LETTERS: Clowning around with COVID, conspiracy theories and more

Trump has returned to the White House after developing COVID-19 at a White House super-spreader event, then spending a weekend at Walter Reed hospital where he received the maximum available treatment. And he continues to claim that the virus is not a threat, all the while implying that Joe Biden is weak because he wears a mask as medical experts recommend. In the meantime, we have gotten confusing and inconsistent information about Trump’s condition and treatment, even as the number of COVID positive tests among event attendees continues to increase by the hour. His irresponsible behavior continues to endanger the lives of countless Americans.

The absurdity of this incident is that either way you interpret, it looks bad for the president. If he has only a weak case of COVID-19, then why did he receive treatment that is only given to those with very serious symptoms? If he is truly sick enough to require this much care, then why has he been released to get even sicker and infect even more people? And why did the doctors equivocate so much when answering questions about his condition? Although they were readily open with positive information, they claimed physician confidentiality when asked very pertinent but more probing questions.

This is the usual incompetently scripted adolescent Trump drama we’re growing weary of. The president of the United States is the class clown and class bully all rolled into one person. Thank God there’s an election coming up! Hopefully it will end our national nightmare and bring science and sanity back into our dialogue.

John Hendry, Waco

I wonder if I’m guilty of perpetuating another conspiracy theory — or if there’s reason to be suspicious of a president who habitually lies and rhetorically exploits every potentially negative event. Why do I wonder? After being admitted to the hospital, Trump, who I don’t believe is lying about his illness, began taking the antiviral drug Remdesivir. Regeneron confirmed that it provided the experimental antibody cocktail REGN-COV2 to the White House under a compassionate use request, allowing a patient who has a life-threatening condition or serious disease or condition to receive a trial medical product when “no comparable or satisfactory alternative therapy options are available.”

Here’s my concern. If in the next 10 days the president recovers, won’t that allow him to claim the following: (1) If at age 74 with underlying risk conditions he can survive, so can everyone; (2) since Remdesivir worked, there’s ample reason for the drug’s being given emergency release authorization by the FDA; and (3) therefore, both of these prove that we are indeed “rounding the corner” in this pandemic. Such a scenario could help Trump neutralize the coronavirus issue in the campaign. Perhaps I’m overthinking. But as a communication scholar who for over 40 years studied many instances where rhetoric creates dangerous false realities, I am suspicious. If there’s one thing we have learned in the last four years, with Trump there is always reason to be on guard.

Richard Cherwitz,

University of Texas, Austin

Passing thought

When President Trump contracted the novel coronavirus, the thought occurred that the experience just might persuade him to face facts and deal more presidentially, more like a grownup, with this national crisis affecting so many. Never mind.

Bob Lott, Waco

The royal we

Trump told us that we have the best medicines in the world. By “we,” he meant the royal We, himself. He has been given drugs that we the people can’t get. If we could, we couldn’t afford them. It would be interesting to hear how many millions have been spent on his treatment. Drugs are the smallest part of that. The medical staff time and facilities at Walter Reed and the White House are the expensive part. How many doctors are attending him day and night?

Bill Franklin, Waco