President Donald Trump has consistently refused to take the Coronavirus crisis seriously, including when it comes to wearing masks meant to stem the spread of the disease. He has seemingly yet to appear in public with one on, having previously complained about the aesthetic qualities of the personal protective equipment. Over the weekend, he jumped on a viral video clip of a CNN reporter temporarily removing her mask and called that reporter, the network’s Kaitlan Collins, a “faker.” Collins promptly publicly responded by pointing out the absurdity of the president’s pettiness while the U.S. death toll from the Coronavirus climbs towards 100,000.
She commented:
‘Nearly 90,000 Americans have been killed by coronavirus, and the president is tweeting about me pulling my mask down for six seconds on Friday.’
Nearly 90,000 Americans have been killed by coronavirus, and the president is tweeting about me pulling my mask down for six seconds on Friday. https://t.co/UYib8tS7pO
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) May 18, 2020
Indeed — Trump is obsessing over nitpicking reporters while wasting the time that he could be using to develop a more effective systematic response to the pandemic. Instead of that potential for a turnaround, the University of Washington projects that the United States will end up with over 147,000 Coronavirus deaths by early August.
At a press conference in the White House’s Rose Garden on Friday, Collins had pressed Trump about why some officials weren’t wearing masks even as the death toll continues to climb and the virus has been now repeatedly detected among administration officials. Both a personal valet for the president and the vice president’s press secretary have contracted the disease, among others like a slew of members of the Secret Service.
Trump told Collins:
‘We’ve all been tested and we are quite a distance away and we are outdoors, so I told them, I gave them the option, they could wear it or not. So you can blame it on me, but I gave them the option. We could wear it or not.’
Whoa- you know that 5 min rapid test that Trump touts and uses in the WH daily? Turns out the Abbott test machine could be missing as many as 48% of infections. At this point, there could be a full blow epidemic in WH. Still no mask Mr. President? #covid19 https://t.co/1k9wOZtm8w
— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) May 15, 2020
The Coronavirus test that the White House has been using actually has major problems associated with it. The Abbott Labs creation, which is designed to give testing results within about 15 minutes, apparently missed a significant number of positive Coronavirus cases. Meanwhile, White House officials have repeatedly downplayed the possibility of either the president or vice president getting sick, although it’s very real, especially as long as the president continues to whine on Twitter rather than take the virus particularly seriously.
Bloomberg: The coronavirus test from Abbott Laboratories used at the White House to get rapid answers to whether someone is infected may miss as many as half of positive cases, according to a report from New York University. https://t.co/zl9xn0O0K7
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) May 13, 2020
Check out Twitter’s response to Collins below:
