Instead of dealing with the reality on the ground of an unexpected virus that came from a lab in China, which was not disclosed until it started to spread and was too late to contain, causing a deadly pandemic, the author chose to criticize every heroic effort President Trump made to prevent it from spreading throughout the United States. This pandemic was an accident waiting to happen because of the neglect of former administrations, the greed of certain professionals and politicians and Big Pharma. It is far too convenient to place blame on the man the media has turned into a pariah, largely because of its left-wing control and something called Trump Derangement Syndrome. The effort to deny where the virus came from, the political atmosphere that accepted China’s refusal to be investigated or to tell the truth, the Democrats that openly defied every effort of President Trump to contain the virus and reassure the public, Dr.Fauci and the NIH’s complicity in supporting the “Gain of Function” research that created this monster that invaded our lives causing thousands of deaths and illness, a shut down in our economy and stolen years from the future of our youth, were only part of the reason that this pandemic thrived.
Trump did a monumental job of keeping the number of deaths far lower than the expectations of the so-called experts. He engaged Big Pharma, greedy as they might be, to go full speed ahead without the draconian regulations usually holding them back. He enabled the fastest rollout of a vaccine ever before in our nation’s history. Did this author give him credit? No, and for that reason this is not an honest telling of a story, but rather a fairy tale based on so called experts, 1-a 14 year-old girl with a science project, who with the help of her father (a dubious practice), devised a theory about tracking disease, 2-a couple of young men who, as kind of joke, created a pandemic plan based on children who were the super spreaders (which in this case was totally wrong), 3-and a woman in the healthcare chain that thought she had a sixth sense, although she had many failures, notably one with a TB patient who had the rare Oaxaca strain. Their suggestions, though they claim to have been behind the scenes, coupled with the control of the CDC, which didn’t suddenly become inept under President Trump, led the way to our disastrous efforts to stop COVID 19.
Even as the author still pretends the geniuses saved us, the death rate under our new President, who swore he could stop the pandemic and cure cancer, has risen under his guidance. Their protocols were based on the false premise that our children needed to be confined. This led to a shut-down of the economy, office closures, school closings, and more poverty and stimulus packages that enabled those least ambitious to give up working permanently. Although the virus was supposedly from a bat, supported by the “esteemed” scientist who is more political than cerebral, we failed to address the real origin of the virus, the lab in Wuhan, China, that Dr. Fauci and the NIH supported and were complicit with in “gain of function” research. As panic spread and lockdowns followed, there were shortages of crucial supplies. To preserve them for health care workers, the population was told lies, but still, masks and gloves and disinfectant, and such basic needs as toilet paper, flew off the shelves creating shortages never seen before. Hoarding became widespread. When the President tried to tone down the rhetoric and stop the politicization of the pandemic, to calm the public, he was fought on every front by a party that saw its way to victory, if they exploited it. That behavior led to thousands more deaths than necessary, but Lewis did not mention that at all. Although President Trump approved “the right to try medications” not yet totally approved, if there was no other alternative, hospitals controlled by the left refused the therapeutics and mocked them instead. Lewis left that out of the book. He made no mention of sanctuary cities in California where illegal immigrants were probably spreading the virus. He made no mention of the fact that the accolades about California’s success were untrue, since they had the worst record with the number of cases.
When the Navy hospital ship was sent to New York City to help contain the virus, it was refused, and instead, the elderly victims who were targeted the most by this virus, were sent to die in their nursing homes. The man who was responsible for murdering them, Andrew Cuomo, was praised and honored. He received millions from a book deal praising his approach to the virus, all this while a press that was given awards for its coverage printed lie after lie, supported obstruction and defiance from the left, and prevented lives from being saved. They favored politics rather than the science, although they screamed follow the science. Crime surged, looting and rioting and the taking over of cities was ignored and actually encouraged. Possibly political geniuses knew this would advantage their cause, the winning of an election with emergency rules that were often unconstitutional and illegal, but were ignored in the face of all the country was forced to experience. This happened because of a virus legitimately called the “China Virus”, from where it originated and was spread, and from where the deception that caused its spread throughout the world began.
The so-called geniuses were correct when they sought to find out how long the incubation period was, how fast did the virus spread, how could it be treated, but they seemed more interested in statistics than in actual treatment. Although they promoted treatment, the Democrats then mocked the therapeutics we had available. Critically ill patients were treated incorrectly causing a cytokine storm. Patients literally suffocated as they received oxygen. The testing effort gave us much needed information, even as companies gouged the public with the cost, but the vaccine and therapeutic drugs gave us better results and immediate control over a disastrous situation. Still, the defiance from political ‘geniuses’ like Nancy Pelosi, mocked the President by pretending the virus was harmless. She led a delegation of hapless democrats into Chinatown, mocking the shutdown of China, and with Biden, called President Trump unwarranted names for which they never apologized. Lewis makes no mention of this incident or of our current President’s behavior toward the then President, Trump, in spite of the fact that Biden has failed to control the virus as he promised. He said Trump should not be President because he did not control the virus, as if it could be controlled any more than Cancer, but then Biden has failed in that promise also. There is no mention of Biden or his failures in the book at all. Shutting down the economy and schools, as Lewis’ so-called geniuses suggested, turned out to have very negative effects on America. The geniuses thought it was worse for people to die than to keep the country going, dismissing the number of hungry children who used to eat in schools as minimal, dismissing mental health issues and rising crime, dismissing the worldview and loss of stature for our country. Pollyanna like, they believed that it would all work out as they said it would. Yet, even though we are now suffering from the agonies of the plans that the left promoted, there is no mea culpa, anyplace at all. It is as if willful blindness and deafness is the real pandemic.
The genius Charity Dean, believes she is clairvoyant. She became the darling of the scientific world in spite of her many failures, because she was a feisty, arrogant woman in a time when the left was promoting women. Her greatest achievement was demanding respect for herself. Another genius is Carter Mecher. He, on the other hand, had the unique ability to think out of the box, but not to carry through which led to a lack of progress in previous years, as well. A third genius, Joe DeRisi, had a miracle chip which could analyze information accurately, especially in terms of genomes. His efforts had largely been ignored by the previous administrations as well as Trump’s. The government has always been a sloth when it comes to progress, and it is up to the people in the rank and file to save us, but they failed. They are quick to cry foul and attract the media’s attention when it is a social issue, but not, it seems, when it comes to the survival of our country.
Teachers refused to go back to the classroom. Suicides rose in young and old. The government assistance packages swelled so much that no one wanted or needed to go back to work, though that theory was mocked. Even today, there is a shortage of filled jobs, yet no shortage of human beings to fill them. Laziness and a lack of ambition have thrived as a result of the effort to stop the pandemic. This effort has spawned so much negative energy and divisiveness in the United States, and yet it is what the author is praising. This left-wing politicization of the pandemic has not only failed to create a better society, it has almost succeeded in destroying it with its growing effort to divide us all on every issue. A President is not G-d. He cannot say let there be an end to the pandemic, like G-d is said to have said, “Let there be light!”. Trump had to rely on the advice of the authorities and scholars, the very same who defied him and worked against him in secret, instead of working with him. While the buck evidently stopped at his desk, now that it is in the hands of President Biden, it still stops at his desk, according to this author. Biden’s failure to contain the virus, the rise in the number of deaths and the failure of the vaccine to prevent re-infection, are all being ignored by the author. Yet this is supposedly a work of non-fiction. It is no different than many of the books praised today that only present one side of the story, the side the author agrees with, and yet it is considered a legitimate, authentic presentation of facts. The author could have used facts to present all sides of the issue. He could have made mention of the fact that while our dinner parties were being labeled as super spreaders, our church services were banned, while our children were deprived of socialization, our economy declined. Marching in the street, protesting, shouting and not social distancing was encouraged by the left and was not tracked for fear of showing their hypocrisy. Activists defied the rules, probably spreading the virus, and they were being encouraged to continue to do so by those suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome. Where was a mention of this in the book? He could have relied on facts, but he didn’t.
In the end, many of the suggestions supported by these geniuses and the author, have not been borne out. The super spreaders were not children, but they were treated as the culprits. The hue and cry today is even worse than in the past, with equity rather than quality being pursued. We are not hiring the best and the brightest to solve our problems, instead we are hiring a cornucopia of unqualified candidates in our desire to hire a rainbow of people. It is a recipe for continued failure, as we hire poorly qualified people to fill important positions of power. This is not a product of President Trump’s behavior or choices, but a product of the left-wing zealots in America, falsely believing that any means justifies their end of bringing about what they view as justice to the world.
So, while Michael Lewis is a writer that is easy to read, he is obviously writing for an audience that does not want to be taxed with thinking too much, but rather to be spoon fed. This is a book written for those who want to be given information that conforms to their beliefs, both in science and in politics. They don’t want to question the message; they just want to accept it even if it defies what they see and witness with their own eyes. It is easier to blame Trump for the lack of readiness for a pandemic, instead of the actual prior administrations that failed to address their own pandemic adequately, but lucked out when it petered out for unknown reasons, that failed to resupply the medical closets they ransacked, that failed to pursue a better plan to fight a future pandemic. Why, you might ask, did Lewis not inform the reader that Biden failed in his attempt to control the pandemic he was in charge of, under Obama’s administration? Monday morning quarterbacks look back and rather than give credit to the man who was tasked to find a solution to an unknown virus, without any of the tools necessary, who was balked at every turn by those against him, who did not work with him but obstructed him, hoping he would fail, they continue to falsely condemn him, politicizing the deadly disease. Democrat run cities fared the worst and continue to do so, but no mention is made by Lewis. Instead, the worst, California is praised, falsely, as Andrew Cuomo was, and the best, Florida, is not given any credit. Trump Derangement Syndrome is the pandemic that will destroy the country.
The book was interesting when it dealt with issues of autism, senior care, loneliness, PTSD, sexual identity and sexual abuse, but it didn’t develop these subjects, instead it just touched upon them as a way to introduce and dwell on irresponsible behavior, sexual deviance and lust. It presented a cast of miserable characters who never seemed to really suffer any consequences for their poor behavior. In fact, the only ones who paid for their errors in judgment were their victims, those upon whom they inflicted their selfishness. Although the sexual descriptions were not very graphic, they seemed to occupy most of the book. The language used by the author was crude. Both male and female characters seemed to think with a brain that was located somewhere between their waists and their thighs and nowhere near their heads. They were immature and irresponsible. They all served their own needs first and foremost barely thinking of the consequences of their foolishness.
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