By MARSHA MERCER
When
President Donald Trump held a campaign rally in Des Moines, Iowa, Wednesday
night, a giant billboard at the airport helpfully pointed the way to the “TRUMP
COVID SUPERSPREADER EVENT.”
Rural
America 2020, an agricultural advocacy group that opposes Trump, paid for the
billboard.
“We’re doing
our part to warn Iowans that @realdonaldtrump is in town tomorrow. This
billboard is directly outside the Des Moines Airport where he will hold his
hangar rally,” the group tweeted Tuesday.
Darkly
humorous and deadly serious, the billboard reminds us that Trump is hosting campaign
rallies around the country that put his supporters, their friends and families at
risk even as coronavirus cases are surging.
Iowa has
seen such a jump in coronavirus that White House health officials warned the
state Oct. 4 to limit gatherings to 25 people or fewer. Trump and his campaign
ignored the advice and packed thousands shoulder to shoulder in the hangar.
Rally
attendees receive temperature checks, but most do not wear masks or keep social
distance. Trump still refuses to model good behavior by masking up. He revels
in the large, enthusiastic crowds, urging the news media to turn their cameras
on his fans.
So much
about this is perplexing: The president continues to flout his own health experts’
recommendations. Fans still flock to his rallies. Republican politicians stand
by and smile.
Senate
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, did say he has not been
to the White House since August because he disagrees with White House
coronavirus protocols, but other GOP politicians have stayed silent or backed
Trump’s irresponsible behavior.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National
Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, continues to warn against large gatherings,
saying they are “asking for trouble.”
While
declining to criticize campaign rallies specifically, Fauci said Wednesday on
CBS, “large congregate settings with a lot of people” are an avoidable risk.
For months,
we’ve heard that cooler weather will bring a surge of COVID-19 cases, as people
head indoors where transmission is easier. We’re already seeing a surge in the upper
Midwest and northern plains, where some hospitals are overwhelmed.
In the
District of Columbia and 37 states, including Virginia, the number of new cases
rose 5 percent or more this week over the previous week, according to Johns
Hopkins University coronavirus trackers.
Fauci urged
all Americans to “double down” on mask wearing, social distancing, avoiding
crowds, being outdoors when possible and washing hands.
If we fail
in these simple precautions, we’re likely to see more cases, hospitalizations, deaths
and more suffering by “long-haulers,” people who fight the effects of COVID
indefinitely.
The
president insists he himself is now immune -- “I feel so powerful,” he said
Monday at a rally in Florida -- after spending three nights in the hospital at
Walter Reed National Military Center and receiving a drug that’s unavailable to
most Americans. An antibody cocktail from
Regeneron is in clinical trials.
At least
1,011 new coronavirus deaths and about 60,000 new cases were reported in the
United States on Oct. 14, according to a New York Times database. New cases had
dropped to between 30,000 and 35,000 a day in early September but averaged more
than 53,124 cases a day over the past week, an increase of 23 percent from the
average two weeks earlier, The Times said.
In 2016, Trump
bragged he could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue in New York and shoot
someone and not lose voters. Now, as he plays fast and loose with a deadly
virus, polls show he’s losing support among seniors who are the most vulnerable
to severe illness.
We’re in the
campaign’s final stretch. If Trump should defy the polls and win re-election, he
likely will orchestrate more mass events as COVID worsens.
“This
winter – this November, December, January, February – could be the worst time
in our epidemic,” Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical
Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, said Tuesday on CNN. “Get ready to
hunker down.”
Trump’s far
different message: “Don’t be afraid of COVID. Don’t let it dominate your life.”
But don’t be
reckless. Be smart, follow health guidelines and avoid super-spreader events of
any kind.
© 2020 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.
No comments:
Post a Comment