President Trump defended his assertion that the novel coronavirus would “disappear” with or without a vaccine on Tuesday, saying the United States would develop what he called “herd mentality.”
“With time it goes away,” Trump said during an ABC News town hall in Pennsylvania when pressed by host George Stephanopoulos on his public comments about the virus. “You’ll develop — you’ll develop herd — like a herd mentality. It’s going to be, it’s going to be herd-developed, and that’s going to happen. That will all happen. But with a vaccine, I think it will go away very quickly.”
Trump appeared to mistake “herd mentality” for “herd immunity,” which occurs when enough individuals develop immunity to prevent the spread of a disease.
Trump went on to insist that the United States is “rounding the corner” with respect to the coronavirus, which has killed nearly 200,000 Americans. Top health officials, meanwhile, have warned of the possibility of a dangerous public health situation in the fall if a second wave of COVID-19 coincides with flu season.
Last week, Anthony Fauci, a key member of the White House coronavirus task force, said he disagreed with Trump’s claim that the U.S. was rounding the “final turn” on the virus.
“A lot of people do agree with me,” Trump told Stephanopoulos when pressed on Fauci’s disagreement. “You look at Scott Atlas, you look at some of the other doctors that are highly — from Stanford. Look at some of the other doctors. They think maybe we could have done that from the beginning.”
Atlas, a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, was added as one of Trump’s coronavirus advisers in August. The Washington Post reported last month that Atlas was pushing the White House to adopt a “herd immunity” strategy, though the White House has denied that the administration has ever considered such a policy to address the coronavirus pandemic.
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Trump defends claim coronavirus will disappear, citing "herd mentality" https://t.co/aHkNpDma2l pic.twitter.com/5SnQN2f1xg
— The Hill (@thehill) September 16, 2020
Because what else are they gonna call it? Donald Trump was just walking along the street, minding his own beeswax, and ABC keelhauled him into a room with a bunch of ordinary voters https://t.co/9lAHNQwdAN
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) September 16, 2020
For anyone else, I would dismiss this “herd mentality” phrase as a mere slip of the tongue and forget about it. I didn’t watch the whole town hall, but I saw clips of that part and others. While Trump fans are crowing that Trump’s performance last night was “brilliant,” what I saw was a total illiterate flailing as he tried to use his usual tactic of overwhelming people with BS and failing miserably. This was a public display of a deeply disturbed president with no idea of how to lead.
BTW: my favorite part of last night’s debacle was when Trump tried to interrupt a woman asking a question and she told him to shut up.
“And if we did follow that [herd immunity] approach, I think we might have two million people dead.”
— @realDonaldTrump, April 10, 2020 https://t.co/9CkWoQhFHD— George Conway (@gtconway3d) September 16, 2020
Someone should tell Trump that herd mentality is when one buffalo jumps off of a cliff and the entire herd follow him. His supporters know that well.
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