‘Virtually nobody?’
Despite falling sick fromthe virus he had said “affects virtually nobody,” President Trump continues to give bad advice to the American people.
“Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life,” he said. Hewent on to call his illness “a blessing fromGod” and to tout as a miracle cure an unproven drug that hewas given, promising to make it free to everyone even before it is found to be either safe or effective.
Reading between the lines, Trumpwants voters to take the coronavirus casually and forgive him for what Sen. KamalaHarris, Joe Biden’s running mate, called the “greatest failure of any administration.”
In fact, Covid-19 IS dangerous. It IS something to be afraid of. More than 7.5 million Americans have already contracted it and more than 211,000 have died. No other developed nation has fared so poorly. The toll is expected to reach 300,000 fatalities by year’s end. Medical experts say that 70,000 of those doomed people could be saved by universal masking and social distancing.
That’s the point. Fear is nature’s healthy instinct forminimizing danger. It’s as simple as looking bothways before stepping off a curb or making sure aweapon is unloaded before you peer downthe barrel.
A healthy fear of Covid-19 meanswearing face masks, practicing social distancing and frequent hand-washing. Those precautions cost almost nothing. A hospitalization for Covid-19 costs between $34,000 and $45,000, depending on one’s age. The consequences of losing a familymember or a friend to it are immeasurable.
Trump’s denials of reality extend to WhiteHouse staff dodging medical facts pertinent to thewellness of the president. It is still a state secret, apparently, when he last tested negative for the virus.
Was he contagious before his debate with Biden? Before the Rose Garden festivities to introduce his Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett?
Barrett and her childrenwere unmasked, like almost everyone else sitting shoulder to shoulder. More than a dozen people whowere close to Trump there— or in the WhiteHouse subsequently— tested positive. Some entire nations reported fewer new cases lastweek.
Trump’s fear of showingweakness explainswhy he jeopardized the lives of his Secret Service escorts by taking a Sunday drive around the grounds ofWalter Reed National MilitaryMedical Center.
This is the verbatim context of his claim to a rally in Ohio on Sept. 21 that “virtually nobody” contracts Covid-19:
“It affects elderly people, elderly people with heart problems, if they have other problems, that’s what it really affects. In some states thousands of people— nobody young— before the age of 18, like nobody— they have a strong immune system— who knows. It affects virtually nobody. It’s an amazing thing— by theway, open your schools.”
More than an example of his disjointed syntax, what the president saidwas not only wrong, it suggests some people simply don’t matter to him.
It’s not just the elderly who are vulnerable, but anyone with a pre-existing condition such as obesity, high blood pressure or diabetes. Those co-morbidities account in large part for Covid-19’s disproportionate toll among minorities, the Americans least likely to have adequate health care and most likely towork in “essential” jobs that expose them to the virus.
There are 45 million Americans over 65, whomhe seems to equate with “virtually nobody.” No Democratic presidential candidate haswon or broken even with that demographic since Al Gore did 20 years ago. Polls nowshowthey are beginning to turn away fromTrump, and not any too soon.
The virus can also be “serious in young people,” Dr. Anthony Fauci said. At least 121 persons younger than 21had died fromit before a mid-September report fromthe Centers forDisease Control. Two thirds were Black and Hispanic— nobodies, according to their president.
By now, it might have been hoped, it should have dawned on PresidentTrump howvery few people have access to medical care as prompt and excellent as his, and that upwards of 20 million Americans depend for their health and lives on the Affordable Care Act that he has tried for nearly four years to destroy.
But his administration remains committed to the lawsuit that asks the Supreme Court to discard theACAin its entirety. The court is scheduled to hear that case a week after the election, whenTrump hopes Barrett will be the ninth justice. While a lawprofessor, she harshly criticized Chief Justice John Roberts for his deciding vote that saved Obamacare eight years ago.
Itwould behoove Florida Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, who seem hell-bent to confirm her before the election, to consider the possible consequences. More than 1.9 million Floridians signed up for Obamacare this year, the most in the nation. Those are a lot of lives at stake.
And a lot of votes.