Defining absurdity downward

The GOP has reached a new level of absurdity with Sen. Ernst (R-Iowa) saying that Obama had failed with two Americans dying of Ebola in 2014 and that Trump was now “stepping forward.” Yes, stepping forward over the bodies of 130,000 dead Americans in an out-of-control pandemic in the U.S. We have become a pariah nation for the rest of the world with countries refusing entry for our citizens.

Obama established a Pandemic unit within the NSC. They developed a pandemic playbook which the Trump administration refused to vet and use with all the required federal agencies and states for combating a viral pandemic. In 2019, the Department of Human Services ran a pandemic exercise titled ‘Crimson Contagion’ involving national, state and local organizations. The exercise objective was to test the capacity to respond to a severe viral pandemic originating from China. The October 2019 exercise after-action report demonstrated just how underfunded, unprepared and uncoordinated the Trump administration would be for combating a global pandemic.

South Korea was able to contain covid-19 through mandatory masks, extensive testing, contact tracing, and isolation of infected individuals. Meanwhile, Trump was telling everyone that it would magically go away in the summer.

Trump’s failure to lead in the covid-19 crisis has resulted in huge unemployment, business failures, and a looming crisis with renter evictions. The Congressional Budget Office projection is that we will not recover from the effects of Covid-19 until 2030.

Mike McCarty

Spokane