Donald Trump speaks to reporters at the White House (screen capture) As the U.S. COVID-19 death toll passes 85,000, one of the world’s oldest and best-known medical journals published an op-ed calling out the Trump administration’s ” inconsistent and incoherent national response to the COVID-19 crisis.” The new editorial by The Lancet notes that, following two months of stay-at-home restrictions, infection and death rates have declined in those states hardest hit like New Jersey and New York. But recent outbreaks in Iowa and Minnesota raise disconcerting questions regarding the effectiveness of the federal response. The op-ed accuses the administration of, among other things, minimizing top officials at the CDC, as well as creating an “intelligence vacuum” in China when it pulled the last CDC officer from the country in July 2019. “The Administration is obsessed with magic bullets — vaccines, new medicines, or a hope that the virus will simply disappear,” it continued. “But only a steadfast reliance on basic public health principles, like test, trace, and isolate, will see the emergency brought to an end, and this requires an effective national public health agency.” The editorial closes with a call for new leadership in the White House writing, “Americans must put a president in the White House come January 2021, who will understand that public health should not be guided by partisan politics.” Meanwhile, during a press event today, Trump told reporters the country will overcome the COVID-19 crisis with or without an effective vaccine, claiming that the disease will “go away at some point” either way.
Trump offers some remarkably callous comments about the US coronavirus death toll, which currently sits at 86,607: “It’s a very, very small percentage. I say it all the time — it’s a tiny percentage. The vast majority — many people don’t even know they have it.” pic.twitter.com/b7fSqGNJMs
