COVID19 Update - Day 177

US Tests: 79,815,790*

US Cases: 6,116,585*

US Deaths: 178,742*

Worldwide Cases: 26,201,282*

Worldwide Deaths: 866,671*

* - Numbers are a lower bound.  True numbers are being suppressed by the Trump administration

The administration's response to the virus continues to be a disaster, in multiple and conflicting ways.  For example, we have White House pandemic adviser Scott Atlas pushing for a 'herd immunity' approach --- which is basically an excuse for doing nothing at all:

The approach’s chief proponent is Scott Atlas, a neuroradiologist and fellow at Stanford’s conservative Hoover Institution, who joined the White House in August as a pandemic adviser. He has advocated that the United States adopt the model Sweden has used to respond to the virus outbreak, according to these officials, which did not impose lockdown orders or close most schools and businesses. Instead, Sweden recommended social distancing measures and masks, while keeping bars and restaurants open with restrictions.

Sweden’s handling of the pandemic has been heavily criticized by public health officials and infectious-disease experts as reckless — the country’s infection and death rates are among the world’s highest. It also hasn’t escaped the deep economic problems resulting from the pandemic.

But Sweden’s approach has gained support among some conservatives who argue that this country’s lockdowns and business closures are crushing the economy and infringing on people’s liberties.

That this approach is even being discussed in the White House is drawing concern from experts inside and outside the government who note that a herd immunity strategy could lead to hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of lost American lives.

“The administration faces some pretty serious hurdles in making this argument. One is a lot of people will die, even if you can protect people in nursing homes,” said Paul Romer, a professor at New York University who won the Nobel Prize in economics in 2018. “Once it’s out in the community, we’ve seen over and over again, it ends up spreading everywhere.”

This approach has no benefits from a public health perspective, but it has two benefits from Trump's perspective.  First, it allows him to cast his months-long callous indifference as a legitimate strategy for responding to the virus.  Second, it provides justification for his desire to return America to 'business as usual' despite the fact that it would result in thousands of additional deaths.

However, at the same time that the White House is considering a policy of just letting everyone get sick, this is also happening:

Officials from at least three states have suggested that they would refuse to distribute a COVID-19 vaccine if they believe it has not received adequate vetting by the federal government, or that it had been approved for political reasons.

. . .

The statements of caution from state health officials come after Centers for Disease Control Director Robert Redfield sent a letter last week to governors demanding that they ensure vaccine distribution sites be “fully operational” by Nov. 1.

That followed weeks of evidence that the Trump administration is tailoring its COVID-19 response to the President’s re-election hopes. The CDC last week issued guidance that would diminish the number of positive COVID-19 tests in the country, while the Food and Drug Administration has issued provisional, emergency approvals for drugs and treatments like hydroxychloroquine and blood plasma in what experts later said was the absence of adequate underlying evidence.

FDA chief Stephen Hahn has said that he would support an emergency approval of a vaccine before phase III trials are complete. President Trump, for his part, has antagonized Hahn and his agency, accusing the “deep state” at the FDA of slowing down vaccine trials.

All of that has suggested that politics will play some role in whichever of the three vaccines currently in phase III trials is approved first.

Obviously, these two approaches are contradictory.  Either you believe that herd immunity is the correct response to the pandemic (it isn't), in which case, there is no need to rush out a vaccine before it's ready.  Or you rightly understand that a herd immunity approach is basically suicide --- in which case you want a vaccine, but YOU ALSO WANT IT TO BE PROVEN SAFE AND EFFECTIVE.

The only real commonality between these two stories is that both approaches --- the 'go about your lives, nothing to see here' approach and the 'we'll have a vaccine available before election day' approach both bolster Trump politically.

For those foolish enough to believe in either of them.