Donald Trump has an interesting way of handling the coronavirus these days. He is both ignoring it and telling people they just have to live with it. During his campaign rallies, he will not be mentioning COVID-19. On the other hand, former Vice President Joe Biden will have quite a bit to say about how POTUS has not handled the disease and has, in fact, made it far worse. Part of denying the pandemic as experts say deaths will rise to over 200,000 is the president’s utter callousness.
CBS News Anchor Margaret Brennan started off the Sunday after the Fourth of July on Face the Nation with a startling introduction. She said that the White House had not been acknowledging their asks for an interview with the government’s top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci. The coronavirus pandemic has been surging across the southern U.S. states and over to California. Many began with Republican governors lifting the shelter-at-home mandate too early.
The network has been trying for three months to get an interview with Fauci, according to The Daily Beast.
Brennan was substitute-hosting Sunday’s Face the Nation show. She relayed that there were more than 50,000+ new coronavirus cases every day for the past six days — in the U.S. alone, according to The Daily Beast:
‘It may be the most sobering morning after the Forth of July in America’s history.’
Brennan continued:
‘We’re committed to bringing you facts about the virus, and the most knowledgable guests that we can. We think that it’s important for our viewers to hear from Dr. Anthony Fauci and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). but we have not been able to get our request for Dr. Fauci approved by the Trump administration in the last three months. And the CDC, not at all. We will continue our efforts.’
The last time that Dr. Fauci appeared on the Sunday morning talk show was right at three months ago, April 5, 2020. According to CNN, a top-level White House official said that the White House was not approving any TV interview asks for the doctor or any other members of the coronavirus task force personnel.
The last time that Fauci appeared on American television in any capacity was on June 12, almost a month ago.
The CBS network did caution that Fauci said on June 23, 2020 the next weeks were “critical'” when it came to altering the path of spiking COVID-19 cases. Fauci said that not doing so would “create a death toll spike.”
During his testimony before the Senate last week, Fauci predicted 100,000 new cases of COVID-19 each day. He said that “not enough Americans are wearing masks or social distancing,” the BBC reported:
‘I would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 a day. Clearly we are not in control right now. About half of all new cases come from four states.’
Already, Governor Anthony Cuomo warned that almost half of all visitors from the nation to New York would have to self-quarantine should they decide to visit.
According to the BBC, Senator Elizabeth Warren asked for Fauci’s best estimates. He replied:
‘I can’t make an accurate prediction, but it is going to be very disturbing, I will guarantee you that. Because when you have an outbreak in one part of the country even though in other parts of the country they’re doing well, they are vulnerable. We can’t just focus on those areas that are having the surge. It puts the entire country at risk.’
The doctor suggested that America hand out face masks for free to all Americans. He said that it was not an “all or none phenomenon.”
Last Monday, Fauci said that the nation was “unlikely” to come up with “herd immunity” once the vaccine became available. Earlier, he suggested that a vaccine could be available in early 2021. He explained that a vaccine might be only partially effective, so many people might refuse it. There would be others who took the vaccine but did not wear masks to thoroughly protect themselves from the coronavirus.
The CDC webpage explained that herd immunity occurs when:
‘[A] sufficient proportion of a population is immune to an infectious disease (through vaccination and/or prior illness) to make its spread from person to person unlikely.’
Fauci continued:
‘There is a general anti-science, anti-authority, anti-vaccine feeling among some people in this country – an alarmingly large percentage of people, relatively speaking.’
The virologist added that he would happily “settle” for a 70 percent to 75 percent-effective vaccines at the beginning.
Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Robert Redfield also testified at the hearing before Congress. He said 12 states have had rising medical center numbers. In addition, Arizona recorded “an increasing death rate:”
‘The disease impacts us all and it’s going to take all of working together to stop it. Sadly this simple life-saving practice has become part of the political debate. If you are for Trump you don’t wear a mask, if you are against Trump you do. [He suggested that the president occasionally wear a mask. The president has plenty of admirers that would follow his lead.’
Principal Deputy Director of the CDC Anne Schuchat warned that the country is not responding to the coronavirus as other countries have done:
‘We’re not in the situation of New Zealand or Singapore or Korea where a new case is rapidly identified and all the contacts are traced and people are isolated who are sick and people who are exposed are quarantined and they can keep things under control. We have way too much virus across the country for that right now, so it’s very discouraging.’
New Zealand was infection-free as of June 8, 2020. However, several cases resulted as travelers brought it into the country. South Korea has been an aggressive role model for using contact tracers. It has recorded only 100 cases per day since April 1. Singapore peaked in mid-April with 1,400 new cases in one day.
America has done far worse:
‘The US has recorded 2,682,897 confirmed cases of coronavirus as of Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins University, and has a total of 129,544 deaths.’
Dr. Schuchat continued:
‘This is really the beginning. I think there was a lot of wishful thinking around the country that “hey it’s summer”. Everything’s going to be fine. We’re over this and we are not even beginning to be over this. There are a lot of worrisome factors about the last week or so.’
Featured image is a screenshot via YouTube.
The Mueller Report Adventures: In Bite-Sizes on this Facebook page. These quick, two-minute reads interpret the report in normal English for busy people. Mueller Bite-Sizes uncovers what is essentially a compelling spy mystery. Interestingly enough, Mueller Bite-Sizes can be read in any order.
