Trump brags about high flu death toll in backfired attempt to downplay coronavirus risks
An old man being taken down by the coronavirus is not much of a news story these days when elderly and infirm senior citizens are suffering disproportionately from the outbreak.
However, when the old man is the president of the United States and the taking down is not from being physically infected but from the impact that the panic over the pandemic is having on public confidence in your administration’s ability to handle the crisis and the economic downslide that has accompanied it, it is a news story that dominates public consciousness.
Donald Trump woke up today to a financial panic that gripped the markets and even halted trading on exchanges temporarily after a massive seven percent drop triggered an automatic pause for 15 minutes.
His reaction was not to immediately convene a rapid emergency response team at the White House to deal with the crisis but to watch TV and tweet about it.
Imagine watching what could be the beginning of the biggest financial collapse since, well, the last Republican president was in office, and tweeting this out as if this would reassure everyone and make everything better.
Great job being done by the @VP and the CoronaVirus Task Force. Thank you!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 9, 2020
Sorry, but if anyone besides the president thought that Vice-President Mike Pence and his “CoronaVirus Task Force” weren’t as ineffective as Trump’s illusory Space Force, then Wall Street wouldn’t be metaphorically jumping out of skyscraper windows right now.
With his staunch congratulations to his team failing to halt the market slide, Trump switched to praising his own prescient handling of the crisis by his reflexive solution to any problem he encounters that can’t be solved with a simple lie — a more blatant lie that involves self-praise and the closing of America’s borders.
The BEST decision made was the toughest of them all – which saved many lives. Our VERY early decision to stop travel to and from certain parts of the world!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 9, 2020
Yes, a wonderful and obviously so effective decision that has prevented the virus from reaching American shores — NOT!
As the media details the many missed opportunities that the Trump administration had to better prepare for a pandemic that he had been warned could be one of the many threats America needed to be ready to face, Trump then decided that it was time to shoot the messenger, part of his regular morning routine on social media anyway.
So much FAKE NEWS!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 9, 2020
Unfortunately, a significant portion of the actual “FAKE NEWS” being disseminated is originating from the deteriorating brain of the president himself who continually spread misinformation about the coronavirus “hoax”, including telling people that it’s safe to go to work when sick.
Perhaps thinking that people simply needed to see the bright side of the results of the epidemic, Trump next touted deflation as an overlooked side benefit of the deadly outbreak.
Good for the consumer, gasoline prices coming down!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 9, 2020
Hmm!?! Not much use for gasoline when you’re sequestered in your home for weeks at a time, but OK.
With denial and distraction proving ineffective in the face of a reality that Trump’s gaslighting can’t conquer, the president moved on to blame as his next tactic to avoid accepting any responsibility for the administration’s market-shaking incompetence.
Saudi Arabia and Russia are arguing over the price and flow of oil. That, and the Fake News, is the reason for the market drop!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 9, 2020
Nope, nothing to see here. Move along people. Not our fault.
With his last tweet of the morning, Trump tried to ignore scientific data about the relative virulence of the COVID-19 virus versus the strains of common influenza viruses that have been prevalent in the past year — hint: while the absolute number of fatalities attributed to the flu is still currently higher than that of the still spreading coronavirus, the fatality rate for the new disease, pegged at 3.4% by the World Health Organization is multiple times higher than the 0.1% death rate from the flu.
So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on. At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 9, 2020
And, if you have any sense, think about the fact that the flu has had a full year to crawl its way through the populace, while we are still at the very beginning stages of the COVID-19 outbreak, and then multiply those 37,000 flu deaths by 34 times and you get over a million people who may die from the coronavirus.
Think about that! At least one Twitter respondent did.
This is the literal opposite of what he needs to be saying.
Flu kills more (for now) because COVID isn't yet as widespread. Reason for urgent preventive action IS TO KEEP IT THAT WAY.
Because if we fail, COVID-19's vastly higher fatality rate will kill far, far more people. https://t.co/Lamt2gXmKM
— Jeremy COVID-19 IS NOT LIKE FLU Konyndyk (@JeremyKonyndyk) March 9, 2020
And then think about the idiocy and incapability of the man leading the nation during this crisis and wonder: can we make it to November without a change of management? And can gross incompetence convince Republicans in the Senate to remove this worthless excuse for a president from office when abuse of power and obstruction of Congress couldn’t?
Hopefully, we’ll find out before the death toll from the pandemic hits a million and before the market tanks back to the pre-Obama economic rescue numbers that the presidency of George W. Bush sank it to.
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