After China and Barack Obama, Donald Trump's government now blames a US agency on the corona crisis.
- Corona crisis * in the USA: debate over the number of deaths
- Donald Trump *: White House Task Force puts pressure on agency
- Trump administration blames US agency for corona pandemic
Update of May 18, 2020, 11:00 a.m .: The conflict between the "Center for Disease Control and Prevention" (CDC) and the government of Donald Trump is escalating. After the Trump administration initially declared the People's Republic of China and the previous government under Barack Obama to be responsible for the US corona crisis , the attack is now directed against the CDC itself.
Corona crisis in the USA: Donald Trump has its own authority criticized
Donald Trump's economic advisor Peter Navarro told media officials that the CDC had " abandoned the country in the corona tests ." They would have prevented the extension of the test with "their bureaucracy", refused to cooperate with companies from the private sector and also "only developed poor tests. It all set us back, ”said Navarro in a program on the US news channel NBC.
The Trump administration's attacks come at exactly the same time that insufficient testing capacity has been criticized as an obstacle to the country's rapid reopening. Trump had exaggerated the U.S.'s ability to conduct corona tests on a large scale, then downplayed the importance of tests. At the same time, Trump is advocating a quick end to the corona restrictions.
Covid 19 deaths in the US: Donald Trump has the numbers adjusted
First registration from May 14th, 2020
Washington - The Corona crisis is a bar-sized thorn in Donald Trump's eye . The economic upswing is over, Trump's strongest argument for success. His campaign events must also be canceled due to the contact restrictions. And given the ever-increasing death toll, Trump cannot rule the public debate. Nocturnal tweets at 5 a.m. with "OBAMAGATE" as content are of no use.
Corona crisis in the USA: dispute over the number of deaths
Because of this, the Trump administration is apparently trying to downplay the numbers of Covid 19 sufferers in the United States. According to a report by the US news portal "Daily Beast", the White House and members of the Corona task force based there put pressure on the " Center for Disease Control and Prevention" (CDC) , the numbers of deaths related to Covid-19 to count down.
The "CDC" is an agency located in the United States Department of Health. She is responsible for collecting the corona crisis figures and for the methodology used. This is exactly what the Trump administration and parts of the task force now appear to be questioning. According to the Daily Beast, which refers to five anonymous White House sources, the goal is clear:
Donald Trump with clear logic: Fewer Covid 19 deaths are better for the economy
The number of deaths that are reported by the individual states to the government in Washington is to be shown less than previously. The goal of this strategy is obvious: fewer deaths would make the situation less dramatic and would support Donald Trump's reopening of the country in favor of the economic recovery.
Dr. Deborah Brix, vaccine expert and member of the Corona Task Force, is said to have urged CDC officials to remove numerous Sars-CoV-2- related deaths from statistics. It is the Task Force's wish that people who have not been diagnosed with the virus by a laboratory beyond doubt be removed from the statistics - even if the symptoms, course of the disease and cause of death clearly indicate a Covid 19 disease. The same is said to apply to the Trump Task Force's wish for people who have tested positive for the corona virus but have not been shown to have died from Covid-19 .
Corona crisis in the USA: insufficient tests on Sars-CoV-2
Now the much-quoted common sense in Donald Trump's plan may recognize a logic that cannot be dismissed out of hand: people who have not been diagnosed with the corona virus have hardly died of it.
But it's usually not that simple. "I am not at all worried that we think the numbers are too high," said Bob Anderson, head of the CDC's mortality rate department. "We are absolutely certain that we underestimate the numbers." This is mainly due to two factors:
Covid 19 deaths in the United States: number is probably much higher than expected
First, test capacities in the United States are nowhere near as high as they should be. Even if Donald Trump recently said that the United States is "the world leader" in terms of testing capacity. Five million a day are no problem, 20 million will soon be reached. But four-star Admiral Brett Giroir, who is responsible for the national strategy for the corona tests , sees it very differently: “There is no way around the world - or any other planet - as we will soon do on five million tests a day In addition, the rapid tests that Trump recently celebrated as a breakthrough are now suspected of producing half false results.
Second, according to all leading experts, there is no reason to count down the number of corona deaths. Even if one or the other death was wrongly attributed to a Covid 19 disease: the absolute number is definitely lower than previously assumed. The only point of dispute among experts over this point is how far the official figures are below the actual ones.
Corona crisis in the USA: Anthony Fauci expects even more Covid 19 victims
At his hearing in the U.S. Senate, Dr. Anthony Fauci , top virologist and Trump advisor in the Corona crisis , raised this issue. Whether he agrees, like most other experts, that the number of actual deaths is possibly 50 percent higher than the previously assumed over 80,000 deaths in the country. Fauci became clear. He did not know whether it was 50 percent, but: "It is absolutely certain that the number of deaths is higher than stated."
According to Fauci, this is mainly due to two factors: First, the corona pandemic in the United States was not initially perceived as such, and many deaths were therefore not recorded. Second, the virus is particularly widespread in urban areas, such as New York, which are unmanageable and in which many people have not gone to the hospital and are not at all recorded as Covid 19 cases. If there is no suspicion, an autopsy is not necessarily carried out. This can be a problem, especially in corona cases for low-income earners, homeless people or migrants in New York.
Corona Task Force in the White House: Jared Kushner and the beautiful numbers
According to the Washington Post, task force members have long had doubts about the CDC's numbers. And just recently, Jared Kushner, adviser and son-in-law of Donald Trump * , was suspected of using a model to calculate the deaths predicted in the Corona crisis.
Donald Trump has repeatedly suggested in the past that the death toll may not be as high as it is documented, and that democratic governors would artificially drive the numbers up to make him, the president, look bad. With a view to the US election 2020 * in particular, it is all the more important for the Trump team to dismantle the corona measures as quickly as possible.
Corona crisis in the USA: Washington is exerting pressure
Moderators on Fox News , notably Laura Ingraham, Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity , also hit the same line . They all consider the danger to be exaggerated, the virus a curse from China and the economy more important than human life.
But now there is a real danger that the CDC will give in under Washington pressure and place its calculation methods on Donald Trump's political agenda . The past victims in the Corona crisis will not benefit this any more than the future.
By Daniel Dillmann
* fr.de is part of the nationwide Ippen editorial network
In view of the rapidly increasing unemployment figures, US President Trump is urging the economy and schools to open up quickly.
Rubric list picture: © Susan Walsh / dpa
