Official live update of spread of COVID19

[Rev. Rye]

All this talk about how the right seems to have become more and more openly pro-virus, plus the mention of the Boeing 737 MAX (I wrote a paper in Business Ethics about the initial MCAS system fiasco that touches on many of the same themes of this oncoming spiel), I'm seriously reminded of this Big Joel video:





As a Breadtuber, he's kinda hit and miss, and sometimes, he hits the mark and misses in the same video. In this case, he hits it by pointing out that disputing the reasons Trump gave may be counterproductive, but he misses by failing to notice the crucial problem in Trump's stated reasoning: even if that was the reason he did what he did and that was actually what was in his heart when he lied to the American people, that there was no possible way it could have worked in the long term. The virus has no drives save that of perpetuating itself at the expense of the host. That's why it's a virus, and nothing short of an epidemeological Miracle of the House of Brandenburg would have kept it from reaching US soil and wreaking havoc. He knew this, he knew millions of Americans would be effected, and he chose to do nothing because he thought that would stave off panic, when, in reality, staving off a panic would involve acknowledging the problem, doing everything in his power to neutralise the threat, and making sure the public knows you've got them covered. That's what a leader who was actually strong and not merely a craven narcissist would do. Hell, that’s what Obama did when Ebola broke out in 2014. And when the time came, because Trump’s hatred for Obama extends even to the things he did that even Republicans should be able to appreciate, he did nothing but double down on his rhetoric and undermine any and all attempts at containing the disease. And because the American right has triangulated towards him, they're still doing what they can to downplay the seriousness of the pandemic. And a quarter million Americans are dead because of it, and no doubt many of them would still be alive if Trump had the foresight to actually try and do the right thing.