“…The accusation that in
three short years Trump has succeeded in severing historic ties between the US
government and science-based decision making is one of the more chilling
charges leveled at his presidency. Science has after all been at the core of the
American experiment, ever since Franklin Roosevelt created the White House
Office of Scientific R&D in 1941.
“Not
only was scientific endeavor instrumental in winning the second world war –
through the atomic bomb and innovations such as radar and communications
technology – it was also central to America’s postwar economic success. In
recent times, Obama inherited that legacy and ran with it, promising on his
first day in office in 2009 that ‘we will restore science to its rightful place.’
“In his first set of presidential
appointments, Obama brought into his administration five science Nobel
prizewinners and 25 members of the National Academies of Science, Engineering
and Medicine. They became known as the ‘dream team.’
“…The roll call of officials Trump has
entrusted with protecting Americans from Covid-19 tells its own story. With no
Nobel laureates in sight, Trump relied initially on Alex Azar, secretary of the
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), who is a lawyer and former drug
company boss; followed by Mike Pence, a career politician and evangelical
Christian; and most recently Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law,
whose expertise lies in real estate.
“Trump’s top team have
in turn promoted individuals in their own mold. As Reuters has reported, Azar gave the job of coordinating the fight against
coronavirus within HHS, to an individual whose job immediately before joining
the Trump administration was as a dog breeder running a small business called
Dallas Labradoodles.
“The
clash between science and the White House is the culmination of a long
confrontation. As Jeffrey Sachs, a globally renowned economist at Columbia
University, told the Guardian: ‘The Republican party has been on an aggressive
anti-science campaign for decades, mainly because scientists are in favor of
environmental regulations while the Republicans are the party of polluters.’
“In Trump Republicans have found a leader who
regards his own innate abilities to divine the truth as superior to
evidence-based science. In one of the most telling moments of his daily White
House coronavirus briefings, Trump was asked what metrics he would use to decide
when Americans could emerge from lockdown.
“He raised his right hand, placed his
index finger against his temple, and said: ‘The metrics right here. That’s my
metrics.’
“That faith in his own instincts over
and above fact has been a characteristic for years. Trump is famous for
believing that exercise is misguided, because people are born
with a finite amount of energy in them, like batteries. Until he entered
presidential politics he was opposed to vaccinating children, claiming falsely
that vaccines cause autism.
“Given these tendencies, when Trump
snatched unexpected victory in 2016 the scientific community braced itself for
what they knew would be an uncomfortable ride. The attack began in the very
first week of Trump’s presidency. Scientists, including public health experts,
were barred from communicating with the public
about their work and new restrictions were imposed on the EPA.
“Since then the Union of Concerned
Scientists has recorded no fewer than 139 major attacks
from the Trump administration on scientific integrity. For the Union’s Michael
Halpern, the mindset was summed up by Sharpiegate in September 2019 when the
White House redrew the path of Hurricane Dorian to include Alabama so that the
president would not have to admit he made a mistake.
“To the shock and dismay of the
science community, the national weather agency was forced to play along. ‘Sharpiegate
was the harbinger of what’s happened with the pandemic,’ Halpern said.
“When
the nation is dealing with a hurricane that threatens the lives of thousands it
is serious enough, but a pandemic threatening millions of Americans is on
another level. The sidelining of expert advice that has been a trademark of
this presidency has burst into full view, with Trump’s belief in his own
intellectual prejudices pitted directly – often in front of TV cameras –
against the evidence-based advice of his own bewildered officials.
“‘Many scientists were dreading that the president would be faced by a test just like coronavirus,’ Halpern said. ‘It has had immediate and catastrophic consequences.’
“‘Many scientists were dreading that the president would be faced by a test just like coronavirus,’ Halpern said. ‘It has had immediate and catastrophic consequences.’
“All
the major mistakes that have been made by the Trump
administration in handling the pandemic can be ascribed to this failure to
listen to, and trust, scientific advice. Trump was slow to mobilize the federal
government because he failed to heed scientific warnings; instead he chose to
follow his ‘hunch’ that a ‘miracle’ would happen and the virus would
disappear.
“His obsession with the anti-malarial drug chloroquine as a potential ‘game changer’ in treating Covid-19 caused havoc in the US and around the world,
with recent studies suggesting the drug has no
beneficial qualities and plenty of side-effects.
“In contrast to other countries like South
Korea where public health agencies have spearheaded successful efforts to
contain Covid-19, in the US the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) has been sidelined. Its last press conference was in March.
“The assault on science does not end with the
White House. Trump’s vocal disdain for evidence-based thinking has emboldened
an army of quacks, pseudoscience groups and conspiracy theorists who have
stepped up their proselytizing online and in protests across the country.
“The
president’s remarks about injecting disinfectant not only led to some people poisoning themselves by drinking cleaning
fluid, it also encouraged peddlers of industrial bleach to reinforce their
claims that they had a ‘miracle cure’ for coronavirus…
“If there is a silver lining in the current
browbeaten state of American science, it lies paradoxically in the pandemic
itself. The crisis has not only brought the confrontation to a head, it also
offers a possible way out of it.
“All the scientists consulted by the Guardian
agreed that the cause of evidence-based leadership would emerge from the
current crisis stronger…”
“It will be the people against polluters, experts against
those winging it, scientists against the peddlers of misinformation. The
question is, who is going to win?” (The Guardian).
USA Total Cases: 1,162,049
USA Total Deaths: 67,492
Please forward this to Joe Biden and the Democratic National Committee. I fear those people who received stimulus checks will vote for Trump without consideration of the damage Trump has done. I am a "vulnerable" citizen, but I fear Trump more than Covid-19.
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