The entrance to the editorial offices of the New England Journal of Medicine in Boston.
Photo:
AP
The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) his week published an editorial denouncing “dangerously incompetent” leadership in Washington on the pandemic and all but endorsing Joe Biden for President. This will go down well in all the right precincts. But then please don’t complain if half of America suspects that science is increasingly politicized.
The editorial recites the government’s well-known failures in managing the coronavirus, such as the initial struggles to roll out testing and hand out enough protective equipment. We can’t disagree with that, but the editors go on to extol China’s virus management, conveniently ignoring its early cover-up and manipulation of the World Health Organization. Why are American elites so enamored of authoritarian command and control? The