Reputations

Back in the 70’s gay men were dying of a mysterious ‘gay cancer.’ It was eventually identified as Kaposi’s Sarcoma, purplish skin blots that grew.  They are a vile aggressive cancer that soon took the lives of many gay men in New York City and the San Francisco and Los Angeles urban areas. As the disease spread the gay community envisioned a plague personally directed at them.

Several years later, bit by bit, research found ways to treat the disease, prolong life, and eventually tame it. Years. Long years of wonder and worry. A pandemic that spread worldwide.

Deep in this struggle was the person of Dr. Anthony Fauci. I won’t recount his long and storied career in medical research and epidemiology, but it is broad and deep. He is an expert, one who learned from scratch how a disease, many diseases, get their start and spread to targeted victims. He was there in the trenches doing the research, directing treatment protocols, setting public health policy based on scientific research.

Dr. Fauci knows of what he speaks. His entire career is long and hard earned, learning as he traipsed through the life line of many diseases. HIV/AIDS is but one.

When a new disease appears on the scene, trained scientists research it as best they can. They accumulate findings and learn more. Lasting long-term effects of a disease is a later finding; first they must learn to recognize it accurately in the population; then they learn how it is spread; then who are the likely victims if any are specific; then the treatments suggested to make patients comfortable, and hopefully, defeat the disease.

Once all of that is done, they go back to learn more. More details. More definition of more terms. Cause, effect and result are endlessly studied until a cure is found. The process is replicated endlessly for every disease. Scientists know this. It is their process and training. It is their discipline.

Meanwhile people interview the scientists to better understand the disease and what is known about it. That is an unfolding story that builds eventually into full understanding. We are not there yet with COVID. We will get there eventually. No one knows when or how.

Meanwhile, scientists warn and caution the public on how to avoid transmitting the disease or acquiring it in the first place. They warn us how to protect household members and other loved ones. We pay attention to these people because they have the expertise we lack.

The reputation of these scientists is excellent. Dr. Fauci is one of the preeminent ones.

Bad politicians don’t much care about credentials. Many of them have no expertise in details. Good politicians surround themselves with experts to do the heavy lifting. Poor politicians select teams that make them look good, and provide handy targets to blame.

In Dr. Anthony Fauci, trump has blamed the wrong person. The White House occupant doesn’t have any credentials. Dr. Fauci does. For all to see.

This causes us to wonder about the blamer in chief. Just what is his credibility? Having said this, isn’t it curious that both China and the World Health Organization have attracted trump’s blame for COVID? Both those entities have done much to quell the disease and share their knowledge with the rest of the world community.

Methinks the King of Blame has much to hide. It begins with his own self-fear.  

July 14, 2020