Messaging positives about the Coronavirus is the priority for Pence and avoiding any ‘alarmist’ statements. T of course wants the ‘hurry up, it’s fixed’ answers and blends his messaging to say that.
What a WTFery moment (among the thousands) for this nation to endure - real danger and a false front from the WH chief and his allies.
Yes, thank you Fauci is true to his word.
Several people within and close to the Department of Health and Human Services said Pence’s office was micromanaging communications related to the administration’s response, and was overly concerned with day-to-day news cycles and public perception rather than long-term strategy about how to contain the growing outbreak.
Two HHS officials said Pence’s office had implemented a top-down structure by dictating to the agency how it should be communicating with the public, emphasizing that officials should be honest and open but refrain from using “alarmist” language about the outbreak in interviews.
Some close to the administration were advising Pence’s staff to worry less about day-to-day news cycles and headlines. Instead, they have counseled the vice president’s office to be fully transparent with the public about why certain mitigation measures may be needed, such as closing schools, rather than worrying whether those precautions would spook the public, adding that the best thing to ensure the president’s reelection was to stamp out the outbreak.
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Throughout his presidency, Trump has obsessed over hourly news cycles, looking to win each one as opposed to patiently executing long-range strategies. But with coronavirus, some of his own administration officials privately say they are struggling to impress upon the president and his close advisers that they may need to weather some difficult news cycles to win the best headline of all: the eradication of the virus.
At a Monday roundtable meeting at the White House, Trump prodded pharmaceutical executives about how quickly they could get a coronavirus vaccine to market. He appeared not to understand the vaccine testing process, despite efforts by some executives to clarify the timeline, and incorrectly asserted that a vaccine could be ready “over the next few months” or “within a year.”
It fell to Fauci to correct the president.
“A year to a year and a half,” Fauci said.
Later on in the conversation, Trump chimed in, “I like the sound of a couple of months better, I must be honest with you.”
Fauci then asked that the pharmaceutical executives educate the president.
“Would you make sure you get the president the information that a vaccine that you make and start testing in a year is not a vaccine that’s deployable?” Fauci said. “So he’s asking the question, ‘When is it going to be deployable?’ And that is going to be, at the earliest, a year to a year and a half, no matter how fast you go.”
But on Tuesday, during a gathering of the National Association of Counties, Trump presented a rosy outlook. “We’re moving at a maximum speed to develop the therapies, not only the vaccines, but therapies,” he said. “Therapies is sort of another word for cure. ”
And he claimed that during his meeting with pharmaceutical executives, he had pressed the leaders to expedite the vaccine process.
“I said, ‘Do me a favor. Speed it up, speed it up,’ he said. “And they will. They are working really hard and quick.”
