Opinion by
Columnist
June 30, 2020 at 3:12 p.m. CDT
Anthony
S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-diseases expert, gave a dire warning
Tuesday in a Senate committee hearing held as coronavirus infections surge in
many parts of the United States.
“We are now having 40-plus
thousand new cases a day. I would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 a day
if this does not turn around. And so I am very concerned,” Fauci said in
response to questioning from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on what the
overall U.S. death toll is likely to be.
We know
how we got here: After a delinquent response to the onset of the pandemic,
President Trump used his substantial bully pulpit to encourage states to reopen
when conditions did not warrant loosening of stay-at-home rules (e.g., available
hospital capacity, a robust testing and tracing program, a reduced infection
rate). The president made matters worse by actively inhibiting mask-wearing. We
have paid an awful price in human life and in economic activity; we now risk a
flat-out catastrophe.
Coincidentally
or not, former vice president Joe Biden delivered a searing speech on
Tuesday regarding Trump’s inadequate coronavirus response.
“Despite the administration’s propaganda that their response should be ‘a cause
for celebration,’ despite President Trump’s request that we should slow down
testing, because he thinks it makes him look bad, covid-19 is still here,” the
former vice president and presumptive Democratic nominee said. He added, the
“daily threat to American health and prosperity” is continuing.
Biden
has been remarkably prescient on the issue, which he was happy to recount:
In
January, I sounded the alarm over the coronavirus outbreak. Trump told the
country that covid-19 is "totally under control” and that everything would
all “work out well.”
In
February, I warned about our failure to get information we needed from the
Chinese government. I said if I were president, I would demand it.
Trump
said we were in "great shape" and reported that China’s president
said it was “doing very well.”
In
March, I set forth a detailed plan for 500 federally-funded testing sites
across the country as well as guaranteed emergency paid leave. Later that
month, I called for the full and immediate use of the Defense Production Act to
deliver critical supplies.
Trump
accused health-care workers of stealing masks.
In
April, I released plans to secure the supply chain for personal protective
equipment, surge nationwide testing through a pandemic testing board, and
launch a nationwide health corps to focus on contact tracing.
Trump’s
suggestion?
Americans
should inject disinfectants into their bodies.
In May,
I condemned the false choice between preserving our public health and our
economy. I urged the administration to focus on the basic public health
measures like testing that would enable us to sustain our economic recovery.
Trump’s
response?
He pushed for reopening
without regard for safety and called testing “frankly overrated.”
In
Biden’s words, Trump is the one thing the president despises: A loser. Biden
declared that “it seems the wartime president has surrendered — has waved the
white flag and left the field of battle. Today, we’re facing a serious threat,
and we must meet it — as one country.”
He then
outlined his ideas for a different approach. He began with the necessity of
“testing, testing, testing” and to create a national corps of tracers. He also
urged that “every single front-line worker should have the personal protective
equipment” and put a “laser-focus on treatments and vaccines” by engaging in
international efforts. He also wants to see “real plans, real guidelines with
uniform, nationwide standards to help chart our economic reopening.” Left to
their own devices, Republican governors have stepped away from evidence-based
guidelines. Finally, he called particular focus to “the populations most at
risk from this virus — our seniors. Our black and brown and native communities
that are being hit the hardest.”
In sum,
without a national plan based on science, we are right back where we started in
March — or in an even worse spot. Biden echoed Fauci’s warning, asserting “the
crisis is real — and it’s surging.” Trump has frittered away valuable time,
urged counterproductive measures and set a poor example by declining to wear
masks, which studies have suggested could
save thousands of lives.
Biden
wrapped up with a harsh rebuke of Trump’s narcissism: “It’s not about you, Mr.
President — it’s about the health and well-being of the American public. The
American people didn’t make enormous sacrifices over the past four months so
you could waste your time with late night rantings and tweets,” he said. “They
didn’t make these sacrifices so you could ignore the science and turn
responsible steps like wearing a mask into a political statement. And they
certainly didn’t do it so you could wash your hands and walk away.”
On this
issue, as with so many more, the contrast between Trump and Biden is stark.
Biden
promised he would respect and listen to scientists, work with every state
(rather than threatening and insulting many) and tell the truth. That would be
a pleasant change.