Thread by @DrRobDavidson

As a physician who has dedicated over 2 decades to hopefully improving the lives (and occasionally saving them) of my patients, @realdonaldtrump’s new message-Coronavirus: Live with it-is appalling and offensive. 1/10 nbcnews.com/politics/polit…

He has finally recognized that it will not magically “disappear,” but no-one has told him that he has a role to play in protecting the lives and livelihoods of millions of Americans. A rising case count, hospitalization rate and death toll is not inevitable. 2/10

Like @jairbolsonaro in Brazil, @realDonaldTrump continues to minimize the risk of #COVID-19. Not surprisingly, over 100,000 or the over 200,000 record cases reported by the @WHO yesterday came from the US and Brazil. 3/10 news.sky.com/story/coronavi…

Even if “99% of cases are harmless,” if we go down Trump’s primrose path, half of America could be infected by the end of 2020. Even if only half of the “serious cases” die, that could be over 800k largely preventable deaths on his watch. 4/10 forbes.com/sites/jemimamc…

And the sad truth is that Trump still can do something about it. As he pushes hard to recklessly open all aspects of the economy as his only path to re-election, he has missed the point that “doing something” about the #pandemic might be his only hope, and ours. 5/10

What can he do? Instead of issuing Executive Orders to defend statues and monuments, he can issue an EO mandating the wearing of masks in public spaces where 6ft distancing is impossible. His followers, @FOXnews and @GOP governors would fall in line. 6/10

He, and @Mike_Pence, can stop hosting and attending #SuperSpreader events with thousands packed together, often indoors and without masks, and model good behavior for the rest of America. He can wear a mask in public to show us how simple and harmless it is. 7/10

And finally, he can listen to #publichealth experts and recognize that the only path to lasting economic recovery is controlling the spread of #coronavirus. He can communicate this message to his supporters and media allies. This simple act can have enormous benefit. 8/10

As Trump has spent the last month defending the names of Americans who have died centuries ago, he has continued to ignore the lives of those currently filling ICUs, and he has dishonored the likely 150k Americans who have died from #COVID19. 9/10 jamanetwork.com/journals/jamai…

A truly Presidential moment could be the acknowledgment of the seriousness of the #pandemic, simple action to limit the transmission of #coronavirus, and shift of focus away from divisiveness toward the idea of the shared sacrifice necessary to combat this disease./END