We can now estimate the Trump death toll

Deborah Birx--remember her? She was the woman who stood near Trump, wearing a stylish scarf and a pained expression, as he prattled out his lies and nonsense during his press conferences. She was Trump's "White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator." (He sure didn't let her speak very much.)

She recently testified before a House subcommittee. In her testimony, she said that had Trump acted quickly and listened to the advice of medical experts, Covid deaths from the start of the pandemic to now would have been reduced by 30% to 40%. I emphasized the above phrase to refute the Trump response that many of those deaths occurred during the Biden administration--it's irrelevant when those deaths occured. The damage from Trump's dithering and stupidity had already been done by the time Trump was dragged from office, and as she explained, that damage is still killing people, even now.

So, let's see. 740,000 deaths. 30% is 222,000. 40% is 296,000. Either figure puts Trump in rare and exclusive company--history's mass murderers. He's not in the Hitler or Stalin club, but still, pretty impressive.

I'm sure our resident conservitards will leap to the defense of their Dear Orange Leader and in the process, call me every name in the book (Stalker will call me a liar, of course). But I'm simply reporting what a Trump appointee recently said. She isn't a liberal commie socialist Deep State Fake News left-wing snowflake socialist commie liberal. She was hand-picked by Trump.

You never cease to let your Trump Derangement Syndrome dictate the shit that flows from you. You have never seen the forest through the trees, and never will.

So sad to see what might have been a rational mind, of someone who might have been a good person, swallowed up by Trump-love.

Anyone, such as David, who worships a mass murderer is one sick individual.

Agree with you on Birx but what could he have done differently other than his stupid statements about it? They locked down for 2 months and that has pretty much proven to have done nothing.  

What could he have done differently? Birx was actually quite explicit about that, but to get all of what she said, you'd have to have watched it on CSPAN or subscribe to the Congressional Record. So let me summarize:

1. Be better prepared, specifically not dissolving the federal pandemic response team created by Obama. When the virus first hit, Trump had no one to consult who was specifically trained to deal with pandemics.

2. In general, implement precautions in January 2020, not in late March.

3. Mask and social distancing mandates should have been enforced at a federal level, particularly in fall 2020.

4. Not allow businesses to reopen to "live" customers in summer and fall 2020.

5. Discard the idea of "herd immunity," which was strongly advocated by Dr. Scott Atlas, a Trump supporter who convinced him that the best way to deal with the virus was let it "burn through" the population.

6. Not allow states to defy CDC recommendations re masks and social distancing.

There is one important note here: In spring and summer 2020, she was an enthusiastic Trump cheerleader who echoed many of his claims that the virus was no real threat and was going to disappear soon. It was only during the case spikes in fall 2020, when she was traveling from state to state and not in the White House much, that she, shall we say, got religion. It was at this time that she split off from Trump, saying that the federal government was being indifferent to states' irresponsible handling of the pandemic.

Birx isn't the first person to say all this. It's apparent that the two biggest blunders by Trump were a) in the early days of the pandemic, doing virtually nothing except railing about China, when in fact the virus was primarily coming from Europe, and b) allowing states (red states) to disregard CDC recommendations, especially those strongly against large gatherings.

We also know that during the entirety of 2020, Trump thought only about his reelection chances and tuned his responses to the pandemic to how the public would perceive him. In an unguarded moment, he confided to a lackey (don't remember who) that he had deliberately downplayed the danger posed by the virus ("it'll all go away by April, you'll see) in order to "not look bad."

So that mofo lied to everybody in order to boost his reelection chances. And because of that, over 200,000 people died. He should be tried and executed.*

*my opinion, not necessarily Birx's

Some fair stuff in there but also some very inaccurate stuff.  The CDC was wrong almost at every turn.  You can't close down the economy for more than 6-8 weeks without dire consequences.  

But why does Fauci get a free pass by everybody on your side?  I did kind of like Birx.  She should still be around and not the hack Fauci.  Does anybody believe anything that comes out of his mouth these days?  

Yes - pretty much anyone who doesnt watch Tucker Carlson or listen to Donald Trump.      

Dr Fauci's credentials are impecable and he was/is an icon on the subject of pandemics for his entire carrer and highly regarded by both parties....and served faithfully under both parties.  And all of his statements made since the virus first appeared were consistent with the medical science as it was being learned.     And that continues to be true to this day.

  He made the huge mistake of speaking his vastly more educated opinions about COVID that conflicted with the uninformed, political narrative being spewed by the know-nothing president  who murdered Herman Cain at one of many  maskless rallies.     So Trump declared war on medicine....and as far as his followers are concerned he won.     

I dont have the time of day for the QaNon caucus that's critical of Fauci's credibility.   They sure dont think the snake oil salesmen that sold them Ivermectin has a credibility problem.   And thats just the world they live in.       

I'd just wish he had known a little more since he was hiding the fact he was funding it.  Man, you are really naive.  

You couldn't leave the economy "open" during the worst of the pandemic without dire consequences. And if I had to choose between economic pain and hundreds of thousands of deaths, I'd take the pain. In fact, Democrats--with NO help from Republicans--tried to mitigate the pain of shutdowns with stimulus payments and unemployment insurance. The Republicans in the backward yahoo states said no, we can't have corporate profits affected, so let's open back up, full speed ahead. And people died.

If you pitch that bullshit about Fauci, I have no respect for you. How do YOU know that he's, as you put it, a "hack"? Do you use your lifelong expertise in epidemology to evaluate his competence? Your four decades as a public health official? Or just your overall studly genius?

You claim not to be a Trumper, but you're lying. Attacking, belittling, and ignoring Fauci was a key element of the Trump pandemic playbook. Fauci issued warnings, which were accurate, and Trump (along with his Fox News allies) pooh-poohed them. And now you're jumping on the bandwagon.

And please don't jump into the Fox News mud puddle and tell us that some of Fauci's predictions early last year turned out to be inaccurate, or that he changed his mind. That's what scientists do--they evaluate situations and modify those evaluations as more data come in.

Fauci hung in there and did his job despite all the orangutan shit flung at him by Trump. I have nothing but respect for the man.

Where do stimulus payments and unemployment insurance add-ons come from Kevin?  Just some magical $ tree in the backyard?  Wait, might it come from companies and wealthy people that pay into the system through taxes?  Two things you can't stand.  You can't have one without the other.  And you surely can't keep this gravy train going for 6-8 months. So lets raise the taxes on corporations now.  You darn well know where they will pass that cost.  

Watch an exchange with Rand Paul and Fauci if you want to see the little guy squirm and lie.  That's all I need to see as Paul asks him common sense questions and he deflects away.  Total hack!