The lack of leadership by the United States government, led by Donald Trump, has put all Americans into a chaotic COVID-19 disaster. As of this writing, more than 102,000 Americans have died from the coronavirus. It keeps rising at a rate of more than 1,000 per day. The country has fallen into an abyss without the kind of leadership that we see in some other countries, such as Germany and New Zealand.

We are also witnessing the aftermath of the murders of two African American men. Ahmaud Arbery was shot to death by two white men while he was jogging in Brunswick, Georgia on February 23. George Floyd was murdered by four white police officers in Minneapolis on May 25. Trump has done nothing but issue threats such as a Tweet in which he wrote “when looting starts, the shooting starts.” Twitter blocked it. Yet, Gov. Mike Dewine said on May 29 that the protests across Ohio are not only understandable, they are appropriate. He even encouraged people to exercise their First Amendment rights. Trump doesn’t know how to say things like this. Why? Read on

A Liar

Trump has been a menace to the American people during the COVID-19 pandemic. At the center of this is his lying. In an article in Forbes, David Markowitz, a professor of language and technology, said that very few of us are prolific liars. Markowitz points out that most of us tell about 1 or 2 little lies a day. Donald Trump, however, lies at a rate of more than 23 per day. Believe it or not, Dr. Markowitz analyzed more than 18,000 reported Trump lies. He analyzed Trump’s lies over time by topic and location. Trump seems to lie about everything from his biography to the Ukraine probe, and from campaign rallies to Twitter. Dr. Markowitz concludes his analysis in this way:

Trump’s lies are problematic because they force us to question our institutions and the value of information. Their consequences might also bleed into our everyday meaningful relationships. Our trust in government, media, and other institutions remain quite low, but we still tend to trust one another. What happens when our distrust in government affects our trust in family or friends? When we fail to value truth and instead, prioritize alternative facts or self-serving discourse, the fabric that holds our relationships together begins to fray.

Markowitz, David. “Trump Is Lying More Than Ever: Just Look At The Data.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 5 May 2020, www.forbes.com/sites/davidmarkowitz/2020/05/05/trump-is-lying-more-than-ever-just-look-at-the-data/#4a78d0f81e17.

Contradicter of Facts and Agreements

Before the pandemic, we already knew how Trump would act. Ever since he took office, he has shown his disdain for science, rational thinking, and intelligence. There are many examples of his contempt for these, too many to list. However, here a few that standout. He has consistently discredited, blinded, and overriden the intelligence community. Joshua Geltzer and Ryan Goodman, analyzed Trump’s attacks on the intelligence community. They conclude that Trump’s demeaning of U.S. government employees is a genuine national security threat. They point out that Trump is better at spreading disinformation than protecting real information.

Trump and his cronies have stormed the EPA and have persisted in a wholesale repeal of rules that had been established and were designed to protect the American people’s environment. They have censored scientists, often silencing them with the result being the loss of veteran scientists across a wide swarth of the EPA and other departments. A former employee and scientist at the EPA, Dr. Elizabeth Southerland, described the nature of Trump’s assault. From climate change, to drinking water standards, Trump has inflicted severe harm to the nation’s efforts to protect the environment.

Trump and his surrogates have aggressively attacked and pulled the U.S. out of important international agreements. The most agregious is Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, a climate agreement that all but two nations did not join. Trump also withdrew the U.S. from the Iran Nuclear Deal ( Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action). And today, he announced that the U.S. would be withdrawing from the World Health Organization. These actions have endangered citizens around the world.

Science Denier

One behavior that Trump has exhibited is his denial of science facts, scientific and medical research, and opinions of medical experts. We call this science denialism. Although Trump isn’t the first to deny science, he’s in first place in terms of the number of denials per day. Trump’s denial of science has led the United States into an absolute chaotic disaster. COVID-19 is the latest example of Republican science denialism. In this case, however, that denialism has caused tens of thousands of Americans to die. The poster child of science denialism is Donald Trump, perhaps one of the most dangerous persons that we must face each day.

Trump famously said years ago, that climate change is a hoax, and was invented by the Chinese. He said that the noise from wind turbines cause cancer. And on multiple times, suggested to senior Homeland Security and national security officials to explore using nuclear bombs to stop hurricanes from hitting the United States.

In the sciences, denialism is the rejection of basic facts and concepts that are undisputed, well-supported parts of the scientific consensus on a subject, in favor of radical and controversial ideas.

Republicans have famously denied the results of science. There has been a long history here. It started with Rachel Carson’s groundbreaking work, Silent Spring. The bio-chemical industry tried to subvert her work, she was quickly vindicated of any of the criticisms being leveled by this industry, and the US Congress went on to pass legislation banning DDT. Carson had started the environmental movement.

Even though the American Cancer Society and the British government identified a strong link between smoking and lung cancer, tobacco companies for decades poked holes in that research. In 1992, the EPA announced that secondhand smoke caused at least 3,000 lung cancer deaths of nonsmokers, and respiratory infections in more than 150,000 infants each year in the U.S.

Petulant Child

Trump’s behavior at the Michigan Ford plant was abnoxious. In front of Ford Executives, and the men and women who are the heart of the plant, Trump kept his face bare spewing droplets as he rejected Ford’s policy of mask wearing. He showed us his little mask, and claimed he put it on over there, but away from the cameras. Except someone did snap a photo of Trump wearing the mask.

Dana Nessel, Michigan’s Attorney General said that Trump threatened the health and safety of her state’s residents through his coronavirus response by refusing to wear a mask, and supporting those who are protesting Michigan’s stay-at-home orders.

Nessel compared the President to a “petulant child” for not wearing a mask while visiting the Ford Motor Co. plant. I think she’s correct. According to one interpretation, a petulant child is a bad tempered person who behaves like a child. There are other words that might describe the petulant Trump. Here are few: perverse, fault-finding, whiny, crybaby, mean, pouting, sulky, whining, ungracious, churlish, combative, and on and on.

Pandemic Debacle

Trump is responsible for for the awful milestone that 100,000 Americans have died from COVID-19. If he had acted earlier, and if he had consulted his predecessor, he might be staved off tens of thousands of deaths.

You might want to review a timeline of Trump’s actions from early January to late May. For nearly two months, Trump praised the Chinese for the way they were handling the coronavirus outbreak in their country. He kept telling the American public that “we pretty much shut it down from coming in from China.” Of course, that was not true. He told his followers that the virus would go away with the warm weather. No, it didn’t. Blames any problems with equipment and lab tests on the previous administration. Again, not true. The Obama administration embraced science, and insisted that scientists and medical experts lead efforts during the pandemics during his administration. Medical experts have been pushed to the side by Trump, and he refuses to wear a mask, fueling discord in society creating groups of mask wearers and non-wearers.

Trump thinks he knows more than physicians who have worked on infectious diseases for decades. He suggested that injecting disinfectant directly into the body would be like a cleaning, and would kill the virus. And most recently Trump has claimed he is taking the controversial drug hydroxychloroquine. This is an antimalaria drug which the FDA has warned against its widespread use. Trump said, “what have you got lose?” Well, research has said that the drug is linked to serious and even fatal heart attacks.

Trump‘s deep research into this and other remedies he suggests? He’s heard good things about it!

Summary

The debacle we face right now was caused by Trump and those around him. If you study the budget, Trump’s science denial has led to many of deaths from the coronavirus. He decimated the EPA, eliminated much climate research, arctic research and more. He’s threatened scientists in government departments. He ignored all of the work that been done during the Obama administration on preparing for a pandemic. He has walked away from the World Health Organization (WHO), a crucial organization in doing research on global health issues. He’s ignored much of what was said by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the immunologist and Director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Dr. Fauci recommends that we all wear face masks. Trump refuses to wear them.

It is a constant battle with the likes of Donald Trump.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay