Additional reporting by Kayla Li and Elizabeth van Blommestein
Trump’s whoppers & misconceptions
President Trump has continually discounted warnings regarding the severity of the virus, instead perpetuating an unrealistically optimistic outlook on the pandemic. He has also propagated misinformation based on his own flawed knowledge. Here are some of his most fallacious statements.
Claim: Testing is readily available in the U.S.
“Anyone who wants a test can get a test,” Trump said to reporters on March 6th. “And the tests are beautiful.”
“It’s not like free testing for everyone who wants it. It’s just not available here”
However, health officials assert otherwise.
“It is not [an] ‘anyone can go get tested’ type of thing. Every one of [the testing companies and facilities] has criteria,” said San Mateo county health officer Scott Morrow in a public livestream. “You either have to be having certain symptoms or have been in close contact with a case, so it’s not like free testing for everyone who wants it. It’s just not available here. Hopefully we’ll expand testing, but we’re just not there at the moment.”
Trump also proceeded to claim that the U.S. is coping very well.
“We’re in great shape in every way,” Trump said in a press briefing on April 10. “We’re leading the world now in testing, by far, and we’re going to keep it that way.”
Although the U.S. is expanding testing, it definitely experienced a rough start with faulty test kits and generally slow testing compared to other countries. For instance, South Korea tested about 4,000 people per million of its population at the time while the U.S. only ran five tests per million, despite both countries having reported cases around Jan. 20 and Jan. 21, according to Harvard Business Review.
Claim: The U.S. has an abundance of ventilators.
“We have tremendous — we have — we’re the envy of the world, in terms of ventilators,” Trump said in his April 10th press briefing.
However, the U.S. is far from having a tremendous number of ventilators, forcing doctors and patients to make difficult decisions regarding who gains access to these essential machines.
“We don’t actually keep track of the number of ventilators in the county. … We’re going to be dependent on either the state’s stockpile or the national stockpile, the federal stockpile, to get more ventilators,” Dr. Morrow said. “But there are not enough ventilators in this country to deal with this problem.”
Claim: The outbreak can be tempered by antibiotics.
“It’s a brilliant enemy. They develop drugs [like antibiotics]. … Antibiotics used to solve every problem,” Trump said. “Now one of the biggest problems the world has is the germ has gotten so brilliant that the antibiotic can’t keep up with it.”
The coronavirus, like the common cold or flu, is a virus, not a bacteria. Bacteria related illnesses or infections such as strep throat, tuberculosis or urinary tract infection can all be treated with antibiotics. Viruses, on the other hand, are infectious agents that enter an organism and alter its genetic information to reproduce within it, and cannot be treated with antibiotics.
Instead, viruses are treated with antiviral medications, which fight viruses in the body. Another means of treating viral illnesses is alleviating the side effects, known as symptomatic treatment, which includes taking fever suppressors such as Advil or Tylenol, or receiving fluids through an IV for hydration. Moreover, antibiotics can be utilized to treat bacterial related pneumonia caused by the coronavirus.
Vaccines are synthetic versions of the virus that are intended to promote the body’s development of antibodies prior to catching the virus. Thus, vaccines are not a cure, but a preventative measure.
The coronavirus is an RNA virus, meaning that it doesn’t have a repair mechanism to prevent mutations from occurring, and may easily give rise to new strains that can’t be treated with a single vaccine. However, some researchers believe that the coronavirus acquires mutations slowly, suggesting that only one vaccine may be necessary. While there is no current cure for the coronavirus, individuals with a strong immune system are likely to recover.
Claim: Hydroxychloroquine is the answer.
Trump has repeatedly called the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine a “game-changer,” but on the basis of very little evidence. Although the drug has been shown to prevent the coronavirus from attacking nearby cells in laboratory tests, human trials haven’t proven its effectiveness. Additionally, no noticeable effects have been linked to the drug after being used to treat hundreds of patients, according to The New York Times. Many trials testing the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine as well as the malaria drug chloroquine and the ebola drug remdesivir against the coronavirus are currently underway.
General claims
Claim: Only the elderly are at risk of being affected.
The majority of coronavirus-related deaths are seen in people above 65, as well as those with compromised immune systems. The elderly are more susceptible to developing pneumonia from coronavirus, which ultimately causes their lungs to drown in fluid, leading to death. Additionally, individuals with underlying health conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure are at higher risk.
Common symptoms associated with the coronavirus include cough, fever, fatigue and shortness of breath, but by no means has a comprehensive list been formed. Someone infected with coronavirus may experience symptoms that deviate from the common ones. The estimated incubation period of one to 14 days may also hide presymptomatic patients, while others might never experience symptoms at all. But this doesn’t mean they don’t pose threats.
“The need is to shelter in place so that we are not spreading it,” said congresswoman Jackie Speier in the same livestream. “Sometimes people are asymptomatic and don’t even know they have it and could in fact be infecting others.”
Either way, anyone may be susceptible to the effects of coronavirus, and there’s no telling how much they’ll suffer.
Claim: Masks aren’t necessary for healthy individuals.
According to the WHO, masks prove to be beneficial in preventing the spread of the coronavirus when worn in combination with healthy cleaning habits. Two types of masks are being popularly discussed.
“One is a surgical mask which surgeons use when they’re in surgery and one is an N95 or N100 mask which is fit tested through a process where we actually determine that it’s working,” Dr. Morrow said. “Healthcare workers, when they’re taking care of patients, wear these high level protection masks, which are called N95 respirators. For people who are sick and coughing, surgical masks or bandanas or anything that you put over your mouth can retain the secretion and reduce the spread.”
However, not all masks are geared towards protection against viruses.
“Masks do help mostly in source control”
“The masks used by construction workers are a different kind of mask and oftentimes can’t be used in [a medical] setting,” Speier said.
“There are a variety of masks including those that filter out chemicals and all sorts of things,” Dr. Morrow explained. “But those are for protecting the individual from asbestos or dust in the area.”
Despite the essentiality of protective medical equipment, they are currently inaccessible to most.
“We don’t even have enough masks for our healthcare workers at the moment, so we’re not recommending masks like you see in other areas of the world where there are plenty of masks,” Dr. Morrow said. “We’re desperately trying to get more masks. Masks do help mostly in source control, so if you’re sick, they keep other people from getting sick and help us actually in protecting yourself. We’re not really recommending personal protective equipment for general employees at this time.”
According to Business Insider, the U.S. shipped about $17.6 million of face masks and other supplies to China in January and February, failing to consider that the pandemic could have a drastic impact on Americans.
In early April, Trump recommended that all Americans wear cloth face coverings, going against previous guidelines suggesting that only those who are sick require face coverings. Dr. Morrow recently issued an order requiring all San Mateo public members and workers to wear face coverings outside the home, which will be enforced on April 22.
Claim: Coronavirus will disappear in the summer.
Trump has asserted that the coronavirus will be gone by summer, but that’s still a bold claim to make in light of the limited information researchers have.
“We believe [the virus] is spread by droplets and probably spread by fomites, which are inanimate objects in our environment which we touch”
Under the assumption that the coronavirus belongs to a family of “winter viruses” that peak in the winter months and decline in warmer seasons, transmission may decrease. This is because as summer approaches, heat and humidity will increase, changing droplets in the air.
“Droplets are bigger particles that come from you when you sing or cough or even speak,” Dr. Morrow said. “They tend to drop off fairly quickly, so that’s why the six feet recommendation is there. If someone has a droplet that comes from them, it usually falls off and doesn’t go six feet. We believe [the virus] is spread by droplets and probably spread by fomites, which are inanimate objects in our environment which we touch. Then we touch our faces, which is why we’re so adamant about hand washing and not touching your faces with your unwashed hands. [The coronavirus] certainly can live on surfaces, but we don’t know how long.”
In higher humidity, droplets are larger and thus fall to the ground faster than smaller droplets due to gravity. Small droplets may linger in the air, making their way into people’s airways.
Apart from this, colder seasons imply drier air, which may negatively affect cells in the respiratory tract, making people’s lungs more susceptible to the infiltration of viruses. Inhaling cold air also causes blood vessels to constrict, making it harder for immune cells to flow through the nose. However, these factors are relatively minor. The tendency for people to pack more closely together in enclosed areas during the winter may play a larger role in heightening the transmission of the coronavirus in colder months.
Summer could bring along small health benefits to humans, such as increased sun exposure, providing vitamin D to boost immune systems. According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), increased sunlight means that the virus will be exposed to more UV light, which could potentially damage its genetic information and prevent it from reproducing on an organism. Warmer temperatures also disincline people from crowding into close spaces. According to the Social Science Research Network, countries with temperatures above 64.4 degrees and an absolute humidity over 9g/m3 made up less than 6 percent of global coronavirus cases.
Although there are many possibilities that come with the summer months, they don’t equate to the coronavirus disappearing. Transmission may be lowered, but it will still occur, and without careful control, the virus may become more widespread again in the fall. Common misconceptions surround the 2003 SARS outbreak, suggesting that it disappeared in warmer weather, but the outbreak’s decline was actually a result of extreme public health interventions enforcing social distancing, evincing that warm weather alone cannot combat viruses.
Health officials remain wary and uncertain about the future of the coronavirus.
Claim: Taking supplements can prevent contraction of the coronavirus, or help combat its effects.
Although many people believe that supplements can combat the virus, there have been no clinical studies proving that gorging vitamin C, essential oils, turmeric shots or other popular “remedies” play a role in stopping the effects of sickness.
Vitamin C is an antioxidant, meaning it is a chemical that stabilizes other damaging molecules within cells known as free radicals. By stabilizing free radicals, vitamin C allows the immune system to function more efficiently. Consuming excessive amounts of vitamin C and any other vitamins in general could result in more harmful side effects, such as lung inflammation, nausea, diarrhea and stomach cramps.
According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, essential oils, when used correctly, have soothing effects. However, they do not have any impact on the immune system’s ability to fight pathogens.
Although these substances alone can’t combat the coronavirus, they may still benefit one’s overall health.
Claim: Apart from staying home, there isn’t much else that we can do to improve the situation.
“There are a number of funds being set up locally to help with situations like this”
Although the outlook on the pandemic may appear bleak, there are many ways to improve the lives of those in need.
“There are a number of funds being set up locally to help with situations like this,” Dr. Morrow said. “So for those of you who are able, I ask you to donate, donate, donate, donate. This is the time to donate.”
Additionally, blood is currently in dire need.
“I was told by many of the hospitals that they’re low on blood supply, so if you’re in a position to donate blood, please do so,” Speier said. “I know there are two public drives that are scheduled. One for April 18 and one for May 8 through the Red Cross. You can also call the Red Cross and see if you can come to a particular location and donate.”
Apart from donating money and blood, donating time is extremely valuable.
“Delivery service is great. That’s one of the things I talked about; volunteer activities. We definitely need to ramp those up,” Dr. Morrow said. “The current activities that are available are inadequate for our huge demand of delivery services. If you’re not doing anything right now, if you’re kind of out of work, those types of things need to be community led, community driven, but [are] very important to do.”
Other activities include remotely providing translation services for patients, sewing masks for hospitals, participating in clinical trials and tutoring students online.
