COVID-19 and Trump’s Presidency
COVID-19 has proven to be a formidable enemy. It would be a great challenge for any president but for Trump it will be his downfall. History books will mark the emergence of COVID-19 as the turning point in his presidency. There are no easy answers for how to deal with the virus but Trump’s choice to ignore it reveals his fundamental weakness as a leader.
The Hell with Masks and Full Speed Ahead
Trump wants to open the economy because he fears the skyrocketing unemployment rate is going to hurt his chances of reelection. There is some merit in the argument that closing the economy has its own serious repercussions. But concluding we need to get people back to work, does not mean the risk is gone. Rather than developing a plan to open the economy in the safest way possible, Mr. Trump has chosen to ignore COVID-19 and has become an adversary of those who advocate caution. The message he is sending is clear- don’t wear a mask, come to my rally and ignore social distancing (but sign a waiver so you can’t sue if you get sick, and most important of all, reject science. Just yesterday he said,
“You know, there was a time when people thought it was worse wearing a mask,” he said. “I let people make up their own decision (Vox).
The problem in a pandemic is that one person’s careless behavior can affect the lives of many others. He is setting the tone for business not to take precautions such as installing plastic shields and requiring masks be worn. As part of his denial of the disease risk, he is holding an in-person, indoor campaign rally that will put his faithful supporters at risk. Finally, in a very weird move, he has found a way to politicize public health.
Our Numbers
Currently the US has 26 percent of the world’s COVID-19 cases. but only 4 percent of the world’s population (Worldometers). The number of new cases per day in the US had fallen recently and was hovering in the low 20,000’s. But yesterday, on June 19th, new cases were over 33,000. Normalizing on population size, we have 6,991 cases per 1 million persons which ranks us 11th in the world. We have 362 deaths per million, which ranks us 9th in the world. For a man who promised he’d make American great again, these numbers are hardly great.
Today 6 Trump campaign staffers tested positive for the virus. So good luck to those who go to Tulsa and, for God’s sake, at least wear a mask.