A Virulent "Hoax"

Trump calls coronavirus criticism Democrats' 'new hoax' and links it to immigration https://t.co/Q2JfVQtklA

— The Guardian (@guardian) February 29, 2020

"Hoax" seems to be Trump's magic word for dismissing any news he doesn't particularly care for. The story about Russian assistance to his 2016 campaign? He calls it a hoax--but it certainly isn't. The impeachment over his abuse of office in holding military aid over Ukraine's head to extort an investigation into Hunter Biden? He calls it a hoax, but the details of the extortion plot are quite clear when you eliminate his apologists' obfuscations. And now that the stock market, what Trump believes to be a key indicator of his strong economy (it isn't) is being affected by the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak, and cases here in the US are documented with some accounting of Trump Administration cock-ups, Trump and his pitiable lickspittles like Mulvaney and Pompeo are comfortable suggesting that this, too, verifiable as many details may be--is a hoax. The virus only exists to fuck with Trump's re-election plans. Pay it no mind.

Of course, if it was a "hoax", that wouldn't entirely explain why, consideration of the coronavirus enters into postponing a summit with Asian leaders. That much is real. But I guess, the hoax part is supposed to be the bit where a whistleblower was removed for pointing out that infectious disease protocols were not observed when dozens of Health and Human Services workers met with Wuhan evacuees, who were not tested, and these personnel afterwards just....went about their business. We aren't supposed to note that the Administration hobbled our pandemic readiness, or that crisis management after the fact is a poor substitute for preparedness when a crisis does hit.

We are now in the process of mitigating a poor situation, where fuckups like insisting on creating a US COVID-19 test and wasting valuable time, and not broadly administering tests to cases within a reasonable radius of infectious possibility, have hampered efforts to contain and quarantine effectively.

If you combine these known factors with the likelihood that the paranoid and withholding Trump administration is muzzling its healthcare experts at this crucial juncture, you have a recipe for some very poor outcomes. When it appears that the Administration is funneling all outbreak messaging through VP Pence's office, particularly through his spokesperson Katie Miller, recent espoused of recognized white supremacist Stephen Miller,  folks really seem to have explanations for how bottlenecked information is going to be--some people might not be considered worthy of lifesaving information because...lol, their lives. If Larry Kudlow and Steve Mnuchin are a part of the response--this is about protecting rich peoples' money, not every citizens' lives.

And so is the "hoax" messaging. Trump and associates seem more hung up on securing the bag of their class compatriots than the welfare of our people. That's sick. Spreading the "hoax" narrative isn't a healthy strategy for informing people of how to take care of themselves.

But here's what's up: there are about 85,000 cases, more or less, of COVID-19 infections worldwide and nearly 2900 deaths. The disease has spread from China to about 60 countries, including Iran, where the Friday prayers were cancelled, the parliament was shut down, and it is believed that the official death toll of 34 is understated, being closer to 210. While Trump was complaining about the "hoax", and still behaving as if there were only a couple dozen cases, a second case of community-spread COVID-19 is reported in California, there is a case in Oregon, two cases in Washington, and there are now 11 cases in Texas. The virus doesn't care about blue states and red states. It is now in the United States, and we the people need to know what our government is going to do about it.

This is not a hoax. This is a public health issue that needs to be taken seriously, and seen as a factor in both our economic and political future. You take Iran--it has already spread to government officials, and our sanctions against that nation could impede efforts to slow the spread. You take Saudi Arabia--would they halt travel to the holy places if the risk was not real? You take North Korea. We know China and South Korea have been hit, but North Korea does not have the materiel or personnel to adequately test for the disease. There is a claim one person suspected of having the disease was executed. It is obvious that the disease will spread in NK, and plans are being made to evacuate non-NK persons, but as for the citizenry? Is the hermit nation's idea of quarantine a hole in the ground? And the treatment is bullets?

Here's what I worry about--places like Idlib and Sana'a, where the populace has been exposed to exceptional stressors and the medical infrastructure has been decimated by acts of war. The toll could be extraordinary.

This is not a hoax, but a test. It's a test of what we can do to protect one another. It's a test of whether we can look to science for answers, or spin stories and react like primitive man confused and bewitched by thoughts of demons and witches. It is a reality, and the one we have to acknowledge to persevere.

When Trump calls this a hoax, it feels like a abandonment of the public trust. When his flunkies follow, it feels like the rot is deep.