PRESIDENT Trump has said he will listen to his advisers on when to reopen the US, adding he would be ready to shut the country down again if there was another outbreak.
Both Dr Fauci, the government’s coronavirus adviser, and Surgeon General Jerome Adams, warned the US may not be ready to reopen on May 1, the date Trump has floated.
But the president said he would listen “very carefully” to his advisers when it came to letting businesses open their doors again.
“I have great respect for these people,” said Trump, gesticulating to his team sat to his right.
He also said he was open to shutting the country down again if there was another outbreak after the US returned to normalcy.
“Depending on the outbreak, yes,” he said. “I’m watching other countries very carefully.”
“I want to get [this country] open as soon as possible,” Trump continued. “This country was meant to open and vibrant.”
However Trump added he was not “determining anything”.
Both Adams and Fauci have pushed back on President Trump’s hopes to re-open the US by the beginning of May.
In an interview with Fox News, Adams said that now was the time to “continue to lean into” social distancing.
“There are places around the country that have seen consistently low levels.
“And as we ramp up testing and can feel more confident that these places actually can do surveillance and can do public health follow-up, some places will be able to think about opening on May 1,” Adams said.
“Most of the country will not, to be honest with you, but some will,” Adams continued, “And that’s how we’ll reopen the country: place by place, bit by bit, based on the data.”
In an interview with CNN on the same day, Fauci said “the virus decides” when the US will be open again for business.
“We would want to see a clear indication that you were very, very clearly and strongly going in the right direction,” Fauci said.
“Because the one thing you don’t want to do is you don’t want to get out there prematurely and then wind up back in the same situation.
“Now is no time to back off,” he added.
“We’re going to have great business leaders and great doctors. We’ll probably do it by teleconference,” he added.
Trump said he would be announcing names on Tuesday and that he would be putting governors – both Republicans and Democrats – on the council.
“I’ve gained great respect for governors, both Republican and Democrat,” he said.
Trump then congratulated a number of governors for their responses to the coronavirus, including California’s Gavin Newsom and New York’s Andrew Cuomo, saying they were doing a “great job”.
When asked by a reporter whether he regretted not following Sweden’s tactic, which is using the controversial herd immunity approach to protect its population, Trump said it would have had disastrous consequences for the US.
“If we’d followed Sweden’s [herd immunity strategy] we’d have two million dead,” Trump responded.
“People would be dropping dead on the subways.”
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