What’s on my mind?
“It is what it is”: US President Donald J. Trump, Aug. 4, 2020, on the rapid increase in the number and rate of coronavirus deaths.
• April 28: 1 million cases. Trump’s same-day response: “It will go down to zero, ultimately.”
• June 10: 2 million cases. Trump’s same-day response: “We may have some embers or some ashes or we may have some flames coming, but we’ll put them out. We’ll stomp them out.”
• July 7: 3 million cases. Trump’s same-day response: “I think we are in a good place.”
• July 23: 4 million cases. Trump’s same-day response: “The country is in very good shape …”
(On August 7, one day before the updated figures were announced, Trump hosted a party for members of his exclusive Bedminster, New Jersey golf club. There was no social distancing. Almost no one wore masks. During that party, he stated: “The pandemic is disappearing. It’s going to disappear.”
(Calling in the media for a press conference, the event became a spectacle, with members of his golf club booing what they viewed as unfriendly questions and cheering those they liked. A good time was presumably had by all.
(Trump also attended two fundrasing events in the Hamptons, bringing in $15-to-$20 million US. How much of this was taxpayer-funded, I don’t know.)
• August 8: The US hits 5 million coronavirus cases.
As I post this August 9, at 8:35 pm PST, the real-time Johns Hopkins COVID-19 cases in the US have increased to slightly less than 5.2 million. Not quite 12 hours later, the US has nearly 2,500 new cases.
© Nicole Parton, 2020
