BUT WHAT IF THERE IS NO VIRUS
While I fully understand this tactic as a way of pushing back blame onto China, it fails to address the compelling LACK OF EVIDENCE that the virus exists at all. The more I learn about symptoms of respiratory diseases, the E protien, and the lack of a true viral isolate….the more I have to conclude that there is no SARS-CoV-2. Or rather, it may exist, but without isolating it the technocrats have no real idea how to build a vaccine, apart from something that generically works on spike proteins.
So riddle me this. We have Rhino viruses causing most common colds. We have HP1 causing influenza. We have SARS and 5 other Corona virus variants prior to 2019. All of these give the same apparent symptoms, if you were to get sick. Fever, aches and pains, coughing, getting progressively worse if your immune system can't kick it. Eventually they all end up at pneumonia. The only thing new about SARS-CoV-2 is they don't have a drug regimen available (at least not one they will admit), so it is "scary". Scary to anyone without a brain, we all know about its 99.5% survivability ratio.
So I feel like the Trump admin is walking a very thin line here, between their official acknowledgement of SARS-CoV-2 on the one hand (plus all the measures that implies); and on the other hand, the mysterious lack of a smoking gun. They won't be able to just say "oops sorry guys, there was no virus.". Meaning, they will have to continue this charade for years to come, or else admit they were lying.
I think Trump would have been better off in the summer sticking to his guns, not caving on the mask issue, and pushing back on the statistics to show we were being duped.