President Donald Trump says he wants the nation “opened up and just raring to go by Easter” – a date just more than two weeks away that few health experts believe will be sufficient in containing the
spread of coronavirus.
Speaking during a Fox News town hall on Tuesday,
Trump reiterated he was eager to see the nation return to normal soon, even as doctors warn the nation will see a
massive spike in cases if Americans return to crowded workplaces or events.
“I give it two weeks,” Trump said earlier in the town hall, suggesting he was ready to phase out his 15-day self-isolating guidelines when they expire. “I guess by Monday or Tuesday, it’s about two weeks. We will assess at that time and give it more time if we need a little more time. We have to open this country up.”
But Trump said Monday that the health experts on his task force do not necessarily agree with his hope for a quick return to their jobs to boost the economy. Some Republicans on Capitol Hill, including Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa and Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, are also sounding the alarm.
“There will be no normally functioning economy if our hospitals are overwhelmed and thousands of Americans of all ages, including our doctors and nurses, lay dying because we have failed to do what’s necessary to stop the virus,” Cheney, the No. 3 House Republican, tweeted Tuesday.
The White House’s coronavirus task force is receiving plenty of feedback from public health experts who are sounding the alarm over easing the social distancing guidelines next week, a source familiar with the matter said.
Although Trump has talked about reopening the country by Easter, the source said, the President hasn’t reached a final decision on exactly when the government’s guidelines would be relaxed to get the economy back up and running. Trump is hearing from advisers who are urging him to make Easter more of an “aspirational date,” the source added.
When Trump talked up the idea of packing churches on Easter, the source continued, the President knew it was more wishful thinking than a realistic goal.
“He was being himself,” they said.
At the moment, the source said the current thinking is that it’s unlikely Trump will relax the social distancing guidelines next week, when the current 15-day period for those measures is scheduled to come to an end. That kind of a move would likely spark fierce debate inside the task force, the source said.
‘A beautiful timeline’
Trump told reporters during the daily press briefing it was his idea – and not that of his medical experts – to suggest Easter, which falls on April 12, as a potential date by which the US would again be “raring to go.”
“We’ll only do it if it’s good. We’ll do large sections of the country,” Trump said, adding he would listen closely to recommendations from
Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx, two top medical experts on the White House coronavirus taskforce.
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Asked who suggested the Easter date, Trump said it was him.
“I thought it was a beautiful time. A beautiful timeline,” he said.
Pressed whether it was based on data, he said: “It was based on a certain level of weeks from the time we started and it happened to arrive, we were thinking of terms of sooner. I’d love to see it come sooner.”
Fauci told reporters that while he met with Trump in the Oval Office Tuesday he emphasized the need to be “flexible” in determining a date for a bounce back.
“We just had a conversation with the President in the Oval Office. You can look at a date but you gotta be very flexible,” Fauci told reporters when asked what he thought of Trump’s timeline.
Fauci also said that parts of the country may be OK by Easter but added other places that are worsening would likely not be.
“Obviously, no one is going to want to tone down things when you see things going on like in NYC,” he said.
Health officials drafting plans
It’s a timeline that federal public health professionals are now drafting plans for, a senior federal health official involved in the coronavirus response told CNN on Tuesday.
Continued on the cnn site.
