owlnguava:

saint-hildegard-of-bingen:

psych2012:

sirrah1940:

freekentuckythinker:

LOL

That’s a joke…right???

His supporters believe him, unfortunately.

Does he think hoax is a synonym for pandemic?

I’m not very tuned into US politics/current news so I don’t know the details about how he lied etc. However, perhaps I can offer another perspective as a foreigner. Being a Hong Konger, I’m wary of China. So when news of a SARS like virus broke in December, I pricked up my ears even the news were somehow sporadic because of Chinese censorship, but they were solid. We knew 100% the virus was going to hit our city. I ordered my supplies in early January. Meanwhile, businesses were getting ready, while our local government was dragging their feet because they dared not go against China’s narrative (that it was nothing serious, that the doctors who broke the news were rumour-mongering and arrested. They even allowed a banquet celebrating Chinese New Year with over 10,000 people to go ahead which needless to say made the outbreak worse. 5 million Wuhanese already left town and scattered all over the country and the world before things got out of hand and Wuhan had to lock down).

Anyway, I digress. But what I knew must also be known to the US government too. A lot of companies were making preparations. My sister works for a US company and they dived right into enhancing their remote work capacities, and creating contingency protocols for their offices and plants. They were ready for many offices around Asia to work from home starting in the latter half of January. My sister was surprised how quickly her US team was in making this happen. As it turned out, they were following CDC advice, instead of WHO, who was also dragging their feet in confirming the severity of the outbreak and human-to-human transmission because their Director-General clearly takes orders from Beijing (which is another story… won’t expound lol)

It’s clear to me the US government knew about a serious epidermic in China from early January on, as they were able to give recommendations to US companies with Asia Pacific operations. I don’t know why Trump said it was a hoax before or the context on which he said it, but as far as I can see, he or the US government probably thought stopping some flights and international arrivals were enough, or they just sat and watched and thought for a whole month that the virus somehow wouldn’t travel across the Pacific.

A few words on WHO. Their Director-General changed his tune every two days or so. By the time he called it a pandemic, it had been for at least weeks. That declaration was meaningless so Trump wasn’t exactly wrong when he said he knew before it was declared because so many people did too. Doesn’t excuse his terrible handling of the crisis of course.

A Hongkonger working in China for years. When the “rumours” hit the news stands in Hong Kong early Jan, I also prepped my office in China by stocking up disinfectants and masks (that’s how we survived SARS in 2003, which was also originated in China and spread out of control because of information censorship).

Nothing CCP shared with WHO we trust. WHO waited till long enough for the official figures in China are significantly declined to declare it pandemic. As victims of CCP’s authoritarian rule, Hongkongers have known and many medical experts in Hong Kong were already openly warning the world.

Neither the government and people in the West have given adequate airtime before, except that Asians are overreacting. I don’t know what’s going on politically on the other side of the world and Trump is the last person on earth I would defend.

But I’m afraid it’s a very painful lesson to learn here, CCP has lied and withheld information even to WHO and its people (they don’t care if hundreds thousands people die, they have 1.4B population. Even many Chinese are celebrating their victory of fighting the virus already, when unknown number of people died at hospitals or at home alone in the dark. They can’t even put up with other fellow Chinese who call out the CCP government of lies and inactions for weeks at the beginning).

If your governments are counting on the international organisations like WHO, which are obviously infiltrated by CCP over the years, I’m afraid it’s too late and too little they know about the magnitude of this disaster.

Take things into your own hands. Be safe for others, be home so your medics can go home unharmed.