President Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis reveals just how far short the federal pandemic response has fallen, local public health leaders said Friday, showing that it has failed to protect even the commander-in-chief. But experts said that failure need not be the end of the story. In the president’s diagnosis, some saw an opportunity for him to course-correct after months of diminishing the virus’s threat, even as it killed more than 207,000 people in the United States and more than 1 million around the world. The question, they said, is whether Trump will see his illness as a way to change his own narrative.
“Because of the partisan nature around what should be about science and public health, no coherent message has evolved,” said Dr. Sandro Galea, a physician and dean of the Boston University School of Public Health. “Depending on what [President Trump] says, it will really make a difference on whether this is a teachable moment or not.”