How dire projections, grim images dashed Trump’s Easter plan

The Sound Guy

Pursuit Driver
I think he felt that Easter was a chancy target, but wanted to prevent a panic that would have occurred if they went straight to a lock down several weeks ago. But the data showed that wasn't going to happen.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The two doctors spread out their charts on the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office.

The projections were grim: Even if the U.S. were to continue to do what it was doing, keeping the economy closed and most Americans in their homes, the coronavirus could leave 100,000 to 200,000 people dead and millions infected. And the totals would be far worse if the nation reopened.

Those stark predictions grew even more tangible and harrowing when paired with televised images of body bags lined up at a New York City hospital not far from where President Donald Trump grew up in Queens.

The confluence of dire warnings and tragic images served to move the Republican president off his hopes for an Easter rebirth for the nation’s economy.

But while Trump sided with the White House doctors over its economists, at least for now, the decision shed light on a West Wing beset with divisions and a commander in chief torn between an instinct to embrace the image of a wartime president fighting an invisible enemy and the desire to protect the nation’s bottom line as he barrels into a bruising reelection fight.

The abrupt change in Trump’s tone was startling: Easter was no longer going to be the sunrise after blackest night. Instead, it could be the darkest moment before dawn.

“We’re thinking that around Easter that’s going to be your spike. That’s going to be the highest point we think, and then it’s going to start coming down from there,” Trump said Monday on “Fox & Friends.” “The worst that can happen is you do it too early and all of a sudden it comes back. That makes it more difficult.”

The bleak forecasts were carried into the Oval Office by Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx, who displayed to Trump projections that, on the low end, could yield 100,000 American deaths from COVID-19. One model showed that deaths could have soared past 2 million had there been no mitigation measures.

Since there are naturally approx 2.8 million deaths in the US normally, adding another 2 million would have been seriously impacting.
 
I kinda figured as much. I knew Easter was optimistic, but knew Trump has his reasons.

Of course, the sheeple was attacking him for it the whole time.
 
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