The President of the United States of America, Donald Trump and his wife, Melania Trump have both tested positive for COVID-19. Donald Trump made the announcement this morning via his Twitter account at 5:45 a.m., Friday, October 2, 2020.
This test results returned positive on the heels of Hope Hicks, Counselor to the President, testing positive for the virus. The President announced that he and his wife will begin quarantine and recovery process immediately. He tweets:
“Hope Hicks, who has been working so hard without even taking a small break, has just tested positive for Covid 19. Terrible! The First Lady and I are waiting for our test results. In the meantime, we will begin our quarantine process!
Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!”
What is COVID-19
COVID-19 is the code name for the novel coronavirus that shook the whole world from 2019 and still persists close to the end of 2020. It started as a devastating epidemic in Wuhan, China and gradually found its way into almost all countries across the world.
The World Health Organisation (WHO), announced “COVID-19” as the name of this new disease on 11 February 2020, following guidelines previously developed with the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The name is derived as follows COrona VIrus Disease of 2019. Hence, the name, COVID-19.
Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that are known to cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
Donald Trump’s Take on COVID-19
It would be recalled that President Donald Trump has, on several occasions, referred to the COVID-19 pandemic as a common flu which will disappear as soon as summer (warmer seasons) appears. On Monday, February 10, 2020, Donald Trump was reported to have said, “A lot of people think that goes away in April with the heat — as the heat comes in. Typically, that will go away in April. We’re in great shape, though. We have 12 cases — 11 cases, and many of them are in good shape now.” According to the reports, Trump made this statement during a meeting with U.S. governors at the White House, when asked about the coronavirus.
Below are some of Trump’s statements either to the press or via his tweets about COVID-19:
On Tuesday, April 14, 2020, Donald Trump was reported to have said he would suspend U.S. funding for the World Health Organization. According to the reports, he posited that the agency had “mismanaged” the pandemic, had been slow to respond to the crisis and was “China-centric.”
The President however seemed to have privately acknowledged that the virus was five (5) times more severe than a regular flu. This was revealed through recording of a private conversation he had as far back as February 2020.
Mixed Reactions to Trump’s COVID-19 Positive Test Results
The reaction to the news of the U.S. President testing positive for the novel coronavirus was been quite interesting. While some wished he and his wife quick recovery, many have responded to his tweet with satisfaction at hearing his announcement. There are some who also believe it is a ploy to avoid scheduled presidential debates among many other assumptions or analysis.
It is also a little confusing to ascertain whether these people responding with negative comments and death wishes for the Republican are actually tweeting in the language Amharic or if their tweets are being scrambled by Twitter algorithm.
Overall, a lot of work has already begun in the areas of contact tracing to narrow down the amount of possible COVID-19 cases that may have arisen from contact with Hope Hicks.
Below are some screenshots of some of the responses to Trump testing positive for COVID-19:
