Throughout the current pandemic the media has tried to blame President Trump's alleged slowness and incompetence for the deaths suffered as a result from the virus. On Thursday's Andrea Mitchell Reports, MSNBC contributor Dr. Vin Gupta took it one step further when he alleged Trump is endangering people thousands of miles away in Brazil.
Host Andrea Mitchell worried that Brazilians are getting bad advice from their president Jair Bolsonaro, who has been promoting hydroxychloroquine to fight the virus, "we have to be concerned about millions of people in an enormous country that are getting exactly the wrong message from their own president."
Gupta, whose credentials a straight-shooting medical expert were called into question on Tuesday when he told Morning Joe, "my message to Americans is [Republicans] do not have your best interest at heart. They’re trying to win an election," tried to pin the worsening situation in Brazil on Trump, "here's the thing, we're having one authoritarian leader here in the United States inform the practices of other authoritarian leaders globally."
Apparently the media can't decide whether Trump is an authoritarian or whether he's an incompetent blame-deflector who refuses to put together a national plan to fight the virus.
Despite reports that media obsession with Trump and hydroxychloroquine is making it harder to do actual scientific research into the matter, Gupta claimed, "Now Bolsonaro's following suit and the president's roadmap for who knows what, catastrophe in the study of COVID-19. What President Trump does matters."
On Trump's advocacy of hydroxychloroquine is going to endanger, Gupta concluded, "If he's really actually taking hydroxychloroquine he's putting himself at risk. And obviously his example is putting Brazilians and Americans at risk and we've already seen the effects here. Unfortunately tens of thousands of Americans have died."
Not of hydroxychloroquine as that implies.
Here is a transcript of the May 21 show:
MSNBC
Andrea Mitchell Reports
12:34 PM ET
ANDREA MITCHELL: And it's just heartbreaking to see that favela in Brazil and Bill Neely right in the right in the middle of it. Obviously, I'm concerned about my colleague and friend, but we have to be concerned about millions of people in an enormous country that are getting exactly the wrong message from their own president.
VIN GUPTA: That's right, Andrea, and here's the thing, we're having one authoritarian leader here in the United States inform the practices of other authoritarian leaders globally. This is nonscientific, this is nonevidence based, but it's obviously having a domino effect. So, what happens here, clearly people are clearly feeling empowered, leaders are feeling elsewhere to follow suit. Because what the president of the United States says matters. Americans here fill prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine at a rate 46 times higher after the president endorsed it strongly in March. Now Bolsonaro's following suit and the president's roadmap for who knows what, catastrophe in the study of COVID-19. What President Trump does matters. It matters for his own health. If he's really actually taking hydroxychloroquine he's putting himself at risk. And obviously his example is putting Brazilians and Americans at risk and we've already seen the effects here. Unfortunately tens of thousands of Americans have died.
