Few face masks, no social distancing.

Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, said Thursday he was “pretty puzzled” and “rather disheartened” by President Donald Trump’s crowded campaign rally in Michigan — at which few of the several thousand attendees could be seen wearing face masks and virtually none appeared to be practicing social distancing.

In unusually frank remarks during a CNN town hall event focused on the novel coronavirus, the nation’s top public health official lamented that commonsense mitigation measures had become politicized and claimed that aliens from far-off worlds viewing Americans’ behavior amid the pandemic would conclude that Earth was all but doomed.

Except for the “all but” part. Being aliens, they wouldn’t feel any need to hedge to spare our feelings. Earth is doomed.

Trump’s rally came amid ongoing efforts by his White House to counter fallout from newly published excerpts of Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward’s forthcoming book. Some recordings of the president’s 18 on-the-record interviews with the veteran reporter released this week show Trump calling the coronavirus “deadly stuff” and acknowledging he was eager to “play … down” the outbreak in February and March — a time when he was publicly dismissive of its threat.

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Although roughly 190,000 Americans have died from the disease, Trump told reporters that “the United States has done really well,” adding: “I really do believe we’re rounding the corner.”

But of course what Trump “believes” has nothing to do with anything, even if he adds “really do” to it, because his “beliefs” are just whatever pops into his head in the moment. He never pauses to evaluate or question or test them – he wouldn’t know how if you told him to. He is unaware of any difference between a thought in his head and a fact about the world.