Mark Meadows working the crowd
"We are not going to control the pandemic.” (Why?) "Because it is a contagious virus just like the flu.”
– White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, October 25, 2020
A stunning White House claim that the US cannot control the fast-worsening pandemic is overshadowing President Donald Trump's frantic last-ditch bid to turn around his reelection race with Democrat Joe Biden. Mark Meadows told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union" Sunday, “We are not going to control the pandemic,” arguing that "proper mitigation factors" like therapies and vaccines should be the priority.
The issue with Mark Meadows's comments is that a vaccine, even if it is approved by regulators in the coming months, is unlikely to be available to all Americans by well into next year. He is essentially admitting the Trump administration has given up on even trying to control the pandemic thus shirking their basic duty to protect the American people. Even the administration's public briefings by top government scientists have disappeared.
Public health officials like Dr. Robert Redfield, the head of the CDC, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of NIAID, have said masks are one of the most powerful weapons to fight the virus. Alarmed medical experts who argue that letting the coronavirus rage unchecked is akin to a policy of herd immunity that will cost many thousands of lives.
But with daily new infections hitting record levels, Trump spent the weekend in a campaign blitz in which he openly flouted steps like masking and social distancing that could slow the spread of the disease and moaned that all the media talks about is "Covid, Covid, Covid."
Trump has downplayed the threat from the virus all along. He has mocked mask wearing, turned the practices of masking and social distancing into a culture war issue, and pressured Republican governors to open their states before the virus was under control. His behavior in recent days signals there will be no change to the White House's approach to the pandemic if he wins the election and no matter how bad the virus gets.
The U.S. reported its second-highest day of new cases on Saturday, with nearly 84,000 Americans contracting the deadly virus. The US average of new daily infections is now at its highest point of the pandemic, with 481,372 cases reported in a week. As of Sunday, there were at least 8,575,000 total cases of coronavirus in the US, and at least 224,800 Americans have died from the virus, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Giving Up
Trump continues to deny and deflect COVID-19.
“There’s no nation in the world that’s recovered like we’ve recovered,” Mr Trump told a rally in New Hampshire.
“We are coming around, we’re rounding the turn, we have the vaccines, we have everything. Even without the vaccines, we’re rounding the turn,” Trump told cheering supporters. “It’s going to be over. And you know who got it? I did. Can you believe it?”
“Turn on television, ‘COVID-19, COVID-19, COVID-19, COVID-19, COVID-19, COVID-19.’ A plane goes down, 500 people dead, they don’t talk about it,” Trump said at a rally on the weekend “By the way, on November 4th, you won’t hear about it anymore. It’s true.
Trump practices the dark psychological trick that large numbers can play on our minds: "If only one man dies ... that is a tragedy. If millions die, that's only statistics." He continues to put his political aims ahead of the public health crisis, contributing to projections that show the US death toll from coronavirus could exceed 315,000 by December 2020.
Abdul El-Sayed – physician, epidemiologist and former health director for the city of Detroit – says …
“Trump has done something worse than give up; he's prioritized electoral politics above public health – and at the potential expense of American lives. Meanwhile, as his administration has forced its political agenda upon apolitical agencies that are supposed to be leading with science, Trump himself seems to be doing everything he can to divert attention away from the pandemic …
“What initially appeared to be the Trump administration's ineptitude when it came to responding to the country's worst public health crisis in a century has since morphed into something far more sinister — a seemingly purposeful effort to turn the Covid-19 pandemic into white noise as Trump amplifies the clatter of his own fearmongering with unfounded or distorted claims about crime and lawlessness.”
(Abdul El-Sayed. “Trump's response to Covid-19 is worse than giving up.” CNN. September 05, 2020.)
It’s our civic duty to ensure we’re all making the smartest decisions about COVID-19. We all have a role to play. The best way to prevent illness is to avoid being exposed to this virus. Health officials have asked us to wash our hands, to cover our mouth and nose with a mask and to social distance when we are around others. Also, we must not spread rumors or falsehoods, or anything else that could make a public-health response harder for those around us.
Above all, we must not give up. That directive now includes a responsibility to fight naysayers and nonbelievers by voting them out of office. Those who downplay the destruction of the pandemic are willing – officially and unofficially – to let millions die for some notion of herd immunity. No one even really knows how immunity to the virus works yet – whether it lasts a few months or a few years. Millions could die without communities ever reaching the goal of high levels of immunity.
Trump, the Trump administration, and those who reject following simple health directives during the pandemic contribute to the widespread death and destruction that continue to paralyze the country. Just “like the flu”? Who in the hell would believe this irresponsible statement from a chief of staff who quits instead of standing up and fighting a formidable enemy?
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