While the nation's attention has been (rightfully) focused on the game-changing global protests against police brutality and systemic racism, the coronavirus pandemic hasn't gone anywhere. Seth Meyers took A Closer Look at the Trump administration's petulant insistence that things like "testing people for the potentially deadly virus" and "discouraging massive indoor rallies full of yelling people who think face masks are for wimpy liberal snowflakes" are just there to make Donald Trump look bad. Trump, having "solved" police brutality with a toothless executive order, has returned to complaining about how the U.S. case count is only so high because people are being tested.
"I can't believe I have to explain this," sighed Meyers. "If we stopped testing, that wouldn't mean the cases went away. That would just mean we don't know about them. When you play peekaboo with a baby, the baby can't see you but that doesn't mean you actually disappeared."
"Now this is a sentiment Trump has repeated several times — if only we could stop testing, we'd look so much better — which is just insane," he added. "It's like if you went to your optometrist, and they said 'I could give you an eye exam, but then you'd need glasses to drive.' That doesn't mean you don't need glasses, it just means you'll probably get in more car accidents."
Meyers went on to point out that the nation's chief infection disease expert has broken down the numbers simply, and it's patently clear that the rising numbers, especially in many southern states that moved to reopen despite medical advice, are easily linked to reopenings.
"The Trump administration has even been contradicted by their own scientists. On Tuesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci said the increase in cases cannot be explained by increased testing, which is just obviously true," Meyers said. "What do you think is more likely to be responsible for an increase in cases of infectious disease: increased testing, or reopening gyms, malls, barber shops, bowling alleys, massage parlors...? And yet, the Trump administration is committed to the lie that the coronavirus has just disappeared when in reality it never went away and it is in fact getting worse."
