{"id":31072,"date":"2020-10-08T12:02:41","date_gmt":"2020-10-08T16:02:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=31072"},"modified":"2020-10-08T12:02:41","modified_gmt":"2020-10-08T16:02:41","slug":"new-england-journal-of-medicine-breaks-non-political-policy-urges-to-vote-trump-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=31072","title":{"rendered":"New England Journal of Medicine Breaks Non-Political Policy, Urges to Vote Trump Out"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>New England Journal of Medicine goes PARTISAN, urges Americans to VOTE TRUMP OUT over handling Covid-19<\/h1>\n<p><!--more-->RT.com<\/p>\n<p>Without naming names, editors of the longest-running US medical journal have outright adopted the platform of Democratic candidate Joe Biden, urging Americans to vote out their \u201cpolitical leaders\u201d over their Covid-19 response.<\/p>\n<p>Titled &#8216;Dying in a Leadership Vacuum,&#8217; the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nejm.org\/doi\/full\/10.1056\/NEJMe2029812\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">editorial<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 dated October 8 but made public on Wednesday \u2013 says the US leadership\u00a0<em>\u201cfailed\u201d<\/em>\u00a0the Covid-19 test, turning a crisis into a tragedy. While it does not mention the names\u00a0<em>\u201cTrump\u201d<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0<em>\u201cBiden\u201d<\/em>\u00a0once, its political implications are crystal clear.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article__text text \">\n<blockquote><p><em><strong>When it comes to the response to the largest public health crisis of our time, our current political leaders have demonstrated that they are dangerously incompetent. We should not abet them and enable the deaths of thousands more Americans by allowing them to keep their jobs.<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The editors\u2019 criticism sounds eerily similar to DNC talking points about President Donald Trump\u2019s handling of the pandemic, and was quickly and eagerly embraced by outlets critical of the president, such as CNN.<\/p>\n<div class=\"rtcode\">\n<div class=\"twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered\"><iframe id=\"twitter-widget-0\" class=\"\" title=\"Twitter Tweet\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/index.html?creatorScreenName=RT_com&amp;dnt=false&amp;embedId=twitter-widget-0&amp;frame=false&amp;hideCard=false&amp;hideThread=false&amp;id=1313948445091258369&amp;lang=en&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rt.com%2Fusa%2F502873-nejm-vote-political-leaders-out-covid%2F&amp;siteScreenName=RT_com&amp;theme=light&amp;widgetsVersion=ed20a2b%3A1601588405575&amp;width=550px\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-tweet-id=\"1313948445091258369\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>NEJM editors praise China\u2019s draconian lockdowns as\u00a0<em>\u201csevere but effective.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0They also claim the US had\u00a0<em>\u201cample warning\u201d<\/em>\u00a0about the virus but failed to provide protective equipment and universal testing. Though the government invested heavily in vaccine development,\u00a0<em>\u201cits rhetoric has politicized the development process and led to growing public distrust.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Instead of trusting experts,\u00a0<em>\u201cour leaders have largely chosen to ignore and even denigrate\u201d<\/em>\u00a0them, they write.<\/p>\n<p>Accusing the federal government of having\u00a0<em>\u201clargely abandoned\u201d<\/em>\u00a0disease control to the states, which don\u2019t have the tools available to Washington, NEJM editors further accuse the president of undermining those tools. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been\u00a0<em>\u201ceviscerated,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)\u00a0<em>\u201cshamefully politicized\u201d<\/em>\u00a0and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) \u2013 this presumably refers to Dr Anthony Fauci of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases \u2013\u00a0<em>\u201cexcluded from much crucial government decision making.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em><strong>Instead of relying on expertise, the administration has turned to uninformed \u201copinion leaders\u201d and charlatans who obscure the truth and facilitate the promulgation of outright lies.<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The sources cited for these claims are reports from the New York Times and the Washington Post.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Last week, the journal published a study advocating a mandate for vaccinating the population, with harsh penalties for those who refuse to submit. The authors favored\u00a0<em>\u201cemployment suspension or stay-at-home orders,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0over fines or criminal charges are discouraged, because they\u00a0<em>\u201cdisadvantage the poor\u201d<\/em>\u00a0and risk getting the mandate itself challenged in court.<\/p>\n<p>A NEJM study published in April appeared to cast doubt on the wisdom of mandating face masks, but its authors published a follow-up\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nejm.org\/doi\/full\/10.1056\/NEJMc2020836\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">letter in July<\/a>\u00a0insisting that they had in fact intended to support such a mandate.<\/p>\n<p>Thursday\u2019s editorial largely echoes the arguments made by the Democrats against Trump. Biden, the former vice-president who hopes to take the White House next month, has\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/joebiden.com\/covid19\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">already said<\/a>\u00a0he would\u00a0<em>\u201clisten to science,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0put Fauci in charge, and implement nationwide lockdowns and facemask mandates if elected.<\/p>\n<p>Trump himself tested positive for the virus last week and spent the weekend at the Walter Reed National Medical Center. Returning to the White House on Monday, he said the therapy has left him feeling better than 20 years ago.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cDon\u2019t let [Covid-19] dominate you, don\u2019t be afraid of it, you\u2019re going to beat it,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0he said in a televised message to Americans. In another video on Wednesday, he vowed to provide the same treatment, for free, to all Americans who need it.<\/p>\n<p>___<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/usa\/502873-nejm-vote-political-leaders-out-covid\/\">https:\/\/www.rt.com\/usa\/502873-nejm-vote-political-leaders-out-covid\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New England Journal of Medicine goes PARTISAN, urges Americans to VOTE TRUMP OUT over handling Covid-19<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31072\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}