So both botched how they responded to viruses. Reagan administration knew of the problem, then proceeded to willfully ignore and downplay the fact for several years. No amount of historical revision is going to change that fact. China concealed human to human transmission for 3 critical weeks before finally admitting they had a problem. No amount of historical revision will change that either.
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/heal...e-tracking-critical-moments-covid-19-n1154341
There is no excuse for the failure of US to properly prepare for COVID-19, especially ample time and warning. WHO notified its members of the outbreak on December 31. Virus genome was shared on January 12. World public health emergency was declared on January 30. Even Canada was way more prepared despite how limp dick Trudeau had been in general. For Trump to say he was blindsided is simply an attempt to deflect blame, just like the CCP is trying to deflect blame by pointing to AIDS and Swine Flu.
Global pandemic, economic depression, rising xenophobia and weakened UN bodies, things are starting to come full circle from the 1920's. Where we're headed, it ain't a good direction.
Other than the Trumpers no one is actually absolving Trump of culpability. And I am certainly not defending Reagan administration's response to the AIDS epidemic either. The issue I have is in believing China's actions now is on par with Regan admin's actions.
Here are some major differences between the Wuhan virus and HIV
- The HIV virus arose in Western / West Central Africa, not the US. Wuhan virus arose in China. Yet the Chinese government's tweet makes it appear as if the US was the origin.
- As with the 1918 influenza pandemic, where Spain was the first country to publickly report on the new virus, the US was the first country to report on the then new disease.
- While the first known case of the virus is from the early part of the 20th century, outbreaks in the later part of the 20th century did not just happen in the US, they happened in Haiti and Europe and there is no reason to assume these outbreaks came from the US. Researches believe 100K - 300K people worldwide were infected before 1981, when US doctors first started noticing a new disease afflicting gay men.
- HIV is not highly contagious like Wuhan virus / Sars-Cov-2, i.e. you are not going to get it just by breathing the same air as an infected person or touching an infected person. The highly pathogenic nature of Sars-Cov-2 makes the actions of the CCP far more serious.
- The US did not proactively silence doctors / whistle blowers
- Back then (the early 80s) obviously you did not have 24/7 news and internet to inform political leaders and society on this new deadly disease that was found in a sub-culture. Considering the prevalence and immediacy of mass media now, Chinese officials had knowledeg of the issue shortly after the virus outbreak. In 1981 when US medial staff noticed the disease they didn't even know what it was and consequetly how serious it was. It wasn't until 1983 that scientists even realized it was a virus causing AIDS.
I don't even like the Regan the admin, considering them one of the worst enablers of human rights violations, for their support of genocidal death squads and dictators, so I have no reason to defend them. I just think drawing a comparison between the Wuhan virus and the CCP's handling to Regan admin's handling is not a apples to apples comparison.