Our local representative, David McKinley, tries to blame Fauci on masks and Fauci has none of it

BREAKING NEWS: Dr. Fauci puts the smack down at @EnergyCommerce hearing when @RepMcKinley tries to blame Dr. Fauci as to why masks were not recommend earlier.

“Oh, so we’re going to play that game, let me explain to you what happened....” #Fauci pic.twitter.com/2wSgBrMVIs

— Joseph Sakran (@JosephSakran) June 23, 2020

Interestingly, McKinley's Twitter feed has a picture of McKinley wearing a mask at the hearing but the clip above shows him without a mask when he asks his question of Fauci. Additionally (as of 3:30 PM), McKinley's Twitter account contains nothing about his Fauci questions.

One more thought on McKinley. I doubt that it will happen but some local reporter should ask our local congressman if he thinks the president should wear a mask.

Fauci answers Mike Myer on race and coronavirus

Local “newspaper” editor Mike Myer has written three columns (see here, for example) wondering why African-Americans have suffered disproportionately from the coronavirus. From the Washington Post’s coverage of the Fauci hearing:

Fauci said in response to a question from Rep. Bobby L. Rush (D-Ill.) that he believes institutional racism has contributed to the disproportionate impact of the coronavirus on African Americans.
“Well, I mean, obviously the African American community has suffered from racism for a very, very long period of time,” Fauci told Rush, who was appearing remotely. “And I cannot imagine that that has not contributed to the conditions that they find themselves in economically and otherwise. So the answer, congressman, is yes.”

Trump says he was not kidding about slowing down the virus testing

Just now I asked the President if he was kidding when he said he told his people to slow down testing, which is how White House officials explained the comment.

He said, “I don’t kid.”

He also said again testing is a double-edged sword, and praised the job the U.S. has done.

— Weijia Jiang (@weijia) June 23, 2020

(Note – The Post coverage cited above quotes Fauci saying that he had not been told to slow down testing.)

Why I'm not presently optimistic on the virus

Finally,I found this tweet from a Chicago Tribune columnist which neatly sums up my current pessimism:

Call me a worrier, but I've never quite understood how having no vaccine, no treatment, no universal commitment to mask wearing and social distancing, and no national leadership on coronavirus could lead to any kind of successful "re-opening," phased or otherwise.

— Rex Huppke (@RexHuppke) June 22, 2020