President didn’t follow government’s own manual for responding to pandemic

Editor:

I write to settle the unfortunate bickering about the handling of COVID-19 and daily changes in stories from the President since January.  While fact checking I found the previously uncirculated and complete 2016 National Security Council manual on pandemics. It is embedded in full in this article which follows.

The “play book” is fully indexed and has appendixes with contact and capability information detailed about who should do what in a pandemic of THIS magnitude – the why, what, when, and under what circumstances are laid out. If it had been followed there would be none of these distracting arguments now. The complete playbook (manual) is found by clicking here.

The existence of the Manual in the NSC office located in the White House settles any argument that the response has been anything other than abysmal. By January 23rd our scientists had confirmed COVID was just as highly with droplet (sneeze) transmission as suggested by China. That is the last date for any excuses not to turn the page to “1918” type outbreaks and those “additional” measures. Social distancing, tests, were weeks late by then.

Before President Trump was elected there was a fear that a property developer might not be up to the challenges of the Presidency in a crisis. Now we all have to pray our President, President Trump, finally listens to the actual experts and  executes the plan! You know I think it should be the United States Armed Forces in charge but no matter these delays are killing people.

Worse, if this President had simply funded the Bush/Cheney/Obama/Biden “Arura” project in 2017 we already would have 70,000 more ventilators.  (Look it up you Doubting Thomas’s and apologists.)

Frankly, we need to spend as little time talking about President Trump as he does thinking up and pitching all these daily yarns he then has to “clarify” or back down on. It’s bad faith use of the Bully Pulpit that both presidents Roosevelt – one Republican and one Democrat – used to lead us through and out of catastrophe.

Conrad F. Cropsey

Albion