Thread by @briantylercohen

Never in history has a response been so botched at every single stage.

Trump eliminated every major government position that dealt with pandemic preparation and ordered the NSC’s entire global health security unit shut down. He then proposed a 19% budget CUT to the CDC.

THREAD/

Trump declined the WHO tests that were available in FEBRUARY and sent to 60(!) other countries, opting instead to let the CDC create its own test. We've barely deployed more than 11,000 tests, while experts believe 50,000+ Americans are infected & unknowingly spreading the virus.

Trump introduced the idea that the outbreak was some hoax perpetuated by Democrats to hurt him politically. The rest of the GOP and conservative media fell in line, because of course they did, also downplaying the severity of the outbreak to insulate Trump from any bad optics.

When he realized he couldn't just lie it away, he went on TV and wrongly claimed all trade between the US & Europe would be halted (false), all travel between the US & Europe was suspended (false), and all co-pays for treatment would be waived (false).

So the market crashed.

So Trump held another press conf where he declared a national emergency by parading a bunch of CEOs to the mic to salvage the only thing he cares about-- the American people lol just kidding THE STOCK MARKET.

During that speech, he said, "I don't take responsibility at all.”

Because of Trump's announcement, giving everyone 48 hours to either get in or out of the country through only 13 US airports, they were flooded, creating the exact Petri dish of a situation that we needed to AVOID in the first place, thereby basically negating the whole purpose.

Now reports have emerged that Trump is trying to gain the rights to a potential vaccine being developed by a German firm, CureVac, “but only for the United States.” As if allowing non-Americans to just die is going to make him look like some hero at home?
reuters.com/article/us-hea…

Meanwhile, we still don't have enough tests! We don't know who's infected! We don't know who's spreading it! We've gotten no answer as to why we didn't accept the WHO tests! We have Pence, who as governor enabled the worst HIV outbreak in Indiana history, overseeing our response!

And of course, we have Trump, who has a physical aversion to telling the truth, sowing more confusion and mayhem every time he opens his mouth and bungles something new.

I've never seen such incompetence. Holy shit, GOP. I really hope those conservative judges were worth it.