I watched people die from COVID-19
President Trump had no business treating his own case of coronavirus so carelessly
The words tweeted by President Donald Trump stung in both their ignorance and lack of compassion:
“Don’t be afraid of COVID. Don’t let it dominate your life.”
I immediately had a flashback to the two months my medical surgical unit was a COVID-19 floor, and as they do so often, images of the dead and dying invaded my mind like unwelcome ghosts. The man who lay dying on a morphine drip who would only stop moaning when I put my hand on his to assure him he wasn’t alone. The mournful cry over the telephone of a daughter whose mother passed before she could tell her one more time that she loved her. Putting the dead into white body bags almost daily, the finality of the loud zipper closing the bodies in for their trip to the morgue.
It was a dark time. My unit has large windows in all the private rooms, allowing daylight to stream in, dappling the hallways with natural light that brightens the environment. In normal times, patients would be encouraged to walk in the hallways to promote circulation and expand their lungs. During the thick of the COVID crisis in Connecticut, patients were not allowed out of their rooms or to even keep the door open. Signs on each door warned of “airborne precautions.” Anyone entering needed N-95 masks, face shields, gowns and gloves. We also wore head coverings, and disposable booties over our shoes.
And then I saw Donald Trump, diagnosed just days before with COVID, leave Walter Reed Medical Center in a dark SUV, Secret Service agents riding with him, for a joy ride so he could wave to his supporters. I thought of my patients, sick behind their closed doors, even when they pleaded to keep them open because they were claustrophobic. Public health and science dictated that extreme safety measure to prevent viral spread.
Since the pandemic started, President Trump has downplayed it, refused to wear a mask, even mocked people who did, even after his own Center for Disease Control officials emphasized that masks and social distancing were the most effective ways to prevent infection.
Against the recommendation of every infectious disease specialist and scientist, Trump, unmasked, held large rallies, where most participants were also not wearing masks. He held the announcement of his Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett in the Rose Garden of the White House, the dozens of chairs tightly packed together, with guests cheering and talking amongst themselves most without any masks.
So it was not shocking he and those around him caught the virus. Of course, as president of the United States, Trump has access to the best care and received aggressive treatment at the Walter Reed Medical Center. Some of the treatments were being offered to COVID patients around the world, but he also received two other experimental treatments.
For an instant, I thought somehow a brush with a deadly disease would change Trump, like seeing the Ghost of Christmas future.
But that hope was dashed when I saw President Trump leave the hospital in that dark SUV. Then, as he returned to the White House, he proceeded to grab a photo op on the White House balcony, taking off his mask and walking back inside without any face covering.
Trump is a terrible example for the safety and public health of the nation. You should be afraid of COVID-19. It is a deadly virus. And you should vote as if your life depended on it.