GAO report on Trump’s handling of pandemic finds programs never implemented and money gone missing – By Mark Sumner (Daily Kos) / Feb 3 2021
It’s no surprise to anyone that Donald Trump did a horrible job in managing the COVID-19 crisis. From refusing to wear a mask, to promoting snake oil cures, to actively promoting state-level insurrections against governors who attempted to impose even minimal social distancing, Trump did everything possible to make the situation worse. In statistics that have become heartbreakingly familiar, the United States has only 4% of the world’s population, but has somehow managed to have over 25% of the entire world’s cases of COVID-19. Deaths are slightly better. Still, over 20% of all COVID-19 deaths in the world are in the United States — and that’s despite evidence that the U.S. is frequently undercounting those deaths.
There are a few nations out there which have managed to score a higher rate of deaths by population, or even total cases by population. But this is mostly statistical noise generated by the presence of dozens of tiny nation-states (i.e. San Marino’s 69 deaths are a tragedy, but not really a condemnation of the way this tiny micro-state surrounded by Italy handled the pandemic). Really, just about the only nation that’s done as poorly in dealing with the pandemic is Czechia. That nation—with about the same population as the state of Georgia—is currently blazing through both cases and deaths. It’s also overrun with protests over the closing of bars and pubs. Because people. But to be honest, Czechia appeared to skate through earlier rounds of COVID-19 with little damage, only to be swamped by this last surge bolstered by new fast-spreading variants.
So it’s not as if Czechia has had a horrible response throughout the entire pandemic, the way the United States did under Trump. And now a new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) makes it clear just how miserable Trump’s handling of the pandemic really was.
The 340-page report from the GAO pulls no punches right from the start. The agency says that it “remains deeply troubled” that of 31 recommendations it made in previous reports issued in June and September, 27 remained unimplemented as Trump was going out the door. These programs represent “critical gaps” in addressing the pandemic, and particularly in suppling PPE, vaccines, and other medical supplies to states and facilities where they are most needed.
