Trump’s COVID shop keeps turning science into a hostage situation
The Trump health apparatus spent September 15 trying to clean up a political mess of its own making after public reporting and internal backlash over meddling in coronavirus science. The immediate problem was not just one outburst or one bad line; it was the larger pattern of political appointees treating CDC reporting like a messaging problem to be managed for Donald Trump’s benefit. That made the administration look less like a crisis team and more like a PR shop trying to edit the pandemic into something friendlier for cable TV.
First recorded Sep 15, 2020·Meaningfully updated Sep 15, 2020
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Trump’s COVID shop keeps turning science into a hostage situation
The Trump health apparatus spent September 15 trying to clean up a political mess of its own making after public reporting and internal backlash over meddling in coronavirus science. The immediate problem was not just one outburst or one bad line; it was the larger pattern of political appointees treating CDC reporting like a messaging problem to be managed for Donald Trump’s benefit. That made the administration look less like a crisis team and more like a PR shop trying to edit the pandemic i…
The Trump health apparatus spent September 15 trying to clean up a political mess of its own making after public reporting and internal backlash over meddling in coronavirus science. The immediate problem was not just one outburst or one bad line; it was the larger pattern of political appointees treating CDC reporting like a messaging problem to be managed for Donald Trump’s benefit. That made the administration lo…
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