Trump administration has many task forces -- but still no plan for beating covid-19

[left-of-center2012]

The Trump administration still has no clear plan for ending the coronavirus crisis, but it does have many task forces.

There is the official task force led by Vice President Pence that meets daily and is supposed to oversee the government’s sprawling response to the pandemic that has cratered the economy and, as of Saturday, killed more than 20,000 in the United States alone. There is the “Opening Our Country Council,” an economic task force announced Friday that is focused on reopening portions of the economy as quickly as possible. There is the group that reports directly to President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, a cadre dismissively dubbed “the shadow task force” that helps Kushner with his roving list of virus troubleshooting.

And there is also the “doctors group,” a previously unreported offshoot of the original task force that huddles daily to discuss medical and public health issues, created in part to push back against demands that the health experts view as too reckless. In theory, the task forces are all working toward the same goal: defeating the novel coronavirus and getting the nation back to work — and life — as quickly as possible. But the reality is far more complicated: a bureaucratic nesting doll of groups with frequently competing aims and agendas.

As a result, an administration that has lagged behind at nearly every step of the pandemic still has no consensus plan for when or how to reopen parts of the economy, even as the president and many advisers push to do so as soon as May 1. There is still no concerted plan for getting vital medical supplies to states, which are left to fight among themselves or seek favors from Trump. There is also no developed plan for what happens if cases or deaths spike as people begin to return to work, or how to respond if the coronavirus surges again in the fall, as many public health experts and administration officials fear.

One of the biggest obstacles to the virus response is Trump himself. Even the most dutiful plans and projects often get caught up in the chaos of the White House. Advisers spend significant time trying to manage the president and his whims — from successfully dissuading him from seeking to reopen the country at Easter to tempering his impulse to push unproven drugs as miracle elixirs. Basic hospital supplies are still so lagging that on Thursday, Pence suggested that medical professionals “recycle gowns.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-task-forces-coronavirus-pandemic/2020/04/11/5cc5a30c-7a77-11ea-a130-df573469f094_story.html

[Newest Reality]

1. You just don't

You just don't argue with a dictator, especially when he has an "invisible enemy" in his head and doesn't realize that he is it.

I get tired of the term "President" being used in regards to Benito's reincarnation. If a fireman acted like a dog catcher, he could have a badge and outfit that indicates fireman, but he would still be a dog catcher because that's what we see him actually doing.

We have a dictator, now. The GOP supports that fully, as we have seen over and over again. There is an agenda. It simmers underneath the facade that is being presented about this major, devastating national and global crisis.

That should be emphasized. It can be substantiated and summed up in several paragraphs, but it gets diluted and distorted in the barrage of media that we encounter now, so it is hidden in plain sight.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

2. This is what's keeping me up most nights

Trump is severely mismanaging all of this but claiming that, because the curve is reportedly starting to flatten, now's the time basically to go back to business as usual and has no plan for safely doing that and I have zero expectations of him being able to even handle that (or anything else) responsibly.

[Midnight Writer]

3. This is not fair. Trump has a plan. He plans for the virus to "just go away like a miracle".