Thread by @DougKass

My 2020 @realdonaldtrump "No Apologies" Tour continues:
Flouting recommendations by the CDC, Trump ordered the agency to issue guidance allowing churches to reopen with relaxed social distancing protocols. See Business Insider, “The White House has overruled the CDC on

cautiously reopening churches out of fear of angering Trump's evangelical supporters.” According to a source in the administration, the CDC’s recommendations for churches were “more draconian and less optimistic” than Trump wanted, so the White House revised the CDC guidelines.

The revisions will be driven by Trump’s political goals rather than science-based recommendations from the CDC.
The CDC was the world’s most respected health organization before the pandemic outbreak. It is staffed by talented, dedicated, smart people who are being crushed by

Trump. See CNN, “'We've been muzzled': CDC sources say White House putting politics ahead of science.” (“CDC officials say their agency's efforts to mount a coordinated response to the Covid-19 pandemic have been hamstrung by a White House whose decisions are driven by politics

rather than science.”) The staff of the CDC deserves our sympathy and respect. The leadership of the CDC, on the other hand, should be held accountable for failing to stand up for science and for the professionals at the CDC. The reason Trump can override CDC recommendations

is that its leadership placates and accommodates Trump’s political agenda in the hope that the agency can continue to do good science in the background. The problem with that calculus is that the CDC is becoming part of Trump’s disinformation campaign. The CDC has fallen into

a deadly trap. RIP CDC.
Per the CNBC report above, the CDC guidelines will include protocols for distributing communion at Christian services—an act that cannot be accomplished with appropriate social distancing. Trump is endangering the lives of Americans by issuing

guidance that give the misimpression that traditional religious observances are safe. See, e.g., NYTimes, “Pastor Who Defied Social Distancing Dies After Contracting Covid-19, Church Says.” Let’s hope that religious leaders have more concern for the health and safety of their

congregants than Trump does.
Trump continued to contradict his administration’s guidelines regarding the use of facemasks. He toured a Ford Motor plant in Michigan. During his press availability after the tour, he appeared maskless—despite statements by Ford managers

that wearing a mask at the plant was mandatory. See CNBC, “Trump doesn’t wear coronavirus mask in public at Ford plant.” In disregarding the guidance issued by his administration, Trump is fueling the anti-authoritarian conspiracy theorists among his base who show up at Costco

and Target without masks. They cause unnecessary health risks and confrontations when they try to emulate Trump in violation of store facemask policies. See NBC News, “Video shows Costco worker calmly handle customer berating him over mask policy.” (“I'm not doing it,” the

customer says of the requirement to wear a mask. “Because I woke up in a free country.”)
Trump followers who willingly comply with requirements for seat belts, helmets, driver’s licenses, and car insurance refuse to wear masks during an epidemic because Trump has

converted a public health measure into a flashpoint in a culture war. His followers are putting at risk the lives of health care workers and first responders. See Vox, “Doctors’ new coronavirus threat: Patients who refuse to wear masks.” (“Health care workers don’t want to fight

the mask culture war, but they’re being forced to.”). See also, The Hill, “Over 100 police officers have died from COVID-19.”
As the country begins its halting efforts to reopen, anecdotes are beginning to emerge that hotspots are emerging—or remerging—where the virus

had been declining. A neighbor is a nurse in a major metropolitan hospital that had seen a dip in cases in the last month. A week after beaches reopened, emergency rooms and ICU beds began to fill up once again. We have a long way to go, and

we must not flag in our resolve to contain the virus. We must also be prepared for the fact that “returning” to normal will not involve “returning” so much as “evolving” to confront a new reality. In that regard, I recommend two articles for your weekend reading: Jonathan Last

in The Bulwark, “What Winning the War on COVID-19 Looks Like,” and Juliette Kayyem in The Atlantic, “Never Go Back to the Office,” (“The coronavirus killed corporate culture. Get used to working from home.”) @ScottWapnerCNBC @riskreversal @jimcramer @andrewrsorkin

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