“America Leads the World In Testing” proclaimed the banners hanging on both sides of the Idiot-In-Chief during yesterday’s coronavirus press briefing. US testing, 4 months into the pandemic, has reached a level of 300,000 a day, a number that Trump is very proud of. There are well over a million cases of infection.
Meanwhile, the pandemic epicenter of Wuhan, China, which previously seemed to have eradicated the virus, recently discovered 6 new cases. In response to these 6 cases, the government is planning to to test all 11 million of its residents by the end of the week.
According to Worldometer, the total number of tests done in the US since the beginning of the pandemic has yet to crack 10 million. The city of Wuhan plans to test that many in one week. Yet, Donald Trump wants us to believe he’s done a great job.
After China’s initial delay in dealing with the virus, Wuhan implemented a strict lockdown. As a result, there had been no new cases reported for over a month prior to this. The lockdown was lifted, but the Chines government was smart enough to know that this didn’t mean everything was back to normal.
“It is important to realize that a decisive result does not equal a decisive victory, lowering the emergency response level does not equal lowering defenses,” Wang Zhonglin, a top official in the Communist Party in Wuhan, told the state-run outlet Changjiang Daily on Monday.
Compare this with the attitude of the dotard in the White House. Rather than ramping up the country’s still-inadequate testing, he’s begun downplaying testing’s importance.
“This is why the whole concept of tests aren’t necessarily great,” Trump said. “The tests are perfect but something can happen between a test where it’s good and then something happens.”
To make things worse, Trump has adopted wishful thinking as his official policy. He’s gone back to the magical idea he was touting back in February that the virus is just going to disappear all on its own.
“This is going to go away without a vaccine, it’s gonna go away, and we’re not going to see it again, hopefully, after a period of time,” Trump said at the White House.
That, of course, contradicts the assessment of every scientist who studies viruses and epidemics.
To Trump, the testing figures and the death toll are just numbers on a scoreboard that he hopes he can spin into a victory narrative for his re-election. We’ve long surpassed China in the numbers of cases and deaths. Bad. China is about to take a commanding lead in testing. Also bad.
Trump’s last hope is the scoreboard known as the stock market, That’s why he wants to rush into re-opening the economy. If more people die, it’s just collateral damage. Back when it was convenient for them, people him were saying “All Lives Matter”. Suddenly, it’s OK to kill people to save Wall St.