A recent Washington Post article summarized the Trump administration’s approach to the pandemic, according to officials linked to the administration. These officials told the Washington Post that the administration is “of the belief that people will get over it or if we stop highlighting it…the public will learn to accept 50,000 to 100,000 new cases a day,” and just “live with the virus being a threat.”
The actions of the Trump administration in response to the pandemic have certainly demonstrated that this has been their policy all along. But it is still shocking to have this callous attitude admitted openly.
So far there have been over 130,000 deaths from this virus. As of July 6, COVID-19 is the fifth greatest cause of death in the U.S., following heart disease, cancer, accidents, chronic lower respiratory diseases and strokes, in that order. And several states are seeing new spikes in cases and hospitalizations. We are not even close to the end of this nightmare.
With this virus taking the lives of our family members, our friends, our coworkers, and our neighbors, we cannot just “get over it!”
The Trump administration, along with all of the so-called leaders of this country, continue to make it clearer by the day that what matters in this country is only the profits of corporations – not the lives of working people.