Usually calm and mild-mannered, Dr. Sanjay Gupta seemed about ready to jump out of his skin in anger about Georgia's governor, Brian Kemp, claiming that he was not aware COVID-19 could be spread asymptomatically until two days ago. TWO. DAYS. AGO. More than two months after the first case was recorded in the United States, and nearly two months after the CDC discussed that fact in public.
Anderson Cooper played the governor's press conference, wherein he (finally!) issued the state's stay-at-home order.
Cooper and Gupta each took turns strangling for words to describe this criminal incompetence.
GUPTA: Anderson, this is inexcusable. I mean, it's just inexcusable. EVERYONE has been talking about that.
COOPER: I mean, he can't be being honest there.
GUPTA: My kids who go to school in Georgia knew that a month ago, I mean, I can't even believe that. Look, this is serious. There was a paper written back in early February about this. There was significant evidence of this even earlier than that in China that scientists were paying attention to. The scientific community, the CDC who he just referenced, which is IN Georgia, talked about this on a public call on February 4th. We've known this for a long time. To say that we just found out in the last 24 hours, and that's why we're doing this this is just not right. That's an excuse. Maybe he really didn't know that, which means someone didn't tell him, although I find that very hard to believe. Everybody in the country -- for well over a month.
Ouch. Dr. Gupta said, "My KIDS even knew this a month ago." That list of ways the information was available to him is devastating, never mind the fact that you have to almost ACTIVELY HIDE from any news source whatsoever to not absorb this knowledge. The CDC is IN GEORGIA, MAN!
Cooper rightly called it political malpractice, as it were, and wondered if it was criminal. They both lamented how long this information has bene available to the public; how many interviews they've given, how much evidence exists on the benefits of staying home. Tell that to Republican governors who eschew science and education at the expense of their constituents' lives, though.
Then Cooper points out that the stay-at-home order does not apply to churches. Of course it doesn't. Gupta was sympathetic to the need for gathering and faith, but they both pled for reason and science to overrule that need and win the day. Good luck. But then they both went back to tap-dancing on Kemp's thick, impenetrable skull.
COOPER: I mean, if that's true that he just heard that, he just learned that, then he has not been paying attention and he is not doing his job. I mean, that's completely irresponsible.
GUPTA: To the most important issue that's affected us, probably certainly in my lifetime. So he's not been paying attention to the most important issue that he'll probably ever run into in his lifetime and certainly as a governor. He said, I just found out about this?
Dr. Gupta looks so distressed, he can barely contain his contempt for this utterly unprincipled, heartless jackass of a governor. Let's remember, though: Kemp is the man who stole his election, and whose idea of an awesome campaign ad involved pointing a gun at a teenaged boy. So, really, who is surprised?
