From 1900 to 1906, an Irish immigrant named Mary Mallon cooked for eight families in the New York City area. Seven of them contracted Typhoid fever. In 1907, Mallon was quarantined involuntarily until 1919 when she was released on the condition that she seek employment in a profession other than a cook. Between 1910 and 1915, Mallon violated her condition of release and returned to cooking. More typhoid infections followed and she was taken into custody by the New York City authorities and was quarantined for the next twenty-three years until her death in in 1938. She infected a total of fifty-three people, three of whom died. She went down in history forever known as “Typhoid Mary.”
We know, from the tape-recorded interviews with Bob Woodward, that Donald Trump has known since at least February that the lethality of the Covid-19 virus. He knew that it was airborne and that it affected people of all ages.
Despite that knowledge, Trump led the American people to believe that the virus was “no worse than the flu,” “would disappear like magic,” would disappear in the warm weather” and all sorts of lies and myths. He peddled all sorts of bogus remedies including injecting bleach and inserting ultraviolet light through the body orifices. He dismissed the medical experts’ prescriptions to reduce the transmission such as wearing masks and social distancing. He falsely promised a vaccine by election time. Unhappy with the advice he was receiving from renowned epidemiologists, he surrounded himself with quacks and charlatans who would tell him what he wanted to hear and bolster his lies and myths as he tried to wish the pandemic away.
As the virus mushroomed in cases, he left it to the states to procure their own medical supplies, ventilators and personal protection equipment crating a nightmarish economy in which the state officials found themselves bidding against each other, against foreign countries and contracting with grifters who often took their money and provided shoddy product or simply disappeared.
Against the advice of the medical and scientific community, he urged states to reopen their economies. Republican Governors DeSantis, Kemp, Ducey, Abbott and other, like lemmings, followed his lead and quickly saw the rate of infection and death in their states rise.
In search of adulation, Trump returned to the campaign trail and held massive rallies where little or no face masking or social distancing occurred. They became known as “super spreaders.” He held mini “super spreaders” at the White House, packing people together on the lawn of the White House and the Rose garden to celebrate his renomination and the nomination of a candidate for the U.S. Supreme Court.
As recently as last week, he stood on the debate stage in Cleveland, Ohio and mocked Vice-President Biden for wearing a mask on the campaign trail and holding small, socially distanced events.
As all of this unfolded over 208,000 Americans died and 7,000,000 were infected with Covid-19 and remain at the mercy of its sequelae.
On Friday, we learned that Trump, his wife, and a growing number of his White House staff and campaign staff have contracted the virus.
At this writing, Trump is a patient at Walter reed Hospital and is being treated by the best medical doctors in the country with the latest medicines and experimental treatments.
He is receiving far better treatment than the millions of American who are infected and those who died because of his lies and failure to lead.
In the midst of this his campaign has announced that that Vice-President Pence, the next person in line to the Presidency, will travel to Arizona on Thursday to hold another large, in-person rally which with no social distancing and no requirement that masks be worn.
If the Trump campaign and the White House are both stupid and reckless enough to do this, I propose that Trump be immediately discharged from Walter Reed Hospital and sent home with a bottle of Clorox Bleach.