President Trump was forced into a public reckoning Wednesday about the possibility of the coronavirus coming back in the fall, even as he tried to project optimism that the country is emerging from the pandemic and that the economy is opening back up.
The situation arose when Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield was quoted saying that having both the coronavirus and the flu the fall would be “more difficult.”
Trump called the report “Fake News” and said that Redfield would be clarifying his remarks.
CDC Director was totally misquoted by Fake News @CNN on Covid 19. He will be putting out a statement.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 22, 2020
Speaking at the White House press briefing Wednesday evening, Redfield said that he was quoted accurately, but that, rather than playing up the danger of a resurgence of the coronavirus, he was trying to impress on the public the need of getting flu shots.
“We’re going to have two viruses circulating at the same time,” he said.
Trump and the coronavirus task force officials sought to emphasize that the country will be better prepared to handle any outbreaks of the coronavirus in the fall.
If the coronavirus does come back, “it will come back in smaller doses that we can contain. In my opinion … it can never be like anything that we’ve witnessed right now,” Trump said.
Dr. Deborah Birx, the coordinator of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, concurred. “We’ll be able to find it earlier this time,” she said. “We’d be able to stay in the containment phase.”
“If we have embers of corona coupled with the flu, that’s not going to be pleasant,” Trump acknowledged.
Controversy arose Wednesday regarding another government health official, Dr. Rick Bright, former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, an agency in the Department of Health and Human Services. Bright said that he was demoted after pushing for more evidence that hydroxychloroquine, the malaria drug touted by Trump, is a possible treatment for COVID-19.
“Rushing blindly towards unproven drugs can be disastrous and result in countless more deaths,” Bright said in a statement released by his lawyers. “Science, in service to the health and safety of the American people, must always trump politics.”
Trump said that he hadn’t heard of Bright.
At the same time that Trump projected optimism about the nation’s health and the prospects for easing restrictions, he cautioned that one state, Georgia, was moving too quickly to open up business.
Trump said that he disagrees with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s decision to reopen businesses starting as early as Friday, saying, “It’s too soon.” Kemp announced Monday that beauty salons, gyms, and bowling alleys will be permitted to open Friday, and restaurants will be able to start opening Monday.
“I told the governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, that I disagree strongly with his decision to open certain facilities, which are in violation of the phase one guidelines,” Trump said.
A coronavirus model favored by the White House, maintained by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, shows that only Montana is safe to open May 1, while Alaska, Hawaii, North Carolina, West Virginia, and Vermont are the only states that could safely open by May 10.
But in addition to Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, and more states have made plans to begin reopening within the next couple of weeks.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday that former New York City mayor and presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg will help fund an “army” of coronavirus tracing efforts county-by-county in New York as well as in New Jersey and Connecticut.
“Michael Bloomberg will design the program, design the training. He’s going to make a financial contribution. It’s a super-ambitious undertaking. I don’t know what the financial contribution will be,” Cuomo said.
The state has 225 tracers tasked with tracking coronavirus cases in place already. Bloomberg will enlist another 35,000 medical students from SUNY and CUNY schools to help with contact tracing in different counties.
Gov. Cuomo did not have an exact figure for Bloomberg’s contribution, but Melissa DeRosa, secretary to the governor, said the contribution would be “upwards of $10 million.”
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that fewer than half of nations have basic coronavirus infection prevention and community engagement programs in place. Nearly one-third lack proper clinical referral systems.
Two cats in New York state have tested positive for the coronavirus becoming the first pets in the United States known to be infected with the virus, according to NBC News. The Department of Agriculture and the CDC said the cats likely caught the virus from people at home or people in their neighborhood.
The first U.S. deaths from COVID-19 were in early February, Santa Clara County said, nearly three weeks earlier than authorities previously thought. The finding complicates the timeline of the pandemic in the country and raises questions about how it spreads.
Harvard University announced Wednesday that it will not apply for financial assistance from the federal government after being scolded by Trump during his White House briefing Tuesday. Trump said from the White House press room Tuesday that Harvard “shouldn’t be taking it” because “they have one of the largest endowments anywhere in the country, maybe in the world.”
Harvard said in a statement that it was concerned about “the intense focus by politicians and others on Harvard in connection with this program may undermine participation in a relief effort that Congress created and the President signed into law for the purpose of helping students and institutions whose financial challenges in the coming months may be most severe.”
