Trump Follows 1 Rule to the Letter: Wash Your Hands

He is not a doctor nor is he God, yet he acts with arrogance and is leading his country toward what might be the worst American tragedy.

The world is being put to the test, its leaders and the simplest earthlings alike. Some throw blind punches; others turn to science and the most prestigious health institutions. Those who turn to science lead nations and professionals that are intelligently informed and a medical community that is making sacrifices to face this unknown pandemic, still full of unanswered questions, which has also led to an economic crisis already considered to be worse than the Great Depression of the last century.

While the World Health Organization still warns that “there’s a long way to go” to confront the coronavirus crisis all over the world, it advises against complacency, insisting that lockdown measures undoubtedly help to slow the spread of the virus. In the U.S. and Europe particularly, the governments appear to be wearing masks over their eyes and ears as they take the opposite approach, announcing measures to reopen the economy and put an end to social distancing while saving big business.

In light of the situation, Philip Alston, U.N. special rapporteur on human rights, said, “The policies of many states reflect a social Darwinism philosophy that prioritizes the economic interests of the wealthiest while doing little for those who are hard at work providing essential services or unable to support themselves. … This is a crisis that disproportionately affects poor people.”

Another U.N. organization, the World Food Programme, highlights that the coronavirus pandemic will cause “widespread famines of biblical proportions” and that we should act now to prevent 235 million more people from starving. More than 30 developing countries could experience a widespread famine, and 10 of these places already have more than 1 million people on the brink of starvation, according to David Beasley, executive director of the World Food Programme.

Things are certainly going from bad to worse, and the uncertainty is spreading as fast as COVID-19, which, at a global level, has now infected more than 2.6 million people and caused more than 190,000 deaths. However, the work stoppage, totally or partially, has already affected 2.7 billion workers; in other words, more than 81% of the global workforce is currently unemployed.

The United States is responsible for a good part of these statistics. Some 905,364 people have been affected by COVID-19 and 51,956 people have died from infection. The numbers are currently increasing leaving no state unaffected, the highest numbers being in New York.

Everything seems to indicate that the only recommendation Donald Trump has taken seriously during his leadership in the pandemic crisis is to “wash his hands frequently,” which is why he seeks scapegoats among anyone and everyone to account for his failures: China, the governor of New York, the director-general of the World Health Organization, and the state governors who want to maintain social distancing.

Nor does it bode well for anyone following Trump’s statements about hair salons, gyms or restaurants. According to Trump, the doctors and scientists do not know what they are doing, so he has recommended using a “miraculous” medical cocktail of hydroxychloroquine, chloroquine and azithromycin.

More recently, in an act of complete insanity or genocidal irresponsibility, Trump suggested that we should be injecting disinfectant into our bodies and applying the heat of the sun or UV rays to ourselves as a cure. Although he later claimed he’d been joking, the statement was as foolish as it was inept.

At his daily pandemic press conferences, which Trump presides over as the main speaker, the president’s statements continue to embarrass White House coronavirus specialists who are in a difficult situation because of the anti-scientific nature of the news, advertising and the administration’s unsubstantiated pronouncements.

Consider three of the dramas Trump staged last week. On Wednesday, Trump urged Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to publicly refute a Washington Post headline that correctly quoted Redfield as saying that the second wave of the coronavirus could be more difficult for the U.S.

On Thursday, Trump again publicly disagreed with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s expert on infectious diseases, saying that the country’s capacity to carry out tests was adequate despite the fact that only hours earlier, the doctor said that the country needed to “significantly ramp up” its testing.

On the same day, the president’s proposal to inject patients with disinfectant and expose them to UV rays embarrassed Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator. News accounts have already appeared reporting that more than 100 people were hospitalized after they consumed disinfectant according to Trump’s recommendation.

Neither Dr. Fauci nor Dr. Birx were at Friday’s briefing, which was abruptly halted after 21 minutes when Trump left the room without taking questions for the first time in weeks. It has been reported that the press conferences may not take place every day from now on, or if they do, Trump will not always be present. We’ll see.

The problem is complicated. Obviously Trump is not a doctor, but he believes that he is a god, which is an abominable aspect of his recommendations and of his behavior.

It is evident that the president of the U.S. has transformed a pandemic into a political issue, and has turned a daily press conference into a campaign platform, even though some of his conservative supporters are already seeing the negative effect that the briefings are having as a result of Trump’s confrontation with, and attacks on, White House reporters from major news outlets who are increasingly reporting his inappropriate remarks.

One could describe Trump and his ultraconservative and extreme-right fan base as desperate, and that includes armed men who have taken to the streets demanding the end of social distancing while threatening doctors and nurses. Most Americans who value their lives over restoring the economy do not support these protesters.

However, Trump is boosting the economy as a way to win reelection and guarantee himself four more years in office. The road to Nov. 3 is full of obstacles, and who knows how the president will beat them again.

At the moment, the media are not giving much attention to a warning from Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, whose campaign has been made more difficult by social distancing. “Mark my words: I think he is going to try to kick back the election somehow, come up with some rationale why it can’t be held,” Biden said.

Many are asking that email voting take place to ensure that the election goes forward. They are seeking to save democracy, but it is not yet known whether email voting will be taken into consideration. Similarly, we don’t know how long the pandemic will last or how many more lives it will take in a nation lead by such an unbalanced man. In the matter of the coronavirus crisis, the president also washes his hands of it.