Trump says his call with the governors went great, but he accuses one governor of being "a little wise guy" – and then Trump adds "we saw to it he wouldn't be so much anymore."
Uh... how exactly did the Trump admin "see to it" that a governor wouldn't be "a wise guy" anymore?
Uh... how exactly did the Trump admin "see to it" that a governor wouldn't be "a wise guy" anymore?
Asked about reports that Trump wants to put U.S. troops along the northern border, Trump suggests he doesn't know what the reporter is referring to, and then starts complaining about Canada's tariffs.
Whenever Trump starts talking about how we have to "get back to work" "pretty quickly," it's worth reminding everyone that the President's own businesses have been shuttered and he has a deep personal financial interest in seeing them earning money again as soon as possible.
A reporter asked Trump if President Xi had asked him to tone down his racist language, and Trump's answer was deeply weird. Even for him: "He never asked me. Somebody might've spoken to somebody, but nobody spoke to me about it. I think it was time though, you know."
Trump was asked if the "15 days to slow the spread" guidelines continue after Monday? i.e. will the shutdown continue?
Trump gives a nonsensical, non-answer: he wants "those guidelines to go even when we're open and fully operational," referring only to hand shaking and washing.
Trump gives a nonsensical, non-answer: he wants "those guidelines to go even when we're open and fully operational," referring only to hand shaking and washing.
There are sometimes good questions (though rarely good follow up), but it's also a lot of dumb garbage. "Mr. President, what message do you have for people who are scared right now?" is what passes for an incisive, hard-hitting question.
For the second day in a row, Dr. Birx is stressing that coronavirus isn't nearly as "scary" as some models have suggested, and that the models that were predicting high death counts have been changed for unknown reasons, and now show only a tiny fraction as many deaths.
And again, Dr. Fauci's focus is almost entirely on the "rebound" or "second wave" of the coronavirus, as if there are no interesting problems to discuss with the "first wave" we're currently going through.
On the day the U.S. reaches most total confirmed COVID-19 infections of any country in the world, as well as the most cases detected in a single day by any country, the messaging from the WH's senior medical experts has been: coronavirus isn't nearly as scary as you've been told.
And Dr. Birx isn't wrong! The models based on zero intervention are indeed much scarier than models based on our world, in which there's been a lot of intervention. But it's just so odd that their messaging sounds like it comes from a world where nothing scary is occurring now.
Dr. Birx, asked what the government's timeline is for implementing guidance for reopening regions of the U.S., answers that, "We have to get all of our data together, we owe it to the president."
(A) That is not a goddamn answer, and (B) The what you say? You owe it *to Trump*?
(A) That is not a goddamn answer, and (B) The what you say? You owe it *to Trump*?
Dr. Birx relies so heavily on buzzwords and undefined jargon that it can be really hard to understand what she's actually saying. She's almost a rival for Pence in that regard.
Birx, on tracking COVID-19 in counties with limited data reporting: we'll "utilize a laser focused approach" because "in sub-Sahara Africa" "we have granular data down to a GPS coordinate of a site of a clinic and hospital, [and] we think that same thing can be done in the U.S."
We won't use "a generic horizontal approach," Dr. Birx also said, because "in the 21st century we should be able to get to" the "laser-focused" way of doing it.
And on why the U.S. won't have any medical shortages: "We can be creative, we can meet the need by being responsive."
And on why the U.S. won't have any medical shortages: "We can be creative, we can meet the need by being responsive."
Dr. Birx: "We don't have an evidence" that any hospitals in the US will be facing a shortage of medical resources, & "there is no situation in the U.S. that warrants that kind of discussion" about how to triage when we run short on, say, hospital beds.
I've been critical of how Dr. Fauci provides cover for Trump's dangerous/false claims, but I believe the factual information he gives.
Dr. Birx's statements can't be relied on, though. Most of what she says is too indefinite to be factually wrong, but it's so often misleading.
Dr. Birx's statements can't be relied on, though. Most of what she says is too indefinite to be factually wrong, but it's so often misleading.
After watching Dr. Birx's frequent criticisms of models that predicted what would happen if efforts weren't made to stop COVID-19, you're left with an impression that, actually, this virus was never that dangerous at all, and everyone is overreacting.
By implying the models said there'd be 400K dead in Italy by now, it shows either that Dr. Birx doesn't understand anything about what the models are actually showing (very unlikely), or that she's deliberately misrepresenting the models for some reason.
There is no evidence that Trump could tell a lie so false and dangerous that Dr. Fauci wouldn't immediately leap to defend it as a reasonable way of giving Americans hope.
