Quote:
Originally Posted by de captain
Why no date? If we're going to Monday morning quarterback then we should be able to come up with the correct answer in hindsight. If you can't even come up with the correct answer in hindsight how do you expect someone to have come up with the perfect answer in the moment with incomplete, and conflicting information.
Most, if not all of the states, began reopening before meeting Federal guidelines. Governors have repeatedly tried to assert their rights to control their own states during this pandemic.
Do you even know whether or not Trump, or the Federal government, have the legal authority to mandate nationwide mask wearing?
Again, On what date should Trump have mandated mask wearing? We have the value of hindsight so it should be easy, now that you can look back with perfect information, to give a date on when it should have been done.
Firstly, I am not expecting someone to have come up with a "perfect" answer. I think it was fair that in the very beginning, when both the WHO and Fauci said masks were not necessary, that Trump also didn't say masks were required.
Later, as understanding of the virus progressed, and evidently the US got enough PPE to enable the greater population to buy and use masks, it then made sense to encourage or even require the population to use masks.
You ask me for a firm date and I won't give it, because I don't agree with your fundamental premise. Trump, around Easter, said he wanted the churches to be packed and tried to pressure that result.
He got enough pushback that he backed off of his Easter assault on closures. But the fact that he continuously pressured states, restaurants, churches, bars and other risky activities to re-open in the face of uncontrolled community spread--was incredibly irresponsible.
It was poor leadership, not just "imperfect", but I would argue inept leadership.
Encouraging the opening of large churches and congregations, which he has done from the beginning and continues to do despite all of the evidence that singing, chanting and being in close proximity indoors is the riskiest of all behaviors--that is fundamentally horrible leadership.
So I will not give a firm date because I don't think one exists. But I can say that his Easter deadline which he desperately pedaled, was part of the pressure that encouraged states and communities to re-open more quickly and with less safeguards than was appropriate.
Trump continues to pressure states to stay open and even to continue with schools opening, even in states where the virus is surging currently.
I am not using hindsight to say that this is incredibly poor leadership. I'd be lying if I said I know how many people died or how many could be saved. Why would I make up numbers?
It's enough to believe that he has performed poorly, and the majority of the country agrees with me based on poll after poll regarding Trump's coronavirus performance.
Nothing I've said is controversial unless you are trying to nitpick, imo.
As far as masks not working, I agree they are imperfect and that education on wearing them needs improvement. But rather than throwing up our hands and eschewing masks at all, we should encourage them (as TS used to advocate, even saying we need more shaming) to be worn and then try to implement better education.