Donald Trump returned to the superspreader circuit on Monday evening. The theme for the evening: Stop looking at all the people that Trump killed through his purposeful mismanagement of the COVID-19 crisis and check out all the people he hasn’t killed … yet.
Throughout the evening, Trump claimed repeatedly to have “saved” two million people. Presumably, that’s a reference to models that were circulated in February showing how many Americans would die if the White House attempted to reach “herd immunity” by simply allowing the disease to run its course. But it wasn’t Trump who decided not to follow that model. No matter how many times he says it at rallies and debates, Trump never “shut down” the nation, because there never was a national lockdown or stay-at-home order. It was individual state governors who chose to take action—from closing schools to limiting businesses—all of it over Trump’s objections. Governors, particularly Democratic governors in the nation’s most populous states, saved lives. No matter how hard Trump tried to get in their way.
Of course, not every governor joined in the efforts to save their citizens. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis underlined that fact after appearing at Trump’s Orlando rally notably lacking a mask and ignoring any effort at social distancing. Masks and any efforts at safety were in very limited view at the airport event, with people crowding against the line and Trump-supporting politicians streaming by barefaced in a tight pack. DeSantis and other Republicans officials were crowded together, as were the MAGA crowd, in a spittle-flinging appearance that will undoubtedly be the source of new cases in coming days.
But then, since DeSantis has worked hard to make sure Florida stopped accurately reporting coronavirus cases months ago, and has even prevented county medical examiners from reporting deaths, Florida is the perfect place to hold the first stop in a Superspreader Tour that is also scheduled to bring the Trump virus to Iowa and Pennsylvania.
While giving the gathered crowd a fist-closed salute, Trump declared, “I just feel so powerful,” and announced that he was “immune” to COVID-19. "I'll kiss everyone in that audience,” said Trump. “I'll kiss the guys and the beautiful women and the... I'll just give you a big, fat kiss." He did not, thank goodness, appear to carry out this threat.
Earlier in the day, Dr. Sean Conley released a statement that Trump had tested negative for COVID-19, but there were two glaring problems with Conley’s statement. First, Conley said that Trump had tested negative “on two consecutive days,” but did not say which days those were—or even if they were after Trump had tested positive. Also, Conley stated that Trump had tested negative … on the antigen-based quick test. That should not have happened, because not only should Trump have mounted an immune response by this point, he was also directly injected with a four-times normal dose of experimental antibodies. If Trump did actually test negative on the antibody test, then he explicitly is not immune to COVID-19. Conley said that Trump was taking a PCR swab test, but did not announce any results, even though there has easily been sufficient time to process such a test.
On Tuesday morning, Trump is tweeting again, making fun of Dr. Anthony Fauci and once again laying claim to “saving two million.” In these tweets, Trump claims that the World Health Organization—that would be the organization Trump has blamed for the pandemic during his round robin game of “anyone but me”—has now come out against lockdowns. Trump repeated a story on Fox News that ran on Monday using selective quotes from a WHO official. That official actually said what WHO has said all along: Lockdowns are a blunt tool, one that should only be used until a nation has developed a system of testing and contact tracing along with other effective steps like mask mandates.
Meanwhile the head of WHO spoke out again on Monday to remind everyone that allowing COVID-19 to spread now is just as bad a decision as it was at the beginning.