Donald Trump seems to think that his coming on camera and telling people how the U.S. has now gone past the worst phase of the COVID-19 epidemic, along with the push from Republican governors to reopen their states, will magically make U.S. citizens want to go back to work and also make them want to start shopping again. Here’s Trump two weeks ago:
President Trump on Wednesday said that recent data suggest that the United States has made it through the worst of new coronavirus cases, as he seeks to reopen the pandemic-beaten national economy.
"The data suggests that nationwide, we have passed the peak of new cases. Hopefully that will continue, and we will continue to make great progress," Trump said in the White House Rose Garden at the daily coronavirus task force briefing. The task force did not share the data they used to reach that assessment.
Trump said that more than 3 million tests for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, had been completed and that researchers were on the verge of delivering an antibody test to determine whether a person has previously been infected with the virus.
He also said he would announce his path to reopening some states ahead of May 1. "These developments have put us in a strong position to finalize guidelines for states reopening," he said.
Yes, Donald Trump cannot wait to reopen the country because he believes the crashed economy might possibly hurt his reelection chances. However, what Trump has never been too worried about is how many people might die along the way. The thing is, most of us Americans want to live and we are scared to go anywhere and either work or shop when not enough has been done to protect U.S. citizens. Below is a list of many of the things that the Trump Administration should be doing to protect U.S. citizens, but that the Trump Administration is not doing, not doing properly, or should not be doing at all:
- We still do not have enough COVID-19 testing in the U.S., yet Trump keeps repeatedly telling us that it is not the Federal Government’s responsibility to make sure that testing is done.
- The Trump Administration refuses to buy testing machines to supplement the limited amount of testing equipment owned by private and public labs in the U.S. so that more COVID-19 testing can be done.
- Donald Trump is willing to use the Defense Production Act to force meatpacking plants to remain open, but he is unwilling to make sure that meatpacking workers are protected. It is not just that the U.S. Government has not made sure that these critical meatpacking workers will be tested as needed. As Rachel Maddow said on her show last night (in a segment called “CDC, Are You OK?”), the CDC has watered down its recommendations of what meatpackers need to do in order to keep employees safe. Apparently, the CDC no longer “tells” companies what to do in order to keep employees safe. It now just suggests that companies might possibly do certain things if those things are “feasible”.
- The Trump Administration refuses to use the DPA to make sure that manufacturers are making enough PPE gear to satisfy the needs of frontline medical workers.
- The Trump Administration refuses to use the DPA in order to make sure that there are enough ventilators and other needed medical equipment.
- The Trump Administration refuses to have a nationally coordinated distribution plan to see that PPE and other gear is distributed adequately throughout the U.S.
- The Federal Government, through FEMA and the FBI, has continued to seize PPE shipments destined for various state localities after Donald Trump insisted that the Federal government was not a “shipping clerk” and that states should order their own gear and equipment.
- The Trump Administration refuses to have a national contact tracing system to make sure that people who test positive for the COVID-19 virus are contacted so other at-risk people can be notified of the need to get tested.
- Finally, the Trump administration and the GOP seem to be pushing for legislation relieving companies from any legal responsibilities if their workers get sick, thus making it possible for companies to completely forget about the importance of protecting the safety of their workers.
Yet, Donald Trump still acts like Americans are anxious to go back to work and start shopping again. The U.S. economy will not recover quickly unless most if not all of the above issues are addressed, yet the Trump Administration mostly continues to sit on its collective hands.