Abandoning the fight against Covid-19 like a 60-Minutes interview.

“US not containing Covid”-Trump aide.

The Trump administration never expressed their strategy as directly as this. One can argue that this wasn’t necessary because everyone understood it from the government’s (read: Trump’s) inaction and its dismissive language regarding the virus.

The first thing a government must do when confronted with a new virus is to warn its population that a new virus has been discovered and this is a serious threat because we do not understand its effects nor its transmission. Therefore the government will closely follow scientific evidence and scientific recommendations. It will emphasize that a healthy economy requires a healthy population to produce and consume. It will ask to pay attention to government rules and guidelines as everyone’s health and the health of the nation depends on how well everyone follows the rules. Especially when the government must change tack as a result of new scientific insights. The public must remain alert at all times.

This is nothing new. China acted accordingly, so did New Zealand, Vietnam and Australia. And these countries know that continued vigilance is required until a safe and effective vaccine is available to all.

From the start Trump made it clear that he didn’t understand the risks associated with a new virus and he was dismissive (out of ignorance, despite his own claims that doctors were amazed at his knowledge, long before he thought to dazzle the world with his ‘incredible’ recall of “woman…