Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for April 12, 2020

Before somebody posts comment about how Obama handled H1N1, I am posting this. Feel free to check the accuracy.

The first case in the US was reported on April 14, 2009. The virus that caused H1N1 was identified on April 26.

A Public Health Emergency was declared on April 28.The CDC immediately released 25% of the anti-flu drugs in the national stockpile to be made available to states and local governments.

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/2009-pandemic-timeline.html

On April 28 Obama requested Congress issue $1.5B in Emergency funds to states and communities for vaccines and drugs.

https://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/29/us/politics/29obama.text.html?searchResultPosition=4

Unfortunately, the H1N12009 was resistant to the vaccines available. Obama requested funding for new vaccine. It was opposed by 2 GOP Reps in Congress who were — believe it or not — doctors. They blamed the push for a new vaccine on “media driven panic.”

https://www.politico.com/blogs/on-congress/2009/05/gop-docs-blame-flu-panic-for-vaccine-push-018176

A new vaccine was available within 6 months. Pharmaceutical companies announced they were ready to start work on the vaccine on May 14. The first doses were delivered in the US on the October 5. H1N1 was more virulent among young people than older people — many of whom had developed an immunity to the virus from previous exposure to flu vaccines. Obama led by example and had his daughters immunized to ease apprehension among some about the vaccine (see 1976 swine flu vaccine fiasco).

https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/us/politics/28shots.html?searchResultPosition=1

Another problem with the H1N1 2009 was that it was resistant to the the anti-flu drugs available at the time. Even though the CDC had released 25% of the anti-flu drugs in the stockpile, the drugs weren’t working.

When a new drug showed promise, the FDA gave emergency approval so they could be used immediately; the CDC ordered 10,000 doses to

Bonespurs’ motto on lying is “cheaper by the dozen”.

There’s that word again: “fact.” What does it mean?

H1N1 was originally known as the Spanish Flu when it infected the United States in 1918, causing 675,000 deaths (which, adjusted to today’s larger population, would be the equivalent of TWO MILLION deaths).

When it returned in 2009, in Obama’s first year, he acted immediately to identify, isolate and contain, and it barely made a ripple. Obama, newly inaugurated and in his first year, was faced with turning around the massive economic collapse he inherited from Bush and two wars resulting from Bush’s failures to connect dots and understand intelligence. Obama did it all. Stopped the H1N1 in its tracks AND successfully reversed the steady job losses and turned them into a record number of consecutive months of job gains while tripling the stock market.

Five years later, in 2014, when Ebola hit, 11 cases made it to the U.S. and two people died. Again, Obama acted immediately to isolate and contain and stopped it. In 2014 Trump called on Obama to resign because of the two deaths. And then there was Zika. Prompt action, the creation of a specialized Pandemic Response Unit, and Obama never faltered in his pursuit of economic prosperity.

Now in 2020, after Trump eliminated the Pandemic Response Unit that Obama created and ignored the pandemic until it exploded out of control, the possibility of isolation and containment are long gone, the markets have collapsed, unemployment is exploding, and Trump — the one who failed to take action when action was possible — is making excuses and says he takes “no responsibility.”

To dream the impossible dream.

To lie the impossible lie.

2016: “I alone can fix it.”

2020: “I don’t take responsibility at all.”

This will not work because it is based on a false assumption, that Trump knows he is lying. I cannot explain the thought processes in that orange watermelon on his shoulders but he simply says what “feels right” at the moment, and in his mind/world, if it feels right it is true. I truly doubt he thinks he is lying anywhere near as much as he has been because of his delusional way of thinking.

We don’t call them “Press Conferences.” We call them what they are: Liars Club Meetings.

Mid-April and STILL no large scale testing and NO plans to do any.

And especially NO data analysis based on testing and NO plans to get any.

And all Trump Disciples believe this pathetic response is China’s fault. Or Obama’s. Or Hillary’s. Or maybe the IG.

.

“I take no responsibility for any of it!”

1: “Guess what! We buried Donald Tяump yesterday!”

2: “Really? Are you sure he was dead?”

1: “Well, he said he wasn’t, but you know how he lies…”

DJT’s epitaph (may it soon be written on the urinal that’s his headstone): “Here lies Donald John Trump, as always.”

Not to quibble, Garry, but it’s a “pandemic,” not an “epidemic.” The former is much wider in scope. I read a comment from an epidemiologist who said with a pandemic, there is virtually no place to hide.

I just deleted a long rant I had typed expressing my disappointment in the Obama presidency. You’re welcome.

The Rump declared himself as a “wartime president”. He might be thinking he can delay the election. Not much of a chance though.

On a purely cartoon artistic note, I love the white around Donald Trump’s eyes that mimic the real Trump’s whiteness from the protective eye caps he wears for his spray tan.

Who is the mythical person suggesting to Trump that he should back off on his nonstop lying to his face?

This comic is like watching the old TV series ‘You Are There’.

“Any way you cut it, this is going to be bad,”. That is the beginning of an article in the New York Times that savages Trump’s response to the pandemic. Google: He Could Have Seen What Was Coming: Behind Trump’s Failure on the Virus. An examination reveals the president was warned

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-ask-why-government-let-coronavirus-wash-over-country?

And you thought you knew just how STUPID he is…

I have heard people saying this clown in the White House has turned the United States of America into a banana republic. I disagree. He has turned the USA into THE orange republic.

Obama never faltered in his pursuit of economic prosperity? Companies don’t move out of countries that are improving. They leave because policies are failing. He took us to the brink. And he never faced a crisis like this one.

and yet no mention of H1N1 in your fact fulled comments!!

And he still has no idea that antibiotics don’t work on viruses, but on this coronavirus especially because “it is smart” and “it hides.” But he thinks that a drug that works on a protozoan will.

Some people are lamenting the absence of Pres. Obama. Hell, I would settle for G. W. Bush.

Am I the only guy who wanted boris johnson to go belly up? If only one, of these fat bellied fascists, would cough up a lung, I’d be so happy.

Buddha, forgive me.

Hair Groppenfuror, our PINO, is breathing so he’s lying.

…well, guess he’s fired…

…the president of lies…

… or to use old terminology the prince of Lies…

I suspect that the problem that that man-child in the White House has with veracity is less a matter of deliberate deception than of an inability to understand the world in terms of truth and falsity. For him, it is a matter of what he wants to believe vs. what he doesn’t want to believe. Also, since he has the emotional maturity of a five-year-old, he says what the people whose approval he craves want to hear, again without any reference to or awareness of the concept that the category of truth versus falsity matters.

Abraham dickering with god.

The thing is I have no doubt similar conversations are going on in the Whitehouse almost daily. With Trump agreeing each time to stop, only to step in front of the cameras and spew out even more outrageous lies than the day before.

I wonder how soon they will start flipping the numbers to show the survivors and non-infected as a success. I’m not minimizing the tragedy of the loss of life, I just know that someone soon is going to start claiming victory when this slows pandemic slows down enough to claim is is over.

Sigh. I’ve posted this before on different toons (and maybe even on this one), yet here I go again: Trump’s constant misinformation can be broken down into three categories: (1) Trump is massively ignorant about almost everything (why the press calls him “incurious” instead of a dumb**** baffles me), so of course when he says things that he thinks he knows yet doesn’t, they will necessarily be wrong. (2) Trump is a delusional narcissist—no intelligent person did NOT cringe when Trump bragged in public about how he really truly understands the virus—and therefore some of his misinformation is because of his serious mental illness. (3) By far the largest category of all, is that Trump’s other serious mental illness (I should say ONE of his other ones) is that he is a congenital, pathological, and compulsive liar. Even if Trump weren’t lying as part of his lifelong con artistry, he would be lying in his spare time because HE CANNOT STOP HIMSELF FROM LYING. If he werdn’t causing so much harm to the country it would be pathetic, but as it is, it’s an outrage.

I clicked on my comics and got this. This is not a comic, it is just a statement of facts: not funny in any way.

Garry T.’s Trump is becoming overweight!

Ah, the contiued lie about the volume of trump’s “lies”. I guess if you tell that lie often enough, the progressives will keep believing it. Sigh.

WOW!!

Each virus is different, and it’s certainly true that successfully dealing with new viruses demands facts, skills, and luck.

Still, it would be nice to have Obama at the helm now. Or George H.W. Bush. Or Ike!

Correct me if I’m wrong, but is Trump the only famous individual Trudeau has ever shown directly?

Still communist. Oh well, I come back to Doonesbury periodically to see if he’s matured. Nope!

In reality this assistant would have been fired on the spot by panel five.

Ok, in panel six, he looks just like Alec Baldwin. (apologies to A.B.)

Trump’s face in panel 6 should be his official portrait. It’s not going to get any more flattering, FATUS.

Gary Trudeau, @GaryTrudeau, I must say the detail of your artwork here is awesome. I appreciate the extra effort!

Didn’t barf on his tie . . . Very presidential press conference

Love it! Very topical! Trump must go. We need widespread testing ASAP. This can happen. It has happened elsewhere. Our healthcare workers need our support! We should be at war! Potus could use the defense act to get supplies made. This must be done. Other countries are managing far better than we are not because they are better than we are but they have better leadership! This must change ASAP!

Another seven years and he might catch Obama; at this rate, though, he’ll never catch Clinton.

Hi, Teach! I know you’re busy, but we miss you!

You have to know, though, none of this will happen until after Jan 20, ’21.

Except that we do support our healthcare workers, and those who go to work in grocery and drug stores, and deliver the things we need. They’re starting to be more valued than ever.

Stay safe and healthy!

Limited to only 5 per day?

He’d turn Blue and Explode about 10 minutes after that 5th Lie if he could not tell Number 6.

In 2006, GOP CONGRESS forced the USPS to prepay its pensions for 75 years which no other corporation does. This is why the USPS is struggling, NOT because of AMAZON. We must SUPPORT THE USPS! Don’t allow the GOP to let the USPS die! We need to vote BY MAIL! Call or write your Congressional reps!

We need to build a bigger gibbet!

Trump is alleged to support white supremacy – shouldn’t he be supporting orange supremacy?

Trump is way too similar to President Wilson (the POTUS during WW1), the USA’s advantage though is that Trump can’t radically suppress the news and make it against the law to talk about the virus (which Wilson did, to devastating effect.)

Dayum. From December, this one is a bullseye.