COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
The ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a new infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), spread to the United States in January 2020. Cases have occurred in all fifty U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and all inhabited U.S. territories except American Samoa.
2021[edit]
- The number of cases and deaths of the China Virus is far exaggerated in the United States because of @CDCgov’s ridiculous method of determination compared to other countries, many of whom report, purposely, very inaccurately and low. “When in doubt, call it Covid.” Fake News!
- President Trump via a Twitter tweet posted January 3, 2020
- While I was disappointed in my colleagues who refused to wear a mask, I was encouraged by those who did. My goal, in the midst of what I feared was a super spreader event, was to make the room at least a little safer.
- Lisa Blunt via a twitter tweet January 8, 2021
- On Wednesday January 6, many members of the House community were in protective isolation in room located in a large committee hearing space
- Brian Monahan, Congress's attending physician in Lawmakers may have been exposed to coronavirus during Capitol riot lockdown January 10, 2020
2020[edit]
- March 6: It’ll go away.
- March 10: Just stay calm. It will go away.
- March 12: It’s going to go away.
- March 30: It will go away. You know it — you know it is going away, and it will go away, and we’re going to have a great victory.
- March 31: It’s going to go away, hopefully at the end of the month. And, if not, hopefully it will be soon after that.
- April 3: It is going to go away… It’s going — I didn’t say a date. … I said ‘it’s going away,’ and it is going away.
- April 7: It did go — it will go away.
- May 15: It’ll go away — at some point, it’ll go away.
- June 15: At some point, this stuff goes away. And it's going away.
- July 19: I will be right eventually. You know, I said, ‘It's going to disappear.’ I'll say it again.
- Aug. 5: This thing's going away. It will go away like things go away.
- Aug. 31: It's going to go away.
- Sept. 15: It is going away. And it's probably going to go away now a lot faster because of the vaccines.
- Oct. 10: It's going to disappear; it is disappearing.
- Oct. 24: It is going away; it’s rounding the turn.
- Predicted by Donald Trump according to The coronavirus will simply go away published December 29, 2020
January 2020[edit]
- Under the CARES Act, millions of Americans have received Economic Impact Payments. The IRS will continue to make these payments through December 31, 2020.
January 20[edit]
- This will be our Pearl Harbor.
- Us surgeon general Jerome Adams [1], January 20
January 21[edit]
- Greg Kelly: Bottom line. We don't have to worry about this one, right?
- Anthony Fauci: Well, you know, obviously you need to take it seriously, and do the kinds of things that the CDC and the Department of Homeland Security are doing. But this is not a major threat for the people of the United States and this is not something that the citizens of the United States right now should be worried about.
- Anthony Fauci in a television interview with Newsmax's anchor Greg Kelly on January 21, 2020, quoted in Trump’s and Fox News’s downplaying of the coronavirus wasn’t on par with other media, no matter what you read (April 6, 2020) by Aaron Blake, The Washington Post
January 22[edit]
- Joe Kernen: It was a couple of years ago. Before we get started-- with- we're going talk about the economy and a lot of other things--the CDC-- has identified a case of coronavirus-- in Washington state. The Wuhan strain of this. If you remember SARS, that affected GDP. Travel-related effects. Do you-- have you been briefed by the CDC? And--
- Donald Trump: I have, and--
- Joe Kernen: --are there worries about a pandemic at this point?
- Donald Trump: No. Not at all. And-- we're-- we have it totally under control. It's one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It's—going to be just fine.
- Joe Kernen: Okay. And President Xi-- there's just some-- talk in China that maybe the transparency isn't everything that it's going to be. Do you trust that we're going to know everything we need to know from China?
- Donald Trump: I do. I do. I have a great relationship with President Xi. We just signed probably the biggest deal ever made. It certainly has the potential to be the biggest deal ever made. And-- it was a very interesting period of time time.
- Joe Kernen: Yeah. Let’s get into that--
- Donald Trump: But we got it done, and-- no, I do. I think-- the relationship is very, very good.
- Donald Trump in an interview with CNBC's Joe Kernen at the World Economic Forum in Davod, Switzerland, January 22, 2020. Transcript online at CNBC
January 24[edit]
- China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency.
- Donald Trump, cited by Adam Serwer (24 January 2020), "Trump Is Inciting a Coronavirus Culture War to Save Himself", The Atlantic
January 26[edit]
- It’s a very, very low risk to the United States, but it’s something that we as public health officials need to take very seriously... It isn’t something the American public needs to worry about or be frightened about. Because we have ways of preparing and screening of people coming in [from China]. And we have ways of responding - like we did with this one case in Seattle, Washington, who had traveled to China and brought back the infection. [...] We’ve just got to make sure that we are totally prepared [since] infectious diseases will continue to emerge on the human species. And we’ve got to be essentially perpetually prepared.
- Anthony Fauci, as quoted in Government health agency official: Coronavirus 'isn't something the American public need to worry about' by J. Edward Moreno, 26 January 2020, The Hill
February 2020[edit]
February 5, 2020[edit]
- On 28 January China said it would welcome international help as it struggled to contain coronavirus. No substantial help has come. Instead of solidarity and defying WHO, the US, Australia, Britain seek to isolate China, returning it to a state of siege and the dangers of the past
- John Pilger Twitter (5 February 2020)
February 10, 2020[edit]
- And by the way, the virus. They're working hard. Looks like by April, you know, in theory, when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away. I hope that's true.
- Donald Trump, 2020, Rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, 2020-02-10, quoted in Doyle McManus (26 February 2020), "Trump’s dangerous message on coronavirus", LA Times
February 17, 2020[edit]
- Why don't you act a little more positive.
February 24, 2020[edit]
- The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries. CDC, 2020 & World Health, 2020 have been working hard and very smart. Stock Market starting to look very good to me!
- Donald Trump, 2020, Twitter, 24 Feb 2020. Quoted in Trump’s Statements About the Coronavirus (March 18, 2020) by Rem Rieder, FactCheck.org
February 25, 2020[edit]
- We will not see diseases like the coronavirus come here. And isn’t it refreshing when contrasting it with the awful presidency of President Obama, 2020?
- Kayleigh McEnany, 2020 at a press briefing on February 25, 2020, (the United States had 15 confirmed cases at the time); quoted in 'We won't see coronavirus here' ... and other gems from Trump's new press secretar by David Smith and Emily Holden (April 8, 2020), from The Guardian, 2020.
February 26, 2020[edit]
- And again, when you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that's a pretty good job we've done.
- Donald Trump, 2020, regarding known coronavirus cases. White House press conference, 2020-02-26, quoted in Chris Riotta (11 March 2020), "Coronavirus: US passes 1,000 cases – two weeks after Trump said number would soon be 'close to zero'", The Independent (UK)
- We know all the people. We know all the good people. It's a question I asked the doctors before. Some of the people we cut, they haven't been used for many, many years, and if we ever need them, we can get them very quickly. And rather than spending the money — I'm a businessperson, I don't like having thousands of people around when you don't need 'em, when we need 'em, we can get them back very quickly.
- Donald Trump, 2020, about his consistent budget cuts, 2020 to the CDC, 2020, the NIH, and the WHO, 2020.
- White House press conference, 2020-02-26, quoted in Jonathan Chait (28 February 2020), "As the World Reaches for Face Masks, Trump Buries His Head in the Sand", New York Magazine
February 27, 2020[edit]
- It's going to disappear. One day it's like a miracle, it will disappear. And from our shores, we — you know, it could get worse before it gets better. It could maybe go away. We'll see what happens. Nobody really knows.
- Donald Trump, 2020, regarding coronavirus. African American History Month reception, White House, 2020-02-27, quoted in Yasmeen Abutaleb, Ashley Parker and Josh Dawsey (29 February 2020), "Inside Trump’s frantic attempts to minimize the coronavirus crisis", Washington Post
February 28, 2020[edit]
- We are stronger, we are better, but while we are building a great future, the radical left, 2020 Democrats in Washington are trying to burn it all down. They have spent the last three years, and I can even go further than that, three years since the election, but we go before the election, working to erase your ballots and overthrow our democracy. But with your help, we have exposed the far left’s corruption, 2020 and defeated their sinister schemes and let’s see what happens in the coming months. Let’s watch. Let’s just watch. Very dishonest people. Now the Democrats are politicizing the coronavirus, you know that right? Coronavirus, they’re politicizing it. We did one of the great jobs. You say, “How’s President Trump doing?” They go, “Oh, not good, not good.” They have no clue. They don’t have any clue. They can’t even count their votes in Iowa. They can’t even count. No, they can’t. They can’t count their votes.
- Donald Trump, 2020, at Charleston, South Carolina Rally (February 28, 2020), transcript online at Rev, 2020.
- One of my people came up to me and said, “Mr. President, they tried to beat you on Russia, Russia, Russia.” That didn’t work out too well. They couldn’t do it. They tried the impeachment, 2020 hoax. That was on a perfect conversation. They tried anything. They tried it over and over. They’d been doing it since you got in. It’s all turning. They lost. It’s all turning. Think of it. Think of it. And this is their new hoax. But we did something that’s been pretty amazing. We have 15 people in this massive country and because of the fact that we went early. We went early, we could have had a lot more than that. We’re doing great. Our country is doing so great. We are so unified. We are so unified. The Republican party has never ever been unified like it is now. There has never been a movement in the history of our country like we have now. Never been a movement. So a statistic that we want to talk about, go ahead. Say USA. It’s okay. USA. So a number that nobody heard of, that I heard of recently and I was shocked to hear it, 35,000 people on average die each year from the flu. Did anyone know that? 35,000, that’s a lot of people. It could go to 100,000, it could be 27,000. They say usually a minimum of 27, goes up to 100,000 people a year die. And so far we have lost nobody to coronavirus in the United States. Nobody. And it doesn’t mean we won’t and we are totally prepared. It doesn’t mean we won’t, but think of it. You hear 35 and 40,000 people and we’ve lost nobody and you wonder the press is in hysteria mode. CNN fake news and the camera just went off, the camera. The camera just went off. Turn it back on. Hey, by the way, hold it. Look at this, and honestly, all events are like this. It’s about us. It’s all about us. I wish they’d take the camera, show the arena please. They never do. They never do. They never do it. They never show the arena. You can hear it because when you hear it, that’s not 200 people. That’s not a hundred people. That’s thousands and thousands of people including people outside. You can hear it. [...] While the extreme left has been wasting America’s time with these vile hoaxes, we’ve been killing terrorists, creating jobs, raising wages, enacting fair trade deals, securing our border, and lifting up citizens of every race, religion, color, and creed. We added another 225,000 jobs last month alone. And that makes seven million jobs since our election, seven million. The unemployment rate in the great state of South Carolina. You ever hear of that place?
- Donald Trump, 2020, at Charleston, South Carolina Rally (February 28, 2020), transcript online at Rev, 2020.
- My administration has taken the most aggressive action in modern history to prevent the spread of this illness in the United States. We are ready. We are ready. Totally ready. On January 31st, I ordered the suspension of foreign nationals who have recently been in China from entering the United States. An action which the Democrats loudly criticized and protested and now everybody’s complimenting me saying, “Thank you very much. You were 100% correct.” Could’ve been a whole different story. But I say, so let’s get this right. A virus starts in China, bleeds its way into various countries all around the world, doesn’t spread widely at all in the United States because of the early actions that myself and my administration took against a lot of other wishes, and the Democrats’ single talking point, and you see it, is that it’s Donald Trump’s fault, right? It’s Donald Trump’s fault. No, just things that happened.
- Donald Trump, 2020, at Charleston, South Carolina Rally (February 28, 2020), transcript online at Rev, 2020.
- But you know what this does show you? Things happen. Whoever thought of this two weeks ago? Who would’ve thought this could be going on four weeks ago? You wouldn’t. But things happen in life and you have to be prepared and you have to be flexible and you have to be able to go out and get it. And my guys that we have the best professionals in the world, the best in the world and we are so ready. At the same time that I initiated the first federally mandated quarantine in over 50 years. We had a quarantine some people. They weren’t happy, they weren’t happy about it. I want to tell you there are a lot of people that not so happy, but after two weeks they got happy. You know who got happy? The people around them got happy. That’s who got happy.
- At Charleston, South Carolina Rally (February 28, 2020), transcript online at Rev, 2020.
- Note: Luciana Borio, 2020, former director of Medical and Biodefense Preparedness Policy at the National Security Council, said at a symposium at Emory University in Atlanta, 2020 in 2018, marking the 100th anniversary of 1918 flu pandemic: "The threat, 2020 of pandemic flu is the number one health security concern, are we ready to respond? I fear the answer is no." As quoted in Contrary to Trump’s Claim, A Pandemic Was Widely Expected at Some Point (March 20, 2020) by Rem Rieder, FactCheck.org.
- I also created a White House virus task force, 2020. It’s a big thing, a virus task force. I requested 2.5 billion dollars to ensure we have the resources we need. The Democrats said, “That’s terrible. He’s doing the wrong thing. He needs eight and a half billion, not two and a half.” I’ve never had that before. I ask for two and a half, they want to give me eight and a half, so I said, “I’ll take it.” Does that make me a bad… I’ll take it. I’ll take it. I never had that before. I never had it. We want two and a half million. That’s plenty. We demand you take eight and a half. He doesn’t know what he’s doing. We want eight and a half. These people are crazy. We must understand that border security is also health security. And you’ve all seen the wall has gone up like magic. It’s gone up like magic. You think that was an easy one? That was not an easy one. It’s going up great and we’re up now 132 miles and this is the exact wall that border security, water, everything.
- Donald Trump, 2020, at Charleston, South Carolina Rally (February 28, 2020), transcript online at Rev, 2020.
March 2020[edit]
March 3, 2020[edit]
- I don't think that we are going to get out of this completely unscathed, I think that this is going to be one of those things we look back on and say boy, that was bad.
- Anthony Fauci, 2020, as quoted in 'You don't want to go to war with a president', 3 March 2020, Politico.
- It could be really, really bad. I don't think it's gonna be, because I think we'd be able to do the kind of mitigation. It could be mild. I don't think it's going to be that mild either. It's really going to depend on how we mobilize.
- Anthony Fauci, 2020, as quoted in 'You don't want to go to war with a president', 3 March 2020, Politico.
- It's really, really tough because you have to be honest with the American public and you don't want to scare the hell out of them. And then other times, in attempts to calm people down, [leaders] have had people be complacent about it. This is particularly problematic in a 'gotcha' town like Washington, 2020.
- Anthony Fauci, 2020, as quoted in 'You don't want to go to war with a president', 3 March 2020, Politico.
March 4, 2020[edit]
- Well, I think the 3.4% is really a false number. Now, and this is just my hunch, and — but based on a lot of conversations with a lot of people that do this. Because a lot people will have this and it's very mild. They'll get better very rapidly. They don't even see a doctor. They don't even call a doctor. You never hear about those people. So you can't put them down in the category of the overall population in terms of this corona flu and/or virus. So you just can't do that. So, if, you know, we have thousands or hundreds of thousands of people that get better just by, you know, sitting around and even going to work. Some of them go to work, but they get better.
- Donald Trump, 2020. Hannity, Fox News, 2020-03-04, quoted in Inae Oh (5 March 2020), "Trump Unleashes More Coronavirus Misinformation on National Television", Mother Jones
March 5, 2020[edit]
- We have contained this. I won't say airtight but pretty close to airtight.
- Larry Kudlow, 2020, White House economic adviser, 2020-02-25, quoted in Vera Bergengruen and W.J. Hennigan (5 March 2020), "‘Doomed from the Start.’ Experts Say the Trump Administration’s Coronavirus Response Was Never Going to Work", Time Magazine
March 6, 2020[edit]
- But as of right now and yesterday, anybody that needs a test — That's the important thing. And the tests, 2020 are all perfect. Like, the letter was perfect. The transcription was perfect. Right? This was not as perfect as that but pretty good.
- Donald Trump, 2020, comparing coronavirus tests, 2020 to his Ukraine phone call that led to his impeachment
- during tour of Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, 2020-03-06, quoted in Chas Danner (6 March 2020), "Trump Says Coronavirus Testing Is as ‘Perfect’ as His Ukraine Call", New York
- They would like to have the people come off. I'd rather have the people stay, but I'd go with them. I told them to make the final decision. I would rather — because I like the numbers being where they are. I don't need to have the numbers double because of one ship that wasn't our fault.
- Donald Trump, 2020, regarding Grand Princess cruise ship with 21 diagnosed cases of coronavirus
- during tour of Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020 in Atlanta, 2020-03-06, quoted in Peter Baker (6 March 2020), "Trump Says ‘People Have to Remain Calm’ Amid Coronavirus Outbreak", New York Times
- You know, my uncle was a great person. He was at MIT. He taught at MIT for, I think, like a record number of years. He was a great super genius. Dr. John Trump. I like this stuff. I really get it. People are surprised that I understand it. Every one of these doctors said, "How do you know so much about this?" Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for President.
- Donald Trump, 2020, during tour of Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, 2020-03-06, quoted in David Nakamura (6 March 2020), "‘Maybe I have a natural ability’: Trump plays medical expert on coronavirus by second-guessing the professionals", Washington Post
March 7, 2020[edit]
- Amid the coronavirus outbreak and financial crisis, 2020, older voters are backing Biden, 2020. He may be boring but at least he’s familiar and safe.
Since 24 February, with the lethal coronavirus spreading around the world, middle-aged and older Americans – not only most vulnerable to the disease but also accounting for most retirement savings – have been fleeing stocks for the relative safety of US government bonds.
March 8, 2020[edit]
- Even before we knew it was a coronavirus, I said it certainly sounds like a coronavirus-SARS type thing. As soon as it was identified, I called a meeting of top-level people and said, 'Let's start working on a vaccine, 2020 right now.'
- Anthony Fauci, 2020, as quoted in Not his first epidemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci sticks to the facts (March 8, 2020) by Denise Grady, The New York Times, 2020.
- Jonathan LaPook: There’s a lot of confusion among people, and misinformation, 2020, surrounding face masks, 2020. Can you discuss that?
- Anthony Fauci, 2020: The masks are important for someone who’s infected to prevent them from infecting someone else… Right now in the United States, people should not be walking around with masks.
- LaPook: You’re sure of it? Because people are listening really closely to this.
- Fauci: …There’s no reason to be walking around with a mask. When you’re in the middle of an outbreak, wearing a mask might make people feel a little bit better and it might even block a droplet, but it’s not providing the perfect protection that people think that it is. And, often, there are unintended consequences — people keep fiddling with the mask and they keep touching their face.
- LaPook: And can you get some schmutz, sort of staying inside there?
- Fauci: Of course, of course. But, when you think masks, you should think of health care providers, 2020 needing them and people who are ill. The people who, when you look at the films of foreign countries and you see 85% of the people wearing masks — that’s fine, that’s fine. I’m not against it. If you want to do it, that’s fine.
- LaPook: But it can lead to a shortage of masks, 2020?
- Fauci: Exactly, that’s the point. It could lead to a shortage, 2020 of masks for the people who really need it.
- Anthony Fauci, 2020 in an interview with Jon LaPook, chief medical correspondent for CBS News, CBS' 60 Minutes, 8 March 2020. As quoted in Outdated Fauci Video on Face Masks Shared Out of Context (May 19, 2020) by Saranac Hale Spencer, FactCheck.org
- The governors are really on the front lines. I think there's been pretty good cooperation at the federal, state and local level, but this thing is escalating so rapidly that information is changing, not only on a daily basis, but almost on an hourly basis.
- Gov. Larry Hogan, 2020, quoted in Fauci: Those 'vulnerable' to coronavirus should limit travel and crowd exposure, NBC News, (8 March 2020)
March 9, 2020[edit]
- The chorus of hate being leveled at the president is nearing a crescendo as Democrats blame him, and only him, for a virus that originated halfway around the world. This is yet another attempt to impeach the president, and sadly it seems they care very little for any of the destruction they are leaving in their wake. Losses in the stock market, all this, unfortunately. Just part of the political casualties for them. You know, this is the time to be united, not to be pointing fingers, not to be encouraging hate, and yet what do we see? We see the absolute opposite from the left tonight. [...] This is impeachment all over again. And like with the Mueller investigation, like with the Ukraine-gate, they don't care who they hurt, whether it be their need to create mass hysteria to encourage a massive sell-off in an overly anxious stock market or, to create mass hysteria in order to stop our economy, 2020 dead in its tracks.
- Trish Regan, Trish Regan PrimeTime, Fox Business, 2019-03-09, quoted in Matt Steib (10 March 2020), "Fox Business Network: COVID-19 Is a ‘Coronavirus Impeachment Scam’", Intelligencer (New York Magazine)
March 10, 2020[edit]
- I'm not going to belabor this, I'm just going to tell you that for just your daily life and your gums and your teeth for regular viruses and bacteria, the patented nanosilver we have, the Pentagon has come out and documented and Homeland Security has said this stuff kills the whole SARS-corona family at point blank range. Well of course it does, it kills every virus. But they found that. This is 13 years ago. And the Pentagon uses the product we have.
- Alex Jones, 2020, The Alex Jones Show (Infowars), 2020-03-10, quoted in Timothy Johnson (11 March 2020), "Alex Jones is telling his viewers that the toothpaste he sells kills coronavirus", Media Matters for America, retrieved on 2020-03-12
- I've been briefed on every contingency you can possibly imagine. Many contingencies. A lot of—a lot of positive. Different numbers. All different numbers. Very large numbers. And some small numbers too, by the way.
- Regarding coronavirus. Posed question: "Mr. President, have you been briefed that up to 100 million Americans would ultimately be exposed to the virus?"
- Briefing at the White House (2020-03-10)
March 11, 2020[edit]
- This coronavirus, they're just — all of this panic is just not warranted. This, I'm telling you, when I tell you — when I've told you that this virus is the common cold. When I said that, it was based on the number of cases. It's also based on the kind of virus this is.
- Rush Limbaugh, 2020, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 2020-03-11
March 12, 2020[edit]
- A pandemic has been declared, but not for the 24,600 who die every day from unnecessary starvation, 2020, and not for 3,000 children who die every day from preventable malaria, 2020, and not for the 10,000 people who die every day because they are denied publicly-funded healthcare,, 2020 and not for the hundreds of Venezuelans and Iranians who die every day because America's blockade, 2020 denies them life-saving medicines, and not for the hundreds of mostly children bombed or starved to death every day in Yemen, 2020, in a war supplied and kept going, profitably, by America and Britain. Before you panic, consider them.
- John Pilger, 2020, quoted in Here is what legendary journalist John Pilger said about coronavirus outbreak Pilger decries inattention to hunger, malaria and American wars and blockades, The Week, (12 March 2020)
March 13, 2020[edit]
- No, I don't take responsibility at all, because we were given a set of circumstances and we were given rules, regulations and specifications from a different time.
- Donald Trump, 2020, asked if he took responsibility for the lag in coronavirus testing, 2020
- White House press conference, 2020-03-13, quoted in Zachary Halaschak (13 March 2020), "'I don't take responsibility at all': Trump pushes back on complaints about coronavirus testing", Washington Examiner
March 14, 2020[edit]
March 15, 2020[edit]
- If you're healthy, you and your family, it's a great time to just go out and go to a local restaurant, likely you can get in easily. Let's not hurt the working people in this country that are relying on wages and tips to keep their small business going... Go to your local pub.
- Devin Nunes, Fox News, 2020-03-15, quoted in Daniel Politi (15 March 2020), "Rep. Devin Nunes Contradicts Health Experts: “It’s a Great Time to Go Out”", Slate
- They're trying to scare everybody, from meetings, cancel the meetings, close the schools—you know, destroy the country. And that's okay, as long as we can win the election.
- Donald Trump, 2020. Fundraiser, Mar-a-Lago, quoted in Daniel Chaitin (15 March 2020), "Trump says media 'scare' coverage of coronavirus response OK 'as long as we can win the election': Report", Washington Examiner
- It's a very contagious virus. It's incredible. But it's something we have tremendous control of. I think very important the young people, people of good health and groups of people just are not strongly affected.
- Donald Trump, 2020, in a White House briefing, as quoted in Daniel Dale (15 March 2020), "Fact check: Trump falsely claims US has 'tremendous control' of the coronavirus", CNN
March 16, 2020[edit]
- The chief fearmonger of the Trump Administration, 2020 is without a doubt Anthony Fauci, 2020, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health. Fauci is all over the media, serving up outright falsehoods to stir up even more panic. He testified to Congress that the death rate for the coronavirus is ten times that of the seasonal flu, a claim without any scientific basis. On Face the Nation, Fauci did his best to further damage an already tanking economy by stating, “Right now, personally, myself, I wouldn’t go to a restaurant.” He has pushed for closing the entire country down for 14 days. Over what? A virus that has thus far killed just over 5,000 worldwide and less than 100 in the United States? By contrast, tuberculosis, 2020, an old disease not much discussed these days, killed nearly 1.6 million people in 2017. Where’s the panic over this? If anything, what people like Fauci and the other fearmongers are demanding will likely make the disease worse. The martial law they dream about will leave people hunkered down inside their homes instead of going outdoors or to the beach where the sunshine and fresh air would help boost immunity. The panic produced by these fearmongers is likely helping spread the disease, as massive crowds rush into Walmart and Costco for that last roll of toilet paper. […] People should ask themselves whether this coronavirus “pandemic” could be a big hoax, with the actual danger of the disease massively exaggerated by those who seek to profit – financially or politically – from the ensuing panic. That is not to say the disease is harmless. Without question people will die from coronavirus. Those in vulnerable categories should take precautions to limit their risk of exposure. But we have seen this movie before. Government over-hypes a threat as an excuse to grab more of our freedoms. When the “threat” is over, however, they never give us our freedoms back.
- Ron Paul, 2020, The Coronavirus Hoax (March 16, 2020), Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.
- Respirators, ventilators, all of the equipment—try getting it yourselves. We will be backing you, but try getting it yourselves. Point of sales, much better, much more direct if you can get it yourself.
- Donald Trump, 2020, call with governors, quoted in The New York Times staff (16 March 2020), "Trump tells governors to seek out respirators and other vital equipment on their own.", The New York Times
- We have an invisible enemy. We have a problem a month ago nobody ever thought about. [...] This is a bad one, this is a very bad one. This is bad in the sense that it's so contagious. It's just so contagious. Sort of record-setting type contagion.
- Donald Trump, 2020. Coronavirus task force press briefing, 2020-03-16, quoted in Jarrett Stepman (17 March 2020), "The Last Great Pandemic", The Daily Signal
- Q: Very simple question; does the buck stop with you? And on a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your response to this crisis?
Donald Trump: I'd rate it a 10. I think we've done a great job. And it started with the fact that we kept a very highly infected country, despite all of the—even the professionals saying no, it's too early to do that, we were very, very early with respect to China. And we would have a whole different situation in this country if we didn't do that. I would rate it a very, very—I would rate ourselves and—and the professionals—I think the professionals have done a fantastic job.
- Donald Trump, 2020. Coronavirus task force press briefing, 2020-03-16, quoted in Ian Schwartz (16 March 2020), "Trump: I'd Rate My Response To Coronavirus a 10", RealClearPolitics
- Q: Does the buck stop with you, Mr. President? Does the buck stop with you?
Donald Trump: Yeah, normally. But I think when you hear the—you know, this has never been done before in this country.
- Donald Trump, 2020. Coronavirus task force press briefing, 2020-03-16, quoted in Oliver Willis (16 March 2020), "Trump says buck 'normally' stops with him — but not for coronavirus", American Independent
March 17, 2020[edit]
- The world is at war, 2020 with a hidden enemy, 2020. WE WILL WIN, 2020!
- Donald Trump, 2020, on Twitter, 17 March 2020 [2]
March 18, 2020[edit]
- I want all Americans to understand: we are at war with an invisible enemy, but that enemy is no match for the spirit and resolve of the American people... ...It cannot overcome the dedication of our doctors, nurses, and scientists — and it cannot beat the LOVE, 2020, PATRIOTISM, 2020, and DETERMINATION, 2020 of our citizens. Strong and United, WE WILL PREVAIL!
- Donald Trump, 2020, on Twitter, 18 March 2020 [3], [4]
- Peter Alexander: How are non-symptomatic professional athletes getting tests while others are waiting in line and can't get them?
Donald Trump: No, I wouldn’t say so, but perhaps that’s been the story of life. That does happen on occasion and I’ve noticed where some people have been tested fairly quickly.
- Coronavirus task force press briefing, 2020-03-18, quoted in Janelle Griffith (18 March 2020), "Coronavirus: Trump says it may be 'the story of life' that well-connected get testing first", NBC News
March 19, 2020[edit]
- With its broad sweep, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced us into an unprecedented national emergency, 2020. This emergency, however, results from a deeper and much longer term crisis — that of poverty, 2020 and inequality, 2020, and of a society, 2020 that ignores the needs of 140 million people who are poor or a $400 emergency away from being poor.
- William Barber II, 2020 and Liz Theoharis, 2020, letter to President Donald Trump, 2020, Vice President Mike Pence, 2020 and Members of the 116th Congress, 2020, Poverty Amidst Pandemic: A Moral Response to COVID-19 (March 19, 2020), Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for a Moral Revival, 2020.
- We cannot return to normal. Addressing the depth of the crises, 2020 that have been revealed in this pandemic means enacting universal health care, expanding social welfare programs, 2020, ensuring access to water and sanitation, 2020, cash assistance, 2020 to poor and low income, 2020 families, 2020, good jobs, 2020, living wages and an annual income and protecting our democracy, 2020. It means ensuring that our abundant national resources are used for the general welfare, 2020, instead of war, walls, 2020, and the wealthy, 2020.
- William Barber II, 2020 and Liz Theoharis, 2020, letter to President Donald Trump, 2020, Vice President Mike Pence, 2020 and Members of the 116th Congress, 2020, Poverty Amidst Pandemic: A Moral Response to COVID-19 (March 19, 2020), Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for a Moral Revival, 2020.
- Before COVID-19, 2020, nearly 700 people died everyday because of poverty and inequality in this country. The frontlines of this pandemic will be the poor and dispossessed - those who do not have access to healthcare, 2020, housing, 2020, water, decent wages, 2020, stable work or child care - and those who are continuing to work in this crisis, meeting our health care and other needs.
- William Barber II, 2020 and Liz Theoharis, 2020, letter to President Donald Trump, 2020, Vice President Mike Pence, 2020 and Members of the 116th Congress, 2020, Poverty Amidst Pandemic: A Moral Response to COVID-19 (March 19, 2020), Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for a Moral Revival, 2020.
- It should not have taken a pandemic to raise these resources. In June 2019, we presented a Poor People’s Moral Budget to the House Budget Committee, showing that we can meet these needs for this entire country. If you had taken up this Moral Budget, we would have already moved towards infusing more than $1.2 trillion into the economy to invest in health care, good jobs, living wages, housing, water and sanitation services and more.
- William Barber II, 2020 and Liz Theoharis, 2020, letter to President Donald Trump, 2020, Vice President Mike Pence, 2020 and Members of the 116th Congress, 2020, Poverty Amidst Pandemic: A Moral Response to COVID-19 (March 19, 2020), Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for a Moral Revival, 2020.
- This is not the time for trickle-down solutions. We know that when you lift from the bottom, everybody rises. There are concrete solutions to this immediate crisis and the longer term illnesses we have been battling for months, years and decades before. We will continue to organize and build power until you meet these demands. Many millions of us have been hurting for far too long. We will not be silent anymore.
- William Barber II, 2020 and Liz Theoharis, 2020, letter to President Donald Trump, 2020, Vice President Mike Pence, 2020 and Members of the 116th Congress, 2020, Poverty Amidst Pandemic: A Moral Response to COVID-19 (March 19, 2020), Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for a Moral Revival, 2020.
- It's one thing to watch CNN and hear about what is going on at the White House. It's another thing to hear about what's going on down the street.
- Seattle Times, 2020 news consultant Ken Doctor in News organizations drop paywall for coronavirus information March 19, 2020
- There’s one thing that I can tell you about this... It is much more aggressive in its transmission than anything that we have seen in recent history... It is probably more akin to the 1918 pandemic, 2020.... There will be, I’m sure, times that communities... have a transmission rate where they say, let’s close schools for two weeks, everybody stay home.
March 20, 2020[edit]
- Three years ago, experts were saying that bat coronaviruses could become a new pandemic. Almost two months ago, experts were saying that the new virus in Wuhan was potentially a global threat. One month ago, experts were saying that it was likely to be pandemic, and the White House, 2020's response was that this was under control, despite the fact that the US's lack of testing was demonstrably giving a false picture of the extent of infection. This was foreseeable, and foreseen, weeks and months ago, and only now is the White House coming out of denial, 2020 and heading straight into saying it could not have been foreseen.
- Marc Lipsitch, 2020, as quoted in Contrary to Trump’s Claim, A Pandemic Was Widely Expected at Some Point (March 20, 2020) by Rem Rieder, FactCheck.org.
March 20, 2020[edit]
- Peter Alexander: What do you say to Americans who are scared though? I guess, nearly 200 dead, 2020, 14,000 who are sick, millions, as you witnessed, who are scared right now? What do you say to Americans who are watching you right now who are scared?
Donald Trump, 2020: I say that you're a terrible reporter, that's what I say. I think that's a very nasty question.- Coronavirus task force press briefing, 2020-03-20, quoted in Adam Edelman (20 March 2020), "Trump launches into tirade against media, insults NBC reporter at coronavirus briefing", NBC News
March 22, 2020[edit]
- I can't jump in front of the microphone and push him down. OK, he said it. Let's try and get it corrected for the next time.
- Anthony Fauci, 2020, on his response to misstatements, 2020 by Donald Trump, 2020 during COVID-19 press briefings, quoted in "‘I’m going to keep pushing.’ Anthony Fauci tries to make the White House listen to facts of the pandemic" by Jon Cohen, Science (March 22, 2020).
- WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF. AT THE END OF THE 15 DAY PERIOD, WE WILL MAKE A DECISION AS TO WHICH WAY WE WANT TO GO!
- Donald Trump, 2020, on a Twitter post, 22 March 2020. Quoted in Trump Toys With a Let-Them-Die Response to the Pandemic, 23 March 2020, The Nation.
March 23, 2020[edit]
- As the coronavirus epidemic stretches on, working people are facing an economic collapse, 2020, the likes of which have not been seen since the Great Depression, 2020. Organizing to fight for an immediate ban on all layoffs has to be an essential part of any program to protect the working class, 2020 and to make the capitalists, 2020 pay for their crisis.
- James Dennis Hoff, 2020, Freeze Layoffs: Make the Capitalists Pay (March 23, 2020), Left Voice
- Working people, 2020 are facing what could be the biggest unemployment, 2020 crisis since the Great Depression, 2020. As states and cities across the country continue to shut down schools, libraries, restaurants, bars, and other non-essential services in order to stop the spread of the coronavirus, hundreds of thousands of workers, 2020 have already lost their jobs, and millions more will soon follow. While restaurant, theatre, hotel and hospitality workers have been some of the first to see massive layoffs, huge losses in travel, retail, and oil drilling and extraction industries are also expected, as more and more people are quarantined. [...] Such job losses would mean dire poverty, 2020 for huge sections of the working class.
- James Dennis Hoff, 2020, Freeze Layoffs: Make the Capitalists Pay (March 23, 2020), Left Voice
March 24, 2020[edit]
- We're opening up, 2020 this incredible country. Because we have to do that. I'd love to have it open by Easter. I would love to have it opened by Easter. It's such an important day for other reasons, but I will make it an important day for this, too. I would love to have the country opened up and just rarin' to go by Easter.
- Donald Trump, 2020, Fox News town hall, 2020-03-24
- Look, Easter's a very special day for me. And I see it's sort of in that timeline that I'm thinking about. And I say, "Wouldn't it be great to have all of the churches full?" – you know the churches aren't allowed, essentially, to have much of a congregation there. And most of 'em, I watched on Sunday, online. And it was terrific, by the way, but online is never going to be like being there. So I think Easter Sunday, and you'll have packed churches all over our country. I think it would be a beautiful time. And it's just about the timeline that I think is right.
- Donald Trump, 2020, Fox News interview, 2020-03-24, quoted in John T Bennett (24 March 2020), "Coronavirus: Trump says Easter with ‘packed churches’ would be ‘beautiful time’ to reopen US", The Independent (UK)
March 25, 2020[edit]
- Physicians, 2020’ and pharmacists, 2020’ first and foremost ethical, 2020 obligation in situations of epidemic, 2020, disaster, 2020 or terrorism, 2020 is to provide urgent medical care, 2020 and ensure availability and appropriate use of necessary medications. This requires close coordination with the entire health care team to help ensure patients receive the testing, 2020, treatments, follow-up care and medications they need. We applaud the innumerable selfless acts by health care professionals, 2020 across the nation who are putting themselves in harm’s way to provide care to America’s patients.
- We are issuing this joint statement to highlight the important role that physicians, 2020, pharmacists, 2020 and health systems play in being just stewards of health care resources during times of emergency and national disaster. We are aware that some physicians and others are prophylactically prescribing medications currently identified as potential treatments, 2020 for COVID-19, 2020 (e.g., chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine, 2020, azithromycin) for themselves, their families, or their colleagues; and that some pharmacies and hospitals, 2020 have been purchasing excessive amounts of these medications in anticipation of potentially using them for COVID-19 prevention, 2020 and treatment. We strongly oppose these actions. At the same time, we caution hospitals, health systems, and individual practitioners that no medication has been FDA-approved for use in COVID-19 patients, and there is no incontrovertible evidence to support off-label use of medications for COVID-19. Stockpiling these medications—or depleting supplies with excessive, anticipatory orders—can have grave consequences for patients with conditions such as lupus or rheumatoid arthritis if the drugs are not available in the community. The health care community must collectively balance the needs of patients taking medications on a regular basis for an existing condition with new prescriptions that may be needed for patients diagnosed with COVID-19. Being just stewards of limited resources is essential.
- We are further concerned by the confusion that may result from various state government agencies and boards issuing emergency rules limiting or restricting access to chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine or other emerging therapies or requiring new procedures for physicians and other healthcare professionals and patients. If these bodies promulgate new rules, we urge that they emphasize professional responsibility and leave room for professional judgment. We further urge that patients already on these medications should not be impacted by new laws, rules or other guidance. In a time of national pandemic, now is not the time for states to issue conflicting guidance, however well-intentioned, that could lead to unintended consequences.
- We applaud the ongoing efforts to conduct to conduct clinical trials, 2020 and generate evidence, 2020 related to these and other medications during a time of pandemic. We are also encouraged that some pharmaceutical manufacturers are increasing production of high-demand medications as well as supplying them for use in clinical trials. The nation’s physicians and pharmacists continue to demonstrate remarkable leadership on a daily basis. We are confident in physicians’ and pharmacists’ judgment to make the right decisions for their patients, communities and the health care system overall.
- Most leaders, 2020 lack the discipline to do routine risk-based, 2020 horizon scanning, and fewer still develop the requisite contingency plans. Even rarer is the leader who has the foresight to correctly identify the top threat far enough in advance to develop and implement those plans. Suffice it to say, the Trump administration, 2020 has cumulatively failed, 2020, both in taking seriously the specific, repeated intelligence community, 2020 warnings about a coronavirus outbreak and in vigorously pursuing the nationwide response initiatives commensurate with the predicted threat. The federal government, 2020 alone has the resources and authorities to lead the relevant public and private stakeholders to confront the foreseeable harms posed by the virus. Unfortunately, Trump, 2020 officials made a series of judgments (minimizing the hazards of Covid-19, 2020) and decisions (refusing to act with the urgency required) that have needlessly made Americans far less safe. In short, the Trump administration forced a catastrophic strategic surprise onto the American people. But unlike past strategic surprises – Pearl Harbor, the Iranian revolution of 1979, 2020, or especially 9/11, 2020 – the current one was brought about by unprecedented indifference, even willful negligence. Whereas, for example, the 9/11 Commission Report assigned blame, 2020 for the al-Qaida, 2020 attacks on the administrations of presidents Ronald Reagan, 2020 through George W Bush, 2020, the unfolding coronavirus crisis is overwhelmingly the sole responsibility of the current White House. [...] The White House detachment and nonchalance during the early stages of the coronavirus outbreak will be among the most costly decisions of any modern presidency. These officials were presented with a clear progression of warnings and crucial decision points far enough in advance that the country could have been far better prepared. But the way that they squandered the gifts of foresight and time should never be forgotten, nor should the reason they were squandered: Trump was initially wrong, so his inner circle promoted that wrongness rhetorically and with inadequate policies for far too long, and even today. Americans will now pay the price for decades.
March 26, 2020[edit]
- I have a feeling that a lot of the numbers that are being said in some areas are just bigger than they’re going to be, I don't believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators. You go into major hospitals sometimes, and they’ll have two ventilators. And now all of a sudden they’re saying, 'Can we order 30,000 ventilators?'
- Donald Trump, 2020, speaking with Sean Hannity, 2020 on Fox News, 2020 on 26 March 2020. As quoted in Trump: I don't believe you really need that many ventilators, 27 March 2020, Politico.
March 27, 2020[edit]
- Don't be a cutie pie, okay?
- Donald Trump, 2020, responding to the question "But everybody who needs one will be able to get a ventilator?" from reporter Jonathan Karl. As quoted by Tal Axelrod (27 March 2020), "Trump to reporter pressing him about ventilators: 'Don't be a cutie pie'", The Hill
- ...young people are really, this is an incredible phenomenon, but they are attacked, successfully attacked to a much lesser extent by this pandemic, 2020, by this disease. This whatever they want to call it. You call it a germ, you can call it a flu, you can call it a virus. You know, you can call it many different names. I'm not sure anybody even knows what it is, but the children do very well.
- Donald Trump, 2020, Coronavirus task force press briefing, 2020-03-27, quoted in Ian Schwartz (27 March 2020), "Trump on Coronavirus: "I'm Not Sure Anybody Even Knows What It Is"; "You Can Call It A Germ, You Can Call It A Flu"", RealClearPolitics
- Just finished a very good conversation with President Xi of China. Discussed in great detail the CoronaVirus that is ravaging large parts of our Planet. China has been through much & has developed a strong understanding of the Virus. We are working closely together. Much respect!
- Donald Trump, 2020, quoted in Kimmy Yam (27 March 2020), "Trump claims Asian Americans are angry at 'what China has done' to U.S.", Yahoo News / NBC News
March 29, 2020[edit]
- Nobody could have imagined a thing like this — a tragedy like this would have happened: the invisible enemy.
- Donald Trump, 2020, as quoted in Remarks by President Trump in a Meeting with Supply Chain Distributors on COVID-19 (March 29, 2020), whitehouse.gov.
- The federal government has done something that nobody has done anything like this other than perhaps wartime. And that’s what we’re in: We’re in a war.
- Donald Trump, 2020, as quoted in Remarks by President Trump in a Meeting with Supply Chain Distributors on COVID-19 (March 29, 2020), whitehouse.gov.
- My administration has done a job on really working across government and with the private sector, and it’s been incredible. It’s a beautiful thing to watch, I have to say. Unfortunately, the end result of the group we’re fighting — which are hundreds of billions and trillions of germs, or whatever you want to call them — they are bad news. This virus is bad news and it moves quickly, and it spreads as easily as anything anyone has ever seen.
- Donald Trump, 2020, as quoted in Remarks by President Trump in a Meeting with Supply Chain Distributors on COVID-19 (March 29, 2020), whitehouse.gov.
- I just want to reiterate, because a lot of people have been asking, well, what would have happened if we did nothing? Did nothing, we just rode it out, and I’ve been asking that question to Tony and Deborah, and they’ve been talking to me about it for a long time, other people have been asking that question, and I think we got our most accurate study today, or certainly most comprehensive. Think of the number, potentially, 2.2 million people if we did nothing. If we didn’t do the distancing, if we didn’t do all of the things that we’re doing. When you hear those numbers, you start to realize that, with the kind of work we went through last week, with the $2.2 trillion, it no longer sounds like a lot, right? You’re talking about, when I heard the number today, first time I’ve heard that number, because I’ve been asking the same question that some people have been asking, I felt even better about what we did last week with the $2.2 trillion, because you’re talking about a potential of up to 2.2 million, and some people said it could even be higher than that. So you’re talking about 2.2 million deaths. 2.2 million people from this. If we can hold that down as we’re saying, to 100,000, it’s a horrible number. Maybe even less, but to 100,000, so we have between 100 and 200,000, we altogether have done a very good job. 2.2, up to 2.2 million deaths and maybe even beyond that? I’m feeling very good about what we did last week.
- Donald Trump, 2020, Coronavirus Task Force Briefing, March 29, 2020, transcript online at Rev, 2020
March 30, 2020[edit]
- The United States is the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, yet millions of American families, 2020 have had to set up crowdfunding sites to try to raise money for their loved ones’ medical bills, 2020. Millions more can buy unleaded gasoline for their car, but they can’t get unleaded water, 2020 in their homes. Almost half of America's workers, 2020—whether in Appalachia, 2020 or Alabama, 2020, California, 2020 or Carolina, 2020—work for less, 2020 than a living wage. And as school buildings in poor communities, 2020 crumble for lack of investment, 2020, America’s, 2020 billionaires, 2020 are paying a lower tax, 2020 rate than the poorest, 2020 half of households, 2020. This moral crisis is coming to a head as coronavirus pandemic lays bare America’s deep injustices. While the virus, 2020 itself does not discriminate, 2020, it is the poor and disenfranchised who will experience the most suffering and death. They’re the ones who are least likely to have health care or paid sick leave, and the most likely to lose work hours, 2020. And though children, 2020 appear less vulnerable to the virus than adults, America’s nearly forty million poor and low-income children, 2020 are at serious risk of losing access to food, 2020, shelter, 2020, education, 2020, and housing, 2020 in the economic fallout from the pandemic, 2020. The underlying disease, in other words, is poverty, which was killing nearly 700 of us every day in the world’s wealthiest country, long before anyone had heard of COVID-19. The moral crisis of poverty amid vast wealth, 2020 is inseparable from the injustice of systemic racism, 2020, ecological devastation, 2020, and our militarized war economy, 2020. It is only a minority rule, 2020 sustained by voter suppression, 2020 and gerrymandering, 2020 that subverts the will, 2020 of the people. To redeem the soul of America—and survive a pandemic—we must have a moral fusion movement that cuts across race, 2020, gender, 2020, class, 2020, and cultural, 2020 divides.
- William Barber II, 2020, The Real Epidemic is Poverty (March 30, 2020), The Progressive
- We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die. If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset — our Sailors.
- Captain Brett E. Crozier wrote in a letter over which he was fired (March 30, 2020). Quoted in Exclusive: Captain of aircraft carrier with growing coronavirus outbreak pleads for help from Navy (March 31, 2020) by Matthias Gafni and Joe Garofoli, San Francisco Chronicle
April[edit]
April 1[edit]
- The scale of the plague is surprising, indeed shocking, but not its appearance. Nor the fact that the U.S. has the worst record in responding to the crisis. Scientists have been warning of a pandemic for years, insistently so since the SARS epidemic of 2003, also caused by a coronavirus, for which vaccines were developed but did not proceed beyond the pre-clinical level. That was the time to begin to put in place rapid-response systems in preparation for an outbreak and to set aside spare capacity that would be needed. Initiatives could also have been undertaken to develop defenses and modes of treatment for a likely recurrence with a related virus. But scientific understanding is not enough. There has to be someone to pick up the ball and run with it. That option was barred by the pathology of the contemporary socioeconomic order. Market signals were clear: There’s no profit in preventing a future catastrophe.
- Noam Chomsky in an interview with C.J. Polychroniou, Chomsky: Ventilator Shortage Exposes the Cruelty of Neoliberal Capitalism (April 1, 2020), Truthout
- The government could have stepped in, but that’s barred by reigning doctrine: "Government is the problem," Reagan told us with his sunny smile, meaning that decision-making has to be handed over even more fully to the business world, which is devoted to private profit and is free from influence by those who might be concerned with the common good. The years that followed injected a dose of neoliberal brutality to the unconstrained capitalist order and the twisted form of markets it constructs. The depth of the pathology is revealed clearly by one of the most dramatic — and murderous — failures: the lack of ventilators that is one the major bottlenecks in confronting the pandemic.
- Noam Chomsky in an interview with C.J. Polychroniou, Chomsky: Ventilator Shortage Exposes the Cruelty of Neoliberal Capitalism (April 1, 2020), Truthout
- Trump was not silent, however. He issued a stream of confident pronouncements informing the public that it was just a cough; he has everything under control; he gets a 10 out of 10 for his handling of the crisis; it’s very serious but he knew it was a pandemic before anyone else; and the rest of the sorry performance. The technique is well-designed, much like the practice of reeling out lies so fast that the very concept of truth vanishes. Whatever happens, Trump is sure to be vindicated among his loyal followers. When you shoot arrows at random, some are likely to hit the target.
- Noam Chomsky in an interview with C.J. Polychroniou, Chomsky: Ventilator Shortage Exposes the Cruelty of Neoliberal Capitalism (April 1, 2020), Truthout
- One effect is the shockingly belated and limited testing, well below others, making it impossible to implement the successful test-and-trace strategies that have prevented the epidemic from breaking out of control in functioning societies. Even the best hospitals lack basic equipment. The U.S. is now the global epicenter of the crisis. This only skims the surface of Trumpian malevolence, but there’s no space for more here. It is tempting to cast the blame on Trump for the disastrous response to the crisis. But if we hope to avert future catastrophes, we must look beyond him. Trump came to office in a sick society, afflicted by 40 years of neoliberalism, with still deeper roots.
- Noam Chomsky in an interview with C.J. Polychroniou, Chomsky: Ventilator Shortage Exposes the Cruelty of Neoliberal Capitalism (April 1, 2020), Truthout
- I have all this data about ICU capacity. I’m doing my own projections, and I’ve gotten a lot smarter about this. New York doesn’t need all the ventilators.
- Attributed to Jared Kushner by Gabriel Sherman in “The Campaign Panicked”: Inside Trump’s Decision to Back Off of His Easter Coronavirus Miracle (April 1, 2020), Vanity Fair.
- He was a leader within the emergency room field. ... Unless our government steps up & gets us the protective equipment we need, he will be the first of many of my colleagues.
- Megan Ranney about her colleague, Frank Gabrin, who died to the coronavirus disease in March 2020. He was the first emergency doctor to die from such symptoms. As quoted in Klar, Rebecca (2020-04-01). US emergency room doctor dies after coronavirus symptoms (in en). TheHill.
April 2[edit]
- We didn't know until the last 24 hours.
- Brian Kemp, governor of Georgia, on that asymptomatic COVID-19 infected individuals can transmit the disease, in a CNN interview recorded in April 2, 2020
April 3[edit]
- When the Vice President first asked me to help on the task force with different tasks, I asked the President what he expected from the task force and how I can best serve him and the task force. What the President asked is that all of the recommendations that we make be based on data. He wanted us to be very rigorous, to make sure that we were studying the data, collecting data. A lot of things in this country were happening very quickly, and we wanted to make sure that we were trying to keep updating our models and making sure that we were making informed decisions and informed recommendations to him based on the data that we were able to collect and put together.
- The President wanted to make sure that we had the people doing the best jobs, and making sure that we had the right people focused on all the things that needed to happen to make sure that we can deliver in these unusual times for the American people. The President also instructed me to make sure that I break down every barrier needed to make sure that the teams can succeed. This is an effort where the government is doing things that the government doesn’t normally do, where we are stretching, we’re acting very quickly. And the President wants to make sure that the White House is fully behind the different people running the different lines of effort to make sure that we get everything done in a speed that the President demands. The President also wanted us to make sure we think outside the box, make sure we’re finding all the best thinkers in the country, making sure we’re getting all the best ideas, and that we’re doing everything possible to make sure that we can keep Americans safe, and make sure we bring a quick end to this in the best way possible, and balance all the different aspects that need to be thought of while we do this. This truly is a historic challenge. We have not seen something like this in a very, very long time. But I am very confident that, by bringing innovative solutions to these hard problems, we will make progress.
- The President has been very, very hands on in this. He’s really instructed us to leave no stone unturned. Just this morning — very early this morning — I got a call from the President. He told me he was hearing from friends of his in New York that the New York public hospital system was running low on critical supply. He instructed me this morning. I called Dr. Katz, who runs the system, asked him which supply was the most supply he was nervous about. He told me it was the N95 masks. I asked what his daily burn was. And I basically got that number, called up Admiral Polowczyk, made sure we had the inventory. We went to the President today, and earlier today, the President called Mayor de Blasio to inform him that we were going to send a month of supply to the New York public hospital system, to make sure that the workers on the frontline can rest assured that they have the N95 masks that they need to get through the next month. We’ll be doing similar things with all the different public hospitals that are in the hotspot zones and making sure that we’re constantly in communications with the local communities.
- One thing I will say, just based on data, is that we’ve been getting a lot of data from different governors and from different mayors and from different cities. One thing I’ve seen FEMA do very, very well, over the last week or so, is now we’re getting real-time data from a lot of cities. People who have requests for different products and supplies, a lot of them are doing it based on projections, which are not the realistic projections. The projections change every day as we see the cases, as we see the impacts of the “stop the spread” effort that this task force recommended and the President has been pushing forward. So I do think that we’ll see that. Hopefully, there’ll be impact of that. And the task force has been working very hard, through the FEMA group, with Admiral Polowczyk to make sure that we’re getting the supplies to people before they run out, and making sure that we’re doing it in a proper way.
- And what they’ve done over the last 13 days has been really extraordinary. We’ve done things that the government has never done before, quicker than they’ve ever done it before. And what we’re seeing now is we found a lot of supplies in the country. We’ve been distributing them where we anticipate there will be needs, and also trying to make sure that we’re hitting places where there are needs. So I can tell you the people on the — in the task force, they’re working day and night. You’ve got a lot of people in the government. We recognize the challenge that America faces right now. We know what a lot of the people on the frontlines are facing, the fear that they have that they won’t have the supplies they need. And our goal is to work as hard as we can to make sure that we don’t let them down.
April 4[edit]
- We’re working to ensure that the supplies are delivered where and when they’re needed, and in some cases, we’re telling governors we can’t go there because we don’t think you need it and we think someplace else needs it. And pretty much, so far, we’ve been right about that. And we’ll continue to do it. As it really gets — this will be probably the toughest week between this week and next week. And there’ll be a lot of death, unfortunately, but a lot less death than if this wasn’t done. But there will be death.
April 5[edit]
- President Trump doubled down Sunday on his push for the use of an anti-malarial drug against the coronavirus, issuing medical advice that goes well beyond scant evidence of the drug’s effectiveness as well as the advice of doctors and public health experts. Mr. Trump’s recommendation of hydroxychloroquine, for the second day in a row at a White House briefing, was a striking example of his brazen willingness to distort and outright defy expert opinion and scientific evidence when it does not suit his agenda.
- Michael Crowley, Katie Thomas and Maggie Haberman, Ignoring Expert Opinion, Trump Again Promotes Use of Hydroxychloroquine (April 5, 2020), The New York Times.
- Standing alongside two top public health officials who have declined to endorse his call for widely administering the drug, Mr. Trump suggested that he was speaking on gut instinct and acknowledged that he had no expertise on the subject. Saying that the drug is "being tested now," Mr. Trump said that “there are some very strong, powerful signs” of its potential, although health experts say that the data is extremely limited and that more study of the drug’s effectiveness against the coronavirus is needed. [...] Mr. Trump, who once predicted that the virus might “miraculously” disappear by April because of warm weather, and who has rejected scientific consensus on issues like climate change, was undaunted by skeptical questioning. “What do you have to lose?” Mr. Trump asked, for the second day in a row, saying that terminally ill patients should be willing to try any treatment that has shown some promise.
- Michael Crowley, Katie Thomas and Maggie Haberman, Ignoring Expert Opinion, Trump Again Promotes Use of Hydroxychloroquine (April 5, 2020), The New York Times.
- Even as Mr. Trump has promoted the drug, which is also often prescribed for patients with lupus, it has created rifts within his own coronavirus task force. And while many hospitals have chosen to use hydroxychloroquine in a desperate attempt to treat dying patients who have few other options, others have noted that it carries serious risks. In particular, the drug can cause a heart arrhythmia that can lead to cardiac arrest.
- Michael Crowley, Katie Thomas and Maggie Haberman, Ignoring Expert Opinion, Trump Again Promotes Use of Hydroxychloroquine (April 5, 2020), The New York Times.
- Hydroxychloroquine has not been proved to work against Covid-19 in any significant clinical trials. A small trial by Chinese researchers made public last week found that it helped speed the recovery in moderately ill patients, but the study was not peer-reviewed and had significant limitations. Earlier reports from France and China have drawn criticism because they did not include control groups to compare treated patients with untreated ones, and researchers have called the reports anecdotal. Without controls, they said, it is impossible to determine whether the drugs worked. But Mr. Trump on Sunday dismissed the notion that doctors should wait for further study.
- Michael Crowley, Katie Thomas and Maggie Haberman, Ignoring Expert Opinion, Trump Again Promotes Use of Hydroxychloroquine (April 5, 2020), The New York Times.
- So we’ve done 1,670,000 tests. Think of that 1,670,000 tests. And we have a great system. Now we’re working with the states in almost all instances, but we have a great system. And the other thing that we bought a tremendous amount of is the hydroxy chloroquine. Hydroxy chloroquine, which I think is, you know, it’s a great malaria drug. It’s worked unbelievably. It’s a powerful drug on malaria and there are signs that it works on this, some very strong signs and in the meantime it’s been around a long time. It also works very powerfully on lupus, so there are some very strong powerful signs and we’ll have to see because again, it’s tested.
- Donald Trump. Coronavirus Task Force Briefing, April 5. Transcript at Rev.
- Now this is a new thing that just happened to as the invisible enemy we call it. And if you can, if you have a no signs of heart problems, the azithromycin, which will kill certain things that you don’t want living within your body. It’s a powerful drug. If you don’t have a problem, a heart problem, we would say, let your doctor think about it, but as a combination, I think they’re going to be, I think there’s two things that should be looked at very strongly. Now, we have purchased and we have stockpiled 29 million pills of the hydroxy chloroquine, 29 million. A lot of drug stores have them by prescription and also, and they’re not expensive. Also, we’re sending them to various labs. Our military, we’re sending them to the hospitals, we’re sending them all over. I just think it’s something, you know the expression, I’ve used it for certain reasons.
- Donald Trump. Coronavirus Task Force Briefing, April 5. Transcript at Rev.
- What do you have to lose? What do you have to lose? And a lot of people are saying that when … and are taking it, if you’re a doctor, a nurse, a first responder, a medical person going into hospitals, they say taking it before the fact is good, but what do you have to lose? They say, take it, I’m not looking at it one way or the other, but we want to get out of this. If it does work, it would be a shame if we didn’t do it early. But we have some very good signs. So that’s hydroxy chloroquine and as azithromycin, and again, you have to go through your medical people get the approval. But I’ve seen things that I sort of like, so what do I know? I’m not a doctor, I’m not a doctor, but I have common sense.
- Donald Trump. Coronavirus Task Force Briefing, April 5. Transcript at Rev.
- The FDA feels good about it. They’ve, as you know, they’ve approved it. They gave it a rapid approved approval. And the reason because it’s been out there for a long time and they know the side effects and they also know the potential. So based on that, we have sent it throughout the country. We have it stockpiled about 29 million doses, 29 million doses. We have a lot of it. We hope it works. Driven by the goal of the brightest minds in science. We have the brightest minds in science, but we were driven by the goal of getting rid of this plague, getting rid of this scourge, getting rid of this virus. These brilliant minds are working on the most effective antiviral therapies and vaccines. We are working very, very hard. I have met many of the doctors that are doing it. These are doctors that are working so hard on vanquishing the virus.
- Donald Trump. Coronavirus Task Force Briefing, April 5. Transcript at Rev.
- Note: Hydroxychloroquine use is not approved by the FDA for COVID-19 as of 7 April 2020.
- I want them to try it. It may work, and it may not work. But if it doesn’t work, it’s nothing lost by doing it. Nothing. Because we know long-term what I want. I want to save lives, and I don’t want it to be in a lab for the next year-and-a-half as people are dying all over the place. In France, they had a very good test. They’re continuing. But we don’t have time to go and say, gee, let’s take a couple of years and test it out, and let’s go and test with the test tubes and the laboratories. We don’t have time. I’d love to do that, but we have people dying today. As we speak, there are people dying. If it works, that’d be great. If it doesn’t work, we know for many years malaria, it’s incredible what it’s done for malaria. It’s incredible what it’s done for lupus, but it doesn’t kill people.
- Donald Trump, on using the drug as treatment for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Coronavirus Task Force Briefing (April 5, 2020). Transcript at Rev.
- Speaker to Anthony Fauci: And would you also weigh in on this issue of hydroxychloroquine? What do you think about this and what is the medical evidence?
- Donald Trump: You know how many times he’s answered that question?
- Speaker: I’d love to hear from the doctor.
- Donald Trump: Maybe 15. 15 times. You don’t have to ask the question.
- Speaker: He’s your medical expert, correct?
- Donald Trump: He answered that question 15 times.
- Donald Trump, on using the drug as treatment for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Coronavirus Task Force Briefing (April 5, 2020). Transcript at Rev
April 6[edit]
- For many millions of Christians, Easter is a time to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Others may celebrate the arrival of spring and the promise of new life. Whatever one’s beliefs, after several weeks of mandatory “stay at home” orders and the complete shutdown of the US economy over the coronavirus, this self-destructive hysteria must end and we must reclaim the freedom and liberty that has provided us so much opportunity as Americans. To do that we should first understand that much of the hysteria is being generated by a mainstream media that has long prioritized sensationalism over investigating and reporting the truth. Government bureaucrats are also exaggerating the threat of this virus and appear to be enjoying the power and control that fearful people are willingly handing over to them. One “coronavirus” bureaucrat even told us that we can no longer go to the grocery store! So we should just starve? It is certainly possible to believe that this virus can be dangerous while at the same time pointing out that radical steps are being taken in our society – stay-at-home orders, introduction of de facto martial law, etc. – with very little knowledge of just how deadly is this disease.
- What is most dangerous is that although this virus will eventually disappear, the assault on our civil liberties is not likely to be reversed. From this point on, whenever local officials, county officials, state governors, or federal bureaucrats decide there is sufficient reason to suspend the Constitution they will not hesitate to do so. Anyone who challenges the suspension of the Constitution “for our own good” will be labeled “unpatriotic” and perhaps even reported to the authorities. We have already seen hotlines springing up across the country for Americans to report other Americans who dare venture outside to enjoy the sun and build up their vitamin D protection against the coronavirus. The government is justified in cancelling the Constitution, we are told, because we are in an emergency situation caused by the Covid-19 virus. But do people forget that the Constitution itself was written and adopted while we were in an “emergency situation”? Did the framers of the Constitution fail to add an 11th Amendment to the Bill of Rights saying, “oh by the way, none of this counts if we get sick”? Of course not! Those who wrote our Constitution understood that these rights are not granted by the government, but rather by our Creator. Thus it was never a question as to when or under what conditions they could be suspended: the government had no authority to suspend them at all because it did not grant them in the first place.
- Our country is far less at risk from the coronavirus than it is from the thousands of small and large authoritarians who have suddenly flexed their muscles across the country. President Trump would do well to end this ridiculous shutdown so that Americans can get on with their lives and get back to work. Americans should remember the tyrants who locked them down next time they go to the ballot box. Let’s demand an end to the shutdown so we can resurrect our economy, our lives, and our liberties!
- Speaker to Anthony Fauci: And would you also weigh in on this issue of hydroxychloroquine? What do you think about this and what is the medical evidence?
- Donald Trump: You know how many times he’s answered that question?
- Speaker: I’d love to hear from the doctor.
- Donald Trump: Maybe 15. 15 times. You don’t have to ask the question.
- Speaker: He’s your medical expert, correct?
- Donald Trump: He answered that question 15 times.
- On using the drug as treatment for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Coronavirus Task Force Briefing (April 5, 2020). Transcript at Rev
- In the light of the coronavirus pandemic, I focus criticism on capitalism and the vulnerabilities it has accumulated for several reasons. Viruses are part of nature. They have attacked human beings—sometimes dangerously—in both distant and recent history. In 1918, the Spanish Flu killed nearly 700,000 in the United States and millions elsewhere. Recent viruses include SARS, MERS and Ebola. What matters to public health is each society's preparedness: stockpiled tests, masks, ventilators, hospital beds, trained personnel, etc., to manage dangerous viruses. In the U.S., such objects are produced by private capitalist enterprises whose goal is profit. It was not profitable to produce and stockpile such products, that was not and still is not being done. Nor did the U.S. government produce or stockpile those medical products. Top U.S. government personnel privilege private capitalism; it is their primary objective to protect and strengthen. The result is that neither private capitalism nor the U.S. government performed the most basic duty of any economic system: to protect and maintain public health and safety. U.S. capitalism's response to the coronavirus pandemic continues to be what it has been since December 2019: too little, too late. It failed. It is the problem.
- Richard D. Wolff, COVID-19 and the Failures of Capitalism (April 6, 2020), CounterPunch.
- The second reason I focus on capitalism is that the responses to today's economic collapse by Trump, the GOP and most Democrats carefully avoid any criticism of capitalism. They all debate the virus, China, foreigners, other politicians, but never the system they all serve. When Trump and others press people to return to churches and jobs—despite risking their and others' lives—they place reviving a collapsed capitalism ahead of public health.
- Richard D. Wolff, COVID-19 and the Failures of Capitalism (April 6, 2020), CounterPunch.
April 9[edit]
- I think the president has made the right decisions for the right reasons. I think against the advice of many people, he closed the borders. And I think when the history of this is written, that’s going to have saved a lot of lives. I think that given the uncertainty that surrounded this and the possibility that it was so contagious that it would swamp our healthcare system, he supported the appropriate moves for a limited period of time
- William Barr, as quoted in AG Barr calls coronavirus restrictions 'draconian,' says they should be reevaluated next month (April 9, 2020) by Nicholas Wu, The Star Press
April 10[edit]
- This is a very brilliant enemy. You know, it's a brilliant enemy. They develop drugs like the antibiotics, you see it. Antibiotics used to solve every problem. Now one of the biggest problems the world has is the germ has gotten so brilliant, that the antibiotic can't keep up with it. And they're constantly trying to come up with a new— People go to a hospital and they catch– They go for a heart operation, that's no problem, but they end up dying from, from... problems. You know the problems I'm talking about.
- Donald Trump. Coronavirus task force press briefing, 2020-04-10, quoted in Jake Thomas (10 April 2020), "Watch: Trump Appears To Believe That Coronavirus Is A Bacteria, Not A Virus", The Intellectualist
April 14[edit]
- The delays the WHO experienced in declaring a public health emergency cost valuable time tremendous amounts of time; more time was lost in the delay it took to get a team of international experts and to examine the outbreak which we wanted to do which they should have done. The inability of the WHO to obtain virus samples to this date has deprived the scientific community of essential data. New data that emerges across the world on a daily basis points to the unreliability of the initial reports and the world received all sorts of false information about transmission and mortality. The silence of the WHO on the disappearance of scientific researchers and doctors and new restrictions on the sharing of research into the origins of COVID-19 in the country of origin is deeply concerning especially when we put up by far the largest amount of money, not even close. Had the WHO done its job to get medical experts into China to objectively assess the situation on the ground and to call out China's lack of transparency, the outbreak could have been contained as a source with very little death, very little death, and certainly very little death by comparison. This would have saved thousands of lives and avoided worldwide economic damage. Instead the WHO willingly took China's assurances to face value, and they took it just at face value and defended the actions of the Chinese government, even praising China for its so-called transparency. I don't think so. The WHO pushed China's misinformation about the virus, saying it was not communicable, and there was no need for travel bans. They told us when we put on our travel ban a very strong travel ban, there was no need to do it. Don't do it; they actually fought us. The WHO's reliance on China's disclosures likely caused a 20-fold increase in cases worldwide, and it may be much more than that.
- Donald Trump, White House coronavirus task force briefing (April 14, 2020), transcript online at RealClearPolitics
April 17[edit]
- Look, I could tell you about — and I’m not going to do it, because I didn’t want to bring it up — but I could tell you about events that took place. And I said things like, “You’ll never do that again” or “You’ll never do this again” or — I don’t even want to mention the events. I don’t want to mention what you’re supposed to be doing because — and you know one of them was so horrible. I said, “A certain industry will be out of business — never happen again.” Two weeks later, it was like nothing ever happened. Hopefully, we get rid of this. We have tremendous talent up here and all over, including governors, including local governments, state governments.
April 19[edit]
- That White House Coronavirus Task Force met today. It was reported to us that, at this moment, more than 746,000 Americans have tested positive for the coronavirus. Fortunately, more than 68,000 Americans have fully recovered. But sadly, more than 41,000 Americans have lost their lives to the coronavirus. And we always want to express our deepest sympathies to the families in their loss, as well as to all the families who have loved ones that are struggling with this disease.
- Today, we’ve seen encouraging news again about our progress as a nation. President Trump reflected on those momentarily. But the coronavirus White House Task Force today learned that our large metro areas continue to stabilize and even see progress. The New York metro area, including New Jersey, New York, Long Island, Connecticut, and Rhode Island all appear to be past their peak. The Detroit metro area also appears to be past its peak and is stable. New Orleans metro area actually is the most stable of all areas where we had a major metropolitan outbreak. And the Denver metro area is stable. We’re dealing in Colorado with a meatpacking plant issue. And, of course, California and Washington remain low and steady. Areas that we continue to watch carefully on the task force include the Chicago metro area, Boston metro, and the Philadelphia metropolitan area. The progress that we are making is a tribute to the — the American people. It’s a tribute to state and local leaders in all of these areas and the partnership that our President has forged. But we just want to encourage every American, as we see this progress, to continue to heed your state and local authorities. I think the American people know no one wants to reopen America more than President Donald Trump. But I want to assure you we’re going to continue to work with governors of every state, with the President’s Guidelines for Opening Up America Again. And we’re going to work in a way that we can consolidate the progress that we have made and help move our states toward reopening our country.
- Remember that, a month ago, we had done 80,000 coronavirus tests in America. This weekend, we cleared more than 4 million. And we’re currently testing more than a million Americans a week. We fully expect to actually have tested more than 5 million Americans before the end of this month. But at the President's urging, we’re going to continue to scale that testing and then work with governors to make sure that they can manage and implement and deploy that testing in the manner that will most support their efforts to move their states forward. Remember that the testing that is contemplated in the Guidelines for Opening Up America Again, for phase one, are testing people that have symptoms that may be coronavirus, and then also having the testing resources to deploy to vulnerable communities: nursing homes or other vulnerable communities that we have identified as needing additional –what is called "monitoring" or "surveillance testing".
- We believe we have the testing today around the country that would allow any state in America to move into phase one if they've met the other criteria: fourteen days of consistent declines and strong hospital capacity, so that their system would not be overwhelmed in the event of a flare-up. But we’re going to be working with governors tomorrow on the subject of testing and supplies. And as the President said again this evening: We’re here to help. We’ve forged a partnership with governors around the country, and tomorrow we’ll be building on that partnership to hopefully arrive at the day that we can make sure governors around the nation have the best advice and the best resources to put America back to work.
Mike Pence, interview at Meet the Press[edit]
- Mike Pence in an interview with Chuck Todd at Meet the Press (April 19, 2020). Transcript online at NBCNews.com
- It really is remarkable to think about the progress the American people have made over the last several months. When the president tapped me to lead the White House Coronavirus Task Force, he gave us the first objective is to save lives. And to focus on slowing the spread, bending the curve. And because of the extraordinary efforts of the American people, we continue to see every day evidence that cases are declining, hospitalizations are declining. That's a tribute to the American people. Frankly, it's a tribute to all of those governors, governors in both parties across the country who put these mitigation efforts into effect.
- Secondly, the president made it clear to us that we were to make sure the hospitals in impacted areas had the resources and the equipment that they needed to be able to save as many lives as possible. And I have to tell you that tens of millions of personal protective equipment that we've coordinated for delivery around the country, especially in areas most impacted and the fact that ventilators have been delivered in areas across the country so that no American who needed a ventilator has ever been denied a ventilator. We're actually increasing the stockpile today. But testing has been a focus of ours as well, from very beginning. And it's the reason why the president, early on, brought in this vast array of commercial labs that took us from 80,000 tests one month ago to now four million tests as of yesterday. And as we'll make clear again to governors tomorrow in our weekly conference call, we look forward to continuing to partner with governors all across the country as we continue to scale testing. Because we really believe that, while we're doing 150,000 tests a day now, that if states around the country will activate all of the laboratories that are available in their states, we could more than double that overnight and literally be doing hundreds of thousands of more tests per day in a very short period of time.
- Just so we're very clear, when the president outlined his guidelines for opening up America, we laid out a plan for both -- for when and how we thought it was best according to our best scientists and advisors for states to be able to responsibly and safely reopen. And we believe today as Dr. Birx has said, as Dr. Fauci and others have said, is that there is a sufficient capacity of testing across the country today for any state in America to go to a phase one level which contemplates testing people that have symptoms of the coronavirus. And also doing the kind of monitoring of vulnerable populations in our cities, in our nursing homes that we ought to be watching very carefully for outbreaks of the coronavirus. But we believe working with the governors, as we'll continue to partner with them, that we can activate labs around the country and that states today, if the governor so chooses, have sufficient testing to be able to move into the testing contemplated in phase one.
- What we've done through FEMA and through U.S. public health service is literally marshal the full resources of the American economy. We've been bringing medical supplies including, testing supplies, in from all over the world and will continue to do that.
- I've been working almost daily over the last two months with Republican and Democrat governors across the country. And this vast and complex system of testing, using the commercial labs around the country and using hospital and public labs is a new concept. And so we've been working with governors around the country to make sure that they and their health officials know about all the resources in their states. And we also have deployed a team from Walter Reed that over the last two weeks has been calling every single laboratory in the country that can do coronavirus testing. And tomorrow we'll be presenting all of those details to governors so that they can activate those tests in their state.
- Admiral Brett Giroir of the U.S. Public Health Service spends all of his time coordinating testing deployment and resources deployment from FEMA. And what we're making clear to governors, and I want the American people to know, is that we will continue to do that. While the president has made it clear that we want the governors to implement testing and deploy testing where they deem it's most appropriate in their state, we're going to continue to fully partner with states around the country to increase the supply, to make sure that they have the reagents and the test kits necessary to perform those tests. But I want to say again, it is truly -- it's a tribute to the president's leadership that early on in this process he brought in the top commercial labs in the country. They formed an alliance. And we went from one month ago to 80,000 tests being done to four million tests being completed as of yesterday. We'll continue to increase that. We'll continue to make governors aware of that.
- In any health care crisis, we want to make sure the health care workers at the local level have the resources they need because it's locally executed. It is state managed. But it's federally supported. And the federal government at the president's direction will continue to support governors as they deploy the testing resources in the time and manner of their choosing. But we believe today, as Dr. Deborah Birx has confirmed, is we have a sufficient capacity of testing today for any state in America to move into phase one and begin the process of reopening their state and their economy.
- At the president's direction, as we announced last week, the CDC is going to deploy teams in every single state in the country to do contact tracing over the next 12 to 18 months. The CDC is really the expert at contact tracing. And it really is, Chuck, the way that we, that we typically control the outbreak of infectious disease. You identify someone who has symptoms. You test them. And then you immediately find out who they've been in contact with. That's what the CDC does. And, as we announced last week, we'll be deploying coronavirus CDC teams in every state in the country on top of the hundreds of CDC personnel that are already embedded in states today.
- I've seen that report in the papers this morning. And I know that HHS is making inquiries. But we believe those issues were resolved on that particular test by early February. But it's important for your viewers to know that that test, the slow lab-based test that is typical for CDC and public health labs would never have been able to meet the needs of testing in this coronavirus epidemic. That's why President Trump was so right when he brought together these commercial labs and formed a consortium. And literally took us from -- at that time in February we had done some 20,000 tests total across the country. Now we've done more than four million and we believe we'll have done more than five million tests before the end of this month. None of that would have been possible without the president's leadership, without the innovation, without the incredible efforts of companies like Roche and Avid Laboratories. And the American people can be confident that whether it is supplies, whether it is testing, we're going to continue to make sure that our governors, our state health care officials and most especially our health care workers have the resources and the support they need. But I want the American people to know that sitting here this morning we really are seeing encouraging signs because of what the American people have done, we believe we are slowing the spread.
- On a FDA's report stating that CDC's initial test was faulty.
- There's a downward trajectory beginning in even some of the hot spots around the country. And now more than ever it's important that each of us continue to do our part. And I can assure the American people that, at the president's direction, we'll continue to play our role, we'll have a full partnership of governors around the country. And we will some day in the near future, we, will put the coronavirus in the past.
- No one wants to reopen America more than President Donald Trump. And I think the American people have known that from weeks ago when the president declared that important balance, we have to make sure that the cure isn't worse than the disease. Because the reality is that for all of the sacrifice the American people have made, sacrifices that literally have saved lives, the truth is that there are real costs including the health and well-being of the American people to continue to go through the shutdown that we're in today. And so the president laid out new guidelines for every state in the country to say that if you’ve seen cases decline for 14 days, if you're in a position to do the kind of, the kind of testing and you have the health hospital capacity that we want to encourage every state to examine the way to go to phase one. And that's the new guidance that we're giving.
- About Donald Trump's tweets in support of the anti-lockdown protests by calling for the liberation of Michigan, Minnesota, and Virginia in all caps.
- Chuck Todd: I understand that. I've given you a lot of leeway here. I've not been wanting to interrupt you. That's not true, I always want to jump in on some things. I've given you a lot of leeway. Why is the president trying to undermine the guidance you've been laying out and that he's been -- he laid out this guidance on Thursday and undermined it on Friday.
- Mike Pence: Chuck, I just -- I don't accept your premise and I don't think most Americans do either. The president's made it clear, he wants to reopen America. And we laid out guidelines for every state in the country to safely and responsibly reopen their economy at the time and manner of their choosing. We laid out the criteria for when our best scientists believe that would be appropriate. If it was 14 days of declining of cases and they had proper hospital capacity. And we laid out the means that they could move into phase one. When you hear the president, when you see people across the country talking about reopening, every American and this president want to do that in a safe and responsible way. The guidelines for opening up America are a framework for doing that. And we'll work with governors across the country to implement those because we want to, we want to put America back to work as soon as we responsibly can. And at the president's direction we're going to continue to work to do that every day.
- The American people can be confident that this president wants to reopen the American economy as soon as we can safely and responsibly do it. But we believe, with the guidelines to open up America again, we've given governors around the country our very best counsel about how they can do just that. And we'll continue to work with governors to make sure that they have the guidance, that they have the council and they have the resources to accomplish that. And to put the coronavirus in the past someday and to put America back to work.
- We believe that under the phase one criteria that we have a sufficient amount of testing at that level to allow states to begin to responsibly reopen. And literally doing more than 150,000 tests a day now, a number that we believe we could double once we activate all the laboratories around the country, we're confident that that would enable any governor who's otherwise met the criteria of 14 days of declining cases to be able to have the testing capacity sufficient to monitor people that may have symptoms so we can identify them and do contact tracing and also deploy the resources to vulnerable populations, nursing homes and particular vulnerable populations in our city to ensure that we don't see a resurgence of the coronavirus. So yes, we think we've laid a strong foundation for testing for phase one and we're going to continue to expand testing going forward for the nation in the weeks and months ahead.
April 21[edit]
- I think I read yesterday a report that we’ve done more than everybody — every other country — combined,
- We’ve tested more than every other country in the world even put together.
- Donald Trump, quoted by Aaron Rupar (21 April 2020), "Trump just said the US has done more coronavirus testing than the rest of the world. Not even close.", Vox
- Note: At that time, the US had done just above 4 million tests, while worldwide more than 20 million tests had been done.
April 22[edit]
- I believe this transfer was in response to my insistence that the government invest the billions of dollars allocated by Congress to address the COVID-19 pandemic into safe and scientifically vetted solutions, and not in drugs, vaccines and other technologies that lack scientific merit. I am speaking out because to combat this deadly virus, science – not politics or cronyism – has to lead the way.
- Rick Bright, on April 22, 2020, statement objecting to his removal as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response and Director of BARDA. As quoted in a whistleblower complaint filed by Bright on May 5, 2020. Text online
April 23[edit]
- "And then I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning? Because, you see, it gets on the lungs, and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it'd be interesting to check that. So that you're going to have to use medical doctors, but it sounds — it sounds interesting to me."
- Donald Trump, quoted by Jan C. Timm (23 April 2020), "'It's irresponsible and it's dangerous': Experts rip Trump's idea of injecting disinfectant to treat COVID-19", NBC News
- Note: Trump's Food and Drug Administration specifically warned against drinking the chemicals in disinfectants, noting that consumption of such products "can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and symptoms of severe dehydration."
- So supposing we hit the body with a tremendous, whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light and I think you said that hasn't been checked but you’re going to test it. And then I said supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way.
- Donald Trump, suggesting a way to cure COVID-19, as quoted by Hunter Woodall (23 April 2020), "'Jaw-Dropping’: Trump Slammed for Touting Dangerous New Virus Treatments After Favored Drug Is Discredited", Daily Beast
- And we’re — really, I’m very happy the governors have been — the governors, really, have been doing a really good job working with us, and it’s — it’s, really, pretty impressive to see. I’ve spoken to numerous leaders of countries over the last 48 hours, and they are saying we’re leading the way. We’re really leading the way in so many different ways.
- Donald Trump, White House coronavirus task force briefing (April 23, 2020), Donald Trump Coronavirus Press Conference Transcript April 23
April 25[edit]
- Was just informed that the Fake News from the Thursday White House Press Conference had me speaking & asking questions of Dr. Deborah Birx. Wrong, I was speaking to our Laboratory expert, not Deborah, about sunlight etc. & the CoronaVirus. The Lamestream Media is corrupt & sick!
- Donald Trump incorrectly stating that he was talking to William Bryan, the head of science and technology directorate at the Department of Homeland Security, and not Debroah Birx when asked if heat or light could be used as a treatment. In a Twitter post, 25 April 2020, also posted on his Facebook account. Quoted in Over 200,000 now dead worldwide from COVID-19 by William Mansell, Ella Torres and Christina Carrega, 26 April 2020, ABC News
- What is the purpose of having White House News Conferences when the Lamestream Media asks nothing but hostile questions, & then refuses to report the truth or facts accurately. They get record ratings, & the American people get nothing but Fake News. Not worth the time & effort!
- Donald Trump in a Twitter post, 25 April 2020. Quoted in 9 controversial moments that led Trump to stop his White House coronavirus briefings by Libby Cathey, 21 July 2020, ABC News
April 27[edit]
- I can't imagine why.
- Donald Trump, answering a question from a journalist about rise in misuse of disinfectants the last few days, as quoted by Lydia O'Connor (27 April 2020), "Trump Says He Takes No Responsibility For People Ingesting Disinfectant", Huffpost
April 28[edit]
- Donald Trump and his top Republican allies in Congress are fighting a war, and the battle lines have begun to clarify themselves. Their war is not being waged against COVID-19, the pandemic that has killed tens of thousands in this nation alone. Their war is being waged against the nation itself, and specifically against areas of the nation that are heavy on population but light on Trump supporters. In other words, the big-city blue states, whose governors have refused to fawn over Trump's gibberish-flecked "leadership" during this crisis.
- Illinois, New York, California … all big-city blue states hit hard by COVID, all states that have felt the failures of the Trump administration acutely, now singled out as states that do not deserve federal aid. COVID does not care who you voted for, but Trump does, and he seems happily willing to increase the nation's suffering while helping to expand the reach of the pandemic in order to settle some grudges and score points with his weirdly death-seeking base.
- States with large cities have taken the pandemic straight in the teeth, and are hurting badly. Many of these states did not support Trump in 2016, particularly New York and California. The leaders in these states will likely be willing to swallow any number of compromises to get the aid money flowing. [...] The blue states need that aid, and McConnell knows he has their congressional representatives over a barrel. The utter cruelty of these tactics, the nihilistic self-destruction of it in the face of more than 55,000 dead and thousands more to follow, has scarce precedent in the annals of U.S. politics. Instead of helping the entire country in this time of grievous crisis, Trump and McConnell are putting their boots to the neck of every state they deem ideologically unfit. It will be a damn miracle if the nation survives this, and them.
- My message to the Jewish community, and all communities, is this simple: the time for warnings has passed. I have instructed the NYPD to proceed immediately to summons or even arrest those who gather in large groups. This is about stopping this disease and saving lives. Period.
April 29[edit]
- The only reason the U.S. has reported one million cases of CoronaVirus is that our Testing is sooo much better than any other country in the World.
- Donald Trump, quoted by Stephen Collinson (29 April 2020), "Trump still seems to not understand how bad the coronavirus crisis is", CNN
April 30[edit]
- Donald Trump: And you have to understand: When we took over, the cupboards were bare. And the thing that — frankly, it’s not as tough as the ventilator situation. We’re the king of ventilators. But what we have done is — on testing, we’re doing numbers the likes of which nobody has ever seen before. And I told you, the President of South Korea, President Moon, called me to congratulate me on testing. And we did more tests than any other country anywhere in the world. And I think they told me yesterday a number — if you add up the rest of the world, we’ve done more testing. And it’s a higher quality test. So I think we’ve done a — I think the whole team, federal government — we built hospitals for you and others.
- Phil Murphy: You bet.
- Donald Trump: We built medical centers. And I’m talking about thousands and thousands of beds. Many, many medical centers. We had — as you know, we had the governor of Florida and the governor of Louisiana over the last two days. They could not have been — and one was a Democrat, and this gentleman happens to be a proud Democrat. They could not have been more supportive of the effort of the federal government. And I’ll tell you, Jim —
- James Acosta: But aren’t you seeing massive lines for food?
- Donald Trump: Let me just tell you, we have — we started off with empty cupboards. The last administration left us nothing. We started off with bad, broken tests and obsolete tests. What we’ve come up with, between the Abbott Laboratories, where you have the five-minute test. Did they test you today?
- Phil Murphy: They did test me.
- Donald Trump: Good. Now I feel better. (Laughter.)
- Phil Murphy: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’m negative.
- Donald Trump: You did the five-minute — the Abbott test.
- Phil Murphy: I did the quick turnaround.
- Donald Trump: It’s so great.
- Phil Murphy: I feel like a new man.
- Donald Trump: That’s a brand — you know what? That’s a brand-new test. That didn’t exist eight weeks ago, and now it’s like the rage. Everybody wants that test. No, I think we’ve done — I think we’ve done a really great job.
- About the lack of tests for the novel coronavirus, Remarks by President Trump in a Meeting with Governor Murphy of New Jersey (April 30, 2020), whitehouse.gov. Quoted in Did Trump Blame Obama for ‘Bad’ COVID-19 Tests? by Bethania Palma, 1 May 2020, Snopes
- Note: No previous administration could have prepared a test for a disease which had yet to emerge. COVID-19 emerged during Trump's presidency, the test was designed in 2020 by the Centers for Disease Control under the Trump administration. See Misinformation related to the COVID-19 pandemic#Presidential
May[edit]
May 1[edit]
- Though some protections exist for people struggling financially during the COVID-19 pandemic, thanks to the CARES Act stimulus package signed into law on March 27, they largely ignore those who were already on the edge of financial ruin. The CARES Act has paused federal student loan debt payments and payments on federally-backed mortgages, and various cities and states have suspended evictions. But few states have stopped creditors from moving ahead with wage garnishments, repossessions, and attachments (one-time seizures of bank accounts). This means that in many cases, the pandemic will tip people [...] into an economic abyss from which it will be difficult or impossible to recover. Even the one-time $1,200 stimulus payments promised to millions in the U.S. can be garnished by financial institutions in many states. [...] About one-third of Americans have debts in collection, according to the National Consumer Law Center. Total household debt reached an all-time high in the last quarter of 2019, at $14.5 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Unemployment checks are supposed to be protected from creditors, but even they are at risk of seizure once they are deposited into bank accounts. To protect their benefits, debtors must file a court motion, which is challenging in scores of jurisdictions where the coronavirus has closed most courts. People who do succeed in filing motions are being told they must wait weeks and sometimes months for their cases to be heard. In the meantime, the funds remain frozen.
- I can't tell you that. I'm not allowed to tell you that.
- Donald Trump, answering what his basis was for claiming that the coronavirus emerged from a virology lab in the Wuhan city of China, as quoted by PTI (1 May 2020), "'It Came Out Of China, Could Have Been Stopped': Prez Donald Trump On Coronavirus", Outlook
May 10[edit]
- We are getting great marks for the handling of the CoronaVirus pandemic, especially the very early BAN of people from China, the infectious source, entering the USA. Compare that to the Obama/Sleepy Joe disaster known as H1N1 Swine Flu. Poor marks, bad polls - didn’t have a clue!
- Donald Trump, as quoted by Richard Hall (10 May 2020), "Trump claims he is ‘getting great marks’ for coronavirus response as US death toll nears 80,000", Independent
May 11[edit]
- If people want to get tested, they get tested.
- Donald Trump, quoted in By Daniel Dale, David Wright, Arman Azad, Holmes Lybrand (11 May 2020), "Fact check: Trump falsely claims, again, that anybody who wants a test can get one", CNN
- Coronavirus numbers are looking MUCH better, going down almost everywhere.
- Donald Trump, quoted in Steve Benen (11 May 2020), "Trump points to 'the numbers,' which don't say what he thinks they say", MSNBC
- We have to close the country. And I said, say it again. They said, sir, you have to close the country. Nobody ever heard of a thing like this but they were right because if I didn't we would have lost two million, two and a half million, maybe more than that people.
- Donald Trump, quoted by Chris Cillizza (11 May 2020), "Why Donald Trump's idea that he saved millions of lives is laughable", CNN
May 12[edit]
- Asian Americans are VERY angry at what China has done to our Country, and the World. Chinese Americans are the most angry of all. I don’t blame them!
- Donald Trump, quoted in Kimmy Yam (12 May 2020), "Trump claims Asian Americans are angry at 'what China has done' to U.S.", Yahoo News / NBC News
May 13[edit]
- To me it's not an acceptable answer, especially when it comes to schools
- Donald Trump, commenting on a statement from infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, warning that getting businesses and schools back open too quickly would lead to unnecessary suffering and death, as quoted in Stephen Collinson (13 May 2020), "Trump's rebuke of Fauci encapsulates rejection of science in virus fight", CNN
May 14[edit]
Rick Bright, Testimony before Congress[edit]
Rick Bright,, Testimony before Congress, CNN (May 14, 2020)
- Our window of opportunity is closing. If we fail to improve our response now, based on science, I fear the pandemic will get far worse and be prolonged. There will be likely a resurgence of Covid-19 this fall that will be greatly compounded by the challenges of seasonal influenza. Without better planning, 2020 could be the darkest winter in modern history.
- We need to be truthful with the American people. Americans deserve the truth. The truth must be based on science. We have the world's greatest scientists. Let us lead. Let us speak without fear of retribution. We must listen. Each of us can and must do our part now.
- I believe with proper leadership and collaboration across government, with the best science leading the way, we can devise a comprehensive strategy, we can devise a plan that includes all Americans and help them help us guide us through this pandemic. The window is closing to address this pandemic because we still do not have a standard centralized coordinated plan to take this nation through this response.
- There's no one company that can produce enough for our country or for the world. We need to have a strategy and plan in place now to make sure that we can not only fill that vaccine, make it, distribute it, administer it in a fair and equitable plan. We don't have that yet and it is a significant concern.
- Rep. Butterfield: How could we be struggling to get adequate supplies of simple supplies like swabs? What does this say about the federal response to the coronavirus outbreak?
Bright: It says to me, sir, that there is no master coordinated plan on how to respond to this outbreak.
- Lives were endangered, and I believe lives were lost. Not only that, we were forced to procure the supplies from other countries without the right quality standards, so even our doctors and nurses in the hospitals today are wearing N95-marked masks from other countries that are not providing the sufficient protection that a US-standard N95 mask would provide them.
- We need to unleash the voices of the scientists in our public health system in the United States so they can be heard and their guidances need to be listened to.
May 16[edit]
- If we didn’t do any testing, we would have very few cases
- Donald Trump, quoted in Aaron Rupar (16 May 2020), "Trump seems to think there’d be no coronavirus if there was no testing. It doesn’t work like that.", VOX
- A lot of doctors take it. I take it.
- Donald Trump, about taking the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine to prevent Covid-19 disease, as quoted in Justin Paragona, Adam Rawnsley (18 May 2020), "FDA: This Drug Could Kill You. Trump: I’m Taking It!", The Daily Beast
May 18[edit]
- I would have told you that three or four days ago, but we never had a chance, because you never asked me the question.
- Donald Trump, about taking the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine to prevent Covid-19 disease, as quoted in Justin Paragona, Adam Rawnsley (18 May 2020), "FDA: This Drug Could Kill You. Trump: I’m Taking It!", The Daily Beast
May 19[edit]
- When we have a lot of cases, I don’t look at that as a bad thing — I look at that in a certain respect as being a good thing because it means our testing is much better. ... So I view it as a badge of honour, really,
- Donald Trump, about the 1.59 million confirmed cases of Covid-19, as quoted in Oliver O'Connell (19 May 2020), "Coronavirus: Trump says it’s ‘badge of honour’ for US to lead world in Covid-19 cases", Independent
May 21[edit]
- I didn’t want to give the press the pleasure of seeing it.
- Donald Trump, on why he didn't wear a face mask as a protection against the coronavirus at a visit to a factory, as quoted in Madeleine Carlisle (21 May 2020), "Trump Goes Without Mask For Public Tour of Michigan Factory, Says He ‘Didn’t Want to Give the Press the Pleasure’ of Seeing Him Wearing One", Time
May 22[edit]
- Yeah. I tested positively toward negative, right? So, no, I tested perfectly this morning, meaning—meaning I tested negative... But that’s a way of saying it: positively toward the negative.
- Donald Trump, on having had a coronavirus test, spoken to reporters on the White House lawn, 2020-05-21. Bethania Palma (22 May 2020), Did Trump Say He ‘Tested Very Positively’ for COVID-19, Meaning Negative?, Snopes, retrieved on May 22, 2020
June[edit]
June 15[edit]
- In a very real sense they've flattened the curve. The number of cases in Oklahoma has declined precipitously.
- Mike Pence, about the COVID-19 pandemic. Fact check: Pence falsely claims coronavirus cases in Oklahoma are on the decline (June 15 2020)
June 16[edit]
- You know, before we had a single coronavirus case in this country, this president shut down all travel from China. It bought us invaluable time to stand up our national response.
- Mike Pence, Pence’s False Claims About Trump’s Handling of Coronavirus (June 16 2020)
June 21[edit]
- By the way, it’s a disease, without question [that] has more names than any disease in history. I can name “kung flu.” I can name 19 different versions of names. Many call it a virus, which it is. Many call it a flu. What difference? I think we have 19 or 20 different versions of the name.
- Donald Trump, discussing the COVID-19 pandemic at a campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma on June 21, as quoted by Osita Nwanevu (21 June 2020), "This Is How Trump Plans to Beat Biden", The New Republic
June 23[edit]
- Ironically, while the virus is hidden and invisible, it acts to make dramatically visible numerous crises and problems in nations such as the US. Better than any Marxist theory of crisis, the virus showed that the world capitalist system is extremely fragile and built on a house of cards that can be toppled by an ill-wind. More so than depressions, world wars, or terrorist attacks, COVID-19 brought the world to a standstill. It exposed the mighty US Empire as a second-rate moribund power and a failed state in its inconceivably feeble response to the pandemic and the plight of its citizens. It revealed Emperor Trump to be without clothes — not only grossly incompetent as a leader, but a truly dangerous sociopath indifferent to the suffering he causes. Trump not only presides over the greatest health crisis in a century, he is a health hazard, a danger to public safety.
- Moreover, the virus shed a blinding light on the already clear racial and class inequalities in the US, for the poor and people of color have the least resources, the worst access to healthy food and health care, and are the most vulnerable. In May-June 2020, protests and riots erupted all over a nation dealing with the dual pandemics of COVID-19 and systemic racism and police brutality. As well, COVID-19 laid bare the nihilistic logic of capitalism, when anxious elites insisted that the elderly, the vulnerable, and “essential workers” will have to be sacrificed for the greater good of the economy and revivification of the sacred "American Way of Life." Just as surely, the virus put on display the supremacy of politics over science, ideology over facts, and personal ambition (of Trump) over public health. The respect for and preeminence of science has never been lower in the US. Just as Trump has censored climate change science for the last few years, he and compliant Republican-governed states like Florida censured medical sciences disclosing the distressing factual realities of the COVID-19 outbreak. Truth, facts, and objective reality are troubled notions in the topsy-turvy society Trump has shaped. The virus made disturbingly clear the power of lies and ideology in a media-dominated hyperreal society, as even with the colossal failure of leadership, Trump retains the ardent support of his base, which comprises nearly half of the country.
- COVID is the perfect virus for neoliberal, atomized societies and especially for the sharply polarized US. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and the utopian dreams of open societies in the aftermath, nations around the world have built more, not less, walls, and currently there are over 70 sizable border walls worldwide. In the midst of the climate emergency, when international cooperation is critical, alliances are unraveling, and nations are building walls between one another. Donald “America First” Trump has pulled out of the Paris Treaty and withdrew from the World Health Organization. Divisions form not only between nations, but within nations themselves. This is dramatically evident in the US, where Trump abdicated federal oversight and leadership of the COVID-19 crisis, states were forced to compete with one another for medical supplies and many erected border checkpoints to keep out citizens from neighboring states. The culture wars dividing conservatives and liberals for decades have intensified to draw battle lines now between those who wear MAGA hats and those who don protective masks. As well, COVID-19 has frayed important lines of family and community connections among individuals, forced people into isolated and sanitized zones of solipsism that breed depression and mental illness.
- Cases up only because of our big number testing. Mortality rate way down!!!
- It’s fading away, it’s going to fade away.
- We have got the greatest testing program anywhere in the world.
- We’ve done too good a job.
- You know testing is a double-edged sword. ... Here’s the bad part. When you test to that extent, you are going to find more people, find more cases. So I said to my people, ‘Slow the testing down please.’
- Donald Trump, about the Covid-19 pandemic, as quoted by Calvin Woodward, Hope Yen (23 June 2020), "AP FACT CHECK: Sober science weighs in on Trump’s virus take", AP
June 26[edit]
- To one extent or another, the volume of new cases coming in is a reflection of a great success in expanding testing across the country.
- Mike Pence, about the coronavirus. Fact Checking Mike Pence on the Coronavirus Pandemic (June 26 2020)
June 28[edit]
- If his people who are called by His name will humble themselves and pray, He will do as He has done for generations and heal His people and He will heal this land, I leave here today confident that God is at work. Even though it may not seem that way God is working. Even when things don’t seem like they’re going the way we expected, they’re going the way God expected.
July[edit]
July 1[edit]
- I think we’re gonna be very good with the coronavirus. I think that at some point that’s going to, sort of, just disappear—I hope.
- Donald Trump, on a morning news talk show regarding the COVID-19 pandemic; at the time, the United States had over 120,000 deaths from the virus and over 2.5 million infections. As quoted by Richard Hall (1 July 2020), "Trump again claims coronavirus is ‘going to just disappear’ as US sees record number of new cases", The Independent
July 4[edit]
- We got hit by the virus that came from China. We’ve made a lot of progress. Our strategy is moving along well.
- We’ve learned how to put out the flame.
- Now we have tested almost 40m people. By so doing, we show cases, 99% of which are totally harmless.
- Donald Trump, describing the situation with Covid-19, where more than 128 000 had died out of around 2,800,000 found cases at that time, a death rate of more than 4 %, and around 40,000 to 50,000 new cases were found per day, as quoted by David Smith (4 July 2020), "Trump claims 99% of US Covid-19 cases are 'totally harmless' as infections surge", The Guardian
July 5[edit]
- As the pandemic surges back, Trump and his lackeys have:
- —Tried to dismantle the Affordable Care Act
- —Rallied to pass a $740,000,000,000 defense spending bill
- —Declined extending additional unemployment benefits to out-of-work Americans
- Their priorities are crystal clear.
- Robert Reich, Twitter, (5 Jul 2020)
- So let me get this straight: Extending additional unemployment benefits to out-of-work Americans during a pandemic will make them lazy and lead to socialism, but trillions in bailouts to Wall St. bankers and corporate execs is good for the economy?
- Robert Reich, Twitter, (5 Jul 2020)
July 6[edit]
- I don't regret that. At that time, there was a paucity of equipment that our health care providers needed -- who put themselves daily in harm's way of taking care of people who are ill. We did not want to divert masks and PPE away from them, to be used by the people.
- Anthony Fauci, Congressional testimony on early recommendations that people not wear masks during the COVID-19 pandemic. "The mask decision that will haunt Trump's reelection bid, CNN (July 6, 2020)
July 7[edit]
- We’re very much going to put pressure on governors and everybody else to open the schools.
- Donald Trump, quoted by Rex Huppke (7 July 2020), "Column: Trump demands schools reopen or funds might be cut — our (expendable) kids must face the virus!", Chicago Tribune
July 11[edit]
- Too many Universities and School Systems are about Radical Left Indoctrination, not Education. Therefore, I am telling the Treasury Department to re-examine their Tax-Exempt Status and/or Funding, which will be taken away if this Propaganda or Act Against Public Policy continues. Our children must be Educated, not Indoctrinated!
- As quoted by Susan Heavey (11 July 2020), "Doctors, teachers reject Trump's pressure to reopen U.S. schools", Reuters
- Deaths in the U.S. are way down.
- For the 1/100th time, the reason we show so many Cases, compared to other countries that haven’t done nearly as well as we have, is that our TESTING is much bigger and better. We have tested 40,000,000 people. If we did 20,000,000 instead, Cases would be half, etc. NOT REPORTED!
- We have the lowest Mortality Rate in the World.
- Job growth is biggest in history.
- Economy and Jobs are growing MUCH faster than anyone (except me!) expected.
- As quoted by Calvin Woodward, Hope Yen, and Christopher Rugaber (11 July 2020), "AP FACT CHECK: Trump keeps repeating false pandemic information", Sentinel Colorado
July 16[edit]
- The elites are not responding rationally to the coronavirus pandemic, the economic devastation and the myriad of other problems facing the United States right now. America's ruling class is doing just what they did in 2008, which is to line their own pockets at the public's expense and to cast the rest of the country — the working poor and the working class — aside as if they were human refuse. That is all very shortsighted, of course, because of the blowback. The ramifications are catastrophic. One would think that America's elites would respond in a smarter way, if even for their own self-preservation. If elected president, Joe Biden certainly isn't going to respond properly.
- The moment that the Chinese scientists and doctors announced that the coronavirus could be transmitted between human beings on Jan. 20, 2020, the socialist governments went into action to monitor ports of entry and to test and trace key parts of the population. They set up task forces and procedures to immediately make sure that the infection would not go out of control amongst their people. They did not wait till the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global pandemic on March 11.
This is in stark contrast to governments in the United States, the United Kingdom, Brazil, India, and other capitalist states, where there has been a hallucinatory attitude towards the Chinese government and the WHO. There is no comparison between the stance of Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and U.S. President Donald Trump: the former had a sober, science-based attitude, while the latter has consistently laughed off the coronavirus as a simple flu as recently as June 24.
July 19[edit]
- Look, I take responsibility always for everything because it's ultimately my job, too. I have to get everybody in line.
- Donald Trump, as quoted by Ronn Blitzer (19 July 2020), "Trump pushes back against critics on coronavirus, addresses whether he will accept election results in exclusive interview", Fox News
July 21[edit]
- We've done much better than most. And with the fatality rate at a lower rate than most, it's something that we can talk about.
- Donald Trump, as quoted by "AP FACT CHECK: A More Measured Trump Doesn't Mean Accurate", VOA, 21 July 2020
July 28[edit]
- So it sort of is curious. A man works for us, with us, very closely, Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx also, very highly thought of -- and yet, they're highly thought of, but nobody likes me? It can only be my personality, that's all.
- Donald Trump, as quoted by Kevin Liptak (28 July 2020), "'Nobody likes me': Trump ponders pandemic popularity of Fauci and Birx", CNN
- You can look at large portions of our country, it's corona-free.
- Donald Trump, as quoted by Holmes Lybrand, Tara Subramaniam, Nathan McDermott and Em Steck (28 July 2020), "Fact check: Trump falsely says 'large portions' of the US are 'corona-free,' repeats claim that protests are leading to rising cases", CNN
July 30[edit]
- Young people are almost immune to this disease.
- Donald Trump, as quoted by Jessie Hellman (30 July 2020), "Trump says he can't assure school safety amid pandemic: 'Can you assure anybody of anything?'", The Hill
July 29[edit]
- We're seeing improvements across major metro areas, and most hotspots, you can look at large portions of our country, it's corona-free.
- Donald Trump, as quoted by Calvin Woodward (29 July 2020), "Fact check: Trump falsely says 'large portions' of the US are 'corona-free,' repeats claim that protests are leading to rising cases", CNN
August[edit]
- Please donate plasma now, you can litterally save lives
- Jerome Adams, video posted August 3, 2020
- Q: (Inaudible) if 160,000 people had died on President Obama's watch, do you think you would have called for his resignation?
- Donald Trump: No, I wouldn’t have done that. I think it’s — I think it’s been amazing what we’ve been able to do. If we didn’t close up our country, we would have had one and a half or two million people already dead. We’ve called it right; now we don’t have to close it. We understand the disease. Nobody understood it because nobody has ever seen anything like this. The closest thing is, in 1917, they say — right? The great — the great pandemic certainly was a terrible thing, where they lost, anywhere from 50- to 100 million people. Probably ended the Second World War; all the soldiers were sick. That was a — that was a terrible situation. And this is highly contagious. This one is highly, highly contagious. No, if I would have listened to a lot of people, we would have kept it open. And, by the way, we keep it open now, all the way. We keep it open. But we would have kept it open and you could be up to a million and a half or two million people right now — one and a half to two million people. Our people have done a fantastic job — our consultants and our doctors. You know, and with disagreements and with a lot of things happening.
- Remarks by President Trump in Press Briefing | August 10, 2020, issued on: August 11, 2020, whitehouse.gov
- Note: In October 2014, Donald Trump tweeted that U.S. President Barack Obama should resign because a doctor who had treated Ebola patients in Guinea returned to the U.S, reported in Did Trump Call for Obama to Resign After Ebola Doctor Returned to U.S.? by David Mikkelson, 15 May 2020, Snopes. And the 1918 flu pandemic lasted from February 1918 to April 1920, years before the World War II which started in 1939.
- Political, economic and social dysfunction define the American empire. Our staggering inability to contain the pandemic, which now infects over 5 million Americans, and the failure to cope with the economic fallout the pandemic has caused, has exposed the American capitalist model as bankrupt. It has freed the world, dominated by the United States for seven decades, to look at other social and political systems that serve the common good rather than corporate greed. The diminished stature of the United States, even among our European allies, brings with it the hope for new forms of government and new forms of power.
- Chris Hedges, America’s Death March. Scheerpost, August 10, 2020
October[edit]
- We know that we could have done better. China, faced with the first outbreak, chose strict quarantine and isolation after an initial delay. These measures were severe but effective, essentially eliminating transmission at the point where the outbreak began and reducing the death rate to a reported 3 per million, as compared with more than 500 per million in the United States. Countries that had far more exchange with China, such as Singapore and South Korea, began intensive testing early, along with aggressive contact tracing and appropriate isolation, and have had relatively small outbreaks. And New Zealand has used these same measures, together with its geographic advantages, to come close to eliminating the disease, something that has allowed that country to limit the time of closure and to largely reopen society to a prepandemic level. In general, not only have many democracies done better than the United States, but they have also outperformed us by orders of magnitude.
- Dying in a Leadership Vacuum. The Editors of The New England Journal of Medicine, October 8, 2020
- ...if you look at mortality rates it's up 95%, or 85%...
- President Trump, himself in COVID-recovery during an interiew (13:05) with Dr Mark Siegel on Tucker Carleson show on Fox October 9, 2020
- In a spring meeting, Birx seemed fixated on applying the lessons of HIV/AIDS in a small African nation to COVID-19 in the United States, says a CDC official who was present. “Birx was able to get data from every hospital on every case” in Malawi, the official says. “She couldn’t understand why that wasn’t happening in the United States” with COVID-19. Birx didn’t seem to see the difference between a slow-moving HIV outbreak and a raging respiratory pandemic. “[CDC Principal Deputy Director] Anne Schuchat had to say, ‘Debbi, this is not HIV.’ Birx got unhappy with that.”
- Charles Piller, “The inside story of how Trump’s COVID-19 coordinator undermined the world’s top health agency”, "ScienceMag.org", (Oct. 14, 2020)
- Out of what should be an incredibly positive story, [the IRS] just kept getting black eye after black eye after black eye
- Nina Olson former IRS’ taxpayer advocate in Millions Still Haven’t Gotten Stimulus Checks, Including Many Who Need Them Most posted October 30, 2020
November[edit]
- If the CDC was worried about a shortage of ultra-cold freezers, it hasn’t happened yet. One company, Helmer, reached capacity and now can’t deliver new freezers until March but, for the most part, suppliers are delivering ultra-cold freezers in two to six weeks, said Behlim. Much like for vaccines, though, the distribution of ultra-cold freezers isn’t even across the country. One local Wisconsin hospital looked into acquiring freezers, said Size, but was told delivery would take two to three months. Larger hospitals with the budgets for multiple purchases come first, he said.
“It’s another good example of how all our rural hospitals are at the end of a supply chain with less leverage to make important purchases,” he said. “It’s the wild west of the supply chain; that’s not how you fight a pandemic.”- Olivia Goldhill quoting Tim Size and Azra Behlim, “‘We’re being left behind’: Rural hospitals can’t afford ultra-cold freezers to store the leading Covid-19 vaccine”, Statnews.com, (November 11, 2020)
- Rural populations are precisely those that are vulnerable to Covid-19 and most in need of a vaccine, noted Morgan: “Hundreds of rural, small towns all across the U.S. have a higher percentage of elderly, low-income [residents], a higher percentage of the community with multiple chronic health issues.”
- Olivia Goldhill quoting Alan Morgan, “‘We’re being left behind’: Rural hospitals can’t afford ultra-cold freezers to store the leading Covid-19 vaccine”, Statnews.com, (November 11, 2020)
- I don't think it's unlikely in the next week or two that we won't be having a million cases a week in this country.
- Robert Redfield in an interview with WXYZ-TV, November 13, 2020
- Please cancel these in-person dinners, @SpeakerPelosi & @kevinomccarthy to keep everyone safe from #covid19 - yourselves, your new members, servers, the Capitol police and all of their families and contacts. And, to show public health leadership.
- Chelsea Clinton via tweet November 13, 2020
- New Mexico is at the breaking point.
- Michelle Lujan Grisham, Governor of New Mexico, according to an article in Usa Today titled: Covid surge spurs North Dakota's 1st mask mandate, New Mexico,Oregon partial lockdowns published November 14, 2020Today
- We are in the worst moment of this pandemic to date. The situation has never been more dire. We are at the precipice and we need to take some action.
- Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer according to Michigan, Washington state impose severe COVID-19 restrictions as U.S. infections soar", November 15, 2020
- The only way this stops is if people rise up. You get what you accept. #FreedomMatters #StepUp
- Dr. Scott Atlas criticizing Michigan's new Covid-19 restrictions according to "Trump coronavirus adviser Scott Atlas urges Michigan to 'rise up' against new Covid-19 measures", November 15, 2020
- New York City has reached the 3% testing positivity 7-day average threshold. Unfortunately, this means public school buildings will be closed as of tomorrow, Thursday Nov. 19, out an abundance of caution.
- We must fight back the second wave of COVID-19.
- New York City mayor Bill de Blasio via tweet, November 18, 2020
- I've never seen a particular situation during my professional experience anything like this...
- I'm not convinced at all that we have enough information to know how to deal with this type of problem
- Alan Geenspan according to "Alan Greenspan: I've never seen anything like this", November 20, 2020
- The incoming Biden administration must be prepared to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic head on and distribute a vaccine to over 300 million people in a short amount of time
- Adam Schiff in Rep. Schiff on CNN's The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer November 21, 2020
- The more the president elect and the president are speaking from the same playbook, the more confidence folks will have taking that vaccine
- Phil Murphy Governor of New jersey on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace / Brett Bair, aired November 28, 2020 on twitter
December[edit]
- People were reluctant to get tested because they did not want to be labeled, they didn't even want to report a contact because they didn't want to be labeled and have to take 14 days off from work.
- Dr. Jeffrey,St. Luke's University Health Network, according to "Local health professional comments as CDC revises coronavirus quarantine guidelines", December 2, 2020
- [T]he major players in transporting and distributing vaccines will be companies like UPS and FedEx, especially once the vaccines are on the ground.
"We have the capability to serve every zip code in the United States of America. We do it every day," FedEx Express executive Richard Smith told sena-tors Thursday in hearing on the logistics of transporting the coronavirus vaccines.
"With this net-work capacity, whether you live in Chicago, Illinois or Murdo, South Dakota, we're able to ensure time definite deliveries of these shipments and we feel very confident in our capabilities in this regard," Smith said. "This is what our network was built to do."- David Schaper quoting Richard Smith, “Transporting And Distributing Vaccines Will Be 'Unprecedented' Logistical Challenge”, National, NPR, (December 11, 2020)
- Infants, kids, teens, young people, young adults, middle aged with no conditions etc. have zero to little risk….so we use them to develop herd…we want them infected…
- Paul Alexander, former Health and Human Services science adviser, "‘We want them infected’: Trump appointee demanded ‘herd immunity’ strategy, emails reveal", December 16, 2020
- The stimulus package is encouraging. It looks like it's very, very close and it looks like there are going to be direct payments. But it's a down payment. It's very important to get done and I compliment the bipartisan group on working together to get it done.
- Joe Biden in "Stimulus talks drag on as leaders say deal is close", December 16, 2020
- We didn’t know how long it was gonna last. Most of us would never have thought this would be the 17th of December and we would be working on yet another Covid package.
- Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) in Congress flirts with short shutdown as negotiators near stimulus deal December 17, 2020
- history will record that this week was the beginning of the end [of the pandemic] we have a ways to go.
- Vice President Pence in "Hope is on the way’: Pence gets coronavirus vaccine on live television", December 18, 2020
- “The bill they [lawmakers] are now planning to send back to my desk is much different than anticipated, it really is a disgrace. The bill also allows stimulus checks for the family members of illegal aliens, allowing them to get up to $1,800 each. This is far more than the Americans are given. Despite all of this wasteful spending, and much more, the $900 billion package provides hardworking taxpayers with only $600 each in relief payments, and not enough money is given to small businesses.
- Perhaps the only mistake was believing the Donald Trump and Secretary Mnuchin when we were told that the bill — when it’s passed — would be signed by the president.
- Steny Hoyer, in "Congress scrambles to avert shutdown after Trump’s stimulus demands", December 24, 2020
- And the reason I'm concerned and my colleagues in public health are concerned also is that we very well might see a post-seasonal, in the sense of Christmas, New Year's, surge, and, as I have described it, as a surge upon a surge, because, if you look at the slope, the incline of cases that we have experienced as we have gone into the late fall and soon-to-be-early winter, it is really quite troubling. We are really at a very critical point. ... So I share the concern of President-elect Biden that as we get into the next few weeks, it might actually get worse.
- Dr Fauci in an interview with cnn Fauci shares Biden's concern that 'darkest days' may be ahead in Covid-19 fight posted December 27, 2020
- There is a lot we don’t know about this new COVID-19 variant, but scientists in the United Kingdom are warning the world that it is significantly more contagious. The health and safety of Coloradans is our top priority and we will closely monitor this case, as well as all COVID-19 indicators, very closely. We are working to prevent spread and contain the virus at all levels. I want to thank our scientists and dedicated medical professionals for their swift work and ask Coloradans to continue our efforts to prevent disease transmission by wearing masks, standing six feet apart when gathering with others, and only interacting with members of their immediate household.
- Jared Polis, Colorado Governor in First case of COVID-19 variant originally discovered in UK found in Colorado dated December 29, 2020
- 60 million Americans are subject to a stay at home order or curfew.
- 11 million are right here in Ohio.
- What would the Founders say?
- * Jim Jordan asked and received advice from many December 29, 2020
2021[edit]
- On Wednesday January 6, many members of the House community were in protective isolation in room located in a large committee hearing space
- Brian Monahan, Congress's attending physician in Lawmakers may have been exposed to coronavirus during Capitol riot lockdown January 10, 2020
See also[edit]
- COVID-19 pandemic in mainland China
- COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil
- COVID-19 pandemic in France
- COVID-19 pandemic in India
- COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in India
- COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan
- COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom
- Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on religion
- Health care in the United States
External links[edit]
- CDC: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
- California CDPH Office of Public Affairs, news releases by California Department of Public Health (CDPH)
- Coronavirus Self-Assessment Tool from University of Southern California
- C-SPAN's coverage of the governmental and other responses to the coronavirus outbreak
- Coronavirus (COVID-19): information resource and the U.S. Government response