The problem isn't a lack of information. It's Trump.

[Zorro]

As President Trump, his advisers and his allies in Congress continue to try to frame the World Health Organization for Trump’s failure to prepare for the pandemic, new evidence shows that U.S. and WHO officials in China were in constant contact with each other in the crucial days of January, as the virus spread.

U.S. personnel working in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing met extensively with WHO officials there in the month of January, the time when Trump accuses the WHO of conspiring with China to hide the true danger of the novel coronavirus. According to people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity, U.S. officials in Beijing had at least 10 telephonic or in-person meetings — and likely more — with WHO officials in the month of January.

Trump administration officials from the Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health were among those conferring regularly in Beijing with WHO officials, twice in the week of Jan. 6, three times in the week of Jan. 13, three times in the week of Jan. 20 and twice in the week of Jan. 27. These were in addition to informal calls between U.S. and WHO officials in Beijing. The meetings, which continued in February and March, were with WHO officials ranging from those based in China to WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus; Michael Ryan, head of the WHO’s emergencies program; and Bruce Aylward, who led a WHO mission to Wuhan, China, in February.

The Post’s Karen DeYoung, Lena H. Sun and Emily Rauhala confirmed on Sunday that U.S. officials were working full-time at the WHO’s Geneva headquarters as the virus spread and transmitted information in real time to the Trump administration. The latest revelations add to a picture of U.S. officials working collaboratively with the WHO — until Trump, trying to blunt criticism of his own handling of the virus, decided to make the WHO a scapegoat. Last week, he said he’d cut off funding for the WHO and accused the international body of being a “tool” of communist China.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/04/20/trumps-attempt-frame-who-only-shows-his-failure-act/

[2naSalit]

1. K&R

[brewens]

2. I'd like to see someone determine when the term "communist China" was first used by

Trump, anyone in his administration or Hannity since this all started. I hadn't heard them called that for years. It's like with the "Chinese virus". It's the coronavirus all along, then all of a sudden using "Chinese virus" is all over the place.

[zipplewrath]

3. Yes, and...

The GOP, or at least those inside the White House are trying to use this to demonstrate how federalism and public private partnerships are the way to handle these things. Instead of choosing to become the "global supply chain" for the virus response, Pence and the task force are trying to push things down to the states and private companies. The problem is that each element of that is currently uncoordinated and as such there are gaps and broken links in the chain.

I've been in charge of large programs with hundreds of direct, and thousands of indirect participants. I encouraged independent thought and action. Never don't act on what your expertise tells you is the right thing to do. But, ALWAYS communicate upwards, and across the organization what those actions and decisions are, immediately. Alternately, when that communication fails, it was always my fault. My entire job was to know what was going on and making sure that all communication channels were "closed". My biggest frustration was answers like "I didn't read that email" or "I forgot about that coordination meeting.

Listening to them explain that governors didn't know what they had or that equipment wasn't getting to the final point of need just says to me that the White House is screwing up.

[Haggis for Breakfast]

4. Smoke and mirrors . . .

[ffr]

5. Correction: Impeached president tRump or IMPotus for short

Carry on.

[brer cat]

6. K&R