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On July 8th, Mark Anthony Urquiza, with his sons as pallbearers, was carried to his final resting place in Phoenix’s Holy Cross Cemetery. He died of COVID-19 complications, on a ventilator, alone but for a healthcare worker holding his hand. Urquiza’s passing might have gone with scant notice, like far too many of the more than 217,000 people in the United States who have succumbed to this deadly disease so far, had his daughter Kristin not penned an obituary that garnered national attention. “His death is due to the carelessness of the politicians,” she wrote, “who continue to jeopardize the health of brown bodies through a clear lack of leadership, refusal to acknowledge the severity of this crisis, and inability and unwillingness to give clear and decisive direction.” Kristin Urquiza places the blame for her father’s untimely death squarely with President Donald Trump. “My dad was a healthy 65-year-old,” she said, addressing the Democratic National Convention this summer. “His only preexisting condition was trusting Donald Trump. For that, he paid with his life.” Trump’s calamitous pandemic response has cast a pall of death and economic calamity over the country, as he inflames racism and division in the lead up to this infection election.
After nine months of downplaying and outright lying about the pandemic, the White House — perhaps now better called “the Blight House” — is a COVID-19 hotspot itself. On Wednesday, we learned that Trump’s teen-aged son Barron tested positive for the virus. Less than three weeks ago, the indoor reception and packed Rose Garden ceremony for Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court nomination, with no social distancing and very few masks, created a likely superspreader event. At least 40 people who were there or otherwise close to Trump have since tested positive. Trump, after being hospitalized, returned to the White House, ignoring CDC standards and medical norms, dramatically removed his mask and walked inside, potentially infecting staff and others. Days later, he held a rally...Read More →
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