Donald Trump tweeted this on Sunday in reference to the COVID-19 coronavirus. . .
We are learning much about the Invisible Enemy. It is tough and smart, but we are tougher and smarter!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 5, 2020
. . .and that tweet earned this response from David Frum who called it embarrassing and questioned if President Trump is “claiming to be smarter than a submicroscopic single molecule?”
This is embarrassing. Trump is claiming to be smarter than a submicroscopic single molecule? https://t.co/PEHZx37Che
— David Frum (@davidfrum) April 5, 2020
Well, for starters, the president used “we” and the tweet was obviously to cheerlead that eventually we’ll beat coronavirus, which as a messaging strategy you can agree with or not. We don’t care either way. But the problem Frum has is he’s completely wrong on the “submicroscopic single molecule” dig, as this virologist from Columbia University was forced to point out to him:
Quick virology correction: While it's true that viruses are not sentient, they are neither submicroscopic (can be viewed with an electron microscope) nor a single molecule (viruses are made up of multiple viral proteins, the RNA genome, and the phospholipid envelope). https://t.co/urkNIRCvuV
— Dr. Angela Rasmussen (@angie_rasmussen) April 5, 2020
Oof.
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