https://doggett.house.gov/media/blog-post/timeline-trumps-co...

Click the link and imagine me asking "Was that because the US is so big? Or because the US has such a large population?" about every point. Including, but not limited to, these:

> May 2018 - The Trump Administration disbands the White House pandemic response team.

> July 2019 The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) epidemiologist embedded in China’s disease control agency left the post, and the Trump Administration eliminated the role.

> June 30-July 6, 2020 The U.S. has just 4% of the global population, ... and the second-highest death rate per capita.

> May 29, 2020 “We will be today terminating our relationship with the World Health Organization”

And these, imagine me asking why Trump is more concerned about the stock market, his image, finding people to blame:

> Feb. 24, 2020 “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA… the Stock Market starting to look very good to me!”

> March 20, 2020 [Response to reporter’s question: "What do you say to Americans who are watching you right now who are scared?"] “I say that you're a terrible reporter, that's what I say. I think it's a very nasty question"

> July 28, 2020 "He [Fauci]'s got this high approval rating. So why don't I have a high approval rating with respect -- and the administration -- with respect to the virus?"

> Aug 19, 2020 "We’ve got all the damn cases...I want to do what Mexico does. They don’t give you a test till you get to the emergency room and you’re vomiting,”

> Sept. 10, 2020 "This is nobody's fault but China.”

and:

> May 6, 2020 The Brookings Institution reports that children were “experiencing food insecurity to an extent unprecedented in modern times” and “40.9 percent of mothers with children ages 12 and under reported household food insecurity since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.” Republicans block proposals to expand food stamps.

Thanks Obama.

Remember when New York's morgues were overloaded[1] with 800 people dying there every day[1] and they were burying people in mass graves on Hart Island[2]? That was April 2020 when medical advisors were saying people should wear masks and Trump was announcing to the world that he was feeling good and "I think wearing a face mask as I greet presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens, I don’t know, somehow I don’t see it for myself. I just don’t." and then Trump's fanbase picked them up as "face-panties" for "wimps"? How many lives could he have saved if he just encouraged people to take it seriously and calmly and modelled that behaviour himself?

So let's start with an immediately better response: after being warned it is serious and spreads easily, stop telling the public to ignore it because it will miraculously go away over and over and over again. Tell people to distance, ventilate rooms, as the evidence becomes available

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/30/nyregion/coronavirus-nyc-...

[2] https://time.com/5913151/hart-island-covid/

> edit: "look what UK and denmark did!" is so completely irrelevant that it's ... not "good" faith to suggest it.

I didn't suggest it; the UK's handling of it was not good: https://www.ft.com/content/bea342f8-9289-41cb-83ae-1e97c47e3...