Jesus H. Christ! These people are killing us:
The White House has ordered federal health officials to treat top-level coronavirus meetings as classified, an unusual step that has restricted information and hampered the U.S. government’s response to the contagion, according to four Trump administration officials.
The officials said that dozens of classified discussions about such topics as the scope of infections, quarantines and travel restrictions have been held since mid-January in a high-security meeting room at the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), a key player in the fight against the coronavirus.
Staffers without security clearances, including government experts, were excluded from the interagency meetings, which included video conference calls, the sources said.
“We had some very critical people who did not have security clearances who could not go,” one official said. “These should not be classified meetings. It was unnecessary.”
The sources said the National Security Council (NSC), which advises the president on security issues, ordered the classification.”This came directly from the White House,” one official said.
Meanwhile:
National security adviser Robert O’Brien claimed Wednesday that an initial cover-up of the coronavirus in China “cost the world community two months” and exacerbated the global outbreak.
In the face of a global crisis, the world’s two most powerful countries are pointing fingers at one another.
Asked about China’s initial response, as well as spurious claims from some Chinese officials and media that the outbreak may not have started in China, O’Brien emphasized that “this virus did not originate in the United States, it originated in Wuhan.”
- “Unfortunately, rather than using best practices, this outbreak in Wuhan was covered up,” O’Brien said, citing instances of doctors who were “silenced.”
- “It probably cost the world community two months to respond,” he continued, adding that if teams from the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had been invited in early on, “I think we could have dramatically curtailed what happened in China and what’s now happening across the world.”
- Speaking at the Heritage Foundation, O’Brien echoed other administration officials in saying President Trump’s “courageous decision” in late January to block air travel from China “bought the United States six to eight weeks to prepare for the virus.”
This is absurd. We have known about this virus since at least December. Even I was writing about it when it was confined to Wuhan back in January. (I did call it the “Wuhan virus” at the time because it didn’t have another name and it was confined to the city.)
Here’s Trump in January at Davos:
Trump spoke to CNBC about the virus on Wednesday as fears grow around the world that it could become impossible to contain. “We have it totally under control,” Trump said from the World Economic Forum in Switzerland.
Asked about the confirmed case in Washington state, Trump responded: “It’s one person coming in from China. We have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.”
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday that a Washington state resident who was returning from China on Jan. 15 was diagnosed with the Wuhan coronavirus.
Trump said he believes that Xi and Chinese health officials will tell officials around the world everything they need to know about the virus, citing his “great relationship” with the Chinese president. Meanwhile, the first case of the coronavirus has been confirmed in Asia’s financial capital Hong Kong.
In all, China reported 440 confirmed cases on Wednesday, up from 218 on Tuesday.
A week later:
President Trump on Thursday spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping about the coronavirus after officials said more than 600 people had died from the disease in China.
“President Trump expressed confidence in China’s strength and resilience in confronting the challenge of the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak,” a White House spokesman said in a statement. “The two leaders agreed to continue extensive communication and cooperation between both sides.”
Please. Trump cared about his idiotic trade deal and didn’t care a bit about any of this. Now, as usual, he trying to blame them for the fact that he fucked up royally.