Trump’s absurd claims about Covid-19 successes

“We have done a phenomenal job on the pandemic,” former President Donald Trump claimed during his recent debate with Vice President Kamala Harris.

As a former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), I know how absurd this statement is.

I witnessed firsthand the Trump administration’s mishandling of the pandemic. In early 2020, I repeatedly warned of critical medical supply shortages and the need for a coordinated national response. Because I raised these concerns and opposed the promotion of unproven, potentially dangerous treatments like hydroxychloroquine – which later studies showed were not only ineffective but may have contributed to unnecessary deaths – I faced retaliation and was ultimately fired from my office position removed. My experience underscores the government’s pattern of disregarding scientific expertise in favor of political opportunism and disinformation, an approach that has had devastating consequences not only for the American people but also for the public’s trust in science and public health institutions significantly undermined.

Still, Trump has tried to portray his administration’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic as a success story. However, a closer examination of the facts reveals a pattern of failures and denials that led to delayed action, misinformation and missed opportunities that cost American lives. Trump’s revisionist statements not only distort reality, but also pose a clear threat should he return to office.

“We have done a phenomenal job with the pandemic,” Trump claimed. But by the time he left office in January 2021, more than 400,000 Americans had died of Covid-19, a higher death toll than any other country at the time. The United States, despite its wealth and advanced health care infrastructure, has had one of the highest per capita mortality rates among developed countries.

This wasn’t inevitable. The effects of the virus could have been significantly mitigated through early, decisive action. A Columbia University study estimated that about 36,000 lives could have been saved if the U.S. had implemented comprehensive early response strategies just a week earlier, in March 2020. Instead of heeding experts’ warnings and preparing strong public health measures, Trump downplayed the threat for months.

The Trump administration failed to deliver a coordinated national strategy, particularly on testing, which allowed the virus to spread undetected for weeks. In January 2020, the World Health Organization developed a coronavirus test and offered it to countries worldwide. Trump’s HHS refused to allow the import, opting to develop its own test and blocking others in the US from conducting such a test. This decision proved disastrous as the tests developed by the CDC were found to be flawed, causing a significant delay in testing capabilities. Maybe this wasn’t Trump’s personal decision, but it was his HHS that allowed it.

By early March 2020, when South Korea was conducting more than 15,000 tests per day, the U.S. had conducted fewer than 10,000 total tests. This testing shortage continued for months. Again, it may not have been Trump’s fault to begin with, but he failed to exercise the kind of leadership that could have turned the situation around. He even denied reality and infamously declared on March 6, 2020, “Anyone who wants a test can get a test,” despite widespread reports of testing unavailability. The lack of sufficient and rapid testing made effective contact tracing and targeted isolation measures impossible, allowing the virus to spread unhindered.

Trump’s claim in the debate with Harris that “we made ventilators for the whole world” is nothing to brag about. While US hospitals faced critical shortages, thousands of ventilators were exported from January to March 2020. States competed for scarce resources as government reports revealed widespread price gouging and glaring contractual deficiencies. In March 2020, hospitals reported having to reuse single-use N95 masks, and some resorted to swimming goggles and trash bags as makeshift PPE. This systemic failure placed healthcare workers and patients at unnecessary risk, and over 3,200 healthcare workers died from Covid-19 in the first year of the pandemic. The subsequent burnout has led to a dangerous shortage of doctors and nurses in the country.

The situation in nursing homes was just as dramatic. Despite early evidence that older people are particularly vulnerable to Covid-19, the Trump administration failed to prioritize protecting nursing home residents. In September 2020, Time Magazine reported: “So far, the Trump administration has been talking big [on supporting nursing homes]— and largely undelivered.” As of December 2020, more than 100,000 residents and workers in long-term care facilities had died, accounting for about 40% of all U.S. coronavirus deaths at the time. The government’s delayed response in providing testing and PPE to these facilities contributed to this high death toll. In fact, it wasn’t until August 2020, months after the pandemic began, that the Trump administration made testing mandatory in nursing homes. This delay in action exposed many of the most vulnerable Americans to the virus in settings where it could spread quickly.

Operation Warp Speed, initiated under Trump’s administration, actually enabled the rapid development of Covid-19 vaccines, a remarkable success. But the vaccine rollout has been chaotic and its effectiveness has been significantly compromised by Trump’s own actions. Despite promises to deliver 40 million doses by the end of December 2020, fewer than 32 million doses had been delivered by mid-January 2021, of which less than half had been administered. Trump officials repeatedly overpromised about the availability of doses and mixed messages about a nonexistent vaccine reserve left states unprepared and confused.

More importantly, Trump’s continued disinformation about Covid-19 and his politicization of public health measures have undermined public trust in the vaccines. His messaging was inconsistent: He downplayed the need for vaccines and suggested they might be unsafe. Instead of posting a picture of himself getting vaccinated, as President Obama did with H1N1 in 2009, Trump received his vaccination “quietly,” as the New York Times reported, and “never publicly encouraged people during his time in office to to take them.” ”

All of this contributed to vaccine hesitancy among his supporters. A study found that counties that voted heavily for Trump had lower vaccination rates and higher Covid-19 death rates. While Operation Warp Speed ​​succeeded in quickly developing vaccines, Trump’s rhetoric significantly hindered the crucial task of getting those vaccines into arms.

Perhaps the most dangerous aspect of Trump’s response to the pandemic has been his role in spreading misinformation. A Cornell University study identified Trump as the single biggest driver of misinformation about Covid-19 during the pandemic. His promotion of hydroxychloroquine as a “game changer,” despite a lack of scientific evidence, led many to abuse the drug and appears to have resulted in unnecessary deaths.

As we face another election, it is important to remember these facts. Trump’s attempts to rewrite the history of his administration’s Covid-19 response must face strict scrutiny. His leadership failure – characterized by denial, disorganization and misinformation – had deadly consequences. Far from delivering a “phenomenal” response, Trump’s actions and inactions contributed to one of the worst public health disasters in American history.

If this revisionist narrative is allowed to go unchallenged, it not only dishonors the memory of the hundreds of thousands of Americans who have died, but also poses a direct threat to the future of the nation.

Rick Bright is managing director of Bright Global Health, a global strategic advisory organization focused on improving response to public health emergencies.