Over the past six months, the Trump administration has prioritized politics over science at key moments, refusing to follow expert advice that might have contained the spread of the novel coronavirus and the disease, COVID-19, it causes. Trump and his people have routinely dismissed experts’ assessments of the gravity of the pandemic, and of the measures needed to bring it under control. They have tried to muzzle scientists who dispute the administration’s rosy spin.

Just last week, Trump described Dr. Robert Redfield, a virologist and head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as “confused” because he said a vaccine was not likely until late 2021. Trump, without evidence, said it could be ready before the election.

While there is no indication that Trump’s desperation for a vaccine has affected the science or safety of the process, his insistence that one would be ready before the election is stoking mistrust in the very breakthrough he hopes will help his reelection.

The Trump vs. science dynamic has been evident from the very beginning.

In late January, after the virus had first emerged in Wuhan, China, the CDC launched its emergency operations center. What was needed, epidemiologists said, was aggressive public education and contact tracing to identify and isolate the first cases before the disease spread got out of control.

Instead, Trump publicly played down the virus in those crucial first weeks, even though he privately acknowledged the seriousness of the threat.

“I wanted to always play it down,” the president told journalist Bob Woodward in March.

By mid-March, hospitals in New York and elsewhere were deluged with patients and storing bodies in refrigerated trucks.

On March 31, the nation was still grappling to understand the scope of the pandemic. Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, stood next to the president to explain jaw-dropping death projections. The doctors said unless the country adopted masks, practiced distancing and kept businesses closed there would be 100,000 to 240,000 deaths.

They stressed that if the US adopted strict measures, the deaths could remain under 100,000.

“We would hope that we could keep it under that,” Trump said then.

Still, instead of issuing a national mask mandate, the Trump administration within weeks posted its “Opening up America Again” plan.

The CDC began developing a thick document of guidelines to help decision-making about reopening. But the White House thought the guidelines too strict. They “would never see the light of day,” CDC scientists were told. The AP would eventually release the 63-page document which offered science-based recommendations for workplaces, day care centers and restaurants.

The predictable happened: Cases surged after communities reopened, and hope for keeping the death toll under 100,000 vanished.

CDC recommendations continued to be routed through the White House task force for vetting before release.

Redfield has been criticized for not being a strong enough defender of the agency, and those who long worked at the CDC hope to see its leadership stand up for science in the face of politics.

“I’m sure this won’t be easy, but it’s essential to CDC’s reputation,” said Dr. Sonja Rasmussen, a 20-year CDC veteran and medical professor at the University of Florida. “We need a strong and trusted CDC to get ourselves through this pandemic — as well as through the next public health emergency after this one.”

Even as Fauci was restricted in his media interactions — his candor did not wear well with the administration — Trump elevated a new public face for his pandemic task force: Dr. Scott Atlas, a Stanford University neurologist with no infectious disease background.

In Atlas, Trump has a doctor who has downplayed the need for students to wear masks or social distance. Atlas has advocated for allowing the virus to run amok to create “herd immunity,” the idea that community-wide resistance can be built by infecting a large portion of the population. The World Health Organization has discredited the approach as dangerous.

White House officials say Atlas no longer supports it.

As Fauci said in August, there is “a fundamental anti-science feeling” at a time when some people are pushing back at authority.

At the same time, at least 60 state or local health leaders in 27 states have resigned, retired or been fired since April, according to a review by the AP and Kaiser Health News. Those numbers have doubled since June, when the AP and KHN first started tracking the departures. Many quit after political pressure from public officials, or even violent threats from people angry about mask mandates and closures.

The White House has realized there is a downside to publicly undermining science. Officials recognize voter concerns about speeding the vaccine production timetable as an emerging public health crisis too. They say they’re worried there will be unnecessary deaths and economic impact if Americans are afraid of getting vaccinated, according to two White House officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The administration has ordered a campaign to bolster public confidence in the development process. It would include elevating the profiles of Trump targets like the FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn and the CDC’s Redfield.

One person is not on board — Trump. Less than seven weeks from Election Day, he appears driven to say and do what he sees as necessary to secure a second term, whether backed by science and evidence or not.

And despite the grim death toll, the president continues to frame the past six months as a success.

Trump told a raucous Ohio crowd at a rally Monday: “We’re going to deliver a vaccine before the end of the year. But it could be a lot sooner than that.”

According to newly released recordings of interviews done in February for a book by journalist Bob Woodward, Trump acknowledged he knew how deadly and contagious the coronavirus was but played it down because he did not want to create a panic.

With weeks remaining until the Nov. 3 presidential election, the news about Trump’s comments again focused attention on the Republican president’s efforts to battle COVID-19, which Democrats say have been too little, too late.

“He knew, and purposefully played it down. Worse, he lied to the American people,” Biden said in a speech in Michigan. He was visiting the battleground state, home to the U.S. auto industry, to promote a proposal to tax companies that move US jobs overseas.

“And while this deadly disease ripped through our nation, he failed to do his job – on purpose. It was a life-and-death betrayal of the American people,” Biden said.

“It’s a dereliction of duty, a disgrace,” he said, Reuters reported.

Biden and Trump are ramping up travel in the final sprint to the election during a coronavirus pandemic that has made waging a traditional campaign all but impossible. The president is expected to visit Michigan and Pennsylvania later in the week.

The United States has suffered the highest number of coronavirus deaths in the world. Deaths topped 190,000 on Wednesday along with a spike in new cases in the Midwest and states like Iowa and South Dakota emerging as the new hot spots in the past few weeks.

Trump on Wednesday defended his handling of the virus, saying at the White House: “The fact is I’m a cheerleader for this country. I love our country and I don’t want people to be frightened.”

‘A BETTER WAY’

Biden also accused Trump of failing to fulfill his campaign vow, delivered in Michigan in the waning days of the 2016 race, to protect American jobs and prevent plants from closing. Trump’s victory in the state, by less than 11,000 votes, helped propel him to the presidency.

About a dozen United Auto Workers officials listened to Biden from folding chairs spaced out for safety in the Detroit suburb of Warren in the crucial Republican-leaning Macomb County.

Biden, who has already proposed raising the corporate tax rate to 28% from 21%, said he would impose a 30.8% rate on profits from products made overseas and sold in the United States.

His plan envisions a companion 10% tax credit for companies that reopen closed facilities, bring jobs back to the United States or expand their manufacturing payroll.

While that would require congressional approval, Biden outlined several executive orders he would sign as president, unilateral measures ensuring the government purchases primarily American-made goods.

“Make it in Michigan, make it in America, invest in our communities and our workers in places like Warren. That’s what this is about,” he said.

After his speech, Biden made a quick stop at a Black-owned clothing store in Detroit before sitting in the backyard of a house with four steelworkers to discuss economic and labor issues.

“It just drives me crazy that the country is going to hell in a handbasket economically and politically and in terms of our health, and we’re doing nothing about it,” Biden said.

ECONOMIC STEWARDSHIP

The former vice president is trying to convince voters that he would be the best choice to revive the coronavirus-hobbled U.S. economy. Although Biden has led Trump in virtually every national poll for months, that issue has been a sticking point, and a Reuters/Ipsos poll on Wednesday showed the two candidates were dead even on the economy at 45% each.

The poll showed Biden with an overall lead of 12 percentage points among likely voters.

Factory jobs grew in number after Trump took office, but the gains were wiped out during the pandemic.

Biden’s plan calls for a multitrillion-dollar investment in manufacturing, infrastructure, environmental advances and caregiving. He has argued that Trump has focused on corporate welfare and tax cuts for the wealthy instead of aiding working families.

Trump has touted the stock market’s gains in recent months and has said his administration’s tax cuts and deregulation helped create a powerful economy before the pandemic. He has accused Biden of supporting the offshoring of US jobs.

Terry Bowman, co-chairman of the Michigan Republican Party and a Ford Motor Co (F.N) worker, said on a call for reporters that Biden was “coming after our jobs.” “I can tell you working right on the assembly line – I can tell you the support for Trump has just skyrocketed and is sky-high,” Bowman said.