MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough warned President Trump against encouraging workers to get back to work too soon during the coronavirus outbreak.
Reacting to a tweet the president sent late Sunday evening, the Morning Joe host said people would be “flying in the dark” because of a lack of widespread testing for the COVID-19 virus.
It would be “an act of suicide for millions of Americans. It would be the height of recklessness and irresponsibility as every medical professional says he needs to do just the opposite, and he’s been told that for two weeks,” Scarborough said Monday.
Trump tweeted that the United States will reassess its “15 Days to Slow the Spread” guidance, which urged the public to self-quarantine and avoid gatherings of 10 people or more, next week.
“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!” Trump wrote.
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 appears to conflict what Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, saying people will need to stay home “at least several” more weeks to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
“I cannot see that all of a sudden, next week or two weeks from now, it’s going to be over. I don’t think there’s a chance of that. I think it’s going to be several weeks,” Fauci, who is a member of the White House coronavirus task force, said Friday.
In the U.S., there have been more than 41,000 cases of the coronavirus and 485 deaths. On Monday, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams warned that this week would see an influx of COVID-19 cases.
Larry Kudlow, a top economic adviser to Trump, said the White House was working to determine whether it was worth shutting down the U.S. economy to stop the spread of the coronavirus. He told Fox News that there are “difficult trade-offs” ahead.
