President Donald trump has been aware since January of the potential impact of coronavirus in the United States and yet publicly played down the pandemic for almost two months.
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It is the conclusion drawn by the two communications that the presidential adviser for the economy Peter Navarro circulated in the White House in January and February -revealed on Tuesday by the media Axios– warning about the considerable human and economic losses that the virus could represent for the United States.
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The sluggishness in publicly admitting the impact of the pandemic for the United States coincided with a significant delay by the federal government to acquire medical supplies in a timely manner that would be required later.
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The agency AP reported that most federal agencies waited until mid-March to order large quantities of N95 masks, mechanical respirators, and other equipment required by health personnel.
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On March 30, he told the television station Fox that “nobody could have predicted something like this”, despite the fact that Navarro had written two communications formulating exactly that forecast.
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Navarro’s warning
Navarro advocated in his first communication dated January 29 in favor of denying entry to the country to travelers from China to stop the spread of the coronavirus, and estimated at $ 6 billion the cost to the US economy if appropriate measures were not taken.
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That same day, Trump held an inter-ministerial meeting in the White House about the virus, which he reported via Twitter.
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Just received a briefing on the Coronavirus in China from all of our GREAT agencies, who are also working closely with China. We will continue to monitor the ongoing developments. We have the best experts anywhere in the world, and they are on top of it 24/7! pic.twitter.com/rrtF1Stk78
– Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 30, 2020
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Two days later Trump closed the border to flights from China and established a protocol for the repatriation of Americans who may be infected.
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But the head of state took a long time to share the projections put forward by Navarro with American public opinion.
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A day after the first letter and his meeting with experts, Trump said during a speech in Michigan that “we are working very hard with China on the coronavirus. It is a new thing that many people are talking about. Hopefully it’s not as bad as some people think. “
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Navarro’s second memo, dated February 23, warned on its front line that “there is an increasing possibility of an advanced covid-19 pandemic being able to infect 100 million Americans, causing between 1 and 2 million deaths.”
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But that same day Trump answered in the White House to a reporter’s question about the virus that “we have it practically under control in this country.”
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The following day, the president reiterated in a tweet that the United States had the virus under control.
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The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries. CDC & World Health have been working hard and very smart. Stock Market starting to look very good to me!
– Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 24, 2020
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Trump kept the same message for the next few days, denying gravity of the spread of a virus that was spreading around the planet. He even went so far as to tell him the February 27 to African-American leaders in the White House that the virus “will go away. One day, it’s like a miracle, it will go away.”
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Trump abruptly adjusted his message on March 17 when he said during a Press conference at the White House that “I always knew this is real, this is a pandemic. I felt this was a pandemic long before they called it a pandemic.”
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The sluggishness in publicly admitting the impact of the pandemic for the United States coincided with a significant delay by the federal government to acquire medical supplies in a timely manner that would be required later.
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