Monday, October 5, 2020

The Trump White House Disdains Contact Tracing As Much As Wearing Masks or Social Distancing



Via The New York Times:

The White House has decided not to trace the contacts of guests and staff members at the Rose Garden celebration 10 days ago for Judge Amy Coney Barrett, where at least eight people, including the president, may have become infected, according to a White House official familiar with the plans.

Instead, it has limited its efforts to notifying people who came in close contact with Mr. Trump in the two days before his Covid diagnosis Thursday evening. It has also cut the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has the government’s most extensive knowledge and resources for contact tracing, out of the process.

I wish I could say this behavior from the Trump White House comes as any surprise. But considering they saw fit to hold this Rose Garden ceremony in the midst of a pandemic where mask wearing was at best inconsistent and social distancing was nowhere to be seen why would the Trump White House suddenly behave responsibly after months of behaving irresponsibly?

Upon his return from Walter Reed on Monday night, Trump immediately dispensed with his mask despite still being COVID-19 positive and contagious with staffers less than six from him. For bad measure, he recorded yet another Twitter video imploring Americans not be afraid of COVID-19 and not to let it dominate us (see my commentary earlier today regarding this language) because "you're gonna beat it" on account of "the best medicines and medical equipment" not available to most Americans. Not that it stopped him from claiming the vaccines "are coming momentarily."

So three nights at Walter Reed changed absolutely nothing. Masks, social distancing, contact tracing and isolating/quarantining are now considered spreading fear in Trump World. Of course, the only fear they have in Trump World is losing the White House no matter how many American lives are lost. 

We have four weeks to make the madness stop.

No comments:

Post a Comment