Seems
overwhelmed by the nation’s health crisis: 25th Amendment time?
Just 10 minutes before
midnight on Sunday, President Donald Trump fired off a cryptic all-caps tweet
that was interpreted as an alarming signal that—despite warnings from health
experts—he could soon lift the federal social distancing guidelines issued by
the White House last week to help slow the spread of coronavirus.
"WE CANNOT LET
THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF," Trump tweeted, suggesting the economic impacts of
preventative measures could be more harmful than the further spread of
coronavirus. "AT THE END OF THE 15 DAY PERIOD, WE WILL MAKE A DECISION AS
TO WHICH WAY WE WANT TO GO!"
Trump proceeded to
retweet a number of approving responses from his supporters, including one
Twitter user who said the U.S. should "isolate the high risk groups and
[let] the rest of us get back to work before it's all over for everyone."
The president
has repeatedly been chastised by experts for
making uninformed statements that either mislead the public or undermine public
health warnings in regards to the coronavirus pandemic.
During a press briefing earlier Sunday, Vice President Mike Pence said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would release new guidelines Monday that would allow people who were exposed to the coronavirus to return to work if they wear masks.
The 15-day period to which the president referred began last Monday, when Trump issued guidelines (pdf) urging people to listen to state and local authorities, avoid unnecessary travel, and stay at home as much as possible.
A number of states, including California and New York, have issued "stay at home" orders and temporarily shuttered non-essential businesses.
Critics warned in
response to Trump's tweet that rolling back efforts to stem the spread of
COVID-19, which has officially infected more than 33,000 people nationwide, could have
catastrophic consequences.
"This is going to
get millions of people killed, and a disproportionately large number of them
will be his base," tweeted David Klion, news editor at Jewish
Currents.
In a Monday morning
appearance on NBC's "TODAY," Trump's own U.S. Surgeon
General Dr. Jerome Adams said "not enough people are taking the virus
seriously" and warned that "this week it's going to
get bad."
"We really need
to come together as a nation," said Adams. "We really, really need
everyone to stay at home."
Osita Nwanevu, staff
writer at The New Republic, pointed to an Imperial College of
London study warning that an insufficient
coronavirus mitigation strategy could result in over a million deaths from the
disease in the United States alone.
Nwanevu noted that
Trump is not the only one suggesting coronavirus containment measures should
soon be lifted for the sake of the economy.
Lloyd Blankfein,
former CEO of Goldman Sachs, claimed in a tweet Sunday night—sent about two hours
before Trump's—that "extreme measures to flatten the virus 'curve'"
risk "crushing the economy, jobs, and morale."
"Within a very
few weeks let those with a lower risk to the disease return to work,"
Blankfein said.
Axios reported Monday that "at the end of
the 15-day period, there will likely be a serious clash between the public
health experts—who will almost certainly favor a longer period of nationwide
social distancing and quarantining—versus the president and his economic and
political aides, who are anxious to restart the economy."