President Trump hasn’t been shy about offering advice on COVID-19, which prompts some thoughts from our contributor, Emmy-winning writer and comedian Paul Mecurio:
As we all know, President Trump has tested positive for COVID-19. And this past week, in what can only be described as a film directed by Fellini, produced by Orson Welles, and written by Flaubert, President Trump took to Twitter and the airwaves to bizarrely promote the deadly virus. In a tweet he wrote, “Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life.”
And in this video he described the virus as “a blessing from God, a blessing in disguise”:
A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT! pic.twitter.com/uhLIcknAjT
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 7, 2020
Mr. President, I tested positive for COVID-19, and three months later I’m still suffering significant symptoms. So, I can tell you it is not a person’s “choice” that the coronavirus dominates one’s life.
It just does.
And furthermore, there is nothing “disguised” about it. It’s pretty much in-your-face 24/7, and it is anything but a “blessing” – unless you count as a blessing shortness of breath, fatigue, vomiting, sore throat, headaches, dizziness, loss of taste and smell, and random severe pain throughout one’s body.
Now, I have heard public service announcements to eradicate deadly diseases like cancer and heart disease. But this is a first: I never ever heard a PSA that touts a deadly disease which has killed, by the way, more Americans than those who died in battle in World War I, the Vietnam War, the Korean Conflict, U.S. operations in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, the Persian Gulf War and 9/11 combined.
President Trump, this is a very dangerous game you are playing. You are trying to normalize a deadly disease that has yet to be contained
You know, there is a saying: “Do as I say, not as I do.” In the case of President Trump, only part of that phrase is accurate. Certainly don’t “do as he says,” and don’t, under any circumstances, “do as he does.” Do the opposite.
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Story produced by Juan Torres-Falcon. Editor: David Bhagat.