Month: October 2020

Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney makes it rather easy for viewers to determine whether the severity of the Coronavirus crisis has been grossly exacerbated by Trump administration malfeasance or whether they have been the victims of largely unpreventable circumstances.

In Totally Under Control (its title taken from a phrase Trump once uttered about the virus) Gibney provides the overwhelming answer. Using as an opening framework the apt comparison of U.S. and South Korean responses (the initial instance of Corona-19 occurred on the same day in both countries), Gibney gives a comprehensive account of the early days of the onset of the virus in both countries.

Essentially in South Korea politicians stayed out of the response and left it to professionals who quickly developed comprehensive testing and tracing, aided by a cooperative public willing to be summoned by their cell phones without undue concern for privacy (while far too many American get in hissy fits over mere mask wearing). South Korea as of this writing has suffered 439 deaths (out of a population of 51 million) from the virus while the U. S. is well over the 200,000 mark (population 328 million). That’s a death rate roughly 100 times higher.

When he interviews insider professionals and whistleblowers, Gibney often penetrates the deep recesses of their damaged psyches. In the U.S. the opposite response from South  Korea’s took place, and scientists  were shunned. More than once in the film, dedicated career health professionals like former director of Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority Rick Bright break up emotionally on camera over what delay and distortion have wrought once their advice was ignored.

It’s all here—Trump’s initial ignorance of the 20-50 million who died during the 1918 pandemic, claiming “There’s never been anything like this in history.” Mitch McConnell’s lies about The Trump administration’s knowledge of the Obama Response Playbook that they tossed aside. The FDA putting the breaks on the approval process of The CDC test that lie dormant for a month before it was eventually adopted when they knew earlier how to adapt it and refused. The firing of the CDC’s  Nancy Messonnier once she spoke up about the risks of the virus and the need to shut down. The refusal to  consider Bright’s request for $10 billion to mount an early start to fighting the virus. Bright’s eventual firing once he felt compelled to blow the whistle. Blaming the states for failure to acquire their their own PPE while FEMA drove up the price by irrationally bidding on private sources and federal stockpiles were also withheld without explanation.  Trump on April 3 conveying the recommendations of scientists to wear masks while proclaiming “I’m choosing not to do it.” The hydrochlorothiazide debacle. The administration’s continual failure to invoke the Defense Production Act, instead offering “Let the market do its magic.” And for all of the talk about “the China virus,” Gibney reminds us Trump initially encouraged the sale of PPE to China, which the U.S. was forced to buy back at a rate 10 times more expensive.

The sheer lunacy of Trump’s responses quickly lose their humor once the realization sets in in they’re the work of a sociopath with an irrational disdain for science. Frequently willful and often pecuniary or spiteful, they can claim very little innocence. Totally Out Of Control rides through the debris of lost opportunities with an admirable dispassion. Heinous breach of responsibility speaks for itself. In one of the film’s final scenes we see hospital workers donning PPE while watching astonished as the scroll on a TV monitor unveils Trump’s words in admitting his full knowledge of the threat of the virus to Bob Woodward.

This film could piss you off to the point of befuddlement, especially if you’re among the countless number of Americans who previously had no, or barely any, awareness of what is presented here.  Have no fear. Gibney closes by posing the question of citizens having to decide what new actions they might  do in that figurative future time when they finally remove their masks. As the soundtrack beats The Chambers Brothers’ “Time Has Come Today,” we realize hope is resolutely rearing its heroic head. As long as people give a shit.