Covid Politics and Data Controversy in the US
16 Jul 2020
From the very beginning of the Pandemic, the World Health Organization has warned the nations that the Pandemic affairs should not be politicized. But the truth reflects that it was politicized everywhere.
The Covid politics was at first originated in the US. It began with Dr Anthony Fauci, the US infectious disease expert and President Donald Trump. Dr Fauci recently alleged that the efforts taken by Trump are mere nonsense.
The strife began with the White House statement attacking Dr Fauci on conflicting advice on face coverings and remarks on Covid-19’s severity in the US. Mr Trump, recently remarked that they had a good relationship with Dr Fauci and were all in the same team including Dr Fauci and want to get rid of the virus that China sent them and in fact, everybody worked on the same line and did very well.
But, Dr Fauci, but rejects this. He said that President Trump along with the top government expert on infectious diseases has questioned his professional judgement and handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Dr Fauci still claims that his recommendations have always been based on the latest science.
The president Trump has attempted to shift focus to rebuild the US economy that has been devastated by the pandemic, Dr Fauci alleged. He insisted that the top priority must be for controlling the spread of the virus. This insistence has made Dr Fauci a popular figure during the pandemic, and that alone caused resentment against him within the White House. Peter Navarro, Mr Trump’s top trade adviser and the communications chief, Alyssa Farah have also played some vital role in aggravating the resentment.
As the resentment transformed into a political clash, the US hospitals have reported Covid-19 patient data to the federal health agency in Washington instead to the Centres for Disease Control (CDC). The CDC in fact, the US’s top public health institute, has until now been responsible for handling data about the pandemic from its hospital network. The Data Controversy began here. Health experts have expressed great concerns over the politicization of the data that it will make data less transparent and possibly affect the work of researchers and modellers.
Dr Fauci at the same time is optimistic that the vaccine developed by the firm Moderna is very much promising because the vaccine appeared to offer the type of protection seen in a natural infection. The vaccine will be available by the end of 2020. The US has reported more than 3,616,746 cases of Covid-19, and more than 140,140 deaths nationwide.
