“Pixie dust and pseudoscience” in the Trump White House.
As US coronavirus cases begin to climb again for the third time this year — and after being hospitalized after testing positive for Covid-19 himself — President Donald Trump continues to eschew basic public health facts, instead choosing to push a false narrative that the US is at long last “coming around the corner” when it comes to the coronavirus. That particular line, that the US is rounding the metaphorical pandemic corner, is one Trump falls back on with some regularity — as of Friday,28 times in the last 46 days, according to Forbes’s Andrew Solender — but it’s just not true. In reality, the US reported its third-highest single-day case count ever on Friday — 70,451 new cases, according to the New York Times. And many states, including both Dakotas, Idaho, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, and Wisconsin, to name just a few, are reporting all-time high daily case numbers. Nonetheless, Trump held a pair of crowded campaign rallies in Michigan and Wisconsin on Saturday. Despite the surge in cases, there were no visible social distancing measures in place, and many attendees did not wear masks. And on Sunday, Trump attended an indoor church service in Las Vegas, Nevada. Neither he nor the pastor wore masks, and in the state cases are ticking upward, approaching a level not seen since mid-August. The president also has a rally in Carson City, Nevada, scheduled for later in the day Sunday. At many of his recent events, Trump and his supporters have, often as not, seemed to revel in violating public health guidelines. On Saturday, Trump — who has falsely boasted that he is now “immune” to Covid-19 after his first bout with the disease — told supporters that he could “jump into the audience and give you all a big kiss. The women and the men. I’ll kiss those big powerful men down there.” As Vox’s Aaron Rupar has reported, that particular bit has become a mainstay of Trump’s post-hospitalization rally routine, seemingly, and it’s most definitely not a good idea in the middle of a pandemic.
