So here are just a few items off the news wires in the past thirty-six hours.
Hail the Victor
President Donald Trump has “conquered” COVID-19. He demonstrated his victory by triumphantly landing in Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House on Monday, and marching up a flight of stairs. He then ripped the “ugly scar” of COVID, the mask, from his face, and stood (heaving for breath) as he saluted the gallant helicopter crew that he exposed to the disease.
The President then further exposed a video crew and White House personnel to the virus. He made a statement about how remarkable his recovery was, and how we all need to “learn to live with COVID, and not be afraid”. Later, in a tweet from the White House residence, he said:
“Flu season is coming up! Many people every year, sometimes over 100,000, and despite the Vaccine, die from the Flu. 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!!!”
By the way, other than the Flu Pandemic of 1918 (675,000 deaths) the United States has never had a year close to 100,000 deaths. 2014-15, a bad season for flu, was just over 51,000 (CDC). Currently 215,347 have died from COVID-19 in the past seven months (Corona-Virus).
No Protection, Mother
Yesterday Vice President Pence, himself in close contact with the infected President last week, objected to having a Plexiglas barrier on his side of the stage in his debate with Senator Kamala Harris tonight in Las Vegas. He doesn’t seem to want to protect from COVID. Knowing how Pence feels about being on stage with a woman, you might think he’d want the extra barrier?
Mother must have had her say. Last night, Pence withdrew his objections to the double protection.
Stick with the Herd
White House medical advisor Dr. Scott Atlas anticipates that the President: “(he) is a very, very healthy guy, and the overwhelming majority of people, even at his age, do fine with this. He is very healthy, and so I anticipate the same for him”(NY Post).
Atlas has persuaded the Trump team that the best way to deal with COVID is to let everyone get it. His concept of “herd immunity” (not mentality) horrifies most other scientists in the field. It depends on whether getting COVID actually confers a long-term immunity (no one knows if that’s true), but absolutely guarantees that there will be many, many more fatalities.
We Don’t Want to Know
“The White House has decided not to trace the contacts of guests and staff members at the Rose Garden celebration 10 days ago for Judge Amy Coney Barrett, where at least eight people, including the president, may have become infected, according to a White House official familiar with the plans” (NYT).
Why don’t they want to know? If they find out who got infected there, they must accept responsibility for infecting their own staff and leadership. And while Dr. Atlas might think culling the “herd” is a good idea, the Trump Administration doesn’t want to take the blame when someone dies.
Roll the Dice
There is an old saying: “if all you have is lemons, make lemonade”. The Trump 2020 campaign is doing their best to “make lemonade” out of the President’s infection. Many Americans hoped that if the most protected man in the nation could get COVID-19, then maybe the entire nation would take the disease more seriously.
But that is the Biden strategy, and would be an unacceptable admission of error by Trump 2020. So instead they have taken the opposite tack. Like the boy returning to class from being paddled in the office, they’ve dried their tears and said, “It wasn’t so bad”. But of course, they really don’t know yet how bad the beating was, and what the prognosis may be for the President.
So it’s time to “roll the dice”. If the President can make this “miraculous” recovery, then they will go ahead with their strategy of “herd mentality” (I think he really meant immunity). That’s Dr. Atlas’s plan for everyone to get COVID. Those that don’t make it — well don’t; and the rest might get “immunity” from the disease. Meanwhile the economy rolls on, key to the Trump re-election strategy, and hopefully there is a vaccine and a strong therapeutic drug combination in the future.
Wolves at the Door
So it’s OK that the President exposed the Secret Service, the Marines on the helicopter and guarding the White House, and the staff both political and domestic, to COVID. They’re just part of the “herd” right? So if a few don’t make it, they just fall back and the good old wolves get ‘em.
If it sounds heartless, it is. But isn’t that the Trump definition of “manhood”? Let’s risk others, though the extremes of medical science are used to protect him. And for those who die; we all know what the President thinks of losers. He prefers those that “didn’t die of COVID”.
This allows the Trump campaign to demand that states remain open throughout the election season, even if the COVID infection rates increase. The Dow Jones Industrial Average can stay up, and Trump 2020 keeps “Making America Great Again”. Their campaign message is that; “Biden wants to tank the economy, and the market, by closing America down. He wants to ‘give in’ to COVID.”
This even goes farther – according to the President, the Congress now “shouldn’t” pass a COVID relief package. We are doing just fine – right? So why do we need relief? Don’t tell the eleven million still out of work because of COVID, or those whose businesses are closed. They aren’t doing all so “fine”.
Reality
Americans saw through this strategy before the President got infected, and they still understand what it means: many, many more will die. The fact that the President isn’t one of those is lucky for him, assuming that the disease doesn’t rebound. His heavy breathing on the “Mussolini Balcony” (sorry Mr. Truman) just underscored how tenuously we understand COVID-19.
A Biden victory doesn’t depend on the President’s health. And President Trump, now down 15% or more (CNN/SSRS Oct 1-4) is definitely in “Hail Mary” mode. So banking his political comeback on recovery is his last shot. Besides that, all the President can do is hope that there’s some October surprise tanking Biden. Trump is looking to his “Roy Cohn”, Attorney General Barr for that. But Barr was doing some hugging and shaking at the super-spreader Barrett event too. At sixty-eight, he may join the “back of the herd” soon.
The gloves came off a long time ago for the Lincoln Project. If you need a song stuck in your head for a while – Here’s “Covita”
