According to the US media reports, President Trump announced on Twitter on the morning of October 2 that he and First Lady Melania Trump tested positive for coronavirus. This happened amid the early voting ahead of the US presidential election of November 3. While the President had been drawing people’s attention with his extravagant talks and daring behaviors, this incident is somewhat ironical. This will more or less affect his political campaign and the consequence of his presidential election.
It is being said that the coronavirus originally broke out in Wuhan City and spread to other cities in China and then throughout the world. Since the number of people infected with the coronavirus as well as the death toll rapidly increased, every country was required to prevent the spread with a sense of impending crisis. However, the prevention measures differed from country to country, and the Japanese government also struggled with the prevention of the infections. The measures were not well designed and were criticized by many institutions and experts inside and outside Japan at the initial stage. However, looking back to the Japanese government’s implementation of those measures, I think Prime Minister Abe has achieved the expected purpose to a large extent.
The US, which embraces a sizable population and whose territory is huge, has faced many difficulties in preventing the spread of coronavirus infections, and its prevention measures have yet to be reconsidered. Furthermore, President Trump himself did not consider the coronavirus a serious problem, and disregarded ‘Three Cs’: (1) Closed spaces with poor ventilation; (2) Crowded places with many people nearby: and (3) Close-contact settings such as close-range conversations. In addition, the President started to take necessary actions for the US economic recovery, and hastened to ease the regulations for the prevention of the coronavirus infections. As a result, the US has become the top country in the world in terms of the number of the coronavirus infections and the death toll. Taking these facts into account, it can be said that President Trump’s measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus infections have failed. The number of people infected with the coronavirus in the world reached more than 33 million, and the death toll about one million. In the US, more than seven million people were infected with the coronavirus, and the death toll about 200,000, and both figures ranked top respectively among all the countries concerned in the world. Meanwhile, here in Japan, the number of people infected with the coronavirus was 83,000 and the death toll about 1,600 as of September 30, 2020. (Source: Coronavirus infection tracker – World Map -. Nikkei Asia. 2056.)
It is ironical that President Trump himself, who disregarded the coronavirus, contracted the disease. He cannot avoid such criticism as “It is your own fault.” On the other hand, it may be said that the President proved to the whole world the importance of taking preventive measures and not disregarding them. The spread of the coronavirus infections in Japan is expected to be controlled in due course, but maybe we should regard this incident as a valuable lesson for us to remain careful and not to let our guard down.
