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Economist Podcasts

Leading nowhere: assessing Trump’s covid-19 response

Economist Podcasts

The Economist

News & Politics, News

4.44.9K Ratings

🗓️ 27 May 2020

⏱️ 23 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

President Donald Trump’s failures of leadership have compounded the crisis. But America’s health-care and preparedness systems have problems that predate him. South Korea marks the 40th anniversary of a massacre that remains politically divisive even now. And, today’s space-launch plan in America blazes a trail for a new, commercial space industry. For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here www.economist.com/radiooffer

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello and welcome to the Intelligence on Economist Radio.

0:07.0

I'm your host, Jason Palmer.

0:09.0

Every weekday we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.

0:17.0

Today marks 40 years since the end of a massacre that many believe put South Korea firmly on a path to democracy.

0:25.0

The slaughter and unrest in the city of Guangzhou was for decades an altogether taboo subject.

0:31.0

And even today it's a divisive one.

0:34.0

And if all goes to plan, a crude rocket will take off today from American soil for the first time in nearly nine years.

0:42.0

It's a point of pride for NASA which had been relying on Russia for a lift, but also for SpaceX, the first private firm to put people in space.

0:55.0

First up though.

1:01.0

Exactly where it started still isn't known, but the first reported death from COVID-19 on American soil came on February 29th in Seattle and early focus of the epidemic.

1:12.0

42 days later the epicenter had become New York, which was reporting 10,000 cases and nearly 1,000 deaths every day.

1:21.0

America had become the worst affected country in absolute terms.

1:25.0

By the end of this week it's expected that a hundred thousand would have died.

1:30.0

In times of crisis Americans usually look to their president, but Mr. Trump has been far from a unifying figure.

1:37.0

President Trump has certainly given his critics lots of ammunition to criticize him.

1:42.0

Idris Kallun is our US policy correspondent.

1:45.0

Many of them believe that he bears responsibility for a significant fraction of America's now a hundred thousand or approaching a hundred thousand deaths due to coronavirus.

1:54.0

We have it very much under control in this country.

1:57.0

At the beginning he was keen to downplay the severity of the threat.

2:00.0

At the aspect of our society should be prepared.

2:03.0

I don't think it's going to come to that, especially with the fact that we're going down, not up, we're going for a instance.

2:09.0

We're going to suggest that by closing borders with China and by Europe that America could somehow avoid the threat altogether.

...

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