What country are you in? Both the media and government in my country (US) have been sending the exact opposite message of "just the flu". As with anywhere, there are a few local outlets and politicians trying to downplay it, likely for economic reasons, but I haven't seen it downplayed on the Federal level at all. In fact, there's been an overabundance of information and caution.
The president himself severely downplayed it and gave the opposite advice as his own health officials (including [paraphrasing] "it's just the flu" and "go to work.")
I think the right way to model 45's behavior is an evolutionary feedback loop, where the success condition is pushing the buttons (positive and negative) of the public, for narcissistic attention. He's a paperclip maximizer for outrage and fervor, a Facebook engagement algorithm made flesh.
Because this "skill" has been honed from a lifetime of obsession with media, he's exceptionally good at bypassing anything resembling rational thought, and hitting emotional triggers, resulting in otherwise intelligent people engaging with Frankfurtian Bullshit even when they should know better (opponents and supporters alike).
You are correct. However, the point the previous commenter was making was that it wasn't being downplayed at the federal level.
The president has been visibly out-of-step with the rest of the federal government messaging on this. One voice, no matter the position, doesn't evaporate what the hundreds of others have been saying.
> The president has been visibly out-of-step with the rest of the federal government messaging on this. One voice, no matter the position, doesn't evaporate what the hundreds of others have been saying.
The President has been accusing the "Bureaucrats" of not caring about average Americans, fear-mongering the virus, and claims the Deep State is after him.
The President's followers do NOT believe the government experts. As per the sitting President's plan. The sitting President has cultivated an "Us lay people vs Them bureaucrats" atmosphere.
Case in point: My own Mother believes that the Coronavirus is a Chinese conspiracy to attack the President. And nothing I say could sway her opinion. Unfortunately, the voters of the President support, and believe in him more than even family.
I really don’t understand why the guy can’t keep quiet and let people who obviously know more about the topic do their job. I don’t understand what he is trying to achieve constantly contradicting experts. He should support them.
I really don’t understand why the guy can’t keep quiet and let people who obviously know more about the topic do their job.
What, and let someone else “hog” the attention and the spotlight? I’ve been reading about 45 since the 80s (most of the time, not by choice). “All eyes on me” seems to be far more important to the sitting president than “do the right thing”. I’m not saying “do <what he thinks is> the right thing” isn’t on the list, it’s just way down that list.
I don’t understand how even the people who might agree with you aren’t bored of seeing formulaic offtopic Trump bashing that could be produced by a script polluting every discussion they view on the web.
Assuming you were honestly looking for an explanation: not bored because they don't participate in the same discussions as you might, where the conversations turn to being "formulaic". In my world, and I assume in the world in which the OP lives, it's not immediately obvious why someone would run their mouth about things they know little about when an expert is standing right next to them.
He's a narcissist. This approach gets him far more press (very, very bad press, of course, but he seems broadly okay with that), so it's the obvious route, from that point of view.
”It's not unique to the current administration. Most presidents have done this. ”
I couldn’t imagine any of the presidents of the last decades to stand up and openly contradict his experts on something like this. Maybe behind the scenes but not in the open. He doesn’t seem to understand that he can only lose doing this.
His surgeon general has echoed his sentiment although not so tersely. Yes, they are only two people, but if you can't believe either of these two people, who can you trust, particularly when they are making exclusive claims? Besides, he has made a cult of personality around himself and many people do listen to him.
If you're paying attention you know he's wrong. But there are large swaths of people who when it comes to believing the CDC or the president choose to believe the president. Just this weekend a group of relatives was making fun of the coronavirus as a hoax.
Even scarier, a lot of the people who believe him have been paying close attention the whole time. Trump sounds more like what they expect the truth to sound like than any competent person who is trying to do their job possibly could.
I disagree - the role of president in the USA is quickly marching towards "only voice of the government." This has been clear from many politicians acquiescing to the whims of that One Voice, sometimes to their own detriment, oftentimes to their benefit.
Correct; but the WHO is an international organization, and could easily have made this declaration sooner. The fact that the Trump administration was so clearly downplaying it for PR, only makes it that much more vital for health professionals to read the numbers and set appropriate expectations.
I'm very worried (and in Texas) but when people hear me talk they somehow walk away with "just the flu" anyway. My theory is that people feel cognitive dissonance between the seriousness of the situation and the mild-seeming precautions that are recommended. Cancel nonessential international travel, wash your hands. For most people (talking about the U.S. here) international travel seems extraordinary and optional, if not downright weird, so it's really just wash your hands. It's hard for people to understand that there's a crisis and all they're supposed to do about it is wash their hands, no matter that I say things like "unprecedented mortality and disruption in our lifetime."
Other obstacles to perceiving it as a big deal:
- Not grasping that a fraction of a percent mortality can be a big deal. Numbers under one percent make it sound indistinguishable from flu, even if it's 10x as deadly as flu.
- Having AIDS and Ebola as your mental prototypes for dangerous infectious diseases and feeling relieved when you hear COVID-19 is nothing like either one.
I've heard that from my direct manager. I'm sure that's influenced by who he reports to. He was potentially exposed last week but still comes into the office, and we're discouraged from working from home. We're told to use our "best judgement" but the subtext is pretty clear...
What? The Federal Government has been saying exactly that -- that the flu is far worse, it kills more, and that Covid19 is no big deal. They've said it repeatedly from Day 1 - Up through two days ago when Trump tweeted:
> So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on. At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!
Basically the entire GOP leadership structure has decided that people are only worrying as much as they are to damage Trump politically. Essentially the only top level official giving the straight story is Dr. Fauci and he's immediately contradicted by others in the cabinet who seemed to be completely preoccupied with the stock market and the election.
I'm in WA state, where until last week testing wasn't being conducted on anyone that wasn't traveling from a level 3 country or in contact with a known infected person, EVEN IF THE WOULD-BE TESTEE WAS SHOWING SYMPTOMS. We keep talking about the count of infected (and relying on it to decide who to test) but it's unarguably low if we've not been testing, particularly as we apparently have introductions via Europe as well as China, plus community transmission.
Trump just a few days ago said that everyone who wants to be tested can get tested. According to the doctor's offices, that's still false.
Trump himself has a NUMBER of downplaying statements. So many I won't bother to list them. But lots of statements along the lines of "just the flu", among others.
> there's been an overabundance of information and caution
Hard to judge "overabundance" (see other article about how everything with a pandemic is premature until it is too late)
Today's headlines: "The White House has ordered federal health officials to treat top-level coronavirus meetings as classified, an unusual step that has restricted information and hampered the U.S. government’s response to the contagion, according to four Trump administration officials."
Note this prevents any expert who doesn't have clearance from attending.
A few days ago: "US health officials wanted to recommend that elderly Americans avoid flying amid the coronavirus crisis. The White House overruled them"
Are you serious? At the Feb. 26 press conference [0], President Trump literally said: "This is a flu. This is like a flu."
The president tweeted this 2 days ago [1]:
> So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on. At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!
This is what the Surgeon General said on Sunday [2]:
> "If we had massive numbers of cases we would be seeing more deaths. And so we actually feel pretty good that some parts of the country have contained it just like when you look at the flu," Adams said on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday. "When we look at the flu tracker, some parts of the country are having much more severe flu seasons. Some are having very mild flu seasons. The same thing for coronavirus."
Once again HN Civility disease strikes, if you blame anyone specific in politics for anything, expect heavy down voting because somehow that's not "civil", no matter how true it is.
