The flattening the curve in the fight against Covid-19 is... a good sign not so much as good news because of the 20,473 recorded deaths in the United States as of this writing.
The Trump administration, according to reporting from NBC's Kristen Welker, is planning on opening the economy back up May 1, as opposed to what FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn said that they are looking at that date. Chuck Todd posed the question on whether opening up the economy will brake along red/blue lines, which went unanswered. Well the answer is 'yes, it will,' because there never has been a strong federal coordinated response to combating the virus, biggest case in point is the lack of nation-wide testing - less than 1 percent of the United States population.
It was good to hear that Dr. Hahn say that he's felt no political pressure and the FDA's actions reflect as such, but then again he explained that he was only confirmed in December and that he hadn't been through any pandemic exercises. This speaks to the deeper problem of gutting the federal government and leaving key positions empty or in 'acting' status that has plagued the Trump presidency.
Without national testing capacity in absence of a vaccine the economy will not fully recover anytime soon. You shouldn't hold your breath for a May 1st date, especially if the data is showing surges in outbreaks in other cities across the country. We remain on the virus's timeline.
As for the president, the most important metrics are in his mind when it comes to the decision. What could go wrong with that? Dr. Fauci said that the decision would be made collectively only to be overwritten by the president who said he alone would make the decision. As for the daily press conferences, they have ceased being relevant and certainly do not help the president's cause in looking like he's in charge. The majority of Americans have written off Mr. Trump's leadership during the pandemic and are looking to their state governors.
As the panel discussed, in lieu of not being able to be out at rallies, the president is using the press conferences as 'infomercials' citing Jon Meacham. However, by the end of each the product hasn't grown in appeal, quite the opposite.
All the blame Mr. Trump dishes out only serves as excuses at this point, yet still with the object of keeping his base focused on others such as the World Health Organization. The president attacked the WHO this week for being too China-centric, to which Dr. David Nabarro explained that his organization doesn't have the power to inspect and can only work with the data they receive from governments.
Continually planting seeds, the president also decried mail-in voting saying untruthfully that it's prone to fraud - start baking it in now that because of the potential need for mail-in voting the result will be illegitimate. So more significant than Bernie Sanders dropping out of the race was the Wisconsin primary example this week. Instead of 180 polling places for the city of Milwaukee, only 5 were open while endangering public health. The Democratic governor wanted to postpone it but the state's conservative Supreme Court overturned the decision, essentially sanctioning a suppression of the vote.
How it played out was instructive for November as Jon Meacham explained, but if Bernie Sanders doesn't give a full-throated endorsement with action to back to Joe Biden his supporters will stay home or vote third party or disastrously vote for President Trump. As Yamiche Alcindor explained, Joe Biden is expected to move to the left however moderately as are reflected in Mr. Biden's Medicare at 60 and forgiveness as some student loan debt. So Mr. Biden will do his part, but Mr. Sanders who surely understands the consequences has to make sure his supporters also understand, thoroughly so.
In the meantime, where ever you are, please stay safe and healthy.
Panel: Kristen Welker, NBC News; Yamiche Alcindor, PBS; Lanhee Chen, Stanford University; Jon Meacham, presidential historian
No comments:
Post a Comment