It was mid-January when I first learned about a novel coronavirus spreading in China. In Beijing at the time, it was clear in the next few months that this virus would cause worldwide damage. Today we received confirmation that the president of the United States knew all of it.

It was January 21 when I first started wearing a mask in public. I watched as the city of Beijing ground to a halt as hundreds of people crowded into fever clinics with symptoms. I saw as people lined the streets to get food. I saw the concerns the Chinese had for their society.

I left China on February 1 after evacuating myself and my peers out of a China. I returned to a country unfazed and unprepared for a pandemic. I went to college for one month and interacted with a community who simply wasn't aware of what was coming. But the president was.

Beginning of March comes. I watch as millions of college students were sent home from schools across the country. I return to New York, my home city, where I see heroes like @Craig_A_Spencer go to work every day trying to save American lives from a deadly disease.

I see a changed society, with thousands of Americans dying every day and millions getting sick. The economy is in shambles. I listen as nonstop sirens fill the air of New York. I begin tracking colleges' response to the pandemic, tracking thousands of fall reopening plans.

Summer passes. Nothing changes. Millions of college students have returned to campuses, many of which will unprepared for outbreaks this fall due to inadequate testing plans. I track nearly 40,000 cases connected to outbreaks at over 60 schools. It's not over yet.

Today we learned three shocking revelations:
1. The President of the United States was aware of how deadly Covid-19 was and its severity.
2. The president lied to the American people.
3. The president admitted, in his own words, “I wanted to always play it down."

Over the last eight months I have been following this pandemic as it has killed 190,000 Americans. They may be numbers on my screen and in my work, but behind each of them is a soul. An American life. A brother. A sister. A father. A mother. A sibling.

I've seen what this disease does, not to just older Americans, but members of the younger generation.

The president knew all of this. He just didn't care.

“I still like playing it down, because I don’t want to create a panic.”

At some point in the next few weeks the 200,000th American will have lost their life to this deadly virus. Nothing will happen. There will be no national mourning. Because that is not Donald Trump's America.

Donald Trump lives in an America where he does not give aid for testing to "blue states." He lives in an America where hundreds of thousands are dead and millions more are sick. He lives in an America that is not "the land of the free." It's the land of the dead.

"This is deadly stuff," he said on February 7. But his narcissistic soul did not do anything. He could have advanced testing. He could have let public health experts talk. But he chose not to do so because he didn't want to panic. Well, we're panicking. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/bob-woodward-rage-book-trump/2020/09/09/0368fe3c-efd2-11ea-b4bc-3a2098fc73d4_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-high_woodward-1210p%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans

If we do not take action, this virus will continue to spread through our communities and campuses, killing more Americans and sickening countless others. This is an America now without a leader. It's up to us to battle for its soul and save lives.

November 3. Lives are at stake.

CC @gregggonsalves and others — thought you would like the thread.