Thursday, April 15, 2021

Day by day: What Trump said about the pandemic (April 1 -15, 2020)


Actually, it would be another 270 days when the U.S. reached its peak of new cases (7-day average).  254,909 on January 10, 2021.


April 15, 2020.   U.S. total Covid cases =  669,759 (+31,955), which is 2.1% of current total. 

April 15, 2021.  U.S. total Covid cases = 31,444,600


"The battle continues, but the data suggests that nationwide, we have passed the peak on new cases," Mr. Trump said at his daily coronavirus briefing. "Hopefully that will continue, and we will continue to make great progress."  [emphasis added] 
"These encouraging developments have put us in a very strong position to finalize guidelines for states on reopening the country, which we'll be announcing," he added.


April 15, 2020.   U.S. total Covid deaths = 33,417 (+2,670), which is 6% of current total.

April 15, 2021.  U.S. total Covid deaths = 553,926

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Dictionary definition from Merriam-Webster


April 14, 2020.   U.S. total Covid cases =  637,804 (+30,460), which is 2% of current total. 

April 14, 2021.  U.S. total Covid cases = 31,369,400


The plans to reopen the country are close to being finalized and we will soon be sharing details and new guidelines with everybody. I will be speaking to all 50 governors very shortly and I will then be authorizing each individual governor of each individual state to implement a reopening and a very powerful reopening plan of their state at a time and in a manner as most appropriate. The day will be very close because certain states, as you know, are in much different condition and in a much different place than other states. It’s going to be very, very close, maybe even before the date of May 1st. So that will be for some states. Actually, there are over 20 that are in extremely good shape and we think we’re going to be able to get them open fairly quickly and then


April 14, 2020.   U.S. total Covid deaths = 30,707 (+2,635), which is 5.4% of current total.

April 14, 2021.  U.S. total Covid deaths = 562,944

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Dictionary definition by Merriam-Webster

April 13, 2020.   U.S. total Covid cases =  607,344 (+26,893), which is 1.9% of current total. 

April 13, 2021.  U.S. total Covid cases = 31,292,100


CNBC, 4/13/2020
“You looked at the charts and the models from early predictions where 100,000 and 120,000 people it looked like, if they did well, they were going to unfortunately perish and we are going to be hopefully way, way below that number,” Trump said. “That will be a sign of people doing things right, but it’s still just a horrible thing.” Coronavirus Response Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx said the outbreak in some metropolitan areas outside of t

 

April 13, 2020.   U.S. total Covid deaths = 28,072 (+1,711), which is 5% of current total.

April 13, 2021.  U.S. total Covid deaths = 562,007

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From Easter 2020 to Easter 2021

New York Times (arrows added)

April 12, 2020.   U.S. total Covid cases =  580,531 (+22,563), which is 1.9% of current total. 

April 12, 2021.  U.S. total Covid cases = 31,219,600


Land Line, 3/29/2021 (highlight added)


St. Luke's first in-person services will take place next Sunday, more than a year after the start of the pandemic.


April 12, 2020.   U.S. total Covid deaths = 26,361 (+1,772), which is 4.7% of current total.

April 12, 2021.  U.S. total Covid deaths = 561,527

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The label of 'failure' was appropriately affixed to Trump's lapel early on during the pandemic.


Dictionary definition from Merriam-Webster

April 11, 2020.   U.S. total Covid cases =  553,978 (+30,438), which is 1.8% of current total. 

April 11, 2021.  U.S. total Covid cases = 31,171,400


New York Times, 4/11/2020
The president, though, was slow to absorb the scale of the risk and to act accordingly, focusing instead on controlling the message, protecting gains in the economy and batting away warnings from senior officials. It was a problem, he said, that had come out of nowhere and could not have been foreseen.


April 11, 2020.   U.S. total Covid deaths = 24,589 (+2,079), which is 4.4% of current total.

April 11, 2021.  U.S. total Covid deaths = 561,231

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Thesaurus entry from Merriam-Webster

April 10, 2020.   U.S. total Covid cases =  525,540 (+34,677), which is 1.5% of current total. 

April 10, 2021.  U.S. total Covid cases = 31,107,200


PBS News Hour, 4/10/2020
“I want to get it open as soon as possible,” he said at a Good Friday briefing, while adding: “The facts are going to determine what I do.” 
[snip] 
“In the midst of grief and pain, we’re seeing clear signs that our aggressive strategy is saving countless lives,” he said, pointing to models that are now forecasting far fewer U.S. deaths than had originally been predicted.


In Trump's defense -- not a phrase Retiring Guy's often uses -- he based his statement on a April 9 forecast, likely flawed, from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.

CNN, 4/9/2020

The actual August 1st number turned out to be much higher.



April 10, 2020.   U.S. total Covid deaths = 22,510 (+2,292), which is 3.6% of current total.

April 10, 2021.  U.S. total Covid deaths = 560,531

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April 9, 2020.   U.S. total Covid cases =  478,863 (+34,465), which is 1.5% of current total. 

April 9, 2021.  U.S. total Covid cases = 31,025,200


New York Times, 4/9/2020
Yet the publicity-obsessed president is unlikely to relinquish his grip on the evening sessions: Mr. Trump has told aides he relishes the free television time and boffo ratings that come with his appearances, administration officials say.  [emphasis added]


April 9, 2020.   U.S. total Covid deaths = 20,218 (+2,147), which is 3.6% of current total.

April 9, 2021.  U.S. total Covid deaths = 559,575

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Thesaurus entry from Merriam-Webster

April 8, 2020.   U.S. total Covid cases =  454,398 (+33,190), which is 1.5% of current total. 

April 8, 2021.  U.S. total Covid cases = 30,944,100 


Rev, 4/8/2020 (highlights added)


"Sooner than people think"?  On the last day of Trump's presidsency, the U.S. reached its peak of active cases.



April 8, 2020.   U.S. total Covid deaths = 18,071 (+2,249), which is 3.2% of current total.

April 8, 2021.  U.S. total Covid deaths = 558,580

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Dictionary definition by Merriam-Webster

April 7, 2020.   U.S. total Covid cases =  421,208 (+32,277), which is 1.3% of current total. 

April 7, 2021.  U.S. total Covid cases = 30,870,900


Rev, 4/7/2020
America continues to perform more tests than any other nation in the world, and I think that’s probably why we have more cases. Because when you look at some of these very large countries, I know for a fact that they have far more cases than we do but they don’t report them. We’ve performed 1.87 million tests today. So that’s 1,870,000 million tests. Think of that 1,870,000 tests to date. And now we’re performing them at a level that nobody’s ever seen before.

 

 The U.S. "performed" 170,166 tests on April 7, 2020, according to the Covid Tracking Project.  (The subsequent columns are all cumulative totals.)


Later in the month, Trump received a "Pants on Fire" ruling from PolitiFact for repeating this claim.


April 7, 2020.   U.S. total Covid deaths = 15,802 (+2,252), which is 2.4% of current total.

April 7, 2021.  U.S. total Covid deaths = 556,016

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Dictionary definition from Merriam-Webster


April 6, 2020.   U.S. total Covid cases =  388,931 (+32,740), which is 1.3% of current total. 

April 6, 2021.  U.S. total Covid cases = 30,808,800


Rev, 4/6/2020 (highlights and arrows added)


April 6, 2020.   U.S. total Covid deaths = 13,540 (+1,514), which is 2.4% of current total.

April 6, 2021.  U.S. total Covid deaths = 555,109

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April 5, 2020 theme:  The light at the end of the tunnel

(The red arrow represents the long tunnel through which we continue to travel)

April 5, 2020.   U.S. total Covid cases =  353,197 (+26,471), which is 1.1% of current total. 

April 5, 2021.  U.S. total Covid cases = 30,732,200


Rev, 4/5/2020


April 5, 2020.   U.S. total Covid deaths = 12,026 (+1,435), which is 2.2% of current total.

April 5, 2021.  U.S. total Covid deaths = 554,579

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(arrows added; longer arrow indicates extent of "tremendous control" 
exerted by Trump administration over the virus)


April 4, 2020.   U.S. total Covid cases =  326,726 (+34,986), which is 1.1% of current total. 

April 4, 2021.  U.S. total Covid cases = 30,695,500


Dictionary definition from Merriam-Webster

ABC News, 4/4/2020
"You know, they want to see basketball and baseball and football and hockey. They want to see their sports. They want to go out onto the golf courses and breathe nice clean, beautiful fresh air," Trump said. "No, I can't tell you a date, but I think it's going to be sooner rather than later." 
He said that sports aren't "designed" for closures, which he said is also true of the country, emphasizing that he wants citizens to get back to work. 
"It has to get open. This country was not designed to be closed," Trump said. "Think of it. We're paying people not to go to work, how about that? How does that play?"

Sooner rather than later?  In April 2021, plans to reopen spots and entertainment venues in the U.S. are in various stages of planning and implementation as a variant and an increase in new cases complicate matters.


April 4, 2020.   U.S. total Covid deaths = 10,588 (+1,515), which is 1.9% of current total.

April 4, 2021.  U.S. total Covid deaths = 554,302

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April 3, 2020.   U.S. total Covid cases =  291,740 (+33,535), which is 0.95% of current total. 

April 3, 2021.  U.S. total Covid cases = 30,631,700


Dictionary definition from Merriam-Webster

Rev, 4/3/2020
So with the masks it’s going to be, really, a voluntary thing. You can do it, you don’t have to do it. I’m choosing not to do it, but some people may want to do it and that’s okay. It may be good, probably will. They’re making a recommendation. It’s only a recommendation, it’s voluntary.


April 3, 2020.   U.S. total Covid deaths = 9,013 (+1,302), which is 1.6% of current total.

April 3, 2021.  U.S. total Covid deaths = 553,554

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April 2, 2020.   U.S. total Covid cases =  258,205 (+31,049), which is 0.84% of current total. 

April 2, 2021.  U.S. total Covid cases = 30,562,800


Beyond "witch hunts" and poll numbers, Trump tells the aboslute truth for once:  "Ive already done extraordinary damage to our country in recent years."

Rev, 4/2/2020 (White House press conference transcript with highlights added)

As for Trump's precious poll numbers, he actually peaked on April 1, 2020 -- a joke, perhaps? -- but left office with the worst numbers of any president.  And except for a few days at the beginning of his presidency, he was always underwater.



April 2, 2020.   U.S. total Covid deaths = 7,711 (+1,312), which is 1.4% of current total.

April 2, 2021.  U.S. total Covid deaths = 552,593

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April 1, 2020.   U.S. total Covid cases =  227,156 (+27,748), which is 0.75% of current total. 

April 1, 2021.  U.S. total Covid cases = 30,485,200


Dictionary definition from Merriam-Webster
CNN, 4/1/2020
“I think also, and looking at the way — the contagion — it is so contagious. Nobody’s ever seen anything like this, where large groups of people all of a sudden, just by being in the presence of somebody, have it,” Trump said at the coronavirus task force briefing Wednesday.  [emphasis added]

Funny how these contagious diseases spread.  (Highlights added.)




April 1, 2020.   U.S. total Covid deaths = 6,499 (+1,268), which is 1.2% of current total.

April 1, 2021.  U.S. total Covid deaths = 551.638


Related series of posts:
Day by day:  What Trump said about the pandemic. 

Wednesday, April 14, 2021

Day by day: What Trump administration officials and GOP sycophants said about the virus (April 1-15, 2020)


Greg Abbott
Governor of Texas
Speaking too soon


Well, I’ve got to tell you—remember some of the early models that predicted these dire outcomes for the state of Texas? Talking about deaths reaching like 260 per day and these skyrocketing projections—and it just never panned out. So what we look at is the real data about what’s taking place, and here’s the fact: the fact is that the growth rate of COVID-19 in the state of Texas is leveling off. The fact is that hospitalizations, for example there are 28 fewer today than there were yesterday, and yesterday they were lower than the day before. The fact of the matter is that hospitalizations in the state of Texas have stayed relatively flat during this entire time. The most important thing that you have to look at is hospitalizations. We don’t want Texas to become like New York or New Jersey. When it comes down to what really matters, which is hospitalizations, Texas has done a superior job to almost any state in the United States. Bryan-College Station, the Greater Houston area, every place I know of in the state of Texas looks great.



Then came July 2020.  And Januar6 2021.



NBC DFW, 12/31/2020

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April 13 update starts here.

Vice-president Mike Pence

Rev, 4/13/2020
EMPTY TALK.  But in the days ahead, what the president’s charged us to do is to work with our health experts. We’re going to bring together an extraordinary group of American business leaders to council the president. And then working with the CDC, we’re going to produce new guidelines based upon the data for every state and territory in this nation. We’re going to give them guidance and as the president’s indicated, we’ll continue to respect the leadership and partnership that we’ve forged with every governor in America, but this is an unprecedented time.

The verdict is in.

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April 11, 2020 update starts here

Admiral Brett Giroir
Trump Asst. Sec. for Health

Key US government official Adm. Brett Giroir, whose responsibilities include oversight of Covid-19 testing, told Bloomberg News Saturday that coronavirus testing capacity in the US should be in the "ballpark" needed to begin reopening the country by May if the President recommends lifting some social distancing guidelines.

 

About a month later. 

The Atlantic, 5/8/2020
The United States is mired in one of the most immiserating peacetime moments in its history. In a little more than two months, more than 70,000 Americans have died of COVID-19, a disease that did not have a name in early February. The U.S. economy, which began the year as an engine of global stability, is in shambles. The unemployment rate has surged to a level unseen since the 1930s, the Labor Department announced on Friday. Only about half of American adults have a job, the lowest share of the population employed since measurements began in 1948.

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Greg Abbott
Governor of Texas

I’m proud to say that in Texas we have 1,366 Texans who have recovered from COVID-19. But get this, of all these other states in the United States that have far more infectious rate and far more people who have tested positive for COVID-19, Texas ranks second most in the United States of America for the most people who have recovered from COVID-19. [NOTE:  Texas also ranks second in population.]  We continue to see hospital bed capacity to be very strong. We, as of today still have more than 20,000 actually 20,488 beds that are available state-wide and 2,248 ICU beds that are available. We have 7,834 ventilators that are available.
Texas experienced its peak of new cases in January 2021.





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April 9, 2020 update starts here

Larry Kudlow
Trump Director of National Economic Council
(laughably low-caliber hire)

One viewer who owns a hair salon asked him about issues with getting employees to want to come back to work. 
"If I may, it's cool to work," Kudlow said. "Working has become cool again."

If I may..... 


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April 8, 2020 update starts here

Asa Hutchinson
Governor of Arkansas
Why is this man smiling?

In Arkansas, today we have crossed the 1,000 mark for COVID-19 cases. People ask me, “When will we get through this.” As you know, no one really knows. But the University of Washington IHME is a very reliable source of one modeling projection. Their most-recent projections show Arkansas will peak on April 24.
It is interesting that 11 days ago, on March 27, the model predicted we would have 707 deaths in Arkansas. On April 6, the model was revised to reduce the predications on deaths down to 279.

 

Dear Asa,

It is also interesting that what goes down is likely to go up, especially during a pandemic.  In fact, your state's 7-day average increased more than 1800% from the day of your 2020 State of the State to January 11, 2021 -- from 159 to 3,080.

Best, Retiring Guy 

New York Times

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April 7, 2021 update starts here

The hunky-dory, Pollyanna world of
Dr. Deborah Birx

And it really shows the amazing, amazing activity of every American in those cities to really ensure that there’s social distancing and really importantly to ensure there is less socialization between households and really ensuring that the household really remains independent, protected and not really at this moment going out into the community or socializing anywhere but a virtual way on computers by Zoom, by FaceTime. And I think we can really see that in the data and its really given us great heart.
A week later.




The following weekend, protesters gathered at the State Capitol in Madison to rall7 against Gov. Evers' safer-at-home order.

Photo by Retiring Guy

Yup, Debs, "amazing activity" in these cities.

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Admiral Brett Giroir
Trump Asst. Sec. for Health

So I can talk a little bit more about testing later on. But as the president said, 1.79 million tests have been done, and this does not count the hundreds of thousands of tests that are done within hospitals that are now currently not reporting. So I’m sure we’re well over 2 million. 
That inspector general report was done here, 23rd, 24th during our ramp up period, quite a long time ago. There was clearly, and it’s hard to interpret the report because it mixes up all kinds of things, but clearly there was complaints by some hospitals of a backlog, probably had sent out tests. And that is true. There were several days of backlog at some of the major labs that have been taken care of. We know now that the ACLA labs now have a 24 to 48 hour turnaround. They’re doing well over 100,000 tests a day.  [emphasis added]

9 days later

The demand for coronavirus tests at the nation's private labs, which handle the vast majority of testing for COVID-19, has dropped so much since its peak that the labs now have "considerable" unused capacity and can test more lower-priority patients, according to the American Clinical Laboratory Association. [emphasis added]
The number of COVID-19 tests conducted daily by private labs peaked on Sunday, April 5, at 108,000. It dropped under 100,000 a day after that.   
From Sunday, April 12, to Monday, April 13, the number of daily tests fell from 75,000 to 43,000.

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April 5, 2020.  Trump sets a happy talk tone with a "light at the end of the tunnel" theme.  In her extreme eagerness to please the boss, Dr. Birx follows suit.
 
Dr. Deborah Birx
White House Coronavirus Task Force Response Coordinator
Rev, 4/5/2020

Sycophany appears to keep a person from taking the long view.




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s
4/4/2020 update starts here

Kristi Noem
South Dakota governor
First of what's likely to be numerous appearances here

CNN, 4/4/2020
In explaining her rationale against issuing a stay-at-home order, Gov. Kristi Noem told reporters, "The people themselves are primarily responsible for their safety." She also pointed to the state and national constitutions that "prevent us from taking draconian measures much like the Chinese government has done."

As of result of Noem's myopic ideology, South Dakota has the 2nd highest rate of infection -- more than 13% of the population. 




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4/3/2020 update starts here.

Alex Azar
Trump HHS Secretary

Rev, 4/3/2020



What's highlighted is bullshit.  Here's the real story.

Nature, 8/4/2020
Confusion emerged in most pandemic simulations, but none explored the consequences of a White House sidelining its own public-health agency. Perhaps they should have, suggests a scientist who has worked in the US public-health system for decades and asked to remain anonymous because they did not have permission to speak to the press. “You need gas in the engine and the brakes to work, but if the driver doesn’t want to use the car, you’re not going anywhere,” the scientist says.

And as for that Pandemic Flu Preparedness document, Alex.  Not a new thing.



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4/2/2020 update starts here

Mike Pence and Jared Kushner

Pence announces Trump's latest nepotism effort.


Rev, 4/2/2020 (White House press conference transcript)

And how did this Amateur Hour assignment pan out?


CIDRAP, 7/29/2020


Not so well.  (Surprise, surprise!)
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4/1/2020 update starts here

Mark Esper
Trump Secreetary of Defense

Rev, 4/1/2020

Trump welcomes Esper to the podium for an announcement meant to distract from the issue at hand.
I appreciate the opportunity to be here today as we make this a very important announcement. At a time when the nation and the Department of Defense are focused on protecting the American people from the spread of the coronavirus, we also remain vigilant to the many other threats our country faces. Today, at the President’s direction, the Department of Defense in close cooperation with our inter-agency partners began enhanced counter-narcotics operations in Eastern Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. This initiative is part of the administration’s whole of government approach to combating the flow of illicit drugs into the United States and protecting the American people from their scourge.
What about that home-grown American scourge, courtesy of the Sackler family?

The Guardian, 12/17/2020

Related  series of posts:
March 13-31, 2020.