Like a Petulant Child
- fionacsweet
- May 7, 2020
- 2 min read
According to the Associated Press, the Trump administration has decided to shelve a document created by the CDC with detailed advice on how to reopen public places in the safest possible way. Scientists and disease investigators that created the report were told by the White House that it "would never see the light of day." The report was supposed to have been published last Friday. This report was 17 pages long and titled "Guidance for Implementing the Opening Up America Again Framework," with research on how to reopen churches, schools, and stores.
For some reason, Trump's administration has been very closely controlling the information that the public finds out about COVID-19. In other similar circumstances, the CDC's role is to give the best and most researched information to the public, but at this time, the CDC is largely missing from the media. For example, Robert Redfield (the director of the CIA), who has been a member of the White House coronavirus task force has also been mostly absent from public appearances.
While many of the things included in the report already appear on other federal websites, many of the suggestions the CDC reports are not included. For example, the shelved report said that as restaurants begin to open up again, they should maintain a six foot distance between all of their tables, and use phone app technology which buzzes when a customer's table is ready. This is not on any federal sites.
This makes it difficult for restaurants and other public places to reopen safely, as they have trouble envisioning what that looks like. Unfortunately, I believe that this report that got shelved might have made that picture clearer for them. I do not understand why Trump will not accept this olive branch that the CDC is offering to him and to the American people. Why would we not accept researched advice from well renowned disease experts? This is like us being able to go back in time to the Black Plague, knowing full well how to cure it, and deciding not to and throwing the whole time machine away. This is like a little kid who has fallen off of his bicycle and instead lies on the ground and refuses help from anyone else.
I am personally very disappointed in this, as I feel like the Trump administration could better their communication with the American people in so many different ways.
Коментари