After starting Sunday’s episode of Last Week Tonight with a brief accounting of the many ill-advised mass gatherings that have taken place in the United States as coronavirus cases surge nationwide, John Oliver blasted President Donald Trump and other elected officials for exhibiting careless behavior.
“Recklessness is abounding right now, heightening the need for strong leadership,” Oliver said after referencing not just an infamous Chainsmokers concert in Southampton, New York, but also a New Jersey house party that led Governor Phil Murphy to declare residents should try to avoid induction in the “Knucklehead Hall of Fame.”
But, Oliver added, “unfortunately, we’re getting the exact opposite of that. Just a week after Trump was given credit for shifting his rhetoric by urging Americans to wear masks, he did something that, even for him, was shockingly reckless.”
Last week, of course, Trump promoted a disinformation video that featured a number of debunked false claims about the coronavirus pandemic, including that masks do not work to stop the spread of the illness and that hydroxychloroquine has proven to be effective as a therapeutic. In addition, the doctor at the center of the video, Dr. Stella Immanuel, was later revealed to hold a number of dubious beliefs, including that “alien DNA” is sometimes used to treat patients and “demons” can infect a person through masturbation.
“Yeah, that’s pretty upsetting coming from a doctor,” Oliver said on Sunday. “You’d expect that bullshit from some idiot who claims to know about medicine but doesn’t have a medical license—like, I don’t know, your dipshit uncle, or Dr. Phil. But from a licensed medical professional that is wildly irresponsible.”
But despite being told of Dr. Immanuel’s problematic history, Trump refused to back off his endorsement of the video (which, incidentally, was pulled from social media because it spread false claims about the coronavirus).
“She was on air, along with many other doctors. They were big fans of hydroxychloroquine, and I thought she was very impressive in the sense that, from where she came,” Trump said last week. “I don’t know which country she comes from, but she said that she’s had tremendous success with hundreds of different patients. And I thought her voice was an important voice, but I know nothing about her.”
“Wow. He thinks her voice is ‘important’ but admits to knowing nothing else about her. That is not the philosophy you want when vetting medical experts,” Oliver said. “It’s barely a philosophy you want on The Voice. Sure, the judges start by knowing nothing about the contestant besides their voice but once their interest has piqued, they know to turn the fuck around to investigate.”
He added, “Downplaying the risks of this can have dire consequences. On Thursday, Herman Cain died about six weeks after attending a Trump rally in Tulsa, where he was photographed without a mask, later tweeting that ‘people are fed up’ at being made to wear them. This, sadly, won’t be the last time we see people find out the hard way how serious this is.” (The Cain tweet was later deleted.)
Cain’s death was announced one day after Texas congressman Louie Gohmert, a Republican who has openly refused to wear a mask, revealed he had been diagnosed with coronavirus—and rather than immediately isolate himself, the lawmaker reportedly returned to his office to tell staff in person.
“What? If that is true, that is absurd,” an incredulous Oliver said on Sunday. “Because ‘I’m carrying a highly infectious disease’ is never news that needs to be told in person. Especially when there are plenty of better ways to do that,” he added.