It's impossible to ever know, just a thought. I agree that a democratic POTUS would be more likely to try and shut down states but from what I understand, that's the governors choice and the ones who opened early are republican lead states which would be the first to not listen to a democratic president.flyingember wrote: ↑Wed Jul 01, 2020 12:52 pmThat's fundamentally impossible to be true.DColeKC wrote: ↑Wed Jul 01, 2020 12:09 pm
Aware of all of this, I still believe that if this had happened under Obama, even with all those teams and plans in place, we still would be in a similar situation as we currently are with Covid-19. It seems like all those brilliant scientific minds had some great ideas, but making sure we have a national stockpile of PPE and medical equipment wasn't one of them. With hindsight, that seems like such a basic concept and hopefully one we take seriously for the next pandemic.
Let's assume the response plan was the same and the same skilled team was there and let's say the executive branch teams and governors are all equally capable and willing in both cases. Let's assume the same or similar issues with supplies, since that's a fair point.
Trump did order certain flight controls early on and that's about where I imagine history splits at in this what if.
Fundamentally a Democrat like Obama would be more likely to give executive order requiring all governors to make plans to shut down compared to a Republican more focused on it being a state decision with similar fed vs state decisions coming in all the other aspects early on of note. One thing never done is any sort of national decision mobilizing the medical community towards fighting Covid instead of the private decision to shut down, something I picture a Democrat doing more
A huge part of our problem is the response was too different across the country with too many different standards.
We can see this even hyper local where KC does something, the state of KS does the same thing a little later but Clay County (outside KC) does something different.
Completely agree the chaotic response from state to state didn't help. I guess it's easy to sit here right now and say it would have been smart to completely shut down all states for 2-3 months back in March or earlier.
For me, a nobody, I feel like part of the plan to prepare for a future pandemic is not only a massive national stockpile of PPE and other various medical equipment, but also pandemic centers in every major city with enough beds to satisfy that cities potential demand. These places can be built to be sterile and remain dormant until needed. It would make for a great federally funded infrastructure program by creating jobs that also prepare us for the future of pandemics and would likely save us trillions of dollars down the road.