Trump Wants to Send People Back to Work as the Pandemic Grows

This tweet should disturb everyone in this country:

WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF. AT THE END OF THE 15 DAY PERIOD, WE WILL MAKE A DECISION AS TO WHICH WAY WE WANT TO GO!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 23, 2020

This refers to a period of heightened caution when it comes to general human interaction as the numbers of those infected by the coronavirus continues to grow. CNN:

Aides say Trump is itching for the guidelines to be eased at the end of the 15-day period, but realistically there are few health experts who think that’s enough time to know whether the measures he announced last week will suffice.

Trump and some of his top officials are growing more anxious with social distancing guidelines put in place to combat the coronavirus, sources close to the White House effort said. One senior official said the President is losing patience with the period of national self-isolation that has frozen the US economy.

The 15-day “distancing” period will end in a week, even the surgeon general, who reports to Trump, has already said that it won’t be enough. That is a massive understatement, as the New York Times’ graph of the death trajectory shows—we’re worse than Italy, one of the countries with the worst reaction to the emergence of COVID-19. At this point, Italy’s deaths are doubling every four days, while U.S. deaths are doubling every two days.

Later, Trump retweeted a claim that there’s a potential “100% cure” out there. As you might imagine, it is totally unproven:

They should take a SERIOUS LOOK at this… https://t.co/WMIg9TInLS

— Chuck Callesto (@ChuckCallesto) March 23, 2020

What’s clear here is that no matter how serious the pandemic becomes, Trump’s first instinct, in every case, is to diminish its importance and send people back to work so the stock market spiral can stop. Unfortunately, there are far too many people in America who follow his lead, and with his power and his following, Trump’s mentality endangers thousands, and potentially hundreds of thousands, of Americans. His actions will cost lives.