Many of President Trump’s supporters claim those on the left are politicizing the coronavirus pandemic. They blame the lefties for calling the pandemic Trump’s Katrina, for unnecessarily creating a panic that has nearly destroyed the economy, and for causing many to lose their jobs. Like Trump, they typically downplay the official federal figures showing, as of Thursday morning, a total of 1,193,813 cases and 70,802 deaths nationwide.

The pandemic is not Trump’s Katrina; it is his Chernobyl. Katrina was a hurricane whose path of destruction could not be slowed or managed. To paraphrase George Takei, Trump’s Chernobyl was a preventable catastrophe that Trump denied, downplayed, and mismanaged until tens of thousands of Americans were dead.

In January 2017, the Pentagon published the results of its study on how to effectively respond to a pandemic should one hit us. Even though Trump had a well-researched strategy for effectively combating the coronavirus pandemic, he chose to ignore those findings and claimed the coronavirus was a hoax perpetrated by the Democrats to help defeat him in the November election.

Here’s a brief timeline of how Trump denied, downplayed and mismanaged the pandemic. On Jan. 5, the World Health Organization informed the Trump administration of a previously unknown virus that causes pneumonia and has the potential of becoming a pandemic, and on Jan. 17 the U.S. CDC identified the COVID-19 virus. Even though Trump knew the virus had been identified and it could create a pandemic, he did nothing for 70 days. During those 70 days the Trump regime continued to deny the pandemic, even after Neil Newhouse, a GOP pollster concluded: “Denial is not likely to be a successful strategy for survival.”

On Monday, Feb. 27, Trump held a coronavirus press conference with his Coronavirus Task Force, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and several pharmaceutical CEOs. At that meeting Trump claimed numerous times the pharmaceutical industry would have a vaccine in a couple of months. After Fauci repeatedly told Trump a vaccine would take at least a year to a year and a half, Trump started claiming some existing vaccines could be used to combat the coronavirus.

Later, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar held a press conference where he claimed it only took researchers three days to develop a vaccine that was ready to be tested. Anthony Fauci clarified Azar’s misleading statements by explaining beginning clinical trials does not mean an effective vaccine would be developed in a couple of months, as Trump previously claimed. Fauci emphasized, “The whole (vaccine development) process is going to take at least a year to a year and a half.”

On March 9, Trump tweeted: “The Fake News Media and their partner, the Democrat Party, is doing everything within its semi-considerable power to inflame the CoronaVirus situation, far beyond what the facts would warrant.” According to the Washington Post, “By the time Donald Trump proclaimed himself a wartime president (March 18, 2020) — and the coronavirus the enemy — the United States was already on course to see more of its people die than in the wars of Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq combined.”

On April 22, Trump removed Dr. Rick Bright, the doctor in charge of overseeing research into a coronavirus vaccine at the Department of Health and Human Services. According to a statement made by Dr. Bright, he was removed for advocating for a more stringent study of an anti-malarial drug favored by the president. In that statement Bright also said “Science — not politics or cronyism — has to lead the way” and “Science, in service to the health and safety of the American people, must always trump politics.”

Trump’s supporters typically claim he is doing everything necessary to combat the coronavirus and, without his leadership, the pandemic would be much worse than it is. No matter how the pandemic turns out, Trump will spin the narrative in his favor and claim his actions, and his alone, minimized the severity of the pandemic.

But the extent to which the pandemic is minimized will depend on how many people prefer following the CDC recommendations for staying safe are to ignorance and individualism.

Trump supporters at the recent anti-lockdown rallies show they believe individual opinions founded on misinformation are preferable to following the CDC guidelines. That’s an action that Newhouse, the GOP pollster, concluded would put themselves, their loved ones, and others in danger.

Tom Waddell is president of the Maine Chapter of the Freedom from Religion Foundation. He welcomes comments at: president@ffrfmaine.org

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