Trump Sets Easter Goal For Reopening American Economy ' despite health experts ' warnings
In his Tuesday afternoon briefing with the coronavirus task force, President Trump couched earlier comments about 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 (COVID-19).
The president said he still wants Americans working again by Easter Sunday, something he first said during a virtual town hall with Fox News earlier in the day, even as doctors warn the nation will see a massive spike in cases if Americans return to crowded workplaces or events.
His previous comments about reopening the economy prompted alarm among public health experts across the country, who said it's far too early. Trump seemed to much more carefully toe the line during his briefing as he talked about "carefully and responsibly reopening the country."
"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.
Trump stressed that this is a "medical crisis — this isn't a financial crisis."
In the Fox News TV special earlier Tuesday, Trump said he "would love to have the country opened up and just raring to go by Easter."
That's April 12, within the timeline of "weeks" that Trump said he hopes is appropriate for curtailing the social distancing, isolation and other measures that officials have outlined to slow the spread of the coronavirus — but that have also paralyzed the economy.
During the briefing, officials also recommended that people who have recently left the New York City metro area should self-quarantine for the next 14 days to ensure the virus doesn't spread.
The rate of infections inside the U.S. has not stopped climbing — by Tuesday afternoon, there were more than 50,000 confirmed cases nationwide, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University — and Trump's April 12 target date is far sooner than other milestones set by officials across the country.
The District of Columbia has closed its schools through April 24, for example; schools in Virginia won't reconvene at all for the rest of this academic year.
Trump and Vice President Pence have talked up what they call the need for the U.S. to reset in stride, as military commanders might say — to continue some mitigation measures to constrain the pandemic but also permit some businesses to reopen.
"You can destroy a country this way by closing it down," Trump said in the Fox special on Tuesday.
The president and vice president framed one focus for the upcoming months on the most vulnerable populations, particularly older people with preexisting medical conditions.
Under this construction, life might shift away from keeping everyone apart to permitting more people to leave their homes and return to work. For the time being, Trump said Americans might still be discouraged from shaking hands and other such activity. "We can socially distance ourselves and go to work," he said.
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.
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.
source: npr cnn
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