Irish Examiner view: Morale is waning in the Covid-19 battle

Government may need to renew our sense of common purpose

Empty streets in Dublin at the weekend. The pace that vaccinations are filtering through society is unsettling and must accelerate. Photo: Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ie

The all-too-obvious antipathy between one of America's infectious diseases experts, Anthony Fauci, and his former boss was unnerving. It showed how ignorance and contempt for science had moved centre stage. That antipathy showed how politics could be hijacked and provoke terrible consequences. Those consequences include a Covid-19 toll that has passed the 410,000 mark. That figure, if current rates persist, will surpass America's total combatant deaths in Viet Nam - 47,424 - by a factor of ten long before the July 4 Independence Day.

It is, therefore, more than cheering to hear Dr Fauci, speak of the  “liberating feeling” of being able to speak scientific truth without fear of “repercussions” from what was a presidential bully pulpit. He returned to the White House on Thursday after President Joe Biden published a national strategy and signed 10 executive orders to combat the plague. Ingesting bleach was not suggested.