Commentators and Democrats have called-out Donald Trump for saying that Americans should not “be afraid of” a virus that has claimed more than 210,000 lives.
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden led those attacks on Monday as he told the US president to "Tell that to the 205,000 families who lost somebody".
In a video released on his return to the White House, Mr Trump said Americans should "get out there" and not to be afraid of the same virus that hospitalised him since Friday.
The 74-year-old president, who wore a mask upon leaving the hospital before appearing unmasked on a White House balcony, argued that “we have the best medical equipment” and so people should not be afraid.
“Don’t let it dominate you. Don’t be afraid of it,” he continued. Don't let it dominate”.
Democratic Party political strategist Christine Pelosi called those comments “flagrantly irresponsible”, as she pointed out the president's contradictions on healthcare.
“It’s flagrantly irresponsible to say ‘don’t be afraid of Covid’ when you yourself were rightly afraid last week before you were hospitalised and received the best treatment in the world”, she wrote on Twitter.
In a similar statement, Democratic congressional nominee Cori Bush said “we already knew” that the president “don’t care about us”, and those whose lives have been up-ended amid the pandemic.
She wrote on Twitter: “Kids have lost their parents. Families have been ripped apart. 210,000 human lives are gone. Millions have lost their jobs. Thousands face evictions.You don’t care about us—but we already knew that.”
Mr Trump’s short-lived communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, meanwhile labelled the Republican president a “Covidiot in chief”.
Mr Scaramucci later compared the president’s balcony appearance on his return to the White House as akin to an “American Mussolini”, amid concerns that Mr Trump had continued to endanger those around him with the risk of infection.
“I was aghast when he said Covid should not be feared,” William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine and infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville told the Associated Press.
“This is a disease that is killing around a thousand people a day, has torpedoed the economy, put people out of work. This is a virus that should be both respected and feared,” he added.
Political commentators and correspondents also attacked the president, with MSNBC host Joe Reid saying on Monday that “This man is contagious”.
“I am speechless. I am stunned. I have to be honest with you, I’m disgusted by what I just saw,” said The ReidOut” host. “This is the most irresponsible thing I’ve ever seen a president do.”
