The Administration* Is Going to War With the Government's Own Experts
The CDC director just issued a medical warning, but it's also a political one.
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politic...nl20918878
By Charles P. Pierce
Jul 16, 2020
washington, dc july 15 us president donald trump walks to the white house residence after exiting marine one on south lawn of the white house on july 15, 2020 in washington, dc the president traveled to the atlanta, georgia area to visit the ups hapeville airport hub and deliver remarks on infrastructure photo by drew angerergetty images
Drew Angerer / Getty Images
Dr. William Redfield, director of the Centers For Disease Control, stopped in at a webinar—one side effect of this pandemic is that it’s doing terrible things to the language—sponsored by the Journal of the American Medical Association. Redfield initiated a truth-quake that likely shook things up all the way back to Camp Runamuck in D.C. From Business Insider:
"I do think the fall and the winter of 2020 and 2021 are going to be probably one of the most difficult times that we've experienced in American public health.”
From a purely medical standpoint, Redfield was saying that things are so far gone in this country that the pandemic will still be raging when it collides with the cold and flu season. Now, an estimated 61,000 Americans die from the flu every year, so you don’t have to be Louis Pasteur to look down the road and see hospitals even more swamped than they are now, and even more Americans dying from this overcrowding and from simple neglect. But, times being what they are, and the president* being what he is, there’s another obvious dynamic in play here.
As has become clear, the White House’s strategy toward the pandemic now has become a variation on the classic Disney theme, “A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes.” Regarding this ongoing calamity, the folks at Camp Runamuck clearly hope to ride to re-election on gales of happy talk completely unmoored from the reality of the country’s ERs and ICUs.
As part of this strategy, the administration* has chosen to go to war with the government’s own experts. They’re dropping oppo files on Dr. Anthony Fauci, who seems to be coming to the end of his fathomless reservoir of patience. And, of course, this also would include attacking, or ignoring, the work of the CDC.
Just this week, for example, the administration* took the unconscionable step of demanding that hospitals bypass the CDC and send their data to a “central database” rumored to be the back pocket of a pair of khakis hanging on a hook in Jared Kushner’s bathroom.
Given all this, and given an increasingly desperate and dotty president*, it’s hard not to see what Redfield told the webinar not only as a sound medical warning, but also as a political warning shot aimed at the administration* that has done so much to undermine both the CDC and the public health.
That the unfolding pissing match is contrary to best practices as regards the pandemic is part of life in this era of the many plagues.
The CDC director just issued a medical warning, but it's also a political one.
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politic...nl20918878
By Charles P. Pierce
Jul 16, 2020
washington, dc july 15 us president donald trump walks to the white house residence after exiting marine one on south lawn of the white house on july 15, 2020 in washington, dc the president traveled to the atlanta, georgia area to visit the ups hapeville airport hub and deliver remarks on infrastructure photo by drew angerergetty images
Drew Angerer / Getty Images
Dr. William Redfield, director of the Centers For Disease Control, stopped in at a webinar—one side effect of this pandemic is that it’s doing terrible things to the language—sponsored by the Journal of the American Medical Association. Redfield initiated a truth-quake that likely shook things up all the way back to Camp Runamuck in D.C. From Business Insider:
"I do think the fall and the winter of 2020 and 2021 are going to be probably one of the most difficult times that we've experienced in American public health.”
From a purely medical standpoint, Redfield was saying that things are so far gone in this country that the pandemic will still be raging when it collides with the cold and flu season. Now, an estimated 61,000 Americans die from the flu every year, so you don’t have to be Louis Pasteur to look down the road and see hospitals even more swamped than they are now, and even more Americans dying from this overcrowding and from simple neglect. But, times being what they are, and the president* being what he is, there’s another obvious dynamic in play here.
As has become clear, the White House’s strategy toward the pandemic now has become a variation on the classic Disney theme, “A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes.” Regarding this ongoing calamity, the folks at Camp Runamuck clearly hope to ride to re-election on gales of happy talk completely unmoored from the reality of the country’s ERs and ICUs.
As part of this strategy, the administration* has chosen to go to war with the government’s own experts. They’re dropping oppo files on Dr. Anthony Fauci, who seems to be coming to the end of his fathomless reservoir of patience. And, of course, this also would include attacking, or ignoring, the work of the CDC.
Just this week, for example, the administration* took the unconscionable step of demanding that hospitals bypass the CDC and send their data to a “central database” rumored to be the back pocket of a pair of khakis hanging on a hook in Jared Kushner’s bathroom.
Given all this, and given an increasingly desperate and dotty president*, it’s hard not to see what Redfield told the webinar not only as a sound medical warning, but also as a political warning shot aimed at the administration* that has done so much to undermine both the CDC and the public health.
That the unfolding pissing match is contrary to best practices as regards the pandemic is part of life in this era of the many plagues.
