An incompetent ignoramus who happens to be a science denier leading the nation’s response to one of the greatest public health crisis this country has ever seen is terrifying. But, two incompetent ignoramuses who deny science working together on said problem is downright frightening.
We spend so much time focusing on the many failures of Donald Trump that we sometimes overlook the man eye-banging everytime they appear in public together. Some people are just drawn to each other because they share their sickest and most twisted desires. Others just need that special someone to push them, transforming those twisted thoughts to actions.
That is essential what Donald Trump did when he chose Mike Pence, an anti-science extremist to lead the federal government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic in February.
Governor Mike Pence
As Governor of Indiana, Pence assiduously aligned himself with the social conservatism and science denialism prominent in right-wing Christian evangelical circles. The defining moment of his tenure was enabling a massive HIV outbreak in Scott County in 2015. It was the worst HIV outbreak in the state’s history and it was due to Pence’s opposition to authorizing a needle exchange program.
Two months after the outbreak, Pence finally relented and declared a public health emergency and permitted needle exchange in Scott County. But, researchers from Yale University said the epidemic could have been prevented if he had acted sooner.
“Our findings suggest that with earlier action the actual number of infections recorded in Scott County — 215 — might have been brought down to fewer than 56, if the state had acted in 2013, or to fewer than 10 infections if they had responded to the HCV outbreak in 2010-2011. Instead, they cut funding for the last HIV testing provider in the county,” said Forrest W. Crawford, associate professor of biostatistics and of ecology and evolutionary biology, and the paper’s senior author.
Coronavirus under control
Pence brought that same unyielding nature on all things science to his Trump-appointed role as the head of the federal government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
On Friday, he appeared for the first White House coronavirus task force briefing in two months, sans face mask. We watched as he ignored reality and insist that everything is under control. He tried to gaslight a grieving nation by reassuring us that high numbers of new coronavirus cases that were reported across the country on Friday are actual proofs that the country is flattening the curve.
“We have made truly remarkable progress in moving our nation forward,” Pence said. “As we stand here today, all 50 states and territories across this country are opening up safely and responsibly.”
Pence made those comments on the same day the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Texas surpassed 130,000 and Florida set a new daily record of 8,953. That record would be broken 24 hours later as Florida recorded a new one day total of 9,585 cases on Saturday.
Instead of repeating easily refuted facts, all Pence had to do was simply implore every American to wear a mask in public, since research after research makes it clear that a face mask is critical in preventing the spread of COVID-19. But, he could not even do that.
Trump gave Pence the go-ahead to impose his twisted anti-science agenda on the rest of the country and he’s relishing every moment of it. The sad thing is, Americans will continue to pay the very steep price for science denialism coming form the top levels of the administration. Thousands have died and thousands more will because top officials in this administration can not tell Americans to wear a mask, because doing so would mean they would have to accept science and that would destroy their world. Instead of doing that, they are just going to go ahead and destroy ours since it’s more convenient for them.
