Burying The Numbers

As the coronavirus pandemic started to take form in the United States and there were only 15 known cases, Donald Trump assured us the numbers would start going down and soon we would be at zero cases. This was one of many lies from Donald Trump and his administration about the virus.

Today, Donald Trump is telling us that the only reason we have so many cases is that we have so much testing as if testing creates cases. He says we test more than any other nation. He tells us the virus is harmless to 99 percent of those who catch it. He says we have one of the “lowest mortality rates in the world.” Each of these claims is a lie.

Donald Trump has told over 20,000 lies since becoming president (sic) and even when it comes to public safety and mortality, he continues to lie. His niece, Mary Trump, the author of the new book “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man,” said her uncle is not able to solve the coronavirus. If Donald Trump can’t admit when he’s made mistakes or even accept scientific evidence and facts during a pandemic, then he’s not the man to solve the pandemic.

We are rapidly approaching 140,00 deaths from the coronavirus in the United States. Mary Trump picked the right title for her book. Donald Trump is the world’s most dangerous man.

Now, the White House is ordering hospitals to stop reporting key data about their patients to the Center for Disease Control and to instead feed it into a new system that will flow directly to the Health and Human Services Department, which oversees the CDC. This means the White House is engaging in a coverup of the death toll. They don’t want us to know the numbers. They’re going to be hidden away like Trump’s taxes and the results from his cognitive test.

For months, Republicans and conspiracy theorists have argued the death toll was inflated. Florida, where Governor Ron DeSantis is a Trump goon, has misreported data from the state.

Florida was warned not to skip safety steps to reopen and that they should wait, and when they did reopen, to do it in phases as New York did. Ron DeSantis scoffed, attacked the press for the reporting, and boasted about how his state was doing so well and conquered the pandemic. Then, he reopened his state. Disney World Reopened. Professional Wrestling was declared an essential service. The Republican National Committee was invited to Jacksonville. Ron DeSantis took an obnoxious victory lap. National Review published an article titled, “Where does Ron DeSantis go to get his apology?”. I hope DeSantis isn’t holding his breath.

Florida was late to shut down and early to reopen. Now, Florida has the worst outbreak of coronavirus in the country. It’s one of the worst in the world. Since the beginning of July, Covid19 cases in the state have gone up nearly 60 percent. Florida has 20 percent more cases than Arizona, 70 percent more cases than Texas, and more than double the cases of California. Florida has more new cases than Europe. In case you’re a Republican, Europe is a continent. The only continent we should have more cases than is Antarctica. Despite all this, DeSantis and Republicans want every school in the state to open. And DeSantis still hasn’t issued an order mandating face masks to be worn. Seriously, there are too many stupid people in charge of important shit in this country.

Then, DeSantis blamed the media claiming they never reported on the virus during the month of May. Yeah, I totally remember a month-long coronavirus news blackout. As a member of the press, I demand an apology from Ron DeSantis.

DeSantis is a Trump acolyte. During his campaign for governor, he ran commercials showing him teaching his children how to build racist walls. He was slow to reopen because Donald Trump downplayed the virus. He was quick to reopen because Donald Trump screamed for the nation to reopen (remember when it was going to go away in spring and we could reopen by Easter?). He wanted the GOP’s convention in his state, acting as though the state scheduled to host it, North Carolina, was overreacting. Even that wrestling thing where he made it an essential business, World Wrestling Entertainment is partly-owned by the chairperson of a Trump super-PAC and former cabinet member, Linda McMahon (and huge donor to the Trump bogus charity).

DeSantis is on board with Donald Trump lying about the virus. Their lies about how bad it isn’t are just as bad as their lies to cover it up. Trump says we have the lowest mortality rate in the world when we have the 7th highest. In case you’re a Republican, there are more than seven countries on the planet and they’re all laughing at us. In fact, 120 more countries have lower mortality rates than we do. So where does Trump get off stating a lie that big? As we’ve learned over the past four years, it doesn’t matter what Trump lies about, his supporters will repeat it.

We don’t have the lowest mortality rate. We don’t have the most testing. And we haven’t had the best leaders. It was reported yesterday that Trump banned flights from Europe too late. It was too late for New York. When Trump first banned flights from China, he only banned travel for Chinese. If it was trade or passengers were American, then they could come on in as if the virus was as racist as Trump is. The virus doesn’t care who has a passport. A lot of people have forgotten about this, but when he initially banned travel from Europe, he excluded nations that had…wait for it…Trump resorts. Seriously, he was willing to let people die over his fucking pocketbook.

Now, the CDC is delaying a release on guidance for reopening schools and the White House sat on a report stating 18 states are in a coronavirus “red zone,” and recommends counties in the red zone to revert to more stringent pandemic measures like closing bars and gyms, limiting social gatherings to 10 people or fewer and requiring masks “at all times outside the home.”

After actions like that, the coronavirus deserves the title “Trump Virus.” Donald Trump has single-handedly made this virus worse. Donald Trump’s response, and lack of, has cost lives. Now he’s trying to hide deaths from the virus. When you have to lie about the numbers, you know you’ve done a lousy job. Donald Trump is the world’s most dangerous man.

DeSantis wants an apology from the media? The entire world is owed an apology from DeSantis, Donald Trump, and everyone who has ever supported these people.

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