The Pandemic Under a Hillary Clinton Administration

 

The late, great Rush Limbaugh used to say, “‘What If’ is a children’s game.” But I’m a kid at heart. This is all silly speculation, but what might the pandemic look like today if Donald Trump had lost in 2016 and Covid-19 had struck America under Democrat Executive Rule?

  1. There would have not been the Trump travel bans. When Trump proposed bans on international travel, particularly from China, the Democrats accused the President of racism. If those bans hadn’t been imposed, perhaps the United States would have been struck with more cases earlier resulting in many more deaths.
  2. All states would have been forced to impose lockdowns. A complaint that continues from many Democrats is that Trump didn’t act boldly enough and force all the states to enact lockdowns and mask regulations. Now we have empirical evidence that shows that states that enacted harsh regulations are often doing much worse than states that allowed more freedom.
  3. The Supreme Court would not have struck down the harsh lockdown regulations imposed by states such as California. “But Gorsuch” is still a Never Trump mockery, but without Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett, but instead justices chosen by Hillary Clinton (nominees that surely would have had a diversity of pigment and sexual proclivity, but not thought) would have upheld all of the violations of the First Amendment rights to worship and assemble.
  4. There would be less effective treatments for Covid-19. The Trump administration encouraged experimentation in treatments for Covid-19 and was often mocked for doing so (“He wants to inject people with Clorox!”) But the stoppage of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in recent days reminds us that under Democrat regimes, there is “an abundance of caution” which doesn’t allow for expedient medical experimentation by rather allows bureaucrats to slow every process.
  5. We would still be years away from an effective Covid-19 vaccine. Under a Clinton administration, there would have been no Operation Warp Speed. Every rule and procedure the FDA has put into place demanding slow and rigorous studies to be performed before the next step in vaccine research and production could be taken. And any vaccine for Covid-19 would still be a distant hope.

This is all speculation, of course, fantasy really. But as for me, I have little doubt, that the United States, and the world, would be in a sorrier state today if Hillary Rodham Clinton had been the 45th president.

Do you want to play “What If?” Do you agree these things would have happened in the world of an alternate 2016 election? What might have been other consequences of such an outcome?

Published in Domestic Policy
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There are 11 comments.

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  1. Hang On Member
    Hang On
    @HangOn

    6. More CCP-infected patients would have been forced into nursing homes as in model New York. There would be many more deaths. But it was because of the science. Hillary was heard to say ‘At this point, what difference does it make?’

    7. In 2023 students finally were sent back to school. When asked about a generation losing four years of education indoctrination, Hillary was heard to say ‘At this point, what difference does it make?’

    • #1
  2. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    I don’t think everything would have been locked down. It would have been a non-event.

    • #2
  3. Doctor Robert Member
    Doctor Robert
    @DoctorRobert

    I beg to differ.
    Absent Trump, the CCP would have had no reason to release the virus.  Absent Trump, the governing class would have seen no need to cripple the economy to prevent his re-election.  
    This is not at all Mr Trump’s fault, I give him no blame and much credit for what he attempted to do, but had he not been POTUS, this never would’a happened.

    • #3
  4. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    Doctor Robert (View Comment):
    Absent Trump, the CCP would have had no reason to release the virus.

    I don’t agree with this.  Given what we know, it does appear the virus came from a Chinese lab.  However, the release has to be accidental.  Why do I say that?  Because if the Chinese were going to release a biological weapon, it would be 100-1000 times more virulent.

    The counter argument would be that its existing potency was enough to bring the US economy to its knees.  This is true, but the Chinese would have no way of knowing what our response would be.  I believe they would wait until the impact of any weaponized virus was fully known before releasing, and mass death ensures an economic disaster, possibly a permanent one . . .

    • #4
  5. Doctor Robert Member
    Doctor Robert
    @DoctorRobert

    Stad (View Comment):

    Doctor Robert (View Comment):
    Absent Trump, the CCP would have had no reason to release the virus.

    I don’t agree with this. Given what we know, it does appear the virus came from a Chinese lab. However, the release has to be accidental. Why do I say that? Because if the Chinese were going to release a biological weapon, it would be 100-1000 times more virulent.

    The counter argument would be that its existing potency was enough to bring the US economy to its knees. This is true, but the Chinese would have no way of knowing what our response would be. I believe they would wait until the impact of any weaponized virus was fully known before releasing, and mass death ensures an economic disaster, possibly a permanent one . . .

    Stad, your response does not address my argument, which is that the timing of release was intended to cripple Mr Trump’s re-election.  Do you remember how ascendant he was giving the 2020 SOTU?  He was the strongest POTUS in modern history for about two weeks.  It took only two more months do make his straits desperate.  As soon as “two weeks to flatten the curve” gave way to the widely-derided “let’s reopen by Easter”,  Mr Trump was doomed.

    • #5
  6. DonG (2+2=5. Say it!) Coolidge
    DonG (2+2=5. Say it!)
    @DonG

    Nothing would have been different.  All things proceeded as desired by Democrats:  lockdowns, trillions in spending to cronies, only vaccines (the most expensive possible treatment) approved, emergent fascism.  

    The real question, what would the Wuhan Pandemic been like, if Trump or Pence had been competent?  

    • #6
  7. JamesSalerno Inactive
    JamesSalerno
    @JamesSalerno

    Arahant (View Comment):

    I don’t think everything would have been locked down. It would have been a non-event.

    I agree. Look at the Ebola outbreak under Obama. There wasn’t much political gain to be had there, so they didn’t do much of anything. We’ve encountered viruses like this hundreds of times, and never was the need for central authority to act as much as it was in 2020. This was an explicit attack on the sitting president and nothing more.

    • #7
  8. tigerlily Member
    tigerlily
    @tigerlily

    Interesting post Eustace. Here’s another thing that might’ve been different about the pandemic if Hillary had been president. Physicians would’ve been able to treat Covid cases in the early stages with Hydroxychloroquine as well as prescribe it to their patients as a prophylactic with little or no abuse and harassment from the Left since Trump would not have mentioned its potential at one of those early briefings.

    • #8
  9. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    Doctor Robert (View Comment):

    Stad (View Comment):

    Doctor Robert (View Comment):
    Absent Trump, the CCP would have had no reason to release the virus.

    I don’t agree with this. Given what we know, it does appear the virus came from a Chinese lab. However, the release has to be accidental. Why do I say that? Because if the Chinese were going to release a biological weapon, it would be 100-1000 times more virulent.

    The counter argument would be that its existing potency was enough to bring the US economy to its knees. This is true, but the Chinese would have no way of knowing what our response would be. I believe they would wait until the impact of any weaponized virus was fully known before releasing, and mass death ensures an economic disaster, possibly a permanent one . . .

    Stad, your response does not address my argument, which is that the timing of release was intended to cripple Mr Trump’s re-election. Do you remember how ascendant he was giving the 2020 SOTU? He was the strongest POTUS in modern history for about two weeks. It took only two more months do make his straits desperate. As soon as “two weeks to flatten the curve” gave way to the widely-derided “let’s reopen by Easter”, Mr Trump was doomed.

    I really think the timing was incidental.  But still, it is possible, just as you say . . .

    • #9
  10. Hang On Member
    Hang On
    @HangOn

    Stad (View Comment):

    Doctor Robert (View Comment):

    Stad (View Comment):

    Doctor Robert (View Comment):
    Absent Trump, the CCP would have had no reason to release the virus.

    I don’t agree with this. Given what we know, it does appear the virus came from a Chinese lab. However, the release has to be accidental. Why do I say that? Because if the Chinese were going to release a biological weapon, it would be 100-1000 times more virulent.

    The counter argument would be that its existing potency was enough to bring the US economy to its knees. This is true, but the Chinese would have no way of knowing what our response would be. I believe they would wait until the impact of any weaponized virus was fully known before releasing, and mass death ensures an economic disaster, possibly a permanent one . . .

    Stad, your response does not address my argument, which is that the timing of release was intended to cripple Mr Trump’s re-election. Do you remember how ascendant he was giving the 2020 SOTU? He was the strongest POTUS in modern history for about two weeks. It took only two more months do make his straits desperate. As soon as “two weeks to flatten the curve” gave way to the widely-derided “let’s reopen by Easter”, Mr Trump was doomed.

    I really think the timing was incidental. But still, it is possible, just as you say . . .

    I don’t think they are that clever.

    • #10
  11. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    I suspect that there would have been travel bans, but they would have been “good and necessary” because Hillary did them, not “racist” because Trump did them.

    • #11
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