OPINION: Remember Trump saying COVID-19 would go away after the election? It didn't.
Here we are nearly two weeks after the election that Trump decidedly lost by more than 5 million votes, and not only is COVID-19 not gone, it's on a rampage -- a rampage that has nothing to do with
Public health officials announced more than 160,000 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, an alarming new record that came just over a week after the country first experienced 100,000 cases in a single day. As a matter of fact, more than 100,000 coronavirus cases have been announced nationwide every day since
As of Friday morning, COVID, COVID, COVID was blamed for more than 240,000 deaths. There have been over 10.4 million confirmed infections in the
(READ MORE: High demand of Hamilton County COVID-19 tests causes increase in result times, people to be turned away)
Several states -- and
None of this has anything to do with
But it does have a lot to do with Trump's inaction. Despite his loss in the election, Trump has the admiration of 33% to 40% of our country. If 72.6 million people voted for him this year, that's a possible 72.6 million people who took cues from him to spurn common-sense masking and social distancing.
From February to now, our president has had to be goaded into doing the little bit that he has done to prepare the country -- pushed as Biden on the campaign trail week after week gave him a playbook by talking about what he would do if he were president.
Even then, Trump mocked stay-home advice, masks, social distancing and the virus itself. He and Vice President
Repeatedly Trump held superspreader events and rallies both at the
Now, as Trump hunkers down in the
Now, here we are: On average more than 1,000 Americans are dying of COVID-19 each day. And the "dark winter" is not yet upon us.
But
No, the virus didn't go away. Nor was it a political ploy lobbed by
COVID, COVID, COVID was and is a real and dangerous disease that Trump, as president, never took seriously.
A virus like this would have been -- and will be -- a challenge for any president. But it was especially a challenge for
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