This story by @yabutaleb7 and @jdawsey1 should get the Pultizer Prize. It charts out a terrifying future for us with @SWAtlasHoover at the side of @realDonaldTrump ready to just let #COVID19 rush through and ravage millions of Americans' lives. 1/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-coronavirus-scott-atlas-herd-immunity/2020/08/30/925e68fe-e93b-11ea-970a-64c73a1c2392_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-banner-low_virustrump-7am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans

Dr. Atlas, a radiologist, has no training or expertise in infectious diseases, but what he does have are the words the President wants to hear: you can let the virus spread widely throughout the US if you just try to keep the elderly safe, open up everything and let 'er rip. 2/

Of course, Sweden tried this "herd immunity" approach and had many more deaths than their European peers per capita and hasn't escaped the economic carnage they had hope by this strategy. 3/

And a word for @Avik who decides he's all-in with this garbage, pitting epidemic control v. economic recovery when in fact economists like @Austan_Goolsbee have said that the first rule of virus economics is to stop the virus. 4/

We can address the pandemic and the social and economic damage if we want to, together. It takes a real package of relief focused on three main things: direct support to ordinary Americans, state and local governments, and massive scale-up of the public health response. 5/

In fact, other countries have done just this, as @gabriel_zucman and others have described. But @avik hitches his wagon to the pseudo-science being peddled by @SWAtlasHoover, which is going to get lots of people killed. 6/

So, focus people. @realDonaldTrump has @SWAtlasHoover whispering into his ear like Rasputin at the size the Czarina Alexandra. NO ONE in public health thinks this a good idea. It's not edgy, contrarian. It's dangerous and terrifying. 7/

Want to survive this pandemic? Then we need a massive scale-up of testing like @michaelmina_lab, @paulmromer and others have described, big enough, fast enough to get contact tracing back up and running ahead of new infections. 8/

Then we need massive support to allow people who are exposed or infected to isolate, get the care they need. Just an exposure-notification is not enough, there are substantial human needs that need to be met to allow people to do this. 9/

PPE has to be massively scaled-up as well, not just for healthcare settings but for high-frequency, high-contact settings (e.g. schools, workplaces), ventilation as @zeynep has urged us to do needs to be reconfigured all over the US. 10/

And this needs massive support to state and local governments where the public health rubber hits the road and now where budgets are getting crushed under the weight of the #COVID19 response without federal support. 11/

Meanwhile @senatemajldr or who I now call the Grim Reaper, talks of a "skinny" relief bill. Because after shuttling trillions to corporations we're all of a sudden broke for the serious business of beating this pandemic. The man is a monster. 12/

And we need people wearing those ordinary blue masks. If we can get enough N-95s, teachers should get them as well. And this nonsense about masks being tyranny or unmanly, well, I don't know what to say, when you infect your family so you can live free and die. 13/

We have 65 days people. Another term of @realDonaldTrump means we don't just see a doubling of deaths from #COVID19, we could see an escalation in the number of the dead that is far worse than that. 14/

. @realDonaldTrump is going to scream "law & order," "socialism" to distract you, but another term means more death, more suffering. He cannot lead us out of this crisis, he keeps leading us down into the pit with an explicit allegiance now to a policy designed to do harm. 15/

So send @yabutaleb7 & @jdawsey1's @washingtonpost article to everyone you know. RT it. Make sure it's the story of the day, because it may indeed be the story of this terrible, bleak year. end/