The U.S. Can Do Better at Coronavirus Messaging
In normal times, the White House and celebrities would work together to share public-health guidance. Let’s try something different now.
Getting ready.
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Whatever the merits (or lack thereof) of the Trump administration’s efforts to fight the coronavirus, it’s clear that he personally, and the administration in general, has done a really bad job at crisis communications. After all, a president who had to schedule a second public event because he managed to botch reading a prepared Oval Office speech only to somehow allow himself to say “I don't take responsibility at all” is having some serious messaging problems. Not to mention that at a time when the federal government wants to be trusted Trump still can’t get his facts straight, and when candor is called for he has constantly downplayed the truth — even as late as Sunday implausibly claiming that the “virus … is something that we have tremendous control over.”