After two centuries of silence regarding elections, a prestigious medical journal comes out against the incumbent U.S. president.
The New England Journal of Medicine broke a respected 208-year-old rule this week in the face of Donald Trump’s possible reelection as president of the United States.
The publication, which has avoided getting involved in political affairs for over two centuries, published an editorial titled “Dying in a Leadership Vacuum,” in which it asserts that U.S. leaders have failed to contain the coronavirus pandemic. “They have taken a crisis and turned it into a tragedy,” the editorial observes.
The stance of the respected medical journal is a political message to readers and a blunt criticism of current President Trump. “When it comes to the response to the largest public health crisis of our time, our current political leaders have demonstrated that they are dangerously incompetent. We should not abet them and enable the deaths of thousands more Americans by allowing them to keep their jobs.”
It is common for some American newspapers to weigh in as elections approach, editorially declaring which candidate they are endorsing. The New York Times, for example, published a front page article supporting Democratic candidate Joe Biden, Trump’s opponent in the presidential race. The New York Times wrote in its editorial that Biden “has the experience, temperament and character to guide the nation through this valley into a brighter, more hopeful future.”
Despite being common for other publications, this is the first time in 208 years that the NEJM has gotten involved in American politics. According to the publication’s official website, more than 600,000 people from almost every country read the NEJM printed and online each week.
The journal’s position shows that Trump’s journey toward reelection will be difficult. Diagnosed with COVID-19 after minimizing the illness and the damage caused by the pandemic on the world’s population, Trump has until the presidential election on Nov. 3 to prove that he should continue as president. On the other side of the fence, Biden is taking the opportunity to underscore Trump’s poor administration in the midst of the pandemic.
The female vice presidential candidate captured America’s attention at the Oct. 7 vice presidential debate. According to a CNN poll, 6 of 10 Americans believe that Sen. Kamala Harris, Biden’s running mate, won the showdown against incumbent Republican Vice President Mike Pence.
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