Trump nudges nation to move past ‘invisible enemy’
WASHINGTON — For weeks, the Trump administration played up the dangers of the coronavirus as it sought to persuade Americans to disrupt their lives and stay home. Now, as President Donald Trump aims for a swift nationwide reopening, he faces a new challenge: Convincing people it’s safe to come out and resume their normal lives.
It’s a defining question for a cloistered nation — and a political imperative for Trump, whose reelection likely rides on the pace of an economic rebound.
Can the country move beyond a crippling fear of the virus and return to some modified version of its old routines, doing what’s possible to mitigate the risk of COVID-19, but acknowledging that it may be a fact of life for years to come?
“We need to create the kind of confidence in America that makes it so that everybody goes back to work,” said Kevin Hassett, a White House adviser and former chair of the Council of Economic Advisers. “And that confidence is going to require testing and confidence that your workplace is a healthy place, but also confidence in the economy.”
At the White House, officials believe they’ve entered a new chapter of the pandemic response, moving from crisis mode to sustained mitigation and management.
It began last Thursday with the release of guidelines to governors for how to safely reopen their states. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence celebrated Americans for successfully “flattening the curve” of the epidemic.
A day later, a phalanx of the administration’s top medical officials sought to reassure the nation that there were plenty of tests available to safely begin easing restrictions.
It’s a sharp shift in rhetoric after Trump and allies stressed the threat of an “invisible enemy” to persuade people to abide by social distancing recommendations. The American people also have been scarred by the daunting death toll and images of body bags piled up in refrigerated trailers.
Moving from fear to acceptance will take confidence in government, medical professionals and businesses at a time when faith in those institutions is low. White House aides say restoring confidence will require the same “whole-of-America” approach that slowed the virus spread.
“It’s one thing for government to say, ‘OK, it’s safe to go out,’” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, said Tuesday. “If people don’t believe it’s safe, they’re not going to go.”
Meanwhile, Trump predicted earlier this month that the economy would take off like a “rocket ship once we get back to business.” But experts say the recovery will be far slower.
“It’ll be a very gradual process regardless of what a governor says or the president says,” said Dr. Robert Blendon, a Harvard professor of health policy and political analysis.
He said the history of lockdowns, particularly the quarantine of more than 25,000 people around Toronto in 2003 to slow the spread of SARS, shows that it will take weeks, even months, for people to resume normal activity.
Blendon also warned that a predicted second wave of COVID-19 could reverse any gains.
It’s not just government, but individual businesses that will need to persuade employees and consumers that it’s safe to return, once they decide to reopen.
Some businesses already are making that call for themselves.
“We are not going to be a vector of death and suffering,” said Savannah, Ga., gym owner Mark Lebos. He said it would be professional negligence to reopen his business, even as Republican Gov. Brian Kemp announced that gyms and salons can reopen this week.
Mark Schlesinger, a Yale professor of health policy, said it’s going to take time “for people to reequilibrate emotionally, and it’s very hard to predict how long.”
“For lots of reasons we put people on a state of heightened anxiety,“he said.
So even if people want to get back to work, “it’s less clear whether consumers who would go to a restaurant or a store or the doctor’s office” will change their behavior.
“There may be permanent behavioral changes in how people do business and interact as a society,” he said.