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    PANDEMIC? WHAT PANDEMIC?

    Mar 29, 2020 7 minutes
    by PAUL THOMAS
    illustration by WEEF

    On January 22, US President Donald Trump assured the nation that “we have [the coronavirus situation] totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China. It’s going to be just fine.”

    Last weekend, the Washington Post reported that in late January, the White House started receiving a flow of intelligence briefings warning of a pandemic: “Taken together, the warnings painted an early picture of a virus that showed the characteristics of a globe-encircling pandemic that would require governments to take swift action to contain it.”

    Trump and his administration took no notice. Indeed, they continued to insist that they knew better than those sounding the alarm and there was nothing to worry about.

    On February 10, White House acting Budget director Russell Vought said, “The coronavirus is not something that is going to have ripple effects.” On February 24, Trump claimed, “The coronavirus is very much under control in the USA … stock market is starting to look very good to me.” On February 26, by which time there were 60 confirmed cases in the US, Trump said, “We’re going very substantially down,

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