The endless stream of lies emanating from Donald Trump on a daily (hourly) basis continue without pause as the number of Americans infected by the coronavirus exceeds 5,000,000, and the fatalities surpass 163,000. Unmoved by these horrifying statistics, Trump persists in deflection and trivializing the suffering that the nation is enduring due to his negligence, incompetence, and egomaniacal refusal act responsibly.

On Monday morning Trump took time away from his golfing regimen to express his desire to see more young people placed in danger by compelling them to participate in collegiate sports programs. Never mind that colleges around the country have already had to shut down due to spikes in coronavirus cases. Trump doesn't care about kids, or anyone other than himself. As Trump told Fox News last week…

“My view is schools should reopen. This thing is going away. It will go away like things go away. And my view is that schools should be open. If you look at children, children are almost – and I would almost say definitely, but almost – immune from this disease.”

Exactly! COVID-19 will “go away like things go away.” Things like bone spurs and cancer and senile dementia. My view is that Trump is almost – and I would almost say definitely, but almost – completely insane. Trump's view, though, is shared by his bootlickers on Fox News. In a segment on Fox and Friends (video below) discussing how the coronavirus affects children, co-host Ainsley Earhardt revealed her surprise that kids were affected at all:

Earhardt: 97,000 kids have tested positive? That was such a shock to me because we heard kids really don't get it. If they do they're all going to be okay. Do you have any details about that percentage of kids that do get it? Are they all doing okay? Do they have any deaths?

Dr. Natasha Kathuria: I don't know about the mortality or morbidity right now in that group. That was just in two weeks. So about 100,000 new cases in pediatric kids just in two weeks. And I can guarantee you that number is much higher. We don't really test kids that often. They're usually asymptomatic, they have very mild symptoms, But they're still shedding this virus.

This was a “shock” to Earhardt because she “heard kids don't really get it” from her fellow propagandists on Fox News, where that lie has been a regular part of the disinformation that they disseminate every day. The data about the virus's impact on children was revealed in a new study that tracked such cases and found a total of nearly 340,000 children have been infected to date. The number for the past two weeks (97,000) represents a 40% increase just as schools were reopening in some states, and includes at least 611 child fatalities.

x As Trump is pushing for schools to open across the country… “More than 97,000 children in the US tested positive for coronavirus in the last two weeks of July.”https://t.co/jTQ8WonCgv— News Corpse (@NewsCorpse) August 10, 2020

Earhardt, however, wasn't finished trying to shape the discussion to frame it more positively to align with Trump's lies. Her follow up for Dr. Kathuria was couched in a false assumption that was quickly shot down:

Earhardt: We're just going to have to be extremely careful. Most Americans want their kids back in school, but we want to do it safely. But it is true though that when the kids get it, they don't have the – you said – it's just minimal side effects, right? If they even see those at all.

Dr. Kathuria: That's a majority of them. The likelihood of death and the likelihood of critical illness is lower. But it's possible. A seven year old just died in Georgia with no medical problems. We hear about this and we see it all the time. Kids get sick.

Nice try, Ainsley. But reality demands recognition that children are not only susceptible to illness, they are also carriers who can bring the virus home to their parents, grandparents, and others in their community. The good doctor deserves credit for not buckling to Earhardt's leading and biased questions. And if Earhardt was shocked to learn about kids getting sick, think how shocked she must have been that some morsel of truth managed to leak out onto the air at Fox News.

x This is what happens when you get all your coronavirus information from Fox docs and Trump F&F Host Ainsley Earhardt: “97,000 kids tested positive? That was such a shock to me because we heard kids really don't get it.” pic.twitter.com/T8K1spUUtQ — Lis Power (@LisPower1) August 10, 2020

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