From the onset of the pandemic in 2019, ex- president Trump lied about and downplayed the danger COVID-19 posed to the public health. He presented unscientific, illogical information to the public about the virus and when the it spread like wildfire across the country, Americans were unprepared to protect themselves. He disparged the expertise of world-renowned infectious disease experts like Dr Anthony Fauci to support his lie that ” the virus was just like the flu” or ” it would “go away by Spring when the weather got warm.” He was messaging lies to sections of his base to retain their vote for his re-election instead of protecting the country’s public health. He promoted an Easter return to normal to please the evangelicals. He was pandering to his toxic-masculinity male voters by downplaying the need to wear masks. He denied the scientific facts about COVID to keep his reality TV fan/voters enamored with seeing him as someone ” who knew more about science than the scientists.”
In a taped interview with Bob Woodward, Trump admitted he didn’t tell the public about how deadly COVID was because ” I didn’t want to create a panic.” How DUMB or opportunistic a decision was that?” As the pandemic spread globally and the death rate soared, Trump supported the push to create a vaccine for two reasons, 1) it would make him look strong, like a fixer, a winner, 2) he needed a face-saving way to acknowledge that the pandemic threat was real after all his lies were disproven by the number of people getting infected and dying. However, to remain macho in the eyes of his gullible supporters, he continued to not wear a mask, to bully his surrogates into not wear masks, and to hold super- spreader rallies where infection spread and friends like Senator Herman Cain caught COVID and died. Then he replaced infectious disease experts with wacky quacks like the pillow guy Mike Lindell who pushed an oleander potion to treat COVID.
Next, the stable genius replaced the advice of scientists with his own treatment approaches for COVID such as; 1) injecting bleach into the body to ” give a cleansing in the lungs” 2) shining ultra- violet light into the body to kill the virus, and 3) to take hydroxy chloroquine ( disproven my physicians as a treatment for COVID. The proof of Trump’s complete incompetence for understanding and managing the pandemic was that he caught COVID. In reckless, ego-driven behaviors to him holding a Rose Garden superspreader event where multiple members of his family and administration became infected with the virus. How DUMB is it to support and trust a president who caught a severe case of COVID because of politically motivated behavior?
NPR reported that its investigation showed “In October, the reddest tenth of the country saw death rates that were six times higher than the bluest tenth, according to Charles Gaba, an independent health care analyst who’s been tracking partisanship trends during the pandemic and helped to review NPR’s methodology.” All scientific findings indicate the majority of hospitalized COVID patients are unvaccinated. An October report from Brookings reports 90% of Democrats are vaccinated compared to 68% of Republicans. How DUMB is it to think not getting vaccinated makes you more accessible, more intelligent, safer, or more challenging? And it’s DUMB to think remaining unvaccinated makes you more loyal to Trump. At a recent appearance with Bill O’Reilly, Trump admitted he is vaccinated a boosted. While he does everything to save his ass, he applauds his voters for fighting for the freedom to selfishly, ignorantly, and arrogantly risk their lives, the lives of others. That loyal Republican voters not recognizing the Republican disinformation machine is using them to promote its political interests isn’t intelligent, moral, and might not be survivable.
