I haven’t paid much attention to either candidate yet, but when I do see something it resonates with me. Since I am a heavy Trump fan whenever I see a Biden commercial I listen carefully to determine how the two candidates differ.
Yesterday, I listened to Biden and his plan for fighting COVID-19. It is the same as Trump’s word for word. I think he was reading from the Centers for Disease Control website, wear a mask, social distance, don’t go out if you feel sick etc. Where Biden does deviate heavily from Trump is on taxes. Biden will certainly raise our taxes to the point we will be crying uncle. It is my opinion that the Federal Government is way too large and the currently over-spent budget of Trillions is a hundred times larger than it needs to be. When will we as Americans learn to fend for our selves? Why do we believe that Uncle can take care of us better than we can?
Both candidates are old and can experience a health problem at any second. If they do have a problem, which Vice Presidential candidate has the best chance of running the country? My confidence is in Mike Pence. He has shown considerable leadership as a former governor and as VP. His performance as leader of the COVID-19 Task Force has been commendable. He clearly has more experience in getting things done than does Kamala Harris.
More scary to me is that if Biden has a problem and continues to lead who will really be calling the shots behind the scenes? Another old guy like Bernie? Or worse yet some political contributor who will remain invisible to the rest of us.
I am amazed at how little experience a presidential candidate needs to have in order to run the world’s strongest country with so much money to control. Other than popularity and some organizational skill to get a political campaign up and running there is little else to help decide which candidate is the best. Since Trump now has almost four years of performance behind him he has shown me that he is a capable leader in both domestic and world affairs.
This COVID-19 is bringing back memories of my past life as an engineer. One thing that would spoil my day was a customer complaint of a cable tie failure. Because it was my job to maintain and produce better quality, performance, and reliability of the product line I had to jump into the fire immediately. The quality manager came to me and asked what are you going to do to keep this from happening again? Sound familiar? It is the same question reporters ask President Trump every day. One question begets another, Like tell me how the product was being used, applied, what environment was it used in? The questions asked by me countered the what are you going to do question. We used a unique quality control numbering system that allowed us to trace the manufacture of a specific product back to the material it came from. The problem was that no-one ever thought to capture the number when they complained about a product. We sold cable ties in bags of one thousand with a QC number on the bag. If I got one cable tie back it was a miracle. Sometimes it was the failed product, at other times it was just another one from the bag. We hit the bonanza when we got samples of failed product and the unused product still in its original container. It was a miracle if we got all of that and a description of the application, and environment. I spun my wheels for countless hours tracking down the possibilities. I had to initiate lab tests, I did microscopic exams, and material checks, and most times I failed to come up with an answer. I needed more data. I feel for the COVID-19 Task force when they are asked the stupid questions like will the virus come back in fall. I would not last on that stage very long because I tend to become sarcastic very quickly. If it is one thing I learned over forty years of being put into a situation where I had to answer questions it is that you don’t create an answer if you don’t know the answer. Real answers need facts and analysis by experts and even then the predictions are tenuous at best.
During the last week I have heard too many people demanding more testing. Governors stating we don’t have enough testing, employers stating they need testing before they can allow people to go back to work. The good doctors on the podium explain where they can get tests done, but no one wants to take the lead and get it started. I hear excuses like we went to the lab you suggested but they need an approval from the FDA for a reagent, Why? They can’t get the one that is approved. So what are you doing about getting alternate approved? What about a different lab with different test apparatus? I love to hear VP Pence report. He has some very bright and science minded problem solvers working on his teams. They seem to anticipate problems and the questions they will get not because they want to cool off the reporters, but because they are on top of the problem and want to get it solved.
One of the doctors mentioned that the virus does not live long in UV light. I love it because Trump picked up that bit of info and his mind began inventing ways to use the UV to kill the virus in the body. A true entrepreneur he is. The press kicked his ass all day today because they couldn’t fathom how such a procedure would be executed. I heard Rush Limbaugh explain that he found a medical procedure that actually uses uv light in the body to aid the cure. The Press assassinated Trump all day today about his people killing suggestions.
For instance, you test negative and you are cleared to work. You show up at work and touch something that has the virus on it and become a carrier. What did the test accomplish? Or you test positive for the virus and go into quarantine for two weeks, but when you go back to work you touch something and become a carrier. What business really needs is a tester like the ones the Iranians have devised (except it works) which detects the virus in an area. At least then the area can be sanitized before anyone comes it to reinfect it.
The real value we will get from testing is data that can be used to statistically answer all the questions about the virility of the virus. That is coming ever so slowly as we fight the virus and test to learn. Even when we learn everything we need to know, we still haven’t gotten one step closer to a vaccine. The problem at the head of the list today is not testing but finding a cure.
Actually, the number one problem today is not the cure, but getting the economy back to where it was. It should be easier now that we know as much as we do about the virus, and how deadly it is or isn’t.
