The Truth Hurts

Now that the president is fully fixated on his fever dream about a rigged election, government agencies are more free to speak the truth. And the truth hurts. The CDC’s Robert Redfield: “The reality is December and January and February are going to be rough times. I actually believe they are going to be the most difficult time in the public health history of this nation.” Why the concern? The U.S. has topped 3,100 Covid-19 deaths in a day, the new cases are now topping 200,000 a day, and more than 100,000 Americans are currently hospitalized. And we haven’t even seen the inevitable surge related to the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. LA is locking down. Other places will too. But these shutdowns are too late and too local. We needed a national plan. This is, at least in part, a self-imposed disaster and what we get when half of Americans—including the president—live in a state of unreality.

+ The Atlantic: “The story of the coronavirus in this state is one of government inaction in the name of freedom and personal responsibility. Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds has followed President Donald Trump’s lead in downplaying the virus’s seriousness. She never imposed a full stay-at-home order for the state and allowed bars and restaurants to open much earlier than in other places. She imposed a mask mandate for the first time this month—one that health-care professionals consider comically ineffectual—and has questioned the science behind wearing masks at all. Through the month of November, Iowa vacillated between 1,700 and 5,500 cases every day. This week, the state’s test-positivity rate reached 50 percent. Iowa is what happens when a government does basically nothing to stop the spread of a deadly virus.”