Reportedly, Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney has
refused to take responsibility for the Trump administration's response to Coronavirus
spread and crafted a new conspiracy theory that the news coverage on the novel virus
is merely a media-driven plot to take down Donald Trump.
"They think this will bring down the president,"
Mulvaney said at the Conservative Political Action Conference,
regarding news reporting on the spread. The virus and its spread have caused
panic among investors, who fear the disease could have lasting impacts on the
economy.
On Thursday (27th February 2020), the Dow Jones Industrial
Average fell nearly 1,200 points, the worst one-day drop in history.
On Friday, the index fell by another 1,190 points, dropping 4.4%. As a consequence,
equities are likely to witness their worst week since the 2008 financial
crisis, according to the Wall Street Journal.
When asked how the administration could calm the markets,
Mulvaney again blamed the media — the go-to strategy Trump and his aides employ
when faced with criticism over their policies. "What I might do to calm
the markets is turn the television off for 24 hours," Mulvaney said.
"This is not Ebola. It's not SARS."
While Trump and his appointed officials are trying to calm
fears, experts within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are warning of
community spread of virus, saying cities should plan to implement "social
distancing measures," including closing schools and asking businesses to
have employees work from home.
Because Trump fears the impact the virus may have on his
reelection hopes, he's trying to control the amount of information that gets to
the public on the disease, putting Mike Pence solely in charge of the
communications response. Pence, has a checkered record on public health
crises, overseeing the worst outbreak of HIV in Indiana when he served as state
governor.
And in even worse news for the administration, a whistle blower
came forward to say that public health workers in the federal government
are not well trained or properly equipped to deal with the disease, saying
workers were "improperly deployed" to military bases where people
infected with the disease are being quarantined.
There is a talk also that Congress and the White House need
to rise above their usual partisan sniping and name-calling and show a little
unified leadership as the United States readies itself for the spread of the
new virus.
It seems hard, given the level of bitter polarization in
Washington, but Democrats and Republicans owe it to the American people to shun
their differences. That’s what rational, responsible governments do in cases of
war, natural disaster and, yes, a mass outbreak of infectious disease.
It is being said that the outbreak in the United States seems
all but inevitable. Transmission without a known connection to someone who is
sick or traveled to a place where people are sick marks a concerning turning
point in any disease outbreak.
One thing that needs to happen now is the accelerated production
of millions of masks needed to protect healthcare providers; another is to get
working testing kits out to the states to confirm suspected cases.
President Trump made the same point about working together
in a news conference Wednesday night. He tried to assure the country that
he and his team had things completely under control. To make that point he
waved a printout that he said was a list from the Johns Hopkins Hospital in
Baltimore ranking the U.S. as the most prepared country to handle an epidemic.
“We should be working together,” he said when asked about
criticism by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the partisan debate about the right
amount of federal funds needed to properly prepare. “Pelosi shouldn’t be making
statements like that because it’s so bad for the country,” he said.
The president then undercut his own point by trash-talking
Pelosi, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-New York) and all of the Democratic candidates on
whom he inexplicably placed blame for the recent stock market drops.
