Day 1,204: Safety? Not something people need to hear about when it comes to coronavirus, says Trump to CDC
After months of a terrible coronavirus response by Donald Trump and his administration, the past few days have been a tacit admission that they are waving on the white flag about Americans’ safety.
There was the decision to push the states to reopen as government numbers show infection and death rates rising; the decision to break up the coronavirus task force (since reversed due to public outcry); the decision to characterize the rising death numbers as fake news; and now, per a New York Times report, the decision to bury CDC guidance that would help the public open “schools, restaurants, churches and other establishments” in a safer manner.
A copy of the C.D.C. guidance obtained by The New York Times includes sections for child care programs, schools and day camps, churches and other “communities of faith,” employers with vulnerable workers, restaurants and bars, and mass transit administrators. The recommendations include using disposable dishes and utensils at restaurants, closing every other row of seats in buses and subways while restricting transit routes among areas experiencing different levels of coronavirus infection, and separating children at school and camps into groups that should not mix throughout the day.
But White House and other administration officials rejected the recommendations over concerns that they were overly prescriptive, infringed on religious rights and risked further damaging an economy that Mr. Trump was banking on to recover quickly. One senior official at the Department of Health and Human Services with deep ties to religious conservatives objected to any controls on church services.
Politicians are overruling doctors, scientists and researchers whose expertise is tailor-made for this situation.
Americans lives are being risked — and certainly some will be lost — because of Trump’s primary concern about “damaging an economy” during an election year. But shutting down the CDC’s recommendations that restaurants use plastic forks or children should stay in fixed groups during summer camp isn’t about the economy. It’s about pretending things are completely normal when they’re clearly not.
Instead of the nation’s top experts weighing in on a subject, restaurant owners, camp directors and clergy will be on their own to determine how best to protect those under their watch from a disease they can’t see. These are people who will do their best, but are ultimately trying to make decisions based on circumstances so far from their field of knowledge that it’s ludicrous.
1,204 days in, 258 to go
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