Highly-respected immunologist Anthony Fauci rolled his eyes and suppress laughter as Trump went on a rant describing the State Department as the 'Deep State department'. Dr Fauci then placed his hand over his face, in what many described as a 'face palm' reaction to Trump's inflammatory remarks.
Trump said that there had been positive results after doctors trialled chloroquine on COVID-19 patients, and suggested the drug could be a game-changer. "It's shown very, very encouraging early results. We're going to be able to make that drug available almost immediately. It's been approved,' Trump exclaimed.
But Dr Fauci later put a dampener on the President's excitement, bluntly stating: "There's no magic drug for coronavirus right now. Let me put it into perspective-- there has been anecdotal non-proven data that it [chloroquine] works... but when you have an uncontrolled trial you can never definitely say that it works."
At his Thursday news conference, a discussion of chloroquine and other experimental therapies formed the core of his remarks, when those drugs and therapies are untested and unproven and, in some cases, won’t be ready for several months, as NBC’s Peter Alexander pointed out the following day.
“What do you say to Americans who are scared?” Alexander pressed.
“I say that you’re a terrible reporter,” Trump answered.
Only a liar — and a weak man with delusions of competence — would be so unnerved by the facts.
The Washington Post reacted against the "inflexible, bureaucratic FDA, which is dragging its feet." They reported on stockpiles of masks, hand sanitizer and other supplies sitting in warehouses waiting for FDA inspectors to get around to them. Where other nations are expediting deliveries, the FDA has resorted to its favorite fetish: bureaucratic lethargy."
Alex Azar may have been the worst of the political hacks behind Trump at the briefing, speaking to the urgency of closing the southern border. He’s the secretary of health and human services, not homeland security. Yet he was parroting Trump’s message about the coronavirus, one specifically tailored to the base: We’re keeping brown immigrants from spreading it.
Vice President Mike Pence kept talking about a “strong and seamless” partnership with the states, when at the same time Trump trolls the states, telling New York's Cuomo to get his own respirators.
Pence spoke relentlessly of a “whole-of-government approach,” when in fact the government is hollowed out — defunded to fight pandemics, denuded of experts — and broken in shards, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sidelined in this fight, and the president’s task force now mutely competing with a shadow group run by the president’s son-in-law.
Despite his earlier attack on NBC, Trump said he cherished journalism, but his secretary of state complained about disinformation on Twitter.
These daily press conferences are clearly becoming campaign rallies as opposed to beneficial public health briefings-- mere propaganda, not information. The networks should stop showing them live.
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