Testing

DROM THE WHITE HOUSE hung a gaudy, gauche, arrogant banner, reading: "the world's leader in testing". A lie, of course. When the world's wealthiest country with a population of over three hundred and thirty five million people has tested fewer than ten million of its citizens by the middle of may, bragging is hardly appropriate. But leave it to the Trump white House to do the bragging anyway, under false pretenses, always bragging, always touting accomplishments which never happened, always seeking the spotlight, the glory, the hero worship. Every American should have been tested for Covid 19 by now, long since. The test kits obviously exists, the methods works, because it is being used in the White House, for the important people, daily. The kits exist is grossly insufficient numbers, to test all the rest of us, the little people, who, according to the spokesperson for Trump, it would be silly to even try to test for deadly viral infection. Determination, leadership, leadership, and organization could have, should have accomplished the massive task, should have been instigated by early February. Testing, and contact tracing, and the virus could have been halted in its tracks, merely by quarantining those who needed quarantining, and letting the rest of us continue to work. We need never have all been sheltered in our homes, hiding from a virus which could have been effectively dealt with with a sustained, concerted project uniting the government and the free market business sector, and, of course, the military. There was never any need to devastate the economy with a massive shut down, nor to sacrifice thousands of lives. Suppose each test costs one hundred dollars. That means one billion tests would have cost one hundred billion dollars, a lot of money to be sure, but only a fraction of the money spent, sent out to every American American, trillions of dollars of lifeline which was required only because of inadequate testing and record keeping of social contacts. Between now and the election the Trump campaign will ceaselessly brag about its about its leadership in fighting the virus, but it will all be a huge lie, with e over a hundred thousand dead Americans and a wrecked economy to prove it.