I am not a right wing nut that usually goes about maligning the “MSM: main stream media” but they have a piss-poor record these days. They go about virally spreading misleading or false information and any corrections do not get similarly announced and propagated.
This is as true of the Left-wing media (which is most of it) as the Right-wing media (pretty much Fox News and a bunch of smaller outfits).
I am heartened to see that Snopes is choosing to be a non-partisan fact checker in this crisis. Let’s have a look at a few articles.
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https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-governors-supplies/
What's True
Trump asserted that state governors "have to treat us well" while discussing the coordination of federal and state efforts in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.
What's False
Trump did not say governors must "treat me well" or rhetorically ask them if they "want ventilators and masks from the federal government's reserves to treat your citizens."
My Take
If I had 50 governors asking me for help and some were being total dicks, I’d let them call me rather than reaching out first too.
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https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/us-coronavirus-test/
What's True
The U.S. did not use COVID-19 diagnostic tests produced by the World Health Organization (WHO) in favor of producing its own.
What's False
The U.S. did not turn down an offer to use those tests (as no such offer was extended), nor was it unusual for the United States to design and produce its own diagnostic tests in lieu of those made elsewhere.
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https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/obama-coronavirus-masks/
What's True
The U.S. federal stockpile of N95 protective face masks was largely depleted during the 2009 swine flu outbreak and was not restocked.
What's False
However, the Obama administration was not solely responsible for the current shortage of masks. In the intervening years, the stockpile went unreplenished as the Trump administration failed to heed indications that dramatic shortages could occur.
My Take
Obama did have a term and a half to restock. Trump had the better part of a term to do it. Both failed utterly. I hope this has been a massive wake-up call. When we all survive this, we damn well better make sure that any national emergency response stockpile is fully funded, well-managed, and treated with respect. You can’t buy Auto insurance after the car accident and you can’t make respirators and N95 masks appear out of thin air after the panic buying has begun. This means stocking up while there isn’t a crisis.
Also, if the Federal Government needs a crisis in order to prioritize this, perhaps it’s juggling a bit too much and some of the other things it normally meddles in needs to be left to states to handle. Attention span is always limited. There is one crucially important question for managers who do not want to be reactive only to things that are in a crisis state: How do you delegate enough so that what is important but not urgent will get the time that it deserves?