We Shouldn’t Be Surprised That Trump Is Infected
By Terry H. Schwadron, DCReport Opinion Editor
It is what it is, after all.
That the White House and the Trump
campaign were not forthright about learning that close adviser Hope Hicks had
been found infected and went ahead with fund-raisers and lots of contacts
without taking precautions is reprehensible.
Amid calls for recovery were notes
of open disbelief over whether the news as announced was true, questions about
the First Couple’s medical status and a chaotic race to reach scores of people
with whom Trump and Hicks had contact over the previous four days. Worry
mounted about exactly how the government is functioning, as a result, to say
nothing of the effects on elections.
The White House never acknowledged the Hicks contagion for
at least a full day after learning of it. A bevy of others were exposed to the
illness. People need to hold someone responsible.
Opponent Joe Biden tested negative
after contact with Trump at the Tuesday debate, but three senators, the Trump
campaign manager and head of the Republican National Committee, White House
staffers and guests and three journalists at White House events are ill.
Through the day, as Trump was moved
to Walter Reed Hospital, it sounded as if Trump was sicker than acknowledged.
But then again, it was hard to tell: The White House is controlling closely the
information.
Public Health Enforcement
I could not help but compare these
circumstances with the earlier days of HIV/AIDS, when some with that illness
who continued to practice unprotected sex ended up facing criminal charges of
homicide or attempted homicide and assault. Criminal
transmission of HIV is better known as HIV
non-disclosure.
What exactly is different here?
There are 37 states with laws that
criminalize HIV exposure in cases where those testing positive intentionally
infect others – or simply fail to notify contacts. Some states even extend
criminality to undisclosed status in blood donation or amp up prostitution
charges.
In other words, when it came to
HIV/AIDS, our Law and Order administrations took it seriously.
By contrast, in the case of
COVID-19, a global pandemic, the Trump administration occasionally talks about
masks. Then it goes out of its way to avoid mask-wearing or physical distancing
in its campaign rallies, in White House gatherings, in meetings. Trump steps on
his own medical advisers when they contradict him and promote mask-wearing.
Obviously, Team Trump has resisted
actively public health enforcement by either the federal government or states
and localities, arguing anything that slows down the economy will be worse for
Americans. Trump and allies have made clear – and made political – the idea
that church-going outscores any acknowledgment of contagion and that mask-less
campaign rallies are more important than public safety.
Somehow, Team Trump succeeded in
turning mask-wearing into more a political statement about standing with him
and about a weird sense of independent masculinity than about public health.
Hey, I recognize that there are posted speed limits on the freeway, but I may
want to drive 90 mph anyway.
In lieu of a fully organized
government effort to control the pandemic, we have an anemic, spotty,
state-by-state approach that has resulted in more than 200,000 American deaths.
That the virus would find its way even inside the White House, where Trump has
presented himself as uniquely resistant to any hint of disease, was inevitable.
Now What?
This is the same Donald Trump who:
- Orders his people to lean on the Centers for Disease Control to water down warnings about contagion to schoolchildren and families
- Allows cruise ships – with their long history of contagious respiratory disease – to go back to full operations
- Puts his faith and trust in political operators over scientists
- Preaches the discredited use of hydroxychloroquine or openly speculates about injecting household disinfectants as coronavirus treatments
- Insists drug companies produce an effective vaccine in time for Election Day
- Knows in January we are facing a deadly pandemic and keeps that news to himself – and then delays rolling out a full anti-disease effort
- blames Democratic governors and mayors for spiraling disease numbers
- thinks we have too much coronavirus testing
Are we surprised that he should
contract the illness? Frankly, no, however sorry it makes us feel for him.
But the news also angers, because
these results were avoidable completely.
Our narcissistic president, who has
declared himself the only person possible to fix what ails us, could have lived
as many of us have without intentionally infecting others.
When Boris Johnson, the British
prime minister, went through COVID-19, he came out of it with a renewed respect
for public health and mask-wearing. We can only hope Trump can do so as well.