WaPo: Trump allegedly asked Fauci if officials could let coronavirus 'wash over' US

[Judi Lynn]

Last edited Sun Apr 12, 2020, 01:15 AM - Edit history (1)

Source: The Hill

BY MARINA PITOFSKY - 04/11/20 11:31 PM EDT


President Trump reportedly asked Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert and a key member of the White House’s coronavirus task force, whether U.S. officials could allow the coronavirus pandemic to “wash over” the country, the Washington Post reported.

During a coronavirus task force meeting in the Situation Room last month, on the same day that Trump ordered for travel to be suspended from the United Kingdom and Ireland in an effort to stem the spread of the virus, Trump reportedly asked Fauci “Why don’t we let this wash over the country?”

Two anonymous sources familiar with the president’s comments confirmed the question to the newspaper.

Trump was reportedly also seeking to understand why “herd immunity” to the coronavirus had been rejected. Herd immunity occurs when a large amount of the population becomes immune either through infection and recovery or inoculation.


Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/492390-wapo-trump-allegedly-asked-fauci-if-officials-could-let-coronavirus

[elleng]

1. THIS should cause the cabinet+ to invoke the 25th Amendment:

Section 4.
Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.



SHOUT THIS from the rooftops, and let's cause a FUSS! I'm contacting my congresscritters.

[SKKY]

24. If he did have a cabinet, then yea. But he doesn't. So....

[erodriguez]

30. This Hill article is garbage reporting meant to invoke the above response

There is absolutely no context for when this happened and what was the president's prior knowledge about this.

I don't usually give our president a pass, but I do know he is very ignorant of many things. He has asked crazy questions like this before.

[Blues Heron]

36. cool story bro

[CTyankee]

37. I contact mine for morale building, theirs and mine, but I know what a hard slog they have...

I am really loving my Senator Chris Murphy! What a bright spot he is when I see him on Morning Joe. But, as a white WASP male from New England, he will probably stay where he is. Which is fine. I get a lift just hearing him talk...

As for invoking the 25th, so many in congress are similarly afflicted and not in a good positiion to even make that judgment...alas...

[Botany]

2. Don, Don Jr, Eric, Ivanka, Melania, Kim Guilfoyle can all get washed 1st.

Trump really is sick if he said this.

[Warpy]

22. Ivanka is a smoker, which really raises her risk

While I'm sure she's popping Plaquenil like after dinner mints, it doesn't seem like that's really going to do the trick.

Actually, it was a valid question. We have no way to prevent it and damned few ways to treat it. Allowing the maximum number of people to recover from it might be the best way to slow it down. Unfortunately, we'd also be digging trenches because people would be dying so quickly there would be no other way to bury them and the whole health care infrastructure would be in complete collapse, overwhelmed with the deathly ill and dying while many doctors, nurses, and other personnel joined their ranks. That is why no sane person who knows the facts about this disease would ever want to look the other way and just let it happen. Big Dummy never met facts that he thought worth knowing, so it had to be spelled out for him.

It doesn't mean he's crazy to have asked the question, just ignorant and callous.

[captain queeg]

3. He's loaded the cabinet with sycophants, it's not going to happen.

[greyl]

4. He used that term, or very similar, in one of the early so-called coronavirus briefings.

He was saying it would just wash through, or just wash over Americans, then it would be over, while making an ocean wave movement with his hands.

[BigmanPigman]

25. Yes he did, several times and it is recorded on live TV too.

Fucking moron. Why don't we test his "theories" out on him and his immediate family and the cabinet, the GOP reps in the House and Senate and the GOP appointed SCOTUS justices just to see if they are valid or not. Hell, let's also use the drugs he is pushing as cures on the same traitors to check how well they work and what the side affects are.

[Rebl2]

40. Please let's do that

right away.

[ArizonaLib]

5. Why is the only thing out of this that he understands is 'herd immunity'?

Was this a suggestion from the Bannon bunch? That if it hit the fan that minorities would suffer the most (with less access to healthcare, etc.), and the race war that the white supremacists have been dreaming about could ensue? Not only is he an idiot, he receives evil idiot advice.

[Merlot]

16. This explains the "herd immunity" BS that is being floated in California by right wingers.

[meadowlander]

18. "Herd immunity" was Boris Johnson's pet theory in England

until someone explained to him that letting hundreds of thousands of people die was bad for the economy too.

Given the players pushing it both in the UK and the US it wouldn't surprise me if it originated in a Kremlin think-tank somewhere.

[applegrove]

6. Because it would be better for business. If we do it slow, and face several

Last edited Sun Apr 12, 2020, 01:28 AM - Edit history (1)

waves, fewer people die and there is more time to deveop treatments and vaccines. But business hurts. What a freak. Boris Johnson considered this for a bit.so there was some justice in him getting sick. If people getting sick is ever justice. Which it never is. Trump is not for the people in the USA. I don't know why 43% can't see it.

[Salviati]

13. I really don't think that would be better for business either....

We aren't facing the choice between a severe economic hit or a large death toll, we're facing the choice between a severe economic hit or a severe economic hit with a large death toll. People who think that letting the pandemic just ravage through the population isn't going to decimate the economy as much as these severe restrictions are delusional...

[Beartracks]

26. Exactly. "Stop covid or save the economy? We can do both"

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213271484

Takeaway from this really good article: "The best way to limit the economic damage will be to save as many lives as possible."

=========

[central scrutinizer]

7. Sweden is trying this

https://time.com/5817412/sweden-coronavirus/

When Chloe Fu, 24, went for a run on Monday evening, the streets of Stockholm were filled with people drinking on restaurant patios, enjoying the first warm day of sunshine after a long winter.

“When you walk around, there is a total and utter absence of panic,” Fu says, who moved to Sweden from the United States last year. “The streets are just as busy as they would have been last spring.”

As many public spaces throughout Europe empty out—with citizens only leaving home for essential groceries or medication—life in Sweden is carrying on, mostly as usual. Children walk to school while adults meet up for dinner at their local bar. Only the vulnerable have been advised to isolate and some are working from home. Yet in Sweden, where there are 9,141 confirmed cases and 793 people have died, experts worry weaker measures may be leading to a more severe outbreak in the country of just 10 million citizens.

Sweden has a relatively high case fatality rate: as of April 8, 7.68% of the Swedes who have tested positive for COVID-19 have died of the virus. Neighboring countries, like Norway and Denmark, have case fatality rates of 1.46% and 3.85% respectively. (The U.S. case fatality rate is 3.21%.) While Sweden’s elevated case fatality rate could be a result of its low testing rates compared to its neighbors, experts say Sweden’s laissez-faire approach could also be to blame.

[yaesu]

8. The fascists want herd immunity, they will never give a rats ass how many lives would be given

in order to save the fascist banksters a few bucks. Capitalism is dangerous, it is a disease, a cancer that is far worse than any virus could be.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

9. Trump says he would "rely very heavily" on the advice of health experts when considering

how and when to reopen the country.

Then he'd call his BFFs Puting and Hannity and get their opinions.

After that he's going to do whatever the fuck he wants, i.e., whatever he thinks will give him the best chance of reelection.

[Beartracks]

27. To ask Hannity a question, Trump just turns his head...

... and looks down.

=========

[ZZenith]

10. "Yeah, that's right, you know, just sort of WASH over the country

like some kind of CLEANSING. Yeah, that’s the ticket.”

[LudwigPastorius]

11. That's a great idea...

...if you want 20 million dead.

Go fuck yourself, Mr. Stable Genius.

[CountAllVotes]

15. That's what dump desires

dumpy is in debt up his butt. Deutche Bank where are you he dares to ask.

Don the Con has no more fingers left to point.

He is out of options so why not off 500,000+ while he can he figures.

So he is trying to do this now.

We are seeing what the results are.

10,000 dead Americans and counting and dump doesn't care as he can add to his bankrupt plans.

dump is EVIL.

Plain EVIL!

[cstanleytech]

12. Trump truly deserves an award for this imo.

A Razzie award that is for "Worst impersonation of a semi decent person by a complete piece of shit.".

[NBachers]

14. "Hey, I don't care, I'm not gonna get it"

[Grasswire2]

17. He said that some told him to "just ride it out like a cowboy" nt

[Worried2020]

19. I think Italy might say that's not a very good idea . . .

https://www.covid-19canada.com/?fbclid=IwAR2MMOE26_Zpx4nEoDIqWwD_ZcPLYKARL5Eh6zzl-IkZWTNuVp3nSnUkA3U#global-statistics

W

[Harker]

20. I smell a "nasty" question

at the next bobblehead sneerfest.

[Solly Mack]

23. Of course he did. It's not as if people dying even registers

with him. Those deaths are meaningless to him. The optics of those deaths, however, matter to him. That they died? He couldn't care less. How those deaths make him look? Well, that's all that matters. How he comes off looking.

Trying to explain to him why you don't sit back and allow a disease to kill people is an exercise in futility. It's all about the optics and how the blame is placed.

[duforsure]

28. Was this just another leak from trump

To use as an excuse for him to now go after Facui? Then install his know nothing lackey Dr. He can manipulate and bully to do and say as he demands? He's done this before many times by picking a fight after a leak. He can't stand him, and is jealous he 's drawing so much attention away from him. He also gets in the way of trump and putins plans forcing people back before it's safe to return to work. Russian bots are working now to help trump by claiming it needs to be done now.

[beachbumbob]

29. the impact on the "typical" GOP voter who is MUCH older than democratic counterparts would have been

significant to the point of future election outcomes would not be favorable to the GOP. Luckily many of thes same people are ignoring all the precautions so karma still yet save the day

[riversedge]

31. So, Trump thought it wise for ALL-including his #MAGA fans to catch the DANGEROUS #Coronavirus!!

[Girard442]

32. If we as a country decide it's OK to sacrifice 2% of us then we're all dead.

Oh, we'd be walking around with our eyes open -- but we'd be dead inside.

[Maxheader]

33. The amoral freak..

DICTIONARY

Search for a word

a·mor·al

/āˈmôrəl/

adjective

lacking a moral sense; unconcerned with the rightness or wrongness of something.

"an amoral attitude to sex"

[Maxheader]

34. The amoral freak..

DICTIONARY

Search for a word

a·mor·al

/āˈmôrəl/

adjective

lacking a moral sense; unconcerned with the rightness or wrongness of something.

"an amoral attitude to sex"

[Maxheader]

35. The amoral freak..

DICTIONARY

Search for a word

a·mor·al

/āˈmôrəl/

adjective

lacking a moral sense; unconcerned with the rightness or wrongness of something.

"an amoral attitude to sex"

[PatrickforO]

38. Let it 'wash over' us.

Let at least a million Americans die?

Why?

Why would this man even say that? Is he so stupid, so tone-deaf, so sociopathic, so narcissistic?

Yep.

[Stuart G]

39. ..Everyone in this country needs to see this..everyone..!!!!