U.S. hits a grim pandemic milestone
What happened
The U.S. surpassed 200,000 coronavirusrelated deaths this week, days after President Trump publicly challenged the Centers for Disease Control’s scientific advice on masks and its timeline for a Covid-19 vaccine. Trump said CDC director Robert Redfield had been “confused” when he told Congress that a vaccine likely won’t be “fully available” until the summer or fall of 2021. The president insisted that a vaccine could be approved as soon as next month, with 100 million doses ready by the end of the year. Concern about the political pressure being exerted on the CDC grew after the agency published and then removed new guidelines warning that the virus can be transmitted via respiratory aerosols—tiny particles that can linger in the air—as well as by larger respiratory droplets that fall quickly to the ground. Trump this week gave his response to the pandemic an “A plus,” and at a packed rally in Ohio where few were wearing masks, he falsely said Covid-19 “affects virtually nobody” except “elderly people with heart problems.”
Minnesota, Montana, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Wyoming, and Utah set record highs this week for seven-day averages of new confirmed cases, and 21 other states saw increases in infections. Olivia Troye, a former coronavirus task force adviser to Vice President Mike Pence, spoke out emphatically against Trump’s handling of the pandemic, saying he showed a “flat-out disregard for human life” and cared only about his re-election. Troye, whom the White House called a “disgruntled” ex-staffer, claims Trump once said, “Maybe this Covid thing is a good thing” because “I don’t have to shake hands with these disgusting people”—meaning his supporters.
What the editorials said
Mourn the 200,000 dead, said The Washington Post, “and be angry—very angry.” This tragedy has been worsened by the president, who has minimized the threat, refused to mobilize a large-scale government response, dismissed the importance of mask wearing, and prodded GOP states to reopen before viral spread was under control. “Nothing more could have been done,” Trump has said about coronavirus casualties. But there is work to do. “Wear a mask. Social distance. Wash your hands. And vote.”