All the president’s disinformation

The national resurgence of the pandemic, from which California is one of a few fortunate exceptions, foretells still more suffering that could have been prevented. It also ensures that no amount of government thuggery, yellow journalism or pathogenic barnstorming on the eve of the election can distract American voters from the country’s continuing coronavirus disaster.

Hence President Trump’s recent disparagement of Dr. Anthony Fauci, true to his penchant for attributing his own faults to his opponents, as “a disaster.” Attaching that term to the man Americans have come to trust most to tell them the truth about the pandemic may sow a little more doubt about the identity of the true master of this disaster. But late polling and early voting suggest most of the disaffection isn’t being directed at the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Trump went after Fauci during a conference call with campaign staff and reporters on Monday, a day when the United States confirmed over 50,000 coronavirus cases and more than 400 deaths. Sure, at least 220,000 Americans have died on his watch, but the president asserts that listening to Fauci would have cost half a million lives.

A recent analysis of coronavirus deaths across developed countries reveals the extent to which this is the opposite of the truth. Published in the Journal of the American Medical Association last week, it shows that while several European countries suffered fatality rates comparable to that of the United States in the early months of the pandemic, even highmortality countries haven’t approached the rate of U. S. losses since May.

If the American response had been adjusted to match that of even the worstfaring developed countries — such as Sweden, Britain or Italy — at least 44,000 lives and up to 104,000 could have been saved. If the United States were comparable to a lowmortality country such as Australia, nearly 190,000 would have been spared. Indeed, as another analysis noted, more than 130,000 would still be alive if the whole country’s response looked like San Francisco’s.

It’s no wonder Trump has resorted to attacking the experts he should have listened to. Instead we have the likes of Dr. Scott Atlas, the Stanford radiologist brought aboard the White House’s troubled coronavirus task force to give the administration’s nonstrategy a patina of purpose. Atlas has reportedly advocated natural herd immunity, most readily achieved by unchecked transmission of the virus, as national policy. He recently wrote on Twitter that masks don’t impede the spread of the contagion, a post the company removed for promoting misinformation.

The administration’s antiscientific bent has also diminished trust in the

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, whose expertise on pandemic response has been ignored and manipulated, and the Food and Drug Administration, which must approve any drug or vaccine deployed against the virus. With Trump making impossible promises of an imminent panacea, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced an independent panel of experts to vet any vaccine before it’s distributed in California, following a similar move by his New York counterpart, Andrew Cuomo.

While the added scrutiny will be welcome as long as Trump is in charge, such measures also serve to amplify the already dangerous distrust of proven vaccines in particular and established science in general. The president, identified by one recent study as the largest single source of coronavirus information, will trample any truth to salvage his shortterm political prospects. Regardless of his success, his contributions to the rise of disinformation will be a longerlasting disaster.