The following timeline is from Andy Slavitt’s Preventable. It shows when there was a window of opportunity to prevent the COVID-19 virus from establishing itself in the United States, and when that window closed.
Nov. 17, 2019. First COVID-19 case in Wuhan, China.
U.S. total cases: 0.
U.S. total deaths: 0.
U.S. daily cases: 0.
Jan. 20, 2020. First COVID-19 case in the United States
U.S. total cases: 1
U.S. total deaths: 0.
U.S. daily cases: 1.
Jan. 29, 2020. White House task force created.
U.S. total cases: 6.
U.S. total deaths: 0.
U.S. daily cases: 1.
Jan. 31, 2020. First COVID-19 case in Italy.
U.S. total cases: 9.
U.S. total deaths: 0.
U.S. daily cases: 1.
Feb. 26, 2020. First COVID-19 death in the United States
U.S. total cases: 16.
U.S. total deaths: 1.
U.S. daily cases: 1.
March 3, 2020. 100th U.S. case.
U.S. total cases: 100.
U.S. total deaths: 14.
U.S. daily cases: 50.
March 9, 2020. 1,000th U.S. case.
U.S. total cases: 1,000.
U.S. total deaths: 35.
U.S. daily cases: 292.
March 17, 2020. 10,000th U.S. case
U.S. total cases: 10,000.
U.S. total deaths: 123.
U.S. daily cases: 2,570.
March 20, 2020. 100th COVID-19 death in South Korea.
U.S. total cases: 24,100.
U.S. total deaths: 273.
U.S. daily cases: 6,090.
Tags: Andy Slavitt, Coronavirus Pandemic, COVID-19, Preventable
Phil Ebersole's Blog 
July 21, 2021 at 7:42 am |
“You know, a lot of people think that goes away in April with the heat — as the heat comes in. Typically, that will go away in April.”
Donald R. Trump, February 10, 2020
“China is working very, very hard. I have spoken to President Xi, and they’re working very hard. And if you know anything about him, I think he’ll be in pretty good shape. They’re — they’ve had a rough patch, and I think right now they have it — it looks like they’re getting it under control more and more. They’re getting it more and more under control. So I think that’s a problem that’s going to go away”
Donald R. Trump, February 25, 2020
“when you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that’s a pretty good job we’ve done.”
Donald R. Trump, February 26, 2020
“It’s going to disappear. One day — it’s like a miracle — it will disappear. And from our shores, we — you know, it could get worse before it gets better. It could maybe go away. We’ll see what happens. Nobody really knows.”
Donald R. Trump, February 27,2020
“I don’t think people are panicking. I said last night — we did an interview on Fox last night, a town hall. I think it was very good. And I said, ‘Calm. You have to be calm.’ It’ll go away”
Donald R. Trump, March 6, 2020
Etc.
Etc.
Etc.
This is a good example of magical thinking which is the predominant cognitive style of children up until about age 7 when they shift from the preoperational stage of cognitive thought to the concrete operational stage and then at age twelve to the formal operational stage.
Having a chief executive with the authority to lead a country of 331 million people with primitive cognitive level of functioning is bound to have negative consequences in a pandemic. To date, in the US there have been over 35 million cases of Covid-19 and over 600,000 deaths.
Michael Lewis, in his book, The Fifth Risk, wrote that one of the biggest risks to the United States and the world is executive incompetence. Unfortunately, we have seen his prophecy fulfilled in the US from 2016-2020.
The ultimate responsibility for these harmful consequences to the people of the United States falls to those who elected him to lead them. Being a member of a democracy with the ability to choose one’s leaders has grave responsibilities which we have seen play out in most dramatic life and death ways over the last two years.
One of the questions generated from this observation might be whether the democratic processes in place to choose leaders in the U.S. serves us well? The current system seems flawed given the outcomes it has produced and leads to a desire to improve it.
How?
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