Chinese Virus is dangerous and it’s killed many people. Does that mean anyone dealing with the diagnosis with a level of optimism and courage is a jerk lacking empathy?
Amanda Kloots, the widow of Nick Cordero, a Broadway actor who died from Wu-Flu earlier this year, was driven to tears by Trump’s bravado in following his own bout with the coronavirus.
After Trump left Walter Reed Medical Center on Monday October 5, a mere three days after his diagnosis, the president tweeted that he was feeling well and urged Americans, “Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life.”
The grieving Kloots took it personally and condemned Trump’s behavior in multiple social media posts, accusing the president of “bragging.” She called his statements “hurtful,” and “disgraceful” as well. Well, what should the President of the United States be doing? Telling everyone to panic?
Kloots first posted a photo of the president’s tweet to Instagram and captioned it with her rebuke of the American leader on behalf of her and her husband and the “208,000 Americans who lost loved ones to this virus.” “I stand by you, with you, holding your hand. Unfortunately it did dominate our lives didn’t it? It dominated Nick’s family’s lives and my family’s lives. I guess we ‘let it’ – like it was our choice,” Kloots claimed, using Trump’s language against him.
She then claimed Trump was particularly lucky for dealing with it so easily, and that this meant he didn’t fully understand the suffering Cordero went through. “Unfortunately not everyone is lucky enough to spend two days in the hospital. I cried next to my husband for 95 days watching what COVID did to the person I love. It IS something to be afraid of.”
Kloots is clearly hurting, and so are many others. But does that preclude optimism, especially on the part of the U.S. president? She accused Trump of having “no empathy” for “all the lives lost.” In addition she said, “He is bragging instead. It is sad. It is hurtful. It is disgraceful.”
Though perhaps the president is trying to encourage Americans – many who are arguably more crippled by the fear of the virus than the virus itself – to not obsess over the danger and to live life as close to normal as possible in the circumstances. But Trump will not get the benefit of the doubt -- certainly not from Hollywood.
Actress Mandy Moore shared Kloot’s post, saying “When the President made that monstrous proclamation yesterday, I immediately thought of Amanda… The man has not a shred of decency or empathy.”
Perhaps he should have apologized for surviving.
