Tuesday, October 20, 2020

Pixie Dust, Denial And Smears -- Trump's Closing COVID-19 Message

 


 The recognition that the handling of the coronavirus pandemic is the number one issue in the election is leading the campaign of Donald "COVID Donnie" Trump to start finger- pointing while simultaneously waving the white flag.  The finger- pointing involves increased attacks on the nation's premier infectious disease expert and on science in general, while the white flag is being waved by the regime's "herd immunity" cranks like Fox "News" radiologist Scott Atlas, who has COVID Donnie's ear on the White (Supremacist) House COVID task force.  Atlas is operating as a one- man wrecking crew on the already neutered task force (a.k.a., a "den of dissent").

Here's what a real expert -- Dr. Michael Osterholm, Director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy -- has to say about Atlas' "herd immunity" strategy, which assumes that only 20-25% of the population needs to be infected in order for the rest of the population to be protected:

"First of all, that 20% number is the most amazing combination of pixie dust and pseudoscience I've ever seen... It is 50%–70% at minimum. And remember when we talk about getting to 50%–70% protection, we're talking you can get there with disease — but if that happens, there will be lots of deaths, a lot of serious illnesses — or we can try to get there with vaccination, and postponing the number of people who get sick until we have the vaccines available... 50%–70% just slows down transmission, it doesn't stop it. So this virus is going to keep looking for wood to burn for as long as it can ... so, our goal is to get as many people protected with vaccines."  

Boiled down, "herd immunity" is an almost perfect example of Republican/ neo- fascist social Darwinism -- culling the weak, the elderly, the people of color from the population, in order to get on with the business of lining the pockets of the 1 percent.  With his daily superspreader events, COVID Donnie seems intent on proving he can infect as many of his cultists as he can to jump start this bogus, dangerous "pseudoscience."  He's made it clear he's given up on a pandemic response:

He argued Monday that the American people were no longer interested in taking precautions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

“They’re getting tired of the pandemic — aren’t they?” Trump said at a rally in Arizona. “You turn on CNN. That’s all they cover. Covid, covid, pandemic. Covid, covid, covid. . . . They’re trying to talk people out of voting. People aren’t buying it, CNN, you dumb bastards.”

The other tack is denigrating Dr. Anthony Fauci and "scientists," whom COVID Donnie wants to blame for his historic and damning failures in addressing the coronavirus pandemic:

President Donald Trump's election endgame argument, far from bristling with new solutions to a pandemic that has killed 220,000 Americans, on Monday devolved into a campaign of insults against Dr. Anthony Fauci -- for telling the truth about the disease.

Trump ridiculed Fauci as a "disaster" and an "idiot" who has been around for "500 years" -- trashing one of the nation's best hopes of easing the pandemic along with his recommendations to quell an alarming Covid-19 surge.
 
His personal warfare against Fauci on a frenzied day on the campaign trail, while indecent and questionable from a strategic political perspective, revealed how the US government effort to beat the pandemic has been suppressed in the service of Trump's reelection.
Meanwhile, although trust in Dr. Fauci has dropped thanks to COVID Donnie's relentless smear campaign, nearly 65 percent of Americans still rate his response as "excellent" or "good," whereas 58 percent rate COVID Donnie's response "poor" or "just fair."  Advantage Fauci.
 
None of this is working with the broader electorate, just with COVID Donne's hard core cultists, who are willing to follow him all the way into the I.C.U.  It's hard to imagine a more ignorant, destructive, deluded approach, except when you remind yourself these have been the hallmarks of his tenure for nearly four years.

6 comments:

bluzdude said...

"Listen, and understand. That virus is out there. It can’t be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead."

"But I'm tired of it!"

W. Hackwhacker said...

bluzdude -- incredible, isn't it? And we're supposed to be a modern, first world nation.

Anonymous said...

Herd immunity, much like austerity or paying taxes, is something the rich think is good for the poor...

W. Hackwhacker said...

Anon -- nailed it.

E.A. Blair said...

A first world nation? The United States, Myanmar (Burma) and Liberia are the only three countries in the world that still use inches and ounces. That's fifth world.

W. Hackwhacker said...

Eric -- interesting, um, metric...