With poll numbers dipping and death toll rising
Trump predicts US will soon open with 'big bang'
"With his poll numbers dipping, Donald Trump vowed to “soon” open the US economy “with a bang”, even as the number of coronavirus deaths in the US passed the 14,500 mark and his original target date for ending the national lockdown is just four days away.
The president again made questionable claims, including a bit in his prepared opening statement in which he cited “numbers” without explaining what they are, to predict the US is pulling out of the worst of the outbreak. After he departed the briefing, Deborah Birx, a federal physician on his coronavirus task force, appeared to provide those “numbers”. She said the number of cases appears to be “leveling off” because even though the amount of new cases in hotspot cities remains in the hundreds or thousands per day, the rates of positive tests are in the 30 per cent range.
“We’re getting closer. You see the numbers. We’re getting much closer to getting our country back to the way it was,” Mr Trump said vaguely. “We’re going to win. We’re going to do it much sooner than people think.”
For about a week last month, Mr Trump predicted all or much of the country would be “open for business” by Easter Sunday. “I was criticised for that,” he said, backtracking by calling that “an aspirational date”.
Mr Trump was back pushing a malaria drug, hydroxychloroquine, as a treatment drug for Covid-19 – even though his top public health experts warn that trials have not yet shown it is effective against the novel disease. The New York Times reported this week that his family has a financial stake in the parent company of the firm that makes a popular version of the medication."
moar big bodda boom:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-coronavirus-poll-numbers-death-toll-us-reopening-covid-19-a9456581.html