slowly than Australia did. Who is to blame for that? Make no mistake about it, Trump and his administration are directly at fault for not acting as quickly as they should have and for not taking the disease more seriously in the beginning thinking it was an "Asian" problem when the reality is, it was and IS a global problem.

 

[Lula]

Why didn’t our country ramp up production of masks, PPE and ventilators when we found out what was happening in China back in January? As a result our doctors, nurses and first responders don’t have the supplies they need to protect themselves and help save others. The position we have put our doctors, nurses and first responders in is shameful. This is a failure on our government

Stopping flights from China wasn’t doing enough and we knew this months ago. How quickly you forget that this administration didn’t listen to the warnings from scientists that have been reported the past two months.

Oh, but they did take action. They dumped their stock.

 

[soxfan]

 

[Karl_K]

My point is this should have been happening two months ago. Our government should have been coordinating these efforts as soon as they found out there was a problem and helping states get what was needed. It’s their job.

Actually it isn't.
The federal government has no authority to act except as advisors until requested by the states.
The states are the first responders the federal government are relief pitchers.
This comes up every time there is an emergency of some kind.

The bureaucrats at the cdc failed miserably advising the states that is true.

 

[voce]

Yes, I agree. You would need a degree of international cooperation that's probably impossible. But I'm also not talking about corporation tax, I'm talking taxes on personal wealth above and beyond a certain level. As long as you're a US citizen, you're paying those no matter where you live in the world. Granted the superrich generally find ways to dodge, but we could certainly make that harder if we wanted.

Yes, I'm aware that as a US citizen I owe the US government taxes from anywhere in the world, but a filthy rich person would have no trouble repatriating to, say, Panama if they do wished and cease to be a US citizen to avoid taxes.

 

[yssie]

Actually it isn't.
The federal government has no authority to act except as advisors until requested by the states.
The states are the first responders the federal government are relief pitchers.
This comes up every time there is an emergency of some kind.

The bureaucrats at the cdc failed miserably advising the states that is true.

Not eliminating the governmental body responsible for and best suited to directing national response to a pandemic would have been a great start.

But, having done that, acknowledging a need for that now-defunct agency and doing something about it the moment there were rumblings of pandemic potential would have been a great step.

 

[Karl_K]

Not eliminating the governmental body responsible for and best suited to directing national response to a pandemic would have been a great start.

But, having done that, acknowledging a need for that now-defunct agency and doing something about it the moment there were rumblings of pandemic potential would have been a great step.

That is the cdc's job

heck it even says so right on their website:
"CDC increases the health security of our nation. As the nation’s health protection agency, "

The bureaucrats at cdc were to busy playing left wing politics to do their job.
Every last one of them needs to be fired once this is over.