Of all the many ways President Trump mishandled his covid-19 diagnosis and recovery, the worst is what he’s doing now: facilitating superspreader events while the United States is undergoing a surge in coronavirus cases.

It’s not just the supremely reckless — and unnecessary — assembling of thousands of people, in close quarters and many of them maskless; it’s his overall unmistakable message of contempt for public health and disregard of others’ welfare.

There is so much that I wish Trump had done differently during his illness. The American people still don’t know when he contracted the coronavirus or when he last tested negative before his diagnosis. It’s possible Trump knew he had the virus days before the White House disclosed his illness. We are left to wonder: Did the president knowingly expose others?

Due to continuing obfuscation from Trump’s medical team, we are also left in the dark about how sick he was. Why won’t his doctor tell us the results of his chest x-rays — would they show that he has pneumonia, or possibly something else? And what, if any, other organ systems have been affected? If, on the other hand, it was a mild illness, why did he receive medications generally reserved for patients in severe or critical condition?

In addition, there was that made-for-TV car ride — one of the most reckless actions I’ve ever seen a patient take. It endangered his own health to leave the hospital when his oxygen saturation was reported unstable for the previous two days. It also endangered Secret Service agents, who had no choice but to sit in a hermetically sealed vehicle with someone who was symptomatic from a potentially fatal disease.

Then there was what happened after Trump was discharged from the hospital. He made a show of taking off his mask once he got back to the White House, which is exactly the opposite of what patients recovering at home should do. He spoke at an event nine days after the reported onset of symptoms, when guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that those with covid-19 should be isolated for 20 days if they have severe illness and are immunosuppressed (as Trump might have been since he was given a powerful steroid that itself suppresses the immune system).

All of this makes it that much harder for health-care providers to do our jobs. How can we expect patients to follow our guidance when the First Patient won’t?

Instead, we are once again forced to clarify misinformation from the president. No, there isn’t a cure for covid-19. No, we don’t know whether he’s immune. No, herd immunity through natural infection isn’t a solution; it’s an extremely dangerous proposition that could result in millions of deaths every year. It’s good that the president, having received extraordinary care measures not available to others, appears to be recovered, but many hundreds of Americans are dying every day because of the coronavirus, and many more will be living with its long-term consequences.

And just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, Trump announced plans for campaign rallies across the country, in coronavirus hotspots. On Monday, he held one in Florida, where the test positivity rate is 12 percent. On Tuesday, he was in Pennsylvania, where the rate of new infections has climbed to its highest level since April. Another state on his list, Wisconsin, is setting records in hospitalizations and deaths, and has just opened a field hospital on the state fairgrounds in anticipation of patient overflow.

By now, we all know the danger of mass gatherings where thousands of maskless people are packed closely together. With high levels of infection in the areas where Trump is holding rallies, there will be attendees who are asymptomatic carriers capable of transmitting the coronavirus to many others. Then there are activities around the event: Attendees are likely to go to other high-risk settings such as indoor bars and then back to their families and workplaces to further spread the infection.

Any of Trump’s rallies could be a major superspreader, further taxing a strained public health system that already cannot keep up with testing and contact tracing. The rallies will worsen the burden on hospitals that are already on the way to becoming overwhelmed. They will make it even harder for businesses and schools to stay open safely. And they will continue to make it hard for us to ask the American people to take precautions their president is openly flouting.

During Trump’s illness, I was sympathetic. I wanted him to get better. I hoped that he would come out of his recovery with a new message for the American people that embraced some element of public health guidance. That hasn’t happened. In the aftermath of his illness, Trump is leading dangerous, potentially lethal events all over the country. This is the opposite of a public health strategy. It’s a worst-case scenario that will cause much more devastation to Americans’ health and our economy.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/10/15/i-thought-trump-couldnt-handle-virus-any-worse-than-he-already-had-i-was-wrong/