NPR’s Steve Inskeep talked to Dr. Tom Inglesby, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, about President Trump’s call to end social distancing on Morning Edition Wednesday, March 25, 2020. “After urging Social Distancing, Trump offers a different message.” There’s no transcript yet, but a full audio clip is available at the link. I’ve transcribed some of it below.
The five minute interview starts with a clip of Trump talking on FOX , where he says
“...Many more people are going to die if we allow this [social distancing] to continue. We have to go back to work. Our people want to go back to work.”
Inskeep goes on to summarize Trump’s desire to:
“...reopen the country by Easter, which is 18 days away. He would like churches, now empty for safety, to be full by Easter Sunday. He later acknowledged he did not have a fact-based reason for that date, it just seemed like a beautiful time to revive.”
emphasis added
Inskeep then talked with Dr. Inglesby via Skype to get his opinion of this hope. Inglesby was not encouraging, to put it mildly.
This isn’t the right time to be talking about relaxing social distancing measures. Those are the only measures we really have to slow this epidemic down...
...And so I think at this point we really need to keep social distancing measures in place around the country. It’s really our only big tool to slow this epidemic down.”
Inskeep then acknowledges the economy disruption this is causing and asks Inglesby about the consequences of sending people back to work. Inglesby points out we’re not ready for what we are facing now — not enough equipment, the healthcare system stressed — and the disruption to the economy that would follow relaxing the current measures would be much worse.
Inskeep summarizes Inglesby’s point, that it would destroy the economy to let the virus go even further out of control, and then made the following statement that made me sit up:
The President, I think it’s fair to say, is following a familiar sort of reality show plot line here. He boldly contradicts the experts, he makes a very simple proposal, he spars with Democrats, and he commands a lot of attention because he’s now got everyone focused on the end of this 15 days of social distancing and what he will decide next.
But he’s also just wishing for better times. Is there any harm in the President just wishing for an early opening?
Inglesby responds:
Inglesby: The problem is that this sets expectations in the public that this is something that’s going to be over some time soon. It’s not going to be. It hasn’t in any other place it’s erupted in the world, and it’s a long — it’s going to be a long process. And I think we really have to come together and understand what’s going to be required to slow this virus down around the country. So that’s why I’d be worried about signaling that this can end sometime soon.
Inskeep: Could the President be endangering lives by encouraging people to get out there and go back to church and whatever else they might do?
Inglesby: My hope is that by the time we get to a week or a two weeks from now is that it’s going to be clear that there’s no chance we can stop social distancing measures and that everybody will be on the same page.
Inskeep closes by thanking Dr. Inglesby and once more reciting that he is the director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
Listen to the whole thing.
Every day, it gets harder for the experts and the media to keep tiptoeing around the fact that Trump is dangerously incompetent and is leading this country further into disaster. (Notice the way Inglesby dodges Inskeep’s last question.) Inskeep’s reality show observation is about as close as I’ve yet heard from anyone in the reporting business get to the heart of the matter. Trump IS trying to run the country like a reality show.
And in case anyone is wondering if Trump’s happy talk is having a bad effect, NPR also reports Kentucky Has 39 New Infections, Including 1 Person Who Attended A 'Coronavirus Party' Kentucky Democratic Governor Andy Beshear is getting a lot of praise for his leadership during the crisis.
Stay safe everyone!