On Friday, October 2nd, President Donald Trump announced that he and his wife had tested positive for COVID-19. Being in the final stretch of his reelection campaign, this could potentially affect his efforts in trying to run for president a second time, as he has repeatedly flouted experts’ guidance on preventing the disease’s spread.

The diagnosis is one of the most serious known health threats to a sitting American president to date. Being 74 years old and overweight, Donald Trump falls into the “highest risk category for serious complications from the disease,” which has killed more than 230,000 Americans and more than 1 million people worldwide since the start of the pandemic. (CNN)

This is likely caused because President Trump and many of his aids have ignored social distancing and facemask precautions. President Trump has even gone as far as mocking his rival, Democratic nominee Joe Biden, for frequently wearing a mask in public during the 2020 election debate, where he states “He could be speaking 200 feet away from him and he shows up with the biggest mask I’ve ever seen.”

Trump has also continuously insisted that the country is “rounding the corner” on COVID-19, even claiming that the virus would “disappear.” However, even the health experts within his own administration have stated that those claims did not reflect reality.

Twitter has recently had to flag one of President Trump‘s posts, as he was spreading false information about the virus. According to another article on CNN, Trump had posted to Twitter that he is now immune to it, stating the following: “A total and complete sign off from White House Doctors yesterday. That means I can’t get it (immune), and can’t give it. Very nice to know!!!” This could potentially put millions of his supporters at risk, as they feel as they too could become “immune” to the virus, which is not the case.