My standard question is, if Trump's pandemic response was so great, why does he lie about it so much?
One thing I can say for sure about the H1N1 flu was that the Regional Strategic Stockpiles were activated, because I was involved in it. We shipped PPE and Tamiflu from the national stockpile to regional health departments. In fact, just looking it up today for this post, I was very amused to see the main photo in a Washington Post story was the guy I worked with; I was there that day in 2009 when the picture was taken.
Without getting into a back-and-forth on the stockpile depletions etc., I can tell you one thing for sure: From the time I got involved in 2008 to 2016, we held annual exercises where we planned and practiced how to quickly set up a distribution center to send out supplies for a pandemic or bioweapon response. I would get automated test calls to my cell, work and home phone to verify if I could respond and how quickly. In 2017, 2018 and 2019, no more exercises. No more calls.
- Claim: The virus will go away without a vaccine. If that was true, why so much emphasis on the vaccine now?
- Claim: Covid is no worse than seasonal flu. False, Bob Woodward has shared recordings of Trump saying he knew it was "more deadly than even your strenuous flus."
- Claim: Cases were only going up because of more testing. False, because the test positivity rate was also going up.
- Claim: Anyone who needs a test can get a test. So obviously wrong it needs no comment.
- Claim: Hydroxychloroquine is a safe and effective treatment. False, the FDA had to issue warnings about using it, with studies showing it had no benefit for covid and had possible health risks.
- Claim: Google was working on a national coronavirus testing website. False, Google knew nothing about it. A company affiliated with Google was working on something like that for the Bay Area.
One thing I can say for sure about the H1N1 flu was that the Regional Strategic Stockpiles were activated, because I was involved in it. We shipped PPE and Tamiflu from the national stockpile to regional health departments. In fact, just looking it up today for this post, I was very amused to see the main photo in a Washington Post story was the guy I worked with; I was there that day in 2009 when the picture was taken.
Without getting into a back-and-forth on the stockpile depletions etc., I can tell you one thing for sure: From the time I got involved in 2008 to 2016, we held annual exercises where we planned and practiced how to quickly set up a distribution center to send out supplies for a pandemic or bioweapon response. I would get automated test calls to my cell, work and home phone to verify if I could respond and how quickly. In 2017, 2018 and 2019, no more exercises. No more calls.
