COVID19 Update - Day 248

US Tests: 143,850,906*

US Cases: 10,588,169*

US Deaths: 235,629*

Worldwide Cases: 53,284,867*

Worldwide Deaths: 1,301,054*

* - Numbers are a lower bound.  True numbers are being suppressed by the Trump administration

Tonight I'm feeling lazy, and I don't want to take the time to research an interesting #TrumpVirus story.  But writing about outbreaks which were directly caused by Trump's irresponsibility is always low-hanging fruit:

This is not the first coronavirus outbreak among the Secret Service. When Trump first resumed his campaign rallies in June, dozens of Secret Service agents came down with Covid-19. That outbreak happened after Trump’s ill-fated indoor rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and following a trip Vice President Mike Pence took to campaign in Arizona.

And it’s not just the Secret Service experiencing an outbreak, either. After Trump, several of his top officials, and many others in contact with them tested positive for the coronavirus in October, it appears the entire White House is dealing with another coronavirus cluster.

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows was the first high-profile staffer to test positive in the Trump administration’s second outbreak. Bloomberg’s Jennifer Jacobs reported that Meadows tested positive on November 4 after attending an election night event at the White House alongside hundreds of people without masks.

That news would be worrying enough on its own. But as Jacobs reported, Meadows’s infection was not widely known until she broke the news — reportedly two days after he tested positive

Others in Trump’s inner circle who have tested positive include Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson and campaign adviser Corey Lewandowski. Carson was at the same large event on election night as Meadows, and he tested positive on Monday at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. He told the Post that afternoon that he was experiencing a “fever of 101 [degrees], chills, muscle cramps, respiratory issues, and fatigue.”

It's one thing if Trump and members of his cult insist on putting their own lives (and those of their families) at risk.  But this article also says that more than 130 secret service officers are currently in quarantine.  It's frankly criminal that Trump insists on putting these peoples' lives at risk.

And hypocritical as well.  Trump and his minions are supposedly concerned about the welfare of law enforcement, with their 'blue lives matter' attitude and fascist American flag knockoff.  But as usual, they only mean this when it's convenient for them to feel morally superior to others.

In reality, the #TrumpVirus has taken the lives of more law enforcement officers than all other factors combined.  But does that cause them to moderate their behavior even a little?  Of course not.  Doing whatever they damn well please is a high priority to these people, second only to singing the praises of their corrupt, impeached, and defeated master.