The White House s Push to Reopen the Economy This Early Is a Dangerous Gamble | The New Yorker
To be sure, this testing failure isn t entirely the states fault, although it was their decision to proceed with reopening regardless. With the White House having effectively abdicated responsibility for testing, many states are still having difficulty acquiring the necessary test kits and chemical agents. And, of course, this hasn t been the only Presidential failure. Even as his own medical advisers have warned against moving too quickly, Trump has defended protestors, including armed ones, who have demonstrated against the state lockdown orders. In the past few days, he has cheered on governors who are relaxing restrictions even as their states have failed to meet some of his Administration s own safety guidelines.
The early reopening is far from the carefully calibrated, carefully monitored exercise that Birx and Fauci, the White House s two leading medical advisers, talked about when they unveiled the federal guidelines last month. It looks more like a reckless gamble to get the economy going before the November election without sparking a big new wave of infections. Perhaps it will succeed: no one can say for sure either way. But if it doesn t work out well, and the new projections for the spread of the virus prove to be accurate, the weakest and most vulnerable members of American society will be the ones who bear the heaviest cost.