How Trump and his acolytes created a crisis – then lost control of it

Headlines in the United States over the past two weeks have focused on the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and the havoc wreaked by Hurricane Ida; meanwhile, the Covid crisis has continued to grind relentlessly on.

Last year saw plenty of optimistic predictions of when the pandemic would end – everything open by Easter, said Trump; all over by Christmas, we had hoped; the vaccines coming to the rescue finally at the turn of the year.

Now there is a sense of weary resignation when Anthony Fauci, the government’s infectious disease expert, suggests another 100,000 Americans dead by Christmas 2021 is “predictable but preventable”.

The one-time global centre of the coronavirus, New York, was down to a seven-day average of several hundred in early summer. Now it’s back in the mid-2,000s. But it’s in the south that cases are really accelerating, nowhere more so than in Florida, a state whose governor, Ron DeSantis, prides himself on his Trumpian laissez-faire attitude to the virus.

Future generations will puzzle over how the US response to Covid-19 became so politicised – although at a time when almost everything is ammunition in the culture wars, it’s perhaps not surprising.

DeSantis, tipped as a future presidential candidate, has not been slow in recognising the political opportunities provided by the crisis. He has decried the nagging of medical know-it-alls over masks and lockdowns, and proudly hailed the God-given freedoms of his fellow Americans to make their own minds up.

In March this year, with the Sunshine State apparently navigating the storm fairly well, he boasted about his administration’s success. “Everyone told me I was wrong. I faced continued pressure from radical Democrats and the liberal media, but I refused to back down,” he said. “It’s clear: Florida got it right.”

Just five months later, things look very different.

In August, Florida hit a seven-day average of almost 30,000 new cases, according to tracking by The New York Times. As The Independent reported, the state is suffering worse now from the pandemic than at any previous time. Last week saw its highest death toll yet, with 1,727 fatalities in the week ending 26 August. Worryingly, more children are falling ill from the dangerous new Delta variant. All this with the solution – safe, effective vaccines – sitting there waiting to be used.

DeSantis, in true Trumpian form, has been blaming testing for the high number of cases. He has become embroiled in court battles to stop mask mandates – effectively threatening to punish schools that take basic safety measures, even as hospitals struggle to treat ever more people.

Will any of this damage his political fortunes as he seeks re-election as governor in 2022 – and perhaps looks to a tilt at the White House?

Polls by Quinnipiac and St Pete Polls suggest his popularity is certainly being hit – the first showed him falling below 50 per cent for approval (with 47 per cent for, 45 per cent against), and down at 44-51 for his handling of the schools issue. The latter was worse, with 43 per cent approval and 48 per cent disapproval.

Others disagree. Henry Olsen, writing in The Washington Post, points out that political polarisation over Covid is far higher in the US than in other western countries, and that will count in DeSantis’s favour, especially if cases begin to drop.

After all, when Trump himself can be booed by rallygoers for recommending the vaccine, it doesn’t pay to underestimate how entrenched many on the right are in their hatred of health advice from doctors and scientists.

Yours,

Phil Thomas

Assistant editor (US)