In the 1931 film Dracula, the vampire's human assistant, Renfield, is a hyperkinetic, fly-eating resident of an insane asylum. I mention this for no compelling reason.
On Thursday, July 9, during a CNN town hall on the pandemic, Anderson Cooper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta welcomed as their primary guest CDC director Robert Redfield. I have never seen an interview quite like it.
I've conducted maybe two dozen interviews in my life, so I have some modest sense of the art form. The back and forth with Redfield made me cringe in a visceral way. I haven't felt that uncomfortable watching a screen since walking out on Nekromantik 2.
Cooper and Gupta asked legitimate questions, the meat of which had to do with the CDC's testing failings and the manner in which their guidelines had largely been ignored by red state governors eager to re-open. The thrust of the questions was that if people didn't follow CDC regs to re-open because of Trumpian pressure, how likely was it that CDC recommendations would be implemented by schools?
Redfield, whose television persona resembled a Megatherium on downers being questioned for murder, managed to say very little in terms of content. In terms of enunciation, he was exceedingly clear, slow, and repetitive. I almost felt sorry for him. He reminded me of Skurge the Executioner in Thor: Ragnarok. Skurge was tasked with doing really bad things for Hela the Goddess of Death. It was clear Skurge was going to do whatever Hela ordered, but looking in his eyes, you felt for him because if he provided any hint of pushback, there would be really nasty consequences.
Anyway, when all was said and done, I understood the point Redfield was trying to make. He didn't state that point clearly because doing so was indelicate. Redfield more or less said that he thought people in charge would be more responsible when it came to the lives of children in school than they had been regarding the lives of adults during the re-opening. Speculative, but a fair argument.
I forced myself to watch the interview again yesterday. I still cringed and squirmed in my chair. Watching this second time, I realized how long and lacking in substance and detail Redfield's replies. It was almost as if he had been trying to run out the clock with meandering monotone non-answers. Extremely difficult to watch.
When Redfield took time to check the interview tape this week, I wonder if he was embarrassed. A fine scientist and doctor reduced to this. Perhaps the shock of actually seeing the interview will fuel self reflection that enables him to escape the vampire's hypnotic sway. Until then, I'm going to save the CDC director some energy and send him a few fly swatters.
Bob Dietz
July 15, 2020
