OP Ed: Another Victim Of The Coronavirus: TRUTH - CommPRO

OP Ed: Another Victim Of The
Coronavirus: TRUTH

(And a Not-To-Forget Lesson For
People In Our Business)
Arthur Solomon, Public Relations Consultant

The deadly coronavirus hates people. It has separated people
from their families. It has separated people from their
friends. It has caused massive unemployment. It frightens
people. It is also responsible for an increase in hate
messages on social media, targeting all minority populations,
ranging from African-Americans, to Asian-Americans to
religious Americans who practice Orthodox Judaism and to Jews
who don’t. It has destroyed our way of living. The virus makes
people very ill. Worst of all it kills people.

But there is also a victim that was only made possible with
the assistance of humans – TRUTH.

President Trump’s revisionist remarks about the coronavirus,
which is happening as I write this, on April 26, continues.
The result: For many Americans is there is no TRUTH. And
politics and the media have played a large part in aiding the
virus to put TRUTH on life support.

While TRUTH had been ill since January, it took a sudden turn
for the worse in the U.S. on February 28, during a rally in
South Carolina, when President Trump described the virus as a
Democratic “hoax.”

Other presidential remarks like saying, anyone who wants a
test can get one; there are plenty of PPE supplies; doctors
and nurses are hording them; we have the situation under
control; his hawking of medicines for people infected with the
disease as if he was a medical scientist, and his
contradictory remarks about blaming the coronavirus on China,
to name a few of the president’s comments, all added to put
TRUTH in a grave condition.

On January 22, President Trump, in an interview on CNBC’s
“Squawk Box,” surprised everyone by using his previously
unknown experience as an epidemiologist by describing the
coronavirus as “one person coming in from China.” We have it
totally under control. “It’s going to be just fine.”

Never a believer in what scientists say, the president, on
April 23, shocked the medical world and disinfectant
manufacturers by asking medical researchers if injecting the
sanitizers into people’s body might kill the virus.

The president’s remarks caused Lysol, on April 24, to issue
the following statement, in part: “As a global leader in
health and hygiene products, we must be clear that under no
circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered
into the human body (through injection, ingestion or any other
route),”

Also on April 24, The Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

issued a warning against using hydroxychloroquine, the anti-
malaria drug that President Trump has suggested, to treat
coronavirus outside of a hospital or drug trial. The FDA said,
“The drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine can cause
dangerous abnormalities in heart rhythm in coronavirus
patients, and should be used only in clinical trials or
hospitals where patients can be closely monitored for heart
problems”

The president often says, “What do you have to lose? When he
pretends to be a medical scientist by touting his Common Sense
Degree from Trump University, the answer is people’s lives.

What finally moved TRUTH to the intensive care unit were the
comments of Trump’s lackeys, on his staff and in the media.

For weeks before Trump declared a national emergency TV
personalities on Fox News played down the seriousness of
the coronavirus. They support anything the president says.
It’s safe to assume (even though assuming is a “no-no” for
serious journalists) that many of Fox’s viewers have been
infected with the virus because they believe the Fox News
opinion entertainers version of accuracy. Many viewers also
probably died. And for those illnesses and deaths Fox
management and commentators are responsible. (How they look
themselves in a mirror is beyond me. They are as guilty of
causing illnesses and deaths as is Trump and his staff
lackeys. Maybe more so, because Fox News parrot’s what Trump
says on various programs throughout the day and evening, with
no fact checking as major publications do.)

When the president accuses the media of reporting “fake news,”
he should be pointing fingers at Laura Ingraham, who for weeks
promoted the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as a cure for
coronavirus illness, along with her Fox News colleagues Tucker
Carlson and Sean Hannity. During a discussion about the anti-
malaria drug on his “Tucker Carlson Tonight” program, the host
introduced Gregory Rigano as an advisor to the Stanford

University School of Medicine. Stanford said Rigano has no
affiliation with the school. Rigano also touted the drug on
Ms. Ingraham’s program. A prime example of “fake news,” which
the president disregarded while claiming that accurate news
reports were “fake news.”

     (Media Matters For America reported, “During a two-week
     span between March 23 and April 6, Fox hosts and
     guests promoted hydroxychloroquine nearly 300 times.
     “Of these nearly 300 mentions, the vast majority came
     from four Fox shows: The Ingraham Angle(84 promotional
     mentions), Fox & Friends (76, including Fox & Friends
     First and Fox & Friends Weekend), Hannity (53),
     and Tucker Carlson Tonight (22).”)

But the New York Times reported on April 25, when Fox’s prime
time commentators, the most closely watched shows on Fox, had
a chance to warn viewers against ingesting disinfectants as a
cure for coronavirus, as the president had mentioned, they
sidestepped that matter entirely on Thursday, (April 23) said
the article.

Of course, Ingraham, Hannity and Carlson aren’t the only Fox
entertainers to earn the title of Trump lackeys. On “The Five”
telecast on April 24, Greg Gutfeld defended Trump’s statement
about how a disinfectant might help in curing the coronavirus
by saying, “how could anyone believe that Trump meant it when
he said people should inject Clorox into their bodies.” Also
Dana Perino said the president wasn’t suggesting that people
should drink bleach. (What about injecting it, Ms. Perino?)
And as usual, as she does on all her “Media Buzz” appearances,
another lackey, Mollie Hemingway, a senior editor at The
Federalist, bashed the media’s coverage of Trump on the April
26 program.

Whether he meant it or not Trump’s remarks showed the danger
of his delving into medical issues. Maryland’s hotline
received more than 100 calls about using a disinfectant after

the president’s comment. And The Maryland Emergency Management
Agency issued a warning for people not to ingest or inject
disinfectant on social media shortly after Trump suggested
doctors could study whether disinfectants could be injected or
ingested to fight coronavirus. In Washington state, officials
urged people not to consume laundry detergent capsules. In
New York City, the Daily News reported that the Poison Control
Center saw 30 cases of “exposure to Lysol, bleach and other
cleaners in 18 hours after Trump’s suggestion” that cleaning
products might be used to treat coronavirus. (April 24 was not
a good day, scientifically speaking, for Trump, and he refused
to take questions after making his opening remarks at his
daily presser.)

A headline on CNBC on March 17 said, “Trump dismissed
coronavirus pandemic worry in January — now claims he long
warned about it.”

But that didn’t prevent the lackeys on the president’s staff
(including Dr. Jerome Adams, the Surgeon General, who fails to
correct the president’s pseudo science medical statements) to
pretend that everything Trump says, along with his Fox News
sycophants, about the virus is handed down to him from God.
Led by chief lackey Vice President Pence, the president’s
other lackeys thank him for his leadership almost every time
Trump takes a breath. Prominent among them are Attorney
General William Barr, the president’s lawyer, and Robert C.
O’Brien, the White House national security advisor.

On April 9, after the president said he wanted to open the
economy, The Hill, the political insiders’ web site, reported,
“Attorney General William Barr late Wednesday suggested that
the federal government in May should begin relaxing some of
the “draconian” social distancing restrictions imposed
throughout the U.S.”

Barr said in an interview with Fox News that the U.S. had to

be very careful to ensure some of the measures being adopted
are fully justified, and there are not alternative ways of
protecting people amid the novel coronavirus outbreak, said
the article, written by Justin Wise. (I assume Barr made his
suggestion based on his medical training at Trump University’s
health facility. I also don’t recall the president’s lawyer
being concerned about the states ordered shut downs until
Trump said it was time to reopen the economy . Just a
coincidence, I assume.)

Further down in the article by Wise: “The comments arrived as
the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19, the illness caused
by the novel coronavirus, continued to climb in the U.S. As of
Thursday morning, the U.S. had reported roughly 432,000
confirmed cases of the virus and more than 14,800 deaths from
it.” (That was then. The numbers as I write at 4: 25 pm on
April 26 are much worse now. According to CNN in the U.S:
Infected 957016, deaths 54435.)

In a Wall Street Journal April 21 Op-Ed column titled, “Seven
Fateful Coronavirus Decisions,” national security advisor
O’Brien’s opening paragraph said, “Facing a once-in-a-century
pandemic, a crisis that some have likened to a world war, the
U.S. is fortunate to have President Trump in charge. I have
witnessed him make the tough decisions necessary at every turn
to keep America safe. Seven of these decisions stand out.”
(Google the Op-Ed to read the entire revisionist history
article.)

The Op-Ed concluded with O’Brien, or maybe his ghost scribe
writing, “In my assessment, the president’s decisions outlined
here have saved tens or even hundreds of thousands of American
lives. The war on this virus isn’t over. But I am confident
that under Mr. Trump’s leadership, America will prevail.”

The president’s chief lackey, Vice President Pence, who always
praises Trump’s leadership, said in an interview with the Wall
Street Journal that appeared on April 23, that the coronavirus

epidemic can be “largely in the past” by early June. (I assume
he based that remark on his medical science degree from Trump
University, the medical school of choice for Trump defenders.)

What type of leadership is President Trump providing? My
opinion: Trump’s leadership reminds me of another president’s
leadership: Jefferson Davis during the Civil War, or closer to
our time Neville Chamberlain.

What the country needs now is leadership like Franklin Delano
Roosevelt showed during the great depression and during World
War 2. Leadership like Winston Churchill showed during the
blitzing of London, when England alone battled the Nazis.
Leadership like former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani
showed after 9/11.

A close relative of mine, a supporter of President Trump, told
me that no matter what Trump does he should be respected
because he is the president. I’ll respect the president when
he respects the people and stops lying to them.

Because of the lackeys in the media and on Trump’s staff TRUTH
is now hooked-up to a ventilator. But there is hope that it
will recover. Poll after poll, even among Republicans, have
shown that people do not believe what the president says about
the coronavirus situation. (An Associated Press poll released
on April 23 said that only 23% of Americans believe that what
Trump says about the coronavirus is truthful. That’s 22 % more
than I do.) They believe governors like Andrew Cuomo of New
York, a Democrat, and Larry Hogan, the Republican governor of
Maryland, and Ohio governor Mike DeWine, another Republican,
all of whom have gained national recognition.

Hopefully, because of medical scientists, like Dr. Anthony
Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, Dr.
Robert Redfield, Director of the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, and to a Very, Very, Very, Very, much lesser

extent Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response
coordinator, who too often tries to placate the president, and
explain what he really meant to say, instead of telling him
that his junk medical science remarks are dangerous and wrong,
and Dr. Rick Bright TRUTH will recover.

(Dr. Bright was removed as the Director, Biomedical Advanced
Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and Deputy
Assistant Secretary in the Office of the Assistant Secretary
for Preparedness and Response (ASPR), U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services, where he had been leading the
federal effort to develop a coronavirus vaccine because, the
medical scientist said, he disagreed with the president’s
attempt to fund hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malaria drug as
the preferred coronavirus treatment without thorough vetting
by medical researchers. Dr. Bright also served as Director of
the Influenza and Emerging Infectious Diseases Division in the
BARDA, where he was responsible for preparing the nation for
influenza pandemics and coordinating production, acquisition
and delivery of medical countermeasures during a pandemic
response. In that role, he managed a portfolio of projects for
advanced development of vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics
and respirator devices to aid in the response and protection
against pandemic and seasonal influenza. But, it appears, that
his medical/scientist background didn’t match up with the ones
that Drs. Trump, Pence, O’Brien, Barr, Ingraham, Hannity and
Carlson received from Trump University.)

The U.S. has always recovered from other epidemics caused by
viruses. But recovery from the coronavirus will be a very slow
one because the president’s lackeys will continue to spread
the president’s lies, along with his snake oil remedies. The
president will continue to say, and his lackeys will back up
his claims about the virus being contained, like he has said
numerous times on his pressers, while the virus was spreading
and is still efficiently distributing its deadly toxins. And
new “hot spots” emerge.

How long it will take for the epidemic to subside is any ones
guess. But what isn’t a guess is that Trump’s witch hunt of
blaming everyone but himself for the spread of the virus in
the U.S., despite his inept delaying actions and denying there
was a problem by calling it a Democratic “hoax,” will continue
at least until the November election, if not longer. And his
lackeys will provide the broom sticks for the president to fly
on as he searches for the witches. You can bet the farm on it.
He has already blamed China and the World Health Organization.
He has already blamed Democratic governors. He has already
blamed the media for over blowing the extent of the
coronavirus. It’s only a matter of time before he
blames reporters for causing the virus because they didn’t
clean their computers properly.

Intentionally or not, President Trump has provided people in
our business with a not-to-forget lesson: Never lie to the
media. Because once you’re caught in a lie even when you tell
the truth reporters will be skeptical of what you say. It’s
called the “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” syndrome, which apparently
has spread to Trump and his lackeys.

Some years ago, there was a philosophical, political comic
strip called “Pogo,” (by Walt Kelly) in which Pogo would
occasionally say, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”
Substitute “Trump” for “Pogo” and the word “me” for “us” and
you have a real life comic reality show featuring
medical/scientific advice gleaned from the president’s
comments on his daily corona virus pressers.

An article in the Sunday, April 26, New York Times magazine
tells of a former White House employee who tweeted that Trump
is a “pathetic human being.” In my estimation, that’s too
compassionate a description of the president.

About the Author: Arthur Solomon, a
                         former journalist, was a senior
                         VP/senior counselor at Burson-
                         Marsteller, and was responsible for
                         restructuring, managing and playing
                         key roles in some of the most
                         significant        national      and
                         international sports and non-sports
programs. He also traveled internationally as a media adviser
to high-ranking government officials. He now is a frequent
contributor to public relations publications, consults on
public relations projects and is on the Seoul Peace Prize
nominating committee. He can be reached at arthursolomon4pr
(at) juno.com and artsolomon4pr (at) optimum.net