How ridiculous was the Trump administration?

Another former White House official is blowing the whistle.

The White House announced lately that the death toll of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States had reached 1 million, which evolved into a grim milestone. The US government cannot absolve itself from the blame for the pandemic that broke out and spread rapidly across the United States in just two years. An increasing number of insiders have begun to reflect on and criticize its bizarre handling of the pandemic in its early days.

The White House announced lately that the death toll of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States had reached 1 million, which evolved into a grim milestone. The US government cannot absolve itself from the blame for the pandemic that broke out and spread rapidly across the United States in just two years. An increasing number of insiders have begun to reflect on and criticize its bizarre handling of the pandemic in its early days.

In her book, Deborah, who points her finger at the Trump administration, recounts how the administration played down the harm, delayed data collection, failed to recognize the importance of asymptomatic transmission, and acted anti-intellectually to spread misinformation facing the pandemic.

Trump watches TV while listening to the briefing

Trump himself compared it to the common flu on Twitter, facing the pandemic. In Deborah's view, Trump's administration and himself were unprepared for the pandemic and even shrugged off predictions of possible damage of the pandemic.

Birx describes her first meeting with Trump, on March 2, 2020, when she tried to explain to him that the virus “is not the flu”. Trump listened for a minute, briefly challenged her, then literally changed the channel on one of the TV screens he had simultaneously been watching. 

Trump and Deborah Birx, April 22, 2020. AP  

After joining the panel in March 2020, Deborah found that the United States was "dangerously behind the eight ball" on virus data collection.

In 2020, she wrote, data in some states was often being sent by fax and then passed along to the CDC.

Trump thundered: The virus is under control

In the early days of the pandemic, the Trump administration focused on patients with flu symptoms. The ignorance of asymptomatic infected people led to the hidden spread of the virus and the rapid spread of the epidemic.

Birx wrote that even before she signed on to the White House team, she suspected that asymptomatic spread was contributing to the quick rise in COVID-19, although the evidence was slim.

That view is becoming clear as New York City has seen a surge in cases. 

Deborah Birx and Trump,  AP  

In August 2020, after Deborah told CNN that the virus was "extraordinarily widespread," Trump called her and thundered: "It's under control."

After Birx told CNN in August 2020 that the virus was "extraordinarily widespread," Birx wrote, Trump called her and demanded the name of the person who booked the interview, saying "That's it! Do you understand me? Never again! The virus is under control."

Trump: There are more cases because there are more tests

At the time, the United States, which lacked precise data on COVID-19 and did not recognize the stealthily spreading of the virus among asymptomatic patients, urgently needed large-scale testing.

Deborah saw the worst caused by the Trump administration's sluggish efficiency.

Writing about a meeting with American COVID-19 testing manufacturers early in her tenure, Birx said that learning that the White House had dragged its feet on meeting with manufacturers, on top of limited tests and slow test processing, represented a "worst-case scenario."

Later on, Trump's rhetoric on testing shifted — he suggested that the United States had high case numbers because it tested so many people. 

Trump and Deborah Birx ,  Getty Images

“Try disinfectant injections”

Trump has also made many anti-intellectual claims.

At a White House press conference on April 23, 2020, DHS officials said that Novel Coronavirus survival rates are significantly lower in high-light, high-temperature conditions;   Some disinfectant components have a noticeable effect on killing Novel Coronavirus.

Trump promptly suggested some "astonishing" treatments, including "ultraviolet radiation" and "disinfectant injections " to kill the virus.

"So supposing we hit the body with a tremendous — whether it's ultraviolet or just a very powerful light — and I think you said that hasn't been checked. And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way, and I think you said you're going to test that, too."

"I see the disinfectant that knocks it out in a minute, one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning? " Trump continued.

When Trump asked if we could use high temperature and high lights to kill the virus, Deborah, who was also in the room, responded: "It's not as a treatment..."  

Deborah's face as Trump talked about his treatment advice

Recalling the day, Deborah said she wanted to disappear.

Birx froze, hands clenched on her lap. “I looked down at my feet and wished for two things: something to kick and for the floor to open up and swallow me whole.”

Since the pandemic began, the number of people infected with COVID-19 in the United States has repeatedly exceeded worst-case predictions.

On May 21, Popular Science reported that the death toll of COVID-19 in the United States in a single day is now around 300, which is three times the daily death toll from car accidents in the United States.