As noted by Rachel Maddow the other night, President Trump’s public untruths are irresponsible and dangerous. The happy talk (“Ford and GM are building ventilators right now!”) confuses the public, makes communicating the actual situation harder, and gives people false hopes.
But now he is contemplating an action that would be both life-threatening and nation-threatening: ending the social-distancing orders in the next two weeks.
This is horrible, dangerous, even criminal advice. Without repeated widespread testing, we have no idea who is a carrier for the virus. People can be carrying the virus to others and not know it. If we end social distancing before the case load has peaked, we will make the spread of the virus even worse. President Trump’s ending the social distancing early will cause people to die who wouldn’t have otherwise.
The World Health Organization stated in the past few days that the United States will be the next “hot spot” for the pandemic. New York governor Andrew Cuomo is saying that he expects the state’s health care system to be overwhelmed in the next two weeks. The surgeon general has said “this is bad and going to get worse.”
If Trump decides to play doctor and tell everyone the worst is over, three things should happen: (1) his own health care officials and health care professionals all across the country should make it plain that he is wrong; (2) governors and other elected officials across the country should ignore him and continue working to keep his people safe; (3) and all of us should ignore him as well, and keep doing the things we are being instructed to do to lessen the spread of the virus.
However you may feel about President Trump and his presidency, this is time when the approach to take is clear: Ignore him.
[click_to_tweet tweet=”President Trump is considering ending the practice of social distancing in order to help the economy. No matter how you may feel about his presidency, this is one time when the response to his instruction is clear: Ignore him.” quote=”President Trump is considering ending the practice of social distancing in order to help the economy. No matter how you may feel about his presidency, this is one time when the response to his instruction is clear: Ignore him.”]
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