Trump Says Coronavirus Cure Cannot 'Be Worse Than the Problem Itself'
Source: New York Times
President Trump on Sunday night said that the government would reassess the recommended period for keeping businesses shut and millions of workers at home after this week, amid millions of job losses caused by the efforts to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.
"WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF," Mr. Trump tweeted in all capital letters shortly before midnight. "AT THE END OF THE 15 DAY PERIOD, WE WILL MAKE A DECISION AS TO WHICH WAY WE WANT TO GO!"
Officials have said that the initial 15-day period for social distancing -- limiting close contact between people by banning gatherings, closing schools and offices, encouraging remote work and urging people to maintain a six-foot distance from one another -- is vital to slowing the spread of the virus, for which more than 30,000 people in the United States have tested positive. The 15-day period would end Monday.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, an infectious diseases expert and a member of the White House coronavirus task force, has said in interviews that he believed that it would take several more weeks until people can start going about their lives in a more normal fashion. Other infectious disease experts suggest even harsher measures than social distancing are required to truly beat back the outbreaks in the United States.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/23/us/politics/trump-coronavirus-restrictions.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage
My translation of this is that the virus has propagated beyond our capability to isolate it's further spread. To contain the virus by social isolation would probably mean shutting down the country, and that means virtually the entire economy, for 4 to 6 months.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo alluded to this in his news conference today when he discussed that as we move forward the healthy, younger and more resistant part of our population must return to work soon as the more vulnerable continue to socially isolate. But since no resistance or isolation is 100%, a surge in infections will probably be expected in both groups.
That means, I believe, that a fairly quick and devastating surge in the critically ill is to be expected.
To his immense credit, Gov. Cuomo is taking urgent concrete steps to prepare for this surge and plans to double both the number of hospital beds and ICU beds as quickly as possible.
Trump meanwhile continues to be both inept and, even worse, counter productive, during this crisis.
The deaths of literally millions of people will be on Trump's hands.
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"I cannot win reelection if the economy and the stock market are in the toilet, therefore, sooner or later, I will start demanding that everyone go back to work, no matter how many people get sick, and no matter how many people die!".
The problem for Trump is, does Trump actually have a legal way to force people back to work, or to force businesses to open again? 
