Trump’s team of mediocre financial advisers continues to stand in front of microphones and offer up their expertise-free definitive opinions on science and medicine and COVID-19. On Monday, economic adviser Peter Navarro went on to CNN to discuss the continuing unhelpful and unhealthy war within the administration between health and medical experts and … people like Peter Navarro. Specifically, a report came out detailing a huge behind-the-scenes fight between Navarro and the country’s top infectious disease specialist, Dr. Anthony Fauci, over how to talk about hydroxychloroquine. At issue is the administration’s persistence in pretending that hydroxychloroquine is a miracle drug that will fix the rising mortality numbers associated with the novel coronavirus.
As you might imagine, Navarro and Trump are on the side of ensuring our stock market doesn’t panic, while Dr. Fauci is on the side of talking about science and medicine. Dr. Fauci has said, as has every medical professional in the world, that there is nowhere near the amount of data needed to say conclusively that hydroxychloroquine has any meaningful affect on COVID-19. Right now, because we are in a crisis, doctors on the front lines of this pandemic are trying everything they can to treat the patients they are seeing, and that means they are administering the drug in many cases, hoping that it might help.
Navarro went on John Berman’s New Day show on CNN on Monday to explain that while he may not be qualified to tie his shoes, he is a “scientist.” Berman showed Dr. Fauci speaking on a Sunday morning news show, explaining that the scientific benefits of hydroxychloroquine were nowhere near definitive and should not be presented as such. To this, Navarro attempted a both-sides rhetorical trick, saying he would let Fauci “speak for himself but I'll have two words for you: second opinion.” That’s not how second opinions work, dumbass. Berman then asked Navarro: “Why is Dr. Anthony Fauci, the lead infectious disease doctor in this country, wrong about this?” Navarro’s answer was amazing.
ANTHONY NAVARRO: Let me suggest, John, that later in the day, you have William Grace on, another famous doctor in the city of New York. He has, he can talk eloquently about this.
(Side note: Dr. William Grace is an oncologist that Fox News’ Laura Ingraham had on her show who spoke glowingly of hydroxychloroquine. Ingraham then extrapolated this anecdotal opinion into a tweet claiming hydroxychloroquine was a miracle drug. Her post was taken down from the social media platform for being misinformation.)
NAVARRO: But John, doctors disagree about things all the time. My qualifications in terms of looking at the science is that I'm a social scientist. I have a PhD and I understand how to read statistical studies, whether it's in medicine, the law, economics or whatever.
Wowsers. I’ve been working on a PhD in bullshit-detecting, and people like Peter Navarro are so basic they don’t allow us to write about them for our thesis project since it’s considered low-hanging fruit. Frankly, Navarro’s only meaningful opinion on anything might be thoughts on the evolution of men’s hair pomade since the 1950s until now. Berman, to his credit, responded to this attack on reality, saying: “I'm sorry, that doesn't qualify you to treat patients. You know it doesn't qualify to you treat patients.”
Navarro proceeded to do the now hackneyed back peddling the Trump administration is known for, coupled with the arrogant rhetoric of the fragile-ego’d imbecile (also a Trump administration mainstay), saying that there are good people on both sides and everyone is misunderstanding everything. This is done while providing not a single bit of evidence to support any one of his statements.