It was not just a matter of Trump Administration sluggish response to Covid, it was also a matter of planned misdirection and serious errors of omission.
In February 2020 there was little awareness of the Covid issue in the puhlic at large. The move to carefully examine travelers coming into the US from China was useful. However, months later it was already known that the large population of Chinese fashion workers around Milan, Italy, had returned from holidays in China and brought illness killing many elderly Italians. However the Trump Administration did not have the tourists returning from Italy being examined the same as the Chinese entering the US. Thousands in New York and New Jersey became victims of this oversight as infected returnees from Italy circulated on the east coast or connected to planes traveling elsewhere.
A second serious mistake occurred when the March 23, 2020 letter from Dr. Vladimir Zelenko was misrepresented by Fauci and Trump. For a few days in late March they spoke of a treatment using HCq, zinc, and Azithromycin. At that time a treatment course using those ingredients cost about $20. Zinc was a virus stopper/killer when it entered infected cells, HCQ (an ionophore) helped the zinc get into cells more easily, and Azithromycin protected vulnerable lungs from bacterial infection (Zelenko later said Doxycycline was a safer antibiotic). Zelenko also urged very early treatment, even before testing confirmed Covid. After a few days, Fauci/Trump no longer mentioned the essential ZINC. Kind of like failing to send soldiers (Zinc) to the front on troup trains (HCQ). Who decided to eliminate the word ZINC?
Around May 11, 2020, Fauci announced a study of HCQ and Azithromycin on HOSPITALIZED Covid patients. No early treatment and no ZINC. Designed to fail???
Not long after, Fauci announced the availability of a new drug, Remedesivir, for treatment of hospitalized patients. It was only going to cost about $3,000 a treatment course, subsidized by our tax dollars. Later President Trump was successfully treated for Covid at Walter Reed Army Hospital. As he walked from a helicopter back to the White House, I heard him praising the various treatments he had received at Walter Reed, including Remdesivir. Then as Trump continued to walk with an angry look on his face, he also muttered “and I took ZINC.” I think by that time he was coming to the conclusion he had been played.
Subsequent studies or retrospective analysis of the exact Zelenco 3 drug protocol, have shown significant reduction in death rates when used for early, and even late treatment of Covid. Personally, I estimate that failure of our government to initiate early study and use of this treatment cost at least 500,000 unnecessary deaths in 2020 and 2021.
Regarding the possible spread of Covid from the wuhan lab, even in high safety labs, mistakes can be made, workers can go home infected accidentally. Can you imagine having to tell ruler Xi, “gee, I think I made a mistake.” Can you imagine keeping this a secret instead? China has not released meaningful statistics on how much this infection has cost them. One measure looked at renewal of cell phone accounts. I seem to recall the figure of 23,000,000 not renewed. A frightening figure if meaningful. In the paper Epoch Times, it was reported that Wuhan was an area where followers of a forbidden cult were being taken to and punished. It was even suggested organs like kidney and liver were being harvested without permission for transplant surgery. We are definitely hearing reports now that China has labor shortages due to population changes.
“The Trump Administration”. Yeah, like Jeff Sessions and Bill Barr, you mean those guys? Like Lt Col Vindman, listening into his phone calls, or Christopher Wray, who had the soul of Comey? How about my man Scarouchi, or Pence? Yeah, when the going got tough, and the FBI listed all the things that could happen to a fellow, they hit the high weeds, turned tale and came up with the Orangeman Bad stories the FIBS wrote for them.
Donald Trump, in regards to the political establishment in Washington, and just the Republican one, not counting the Uniparty and democrat deep state, was like a babe in the woods. Who could he trust? As it turned out, practically NO ONE.
Yet still despite that, despite the very phony and illegal Russian Hoax (which, BTW< not one person was so much as scolded for LYING, under written oath, to the FISA court, and not even named, i.e. remained hidden from the public), the constant lies and deliberate misquotes by the DNCMedia, despite two frivolous impeachments based on butkis, besides massive, and ILLEGAL no security mail in voting, he still barely lost. The Deep State had just enough in each swing state.
Meanwhile, the desperate American and foreign press were beating him up over China travel restrictions, Nanzi Pelosi even walking and hugging in Chinatown, the no masks please, yes masks please, the mostly democrat governors autocratically shut down their states and arrested people who refuse to shelter at home. Meanwhile Fauci, who actually helped create the Covid 19 virus, his role in it from the President, Congress, the media and the people.
Nice try, but I know far more about what went down than you.
There was some research published in which several compounds were screened for antiviral activity in cell culture. But cell culture is not the same as an intact animal. When (H)CQ was tested in mice, it showed no antiviral activity and was not further tested. Until twenty years later when suddenly Trump was saying that there is a promising new antiviral treatment. Who told him that, and why?
Zelensky never did a controlled study and never published in the medical literature. All we have is that letter in which he claimed to have cured 699 Covid patients.
As for the utility of remdesivir, its efficacy against Covid was always marginal. It is still listed as a treatment option on the CDC website, but only for hospitalized patients. It is delivered intravenously. Other oral antivirals are available for treatment.
I believe that Trump was treated with convalescent serum for his Covid.
Regarding the possible spread of Covid from the wuhan lab, even in high safety labs, mistakes can be made, workers can go home infected accidentally.
No one can be accidentally infected in a BSL4 level lab without knowing immediately that they were potentially infected. Way back in 2004, before I started working at USAMRIID, a BSL4 worker was giving injections to mice. This person was using the same syringe on multiple mice, and some of the mice were infected with Ebola. One of the mice kicked the syringe, causing the needle to pierce the glove and penetrate the skin. This person was then placed in a BSL4 hospital room at USAMRIID for 21 days (the maximum incubation time of Ebola). That hospital room, called "The Slammer" was dismantled years ago. And that worker continued to work in the BSL4 lab. Funny thing at USAMRIID was that everyone knew who the worker was but no one could ever say the name because of HIPAA.
Managing Potential Laboratory Exposure to Ebola Virus by Using a Patient Biocontainment Care Unit.
The spacesuits used in BSL4 labs are pressurized and have air hoses which supply outside air. This is so that if an accidental breach of suit integrity should occur, the air will push out from the suit, preventing potentially contaminated laboratory air from entering. There are many other safeguards against accidentally bringing a pathogen outside of the lab, as well.