President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign manager, Brad Parscale, tweeted images Thursday of “Keep America Great”-branded face masks. The irony was not lost on many Twitter users, who pointed out the president persistently dismissed the threat of the coronavirus, leading to a severe outbreak in the United States that has claimed more than 75,000 lives. The production of these promotional masks seems a particularly absurd move given the administration’s failure to help provide adequate personal protective equipment for health care workers and Trump’s own refusal to wear a mask at events despite safety guidelines. Trump said Thursday he and his staff would be tested daily for coronavirus after a military aide with whom he’d interacted had tested positive for the virus. Parscale said the image of him wearing the mask was shot at the White House “pre-covid results”: Earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal reported that the campaign was ordering Trump-branded masks in an effort to connect with older voters who are more vulnerable to COVID-19 and are increasingly supporting presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. These masks would be given away at events in return for donations, the Journal reported.
BONER CANDIDATE #2:THIS ISN’T A PANDEMIC, IT’S A PLANDEMIC
Social media networks are scrambling to get rid of a viral conspiracy video spreading false claims about the coronavirus, according to a report. The roughly 26-minute “Plandemic Movie” has been viewed and shared widely on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Vimeo and clips of it also circulated on Twitter this week, CNBC reported. The clip, apparently an excerpt of a larger documentary to be released this summer, makes a number of bogus, unproven or misleading claims, like that the coronavirus pandemic was created to make profits off vaccines. And in defiance of the advice of medical experts, it suggests that masks can make people sicker and that sheltering in place harms the immune system. One video, shared on Facebook by someone claiming to be one of the filmmakers, had been viewed more than 1.7 million times and shared more than 140,000 times as of Thursday. Facebook told CNBC that the video violated its policy and would be removed. “Suggesting that wearing a mask can make you sick could lead to imminent harm, so we’re removing the video,” a Facebook spokeswoman said.
