Health Experts Sound Alarm As Trump Pretends Everything With COVID Is Hunky-Dory

President Donald Trump gives two thumbs-up upon return to the White House from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on October 5, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

No longer hospitalized over a virus he spent months purposefully downplaying to the public, President Donald Trump has been eager to falsely portray COVID-19 as No. Big. Deal.

First, he irresponsibly told the country “Don’t be afraid of COVID” on Monday shortly before leaving Walter Reed Medical Center, where doctors reported that his oxygen blood levels dropped twice in recent days.

Now, Trump’s claiming to feel like a million bucks despite still being infected with the virus and his own doctor’s remark that the President isn’t “out of the woods.”

“FEELING GREAT!” Trump tweeted on Tuesday morning.

Part of the President’s frantic PR cleanup also involves regurgitating the same comparison between COVID-19 and the flu that he endlessly pushed back when the pandemic hit the U.S. in early 2020.

“Many people every year, sometimes over 100,000, and despite the Vaccine, die from the Flu,” Trump tweeted on Tuesday. “Are we going to close down our Country? No, we have learned to live with it, just like we are learning to live with Covid, in most populations far less lethal!!!”

In no meaningful sense has the U.S. “learned to live with” COVID-19, given that more than 210,000 Americans have died, the case count continues to grow, and millions are still struggling with unemployment caused by the pandemic.

Additionally, Trump himself privately admitted to reporter Bob Woodward in February that the virus was “more deadly” than the flu.

Multiple epidemiologists and health professionals called out Trump’s dangerously rosy messaging:

Notable Replies

  1. You dont really need to be an expert to sound alarm

  2. Trump has gone all in on a miracle recovery. If he gets very ill, he is done whether he dies or not. He might gain some advantage if he somehow recovers but that is unlikely to occur and COVID is still raging in the general population. We should know the likely outcome when he gets off the steroids. They may have made it worse by giving them to him early in the course of his infection. They typically are used later to get through the more serious stage of the disease.

  3. Trump’s a pathological Pepe Le Pew, heedlessly infecting those around him. He’ll be re-hospitalized by the weekend.

  4. Yeah, he’s dangerous. He’s been spouting erroneous public health misinformation since last March. Tell us something we don’t know. This is another repeat performance. I usually like reruns of good shows but this is not one of them. None of his repeats are ever helpful. They’re just more self-serving crap.

  5. Karma is, as always, showcasing her impeccable timing for maximum irony.

    I’m betting she’ll hit Fat “SuperSpreader” Nixon again, by the end of the week.

    Just wait til one of his WH infectee’s dies, he’ll be blubbering like a cranky toddler.

    Not about the victim, but about himself.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

85 more replies

Participants

Avatar for discobot Avatar for srfromgr Avatar for fargo116 Avatar for cervantes Avatar for inversion Avatar for murgatroid Avatar for lastroth Avatar for ottnott Avatar for dickweed Avatar for lizzymom Avatar for tiowally Avatar for expatls1954 Avatar for canyoncountry Avatar for brian512 Avatar for kelaine Avatar for maximus Avatar for evave2 Avatar for greenman66 Avatar for rascal_crone Avatar for anon84323658 Avatar for Volvo_Birkenstock Avatar for LeeHarveyGriswold Avatar for Mikebeee Avatar for geographyjones

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: