According to the
Associated Press, Trump’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was set
to release a 17-page report (“Guidance
for Implementing the Opening Up America Again Framework”) last weekend. The
report was intended to give public health officials around the country direction on how to lift
stay-at-home orders safely:
“The guidance contained detailed
advice for making site-specific decisions related to reopening schools,
restaurants, summer camps, churches, day care centers and other institutions.
It had been widely shared within CDC, and included detailed ‘decision trees,’
flow charts to be used by local officials to think through different scenarios.”
Among the suggestions, “restaurants
and bars should install sneeze guards at cash registers and avoid having
buffets, salad bars and drink stations” and “as restaurants start seating
diners again, they should space tables at least 6 feet apart and try to use
phone app technology to alert a patron when their table is ready to avoid
touching and use of ‘buzzers.’”
The need “for scientifically
valid information with which to make informed decisions” was so urgent that
state and county health departments were contacting the CDC daily for advice,
yet the administration blocked the release and CDC officials were told the
report “would never see the light of day.”
A White House official claimed
that the report was spiked because it hadn’t been cleared at the upper level of
the CDC and re-opening strategies varied from state to state, but the more
likely explanation is that the administration sees Trump’s re-election as a much higher priority than public safety.
Even as Anthony Fauci and
CDC head Robert Redfield have recently cautioned against a premature relaxation of social distancing guidelines, Trump has been a cheerleader for
the governors who’ve chosen to ignore sound scientific and public health advice
and the flat earth protesters who
egg them on.
The administration’s own models
show that re-opening the economy early will lead to “dramatically more U.S. deaths,” a doubling between now and August of what
would be expected if stay-at-home orders were maintained, but as the
Washington Post recently reported, Trump has more important things on his mind.
Guidelines could convince state
and local officials to be careful (and slow) in re-opening
businesses. This would protect Americans from contracting COVID-19, but could
pose challenges to Trump’s re-election campaign. Over the last century, only three
incumbent presidents have lost re-election:
Herbert Hoover, Jimmy Carter, and George Bush Sr. The common denominator
in all three cases was a weak economy. Americans vote their pocketbooks.
Trump can’t run on his likeability, or his competence,
as his response to COVID-19 has been a clear and colossal failure, so he’s putting all his chips on sliming Joe Biden and overseeing an economic rebound.
Trump’s message to the tens or hundreds
of thousands of Americans who will get lethal infections to serve his short-term
political ambitions?
More political writing by Dan Benbow:
ANATOMY OF A MAN-MADE DISASTER: 281 ways Donald Trump failed
to protect us from the coronavirus
The Master of Low Expectations: 666 reasons sentient citizens
are still celebrating the long overdue departure of George W. Bush
The breathtaking stupidity of #BernieOrBust
Death of a President in the United States of Amnesia
(a review of the public life of George H.W. Bush)
Aliens, unicorns, and the narcissism
of voting Green
10 reasons Barack Obama is clearly
the best president in my lifetime
178 reasons Hillary Clinton is infinitely better
than Donald Trump (even on her worst day)
ANATOMY OF A MAN-MADE DISASTER: 281 ways Donald Trump failed
to protect us from the coronavirus
The Master of Low Expectations: 666 reasons sentient citizens
are still celebrating the long overdue departure of George W. Bush
The breathtaking stupidity of #BernieOrBust
Death of a President in the United States of Amnesia
(a review of the public life of George H.W. Bush)
Aliens, unicorns, and the narcissism
of voting Green
10 reasons Barack Obama is clearly
the best president in my lifetime
178 reasons Hillary Clinton is infinitely better
than Donald Trump (even on her worst day)
