Go figure, people who have suffered through COVID-19, lost loved ones to the virus, or treated coronavirus patients in the hospital don’t think Donald Trump’s advice of the last few days is that of a very stable genius or of a leader concerned with the well-being of the people.
“I’m so glad that he appears to be doing well, that he has doctors who can give him experimental drugs that aren’t available to the masses,” Scott Sedlacek, who had COVID-19 in March, told the Associated Press. “For the rest of us, who are trying to protect ourselves, that behavior is an embarrassment.”
Trump tells us: “Don’t let it dominate your life.” But Marc Papaj, who lost his mother, grandmother, and aunt to the virus, told the AP: “The loss of my dearest family members will forever dominate my life in every way for all of my days.”
Trump’s words are a “slap in the face to all of those who lost a loved one to COVID-19, as well as all of us who put our lives on the line to save others,” Liza Billings, a New York City nurse whose brother was killed by the coronavirus, said in a statement to ABC News.
Fianza Garza Tulip, who lost her mother to the disease, used the same words: “a slap in the face.” So did Amanda Kloots, widow of Broadway star Nick Cordero.
They’re sure to be far from the only ones feeling that way.
”For the long haulers living with symptoms of COVID-19 for months on end, this virus is terrifying. Trump doesn’t care, and he still doesn’t get what families are going through,” Chris Kocher, executive director of COVID Survivors for Change, said in a statement. And Trump has no stress about whether doctors will respond to his symptoms, about whether every possible medication will be available to him, about the costs of his care.
But: ”He does not care about any of us—he’s feeling good,” Papaj said.