Thread by @celinegounder

1/ “state authority handoff... to escape blame" nytimes.com/2020/07/18/us/… This administration is all about scapegoating.

2/ "States' rights"? If you believe in local, then why is it OK for state governors to preempt local leaders' public health measures? nymag.com/intelligencer/…

3/ “Only in Washington, D.C., do they think that they have the answer for all of America.” & states always know what's best in cities & small towns? Seems like a double-standard to me. If you really want to talk about policy based on local data, commit to LOCAL, not political.

4/ #DeborahBirx ranges from patronizing & condescending to cheerleader-ish. nytimes.com/2020/07/18/us/… "a constant source of upbeat news for the president and his aides, walking the halls with charts emphasizing that outbreaks were gradually easing"

5/ "Mr. Trump..." said "he alone had authority to decide when the economy would reopen to pushing that responsibility onto the states." nytimes.com/2020/07/18/us/… Our president is #NotALeader.

6/ "Mr. Trump began criticizing Democratic governors who did not 'liberate' their states." nytimes.com/2020/07/18/us/… Liberate? From what? You want liberation from the virus? Then you need to face reality.

6/ "Dr. Birx was more central than publicly known... her model-based assessment nonetheless failed to account for a vital variable" nytimes.com/2020/07/18/us/…

7/ What vital variable? "how Mr. Trump’s rush to urge a return to normal would help undercut the social distancing & other measures that were holding down the numbers." nytimes.com/2020/07/18/us/… Models are only as good as the underlying assumptions. They were wrong.

8/ "The president quickly came to feel trapped by his own reopening guidelines. States needed declining cases to reopen... But more testing meant overall cases were destined to go up... Mr. Trump’s remarkable public campaign against testing" nytimes.com/2020/07/18/us/…

9/ When the science is inconvenient to your political interests? Discount, dispute, deny the science.

10/ "Even now there are internal divisions over how far to go in having officials publicly acknowledge the reality of the situation." nytimes.com/2020/07/18/us/… LEADERSHIP IS ACKNOWLEDGING WHEN YOU'RE WRONG AND LEARNING FROM YOUR MISTAKES.

11/ "WH officials came to feel that they had in fact accomplished... giving governors the tools they needed to deal with remaining outbreaks as infections ebbed." Wait what? Do they have no understanding of state vs federal power to tax & make policy?

12/ "By June the president was regularly making nonsensical statements like, 'If we stop testing right now, we’d have very few cases, if any.'" nytimes.com/2020/07/18/us/… Right, because tests give you COVID, not viral transmission.

13/ "Mr. Trump declared... his role as something akin to a 'wartime president'" nytimes.com/2020/07/18/us/… Wartime presidents ask their countrymen to sacrifice on behalf of their nation.

14/ "it would be his decision about whether to reopen the country. ... 'the biggest decision I’ve ever had to make.'” nytimes.com/2020/07/18/us/… Our president blew it. And tens... hundreds of thousands will die as a result.

15/ "3 days later, he reiterated his responsibility. “When somebody is the president of the United States, the authority is total" nytimes.com/2020/07/18/us/… Total responsibility? Or total dictatorship? OUR PRESIDENT HAS A DUTY TO CARE FOR ALL AMERICANS.

15/ "Dr. Birx was the chief evangelist for idea that the threat from the virus was fading... a strong believer in models that forecast the course of an outbreak." nytimes.com/2020/07/18/us/… Models make poor forecasts when your assumptions are wrong. Garbage in, garbage out.

16/ "real-world outcomes depend on how people respond to calls for changes in behavior... sacrifices that required a sense of shared national responsibility" nytimes.com/2020/07/18/us/… OUR NATIONAL LEADERSHIP DOESN'T BELIEVE IN SHARED NATIONAL RESPONSIBILITY.

17/ "Among the models Dr. Birx relied on most... looking back on its predictions from 3 weeks earlier, it turned out to be hit or miss." nytimes.com/2020/07/18/us/… Hit or miss? That's how we're handling American lives.

18/ "Dr. Birx regularly delivered what the new team was hoping for. 'We’ve hit our peak,' she would say, & that message would find its way back to Mr. Trump." nytimes.com/2020/07/18/us/… Telling people what they want to hear when it's not true, that isn't leadership. It's cowardice.

19/ Dr #DeborahBirx insisted the US would follow Italy. nytimes.com/2020/07/18/us/… But "Italians had been almost entirely compliant with stay-at-home orders and social distancing... Americans, by contrast, began backing away by late April... egged on by Mr. Trump."

20/ Good public health isn't just about good biomedical science. It's also about understanding psychology, politics, anthropology, history, and so much more.