Let's get some facts on record about Coronavirus before 2021

 Prediction: In 2021, I predict President-Elect Biden is going to take steps that will make things worse, implementing his "national strategy," mandating masks across the country, and generally issuing edicts that negatively impacting the economy and make things worse.  All the while Biden will be saying, and the media will be agreeing, that the suffering is President Trump's fault.  

After a few months, about May when experts are even now predicting vaccines will be distributed widely enough to create significant immunity, Biden will take credit for the vaccines being distributed and declare victory.  At that point, the media will be praising President Biden for saving us.  

Before that happens, let's look back on 2020 at what really did happen, both bad and good.

Bad - The Obama Administration depleted the US Govt. supplies needed in the event of a pandemic and the Trump Administration did not replace these in their first three years.

Good - President Trump did close the US borders, first to people coming from China, then from Europe, then from Canada and Mexico and everywhere else.  He did this despite criticism from Joe Biden, Democrats, and the media.  

Good - President Trump did not follow the Obama playbook for a pandemic, which would have had resulted in a lot of analysis paralysis at the Dept. secretary level.  Instead, President Trump reacted like a CEO would and created a Task Force with key people involved, under a top person (Vice President Pence), and with a direct line to the President himself.

Bad - The CDC screwed up efforts to develop testing in February, setting us back weeks to a month.

Good - starting in March, when the President asked to lock down the US, things started happening on "Trump Time."  

• Vaccines - in March, Dr. Anthony Fauci was saying it would be 18 to 24 months before we have a vaccine approved and then it would still need to be produced and distributed.  The Trump Administration wasn't having any of it.  They encouraged a race between pharmaceutical companies and expedited processes so that we'll have a vaccine approved and 1 million doses available, with a plan for distribution and the supplies needed to support the distribution (example: sub zero freezers) available in 9 months.
• Testing - The shortage of tests was overcome within weeks as the Administration found existing testing machines that were underutilized and encouraged creativity within private industry that brought newer, better testing methods to market remarkably fast.
• Ventilators - We went from fearing we'd have a dangerous shortage to having so many ventilators they are being sold to other countries and not a single person who needed a ventilator failed to get one.
• Hospital beds - The Trump Administration mobilized the military to literally build thousands and thousands of hospital beds around the country in the space of days.  Also, Navy Medical ships were put into service within a week instead of the months that were predicted it would take.
• PPE - The US had no domestic manufacturing of PPE and for the first few months of the year, China was disrupting the supply chain and hording PPE.  The Trump Administration approached the problem the way a business would.  Find an immediate solution: they did that by identifying other PPE (like masks used for construction) and providing instructions on how to clean and re-use PPE instead of throwing it away after a single use.  Develop an interim solution: scour the globe to find sources and use the military to both check the quality of the gear (we didn't get crappy stuff like Europe got from China) and create an expedited pipeline.  Longer term - bring the production back to the US by enlisting private industry in the US to re-purpose manufacturing to provide PPE.  And innovate - when President Trump suggested re-using PPE it caused at least one company to develop machines that specialize in cleaning PPE for re-use.
• Get data and share it - The Trump Administration started gathering data immediately and constantly looked for gaps in the data and sought ways to fill those gaps.  Then they shared that information with States and large cities via regular conference calls, and the public at large via the internet.
• Don't just cut red tape, destroy it - Every agency in Government was producing rules, regulations, emergency use permissions, guidance, whatever in record time.  FDA, CDC, HHS, CMS, IRS, Treasury - the list goes on.  Government never moved so fast.
• Putting money in the hands of people who need it - It was President Trump who said he wanted a stimulus package to help the average Americans, the people who were victims through no fault of their own.  Stimulus checks, tax refunds, delaying tax filing, the PPP program for business, Student Loan forbearance, Mortgage forbearance - all of this helped millions of everyday Americans stay afloat and once Congress approved the programs the Trump Administration got the money to people remarkably fast - much faster than the dire predictions made by the media.

Good - We experienced a V shaped recovery thanks to President Trump.  At the lowest point, almost all businesses were shuttered, unemployment reached record highs and the stock market lost almost 10,000 points.  Then the lockdown ended and the rebound started.  We saw record increases in employment, the stock market didn't just make back the losses it surpassed 30,000 for the first time ever.  

Bad - Some companies are still struggling - airlines, hotels, cinemas for example - as do small businesses in the Northeast and West Coast, where State Governments and big cities like NY and LA continue to maintain draconian lockdowns continue to suffer.  Small businesses in those States are going to be hurting for years to come because of the severe lockdowns maintained by the Governors of those States and Mayors of those cities.

That's the look back at 2020.  And to restate my prediction for 2021.  President-Elect Biden and his Coronavirus advisors, rather than leave things alone and let the vaccine get distributed and let the problem solve itself is going to show us how smart they are.  They are going to announce a national strategy, taking control away from State and local governments.  They will issue a national mask mandate that applies exactly the same regardless of whether you're on a crowded subway or hiking by yourself at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.  They will "re-organize" distribution of the vaccine.  They will seek massive federal spending bills that don't give money directly to people but give money to programs they feel are important because they know better how to spend your tax dollars than you do, and if they can't pass those programs exactly as they want them, Biden and his camp - rather than negotiate - will blame the Republicans.  All the while, Biden and his folks will be taking credit for anything remotely positive that happens and fault Trump for everything bad, and the majority of the media will be blindly agree with every word of it and condemn anyone who dares to question the supreme wisdom of President Biden and his advisors.