The President presses for an early end to the quarantine against the coronavirus and prompt reopening of the economy of the United States against all scientific medical advice. First, he was for an Easter opening and then settles in on May 1. The medical community and its scientists urge the end of May or perhaps even the middle of June. The quarantine and social distancing are the best weapons currently available against the virus. The President wants to do this, he says, to save the economy but that isn’t really the reason as many attest. It is to advance his own political situation and enhance his prospect of electoral success in November. Finally, his science advisors agree to a strict set of procedures which if followed by a state would not be likely to trigger a second wave of the pandemic should a state begin to reopen its economy on or about May 1.
As soon as this happens, the President takes to Twitter to undermine his own criteria so a state will throw caution to the winds. He tweets, “Liberate Minnesota,” “Liberate Michigan,” “Liberate Virginia.” The tweet targets Democratic states, but the real targets are states where Trump-leaning politicians are in the Governor’s office. Gradually, this misguided approach is adopted by some state legislators. The Tea Party and other right-wing allies of the President are led to equate medical protective measures such as social distancing and quarantines with tyranny— utter and complete dangerous childish foolishness. And as the President’s tweets urge, some states begin to open, contrary to scientific advice.
So, what we have is, as Michael Gerson wrote recently in his column entitled “To reform the GOP vote Biden” published in the Washington Post, “A failed presidency defended by a cowed party. As President Trump’s malignant narcissism and incompetence have been fully revealed—and can be objectively measured by the level of needless death from Covid-19—his approval among Republicans has remained strong. Across a continent filled with elected Republicans, only a few have taken a stand for sanity and effective governance.”
And for weeks President Trump touts the use of the anti-malarial drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine as a “game changer,” in his words, for promptly curing COVID-19. This was under consideration in some laboratories until the Food and Drug Administration in late April published the results of a study which indicated that the use of these drugs with COVID-19 patients could promote dangerous irregular heart rhythms and possible death. Cases of serious poisoning and death from using these drugs had been reported.
What is said by the President on his bully pulpit in the White House is always taken seriously by a sizeable portion of the American people no matter how confused and irrational and self-serving any particular statement might be. In promoting the use of the two anti-malarial drugs to treat COVID-19, President Trump said, “I think that it could be something incredible,” the two drugs had shown “very, very encouraging results.” There had been little study of these drugs being used for this purpose, but even so, first time prescriptions poured into retail pharmacies around the country at 46 times the usual rate per average weekday, according to an analysis by the New York Times. These drugs were tested and showed no effect on reducing the impact of COVID-19 on patients. But they do create very serious risks for a COVID-19 patient that takes them, even after the FDA report these drugs were being prescribed and purchased at pharmacies more than six times the normal rate. With leadership like this, is there any doubt why the United States’ efforts against the coronavirus have had among the world’s worst results? The U.S. has four percent of the world’s population and 32 percent of the cases.
Finally, perhaps the ultimate dangerous idea put forward by President Trump during these recent weeks of dealing with the coronavirus took place the evening of April 24. The President promoted the use of disinfectants internally in the human body to cure the virus-caused disease. Disinfectants like Lysol, Clorox or isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol) injected like a tonic into the human body, and maybe this just might do the trick.
From a report in the New York Times, the President said, and then “I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute.” (on a tabletop like surface) “One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning? Because you see it gets in the lungs, and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it would be interesting to check that.”
Immediately there was an outcry in the medical, business and some parts of the political community along the lines of what every ten year-old child knows, that injecting such products as Lysol, Clorox and isopropyl alcohol into the human body would create an immediate severe reaction and often death. An FDA Commissioner said, “I certainly wouldn’t recommend the internal ingestion of a disinfectant.” The Environmental Protection Agency advised people never to “ingest disinfectant products.” The companies that make such disinfectant products publicly pleaded with Americans to never ingest or inject their products, they are not ever to be used internally in the human body.
Again, from the New York Times report, “In Maryland, so many callers flooded a health hotline with questions that the state’s Emergency Management Agency had to issue a warning that ‘under no circumstances’ should any disinfectant be taken to treat the coronavirus. The alarm was sounded by officials everywhere across the country. “Injecting bleach or highly concentrated rubbing alcohol ‘causes massive organ damage and the blood cells in the body to basically burst’…the medical director of the New Jersey Poison Information and Education System said in an interview. ‘It can definitely be a fatal event.’”
If it wasn’t clear to everyone before, this incident should convince everyone in the country it’s not only just unwise to keep this man in office, but positively dangerous in a time of crisis. It is akin to national suicide for him to remain in the office of President for much longer. Whatever is going on, it is certainly not natural and effective leadership. The President’s involvement in this crisis has only seemed to make it very much worse.
Originally the evening White House briefing on the pandemic was established by the President’s Task Force on the virus as a means to communicate facts about the virus to the American people. The speakers were world renowned scientists like Dr. Anthony Fauci. But when he saw how popular these briefings were with the public, the President rudely pushed the scientists aside and did the briefings himself. He converted what had been a scientific briefing so the public could know more about the virus into a Trump political rally disguised as a briefing. In this way, the President could promote his foolish, dangerous and counterproductive ideas as advice to the American people as to what they should do to protect themselves during the pandemic. Doubtless thousands of deaths have taken place that wouldn’t have if the White House leadership had been in sound and practical hands.
Michelle Goldberg in the New York Times reported in her column on April 25, among other things:
“Over the last three and a half years, Americans have had to accustom themselves to a relentless, numbing barrage of lies from the federal government. In one sector after another, we’ve seen experts systematically purged and replaced with toadying apparatchiks. The few professionals who’ve kept their jobs have often had to engage in degrading acts of public obeisance more common to autocracies. Public policy has zigzagged to presidential whim. Empirical reality has been subsumed to Trump’s cult of personality.”
“…America was once the technological envy of the world. Now doctors have to warn the public that, contrary to the President’s musings in the briefing room, it is neither safe nor effective to inject disinfectant.”
This Administration is truly sick. Our Founders knew how to cure a sick government. Alexander Hamilton expressed it most succinctly.
“The National cure for an ill administration in a popular representative constitution is a change of men.” Alexander Hamilton 1788
And we must never forget:
“Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.” (Benjamin Franklin proposed as the motto on the Great Seal of the United Sates).
John Jay