Pompeo says China’s initial response put U.S. “behind the curve”
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blamed China on Friday for putting the U.S. “behind the curve” in its response to the coronavirus epidemic, saying the Chinese government initially withheld data on the virus that emerged late last year in the central province of Hubei.
“The information that we got at the front end of this thing wasn’t perfect and has led us now to a place where much of the challenge we face today has put us behind the curve,” Pompeo said in an interview on CNBC. “That’s not the way infectious disease doctors tell me it should work. It’s not the way America works with transparency and openness and the sharing of the information that needs to take place.”
With the Trump administration coming under pressure this week for the slow distribution of virus test kits around the country, Pompeo said working with the Chinese government had been “incredibly frustrating,” adding that he was “confident we can handle it here… better than any nation in the world.”
“There was information that could have been made available more quickly and data that could have been provided and shared among health professionals across the world,” he said of China’s initial response, calling it “most unfortunate.”
And it’s not our fault anyway!! It was those dirty Chinese!!
Remember when we had a semi-competent government? Those days are looking pretty good right about now.
It’s not just that Trump doesn’t know what the death toll is: it’s that Trump will also not defer a question they don’t know the answer to to someone who does know, it’s that Trump won’t take the time to be specific when the whole world is listening to their answers, it’s probably that Trump was too bored to take a recent briefing and was fine with just knowing last night’s facts; it’s that Trump thinks they can substitute their assertions for reality.
THIS. You really summarized well the multi-layers of what is wrong with him - there is so much to unpack there.
Melania must have had to sign an insane pre-nup to put up with everything she has had too. When Trump does stroke out, the court cases of Trump v. Trump over the estate are going to be…interesting
It’s pretty amazing, really that this isn’t hyperbole. I figured he must have some area of even limited expertise, like New York real estate, but even that doesn’t seem to have ever been true. Even his self-promotion is more an ability than an area of knowledge - it’s more an instinct than informed skill for him.
So, what he’s saying is that the administration’s mis-steps on pandemic preparedness (defunding the CDC, dismantling the DHS pandemic task force), most of which happened before the first cases occurred in China were the result of China withholding information on the outbreak?
If the Chinese have mastered that kind of time travel, we’re all going to be speaking Mandarin soon, anyway./s
And screw Pompeo sideways. It was his department that over-ruled the CDC on how to repatriate the contagious passengers from the Diamond Princess, even with all the information readily available.
It looks as if Trump actually believes that his lies – normally targeting his immune-to-facts, guileless base – can actually influence Wall Street’s crafty, data/information-driven types.
I don’t think it’s much of a pre-nup if the marriage itself, at least, got her and her parents out of shithole Slovenia. And if Trump’s ex-wives’ got lawyers involved for what it was worth, they could make a shit load of noise about Melania’s ‘genius visa’ being wrongly applied, therefore null and void, and have her carted back to Slovenia with nothing but her trinkets.
Holy fuckballs, as Xeni points out, there’s a goddamned Skeksis standing right there in the room with him, yet all people can focus on is the fact their trained monkey can’t count.
