Science—Smience
Well, over the weekend, the President of the United States did what he does best, confused us, lied to us and denied the science. On Friday night in South Carolina, he continued his counterprogramming tour, appearing in a Democratic primary town, the night of, or a day before the primary or caucus. He called on his routine string of oldies but goodies, consisting of lies, and fevered dreamed conspiracies, to minimize the science behind the coronavirus, saying the Democrats are politicizing the issue. They're politicizing it,” he yelled. “They don't have any clue. They can't even count their votes in Iowa. No, they can't. They can't count their votes. One of my people came up to me and said, ‘Mr. President, they tried to beat you on Russia, Russia, Russia.’ That did not work out too well. They could not do it. They tried the impeachment hoax.”
If that were not bad enough the President went on to say the coronavirus was “their new hoax.” The next day Mr. Trump identified the first known coronavirus fatality in the U.S. as a woman in her fifties. Subsequently, Governor Jay Inslee described the victim as male. In a story published Saturday by the Huffington Post, Inslee was quoted as saying the victim was “a man from Washington state” later his statement was amended to say a non-gender-specific “Washingtonian” adding to the confusion. What should be really disturbing is that the voice of a state governor carries as much weight, if not more, in a possible national crisis as that of the President.
Skipping over people of science, Mr. Trump installed a high-level spokesperson, his Vice-President [Mike Pence], instead of qualified doctors and scientists to educate the public. Mr. Pence made the tv rounds on Sunday, attempting to calm the public but only succeeding in the continued contradiction of science. Despite CDC researchers and scientists telling us that it is not a matter of if but when the virus escalates. Mr. Pence, who was sent out to clean up his boss's mess, when Mr. Trump said on Friday there had been no deaths, followed by two over the weekend, instead tried to defend the noxious claims of Don Jr. that Democrats are hoping for millions of deaths to disgrace his father. “Frankly, I think that was Don Jr.’s point — that there has been some very strong rhetoric directed at the president by some members of Congress,” said Pence. This sort of paranoiac self-immolation not only burns up the Trump administration, but the public may go up in flames as well.
Of course, these words are coming from a man who one would say charitably has a less than stellar record on health and science issues. Mr. Pence is widely reported to have said ‘smoking does not kill people.’ It is true that smoking does not kill everyone, but to assert that smoking does not kill and citing the statistics of the survivors as proof is like saying the faulty levy system in New Orleans did not kill everyone during Hurricane Katrina. Also, HIV infection rates rose significantly during his term as Governor of Indiana. This was directly related to his refusal to sign into policy a needle exchange program for opioid users. Also, it is still a topic of contention but supported by the LGBT+ community that Pence is an advocate of gay conversion therapy. Meanwhile, four more deaths were just reported in Washington state, bringing the total to six; Science—Smience.
Vote in 2020 for Change.
