Steve Hilton: A turning point in the war against COVID-19
The data is clear: Things are getting better while the shutdown toll is getting worse.
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A disastrous establishment groupthink has emerged around the extreme version of Dr. Anthony Fauci's coronavirus plan.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan: I think widespread testing and contact tracing is going to be absolutely essential to finding out exactly where we are in this fight against this deadly virus.
Michelle Williams, dean of the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health: The variables will include the capacity of the health care system to identify, isolate and treat those infected so they can slow the spread.
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Chuck Todd, MSNBC host: We can't open the country back up until we can do testing on a massive scale. Why aren't we even close?
Unidentified male, "Weekend with Alex Witt" on MSNBC: It will be impossible, health experts believe, to fully reopen the country short of a vaccine, which still seems a year or so away unless there's widespread testing.
This establishment groupthink is misinformation. It ignores the latest data.
Just in the last few days, the establishment put up a new roadblock to reopening -- tripling the number of tests to " ... identify the majority of people who are infected and isolate them from people who are healthy."
This establishment groupthink is misinformation. It ignores the latest data. No surprise that Big Business has bought into it, too.
Jeff Bezos told Amazon shareholders this week that "those who test positive could be quarantined and cared for. Everyone who tests negative could re-enter the economy with confidence."
What an idiotic statement. We've got enough problems without Jeff Bezos casually throwing out ignorant unscientific mumbo-jumbo.
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But this is how some state and local leaders are talking, too. Gov. Gavin Newsom this week said that California will need the widespread ability to test contact trace and isolate before relaxing its stay-at-home order. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said the same thing.
These people and their public health officials talked to Dr. Fauci.
Now, I'd like to talk to Dr. Fauci. His advice is hugely consequential. Unfortunately, although we've been asking for a while, he won't talk to us. So, I'm just going to ask the questions anyway and see if we get a reply.
- Dr. Fauci, you keep telling us you're led by the science and the data. Why was your data so wrong for so long? Why didn't you commission survey testing, like the Stanford team have just carried out, to get an accurate picture of the spread and fatality of this virus? Will you carry out nationwide survey testing immediately?
- Based on this new data, do you now accept that it's unnecessary and impractical to identify, isolate and contact trace everyone who has this virus?
- Will you tell the governors, the media, the Big Business bosses like Bezos, that widespread virus testing of individuals is not necessary for reopening? Will you rule out immunity certificates immediately?
- Do you agree that all deaths matter, not just coronavirus deaths? Will you commit to a study of the long-term public health costs of the shutdown to help inform any future pandemic response and factors like disrupted medical treatment, suicides, rise in opioid and other addictions and lower life expectancy caused by shutdown-induced poverty?
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Adapted from Steve Hilton's monologue from "The Next Revolution" on April 19, 2020.