TRUMP AND PENCE TO THE RESCUE!
I end my 30 days of mourning the death of our Constitution to bring you some good news. Fear not the coronavirus that is ravaging the world! President Trump assures us that he has it under control; he even promises “a miracle,” with the virus “disappearing from our shores” by April. Does that mean we don’t have to wash our hands and wear masks after all?
In a related bold move the president appointed on Wednesday Vice President Mike Pence “Czar” in charge of defeating the budding pandemic. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar will keep his post, becoming the third member of the public relations task force verbally fighting the disease. (Apparently, the Center for Disease Control, its budget cut the last two years by Trump, will play a lesser role.)
And yesterday this terrific trio held a news conference at which President Trump praised Pence for doing a great job just three days after accepting the assignment. Pence agrees with his boss that the threat was under “firm control” and that the average American didn’t have to wear a mask. (He didn’t say whether we still have to wash our hands.)
Pence is a devout, born-again Christian and no friend of science. That may explain why he is on the record as having said that tobacco does not kill folks, and why, when a much-criticized governor of Indiana, he failed to act promptly and effectively in an AIDS breakout.
Know that not everyone thinks Pence is the man for the job. His tardy response to that Hoosier AIDS breakout in 2015 was “I‘m going home to pray on it.”
You might try praying on it, too…maybe for a vaccine…if you’ve got any prayers left that you haven’t spent on the stock market.