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Sirena Bergman
Mar 05, 2020
Another day, another bonkers Trump quote about coronavirus.
He's gone from saying it will all "work out well", to claiming the whole thing is a Hoax!!! made up by the Deep State! to bragging about how well he's dealt with the outbreak. (California just declared a state of emergency but sure, it's been wonderfully contained.)
He also seems unable to comprehend how vaccines work, and instead pivoted to moaning about not being able to touch his face in weeks ("I miss it!")... despite pictures of him touching his face literally three days ago.
His newest take is perhaps the greatest of them all though. Apparently, the whole thing is actually Obama's fault. Because of course it is.
The whole quote is so nonsensical that even Aaron Rupar, Twitter's celebrity Trump-explainer-in-chief, is confused:
This is a latest example of Trump parroting what he hears from far-right pundits, who are claiming that an Obama-era regulation that all lab tests must be approved by the FDA is what's causing the delay in coronavirus containment.
Mike Pence then went on to say that the administration had reversed this rule.
We're not scientists or doctors, but it seems that having medical procedures be properly tested before rolling them out is actually... a good thing? Then again, in cases of emergency, weakening the requirements may make perfect sense, and if that's the reason coronavirus continues to spread and Trump knew it – why didn't he do so sooner? So many questions.
It's worth noting that Obama dealt with the Ebola outbreak of 2014, which was limited to just 11 cases in the US, compared to the 159-and-counting coronavirus cases.
In related news, Intelligencer reports that several officials in charge of pandemic response have left or were fired since Trump took office, and "the global health community has been raising alarms for two years about the administration’s lack of preparedness".