It recently came to light the White House cancelled the U.S. Postal Service’s plans to send 650 million masks to U.S. residents last April. This plan would’ve put five reusable face masks in every post office box across the country. The idea was courtesy of the Department of Health and Human Services, which is a Republican controlled department, mind you.
The postmaster general at the time, Megan J. Brennan, said her department was, “uniquely suited to undertake this historic mission of delivering face coverings to every American household in the fight against the COVID-19 virus.”
So, what was the reason for canceling this great program? According to Vice President Mike Pence’s office, “households receiving masks might create concern or panic.”
The fear of inciting panic has been an ongoing excuse from this administration. In President Donald Trump’s interview with Bob Woodward, a former journalist for The Washington Post, he claimed downplaying the virus was his way of avoiding widespread panic. Forgetting for a moment while he was keeping people from panicking about COVID-19, he was inciting panic towards peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters.
What I want to bring your attention to is the president’s options weren’t limited to just panic. He wasn’t caught up between a rock and a hard place trying to decide whether lying or inciting panic was better. What he should’ve done (and I guarantee you he never considered) was take responsibility.
If you listened to Fox News in the wake of the publishing of Woodward’s book, you would’ve heard the sounds of them bending over backwards to support the president’s decisions. If you asked the Fox News “All Star Panel,” Trump had no choice except to lie to the American people.
One of these “all stars,” The Washington Times Opinion Editor Charles Hurt, defended Trump, saying “I do understand why the president doesn’t walk out and say oh my gosh, we have got a pandemic. Everything is on fire.”
But the thing is, he didn’t have to say that. All he had to do was listen to Dr. Anthony Fauci. Fauci wasn’t inciting panic. He was advising people to start taking protective measures for themselves and others to prevent contracting COVID-19. Fauci found the illusive middle ground between panic and misinformation Trump and Fox News can’t seem to track down.
Considering this, why did Trump handle COVID-19 the way he did? Why did he choose to misinform everyone about the dangers and how to stop it? Why didn’t the White House follow through with plans to deliver five masks to every P.O. box? One word. Appearances.
That’s what this has all been about. Trump is afraid if he admits there is a problem, it would reflect badly on him. It’s the same reason why he reduced testing. If it appears like our country is failing at containing the pandemic, people might not want to vote for him. Trump is willing to sacrifice real human lives for his own public image. No matter how much Trump spends to get reelected, the real cost was 199,462 American lives lost to the pandemic, as of Sept. 22 according to the CDC. That number should be hard for anyone to swallow.
Ben Kendall can be reached at [email protected].