She was a scientist, a 32-year veteran at the CDC, who had risen to the position of its assistant deputy director. She was explaining the course of the virus as it was understood by the CDC at that time, and in particular appealing to Americans to wear masks, at the end of June, with the death toll skyrocketing from out-of-control COVID-19 infections spreading throughout this country.
What she got in return was a torrent of accusatory, ignorant, and defensive vitriol from one of Donald Trump’s lackeys at Health and Human Services, named Paul Alexander, a “part time assistant professor” of “health research methods” and underling to Michael Caputo, the HHS official now sidelined for “medical health reasons” after an unseemly and embarrassing paranoid outburst earlier this week called his mental fitness into question. According to the Times, Alexander will also be “leaving the government” this week, along with his unbalanced boss.
Apparently with Mr. Alexander, the apple did not fall from the tree. As reported by Noah Weiland for the New York Times:
WASHINGTON — On June 30, as the coronavirus was cresting toward its summer peak, Dr. Paul Alexander, a new science adviser at the Department of Health and Human Services, composed a scathing two-page critique of an interview given by a revered scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dr. Anne Schuchat, a 32-year veteran of the C.D.C. and its principal deputy director, had appealed to Americans to wear masks and warned, “We have way too much virus across the country.” But Dr. Alexander, a part-time assistant professor of health research methods, appeared sure he understood the coronavirus better.
Alexander, clearly not the brightest bulb in the basket, prepared in an email a point-by-point “refutation” of an interview that Dr. Schuchat had given explaining the course of the virus up to that time, and suggesting preventative measures for Americans to follow. This was clearly too much for Mr. Alexander, who made the fatal mistake of preserving that email for the New York Times to uncover.
And boy, is it a doozy. If Americans needed a demonstration of the sheer arrogance and reflexive defensive crouch the Trump administration takes when it finds itself under even the mildest of criticism, this is it:
“Her aim is to embarrass the president,” he wrote, commenting on Dr. Schuchat’s appeal for face masks in an interview with the Journal of the American Medical Association
Alexander calls Dr. Schuchat “duplicitous” repeatedly in the memo, and at one point asks his boss, Caputo to “remind” Schuchat that thousands of people had died “on her work” from the Swine Flu.
The author of the Times article, Noah Weiland, is clearly having some fun with this:
Of Dr. Schuchat’s assessment of Covid-19’s dangers, he fumed, wrongly, “The risk of death in children 0-19 years of age is basically 0 (zero) … PERIOD … she has lied.”
As Weiland explains, the email is not an anomaly, but just a vivid example of how HHS attempted to “browbeat” the CDC when its conclusions did not align with the Trump administrations “rosy prognostications.” According to Weiland, “Current and former C.D.C. officials called it a five-month campaign of bullying and intimidation.”
The actual email is here. It does not take much time to understand the smarmy tone. It is, in fact, an artifact of the sheer, unadulterated ignorance and stupidity of this administration. And it is in fact, a first-class demonstration of why this country finds itself in this disastrous mess today, with 200,000 Americans now dead, and no end in sight.
Some of the more revealing gems from the mind of Paul Alexander:
“Importantly, having the virus spread among the young and healthy is one of the methods to drive herd immunity. This was not the intended strategy but all must be on deck now and it is contributing positively at some level.”
***
“We expected to see upticks in cases due to the increased testing, and the relaxation of constraints, e.g., lockdowns etc. However the good news is that these upticks are majority in persons 35 years old or so; this suggests that we did a good job in protecting the elderly; the younger are not at risk of severe illness or death like the older persons and as such, the key message to them now must be as we open up, is to behave responsibly...”
***
“It is very false her statement that it causes death in children.”
But one rejoinder really says it all. In response to Schuchat’s assertion that “we need to get everyone on board with wearing masks,’ Alexander explains what goes on in the White House on a daily basis:
“Her aim is to embarrass the President here but it is his decision. Moreover, he is tested more than anyone in the entire world several times a day rapid testing as we know. And all around him must be tested too and so he does not need a mask to be honest...”
How reassuring that Mr. Trump is tested so regularly, with such rapid results. So much that he doesn’t need a mask at all.
We should all be so lucky.
