Thread by @ASlavitt

COVID Update December 1: Donald Trump, here’s your chance. This message is for you.

No need to tweet that he won’t do any of these things. Really, I do get that. But I’m going to make my plea anyway. 1/

Donald Trump is still the person in the country who could do the most to prevent the most deaths.

Each day that goes by is a missed opportunity to save more lives— in ways only he can do. 2/

We are growing 1 million plus new cases/week. Hospitals in the smallest towns & big cities are dangerously teetering on the edge. 3/

I talked to an ER doc in RI today. She worked the Friday after Thanksgiving. Admitted every single case that came in. Every room that opened they slotted a patient in. Every ER bed that opened they filled in. As fast as they could. 4/

Anyone with milder COVID is staying home. She watched several patients get dropped off by their children. The children couldn’t come in. She describes wanting to yell to the kids to stop & look at their parent. Because she thought it might be a final time. 5/

They try to dedicate a phone in the ER exclusively to being available for family members. Family members call & because they cannot see their sick loved one, they want to stay on the phone with the doc. The doc has 19 other patients at the same time. 6/

Every bed full, every ER bed full, waiting room full, some staying at home. Tomorrow they open a field hospital. The quality of care slips in small ways— less time, needing to be more severe to get a bed. Most people coming in are essential workers or their parents. 7/

She described the palliative measures they are taking. The phone calls that eventually get made saying they are sorry they have no good news...some days are getting made 2000 times across the country. More than once each minute. That phone call. 8/

In the middle of this the president, still the president, does nothing.

His team is looking for work.
Press conferences about a vaccine. Tweeting about petty shit.

As he always has, he has the power to do something. 9/

December and January— a boat in choppy waters. No one pretending to have their hand on the tiller any more. With no election, no reason to even fake it any more. 10/

250,000 are dead. And scientists are now saying it could be double that before this is through.

How. Is. That acceptable.
How. The. F—- is that acceptable.
Tell me.

That all the shit we have been through for 10 months could double again in much less time before long? 11/

France did not accept that. They went back in.
England did not accept that.

When you see a second wave, it’s a message to those counties—- pack it in for a few weeks. 12/

Let me tell you something having talked to folks over there. They don’t love it. They don’t love restaurants being closed. But guess what: they don’t want more dead people. More full hospitals.

Different story here. 13/

What could Trump do?

Tell Mitch McConnell to get a support deal done for combat pay, for paid leave, to protect against evictions so people don’t need to be unsafe. 14/

What else could he do?

Tell his people to get with the program. They may only listen to him. Instead of following the hot trail of super sleuths in the Giuliani gang & making up fairy tales about Hugo Chavez, slap yourself out of your fantasies & notice the dying people. 15/

Stop sitting in the Oval feeling sorry for yourself. For once in your life ask what a grown up would do. Or even a kind child. Step up, speak up. Your legacy is still being recorded. 16/

All of this is happening on a country which you claim to care about. Because you have not doesn’t mean you can’t. It would require so little.

The pressure should not be off Donald Trump. It should be dialed up. 17/

Just because he lost (many many times it seems) doesn’t mean we should forget about him. He has the keys to so many things. 18/

Why stop protesting just because he lost. Trump has an obligation before Biden starts.

Every life. Every burden on a hospital. He’s accountable. This is his watch. This is his chapter still being written.

19/

He can’t even pretend like he’s caring for the economy. His unwillingness to address anything has caused us to be more out of control & businesses to close. 20/

Until noon on January 20, this moaping, this faux coup, frankly is still on our dime.

Until the adults arrive, is it too much to ask that he pays at least a little attention??

We’ve been well trained on the answer. 21/

We’re well-trained after 4 years that even lifting a finger requires caring about another human being besides yourself.

So we are writing off the next 7 weeks? 7 million cases? 22/

Now is definitely not the time to be silent. /end