President Trump Says, the Next Two Weeks Could be ‘Ugly’ for Americans

In a press briefing on Tuesday, President Trump admitted that he knew the novel coronavirus will take the lives of many Americans, however, he decided to stay positive for the country. The president was asked if he had given Americans a false sense of hope by assuring them that it would only be a matter of time before the Covid-19 pandemic becomes history. He responded by saying that he knew from the beginning that things were going to get “horrible” but tried to remain hopeful that “it would maybe be good.”

“I don’t want to be a negative person… This is really easy to be negative about. But I want to give you people hope too. You know I’m a cheerleader for the country—we are going through the worst thing that the country has probably seen,” he said.

This response followed the statistics given by top medical experts in the country. They have estimated that there could be between 100,000 to 240,000 coronavirus related deaths in the US even with mitigation efforts like staying at home, social distancing, and washing of hands. So long as a few officials are exempted to roam the cities while others are on self-isolation, there is still a possibility of the virus spreading.

“I want every American to be prepared for the hard days that lie ahead,” President Trump said. Adding that “we’re going to go through a very tough two weeks. This is going to ve a very painful, very, very painful two weeks.”

The blame has been heaped on Trump by public-health experts who have come out to say that the President downplayed the threat of the virus. He was condemned for worsening the crisis by failing to prepare necessary testing kits and other useful medical equipment. It seemed as though more attention was given to sustaining the US economy from falling into a recession rather than putting in much effort to support the medical team. These health experts also argued that Trump wasted valuable time of two months “completely ignoring every bit of scientific advice.”

“We’ve wasted two months. And this is not a disease where you’re allowed to waste two months,” Dr. Ashish Jha, director of Harvard Global Health Institute said. “The cost of all this is that tens of thousands of Americans are going to die unnecessarily… it was wholly preventable, and not just preventable in hindsight – it was preventable in foresight,” he added.

As at Tuesday when the press briefing was held at the White House, the US coronavirus death toll had increased to 3,800. This is in comparison to the predicted 100,000 to 240,000 deaths. Dr. Deborah Birx, White House coronavirus taskforce response coordinator also said that based on their models the worst-case scenario “without mitigation” could amount to between 1.5 million to 2.2 million deaths in the US.

The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, when asked if there could be a likelihood of the deaths reaching 100,000 in the US said: “The answer is yes. As sobering a number as that is, we should be prepared for it.” He further added that he hopes it doesn’t eventually get to that number.