Donald Trump's fixation on setting a deadline for "reopening" the
country — first it was Easter Sunday, now it appears to be May 1 — is
currently the leading indicator of his complete lack of understanding of
what is required from a government during a pandemic.

If the goal is to get society back to normal, you don't announce a date
and then try to justify it.

You set conditions that must be met, and then try to meet them.

Just look at what Gov. Gavin Newsom is doing in California. On Tuesday,
he unveiled a list of six goals that need to be achieved before local
officials can begin letting residents go back to work and school.

Top of the list is that the community has enough routine and widespread
testing to monitor its residents for coronavirus infection, has the
ability to trace patients' recent contacts, and has ways to isolate or
quarantine those who test positive or may have been exposed.

That is precisely what public health officials have been saying is
needed for weeks and weeks and weeks.

That should be the standard to which Big Journalism holds Trump
accountable every single day.

And these are the most important questions the press should be asking at
every single briefing: Have you established what conditions need to be
met before parts of the country can start to lift their stay-at-home
orders? What are you doing to help the states meet those conditions? How
much progress are you making?

A key subsidiary question: Since widespread testing is so essential —
and, by some estimates, we will need millions of tests performed daily —
why aren't we testing dramatically more people every day? Why is the
daily testing rate over the last two weeks essentially flat? That should
be setting off alarm bells.

Everything else is a distraction: Which date has Trump settled on now?
Did he really mean it when he talked smack about his "absolute
authority"? Did he mean it when he seemed to back off? Why is he
attacking the World Health Organization? What is Jared up to?

That doesn't mean these other stories don't deserve some coverage — they
most certainly do. But just because they seem newsy, it doesn't follow
that they're the biggest news, deserving the top of the page, the
multiple analyses and the star bylines.

The biggest news is: How much closer are we to getting back to normal?
Or has Trump wasted yet another day?

How much progress have we made? How much further do we need to go?

Newsom's announcement on Tuesday made the California governor a useful
point of comparison for Trump.

As the Associated Press reported, Newsom announced that before allowing
residents to return to work and school, local officials must be su

They have enough routine and widespread testing to monitor the
population at large for coronavirus infections, and have the ability to
trace patients' recent contacts and isolate or quarantine those who test
positive or may have been exposed to someone who has the virus.
They can protect the most vulnerable populations: those who are
older, have underlying health issues, or are in crowded settings like
nursing homes, prisons or jails.
That the state's health care system can handle surges, with enough
ventilators, staff and personal protective equipment ready to go.
That it has the best known treatment options identified and in
proper supply to meet demand, and is working with academia, technology
companies and medical researchers to develop more and better options.
That businesses, schools and child care facilities can function
while keeping people at least six feet apart to limit coronavirus spread.
Finally, that they can quickly reimpose restrictions like
stay-at-home orders if the virus flares again.


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MAGA - Manipulating America's Gullible Assholes