If President Donald Trump has realized something from getting sick with Covid-19, he’s not exhibiting it. Since Trump’s prognosis final Thursday
If President Donald Trump has realized something from getting sick with Covid-19, he’s not exhibiting it.
Since Trump’s prognosis final Thursday, he and his administration have labored diligently to cowl up the president’s illness. They’ve downplayed his signs. They’ve instructed he wanted to be hospitalized not due to his apparently excessive fever and low oxygen ranges however “out of an abundance of warning.” They’ve posted movies and pictures of the president doing regular issues. Even the president’s personal docs have taken to politicized spin, arguing that they have been making an attempt to be “upbeat” as they refused to totally and honestly reply questions on Trump’s well being.
On Sunday, it culminated in a photo-op during which Trump was pushed exterior Walter Reed hospital as he waved at supporters — exposing not less than the driving force and passenger within the automobile to an infection. As James Phillips, attending doctor at Walter Reed, tweeted, “That Presidential SUV isn’t solely bulletproof, however hermetically sealed in opposition to chemical assault. The chance of COVID19 transmission inside is as excessive because it will get exterior of medical procedures. The irresponsibility is astounding. My ideas are with the Secret Service compelled to play.”
That is all out of the identical playbook Trump has used for Covid-19 from day one. It’s an try to make every little thing appear regular, as if the coronavirus isn’t wrecking lives, in a determined try to return to a greater world that might assist guarantee Trump’s reelection. As Trump instructed journalist Bob Woodward, “I needed to all the time play [the coronavirus] down.”
Trump has caught to this even because it’s put individuals at risk time and again — and now even after he’s gotten sick himself. He’s known as for states to reopen — to “LIBERATE” them — at the same time as consultants warned that opening too quickly would result in new instances (and, certain sufficient, instances spiked over the summer time as states opened prematurely). He’s pushed for much less testing, arguing extra checks choose up extra instances and due to this fact make the US look unhealthy, at the same time as consultants mentioned extra testing, together with contact tracing, continues to be wanted to sluggish the outbreak. He’s mocked masks and incessantly refused to put on one himself, at the same time as consultants and a rising physique of analysis present masks are key to stopping Covid-19.
This obsession with making a false sense of normalcy seemingly prolonged to the second that Trump acquired a constructive coronavirus check. Because the Washington Publish initially reported, and White Home workers confirmed, Trump attended marketing campaign occasions on Thursday even after he and his workers realized that one among Trump’s closest aides, Hope Hicks, was exhibiting signs. That continued, primarily based on latest experiences, as some workers observed Trump appeared fatigued. In doing this, Trump doubtless uncovered his personal workers and supporters to Covid-19.
A possible silver lining to Trump getting sick was that possibly this may present him how severe this virus is — that it’s actual, that it may make individuals very unwell and kill them. Trump alluded to that in a video on Sunday, claiming, “I realized so much about Covid. I realized it by actually going to high school. That is the true faculty.” Regardless of that, Trump was again out Sunday for the drive-by photo-op that doubtlessly uncovered his workers, not less than, to the coronavirus.
That is all ridiculous, as a result of we already know Trump is sick and hospitalized. That is clearly not regular.
And we all know the implications of this motion. It’s how the US ended with practically 210,000 Covid-19 deaths thus far — greater than some other nation on the planet. It’s how the US ended up, after accounting for inhabitants, on the high 20 p.c amongst developed nations for Covid-19 deaths. (If the US had the identical Covid-19 dying price as Canada, greater than 125,000 extra Individuals would doubtless be alive immediately.) It’s why America can’t return to regular, at the same time as nations like Germany, New Zealand, and South Korea open up extra, because it faces far too many coronavirus instances — virtually 100,000 new instances alone since Trump examined constructive.
As he lived his denial, going to ill-advised marketing campaign rallies and occasions, incessantly refusing to put on a masks, Trump uncovered himself to the coronavirus time and again.
And it’s all set to proceed — as Trump and his workers’s barrage of mistruths and political spin over the weekend proved.
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