‘The virus doesn’t care if you’re president’: Here’s what would happen if Trump got coronavirus

Investors would panic and memes would be made

Fresh off of Air Force One, Donald Trump made his way down a line of officials in Atlanta last week on his way to visit the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters, shaking every hand in sight.

The gesture, under normal circumstances, is unremarkable. But, with the novel coronavirus epidemic spreading across the globe, March 2020 is no ordinary time. And as it happens, one of those men he shook hands with would soon self quarantine, after learning he had come in contact with a carrier of that deadly virus.

Representative Doug Collins — that man who shook the president’s hand — wouldn’t be the only potentially infected individual who the president came in contact with either. Representative Matt Gaetz, too, would end up in self quarantine after accompanying the president on his presidential plane.

Mr Gaetz even says he refused to join Mr Trump in a room for a mid-flight chat, and opted to stand in the doorway for fear of spreading the bug.

Underlying these interactions and eventual sensible precautions is a sobering reality: a silent and invisible virus that has tanked global markets, killed thousands and put an entire country on lockdown could very easily infect one of the most powerful people on earth.

“The virus doesn’t care if you’re the president of the United States,” Katrina Mulligan, the managing director and an expert on national security at the Centre for American Progress, told The Independent. “I think that’s a thing that warrants precaution.”

(Mr Trump said on Thursday that he is not worried about getting the virus, even after it was reported that Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro — who he had dinner with at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday — was being monitored for the virus after a close aide — who was also at the dinner and pictured with the US president — of his tested positive.)

It’s a prospect that could have pretty significant impacts, for both Donald Trump, the man, as well as Donald Trump, the president.

As far as personal implications, experts interviewed for this story noted that Mr Trump is in a worrying age bracket — deaths have been concentrated among older people — but that it does not appear as though he has any underlying health concerns that would put him in particular risk, other than obesity.

Mr Trump — a billionaire whose life is guarded at all times in myriad ways — would also be unlikely to face the kinds of issues presented by inadequate lack of medical care. Plus, while the fears surrounding the virus are real, health officials say the average person would have mild symptoms from the disease.

“You have to remember that the vast majority of individuals who get this virus have a mild illness. Even those who are older, they tend to be more likely to have severe symptoms but that doesn’t mean they will for sure have severe symptoms,” said Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

He continued: “We know that presidents, just like every other human being, are susceptible to this virus. I would assume that the president, like anyone his age, would be taking the appropriate precautions.”

But beyond Mr Trump himself, the head of the US government contracting the coronavirus would likely lead to considerable panic, with the alarms topping the already considerable fears we’ve seen so far. Markets wouldn’t just plunge, they’d likely be halted as the nation grappled with yet another question of when the president might relinquish power to his vice president if his condition continues to deteriorate— and if he would willingly relinquish that power, even temporarily.

“It’s spreading in our society dramatically, … and with the growth rate, it doubles every five to six days, people think,” said Steve Morrison, the director of the Global Health Policy Center at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. “So, why wouldn’t he be exposed? Why wouldn’t he likely be exposed to this thing?”

Ms Mulligan, with the Centre for American Progress, said there’s at least one scenario where things really go off the rails, too.

She noted that Mr Trump has largely been downplaying the risks of coronavirus, even as markets have dropped and cases in the US have skyrocketed. He and his supporters have begun describing the epidemic as something of a conspiracy perpetuated by Democrats and the news media he so often calls “fake”. So, should the president get the virus many of his supporters are currently denying with slick memes on Facebook, might they look for someone to blame? What if they believe the president was somehow targeted?

“This is the same America, frankly, that believed Hillary Clinton was running some sort of sex ring out of a pizza parlour in DC. Crazier things have happened,” she said.

“This is one of those areas where gaslighting has consequences,” she continued.

In recent weeks, as the CDC has issued a range of warnings to Americans, the president has seemingly ignored that advice.

Older Americans, for instance, are being told to avoid large gatherings when possible. The 73-year-old president has meanwhile seemed all too eager to disregard in favour of his trademark Make America Great Again campaign rallies.

Instead of substituting tapping toes or elbows for a firm handshake, Mr Trump has decidedly taken the optically dignified approach of shaking any hand that comes his way. He has been seen with supporters on rope lines, glad handing all the way down. He has been shaking hands even as he has reportedly expressed private concerns to his aides that he should stop.

It’s a habit that puts Mr Trump at risk of contracting the virus, according to health officials.

But, at least he’s listening to the second half of the handshake warning, which is not to touch your face.

“I haven’t touched my face in weeks,” he joked last week in the White House during a meeting about the coronavirus spread. “I miss it.”