U.S. ‘wasted’ months before preparing for virus pandemic

Now, three months into the crisis, that **stockpile is nearly drained** just as the numbers of patients needing critical care is surging.

Post #23 covers that.

Here is a timeline I put together and shows POTUS acted promptly:

Dec. 31, 2019: Chinese officials in Wuhan in China’s central Hubei province confirmed dozens of cases of pneumonia from an unknown cause.

Jan. 11: China reported its first known death from an illness caused by the coronavirus. The patient was a 61-year-old man in Wuhan.

January 14: WHO said there may have been human-to-human transmission of the virus, Reuters reported.

January 15: Li Qun, head of the Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) emergency center, claims the risk of human-to-human transmission is “low,” the Journal reported.

January 17: After 12 days, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission started giving daily updates on new cases of the coronavirus.

January 18: Despite the presence of the coronavirus, Wuhan holds a “potluck” banquet for 40,000 families to try and break a world record, The New York Times reported.

Jan. 21: The United States announced its first confirmed coronavirus case — a man in his 30s in Washington state

Jan. 23: China placed Wuhan, a city of 11 million people, under quarantine orders. All flights and trains departing from the city were canceled, and buses, subways and ferries within the city were suspended.

January 23: Wuhan is finally locked down, even though about 5 million people had already left the city without being screened by that time.

Jan. 30: WHO declared the outbreak a global public health emergency as more than 9,000 cases were reported worldwide, including in 18 countries beyond China.

January 31: President Trump Bans Travel from China, declares a national emergency, and orders 1st Quarantine in 50 Years

Funny how AP, Reuters, NY Times etc. are all coming out with this same story at the same time. I guess they got their marching orders from the DNC.

As the first alarms sounded in early January that an outbreak of a novel coronavirus in China might ^{note well, might} ignite a global pandemic, the Trump administration squandered nearly two months ^{and just how does one “squander two months” in early January?} that could have been used to bolster the federal stockpile of critically needed medical supplies and equipment.

President Trump took a lot of criticism - and received no backing at all - from the Democrat Party in early January, or even in early February just for his unprecedented action of banning flights from China.
In early January the Democrat Party was tying Congress in knots with its impeachment foolishness, with the full backing of the “objective journalism” cartel.
Who in the Democrat Party did anything at all to urge pandemic preparedness before or even shortly after President Trump invoked the travel ban??
Who promoted assiduous study of the South Korea model of pandemic response back then?
The US establishment was too much absorbed in “not invented here” to learn much of anything from Korea.

Pointing fingers? Pelosi, and this two-faced senator, poo-pooed everything said or done by the President or his administration and the pundits and MSM were only too happy to join the nay-sayer's chorus to try and ridicule the POTUS...

Anytime the Democrats scream and smear the POTUS you know the 'rats are scared or just plane hateful.

So, 50 states all failed to prepare for their own possible pandemics, or even check if the hospitals were prepared.

Trump didnt use any in three years.

Why should he assume that the CDC undrr obama had failed, and was clueless?

President Trump warned us in his State of the Union speech, Feb. 5th, 2020:

“Protecting Americans’ health also means fighting infectious diseases. We are coordinating with the Chinese government and working closely together on the coronavirus outbreak in China. My administration will take all necessary steps to safeguard our citizens from this threat.”

What did Pelosi do? She tore the speech up.

The timeline reveals how much China and the World Health Organizaton kept the world in the dark while the virus increased it growth around the world:

A study published in March indicated that if Chinese authorities had acted three weeks earlier than they did, the number of coronavirus cases could have been reduced by 95% and its geographic spread limited.

This timeline, compiled from information reported by the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the South China Morning Post and other sources, shows that China’s cover-up and the delay in serious measures to contain the virus lasted about three weeks.

Dec. 10: Wei Guixian, one of the earliest known coronavirus patients, starts feeling ill.

Dec. 16: Patient admitted to Wuhan Central Hospital with infection in both lungs but resistant to anti-flu drugs. Staff later learned he worked at a wildlife market connected to the outbreak.

Dec. 27: Wuhan health officials are told that a new coronavirus is causing the illness.

Dec. 30:
• Ai Fen, a top director at Wuhan Central Hospital, posts information on WeChat about the new virus. She was reprimanded for doing so and told not to spread information about it.
• Wuhan doctor Li Wenliang also shares information on WeChat about the new SARS-like virus. He is called in for questioning shortly afterward.
• Wuhan health commission notifies hospitals of a “pneumonia of unclear cause” and orders them to report any related information.

Dec. 31:
• Wuhan health officials confirm 27 cases of illness and close a market they think is related to the virus’ spread.
• China tells the World Health Organization’s China office about the cases of an unknown illness.
Jan. 1: Wuhan Public Security Bureau brings in for questioning eight doctors who had posted information about the illness on WeChat.
• An official at the Hubei Provincial Health Commission orders labs, which had already determined that the novel virus was similar to SARS, to stop testing samples and to destroy existing samples.

Jan. 2: Chinese researchers map the new coronavirus’ complete genetic information. This information is not made public until Jan. 9.

Jan. 7: Xi Jinping becomes involved in the response.

Jan. 9: China announces it has mapped the coronavirus genome.

Jan. 11–17: Important prescheduled CCP meeting held in Wuhan. During that time, the Wuhan Health Commission insists there are no new cases.

Jan. 13: First coronavirus case reported in Thailand, the first known case outside China.

Jan. 14: WHO announces Chinese authorities have seen “no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus.”

Jan. 15: The patient who becomes the first confirmed U.S. case leaves Wuhan and arrives in Washington State, carrying the coronavirus.

Jan. 18:
• The Wuhan Health Commission announces four new cases.
• Annual Wuhan Lunar New Year banquet. Tens of thousands of people gathered for a potluck.

Jan. 19: Beijing sends epidemiologists to Wuhan.

Jan. 20:
• The first case announced in South Korea.
• Zhong Nanshan, a top Chinese doctor who is helping to coordinate the coronavirus response, announces the virus can be passed between people.

Jan. 21:
• The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirms the first coronavirus case in the United States.
• CCP flagship newspaper People’s Daily mentions the coronavirus epidemic and Xi’s actions to fight it for the first time.
• China’s top political commission in charge of law and order warns that “anyone who deliberately delays and hides the reporting of [virus] cases out of his or her own self-interest will be nailed on the pillar of shame for eternity.”

Jan. 23: Wuhan and three other cities are put on lockdown. Right around this time, approximately 5 million people leave the city without being screened for the illness.

Jan. 24–30: China celebrates the Lunar New Year holiday. Hundreds of millions of people are in transit around the country and the world as they visit relatives.

Jan. 24: China extends the lockdown to cover 36 million people and starts to rapidly build a new hospital in Wuhan. From this point, very strict measures continue to be implemented around the country for the rest of the epidemic.

Jan. 31: Moving to counter the spreading coronavirus outbreak, the Trump administration announced that he would bar entry by most foreign nationals who had recently visited China and put some American travelers under a quarantine as it declared a rare public health emergency.

The bottom line: The first indication to the Trump Administration that there was a problem with the coronavirus came around January 21. China is now trying to create a narrative that it’s an example of how to handle this crisis when in fact its early actions led to the virus spreading around the globe.