Trump’s schtick claims that because of the early stoppage of some flights from China (40,000 people entered the US from China after the ban) thousands of lives were saved. This dubious claim obviously did not affect the spread of the virus from other locations.
The NY Times published an article that traced the source of the epidemic in New York to travelers from Europe. And of course the epidemic in Europe first started from travelers from China. Trump in his uninformed comment on the article revealed that he either didn’t read the article or simple didn’t understand what the article was documenting.
This article points out Trump’s misinterpretation of facts: “Contrary to Trump’s assertions, the Times’ story never said that the coronavirus originated in Europe. Instead, the article details research findings that suggest a majority of the first cases of the coronavirus disease, or COVID-19, in New York City resulted from travelers from Europe. “New research indicates that the coronavirus began to circulate in the New York area by mid-February, weeks before the first confirmed case,” the story begins, “and that travelers brought in the virus mainly from Europe, not Asia.”
And by inference:
“The findings indicate that the virus, which goes by the name SARS-CoV-2, was being passed around for weeks prior to the first confirmed case in the city, which was announced on March 1. That suggests that the president’s travel restrictions, which applied to China on Feb. 2, Iran on March 2 and the bulk of Europe on March 13, had little effect on the outbreak in New York City, which has been the largest in the country.”
Medicynical note: Trump doesn’t get it. What doesn’t he get? EVERYTHING.
He’s intellectually limited and unfit. He would have been gently retired from any executive position in any organization months ago for such obvious gaffs.
Medicynic 