Lesson from Trump: Wear a mask
Because you’re not going to get the treatment he’s receiving at Walter Reed
With Secret Service agents dressed in personal protective equipment, a masked President Trump takes a ride around Walter Reed National Military Medical Center Sunday — a stunt one hospital doctor called “insanity.” (Facebook/Nebraska Democratic Party)
By Ameya Pawar and Ted Cox
President Trump says he’s learned from having COVID-19, although what exactly he’s learned remains to be seen.
But Americans have learned something as well from seeing the president hospitalized at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center: wear a mask, because it’s not likely you’ll be receiving the same sort of top-notch, cost-is-of-no-concern care that he is if you contract the coronavirus.
For months, in defiance of all scientific evidence and the advice of top medical experts, Trump has disdained the wearing of masks. He even mocked Vice President Joe Biden for his conscientious and consistent wearing of face coverings during their debate last Tuesday — only days before Trump tested positive for the coronavirus and was hospitalized.
That resistance politicized face coverings across the nation, with Republican governors even fighting cities in their own states from mandating masks. The drumbeat of ignorance even spread to Illinois, where state Rep. Darren Bailey of Xenia filed suit against Gov. Pritzker’s mitigation efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19, and likewise disdained the wearing of masks — stances aped by those who follow him politically.
With Trump in the hospital, and about a dozen of his political allies having tested positive for the coronavirus after attending a no-masks media event in the White House Rose Garden just over a week ago to introduce his Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett — including former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and U.S. Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Mike Lee of Utah — the lesson has been clear to the rest of the nation: wear a mask.
Wear a mask because it’s not likely you’ll be flown in a helicopter to a top-flight military hospital where all the care is free and the most advanced techniques are available should you test positive for COVID-19.
“It’s been an interesting journey,” Trump said in a video statement posted on his Twitter feed Sunday. “I learned a lot about COVID. I learned it by really going to school. This is the real school,” experiencing the coronavirus for himself. “And I get it and I understand it.”
And what did Trump do immediately after posting that message? He staged what he called “a little surprise” for supporters ringing the army hospital by taking a ride past them.
To his credit, Trump was wearing a mask. But at the same time he was locked in a car with Secret Service agents covered in personal protective equipment — masks, robes, goggles.
“This is insanity,” said Dr. James Phillips, an attending physician at Walter Reed. “Every single person in the vehicle during that completely unnecessary presidential ‘drive by’ just now has to be quarantined for 14 days. They might get sick. They may die.
“For political theater,” he added. “Commanded by Trump to put their lives at risk for theater.”
The president remains consistent in his inconsistency and his hypocrisy, because while he’s enjoying treatment he called “the finest in the world” at Walter Reed — including experimental COVID medical treatment previously reserved only for the very sick — his administration is about to argue to have the Affordable Care Act thrown out before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Trump guards his own interests — especially his political interests — but he leaves the rest of the nation to fend for itself, for citizens to determine for themselves what protective measures are prudent, without leadership from the White House. Unless it’s leadership to undermine the prevailing medical wisdom.
He’s basically saying you’re own your own, just as states were left on their own to obtain ventilators and personal protective equipment, with the end result that some people (including Republican governors and other politicians) are trying to act the way the president is acting, with the same sort of blithe disregard for scientific facts.
Meanwhile, for all his lip service, Trump has been unable to sway congressional Republicans to back another coronavirus relief package, leaving millions of idled workers in danger of losing not just their health insurance, but also their homes.
We really are in a place where we have to be rugged individualists right now, taking it upon ourselves to take action from what we know and have learned about COVID-19 — ironically enough, in large part to protect our fellow citizens as we act to protect ourselves.
So all the insanity must end. Parents pressing for schools to reopen — especially without mask mandates and the necessary personal protective equipment — should consider how even a White House publicity stunt without masks turned into a superspreader event.
Parents and football players crying out to be allowed to play this fall, consider how 20 members of the Tennessee Titans and their support staff have tested positive for COVID-19, as well as New England quarterback Cam Newton — all while supposedly observing the most protective policies possible to deter the spread of the disease.
And, just as people infected with COVID across the nation are not going to receive the same advanced treatment as Trump, high-school football players who contract the coronavirus are unlikely to receive the same advanced treatment as top NFL stars like Cam Newton.
So halt the insanity. Wear a mask. Wash your hands. Watch social distancing. It really is that simple, so simple we all should have learned it by now.