National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director and coronavirus task force member Anthony Fauci couldn’t offer any assurance regarding an end to the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. during a series of interviews Sunday morning.
“Hunker down.” The cliché advice every time we have a hurricane. It’s a meme around here. But we know what it means and we can do it.
Fauci isn’t really raising more uncertainty; he’s being honest about what we know and what we don’t know, which is a lot more than the rest of the Trump administration has been.
Dr Fauci is the most competent talking head the Administration has sent out, but it just shows how insufficient the Trump Administration’s response has been. If you want to see a competent response from a government official, see this interview by the Singapore Foreign Minister:
No BS. Serious, but clear, communication on what is happening, how long and what steps are being taken. Not panic-inducing, not unbelievable happy talk.
Those of us who are of a certain age remember the movie, ‘The Agony and the Ecstasy’ with the Pope constantly harassing Michelangelo as to ‘when [he] would make an end’ to the work of painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling.
The famous MA answer was ‘When I’m Finished!’.
That’s how long the outbreak’s duration will be; it’ll be over when it’s finished.
At the least, this is a grownup speaking to us in language that tries neither to conceal or minimize. This event will have to run its course and how long that might be is anyone’s guess at this point.
The split screen difference between Fauci (first hired by Reagan ) and the bozos and grifters in the trump administration is stunning. They can’t fire him, just like trump can’t fire Powell - w/o tanking the markets and causing panic.
And Fauci will be the marker against which the failures of trump and co will be judged (and bossert)…
And oh, how about this…
Jan 27, 2020. When “no one could of known” in trump’s words.
This is very sobering indeed, but exactly what the American people need to hear, rather than the criminally stupid advice from Nunes, Cornyn, and Trump, among others.
Are we going to listen to a serious, dedicated, highly intelligent doctor and infectious disease specialist or a reality show clown? And I fear the answer to that fundamental question.
Pretty sure the repercussions would be brutal. Trump knows he’s underwater with this thing, and down so far deep the fish are nightmarishly weird. He’s better off to let Fauci talk.
When asked by MSNBC’s Chuck Todd about whether he prefers a 14-day national shutdown to slow down the outbreak
America doesn’t get it. The only thing that’s going to work is a 2 to 3 month italy/china type shutdown. Anything less is just “do something!™” gestures.
Every two weeks we delay starting the shutdown adds another zero to the eventual body count, and lengthens the needed duration of the shutdown.