How did we get here?
Lack of transparency is never healthy in a democracy, but in January 2020 a perfect storm engulfed President Trump.
An email received by CDC officials on New Year’s Eve would soon reveal a potential pandemic in Wuhan in the fall of 2019; Qasem Soleimani was assassinated on Iraqi soil under President Trump’s orders on Jan. 3; and his impeachment trial was soon to begin on the 16th.
President Trump’s proclivity for leading by tweeting misleading statements on Twitter left the public dependent on White House briefings for direction.
Clarifying questions from the press were belittled by the President and incorrectly labeled fake news.
When it became clear that the President’s treatment recommendations — ingesting bleach and the health benefits of hydroxychloroquine — posed dangers, the briefings suddenly ended for two months.
They resumed after the President redirected Public Health data from the CDC to HHS, removing the availability of official CDC updates as he increased his hostility toward questions from the press.
As the Nov. 3 general election rapidly approaches, press briefings have become campaign speeches that do nothing to provide public safety information.
COVID-19 has claimed more than 156,000 lives so far, highlighting entrenched economic and racial injustice while the President advocates getting back to business as usual, reopening schools this month and promising a vaccine will be produced at warp speed while the alarming rise of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths, and the plight of the working class are dismissed.
Joy Beaver
Sequim