Analysis: Trump will have to account for failed virus response
He is again ignoring world-renowned US government scientists, claiming a pandemic that is getting worse is almost over, demanding state openings that will make it worse and presiding over contradictory public health messaging.
Trump’s upbeat assessments of his own poor performance and seeming indifference to the tragic toll of more than 205,000 US deaths give the Democratic nominee an opening when they duel in Cleveland on Tuesday night.
Experts say the President’s undermining of government advice on mask wearing, refusal to level with Americans about the danger early on and efforts to prioritize politically helpful economic openings over public health in one of the world’s worst responses to Covid-19 have made the tragedy worse than it needed to be.
Discord in the virus fight
In another sign of discord plaguing the government mitigation effort, top government scientists such as Dr. Anthony Fauci, CDC Director Robert Redfield and Dr. Deborah Birx did not appear at Trump’s testing event. But his new favored counselor, Dr. Scott Atlas, a neuroradiologist who joined the White House coronavirus task force in August and has drawn the ire of public health officials who say he is telling Trump what he wants to hear about the pandemic, got a speaking role.
Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, who has been marginalized by Trump, was asked by CNN’s Brian Stelter at an event on Monday whether there was acrimony behind the scenes.
“Most are working together. I think you know who the outlier is,” Fauci said.
At the White House on Monday, Atlas had a reassuring message for Trump.
“I anticipate that as — this virus — as we get toward the end of this pandemic — and the vaccine is being developed as quickly as it has been — America will be in a different position,” Atlas said.
“As I’ve said many times, the fear is not the issue here. We really have a handle on what’s going on. We know what to anticipate, and there’s remarkable advances being made as we see today.”
But William Haseltine, a former professor at Harvard Medical School, told CNN’s “New Day” on Monday that Atlas was not a credible member of the President’s team.
“He’s a cutout for a more powerful voice that has, for the entire year, tried to ignore this problem. When he says you don’t need masks, it’s not his voice you are hearing, it’s his boss’ voice,” Haseltine said. “Dr. Atlas is not a serious person to consider his voice in public health matters.”
Trump on Monday issued a new call for Democratic governors, whom he accuses of imposing lockdowns and other measures simply to damage his own electoral hopes, to start opening up their economies more quickly. His demand came despite widespread fears of a spike in coronavirus infections that one influential model at the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington now warns could take the death toll to 371,000 by the end of the year.
“Lockdowns can be very harmful, and we have too many states that are locked down right now. Nobody knows what the governors are doing, actually,” the President said.
Pandemic looms over debate night
While the tax question opened up another angle of attack for Biden, Democrats had already been testing a debate argument that links both the pandemic and the Barrett nomination, namely the survival of Obamacare. The law has become even more important amid the worst public health crisis in generations. But it is also again vulnerable, since the Supreme Court, possibly including the newly installed Barrett if she is confirmed by then, will consider the administration’s suit to invalidate Obamacare the week after the election.
“This relentless obsession with overturning the Affordable Care Act — driven entirely by a blind rage toward President Obama — is happening at a moment when our country is suffering through the ravages of a pandemic that has claimed more than 200,000 lives,” Biden’s running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris of California, said Monday, previewing one potential debate assault.
“Complications from Covid-19, like lung scarring and heart damage, could well become the next preexisting condition,” Harris said.
Had Trump only taken the virus more seriously — and won better marks from voters — he might be in a position to close out Biden’s challenge to his bid for a second term on Tuesday night.
In the event, however, he is running behind the former vice president in most of the key swing states and in national polls after apparently putting his own political goals ahead of a full-bore attack on the virus. He therefore needs to produce a momentum-changing moment on Tuesday night.
