For weeks, the government of Donald trump highlighted the dangers of coronavirus to try to convince the Americans to stay home. Now seeking a rapid revival of the economy, Trump faces a new challenge: convincing people to get out and resume their normal lives without danger to their health.
It is a crucial issue for a cloistered nation, as well as a political imperative for President Trump, whose re-election will likely depend on the rebound of the economy.
Can the country overcome fear of the coronavirus and return to a modified form of its old routines, doing its best to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 while acknowledging that it can be a permanent presence for years to come?
“We have to create the kind of trust in America that allows everyone to return to work.” said Kevin Hassett, a White House adviser and past chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers group. “And that trust will require proof that the workplace is a healthy place, but also trust in the economy.”
At the White House, officials believe they have entered a new chapter in the response to the pandemic, moving from a state of crisis to one of sustained mitigation and control.
It began last Thursday with the publication of a guide to governors for the reopening of their states. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence congratulated Americans for “flattening the curve” of the epidemic.
The next day, the highest government medical officials tried to convince the country that there was a wealth of evidence available, enough to start lifting the restrictions.
Since then, Governors have begun to lift restrictions, even vigorously, as Montana and Oklahoma announced Wednesday. The Montana governor gave the green light to resume classes in early May, while Oklahoma will allow beauty salons, barber shops, spas and pet salons to open on Friday.
Still, in his evening press conference, Trump harshly criticized the reopening plans of Georgia Republican Governor Brian Kemp. “I strongly disagree,” he said. “It seems too early to me.”
Meanwhile, grim news persists in other parts of the country. The death toll in Massachusetts exceeded 2,000 on Wednesday, the double of the previous week. In New York there were 16,000 people hospitalized. An Iowa processing plant that is vital to the supply of pork across the country had to close due to the outbreak. Facing the prospect of a protracted and brutal economic downturn, Congress was preparing to pass a $ 500 billion bailout package for small businesses.
Trump vociferously promised that the national quarantine will not be repeated. “We won’t go back through what we’ve been through the past two months,” he said.
It is a sharp change in rhetoric since Trump and his allies highlighted the threat of an “invisible enemy” to convince people to keep a healthy distance. Americans are also scared by the rising death toll and images of bagged corpses piled in refrigerated trucks.
Going from fear to acceptance requires trust in the government, medical professionals and companies, which at the moment is very low. White House aides say restoring confidence will require the same “whole country in unison” approach that slowed the spread of the virus.
“It is one thing for the government to say, ‘OK, now you can get out,'” said New York Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo. “If people don’t think it’s safe, it won’t come out.”
Although there have been isolated protests in some states against quarantine measures, most Americans do not think it is appropriate to ease the restrictions in the near future, according to a new survey by The Associated Press-NORC.
Trump predicted days ago that the economy will take off like a “rocket once we start again,” but experts say the recovery will be very slow.
“It will be a very gradual process, whatever a governor or the president says,” said Dr. Robert Blendon, a professor of health policy at Harvard. The history of quarantines, such as that of 25,000 people in and around Toronto in 2003 to curb the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), reveals that it takes people weeks, even months, to regain confidence enough to resume normal activity. .
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