The president has a lot to juggle, not the least of which is keeping the U.S. afloat while dealing with the hidden enemy that is Covid-19. It seems an impossible scenario and the press gives Trump no leeway when he speaks about wanting to open the country back up.
At one of this weekend’s Coronavirus Task Force briefings, Trump said that he is considering putting together a second task force to assess how and when to reopen businesses and get the country back to work and the US economy going again.
I continue to say the solution can’t be worse than the problem,
implored Trump as he expressed his desire to get the country back up and running economically. It’s something that he should be thinking about as commander in chief.
Fox News commentator and former Press Secretary of George W. Bush, Dana Perino, suggested the formation of
a nonpartisan/bipartisan mix of experts across industry sectors
that would advise the president on how to overcome the economic downturn that has arisen due to the strict social distancing measures currently being implemented in order to control the spread of Covid-19.
Although the current task force includes National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Trump responded to Perino’s idea in a tweet:
Critics of the president’s desire to reopen the country contend that ending the social distancing measures too early could keep us from getting the virus under control, causing more infections and more unnecessary deaths.
However, current measures do appear to be working and several areas of the nation are seeing a leveling off of the curve of new infections. Dr. Birx showed graphs describing how the virus has been nearly squelched in Washington state, the site of the nations first confirmed coronavirus case.
There’s also good news in New York, where infection rates have fallen from 40% of those tested to 36% over the weekend. Additionally, there have been fewer deaths and more patients discharged for several days in a row, all signs that the virus is being contained in some of the hardest hit areas of the nation.
While we are likely to see waves of new areas whose infection rates are on the rise, as is the current situation with Washington, D.C., the glimmers of hope do bode well for the idea that we can start to open up portions of the economy and nurse the nation back to economic health.
