Former President Barack Obama gave a nod to medical professionals Tuesday in a tweet in which he retweeted an Atlanta-based epidemiologist.
The 44th president of the United States has previously made comments via social media to add some comfort for citizens in the wake of the coronavirus, which has killed more than 80 people in America and sickened thousands.
On March 4, Obama advised everyone to “stay calm, listen to the experts, and follow science” to curb the virus as it was becoming prevalent in various states across the country.
Last week, President Donald Trump accused his predecessor of missteps in handling swine flu and lingering issues with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention testing, which has impacted the spread of the coronavirus.
On Tuesday, Obama did not speak to those claims, but he shared his sentiments about the commitment and audacity of health professionals tackling the coronavirus in the United States.
“We owe a profound debt of gratitude to all our health professionals and everybody who’ll be on the front lines of this pandemic for a long while,” he tweeted. “They’re giving everything. May we all model our own behavior on their selflessness and sacrifice as we help each other through this.”
His tweet included a retweet from Dr. Rachel Patzer, who says she’s an epidemiologist and health services researcher for Emory University. Patzer spoke to her experience of having a spouse working in emergency rooms and treating coronavirus patients. She said she and her family decided that her husband needed to isolate to protect the rest of the family.
Obama’s retweet has been shared more than 19,000 times and liked more than 100,000 times. Several users expressed their gratitude for his acknowledgment of the health professionals.
Some took the opportunity to criticize Obama’s presidency.
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