The White House is not *trying* to control the pandemic. More than seven months into the pandemic, they still lack any kind of plan, any kind of cohesive strategy, and they are actively providing misinformation to vulnerable populations. They’ve mostly abdicated responsibility and left it up to cities, counties and states to figure it out on their own. Yesterday, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told CNN: “We are not going to control the pandemic. We are going to control the fact that we get vaccines, therapeutics and other mitigation areas.” So basically the Trump White House’s position is: we don’t care about infection rates or 220,000+ Americans dead because we’re solely focused on a vaccine and figuring out how to “treat” the virus rather than stopping the spread.
The thing is, I’m pretty sure that the Trump White House is also actively hellbent on spreading the virus too. Case in point: all of the unmasked, jam-packed Nazi rallies Trump has been throwing for himself. Turns out, there’s data to back up the idea that all of Trump’s Nazi rallies have been superspreader events:
As President Donald Trump jetted across the country holding campaign rallies during the past two months, he didn’t just defy state orders and federal health guidelines. He left a trail of coronavirus outbreaks in his wake. The president has participated in nearly three dozen rallies since mid-August, all but two at airport hangars. A USA TODAY analysis shows COVID-19 cases grew at a faster rate than before after at least five of those rallies in the following counties: Blue Earth, Minnesota; Lackawanna, Pennsylvania; Marathon, Wisconsin; Dauphin, Pennsylvania; and Beltrami, Minnesota.
Together, those counties saw 1,500 more new cases in the two weeks following Trump’s rallies than the two weeks before – 9,647 cases, up from 8,069.
Public health officials additionally have linked 16 cases, including two hospitalizations, with the rally in Beltrami County, Minnesota, and one case with the rally in Marathon County, Wisconsin. Outside of the counties identified by USA TODAY with a greater case increase after rallies, officials identified four cases linked to Trump rallies. Although there’s no way to determine definitively if cases originated at Trump’s rallies, public health experts say the gatherings fly in the face of all recommendations to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
Yeah, I mean, clearly there could be other factors and I think we should also acknowledge that if someone attends a Nazi rally without a mask and without social distancing, they’re probably making sh-tty decisions for their health and their lives overall and could easily be infected in other situations. But the Nazi rallies are the common denominator throughout, and it’s just… unsurprising. We’ve been saying for months now that these rallies are terrifying, and I simply don’t understand why Trump is trying to kill off his own supporters.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
“I simply don’t understand why Trump is trying to kill off his own supporters.“
This. I know logic is not a part of this regime but what are they doing?? Denying something exists doesn’t make it go away and your supporters might actually die. Clearly I’m thinking like a regular human being not a raging narcissist who will do whatever he wants regardless of the cost. Wow.
I may sound nuts, but here goes: he doesn’t care whether or not his supporters live because he’s not working on behalf of the United States. Russia? China? Who knows exactly, but it’s the only reason he would actively try to kill Americans
He doesn’t care how many of his supporters die- as long as there are enough left alive to continue to cheer for him, revel in his nazi rally energy. That is all he cares about.
He does not care one bit if any of them dies.
I was coming here to say the same thing.
Ugh. I just can’t. This weekend I was driving on the freeway and a bunch of MAGATs kept slowing down traffic. It was utterly ridiculous! They were going 20mph and everyone around them were pissed!! Bunch of a**holes! It went for miles, I almost hit one who was just stopped for no reason in the off ramp! I got off as soon as I could.
These people are disgusting. I CANNOT wait for the election to be OVER!!
I wonder what all of them will do when Trump isn’t President anymore come January 20th. God, I don’t even want to think about it.
I think once the court cases go forward and everything is exposed, they’ll try to slither back into the grass, like Nazis. Oh we didn’t know, how could we have known? They’ll deny it.
Keep track of the Trump signs and remember, otherwise they’ll go underground. The few that stay out and loud will do something to shoot themselves in the foot at some point, just by the nature of the people aligned with him. Only the best people.
I had an old acquaintance/friend who went down the Qanon route & they’re into the idea of herd immunity (ie, let the weak die). He won’t say it, but he is fine with a certain percentage of people dying with the thought that it would help the economy better than shutting down & saving lives. I don’t think Trump did the math that the most at risk of dying is his core base, but he’s into winning & keeping stocks high, at any cost.
The added bonus for neo-conservatives is that if the olds and the poor die, there is is less to pay out on social security, medicare/medicaid, food stamps etc. Win/win, until some genius figures out that that’s the current Republican voter base.
As a non-American, I hope that this election is one giant flame, and that the phoenix that emerges from the ashes is moderation, tolerance, a recognition that collective rather than individual liberties are actually more liberating, healthcare for all, an expanded supreme court, term limits for elected and appointed officials, the end of the electoral college and three political parties. Not a big wish list!
I have that hope as well. There is a collective awaking from this bleak era & I have faith that the next chapter in American politics will produce real change.
Those weirdos always think that they are not among the “weak.” Then they get sick or someone close to them does and they care greatly after that. It’s an incredibly selfish and umempathetic world view. Also a stupid one. You know what’s bad for the economy? If a big portion of the workforce dies off and the healthcare system collapses dummies.
These people claim they know what’s best for the economy, but don’t even understand how it works. Most importantly, they don’t care about anything unless it directly effects them or they think it does.
LOL, your workforce doesn’t even need to die off, though we legitimately could not afford 1-2 million people gone within one year. All they need to do is wind up hospitalized or sick enough to stay home. COVID cases overwhelming hospitals means that other patients can’t get treated, leading to a cascade effect of increasing deaths outside of the disease itself, not to mention the likelihood of coinfections due to HAIs and influenza. That also leaves staff overworked and at higher risk of severe infection. Even people healthy enough just to stay home make up a percentage that will be ill enough to be lost productivity and sick leave. And as for herd immunity – we don’t even have it established as possible! Who knows if the antibody response is permanent or highly effective in the long run. We’ve already seen reinfection cases as it is.
For perspective, last time I caught the flu, I was out for a week. A. WEEK. I don’t have comorbidities and was only 33 at the time, and I’d been vaccinated; I was just unlucky enough to get a strain that was rarer and not dosed in the vaccine. I had such severe vertigo my mother had to help me walk from the car to the clinic to get tested. COVID is worse than the flu for people who get a high viral load AND has a higher rate of communicative spread. Somebody walks into your office, they can easily take out 2-3 other coworkers who may wind up having to take sick, and that knocks out productivity significantly.
God forbid the Republican Party under Donald Trump TRICK people into thinking this virus is beyond control. That such a successful administration filled with the most beautiful minds has not been able to control this uncontrollable thing, no matter how much brainpower they threw at it. It is clear that the strategy is not to admit defeat, per se, but to pretend that they are ahead of the curve of understanding how to deal with it. That it is not about stopping it in its tracks, but how to deal with it once everyone gets it. It’s just another boardroom meeting result, where the behind the scenes people (without Trump’s involvement) decided to SPIN the mofo out of this pickle they got themselves in. And yet, the solution is soooooo simple. But it needs collective action, teamwork not division. And we know that is not how Republicans play.
And because they think it always works, deflection, changing the subject, appealing to their base, this is what we get. A bunch of clueless helpless dolts not even running after the horses after the barn door was left open. Nope, they’re shooting them dead in the fields, and planning on buying more horses instead…
Do they have stock in these companies or something? Prevention is way cheaper than treatment!
This^ In terms of public health, primary prevention is far better than tertiary, both for the health of a population and overall economic costs.
These people are literally willing to die fornTrump. My stepmom is a nurse and a friend of hers who is an ICU nurse actually had a patient right in front of her LIE to the Dept of Health that he felt fine – he was literally about to be intubated. He flat out said he didn’t want his case to hurt Trump.
Spoiler alert: he’s still on a vent. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
I mean if there’s ever been better evidence that this is a straight up cult, I haven’t seen it. The more I learn about keith raniere and nxivm, the more I realize how cult leader like trump is and how his followers are brainwashed. Like keith, trump only cares about getting these people to meet his needs. He could not care less what happens to them. As long as they’re alive to vote for him on November 3rd, he doesn’t care if they’re no longer around November 4th.
The whole mask issue will work for 45’s base even if/when he loses. They will clap back when Biden implements a mask requirement crying lack of freedom.
The Central Wisconsin hospital system had something like 25 icu beds set aside at the beginning of the pandemic, now they’re up to 90 something with only a couple beds free. My home city with its hospital had three beds for the icu. THREE! for an area of 35,000 people in the surrounding rural community. The state fair grounds have been turned into a field hospital. So many people still digging in their heels with “But mah Freeedoms!!!” Fuck you and tell my hospital working family members you’re sorry when you get to the ER.
I’ve also heard the fact that twice as many blacks were dying as whites, was rationale enough to make the dying acceptable. This reminds me of the AIDS crisis where people did not act to find a cure bc they were happy gays were dying as their punishment for being gay and “defying” God’s rule. Barbarism has always flourished, yet we’re always surprised when it re-surfaces.
Nail. Meet head.
Bang on.
My new GOP conspiracy theory is that they are holding all these rallies in swing states close to the election so that covid cases spike in those areas and democratic voters are (reasonably) too scared to go vote in person. If mail-in ballots take too long to count and any state or candidate has to take an issue to court, there is so much legal and political maneuvering that can be done.
I know it’s more likely that they are just doing what every politician does – campaigning in areas that are not already decided in your favor – but it’s not like trump rallies convert any undecided voters. He’s not out there talking to some factory workers to hear their concerns and sway them over with his empathy and policy promises. He’s just riling up his supporters and showing them he’s still alive with the added bonus of spreading deadly virus in that community and encouraging voter suppression tactics.
Also, if their own supporters vote on Election Day and get COVID and die a week or more later, who cares? They voted for him. Their use is over. They are expendable to fall into graves Trump dug for them. Great Country. Not. I think we can use the term “fatally stupid” or “Darwin Awards” here.