President Trump clashes with state leaders; hopes for an antiviral treatment; deadlock in Congress over the next economic rescue package
What happened
The coronavirus pandemic’s spread in the U.S. showed signs of slowing this week, a hopeful shift that turned the national focus toward the next steps after lockdown—and set the stage for battles over how soon they might be taken. The U.S. death count soared past 26,000 by midweek, the highest in the world, but new infections leveled off at 30,000 a day, and hospitalizations dropped in hard-hit New York City and began leveling off in Chicago and other cities. “The worst is over,” said New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. But he warned that gains would be lost unless social-distancing restrictions stayed in place until there is a strong, sustained decline in cases. National health adviser Anthony Fauci cautioned that President Trump’s preferred date of May 1 to “reopen the states” was “overly optimistic,” and said a massive testing effort is needed to prevent a renewed wave of infection. (See Controversy.) The president reportedly plans to urge governors to implement “a very powerful reopening” in the next two weeks. Some conservative groups and Republican lawmakers were increasingly critical of health officials, saying that further restrictions will cause lasting economic devastation. “People are at the boiling point,” said Stephen Moore of the Heritage Foundation. Soon “you’ll see protests in the streets of conservatives.”
Battle lines were drawn when two sets of mostly Democratic state governors—three in the West and seven in the Northeast—formed consortiums to chart a mutual path forward. The state consortiums will be “guided by science,” said California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and rely on extensive testing protocols Trump has dismissed as unworkable and unnecessary. That announcement prompted a furious rebuke from Trump, who called the 10 states “mutineers” and thundered that his “authority is total” to “call the shots”— a widely disputed assertion he retreated from the following day.
Trump’s ire was fueled by renewed criticism over his failure to act as the pandemic threat grew, prompted by a New York Times report detailing his repeated dismissals of his aides’ early alerts and pleas for action, including a Jan. 29 memo warning of a possible 500,000 deaths in the U.S., which Trump had previously said he “didn’t remember.” A rattled Trump launched a raging defense at a press conference Monday that included a campaign-style video. “Everything we did was right,” he said.
What the editorials said
There’s “a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel,” said the Washington Examiner. Hot spots remain, and with some states still not at their peaks of infection and death, “it’s too soon to celebrate.” But it’s now “imperative” to look
What next?
Until we have a vaccine, “life as most people know it cannot fully return,” said Ed Yong in The Atlantic. When states begin lifting restrictions, “the coronavirus will likely surge back,” leading to an extended game of “whack-a-mole.” We’ll need to “shore up hospitals with sufficient supplies” and massively expand our testing capacity—but that won’t happen quickly. Testing efforts are facing lab backlogs and shortages of needed materials, and it may be months “before manufacturers can meet global demand.” That means testing most Americans by this summer “may not be realistic.” Stay-at-home orders might lift first, allowing friends and families to gather; small businesses and restaurants “could reopen with limitations.” But “concerts, conferences, summer camps, political rallies, large weddings, and major sporting events may all have to be suspended for at least this year.” There’s no “decisive victory” in sight; we need to accept the fact that “the enemy isn’t going anywhere.” ahead to reopening the economy. With expanded testing, widespread mask wearing, and limits on large gatherings, we can find “a path to loosen restrictions step by step.” Mass lockdowns have been “a necessary last resort,” but they are “unsustainable for businesses, workers, and families.”
That means facing a “hard medical reality,” said the Los Angeles Times. “We can’t keep the virus from exploding again until we know who has it, whom they come into contact with, and who has become immune.” This requires testing “at a scale we’re not even approaching today.” The stated aims of the governors’ groups—testing, protecting the vulnerable, ensuring medical readiness—offer a prudent path that’s a “sharp contrast” to Trump’s politically motivated obsession with restarting the economy.
What the columnists said
Even in war, generals “defer to civilian authorities,” said George Gilder in The Wall Street Journal. So why do we have scientists like Fauci making public policy and suspending people’s liberties at will? We’re facing a global depression that “could easily cost more lives worldwide than the coronavirus,” and an “optimistic, patriotic, practical-minded politician like Donald Trump” is the right man to make the tough choices.
Trump won’t decide when the economy restarts, said Christopher Jacobs in TheFederalist.com. He can fire the starting gun, but if Americans remain afraid of severe illness and death, they will stay home, and the “‘reopened’ economy will look nearly as morose as the current one.” To get “public buy-in,” officials need to offer “clear explanations not just for what they are doing, but why.” Dismissing people’s fears will backfire.
Trump can’t decide whether he’s the supreme authority or everything is the states’ responsibility, said Greg Sargent in The Washington Post. His “wild gyrations” between these two extremes make sense when you understand his “simple, unchanging imperative”: He wants to look like he’s taking charge “without being held accountable.”
The cost of Trump’s inaction has been “staggering,” said Jennifer Rubin, also in the Post. Epidemiologists Britta Jewell and Nicholas Jewell have calculated that starting social distancing two weeks earlier in the U.S. would have prevented 90 percent of the current death toll. That means Trump’s stubborn refusal to listen to scientists and his own aides cost thousands of deaths, as well as massive unemployment, trillions in lost wealth and added debt, and untold “emotional hardship.”
■■ The Amish of Central Ohio are famous for keeping themselves isolated from the outside world. But when hospitals in neighboring areas were flooded with coronavirus patients, the community’s artisans reached out and began producing much-needed protective gear for frontline medics. Amish millworkers and furniture makers are churning out hardwood dividers for field hospitals and plastic face shields for doctors and nurses. Seamstresses are sewing thousands of masks and protective gowns a day. “We consider this a privilege that we can do something for somebody else who’s in need,” said furniture maker Atlee Raber, “and do it right at home here.”
■■ Javen Silva has a rare chromosome disorder that makes him especially vulnerable to Covid-19. The New Jersey boy can’t leave his house or see friends, so when police officer Luis Vasquez heard that Javen was about to turn 11 years old, he decided to organize a birthday treat for the youngster. As the wheelchair-bound Javen sat smiling in his yard, Vasquez and other first responders paraded by in squad cars and ambulances with lights flashing and sirens blaring. Vasquez plans to hold similar parades for other kids stuck at home. “It’s one of the most uplifting parts of our days,” he said.