Bracing the nation for a coronavirus death toll that could exceed 100,000 people, US President Donald Trump extended restrictive social distancing guidelines through next month, bowing to public health experts who presented him with even more dire projections for the expanding COVID-19 pandemic.
It was a stark shift in tone by the Republican president, who only days ago mused about the country reopening in a few weeks. From the Rose Garden, he said his Easter revival hopes had only been “aspirational.”
The initial 15-day period of social distancing urged by the federal government expired yesterday, and Trump had expressed interest in relaxing the national guidelines at least in parts of the country less afflicted by the pandemic.
Photo: Reuters
He instead decided to extend them through April 30, a tacit acknowledgment he had been too optimistic. Many states and local governments have stiffer controls in place on mobility and gatherings.
Trump’s impulse to reopen the country met a sober reality check on Sunday from US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci, who said the nation could experience more than 100,000 deaths and millions of infections from the pandemic.
That warning hardened a recognition in Washington that the struggle against the coronavirus would not be resolved quickly even as Trump expressed a longing for normalcy.
“I want our life back again,” the president told reporters.
Trump, who has largely avoided talk of potential death and infection rates, cited projection models that said potentially 2.2 million people or more could have died had social distancing measures not been put in place.
He added that the country would be doing well if it “can hold” the number of deaths “down to 100,000.” He said the best case for the country would be for the death rate to peak in about two weeks.
“It’s a horrible number,” Trump said, but added: “We all together have done a very good job.”
Brought forward by Trump at the outdoor briefing, Fauci said his projection of a potential 100,000 to 200,000 deaths is “entirely conceivable” if not enough is done to mitigate the crisis.
“It would not have been a good idea to pull back at a time when you really need to be pressing your foot on the pedal as opposed to on the brakes,” Fauci said on CNN yesterday, describing how he and others had convinced Trump to extend the restrictions.
“We showed him the data. He looked at the data. He got it right away,” Fauci said. “It was a pretty clear picture. Dr Debbie Birx [White House coronavirus response coordinator] and I went in to the Oval Office and leaned over the desk and said: ‘Here are the data. Take a look.’ He just shook his head and said: ‘I guess we got to do it.”’
“His first goal is to prevent suffering and death,” Fauci added.
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