I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to get outside regularly during these past few months, mask in place, hand sanitizer at the ready. I’ve done my level best to choose my outings wisely, balancing my need for exercise and camaraderie with my obligations to family, friends, and community.
The cruelest thing I could do would be to unwittingly transmit COVID-19 to another person. I would never forgive myself for the harm done by that. If I didn’t have the small reassurance that, thanks to the Affordable Care Act, Americans in New Hampshire and elsewhere have access to medical care from brave and selfless medical professionals when they need it, I might not feel safe going out at all.
So what magical thinking is creating the delusion in the minds of our supposedly superhuman leader and his henchmen that we are better off – in a pandemic, mind you – going about living like the pandemic isn’t happening, or, far worse, getting rid of the Affordable Care Act with absolutely nothing to replace it? The lunacy of this boggles the mind. Yet this is their stated intention. They promise to start unraveling our health care act as soon as Nov. 10, if their pick to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the Supreme Court is approved by the Senate.
The magical thinking of the leadership has been so profound that, even as the president-who-would-be-king fell ill with COVID, and was ministered to by a dream team of medical specialists at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (thanks to our generous taxpayer dollars), he flaunted medical protocol and common sense.
On Sunday, he left the hospital AMA (Against Medical Advice) – and for what? For a campaign appearance in his armored presidential vehicle while ill and actively shedding virus! He has such blatant disregard for the authority of his physicians, and the health and very lives of his Secret Service agents that he chose to put his own lust for absolute power ahead of all else. And as he prepared to leave the hospital after just three days, he was tweeting relentlessly about how we shouldn’t be afraid of COVID or let it dominate our life.
We cannot let this caricature of a human being turn our nation upside down, rip it apart, and leave us with nothing. He despises science, spews lies, and has absolutely no respect for the people he pretends to lead. He has even mocked his opponent for taking reasonable measures to curb the spread of the virus, all the while setting the stage himself for superspreader events within the very halls of power.
He likes to think of himself as invulnerable, even as the embarrassing fact of his illness makes front-page headlines across the globe. Perhaps he likes the fact he commands such attention, even sympathy, around the world. But if we hope this brush with the reality of COVID will humanize him, our wish will not be granted. Leaving the hospital AMA is one more indication of how he is incapable of learning, even from his own egregious errors in judgment.
Let’s face it. We have a real virus wreaking havoc with our economy and robbing us of our loved ones. Despite what the president has claimed, COVID-19 will not magically disappear. In fact he has shown that wishing it so will only make matters worse.
We need our scientists, physicians, and public health experts to call the shots here. We need the Affordable Care Act now more than ever. And we need a leader who respects science, listens to experts, and actually cares about the American people. We have the opportunity to make our voices heard one month from now.
(Millie LaFontaine of Concord is a retired neurologist.)