“After teasing a
‘little surprise visit’ via video on Twitter, Trump left the hospital on
Sunday afternoon to wave to supporters from the back seat of an SUV.
“‘It’s been a
very interesting journey. I learned a lot about COVID,’ Trump, who is still
suffering from the coronavirus, said in the video. ‘I learned it by really
going to school, this is the real school, this isn’t the ‘let’s read the book’
school, and I get it, and I understand it,’ he added.
“Then,
contradicting his own words and the advice of the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, the president left Walter Reed National Military Medical Center’s presidential
suite to wave to supporters from a car—a decision that forced
at least two Secret Service agents to don personal protective equipment as they
shared the same air and enclosed space of the vehicle.
“The CDC website
explicitly states that if a person is sick with COVID-19, they
should stay at home except to get medical care. The CDC’s language is more
forceful in its guidelines for health-care workers. ‘In general, transport and
movement of a patient with suspected or confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection outside
of their room should be limited to medically essential purposes,’ its FAQ page reads…
“‘That
presidential SUV is not only bulletproof, but hermetically sealed against
chemical attack,’ Phillips wrote. ‘The risk of COVID-19 transmission
inside is as high as it gets outside of medical procedures. The
irresponsibility is astounding.’
“Phillips
wrote in an earlier tweet that the agents in the car would now need to be
quarantined for 14 days after having been put at risk of severe illness or
death ‘for political theater.’ The joyride was the latest sign of how the White
House has been trying to manage the optics of the president’s illness” (The Daily Beast).
“As you will know, Donald Trump has
tested positive for COVID-19 and has now been taken to hospital ‘out of an
abundance of caution,’ according to the White House. There are just a few
things I want to say.
“Firstly, he has been taken to
hospital most probably due to underlying health concerns considering he was
taken to the same hospital last year, with many people then thinking he had a
mini-stroke or something similar.
“One of the main concerns with
patients with COVID-19 is blood clots. If Trump is at risk of blood clotting,
then he will need to be monitored very closely indeed. They also have large
stocks of bleach there for cleaning process, so that’s lucky.
“You might have seen Chris Wallace on FOXNews getting rather
angry that, as per the Cleveland authorities, only three people in the building
should not have been wearing masks: Donald Trump, Joe Biden and Chris Wallace
himself.
“However, as we saw on video, the entire Trump
family and advisers walked in wearing masks, sat down and immediately took them
off, when everybody else around them continue to wear their masks. This was not
only deeply irresponsible, but incredibly selfish and, now, looks rather
stupid.
“The hilariously hypocritical thing
that we have just seen is that his entire team around him, as he got on and off
the helicopter to go to the hospital, are now wearing masks. Oh, so now they
can be cautious. So now they can follow guidelines. So now it is time to take
heed of science
“Secondly, the pair, he and his wife,
were diagnosed on the same day that 43,000 other Americans were diagnosed with
COVID-19. the Trump’s will receive the very best healthcare but the American
system can provide. It’s just that every single other diagnosed
American citizen will have paid more in tax that goes towards providing
that healthcare than Trump has, yet will not receive that level of care.
“Here’s my last point. The White House
declared he was being taken to the hospital ‘out of an abundance of caution.’
If only the White House had shown an abundance of caution 210,000 deaths ago.
Hypocrites, dangerous, filthy hypocrites” (Jonathan MS Pierce, Patheos).
Trump Says COVID-19 Is Nothing to Fear—While Getting the World's Best Care
ReplyDelete“When most Americans get mild coronavirus symptoms, they get tested, wait days (or even weeks) for their results, and stay home from work to avoid infecting others. But when you’re U.S. President Donald Trump or former New Jersey governor Chris Christie (one of Trump’s close associates), you immediately get access to some of the best medical care available.
“As my colleagues Abigail Abrams and Abby Vesoulis monitored the viral outbreak linked to the White House, they remembered speaking with average Americans who hadn’t been so lucky. ‘I thought back to a woman I interviewed a few months ago: She had lost her husband, a Detroit bus driver, to COVID-19 in April after he was twice turned away by a hospital,’ Vesoulis says. ‘If Christie and Trump were feeling as well as they said they were, why did they get elite hospital care when the bus driver didn't?’
“In their latest story, Vesoulis and Abrams explore the stark contrast between the COVID-19 care most Americans receive with that of Trump and his coterie. Those inequalities start before hospitalization and continue through treatment—even simply getting tested is a challenge for many Americans because of surprise costs, access issues and long wait times. ‘Coronavirus testing was supposed to be free, but hasn’t always been,’ Abrams says. ‘Treatment for COVID-19 can cost tens of thousands of dollars, especially if you’re one of the millions of Americans who doesn’t have insurance.’ (Trump’s Justice Department is also trying to overturn the Affordable Care Act, which could cause millions of Americans to lose their coverage for coronavirus and countless other conditions.)
“The disease is wiping out the health, finances and lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans, but the President’s handling of his own illness reveals little understanding or compassion for their plight—'Don’t be afraid of COVID. Don’t let it dominate your life,’ Trump tweeted Monday. ‘When I went back to talk to the grieving widow for this piece, she was frustrated Trump had been harping that the virus wasn't a big deal,’ Vesoulis says. ‘It was a big deal to the people who lost their loved ones.’ (That includes TIME’s Arpita Aneja, who wrote a heartfelt story about losing her mother to the virus.)
“Trump is now back in the White House despite the possibility he is still contagious, putting all those who work there at risk. The people Vesoulis and Abrams spoke with took precautions by wearing masks and physically distancing from others. Trump and his staffers, on the other hand, seldom wore masks and often held in-person celebrations, rallies and campaign events. ‘They flouted all these things and got the virus, and yet they get better care than the average American does,’ said one woman in the new story. ‘That makes me really angry.’
“It makes the widow who Vesoulis spoke with angry, too. ‘She's taking this energy to the polls and voting for Democratic nominee Joe Biden,’ Vesoulis says. ‘It will be a solemn day for her, though. Voting used to be something she enjoyed doing with her husband.’…” (Time).