Trump Threatens To Withhold Funding For World Health Organization (nytimes.com) 641
What better way to celebrate World Health Day than by threatening to withhold funding for the World Health Organization. That's exactly what President Trump said he was considering today at Tuesday's coronavirus press briefing. The New York Times reports: "We're going to put a hold on money spent to the W.H.O.; we're going to put a very powerful hold on it and we're going to see," Mr. Trump said, accusing the organization of having not been aggressive enough in confronting the dangers from the virus. "They called it wrong. They call it wrong. They really they missed the call." Mr. Trump appeared to be particularly angry at the W.H.O. for issuing a statement saying it did not support his decision on Jan. 31 to restrict some travel from China because of the virus. At the time, the group issued a statement saying that "restricting the movement of people and goods during public health emergencies is ineffective in most situations and may divert resources from other interventions."
"Don't close your borders to China, don't do this," Mr. Trump said, paraphrasing the group and accusing the organization of "not seeing" the outbreak when it started in Wuhan, China. "They didn't see it, how do you not see it? They didn't see it. They didn't report it. If they did see it, they must have seen it, but they didn't report." In fact, the W.H.O. repeatedly issued statements about the emergence of the virus in China and its movement around the world. The budget for the W.H.O. is about $5 billion and comes from member countries around the world. "In 2017, the last year for which figures were available, the United States was required to spend $111 million based on the organization's rules, but sent an additional $401 million in voluntary contributions," reports The New York Times.
Trump said his government will investigate the organization and that "we will look at ending funding." It's unclear if he's planning to eliminate all funding, or only some.
"Don't close your borders to China, don't do this," Mr. Trump said, paraphrasing the group and accusing the organization of "not seeing" the outbreak when it started in Wuhan, China. "They didn't see it, how do you not see it? They didn't see it. They didn't report it. If they did see it, they must have seen it, but they didn't report." In fact, the W.H.O. repeatedly issued statements about the emergence of the virus in China and its movement around the world. The budget for the W.H.O. is about $5 billion and comes from member countries around the world. "In 2017, the last year for which figures were available, the United States was required to spend $111 million based on the organization's rules, but sent an additional $401 million in voluntary contributions," reports The New York Times.
Trump said his government will investigate the organization and that "we will look at ending funding." It's unclear if he's planning to eliminate all funding, or only some.
Trump is not healthy. (Score:3, Informative)
President Trump made 16,241 false or misleading claims in his first three years [washingtonpost.com].
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What's wrong with voting Bernie?
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You're actually wrong. It is a bunch of wrinkled oldsters who decide the present, although many, possibly most, of them aren't serving terms in office. The electors get to be electors in all sorts of different ways, depending on what state they represent. Some of them are compelled to vote the way the citizens the represent voted, but not all.
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Re:Trump is not healthy. (Score:4, Funny)
Re: Trump is not healthy. (Score:3, Interesting)
Biden is absolutely gone in terms of mental health and it is heart breaking. His latest covid response was rambling. He had no train of thought from point to point and he should have been reading from a teleprompter. You canâ(TM)t hide these incidents as gaffs. The man needs to spend his remaining time with his family and enjoy his time. There are some things they can do for dementia, but what he shouldnâ(TM)t be doing is wasting this time on a job. It is heart breaking sad to see it.
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"Your votes speaks your values."
And this is why Democracies always fail. The public's values, which are almost always contradictory and counter productive toward each other makes it impossible for them to survive.
Every nation gets the government it deserves! We have dirty corrupt officials because we keep voting them in... it is just that simple.
You do not vote 3rd party in hopes that they win, sure they might and it happens from time to time... you vote 3rd party to send the message that the current bast
Re:Trump is not healthy. (Score:5, Interesting)
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Sure, after the election is over the winners don't like to talk about how it was a statistical tie. Winners rarely do.
Undecided and third party voters are extremely important *during* elections.
Re: Third party is the ONLY viable vote! (Score:3)
Yeah. They could not form a parliament anyway, since the U.S. does not have one.
Re: Third party is the ONLY viable vote! (Score:3)
It did improve. It improved by replacing parliament with Congress.
Re:Trump is not healthy. (Score:5, Insightful)
He's probably not quite as sharp as he used to be
The problem is that Biden wasn't ever very sharp.
Biden has been a full-time professional politician for 50 years.
Here is a list of his notable ideas and accomplishments over that half a century:
Re:Trump is not healthy. (Score:4, Insightful)
Obviously. This guy is deeply into some pretty extreme psychopathology.
But that is not the actual problem. The problem is that mass of people that voted him into office, cheer him onward and eat up all his obvious lies without ever questioning him. These people are worse, because they are the enablers.
Re: It's not like you haven't got someone better. (Score:3)
That is discrimination!!!
We should have an undocumented immigrant from Mexico has president. Reparations! Reparations!!
Do not be racist.
more finger pointing (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:more finger pointing (Score:4, Insightful)
Yup, you definitely can't do two things at once. Maybe even 3, who knows.
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Terrible Twos (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, name calling and finger pointer are what you expect of a child in their 'terrible twos' as well as lies like "the dog did it." It's just, somehow, Trump seems have gotten permanently stuck in his 'terrible twos.' There's still plenty of name calling and finger pointing. There only difference is who he's blaming it on. Instead of "the dog did it," it's either "the democrats did it," "mexicans did it," "China did it," or his newest, "the W.H.O. did it." Anyone or anything to avoid taking responsibility for his own actions. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the others are blameless for their own actions but, seriously Trump, grow the fuck up and take responsibility for your own shit.
Re:China did it was a well thought out strategy (Score:5, Insightful)
You guys are out of your fucking minds. China knew what was happening and deliberately sandbagged information sharing with the rest of the world (and arguably continue to do the same with coronovirus). This unhealthy predilection with painting Trump with anything that's wrong in the world is just crazy. He was a xenophobe and racist when he cut of travel links with China, but now he didn't act quickly enough. What a bunch of fucking loons....and this is coming from someone who didn't vote for the guy.
Re:China did it was a well thought out strategy (Score:5, Informative)
Oh, so he didn't sit around for about a month saying that the virus was a hoax while it was spreading around the US? Sorry I missed that. Or how about the fact that he's telling people to take an untested Malaria medication based on the advice of some quack doctor who only publicly tells have the story of his trial? (If you read the journal article about the trial six people got better, one died and before a result could be take, three got worse, and there were one or two others. But he states, and so does Trump, that it has a 100% success rate. Snake oil salesmen the both of them.)
Re:China did it was a well thought out strategy (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:China did it was a well thought out strategy (Score:5, Insightful)
Technically, he didn't say the virus was a hoax; he said the Democratic/media (same thing, to him) response to it was a hoax.
But he did also say that it was no worse than the flu, that cases were low and that everyone would get better. You might be technically correct about the his actual use of the word "hoax", but the rest of the verbiage all adds up to the same meaning.
And it wasn't a Democrat/media hoax because it turned out that they were right all along. There were enough people inside and out of the White House who were sounding the alarm, so the message from WHO and CCP was heard and understood. It wasn't that nobody knew that it was going to be a big problem. The blame goes predominantly to the administration and Fox New (the same thing really).
Re:China did it was a well thought out strategy (Score:5, Insightful)
You've got it in one. If the Democrats were raising hell about the issue in February, then clearly the WHO messaging was working, and early enough to have an effect.
At some point the responsibility is on the nations to enact an effective policy, the WHO obviously doesn't have that power, they've notified. Trump's only sensible action - the flights from China - was likely driven more by petty trade war fighting and racism than as a virus stopping mechanism (as people can travel by other routes, and this stopped checks at airports - Italy had the same issue).
The responsibility is Trump's and his administration (Trump's responsibility as well).
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At the time, that was factually correct. The number of fatalities due to COVID-19 were far lower than for the flu.
The statement is, however, contingent on preventing the virus from gaining a foothold in your population and spreading. I suspect the Trump administration would argue that due to China falsifying the extent of the virus, and the WHO parroting China's numbers as authoritative, they
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China is indeed a racist country in addition to the misinformation they spread about the current crisis.
There’s Jim Crow in China, but no one seems to care [latimes.com]
In China, there is systemic discrimination against non-Han Chinese. Ethnic minorities — about 10% of the Chinese population — are routinely denied access to elite universities and urban job markets in the name of Han supremacy. Under China’s internal passport system, many non-Han aren’t permitted to even look for work outside of their rural provinces. Tibetan and Uighur citizens are often barred from using Chinese hotels.
Not only does China have its own version of Jim Crow, it still has its own version of slavery. Under its prison labor system, Laogai — “reform through work” — millions of slaves churn out all manner of “Made in China” wares and even provide many of the organs for transplant surgeries in China.
Other ideas that arouse rage (“cultural appropriation,” “cultural genocide,” “occupation,” “xenophobia”) get much less attention in the Middle Kingdom than they do elsewhere. The Han are simultaneously erasing minority cultures and reducing them to kitsch for Chinese tourists. Mongols now make up less than 20% of Inner Mongolia’s population. Minority languages aren’t taught in many schools in places like Tibet.
In America, we increasingly hear that enforcing immigration laws is a kind of hate crime. But we mint about 700,000 new citizens each year. Meanwhile, in China, it is almost impossible to become a Chinese citizen if you weren’t born there to Chinese parents. The 2010 census found just 1,448 naturalized citizens. (Yes, total, not just for the year 2010.)
. . . United Nations reported that China is holding millions of Muslim Uighurs in a sprawling gulag of “counter-extremism centers” and “reeducation camps for political and cultural indoctrination.” Prisoners are forced to swear loyalty to the Chinese leader Xi Jingping. Bans on Muslim garb and long beards are becoming more common. . . . .
Is studying racism in China a personal interest of yours? Or is this all a misunderstanding and you were actually trying to falsely smear the victims of misinformation put out by the government of the People's Republic of China which can in fact be criticized for its behavior without reference to the race of the people it governs or comprise it?
Re:Terrible Twos (Score:4, Insightful)
They are both crazy, just in different ways. I'd say the right is a bit crazier right now. The fringes have taken over politics, while the more reasonable people are pushed aside - unable to compete in a politics of attention, where only an exaggerated personality can draw the spotlight.
Re:more finger pointing (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, finger pointing is generally what you do when you don't have any other plans.
Trump responded precisely in line with WHO (Score:3, Informative)
more misdirection and finger pointing. How about first start with an investigation into the US Governments failure to respond appropriately when information was known and then move on from there. Once that is done you can then look at failures in other organisations (which definitely exist also).
Trump responded precisely in line with the WHO.
On 1/14 the WHO reports "it is very clear right now that we have **no sustained** human-to-human transmission." This was clearly erroneous information.
On 1/30 the WHO reverses and declares an international public health emergency. The next dayTrump restricts travel from China.
So what information are you claiming the US failed to act on. Perhaps you are confusing the US with NYC?
Re:Trump responded precisely in line with WHO (Score:4, Interesting)
There was ample non-WHO evidence in early January that we had a very real possibility of a global pandemic brewing. Trump ignored that completely.
He was briefed on it in early January by the intelligence agencies. He ignored the warnings completely.
He proclaimed that face masks don't protect people from infection a couple of weeks before the WHO said it.
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There was ample non-WHO evidence in early January that we had a very real possibility of a global pandemic brewing. Trump ignored that completely. He was briefed on it in early January by the intelligence agencies.
He was advised of a SARS-like epidemic. In 2003 such an epidemic infect about 8,000 globally and killed about 800. There were less than 30 case in the US and no one in the US died.
In 2012 a MERS outbreak began. To date around 2,500 have been infected and around 900 died. Two of the infected were in the US and neither died.
This is the sort of stuff Trump was briefed on. The initial and erroneous info out of China was that it was SARS-like. Something we could deal with as we had before.
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There was ample non-WHO evidence in early January that we had a very real possibility of a global pandemic brewing. Trump ignored that completely. He was briefed on it in early January by the intelligence agencies.
He was advised of a SARS-like epidemic. In 2003 such an epidemic infect about 8,000 globally and killed about 800. There were less than 30 case in the US and no one in the US died.
In 2012 a MERS outbreak began. To date around 2,500 have been infected and around 900 died. Two of the infected were in the US and neither died.
This is the sort of stuff Trump was briefed on. The initial and erroneous info out of China was that it was SARS-like. Something we could deal with as we had before.
Now, I'm not saying the WHO doesn't have some blame, but to diminish the US government solely because of WHO is dump. This is not the USAHO, it's the WORLD Health Organisation.
The USA is dead last in his response to the pandemic of all countries in the World. The USA had it first case about the same time as South Korean and the first community transmission much, much later...and look at the actual situation. Want more? Look no further than mini-USA, Canada. Despite having the same WHO, Per Capita Canada hav
Re:Trump responded precisely in line with WHO (Score:5, Insightful)
Trump didn't halt travel with China. He halted travel for Chinese citizens, but Americans who had been in the worst affected regions were free to come back to the US. No quarantine for them either.
The bigger issue is that he was in denial about the scale of the thing for so long. I won't copy/paste the series of Trump quotes on the subject but it's clear he wasn't taking it seriously and the partial travel ban on Chinese citizens was just an easy thing that played with his on-going trade war, not a serious attempt to slow the spread in the USA.
And now look at how he is handling it. Put his incompetent idiot of a son in law in charge, because nepotism is how he assigns jobs. States are desperately trying to get the equipment they need and the federal government is actively making it harder for them. He's blowing it at every step and now saying under 100,000 people dead would be "doing well".
Re:Trump responded precisely in line with WHO (Score:5, Informative)
Trump didn't halt travel with China. He halted travel for Chinese citizens, but Americans who had been in the worst affected regions were free to come back to the US. No quarantine for them either.
I live in California near an international airport. Quarantine was being recommended, as I know someone who came on a flight from China around then. That recommendation became official two days later:
https://www.dhs.gov/news/2020/... [dhs.gov]
So, your statement was right for 2 days and wrong 2 months.
Generally countries don't want to block their own citizens from returning home, as that legally gets tricky (visas expire, there are constitutional rights, etc).
The whole response could have been better, but I think the US would have been caught flat-footed with any recent president. It's not like most countries are knocking it out of the park -- only a few did really well, and all of those used travel ban as one of their measures. Various US states and cities have shown different trajectories so far, and all share the same federal government. While central coordination should be better, no state is so small and helpless it can't look to other states to see what works, and copy it.
Re:Trump responded precisely in line with WHO (Score:5, Interesting)
So what information are you claiming the US failed to act on. Perhaps you are confusing the US with NYC?
THREE YEARS of information, directly from US agencies.
The Trump-apologist trolls are strong in this thread, so strap in while I bombard you with facts.
2017: Defense Dept. "Pandemic Response Report" "most likely and significant threat is a novel respiratory disease like the coronavirus" warned of a shortage of ventilators, face masks, and hospital beds.
A week before Trump's inauguration, Obama officials walked Trump's senior security officials through a pandemic response exercise. They warned of impending shortages of key resources including PPE, ventilators, etc.
Two months after Trump's inauguration, Elizabeth Warren, Patty Murray and other members of congress send a letter to the head of the CDC and the Dept of Health and Human Services warning that Trump is threatening 7 programs that focus on pandemic flu preparedness.
April 2017: The Washington Post warns that the Trump administration is ill prepared for a global pandemic. It has filled few of the senior positions critical to responding to an outbreak and it has proposed sharp cuts to government agencies working to stop deadly outbreaks at their source.
Oct 2017: Timothy Ziemer, appointed by Obama as head of US Global Health Security to lead the global pandemic response at the National Security Council, warns that the US remains unprepared to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious disease outbreaks. This dept was disbanded by Trump in 2018.
Feb 2018: US Intelligence Community put out its Worldwide Threat Assessment. It warned that "a novel strain of a virulent microbe that is easily transmissible between humans continues to be a major threat" with the "potential for a severe global health emergency that could lead to major economic and societal disruption."
Feb 2018: CDC announces that it is massively cutting pandemic prevention work in a bunch of countries, including China. A coalition of 200 global health organizations state that "critical momentum will be lost" if that funding is reduced, "leaving the world unprepared for the next outbreak."
April 2018: Bill Gates states that he has personally and repeatedly spoken to Trump about pandemic preparedness and states that "the US government is falling short in preparing the nation and the world for the significant probability of a large and lethal modern-day pandemic"
May 2018: Trump fires Timoth Ziemer, the National Security Council director in charge of global health security and biothreats and disbands the global pandemic response team. Jeremy Konyndyk, former head of foreign disaster assistance as the US Agency for International Development, warned that it was a "really concerning rollback of progress on US health security preparedness." The day before Ziemer was fired, one of his officials, Luciana Borio, director of medical and biodefence preparedness at the NSC, spoke at a symposium to mark the 100th anniversary of the 1918 influenza pandemic and warned "the threat of pandemic flu is the number one health security concern. Are we ready to respond? I fear the answer is no."
Sept 2018: Obama's former homeland security adviser Lisa Monaco writes an essay warning that there are "clear signs that the world is unprepared for the next outbreak, that devastating epidemics are a flight away, and that funding to combat these realities has been significantly cut back, the failure to take this crisis seriously is potentially deadly."
Jan 2019: US Intelligence Community "Worldwide Threat Assessment" warning that the US "remain vulnerable to the next flu pandemic or large-scale outbreak of a contagious disease that could lead to massive rates of death and disability" and would "severely affect the world economy"
July 2019: CDC eliminates a key American public health position in Beijing intended to help detect disease outbreaks in China.
October 2019: US cuts off funding for Predict, government r
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The Trump-apologist trolls are strong in this thread, so strap in while I bombard you with facts.
I hate to break this to you, but if someone is a Trump apologist, they are not going to care about facts.
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Ignoring your various boiler plate warnings that have appeared in every national security assessment since the 1950s. Warning of another 1918 like pandemic.
That's probably what Trump thought. Roll the dice, hope nothing bad happens on his watch, the other presidents got away with it. He gambled and lost, and now you are paying the price.
By the time he came to office there had been two serious coronavirus outbreaks and it was obvious that they were not going to go away. Climate change, which he thinks is a Chinese hoax, was also causing disasters that merited building up stockpiles of PPE and keeping experts on board.
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more misdirection and finger pointing. How about first start with an investigation into the US Governments failure to respond appropriately when information was known and then move on from there. Once that is done you can then look at failures in other organisations (which definitely exist also).
Trump responded precisely in line with the WHO.
On 1/14 the WHO reports "it is very clear right now that we have **no sustained** human-to-human transmission." This was clearly erroneous information.
On 1/30 the WHO reverses and declares an international public health emergency. The next dayTrump restricts travel from China.
So what information are you claiming the US failed to act on. Perhaps you are confusing the US with NYC?
One can read the WHO situation reports on covid starting from Jan 21 here: https://www.who.int/emergencie... [who.int] and the news releases (first one mentioning corona is from Jan 13). It's interesting to read how quick Korea, Japan and Thailand started bulking up early in January.
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Trump failed miserably, it was not the WHO's responsibility to control borders, ...
Again, mid January, WHO is saying corona does not transmit readily from person to person. Chinese was saying its like SARS, doesn't spread easily. On Jan 30 The WHO changes their statement and declares a global emergency. Trump close the US to Chinese travel ***the very next day***. He acted the day after the scientists put out the warning.
... it was not the WHO's responsibility to ensure appropriate emergency medical supplies, ...
Medical facilities and staff are *not* federal. They are state or local. The state and local authorities are responsible for stocking for emergencies. For example in NY
Re:Trump responded precisely in line with WHO (Score:5, Insightful)
This was his first big mistake, anyone coming from China was potentially a carrier of the virus. There should have been a mandatory quarantine for everyone on those planes. Then there was a partial ban for Europe... again, not banning travel, just citizens of certain countries and no real plan for the Americans returning.
Let's face it, Trump leads by "feeling".
Re:Trump responded precisely in line with WHO (Score:4, Informative)
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emergency supplies in a pandemic IS FUCKING FEDERAL RETARD.
No, it is a backup. A supplement to the states. It does not relieve the state's of their duty of initial and primary preparedness.
Well, there's that whole thing where the GOP (Score:5, Insightful)
And that's before we get into the whole "Small enough to Drown in a Bathtub" style governance.
When you have half the voter actively trying to wreck the government why should we be surprised when the government can't respond to a crisis. This is what they wanted. And if Trump's poll numbers are anything to go by they're happy with the results, even as their loved ones die.
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When you have half the voter actively trying to wreck the government why should we be surprised when the government can't respond to a crisis.
the weird thing is that half then blame the other half.
Re:Trump responded precisely in line with WHO (Score:4, Insightful)
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You've been lied to [factcheck.org], perhaps by people you know and trust. You should be pissed about that. You should find those people, and ask them why they lied to you. But instead, I'm going to guess you'll shoot the messenger. Right?
I'm going to guess you did not read your citation because it does not say what you think it says.
"It’s true that some of the supplies in the stockpile that governors are currently asking the government to send to states were not completely restocked during Obama’s presidency. For example, the Washington Post reported on March 10 that the reserves of the N95 respirator masks were not “significantly restored” after tens of millions of the devices were distributed from the stockpile
Re:Trump responded precisely in line with WHO (Score:4, Insightful)
What information are you presenting that the WHO was not providing the best information it had to the US as soon as it could?
I said the WHO information was erroneous. Not that the WHO itself was lying. The fact that they were lied to by the Chinese Communist Party does not change the fact that the information was erroneous.
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On 1/14 the WHO reports "it is very clear right now that we have **no sustained** human-to-human transmission." This was clearly erroneous information
China had looked bad for awhile at that point, so any strategy purely based on containment, particularly when there were already US cases, was well bat shit crazy.
China getting hit hard is not evidence of a problem coming to the US. Initially the world was told the outbreak in China was SARS-like. China had around 5,000 people infected with 350 fatalities during the previous SARS outbreak. The US had less than 30 people infected and no fatalities.
On Jan 20 the WHO reported less than 300 cases in China and the first cases outside of China. One or two each in Thailand, Japan and South Korea. There was no evidence **outside of China** that this was any different that
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"Also, one president has a health care law named after him that opened access to countless people that couldn't afford it before."
You mean President Affordable?
Or maybe you mean Romney is going to become president? Because before it was nicknamed Obamacare, it was nicknamed Romneycare.
You can tell it's a republican plan because it writes the insurance companies into the law. That way you keep the death panels out of the bill, while simultaneously enduring that they will continue to exist - as the insurance
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Re:Trump responded precisely in line with WHO (Score:4, Informative)
That was not erroneous at the time at all, it was 100% accurate statement based on the facts available
You are confusing erroneous with lying. The WHO did not lie, but the information was still erroneous, still incorrect.
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So what information are you claiming the US failed to act on. Perhaps you are confusing the US with NYC?
The information that the rest of the world acted on, where less will die.
This so much. For some mad reason everyone is making a comparison of the USA with China and discussing whether China was honest where China is a special case because that's where the disease started. The comparison needs to be with countries that succeeded like South Korea, Taiwan, New Zealand and possibly those that didn't like the UK. The question is what was different? Did Trump get different scientific advice from Taiwan which caused him to continue allowing US citizens in from China without quarant
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when information was known
Information like the Chinese propaganda spread by the WHO when they said there were no human-to-human transmissions? Or when the WHO urged against closing borders? That kind of "expert" information?
Re:more finger pointing (Score:5, Insightful)
when information was known
Information like the Chinese propaganda spread by the WHO when they said there were no human-to-human transmissions? Or when the WHO urged against closing borders? That kind of "expert" information?
...and this is exactly why USA is such a mess. Finger-pointing, finger-pointing and finger-pointing.
All countries in the World received the same WHO report (well, it's the WORLD Health Organisation after all). Still, the US is dead last on how they handled the pandemic.
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Information like the Chinese propaganda spread by the WHO when they said there were no human-to-human transmissions? Or when the WHO urged against closing borders? That kind of "expert" information?
No, information for agencies and departments in the USA itself.
The Trump-apologist trolls are strong in this thread, so strap in while I bombard you with facts.
2017: Defense Dept. "Pandemic Response Report" "most likely and significant threat is a novel respiratory disease like the coronavirus" warned of a shortage of ventilators, face masks, and hospital beds.
A week before Trump's inauguration, Obama officials walked Trump's senior security officials through a pandemic response exercise. They warned of imp
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Yes, many people will die unnecessarily because Trump only focused on himself and how this would affect him.
He's the President of the United States. What affects him is his ability to manage this emergency. His ability to reduce the spread of the disease, and reduce the economic impact, will impact his chances of re-election as well as the level of trust the public and lawmakers place in everything he says and does.
His focus on himself is precisely what is making him place considerable effort in managing the problems we now face. What is quite disturbing, and making me place far less trust in the mainstream me
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Trump has been an unqualified disaster. I believe if I elected a rock as president, things would go better for me and those I know than with Trump. I really really believe that.
Then you haven't been paying attention. If the state of the US economy, the push to bring manufacturing back, and stop licking the balls of other countries is a bad thing. Then come to Canada, you can enjoy all the same shit and have freedom of speech, massively restricted gun rights, and a government that has the right to suspend your rights if it can justify them. Not even having to go through the loop of having writ from parliament. And have a government that pulled out it's balls and put them into C
Restricting movement didn't help (Score:5, Informative)
We could have skipped the restrictions and just did testing and quarantines and had much better outcomes.
This isn't a "hindsight's 20/20" scenario either. This is well established protocol for handling epidemics that was ignored. Just how we ignored the epidemiologists back in December when they said we had to deal with this, and just like we ignored them when we cut funding to vaccine research [youtube.com] and allowed a medical supply company to block ventilator stockpiling [threadreaderapp.com].
All of this was preventable, all of it has been known since Bush Jr. We ignored it because nobody wanted to pay for it. Let the good times roll.
Re:Restricting movement didn't help (Score:5, Insightful)
"This isn't a "hindsight's 20/20" scenario either."
This needs to be bitch slapped all up in everyone's faces with prejudice. There are far too many people ignoring the fact that we could have had this shit on lock down easy with some well designed Quarantine and Testing protocols. We never would have had to destroy the economy.
"All of this was preventable, all of it has been known since Bush Jr. We ignored it because nobody wanted to pay for it. Let the good times roll."
Indeed, this is what comeuppance looks like folks... Coronavirus 2020 and Covid-19 should be name changed to "Government Hubris & Corruption 2020-19"
Not if you're rich (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Not if you're rich (Score:4, Insightful)
Remember when people who took advantage of a war, disaster, or other crisis to personally profit were considered the scum of the earth? We should get back to that.
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In the US (unfortunately) from the outset, it was all a backwards maneuver order to regroup behind the lines dictated by political preference... if you believed there was a definite threat from the outbreak, you were anti-Trump; and if you believed the whole thing was an attempt to instigate a Presidential coup, well, you didn't tune in much to the fake news media.
Moral? Politicizing everything backfires spectacularly.
Re: (Score:3)
Quarantines [nytimes.com] started a day or two after the travel ban. We quarantined people returning from China nearly immediately.
I also see you ignored President Obama burning through our stockpile of N95 masks in 2009 and refusing to rebuild the stockpile for the last 7 years of his Administration [snopes.com].
Re:Restricting movement didn't help (Score:5, Informative)
We quarantined people returning from China nearly immediately.
Bullshit. Complete, total, unmitigated bullshit.
430,000 people traveled to the US after the travel restrictions were put in place. Few were screened, even fewer were quarantined:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/0... [nytimes.com]
Yeah, Obama deserves some blame (Score:3)
On the other hand the one time he tried being reasonable with the American people the GOP turned it around into "You didn't Build it". It's hard to talk to the American people like they're adults when so many refuse to act like one...
Re: (Score:3)
From your own Snopes link:
What's True
The U.S. federal stockpile of N95 protective face masks was largely depleted during the 2009 swine flu outbreak and was not restocked.
What's False
However, the Obama administration was not solely responsible for the current shortage of masks. In the intervening years, the stockpile went unreplenished as the Trump administration failed to heed indications that dramatic shortages could occur.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
Depleted 2009. Trump takes office 2017. It's his fault.
No, it's all politicians' fault. And yours, generic yous reading this, for demanding so god damned much that everything fights in an eternal battle royale for money.
I remember a Peanuts cartoon, where one kid strikes out, then a second, then Charlie Brown strikes out. The first two come up to him and shout, "You lost the game for us!"
And there's nothing stopping states from creating their own stockpiles, either. They did, but tiny ones, because we
Re:Restricting movement didn't help (Score:4, Funny)
This isn't a "hindsight's 20/20"
...and even if it was, this *is* 2020, so there's no excuse! :D
Re:Restricting movement didn't help (Score:4, Interesting)
Indeed. "A stitch in time saves nine". Looks like saving on things that seemed irrelevant to some people without understanding of reality will now lead to a lot of additional deaths that could have been prevented rather cheaply. I fully agree that it was entirely clear from the onset to any expert how to prepare for something like this and it would have been (comparably) cheap. Also, we are not seeing a worst-case scenario. We are seeing something somewhere in the middle.
Well, I guess this is a wake-up call. But I fear too many people will regard this somewhat average pandemic (as pandemics go) as the worst case and will continue to skimp on any real preparations for future catastrophes of this and any other type.
Job One for the Trump Administration (Score:3, Insightful)
Wash, rinse, repeat. It's gone this way since election day 2016, and will go that way at least until mid 2021. Just wait until we get to hear him complain about the security that the secret service will provide him, his children, his children's spouses, his grandchildren, and his in-laws for the rest of their lives; that will be a joy to hear for sure.
Sounds about right (Score:5, Insightful)
Considering the harm the WHO's Director-General Tedros did, by advocating policies at China's behest that actually helped spread the disease, this is the the literal least we could do.
Even in the middle of January, weeks after Taiwan had reported human-to-human transmission, Tedros was out there, peddling the lie that China wanted: That COVID could not go person-to-person. He attack travels restrictions, claiming they would make things worse, when we know that restrictions on travel and gatherings are one of the top two things that help prevent the spread of the disease (that, plus handwashing).
Getting rid of Tedros won't do much to wean the WHO off China, but it may serve as a bit of a warning to the next DG. At the least, a replacement that isn't selected by China to head the WHO will be an improvement. Maybe we'll get lucky, and get a medical professional in there, instead of a former Foreign Minster.
Now he wants an investigation? (Score:3, Informative)
This coming from the guy who has fired two Inspector Generals for doing their job of auditing the spending of taxpayer money related to covid-19, who has directed the head of the IRS not to turn over his tax returns when requested by Congress and authorized by law, who refused to turn over documents or allow witness testimony into his quid pro quo with Ukraine, and whose administration has refused to turn over documents when requested by Congress performing its Constitutional oversight duties.
This is the same guy who praised China [9cache.com] for their openness and transparency when they were combating the outbreak in their country.
But sure, why not [tumblr.com].
Well now, (Score:2, Informative)
I suspect there's a great good amount of blame to go around for the way the world's nations have responded to (and prepared for) this novel coronavirus. Nonetheless, the WHO has performed admirably as the Chinese lap dog [cfr.org].
"The WHO Director-General (DG) Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has been an outspoken advocate for the Chinese government’s COVID-19 response. On January 28, Tedros met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing. Following the meeting, Tedros commended China for “setting a new
It's worth discussing (Score:3, Insightful)
...WHO is an organization whose priorities have become about politics and maintaining funding, instead of its original mission.
They toed the Chinese propaganda line as long as they possibly could, downplaying the Covid situation long past the point of reasonability.
Hell, even though Taiwan's response to the epidemic has been a model, WHO refuses to even say the word Taiwan, much less talk about it:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world... [bbc.com]
If an agency is about self-preservation instead of its reason for being, then yes, pull its funding. The US can't ever seem to kill dead programs of its own, maybe we can kill one at the UN (or let China pay for it completely, as a propaganda expense).
Re: (Score:3)
...WHO is an organization whose priorities have become about politics and maintaining funding, instead of its original mission.
This is true of most UN agencies.
It seems to me that it's only the ICAO (sets international aircraft regulations), ITU (radio regulations), and IMO (maritime regulations) that are doing anything really useful and generally apolitical right now. Everything else appears to be a means for the world's dictators to spread propaganda. Nearly everything out of the UN is just hating on the USA, Israel, or any of their allies.
I say remove funding from the UN, kick them out of the USA, and let them fade into irrel
Re: It's worth discussing (Score:3)
Don't worry, China will take that and other parts of the UN soon enough. The world sees we can't trust the US with any part of it.
Re: (Score:3)
Right, because the alternative is the US paying for *everything*.
Did you notice that the US cannot pay for its own budget, and borrows what, 1/4 of the money it spends EVERY YEAR?
Yes, sure, let's buy lunch for everyone on the credit card, it's not like you ever have to pay THOSE off, lol!
We could have been prepared (Score:3)
Seems legit. (Score:2, Insightful)
The WHO's bullshit CCP approved statements in January directly led to NYC turning a lack of response to the virus into an anti-racist issue. They're responsible for every death there. Fuck them.
Re:Seems legit. (Score:5, Interesting)
Sorry but a bunch of comments are almost too similar to not be a bunch of paid trolls. Funny how the USA is so great and independent, but apparently the CDC was so dependent on the WHO that they couldn't be bothered to think for themselves.
By the way, one of this slashdot account's posts from just days ago was pushing some crazy vaccine plus RFID chipping conspiracy theory. Look at the post history, there is no way this is a serious person. I really think that slashdot's moderation system has been totally compromised.
Re: (Score:3)
I remember noticing when UIDs hit a million. Then I noticed recently that I was seeing a lot in the 6 millions. Clearly a *lot* of accounts got created in the last few years. I pretty much assume that any UID over a couple million is probaby a sock puppet.
Re:Seems legit. (Score:5, Insightful)
You'd think they're paid trolls, but what you're seeing is just the power, speed, and efficiency of the right-wing bullshit hive mind, a (dis)information system that's been refined for thousands of years into what you see today. And yet they like to mock the left as NPCs...
Slashdot's moderation system has been compromised by Trumpkins with mod points, nothing more.
that $5 billion needs to go to medicaid if the loc (Score:2)
that $5 billion needs to go to medicaid if the lock down stays in place till the end of the year.
Again, deflecting blame (Score:3, Insightful)
"They didn't see it, how do you not see it? They didn't see it. They didn't report it. If they did see it, they must have seen it, but they didn't report." In fact, the W.H.O. repeatedly issued statements about the emergence of the virus in China and its movement around the world.
"I don’t take responsibility at all." - that will be the epitaph of Trump's presidency.
I'll withhold judgment a little longer (Score:4, Informative)
He's going to put a "powerful" hold on funding? (Score:4, Insightful)
Note how he's using language here. "Powerful" is an expletive -- it looks like an adjective, but it does not semantically modify the noun it's attached to. It's signalling how you should feel about the hold -- that it means Donald Trump is a strong and decisive leader.
There isn't any policy goal behind this, it's all about giving his base the right feels.
Re:He's going to put a "powerful" hold on funding? (Score:4, Insightful)
Note how he's using language here. "Powerful" is an expletive -- it looks like an adjective, but it does not semantically modify the noun it's attached to. It's signalling how you should feel about the hold -- that it means Donald Trump is a strong and decisive leader.
There isn't any policy goal behind this, it's all about giving his base the right feels.
To be fair, Trump only knows about 5 adjectives, so he has to spread them around. In general, his vocabulary is astonishingly limited for someone in his position, but perhaps it matches that of his base.
It's time... (Score:4, Interesting)
Ironic (Score:3, Informative)
Trump wants review and oversight of money spent on the WHO yet he removed the independent watchdog for coronavirus funds [politico.com] and bristles at any similar oversight by Congress -- that is actually written into the $2T stimulus-fund bill he just signed into law. Hmm...
Back to what he does best (Score:4, Insightful)
Fumbling the handling of COVID 19 in his home country, Trump gets back to what he's good at: fighting and blaming someone else.
Comment removed (Score:3)
Wow (Score:5, Funny)
So Trump listened to the W.H.O.? So now he gets to play the blame game.
_____________|_WHO _______|_____
Trump Listens | outcome good | Trump hero
Trump Listens | outcome bad | blame WHO
Trump ignores | outcome good | Trump hero
Trump ignores | outcome bad | blame WHO
Do I have that right?
Deflection (Score:4, Insightful)
Trump doing what he does best, blaming others for his mistakes and misdeeds. WHO might honestly deserve some of the criticisms directed at it, but have no doubt that Trump's only motive is to deflect blame to cover for his and his administration's gross incompetence in the early days and weeks of this crisis.
Re:Completely agree! (Score:5, Informative)
Especially the ones selling stocks with insider information.
It's been established that Feinstein didn't actually sell stocks.
"During my Senate career Iâ(TM)ve held all assets in a blind trust of which I have no control."
This is why ethics lawyers strongly support blind trusts. Not only do you avoid conflicts of interest... it also protects you from accusations of conflicts of interest.
Re:Completely agree! (Score:5, Insightful)
Instead of panicking like a headless chicken, look at the actual situation calmly. New, fast moving diseases are hard to figure out. What options are there? Recommend a lockdown every time there's a new disease? In the adult world, things have the be weighed against each other - it's called risk management, and sometimes risks are impossible to quantify until it's too late.
Defund WHO. What next? Fund a new organization that's going to fail the EXACT same way the next time a new, fast moving disease comes along? Or Fund a new organization that's going to recommend a lockdown every time, and pissing off the public when it turns out the disease wasn't as dangerous as initially thought?
Think things through instead of just complaining about how things are never perfect. Grow up.
Re: (Score:3)
Re:Go Trump! (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, Trump *didn't* shut down *all* travel from China. He allowed Americans returning from China to reenter the US without testing or tracking, ignoring WHO's specific recommendations about testing and contact tracing.
Back at this time the Trump Administration was still looking at this in terms of its trade war with China; Wilbur Ross said that coronavirus would be good for the American economy on January 31 -- the same day the so-called "travel ban" was announced.