There is still quite a bit of uncertainty, but we now have new concerns. The administration under President Trump has decided to not send statistics about COVID-19 to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Instead, this information is to be sent to the Department of Health and Services, a totally different entity. The CDC is based in Atlanta and not involved in politics, but the HHA is based in Washington, D.C., and, well…..
The fears arising about this is that the statistics will no longer be easy to be able to read them and figure out where we stand in each state. And, of course, there has been concern that Dr. Anthony Fauci, who is the expert in the room, has been undercut by some members of the administration.
But in The Hill, the department head of HHS, Alex Azar, said this:
“The president builds teams where each of us provide our inputs from our perspective, and his job as president is to take those inputs and the different perspectives, de-conflict them and come about with what he believes in the direction he’s going to provide the country,” Azar said Tuesday according to The Chicago Tribune.
“But Dr. Fauci, as the president has made clear, is one of his trusted advisers and will remain so. Nobody should be concerned. Dr. Fauci is and will remain a trusted adviser to the president and myself,” he said.
When I read this, and considering how everything gets turned on its head, it actually seemed to be worrisome. We’ll see where this goes, but we still need to be concerned.
As for the image on this post: The cover on The New Yorker was distributed in early March. It elicited quite a laugh. The cover was created by Brian Stauffer, called “Under Control,” but it’s not quite so funny any more. More than 137,000 people in the United States have died from the virus, and spikes and surges are happening everywhere. Part of this problem is that wearing a mask has somehow become politicized. Dumb: Wear a mask.
Below are links to stories about the administration switching gears – including asking the National Guard to work on this new reporting situation. Hmm?
Chandler in Denver 