SCARED to go back to work in fear of being infected by the deadly COVID-19? This is what is happening now in the White House after two people working close to President Donald Trump have tested positive for the virus this past week.
Vice President Mike Pence’s press secretary Katie Miller — who is married to one of Trump’s closest aides, Stephen Miller — and one of Trump’s personal valets have contracted the virus, TIME reported.
As a result, the White House has implemented new safety measures: every staff member in close proximity to the president and vice president is being tested DAILY for COVID-19 as well as any guests. Contact tracing is also now being conducted to help patients recall everyone with whom they have had close contact with during the timeframe while they may have been infectious — a laborious and elaborate measure that helps mitigate the spread of the virus.
The fear and worries of the people working in the White House are the same concerns of people all over America, especially after President Trump has been pushing to relax social distancing and other safety measures and re-open America for business. Many governors from Republican states allied with Trump warned people that either they go back to work or they lose their unemployment benefits.
For many Americans, this order from Trump and the Republican governors was like a death sentence, especially since health officials, scientists and many Democratic governors have been warning that to safely re-open the country for business, widespread testing combined with contact tracing need to be implemented as they are still the most effective ways to slow the spread until a vaccine is available.
Additionally, protective equipment should be available to ALL Americans returning to work.
We would think that after having firsthand experience with the threat of the coronavirus pandemic in the White House, Trump would finally heed the advice of health officials and be more aggressive and proactive in conducting widespread testing, contact tracing, providing protective equipment, making sure social distancing orders are still being followed wherever warranted, to the degree required by their specific circumstances and COVID-19 infection cases in their states.
Unfortunately, Trump does not think what is good and safe for the White House is something he will push and support for the rest of us.
As of press time on Tuesday, May 12, the total confirmed cases around the world was recorded at 4,178,156 and counting, killing more than 286,353 people. The United States leads the world in the number of confirmed cases with more than 1,382,630 and a death toll of more than 81,779. The number of cases per 1 million people in the U.S. is now at 4,195 and counting.
Despite the death toll and continued threat to infect more people, Trump continues to deny the scientific facts and evidence about COVID-19 and insists that the pandemic will disappear on its own.
ABC News reported that during a White House meeting with Republican House lawmakers last week, Trump again said, “I feel about vaccines like I feel about tests. This is going to go away without a vaccine.”
Trump has been touting that no other country in the world has been testing like the United States, but this claim is misleading because he is boasting based on the absolute numbers without reference to the overall total population of the nation. A country as big as the U.S. would require more testing. It still lags behind countries like Italy and Denmark in per capita [per how many persons] tests performed, ABC News reported. How can he address the need for more testing if he denies the fact?
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s top epidemiologist, has been pushing for more testing, something that Trump undermines. Dr. Fauci said in a National Geographic interview, “I don’t think there’s a chance that this virus is just going to disappear.”
“Shame on us if we don’t have enough tests by the time this so-called return might occur in the fall and winter,” he said, suggesting that the U.S. needs to make sure there’s an adequate supply of tests and a system for getting those tests to the people who most need them before a second wave of the virus hits. “It’s going to be around, and if given the opportunity, it will resurge.”
Response coordinator for White House Coronavirus Task Force Deborah Birx estimated that about 2.5% of all Americans have been tested, adding that the number is increasing by half a percent every week. As ABC News reported, she agreed with many experts, stating that testing and contact tracing are proven to be critical to helping identify cases locally and contain the spread.
Birx also stressed in the report the importance of “being proactive about testing,” and monitoring high-risk places with vulnerable populations such as prisons, long-term care centers and inner-city communities after New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, announced required twice-weekly testing for nursing staffers in his state.
Even more important numbers to consider:
According to the COVID Tracking Project, testing for the coronavirus in the U.S. has steadily improved to around 264,000 tests a day — nearly 9 million tests total as of Monday — but the U.S. is still below proposed benchmarks from several experts.
Researchers at the Harvard University, for example, calculated that the U.S. would need to do approximately 500,000 tests per day, as a bare minimum, by May 1 — a figure they have since revised to 900,000 for May 15 as more states ease restrictions.
WHY is Trump doing this? It is all about POLITICS.
“I will tell you, you look at some cases, some people think they’re doing it for politics,” Trump was quoted by ABC News, suggesting some Democratic governors are moving slowly to undercut him politically. “Here we go again. But they think they’re doing it because it will hurt me the longer it takes to — to hurt me in the election, the longer it takes to open up.”
“The media likes to say we have the most [coronavirus] cases, but we do, by far, the most testing. If we did very little testing, we wouldn’t have the most cases. So, in a way, by doing all of this testing, we make ourselves look bad,” Trump said last Wednesday, May 6.
What is worse than being attacked by the COVID-19 pandemic? It is to have a president who denies science and facts, misleads people, just because to him, his personal interests and political survival are more important than saving the lives of the people he has sworn to defend and protect.
SPEAK OUT! Do not wait for you and your family to be casualties of this invisible enemy before you call out this president for the dereliction of the duty and betrayal of public trust under the United States’ highest office.
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Gel Santos Relos has been in news, talk, public service and educational broadcasting since 1989 with ABS-CBN and is now serving the Filipino audience using different platforms, including digital broadcasting, and print, and is working on a new public service program for the community. You may contact her through email at [email protected], or send her a message via Facebook at Facebook.com/Gel.Santos.Relos.
