If President Donald Trump has his way, the United States would be open again on Easter Sunday. The president said in a March 24 town hall on Fox News that he’d like to see businesses reopen and life back to normal in the United States on April 12 — just 19 days from now. His reason? Easter is a “very special day,” and he’d like to see “packed churches all over our country.” His absurd assertion comes amid weeks of ignoring the advice of top physicians like Dr. Anthony Fauci, who warn that the highly-contagious virus COVID-19 isn’t close to done ravaging the world.
Earlier, he touted an altered infographic from Tiffany Trump that’s extremely harmful. The First Daughter, whose school year at Georgetown Law has been disrupted, tweeted out an image from the White House that says people should self-isolate by staying home for eight days, not the recommended 15 days. The CDC and WHO have said this entire time that anyone who feels the symptoms of coronavirus, or has been around someone that has it, should self-quarantine for two weeks to ensure they don’t spread it further. Eight days is not enough. The president retweeted Tiffany’s false information to his 75 million followers.
The World Health Organization warned that the United States is about to become the new epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, which originated in Wuhan, China earlier this year. More than 50,000 cases have been reported in the US, and more than 600 people have died from the virus. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said just one hour before Trump’s Fox News interview that the caseload of COVID cases in his state is doubling every three days, and is now up to over 25,000 — seven percent of the world total. In Trump’s hometown of New York City, 14,904 people have tested positive.
We must all do our part to #SlowTheSpread! #TogetherApart #SocialDistancing #StayAtHome #WorkFromHome #StopTheSpread #FlattenTheCurve #COVIDー19 #covid_19 #Coronavirus pic.twitter.com/qju3gxbEjd
— Tiffany Ariana Trump (@TiffanyATrump) March 24, 2020
Trump on why he picked Easter as the day he wants to end strict social distancing and reopen American businesses: "Easter is a very special day for me … Easter Sunday, and you'll have packed churches all over our country." pic.twitter.com/6cXEtW8LmR
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 24, 2020
Cuomo asserted that the apex of the pandemic could come in early April — right when Trump thinks that the United States could open businesses and lift stay-at-home orders. “We haven’t flattened the curve. And the curve is actually increasing,” Cuomo said, dashing any talk of social-distancing ending. “The apex is higher than we thought and the apex is sooner than we thought. That is a bad combination of facts.”