Coronavirus: Medical Journal criticises Trump's response and tells voters to not re-elect him

‘Americans must put president in the White House who will understand public health should not be guided by partisan politics’

A celebrated medical journal has urged Americans to vote for a candidate other than president Donald Trump in the November presidential election, and slammed his response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Lancet medical journal, a weekly publication that was founded in 1823, published an editorial letter on Saturday, that urged US voters to vote for a candidate that will “understand that public health should not be guided by partisan politics”, according to People.

Mr Trump’s response to the pandemic was labelled as “inconsistent and incoherent” in the editorial, that insisted that the current administration needs to try new methods to tackle the outbreak.

“The Administration is obsessed with magic bullets — vaccines, new medicines, or a hope that the virus will simply disappear,” the editorial reads.

“But only a steadfast reliance on basic public health principles, like test, trace, and isolate, will see the emergency brought to an end, and this requires an effective national public health agency.”

The editorial claimed that the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has not been utilised properly during the outbreak, and has become an “ineffective” adviser.

“The flagship agency for the nation’s public health, has seen its role minimised and become an ineffective and nominal adviser in the response to contain the spread of the virus,” the letter read.

The editorial added that the Trump administration has punished the CDC for making mistakes at the beginning of the pandemic, but stressed that the organisation needs to be backed in the future.

“A strong CDC is needed to respond to public health threats, both domestic and international, and to help prevent the next inevitable pandemic”, the editorial read.

The unsigned editorial also urged US voters to not re-elect Mr Trump in this year’s presidential election, where he is likely to run against presumptive Democratic candidate, Joe Biden.

“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,” it read.

The Washington Post reported that it is rare for a medical journal like The Lancet to publish an unsigned editorial about an elected official.

However, Benjamin Corb, public affairs director for the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, told the outlet that scientific communities are concerned by the president’s actions.

“It’s not common for a journal to do that ⁠ — but the scientific community is getting increasingly concerned with the dangerous politicization of science during this pandemic crisis,”

According to a tracking project hosted by Johns Hopkins University, there are now more than 1.4 million people who have tested positive for coronavirus in the US. The death toll has reached at least 89,666.