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On Balance | Donald Trump’s coronavirus ramblings don’t merit the US media spotlight when expert opinion is the need of the hour
- The US president has become the focus of his long-winded press conferences, while crucial medical information – such as the effectiveness of hydryoxychloroquine in treating Covid-19 – is in short supply
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It’s 5pm and the guessing game starts on how late the White House coronavirus task force press briefing will be.
How many hours will this one run? Another 2½-hour marathon? What will the story be? “Chinese virus” or cooperation with Beijing? A light at the end of the tunnel? Or will the scale of the devastation overshadow everything else?
I make a bet with someone on WhatsApp on the length of the delay. I say 20 minutes and lose US$5 for being too optimistic. How long will it be before I can fork over the cash in person, I wonder, and then remember there’s the digital wallet Venmo.
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Another 45 minutes and a crescendo of snapping camera lenses prompts me to flip back to the live-stream.
President Donald Trump launches into a monologue of hope over hydryoxychloroquine and how 29 million doses have been ordered. It’s been a couple of weeks since Trump said the authorities started treating a test group with the antimalarial in combination with an antibiotic. Are the results in?
I had been on Trump’s side in this dispute. It’s difficult to argue with the logic of giving Covid-19 patients at death’s door medications of uncertain efficacy, even based on anecdotal evidence that such an intervention might help.
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