“The science should not stand in the way of this,” said Kayleigh McEnany at a recent press conference where she was responding to questions about children returning to school amid the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Honestly?
The science shouldn’t get in the way?
The science?
When sweet Kayleigh made this statement on TV my husband said, “It’s a good thing she’s pretty.”
Apparently, to Ms. McEnany, science has little to do with what we’ve learned about this disease so far.
Apparently, science doesn’t have anything to do with efforts to ascertain speed of transmission, conditions that promote spread of the disease, or which demographics are most at risk for the most harm from COVID-19.
Apparently, Ms. McEnany is unaware that science and its pursuit of facts can result in changes to our knowledge of and the best practices for dealing with COVID-19.
Apparently, science means something different to renowned epidemiologists Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx than it does to the president and his administration, none of whom have any science or medical credentials of which I’m aware.
Like most Americans, we are caught up in the vortex created by the crashing together of spin and science, where some people cling fiercely to ideas that have been superseded by newly discovered facts about COVID-19.
Think back to the early days of COVID in America.
It was first believed that young people weren’t as susceptible as old people. It was believed that African Americans were all but immune!
Then we discovered that younger adults were as prone to catch it, they just weren’t as prone to death as old people with underlying medical conditions.
And we found out that African Americans, and other people of color, were actually far more impacted by the virus than were white people.
Then, by loosening restrictions on people congregating in large groups in close proximity, we learned that even young people had a proclivity toward death.
Until recently we believed that children weren’t more likely to catch COVID-19 than were folks over 20.
But we’re beginning to get word of infectious outbreaks among kids, where kids have resumed school, in other countries that have attained some semblance of control over the virus.
And though science seems to be uncovering new evidence about coronavirus and kids, the administration, with its own agenda based solely on economics, doesn’t want that crazy old science to have any bearing on how we go about safely leading kids, and the adults who oversee them, back to classes.
It’s clear to many of us that Trump is anxious to have parents go back to work so his precious numbers (unemployment in particular) look better going into the election.
Trump has decreed that hospital statistics regarding new cases, deaths, and availability of ICU beds be reported directly to the White House rather than the CDC, possibly in an effort to hide the damaging numbers of emergency room visits and hospitalizations. This may also be an effort to hide numbers of deaths.
Such is our state of affairs at a national level.
But what is it like on the local level? Is Trump telling the truth in his newly reinstated daily briefings about COVID-19?
The short answer is that Trump is still a liar.
Those of us who know or have family members who work in local hospitals are privy to information regarding the still scarceness of PPE, the reusing of PPE, the dwindling numbers of ICU beds, and the unimaginable stress on personnel.
While Trump’s lovely maps of the “hot spots” appear to show a country, as he puts it, “clean of the disease,” all we are really seeing is where things may be lessening somewhat. What Trump doesn’t tell us is that “lessening” is really still an appalling rate of new cases, new deaths. His people are intentionally manipulating the statistics to instill in us a false sense that things are fine.
In AZ things are still not fine.
According to the Arizona Department of Health Services for yesterday, July 23, there were 2,335 new cases reported, with 89 new deaths, and 10,799 new tests completed showing a rate of 12.5% positive cases per 100,000 people. And that’s just yesterday. Overall, the rate of positive cases is 14.5% since reporting began.
Maricopa County, where I live, represents 102,247 of the 152,944 cases statewide. In my zip code alone we now have 502 cases of COVID-19, up nearly 100 cases from five days ago when last I checked.
Though testing has increased significantly, obtaining results of those tests is abysmal. Because it takes anywhere from 48 hours to ten days to get results, Arizonans are becoming more reluctant to seek out these testing sites. They are becoming aware that such delayed test results are meaningless in the bigger picture. And they are becoming aware that many of these tests may have become worthless because the samples were not frozen at these sites where daily temps hover around 100 degrees.
With regard to Trump’s urging that kids get back to school, Arizona has met none of the criteria for reopening our state, much less resumption of normal education.
Though the CDC and other sources have said they don’t recommend school resuming in areas that have not seen a leveling off, Governor Doug Ducey is still pursuing the party line that we need to get back to normal.
Fortunately, he is still not assuming a role of leadership. He is foisting decisions on local school boards, some of which are wealthy enough to offer hybrid education, while others haven’t the financial wherewithal to do more than just open classrooms as per usual.
It is with great relief that I, as a taxpayer and grandparent in the Chandler Unified School District, can anticipate my grandsons opting for a mostly home-based hybrid resumption of school.
It is with a sense of (misplaced?) guilt that I watch more rural school districts open with 25 kids per class in facilities that have great difficulty achieving recommended distancing, PPE for teachers and staff, and the means to provide daily disinfecting of facilities.
AZ still does not have a statewide mask mandate, so, still, we see leadership coming from the bottom up.
Though all of Maricopa County has a mask mandate, local law enforcement, as in Michigan, is spotty in supporting the mandate.
Many individuals are religious about their masks, wearing them outside while they take their morning exercise. Whether walking, running, or biking, they sport their masks as part of their athletic gear. They don’t whine about rebreathing carbon dioxide. They don’t complain about how difficult or uncomfortable it is to wear the mask.
Yet there continue to be those who cling to old notions that masks are not effective against COVID-19, that they are somehow actually dangerous to wear. They refuse to accept recent studies and trends that show a marked reduction in spread of the disease when masks are worn faithfully.
I’m relieved to see that Trump has begun to change his tune with regard to our coronavirus “situation.”
For political expediency, he is now supporting those measures that were first recommended by Drs. Fauci and Birx back in April.
He is now wearing a mask, though inconsistently, and echoing the concepts of social distancing and not congregating in large groups.
He has canceled his big, beautiful GOP convention because, he claims, it is “not the right time to be doing” this sort of thing.
I doubt Trump’s sincerity regarding his concern for the welfare of others, but I don’t care how he got to the truth about COVID-19. I only care that he’s getting there.
Though, as Kaleigh McEnany so eloquently put it, that “we” can’t let science get in the way of returning to normal, at least Trump can let political expediency temper how the administration weighs that science and common sense against his own impulses and selfishness.
In Arizona life is still scary for those of us in high risk groups, and we have adjusted our lives accordingly.
But that doesn’t eliminate the stress of worrying about the nationwide, exponential skyrocketing of spread and death by COVID-19.
And all the spin in the world will not alter the truth about what will surely be the dismal results in America when wave after wave of the disease has finally worn itself out.
The science and the final numbers simply cannot get in the way of that truth.
Do you think that cute little Kayleigh comes up with that stuff by herself? Or do the same writers that compose Trump’s “press briefings” write it for her?
Basura, she simply parrots the lies as they are approved by the administration. I have no doubt that part of the screening for the press secretary’s job includes ease of lying to the public and fireproof pants.
Ms Mandaville,
If you are going to quote CNN Jim Acosta’s partial tweet, try to be fair, do yourself and readers a favor and quote the whole statement. Though that doesn’t fit your narrative now does it? So in your error I will post it.
“McEnany went on to say ‘the science is on our side here.'”
Sorta takes on a different meaning when you present the whole truth.
Reading your piece you seem to know what is factual and the untruths about Covid-19. Dr Fauci one of the leading voices early said take a cruise, don’t shut down restaurants, no masks, etc.
“But a review of more than three dozen public and media appearances and writings by Fauci, however, shows the nation’s infectious disease chief didn’t embrace — at least not in public — firm social distancing, bans on flights or cruises, or other strict measures during many opportunities in February or March.
In fact, during those two months he called the idea of banning restaurant eating “overkill,” urged healthy people to still go on cruises, and suggested there was no long-term benefit to shutting down domestic air travel, the review showed.”
So please, with your experience give us the truth…………..
Cheers!!
Mr. Wilkens,
I was not quoting Jim Acosta’s tweet because I didn’t read it, I was quoting Kayleigh herself since I watched her make the statement. It was an appalling statement, and she did not go into the specifics of how science is “on their side.”
Additionally, If you read closely, you’ll see that I talked about the way facts change when science is allowed to take its natural course of study and results. It is true that Fauci, along with others, made recommendations based on what was known at the time. COVID-19 is a new disease, and scientists and epidemiologists are learning new things about it all the time, and sharing that new, sometimes contradictory, information as they discover it. It is unfortunate that some people refuse to listen to the new information in favor of clinging to the old.
Ms Mandaville,
Please re-watch the press conference without CNN blinders on and report back. There was plenty of science talked about…….if you are willing to listen….Coronaviruses didn’t just pop up recently. They’re a large family of viruses that have been around for a long time. I am certain a tenured man such as Dr Fauci with over 40 years of experience should be crystal clear about to mask or not to mask, to travel or not to travel. Additionally please help me and the other readers understand how placing positive covid patients in with the elderly is based on science, You seem to have the facts. Governor Whitmer and Governor Cuomo thought it was a great idea.
Cheers!!
Tennessee 87,000 ish cases and 926 deaths.
Michigan 85,000 ish cases and 6400 deaths.
Whats the difference? Well for one our deaths would be about 1/2 or less what they are now if our Governor had made the obviously prudent decision to “isolate” recovering COVID patients anywhere but in facilities housing the most vulnerable, elderly and infirm.
Science, see how that works? When elderly people are exposed to COVID, they suffer worse than any other population. SCIENCE says that you keep COVID patients away from this group, not in Michigan or New York State.
Arizona 160,000 cases and 3300 deaths.
MacDougal,
Well said. Additionally you raise a great question. Why put positive covid in the nursing homes. Ms Mandaville claims Gov Witmer makes decisions based on science. I will enjoy reading her response to this one…….Crickets…….
Cheers!!
Mr. Wilkens,
The placing of positive COVID patients in nursing homes was an enormous mistake, and people learned from it, especially the fast and insidious transmission of the disease. Now that that mistake is over and done, let’s move on, using what we continue to learn about this messy virus. Why dwell on the missteps? If we’ve learned anything, let’s be the better for it. The “new” science – the things we’ve learned – should continue to guide decisions. It’s a moving target, so to speak, so we have to follow it’s movement to make the best decisions about things like kids going back to school, fully opening the economy, etc. Any other action would be irresponsible.
MacDougal,
Robert (ArmyBob) says it best, those pesky facts get in the way of their (liberals) feelings and agendas. Well done Sir, no refuting the facts!
Cheers!!
Mr. Wilkins,
You’ll notice whenever a Liberal is spouting false or misleading information and caught doing so, they always say “why dwell on the missteps” because you are killing the argument by shining the light of truth on it.
They never give President Trump credit for anything, even when he closed travel to and from China and Europe, possibly saving thousands of lives. He was called a racist, xenophobe, and every other despicable name.
Count on the stuffing of ballots by Democrats using mail-in voting this November. They don’t want four more years of the most successful president we’ve ever had.
DTOM,
You are absolutely right. Regarding the positive covid patients being put in nursing homes with the most vulnerable is not just a mistake it should be criminal. With all the field hospitals that we built, the Navy hospital ships that were brought in, the arenas that were converted and most of these never or were very lightly used, and they chose nursing homes. This was no mistake this was PLANNED. Even if you were ignorant and lacked common sense you NEVER would allow this to happen UNLESS you were trying to build covid numbers or God forbid trying to reduce the population. I could only imagine the liberal outcry if President Trump ordered this instead of Governor Whitmer and Governor Cuomo.
Cheers!!
Glad to see that by Liberal Logic, since Trump put kids in cages, The Gretch deliberately killed old people.
To them, Trump created the virus! How unhinged is that?