President Donald Trump now knows the price of the haunting bargain required to reopen the country — tens of thousands more lives in a pandemic that is getting worse not better.
It’s one he now appears ready to pay, if not explain to the American people, at a moment of national trial that his administration has constantly underplayed.
Depressing new death toll projections and infection data on Monday dashed the optimism stirred by more than half the country taking various steps to reopen an economy that is vital to Trump’s reelection hopes and has shed more than 30 million jobs. Stay-at-home orders slowed the virus and flattened the curve in hotspots like New York and California, but they have so far failed to halt its broader advance, leaving the nation stuck on a grim plateau of about 30,000 new cases a day for nearly a month.
New evidence of the likely terrible future toll of Covid-19 came on a day when Trump stayed out of sight — his wild briefings that hurt his political prospects now paused — meaning he could not be questioned on his enthusiasm for state openings in the light of new evidence.
The White House also took new steps to limit testimony to the House from members of the President’s coronavirus task force, prompting Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi to warn on CNN that it was “afraid of the truth.”
Coronavirus model projects 134,000 deaths in US, nearly double its last estimate
Coronavirus model projects 134,000 deaths in US, nearly double its last estimate
Trump, who has consistently appeared to care most about his political prospects during three miserable months, mounted another victory lap on Monday — boasting on Twitter that he was finally getting “great reviews” for his virus management.
A new model from the University of Washington, previously used by the White House suggested that 134,000 Americans could now die by August — in a revised toll prompted by the likely impact of state openings. The total was more than double the same organization’s estimate last month.
A draft internal report by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention obtained by The New York Times buckled the White House narrative that the worst of the pandemic is passed and it’s time to get going again. It found that the daily death toll will reach about 3,000 by June 1, nearly double the current number.
The data, combined with figures showing the pandemic getting worse in many states showed there is no real scientific case for reopening businesses, bars and restaurants. It underscored how governors — largely in the absence of a vast nationwide testing and tracing operation the administration has failed to build — are in many cases flying blind in reopening their states.
Trump’s top coronavirus task force adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said he did not know the assumptions behind the new models but said they were probably not misleading in that easing restrictions would lead to spikes in infection.
“It’s the balance of something that’s a very difficult choice,” Fauci said on CNN’s “Cuomo Prime Time,” putting the bargain in the form of a question the American people must resolve.
“How many deaths and how much suffering are you willing to accept to get back to what you want to be, some form of normality, sooner rather than later?” he asked.
“I feel I have a moral obligation to give the kind of information that I’m giving. People are going to make their own choices.”
