The Trump administration is playing peekaboo with reality

Peekaboo is a delightful game to play with infants. Lacking as they are in object permanence, the act of hiding your face from a baby before revealing it with a flourish is sure to raise a smile, as their little brains try to figure out what on Earth is going on.

It’s somewhat less fun to play this game with the richest and most powerful nation on the planet, but that hasn’t stopped the Trump administration from giving it a try.

For decades, US federal agencies have carried out detailed surveys of public health that have informed policy on everything from combatting drug addiction to food insecurity. But these data-gathering exercises are now being cut or cancelled altogether (see, US public health system is flying blind after major cuts).

By metaphorically covering its eyes, the US government seems to hope that these problems will simply go away, but the opposite is true.

As we learned during the height of the covid-19 pandemic, data, surveillance and preparation all go hand in hand when it comes to preventing disaster. Statistical agencies and other data gatherers aren’t merely clipboard worriers, but clipboard warriors – our first line of defence against the unknown.

The US isn’t the only nation that seems to have forgotten this. For some years now, the UK’s Office for National Statistics, once seen as world-class, has been beset by poor-quality data and inaccurate statistics, in part due to underfunding of its activities.

Part of the problem is that this type of work has a boring public image. No politician ever got elected by promising a survey in every letterbox, and statisticians are unlikely to become superstars.

But that has to change. While not all heroes wear capes, some do their best to fashion one out of a spreadsheet, and this type of data drudgery must be applauded and supported. Governing without object permanence is a bad idea, as the US is unfortunately about to find out.