President Trump is very optimistic about putting a lid on the coronavirus crisis. During a "virtual town hall" on Fox News, Trump said he would love to see the U.S. fully functional again by Easter. He called it "absolutely possible" and argued that the U.S. is "not built to be shut down."
Trump went on to defend his comment that he “doesn't want the coronavirus cure to be worse than the problem.” He has suggested easing national guidelines on social distancing...and said the guidelines are being assessed and argued that a country could be destroyed by "closing it down."
And while Trump reiterated that notion later during a press conference, he also hedged a bit. “I think that would be a great thing for our country, and we’re all working very hard to make that a reality,” he offered. “We’ll be meeting with a lot of people to see if it can be done.”
How does Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, feel about that? Guarded. “You can look at a date, but you’ve got to be very flexible and on a literally day-by-day and week-by-week basis,” Fauci offered. “You need to evaluate the feasibility of what you’re trying to do.”
To that end, Fauci also noted that lifting restrictions in places like New York City makes no sense at all right now. “I think people might get the misinterpretation you’re just going to lift everything up. … That’s not going to happen,” he added. “It’s going to be looking at the data. And what we don’t have right now that we really do need, is we need to know what’s going on in those areas of the country where there isn’t an obvious outbreak.”
Where does the United States stand with COVID-19? At last check, there are just over 55-thousand cases across the United States – with 801 patients succumbing to the illness. Globally, the numbers stand at just over 420-thousand people infected by the virus – with just over 18-thousand dead. On the plus side, nearly 110-thousand have recovered.
Source: White House