COVID-19 is a fearsome killer. Trump’s magical thinking will not change that.
The Washington Post editorial board wishes President Donald Trump and the first lady a speedy recovery from the coronavirus. It wishes the infected White House staff a speedy recovery, and the unknown number of people in this cluster who might have caught the virus over the last week or so, from Cleveland to Duluth to Bedminster to the White House Rose Garden. But every one of them — and the nation as a whole— must reject President Trump’s unconscionable declaration Monday: “Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life.” This disease is a fearsome killer, and Trump’s magical thinking will not change that.
We had hoped that perhaps once Trump tested positive, once he was on oxygen and had to be hospitalized, he would be chastened, perhaps gaining a better understanding of the fear and anger across the country at his botched handling of the pandemic. Trump shows no sign of undergoing any such epiphany. His tweet suggests that he is returning to the tactic of happy talk that has characterized his disastrous response to the pandemic all year long.
To say that people should not be afraid is to slight the memory of the more than 1 million who have died, including 209,000 Americans. It demeans the thousands more who have endured frightening illness and, in many cases, continue to suffer persistent symptoms. It disrespects the additional thousands of nurses, doctors, cleaners and other front-line workers who have risked their own lives and health to care for the ill. Trump shows not a shred of awareness that his own abdication of duty, failing tomount an effective pandemic response, played a major role in the United States suffering the highest coronavirus death toll in the world.
Trump’s over-the-top statement that he feels 20 years younger should be read like so many of his sugary superlatives — with caution. This is especially so given the unconscionable secrecy about his condition. No one has explained why he is being treated with the steroid dexamethasone, usually reserved for the seriously ill. The White House physician, Sean
Conley, refused to say Monday when Trump last tested negative, a critical timestamp that would help determine how long he has been infected. It might reveal whether Trump was spreading the virus to others at the Rose Garden ceremony, in Cleveland at the debate, or in subsequent politicking in Minnesota and New Jersey last week, all without a face mask.
Trump has regarded face masks with foolhardy contempt, displaying the same bravado with which he summoned states to reopen, held mass rallies without social distancing or masks, and tamped down warnings of danger from government experts. In the past few days, this casual disregard for others has been on display again, including in an inexplicable joyride outside Walter Reed National Military Medical Center that put at risk those in the vehicle with him. There has been no sign of contact tracing at the White House as the contagion has spread down the corridors. This is a most callous hubris.
Conley’s evasiveness, on top of the president’s own bubbly tweet, will only feed suspicions of a coverup. We hope Trump has indeed rebounded, but he might have bouts of illness still to come. He should not risk his own health anymore, nor squander what public trust remains in his office, by further deception and denial, all of it an insult to a nation reeling.