Donald Trump has had a rough time during the pandemic. What seemed like a no-brainer has turned into a never-ending nightmare for him, as he continues to deny the reality of the situation. All he had to do was put pressure on recalcitrant Republican governors to impose mask mandates, at the very least, and he would have escaped the scathing criticism he has received throughout this six-month ordeal. Even when he finally accepted that masks are good, he trots in a Fox News doctor as part of his pandemic team, who has openly questioned the use of masks, and is pushing herd immunity again.
As with global warming, the conservative news media is determined to make COVID-19 an innocuous flu bug that will go away at some point as we all become immune to it. They claim that the ever growing number of cases and death toll has been grossly inflated, part of a conspiracy by the Democrats and indeed the whole world to bring down Trump. In their scenario of Infinity War, Thanos is good and the Avengers are bad. Even Thanos needs some weird science to bolster his preposterous claims, so Trump enlists the support of conservative doctors like Atlas, Ben Carson and Marc Siegel to give him cover. Dr. Siegel is even more absurd in his claims than Dr. Atlas.
Little wonder Fox viewers are so confused. For the most part, Americans have been following the advice of Drs. Fauci and Birx, conservative and liberal alike. But, with the constant barrage of claims on Fox news that masks are unnecessary and that the best defense is simply to get the disease as you will soon be over it and be immune to it forever, some Fox viewers have become more defiant than ever. We have seen vociferous deniers like Herman Cain, who contracted COVID-19 at Trump's Tulsa Rally, die last month, and that other conservatives who contracted the virus have warned viewers not to play with this strain of coronavirus as it is a killer. Nevertheless, Fox news pundits and their so-called medical experts continue to question the science of the CDC and other disease control agencies.
The president could have rose above all this cackle and simply demanded governors issue mask mandates and social distancing requirements. They didn't necessarily have to shut down the economy, but rather put in place regulations that slowed the spread of the highly contagious virus. This is what the collegiate and professional sports clubs did and they have been able to continue with their highly lucrative seasons to the delight of television viewers. Instead, these conservative governors virtually ignored the virus until it was too late, resulting in a massive outbreak over the summer throughout the South and Midwest. This after the president said the virus would go away by April.
Trump has built his entire life around the idea of bucking convention. It has made him a resilient businessman, overcoming numerous bankruptcies, and an entertaining celebrity, never one to be embarrassed by his failures but rather flaunt his ultimate success, POTUS. Through it all, he has never admitted a mistake or recognized a sin of any kind, but rather presented himself as the ultimate authority on virtually any subject. He's smarter than the scientists, far more clever than the generals and knows everything there is to know about medicine. How? He absorbed it all from his genius uncle, who he has often cited at rallies.
If this was a movie, we would all be rolling in the aisles laughing. No one could believe such a charlatan could ever become president, but here he is near the end of his first term, still denying climate change despite the raging fires and hurricanes, still denying coronavirus, despite the tragic death toll, and still claiming he has the answers to crises he won't even recognize exist. But, where did he get these doctors? Didn't they take a Hippocratic Oath?
Scott Atlas was called out by doctors from his own university for his ludicrous claims. There is no science to back up the idea that herd immunity works. In fact, Sweden tried it, resulting in a devastating death toll that per capita ranks only slightly behind the United States. UK flirted with it until Boris found himself on a ventilator and the Tories quickly changed course. Yet, Dr. Atlas was so enraged that his fellow doctors dare question his newfound authority that he has threatened to sue his former university. Think about that for a moment. A guy who is questioning the prevailing scientific wisdom of the world, threatens to sue those who question his widely discredited theories. He must have read Trump's Art of the Deal.
Hard to imagine, but Marc Siegel is even worse. This guy is on Fox almost nightly, venting against all the measures being taken to slow the spread of the virus. Neither he nor Scott Atlas are epidemiologists, yet Dr. Siegel has been writing for years on the false alarms of these "flus." Now that we are finally forced to confront one of these long-predicted massive outbreaks, Siegel says there's nothing there. Worst case scenario, there will be less pensioners in America sucking Social Security dry.
This level of cynicism is mind numbing, yet the president still touts a vaccine before the end of the year, and that everyone will have access to it by April of next year. If COVID-19 is nothing to worry about, as Drs. Atlas and Siegel have both claimed, then why worry about a vaccine at all? We can simply get this coronavirus and ultimately be immune to it. "Herd mentality," you know.
I guess Trump feels he has to cover all his bases leading up to the election. That's why he has also trotted out a so-called health care plan that he will enact by executive order if Congress doesn't pass it. Let the Constitution be damned. Only problem is that it is not a health care plan, but rather some kind of wish list cobbled together at the last moment, throwing in a $200 coupon for senior citizens at their local pharmacy, to fulfill a promise he made when he first came into office. Obviously, he has no idea how much these drugs cost. That voucher wouldn't even cover the prescription drug costs of the average American household for one month.
Digging himself in has only made matters worse. The real doctors are now expecting more than 400,000 deaths from COVID-19 by the end of the year, given that the cold and flu season is now upon us. Yet, Trump hires Dr. Atlas to be the spokesman for his White House pandemic team. That's a big weight on his shoulders, but I'm sure Dr. Atlas will shrug it off.
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