NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — The wife of Broadway actor Nick Cordero, who died following a lengthy battle with COVID-19, is slamming President Donald Trump over his tweet telling people not to be afraid of the virus.
The president issued the tweet Monday, just hours before his release from a military hospital, where he spent three days undergoing treatment for the virus, which has killed at least 210,000 Americans since March.
In the tweet, the president said he was "feeling great," adding "Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don't let it dominate your life."
Amanda Kloots, Cordero's wife, posted a photo of the president's tweet along with her own message to people who lost loved ones to the pandemic saying, "I stand by you, with you, holding your hand."
"Unfortunately it did dominate our lives didn’t it? It dominated Nick’s family’s lives and my family’s lives. I guess we “let it” - like it was our choice??" Kloots wrote in response to the president's comments. "Unfortunately not everyone is lucky enough to spend two days in the hospital. I cried next to my husband for 95 days watching what COVID did to the person I love. It IS something to be afraid of. After you see the person you love the most die from this disease you would never say what this tweet says. There is no empathy to all the lives lost. He is bragging instead."
She slammed the president's tweet as "sad," "hurtful" and "disgraceful." In an Instagram story she labeled the president's comments as a "slap in the face."
"We saw what this disease can do, so guess what? We are afraid, I still am," she said in a video, adding that if she got as sick as her husband, their 1-year-old son might not have his mother either. "To act like this disease is nothing and you got right over it, I'm so happy that you did. You know, thank God you did. But guess what? There are a lot of people that didn't."
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She said the president should have some empathy for the people who's lives have been forever affected by the disease instead of "bragging" about his recovery.
"Why don't you say, 'Wow now that I've had this disease I now can understand a little bit better,'" Kloots said adding that the president should've used this moment to apologize to those who lost their lives to the disease, stand with grieving families and encourage Americans to take precautions including social distancing and wearing masks.
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"Say something kind. Say something to make the people that you lead feel like you got us, that you're wrapping your arms around us," she said.
The 41-year-old Cordero died in July after months of fighting COVID-19.
The Tony Award-nominated actor was initially hospitalized on March 30 for what was believed to be pneumonia and was placed on a ventilator after testing positive for COVID-19.
"Once he went on the ventilator he never came back," Kloots wrote in a separate Instagram post.
In April, Cordero had to have his right leg amputated because of complications from the coronavirus and suffered two mini-strokes as well as lung infections.