It has been said, reiterated and shouted that President Donald Trump did a lousy job managing COVID-19, a major theme in the campaign to remove him from the Oval Office. Former President Barack Obama practically charged him with mass murder.
As confused as Joe Biden saying 200 million Americans had died from the virus, Obama said some weeks back that Trump's ineptitude was responsible for 170,000 deaths and millions being unemployed. I have read this sort of thing almost every day, day in and day out and it is not just politics talking. It is decadence. This accusation is extreme and dishonest, an abandonment of any sort of integrity or decency in this combative election year.
Put aside turpitude, and the facts are as follows.
In accordance with the Constitution and all kinds of laws, states have been in charge of managing the virus, not Trump. As for presidential guidelines, they can say phooey on that. A major mistake of some was to shove infected people into nursing homes and doing too little about many being ill-managed. One third of all virus deaths have been in these facilities under state supervision, according to The New York Times.
Trump still had responsibilities and in January and February, when he supposedly did nothing, Trump executed travel bans, got work started on vaccines, got needed equipment to states despite misreporting on the subject, got five labs involved with the government to check the spread and had passengers screened at eight airports. He quickly informed Congress of the perils, as preoccupied as it was with impeaching him.
With congressional help he early on got $2.5 billion out and about to help businesses and suffering people. He has been hit hard for telling the public to stay calm although that is what leaders all over the place, including in Europe, were also doing. A flub in testing was the fault of the Centers for Disease Control, and it is false that he refused an offer of testing equipment from the World Health Organization. It made no offer.
Despite a current surge in virus cases, though not in virus deaths, there is reason for hope, namely that Trump's unexampled vaccine efforts appear to be paying off. It will still take time for everything to fall in place, but there has seldom been anything like this rush to vaccine victory and there is reason to look forward to 2021 being a recovery year.
Next: We just had some of the most incredibly good economic news ever. It is that in the third quarter we had the largest GDP growth in history, more than 33 percent. Income went up by 13 percent, almost $637 billion, and 11 million more people were at work. Trump's stimulus deeds helped, as have his encouraging words about opening up businesses as long as the vulnerable are kept away and care is taken; less than 1% of the infected face death.
Although the concerns of parents and teachers have been understandable, opening schools has been proven safe, as Trump says, and should be done to give children a shot at the good life.
To be sure, Trump's virus flubs have been comedy serving tragedy, as in downplaying masks seen as crucial by many scientists; at the very worst, they are a harmless way of making others feel better. He could certainly have exercised better care in White House events and operations and his political rallies. But the better part of him has saved lives, and he was right after his own virus infection to tell the American people to be strong. It was like FDR during the Great Depression telling people they had nothing to fear but fear itself. He was not saying there were no devils out there, but that the best way to face them was with courage, positive thinking and determination.
As for Obama, I am waiting for him to apologize for turning over $1.7 billion to Iranians in his appeasement deal and thus helping to fund terrorists out there killing the innocent.
