It looks like we are on our own.
The Trump administration’s announcement Wednesday that it is ending federal funding for coronavirus testing at 13 community-based sites, including several in hard-hit Texas, tells us everything we need to know. The man has thrown his tiny hands in the air and conceded defeat. It didn’t have to be this way.
America’s botched handling of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to get worse. The virus is spiraling out of control, as cases soar throughout the South and West. This rapid rise in infections was entirely predictable the moment governors raced to reopen society last month, cheered on by a president hoping that an economic resurgence could rescue his faltering reelection campaign.
We are witnessing a veritable all-star team in ignorance and stupidity from right-leaning government officials and their freedom-loving followers, led by an irresponsible and negligent president. Years of attacks on science and education are now being felt in ways we could not have possibly predicted.
On Wednesday, a city councilman in affluent Scottsdale, Ariz., ripped off his mask and exclaimed, “I can’t breathe,” simultaneously mocking virus containment efforts and those protesting for racial equality, to the delight of a crowd of right-wing extremists. Meanwhile, on the same day, there were more than 40,000 new positive cases nationwide, and the death toll approached 125,000.
Trump has not only shirked his responsibility to protect Americans, but he is now actively endangering us by staging indoor rallies in front of mask-less non-physical-distancing audiences that have all the hallmarks of super-spreading events. He’s already done it in Tulsa and Arizona, and today he’s heading to Wisconsin.
We know the situation is bad when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott puts a stop to his state’s reopening plan. This is the same state where Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick encouraged senior citizens to sacrifice their lives for the economic good of the nation on national television a few months ago. One family in that state experienced 18 cases of the virus after they attended a party.
Efforts in Florida to force people to do what’s best for themselves and everyone around them have met a particularly bizarre reaction. In one county commissioner workshop meeting, video surfaced of a woman equating wearing masks to the devil and a crime against God.
Vice President Mike Pence is telling us not to panic, because the death rate is down. That’s all well and good, but he seems to have forgotten that it takes a few weeks before all the new cases become fatal.
Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx have told us that wearing a mask is the best way to prevent spreading the virus. But our irresponsible president and his acolytes have turned this into a political issue, much to the dismay of the scientific community, the medical community and the community of human beings who enjoy breathing.
By encouraging people not to wear masks, Trump is promoting disease spreading while at the same time attempting to limit our capacity to spot the virus. Just because official infection rates are artificially low doesn’t mean the virus doesn’t exist. It just means you don't know who has it.
During the 2016 primaries, in perhaps the most prescient statement to have ever been made at a debate, Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush called Trump the chaos candidate and warned he would be a chaos president.
We are now experiencing the chaos.
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