OPINION:
As a communication scholar, I believe that Sen. Chris Murphy, Connecticut Democrat, hit the nail on the head at Tuesday’s Senate coronavirus hearing. He explained why slowing the spread of COVID-19 is in large part a rhetorical problem. As Mr. Murphy noted, we have “two parallel messaging operations” leading to confusion and a lack of compliance with virus-prevention guidelines.
President Trump refuses to wear a mask and overtly discourages others from doing so. His behavior and discourse directly contradict the message sent by the public health community. As Mr. Murphy suggested, what exacerbates this problem is that the experts have a social media following of 5 million people, while the president has an audience of more than 82 million. The obvious questions, therefore, are: Why aren’t Republican members of Congress standing up and demanding the president stop encouraging behavior that threatens the health of the population? Why don’t the medical experts on the Senate panel and members of the president’s task force, such as Drs. Anthony Fauci and Robert Redfield, explicitly state that Mr. Trump’s political rhetoric undermines the health of the nation?
RICHARD CHERWITZ
Ernest A. Sharpe Centennial Professor Emeritus, Moody College of Communication
The University of Texas
Austin
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