Every wind that blows
I have tried, really tried, to watch Trump’s daily diatribes about the pandemic on TV. My wife won’t. He certainly is trying. He mangles science and truth, he adds compound interest to his stockpile of over 17,000 lies while in office; he misleads his followers as to the severity of the pandemic, the need for more testing, urgent equipment, monetary aid and social distancing, and restarting the economy. I want to hear more from the medical experts and less bluster and blather.
A simple example of Emily Dickenson’s magic writing floated into view: “In every wind that blows, till Nature in chagrin/ Employed a Fact to visit me and scuttle my balloon.” What more can we ask to skewer what passes as political hyperbole?
A recent editorial in Science magazine (April 3, 2020, pg. 7) stated “Despite the exceptional job they are doing providing factual updates during White House press conferences (Dr. Anthony) Fauci and his accomplished colleague
Dr. Deborah Birx have become targets for political attacks from allies of the administration who are not qualified health advisors and don’t know what they are talking about. This is unacceptable. Facts about the spread of the virus and its dangerous health and societal consequences are not political. A survey of health officials shows this to be the case.”
More of Trump’s exaggerations are being debunked. On March 23 he claimed that suicides from a poor economy would greatly outnumber deaths from COVID-19. The University of Bristol responded that the virus could kill more than 500 times as many Americans as did suicides in the Great Recession of 2008. Donnyt has touted hydroxychloroquine sulfate and chloroquine phosphate as possible cures for the disease despite clinical studies warning that those chemicals have not been tested thoroughly, that the tests to date have been inconclusive and can lead to severe side effects including death. Dr. Rick Bright, the scientist in charge of the search for a coronavirus vaccine was fired from his job after he refused to push for “on demand” access to the drugs praised by Donnyt as a miracle treatment.
Trump continues to muddy the picture. Epidemiologist Michael Osterholm from the University of Minnesota complained “We are going from press conference to press conference … and crisis to crisis … trying to understand our response.” Julie Gerbreding, former director of the Center for Disease Control said, “I sure would like to see a lot more fromthe CDC.” Jeremy Konyndyk, a senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development added the U.S. “is in a reactivemode. We’re still chasing the virus.”
These and other researchers have set forth action plans because the urgency is great. Cases and deaths in some states such as New York, Michigan, and California have begun to level off because of stringent enforcement of policies, rates in other states, such as Colorado, Illinois and Louisiana, are still accelerating. We need centralized nationwide execution of a workable outcome and we are not getting it from Trumpublicans.
Dustin Volz reports ( WSJ, April 22, 2020, pg. A3) on the 4th U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee report on the 2016 presidential election. At the direction of President Barack Obama, US intelligence agencies correctly described Russia’s interference aiding Trump get elected. Senator Richard Burr, Republican chair of the committee said, “The committee found no reason to dispute the intelligence community’s conclusions.” The report supports that Vladimir Putin approved and directed aspects of the operation.
That 40% of Americans still believe charlatan Trump over medical and scientific experts speaks more to the descent of our society into the chaos of untruthiness. Where myth and magic outdo truth and science, we become lost in a morass of hysterical division. America is in decline if this continues.
More of Trump’s exaggerations are being debunked. Onmarch 23 he claimed that suicides froma poor economy would greatly outnumber deaths FROMCOVID-19. Theuniversity of Bristol responded that the virus could killmore than 500 times asmany Americans as did suicides in the Great Recession of 2008.