By MAYA NAKKOUL
Opinions Editor
Just when it felt like 2020 was bursting at the seams with news of international significance, we got hit once more. On Friday, Oct. 2, President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump were diagnosed with COVID-19 and that information was released to the public.
Since then, there have been mixed messages as to exactly how the POTUS is doing while he receives treatment at Walter Reed Medical Center. Saturday morning, the president’s personal physician informed the public that the president had now been “fever free for 24 hours” and was feeling well. Shortly after, on that very same day, it was released to the public that his vitals of the last 24 hours were concerning and that the next 48 hours would be crucial.
On Saturday night, Trump claimed he was feeling better but his chief of staff says that he is “still not on a clear path to full recovery.”
As it is still unclear who else may be infected in the White House, thus far Vice President Mike Pence and second lady Karen Pence tested negative as well as Joe Biden.
The first confirmed COVID-19 case in the United States occurred on Jan. 21, 2020. From then and all throughout this painful journey, Trump has downplayed the severity of the pandemic saying in his first public comment of the matter,“We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It’s — going to be just fine.”
At this point in time there are over 209,000 deaths in the U.S. and while this fact is absolutely devastating, we as a country cannot be shocked when you think about the attitudes this administration had throughout the course of the pandemic. At the presidential debate, Trump mocked Biden for wearing a mask. “I don’t wear masks like him,” said Trump. “Every time you see him, he’s got a mask.”
What Trump may fail to realize, based on his disbelief in the severity of the virus, that he is majorly at risk of the virus, his ripe age of 74 is not exactly a part of the group of young people whom he claims simply do not die from COVID-19. There are real lives at stake, and now so is the real balance of our country as the future is uncertain.
Nobody is safe from this pandemic. It does not matter what your personal preferences are or if you feel bothered by it.
Ultimately, whether you trust in its validity or not, COVID-19 is all too real. Up until this point, there have been varying attitudes across the U.S. about how to feel about COVID-19. Regardless of your political standings, let this be a reminder not to ignore science. Mask up, because there is still a ways to go before we see the end of COVID-19. That may seem like a depressing statement but that is the reality we begin to live in when we elect an administration that actively questions the validity or mere existence of scientific fact.
