Pick your poison
Donald Trump promised us yesterday that there would be many great things coming out in the next eight weeks. As usual, we have no idea what he is talking about. Perhaps it is about his secret camouflaged thugs in Portland taking people into custody in unmarked rental cars. Or tens of thousands of additional victims of the coronavirus pandemic, with our nation now at 70,000 new cases a day. We have no idea.
One thing we do know is that the bungled approach to education will continue. Yesterday, Palmer Report noted how Kayleigh McEnany stepped in it. But rather than focus on what she said, Trump supporters and McEnany attacked those who pointed out the insanity of her words. Jim Acosta was a particular focus of such attacks. To put it in context, this is what she said:
The science should not stand in the way of this, but as Dr. Scott Atlas said — I thought this was a good quote, ‘Of course, we can do it. Everyone else in the Western world, our peer nations are doing it. We are the outlier here.’
The science is very clear on this. For example, you look at the JAMA pediatric study of 46 pediatric hospitals in North America that said the risk of critical illness from COVID is far less for children than the seasonal flu. The science is on our side here. We encourage localities and states to just simply follow the science. Open our schools.
Everyone else in the Western world has taken the pandemic seriously, and not wasted time continuing to make up anti-Chinese names for it. Everyone else in the Western world does not have 70,000 new cases in a day. And we are down to arguing about the “risk of critical illness” and ignoring that there are adults at the schools? Believe the “expert” you like – Dr. Anthony Fauci and local superintendents closing the schools – or McEnany. On one thing she is right: science will not stand in the way, because death is horizontal.
Daniel is a lawyer writing and teaching about SCOTUS, and is the author of the book “The Chief Justices” about the SCOTUS as seen through the center seat.