
How A Pandemic Might Play Out Under Trump (2016) - Edmond
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/12/outbreaks-trump-disease-epidemic-ebola/511127/
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phenkdo
Very prescient and prophetic article

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soared
Interesting title, but not much beyond that. The author kind of just follows
typical Trump bashing “he’ll lie to the public, be bad at international
politics, try to start a trade war” etc. almost entirely not what’s happening,
not that the reality is significantly better.

Some interesting thoughts on Ebola and fake news though. It seems like there
hasn’t been (as far as I’ve seen) much fake news like there was with Ebola.
Instead we have people downplaying the severity, which might still be counted
as fake news.

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iron0013
Did we read the same article? The author discusses three main ways that trump
could fail in the face of a pandemic: 1) he could spread misinformation about
the disease and its prevention and treatment, 2) he could shut down travel
from affected countries, vocally stoking xenophobia as he does so, and 3) he
could fail to empower and financially support disease research and prevention
programs and government organizations. On those three points trump has
certainly performed as poorly as the author anticipated he might—-and in some
ways even worse than the author imagined.

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tathougies
This is ridiculous.

> he could shut down travel from affected countries

This is a good thing, and something that does in fact save lives. It is the
international equivalent of social distancing. It is good that we have a
president willing to take this step. This need not be political, and I would
hope any president, regardless of party, would be willing to do this
relatively easy thing to save american lives.

> 3) he could fail to empower and financially support disease research and
> prevention programs and government organizations

The FDA regulations that ensured that COVID tests weren't sent to market are
not unique to the trump administration.

With regards to misinformation... Trump announced in his speech that his
administration is encouraging people to engage in social distancing. He put
forth a quarantine order. They are considering issuing guidance to close
schools. He also used his executive authority (which of course does not
include funding) to provide funds to small business -- those most at risk of
collapse. These are all measures that work.

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jgwil2
You are conveniently ignoring the past month he spent downplaying its
seriousness.

