President Trump has delivered an ever-evolving message to the American public about the coronavirus pandemic.

 

The constant is the inconsistency. At times he has been in sync with the public health experts advising him on the response and with actions initiated by his administration. But often he has undercut or even contradicted his experts or White House policy.

Trump has gone from downplaying the risk early on, to overselling the availability of test kits, to encouraging strict social distancing measures, to questioning whether those measures were causing too much economic and emotional pain. He has claimed "total" authority and then insisted it's really up to the states to manage the response.

As the message from public health experts became increasingly dire, Trump often accentuated the positive, saying he was trying to give Americans hope.

Although Trump's partial ban on travelers from China is seen by many as having bought time for the U.S. to prepare, coronavirus testing failures obscured the severity of the outbreak here and hampered efforts to contain its spread. By the time the deadly scope of the virus came into focus, it was too late for containment, and mitigation shutdowns brought a heavy economic toll.

1 minute ago, DiPros said:

The one without the bleach in it.

So another one who has Trumps vaccine coursing through their veins.  He'll be a little part of you forever, now

Feb. 27:

"It’s going to disappear. One day, it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.”

Jan. 22:

"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.”

- Democratic Party’s presidential nominee Joe Biden, Sept. 17:

"The idea that there’s going to be a vaccine and everything’s gonna be fine tomorrow - it’s just not rational.”

1 minute ago, Mike31mt said:

So another one who has Trumps vaccine coursing through their veins.  He'll be a little part of you forever, now

For someone claiming not to be a Republican, you sure do spend a lot of time defending Trump. 

Joe Biden: vaccine wont be available until next year (vaccine available)

Joe Biden:. I dont trust a Trump vaccine (takes Trump vaccine)

Joe Biden:. If youre vaccinated no mask (whoops)

Joe Biden:. Ok mask no matter what (oops forget what I just said"

1 minute ago, jsdarkstar said:

For someone claiming not to be a Republican, you sure do spend a lot of time defending Trump. 

Correct, because I supported Trump

You know, a lot of people think that goes away in April with the heat — as the heat comes in. Typically, that will go away in April.

President Trump

 

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.

President Trump

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.

President Trump

I don’t think people are panicking. I said last night — we did an interview on Fox last night, a town hall. I think it was very good. And I said, ‘Calm. You have to be calm.’ It’ll go away.

President Trump

We’re prepared, and we’re doing a great job with it. And it will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away.

 

You know, we need a little a separation until such time as this goes away. It’s going to go away. It’s going to go away.

President Trump

Stay calm. 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.

It’s going to go away, hopefully at the end of the month. And, if not, hopefully it will be soon after that.

7 minutes ago, Mike31mt said:

Correct, because I supported Trump

So then you are a Trumplican. No surprise here.

16 minutes ago, Mike31mt said:

Biden said there was no way we'd have a vaccine.  The two marbles rolling around in his head would have probably never even considered something like warp speed

 

Good thing Biden doesn't have a job creating new vaccines!

You really believe Trump sat in his office and came out with a detailed plan for Warp Speed? Your hero worship has no limit, huh? Other people do that sort of thing and present it to the POTUS. He then says," yeah go". That's it. He simply okay'ed a plan a bunch of people that have knowledge on clinical trials and drug rollouts worked on. Again, the same thing literally ANYONE else in office would have done.

46 minutes ago, vikas83 said:

 

2. Pfizer - Zuker has a point that a massive PO can be very useful in novel drug development, but that really had no impact here for 2 reasons. First, Pfizer is a MASSIVE company. POs are more helpful to small, development stage companies that can take that and use it to attract financing. The second reason is simple - pretty sure Pfizer knew a global pandemic would provide ample demand. So the PO really didn’t move the needle at all. 

Hell, lets dumb down this point.

 

Pfizer, who created Viagra, said "Take this pill and your dong will get hard again".  Made billions upon billions.

 

If Pfizer makes a pill and says "Take this and your dong will get bigger", they will make billions.  Unlike other "randos" like Enzyte.  So in conslusion

Trump was such a strong leader when it came to COVID, he courageously allowed himself to be infected with it, infected others, and endangered his own life to the point where he needed to be airlifted to Walter Reed, just to show everyone it was NBD. Such bravery. Such grace. If not for a powerful leader like that, billions would be dead right now. BILLIONS

1 hour ago, Mike31mt said:

 They were clearly playing politics and engendering doubt in the vaccines SOLELY because of their will to gain political power.  Thats the only way they beat Trump, they knew it was their only chance, so they played politics and sowed mistrust in the vaccine.   Theres no other way to slice it and the fact that you are trying to change the context of their comments is a joke.  

They cared more about winning the election and ishing on Trump than protecting Americans and there's no other way around it.  You cant explain it away, thats what they did

No, they were making it clear that Trump cannot be trusted. But that Fauci can. And that if the vaccines were endorsed by scientists they respect then they would feel confident.

It was of course a political statement as well. And also an accurate one. 

Unless you think taking medical advice from Trump is prudent.

1 hour ago, Mike31mt said:

The context was exactly what I said--their message was a poltical attack on Trump and it sowed mistrust in the vaccine development process.  Its inarguable.

If Trump would have done something like that you all would have been apoplectic.  

So the vaccine coursing through your veins was developed thanks to Trump

Just remember bloodletting is no longer a thing, he's just a part of you now.

It sowed mistrust in Trump while at the same time showing they direct that trust to medical and scientific experts. 

That is what the context showed. 

If Trump had said something like that I would have been surprised but in absolute agreement. But here's the important distinction there: he rarely said something with that kind of nuance.

Trump was all about thumping his chest when things were going well. But he was absolutely terrible managing a crisis. 

It's ok to acknowledge that man. 

And for the record I got Pfizer. Good old capitalist vaccine.

1 hour ago, Mike31mt said:

 They were clearly playing politics and engendering doubt in the vaccines SOLELY because of their will to gain political power.  Thats the only way they beat Trump, they knew it was their only chance, so they played politics and sowed mistrust in the vaccine.   Theres no other way to slice it and the fact that you are trying to change the context of their comments is a joke.  

They cared more about winning the election and ishing on Trump than protecting Americans and there's no other way around it.  You cant explain it away, thats what they did

A presidents endowment on a vaccine means ish. A doctors endorsement carry weight. How is that so hard for you to understand?

2 minutes ago, mr_hunt said:

Alternate spelling bro

1 hour ago, vikas83 said:

Ok. Let’s try and tackle some of these topics in reality. 
 

1. Operation Warp Speed - the Trump administration deserves massive credit here. The money provided for development and research was nice, but the streamlining of the approval process was much more important. @Mike31mt is correct that there was no chance we’d have gotten vaccines in arms this fast without these actions. Score one for the Trump administration. 
 

2. Pfizer - Zuker has a point that a massive PO can be very useful in novel drug development, but that really had no impact here for 2 reasons. First, Pfizer is a MASSIVE company. POs are more helpful to small, development stage companies that can take that and use it to attract financing. The second reason is simple - pretty sure Pfizer knew a global pandemic would provide ample demand. So the PO really didn’t move the needle at all. 
 

3. Democrats said they wouldn’t take the vaccine - as has been pointed out, they said they wouldn’t take it based solely on the claims of Trump and would want the FDA, Fauci, etc. to approve it. Trump was shown to be pushing to try and get approval before election day. I wouldn’t have taken the vaccine before it got an EUA either and my personal doctor was convinced. 
 

Ok. Carry on bickering. 

All of this is correct. Trump absolutely deserves credit for OWS. 

The issue people have is that rather than building on OWS he couldn't help but wade in and say stupid ish about hydroxychloroquine, disinfectant, and UV light. He couldn't stay in his lane as a political leader offering somber, prudent, but necessary guidance and directing people to follow the lead of the experts. 

If he had done that he would have easily won in November. Politically this should have been a gift for him, a way to prove that he actually can unite the nation in a crisis and provide the necessary leadership to see it through. 

He... did not do that. Because he's incapable.

Wow x 4:

 

 

 

 

Israeli government data show the Pfizer vaccine is indeed significantly less effective at preventing coronavirus cases of the delta variant (64 percent) than it was for previous variants (95 percent). It’s also significantly less effective at preventing symptomatic cases (64 percent vs. 97 percent). But it performs much more similarly when it comes to preventing serious cases and hospitalization (93 percent vs. 97.5 percent).

In other words, the delta variant means the virus will probably continue to spread, even among vaccinated people and even in a strongly vaccinated country such as Israel, because the vaccines don’t protect from transmission or symptomatic cases nearly as well. But that doesn’t mean the vaccines don’t work, especially when it comes to preventing the worst of the disease.

Jeez.  Here's the post that started this discussion

 

It doesn't mention the funding, it mentions Operation Warp Speed, which the funding was only part of.  It is indisputable that the guaranteed order, that the waiving of FDA requirements, also parts of Operation Warp Speed, sped the entire process up considerably.  Now focus only on the funding again to Demonstrate how badly you hate Trump.

Trump deserves credit for OWS.

I could probably argue that issuing an emergency use authorization for vaccines that show efficacy during a global pandemic is pretty much a given, but 1. I'm sure you'd disagree because Democrats are always wrong and 2. Politicians can be incredibly stupid.

But the bottom line is Trump was president, and OWS was the right policy. Anybody who argues against that is just wrong and supremely partisan.

10 minutes ago, The_Omega said:

Jeez.  Here's the post that started this discussion

 

It doesn't mention the funding, it mentions Operation Warp Speed, which the funding was only part of.  It is indisputable that the guaranteed order, that the waiving of FDA requirements, also parts of Operation Warp Speed, sped the entire process up considerably.  Now focus only on the funding again to Demonstrate how badly you hate Trump.

And the post Mike replied to was my post correcting his claim that Trump was the entire reason vaccines were approved. That if not for him, they still wouldn't be approved. It's an absolutely asinine statement that only idiots would attempt to defend. So naturally, you jumped right in and started digging.

3 minutes ago, we_gotta_believe said:

And the post Mike replied to was my post correcting his claim that Trump was the entire reason vaccines were approved. That if not for him, they still wouldn't be approved. It's an absolutely asinine statement that only idiots would attempt to defend. So naturally, you jumped right in and started digging.

Lol you didnt correct ish

Trump played the biggest role on the planet in getting vaccines out before anyone, including the scientists and Democrats like you, said would be possible

But youre still in here screaming TDS things and blaming Trump for COVID,  even though its still around despite all of Bidens nonsense.  

@we_gotta_believe this seems like a good blog: https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/latest-and-greatest-on-delta-among

A lot of studies being pulled together there that seem to jive. This was interesting:

 

Another study from Singapore this week confirmed that the viral load among vaccinated is the same among the unvaccinated. However, and importantly, it looks like this is only the case in the first six days. Then the vaccine kicks in and there’s a far faster decline in viral load than among the unvaccinated (see graph). So, at first the vaccinated are as infectious as unvaccinated, but quickly differentiates over time. Vaccinated seem to not be infectious after 9 days (Ct=30) compared to unvaccinated at 16 days.

 

That seems to be a good explanation for why the statistics are showing that  vaccinated are spreading but at reduced rates.

 

1 minute ago, Mike31mt said:

Lol you didnt correct ish

Trump played the biggest role on the planet in getting vaccines out before anyone, including the scientists and Democrats like you, said would be possible

But youre still in here screaming TDS things and blaming Trump for COVID,  even though its still around despite all of Bidens nonsense.  

Biden got 70% of Americans vaccinated. It's still around mostly because of Trumplicans, such as yourself, who deny science and reject the vaccine intentionally. If not for them, Covid would be defeated.