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(CNN) – A baffling White House claim that the US cannot control the rapidly worsening pandemic is overshadowing President Donald Trump’s desperate attempt to turn his re-election race against Democrat Joe Biden eight days to go.
Comments by White House Secretary General Mark Meadows on CNN on Sunday alarmed medical experts who say letting the coronavirus rage is akin to a herd immunity policy that will cost thousands of lives. But with new daily infections reaching record highs, Trump spent the weekend in a campaign blitz where he openly bypassed steps like wearing masks and social distancing that could slow the spread of the disease, and complained that all media speak only of “covid, covid, covid”.
“We will not control the pandemic,” Meadows told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” on Sunday. He argued that “appropriate mitigating factors” such as treatments and vaccines should be the priority.
The administration’s window into thinking came as Trump spent the weekend building a giant demand for trust for voters. He said the country was “turning the corner wonderfully” in the battle against COVID-19.
Vice President Mike Pence, meanwhile, refuses to accept permanent leadership of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in quarantine after his general secretary and a bodyguard were among the five. people in its orbit who have tested positive for a new coronavirus outbreak at the White House.
The latest signs that Trump is putting his political priorities ahead of his duty to care for the American people come as the president plans a hectic week of dense demonstrations that scoff at good practices of social distancing.
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But the weekend of grim health data and controversy means the campaign’s climax will be overshadowed by the pandemic. It’s a harsh reality for Trump, as 60% of Americans in a recent CNN poll disapproved of his handling of the crisis.
The president has always played down the threat of the virus. He mocked the use of masks, turning the practice into a problem of cultural warfare. And he lobbied Republican governors to open their states before the virus was under control. This helped trigger a wave of infections in the solar belt during the summer.
Consequently, its management of the pandemic is a central issue of the campaign. And his behavior in recent days indicates that there will be no change in the White House’s approach to the pandemic if he wins the election, no matter how severe the virus is in the winter.
The final week of the campaign begins with Trump following Biden in the national popular vote polls by 9 or 10 points and by narrower margins in many of the states that will decide the November 3 election. If the poll is accurate, Trump has a narrow road to re-election. But it will have to deliver on its promise to massively expand its political base with new conservative voters. And you’ll almost have to top the leaderboard in competitive states.
Surprisingly, more than 58 million Americans voted early, surpassing all early voting in the 2016 election. This means it will be harder for both candidates to shake the dynamics of the race at the last minute. Biden appears to have multiple avenues for the 270 electoral votes needed for victory. But Democrats are nervous after Trump’s recent rise in 2016 led to a surprising victory over Hillary Clinton.
I’m one of those people, or competitors, who doesn’t finish until the bell rings. And I feel superstitious when I foresee something other than a tough fight. So Biden said in an interview broadcast Sunday on CBS “60 Minutes” when asked if Trump could still defeat him. “We feel good about where we are. But you know, I don’t underestimate how it sounds.
Meadows sends shockwaves through Washington
Meadows made it clear to what extent the White House has stopped fighting the pandemic – for example, public briefings by prominent government scientists.
The problem with your comments is that a vaccine, even if approved by regulators in the coming months, is unlikely to be available to all Americans until next year.
The types of cutting-edge treatments that helped Trump overcome his Covid-19 case are not yet available to the general public or to the tens of thousands of Americans who are now infected every day. Public health officials such as Dr. Robert Redfield, the director of the CDC, have said masks are one of the most powerful weapons in the fight against the virus.
Biden took advantage of Meadows’ comments as he tried to argue that Trump’s denial and downplaying the biggest public health crisis of the past 100 years means he should be disqualified from serving a second term.
He said the White House Secretary General had “surprisingly admitted this morning that the administration has also given up trying to control this pandemic. That it has given up its fundamental duty to protect the American people.”
“This was not a slip of the tongue, it was a sincere acknowledgment of what has clearly been President Trump’s strategy since the beginning of this crisis: to wave the white flag of defeat and hope that by ignoring it, the virus will simply disappear. It hasn’t and it won’t.
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The president and Pence, the head of the coronavirus task force, have consistently refused to model social distancing and the use of masks which is the most effective way to reduce infections as treatments and vaccines arrive.
On Sunday, for example, the president mingled with supporters who were masked and neighbors, delivering punches and signing “Make America Great Again” caps.
This is exactly the wrong message the president should be sending, given a modeling study by the University of Washington’s Institute of Metrics and Health Assessment that in September only 49% of Americans reported wearing “always” a device. mask in public. If that number were 95%, more than 100,000 lives could be saved from Covid-19 by February, according to the study.
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In a new opinion article published on Sunday in The Wall Street newspaperDr. Scott Gottlieb, former Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), cautioned that it may be time to consider a limited and temporary national mask mandate.
The deaths are starting to rise again. And vaccines won’t be widely available until next year, even at the best of times. Anyone who joins in wearing masks, for a limited time, will be the least expensive way for society to have a difficult winter, ”Gottlieb wrote.
Pence, an ‘essential worker’
Even when news of the multiple infections spread in the vice president’s office, the White House declared he was an “essential worker”. A designation normally reserved for first line first responders and medical personnel. And he said he would continue his campaign program.
Pence, who wore a mask, clapped his hands and took the podium at an event in North Carolina on Sunday. It is the latest attempt by Trump and his team to fuel a false impression of normality as the crisis escalates every day. He never mentioned infections in his inner circle and barely mentioned the virus at the manifestation.
But the virus is now on the rise in 35 states and stable at 15. New infections surpassed 80,000 cases on both Friday and Saturday, beating previous records by just one day. U.S. medical director Dr. Jerome Adams warned on Friday that hospitalizations have increased in 75 percent of jurisdictions nationwide. Deaths are also likely to start rising soon.
The total disconnect between rapidly worsening reality and Trump and Pence’s behavior led David Gergen, a councilor to presidents on both sides who spoke on CNN, to condemn what he said was “a president and a vice president who put their lives and that of the people who risk promoting their political fortune ”.
Meadows’s comments appeared in line with the philosophy of White House adviser Dr. Scott Atlas, who has the ear of the president and has infuriated government scientists over the White House coronavirus task force.
Atlas has questioned the use of masks and appears to favor a similar approach to herd immunity. Let the virus circulate freely in society to generate resistance among citizens. Such an approach could cost hundreds of thousands more lives, according to William Haseltine, president and president of ACCESS Health International.
Meadows’s statement had troubling echoes for another expert as well.
“I heard a lot about herd immunity in that statement and it’s horrible,” Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a professor of medicine at George Washington University, told CNN on Sunday.
“We can control the pandemic,” Reiner said, citing the low incidence of the virus in Washington after previous peaks and crediting the use of masks to improve the situation.
What the secretary general is saying is surrender. No, no, no, we make everyone wear a mask, that’s how we lower the rates.
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The responsibilities of leaders
Meadows’ comments created moments of unease for several Republican senators, who are moving Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court towards the final vote on Monday.
“We are all in control and we all have a responsibility as a leader to set an example that is doing the right thing to stop the spread,” Second Senate Republican John Thune of South Dakota told reporters.
“There are some elements that we cannot control. It’s a virus. He is very aggressive. He wants to infect many people. But there are things about our behavior that we can control.
The other South Dakota senator, Mike Rounds, said the government “absolutely shouldn’t” stop trying to control COVID-19. Republican Indiana Senator Mike Braun advised “use all weapons to keep the virus under control.”
The new cases of covid-19 in the White House couldn’t be closer to Pence.
Marc Short, his chief of staff, tested positive on Saturday, the vice president’s office announced in a statement at the end of the day. Sources told CNN that Marty Obst, a Pence senior adviser who is not a government employee, and at least three employees from the Pence office have tested positive for the virus in the past few days. Zach Bauer, a longtime aide and one of Pence’s closest employees, tested positive for the coronavirus, CNN learned on Sunday.
New coronavirus concerns in the White House won’t stop Trump from cursing Barrett after his long-awaited confirmation in the Senate on Monday. Although the announcement ceremony in his rose garden last month turned into what the government’s foremost infectious disease specialist, Dr Anthony Fauci, called a “super spread” event.
The event will be held at 9 p.m. ET outside, a source familiar with the invitation told CNN.
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