Trump returns to Arizona to celebrate ‘end’ of pandemic

You know that scene in the Wizard of Oz when they’re finally meeting the wizard and Toto yanks at the bottom of some drapery to reveal a guy standing beneath a microphone in front of a big control panel, manipulating levers and switches, and you hear the “wizard’s” booming voice say, “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.” Donald Trump is that guy.

He came back to Arizona Wednesday for his seventh campaign stop here, and he desperately wants you to believe the pandemic is over.

He wants you to PAY NO ATTENTION to the fact that Arizona health authorities reported 1,157 new coronavirus cases and16 additional deaths on Tuesday morning.

Or that the state has documented 241,165 COVID-19 infections and 5,905 fatalities. And it’s climbing.

Or that, nationally, the United States has averaged 71,000 new cases per day, the most in any seven-day stretch since the crisis started. And that our country still leads the world with 8.8 million COVID-19 cases and nearly 227,000 deaths.

You should ignore all that because, according to the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy, one of the “accomplishments” of the presidency of Donald Trump is “ending the Covid-19 pandemic.”

Ending?

The president really wants you to believe that. At least until next Tuesday.

So Trump’s campaign decided to stage a couple of superspreader events in Arizona, in Bullhead City and Goodyear. Large, mostly maskless gatherings where social distance isn’t practiced, similar to the much smaller Supreme Court nomination ceremony for Judge Amy Coney Barrett that was held at the White House last month, and from which at least 12 individuals contracted the virus.

Among them was Trump confidant and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who wound up in the intensive care unit.

Christie said after recovering, “I was wrong to not wear a mask at the Amy Coney Barrett announcement and I was wrong not to wear a mask at my multiple debate prep sessions with the President and the rest of the team. I hope that my experience shows my fellow citizens that you should follow CDC guidelines in public no matter where you are and wear a mask to protect yourself and others.”

But, hey, what does the CDC know? They’re only, you know, public health experts.

It’s time to par-tey.

At least according to Trump and to all of the cheering, shouting, maskless acolytes who attend his personal vanity fairs. They’ll listen to the president, follow his lead and gleefully pay no attention to the infectious disease experts.

At least until some doctor pulls back the curtain ... on their ICU beds.