US President Donald Trump has joined the list of world leaders who have been diagnosed with Covid-19, but like the United Kingdom’s Boris Johnson and Brazil’s Jair Bolsanaro, he is also a leader who was once sceptical of the virus. Bolsanaro was quarantined for a couple of weeks and Johnson was hospitalised and even administered oxygen. So far, Trump appears, at least from what we hear, to have escaped the worst. Yet, unlike the other two, Trump is in the midst of election season. Indeed, voting day for the US Presidential election is under one month away. But instead of convalescing, he has used the last few days to actively campaign, and while we are unaware of the advice doctors have given him, one is pretty sure that keeping his mask on in public is one of them. And his bravado may do more harm than good.

But Trump has always been a bit fast and loose with facts and best practices surrounding the pandemic. He is right in calling out China’s double standards and hypocrisy around the virus but by not taking the impact of the pandemic seriously enough, many lives have been lost in the US. However, in his defence, Trump’s position right now is a delicate one. He is not a young man and the US Presidential election is a tiring one, particularly given the bizarre way the US conducts it. This involves large amounts of travel across a geographically large country and his precarious health will affect his campaigning. We are still not aware if Trump’s diagnosis will impact the US Presidential election but it also highlights how uniquely susceptible politicians and the political process are to the pandemic. While education and some other sectors have switched to working from home, politics by its very nature involves social gatherings. In India, we do not know how adverse or otherwise the Bihar polls will be in the spreading of the virus but we could hope that it is now weaker than it was and best practices have been put in place. Trump should also be very careful, not just for his own health but those of his most ardent supporters as well.

(Courtesy: The Pioneer)

US President Donald Trump has joined the list of world leaders who have been diagnosed with Covid-19, but like the United Kingdom’s Boris Johnson and Brazil’s Jair Bolsanaro, he is also a leader who was once sceptical of the virus. Bolsanaro was quarantined for a couple of weeks and Johnson was hospitalised and even administered oxygen. So far, Trump appears, at least from what we hear, to have escaped the worst. Yet, unlike the other two, Trump is in the midst of election season. Indeed, voting day for the US Presidential election is under one month away. But instead of convalescing, he has used the last few days to actively campaign, and while we are unaware of the advice doctors have given him, one is pretty sure that keeping his mask on in public is one of them. And his bravado may do more harm than good.

But Trump has always been a bit fast and loose with facts and best practices surrounding the pandemic. He is right in calling out China’s double standards and hypocrisy around the virus but by not taking the impact of the pandemic seriously enough, many lives have been lost in the US. However, in his defence, Trump’s position right now is a delicate one. He is not a young man and the US Presidential election is a tiring one, particularly given the bizarre way the US conducts it. This involves large amounts of travel across a geographically large country and his precarious health will affect his campaigning. We are still not aware if Trump’s diagnosis will impact the US Presidential election but it also highlights how uniquely susceptible politicians and the political process are to the pandemic. While education and some other sectors have switched to working from home, politics by its very nature involves social gatherings. In India, we do not know how adverse or otherwise the Bihar polls will be in the spreading of the virus but we could hope that it is now weaker than it was and best practices have been put in place. Trump should also be very careful, not just for his own health but those of his most ardent supporters as well.

(Courtesy: The Pioneer)