COVID Comparisons, Europe And U.S.: The America-As-A-Failure Reporting Has A Heavy Dose Of Partisanship

Yeah...that's rather an understatement...but understated is better than not stated at all--which is what you get in the PMSM.

   Scientists are studying why the coronavirus hasn’t had more of a resurgence in Europe after countries lifted their lockdowns while some U.S. states battle explosive outbreaks. But the epidemiologists in the media already know why: GOP Governors and President Trump ignored public-health guidelines and reopened too fast and too soon.“With Trump leading the way, record surge in new infections exposes failures in U.S. response,” the Washington Post wrote Sunday. Liberals are juxtaposing the U.S. with Europe, which ostensibly has the virus under control. The Trump Administration has sometimes been too sanguine, but much of this is partisan opportunism in an election year.

   Even with the latest outbreaks, the U.S. has recorded fewer deaths per 100,000 people (38) than the United Kingdom (66), Spain (61), Italy (57) and France (44). Death rates are a lagging indicator, but Arizona (21), Florida (15) and Texas (8) are still well below Europe. New York, which has opened up last and slowly, has a death rate per 100,000 of 161.

One of the most important claims in the story is one that ought to be obvious, but seems not to be: no one has done everything right. 

   I'd add: and most of the people who complain about Trump's handling of this know absolutely nothing about it. They don't really know what we did and didn't do, nor what other options we had, nor what a different administration would have done, nor how we stack up against other countries. All they know is that they heard on NPR that we had some bad tests, and the next thing you know...ORANGE MAN BAD!!!1111 This is how much "thinking," such as it is, about politics works. And that goes for me, too. Almost nobody knows very much at all about policy. People who consider themselves well-informed typically learn one or two fragments of information about something or other, leaving mostly gray area...and their political worldview closes the monumental gaps. 

   My only real conclusion about Trump's handling of the pandemic is that he clearly did some things right that the Dems would have gotten wrong--like throttling back on travel. He didn't do much that I'm sure was a lot worse than an average alternative administration would have done. That's about it. Other than that, all I really know about is the hysterical cloud of progressive Orange Man Baddery that was spewed into the air. Actually, if we'd have listened to Trump and reopened on Easter, we'd have been better off--and you know what? I'm fairly confident about that.

   At any rate, there's no doubt that the progressive media was largely engaged in anti-Trump propaganda, as usual. That headline above is an instance of one of the main headline-types: “With Trump leading the way, record surge in new infections exposes failures in U.S. response." Absolutely perfect. Clear suggestion that Trump's responsible without actually committing themselves to it. Then there were all the (not a quote) Trump holds rally amid COVID DEATH!!!111 headlines. Few or no analogous ones about the BLM race riots...

   Objectivity is often hard. But the PMSM simply doesn't even try anymore. Which shouldn't come as a surprise, given that the progressive left has adopted a semiofficial philosophy that denies the possibility of objectivity... And the main reasons people do that are: (a) they heard about it as an undergraduate and it sounded totally chic; and (b) they don't want to be objective anyway, so they adopt a philosophical view that entails that they have no obligation to be. Objectivity is, like, totally impossible, bro! And ought implies can... So there ya go.