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Did the Trump administration do a good job responding to Covid-19?
Did the Trump administration do a good job responding to Covid-19?
MiniBAT Directions
MiniBAT Directions
To complete the MiniBAT, you need to go to the PBAT Google Classroom (NOT the one for regular class) and complete the "Slides PBAT Template" assignment. This site contains the information and articles you will need to do that. Use this page to:
(1) Complete the "Background" slide by answering the questions listed about Covid-19. The answers are available below.
(2) Use two articles total for your arguments. You can use the excerpts listed below.
(3) Use one article for your counterclaim and rebuttal.
Background Information
Background Information
What is Covid 19?
COVID-19 is a new disease, caused by a novel (or new) coronavirus that has not previously been seen in humans. Because it is a new virus, scientists are learning more each day. Although most people who have COVID-19 have mild symptoms, COVID-19 can also cause severe illness and even death. Some groups, including older adults and people who have certain underlying medical conditions, are at increased risk of severe illness.
El COVID-19 es una nueva enfermedad, causada por un nuevo coronavirus que no se había visto anteriormente en seres humanos. Debido a que se trata de un virus nuevo, los científicos van aprendiendo más día tras día. Si bien la mayoría de las personas con COVID-19 presentan síntomas leves, también existe la posibilidad de enfermarse gravemente a causa del COVID-19 e incluso morir. Algunos grupos, incluidos los adultos mayores y las personas que tienen ciertas afecciones subyacentes, corren mayor riesgo de enfermarse gravemente.
How is it transmitted?
COVID-19 is thought to spread mainly through close contact from person to person, including between people who are physically near each other (within about 6 feet). People who are infected but do not show symptoms can also spread the virus to others. Cases of reinfection with COVID-19 have been reported but are rare. We are still learning about how the virus spreads and the severity of illness it causes.
COVID-19 spreads very easily from person to person. How easily a virus spreads from person to person can vary. The virus that causes COVID-19 appears to spread more efficiently than influenza but not as efficiently as measles, which is among the most contagious viruses known to affect people.
Se cree que el COVID-19 se propaga principalmente a través del contacto cercano de persona a persona, incluso entre personas que están físicamente cerca entre sí (a menos de 6 pies). Las personas que están infectadas pero no presentan síntomas también pueden propagar el virus a otras personas. Se han notificado algunos casos de reinfección con COVID-19, pero son poco frecuentes. Seguimos aprendiendo acerca de la forma en que se propaga el virus y la gravedad de la enfermedad que ocasiona.
El COVID-19 se propaga muy fácilmente de persona a persona. La facilidad con la que el virus se propaga de persona a persona puede variar. El virus que causa el COVID-19 parece propagarse de manera más eficaz que el de la influenza, pero no tan eficazmente como el del sarampión, el cual se encuentra entre los virus más contagiosos que afectan a las personas.
How many people in the U.S. have been infected? How many have died?
According to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center, in the U.S., as of May 21, 2021:
33,057,386 people have been infected.
588,546 people have died in the U.S. alone.
The U.S. population is approximately 330,000,000, which means one in every ten people in the country has been infected.
Article 1 - Trump says keeping US Covid-19 deaths to 100,000 would be a ‘very good job’
Article 1 - Trump says keeping US Covid-19 deaths to 100,000 would be a ‘very good job’
Article Date: March 29, 2020
By David Smith
The Guardian
Donald Trump has extended America’s national shutdown for a month, bowing to public health experts, and scientific reality, and warning that the worst of the coronavirus pandemic is yet to come.
Speaking in the White House Rose Garden, the US president claimed that, if his administration keeps the death toll to 100,000, it will have done “a very good job” – a startling shift from his optimistic predictions of a few days ago when he said he hoped to restart the economy by Easter.
Trump also undermined his plea for unity by uttering falsehoods, verbally abusing reporters and making incendiary allegations that implied health care workers were stealing masks, without providing evidence.
The extended deadline marked a humiliating retreat for the president who, having squandered six precious weeks at the start of the pandemic, more recently complained that the cure is worse than the problem and floated Easter Sunday as a “beautiful timeline” for reopening big swathes of the country.
On Sunday he claimed this had only been “aspirational” as his advisers urged him not to move too hastily. He announced the initial 15-day period of social distancing urged by the federal government, which was due to expire on Monday, would be extended to 30 April, and said he hoped normality might return by 1 June.
Article 2 - Experts: 90 percent of US coronavirus deaths could have been avoided if measures had been taken just two weeks earlier
Article 2 - Experts: 90 percent of US coronavirus deaths could have been avoided if measures had been taken just two weeks earlier
Article Date: April 16, 2020
By Joseph Guzman
The Hill
Epidemiologists Britta L. Jewell and Nicholas P. Jewell Tuesday wrote in an op-ed in The New York Times that 90 percent of coronavirus deaths in the U.S. could have possibly been avoided if social distancing began March 2, when there were only 11 deaths recorded in the nation. If such policies would have been put in place one week earlier, on March 9, the epidemiologists say there could have been a 60 percent reduction in fatalities.
“Whatever the final death toll is in the United States, the cost of waiting will be enormous, a tragic consequence of the exponential spread of the virus early in the epidemic,” the experts wrote.
The Trump administration issued social distancing guidelines on March 16 urging Americans to avoid restaurants and bars, limit gatherings to 10 or fewer people and work and engage in schooling from home when possible. The move came more than two weeks after the first coronavirus death was confirmed in the U.S. The first death on American soil was recorded on Feb. 29.
In New York City, the site of the country’s largest outbreak, the experts noted fatalities could have been cut 50 to 80 percent if stay-at-home orders were put in place a week or two before March 22, when the orders took effect.
Article 3 - 'It's going to disappear': A timeline of Trump's claims that Covid-19 will vanish
Article 3 - 'It's going to disappear': A timeline of Trump's claims that Covid-19 will vanish
By Daniel Wolfe and Daniel Dale
CNN
Article Date: October 31, 2020
https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2020/10/politics/covid-disappearing-trump-comment-tracker/
[The black text are all quotes from President Trump where he talks publicly about how Covid-19 will disappear, taken from the CNN article.
The red text includes major death toll milestones, taken from the Time article.]
February 10, 2020 “You know, a lot of people think that goes away in April with the heat — as the heat comes in. Typically, that will go away in April.”
February 27, 2020 “It’s going to disappear. One day — it’s like a miracle — it will disappear. And from our shores, we — you know, it could get worse before it gets better. It could maybe go away. We’ll see what happens. Nobody really knows.”
February 29, 2020 First COVID-19 death in the U.S.
March 31, 2020 “It’s going to go away, hopefully at the end of the month. And, if not, hopefully it will be soon after that.”
May 5, 2020 “And I think we’re doing very well on the vaccines but, with or without a vaccine, it’s going to pass, and we’re going to be back to normal.”
May 27, 2020 100,000 deaths in the U.S.
June 18, 2020 “And it is dying out. The numbers are starting to get very good.”
July 19, 2020 “I’ll be right eventually. I will be right eventually. You know I said, ‘It’s going to disappear.’ I’ll say it again. It’s going to disappear, and I’ll be right.”
September 15, 2020 “It is gonna disappear. It’s gonna disappear. I still say it.”
September 22, 2020 200,000 deaths in the U.S.
November 3, 2020 Presidential election
November 18, 2020 250,000 deaths in the U.S.
December 14, 2020 300,000 deaths in the U.S.
January 19, 2021 400,000 deaths in the U.S.
February 21, 2021 500,000 deaths in the U.S.
Article 4 - Biden critica a Trump por el retraso en la vacunación: prometió 20 millones de inmunizados a final de año y hay 10 veces menos
Article 4 - Biden critica a Trump por el retraso en la vacunación: prometió 20 millones de inmunizados a final de año y hay 10 veces menos
El Gobierno que preside Donald Trump se comprometió a vacunar a 20 millones de personas antes de fin de año, pero esta meta quedará lejos de alcanzarse. A 28 de diciembre, sólo se han administrado 2,127,143 dosis de vacunas contra el COVID-19, según los Centros de Control y Prevención de Enfermedades (CDC, en inglés).
Tras reunirse con su equipo de respuesta ante el COVID-19, el presidente electo, Joe Biden, criticó este martes a la Administración Trump por “quedarse corta” ante el ritmo de vacunación que había prometido.
Biden dijo desde Wilmington, Delaware, que se siente optimista y ve un retorno a la normalidad para el país en el próximo año. “Pero tenemos que ser honestos: las próximas semanas y meses van a ser muy difíciles”, dijo. “Perderemos decenas de miles de vidas en las semanas por venir. Y esas son las cifras antes de tomar en cuenta” el alza que se prevé por las reuniones en las festividades de diciembre.
“Les agradecemos a los funcionarios y a la Operación Warp Speed”, aclaró Biden. “Pero la distribución y aplicación no está llevándose a cabo como deberían. Si el ritmo sigue como está, tomaría años, no meses, vacunar a todos los estadounidenses”.
Biden aseguró que una vez asuma el cargo usará la Ley de Producción de Defensa para administrar 100 millones de vacunas en sus primeros 100 días, “si nos aprueban los fondos en el Congreso”. Para lograr esto, “habrá que quintuplicar o sextuplicar la tasa de vacunación actual”, dijo y “si llegamos al ritmo de un millón de vacunas al día igual tomará meses encarrilar los esfuerzos” actuales, añadió.
“Como Fauci dijo, tomará más tiempo del que queríamos y más de lo que prometió Trump. Requiere un gran esfuerzo que aún no está en marcha”, aseguró el presidente electo.
Newsela Articles
Newsela Articles
All articles are available in multiple levels in English. Articles that are also available in Spanish are highlighted in red.
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