Title: Trump lied about science
Author: H. Holden Thorp
Journal: Science 11 Sep 2020: eabe7391 DOI: 10.1126/science.abe7391
以下为美国科学促进会《科学》杂志原文翻译，不代表本站观点！！
今年二到三月，当唐纳德·特朗普（Donald Trump ）总统开始与公众谈论新型冠状病毒(COVID-19)时，科学家们就对他缺对“该病毒可能引发的威胁”的错误理解感到震惊。我们当时就推断他要么是拒绝听取白宫肯简报，要么是为了为联邦政府的不作为制造合理理由而故意隐瞒疫情。如今，《华盛顿邮报》记者鲍勃·伍德沃德(Bob Woodward)录制了特朗普的讲话，特朗普亲口说：他说他非常清楚新冠病毒（SARS-CoV-2）是致命的，并且可以通过空气传播。当特朗普对大众淡化病毒影响时，他清楚自己的言语，也没有被人误导：他就是故意反复的在科学问题向美国人民坦白说谎。他的这些谎言打击了科学界的士也使得美国无数民众丧生。
多年来，我们多次批评美国总统缺乏科学素养。经常批评共和党和民主党执政期间对气候变化和环境恶化采取的不当行动。同时，我们的社论对总统在公立学校教授智慧设计论、神创论和其他反科学的支持表示惋惜。这些事情仍然很重要。但现在，一位美国总统故意在科学问题上撒谎，这对人们的健康造成了现实的威胁，大量美国人因此死亡
这可能是美国科学政策史上最可耻的时刻。
2020年2月7日，特朗普在接受伍德沃德采访时表示，他知道新冠肺炎比流感更致命，并且可以通过空气传播的。“这是致命的东西，”他说。然而，他，3月9日在推特上说，流感比新冠病毒更严重，而经济顾问拉里·库德洛(Larry Kudlow)和总统顾问凯莉安妮·康韦(Kellyanne Conway)向公众保证，新冠病毒已得到控制。3月19日，特朗普告诉伍德沃德，他不想对美国人民坦陈病毒的危险。“我一直想低调处理，”他说，“我现在仍然喜欢低调处理“。淡化新冠病毒意味着特朗普在说谎，同时也使得美国处于巨大的危险中着。
同时也意味着让那些试图说出真相的卫生官员噤声。2月25日,南希Messonnier国家中心主任免疫和呼吸系统疾病(疾病控制和预防中心的)说：”这并不是新冠疫情会不会再发生的问题，更是一个什么时候发生这个国家会有多少人会被感染的问题“。她是对的，特朗普知道这一点，但是特朗普让她闭嘴。他还试图阻止美国传染病方面最重要的领导人安东尼•福奇(Anthony Fauci)的信息传递。虽然特朗普的支持者坚称福奇和梅松尼尔没有被封口，但现在我们从电子邮件中得到了明确的证据显示他们被下了禁口令。
特朗普还知道，这种病毒对年轻人来说也可能是致命的。3月19日，他对伍德沃德说:“不仅仅是老人，很多年轻人（也会感染这个病毒）”。然而，他坚持学校和大学应该重开，大学足球应该恢复。他最近加入了他的顾问团队，斯科特·阿特拉斯是一位神经放射学家，没有流行病学方面的专业知识。阿特拉斯主张采取一种危险的、误导性的做法：以某种方式隔离年长者和其他易感染人群，让病毒在年轻人中自由传播。大学和学校的的复课加速了病毒的传播，对学生和他们正在向其传播病毒的人都意味着极大的痛苦。
华盛顿特区的纪念碑把真正的领导人在危机中说过的话刻在了纪念碑上。富兰克林·罗斯福(Franklin Roosevelt)曾说过：“信心来自诚实、荣誉、神圣的义务、忠诚的维护和无私的履行。”
我们应该感谢科学界接纳了这句话。研究人员正在孜孜不倦地研制疫苗，调查病毒的起源以便预防未来的大流行病。卫健工作者冒着被感染的风险治疗新冠患者，降低死亡率；许多一线工作人员受到感染，有些人在这些勇敢的行动中死亡。这些人亲身实践了罗斯福对忠诚保护和无私表现的呼吁。
他们没有看到他们的总统及其幕僚表现出这些品质。特朗普并不是毫无头绪，也没有无视白宫简报。听听他自己的话。特朗普撒谎了，很直白很简单。
”When President Donald Trump began talking to the public about coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in February and March, scientists were stunned at his seeming lack of understanding of the threat. We assumed that he either refused to listen to the White House briefings that must have been occurring or that he was being deliberately sheltered from information to create plausible deniability for federal inaction. Now, because famed Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward recorded him, we can hear Trump’s own voice saying that he understood precisely that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was deadly and spread through the air. As he was playing down the virus to the public, Trump was not confused or inadequately briefed: He flat-out lied, repeatedly, about science to the American people. These lies demoralized the scientific community and cost countless lives in the United States.
Over the years, this page has commented on the scientific foibles of U.S. presidents. Inadequate action on climate change and environmental degradation during both Republican and Democratic administrations have been criticized frequently. Editorials have bemoaned endorsements by presidents on teaching intelligent design, creationism, and other antiscience in public schools. These matters are still important. But now, a U.S. president has deliberately lied about science in a way that was imminently dangerous to human health and directly led to widespread deaths of Americans.
This may be the most shameful moment in the history of U.S. science policy.
In an interview with Woodward on 7 February 2020, Trump said he knew that COVID-19 was more lethal than the flu and that it spread through the air. “This is deadly stuff,” he said. But on 9 March, he tweeted that the “common flu” was worse than COVID-19, while economic advisor Larry Kudlow and presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway assured the public that the virus was contained. On 19 March, Trump told Woodward that he did not want to level with the American people about the danger of the virus. “I wanted to always play it down,” he said, “I still like playing it down.” Playing it down meant lying about the fact that he knew the country was in grave danger.
It also meant silencing health officials who tried to tell the truth. On 25 February, Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), said, “It’s not so much a question of if this will happen anymore, but rather more a question of exactly when this will happen and how many people in this country will have severe illness.” She was right and Trump knew it. But he shut her down. He also tried to control messaging from Anthony Fauci, the nation’s foremost leader on infectious diseases. Trump’s supporters insisted that Fauci and Messonnier were not being muzzled, but now we have clear evidence in emails that they were.
Trump also knew that the virus could be deadly for young people. “It’s not just old, older,” he told Woodward on 19 March. “Young people, too, plenty of young people.” Yet, he has insisted that schools and universities reopen and that college football should resume. He recently added to his advisory team Scott Atlas—a neuroradiologist with no expertise in epidemiology—who has advocated for a risky and misguided course: somehow isolating the older and more vulnerable while allowing the virus free rein among young people. The opening of colleges and schools has accelerated the spread of the virus and will mean untold suffering among both students and the people to whom they are now spreading the virus.
Monuments in Washington, D.C., have chiseled into them words spoken by real leaders during crises. “Confidence,” said Franklin Roosevelt, “thrives on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection and on unselfish performance.”
We can be thankful that science has embraced these words. Researchers are tirelessly developing vaccines and investigating the origins of the virus so that future pandemics may be prevented. Health care workers have braved exposure to treat COVID-19 patients and reduce the death rate; many of these frontline workers have become infected, and some have died in these acts of courage. These individuals embody Roosevelt’s call to faithful protection and unselfish performance.
They have seen neither quality exhibited by their president and his coconspirators. Trump was not clueless, and he was not ignoring the briefings. Listen to his own words. Trump lied, plain and simple.“