That’s what I called it several weeks ago when I said “the next curveball in this election is going to be that one of the candidates gets it.” And by “it” I was of course referring to the coronavirus. I only said what a lot of people were thinking. And now here we are. The 45th president of the United States has COVID.
He’s 74 years old, overweight, and male. Not great. Plus we have the added worry that we don’t actually know anything for sure about his medical condition. We know he’s got it, we know he’s a patient at Walter Reed hospital. But we can’t believe anything we’re told about his condition because these people lie about everything–including and especially about the president’s health.
So the president has a potentially deadly disease. We do not know his condition. He may be fine. He may, now or at any point, be incapacitated and unable to perform the duties of president. And there’s a non-zero chance that he could die.
There’s some controversy about whether Democrats and lefties in general should be respectful and sympathetic or if they should feel free to let loose with the “I told you sos” and worse. I heard someone on TV liken the president to a drunk driver who is injured in a crash that killed a bunch of other people. The guy was on to something, I think. The president not only failed to execute a national response to the pandemic, he actively engaged in the spreading of misinformation, and even mocked those who were advocating doing the right thing.
He didn’t just fail to do his job. He was basically on team virus, actively thwarting the adoption of sensible public health measures. As a result, more than 200,000 Americans are dead. That number could double by the end of the year.
And now the president himself is sick. He endangered the lives of all Americans and now that danger has come for him, too. The coronavirus may not be alive, but it certainly does not lack a sense of irony.