Why were the first briefings to Congress about this virus classified due to national security?
When has that step ever before been taken over a naturally-occurring virus?
Why should I not believe that if there information about a virus that has to be classified for national security it is a good indication the virus may be a biological weapon?
When has that step ever before been taken over a naturally-occurring virus?
Why should I not believe that if there information about a virus that has to be classified for national security it is a good indication the virus may be a biological weapon?
I'm glad you brought this up. Do you have the date when these briefings took place.
I think that the U.S. did not know what had happened when the spread was first detected. I do believe that the U.S. knew that China had isolated Wuhan from the rest of China while they continued with international flights in and out Wuhan.
President Trump probably had that information in hand when he curtailed flights from China except for repatriation purposes.
Thus, the U.S. knew that the Chinese were actively exporting this virus to the rest of the world, but the nature of the virus was still unknown. The W.H.O. and the CCP, but were lying through their teeth and there had to be some reason for the active export.
Once the nature of the virus was determined, the lock downs were already in place throughout most of the world. I believe that given what government officials knew and, especially, what they didn't know, that the initial lock downs were probably correct policy.
What is distressing is that now that we know the people at risk are the elderly and the infirm, why haven't the lock downs been lifted for everyone else? This could have easily been done last month, but nobody has the guts. And the media is pumping FUD into the situation as fast as they can.
The open complicity of the media is why President Trump should have SHUT DOWN the NYT for their headline this morning claiming that the administration knows that cases will double based on an unvetted, unreviewed model which happened to be floating around the White House. This model was revealed on Facebook by some researcher.
The NYT ran with it as a headline. This goes beyond the pale and is equivalent to yelling "FIRE!" in a crowded theatre. It is not protected by the first amendment and a shot across the bow of the media is in order.