Coronavirus, week 29: How the CDC became Trump's toady

We start off this week with a long read from ProPublica on the header's subject.

The nutgraf actually comes just after the true breaking point incident:

When the next history of the CDC is written, 2020 will emerge as perhaps the darkest chapter in its 74 years, rivaled only by its involvement in the infamous Tuskegee experiment.

That breaking point?

At the time of Memorial Day, the CDC posted guidelines for churches. They included warnings that things like choir singing were potential superspreader actions. And, the Trump Administration, which had already issued its "guidelines" for the CDC's guidelines that omitted things like this, said its guidelines were "not optional." And ... the CDC caved.

And, despite saying that it wouldn't again? It kept caving.

Employees spoke openly about their “hill to die on” — the political interference that would prompt them to leave. Yet again and again, they surrendered and did as they were told. It wasn’t just worries over paying mortgages or forfeiting the prestige of the job. Many feared that if they left and spoke out, the White House would stop consulting the CDC at all, and would push through even more dangerous policies. 

To some veteran scientists, this acquiescence was the real sign that the CDC had lost its way. One scientist swore repeatedly in an interview and said, “The cowardice and the caving are disgusting to me.”

Agreed.

Related? A new documentary reveals details about how Nancy Messonnier was "disappeared."

Supposedly, the previously ball-less head of the FDA, Dr. Stephen Hahn, is now trying to keep it away from the CDC's fate. Is it too late for him to make up for his previous gonad self-digestion?

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Meanwhile, the numbers continue to climb again nationally, and Fauci says "too high" as fall progresses.

And, cases requiring hospitalization climbed here in Texas last month. 

Maybe that's because ...

As  SocraticGadfly says that at least in his personal experience, Gov. Strangeabbott’s coronavirus safety protocols for events to be held are basically Kabuki theater.

And, Financial Times tried to get to the bottom of the early days and weeks of the coronavirus in Wuhan, all while battling the Xi Jinping Though (Police). Gist of the issue? Xi is not entirely to blame, but his increasingly authoritarian style plus bad communications between Beijing and the Politburo on the one hand, and Hubei provincial, county and Wuhan city officials on the other, exacerbated the problem. And, contra Xi-stanners, no, again, this isn't just Western propaganda, including Chinese remaining fearful of talking.

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Because of all of this and more? It would be hard to argue with this expert that the next 6-12 weeks could be the worst of the entire pandemic (to date).

And, does Twitter deleting a Scott Atlas Tweet really stop COVIDIOCY?

And, speaking of COVIDIOCY? Orac rips to shreds the Great Barrington Declaration. It's not "great"; the town of Great Barrington, where the COVIDIOTS drafted it, explicitly repudiated it at a local government meeting; and, beyond the nuttery of herd immunity, which I saw 10 days ago when first reading it, the fact that the word "mask" is nowhere to be found shows just how politicized it is.

And, COVIDIOTS are on the rise in Cooke County and other smaller counties in Texas. Scary ones are places like this and Hopkins County that are not totally removed from the Metroplex but acting like they are on things like this.