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Peter Navarro: what Trump's Covid-19 tsar lacks in expertise, he makes up
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/10/peter-navarro-what-trumps-covid-19-tsar-lacks-in-expertise-he-makes-up
Green activist turned China hawk shares president’s brittle traits and wrote books quoting expert who turned out to be fictitious version of himself
The rise of Peter Navarro – the man put in charge of marshalling emergency US production of medical equipment in the midst of a pandemic – is in many ways a classic story of the Trump era.
The 70-year-old White House trade adviser was first recruited by Trump because he wrote a string of books about the Chinese strategic threat – one called Death by China – despite having spent almost no time in the country and having no grasp of the language.
Five of Navarro’s books cited a China hand with a particularly pithy turn of phrase called Ron Vara, who turned out not to exist. The name is an anagram of Navarro and the imaginary expert operated as an alter ego, confirming the author’s views.
Navarro made headlines in the past week by challenging Dr Anthony Fauci – the nation’s leading immunologist and the public face of the US scientific community’s race to contain Covid-19 – in a showdown in the White House situation room over the merits of an experimental drug.
When asked later why he thought he was qualified to start recommending pharmaceuticals to the nation, Navarro replied: “My qualifications in terms of looking at the science is that I’m a social scientist. I have a PhD. And I understand how to read statistical studies, whether it’s in medicine, the law, economics or whatever.”
Green activist turned China hawk shares president’s brittle traits and wrote books quoting expert who turned out to be fictitious version of himself
The rise of Peter Navarro – the man put in charge of marshalling emergency US production of medical equipment in the midst of a pandemic – is in many ways a classic story of the Trump era.
The 70-year-old White House trade adviser was first recruited by Trump because he wrote a string of books about the Chinese strategic threat – one called Death by China – despite having spent almost no time in the country and having no grasp of the language.
Five of Navarro’s books cited a China hand with a particularly pithy turn of phrase called Ron Vara, who turned out not to exist. The name is an anagram of Navarro and the imaginary expert operated as an alter ego, confirming the author’s views.
Navarro made headlines in the past week by challenging Dr Anthony Fauci – the nation’s leading immunologist and the public face of the US scientific community’s race to contain Covid-19 – in a showdown in the White House situation room over the merits of an experimental drug.
When asked later why he thought he was qualified to start recommending pharmaceuticals to the nation, Navarro replied: “My qualifications in terms of looking at the science is that I’m a social scientist. I have a PhD. And I understand how to read statistical studies, whether it’s in medicine, the law, economics or whatever.”
Are you sick of winning yet?
8 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
Pretty much the motto of the Trump administration in general.
