So much for some people still being worried about contracting the deadly coronavirus.
Large crowds (which have been building throughout the week in the lead-up) are expected in Tulsa, Oklahoma this weekend for the return of President Trump’s often raucous political rallies. The administration has said more than 1 million people have requested tickets for the rally which will be held in the 20,000-seat capacity BOK Center.
Before entering, each rally goer will receive a temperature check, hand sanitizer and a mask. Attendees also had to sign a waiver beforehand stating they assume all risks associated with exposure to COVID-19 — the goal here being to protect the president from liability if someone gets sick or dies from COVID-19 contracted at the rally.
While the president will unlikely wear a mask at the rally per his modus operandi throughout the pandemic, leading health experts continue to stress the importance of face coverings to reduce the risk of COVID-19 contraction. Even with the face coverings, however, social distancing is also very important — which is something that will unlikely be happening at the jam-packed Trump Tulsa rally or others to follow.
So, how should you safely rally at Trump gatherings if you are dead-set on attending in person? Carefully and with both eyes open, explains Yahoo News medical contributor Dr. Dara Kass.
“Our advice is simple. We won’t tell anybody not to rally. I would encourage other gatherings. It has to do with how do you protect yourself. Please wear a mask. There’s nothing political about wearing a mask. It’s protective. It protects you and other people,” Kass, who is a surviver of COVID-19, said on Yahoo Finance’s The First Trade.
Kass adds, “I would say wash your hands and really be aware of who is around you. Realize that being in close contact with other people, especially people you don’t know, makes it harder to find out after the fact if they have the virus. And the third thing I would say, if you don’t live near Tulsa, please don’t go to this particular rally. There will be other rallies. To travel far away going to a rally will contribute to the difficulty in tracking and tracing the cases after the fact.”
Trump’s rally will rage on while the sobering statistics around the pandemic continue to pile up.
More than 8.2 million people worldwide have contracted COVID-19 worldwide, with 2.2 million being in the United States. Of the 446,000 deaths worldwide, 120,000 have occurred in the United States.
Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and co-anchor of The First Trade at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.
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