Trump can't be trusted to make the right decision in the coronavirus crisis

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US President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a press conference on COVID-19, known as the coronavirus, in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, DC, March 13, 2020. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP) (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP via Getty Images)

Editor's Note : Frida Ghitis, a former CNN producer and correspondent, is a world affairs columnist. She is a frequent contributor to CNN opinion, a contributing columnist for the Washington Post, and a columnist for the World Politics Review. Follow her on Twitter @fridaghitis. The opinions expressed in this comment are those of the author. Read more opinion on CNN.

(CNN) - The first time that most of us knew that President Donald Trump was thinking of relaxing existing measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic was on Sunday night, just before midnight. It was then that his tweet screamed in capitals: "WE CANNOT LET THE HEALING BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF."

He went on to say that he would make a decision at the end of the current 15-day period of CDC guidelines recommending social distancing.

The idea of ​​changing the course may have come from his favorite network, Fox News, where a Sunday morning host suggested that when it comes to fighting the coronavirus, "the cure is worse than the disease." The question for the rest of us is, can we trust Trump to make a decision of this magnitude? To be frank, the question is whether relaxing restrictions will lead to illness and death for large numbers of Americans.

• Coronavirus: Trump predicts "this is going to be wrong", but promises to reopen the country

Trusting Trump with this decision is even more puzzling because we've seen him on the podium at the White House behaving irresponsibly. His actions have included not only the usual alleged selfish boasting and shocking attacks on the media and his political enemies, but something else; Something new and disturbing.

For days, Trump has used daily briefings to promote an unproven medical combination to fight Covid-19, declaring: "I'm a smart guy" and explaining that he has "a feeling" that the combination works. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country's leading infectious disease expert, has repeatedly turned to the microphone to say that there is no evidence that the drugs work, and yet Trump persists. As a result, public health officials, including the World Health Organization (WHO) and a state health commissioner, have had to waste precious time cleaning up the president's misinformation. Three people in Nigeria have been poisoned on the medical advice of this politician-turned-real estate developer, and many have purchased the drugs that the shortage has developed for those with lupus and other diseases for which the drugs in question have been shown to be effective.

That's just one reason why it's disturbing to hear that Trump is apparently preparing to disagree with public health experts again, this time not only if we should take some pills, but also if we should ignore the opinion of the best. epidemiologists around the world and let Americans go back to work en masse as a pandemic breaks out.

To be fair, it is understandable that the President is concerned. What is at stake is enormous, not only for him personally and politically, after all it is an electoral year, but for everyone in the country. Trump, rightly so, is deeply concerned about what is happening to the economy. He is not alone. The rise in unemployment, higher than during the Great Depression, and a crushing economic contraction, could occur as a result of efforts to stop or at least slow down the spread of a pandemic that threatens to kill millions.

But does it make sense to lift the restrictions as the virus breaks out around the world, including in the United States?

• The United States asks its nationals to return to the country amid the coronavirus

On Monday morning, when Trump added ignition to his fire on Twitter, retweeting ideas from a devoted follower that only high-risk people take precautions and everyone else returns to work, the WHO warned that the pandemic is accelerating. That is true worldwide. The number of confirmed cases in the US As the tests gain traction, it's exploding. More than 40,000 cases in this writing, surely many more as you read this, more than 500 dead, 100 of them in one day, and the numbers are on the way to continue growing exponentially.

It took a long time for Trump to recognize that Covid-19 is a major threat. But the cost we've seen in the economy and in the stock market, so far his favorite indicator of presidential prowess, is making him rethink his decision to listen to experts, albeit reluctantly.

In his report on Monday afternoon, Trump was simultaneously defiant and derogatory. When asked if any of the doctors on his team agree with the idea of ​​facilitating the guidelines, he said: “If it were for the doctors, they could say to keep the closure. Let's close the whole world. " So, no, they don't agree.

Trump was brash about the risks. "Auto accidents are observed, which are much larger than the numbers we are talking about," he suggested by way of justification, "That does not mean that we are going to tell everyone not to drive more cars."

Auto accidents are not contagious. If each car accident produced two or three more accidents, and the curve projected that millions, perhaps hundreds of millions of Americans would crush their cars in a matter of a few weeks or months, with hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions dying, I would bet we would say to the people who stop driving until we figure out how to solve the problem.

The virus can be stopped by preventing it from spreading. This is how we suffocate it. This is how we reignite the economy. Widespread testing, including antibodies to see who has already had it and has immunity, could make a difference.

Trump's desire to see the economy return to growth is shared by the American people. But the cause of the economic crisis, as Senator Lindsey Graham pointed out, is the virus. This is a cause and effect situation. To save the economy we need to stop the virus. Trump has already tried to stop him by denying it was a problem.

The new plan you are considering could be just as ineffective and deadly. The decision on how to move forward should be left to the experts.

covid-19