A GLIMMER of hope in the United States’ fight against the pandemic: Recent polls suggest that a majority of Americans do not trust the words coming out of President Donald Trump’s mouth, and they turn to the nation’s top epidemiologist Dr. Anthony Fauci in handling the COVID-19 outbreak.
The ABC News/Washington Post poll reveals that 64% of Americans surveyed do not trust what Trump says about the health crisis, with only 34% saying they trust him, Newsweek reported.
The report further shows that 6 out of 10 Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of the outbreak, while only 38% approve of the job he has done.
Trump’s approval rating on this issue has taken a nosedive since a March 25 poll conducted by ABC News. During such time — when Trump had just reluctantly acknowledged the threat of the coronavirus pandemic and had just created the White House Coronavirus Task Force — the president had a 51% approval rating on his handling of the pandemic, along with a 45% disapproval rating.
This poll comes when the number of confirmed cases and deaths have escalated to record highs in the nation, worse than it was in March, while European nations, Canada, and other developed countries have flattened the curve and have safely opened their economy and their borders to tourists since July 1.
Sadly, the United States joins countries like Brazil, Russia, India, Mexico and the Philippines that still show an uptick in coronavirus cases. The EU has extended its ban against tourists from the United States as the U.S. has not satisfied the safety requirement of having equal if not less in the number of cases per capita compared to European nations.
The United States has surpassed 3.6 million confirmed cases with more than 141 deaths. There are 11,159 cases per 1 million people in the U.S., as of press time.
I said the polls give us a glimmer of hope because fewer people are taking Trump’s word for it when it comes to their own guidance and personal responsibility to help mitigate the spread of the virus and save more lives.
From the beginning, Trump has been calling the pandemic a hoax, which explains why he failed to do more testing and contact tracing, provide personal protective equipment to frontlines, proactively equip hospitals with more lifesaving medical equipment and ICUs, implement a strict national shelter-in-place, social distancing and stay at home preventive measures, and mandate wearing masks. This was his judgement call despite warnings from the U.S. intelligence agencies and the World Health Organization that this virus would escalate to pandemic level.
Reluctantly after COVID-19 had indeed become a pandemic and there has been a dramatic uptick of cases in the U.S. did Trump acknowledge its threat and formed a coronavirus task force in March, led by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s Director for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984.
Fauci is a scientist. He has served six U.S. presidents, both Republican and Democrats, has been acknowledged as a “hero” by President George H.W. Bush, and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom fly President George W. Bush for his efforts to advance the understanding and treatment of HIV/AIDS.
Guided by his Jesuit education’s principle to serve and make other people’s lives better (“Man for Others” “For the Greater Good”) before graduating first of his class with a Doctor of Medicine at Cornell University Medical College, Dr. Fauci has been the voice of truth and reason in the task force, even if it meant he would fact check and correct President Donald Trump.
But Trump has been consistent in his anti-science/anti-facts attitude, especially if it would get in the way of his personal and political interests and objectives. For these reasons and despite advice from Dr. Fauci and other health officials, Trump pushed for the reopening of the U.S. economy, discredited safety measures, did not support wide-scale testing, foolishly thinking that these would somehow make the virus disappear like a miracle. Unfortunately, it did not.
The president of the United States became the leader of “pasaway” (law breaker) in the campaign toward all the safety measures to slow down the spread of COVID-19, save lives and eventually defeat it with an effective vaccine. His administration even said, “science should not get in the way of students going back to school in the fall” and argued that the Democrats are just using this pandemic to remove him from office.
And, worse he has ordered for the data on the coronavirus pandemic statistics be directed away from the Centers for Disease Control to his administration — so he could manipulate the numbers and deceive people some more?
It must have been a tough realization for Trump that this “cover-up” approach he is used to doing in his businesses and private lives would not work in the war against the coronavirus, and so he had to find somebody to blame. His team aimed at Dr. Fauci and smeared his character, record and credibility. This is aggravated by the fact that Fauci has been rating better than Trump – a blow to his narcissistic ego.
But unlike Trump, the numbers do not lie. And the American people have spoken that they do not trust Trump and would rather listen to Dr. Anthony Fauci.
As Newsweek reported:
“According to a new Morning Consult/Politico poll published Wednesday, 62 percent of voters rated Dr. Anthony Fauci’s handling of the coronavirus “excellent” or “good,” compared with the 36 percent of voters who answered the same for Trump.
The recent poll, conducted July 10 to 12, saw both men’s numbers fall slightly from mid-April when voters were asked the same question. But even then, Fauci, who serves as the top adviser on the White House’s coronavirus task force, was leading Trump in approval ratings.
A separate Morning Consult poll conducted July 9 to 12 found that 64 percent of voters believe coronavirus to be a severe health risk in the U.S.—a statistic up eight points since a June poll.
But even most Republicans seem to be breaking from the president’s strong rhetoric as cases in the country continue to rise.
In the new Morning Consult/Politico poll, 66 percent of GOP voters said Americans should continue social distancing as long as is needed.
For the second week in a row, Trump reached new lows with Republicans: 18 percent of GOP voters disapprove of his response to the coronavirus and 78 percent approve.”
We cannot solve what we refuse to confront and acknowledge. This improving level of openness to and awareness of the FACTS and the TRUTH is a step toward the right direction for the American people to get our act together and win this war against COVID-19..
Do NOT believe Trump’s lies. Listen to Dr. Fauci and respond and act responsibly to save your life and the life of others.
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Gel Santos Relos has been in news, talk, public service and educational broadcasting since 1989 with ABS-CBN and is now serving the Filipino audience using different platforms, including digital broadcasting, and print, and is working on a new public service program for the community. You may contact her through email at [email protected], or send her a message via Facebook at Facebook.com/Gel.Santos.Relos.
