Covid? What Covid? Trump Advises Us That Covid Affects “Virtually Nobody”
On This Day In 2020
OTDI 2020, Trump told a campaign rally that the virus affects “virtually nobody.”
Try telling that to family members of the 200,000 Americans it had already killed by then. With a million more deaths still to come.
Well, nobody except maybe seniors, like himself. As CBS quoted him: "Now we know it. It affects elderly people. Elderly people with heart problems and other problems. But they have other problems, that's what it really effects (sic), that's it," he yelled, in his semi-incoherent style at a Ohio campaign rally.
It was dangerous nonsense then, and still is today. At the time the U.S. had reported the highest number of infections and deaths in the world, with more than 6.8 million confirmed cases to that point, according to Johns Hopkins University data. And Trump's health departments had issued multiple warnings both about how easy it is to catch Covid and how harmful it can be to some. (Remember, this was still before any vaccines or Paxlovid had been developed).
But, based on what they heard from the president, plenty of MAGA diehards simply ignored basic advice about reducing the spread of Covid. Many of those who willfully fought public health efforts...died hard.
Today, the CDC estimates that 4-10% of American adults suffer from Long Covid, symptoms of which include brain fog, organ failure, blood clotting, etc. "even in some people who had only mild initial infections."
Trump himself would catch Covid a few days later. So apparently Covid did affect at least one “virtual nobody.”
Dive Deeper
CBS News has the story of the Trump’s campaign rally
The CDC has the latest Covid stats
I get aggravated everyday that the s.o.b. Was in our faces let’s see what happens tomorrow