Typhoid Donald on the loose and dangerous
Warning! In these dreadful days of the coronavirus pandemic, there’s a madman on the loose. Contradicting every leading health professional, he’s running around the country telling people COVID-19 is no big deal. It’s actually disappearing. No need to worry, wear a mask, or social distance.
Beware! Nothing he says is true. In fact, nine months into the pandemic, health experts warn that, far from the coronavirus slowing down, the next few months could be its most dangerous stage yet. More than 8 million Americans have already contracted the disease, and over 225,000 have died from it. And it’s not fading away. But at a campaign rally last week, the madman said we “are turning the corner” on the pandemic and insisted people are “tired of hearing about it.”
Danger! That madman is Donald J. Trump, president of the United States. From the beginning, last January, Trump’s failure to take the coronavirus seriously was reckless and irresponsible. In August, as the death toll neared 100,000, he cavalierly dismissed the threat as “it is what it is.” Today, his continued failure to take the virus seriously and take effective countermeasures — even after contracting the disease himself — is nothing short of criminal.
To put things in perspective, the 225,000 Americans who have died from COVID-19 are twice the number of Americans who died on the battlefield in World War I (116,516); four times as many who died in Vietnam (58,200); six times the Americans killed in the Korean War (36,374); 51 times the death toll in the Revolutionary War (4,435); and 76 times the number killed on September 11 (2,977). But asked last week what he might have done differently, Trump said “not much.”
Consider Trump’s record in dealing with the worst public health crisis of our lifetime. We know from his own account to Bob Woodward that, after being warned on Jan. 28 by National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien that the coronavirus was “the biggest national security threat you face in your presidency,” Trump deliberately downplayed the virus, insisting it was no more serious than the flu and would, like a “miracle,” disappear once warm weather returned.
It wasn’t until mid-March that he publicly admitted COVID-19 was serious. Nevertheless, he continued to treat it lightly, refused to wear a mask himself, mocked reporters for wearing one, promoted bogus, unlicensed medications, encouraged protesters to storm state capitols where governors had adopted protective measures, and pressured governors and mayors to reopen businesses and schools prematurely.
Trump defied health officials by holding two superspreader events at the White House during the Republican National Convention. He summoned another maskless crowd to the Rose Garden for Amy Coney Barrett’s coming-out party, after which 34 people, including Trump and the first lady came down with the virus. The first thing he did after his recovery was to host another superspreader event on the South Lawn. He’s now holding dangerous, daily rallies around the country — gatherings that violate the public health guidelines of every state and for which anybody else would be fined and have their event shut down.
Every day, madman Trump is knowingly and deliberately spreading the coronavirus by inviting people to huge events where everybody’s crowded in shoulder to shoulder and masks are not required. Again, if that’s not criminal activity, I don’t know what is. In most states, to knowingly expose someone else to an infectious disease is a crime.
In many ways, Trump is our own Typhoid Mary. In the early 20th century, Mary Mallon, an Irish immigrant, worked as a cook for eight New York families, of which members of seven families came down with typhoid fever. She was arrested as a public health threat and forced into permanent quarantine.
At most, Typhoid Mary was responsible for 50 deaths. Typhoid Donald is responsible for 225,000. So the least we should do is lock him up, too.