Trump’s Tweet Is Wrong — Real Leaders Should Be Afraid Of Covid-19

On Monday, President Trump announced via Twitter that he would be leaving Walter Reed Medical Center Monday evening. But aside from his surprising announcement and subsequent swift return to the White House, Trump’s tweet included some surprising statements…

and advice that no leader should follow.

“I will be leaving the great Walter Reed Medical Center today at 6:30 P.M. Feeling really good!” the President tweeted Monday afternoon. “Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life. We have developed, under the Trump Administration, some really great drugs & knowledge. I feel better than I did 20 years ago!”

It is good news for both the President and the nation that he is feeling better. It’s also good news that Trump, who has benefited from world-class medical treatment and experimental medication that a vast majority of Americans don’t have access to, is expressing optimism about his condition. Yet while Trump may be back to tweeting with vigor, the truth of the mater is that his tweet also shows symptoms of his deeply flawed leadership perspective on the pandemic.

During a press conference on Monday, President Trump’s doctor, Dr. Sean Conley, seemingly endorsed the President’s return to the White House. “He’s met or exceeded all hospital discharge criteria,” Conley said outside Walter Reed. “We plan to get him home.” But Conley did sound one note of caution when he said, “he may not be entirely out of the woods yet.”

Neither is America.

As of Monday, almost 210,000 Americans have died from the coronavirus, and over 7.3 million individuals have been infected. Even more troubling, the trends of the pandemic are worsening. By Sunday, 24 states were reporting an increase in cases, with 19 states case numbers staying level. Based on data from Johns Hopkins University, the nation also has a troubling seven-day trend, with the average number of cases over the past seven days at 42,000. That number is over 20% higher than the same seven-day trend number in September. One model even shows approximately 2,900 Americans could die every day in December if trends don’t improve.

In other words, the deadly virus shows no sign of letting up…

which means America’s leaders can’t either.

While the exact manner in which the President became infected is unknown, it is clear that his leadership choices led to his positive test for coronavirus. Despite having access to the best advice and insight about the coronavirus, Trump claims only now is he gaining an educated about the deadly virus. 

“I learned that by really going to school. This is the real school,” the President said in a video he tweeted Sunday afternoon. “This isn’t the ‘let’s read the book’ school, and I get it, and I understand it, and it’s a very interesting thing and I’m going to be letting you know about it.”

But is Trump learning the right lessons? 

By telling Americans not to be afraid of Covid-19, the President is once again diminishing a deadly virus that forced him to go to the hospital. He is once again minimizing the risks that medical experts in America have been desperately trying to communicate to the public. And Trump is once again demonstrating a startling lack of leadership of a nation facing its greatest public health crisis in a century.

Real leaders, not just political leaders, but leaders in business, education, entertainment and every other industry and aspect of America, should fear Covid-19. It has the ability to kill millions of Americans, cripple the nation’s economic recovery, and disrupt not only the nation’s way of life, but the education of its children. These disruptions are not momentary. They will impact all the generations living through these unprecedented times. 

Of course the pandemic shouldn’t dominate individuals’ lives so much that they became immobilized with fear. But by expressing a cavalier attitude towards the very virus that sickened him enough to force him to the hospital, the President is once again trying to shape the debate over how individuals respond to the pandemic. Regardless of your politics, it is right to be happy to see the President regain his health. But it is also important to recognize that the President is deeply wrong when he suggests “don’t be afraid of Covid.” Americans should be afraid of what Covid-19 can do…

And they should be even more afraid of leaders who aren’t.