A very clarifying exchange.
Portnoy (who had a viral anti-Fauci/anti-lockdown screed a few months ago) focuses on his day-trading profits.
Trump agrees, says this is why he overrules Fauci.
Our pandemic response is being run with a day-trading mentality. So, so clarifying.
Portnoy (who had a viral anti-Fauci/anti-lockdown screed a few months ago) focuses on his day-trading profits.
Trump agrees, says this is why he overrules Fauci.
Our pandemic response is being run with a day-trading mentality. So, so clarifying.
The way you defeat a pandemic like this is by playing the long game. The lags in incubation, testing, hospitalization, and fatality stats mean that the official data always presents a snapshot of the past.
As @djrothkopf said in the @deepstateradio podcast yesterday, if you're just reacting to that data, you're always only looking in the rear view mirror.
The way to win is to get ahead of that - to think and plan weeks and months ahead. Anticipatory action. Sustain a strategy.
The way to win is to get ahead of that - to think and plan weeks and months ahead. Anticipatory action. Sustain a strategy.
But day-trading doesn't work that way. It's all about short-term wins.
And that's how Trump has been managing this crisis as well - always trying to put the best spin on each day, assuring people that things are actually going great.
And that's how Trump has been managing this crisis as well - always trying to put the best spin on each day, assuring people that things are actually going great.
The testing thing is a perfect microcosm of this mentality. In the long run, mass-scale testing is a powerful tool to drive cases down, and would be a huge political and substantive win for Trump.
But he's incapable of seeing it that way.
But he's incapable of seeing it that way.
Instead, he can only see it through a day-trader mentality.
Doing more tests *today* means finding more cases *today* - so more testing is a bad thing, and he opposes it.
Doing more tests *today* means finding more cases *today* - so more testing is a bad thing, and he opposes it.
Same with the economy (which he references in this exchange). Opening prematurely may give a boost in the immediate term.
But it's doubly devastating in the medium/long term as cases spike again and we go back into stay-at-home.
All Trump can see is that short-term gain.
But it's doubly devastating in the medium/long term as cases spike again and we go back into stay-at-home.
All Trump can see is that short-term gain.
This is the mentality - short term, reactive, missing the forest for the trees - that is killing us (literally!) in this outbreak.
And this 30-second exchange boils it down to its essence.
And this 30-second exchange boils it down to its essence.
Clarifying too is Trump's dismissive caricature of Fauci as wanting to shut the economy for "years."
Fauci doesn't want that. No one *wants* that.
But Trump doesn't defend his most credible public health official; he denigrates him. Appalling.
Fauci doesn't want that. No one *wants* that.
But Trump doesn't defend his most credible public health official; he denigrates him. Appalling.
