Rely on public health experts???????/

Trump says he'll 'rely on' public health experts on social distancing decisions

The president singled out the adivce Drs. Deborah Birx and Anthony Fauci as crucial to developing the administration's plan.

By QUINT FORGEY

President Donald Trump on Monday said his decision to prolong coronavirus social-distancing guidelines was informed by counsel from his administration's top public health experts.

Trump suggested that he would defer to those same officials if they encouraged extending the federal guidance even further.

In an hour-long interview on "Fox & Friends," the president singled out the advice of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute Of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, as crucial to determining over the weekend that the administration's recommended mitigation measures should remain in place until April 30.

"Well, it's not so much what I've seen," Trump said of his announcement on Sunday. "I listened to experts. We have Dr. Fauci. We have, as you know, we have Deborah Birx, who's fantastic, also ... and the two of them, plus many people behind them."

Trump also described Easter Sunday — which he had floated just last week as the date he would move to reopen the U.S. economy — as now the likely apex of America's coronavirus outbreak, when the number of deaths as a result of the public health crisis would reach their highest levels.

"We're thinking that around Easter, that's going to be your spike. That's going to be the highest point, we think," he said. "And then it's going to start coming down from there. That will be a day of celebration."

Americans will be able to "see some real progress" in halting the rapid spread of the disease by the end of April, Trump said. "And then, by a little short of June, maybe June 1, we think the — you know, it's a terrible thing to say, but we think the death will be at a very low number. It'll be brought down to a very low number from right now, from where it's getting to reach its peak," he added.

The administration has projected that roughly 100,000-200,000 Americans could perish from the COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, and millions could potentially become infected.

The president's remarks on Monday, after an about-face in his recent bid to wind down social-distancing measures, signal a new willingness to heed the opinions of public health experts with whom he had previously broken in numerous public statements during the outbreak's earlier stages.

Asked how he would respond if his White House coronavirus task force urged continuing social distancing into the month of June, Trump again recognized Fauci and Birx and said he would "rely on" the judgment of senior health officials.

"Anthony and Deborah have been doing this for many years, and I'm going to rely on them," he said. "But, you know, I think that — hey, the worst thing we can do is declare victory. We've seen this: declare victory, and then not have victory, and then have to do it all over again. We have to get this thing gone, this virus. We have to beat it. We're at war. This is a war."