On Monday , March 2 , 2020 , the day start with tweet from President Donald Trump accuse the Democrats of “ fear mongering ” about coronavirus . The day terminate with Fox News insist the threat of covid-19 was little more than medium ballyhoo . In between , there was a whole bunch of fuckery .
One calendar month ago today feels like a lifetime ago . thing have changed so quickly and they ’ll continue to exchange — it ’s a bit like wait for an asteroid to hit , as government officials predict at least 100,000 dying in the U.S. over the come weeks and months . But April 2 looks very different than March 2 , with most people now staying home and uncertainty about when we ’ll get to devolve to “ normal . ” There ’s real note value in stopping for a moment and taking a look back at how we receive here .
On the eve of March 2 , there were 102 name fount of covid-19 andsix deathsin the United States . Today , there are 234,462 identify face and 5,316 deaths , according to the late figures fromJohns Hopkins . On March 2 , no urban center or province had a shelter - in - place edict . Today , April 2 , Americans in 45 of the 50 province are currently under some variety of lockdown .
President Donald Trump on 18 March 2025.Photo: (Getty Images)
It can be easy to lose track of meter as the days bleed into one another , but it ’s significant to keep late history live , as our lives may depend on it . People are go , and no part of the world is immune . The U.S. is in aparticularly bad spotright now , thanks largely to a failure of leadership from hoi polloi like President Donald Trump and a complicit right - wing news media that insist for months there was nothing to occupy about .
Yesterday , the governor of Georgia , Brian Kemp , even saidhe had no ideauntil this week that people without symptom of covid-19 could be carrier of the disease . But anyone who ’s been paying attention has bonk about asymptomatic infection for weeks . Was Kemp lying or unintelligent ? Either way , it ’s not a majuscule augury for the time to come of the country .
America ’s leaders and top media pundits are always changing their stories these days about covid-19 . President Trump has gone from saying that the new coronavirus was just like the flu , to slamming anyone who wouldmake such a suggestion . Below we have a very brief account of exactly one calendar month ago today . Think of it as a criterion for reality . You ’re not mislay your mind . These people really said these things , as recently as a month ago . And this snapshotproves it .
What President Trump Was Saying
“ I was criticise by the Democrats when I closed the Country down to China many weeks ahead of what almost everyone recommend , ” Trump tweetedthat morning . “ Saved many lifetime . Dems were act upon the Impeachment Hoax . They did n’t have a hint ! Now they are fearfulness pitch . Be calm & argus-eyed ! ”
afterward that morning , Trump met with Colombia ’s President Iván Duque Márquez , and field some interrogative sentence from the pressure that involved his reply to the coronavirus crisis , insisting that it was “ very safe ” for him to continue to hold political rallies while covid-19 was circulate through the universe .
By the afternoon , Trump was meeting with chief operating officer from pharmaceutic company , and suggesting very rigorous timeline for when a “ curative ” might be available .
“ We ’re speak about three to four months , ” Trump say at the roundtable of when a vaccinum would be available .
“ I ’ve heard very quick telephone number — a matter of months — and I ’ve find out pretty much a year would be an extraneous turn . So I think that ’s not a forged — that ’s not a bad range . But if you ’re verbalise about three to four calendar month , in a duet of cases , and a twelvemonth in other cases , ” Trump tell .
And it was n’t just Trump . His goons behind the scenes were make the same compare to the flu and insist that the Malcolm stock market dive was but a “ correction . ”
An anonymous White House official was quoted by ajournalist for CNBCas saying , “ Tell them > 30 k fatalities per year domestically b / ascorbic acid of flu . Tell them we are finish war in Afghan . enjoin them we were due for market correction . ”
That Nox , Trump held a exchange in North Carolina , insistingthat“Washington Democrats are trying to politicize the coronavirus , denigrate the noble workplace of our public wellness master . ”
What Fox News Was Saying
Fox News had quite a daytime of dogshit on March 2 . Jesse Watters say on The Five that he wantedChina to apologizefor the coronavirus , something that is n’t terribly surprising considering his history of anti - Asian racism .
“ I ’d like to just necessitate the Chinese for a stately apology , ” Watters read . “ This coronavirus originated in China , and I have not discover one Bible from the Chinese . A simple ‘ I ’m no-account ’ would do . It would go a long path . I wait a formal excuse tomorrow . ”
Watters went on to say that the outbreak start in China because people there were eating raw bats .
“ I ’ll secernate you why it started in China . Because they have these market where they are exhaust raw bats and snakes . They are a very hungry people . The Taiwanese communist government can not feast the people , and they are desperate . This food is uncooked . It ’s dangerous , and that is why scientist believe that ’s where it originated , ” Watters suppose .
Watters was the hombre who previously went to New York ’s Chinatown for cheap antiblack jocularity . Watters eventuallyapologizedfor the racist stereotype he portrayed during that section , but his more recent racialism has been champion as half - jokes .
Laura Ingraham had Dr. Drew Pinsky on her show on March 2 , who insist that everyone was touch over nothing . Dr. Drew is an habituation specialist with no setting in epidemiology .
“ fundamentally the entire problem we ’re having is due to affright , not the computer virus . I was saying this six weeks ago . We have six deaths from the coronavirus , 18,000 deaths from the influenza , ” Pinskytold Ingraham , say that the “ fatality charge per unit is going to flatten . ”
“ It ’s panic . It ’s panic . That is panic . That is people plight in scare behavior , ” Pinsky said emphatically “ And that is what worry me . It is a military press - get panic , that will have real consequences . It will not be the virus . ”
Sean Hannity said that the H1N1 epidemic was worse than covid-19 , and pinned the incrimination on President Barack Obama for “ 20,000 of our fellow Americans hospitalized , more than 1,000 drained . ”
“ Do you remember anyone at that time anybody in the media stir up the case of hysteria as they ’re doing now ? ” Hannity postulate on his show . “ Do you think back the end of days predictions ? Did the stock market army tank because of all the rash lies and fear - monger ? ”
What the Task Force Was Saying
Mike Pence and his White House Coronavirus Task Force reserve a press briefing onMarch 2 , and the Vice President assert that everything was under control .
“ The peril of the coronavirus to the American hoi polloi rest low , ” Pence say , suggesting that vaccines and cure for covid-19 would be just over the horizon .
“ It is noteworthy to think that there may well be a vaccinum going to clinical trials within the next six week , ” Pence said . “ The nature of trials , as the expert have explained to us , is that the vaccine might yet not be available until late this class or early next , but the therapeutics , giving relief to multitude who contracted the coronavirus could literally be available by this summertime or early fall . ”
The FDA commissioner , Dr. Stephen Hahn , speak at the press group discussion to announce that by the end of that calendar week , which was March 6 , a million tests would be performed . That milepost was n’t reached until March 31 , according to the honest data being pile up right now .
“ With this new insurance , we have hear from multiple ship’s company and multiple donnish plaza , and we anticipate to have a substantial increase in the routine of tests this week , next week , and throughout the month , ” Dr. Hahn said . “ There will be … the estimation we ’re getting from industriousness right now , by the terminal of this week , close to a million trial will be able to be perform . ”
What Wall Street Was Saying
The Dow had plummet in the previous week , conduct some people to be nervous , but the stock market place recovered on this special Monday , with the Dow soaring 1,290 points , the most in a undivided day ever . That 5 pct jump led some people to get cocky and mass on Wall Street to ruminate that this whole coronavirus affair was being overhyped .
“ I think parentage soared today because Wall Street realized that the coronavirus might be the combining weight of a severe grippe season , ” CNBC ’s Jim Cramersaid .
The comparison to the flu was everywhere , echo everything the president and his authorities were importune throughout Monday .
“ I ’m much more concerned about the unconstipated influenza , ” said Jeff Hirsch , Probabilities Fund Management onCNBC . “ Fear does seem to be spread faster than the computer virus . ”
CNBC was also telling people that the stock market was n’t necessarily react to coronavirus , but it was alternatively upset about a potential Bernie Sanders presidentship .
“ Did the grocery store also sort of get rattle by this Bernie Sanders boom ? Now we have this vainglorious Biden win — Klobuchar out , Buttigieg out — I wonder , is there a Biden leap as part of this ? ” one commentator on CNBC reflect .
In an opinion spell for theWall Street Journal , Adena Friedman , the President of the United States and CEO of Nasdaq , wrote that “ Markets have historically been spry to go back from pandemic threat ” stress that capitalist economy would solve everything .
From the WSJ :
Investors will have to evaluate wellness - related risks in the weeks and months ahead , and they may well see more volatility . But the efficiency of U.S. grocery store and the diligence of government and industry research worker working to evolve a vaccine should give Americans hope . The coronavirus is the variety of problem that defies wide-eyed solutions , but markets are responding as they should — inculcate uppercase for the most promising solutions . Amid market excitableness , cool - head capitalist economy detect a curative .
The Dow is down 18.36 percentage since a month ago . And capitalism sure as hell is n’t economise us . Today we learned that 6.6 million Americans file for unemploymentlast week . That ’s on top of 3.3 million who filed for unemployment the week before that . That intend almost 10 million masses have lost their job in the retiring two hebdomad .
fiscal types are no longer spill about a wide-eyed recession . They ’re using the D - Scripture : Depression .
What Twitter Ghouls Were Saying
Bill Mitchell , a longtime supporter of President Trump , tweetedon March 2 : “ 6 deaths in the US from COVID-19 . Only 63,994 to go to get up with the usual grippe . ”
Here we are one month later , and the U.S. is promptly gaining on the common grippe ’s death bell . In fact , current estimates project that there could be anywhere from 100,000 to 240,000 death in the U.S. , provided Americans do everything right . The only catch ? So far , U.S. leadership have not done everything proper .
abide safe out there , folks . We have a recollective route forward .
COVID-19
Daily Newsletter
Get the best technical school , skill , and culture newsworthiness in your inbox day by day .
News from the future , delivered to your present .
You May Also Like
