https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/03/coronavirus-crisis-trump-spin-fail.html
"Because the administration is built on sycophancy, the officials who should be spending their time and energy on the public’s health are instead wasting valuable effort on strenuously maintaining Trump’s fiction. The surgeon general—who is in his mid-40s—said on Sunday, absurdly, that Trump “sleeps less than I do and he’s healthier than what I am.” The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Robert Redfield, began his remarks to the American people by praising Trump for his “decisive leadership.” “I think that’s the most important thing I want to say,” he said. Trump nodded. This Trump-pleasing weakness in government isn’t just superficial lip service—it’s having real effects. We now know that health officials at the CDC wanted to recommend that elderly and physically fragile Americans avoid flying on commercial airlines. The White House ordered that the air travel recommendation be removed, endangering the very people the virus is likely to affect most severely. CDC officials couldn’t explain why they refused to use the World Health Organization’s coronavirus test and instead tried to develop one that failed. Trump himself has been quite forthright about wanting to cultivate ignorance on the number of infected Americans: Not knowing the real number is as good as the number not existing. There is a silver lining here—not because it’s good news but because it’s useful to have clarity in alarming and confusing times, when different sources are saying different things. It’s this: The least trustworthy president in recent memory should be understood as a film negative during this crisis. The truth is an almost perfect inversion of what he says. He told the country it was OK to go to work with coronavirus. His economic adviser Larry Kudlow claimed on Friday that the virus was “contained.” White House senior adviser Kellyanne Conway told Fox News viewers the virus was “contained,” and all thanks to Trump’s quick action, too!"
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