Courtesy of Bastrop Advertiser
Sept. 23, 2020
By Bill McCann
President Donald Trump once bragged he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and wouldn’t lose voters. He might be right.
With his lies and willful inaction over the COVID-19 pandemic, Trump has done much worse than shoot someone. He is ultimately responsible for tens of thousands of deaths, a faltering economy, and a seriously disrupted society. Trump keeps lying while people are dying. Yet his supporters stick with him like lint on a wool sweater, while congressional Republicans enable him by their silence.
As of Sept. 20, some 7 million U.S. residents had been infected by the coronavirus that causes the COVID-19 disease, according to pandemic tracker Worldometer. The disease has killed 204,000 people in the U.S. and counting. Nearly 5,600 died last week. About 14,000 others were in serious or critical condition.
About 80% of the dead were over 65. But children aren’t immune. Thousands of them have gotten horribly sick. Many have died. Some survivors have experienced debilitating health issues. Meanwhile, the Veterans Administration has dealt with almost 60,000 COVID-19 cases. Nearly 1,400 patients have died at VA facilities.
Columbia University scientists reported in May that the U.S. could have saved 36,000 lives if social-distancing measures for COVID-19 had been in place one week earlier in March, National Public Radio reported. Also, 54,000 lives could have been saved if the measures had been in place two weeks earlier.
In June, two Harvard researchers estimated that at least 70% of the deaths attributed to COVID-19 at the time could have been avoided had the Trump administration taken quick, decisive action. The researchers drew that conclusion by comparing the slow U.S. response and subsequent deaths to that of Germany, Singapore, Australia and South Korea, which took early, decisive measures. (Those four countries combined have one-fourth the COVID-19 death rate that the U.S. has.) The research was reported in Stat, a health-oriented news website.
What was Trump doing about COVID-19 in those early months? Mostly misleading us. He said the coronavirus was “very much under control.” It was like the flu. It would quickly disappear. He frequently bragged about restricting travel to and from China, but loopholes allowed thousands of people to enter from China. Plus, thousands continued to enter from Europe for weeks unrestricted. Some carried the coronavirus. That’s partly why New York got hit hard.
Back then, we didn’t know whether Trump was ignorant or purposely misleading us about the virus. Thanks to journalist Bob Woodward’s new book “Rage,” we know now that Trump knew in January the seriousness of the situation and misled Americans repeatedly while the virus spread.
Trump told Woodward on tape on Feb. 7 that the virus was “deadly stuff.” On March 19 Trump admitted on tape to Woodward that he wanted to play the virus down because he didn’t want to cause panic. That’s opposite of what a real leader does.
Trump continues today to ignore science, lie, and downplay mask-wearing and social distancing, two measures that will slow the virus spread. He keeps holding crowded rallies, with mostly maskless attendees, showing he cares little about supporters or anyone else, only reelection.
Trump’s latest nutty idea for fighting COVID-19 is herd immunity, whereby most Americans would readily get infected and become immune to halt the spread. But he fails to mention that several million people could die in the process.
Last week, the internationally respected publication Scientific American endorsed a presidential candidate for the first time in its 175-year history: Joe Biden. It also issued a scathing rebuke of Trump, calling his response to COVID-19 “dishonest and inept,” and his rejection of evidence and public health measures “catastrophic.” Catastrophic – that’s a good description of Trump’s entire presidency.
