Things are tough here but it could be worse, we could live in the United States - Christa Ackroyd

It was three in the morning when my phone beeped.
President Trump stands on the balcony outside of the Blue Room as returns to the White House, after leaving Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Trump announced he tested positive for Covid-19 on Oct. 2. (AP)President Trump stands on the balcony outside of the Blue Room as returns to the White House, after leaving Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Trump announced he tested positive for Covid-19 on Oct. 2. (AP)
President Trump stands on the balcony outside of the Blue Room as returns to the White House, after leaving Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Trump announced he tested positive for Covid-19 on Oct. 2. (AP)

I’m not the best of sleepers anyway and I had asked our son, who lives in New York, to keep me up to date with news of President Trump’s latest antics.

As you can imagine, the messages have been coming thick and fast this week. I admit I ask him to keep me in touch with all the lunacy from across the pond, if only to remind myself that things could be worse here.

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We had already exchanged a middle-of-the-night discussion 24 hours earlier at the ludicrous drive-by of a huge cavalcade as the president first left and then went back into the Walter Reed Medical Centre to continue his Covid treatment.

He did it, he said, because his people wanted to see him. Presumably that didn’t include the security officers sealed inside with him. I can’t imagine for one minute their first thought was “Great, the president wants to go for a ride”. My son and I both agreed it couldn’t get madder than that.

Only it did. At 3am I opened the latest missive posted on the President’s twitter feed. Apocalypse Now-style music leapt out in the darkness as footage showed the presidential helicopter approaching the White House.

As the music swelled to a crescendo, the president mounted the steps where he saluted what seemed to be an imaginary crowd. He took no time at all to reassure his people he was fighting fit. “You’ve got to get out there,” he told them. “Don’t let Covid dominate your lives.”

That’s when my son and I realised Mr President had lost it.

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More than 200,000 people have died in America due to this dreadful disease. In the spring there were makeshift mortuaries in New York’s Central Park, where this time last year I was strolling by the lake.

Only a few days before, the man at the helm of arguably the most powerful country in the world was making fun of his opponent in the forthcoming elections for wearing a mask during the presidential debate, a debate he now won’t do virtually, saying he’d rather hold a rally instead. A rally where his family won’t wear masks perhaps.

This man believes he is invincible. Perhaps he always did. But then they do say the drugs he has been treated with can bring on a false sense of euphoria.

President Trump is a man devoid of empathy. His words showed he has failed to understand the pain and suffering of those who didn’t pull through. Those who didn’t have access to expensive experimental drugs, probably didn’t even have health insurance to cover them, had they been available and probably didn’t even realise they had the virus until the symptoms overwhelmed them, not having had the benefit of daily tests for everyone around them.

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His message was “Hey, look at me, it’s not that bad after all.” And it made me sick to my stomach.

Twenty-four hours later and he spoke to the nation from the Rose Garden at the White House. I am sure you know the gist of his message, which bizarrely began with: “Hi. Perhaps you recognise me. It’s me, your favourite president.” Not in my book, he’s not.

Catching Covid had been a blessing from God, he told us. Which is probably why he has been acting like he is the Second Coming these past few days.

Well, the Messiah he is not, though sadly there are many who took his recovery as a sign that he may be.

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One supporter started selling “Trump Survives Covid” 100-dollar coins. His supporters were seen waving banners announcing “He’s back”.

I wonder if Melania was waving one too. Oh, I am sorry. I forgot. She is doing as she is told and isolating, as are the 21 (and rising) White House aides and advisers who have also caught Covid.

And yet it is too easy to trot out the phrase... “only in America”. Because this week I have seen signs of some bizarre thinking here, too. One Northern MP accused the Government of creating a North-South divide with plans for a new wave of local lockdowns to be announced next week.

Excuse me? As far as Covid is concerned it is a North-South divide. The fact is here we are in trouble with cases rising, hospital admissions and, sadly, deaths on the increase.

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In the South, the figures in many areas remain relatively low. I also could not get my head round calls for there to be no local lockdowns

Local politicians seemed enraged at plans for them. Perhaps they could save their rage for the hundreds of people who, having ignored the rules, have caused them in the first place.

The rules do need simplifying. In Calderdale we are advised against meeting people from another household in a restaurant. But it is only advice. In Bradford or Kirklees, which we border, it’s a rule. In Leeds, there are no such rules in place. Or are there? I can’t remember.

Passengers flying into Manchester from, say, Portugal, have left an area where the infection rate is less than a third of the area they are flying into, yet they are expected to quarantine for two weeks. And why are we waiting until Monday to bring in new measures?

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If we are going to do it, let’s do it now, without the opportunity for a last hurrah, because we know what that will lead to. Or should do by now.

I predict a tough winter ahead for all of us. But not as tough as doing nothing until the hospitals are overwhelmed and the number of deaths soar.

Each person who dies is a tragedy. The president of the United States would have done well to mention that during his gloating this week.

Let us be honest. Things are not great here. But they could be worse. We could live in America.

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Thank you

James Mitchinson