April 26, 2020
A common criticism among the mainstream media and Democratic lawmakers is that President Trump did not act authoritatively, and early enough to prevent the Coronavirus from spreading in our country.
The truth is ten days after the first case of the virus in the US, Trump appointed a Coronavirus task force, declared a public health emergency and, barred all foreign nationals traveling from China entry into the United States. Rather than give Trump credit for taking this early action the left’s rebuttal is that 40,000 travelers from China were allowed into the country after the ban.
What they neglect to add is that those 40,000 were Americans. It’s unimaginable what the media would have reported if Trump disallowed Americans to come home. Further, Trump implemented a mandatory two- week quarantine for those Americans entering the US from China. This was the first compulsory quarantine in more than 50 years. At the time many Democrats were critical of the travel restrictions, including House speaker Nancy Pelosi, and the presumptive Democratic nominee for president- Joe Biden. However, it’s now an almost unanimous consensus that the travel restrictions slowed the spread of the disease, saving thousands of lives.
President Trump’s critics have claimed that he squandered the time bought with the travel ban. Many Democratic lawmakers and those in the media have asserted that the President did not listen to the health professionals advising him.
Did Trump Ignore His Medical Advisors?
Interestingly one person who doesn’t believe that Trump failed to listen to the medical professionals is the universally respected infectious disease expert and director of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci. Less than two weeks ago, during a White House Coronavirus task force briefing, Dr. Fauci vehemently defended the president’s actions in response to the virus. Fauci stated that the president’s response to every mitigation and travel restriction recommended by him or fellow task force members, including Dr. Deborah Birx, was
Further, while many medical experts expressed concern about the virus in February, it doesn’t appear that those advising the president anticipated that it would develop into a serious threat for our nation. Even one of the most prominent of Trump’s medical advisers, Dr. Fauci did not foresee the dangers of the virus in February, the supposed period which Trump squandered.
In an interview with USA TODAY’s Editorial Board on February 17, Dr. Fauci stated that “the danger of getting coronavirus now is just minusculely low”. Further, when asked if a lockdown in the U.S. was a possibility he stated “No, not a chance. It would never happen”. His advice to protect again both Coronavirus and the Flu was to “Wash your hands..stay away from crowded places where people are coughing and sneezing…”
Again on February 29, in an interview on NBC’s Today Show Dr. Fauci said that there was “no need to change anything you’re doing. The risk is still low.”
Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases in a press briefing on February 28, also said that “ the immediate risk to the general American public remains low, and the U.S. government is doing everything we can to keep it low.”
New York
Although he has received almost unanimous plaudits from the media, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo the state at the epicenter of the outbreak, downplayed the severity of the virus in early March, and made numerous missteps.
On March 2, appearing at a news conference with the Mayor of NYC Bill de Blasio, Cuomo stated,
“Excuse our arrogance as New Yorkers…we think we have the best health care system on the planet right here in New York. So, when you’re saying, what happened in other countries versus what happened here, we don’t even think it’s going to be as bad as it was in other countries.”
The day before on March 1 New York saw it first confirmed case- a woman who had recently traveled to Iran. Cuomo promised that NY health investigators would track down every passenger on the woman’s flight home. No one ever did.
The next day there was another confirmed diagnosis in NY. Except, this case was more alarming because it suggested community spread. This occurred on the same day de Blasio tweeted that New Yorkers should ignore the warnings about the virus and go out to restaurants and movies. Again on March 5, de Blasio urged the public not to worry.
“we’ll tell you the second we think you should change your behavior.”
Mayor de Blasio didn’t shut down the schools in NYC until March 15, when the city already had 329 cases. By contrast, San Francisco’s schools were ordered closed three days earlier with only 18 confirmed coronavirus cases.
Further, it wasn’t until March 22 when Cuomo issued a stay-at-home order for all New Yorkers. This was 6 days after the Trump administration issued social-distancing guidelines. By this point, New York had almost 17,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, which amounted to almost 65% of all Coronavirus cases nation-wide.
Even the left-leaning liberal New York Times wrote:
“the initial efforts by New York officials to stem the outbreak were hampered by their own confused guidance, unheeded warnings, delayed decisions, and political infighting.”
According to the former head of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Thomas Friedman if the state and city had adopted stringent social distancing measures a week or two earlier, the outbreak might have been reduced by 50-80%.
New York has almost 1/3 of all Coronavirus cases in the US. It was Governor Cuomo who had the authority to decide when to mandate social- distancing, and the closing of businesses in the state, not President Trump. Does anyone believe that if Governor Cuomo was a Trump-supporting Republican he would be receiving praise?
Should Trump Have Mandated a Nation-wide Shut Down?
Ironically, Democrats and the mainstream media, who have previously accused President Trump of being a fascist criticized him for not acting more authoritarian and implementing nation-wide stay-at-home restrictions.
The Constitution grants the president many powers. However, states maintain a great deal of sovereignty. In our federalist system, states and the federal government have both exclusive and concurrent powers. Even in a national emergency, the President does not have the constitutional authority to demand a national shutdown, nor should he or she.
Individual governors and local governments are in a better position to decide what is best for their state because they have far more granular information about their state than the federal government. Even if President Trump had the power, an undifferentiated federal mandate across the nation would have been nonsensical. The variance in Coronavirus cases among the states is vast. To date, New York has 293,991 diagnoses, while Alaska has 341.
Recently some governors have come under fire for starting to re-open non-essential businesses. The purpose of the shutdown was to ensure that hospitals would not be overwhelmed. This objective has clearly been met in many states.
While Trump has been critical of some of the state re-openings he has rightfully not interfered, because contrary to his detractors he does not wish to be an authoritarian dictator.
