10 March 2020

Chernobyl

Yesterday, Brian Klaas published a superb piece (link here) in the Washington Post comparing the Soviet Union's response after the Chernobyl disaster to Donald Trump and his administration's response to the ongoing coronavirus crisis.

Trump is exclusively focused on making himself look good. He doesn't care a whit about coronavirus patients. He wants to make it appear as if he has everything under control and that the crisis is ending because he's a fabulous President. His staff is all going along with this message, terrified to contradict him.

Such a strategy is doomed to fail. This was the big failure after the Chernobyl disaster. Officials were only interested in shaping the message. There was little focus on actually fixing the problem. No one wanted to make the man at the top look bad. So instead of containing a crisis, they made it all the worse. Day after week after month.

Trump and his administration are doing the exact same thing. Meltdown in progress.

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