Pretending the coronavirus isn’t there won't work.
 | | President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Tulsa, Okla., on June 20.Sue Ogrocki/Associated Press |
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Look, I can understand why Donald Trump and his minions turned a blind eye to the coronavirus back in February. There were already good reasons to believe that a serious pandemic was on its way, and minimizing the risk was deeply irresponsible. But at the time there was at least a possibility that things wouldn’t be too bad, and from a cynical point of view it made some sense for an administration that wanted to tout a growing economy to engage in happy talk rather than deal with the problem. |
But that was four months and 120,000 dead Americans ago. What’s the point of keeping up the pretense? |
I mean, what was the purpose of having Vice President Mike Pence put his name to an Op-Ed article declaring that there won’t be a second wave of infections? Nobody in their right mind imagines that Pence is an objective source of epidemiological information. And Larry Kudlow, the administration’s top economist, may have negative credibility: if he says something, it’s almost surely wrong. Why have him, of all people, assure the nation that a second wave isn’t coming? |
Actual epidemiologists don’t think that the rising number of new cases is just an artifact of more testing. Two months ago, estimates of Rt, the number of people infected by each already-infected person, were below 1 for most states, meaning that the pandemic appeared to be fading away. But now they’re well above 1 for much of the country. Rt in Florida, for example, has gone from 0.81 in mid-April to 1.39 now. |
Even Republican governors who were gung-ho for rapid reopening are sounding very worried. I wouldn’t have expected Texas governor Greg Abbott, who rushed to reopen the state and overruled local governments that wanted to be more cautious, to be sounding the alarm and urging people to wear face masks. But grim data and surging hospitalizations have clearly shocked him. |
In any case, what good does virus denial do at this point, even in terms of cynical politics? If the pandemic really does fade away — which looks increasingly unlikely, but still — it will help Trump’s re-election prospects whatever Pence and Kudlow may say. But if it gets worse, they’ve further hurt the administration’s deeply damaged credibility. |
My best guess about the logic behind the administration’s coronavirus strategy is that there is no logic. That is, there isn’t anyone sitting in the White House facing the realities of the situation and thinking about how to game them. Instead, they’re just running around in a panic. |
The thing is, Covid-19 isn’t the kind of enemy Trump and company wanted to fight. It’s not a politician you can demonize and give silly nicknames; it’s not an ethnic minority about whom you can fearmonger and which you can beat up (not that that strategy is going well, either). It’s a real problem that demands real solutions, which is something the man in the White House and his associates don’t know how to do. |
So they’re still pretending that everything is fine. Unfortunately, the virus isn’t listening |
I admit it: I decamped to NJ, mainly for the backyard. But not many people did the same. |
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 | | Mother, should I trust the government?YouTube |
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