Inside Story

Will Trump’s illness make others take COVID-19 more seriously?

The US president is in a military hospital receiving treatment for coronavirus.

The news that President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump have tested positive for coronavirus has shaken the United States.

He is the third world leader to contract the virus after United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro.

The experience of all three is a reminder that COVID-19 threatens everyone.

But it also highlights the fact that in the weeks and months before falling ill, Trump regularly flouted the advice of his administration’s own medical experts, rarely wearing a mask and doing little to enforce physical distancing at both official events and campaign rallies.

With less than a month to go before his re-election bid, will Trump’s illness change his – and the US’s – approach to the virus?

Presenter: Peter Dobbie

Guests:

Heidi Larson – professor of anthropology, risk and decision science at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Rajib Dasgupta – social epidemiologist at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
Rina Shah – Republican strategist and founder of ‘GOP Women for Biden’