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Anti-Science Protest In Washington Is Trump’s Pandemic Legacy

Anti-Science Protest In Washington Is Trump’s Pandemic Legacy

Saturday marks the two-year anniversary of an interview with Donald Trump at the World Economic Forum following the announcement of the first case of “novel coronavirus” in the United States. Asked if he was worried about a pandemic, this is how Trump replied:

“No. Not it all. We have it totally under control. It’s one person, coming in from China. And We have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.”

Trump then went on to brag about his “great relationship” with Communist Party boss Xi Jinping. That first statement was just one of many that would come over the following months as Trump repeatedly downplayed the threat posed by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

A timeline of Trump statements on COVID-19 starting in February 2020

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This weekend in Washington D.C., there will be a gathering that’s estimated to draw over 10,000 people. These people will not be there to mourn the 887,000 known to have died from the virus in the United States. They won’t be there to celebrate the advances represented by the vaccines, or to call for protections against a wave of viruses that represents a growing threat to children. Instead, they’ll be there to carry on Trump’s legacy—downplaying the pandemic, touting false cures, and undermining science. And, of course, they organized this action using the site that, throughout the pandemic, has provided a welcome home to conspiracy theories and harmful claims: Facebook.

As NBC News reports, this weekend has been marked out for an anti-vaccine protest in Washington. That, of course, includes a featured role by Robert Kennedy Jr., who is currently suing Daily Kos in the attempt to dox an anonymous poster, along with his badly misnamed “Children’s Health Defense Fund.” Kennedy’s group will gather with other like-mindless groups and individuals — thanks to their ability to organize on a platform that continues to provide a centralized meeting place for misinformation and disinformation while churning out a pretense of action.

“The rally has been largely organized on Facebook and some extremist internet forums, and organizers have raised at least $200,000 on a crowdfunding site. Some nearby hotels in Virginia are sold out ahead of the event, according to the event’s organizers, who are arranging last-minute travel plans for latecomers.”

Really, that should be Facebook and other extremist internet forums.

But the group isn’t just gathering to promote lies about vaccines, or just to spread lies about the danger posed by the pandemic, or just to spread lies about the origins of the virus. They are also there to spread lies about COVID-19 treatments.

Key speakers include Dr. Robert Malone, a frequent guest on Joe Rogan’s anti-science podcast where he has advocated the use of an ineffective anti-parasitic drug, ivermectin, Kennedy’s group is bringing along their own set of pet quacks who are not just pushing ivermectin, but also the long disproven hydroxychloroquine.

It’s not quite been two years since Trump began pushing hydroxychloroquine as a “miracle” cure for COVID-19. Between March and November of 2020, Canadian researchers tried to put a value on the damage Trump had done by pushing an anti-malarial drug to treat a viral disease. In just the eight months they covered, that damage was significant. Because people were not just listening to Trump’s advice on false cures; due to the concern everyone had about COVID-19, these claims got three times the audience of Trump’s usual disinformation.

“From March 1 to April 30, 2020, Donald J Trump made 11 tweets about unproven therapies and mentioned these therapies 65 times in White House briefings, especially touting hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine. These tweets had an impression reach of 300% above Donald J Trump’s average. Following these tweets, at least 2% of airtime on conservative networks for treatment modalities like azithromycin and continuous mentions of such treatments were observed on stations like Fox News. Google searches and purchases increased following his first press conference on March 19, 2020, and increased again following his tweets on March 21, 2020. The same is true for medications on Amazon, with purchases for medicine substitutes, such as hydroxychloroquine, increasing by 200%.”

Over the course of his remaining time in office, Trump took up the cause of other fake cures, including suggesting the possibility of injecting disinfectants and somehow getting sunshine inside affected people. As a direct result of these pushes from Trump and others on the right-wing, people have been poisoning themselves with colloidal silver, inhaling bleach, drinking absolutely toxic Miracle Mineral Solution, flooding poison control centers with overdoses of ivermectin, and downing fatal doses of hydroxychloroquine.

In the last two years, Republicans have discovered a very special way to get people to sign onto a regressive agenda — the power of greed. Whether it’s offering people the chance to collect a bounty on women seeking an abortion in Texas, or Florida pushing a bill that allows anyone to sue teachers over claims that their teaching is “woke,” Republicans have learned that dangling a chance to collect big bucks is the key to getting people stoked about the opportunity to finger Goody Bishop.

Democrats might want to consider harnessing that power. How about a law that allows people to sue anyone — especially if that anyone calls themselves “doctor” — who pushes harmful, disproven medical advice on television, podcasts, or social media?

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos

Patient receiving Covid-19 vaccine

Vaccine Doses Pile Up In Red States As Republicans Reject Science, Endanger Nation

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos

As of Thursday, Civiqs showed 41 percent of Republicans saying that they would definitely not accept a COVID-19 vaccine, while another ten percent remain unsure. With the remaining Republicans saying they will accept the vaccine down to just 18 percent, red states are starting to see a problem that the rest of the nation would love to have—a vaccine surplus. As The New York Times reports, Mississippi alone is now sitting on tens of thousands of doses that they're having a hard time giving out.

With just 25 percent of adults vaccinated, Mississippi is lagging well behind most of the nation when it comes to vaccinating its citizens. But that's not because of a lack of vaccine. The state voted 58 percent for Donald Trump in 2020. If that number accurately reflects those Mississippians who consider themselves Republicans, that's 23 percent of the state giving a definite "no" to the vaccine. Add in the small percentage of Democrats and independents who are shunning the vaccine, subtract the percentage already vaccinated, and all those doses in Mississippi are rolling around the state, looking for the less than half the population willing to take a jab.

Mississippi may be ahead of the pack when it comes to opening vaccines to everyone and still having trouble giving away shots, but it's not alone. Other states across the south—particularly Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, and Tennessee—are also showing low rates of vaccination, in part because of vaccine that has gone unused at events in heavily Republican areas. Governors in Ohio and Oklahoma have also warned that they're having trouble finding takers for vaccine.

As weeks go on and Republicans' anti-science position keeps them from accepting the vaccine, not only is it a threat to effectively getting vaccine to those who want it, but the sheer number of unvaccinated Republicans may mean that the nation cannot reach levels required for herd immunity, no matter how much vaccine is rolled out.

Over a month ago, a vaccination at a rural county in Missouri saw 1,500 doses of vaccine go unused. That county went for Donald Trump by 84 percent. It wasn't a singular event. Of 2,000 doses sent to another event, only 648 were used. At least four mass vaccination events run by the Missouri National Guard in rural areas had hundreds of unused doses. At the same time, urban areas like St. Louis were seeing hundreds of applications for every dose of vaccine that became available.

Urban areas in St. Louis and Kansas City were getting less doses per population than rural areas, in part because state officials madeassumptions that Black populations in those cities would be reluctant to accept the vaccine. Similar assumptions were made in Atlanta, where officials deliberately reduced allocations on the assumption that Black communities would reject the vaccine. Nationwide, Black and Latinx communities are still being shortchanged when it comes to doses of COVID-19 vaccine.

However, actual polling data—along with on the ground experience—shows that Black acceptance of the vaccine is actually much higher than in white communities. Eventually, both Gov. Mike Parson in Missouri and Gov. Brian Kemp in Georgia were forced to admit that demand was actually higher in urban areas with a higher Black population, but not until after thousands of doses of vaccine had gone unused at a time when the rising count of cases and new, fast-spreading variants threatened a "fourth wave" of cases. On Thursday, WorldOMeters logged over 80,000 new cases in the U.S. for the first time since February.

The 33.7 percent of Americans who have so far received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine is definitely not enough to make a noticeable dent in the rate of transmission, and even had hundreds of thousands of doses of vaccines been delivered to areas of high demand sooner, it wouldn't have made much difference in terms of the nation. However, it certainly would have made a difference to the hundreds of thousands who have been exposed to risk due to poor assumptions, and poor decisions, about vaccine demand.

At this point, only 18 percent of Republicans say "yes" they still want COVID-19 vaccine. In just over a month, the United States is likely to be in the position of a vaccine surplus. It's an enviable position (as well as one that ethically demands the U.S. send vaccine to less privileged nations). We're not there yet.

There has been some assumption that Republicans, while saying they didn't want the vaccine, would quietly take it anyway. That's not happening. Instead, actions being taken by Republican governors to completely reopen states like Mississippi, Florida, Texas, and Georgia is sending a highly visible signal that the vaccine simply isn't needed. Because everything is fine. Meanwhile, when Republican governors like Florida's Ron DeSantis have gotten vaccinated, they done so quietly. Almost secretly. Out of the public eye and without a single announcement.

Add in social media conspiracy theories ranging from standard anti-vax complaints to Bill Gates-centered Q-sense, and whatever pressure to get vaccinated Republicans might feel to get vaccinated is being easily countered. The rate of Republicans saying they want to get vaccinated has barely waved since before the first vaccine became available last year.

In the past, there's been a tendency to point to anti-vax sentiments as something that afflicts the left, and some pundits are still making that assumption today. But really, that has not been the case for some time. At this point, Republicans are an astounding ten times more likely to say no to something that should be completely apolitical. It's a marker of just how deeply an opposition to basic science and medical facts has become integral to the whole Republican identity.

Overall, 21 percent of Americans say they won't get the vaccine, while another eight percent are unsure. If everyone else gets vaccinated—adults and children—that should be just enough to get the nation to something approaching herd immunity. But it will be close, especially considering the increased contagiousness of recent variants. Republicans aren't done threatening the nation's health when it comes to COVID-19.

A Vaccine Hero

While Republican vaccine rejection may be both frustrating and worrisome, The New York Times also contains a wonderful story when it comes to COVID-19 and those awesomely effective vaccines. That's because they have an article focusing on University of Pennsylvania researcher Dr. Katalin Kariko. The 66-year-old grew up in Hungary, migrated to the U.S., then, like way too many women in science, she found herself eternally exiled to the ragged edge of research.

Year after year, Dr. Kariko was forced to seek a new position working for one of the more established scientists in control of Penn's labs. She found those positions, but it was never a sure thing. And as she bounced from one project to another, she has never made more than $60,000 a year.

But through it all, Dr. Kariko had a steady obsession: Messenger RNA. She was convinced that mRNA technology provided infinite possibilities. She just had trouble convincing those men who controlled the labs, and who had their own, less radical, projects to push. Every time she found someone who made a great partner for her ideas, it seemed they were just a few years from either retiring or moving on to a job elsewhere, leaving her to start over again and again.

It took decades before she paired with Dr. Drew Weissman on the idea of using mRNA in vaccines. Specifically, in an HIV vaccine. At long last, that research is showing spectacular results. MRNA vaccine are also going into the arms of billions around the world in the forms of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines.

"My dream was always that we develop something in the lab that helps people," said Dr. Weissman. "I've satisfied my life's dream."

Dr. Kariko celebrated the news about the efficacy of mRNA vaccines by eating a box of chocolate-covered peanuts. Then she got back to work.

Scientific American Makes First Presidential Endorsement In 175 Years

Scientific American Makes First Presidential Endorsement In 175 Years

Reprinted with permission from DailyKos

Scientific American was first published in New York on Aug. 28, 1845. Articles included one on the properties of zinc, another on improving railroad cars to make them both safer and more comfortable, and one was on a horse that navigated to the city to find its own way to a blacksmith. That was in the early days of the James Polk administration. Since then, the publishers of Scientific American have not felt compelled to make an endorsement in any election, including those involving a candidate named "Lincoln." But after 175 years, the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the United States has decided that there's an existential threat to both parts of its title; a threat to "America" and "science" great enough to take a step into politics.

For the just released October issue, Scientific American has endorsed Joe Biden for president of the United States, and they don't hold back on explaining why.

The evidence and the science show that Donald Trump has badly damaged the U.S. and its people—because he rejects evidence and science. The most devastating example is his dishonest and inept response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which cost more than 190,000 Americans their lives by the middle of September.

Trump's handling of the pandemic is spectacularly bad. How bad? If Trump had achieved the same rate of infections and deaths as Justin Trudeau in Canada, the death toll in the United States would be 80,000 instead of 200,000. Had Trump tackled things as well as Angela Merkel did, with overrun France and Italy on her borders, the U.S. toll would have been 37,000. And had Trump genuinely taken to heart the lessons that South Korea learned when fighting COVID-19 weeks earlier and done things as well as Moon Jae-in, the number of dead would have been just 2,300. Nothing was going to stop COVID-19 from entering the United States, but Trump really could have prevented it from being a national disaster. He didn't. On purpose.

Scientific American points out just some of Trump's lies and shortfalls during the pandemic, including his repeated downplaying of the threat, his failure to develop a national strategy, and his repeated lies and distortions concerning masks. But the major thrust of their outrage against Trump's failure comes back to the enormous mistakes around testing. Trump didn't just fail to come up with a federal system of testing and case tracing, he refused to do it even when a plan was presented to him because Trump believed more people would die in states with Democratic governors, and that would be good politics for him. The editors at Scientific American skip over that part, focusing on how testing is absolutely vital to controlling the disease and how Trump opposed both funding and implementation of testing.

These lapses accelerated the spread of disease through the country—particularly in highly vulnerable communities that include people of color, where deaths climbed disproportionately to those in the rest of the population.

It's not just Trump's lies and purposeful mismanagement of COVID-19 that caused the magazine to break with their own extremely longstanding tradition. They provide a catalog of other areas in which Trump has harmed the nation, including on environmental protections and medical care. Perhaps most importantly, they caution that Trump has attacked both researchers and science in ways that prevent America from being prepared to face the challenges that are already here, and the new challenges that are right around the corner.

As the magazine notes, Trump has tried to end the Affordable Care Act while providing no alternative and lying to the public about the outcome. He has proposed a billion-dollar cut to the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—all of which makes it likely that the nation will face another pandemic while being even less prepared.

Dr. Anthony Fauci

Facing Death Threats, Fauci Hires Security For His Family

Reprinted with permission from DailyKos

While most agree that being aware of the government's response during a pandemic in addition to being provided accurate information by health officials is really important, some seem to think otherwise. The Trump administration and its supporters have continuously downplayed the severity of this virus alongside discrediting those who provide honest assessments of the novel coronavirus crisis.

Among those rejecting Donald Trump's response to COVID-19 is Dr. Anthony Fauci, a member of the White House coronavirus task force, who has provided assessments and health recommendations since the beginning of the pandemic. Last week, Fauci testified in a House subcommittee hearing on the novel coronavirus; on Wednesday he told CNN that he has received death threats from those who oppose his input resulting in him having to acquire security to protect his family.

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