Testing for me but not for thee


We learn that people in the White House are very frequently tested for covid-19 and as a result more and more people working there have been found to have it. It was because of such infected people that Dr. Anthony Fauci (head of the NIH’s infectious disease program and a member of the coronavirus task force), Dr. Stephen Hahn, (commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration), and Dr. Robert Redfield (director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) were quarantined because they were found to have been in contact with some of them.

But while White House people are regularly tested, Trump and his press spokesperson Kayleigh Mc-Inane-y downplay and even ridicule the idea that widespread testing is a valuable tool in curbing the pandemic. This is probably partly because they have bungled the whole testing process from the get-go and that resulted in underestimating the prevalence of the disease and enabled its faster spread and partly because of the fact that they only care about the elites being tested. We know that celebrities and other wealthy people seem to be able to get tested even if they are not showing symptoms.

Seth Meyers comments on this distinction between who gets tested and who doesn’t.

Comments

  1. machintelligence says

    I guess that as long as the virus kills mostly the old (parasites on society) and minorities (undesirables) it really doesn’t matter how many die; at least according to conservatives.Why not refer to the victims as “warriors” = cannon fodder.

  2. jrkrideau says

    @ 1 machintelligence
    The median age for US senators of all flavours is roughly 64.

  3. blf says

    (This is an excerpted (partial) reconstructed slightly-edited crossposting from poopyhead’s current [Pandemic and] Political Madness all the Time thread here at FtB.)

    Midwesterners were already doubting Trump. Covid could seal his political fate (my added emboldening):

    The genius may think we are suckers, but in Iowa we don’t ruin good corn liquor with Clorox

    [… Unionized employee Drake Custer explained] “The vibe is: a lot of people figured out that the boss isn’t worried about them. My veteran friends, they don’t like what’s going on. They’re looking for leadership in government and the workplace. Really, everybody is.”

    […]

    A reckoning is due for incompetence and neglect. Farmers are disconsolate. Every dairy worker suicide resonates. […] It makes everyone nauseous. Everyday people can’t understand why NBA players can get tested but packinghouse workers ordered to keep the pork loins rolling can’t. […] We’re waking up, all right. When 30 million people can’t get through to the unemployment system, and half of them lose their health insurance by fall, incumbents should cover their flanks.

    […]

    Even while sitting in his basement unheard, Biden is winning the midwest for all Trump’s blather. […]

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