Trump misstated in saying that COVID-19 “came out of nowhere”

Big, cataclysmic events seldom come out of nowhere. Though, granted, they occasionally do. Particularly when the earth acts unexpectedly. On March 27, 1964, the Great Alaskan Earthquake, also known as the Good Friday Earthquake, was a magnitude 9.2 megathrust quake; the most powerful earthquake recorded in North American history. Second most powerful in world history. Unexpected.

COVID-19 did not come out of nowhere. It came out of a lab in Wuhan, China

Other disasters are said to have come out of nowhere but, in retrospect, they could have been anticipated. The September 11, 2001 attack killed 3,000, and injured over 25,000. It didn’t come out of nowhere. Suspicion quickly fell on al-Qaeda. Previously missed indicators, by various government agencies, were quickly pieced together in retrospect as debris on Manhattan Island still smoldered. Too late. COVID-19 did not come out of nowhere. It came out of a lab in Wuhan, China. Its origin aside, it was an anticipated, even expected, event. Expected by the United States Government, and two former Presidents. Here’s how that played out. The National Institute of Health (NIH), founded in 1887, is the primary agency of the U.S. government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It has over 20,000 employees, including 6,000 scientists (2019), housed in a large facility in Bethesda, Maryland.

In a 2004 speech before the NIH, then President George W. Bush said this in the first half of his remarks:

“It is vital that our nation discuss and address the threat of pandemic flu now. There is no pandemic flu in our country or in the world at this time. But if we wait for a pandemic to appear, it will be too late to prepare. Our strategy is designed to meet three critical goals. First, we must defeat outbreaks that occur anywhere in the world. Second, we must protect the American people by stockpiling vaccines and antiviral drugs. And improve our ability to rapidly produce new vaccines against a pandemic strain. And third, we must be ready to respond at the federal, state, and local levels in the event that a pandemic reaches our shores.”

Dr. Anthony Stephen Fauci was in the audience. He had served, since 1984, as Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases within the NIH. It’s reported that “He has turned down several offers to lead his agency's parent, the NIH, and has been at the forefront of U.S. efforts to contend with viral diseases like HIV, SARS, the 2009 swine flu pandemic, MERS, Ebola and COVID-19”. In 2014, then President Barack Obama delivered a similar speech on the need to prepare for a pandemic. Therein Obama said:

“We have to put in place an infrastructure, not just here at home, but globally, that allows us to see it quickly, isolate it quickly, respond to it quickly. So that if and when a new strain of flu, like the Spanish flu, crops up five years from now, or a decade from now, we’ve made the investment and we’re further along to be able to catch it. The funding we’re asking for is needed to strengthening our capacity here at home so we can respond to any future Ebola cases. It’s needed to help us partner with other countries to prevent and deal with future outbreaks before they become pandemics.”

Fauci heard that speech, too. At the 3:19 mark in the video of Obama’s speech, the narrative suddenly shifts to a criticism of Trump that alleges he received briefings on the COVID-19 virus “as early as January but continued to downplay the threat into March”. That’s what fake news looks like on YouTube. This spin represents the anti-Trump meme that will play out over-and-over against Trump as the general election approaches. Thankfully, there are enough facts accurately chronicled, in word and video, to debunk the assertion that Trump downplayed the threat. Here’s just one example of exculpatory evidence testifying against that fake meme: “During a February 29 broadcast on NBC's ‘Today Show,’ Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that at that time the government was still not advising people to change their daily habits to avoid the coronavirus pandemic.” On the video from February 29, Fauci says,

“Right now the risk is still low but this could change. I’ve said that could change. I’ve said that many times, even on this program. You’ve got to watch out, although the risk is low now, you don’t need to change anything you’re doing. When you start to see community spread this could change, and force you to become much more attentive to doing things that would protect you from spread.”

Things did change. Trump took Fauci’s and Birx’s advice – “two very smart people” – and shut down the U.S. economy. When this episode passes, we’ll debate the wisdom of their advice. Point is –COVID-19 didn’t come “out of nowhere”. China knew it was coming and, with the complicity of the World Health Organization (WHO), let it spread by withholding the information of its existence for, at lease, six critical days. Time enough for it to spread internationally. Long ago, President Bush knew it—or something like it—was coming. President Obama knew it—or something like it—was coming, too. Neither administration properly prepared the nation to respond. It was a bipartisan failure. The NIH appears, at this point, to have been ill-prepared following the warnings issued by both Presidents. Proverbs 20.18 reads, “Where there is no vision the people perish.” But, then, vision without action is a wishful dream.

Lee Cary——Bio and Archives Since November 2007, Lee Cary has written hundreds of articles for several websites including the American Thinker, and Breitbart’s Big Journalism and Big Government (as “Archy Cary”). and the Canada Free Press. Cary’s work was quoted on national television (Sean Hannity) and on nationally syndicated radio (Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin). His articles have posted on the aggregate sites Drudge Report, Whatfinger, Lucianne, Free Republic, and Real Clear Politics. He holds a Doctorate in Theology from Garrett Theological Seminary in Evanston, IL, is a veteran of the US Army Military Intelligence in Vietnam assigned to the [strong]Phoenix Program[/strong]. He lives in Texas.