UnSubRocky wrote on Mar 22
nd, 2020 at 1:57am:
Either this trivia fact is burned in my head for the reason of familiarity. Or this video has just triggered a memory of the fact. However:-
*Some years ago, we had this influenza outbreak throughout Australia. It was a fairly nasty flu. But most people recovered. This was a strain that was not known originating from overseas. A few months later, there were reports that the Americans, Europeans and some Asians were suffering from the same strain of the influenza, during their cold and flu season. The media dubbed the influenza "the Australian flu". I thought it was quite funny to see that come up in the media reports. No Australian felt insulted at the name.
Who cares that the president of the USA calls the covid19 the "Chinese virus"? The virus originated in China. The Chinese did not contain the virus. The Chinese students and tourists fled for overseas countries and infected others. And to make things worse, there were tourists coming to Australia to buy up necessities (including toiletries) to send back to China.
To think that the president of the USA should be more discrete about what he says about the origins of a virus. That would be ridiculous to call him out and then let him defend himself quite reasonably. We should not have to be overly cautious about hurt feelings, when the Chinese could have done more to contain the virus to one small, yet populated region.... of the world.
Discrete? Come come, Rocky.
While the CDC and the doctors have been coming up with strategies, Mr Trump's been in meetings of his own. They weren't about controlling a pandemic, oh no. They were strategies to manage the PR.
The "China virus" narrative fits perfectly into Trump's trade war. It's also an attempt to cast blame for sitting on his hands for two months while the virus spread. Trump is trying to save face in what will now be a massive recession, possibly bigger than the GFC.
And there's Trump, having shut down his pandemic response team, rejecting the offer of test kits from the WHO and pretending nothing's going on, all the while being warned by his intelligence agencies that this would be the big one.
The "China virus" slur wasn't just thought up and spat out in the moment, it was workshopped in the White House. PR is the only thing this administration is capable of focussing on. All the rest, as Trump said of health care, is all too hard.
The American people can't say they weren't warned. They must have believed the government runs itself. Who cares if you elect a celebrity property developer with no experience and no plan? The technocrats really run the show.
Pity Mr Trump either fires or ignores them, eh?
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