Wayne woke me up early this morning saying, “Your buddy and his wife tested positive for the coronavirus.”
It may go down as one of those times I always remember where I was when I heard the news.
Of course I don’t really want anyone to ever get sick, but I’m not gonna lie. The news made me happy…for a split second.
Then Wayne and I started talking about all the ways this could impact the election and people’s response to the pandemic going forward.
Scenario 1: It’s All Strategy
I don’t know why you’d ever want to tempt karma and lie about having any sickness, but Trump is a master gamesman. This could all be a ploy.
Maybe he wants out of further debates.
Maybe he thinks the polls are right this time and Biden really does have a sizeable lead. (I hope it’s true and more people are realizing what a menace to our society Trump is, but the polls let me down in 2016 so I’m not trusting them this time.)
Either way, he can use it as an excuse to explain why he loses the election if he does.
Or maybe he wants to say, “See? I had it. It’s not so bad. I’m fine,” and use that to his advantage.
If he’s not truly sick, and this is some ploy, there’s no telling how he’ll play it all out.
Scenario 2: He’s Asymptomatic or Only Has a Mild Case
His White House chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, reported the POTUS is showing mild symptoms.
His age and weight put him in the at-risk age range for complications and death, but…he’s white.
According to the CDC, other races and ethnicities are faring worse than whites when it comes to hospitalization and deaths, including American Indian and Alaskan Natives, Blacks and African Americans, Hispanics and Latinos, and Asian Americans.
It’s very likely he’ll pull through this with only a mild case.
Which would be worse than if he got very sick.
Not that I want him to die. Yes, great that he survives. America’s had over 200,000 deaths so far. We don’t need to keep adding to that number.
But when he mentioned how terrible it was that Hope Hicks had gotten it, he made sure to mention she had been “doing all the stuff” like wearing a mask and all that.
Lie.
None of them have been wearing masks or social distancing. Part of me feels like, “Holy crap, it took long enough for him to get it.” Another part of me is saying, “Holy crap, he’s got it. Now what’s he going to do with it?”
Because if he recovers quickly and doesn’t have to go to the hospital like the U.K.’s Boris Johnson did, who ended up having a change of attitude towards the virus after he did, Trump is going to say masks don’t work (even though he’s not wearing them), and that this disease has been overrated, we’ve all overreacted, and we should get back to normal STAT.
If that happens, and he’s fit as a fiddle again come November 4, he’ll win the election for sure.
Maybe rightly so. Maybe the news and governments have overreacted. Only time is going to be able to answer that.
That’s if he really has the disease. Again, this could all be a master ploy.
Scenario 3: He Actually Gets Sick
Well, if it happens, my faith in karma will be restored.
You can’t thumb your nose at something and not expect it to catch up with you sooner or later.
A serious illness is a great humbler. I can’t think of a better person that could happen to.
However, as much as I’d like it to be, it’s not going to be like A Christmas Carol where visits from the ghosts of coronavirus past, present, and future transform this Scrooge into a better, kinder, more responsible and compassionate person.
But a girl can hope that’s the outcome, because of them all it would be the best.