Pence encourages state governors to lie to their citizens about spikes in Covid-19 infections

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Monday June 15, 2020 · 6:55 PM MDT

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Vice-President Pence, whose political future is as much on the line as Donald Trump’s this November, is now encouraging state governors to lie about the reasons why Trump’s push to reopen the country is now resulting in an alarming spike in Covid-19 outbreaks.

From the New York Times:

Vice President Mike Pence encouraged governors on Monday to adopt the administration’s claim that increased testing helps account for the new coronavirus outbreak reports, even though evidence has shown that the explanation is misleading.

On a call with the governors, audio of which was obtained by The New York Times, Mr. Pence urged them “to continue to explain to your citizens the magnitude of the increase in testing” in addressing the new outbreaks.

Pence also urged governors to support Trump’s increasingly dismal re-election prospects by ““encourag[ing] people with the news that we’re safely reopening the country.”

The reality is that the “information” Pence is so eager for state governors to peddle to their citizens is deliberately misleading, as the TImes reports:

In fact, seven-day averages in several states with outbreaks have increased since May 31, and in at least 14 states, the positive case rate is increasing faster than the increase in the average number of tests, according to an analysis of data collected by The New York Times.

The vice president played down the overall size of the outbreaks, stressing that some states were seeing what he called “intermittent” spikes of the virus.

From Twitter:

This administration has obviously settled on its end-game strategy regarding the Covid-19 pandemic, with American citizens being relegated to collateral damage.

[H]e was dismissive of the idea that community spread is a culprit, focusing instead on specific outbreak locations, like nursing homes. In fact, as cases rise, officials in several states have specifically pointed a finger at community spread.

The latest metaphor being pushed by the administration is that localized “spikes” in Covid-19 infections are akin to “embers” in a dying fire, easily stamped out.

The vice president also said that the virus’s spread was now well contained, and he adopted a term that Mr. Trump has used for the virus — “embers,” which can be quickly snuffed out.

Your mother or father, sister or brother, dying in that ICU? They’re now just “embers.”

It was a misleading message publicly emphasized by President Trump at a meeting earlier in the day.

“If we stop testing right now,” Mr. Trump said, “we’d have very few cases, if any.”

Yes, he actually said that.

It’s hard to imagine that any elected American government would treat its citizens this way, but this is where we are.

There will be a reckoning.