POWER DOWN...
Looks at the world leaders to have tested positive for Covid-19
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ALEXANDER LUKASHENKO, the president of Belarus, has dismissed concerns about the virus as “psychosis” and was slammed for recommending drinking vodka to stay healthy. The 66-year-old, right, said in July that he had contracted Covid-19 himself but that he was asymptomatic.
Belarus is one of the few countries to have taken no comprehensive measures against the virus.
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AMERICAN president Donald Trump has returned to the White House after being treated at Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre. The 74-year-old was diagnosed with the virus, along with his wife Melania, and tweeted before his hospital departure: “Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life”.
BRAZILIAN president Jair Bolsonaro announced his illness in July and used it to promote hydroxychloroquine, the unproven malaria drug he had been advocating as a treatment for Covid-19 and was taking himself. The 65-year-old, right, had flouted social distancing attending demonstrations for months beforehand and was often seen without a mask.
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BRITISH Prime Minister Boris Johnson revealed he could have died when he contracted coronavirus, which saw him taken into intensive care in April with worsening symptoms. The 56-year-old was the first major world leader confirmed to have Covid-19 and his symptoms dramatically worsened a day after he was admitted for what were called routine tests. He was given oxygen but did not need a ventilator.
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ARMENIAN Prime minister Nikol Pashinyan, aged 45, announced via Facebook that he and his family had recovered from coronavirus and that he had probably contracted it from a waiter who brought him a glass of water at a meeting, without wearing gloves, and later tested positive.
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RUSSIAN prime minister Mikhail Mishustin tested positive in April as cases of the virus rose there. The 54-year-old, pictured below, had only taken up office four months earlier and his deputy had to step up to oversea the handling of the growing number of infections in the country.
THE Guatemalan president Alejandro Giammattei, aged 64, said he tested positive for the virus in September. “My symptoms are very mild. Up to now, I have body aches, it hurt more yesterday than today, like a bad cold,” he said during a televised address, adding: “I don’t have a fever, I have a bit of a cough.”
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THE Honduras president Juan Orlando Hernandez announced in June that he had tested positive, along with two other people who worked closely with him. The 51-year-old said he had started what he called the “MAIZ treatment”, an experimental and unproven combination of microdacyn, azithromycin, ivermectin and zinc. He was briefly treated in hospital and then released.
THE newlyelected president of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader contracted and recovered from Covid-19 during his campaign. The 53-year-old spent weeks in isolation before the country’s July election.
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THE virus drove the Bolivian interim president Jeanine Anez into isolation in July. She said she and her son had tested positive, but that she was feeling well. In April, she and her cabinet pledged to donate half of their monthly salaries to help those affected by the pandemic.
FURIOUS that his condition had been described as anything less than perfect, Covid carrier Donald Trump was incandescent with rage. Needing to change the narrative, he took to Twitter, posting a video telling America how, after needing to be pumped full of drugs, he now “got it”.
“It’s been a very interesting journey. I learned a lot about Covid. I learned it by really going to school. This is the real school,” he said.
His words gave a glimmer of hope to millions that he would now take the virus seriously.
But on Monday, after leaving hospital against the wishes of his doctors, the President told the world “Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life”. His tweet was no mistake. By mixing a barrel load of recklessness with a bucketful of selfishness and adding a lorry load of ego, it was the lowest point yet in his handling of the coronavirus crisis.
Telling Americans Covid-19 was nothing more than a mild condition and less deadly than the seasonal flu “in most populations”, he dangerously placed the lives of millions more at risk.
The way in which he spoke, you’d have thought any coronavirus victim in the States has, like him, a team of 12 leading physicians, an entire hospital wing to themselves, state-of-art technology and drugs currently unavailable to the public at their disposal. Most people here with symptoms are simply told to go home and stay in bed.
Even more insulting was how, given Trump was recently found to have paid no taxes for 11 out of 18 years and only £580 a year since becoming President, the monies of hardworking Americans were paying to fund the billionaire’s care.
During his four days in the Walter Reed Medical Centre, Trump had his Secret Service agents take him to drive past a handful of his supporters who had gathered outside the hospital, such was his need to still feel loved.
No event better demonstrated his character than that brief excursion from his bed.
It was a shameless, capricious act of disregard for the health and lives of others, just to feed his ego.
Travelling in his hermetically sealed presidential vehicle, Trump callously disregarded the welfare of the Secret Service agents forced to accompany him.
He did the same to those forced to video his arrival back at the White House on Monday night as he defiantly whipped off his mask while gasping for air.
It reflected not only his narcissism but his insecurities against a backdrop of lap-dog doctors, misleading the public about Trump’s condition.
His personal physician Dr Sean Conley revealed the President had been put on supplementary oxygen, after previously denying it to reporters. And he remained upbeat, saying Trump had ‘mild symptoms’, when the White House had said his condition was more worrying.
For professionals who swear an oath to uphold life to be party to Trump’s dangerous rhetoric is unforgivable.
Words have meaning and such statements, along with Trump’s, could mislead millions into believing Covid is not the killer it is.
We all know how Trump has downplayed and lied about the seriousness of the disease, even mocking those who dare to wear a mask.
But when his refusal to take the proper precautions caught up
Right: with him, he wanted to project that having Covid-19 was no big deal for him, that he was not debilitated, scared of showing any sign of weakness. More importantly, he needed the constant reassurance of his supporters’ adulation and love.
The President is seemingly unaware or indifferent to the tremendously mixed messages he is giving out.
The man who has so badly managed America’s response to the virus is now abysmally mismanaging the messaging around his own treatment.
Is it any wonder that so many people distrust everything Trump says? We can only hope come the November 3 election, the US sees sense to prescribe him a permanent sick note from the White House.