Under Control - Trump Covid Misinformation

Video: youtu.be/9O0R8F5q_sQ

1) Context:
a) Medical facts should be nonpartisan, but they are not. Preventable deaths should be nonpartisan, but they are not. Covid is not anyone’s fault in U.S., but presidential misinformation/attacks and a lack of federal response was political and likely contributed to tens of thousands of deaths, if not more. And will continue to do so. Couple relevant quotes follow (Item #2), plus Trump’s statements in parallel with Covid statistics below (Item #3).

b) Stats below are estimates of reduction in Covid deaths in U.S. if there were a timely federal response:

• 40-62%, Columbia University: https://www.advisory.com/daily-briefing/2020/05/21/coronavirus, https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/study-finds-earlier-coronavirus-restrictions-us-saved-36k/story?id=70808611, https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/05/21/860077940/u-s-could-have-saved-36-000-lives-if-social-distancing-started-1-week-earlier-st
• 55%: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/20/us/coronavirus-distancing-deaths.html
• 70-99%: https://www.statnews.com/2020/06/19/faster-response-prevented-most-us-covid-19-deaths/

2) Quotes:“We are facing two big challenges: the virus and the misinformation around the virus. Some days I can’t decide which one is worse than the other. It’s a huge problem.” Dr. Ashish Jha, Harvard global health institute director.


“Well now you know what it’s like.” Medical colleagues in the Congo talking to Anne Rimoin, UCLA Epidemiologist who has spent her career dealing with infectious diseases. Regarding presidential misinformation and the credibility smearing of Dr. Fauci. 




3) Trump Statements and Covid Timeline.

Under control:
Sources: Covid data - Wikipedia (under-representation from CDC data), quotes from multiple media sources.

• 1-22-20: “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China.” (0 dead, 0 daily deaths, 1 daily cases)
• 1-30-20: “We have it very well under control. We have very little problem in this country at this moment.” (0 dead, 0 daily deaths, 1 daily cases)
• 2-23-20: “We have it very much under control in this country. Very interestingly, we’ve had no death.” (0 dead, 0 daily deaths, 1 daily case)
• 2-24-20: “The coronavirus which is, uh, very much under control in our country.”  (0 dead, 0 daily deaths, 2 daily cases)
• 2-26-20: “It’s going to disappear.” (0 dead, 0 daily deaths, 1 daily case)
• 2-27-20: “It’s going to disappear. One day, it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.” (0 dead, 0 daily death, 1 daily case)
• 2-29-30: “And everything is under control. They’re very very cool. I mean they’ve done it. And they’ve done it well. Everything is under control.” (1 dead, 1 daily death, 5 daily cases)
• 3-6-20: “You have to be calm. It will go away.” (14 dead, 3 daily deaths, 77 daily cases)
• "I like the numbers being where they are. I don't need to have the numbers double because of one ship that wasn't our fault.” Regarding cruise ship in San Francisco with 21 people who tested positive. (31 dead, 5 daily deaths, 291 daily cases)
• 3-10-20: “It will go away.” (31 dead, 5 daily deaths, 291 daily cases)
• 3-15-20: “It’s something that we have, uh, tremendous control over.” (62 dead, 6 daily deaths, 676 daily cases)
• 3-30-20: “You know it’s going away. And it will go away. And we’re going to have a great victory.” (2,986 dead, 555 daily deaths, 20,463 daily cases)
• 3-31-30: “It’s going to go away, hopefully at the end of the month. And if not, it hopefully will be soon after that.” (3,807 dead, 521 daily deaths, 25,305 daily cases)
• 4-7-20: “Which I’m right about. It did go aw ... it will go away.” (12,674 dead, 1,927 daily deaths, 30,512 daily cases)
• 4-28-20: “I said it’s going away, and it is going away.” (52,518 dead, 2,204 daily deaths, 24,359 daily cases)
• 4-29-20: “It’s gonna leave, it’s gonna be gone. It’s gonna be eradicated, and it might take longer.” (55,054 dead, 2,536 daily deaths, 26,869 daily cases)
• 5-8-20: “This is going to go away without a vaccine.” (71,395 dead, 1,695 daily deaths, 27,095 daily cases)
• 5-11-20: “We have prevailed.” “Coronavirus numbers are looking MUCH better, going down almost everywhere.”  (74,735 dead, 840 daily deaths, 17,777 daily cases)
• May: “These models have been wrong since day one. They’ve been so wrong, they’ve been so out of whack.” (97,959 dead, 605 daily deaths, 21,686 daily cases). The models predicted 135,000 dead by August. It is over 165,000 dead as of mid August.
• 6-17-20: The pandemic is “fading away. It’s going to fade away.” (110,123 dead, 742 daily deaths, 23,620 daily cases)
• 7-2-20: “And the crisis, uh, is being handled. We are likewise getting under control.” (118,369 dead, 871 daily deaths, 54,869 daily cases)
• 7-17-20: “ I will be right eventually. You know, I said, it’s going to disappear. I’ll say it again.” (128,146 dead, 936 daily deaths, 76,091 daily cases)
• 7-18-20: “We have embers and we do have flames. Florida became more flame like. But uh, it’s going to be under control.”  (129,025 dead, 879 daily deaths, 65,389 daily cases)
• 7-19-20: “This virus is going to disappear.” (129,537 dead, 512 daily deaths, 63,591 daily cases)
• 7-21-20: “It will probably, unfortunately, get worse before it gets better.” (130,966 dead, 1,039 daily deaths, 63,496 daily cases)
• 7-27-20: “I think it’s under control ... it is what it is ... it’s under control as much as you can control it.” (136,917 dead, 1,079 daily deaths, 54,806 daily cases)
• 8-5-20: “My view is the schools should open. This thing’s going away. It will go away like things go away.” (146,831 dead, 1,328 daily deaths, 51,884 daily cases)
• Mid August (CDC): 165,000 deaths, 1,500 daily deaths, 56,000 daily cases.