What would you have done differently?

No shut down.
Communicate the hell out of need for social distancing.
Aggressively isolate those in the high risk groups at any cost.
Massive education for the masses with a patriotic call for support

For a "concrete answer" one would have to be an expert on public policy and also science/infectious disease - most other people opining are mostly talking out of their ass.

It's a novel virus - and it's a pandemic for which we were ill-prepared and we haven't had to deal w/ something like this in our lifetime - so hard to exactly/concretely say what should have been done given it's a novel virus which turned into a pandemic for which most of the world was not ready to deal with - from my non-expert eyes it seems those nations that got out in front of it nearer the beginning, it seems those nations fared better -so getting out in front of it sooner seems would have helped.

By getting out ahead of it, I mean shutting down the country earlier to try and mitigate the spread and likely many less lives lost - our lack of preparedness and lack of experience dealing w/ pandemics meant a shutdown to mitigate the spread was the only tool available given the real-time conditions-on-the-ground, and thus why pretty-much every industrialized-nation in the world followed suit w/ a lockdown, it's the only instrument/defense there was at the time given how quickly it was spreading worldwide and no one knew for sure how bad it was gonna get infections and deaths-wise - there wasn't a silver-bullet to both save lives *and* save the economy given what was known/not-known - most nations erred on the side of saving as many lives as possible.

I was watching a PBS doc a couple of weeks ago - one thing they showed was a company I think in Canada that used AI to predict pandemics - the company's AI algorithm supposedly predicted early-on that the CoronaVirus would become a pandemic; but this company if I remember correctly has not been around that long and does not have a lot of customers in terms of governments or Fortune-500 companies thus it's prediction data was not widely known.

Given we were unprepared, other than locking down earlier, probably not much more one could do at the time given what was-known /not-known - going-forward I've heard suggested:

+ having more manufacturing capability in the U.S., or at least multiple countries to source from, rather than be dependent on just one country (e.g. China)

+ have a "pandemic strategic reserve" similar to the strategic-oil-reserve that was implemented post the oil-crisis of the early-70s -this reserve would have PPEs, respirators, etc

+ implement a pandemic federal dept/group that can monitor and try to predict these things b/f they are on top of us (AI; data-scientists, virus-experts, policy experts; etc)

I don't know exactly what we should or could do, but I do know that denigrating expertise is the province of fools.
If you really think that I should have respect for folks that think a leader is a guy, who out loud makes statements about ingesting bleach, you fellas are delusional, It's not up for debate whether anyone with a large bully pulpit should make the kind of noise that Trump does. sorry I cannot imagine a true leader behaving in this fashion.
I am sick and tired of what y'all consider normal behavior, if that makes me a name calling know it all what the hell does that make you ?

One of our “experts” is Redfield at the CDC who has fucked this entire process up. The CDC bureaucrats delayed testing by 2 months while they tried to micro manage testing, working at a snail’s pace, then putting out a faulty test.

What could Trump have done ? Fire Redfield as soon as we realized what a cluster fuck he was causing.

Do what South Korea did, not sure what it was but they dealt with it effectively. We probably couldn't do it in the West as we aren't as disciplined.

One thing I think wasn’t done was to quickly use the Defense Production Act or some other means to create an adequate supply of personal protective equipment for our front line workers. Despite reassurances at both the state and federal levels, we still lack adequate equipment for our medical personnel, first responders and police.

I have several relatives in those fields and they say they have no idea what political leaders are talking about when they assure us that there are adequate supplies of PPE. They don’t have it.

I don’t put this just on Trump. Our governors haven’t been on top of this either. A little over a week ago one of my relatives was telling me of the shortages of PPE on his job. Right now he is quite sick at from covid. I don’t blame Trump or anyone else for being caught off guard when this hit. And I don’t know if it’s a lack of production, lack of inventorying what we have, or distribution issues. But over two months have passed.

Again, I don’t think this is solely on Trump’s shoulders. But some of it is.

My guess is that there will be tremendous pressure to “invest” more in federal health infrastructure. More “experts”. More power. More regulations. More blue ribbon panels.

You want to know what got us moving in the right direction on CoVid ? When regulations were slashed and industry, insurance companies, hospitals, pharmaceuticals, doctors were freed up to fight the virus.

We should restructure the CDC, NHS, FDA, and the rest of the alphabet soup bureaucracy to focus them on empowering private industry.

Ok, I've muted all off topic comments.

Again, tell me specifically what you as president would have done.

Well, hindsight is a wonderful thing. Having the knowledge that we have now would have been great back in February. But what we should have done was the Swedish model. Social distance, but don't go overboard. Don't shut down any businesses. Protect the vulnerable. Then ride it out. That is what we will do if a 2nd wave hits. Would I have been that smart back in February when everyone was thing Tony Fauci was God ? Probably not.

Please refrain from whys and other commentary.

Just list what you would have done.

I like Desert Scrub's response sounds like a smart well thought out response

I knew Desertscrub was UN Ambassador material.

-Lock down borders
-No non citizens to visit- No Intl Air travel
-Strict guidelines on Nursing Home visits
-Public warning for those in high risk
-Recommended social distancing guidelines
-Ration PPE,Towels, Sanitizer
Otherwise bus as usual

1) Mandated masks/face coverings from the get go.
2) PSAs about social distancing on tv, radio, social networking sites, etc
3) reach out to community leaders/celebrities to help spread information to those that tend to distrust government entities
4) international travel ban from all countries starting at the same time the ban on travel from China started
5) locked down nursing homes/retirement communities from the start (This was done early in some areas but not all)

The other things that a president could have done to limit the spread would have had to be done before the virus started. Hopefully these will be done in anticipation of future pandemics or other massive medical emergencies.
1) national stockpile of PPE that can be quickly dispersed as needed to medical professionals
2) prepared plans in place for rapid setup of overflow hospital type facilities in ever major metropolitan area

follow the sweeds.

I don't think hindsight was really necessary in this case. Back in February I thought the virus was a bit worse than I do now. I was saying all the following back in February when this first started.

1. I would have shutdown all travel from China and told other nations to do the same. Citing the rapid growth in infection rates from Wuhan and the strong likelihood that China was not telling the truth.
2. I would have funded rapid testing kits and ordered an increase in production.
3. I would have shutdown travel to and from any nation where cases were developing. I would have then contact traced people who had recently arrived from that country, quarantined them, and tested them. People testing negative were free to go, people testing positive must remain in a government facility for 21 days.
4. Anywhere cases pop up from domestic clusters or people who were in contact with foreigners that tested positive would result in immediately quarantining all people who had contact with that individual. Negative testers would be free to go, positive tests stay in quarantine for 21 days.
5. If infections spike rapidly in a particular city, the whole city goes on immediate lockdown. Nobody goes in or out.

Open up travel to foreign countries only when that country hasn't reported any new cases in 14 days.

My methods may sound a little harsh, but if we had done what I would've done back in February, the virus would probably not have spread here and we wouldn't have needed a national shutdown because it wouldn't have spread in the first place. My method is basically the South Korean method, and the South Korean method worked.

Are we supposed to answer using 2020 hindsight or as if we were making decisions with the knowledge we had then?

- stockpile PPE and ventilators
- fed govt to negotiate purchases of PPE and then distribute to states
- stockpile testing materials
- test earlier and hopefully identify that the international travel problem was not only China, but Europe

Less practical, but more motivational to get the population working together:
- unify rather than divide by not calling the virus a hoax
- don’t take a wishful guess at hydroxychloraquine, bleach or Lysol
- lead by example by wearing a mask

No I don't consider President Trump a "vain egotistical man" and the question itself is offensive as it seems to come directly from DNC talking points trying to somehow bizarrely imply that President Trump in some way hasn't done an amazing job throughout this illness. I feel his leadership has been exemplary from the start despite constant hostility from the other party and most of the media.

While I personally disagree with having shut down at all, I respect his decision to call for it. He deserves particular cudos for stopping foreign travel when his political opponents were literally trying to initiate legislation to keep flights coming from both China and Europe. Also the immigration ban has no doubt saved countless lives.

As I said, I personally would not have supported any domestic shutdowns or lockdowns at all due to civil liberty and freedom concerns but I respect his decision to follow the recommendations of his CDC staff on this. There is nothing I can think of that President Trump could possibly have done that would have been more effective and feel he deserves a medal for handling of this event.

There is a quote which I can’t find but I believe it was attributed to JFK which basically said that people in the stands watching a football game often times mistakenly believe themselves to be active participants in the game down on the field. They aren’t.

Now I wasn’t paying attention when all this started as I was staring at a hospital ceiling and even so looking back it is difficult to be honest when it comes to “would of, should of, could of” speculations. I learned that from a stripper BTW (really, I did). There are some things I know I would have done but first I believe a little perspective is in order.

https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/cases-2019…

As of 22 May 2020, 1 335 410 cases have been reported in the EU/EEA and the UK
As of 22 May 2020, 160 002 deaths have been reported in the EU/EEA and the UK

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nco…

As of 22 May 2020, 1 571 617 cases have been reported in the US
As of 22 May 2020, 94 150 deaths have been reported in the US


So as of today the US has had about 240 000 more cases than the EU/UK but only 59% the number of deaths. That sounds like a win to me as far as how the US is doing but that is open to interpretation.

And before we lay the responsibilities for readiness on the doorstep of any politicians we should remember that every county in every state has a standing public health department. They are the people who track STDs so it shouldn’t be a surprise to TUSCLers that they exist. They also all have plans for mass casualty events and public health emergencies such as pandemics. The same goes for every hospital in the country. They all have existing plans to deal with shit. Some are better prepared than others but it is ridiculous to think that the POTUS or any Governor would have day to day visibility on how well prepared they all are.

That said one thing I know I would have done would have been to expedite production and procurement to replenish the nation emergency stockpile of PPE (which BTW every hospital should already have their own stockpile but cost cutting…). It is true that the Obama administration left the national emergency stockpile mostly empty after using it up but it is also true that Trump had 3 years to fix it. Was he aware? Doubtful but that is the nature of government. Regardless he should have made it a priority when it came to his attention.

I also like to think I would have put a stop to the stupid waste of time and money chasing ventilators. I doubt that Trump knew enough on his own to realize that the hysteria over things that really didn’t matter were a wasted distraction.

When Trump closed down travel from Europe he initially exempted travel from the UK. That made absolutely no sense to me at the time and I’d like to think I would have made it an across the board ban but that is hindsight. Closing the world down has to the best of my knowledge never been done before, at least not in my lifetime, and that may have been a difficult decision for anyone to make not knowing whether the virus was really that big of a threat or not.

I know that I would have stepped in and shut down Cuomo along with his fellow travelers and taken charge of NYC and Northern NJ regardless of the political costs. More than 65% of cases in the US have been genetically traced back to NYC. Trump’s sins have been largely sins of omission (he failed to do things) as opposed to Cuomo and Deblasio whose sins have been sins of commission making everything much worse than they otherwise would have been. The worst being sending infected patients into nursing homes where the most at risk people were concentrated for weeks and weeks on end resulting in huge numbers of UNNECESSARY deaths. They have blood on their hands and it is no different IMHO than when Small Pox infected blankets were knowingly and intentionally given to the American Indians.

Overall, I like to think I would have put the main effort into targeting the most vulnerable for protection and avoided shutting down the country as a whole. Hindsight or not shutting down the country was stupid.

Without any hindsight....

1 centralize the response and enact it uniformly in every state.

2 domestic as well as foreign travel ban.

4 shut everything down except for supermarkets and pharmacies etc.

5 price controls and limits on essential items and food.

6 medicaid for all

7 rent and utility debt forgiveness.

8 end no cause evictions

9 massive education on the virus and mitigation efforts

10 job protection make it illegal to fire people

11 make employers responsible for wages during lockdown. Nationalize non compliant businesses

12 universal testing program

13 call in the military to help with health care and logistics

14 release non violent prisoners

15 wait it out while building up medical stock piles

16 cooperate with the world on research and the quest for a vaccine

^^^ that looks more like a wish list than reality.

lol @ Icyloco

You are way too greedy

1. Lock down borders or have 14 day quarantine for all visitors to country.
2. Institute mandatory testing for travelers from any foreign country.
3. Ask stores to limit purchases of toilet paper paper towels to 2 packages per customer per visit.
4 require 6 ft social distance in public settings below 80 F reduce to 3. Ft outdoors above 80.
5. Ask that no one shake hands
6. Wear a mask when visiting public places.
7 ask others to wear masks in public
8 require masks in stores or limit capacity to 25%
9 restrict nursing homes and assisted living
No one who is sick, coughing routinely allowed to visit.
Temperature checks for all
All visitors must wear masks
Allow exceptions if tested positive for antibodies in all cases and not sick. These people should wear a badge or show a card so others can see.
Not require essential workers to wear a mask but suggest they do if around the public to reassure customers.

Extend unemployment 6 months or while national emergency declared and increase benefits.
Allow all businesses to stay open including churches if sick people told to leave and masks required and common touch surfaces like door knobs routinely sanitized.
Recommend social distancing or requiring everyone wear masks or place can be shut down.
Restaurants required social distancing and temp checks at door. Sick people asked to leave with doggie bag if food already arrived

The question posed:
If you were in President of the United States, what would you have done to prevent the COVID-19 virus from spreading?

Contact TUSCL's founder and let him handle it.

Woo boy that is a tough one. Even with the benefit of hindsight.

You can't really address the spread of the virus without addressing the economy. Like a fucked up siamese twin where if you try to cut them apart they both die. The question also assumes there was anything that could realistically be done to prevent the spread. I guess I would:

Resign, go to the titty bar and embrace covid.

Things Trump was 100% dead on right about:

Closing the borders. I wish he would have gone a little more draconian than just China at first.

Things I think he was 100% fucking wrong about:

Trying to stabilize the markets by allowing the Fed to dodge the Federal Reserve act. They can't buy equities directly - that's illegal. They just print money to lend to their rich banker friends at 0% to buy equities on their behalf! Brilliant....gonna work out beautifully just watch. I've made a shitload of money in the market in the last 2 months but I fully realize I'm playing with fire here.
Giving PPP funds to his friends. Like bro...at least try to hide it a bit? You aren't even trying. We need that veneer of legitimacy to stay up for us to allow you to keep breaking the law. Don't push us.

Since you asked...

I would have held a national address after the Superbowl, told the USA that there is a nasty virus going around Wuhan, China that has made it's way to America.

I would have cautioned adults to try to social distance.

I would ask the military to be ready to provide field hospitals

And then I would have waited. I would have waited for America to rise to the challenge like she has done so many times before. I would supply all the help our federal government is reasonably equipped for (again, it would mostly be military personnel)

We'd be done with this by summer.

^ But you would not have shut anything down, right ?

Honestly I would have;

1. Well before this event picked advisors that are not yes-man lackeys that are afraid to give me bad news (or they get the Greek messenger treatment). I actually think the "Lincoln's Cabinet" type of council is a much better way to examine difficult issues but you can't be thin skinned and afraid to look weak by seeking the council of others that don't necessarily see eye to eye with me. This sets the stage for a more fact based delivery of key information upfront.

2. Listened to my scientific medical advisors, used a teleprompter to deliver their facts in an easy to understand way (and shut my pie hole when I have no fucking clue).

3) Be calculated much more careful and calculated in the public messaging. Keep it simple, fact based and have fewer but higher quality public messages that deliver useful information and give confidence in the government's actions.

4. Seek a truce with the opposition during this time to minimize the grenade tossing. I understand it's impossible (especially in election season) to not have political disagreements but keep it professional and not personal. High road applies here.

5. I agree holding China accountable is appropriate. It's going to be some bitter economic medicine for the US but necessary for positive changes overseas.

Honestly nothing practical prevents this pandemic from hitting the USA. But a timely response to the unfiltered facts a few months earlier would have obviously put the US on a more prepared stance as it ramped up to have medical facilities prepared and to contain it.

Ordered masks and other medical supplies in January. Start talking about covid as a real threat to the us and global economy. Start screening passengers for temperatures then, especially non citizens from countries with outbreaks.

Listened to every word fauci said

-someone other than hospitals to put cause of death, preventing them for falsifying numbers
-force hospitals to actually buy PPE they demanded/received funding for and still claim they can't get when every gas station, cvs, grocery store has them for sale for weeks
-shut everything earlier for 2 weeks only, but an actual shut down on non essential business, not just shut down small businesses
-not incentives unemployment benefits, when jobs are available, which everyone that stayed open was hiring (fedex, ups, usps, Amazon, warehouse, grocery stores, etc...)
-not worry about the democrats, the virus was the biggest win for them, if shut down works they were right, people die they were right, shutdown hurt economy they were right. Accept they are going to look good in the short term but the long term matters more
-talk realistic, yes it sucks but its the best news story in 50 years, people are scared of anything dont need them to go crazy
-look out for America, fuck everyone else til we get it under control, our money, food, products stay here
- the biggest thing is REAL numbers, not allowing the people profiting off the virus to inflate numbers to get more money.

An example is KC vs STL. Similar sized city, same state, but STL has thousands more cases and has received over 32 million in funding while KC got 0. STL needs it more before the virus. My aunt is an attorney and represents businesses failing before the virus but use it as an excuse to receive funding. Business fail and get bought out, we shouldn't support a failing business cause we over reacted to the covid

Protect and isolate the old, sick, and high risk people, cancel incoming flights internationally, isolate us citizens as they return check temperatures etc. . Investigated deeper as soon as it got out because never trust the Chinese government, we know Fauci said no worry not a threat and then weeks later changed to the apocalypse is gonna happen. Put together a team of not just doctors but economists and business leaders for a plan that saves lives and peoples livelihoods in the long term. Dr's only look at the health and medical view. Hindsight shows Fauci fucked up many times and changed his opinions at a whim, pushed terrible models, and prescribed actions that are having enormous ramifications. Get out better information and tell people to act responsible for themselves and others. And that this is a new unique situation, everyone is looking for the best solutions there is no perfect one, and even the "experts" dont have all the answers. Cut out all the bullshit and loading bs political shit into the stimulus. If they have to do 50 different bills one for unemployment, one for small business,corporations etc do that. No more of this pork and adding bs to sneak into the funding. If lawmakers have to work 100+ hours a week and then they better get cracking they get paid to much to fuck around the way they do. If its not covid related it waits.

The difficulty with answering this question is separating hindsight from what we knew and when did we know it. Also, I do not believe for one second that the information that we were given is the same as what was given to our federal leadership. Finally, in a 50/50 polarized country that takes everything through a partisan filter, at least half of the electorate would have fought against whatever action was taken. Even now, we still do not have a model shichbis acknowledged by a majority to tell us what could have happened, versus what may yet happen.

If, at the beginning, the goal was to prevent US deaths, then mybtecommended actions would have branded me a tyrannical fascist. If the goal was to prevent disruption of the citizens' everyday lives, then I would be branded an uncaring, genocidal, aristocrat. That is the dilemma Trump faced, and it is unwinnable.

I would have done nothing and allow the virus to run its natural course.

The mortality rate of COVID-19 is debatable and seems to not affect the moratilty rate of the population, sensationalized news not withsttanding.

One major thing I would have done differently is try to get the opposition party to buy, in because like it or not, we have a shared destiny, we rise or sink together.

Going back to Trump's beginning to address the virus, I do not have any objections to what he did. I do wish he had been less cavalier in downplaying the possible effects/outcome of the virus. I think, in the beginning, he undersold it.

With hindsight, the thing that bothers me the most is the lack of uniformity in reporting the numbers. I think, as President, he could have pushed other world leaders to create a formal way to count the cases and those who died.

I don't feel confident that the numbers are accurate. Do we really have the most cases, or does the way we count, vs the way Russia, or China, or Mexico count, make it look like we have more cases than they do. How can we really tell how widespread the disease really is without everyone recording the numbers the same way?

Early on, appoint top military logistics expert as 'Testing and PPE "czar"' and back that person up by invoking the Defense Production Act. Distribution to states on a pro rata/as needed formula basis.

I would have binged on lap dances before the lockdown.

i would have told everyone to wear a mask in public....asap....(like they do it china).......... so people dont cough on each other........ and not trust china

I would have shut down all persons entering from China plus other international points of origin for testing /

I think the Swedes did the single best way.