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https://ift.tt/3j2sl6E July 14, 2020 at 01:43PM https://ift.tt/1R552o9

President Trump Is Working to Undermine Dr. Fauci Even as Coronavirus Cases Spike

(WASHINGTON) — With U.S. virus cases spiking and the death toll mounting, the White House is working to undercut its most trusted coronavirus expert, playing down the danger as President Donald Trump pushes to get the economy moving before he faces voters in November.

The U.S. has become a cautionary tale across the globe, with once-falling cases now spiraling. However, Trump suggests the severity of the pandemic that has killed more than 135,000 Americans is being overstated by critics to damage his reelection chances.

Trump on Monday retweeted a post by Chuck Woolery, once the host of TV’s “Love Connection,” claiming that “Everyone is lying” about COVID-19. Woolery’s tweet attacked not just the media and Democrats but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and most doctors “that we are told to trust. I think it’s all about the election and keeping the economy from coming back, which is about the election.”

At the same time, the president and top White House aides are ramping up attacks against Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert. Fauci has been increasingly sidelined by the White House as he sounds alarms about the virus, a most unwelcome message at a time when Trump is focused on pushing an economic rebound.

“We haven’t even begun to see the end of it yet,” he said in a talk with the dean of Stanford’s medical school Monday, calling for a “step back” in reopenings.

Last week, Fauci contradicted Trump about the severity of the virus during a FiveThirtyEight podcast. While Trump contends repeatedly that he has done a great job against the pandemic, Fauci said, “As a country, when you compare us to other countries, I don’t think you can say we’re doing great. I mean, we’re just not.”

Trump later said Fauci had “made a lot of mistakes.” He pointed to Fauci’s early disagreement with him over the China travel ban and to the evolving guidance over the use of masks as scientists’ understanding of the virus improved — points the White House expanded on in statements to media outlets over the weekend.

Asked whether the president still had confidence in Fauci, a White House official on Monday insisted Trump did. The official said Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was regarded as “a valued voice” on the White House coronavirus task force. The official spoke on condition of anonymity even though the president has repeatedly railed against anonymous sources.

“I have a very good relationship with Dr. Fauci,” Trump told reporters Monday, calling him “a very nice person.” But the president added, “I don’t always agree with him.”

That supportive message was not echoed by Peter Navarro, a top White House trade adviser who has been working on the coronavirus effort.

In an email, Navarro continued to criticize Fauci to The Associated Press on Monday, saying the doctor has “a good bedside manner with the public but he has been wrong about everything I have ever interacted with him on.” That includes, he said, downplaying the early risk of the virus and expressing skepticism over the use of hydroxychloroquine, which Navarro has aggressively championed despite contradictory evidence on its efficacy and safety.

Fauci, who has not appeared at recent White House task force briefings and has been largely absent from television, told the Financial Times last week that he last saw Trump in person at the White House on June 2 and hadn’t briefed him in at least two months.

He blamed the fact that he has refused to toe the administration’s line for its refusal to approve many of his media requests.

“I have a reputation, as you probably have figured out, of speaking the truth at all times and not sugar-coating things. And that may be one of the reasons why I haven’t been on television very much lately,” Fauci said.

Trump’s political foes put it more strongly.

“The president’s disgusting attempt to pass the buck by blaming the top infectious disease expert in the country — whose advice he repeatedly ignored and Joe Biden consistently implored him to take — is yet another horrible and revealing failure of leadership as the tragic death toll continues to needlessly grow,” said Andrew Bates, a spokesman for Democrat Biden’s presidential campaign.

Fauci’s public contradictions of Trump have been viewed by the president as a personal affront and have caused some in the West Wing to sour on the doctor, officials say. Some say that, while he is critical of the president in media interviews, he is largely deferential behind closed doors. And they complain about those outside the administration, including some in the media, who have elevated Fauci at the expense of other officials.

Fauci did not respond to a request for comment Monday.

That lionizing of Fauci is anything but welcome as the White House tries to have its medical experts take a step back from the limelight to keep the election-season focus on economic recovery rather than the persistence of the pandemic.

In the early days of the virus, as Trump bristled at the attention Fauci was receiving, the West Wing took control of the doctor’s media schedule, significantly cutting into his TV appearances though he continued to find alternative outlets — including podcasts and social media.

The president’s team has made clear they have no intention of trying to oust Fauci, knowing the uproar that would create. Instead, they appear content to diminish his reach while encouraging Republican lawmakers, administration officials and other allies to highlight some of Fauci’s early missteps.

The effort is part of a White House effort to “counterpunch” on behalf of Trump, who believes all slights must have a forceful response, said one official, who, like others, spoke on condition of anonymity to describe internal White House thinking.

At the same time, supporters are flocking to Fauci’s defense. The Association of American Medical Colleges’ president and chief scientific officer issued a statement saying the organization was “extremely concerned and alarmed by efforts” to discredit Fauci.

“We cannot allow Donald Trump to silence Dr. Fauci or any other government scientists,” said Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., who introduced legislation in April to protect Fauci and other leaders of the National Institutes of Health from being fired for political reasons. “Dr. Fauci is saving lives every day.”

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Associated Press writer Kevin Freking contributed to this report.

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The Psychology of Native American Sports Mascots

Americans are starting to come to terms with the insidious nature of racism — in the way we act, how we speak about others different than us, and yes, even our team mascots. It’s a hard thing to realize that many of the things people took for granted or were seemingly “normal,” probably weren’t normal for every American.

Take, for instance, Native American mascots.

Native American mascots are fairly commonplace throughout the country, especially at the middle and high school level. Colleges have them, too. Even some professional sports teams — the Washington Redskins, the Atlanta Braves, and the Cleveland Indians — embrace Native American team mascots.

First, let’s be clear what a mascot is. Merriam-Webster defines a mascot as “a person, animal, or object adopted by a group as a symbolic figure especially to bring them good luck.” It’s no wonder many can’t see the harm in having a particular racial group represent their school’s team — in their eyes, it’s seemingly meant as a compliment. Pro-mascot advocates suggest that such symbols are meant as an honor and should actually make indigenous peoples of the Americas feel good about themselves.

Is It an Honor to Be a Mascot?

Given that practically anything can be used as a team’s mascot — for instance, Ohio State University uses a poisonous nut, the buckeye, as its mascot — it’s hard to imagine that mascots as symbols are honorable in and of themselves. Being chosen to represent a school or team’s pride or spirit needs to take into consideration how the person being so “honored” feels about it.

For instance, if a small town in Indiana wanted to honor a local industrialist from the 1920s who helped make their town into what it is today, it’s unlikely the town would proceed making her a mascot of the town’s team without first checking with her (or her descendants). It would be the epitome of selfishness and self-righteousness to believe that person’s (or their surviving family’s) opinion on the matter shouldn’t carry the most weight.

Stereotypes Are Harmful

No matter how well-meaning a mascot’s image or symbol may be, all mascots have one thing in common — stereotyping the very thing it is symbolizing. So even if Native American mascots are meant to be complimentary and honorific, they do so at the expense of providing our fellow citizens with a very shallow, cardboard cutout of what values are embraced and symbolized by that people.

In the case of the American Indian, Fryberg et al (2008) suggest that even positive stereotypes can have unintended, harmful effects. Furthermore, they also noted that few Americans have any direct, personal experience with actual Native Americans. So for most Americans, their view of Native Americans is directly influenced by the information we acquire from what is available — such as stereotyped team mascots.

But those mascots don’t represent very much about current Native American values or culture. They are a hollow symbol of poorly conceived stereotypes decided upon decades’ ago, usually by white men.

Research into Native American Mascots

There’s been some psychological research into how Native American mascots affect students — the very people who the mascots are intended to help motivate in school and team spirit. Fryberg et al. (2008) conducted a series of four experiments to examine how students reacted to American Indian mascots.

How do these kinds of mascots impact Native American students? They found, in short:

Exposure to American Indian mascot images has a negative impact on American Indian high school and college students’ feelings of personal and community worth, and achievement-related possible selves.

American Indian students also reported lower personal and community worth when they are exposed to other common characterizations of American Indians (i.e., Disney’s Pocahontas and negative stereotypes such as high alcoholism, school dropout, and suicide rates).

The researchers believe these negative feelings come from the lack of many American Indians found in everyday life, whether it be in books, on TV, in the movies, or even on social media.

We suggest that the negative effects of exposure to these images may, in part, be due to the relative absence of more contemporary positive images of American Indians in American society. Specifically, American Indian mascots and other common American Indian representations do not cue associations that are relevant or useful for students’ identity construction.

Virtually every other minority has other places to turn and be reminded of their self-worth and value. Native Americans all too often have only mascots and shallow characterizations (care of Disney) in which to turn to.

It doesn’t help that schools reinforce these images and stereotypes even after they’ve changed mascots. Kraus et al. (2019) found that in one university setting, in over 50 percent of the school’s classrooms and other public spaces and on over 10 percent of university apparel, the offending Native American mascot remained, reinforcing the prejudice and stereotyping.

Finally, the researchers note something we should all take into consideration — the potential harm it brings to Native American children: “The studies suggest that American Indian mascots have harmful psychological consequences for the group that is caricaturized by the mascots.”

An Easy Decision for Kids, A Hard Decision for Adults

Most teenagers and children don’t feel all that close to a school’s mascot. It’s a symbol meant to help get them energized for (mostly) team sports. They don’t have a lot invested in the symbol. And if told the symbol is actually causing psychological distress to classmates, I suspect most would be okay with finding a less offensive symbol.

Adults, however, seem to have a harder time with this sort of change. Recently on my hometown’s Facebook group, adults argued endlessly when a teenager suggested it was time for the local school’s American Indian mascot to go. Virtually none of the argument discussed the mental and psychological health of the children in school. Instead most of it focused on adults’ feelings about the mascot (and none of the people discussing the mascot were actually Native American).

Mascots are intended to be a symbol of shared unity and pride. If mascots become a symbol of division and older, stereotyped ways of looking at people that are different than you, then they aren’t really doing a very good job any longer. When that happens, it’s time to take a serious look at replacing a divisive mascot symbol with one that enhances and encourages unity and community pride.

For further reading: Mascot Nation: The Controversy over Native American Representations in Sports

References

Fryberg et al. (2008). Of Warrior Chiefs and Indian Princesses: The Psychological Consequences of American Indian Mascots. Basic & Applied Social Psychology, 30, 208-218.

Kraus, M.W., Brown, X. & Swoboda, H. (2019). Dog whistle mascots: Native American mascots as normative expressions of prejudice. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 84.

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