Stupid on science

Trump’s attacks on science and reason beggar belief

By Will Collette

Donald Trump’s recent advice that doctors should inject bleach or Lysol® into the lungs of COVID-19 patients was the last straw for many. 

He also suggested that doctors zap patients’ lungs with high levels of UV light or even a very strong light. 

The New York City Poison Control Center reported 30 cases of people ingesting Lysol® or bleach just hours after Trump’s remarks.

Trump has also pushed hydroxychloroquine as a miracle cure even though studies are showing it not only doesn’t help, but actually can cause fatal heart problems. 

At least two people have died from reactions after following Trump’s Rx.

But it’s no surprise, coming from a deranged guy who has made a lifetime of false claims, many of them dangerous, on scientific and medical subjects. The Union of Concerned Scientists Center for Science and Democracy listed 130 Trump attacks on science and that was just as of 2017!

During the current coronavirus pandemic, Trump has added many more.

The Associated Press recently assembled Trump’s greatest hits of scientific quackery that includes:

Trump ignored medical warnings not to stare at the solar eclipse in 2017 without eye protection. Photos show Trump looked anyway. 

Trump spent years calling our climate crisis a hoax until recently.

Trump claimed wind turbines (he calls them “windmills) cause cancer. They don’t.

Trump says exercise will deplete the finite amount of energy a body has - the claims the body has only a finite amount of energy and that exercise somehow depletes it has no basis in science.

Last year, Trump insisted that Alabama was threatened by Hurricane Dorian. Rather than admit a simple error, he displayed an outdated map where he used his Sharpie® to extend the danger zone into Alabama. The National Weather Service office in Alabama issued a statement to calm residents, earning them a reprimand.

Trump has suggested we drop nuclear bombs into the heart of hurricanes.

Trump says we can prevent disastrous forest and brush fires by raking up the leaves in America’s millions of square miles of wildfire-threatened land. Trump says this is how Finland controls fires (the Finns say this is not true).

While we were all watching in horror as Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris burned, Trump suggested sending in giant water tankers to water-bomb the fire. That might have put out the fire, but it would have completely flattened this world treasure.

Worst still are Trump’s destructive acts against real science, starting with massive cuts or outright abolition of science research programs and agencies, and his withdrawal from international treaties and bodies where scientists around the world work together for betterment of humanity.

Trump has no training and certainly no degree in any form of science or medicine. He did complete the undergraduate program at Wharton School of Business and Finance, University of Pennsylvania.

One of his teachers, the late Professor William T. Kelley remembered Trump well: “Donald Trump was the dumbest goddam student I ever had.” His emphasis.

Professor Kelly noted Trump’s arrogant ignorance - Trump came to Wharton acting as if he knew everything already, but clearly did not.

I just wish the scientists currently surrounding Trump would take a stand against this out-of-control lunatic rather than act as his support and enablers.

I am especially outraged at Dr. Deborah Birx’s outlandish attempt to rationalize Trump’s remarks on injecting bleach, claiming that Trump was simply “thinking out loud.”

"Thinking out loud" is not reassuring in any measure – how could any rational adult, never mind one playing the role of US President, would come up with injecting bleach as medical treatment and then say it out loud to an audience of millions?

I should mention that Trump was riffing out loud after a presentation by Bill Bryan, who was named to the position of acting Homeland Security undersecretary for science and technology despite having no training in science or technology.

Bryan’s presentation covered the disinfecting effects on hard surfaces such as counter-tops from use of UV light, bleach and strong detergents. Most people over the age of 10 probably knew all of this already.

Apparently, hearing that bleach and detergents can clean surfaces was not only a major revelation to Trump, but triggered his extended brain fart.

Frankly, I think we are well past the point where Dr. Birx and Dr. Tony Fauci need to hand in their resignations and work to fight the pandemic outside of the useless and dysfunctional Trump administration. 

They can’t stop Trump, can’t undo the damage and can’t tell the full and honest truth while riding in Trump’s clown car.

Both of them are just destroying their own reputations and credibility. 

Birx however may have a hidden agenda. According to Politico, she is on the short list to replace HHS Secretary Alex Azar who has fallen out of favor with Trump.

Sure, if Fauci or Birx quit, Trump will just pull in someone else from the Clown Car Talent Agency to replace them. An example: Trump pushed out our top vaccine expert Dr. Rick Bright when Bright refused to endorse hydroxychloroquine as a treatment.

That made way for professional Labradoodle breeder Brian Harrison to be hired by HHS to run the federal pandemic response taskforce, even though Harrison has no training in science, management or medicine. 

But he does know how to sit, roll-over and heel cuz he’s a good boy.