Week 177 - National Stockpile - a podcast by Amy Siskind

This week coronavirus cases and deaths in the  U.S. spiked, adding close to 200,000 reported cases, and by midweek,  more than a thousand Americans were dying each day. Trump pivoted from  denying the crisis and wanting to reopen the country, to suddenly  acknowledging the gravity and claiming if 100,000 to 200,000 Americans  die, he will have done a “very good job” — a remarkable claim! Only two  times in American history, the Civil War and World War II, did more  Americans die.

Trump continued to blame governors, the media,  and this week accused hospital workers in New York City — as that city  became the global epicenter of the pandemic — of stealing masks and  selling them off for a profit. Trump made this accusation three times.  As New York prepared for the apex of cases, Trump denied Gov. Andrew  Cuomo’s request for more ventilators, and when asked by reporters Friday  if New York had enough for the expected weekend surge, responded,  “we’ll see.”

This week Jared Kushner was introduced at a task  force briefing as leading much of the federal government response,  despite his background as a real estate developer with no public health  and scarce government experience. Kushner parroted Trump, saying the  states are on their own and the national stockpile is not for them, and  then when questioned by reporters on his misstatement on the stockpile,  changed the associated language on the government’s website overnight.  Reporting continued to reveal how poorly Trump has handled the pandemic  response, including spending the first 70 days denying the problem  existed and taking almost no action.

This was perhaps the most frightening time since  Trump took office, as he appeared unmoved by the growing number of  American deaths, and unwilling and unable to take any sort of action to  improve matters, as the pandemic continued to ravage the U.S. By week’s  end, the U.S. accounted for 1 in 4 worldwide cases, and 1 in 8 deaths.

Throughout the week, Trump tried throwing shiny  coins to change the narrative: from launching a military  counternarcotics operation, to bragging about a phone call with Saudi  Crown Prince MBS on oil prices, to a blistering letter sent to Senate  Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, to firing Intelligence Committee  Inspector General Michael Atkinson late Friday night. But none of these  acts distracted from the slew of American people dying.

Read the full list here: https://theweeklylist.org/weekly-list/week-177/

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