Trump believes Covid-19 cases are surging because states are doing too much testing.
Cases are going up in the U.S. because we are testing far more than any other country, and ever expanding. With smaller testing we would show fewer cases!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 23, 2020
Why the US Has More Cases
How to more cases than anybody in the world pic.twitter.com/VA9bPJiQ6i
— Sarah Cooper (@sarahcpr) May 15, 2020
Trump’s remedy is to Halt Test Funding for Test Locations in Five States.
Out of a starting number of 41 test sites, 13 remain in operation across five states.
Five Impacted States
- Texas
- Illinois
- New Jersey
- Colorado
- Pennsylvania
Texas Hardest Hit
Texas will be particularly hard hit by the decision. The federal government gives much-needed testing kits and laboratory access to seven testing sites around Texas. But in the state, which is seeing new peaks in cases, people still face long lines for testing that continues to fail to meet overwhelming demand.
In Dallas County, Texas, the federal government will end support on June 30 for two testing sites it has been been supporting since March, Rocky Vaz, the director of emergency management for the city of Dallas, confirmed to TPM.
The city of Dallas asked the federal government for an extension beyond June 30, but was refused, Vaz said.
“They told us very clearly that they are not going to extend it,” Vaz said. “We are not expecting it to continue beyond June 30, but things change.”
Trump’s False Claim
TRUMP’S FALSE CLAIM
It is 100% false that more testing accounts for increases in the # of cases. Look at the example of NY – more testing is being done than ever before (dark blue) but the number of those testing positive (yellow) is now <1%. The virus is under control in NY! pic.twitter.com/9tPlp7yVyl
— MURRAY (@murray_nyc) June 23, 2020
Bianco on Trump’s False Claim
Texas cases are spiking (top panel) but so is the % of positive tests (middle panel) even as the number of test are rising fast (bottom panel).
Add to this Mexico is making new highs as well, not helping Texas. pic.twitter.com/DyIDbI2c17
— Jim Bianco (@biancoresearch) June 24, 2020
Nate Silver on Trump’s False Claim
Tuesdays do tend to be bad days, with reporting sometimes being “lumpy” as states clear weekend backlogs. So, there’s that. But bad trends overall, and there’s no particular reason to expect an abrupt reversal of them.
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) June 23, 2020
Testing Dispute
In his Tulsa rally that totally flopped, Trump said had asked the government to slow testing because higher numbers look bad.
The Wall Street Journal reports Fauci Says Health Officials Haven’t Been Told to Slow Coronavirus Testing but the detail denials are amusing.
- “When you do testing to that extent, you’re going to find more people, you’re going to find more cases. So, I said to my people, ‘slow the testing down, please,’” Mr. Trump said during the rally.
- Adm. Brett Giroir, who is coordinating coronavirus testing, said Tuesday that “neither the president nor anyone in the administration has suggested to me that they do less testing.”
- White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Monday cast the remark as a joke and said the president didn’t direct his staff to slow the rate of testing.
- Mr. Trump, asked Tuesday outside the White House whether he was kidding with the remark, said: “I don’t kid. Let me just tell you. Let me make it clear.”
Yesterday, I mentioned five possibilities. Here the are again.
Five Possibilities
- Trump issued the order but an aide failed to deliver it.
- Trump changes his mind so often that he has no idea what he said or did when.
- Trump thinks the whole Covid thing is a joke.
- Trump himself is lying.
- Fauci and Giroir are both lying to protect Trump
We can now rule out number two (for this case, not every case). Trump absolutely wants less testing.
The implication is the press secretary lied or has no idea at all what is going on.
Come Hell, High Water, or Covid the Campaign Must Go On
Trump desperately needs adoration and packed houses to feed his enormous ego.
Despite a record single-day increase in Coronavirus cases in Arizona, Trump went ahead with a planned speech.
I stand by what I said yesterday: Trump’s Campaign Visit to Arizona Church is Irresponsible at Best.
Mish
Such nonsense. Trump is quite correct in discouraging testing, the tests are at very best problematic inherently, test for damn near everything under the sun except the specifics of this virus (and when the specific of the virus is randomly hit one has no idea of severity), have a time lapse slowing any sort of contact tracking, encourage adverse concentrates already invested in the ill, but do keep us all aware of the imminent danger. Great risk/reward calculus. The poseurs in our healthcare offices are a match for that pathetic clown in DC (no, not him) w/all the medals & epaulets, the Surgeone Generale. An exception being the gal who’s head of public health for British Columbia. What’s her name. Oh, shucks, forgot, but she is the only competent official I’m aware of in all this debacle. Wow, something when I have to admit some Canuck knows best to handle a problem (but I admit the Canadians beat the crap out of us in every battle we engaged in w/them).
Better start looking for information on the D614G mutation of SARS-COV-2.
We need to test everybody, not just symtoms. Seperate out what is & not! Do as China does. Wear masks, no prob! Then we would have had 2 mil + cases less, & 100k less deaths. People in other countries are used to wearing masks, or, closing themselves off, due to diseases. We are not doing, like we say, ” do as the Roman’s do”! We need to do as the people that have been through, SARS, yellow fever, Ebola, Aids, etc. They are not as rebellious as Americans. They understand death. We are spoiled. Now, is the time to wake up.
Fat Donnie™ looks at Harris County and thinks: more colored people dead is good.
Just let the virus rip thru the country and let the chips fall where they may
I think this is a mistake on Trump’s part, but his administration should PUSH masks, distancing and getting back to work!!!
Sooner or later every corrupt ruler realizes the wisdom of Stalin’s timeless observation. No person, no problem!
Mr. Trump, asked Tuesday outside the White House whether he was kidding with the remark, said: “I don’t kid. Let me just tell you. Let me make it clear.”
Taken out of context. The rest of what Trump said is missing, which was what Trump was referring to in his response to the reporter.
considering trump’s first tweet at the top of this page, your point is what?
How else can you Make America Great Again?
First thing is to deny any proof to the contrary.
He is the epitome of evil. He will not be satisfied until he equals Hitler and has the blood of six million on his hands.
I think we may have gotten to the root of trump’s cognitive issues:
Ostriches also famously react the Trump way. So I suppose he’s not singularly stupid. There are others out there, at his level.
Object permanence does not apply to the media universe. That’s the universe Trump lives in. Many things do not exist in the media, many evaporate, and many turn out to be tricks and illusions.
Hmmm, I guess I should never have had that MRI that showed stage three cancer. I’d never have had cancer then and wouldn’t have had to go through chemo and radiation (successfully).
The incredible tragic absurdity of Trump knows no bounds. What’s worse are the Republican senators who do nothing to stop him and are silent as they are the only ones with the power to do so. How morally bankrupt do you have to be to facilitate the deaths of thousands and the destruction of our democracy just to maintain power.
Fine scientific thinking–lack of general testing will prevent the hospitalizations and deaths to come.
It is now apparent that containment through government testing and contact tracing is going to fail in the US for a second time, so there is no chance the increased testing will provide any good news for President Trump. Since the President apparently has no integrity, his approach appears to be double down on his bid to reduce testing. Any number of problems can be magically solved by cutting off the flow of data making up a good story. Heck, why not make it all up? Why not shout from the presidential podium, “All I care about is that my numbers look good.”
The longer this goes on with Biden being able to stay silent, the better it is for Biden. It will likely be bad for the US either way, but hey, at least we will all have good government numbers to look at.
Rex Tillerson was right–he’s a effin moron
It’s pretty surprising even for Donald that he feels compelled to do the exact opposite of what will help contain the virus’s spread the fastest – massive volumes of testing. The thing that can help his campaign the best is by getting the virus under control. The only explanations I can imagine are 1) extreme stupidity on his part, which is alluring but surely false, and 2) he knows containing it isn’t going to happen so his only shot at making this a positive for him is to “convince the world that this evil doesn’t exist.” Yes, laying it on thick there.
How do you define stupid? I think Trump is by nature someone who doesn’t hear what he doesn’t want to hear.
“It’s pretty surprising even for Donald that he feels compelled to do the exact opposite of what will help contain the virus’s spread the fastest – massive volumes of testing.”
How will testing contain the spread? Chris Cuomo had the virus and broke quarantine before the post symptom 72 hours were up. A significant percentage of people arrested in NYC and given a no bail release, went back to committing more crimes, to DeBlasio’s consternation. Some people will not follow the rules. Ferguson, who created the faulty virus projection chart, violated his own quarantine rules, to meet his married girl friend.
Hospitalizations don’t lie. They’re exploding everywhere (i.e. in the South) Covid positive test increases are happening.
It’s really pathetic TO EVEN TALK about cutting testing in a pandemic. Hope this get brought up in the debates. NO ONE should want less testing during a health emergency. Much less this one/type.
Two aides left the meeting, looked at each other and said, “he was joking, right?”
BWAHAHAHAHA, COVIDIOT IN CHIEF!