Trump Has COVID-19

So now Trump has the disease, and is going to the hospital on the advice of doctors. With presidents and health, it's usually a safe bet to assume the situation is worst than they're telling us. Of course, the president will get all precautions and the best care, and I hope he and his wife will both have only a mild case of the disease and recover quickly and fully. 

Going one day from symptoms to the hospital is startling. As Scientific American writes, "Trump's COVID Infection Puts Him in Multiple High-Risk Categories." 

The president is age 74, male and heavy—all factors linked to more severe cases of the illness

Hope Hicks, a senior advisor to the president who had apparently been by his side, tested positive on Thursday, and was on Marine One with him (the presidential helicopter) and then his plane (where she was isolated), but Trump went ahead to the campaign event in New Jersey that evening and didn't wear a mask. Later, at a more exclusive soiree where he mingled shoulder-to-shoulder with people, he didn't wear a mask or, obviously, social distance. He may now become a superspreader.

Trump tempted fate and science, and lost. He mocked Joe Biden at the debate for wearing a mask. He also mocked Joe Biden's son for having a drug addiction problem. Biden reply was perfect: that he loved his son. I read that when Trump's first son was born and his wife suggested they name him Donald, Jr., Trump asked "But what if he's a loser?" 

Frank Bruni in the NY Times captures the complexities of his feelings at the moment:

It’s a measure of the cynicism that has infected American politics — and, yes, me — that among my initial reactions to the news that President Trump had tested positive for the coronavirus was: Are we sure? Can we trust that? A man who so frequently and flamboyantly plays the victim, and who has been prophylactically compiling ways to explain away or dispute a projected election loss to Joe Biden, is now being forced off the campaign trail, which will be a monster of an excuse.

I couldn’t help thinking that.

I couldn’t help thinking, too, about karma, and I immediately felt and still feel petty for that. Trump has spent much of the past six months, during which more than 200,000 Americans died of causes related to the coronavirus, downplaying the pandemic, flinging out false reassurances and refusing to abide by the very public health guidelines that officials in his own government were fervently promoting.

He didn’t wear a mask. He encouraged large gatherings — including the Tulsa, Okla., rally that Herman Cain attended before falling sick with the coronavirus and dying, and his big convention speech — at which hundreds and even thousands of people, many without any facial covering, packed in tight. At the first presidential debate on Tuesday night, he mocked Biden for so often wearing a mask, suggesting that it was a sign of … what? Timidity? Weakness? Vogueishness? Moral vanity?

I would like to think this will finally make a difference in how this country treats this disease and how we all treat each other, and look out for one another, but sadly I don't think that's possible for about half the people in this country. That's how far we've gone.