Trust in CDC erodes amid flip-flops on coronavirus
More than 200,000 Americans have died from the novel coronavirus — more than 200,000 obituaries written too soon.
President Donald Trump has given himself an A+ for his handling of the virus, but Dr. Anthony Fauci, his top health expert, calls the death toll “stunning.”
And as the deaths continue to mount, Americans must be thinking it is time to write the epitaph for common sense and good governance.
If that seems hyperbolic, consider the theater of the absurd that is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the leading health agency in the United States.
Flip-flopping like an embattled politician, the CDC has issued guidelines and directives one day, only to walk them back the next.
The reversals have come in battalions, each one advancing on a populace confused and confounded by the mixed messaging. Whatever the reason behind these flip-flops — whether incompetence or politics — the impact is both clear and disturbing: It fosters a mistrust of the very agency that should guide us through this cruel and insidious virus. “Unfortunately, it’s becoming harder to trust what CDC tells us,” Dr. Ali Khan, a former official with the agency, told National Public Radio. “And this is extremely unfortunate because trust is the most important thing we need during a pandemic.”
In a recent reversal, which is among its most bizarre, the CDC indicated the virus spreads through aerosols, tiny droplets in the air that often travel further than the 6 feet considered to be a safe “social distance.” The agency then reversed itself three days later, saying the information was “posted in error.”
It was a head-scratching move that created alternate versions of reality, a landscape of misinformation and obfuscation worthy of Lewis Carroll — up is down, down is up. “Confusing,” Khan said. “So CDC’S not perfect and certainly has made some mistakes this past year. But with due respect to the agency, it’s hard to believe this was one of them, given the scrutiny that they’ve had in all of their messaging.” Critics, many of them doctors and scientists, charge that CDC officials, intimidated by Trump, have softened their messages. Politics, they say, has upended science.
“The constant politicization of this crisis has eroded trust in our nation’s leading public health institutions,” Richard Besser, a former acting director of the CDC, told the Washington Post. Equally troubling are the reversals that predated the mixed messaging on aerosols. The CDC recommended in August that asymptomatic people “do not necessarily need a test” for COVID-19 — an edict it walked back after pushback from the scientific community.
These antics make CDC officials look like pawns. Consider the plight of Dr. Robert R. Redfield, the director of the agency, who discussed the importance of masks during a recent Senate committee hearing. He received an angry — and public — rebuke from the president following his appearance. The result? Redfield softened his remarks.
This tug of war between science and politics has exacerbated the division in the country. The battle is so bitter that the simple act of wearing a mask has become politicized. Trump supporters recently heckled and booed Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted when he encouraged them to wear masks featuring Trump’s name — a show of support for Trump. Would people deride a politician for suggesting they wear seat belts? No.
COVID-19 attacks people indiscriminately. That’s why the act of wearing a mask should never be viewed as a political statement (even if a mask is adorned with a political statement), and why consistent and clear guidance from the CDC and other scientists is so crucial.
Yes, our understanding of COVID-19 evolves with the science. But the messaging of public health must be above politics. Why is this so hard?