"Right now our country is in the middle of a fierce debate about listening to medical experts or diving like a drunken frat boy into the gullet of a crocodile," Stephen Colbert said on Thursday's Late Show. While President Trump "keeps trying to lure us out of safety, health experts are warning of dire consequences if we do." The latest is federal vaccine expert Dr. Rick Bright, whose testimony before Congress "was not reassuring," he said. "He was really driving home the 'darkest winter' point, as was his lawyer, Jon Snow."
"With the news focused on today's disturbing testimony, it was only a matter of time before Trump tried to outshine Dr. Bright," Colbert said, running through some of his various comments and tweets.
Trump's "cookies were in a real crisp today as a new, new whistleblower, Dr. Rick Bright, harshly criticized the White House response to COVID-19," Jimmy Kimmel recapped. "This was a scary hearing today. Dr. Bright warned us that the window was closing to address the pandemic," and "if we don't get our act together, the United States could be headed for 'the darkest winter in modern history.' The good news is it sounds like he's saying we might make it to winter."
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Meanwhile, Trump has "been pressuring the CDC to fudge the virus casualty numbers to get them lower," even as "the disease gets scarier by the day," Kimmel said. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania just found that the virus can hang in the air for at least 8 minutes after you speak loudly, "but a lot of people either don't believe this or just don't care. In Wisconsin, the state Supreme Court overturned the governor's state-at-home order, and guess what happened immediately?" Trump called the crowded Wisconsin bars a big win, then headed off to a PPE factory in Pennsylvania, sans mask. "But there's a good reason why he won't wear a mask," Kimmel said: "Wearing a mask is a sign of respect and consideration for others."
"Bright had a damning and truly harrowing assessment of where we are as a nation on everything from vaccines to testing," Late Night's Seth Meyers said. "The frustrating thing about listening to Dr. Bright's testimony is that everything he's talking about is possible, as we've seen from other countries." Watch below. Peter Weber
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