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Covid-19 and Politics

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William Parcher

Show me the monkey!
William Parcher
Joined
Jul 26, 2005
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This is a general discussion thread for non-USA Politics as related to the Covid-19 Novel Coronavirus Pandemic.

So far most of the politics discussion is on Donald Trump in the USA Politics forum. But many other leaders and national staffs and policies could be discussed here.

The world is becoming infected at a rapid pace. Governments must act quickly and properly. Who is doing it right and who is doing it wrong?
 
Oh I know the answer to that one.

Doing it "right" (where right simply means controlling it as best as possible and nothing to do with whether it is right in terms of human rights etc.)

China
South Korea

And that is it.

Italy has acted too late and although are now taking more sensible steps in their state policy it doesn't seem that the policy is being enforced.
 
We've already got a health minister infected, another MP has gone into self quarantine as she had met her a few days ago.

BBC News - Coronavirus: Health minister Nadine Dorries tests positive
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51827356

I expect we will hear more given how much work and social interactions politicians tend to have.
 
We won't really know until summer.

At this point, any country that manages to slow the spread to a drip that doesn't overwhelm hospital capacity has to be considered to be doing it "right".
 
It is remarkable how well China has managed the outbreak. They were first and were dealing with the most amount of uncertainty of all the major outbreak countries, but seem to be handling it the best.

It's not reassuring that this may be due to their authoritarian levels of social control. It is worrying that in nations with a strong respect for individual liberty, compelling people to actually follow social distancing protocols may be very difficult.
 
Darat said:
Oh I know the answer to that one.

Doing it "right" (where right simply means controlling it as best as possible and nothing to do with whether it is right in terms of human rights etc.)

China
South Korea

And that is it.
Italy has acted too late and although are now taking more sensible steps in their state policy it doesn't seem that the policy is being enforced.
Click to expand...

China gets half marks. Remember that they also punished a lot of people who spoke out early on, and they also seem to have disappeared some journalists.

But in addition to South Korea, whose drive through tests should be emulated by the rest of the world (I wonder if this is something that their version of the CDC had ready to go in advance), there is also Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong and Macao:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...e-strategies-used-in-asia-to-slow-coronavirus
 
I'd say we won't know for sure untill next year when we can look at countries' health statistics for the year. My guess is that some countries will have an unexplained spike in deaths attributed to the flu...
 
Darat said:
We've already got a health minister infected, another MP has gone into self quarantine as she had met her a few days ago.

BBC News - Coronavirus: Health minister Nadine Dorries tests positive
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51827356

I expect we will hear more given how much work and social interactions politicians tend to have.
Click to expand...

Obviously Dorries hasn't been praying hard enough.
 
Mike Pence
@Mike_Pence
I'm pleased to report that at President @realDonaldTrump's request, all the insurance companies at the @WhiteHouse today agreed to waive all copays on coronavirus testing and extend coverage for coronavirus treatment in all of their benefit plans.
 
Trump Tweets

I am fully prepared to use the full power of the Federal Government to deal with our current challenge of the CoronaVirus!

I want to thank all of our Great Government officials on the CoronaVirus Task Force who are working around the clock, in response to the CoronaVirus. Continue to check http://CDC.gov for updates, and follow all recommendations that are available....

....We have the greatest healthcare system, experts, scientists and doctors anywhere in the world. Together, we will PREVAIL!

America is the Greatest Country in the world. We have the best scientists, doctors, nurses and health care professionals. They are amazing people who do phenomenal things every day....

....Together we are putting into policy a plan to prevent, detect, treat and create a vaccine against CoronaVirus to save lives in America and the world. America will get it done!

Someone needs to tell the Democrats in Congress that CoronaVirus doesn’t care what party you are in. We need to protect ALL Americans!
 
Last edited:
Captain_Swoop said:
Trump Tweets

I am fully prepared to use the full power of the Federal Government to deal with our current challenge of the CoronaVirus!

I want to thank all of our Great Government officials on the CoronaVirus Task Force who are working around the clock, in response to the CoronaVirus. Continue to check http://CDC.gov for updates, and follow all recommendations that are available....

....We have the greatest healthcare system, experts, scientists and doctors anywhere in the world. Together, we will PREVAIL!

America is the Greatest Country in the world. We have the best scientists, doctors, nurses and health care professionals. They are amazing people who do phenomenal things every day....

....Together we are putting into policy a plan to prevent, detect, treat and create a vaccine against CoronaVirus to save lives in America and the world. America will get it done!

Someone needs to tell the Democrats in Congress that CoronaVirus doesn’t care what party you are in. We need to protect ALL Americans!
Click to expand...


Pathetic.Just Pathetic. Glittering Generalaties and no specific,s and trying to politicize it.
 
Captain_Swoop said:
Mike Pence
@Mike_Pence
I'm pleased to report that at President @realDonaldTrump's request, all the insurance companies at the @WhiteHouse today agreed to waive all copays on coronavirus testing and extend coverage for coronavirus treatment in all of their benefit plans.
Click to expand...


I wonder if those insurance companies at the White House included the ones that regained the ability to sell garbage policies that don't actually cover anything significant once the ACA was gutted. We don't know which companies he's referring to.
 
Trump Tweets

I will be addressing the Nation this evening at 9:00 P.M. (Eastern) from the Oval Office.
 
White House won't decide on coronavirus 'emergency' status until Jared Kushner does own 'research'

The coronavirus task force now led by Vice President Mike Pence will be holding off on its own recommendation on whether to declare a national emergency. The reason? They’re waiting on Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner.

According to a person "familiar" with the situation, the task force "will not give Trump its final verdict until Jared Kushner, the president’s senior adviser and husband to his daughter Ivanka, finishes his research and comes to a conclusion himself," Politico reports.
Click to expand...

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/20...tus-until-Jared-Kushner-does-his-own-research
 
Trump Retweeted

Ryan Fournier
@RyanAFournier
77% of Americans are confident in the Trump Administration’s ability to handle the coronavirus.

Just 58% of Americans were confident in the Obama Administration’s ability to handle the Ebola virus.

Funny how the media doesn’t report this fact!
 
Captain_Swoop said:
Trump Retweeted

Ryan Fournier
@RyanAFournier
77% of Americans are confident in the Trump Administration’s ability to handle the coronavirus.

Just 58% of Americans were confident in the Obama Administration’s ability to handle the Ebola virus.

Funny how the media doesn’t report this fact!
Click to expand...


In other news people say comforting lies make them feel better than scary facts. News at 11.
 
SuburbanTurkey said:
It is remarkable how well China has managed the outbreak. They were first and were dealing with the most amount of uncertainty of all the major outbreak countries, but seem to be handling it the best.
Click to expand...

If you ignore they utterly botched the initial handling of the case that enabled the pandemic to occur anyway.

And believe their official numbers.

I have a great business opportunity if you do. It involves a bridge. PM me for details.

McHrozni
 
Captain_Swoop said:
Trump Retweeted

Ryan Fournier
@RyanAFournier
77% of Americans are confident in the Trump Administration’s ability to handle the coronavirus.

Just 58% of Americans were confident in the Obama Administration’s ability to handle the Ebola virus.

Funny how the media doesn’t report this fact!
Click to expand...

Yeah, because handling a disease "that's worse than the seasonal flu" is totally the same as handling a disease with a mortality rate of ~95%.

The people are mistaken, of course. Handling of Ebola was far simpler than handling the Coronavirus, but Trump doesn't know that.

McHrozni
 
Vice President Mike Pence said Thursday that there has been “irresponsible rhetoric” from people who have downplayed the seriousness of the U.S. coronavirus outbreak.

In an interview on the “TODAY” show, Savannah Guthrie asked what message Pence sends to people who aren’t afraid of the coronavirus and think it’s just politics and hype, quoting from President Donald Trump who said on Monday that the “fake news media and their partner, the Democrat Party, is doing everything to inflame the coronavirus situation.”

“There's been some irresponsible rhetoric, but the American people should know President Trump has no higher priority than the health and safety and well being of the people of this country,” Pence said in response but it was not clear who he was referring to.
Click to expand...

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/wh...toric-people-downplaying-coronavirus-n1156371
 
McHrozni said:
If you ignore they utterly botched the initial handling of the case that enabled the pandemic to occur anyway.

And believe their official numbers.

I have a great business opportunity if you do. It involves a bridge. PM me for details.

McHrozni
Click to expand...

China was the first country to have the virus. They had no idea what was going on other than just lots of people were getting sick. All that considered, they're doing pretty well.

The US has had weeks of notice to get ready and still are doing terrible with no real sign of improvement.
 
Trump Tweets

Sleepy Joe Biden was in charge of the H1N1 Swine Flu epidemic which killed thousands of people. The response was one of the worst on record. Our response is one of the best, with fast action of border closings & a 78% Approval Rating, the highest on record. His was lowest!
 
Trump Retweeted

Ronna McDaniel
@GOPChairwoman
Joe Biden has no ground to stand on politicizing coronavirus or attacking @realDonaldTrump

Quote Tweet

Trump War Room - Text EMPOWER to 88022
@TrumpWarRoom
Joe Biden will again politicize coronavirus today. But his record on pandemics is one of incompetence.
During the 2009 swine flu outbreak, Biden made reckless comments unsupported by science & the experts.
The Obama Admin had to clean up his mess & apologize for his ineptitude.
 
Trump Tweets

“The Obama White House had to immediately issue an apology for Joe Biden’s remarks, and any alarm that he might have caused, an alarm about a Swine Flu outbreak that took 6 months for President Obama to declare a National Emergency, and that killed 12,000 Americans.” @LouDobbs
 
Obama and Biden handled the H1N1 swine flu epidemic by declaring a national emergency when there were only 20 confirmed cases of it in the US.

Trump still has not declared a national emergency that would activate FEMA.
 
Trump Tweets

For decades the @CDCgov looked at, and studied, its testing system, but did nothing about it. It would always be inadequate and slow for a large scale pandemic, but a pandemic would never happen, they hoped. President Obama made changes that only complicated things further.....

.... Their response to H1N1 Swine Flu was a full scale disaster, with thousands dying, and nothing meaningful done to fix the testing problem, until now. The changes have been made and testing will soon happen on a very large scale basis. All Red Tape has been cut, ready to go
 
So long before Boris was PM or Covid-19 started turning lives upside down Boris Johnson revealed that one of his heros is Larry Vaughn the fictional town mayor in 'Jaws' who places business over lives leading to the unnecessary deaths of holiday makers.

https://www.politics.co.uk/news/2011/10/18/boris-reveals-his-political-hero-the-mayor-fr

Is it worth pointing out that the Mayor's decisions were made because he was in hock to shady, undisclosed, financial backers?
 
I'm not sure what political discussion there is to be had outside the US. Most countries haven’t bungled their response as badly as the US. The absence of an officially approved test at this point in the game represents a level of incompetence that borders on absurd. Randomly shutting down borders, and saying on public TV that this includes trade, is also stupid.

China can be accused of being far too heavy handed, but we don’t get a lot of posts from China so I wouldn’t expect a lot of political discussion about this.
 
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