Donald Trump stabs CDC chief in the back

As is often the case, Donald Trump believes he knows better, even when it comes to technical issues. On Wednesday, the US president corrected the head of the health authorities (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC) and accused him of spreading incorrect information. The same day before Congress, CDC chief Robert Redfield broke a mask lance and warned against exaggerated expectations of a corona vaccination. This will likely not be available to the general public until the middle of next year, Redfield said.

Trump later told a news conference at the White House that he had immediately contacted the head of the health authority. I saw this statement. I called him. I said, ‘What did you mean by that?’ And I think he just made a mistake. “The ‘under no circumstances’ vaccine will be available to a broad population until mid-2021; rather, the corona vaccination will get the green light from the FDA in’ a few weeks. “Redfield’s statement during an appearance before a Senate committee that masks played a more important role than vaccination in fighting the virus was also incorrect, Trump said.” The mask is not as important as a vaccine Maybe the mask will help. “

Robert Redfield, head of the CDC’s health department, puts the mask back on after speaking before a Senate committee on Sept. 16.

Pool / Reuters

Trump also said that the head of the CDC may not have realized what he said. Or maybe you didn’t understand the relevant question. There is no evidence for this peculiar interpretation, as the video of Redfield’s appearance shows. He described face masks as “the most important and powerful tool available to us in health care.”

Redfield, in turn, didn’t want to let this unusual reprimand get to him. So, after Trump’s press conference, the CDC chief circulated a statement in which he again emphasized the central role a face mask currently plays in containing the pandemic, along with other rules of conduct that are slowly being forgotten in the seventh month of the crown crisis in the United States. But Redfield also wrote that only a vaccine would allow a return to “normal” everyday life.

However, unlike the president, the CDC chief still does not expect a coronavirus vaccine to be available to a wide population this year. Before the Senate committee, Redfield predicted that it would be at least nine months before vaccination changed everyday life in America. Before that, only a “very small amount” of the newly developed vaccine will be available.

Trump mocks Biden

Trump is under pressure less than seven weeks before the presidential election, also because bestselling author Bob Woodward accuses him in a new disclosure book of deliberately downplaying the danger posed by the corona virus. But it’s been known for a long time that Trump thinks little of face masks and has long refused to wear one.

Although his medical advisers have been urging the public to wear masks in public since the summer at the latest, the president remains skeptical. Last weekend he campaigned without masks at a factory in Nevada where most of those present did not wear masks. He recently mocked his opponent, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, because he rarely appears in public without mouth and nose protection. “Joe feels very safe in a mask. He may not want to expose his face, ”Trump scoffed.

On Tuesday, during a Philadelphia city hall meeting hosted by ABC television, the president also claimed that the restaurant’s serving staff had a strong aversion to masks. Trump did not provide any evidence to support this claim. In addition, the president accused his Democratic opponent Biden of failing to fulfill his promise and not imposing a national mask requirement. Later, Biden reminded Trump on Twitter that he is not currently president.

Biden warned again on Wednesday during an election campaign at his Wilmington, Delaware, hometown that development of a corona vaccine was too rushed. Scientific advances don’t care what calendar month it is, Biden said, an allusion to Trump wanting to announce a vaccine before Election Day on Nov. 3.