How Many Will Die This Time?
How many will die this time?
This is what our President has just tweeted, in part of his announcement about coming home: "... Feeling really good! Don't be afraid of Covid. Don't let it dominate your life. We have developed, under the Trump administration, some really great drugs and knowledge. I feel better than I did 20 years ago!"
The President of the United States of America just committed murder.
First of all, in an environment where we are losing 1,000 people a day to the disease, where we are still by most responsible accounts months away from any mass treatment, the President just went out and told people to stop being careful, that the virus is no big deal. In fact, getting it gave him back 20 years of his life!
The President, who has had a squadron of the best doctors in the country attending to his every minute, just mentioned the "really great" drugs that are available to absolutely nobody but him. By most accounts, he is the most medicated patient in America, having taken virtually every drug and cocktail in the works and showing promise on special exceptions and with intense support and scrutiny.
The President, who has directly caused the infections of countless people around him, including most of the people who work directly with him, and who knows how many more who are being told not to say anything, is advocating on behalf of the virus. How many will now toss their masks? How many will mock those who don't? How many will defiantly wander into illness or death, based on this President's selfish attempts at preserving his fleeting chances at reelection?
How many will die this time?
We won't know until we count the corpses, and measure the increases in national pain. We won't ever have a clear picture of what this latest bravado costs us, because this administration has no regard for transparency or safety of its charges. We won't be able to tell except by the most extreme cases, the body bags and unnecessary funerals across the country as his lemmings follow his call to the cliffs.
What can we believe? Would you trust that the President would stay in the hospital, will cover his face, will stay isolated for the required 14 days just to save those around him? Would you trust this President not to lie about his condition, not to force his doctors to do the same when his chief medical officer just admitted having done so? Would you bet your life on his word?
We already know the answers. We already know not to trust him, or those who owe their jobs to his whims. We already know what he will gladly do if he believes that it helps him, even a little bit. There is only one thing that we do not know right now, that we cannot tell at this fraught moment...
How many will die this time?
