Lancet strays from science to calling for Trump's removal

The Lancet journal, the highly regarded British scientific and medical publication, recently published an editorial criticizing the Trump administration’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, particularly what it considers the sidelining of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“The flagship agency for the nation’s public health, has seen its role minimized and become an ineffective and nominal adviser in the response to contain the spread of the virus,” the editorial reads. "Americans must put a president in the White House come January, 2021, who will understand that public health should not be guided by partisan politics."

The editorial argues that Republican administrations since the Reagan era have underfunded and dismantled the CDC, leaving it underprepared to deal with the current pandemic.

The CDC remains a key a part of the White House Coronavirus Task Force.

Just last week, agency Director Dr. Robert Redfield testified before Congress about the agency's role in spearheading the testing methods that colleges and universities will employ come the fall semester, so that students will be safe when they are called back to campus.

However, the editorial cited Dr. Deborah Birx, another key member the the White House task force, saying several weeks ago, "There is nothing from the CDC that I can trust." 

And the agency early in the pandemic flubbed the important matter of developing a coronavirus diagnostic test for Americans, which the Lancet piece acknowledges: 

“The agency was so convinced that it had contained the virus that it retained control of all diagnostic testing for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, but this was followed by the admission on Feb 12 that the CDC had developed faulty test kits."